The CONNE Family - Belinda and Daniel- 47 yo and Michael- 25 yo (2012) Gold Beach OR

SEARCHERS looking for MISSING Mushroom pickers OREGON

BELINDA & DANIEL CONNE
Courtesy Curry County Sheriff's Office
By msnbc.com staff
Searchers on Thursday resumed scouring an area in southwestern Oregon near the
Rogue River where a couple and their adult son went missing while on a
mushroom-picking trip.
Belinda and Daniel Conne, both 47, and their 25-year-old son, Michael,
were last seen about noon Sunday at their campsite in Huntley Park on
the Rogue River. They apparently headed to Saunders Creek to pick
mushrooms, leaving their two dogs behind in a camping trailer.

Curry County deputies found the SUV and some clothes belonging to three missing mushroom pickers this morning, but said they still haven't found the family.

Belinda and Daniel Conne, both 47, and their son, Michael, 25, were last seen Sunday about noon at their campsite in Huntley Park on the Rogue River, said Curry County Sheriff John Bishop.

The trio is believed to have been headed to Saunders Creek to pick
mushrooms. They did not return and left their two dogs in a camping trailer.
Deputies found their unattended Jeep Cherokee off U.S. Forest Road 33,
also known as Agness Road, about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Bishop said.
Searchers then found clothing and mushroom-picking gear in drainage from
the vehicle "some distance" away.

After finding the items, Curry
County officials requested help from seven nearby counties in Oregon
and California through an existing search-and-rescue agreement, Bishop
said. The other counties will send teams of searchers and dogs to assist
with the ongoing search.

Crews have also tried to track the trio's cell phones, but believe the
devices are either out of power or aren't working because several
attempts to "ping" the phones haven't turned up any information, Bishop said.

Officials ask anyone with information to call the sheriff's office at 541-247-3242 or 800-542-8471.
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/02/curry_county_searchers_find_ca.html

A family of three huddled on the edge of an old-growth Oregon forest for
six days, lost and cold, unable to signal search helicopters flying low
and slow overhead.
Without food, water or even warm clothing,
Belinda and Daniel Conne, along with their 25-year-old son, Michael,
survived by drinking water from streams and taking shelter in a
hollowed-out tree.
On Saturday, they managed to crawl to a clearing, where a search helicopter spotted them several miles outside the community of Gold Beach, roughly 330 miles south-southwest of Portland.
"It's a miracle, really," Curry County Sheriff John Bishop said.
The three were airlifted to a Gold Beach hospital, where Bishop spoke with them at an emergency room.
The
family told Bishop they could see helicopters just a few hundred feet
above them while they were lost, but couldn't signal rescuers.
Bishop
said Daniel Conne suffered a back injury, Belinda Conne had
hypothermia, and their son had a sprained foot and minor frostbite. All
three also were dehydrated and hungry.
"They
just got turned around," Bishop said. "They sought some shelter in a
hollowed-out tree and basically they stayed in the same place. But it
was heavy vegetation where they were."
Bishop
said the three were "remarkably in pretty good shape," given the amount
of time they spent outside. He said they likely could have survived for
two or three more days in the area, where fresh water is plentiful but
food is scarce.
The area's weather was mostly clear, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s.
A
U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flew the family to Curry General Hospital
in Gold Beach. A nursing supervisor said Saturday afternoon the family
members were in a doctor's care and were unavailable for comment.
At the hospital emergency room, Bishop said the Connes were "very thankful for the rescue" and were able to eat solid food.
The
ordeal began last Sunday when the three went out looking for hedgehog
mushrooms, an orange-topped fungus prized by mushroom hunters for its
sweet and nutty flavor. The family had been living in a trailer at a
campsite after leaving Oklahoma for Oregon last summer.
Dusk fell during their hunt. They started to return to their Jeep but couldn't agree on directions.
"Pretty quickly, they found they were lost," Bishop said.
The family found a forest road next to a river bank and huddled together with their dog, a pit-terrier mix.
Search
parties were dispatched Tuesday, when their campsite manager realized
the Connes hadn't returned. The Jeep was found on a logging road
Wednesday, along with two small dogs and the family's jackets.
Searchers
found a trail and a few hopeful clues along the way: a can of Pepsi,
mushroom-picking buckets, a few pieces of clothing.
Bishop
said Daniel Conne told him he had a sinking feeling every day the
family wasn't found. Conne would watch the search helicopter pass, but
had nothing with which to signal it through the thick coastal forest
vegetation.
"They said, 'You were right above us,'" Bishop said.
When the family was finally found Saturday, they were only 200 yards from the nearest group of searchers.
The
search had focused on a 4-square-mile area. Bishop said the family was
in the search area but likely kept moving, making the search for them
more difficult.
"We were actually right near
them all three days" of the search, Bishop said. In the area's canyons,
"you think people can hear you, but they can't."
The search involved three Southern Oregon counties and one California county.
When dawn broke Saturday, Bishop said searchers entered the woods without much hope.
"We were sort of getting ready to go into body-recovery mode," he said.
Joe
Dykes, who works at the Huntley Park campsite where the family was
staying, said Belinda and Daniel Conne arrived at the campsite in July
after moving there from Oklahoma. Their son arrived later.
Belinda
Conne works as a housekeeper at the Jot's Resort, where motel owner
Virginia McKinney said the Connes were preparing to rent a home in Gold
Beach before the disappearance.
McKinney said
Belinda told her she always wanted to live on the Oregon coast, and
finally left Oklahoma last year with the intention of settling down.
The area where the Connes were found is rugged country in the Klamath Mountains riddled with a maze of logging roads. People frequently get lost or stranded there.
In 2006, a San Francisco family was stranded in a snowstorm on a logging road about 35 miles northeast of the search area for the Connes. James Kim died of hypothermia trying to hike out, but his wife and children were rescued by a helicopter pilot.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-04/oregon-mushroom-pickers/52964128/1