my one and only unsuccessful search

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the only unsuccessful search I've ever been on. I don't think people realize how rarely SAR fails to find someone, and we usually find them alive and well in good time too.

Last year this guy went missing in the woods around his house. He was an older, retired military officer with severe Alzheimer's- he was non-communicative, didn't get around too well, but had received extensive survival training in the military. He had gone to check on his horses with his dogs. They found his ATV crashed - no sign of the man or his dogs.

The terrain was fairly rocky, out in the middle of nowhere with scattered ranches. It was late summer so the days were warm but in the mountains the nights easily get cold enough to cause hypothermia - especially in an older, unprepared, underdressed elderly person exposed for a long time. I was very concerned. I wanted to find him BAD. Previous searches had been for experienced, younger hikers with sufficient supplies.

Our team got called down to the search days after it had started. There were probably about 50 people searching on foot, and a helicopter with thermal detection in the sky. Our team of 4 completed 2 patterns. Nothing was found, no evidence of him... just nothing. I had to go home that night, but others from my team stayed and more went up the next couple of days.

Nothing.

I was so frustrated that weekend.. I kept thinking:
"We searched for you for hours... hundreds of us! Where did you go? How far could you have gone?"

People in SAR and EMS tend to keep hope up for too long or lose it too soon. We've seen people pull through and live through extraordinary odds, and have seen tiny little things kill big people. I knew he was probably dead after he was missing for well over a week, but this little inkling of hope based on his survival training marched on.

About a month after the search, the man's body was found by some hunters about 2 miles away from his house. His two dogs were alive and still by his side, which is pretty unbelievable and a story in itself.

The thing that killed me, though, was what the medical examiner released to the media. He said the man probably died from exposure, dehydration, hypothermia, etc the day after I was on the search. He was alive when we took the 3-hour drive down there, he was alive when I stocked my pack and laced my boots, he was alive when I called for his dogs and shouted his name while trudging through the woods. He wasn't in our pattern, but still... it's the type of thing that never leaves you.

He was alive.