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Search scaled back for woman missing in Eastern Ore.
12:14 PM PDT on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Trained dogs were to rejoin the search Wednesday for a 76-year-old Sandy woman missing in the Wallowa Mountains since Friday.
Anderson family
But Baker County Sheriff Mitch Southwick said searchers already have looked "everywhere we can possibly think of" for Doris Anderson, who was reported missing by her husband Saturday night. He said Wednesday that the search has been sharply scaled back to only a few people.
"I feel very sorry for the family," Southwick said Tuesday. "I feel very sorry we were not able to find her."
But some search efforts continued.
"We're still on it," Baker County Undersheriff Warren Thompson said Wednesday morning and said the dogs from Wallowa County were to rejoin the search.
Up to 40 people and a National Guard helicopter have been searching.
The Andersons, on a bow hunting expedition, drove into the rugged mountains and canyons Thursday in a Chevy Tahoe pulling a utility trailer. The vehicle got stuck, and Harold Anderson broke his wrist while unloading an all-terrain vehicle from the trailer.
The couple tried on Friday to walk to a main U.S. Forest Service road for help but became exhausted and the missing woman headed back for the vehicle, Harold Anderson said. A hunting party found him, disoriented, Saturday afternoon.
"Harold just regrets now that he didn't go back with her," his brother, Melvin Anderson of Portland, said. "He tried to talk her into going along with him. She was in a good mood, talking about how beautiful it was up there."
They walked an estimated 4 miles when his wife said she wanted to go back to the vehicle, he said.
Southwick said she might have panicked and left the road.
"If she got off the road up there, it's steep, brushy and not a place you want to be," Southwick said. "If she went down into the brush, you would just about have to trip over her."
Overnight temperatures have dipped into the 30s, and she was lightly dressed. The sheriff said it is unlikely she traveled far because she doesn't exercise and seldom leaves her home in Sandy.
"I don't think there is very much chance of her being alive, not in that area, and I can't imagine her getting very far," he said.
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