/ U.S./World News

May 17 – Father David Schwartz and his friend, Cheryl Gibbs, begin their “Eastern West Fest” trip.

June 4 – They drive into Hood River in the Columbia River Gorge.

June 5 – Schwartz and Gibbs drive into Portland.

June 7 – The friends are last seen by staff at a Portland hotel.

June 8 –Schwartz and Gibbs leave their hotel rooms at the Best Value Inn & Suites-Fortniter in Portland midmorning.

They later sign a guest book at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Gibbs and Schwartz stop by a cafe and a winery late in the morning and ask for information on the best route back to Portland. The cafe owner gives them directions for two routes that would take them to U.S. 26 — one using the narrow, gravel Foss Road and the other taking U.S. 101 to Oregon 53 to U.S. 26. Foss Road runs through rough terrain with steep drop-offs into deep canyons, and Oregon 53 is also winding and narrow in places with several deep drainages.

The pair gives no indication whether they plan to take either route.

4:16 p.m. – A 911 caller reports seeing a Maroon Toyota Corolla lose control on Highway 26, where it intersects with Highway 53, and slide down a steep embankment.

911 call, response timeline

Police search the area but don’t find the car and give up.

Mid-June – A search for Schwartz and Gibbs is launched.

June 20 -- Margarette Schwartz, the missing priest’s mother, starts hiking back roads in the Oregon wilderness and drives a rented car stopping at trailheads, tacking up fliers at popular tourist spots such as Multnomah Falls, Mount Hood or the Columbia Gorge -- anywhere they might have vanished.

June 21 -- Margarette Schwartz says she believes her son is dead. She continues searching for several more days.

July 1, 2 p.m. – A Civil Air Patrol Plane spots a 2005 Maroon Toyota Corolla the missing pair was driving at the bottom of a ravine off Highway 26, in the area the 911 caller described on June 8th.

The pair is found dead inside.

Police say the vehicle apparently was headed eastbound on Highway 26 near milepost 26 when, for an unknown reason, it went across the centerline and westbound lane.