07/05/2008

Associated Press

Michael Mallory's pickup truck was found crashed against a tree on a riverbank three months ago, but he has not been found.

The weekend receipts from his Gotta Hava Java coffee stand business in Roseburg were gone, and the truck was not on a route he would have been expected to take going to work on a Monday morning.

Investigators say that, based on the evidence of the scene, they don't think he wound up in the Little River.

But that's about as much as they can conclude.

"I think there are a number of possibilities," said Dwes Hutson, spokesman for the Douglas County sheriff's office, "and without some sort of information to back it up, it's all speculation."

Tips, theories and reported sightings have come into the sheriff's office, Hutson said, but no evidence that points detectives in any particular direction.

"They're still being really open-minded with this investigation, looking at all the different angles," he said.

Although the truck had crashed, there was no evidence the driver would have suffered serious injury. Deputies, detectives and search and rescue volunteers with dogs searched the area at least three times.

Marine patrol deputies searched Little River by boat, heading downstream to the North Umpqua River. Hutson said the evidence at the crash scene left the detectives fairly certain that Mallory, 50, of nearby Glide, didn't end up in the water.

The coffee business had caused a family rift.

Mallory's parents, Bert and Evelyn Mallory of Roseburg sold the business to their son and daughter-in-law several years ago and are suing about $150,000 they say the couple still owes them.

Evelyn Mallory said last month she still wonders whether her son drowned and whether his body will turn up once river water levels drop.

"We just have to wait and see," she said. "All we can do is leave it in God's hands."

___

Information from: The News-Review, http://www.oregonnews.com