The Oregonian, by Staff

Holiday trip | Southern Oregon is the focus of a search for a couple and their children, missing after a Portland stop

By David Austin and Mark Larabee

Two weeks ago, James and Kati Kim of San Francisco loaded their two children into the car and drove to the Northwest for Thanksgiving.

They spent the holiday with family in Seattle and then headed to Portland to visit friends. Their next stop was to be a hotel in Gold Beach on the Southern Oregon Coast before returning home.

They never made it. No one has heard from the Kims for a week.

On Friday, police from more than a half-dozen agencies searched along highways and rural roads between Salem and Gold Beach -- any possible route the family may have taken. The Oregon Air National Guard sent a Black Hawk helicopter to conduct an air search near Agness on the Rogue River, and Josephine and Coos County sheriff's deputies patrolled remote roads to see whether they could find a trace of the family.

Oregon State Police and the Curry County Sheriff's Office are talking with the San Francisco Police Department about what to do next. Because no one knows where the family might be, there is no single agency in charge, which created some confusion Friday about where to focus the investigation.

"Everyone from Salem to the southern part of the state should be on alert," said Lt. Dennis Dinsmore of the Curry County Sheriff's Office. "We're going as far as we can go and making sure our people stay safe at the same time."

East of Gold Beach on Friday, Josephine and Coos County deputies used four-wheel-drive vehicles and a Sno-Cat to search without luck. The core of their search was along Bear Camp Road, which was covered with snow and ice at higher elevations. They also searched along Forest Service roads into the Agness Pass area and into Eden Valley past Mount Bolivar.

Police said family and friends of the Kims paid for private helicopters to help search the rugged terrain along Oregon highways 38, 42 and 126 between Interstate 5 and the coast.

No significant leads

But so far, with no significant leads on the family's whereabouts, police are stymied.

"There's not a lot we can do right now other than get the word out because there is no real specific point of focus," said Lt. Gregg Hastings, an Oregon State Police spokesman. "We're going to have our troopers drive some of the routes they might have taken to Gold Beach, but we're hoping for more thorough tips from the public if anyone's seen them."

Police said that the Kims' cell phones and credit cards have not been used since Nov. 25.

James Kim, 35, is a senior editor at CNET, an Internet media company that provides reviews and other services about technology. Kati Kim, 30, is a 1997 graduate of the University of Oregon who majored in French. She oversees the two family-owned stores in San Francisco.

The couple is traveling with their daughters, 4-year-old Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine. Police said the Kims were driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with a personalized California license plate DOESF.

James Kim's sister, Eva Kim of San Francisco, flew to Crescent City, Calif., on Friday with her husband and planned to drive north to Gold Beach. She said they plan to meet up with her parents who were traveling from Los Angeles.

"We're going to drive slowly along Highway 38 and see if there's anything we can find," Eva Kim said. "We have not been reassured by the Oregon police that they are doing an exhaustive search, so we're doing it ourselves."

Route in question

Authorities bristled at the notion they're not doing enough.

Dinsmore of Curry County said his discussions with family members have been cordial. "When our experienced mountain-trained deputies say they have searched and can't go any further, then we pull out," he said. "They know what they're doing."

Part of the problem is that no one knew what route the Kims were taking from Portland to Gold Beach. Dinsmore said there are a number of routes, and some of them that reach 4,000 feet elevation in Curry County can be treacherous. With dips and crests along the winding roads, it would be easy for someone to lose control and drive off the shoulder, police said.

The Kims left the Bay Area on Nov. 17, driving to Seattle to visit James Kim's uncle and aunt for Thanksgiving.

"We talked about the kids and the family," said Clint Youn. "It was a good visit. Everything seemed perfectly all right."

The Kims left Seattle the day after Thanksgiving for Portland, where they visited friends. A week ago, they had brunch with Ryan Lee. Lee said they spent about 90 minutes together before the family left to go shopping in Northwest Portland before heading to Gold Beach, where they had reservations at Tu Tu Tun Lodge.

They never arrived at the lodge, and a woman who was house-sitting for the couple called police Wednesday to file a missing persons report.

Brandy Hatch of Astoria, a friend who first met the Kims while working in the high-tech field in San Francisco, said it is out of character for the couple to not stay in touch.

"They would not just drive off without telling someone," she said. "James checked in with work every day whether he was going to be there or not."

Hatch, an administrative assistant for KMUN radio, said she plans to rent a car Saturday and drive south on U.S. 101, while other friends scour the routes from Portland to Gold Beach.

"I know they would do the same thing for me," she said, fighting back tears. "I know that they would drop anything to help a friend."

Family members are worried. But they're hopeful they will find their loved ones.

"We did not sleep well last night," Youn said. "I think everything is all right. I hope that everything is going to be OK. That's what I want."

© 2006 The Oregonian

Southern Oregon | The search pushes on for James Kim, following tracks left after he went for help

By David R. Anderson

GRANTS PASS -- A private rescue helicopter Monday plucked a California woman and her two young daughters from a snowy mountain road where they were stranded for nine days, spurring a frantic search into the night for her husband.

Kati Kim, and her two daughters were in good condition, smiling and waving when she arrived at Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass.

The discovery narrowed the search for James Kim, who left for help Saturday and faces his third night alone in below-freezing temperatures in a little traveled 3,500-foot mountain pass of the Siskiyou National Forest.

Their Saab station wagon got stuck in snow on a side road Nov. 25 about 30 miles west of Grants Pass as the vacationing family tried to find a way from Interstate 5 to Gold Beach. The family kept warm during freezing nights by running the car engine. When the gas tank went dry, they burned the car's tires. Searchers said the family had little food and the mother nursed her daughters.

Authorities said James Kim, 35, left his family at 7:45 a.m. Saturday to seek help and told his wife that if he didn't find anyone by 1 p.m. he would come back. He never returned.

At 1:45 p.m. Monday, a family-chartered helicopter spotted Kati Kim, 30, waving an umbrella. The pilot landed and picked up the mother and her daughters, Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months.

"They're in remarkable shape for being nine days in the wilderness," said Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson.

There was no sign of James Kim except for a set of footprints heading uphill toward Bear Camp Road, the main road through the area, and down a steep embankment toward Big Windy Creek.

Oregon State Police Lt. Doug Ladd said there was "a very reasonable chance" that Kim is alive and that the family said he had some outdoor experience.

On Monday night authorities were throwing everything they could into the search for James Kim. Two Jackson County sheriff's deputies tracked his footprints in the snow. An Oregon National Guard helicopter with heat sensing equipment flew overhead and searchers in Sno-Cats drove the roads.

Horseback teams, dog handlers and river rescuers were poised to head out at daybreak today.

"We will be out there all night and work 24/7 until we find him," said Mike Winters, Jackson County sheriff.

Kim is wearing blue jeans, a sweater, a light jacket and tennis shoes. He's carrying two cigarette lighters, and his wife thinks he may have taken a camera strobe with him, Anderson said.

The Kims left San Francisco Nov. 17, driving to Seattle to visit relatives for Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving the Kims drove to Portland, where they visited friends, then on Nov. 25 headed south on Interstate 5. They had reservations that night at the Tu Tu Tun Lodge along the Rogue River east of Gold Beach, but never arrived.

A woman who was house-sitting for the couple called police Wednesday to report they were missing.

On Friday, family and police from more than six agencies started their air and ground search along four highways and dozens of rural roads between Interstate 5 and Gold Beach. The four main routes also intersect with dozens of county and Forest Service roads, some of them reaching 4,000 feet elevation.

Anderson said Bear Camp Road is only passable in warm weather. He said they rescue people every winter from the road.

"It's not a good way to go in winter," he said. "You can't make it."

Lt. Gregg Hastings, spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said Monday that the Kims drove up Bear Camp Road until they were stopped by snow and ice. They tried to back down, Hastings said, but couldn't, so turned the Saab down a side road hoping to turn around. That's when they became stuck, he said

Last Friday, Curry County deputies from the west and Josephine County deputies from the east searched Bear Camp Road, but had trouble getting their Sno-Cats down side roads, Hastings said.

On Monday, 100 searchers -- including Carson Logging helicopters rented by Kim's family -- focused their search west of I-5 after authorities determined a family cell phone triggered two pings on a tower on Wolf Peak about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 26, the morning after the family was last seen.

"It was critical," Anderson said of the signal.

Support on CNET

James Kim is a senior editor at CNET, an Internet media company that provides reviews and other services about technology. Kati Kim is a 1997 graduate of the University of Oregon and oversees the two family-owned stores in San Francisco.

Friends and strangers have posted hundreds of messages on CNET.com, offering support and prayers for the Kim family. Lindsey Turrentine, executive editor for mobile reviews at CNET.com, said there was a mix relief and anxiety about the news that Kati Kim and the girls were found but that James Kim still was missing.

"We're obviously really happy and excited that Kati and the kids are found," Turrentine said. "We are taking that as a good sign and we're cautiously optimistic about James. And we're just waiting to hear the news.

"We're waiting for any news, and we're looking forward to good news."

Monday evening, Kati Kim's parents, Phil and Sandra Fleming were en route from Gallup, N.M., to Albuquerque to be interviewed on "Larry King Live." Sandra Fleming said her daughter and James Kim "have absolutely been heroes, keeping themselves safe and doing the right thing and being resourceful."

Yet, she said, the family can't relax until James Kim is found.

"We thank everybody who's out there that's trying to help us, but we are still absolutely desperate to find our James."

Hospital officials said Monday night that all three were in good condition, but that Sabine Kim was kept overnight for observation. Kati Kim and Penelope stayed in the hospital to be with her.

Chevy Fleming, Kati Kim's younger brother and only sibling, said he talked to his sister early Monday evening, and that she's "doing well, and she's in good spirits."

"Her children are just fine," he said. "They didn't even need medical attention. Apparently, she nursed them the whole time. She was hungry and cold, but other than that, she was fine."

Mark Larabee and Wade Nkrumah of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Oregonian

11th day | A helicopter with night vision continues the search in the dark after pants belonging to James Kim are found

By Peter Sleeth, David R. Anderson and David Austin

A helicopter chartered by the family of James Kim trails equipment over the Big Windy Creek drainage about 30 miles west of Grants Pass as part of their search for the San Francisco man. Searchers found a pair of Kim's pants and spotted other articles Tuesday. (Sol Neelman/The Oregonian)

GRANTS PASS -- Searchers combing a cold, rugged canyon for the father of two missing for 12 days planned to lower a rescuer into a chasm today to examine something else he may have left behind.

Although they wouldn't elaborate on the item, search officials and family hoped both discoveries will lead them to Kim, a high-tech editor who left his stranded family four days earlier to seek help. But other rescue experts said finding the pants may signal that Kim was in the late stages of fatal hypothermia.

Searchers found the pants one mile below a Bureau of Land Management road in the Big Windy Creek drainage, which runs toward the Rogue River. They also found Kim's footprints and scuff marks another mile downstream.

A second item -- possibly more clothing belonging to Kim -- was found deep in a chasm but searchers couldn't get to it before dark Tuesday. Searchers also found "other items" that may belong to Kim, Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police said Tuesday night, but were waiting for verification they were his.

"We'll continue searching until we find Mr. Kim," said Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson. "We are operating under the assumption that he is alive. ... This is frustrating. ... We are so close. We are treating the search like we're looking for our own family member. We're not going to give up."

More than 100 ground searchers ended their quest at dark Tuesday because of the rugged terrain. An Oregon Air National Guard helicopter equipped with night-vision and heat-sensing equipment continued flying a five-mile stretch of the drainage 30 miles west of Grants Pass.

James and Kati Kim with their two daughters, 4-year-old Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine, had been missing since Nov. 25 after driving south from Portland to visit the southern Oregon Coast. A helicopter found Kati Kim and the girls Monday waving an umbrella near their stranded car. But James Kim had struck out on foot two days earlier seeking help.

James Kim left the family at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, telling his wife he'd be gone for four hours. He never returned to the car, where the family had burned the vehicle's tires to keep warm after it ran out of gas.

Searchers said Kim hiked three miles back up the BLM road and then -- for what reason they do not know -- walked into the rugged Big Windy Creek drainage. Searchers believe he was wearing at least two pair of pants.

Hastings said the pants could be an indication of Kim trying to mark the path. "I think that would be a smart thing to do," Hastings said.

But some cold-weather experts said the pants are an indication that perhaps Kim was suffering from the late stages of hypothermia.

Dr. Cameron Bangs, one of the state's leading hypothermia experts, said it is common for someone stranded for a long time in cold weather to start "paradoxical undressing."

Bangs said the term refers to how when someone's core temperature drops below 90 degrees, the body's cooling systems begin to fail. The result, Bangs said, is that warm blood moves toward the skin and a person begins to feel hot.

"You become confused and behave in a strange manner," Bangs said. "You feel too warm and you start shedding clothes. It's a bad sign. It's a bad sign that he's been out there for too long without much equipment."

Anderson did not disclose what officials thought the item in the chasm might be.

Kim's family secluded themselves Tuesday but issued a statement expressing gratitude for the search efforts.

"The family wishes to express their deepest, heartfelt gratitude for the tremendous outpouring of love, concern and assistance to find the family," the statement said. "We are overjoyed that Kati, Penelope and Sabine are safe and sound, largely due to James Kim's remarkable efforts to ensure the safety of his family in this desperate situation."

One searcher, a 38-year-old Jackson County sheriff's deputy, was injured in a fall Tuesday and had to be airlifted to a Medford hospital. Anderson said the injuries weren't life-threatening.

Searchers scoured the steep terrain from Monday night until darkness fell Tuesday. Elevations in the area reached to about 3,500 feet and temperatures dipped into the 20s.

Bob Harrison of the Eugene Mountain Rescue was part of the crew that found James Kim's tracks. Working a shift that lasted from 10 p.m. Monday to noon Tuesday, Harrison and four other trackers said the conditions in the canyon were nothing short of treacherous.

"It was very rough going," Harrison said. "Very slow. We didn't go near as far as we thought we could."

The crews had to cover lots of steep ground that was littered with downed trees, heavy brush and the occasional sheer-faced cliff that would pop up in front of them. Mostly, crews had to continue crossing and re-crossing Big Windy Creek when obstacles prevented them from getting by.

Even in daylight, the searching conditions were treacherous. Harrison added that the helicopters hovering above couldn't see the search crews who were wearing bright orange vests.

While in the drainage, searchers tried to look under debris to see if they could find James Kim. "Someone who is cold and is going to hole up under protective logs, we look for that sort of thing," Harrison said.

There were about 100 people searching Tuesday, along with three helicopters chartered by Kim's family and one from Josephine County. Two rafts also were launched into the Rogue heading toward Black Bar Lodge.

At nightfall, the Air National Guard copter took to the skies. Anderson said officials planned to monitor the length of the drainage through the night and into this morning near its outlet into the Rogue River for any signs of the missing man.

Missed turnoff

The Kims were headed to Gold Beach Nov. 25 but missed a main route there and decided to take a shortcut west of Grants Pass, friends and authorities said.

At first it was only raining as they drove up Bear Camp Road but snow began falling as they got higher in the mountains. Kati Kim told a friend Monday that the road was pretty bad and at one point she and her husband had to get out to remove rocks from the road. They soon realized they weren't going to make it over the mountain and decided to drive back to a lower elevation to get out of the snow.

The Kims drove 15 miles down a BLM side road before stopping for the night because they were out of the snow. They parked, leaving the engine running so they could use the heater.

"They thought they could spend the night and somebody would find them in the morning," said Ryan Lee, the Portland friend who talked with Kati Kim after her rescue Monday. "But then, when they woke up, it was snowing quite heavily. They were stuck."

The Kims ran the engine of their 2005 Saab station wagon for three days to power the heater until the car ran out of gas, Hastings said.

For seven days, the parents rationed baby food and crackers for their children, drank melted snow water and tried to keep warm. The adults at first ate berries but then gave them up for fear of getting poisoned, Lee said.

Before long, the car battery had also gone dead. Then they huddled together in the car, burning all their tires to stay warm.

That's when James Kim decided to venture out Saturday to try to find help. At one point after her husband left, Kati Kim ventured away from the car to look for help.

But, weak from hunger, she quickly determined that she was unable to carry both girls and returned to the shelter of the car, according to an account she gave her mother and father, Sandra and Phil Fleming of New Mexico.

Kati Kim nursed both girls throughout the ordeal.

Elizabeth Suh and Mark Larabee of The Oregonian contributed to this story.

© 2006 The Oregonian

The body of James Kim is recovered; results of an autopsy expected today

By Peter Sleeth and David Austin

GRANTS PASS -- The search for the missing San Francisco father lost in the Southern Oregon woods for 12 days came to an end at 12:03 p.m. Wednesday when his body was spotted at the bottom of a rugged canyon in the Siskiyou National Forest, a half mile from the Rogue River.

Searchers had hoped for a better outcome because of the pattern of clothes James Kim had left in his five-mile scramble down Big Windy Creek, a drainage that flows into the Rogue.

Authorities don't know how or when Kim died but planned an autopsy Wednesday night. The results would be made public today.

"It appears to me that he was highly motivated and he knew what he was doing coming down," an emotional Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson told reporters. "We were having trouble in there. He traveled a long distance. That was some of our frustration. We could never get ahead of him.

The plight of Kim, a 35-year-old senior editor for a high-tech media company in San Francisco, transfixed the country after his wife and two young daughters were found Monday on a narrow road, high above the creek, where they had been stuck in snow for nine days with little food or supplies.

When rescuers reached Kati Kim and the girls -- 4-year-old Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine -- on Monday, they were told that James Kim struck out two days earlier to find help.

James Kim walked five miles back up the Bureau of Land Management road before dropping into the steep and treacherous Big Windy Creek drainage. Searchers have no idea why Kim left the road for the creek, Anderson said. Rescuers tried to reach him Monday and Tuesday but couldn't get far because of the conditions.

Wednesday, searchers waited out a heavy fog that grounded several helicopters. Once the fog lifted, a pilot with Carson Helicopter Services spotted Kim's body in the creek about a half-mile from the Rogue River. Although he had hiked five miles down the creek, his body was only about 11/2 miles in a straight line from the family's car.

The Carson helicopter returned to a landing zone above the canyon and picked up a Jackson County Swat team member who was lowered on a 200-foot yellow rope into the canyon.

Kim's body was found where the creek is 25 feet wide and lined with sheer cliffs that would have prevented searchers from climbing down to the water.

On Tuesday, a team of searchers in rafts floated the Rogue River to the mouth of Big Windy Creek but couldn't climb up the river's walls.

As the helicopter returned to pick up other rescuers, there was a fleeting moment when searchers thought Kim might be alive. Someone at the landing zone said, "They found him and he's talking."

The mood at the landing zone quickly changed as rescuers and support personnel moved about and prepared for Kim's return.

Sgt. Dean Perske of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife division said people were ecstatic. "This has made my year," he said.

But within a moment, the mood turned to despair when someone broadcast a special communication code. Everyone fell silent and the mood of the rescue staff went flat. "We may have gotten bad information," Perske said then.

Rescuers hooked a red-orange litter to the rope on the helicopter, and Kim's body was hauled out.

About an hour later, emotional officials overseeing the search held a nationally televised press conference. "At 12:03 p.m. today, the body of James Kim was found in the Big Windy Creek," Anderson announced.

It was the only sentence Anderson could muster, as he turned from the bank of microphones to hide his emotions. Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police stepped up and confirmed Kim was dead.

"We're trying to find a few more details, but given these events, we're not going to release much more," Hastings said.

Kim's family -- who paid for search helicopters and other equipment -- remained in seclusion and asked for privacy.

"We want the Kim family to know that we appreciate all of their support," Hastings said. "They are the true champions throughout this whole ordeal. This is extremely tough on those who have an emotional connection" to Kim.

Anderson later said finding Kim dead took an emotional toll on the nearly 100 searchers. "We were devastated," he said. "I'm crushed."

News of Kim's death spread rapidly. Friends and strangers following the saga on television and the Internet posted condolences on a Web site set up by CNET, Kim's employer. Others laid flowers at the door of one of the family's small stores in San Francisco.

Scott Nelson Windels, a spokesman for the Kims, issued a statement that read: "The friends and community of the Kim family are deeply saddened by the news received today about James Kim. We want to send out our utmost thanks to the search and rescue teams who risked their lives in the efforts to bring James back to us. They are true heroes to risk their own lives for a stranger."

Wednesday's effort started upbeat. Despite four nights in the wet, freezing canyon, Anderson and Hastings said searchers were hopeful of finding Kim alive after finding more clues to his location.

Searchers found two gray long-sleeved shirts, a red short-sleeved T-shirt, one wool sock, a girl's blue skirt and pieces of an Oregon state map along the drainage. They thought Kim left the items in a pattern for anyone looking for him.

Although the terrain was described as extremely dangerous, the plan called for bracketing the drainage with 26 searchers spaced evenly across the area. Searchers would comb rocks, boulders, cliff faces and gullies.

From the air, the canyon looks like a picturesque postcard of one of Oregon's mammoth national forests. Light snow dusts the mountainous region lined with knotty pines, Douglas fir and larch. A smattering of roads jag back and forth.

But up close, searchers say, the drainage gives way to sheer cliff faces, craggy rocks and boulders, and ice-cold water feeding the Rogue River.

Carson pilots also planned to drop 18 family-made "care" packages along the creek in case Kim was still alive. Each package contained an orange sweatshirt, sweatpants, a wool blanket, a hand warmer, socks, gloves, flares and food. Also enclosed was a letter to Kim from family members.

Jamie Francis of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Oregonian

Autopsy | Searchers give more details about what may have happened to James Kim after he left his family

By Elizabeth Suh and David Austin

The San Francisco man who left his stranded family deep in the southwest Oregon woods to seek help died of hypothermia possibly two days before searchers found him, the doctor who conducted the autopsy said Thursday.

Deputy state medical examiner Dr. James Olson thinks 35-year-old James Kim probably died two days after he left his wife and two young daughters Saturday to find help.

"But that's only an educated guess, given the conditions and how much exertion he put on his body to get through treacherous conditions," Olson said. "It's possible that we'll never know exactly when he died."

Olson said Kim's body was "soft and flaccid" when searchers found him face up in 3 feet of water at 12:03 p.m. Wednesday. After the body was brought out of Big Windy Creek, it never went into rigor mortis -- the stiffening that occurs within eight hours of death, Olson said. Rigor mortis dissipates after about 24 hours.

Olson said it's extremely likely that rigor had set in and disappeared already.

Searchers found the fully clothed Kim after an intensive six-day ground and air search that led to the rescue of his wife, Kati, and daughters Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, two days earlier.

Before he died, James Kim, already weak from little food and freezing temperatures, hiked five miles up a snow-covered road, then five miles down a treacherously steep canyon that stymied dozens of searchers for two days. In the end, his body was found about a mile from his station wagon, separated from the vehicle by the steep walls of a canyon.

At a news conference Thursday, search leaders released more details of how the Kims got lost in the rugged Coast Range 30 miles west of Grants Pass, how they got stuck and what they did for nine days in their car.

The Kims were reported missing Nov. 29 after failing to return home from a Thanksgiving vacation to Seattle. Police said the Kims left a Denny's restaurant in Roseburg about 9 p.m. Nov. 25 for the Tu Tu Tun Lodge near Gold Beach. After missing the exit from Interstate 5 onto Oregon 42, they decided about 10:30 p.m. to take what looked like a direct route on Bear Camp Road.

Bear Camp Road starts at about 900 feet elevation and climbs to 4,000 feet over the top of the Coast Range to Gold Beach. A rough road even in the summer, in the winter it is clogged with snow, but used by hunters, snowmobilers and others seeking outdoor recreation.

As their all-wheel-drive 2005 Saab crept along the narrow track, the Kims found the road signs confusing and noticed that some warned of snow and dangerous winter driving conditions. It was snowing, and they stopped several times to move rocks out of the road.

The couple decided to turn back, but were forced to drive in reverse, with James Kim looking out through an open driver's door and revving the engine to move through the snow.

Running low on gas and seeking to get to a lower elevation, the couple left Bear Camp Road, turning down a Bureau of Land Management road that normally is closed by a locked gate. Vandals had cut the lock and opened the gate. The Kims drove 15 miles down the road to where it was only raining. At 2 a.m. they stopped for the night.

The next day, they were confronted by heavy snow and stayed in the car, occasionally running their engine to use the heater. They continued to do the same over the next two days as snow fell. James Kim read to his children every night.

On Wednesday, the family was out of gas, and started a fire using magazines and driftwood, but the wood was frozen, heavy and hard to gather. The next day, they turned to a spare tire for a fire in the afternoon.

On Friday, they pried the four tires from their car and, by 11 a.m., had stoked a blaze they hoped would attract attention. They also began stowing wood under their car to try to keep it dry. By afternoon, their fire was out. They heard a helicopter -- area agencies had begun their search for the family.

Father ventures out

Saturday morning, the couple switched gears. In studying a map of Oregon, they estimated the town of Galice was located on a river about four miles east of them. James Kim hoped to get to a road with cars on it or follow a river to the town.

In reality, the Rogue River hamlet was 15 miles away, separated by four other steep creek drainages.

Saturday morning, James Kim built a fire for the family before saying goodbye at 7:45 a.m., with a promise he would return by 1 p.m. if he didn't find help.

About 9:30 a.m. Kati Kim heard and saw more helicopters. At 1 p.m. her husband had not returned.

James Kim backtracked along the BLM road they had traveled a week earlier. After five miles, the road crosses Big Windy Creek. He climbed down into the drainage, dropping a pair of gray pants one-quarter mile from the road, then continued another quarter mile down to the creek.

He followed the creek east, back in the direction of the family's car. Two miles later, he dropped several more pieces of clothing and bits of his map.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters said deputies who found the clothes believed James may have spent a night there.

It was 2.5 more miles down the creek before James came to rest in the water, a half-mile short of where the creek tumbles into the Rogue.

He was found with a backpack and wearing a heavy dark jacket, gray sweater, T-shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes. He had trekked more than 10 miles on his quest. When he died, he was hardly more than a mile -- in a straight line -- from his family's car.

Searchers also pointed out Thursday that the car was just a mile away -- via another rugged forest road -- from Black Bar Lodge. Although closed for the winter, the lodge was stocked with leftover supplies from the summer, its owner John James, told The Associated Press.

"He has no way to know" about the lodge, said Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson. "It's a tragedy."

Dad "did nothing wrong"

James Kim was a popular senior editor at CNET Networks Inc. in San Francisco, writing reviews about digital music and audio devices for the technology-themed Web site and a CNET blog about electronics. He also appeared on the company's video segments and on television.

During Thursday's news conference, Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings emphasized that the Kims were travelers unfamiliar with the area caught in rapidly changing weather conditions and should not be blamed for that.

"James Kim did nothing wrong," Hastings said. "He was trying to save his family." Still, he urged drivers to check road conditions by calling special state numbers as they travel.

Anderson said while the search's ultimate end was saddening, he was glad it came to a resolution.

"I am happy we found Kati and the kids," Anderson said. "I am happy that we were able to give closure to the family by finding James."

© 2006 The Oregonian

His last week on the job becomes an odyssey of hope and tears

By Michelle Roberts

Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson sat down to a desk in a spare bedroom of his Grants Pass home on the quiet Wednesday evening of Nov. 29. Anderson, a 46-year-old with reddish hair, flipped on the family computer -- he's married to an emergency-room nurse and has a 16-year-old daughter -- and waited for it to boot.

He remembers thinking about the week ahead -- his last after 18 years with the Josephine County Sheriff's Office. An affable 180-pounder who stands 5 feet 8, Anderson grew up in Oregon, and he often wore Levi's relaxed-fit jeans and polo shirts to work. But, as undersheriff, he also wore a handgun strapped to his belt, ran the office's day-to-day operations and supervised the search-and-rescue team. The team's duties suit him: He's an enthusiastic fisherman and white-water rafter who enjoys Josephine County's rugged terrain.

Four weeks earlier, the undersheriff had thought he'd be moving into the sheriff's office. But in early November, he lost a bitterly fought election, and he just couldn't bring himself to work for the new sheriff. Instead of moving across the hallway, he was packing up his office for good.

He planned to spend the next week responding to e-mails, turning his files over to his successor and saying goodbye. After the holidays, he'd start a new job in a neighboring county.

With any luck, everything would be quiet until then.

The computer beeped as it finished booting. Anderson's eyes fell on a news bulletin about a San Francisco family that had vanished on a road trip in the Pacific Northwest. After reading that the family was headed to Gold Beach, he remembers one thought flashing through his mind: Bear Camp Road.

Anderson knew the road well. In March, he'd helped find members of Ashland's Stivers family, who'd spent two weeks snowbound in their motor home after trying to take Bear Camp Road to the coast. And in 1995, he worked the case of a salesman who'd tried to take back roads from the coast to Grants Pass. Teenagers found the man's body in his pickup. He'd starved to death.

About 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25, James and Kati Kim, traveling with their two daughters -- 4-year-old Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine -- stopped at a Roseburg Denny's. After dinner they continued their trip from Seattle, where they'd celebrated Thanksgiving. They'd stopped in Portland to visit a college friend and then continued on toward Tu Tu Tun Lodge near Gold Beach, a planned stop on their trip home to San Francisco. They missed the Interstate 5 exit onto Oregon 42, the main highway to the coast. Just north of Grants Pass, they decided to try an alternate route.

Heading west out of Merlin, Bear Camp Road runs through U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Siskiyou National Forest land. The road winds over and along steep ridges, reaching elevations of more than 4,500 feet. Much of it is one lane with occasional turnouts, and signs warn of dangerous driving conditions. Sections of the road are unpaved and often get washed out.

As their 2005 Saab station wagon climbed into the mountains, the Kims ran into heavy snow. James Kim tried to back out. Running low on gas, he headed down a BLM side road, open only because vandals had cut the lock on a gate. About 2 a.m., after driving 15 miles, he reached an elevation low enough for the snow to become rain, and he stopped to wait out the storm. Attempts to call out with a cell phone failed. When the Kims woke later that morning, their all-wheel-drive vehicle was hopelessly stuck in thick, deep snow.

Brian Anderson remembers that at midmorning Thursday, Nov. 30, a Portland police officer called to ask that Josephine County deputies look for the Kims along Bear Camp Road. Anderson dispatched two deputies, who drove west through heavy snow to the crest of the road. They saw no sign of the Kims.

Meanwhile, Curry County searchers started up the same road from the east. But the snow from that direction was so thick that they made it only seven miles.

Josephine County owns two Sno-Cats, tracked vehicles that can travel over deep, soft snow. Anderson called in several s search-and-rescue workers and sent one of the Sno-Cats grinding over the mountain pass. It went all the way through. Nothing.

"They could be anywhere," Anderson remembers saying of the Kims. "Anywhere."

In the coastal mountains, it snowed heavily through Sunday, Nov. 26, and the Kims stayed in the car, occasionally running the engine to use the heater. They did the same over the next two days as snow fell on the quiet mountain.

James Kim read to his children every night, acting as if the family were just on a camping trip. The Kims melted snow in their mouths for water and rationed the few jars of baby food and jelly they had with them. When that ran out, Kati nursed both girls.

On Wednesday, Nov. 29, the family ran out of gas and started a fire with magazines, but the available wood was frozen, heavy and hard to gather. The next day, they turned to a spare tire for an afternoon fire. On Friday, they removed the four tires from their car and, by 11 a.m., had stoked a blaze they hoped would attract attention. By afternoon, their fire was out. They heard the chop of a helicopter in the distance. Then the sound grew softer and disappeared.

Saturday morning, Dec. 2, the couple studied a map and estimated the town of Galice was on a river four miles east. James Kim hoped to get to a road with cars on it or follow a river to the town. In reality, the Rogue River hamlet was 15 miles away, separated by four other steep creek drainages and mile upon mile of treacherous terrain.

Early Saturday morning, James Kim built a fire for his family and promised he'd return by 1 p.m. if he didn't find help. Then he kissed them goodbye.

Brian Anderson's home phone rang before 9 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3. Still groggy after staying up late to watch his beloved Oregon State University Beavers beat Hawaii 35-32 two time zones away in Honolulu, he reached for the phone and heard Sara Rubrecht, county emergency services manager. Hey boss, Anderson remembers her saying. It looks as if they've narrowed the area where that missing family might be.

At 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26, the night the Kims became stranded, two brief text messages had passed through a cell phone tower and were delivered to the Kims' mobile phone. A Medford man working for Edge Wireless found records of those messages and figured the family was within 20 miles of the cell tower, narrowing the search area.

State police also had information that the Kims last used a credit card at a Roseburg Denny's just after 8 p.m. on Nov. 25. The family had ordered a children's macaroni and cheese, a Boca Burger and a chef salad.

It was Anderson's day off, and Rubrecht knew he was trying to ease through his last week on the force. Still, she asked him whether he wanted to attend a meeting at the sheriff's office with Lt. Brian Powers of the Oregon State Police. Anderson didn't think twice. He pulled on a pair of blue jeans and his black sheriff's jacket and drove five blocks to the sheriff's office, where Rubrecht and a state police officer waited.

There, on a conference table, lay several maps produced by the Edge Wireless technicians. The 11-by-17-inch pages were a maze of triangles and shadings, and Anderson didn't know what to make of them.

They called a technician at home, and he drove from Medford to Grants Pass, where he explained what the shadings on the map represented. The area included parts of Josephine, Douglas, Coos and Curry counties. But at least there was someplace to search. And there was no denying a big chunk of it fell on Anderson's turf.

Up to then, no one had been clearly running the operation. "There was some frustration on the search originally," Anderson said later, "because there was no clear-cut agency in charge. Portland PD. San Francisco PD. In Oregon, you've got no agency that is coordinating."

Anderson quickly set up a command post at the Josephine County search-and-rescue headquarters and invited everyone to meet there to pull information together. They ramped up for a full search Monday morning, Dec. 4.

He knew he faced extreme pressure and scrutiny, with "a lot of eyes" watching his every move. He'd heard that James Kim's father, Spencer Kim, a powerful Korean American businessman from Los Angeles, had flown in on a private jet and had hired private helicopters to fly over the area. National media were assembling, too, and because of James Kim's high-tech connections -- he was a senior editor at CNET Networks Inc., a technology-themed Web site -- the Internet was alive with comment and speculation. This was going to be big.

Anderson called his wife late Sunday afternoon. "I'm not going to be home for a while," he told her.

Just an hour after her husband hiked away on Saturday, Dec. 2, Kati Kim heard and saw more helicopters. The hour when her husband had promised he would return -- 1 p.m. -- came and went. She thought about walking out herself but realized she was too weak to carry both girls.

James Kim backtracked along the BLM road they had traveled a week earlier. After five miles, where the road crosses Big Windy Creek, he climbed down into the drainage, dropping a pair of gray pants a quarter mile from the road. Then he continued another quarter mile, down to the creek.

He followed the creek east, back toward the family's car. Two miles later, he dropped several more pieces of clothing and bits of his map. He laid the clothes out in a straight line, and tucked a red T-shirt beneath a log. Deputies later found an indentation in the wet ground, where they believe he slept for a night.

The next morning, 100 searchers, including those flying Carson Logging helicopters, swarmed the search area. At 1:45 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4, a helicopter pilot spotted Kati Kim, waving a pink umbrella. Rescuers landed and picked up the mother and her daughters.

Whoops of joy rose at the command center. But the elation was short-lived. "We were happy," Anderson remembers, "but we immediately refocused our thoughts on one question: 'Where's James?' "

The crews looking for James Kim had to cover steep ground blocked by downed trees, heavy brush and the occasional sheer-faced cliff. And they had to cross and recross Big Windy Creek when obstacles stopped them.

By nightfall, authorities were throwing everything they could into the search. Two Jackson County sheriff's deputies tracked Kim's footprints in the snow. Searchers in Sno-Cats drove the roads. An Oregon Air National Guard helicopter equipped with night-vision and heat-sensing equipment flew a five-mile stretch of the drainage. The sensors picked up two "hot spots." One was probably too big to be James Kim. But the other?

"We are operating under the assumption that he is alive," Anderson told the news media that evening. "We are so close."

Anderson gave an interview to Larry King and stumbled into bed sometime after midnight. He'd have to get up in less than five hours. Haunted by the reports of hot spots in the snowy creek canyon, he tossed and turned and woke on the hour.

Behind his closed eyelids, he saw competing images. In one, he imagined shaking James Kim's warm hand. In the other, he saw Kim lying in the snow, cold and still.

On Tuesday, Dec. 5, searchers in Windy Creek Canyon found the gray pants, setting off media speculation that, in the final stages of hypothermia, James Kim was shedding clothes because he thought he was hot. Then searchers came across two gray long-sleeved shirts, a red short-sleeved T-shirt, a wool sock, a girl's blue skirt and pieces of an Oregon map, all deliberately lined up.

It was good news, Anderson remembers thinking. James Kim was still moving. "But it was so frustrating," Anderson said. "We just couldn't seem to get in front of him."

That afternoon, Anderson received a call from Spencer Kim. He wanted to come to the command center to see what was going on. State police troopers sneaked him past throngs of reporters and photographers by having him duck down in the back of a squad car.

The command center grew silent when Spencer Kim walked in. Small, but with a commanding presence, he approached those staffing the post, looked in their eyes one by one and said, "I am Mr. Kim. Thank you."

Even though this was Anderson's command center, the undersheriff remembers that Spencer Kim came across as the one in charge. All his resources, Spencer Kim said, were at the search team's disposal.

The searchers told him about the items they'd found. "I know my son," he said. "I know what he's trying to do."

Then he turned and looked at Anderson and Lt. Powers. "I'm counting on you," he said.

That night, Anderson was high on adrenaline. Back at his Grants Pass house, he heated a bowl of chili in the microwave and told his wife he still had hope. "I think we can do this," he said. "I think we can bring him back alive."

The next morning, Anderson was frantic to get helicopters back into the air. But thick fog brought everything to a halt until midmorning. Not long after the first helicopter lifted off, rescue workers spotted a motionless form in Windy Creek Canyon.

A Carson helicopter dangled Jackson County SWAT team members Grant Forman and Rick Mendenhall about 100 feet above where James Kim was spotted. They gripped the bright yellow rope tightly as they were lowered into the gorge.

Forman, scanning the scene from the air, concluded Kim was dead and called in what they'd seen. Anderson heard the dispatch, and the room fell silent around him.

Everyone moved into the radio room. The dispatch crackled over the airwaves: "Subject located." It was the prearranged code that meant James Kim had been found dead. If he'd been alive, the code called for "subject located -- we need medical."

Kim lay motionless in a shallow pool of water, his head brushing against a rock and his body slightly submerged in Windy Creek's clear waters.

The helicopter lowered a red-orange Stokes basket with a camera and other equipment attached. Forman and Mendenhall gently placed the basket on some rocks a few feet from the body. Forman picked up the camera. It wasn't a crime scene, but he took care to snap pictures from every angle.

Then they covered Kim with a blanket and placed him in the basket. The helicopter lowered the rope and lifted the basket toward the sky. Kim's body dangled high above the forest that had hidden him for 12 days.

Media reports about the grim find went out almost immediately. Anderson worried that Kati Kim would hear about her husband's death on television, and he frantically tried to arrange for somebody to deliver the message face to face. His fears were well placed. The news flashed on the screen of a TV in the room where Kati was waiting with a friend. The friend saw the flash, but Katie missed it, and the friend quickly turned off the set.

About an hour later, Anderson stood before a throng of reporters and issued what would be his last official statement with the Josephine County Sheriff's Office: "At 12:03 today, the body of James Kim was found in the Big Windy Creek."

It was the only sentence Anderson could muster. He broke down, dropped his head, and turned from the bank of microphones to hide his tears.

Reporter David Austin of The Oregonian contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Oregonian