the woods near Yokum Road just
outside Riddle.
(Photo: Steve Durrant)
With no significant leads and no trace of Mark Bosworth in five days of searching rural Douglas County, officials have shifted gears away from the large-scale, volunteer search effort.
“The volunteers have been asked to go home,” shared volunteer Mickey Deagle a few minutes ago, “At this point, there’s only a need for a fraction of the manpower.”
At its peak, the search effort included well over 120 people — 80 of whom were citizen volunteers that had come from Portland and other areas throughout the state.
“It’s a little disheartening to have not found a clue to Mark’s whereabouts, but we did our job, which was to eliminate places that he might currently be.”
— Mickey Deagle, volunteer
Deagle says a debrief by local authorities revealed that they believe Bosworth is no longer in the area where the search efforts have focused since he went missing late Friday night. “They’re scaling back the search efforts in the immediate vicinity,” he reports, “and are now looking for clues in ‘the outside world’.”
A post on the Cycle Oregon Facebook page says, “the local search and rescue team is confident that the search area has been thoroughly examined and, in all probability, Mark is not in Riddle or the surrounding area.”
“They encouraged us to… turn our efforts to Portland, where the family believes he might find himself trying to find his way home, or to familiar surroundings.”
— Steve Durrant, volunteer
According to Cycle Oregon ride director Jerry Norquist, today’s effort focused on large swaths of land like hillsides and meadows. 25 person teams fanned out 30 feet apart diving through blackberry bushes and scratching through the brush alongside Yokum Road. But still, nothing has turned up.
Deagle expressed his feelings upon hearing the news today: “It’s a little disheartening,” he shared via email, “to have not found a clue to Mark’s whereabouts, but we did our job, which was to eliminate places that he might currently be.”
Another volunteer, Steve Durrant, emailed me a few minutes ago to say that officials expressed deep gratitude for their efforts at the debrief session this afternoon. Durrant also said officials want a heightened awareness for the search in Portland. “They encouraged us to help keep the attention on, and to turn our efforts to Portland,” Durrant says, “where the family believes he might find himself trying to find his way home, or to familiar surroundings.”
While this portion of the search has ended, it doesn’t mean authorities have stopped looking. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) said via a statement today that, “Additional ground searches may be conducted as further information becomes available.”
The DCSO has also just launched a “Find Mark Bosworth” blog to share information and gather tips on the case.
— Read more about Mark Bosworth’s disappearance here.
UPDATE: A $10,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to Mark’s discovery.
Man this is just freaky. Poof he is gone. I’m Hoping for the best………….He meets up with an old college buddy and goes on a road trip, or a bender.
My thought is that not finding a body in the obvious spots means it’s more likely they’ll find a person in an unexpected spot.
Have they used tracking dogs? It seems that before the scent is totally gone and since his last whereabouts are known, that dogs could be very helpful in either locating him, or finding where he might have gotten into a car. Have surrounding States been notified? We must find him!
$10,000 reward. That’s just bizarre. But if it works…
***This comment has been deleted due to insensitive remarks. — JM ***
Someone is not “missing” when they have been gone for two hours. Someone is “missing” when it has been a day, or two. I’m sure many people were long gone at that point.
And this is a road biking event. How many road bikes you know can travel reasonably over anything other than pavement. How much good would that have done?
Mark was discovered as missing the morning of the last day of the ride. Pictures were circulated in Sutherlin where the ride ended. The riders were going home already when he was gone for any length of time. There was no way to get riders to search for him. I have no doubt that if he was discovered missing earlier in the ride that all would have been dropped to search for him. As it was all the CO employees stayed in the area helping with the search, came home for a short while organized volunteers and went back to search! Back off buddy.
Dan O, the Cycle Oregon event ended last Friday, the day Mark went missing.
So from what I’ve read, the most recent theory is that maybe he was the hitchhiker who got picked up on Yocum Rd. Hopefully whoever picked the hitchhiker up will come forward with information.
My fingers are crossed that he’s found soon; nights can get chilly out in the hills this time of year. The reports of his possible medical condition and how he was acting before he disappeared make me worried.
does anyone know what his medical condition actually was? if he was ‘acting odd’ had he been having mental health issues or some sort of medical condition affecting his cognition? Sorry to pry, just curious.
@Jay — The complete coverage of this story has told us this: Mark is a two-time cancer survivor, most recently in good health, but he was acting a little bit erratic over the course of the Cycle Oregon week. In retrospect, people are wondering if the cancer was back and affecting his brain activity. There has been no suggestion of other mental health issues.
Wow, now I *do* feel special.
Watch for it… 😉