After the first week of active searching, when the main routes around the campsite had been checked and no confirmed traces of the missing person had been found, the police began to shift their attention to new possible leads.Browse Reference
Reports were coming into headquarters from local residents and tourists. Most of them were too vague or contradictory, but a few versions seemed promising enough to be checked out.
Eyewitness report. On August 17th, the third day of the operation, a middle-aged man, a resident of a small town nearby, called the sheriff’s hotline.
He claimed that the day before he had seen a young man who looked very similar to the one shown on the news in a nearby canyon.
According to him, the young man was walking along a trail without a backpack and looked somewhat exhausted.
The report was recorded in the operations log. The coordinates were approximate. The witness described local landmarks that only those who frequently visit the desert would be familiar with.
