wfn.org | Rescue Teams Resume Search for Missing Minister

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3-September-1998 
98294 
 
    Rescue Teams Resume Search for Minister Missing 
    in Wyoming Wilderness 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -Rescue teams resumed the search for a missing Presbyterian 
minister Sept. 2, a few days after his dog emerged from the Wyoming 
wilderness, where the two disappeared in early August. 
 
    "Everybody has hope.  But our hope isn't very high at this time that 
he's still alive," said Detective Sergeant Rocky Shaver of the Sublette 
County Sheriff's Department in Pinedale, Wyoming,  near where the Rev. Mike 
Turner and his dog, Andy, began a 10-day trek across some of the state's 
most rugged terrain July 30. 
 
    The appearance of the dog allows rescuers to run a more targeted 
search. 
 
    Turner, 48, of Caldwell, Idaho, was presumed dead in late August when 
rescue teams called off an air and ground search for the minister, who had 
disappeared without a trace.  Turner's family told authorities that he 
failed to meet them at the Big Sandy trailhead, the end of a nearly 60-mile 
solo hike Turner designed to mark the end of a three-month sabbatical from 
his church. 
 
    Alerted by the massive publicity that surrounded the search for Turner, 
other backpackers spotted his dog Aug. 28 and enticed it out of the woods 
with granola bars and other foods, according to Shaver.  The dog, a black 
labrador, emerged in the Island Lake area of the Wind River, about 20 miles 
along the route Turner intended to cover. 
 
    The lake sits at the base of a glacier that Turner's itinerary crossed. 
 
    "We're going to concentrate on the Island Lake area and work back from 
his itinerary," Shaver told the Presbyterian News Service Sept. 2, the day 
the search resumed.  He said the rescue team took along two cadaver dogs 
(trained to sniff out dead bodies). 
 
    Turner had only a nine-day supply of food with him when he disappeared 
one month ago.  He has not been seen by other backpackers since the first 
day of his trek. 
 
    Turner's wife, Diane, returned to Wyoming Sept. 3.  Turner's brother 
took the dog back to the area earlier in the week in hopes it would lead 
searchers to Turner's location. 
 
    "We're all too close to this to say, `Okay, Mike's gone for sure,'" 
said the Rev. John Bowen, associate pastor of the 500-member Boone Memorial 
Presbyterian Church in Caldwell, where Turner served as pastor for nearly 
10 years.  "But we're doing pretty well.  People understand that 
statistically the possibilities are real slim that Mike's okay. 
 
    "It's a mixed bag right now." 
 
    Bowen said prayers groups have been gathering in Idaho, California, 
Washington and Montana since the search began for Turner. 
 
    "This is rugged, remote wilderness ... one of the last great remote 
wildernesses in the United States," said Chip Williams of Lander, Wyoming, 
who led the frustrated volunteer search-and-rescue team that hunted for 
Turner for nearly two weeks in some of Wyoming's most mountainous terrain. 
 
    "This is rugged canyons and waterways.  The area is huge, as big as the 
state of Rhode Island," said Williams, whose initial search was hampered by 
the absence of any clues about where Turner might have run into trouble. 
During those weeks, additional crews of climbers scoured some of the more 
difficult mountain passes and a helicopter surveyed the terrain from the 
air. 

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