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Cell Phone Signal Narrows Search For Missing CNET Editor
CNET ^ | December 4, 2006 | Leslie Katz and Michelle Meyers

Posted on 12/04/2006 10:52:35 AM PST by hc87

After searches in Oregon's Curry and Douglas counties, new information on missing CNET senior editor James Kim and family is narrowing the search back to the Bear Camp area in Josephine County, according to reports Monday.

A cell phone tower received a signal from one of the family's cell phones last Saturday near Glendale, but officials say the signal is only an indicator the family could have been within 26 miles of Glendale late Saturday night, say local news reports.

Glendale is located off Interstate 5, south of Roseburg, where the Kims were confirmed to have stopped at a Denny's restaurant on the night of Saturday, November 25. A news conference will be held Monday at 3 p.m. PST to provide an update on search efforts. It will be held at Josephine County Search & Rescue Headquarters in Merlin, Ore.

The search for the Kims continued through the weekend, with search-and-rescue teams from the ground and air checking secondary rural routes in southwest Oregon, Oregon police said.

Helicopter support was to be discontinued at darkness Sunday, but ground search crews were prepared to continue searching into the evening, according to a police statement.

The 35-year-old Kim, his 30-year-old wife Kati and daughters Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months) left their home in San Francisco last week on a Thanksgiving road trip to the Pacific Northwest. Before the sighting at the Denny's in Roseburg, they had last been seen earlier that day in Portland, Ore., according to the SFPD's missing persons' report.

Approximately 40 state and federal personnel were searching remote area roads on Sunday, state police reported. Some of those roads are difficult to travel, described by authorities as narrow and curvy with steep bordering embankments. Sno-Cats are assisting with the search in sections covered with up to 6 inches of frozen snow.

Private resources secured by family members, including helicopters, have been assisting in the hunt, and friends and family have traveled to Oregon to join the search. Loved ones have also set up a Web site where the public can receive updates on the Kims and share their thoughts.

Meanwhile, hundreds of CNET readers have sent e-mails and posted notes of concern and support on the site's message boards. Some have mapped out possible routes using navigation devices and others in the Oregon area have joined the search effort.

Following confirmed sightings last Saturday night of Kim and his family at the Denny's in Roseburg, search efforts shifted north to Douglas County, Oregon police said Saturday morning.

Search efforts had been busy in Curry County, the location of Gold Beach, the family's reported destination for last Saturday evening. But after a multiagency search involving snowmobiles, a Sno-Cat and helicopters including a UH-60 Blackhawk, there was still no sign of the Kims' 2005 silver Saab 9-2X station wagon with California personalized plates of "DOESF."

Those fruitless efforts, combined with news of the Denny's sighting in Roseberg at about 8 p.m. on November 25, gave Lt. Dennis Dinsmore, of the Curry County Sheriffs' Department, "no indication in any way that they ever reached" his county.

"We're going to start backing away from the investigation," he said, adding that the search will shift to roads off state Highway 42 instead of Highway 38. Both are common routes taken to get from Interstate 5 to the Oregon coast.

Officials from the sheriff's office in Douglas County, where Roseburg is located, could not be reached for comment. But the Denny's sighting was confirmed in a press statement and Dinsmore said the family's stop at Denny's had been corroborated by employees and a credit card receipt.

The National Guard, California Highway Patrol, Oregon State Police and Coast Guard are all participating in the search. In addition to patrolling highways running from Interstate 5 to the Oregon coast and along Highway 101, Oregon State Police troopers say they are checking hotels and resorts on the south coast. Douglas County sheriffs have already done an extensive search of area roads, including Highway 42 from the Winston area to Myrtle Point in neighboring Coos County, according to the statement. Further search options are being explored.

According to Oregon State Police, about 100 tips had come in to a Pacific Northwest call center in Salem, Ore., as of Sunday afternoon. The number for the line is 1-800-452-7888.

Ryan Lee, a longtime friend of the Kims, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had brunch with the Kims in Portland on Saturday. The Kims told their friend they planned to stop by a clothing boutique in Portland before driving to Gold Beach, where they said they had a hotel reservation at the Tu Tu Tun Lodge for Saturday night.

The hotel reportedly received an early evening phone call from the Kims saying they would be arriving at the hotel later than expected. They never showed up.

Inspector Kim Lewis of the San Francisco Police Department's Missing Persons Unit said the last call recorded from James Kim's cell phone was made to a friend in San Francisco at 3 p.m. and suggested that the call to the hotel may have been made from a landline. She said the SFPD is still waiting for credit card information to come in.

While some Saab models come equipped with the OnStar vehicle security and communications system, the model the Kims were driving did not offer OnStar as an option, said Mike Weinstein, a detective with the Portland Police Bureau's Missing Persons Unit, who said he also confirmed that information with OnStar using the Kims' vehicle identification number. The car did not have a LoJack car security system either, Weinstein said.

Information provided by family members indicates the car may have visible recent damage extending forward from the driver's door along the left quarter panel and wheel area, according to Oregon State Police. This damage was the result of a previous traffic-related incident in which the driver's door was reportedly repaired, but the other noted damage may still be visible.

On Saturday, the day the Kims were last seen, weather conditions in Southern Oregon were very hazardous, according to a spokesman for the Curry County Sheriff's Department.

At CNET, James Kim is a senior editor covering digital audio who also co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadgets blog. He has been writing a book on Microsoft's Zune MP3 player. Formerly, he was an on-air personality on the now-defunct cable television network TechTV.

He and his wife own two stores in San Francisco--Doe, a clothing store in the city's Lower Haight area, and the Church Street Apothecary in the Noe Valley neighborhood, where they live. Kati Kim also worked at CNET from 1998 to 1999.

The family was expected to return to San Francisco on Monday, November 27. When both James Kim and Kati Kim failed to show up for appointments on Tuesday, November 28, co-workers began to worry for their safety. The Kims are known for keeping in touch daily with their friends and co-workers, either by phone or e-mail.

Those with information about the Kim family's whereabouts are asked to contact the SFPD immediately--at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and at 415-553-1071 after-hours.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: cnet; found; jameskim
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To: Rte66

Amazing it took 7 hours to get to the place where they pinged from. Ping was at 1:30am. Wasn't dinner at 5pm or so?


21 posted on 12/04/2006 1:59:48 PM PST by BunnySlippers (Never Forget / Giuliani 2008)
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To: BunnySlippers

The waitress says they left the Denny's in Roseburg at 9:00.


22 posted on 12/04/2006 2:31:17 PM PST by hc87
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To: hc87
I was under the impression that they were still traveling north, not really aware in my own mind that Portland was at the north end of the state, not the south. I knew it was a border town but didn't really have that clear in my head.  Hey, I lived in San Francisco from 77 to 82 and only passed through Portland once on an airline stop over, so it was never really fixed in my head.  Sorry about that.

Now I know that they were on their way back to SF so Roseburg would have been before Glendale. However, there's no direct evidence that they continued on I5 and passed the Glendale cell tower on  that road. The article does point out that the cell signal only indicates that they were within that towers range, which could be up to 26 miles. State 42 does come within 26 mules of Glendale at least on one stretch around 43 North, 123.45 West.  That's a section of 42 that is descending from 1500 feet to around 600 feet, while Glendale is at 1700 feet and apparently the cell tower is on a hill at around 2000 feet.  That could make it possible that this section is where they were when that signal was picked up.  There's a small town there but my map doesn't have a name for it.
23 posted on 12/04/2006 2:31:30 PM PST by Phsstpok (Often wrong, but never in doubt)
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To: tubebender

Agreed. It looks much smaller on the Mapquest version.


http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=&city=Galice&state=OR&zipcode=&country=US&title=%3cb%3eGalice%2c%20OR%20US%3c%2fb%3e&cid=lfmaplink2&name=&dtype=s


24 posted on 12/04/2006 2:33:33 PM PST by hc87
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To: hc87

Oh, thanks. Still, they did not go far in 4 1/2 hours.

Anyone see the press conf. I can'r figure out what channel it will be on.


25 posted on 12/04/2006 3:05:44 PM PST by BunnySlippers (Never Forget / Giuliani 2008)
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To: BunnySlippers

They found the mother and the children!

http://www.cnettv.com/?live=111991


26 posted on 12/04/2006 3:06:27 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: Howlin

Alive?


27 posted on 12/04/2006 3:08:14 PM PST by r9etb
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To: r9etb

Yes, alive! On the way to the hospital!

Fatehr still missing.


28 posted on 12/04/2006 3:08:42 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: hc87
"We're going to start backing away from the investigation," he said, adding that the search will shift to roads off state Highway 42 instead of Highway 38. Both are common routes taken to get from Interstate 5 to the Oregon coast.

Weird, considering how far north of Glendale those roads are, and how the most direct (and fastest) route to Gold Beach would have been to go south on the 4-lane I-5 freeway to exit 66/Merlin and then turning west to cross the mountains. And Hwy 38? That's far north of Roseburg, why would they backtrack, unless they aren't sure they ain't at the Roseburg restaurant. Also odd that a week later the SFPD still hasn't gotten all the credit card trail.

29 posted on 12/04/2006 3:09:26 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (An easy 12-team BCS bowls-based playoff can be implemented by next year. See my homepage.)
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To: Howlin

OMG!!!


30 posted on 12/04/2006 3:11:40 PM PST by BunnySlippers (Never Forget / Giuliani 2008)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

The mother and children were found at 1:45 this afternoon their time.


31 posted on 12/04/2006 3:11:44 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: Howlin

Have they said where/what road they were found on? Car run off the road?


32 posted on 12/04/2006 3:12:42 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (An easy 12-team BCS bowls-based playoff can be implemented by next year. See my homepage.)
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To: BunnySlippers

Great, isn't it?

And the father walked out, so that's a good sign if he was the one they chose to walk out!


33 posted on 12/04/2006 3:13:27 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: Howlin

What does it say I can't get anything at the link? Are they alive?


34 posted on 12/04/2006 3:13:42 PM PST by WestCoastGal (Winners Never Quit!!)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

They did not say that or they did not say it in a manner that I would have understood, being unfamiliar with that area.

It sounds like it was an accident though; she flagged the helicopter down with an umbrella.


35 posted on 12/04/2006 3:14:33 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: Howlin

Thanks, just saw on the other thread the rumor that they were found by a private helicopter hired by the family.


36 posted on 12/04/2006 3:17:10 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (An easy 12-team BCS bowls-based playoff can be implemented by next year. See my homepage.)
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To: Howlin

Wonderful news. I was particularly concerned for the baby. Keep praying for James.


37 posted on 12/04/2006 3:21:13 PM PST by hc87
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To: Diddle E. Squat

Good news!

Thank you Lord!

Hope the Dad is OK, too.


38 posted on 12/04/2006 3:23:40 PM PST by Palladin ("Open a new window; open a new door; travel a new highway.")
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To: Howlin
I live, own, and operate a ranch near this area. One: You don't drive over that road in the winter unless you are absolutely positive the road is cleared and inclement weather is not imminent. The snow can come very quickly and can make driving impossible in less than an hour. And if you're all the way to Eden Valley, you won't be able to walk out.

The road is paved, narrow, no guard rails, road markings, and at night, dark as the back side of the moon. Maps all show it for a nice ride. Maps are flat, this road changes elevation seveal times in thousands of feet. And last, no cell towers. Its 85 miles of desolate, towering forrest, no lights, habitations, nothing and in the winter, will kill you quick...

39 posted on 12/04/2006 3:55:18 PM PST by OregonRancher (illigitimus non carborundun)
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To: OregonRancher

Thank you for that information, OR. It's always good to know some local information -- I'm simply amazed at the things I learn on FR.

Do you hold out much hope for the father? What is the weather now?


40 posted on 12/04/2006 4:08:20 PM PST by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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