Search For Hunter Called Off Treacherous Conditions In Forest Halt Efforts

Freezing rain, heavy snowfall and a week in the woods prompted rescue teams to abandon the search for a missing Pinehurst hunter Wednesday.

George Saunders, 54, was believed lost somewhere in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests north of Enaville. His pickup truck rolled down an embankment while he was hunting with his stepson Nov. 14.

“We’re taking into consideration that it has been seven days, the weather and the way he was dressed,” said Nelson Morris, Shoshone County chief deputy sheriff.

Saunders was last seen wearing jeans, a T-shirt, rubber boots and a plaid coat.

Although tracking dogs found signs of Saunders on Monday, the family agreed to abandon the search. Weather turned its worst Tuesday.

As many as 45 people at a time combed the Coeur d’Alene River drainage area during the past week. The Shoshone County sheriff’s department and search and rescue team, the U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and citizen volunteers all coordinated efforts. “We had people coming from Spokane and volunteering,” Morris said.

Morris thanked all those who helped, and added that rescue efforts were cancelled to keep people from being injured.

“We had branches fall and hit searchers,” Morris said. “It was getting dangerous for them.”

Deputies will try to solve Saunders’ disappearance in the spring, he said, when conditions are safer.

Although the area was hit hard by snow and freezing rain, Morris said the sheriff’s department isn’t officially presuming the Pinehurst man is dead.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition