Four Die When Car Falls Into Hells Canyon

Four Oregon residents died after their car went off a gravel road, careened 770 feet down a steep embankment and plunged into Hells Canyon.

Police identified the victims as Forest Ora “Gus” Garrigus, 67, and Fred Louis Lancaster, 63, both of Oxbow, and Arthur Lee Shepherd, 62, and Shirley Carole Shepherd, 59, both of Halfway.

All four suffered multiple injuries during the crash and died before the car hit the Snake River after careening off a primitive Bureau of Land Management road and traveling several hundred yards down the steep embankment, said Dr. James Davis, Baker County medical examiner.

A Gresham, Ore., resident called 911 on his cellular phone after seeing a cloud of dust on the slope above the river and seeing debris, including oil, in the water.

Divers found the bodies still inside the car late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Garrigus for years wrote a weekly report on fishing and hunting conditions that was published in the Hells Canyon Journal newspaper.