Further probe sought in family tragedy
PORTLAND – U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday called on the Interior Department to investigate the circumstances that led to the death of a San Francisco man stranded with his family in the Oregon mountains.
Feinstein, D-Calif., cited the failure of federal employees to lock a gate on a logging road. Lost in the mountains of Southern Oregon, James Kim, 35, drove his family down the road before getting stuck in the snow.
Feinstein commended Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for the search efforts by the Bureau of Land Management for Kim, whose body was found Dec. 6 after he left his family in their snowbound car to find help.
But, she wrote Kempthorne, “I am disturbed by what appears to be a failure to follow instruction and a deviation from agency policy that contributed to cause this incident.”
She referred to reports that personnel did not follow instructions to lock a gate on a bureau road. The Kims drove past the gate onto a logging road and got stuck.
Feinstein asked Kempthorne to determine if bureau protocols were followed and whether new ones are needed.
The bureau said earlier that it had ordered the gate locked but that the order was not followed.
Kim’s wife, Kati, and their two small daughters stayed with the car and were rescued on Dec. 4. The family disappeared on Nov. 25 on their way home from Seattle, where they had spent Thanksgiving with friends.
Michael Campbell of the bureau’s public affairs office in Portland said the agency would investigate the questions raised by Feinstein. He said the results would be shared with Feinstein and the public.
Also Friday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski received a chronology of the disappearance of the Kim family and the search. He said he will appoint a task force to review facts and make recommendations.
The governor said the report is the first step toward a broader assessment of search and rescue procedure in Oregon.
The chronology given to Kulongoski begins with a Nov. 30 “attempt to locate” message sent by the Portland Police Bureau’s missing persons division and ends with a Dec. 7 news briefing by the Oregon State Police.