NYS Federation of SAR -
News!
2006
Missing Man Found Deceased
61 Year Old Suffered from Schizophrenia
Cayuga County
January 25, 2006
The body of Alan Broder was located in a swampy, wooded area 5 days after he was reported missing from an adult care facility
in Weedsport. On Wednesday, January 25th a local resident contacted the Sheriff's office regarding a man walking on a rural road in inclement weather.
An investigation led to the discovery that Broder had not returned to the adult facility that evening. Several residents reported seeing Broder
at various locations along the roadway late that afternoon. Broder was known to walk the roads frequently, often visiting local businesses and restaurants.
Due to the inclement weather, snow, wind, and sub-freezing temperatures a ground search was commenced around 8PM that night. Cayuga County SAR was requested along with
teams from both Onondaga and Oswego Counties. Extremely heavy snow storms in Oswego County hindered travel and prevented a full response.
Wednesday evening's search focused on the roadways along the route where Broder had been reported, the adult facility, and a local cemetery
where Broder had been seen walking at times. K9's and ground teams worked in the dark and winter weather. A news release was issued on local television stations and reports of sightings came from as far away as Syracuse.
As Weedsport is immediately adjacent to the NYS Thruway and another main highway, the possibility existed that Broder may have accepted a ride
outside of the search area. No sign of the subject was found Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning, search operations commenced early in the morning. Snow had fallen overnight and was forecast throughout the day. Additional resources
had been brought in including several K9 teams. The sheriff's office had re-investigated many of the local sightings of Broder and established a time-line
of sightings. Using this new information the immediate search effort focused on the eastern end of the search area. Bad weather
continued to hamper the search, but most of the high priority search segments were covered on Thursday.
Thursday night brought almost a foot of new snow to the area and search operations ran through the day. With no clues found, and
additional snow in the forecast, search operations were halted Friday night in anticipation of improving weather after the weekend.
On Monday morning, with improved weather and warmer temperatures, limited search operations were conducted using K9's and a NYSP helicopter.
Broder's body was located by the helicopter around noon time on Monday, laying in a hay lot, surrounded by brush and swampy areas. The
location was approximately 2.5 miles from the Adult facility, west of the reported PLS.
Additional News' Story
Additional News' Story
Intense Search in the Adirondacks
Missing 45 year old man
Hamilton County
April 26, 2006
Search teams combed a large area in the vicinity of Indian Lake looking for George LaForest, last seen on Friday April 21st and reported missing on
Tuesday, April 25th after having failed to report to work and missing a meeting on Monday. Forest Rangers were called in on Tuesday and,
after a preliminary search, Federation SAR resources were requested Wednesday.
Mr. LaForest was last seen on Friday and his truck was located at an a parking area on the Cedar River, popular with swimmers and fishermen. Mr. LaForest
is an avid outdoorsman and knows the area well.Heavy rains
saturated the area over weekend, raising river levels almost 5 feet and washing away any trace of the subject. K9 units along with grid teams
searched for 5 days without locating a single clue as to the subject's whereabouts. Not even a cigarette butt was found, even though the subject
was a heavy (2 pack a day) smoker. K9 units, dive teams, and a State Police helicopter covered the Cedar River north to where it
joins the Hudson River without finding any trace.
After 7 days of searching, the Forest Rangers and State Police scaled down the ground search, while continuing their investigation and
following up on any new information that might develop.
Body of Missing Rafter Located
28 Year Old Drowns in Ausable River
Essex County
June 16, 2006
On Monday, June 5th, 28 year old Mark Dragoon went paddling with friends in one man rafts in the Ausable River.
The river was extremely high and the rapids were swift. The river is very dangerous in the area the group chose, with numerous underwater
nooks and crannies, and many drops in the chasm. Although two of the paddlers managed to exit the river as they had planned, Mark
missed the exit and was swept into the rapids below, disappearing into the river.
After 11 days of searching the river by numerous agencies, members of the Search and Rescue Team of the Northern Adirondacks (SARNAK)
located the subject's body while patrolling the river by Kayak.
45 Year Old Camper Goes Missing
Search Starts After Subject Reported Overdue
Hamilton County
June 16, 2006
Jack Coloney, a 45 year old photographer, went camping along the Cedar Creek Road on June 6th, with plans to return on June 14th. On June 16th,
an off-duty Assistant Forest Ranger, fishing in the area, found Coloney's campsite which appeared to have been unoccupied for several days. After contacting
relatives, it was determined that Coloney was overdue and might possibly have run into problems.
A search effort was started using Ranger and volunteers, and was run from the Indian Lake DEC facility. The Moose River Plains is the largest
unpopulated expanse in the Adirondack Park and covers over 35 square miles. The terrain is rugged, the vegetation unyielding, and the insects
relentless. Temperatures hovered in the 80's during the search and daily thunderstorms hampered the effort.
An extensive investigation paralleled the search effort and included canvassing all of the trail registers in the area, analyzing his
personal photography log (left at his camp site), and even the subject's web site which displayed many of his favorite pictures taken in
the area.
Over the course of the search which lasted 11 days, over 4,000 hours of searching was accomplished by Forest Rangers, Federation teams, and various other
agencies. Helicopters were utilized to overfly the area and to insert search teams into areas that otherwise would have involved
extensive time to access. Other than Coloney's camp site, the only other clue located was his kayak, hidden in the underbrush, several hundred meters
from his site.
On June 27th, with no other clues or sightings, the DEC scaled back the active search and put it into a "limited continuous" mode.
Additional News' Story
Missing Man Found in Woods
46 year old located deceased
Rensselaer County
June 17th, 2006
Stephen McLoughlin was at a relatives house in Sand Lake and went for a walk in the woods late in the afternoon.
When the subject did not return that evening, his family started to look for him and reported him missing. Rescuers and a State
Police Helicopter searched for him through the night, but was unable to locate him.
A command post was set up at a nearby fire station with the NYS Forest Rangers directing the search effort. Federation teams were
contacted to assist with the search, although many of them were already involved in the Coloney search(see above article). At around 11 AM that Sunday morning, McLoughlin's
body was discovered in the woods by searchers.
We would like to thank the family of Stephen McLoughlin for directing donations to the Federation in Stephen's memory.
Missing Man Sought by Police
Driver flees accident scene
Onondaga County
June 18th, 2006
On saturday evening, 24 year old Lance Lalond fled the scene of an automobile accident in the village of Camillus. The subject was
observed running into a wooded area near the scene of the accident. Although police units searched for the subject through out the night, they
found no trace of him. The search continued into Sunday with a helicopter being utilized and officers interviewing friends and family to see if
the subject had contacted them.
Late Sunday afternoon, the Camillus PD requested the assistance of local search teams to help determine whether the subject might be injured and
still in the woods. A tracking team was sent to the last known point, while K9 units and grid teams checked nearby ravines and other
routes of travel that headed in the direction of the subject's home, about 2 miles away. The tracking team located the point where the
subject had entered the woods, layed down for some time, and then apparently exited the same way he went in, back to a main road. Based on that
evidence, along with no further trace of the subject in the search area, the search was terminated around 9:30 PM.
Shortly before 11 PM that night, the subject was located, unharmed, walking down a street in the village. The subject stated that he had been
hiding under a tarp by a house most of the day.
Additional News' Story
Missing 70 Year Old Woman
Suffers from Alzheimers
Jefferson County
June 29th, 2006
Gerda Probst, a 70 year old female suffering from Alzheimers, was reported missing from her residence by her family, Thursday evening
of June 29th. Family members, coming home at the end of the work day, discovered her absence when checking her residence on the west shore of Clear Lake. 911 was
contacted and the NYSP responded. No sign of the subject was found along the roadways by the responding units. The local (Plessis) Fire department
was notified along with the Jefferson County Emergency Management Office. An investigation resulted in reports of the subject having been seen on the roadway along
the eastern shore of Hyde Lake, and further reports had her headed west along Route 26, heading in the direction of her residence. Multiple eyewitness
reports had her in the same area within minutes of each other.
The NYSP contacted the NYS Forest Rangers with assistance in running the search, but the first Rangers were not able to get on scene until after 9PM. Although
local SAR teams had been notified of the incident, they were not activated. Based on a profile of the subject and the effects of her dementia, she was not expected to respond to searchers;
in fact, she would avoid searchers, uniforms, and loud noises. The subject was in excellent physical condition and used to walking great distances. Only a few weeks before,
she had been returned to her family by a local resident 6 miles distant, at whose residence the subject had stopped to ask for a drink of water.
At around 10 AM Friday morning, the Federation's assistance was requested and local members headed to Plessis to assist. First units were on the scene before noon.
Even though Friday was the start of the holiday weekend, volunteer SAR teams maintained a noticeable presence throughout the search, with
more than enough team leaders to head up teams consisting of local volunteers and law enforcement. Hot weather, thunderstorms, and dense vegetation
slowed down progress of the teams as they thoroughly investigated the area around the LKP. State Police helicopters were use to cover the many open fields in
the search area, while dive teams conducted searches of the lake shores. K9 units and tracking teams were used to expand the search area
and to cover many of the trails and roadways in the area. The subject's picture was released to the media and, although many sightings were reported, none of them
proved to be the subject.
A possible sighting at a camping area north east of the LKP and adjacent to a popular hiking trail, reported several days after the subject's disappearance,
expanded the search effort in that direction and away from the LKP. Interestingly, this reported sighting was close to the same
area where the subject had been located on previous "wanderings".
Over a week later, with no clues found and no valid sightings, the search was scaled back to a limited, extended effort.
Additional News' Story
Additional News' Story
Additional News' Story
A footnote to this story. On December 22nd, 2006 hunters found human remains in a wooded area approximately .5 miles
south of the LKP. The are had not been searcbed by grid teams or K9. The remains were later determined to be those of the
subject.
Additional News' Story
Lost in the Swamp
22 year old SUNY ESF Student spends night in Cicero Swamp
Onondaga County
October 1, 2006
On Saturday, September 30th, State University of New York Environmental School of Forestry student Jon Fouskaris went into the
Cicero Swamp looking for a rare flower. Using a hand drawn map supplied by his professor, Fouskaris was to take pictures of the flower as
part of a class assignment. Parking his car at an access point to the swamp, Fouskaris trailed a rope behind him to utilize as a mechanism
to find his way out. When his search for the plant exceeded the length of his rope, Fouskaris became confused about his location in the swamp.
Sunday morning, when Fouskaris did not answer a call from his parents in Brooklyn, authorities were contacted to determine his where-abouts. An investigation
uncovered the details of his "assignment" and his car was located still in the parking lot at the swamp. A state police
helicopter was brought in to do an air search, but was unsuccessful in locating the subject.
The NYS Forest Ranger for the area was contacted and search teams from
Oswego, Onondaga, and Cayuga counties were activated.
Arriving on the scene, SAR teams staged at the local FD while the Ranger utilized the helicopter to conduct a survey of the area. Using a
copy of the map provided by the subject's professor, the subject was located by air, having climbed a large pine tree and waving at the helicopter.
The Forest Ranger was hoisted into the area from the helicopter, but the subject had descended the tree and was not in the immediate area. A quick search
but the Ranger located the subject, uninjured, who was subsequently walked out.
Additional News' Story
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