Sep 6, 2006 7:54 pm US/Mountain
Crews Possibly Find Footprint Of Missing Marine
by Shaun Boyd
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
A team of volunteers searching for a missing marine hope a set of footprints they found could lead them to his disappearance.
Lance Hering, 21, disappeared Aug. 29 after a fall while hiking with a friend in Eldorado Canyon.
"We're very encouraged," said Rick Baum, a veteran who formed his own search team after the official search ended Sunday.
Baum's group believes Hering is disoriented and lost after suffering a head injury in a fall. The crew said the footprints match the tread on Hering's shoes.
"There might be a trail here and so consequently we're pursuing that," Baum said.
Even as the sheriff's office pursues leads outside the canyon, it entered Hering's information and fingerprints into a national crime and information computer.
"If he's contacted by a law enforcement officer and they request his identification and he provides it, it will hit and reflect him as being a missing person from Boulder, Colorado," said Commander Phil West from the Boulder County sheriff's office.
Investigators have also posted fliers at the main RTD hub in Boulder where thousands of people pass through everyday.
"We're also distributing to the homeless shelters, all the local law enforcement agencies have received it," West said. "He may have caught a ride with somebody; he may be hundreds of miles away."
The sheriff's office has volunteers with Rocky Mountain Rescue were investigating the footprints Wednesday night and will determine whether or not they will send a dog team in the canyon.
The emergency services coordinator with the sheriff's office plans to meet with the volunteers to talk about the possibility of searching the canyon further.
"Bottom line is, we're going to find him," Baum said.
The sheriff's office is also trying to rule out the possibility that Hering disappeared by choice by comparing blood recovered at the scene of his fall with his DNA.
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