NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, December 15, 2011

INCIDENTS

Mount Rainier NP

Body Of Missing Hiker Found And Recovered

A search of the Paradise area for an overdue New York visitor was begun on Monday morning following notification that he'd gone out on a day hike but failed to return. The search that day focused on the highest probability areas, including Nisqually and Steven's Creek drainages, Mazama Ridge, and the Nisqually Glacier valley north of Glacier Bridge. The man was spotted in the late afternoon by air in a remote area of upper Stevens Creek drainage, but the helicopter was unable to land or insert rescuers. He was lying on the ground and did not respond to the helicopter's presence. An attempt to reach him that evening was cancelled when it was determined that it was not safe for search teams due to difficult terrain, travel conditions and approaching darkness. On Tuesday morning, a ground team was transported to the Stevens Creek Bridge by a Pisten Bully snow machine. The ground team then moved up the drainage and reached the man's location. Through a radio patch with medical control, rescuers were directed to transport him to a medical treatment facility. He was airlifted to Madigan Army Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He is believed to have been dead for at least 24 hours prior to arrival at the hospital. A follow-up investigation is underway. The ground search was conducted by six teams of two to three rangers each. Park rangers joined Bravo Company 1/214 out of Joint Base Lewis McChord in the aerial search by Chinook helicopter. Dan Camiccia was IC. [Patti Wold, Interpretive Media Specialist]

Hot Springs NP

Man Sentenced For Assault In Park

In June, 2010, rangers received a report that a 16-year-old girl had been beaten and rendered unconscious in front of the park visitor center by an unknown assailant. Rangers and officers from the Hot Springs Police Department responded. The found the girl alive but unconscious. Investigation revealed she was a known associate of the assailant, W.V. of Forrest City, Arkansas. W.V. was wanted on previous warrants by the county and the state of Arkansas and subsequently fled. After a six month investigation by NPS agents and rangers, W.V. was located, arrested, and jailed. He later confessed to the assault to an NPS agent. W.V. was charged in federal court under 18 USC 113 and on November 14th pled guilty to the assault. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, with his time to run concurrently with other time being served for past criminal activity. [Robert L. Still, Special Agent]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Assateague Island NS - Assateague employees joined local communities in celebrating the holiday season by participating in several Christmas parades with a new sand castle float.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP - One of the park's electric cars recently appeared in the annual “Parade of Lights” in Montrose, Colorado, decorated to look like a wind-up toy.

Fort Donelson NB - Park staff built a float for the local Christmas parade that was a reproduction of one of the ironclad gunboats that shelled the fort in 1862. It was a crowd favorite.

Big South Fork NRRA - Four park rangers from visitor services represented the park in the annual Jamestown Rotary Club Christmas parade on Saturday, December 3rd.

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The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced with the support of the Office of the Assistant Director for Information Resources and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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