expanding search – Authorities and volunteers kept searching Sunday for Jason Coughran, a 60-year-old hiker who vanished May 25 while trekking in Desolation Wilderness west of Lake Tahoe. Nearly 200 search and rescue personnel joined the effort by Saturday evening, including tea
For the third straight day, the search didn’t slow down—Sunday brought more boots on rough ground and more questions hanging over Desolation Wilderness west of Lake Tahoe.
Jason Coughran. a 60-year-old man described by authorities as 6 feet 2 inches tall and 150 pounds with hazel eyes and “brain hair. ” was last seen after he disappeared while hiking in the area. He went missing on May 25. when he set out on a trek last Monday into Desolation Wilderness from nearby Fallen Leaf Lake. Authorities said he was thought to have been in the vicinity of Angora Peak around 11 a.m. and that the last anyone heard from him was around that afternoon.
As days passed, the El Dorado Sheriff’s Department issued a public appeal for information about his whereabouts, urging people to come forward with anything that could help locate him.
By Saturday evening. the search effort had expanded to nearly 200 search and rescue personnel. according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. The operation included teams ferried into the area and dropped off by a massive Air National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter. About 50 of those searchers were expected to remain in the area overnight as they continued searching for Coughran.
Desolation Wilderness lies within Eldorado National Forest, about a short drive from South Lake Tahoe. The U.S. Forest Service describes the area as covering “63. 960 acres of subalpine and alpine forest. granitic peaks. and glacially-formed valleys and lakes. ” a landscape that can make finding someone who goes missing particularly difficult.
Authorities said Coughran may have been wearing khaki shorts when he disappeared.
An email to the Sheriff’s Department’s press office wasn’t immediately returned Sunday, leaving families and volunteers to wait for the next development in a search that has stretched from May 25 into a long, uncertain weekend.
Lake Tahoe hiker missing Jason Coughran Desolation Wilderness search and rescue El Dorado Sheriff’s Department CH-47 Chinook