Search
Search teams working their way east from White Mountain toward the Rock Springs City Limits. Photo courtesy Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
|
Searchers
Search teams totaling over 120 volunteers deploying along the search’s ‘start line’ at the base of White Mountain. Once deployed, the line extended over a quarter of a mile. Photo courtesy Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
|
|
Missing Rock Springs man found
Sublette County Tip Top Search & Rescue assists in search
by Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office
Original Post December 6, 2010 | Updated December 9, 2010
Editor's Update: We have added a Findings Report from the Sublette County Sheriff's Office issued 12/9/10 indicating that the cause of death was due to injuries from a fall, and a suicide note was found at the scene. See the end of this article for the update.
____________________________________
(Rock Springs, Wyoming – December 4, 2010) The body of a missing Rock Springs man was found along the lower reaches of White Mountain Saturday morning (December 4, 2010) during an extensive search.
Sweetwater County Undersheriff Craig Jackson and County Coroner Dale Majhanovich said the body of 72-year-old Jean Baptiste Soule, a longtime Rock Springs resident and avid hiker, was found late in the morning in a draw about 1-½ miles northwest of the Rock Springs Family Recreation Center by Jason Ray of Tip Top Search and Rescue of Pinedale.
Majhanovich said an autopsy is being scheduled, after which more details concerning cause of death should be available.
During a preliminary examination, Majhanovich and Sheriff’s Office detectives noted no evidence of foul play.
Sweetwater County Undersheriff Craig Jackson said personnel from the Sheriff’s Office and Sweetwater County Search & Rescue planned, organized, and carried out the search as a joint effort.
Over 120 people volunteered for the search. Along with county deputies, Sweetwater County Search & Rescue personnel, Sweetwater County Emergency Management staff members, volunteer searchers from Tip Top Search and Rescue in Pinedale, and members of Sweetwater County Fire District #1, they gathered at the Incident Command Post set up at the Sweetwater Trap Club on the Gookin-White Mountain Road for a pre-search briefing at 8:00 AM Saturday morning. With the briefing complete, they were transported to the search area in a bus provided by Sweetwater County School District #1.
At the search "start line" at the base of White Mountain near the city’s large water tank reservoir, teams of volunteers on foot, each led by a member of Sweetwater County Search and Rescue equipped with radio equipment and a GPS, spread out in a north-to-south line over a quarter of a mile in length along the base of White Mountain and searched, moving methodically east, until they reached the city limits along Summit Drive.
"The searchers were placed only 5 to 6 yards apart," Jackson explained. "This was a true grid search, designed to minimize the chance of missing anything significant in that designated search area. In this way over half a million square yards of ground was effectively searched."
Meanwhile, mounted searchers and dog teams worked the middle and upper slopes of the mountain, while John Kochever, Milford Lockwood, and Jason Ray of Tip Top Search and Rescue of Pinedale, all specialists in high-angle rescue operations, deployed in a particularly steep area along the mountain’s lower slopes, where Rey spotted Soule’s body at the bottom of a draw.
Soule, a retired miner, was seen leaving his home at around 8:00 AM on Saturday, November 20, for his daily walk.
Soule customarily hiked White Mountain, and was believed headed in that direction.
When he had not returned home by late afternoon, his family reported him missing to the Rock Springs Police Department.
A subsequent five-day search of residential areas in Rock Springs, the slopes of White Mountain, and open areas near the Rock Springs Family Recreation Center conducted by law enforcement officers, firefighters, Sweetwater County Search & Rescue personnel with search dogs, a bloodhound from Fremont County, and many individual volunteers produced negative results. Saturday’s search was planned and set up based on a strategy of extending search parameters beyond and/or adjacent to ground already covered.
Jackson expressed his thanks to Sweetwater County Search and Rescue, Sweetwater County Fire District #1, Tip Top Search and Rescue, the Sweetwater and Sublette County Emergency Management/Department of Homeland Security Agencies, the Sweetwater Trap Club, the Sweetwater County Recreation Board, Patty Berg of Dominos’s Pizza, School District #1, and especially the 120+ volunteers who participated.
"It says a lot about the character and community spirit of Sweetwater County to have that many people come out," he said.
Officials said the investigation is continuing.
___________________________________________
Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office
Rock Springs / Green River, Wyoming
(307) 872-3870 / 922-5321
Media Release
December 9, 2010
FINDINGS ANNOUNCED IN SOULE CASE
(Rock Springs, Wyoming - December 9, 2010) County investigators have announced their findings in the death of Jean Soule [pronounced soo-lay] of Rock Springs, Sweetwater County Sheriff Rich Haskell and County Coroner Dale Majhanovich said in a joint release issued Thursday [December 9, 2010].
An autopsy was performed on December 7th. Majhanovich said cause of death was determined to be massive thoracic (chest) trauma as the result of a fall.
Soule’s body was found on December 4th along the lower reaches of White Mountain near the base of a 38-foot cliff. Authorities described the location as about 1½ miles northwest of the Rock Springs Family Recreation Center.
A suicide note was found at the scene and investigators have concluded that Soule took his own life.
The 72-year-old Soule was a retired miner and avid hiker. He was seen leaving his home around 8:00 AM on Saturday, November 20, for his daily walk. He customarily hiked White Mountain and was believed headed there.
When he did not return home, his family reported him missing to the Rock Springs Police Department. A subsequent five-day search of residential areas in Rock Springs, the slopes of White Mountain, and open areas near the Rock Springs Family Recreation Center conducted by law enforcement officers, firefighters, Sweetwater County Search & Rescue personnel with search dogs, a bloodhound from Fremont County, and many individual volunteers produced negative results.
Nearly 150 people, most of them volunteers, participated in the December 4th search, which was organized on a strategy of extending search parameters beyond and/or adjacent to ground already covered.
Point of Contact: Detective Dick Blust, Jr., Public Information Officer
(307) 922-5294 / 350-4016 / 922-5483 (fax) blustd@sweet.wy.us
|
