By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press writer
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Merlin, Ore.— Searchers scouring a rugged canyon Tuesday found a pair of pants matching the description of those worn by a missing man who struck out for help after his family’s car got stuck in the snow.
A helicopter with heat-sensing equipment joined other helicopters, snowmobiles and foot patrols Tuesday in the hunt for 35-year-old James Kim of San Francisco. His wife and two daughters were found Monday after being lost for more than a week.
Searchers found the gray pants Tuesday afternoon about a mile from where Kim left the road he had been following on foot.
“It could be a sign he’s trying to indicate the path he was going,” said Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police.
The discovery also could signal that Kim suffered severe hypothermia. Dr. Jon Jui, professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, said hypothermia causes disorientation and a false sense of warmth, leading sufferers to undress.
“This is a bad sign,” he said.
Kim left the car Saturday morning wearing only tennis shoes, pants, a sweater and a jacket. Trackers followed his footprints until dark Monday.
Searchers said he had headed downhill and apparently walked out of an area covered with snow toward the Rogue River. Search-and-rescue teams checked the river with rafts Tuesday.
Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said Kim apparently wore the gray pants over a pair of jeans and took two lighters with him when he left the car. “Maybe he got a fire going,” Anderson said.
Overnight temperatures have dropped into the mid-20s to mid-30s.
A helicopter crew spotted his wife, Kati Kim, 30, waving an umbrella Monday afternoon. She and her daughters Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, were flown to a hospital in Grants Pass.
Searchers said the key to the rescue was analyzing a signal from the Kims’ cell phone, even though the remote region is generally out of cellular range.
The surviving family members were in good condition Tuesday, and Sabine was expected to be released from the hospital.
Kati Kim might lose a toe, her father, Dr. Phil Fleming, told The Associated Press on Tuesday as he and his wife awaited a flight to Oregon from Albuquerque, N.M. He said his daughter breast-fed the children to keep them nourished during the ordeal and “the children are doing extraordinarily well.”
“You think about a soldier being killed or an individual in a car accident, and you oftentimes wonder how difficult that is,” said Fleming, of Gallup, N.M. “But take a whole family and subject two kids to it _ it’s just unbearable.”
The family said James Kim left the car around 7:45 a.m. Saturday and walked back the way they had come, saying he would return by 1 p.m. if he found no help.
Before he left, the four huddled together for warmth and ran the car at night until they ran out of gas. Officials said some of the tires were burned as signal fires in an attempt to attract attention.
“They did a good job. They are in remarkable shape for spending nine days out in the wilderness in this type weather conditions,” Anderson said.
Kim’s family told rescuers he had some outdoor experience but had once eaten berries while stranded, not knowing if they were poisonous.
The family saw friends in Portland on Nov. 25 and headed toward home after a Thanksgiving trip to the Pacific Northwest.
State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said the family intended to take a highway to the south Oregon coast, but they missed the turn and took a different road.
James Kim is a senior editor who handles technology news at CNET Networks Inc. The couple also own two boutiques in San Francisco.
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© 2006 The Associated Press
Associated Press Writer Matt Mygatt in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this story.