After looking for the missing hiker in the deep woods for some 32 hours, the searchers had to admit that chances of finding the 74-year-old father and retired insurance executive alive appeared to be approaching zero.
About 60 people were on the ground looking. It was 5:30 p.m. and about to get dark in an hour, meaning the search was getting desperate. Not a single reliable trace of the 5-foot-7, 195-pound outdoorsman had been identified.