Two Portland men who had been looking for Sasquatch were found dead in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington Saturday.
A family member reported the two men missing around 1am Christmas Day after they didn’t return on Christmas Eve as expected, according to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.
More than 60 volunteers helped look for the men, and the Coast Guard sent a helicopter.
The men, ages 59 and 37, were found dead Saturday in a wooded area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. They appeared to have died from exposure, the sheriff’s office said, “based on weather conditions and ill-preparedness.”
Hours after the exhaustive search was over, nearly all of the Search and Rescue team’s rescue equipment was stolen.
Skamania County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue is now asking for public donations on GoFundMe and Facebook to help restock the vital supplies, which have been used to save multiple lives within the past few months. As of Monday morning, the search and rescue organization has raised more than $12,000 to restock its supplies.
“While we are proudly affiliated with the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, our search and rescue organization is a completely independent nonprofit,” the rescue team wrote on its GoFundMe page. “We receive no funding from federal, state, or local governments. Every piece of equipment, every training and every mission is made possible by generous donations from supporters like you. All of our rescuers are 100% volunteers with no paid staff.”
The theft occurred on the same night the search for the missing Sasquatch hunter’s bodies were recovered from the forest, the rescue team said. The thieves cut through fencing, broke into the team’s storage trailer and made off with nearly every piece of rescue equipment inside.
“On the evening of the final night of the mission, while our fatigued volunteers were finally resting at home, thieves broke into our storage yard,” Skamania County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue said. “They cut through a 10-foot barbed wire fence and stole nearly everything not bolted down from our equipment trailers.”