With Bad Weather Coming, Searchers Desperate to Find Missing Professor

Some 100 miles of wilderness in the Willamette National Forest has been CLOSED to the public due to the search.

Photo: uoregon.edu

(McKENZIE BRIDGE, Ore.) - The air and ground search for a University of Oregon professor missing since Sunday will get back underway this morning with a sense of urgency with bad weather expected for the area over the next few days. Even some of Daming Xu's colleagues joined the search effort yesterday.

Searchers on the ground and in the air have searched miles and miles of wilderness in the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Eugene for the 63-year-old, who went missing after telling friends he was going on a day hike. He is believed to be without warm clothing, food, water or a cell phone.

An overnight search by a National Guard Helicopter equipped with infrared technology found no signs of Xu.

Lane County Sheriff Russell Berger says some hikers came forward on Tuesday, saying they saw Xu Sunday near the Ollalie Summit. They said he may have been carrying a backpack. The mathematics and statistics professor's car was discovered at a trailhead also on Tuesday.

Xu’s daughter, Xin Xu of Portland, says her parents enjoy hiking together on weekends, but that her mother had to work Sunday, so Xu went alone on a longer-than-usual route.

There were 26 searchers involved in the ground search including six on horseback. Two helicopters were also used during yesterday's search. Members of the Benton and Deschutes county sheriff’s offices, the U.S. Forest Service, the Civil Air Patrol and Eugene police are helping in the search.

The National Weather Service says rain, and strong winds are expected to arrive later today, and stay in the area through Veteran's Day.

Story continues below

Some 100 miles of wilderness in the Willamette National Forest has been CLOSED to the public due to the search. The areas south of Separation Creek, bounded by the 1993 and 1900 road on the north and west, and east to the Cascade Lakes Highway on the Deschutes National Forest. The above locations in the French Pete Addition and also the Three Sisters Wilderness are described by the legal of Township 18 South, Ranges 5, 6, 7, and 8 East.

Hunters and hikers are asked to keep their eyes open and be aware of the operations and the missing individual.

Xu is described as 5-foot 8-inches tall and 155 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lane County Sheriff’s Dispatch at 541-682-4141.

Salem-News.com will have more on this story as soon as it becomes available.