Wilderness search intensifies for missing father

Story Highlights

• NEW: Helicopter with heat-sensitive sensors joins search for James Kim
• Kati Kim, daughters rescued Monday after she signals helicopter with umbrella
• Family ran car, burned tires to keep warm; father ate berries, mother nursed kids
• James Kim walked into Oregon wilderness to seek help Saturday morning

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GRANTS PASS, Oregon (AP) -- Searchers scoured a narrow canyon in Oregon's snowy Coast Range on Tuesday for a man missing for more than a week in the rugged area while his wife and two young children, rescued Monday, recovered in a hospital.

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.

Trackers had followed his footprints until dark Monday night.

Officials said it appeared that Kim was within five miles of the car he'd left Saturday morning in search of help. (Watch where searchers are focusing )

Trackers said he had headed downhill and apparently walked out of an area covered with snow. The trackers "were following scuff marks" in dirt and rock, said Under sheriff Brian Anderson of Josephine County.

The rugged, narrow canyon Kim followed headed for the nearby Rogue River, and the search and rescue teams brought out rafts Tuesday to check the river.

Kim, a senior editor for NET Networks, left his wife and two young children in their frozen, snowbound car and set off into the wilderness Saturday morning to seek help. He was wearing only tennis shoes, a sweater and a jacket.

Anderson said Kim took two lighters with him when he left the car. "Maybe he got a fire going," he said at a news conference.

Overnight temperatures in the region have been in 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.

They were in very good condition Tuesday and Sabine was expected to be released from the hospital, said Linda Rankin, vice president for patient care at Three Rivers Community Hospital.

Kati Kim might lose one toe because of the cold, her father, Dr. Phil Fleming, said. He added that his daughter breast-fed the two 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 often time wonder how difficult that is," said Fleming, of Gallup, New Mexico. "But take a whole family and subject two kids to it -- it's just unbearable."

The family said James Kim left the car stuck in the snow in southwestern Oregon at about 7:45 a.m. Saturday and walked back the way they had come to look for help, saying he would return by 1 p.m. if he found none.

His family said he had outdoor experience, and State Police Lt. Doug Ladd said there was "a very reasonable chance" that he is still alive. They said he had eaten berries in the area and didn't know if they were poisonous.

Before he left, the four huddled together as a family 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 a vain 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.

Searchers said the key to their discovery was a "ping" signal from the Kims' cell phone, even though the remote region is generally out of cell phone range.

The family saw friends in Portland on November 25 and then headed toward home after a Thanksgiving trip to the Pacific Northwest. They were last spotted at a restaurant that same day, then never arrived at a lodge where they had reservations.

Authorities combed highways and byways using snow machines and helicopters, and checked hotels and resorts along the south coast.

State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said Kati Kim told a detective the family intended to take Oregon 42, the usual route from Interstate 5 to the south Oregon coast, but they missed the turnoff, found Bear Camp Road on the map and decided to take it instead of turning back. Their car was found 15 miles from Bear Camp Road.

The complicated network of roads in the area is commonly used by whitewater rafters on the Rogue River or as shortcuts to Gold Beach in the summer, but the roads are not plowed in winter.

As a senior editor for CNET in San Francisco, James Kim covers digital audio and co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadgets blog on CNET. The couple also own two boutiques in San Francisco.

"We are extremely relieved that they have found Kati and the kids," said Sarah Cain, spokeswoman for CNET Networks Inc. "We are cautiously optimistic and hopeful that it will bring more good news about James and his family."

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