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SOUTH JORDAN — Search crews are organizing one last big push in an effort to find 66-year-old Ray Humpherys who’s been missing since Wednesday night in the Uintas.
His family isn’t giving up hope that he’s alive and they hope volunteers aren’t either.
Photo, after photo, after photo show the two things Humpherys loves most: the mountains and his family.
“He is very, extremely outdoorsy. He loves the wilderness. He loves the Uintas,” said his daughter, Melanie Decker. “Every picture we’ve looked at, he looks the happiest when he’s camping.”
Decker and her sister, Michelle Burnett, smile as they talk about their dad. But for them, the past several days have been torture.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” said Burnett.
Humpherys was on a traditional family campout in the Uintas near Hidden Lake. On Wednesday night, he went to get water to put out the campfire but he never returned.
“Everyone else was heading off to bed and they didn’t notice my dad didn’t come back,” said Decker.
They learned Ray was missing Thursday morning. Burnett’s husband texted her the bad news as soon as he could get word out.
“He said, ‘I just called 911. Your dad is missing. Pray hard,’” said Burnett.
Search crews and volunteers immediately jumped into action. More than a hundred people scoured the area over the weekend, despite the rugged terrain.
“They didn’t even know our dad. They didn’t even know us,” said Burnett. “There are just a lot of amazing people in the world.”
But still, there’s been no trace of Humpherys. Despite the lack of clues, his daughters are grateful for all the volunteers.
The Garrett Bardsley Foundation is organizing the volunteer effort and say Monday will be the last day volunteer searching. The group will pick up their search efforts at 8 a.m. Anyone interested in assisting can register as a volunteer on their website.
