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Missing Wheeler In Ca/nv


RedPath88
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Please pass this around! Jay has been missing since last week. If you can, please help post this and pass this around or on other forums.

 

He was last seen driving from Boomtown nevada to Death Valley on 11/27, driving a Jeep Rubicon - black, no doors.

 

http://briancrichardson.blogspot.com/

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=844594

 

To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.

 

You can view the full announcement by following this link:

 

http://ruggedrocksoffroad.com/forum/index.php?topic=1095.0

 

Regards,

The Forum | Rugged Rocks Off Road Team.

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Sadly, he has already been found:

 

A Pleasanton, Calif., man was found dead 2.5 miles from his abandoned vehicle in the mountains around Bodie on Thursday.

 

Jay Lafontaine, 49, was reported overdue from a camping trip to Bodie and Death Valley on Dec. 2.

 

According to the Mono County Sheriff's Office, he last spoke to his wife on Nov. 27 and said he was going to spend the night in Bodie and then continue to Death Valley.

 

Pleasanton Police contacted Mono County authorities when LaFontaine didn't check in. Deputies conducted a search by vehicle at the time, but didn't locate either Lafontaine or the black Jeep Wrangler he was driving.

 

On Dec. 10 Mono searchers aided by a California Highway Patrol helicopter discovered the abandoned Jeep stuck in the snow on a U.S. Forest Service road.

 

Searchers took to snowmobiles to find Lafontaine and located his body. Authorities said he appeared to be the victim of hypothermia, but his death is still under investigation.

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Aww crap!!

 

I wonder what made him leave the vehicle, especially if it was that cold, but then a jeep without doors would only be useful if you set it on fire...

 

That's actually a joke, burning the tires alone would have alerted people and kept him warm for a while. It's all moot, we'll never really know what happened.

 

I'm sorry Jay, sleep well...

 

B

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Aww crap!!

 

I wonder what made him leave the vehicle, especially if it was that cold, but then a jeep without doors would only be useful if you set it on fire...

 

That's actually a joke, burning the tires alone would have alerted people and kept him warm for a while. It's all moot, we'll never really know what happened.

 

I'm sorry Jay, sleep well...

 

B

 

This is why doing things alone is not a good thing but if you must do things like this alone there are tools that can save your life. I met a 65 year old hiker who was hiking the PCT alone and this was his tool: SPOT. He used the "locator" to send his wife an email every night so she knew how much progress he made each day and there were several people linked to his "911" if there was an emergency and I believe "help" meant he was going to need to be picked up for a resupply.

 

http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=101

 

but $100 could have saved Jay's life.

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Not only that... but a few other basic survival tools would have helped...

 

Doors for one... but in lieu of those, survival blankets or tarps that he could have taped to the door frames to enclose the space. A candle or two (the heat output from a candle in an enclosed vehicle is enough to stave off hypothermia in the event your engine dies). A couple of canned foodstuffs and bottles of water and/or gatorade to stave off exhaustion from lack of food and water. Electronic road flares w/ extra batteries, as well as a few chemical flares.

 

Shovel perhaps?

 

Come-along?

 

Winch?

 

*sighs* I don't mean to be unsympathetic or seem grouse, but in all honesty, so little could have done so much to save this mans life...

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Not knowing EVERYTHING, I ain't gonna point fingers and say "this or this could have been done". I don't know what WAS done nor do I know if the smallist simplist task could have kept him with us. what's done is done. On that note though, my sorrow to his friends/family/loved ones, and rest in piece man...

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