Posted on 11/30/2006 7:34:44 PM PST by rit
NET senior editor James Kim and his family are missing.
The 36-year-old Kim, his wife Kati, and daughters Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months) left their home in San Francisco last week on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They were last seen on Saturday, November 25, in Seattle, according to the San Francisco Police Department, which has opened a missing persons' investigation. They were driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with California personalized plates of "DOESF."
Those with information about the Kim family's whereabouts are asked to contact the SFPD immediately--at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and at 415-553-1071 after-hours. The Portland Police Department can be reached at 503-823-4000.
Aha! Turns out they didn't leave from SF, as the articles said. They were *already* in Seattle for Thanksgiving and had left from there to go back home to SF.
That missing puzzle piece was just found in the SF Chronicle. Snippets with repeat info taken out:
~~~~~~
" ... "It is really unusual for them not to call,'' said Ryan Lee, a longtime friend who had brunch with the family Saturday in Portland. "I don't want to let myself think that they are hurt. Apparently, I was the last person who knows them to see them, which is freaky.''
The Kims told Lee that they planned to stop by a clothing boutique in Portland, then drive to Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast. They told him they had a hotel reservation there for Saturday night, Lee said.
"That was the last I heard from them,'' he said.
.....
James Kim, 35, a senior editor at CNET, lives with his wife and daughters in Noe Valley. The couple owns two small stores in San Francisco -- Doe, a clothing store on lower Haight Street, and the Church Street Apothecary in Noe Valley which sells baby goods and organic skincare potions.
Eva Kim, James' sister in San Francisco, said she last spoke to the family the day before Thanksgiving.
She said the family spent Thanksgiving night in Seattle with James' uncle and aunt, Clint and June Youn.
"We had a turkey dinner, everybody was happy,'' said Clint Youn by phone Thursday night. "I'm very worried, but I'm waiting for good news. I hope nothing happened.''
Two days later, the family met with Ryan for brunch in Portland.
"I hadn't seen them in about a year, so we had a lot to catch up on,'' said Lee, a customer support representative who moved to Portland from San Francisco two years ago. "We sat around and ate brunch and played with the kids...Everything was fine. They seemed happy, they talked about someday moving to Portland, getting a change from San Francisco.''
Back in San Francisco, Charlene Wright, an employee of the Apothecary store who was housesitting for the Kims expected to hear from them on Monday.
"Normally when Kati is out of town, she calls the store five or more times a day,'' said Wright. "But she didn't call'' on Monday.
By Tuesday, Wright began to worry, and on Wednesday morning, she filed a missing person's report.
Wright said that authorities have told her that the last outgoing calls from the Kims' cell phone was on Saturday around 2 p.m.
"Everyone has a theory ranging from the not-positive to the overly optimistic,'' said Wright. "The prevailing theory is that they got caught in bad weather and can't phone.'' ..."
~~~~~~
They went missing somewhere between Portland and Gold Beach, after brunch on Saturday.
OK, the last call from their cell phone was at 2 PM on Saturday.
However, the Gold Beach hotel heard from them at 5:45 PM, which means they (or someone) called from a different phone.
We don't know where they were at 2PM, but the police do. (Like had they left Portland, and if so, how far from there were they and was it on the way to Gold Beach?)
And we don't know where they called the hotel from almost 4 hours later or why they thought they'd be so late arriving (or if it was even them calling). I wonder if their Portland friend knows which boutique they were going to visit there after leaving him, and whether police have contacted that shop to see if the Kims made it there.
Also wonder if there's any chance the hotel recorded the call at 5:45 PM.
For the Oregon ping list...
Leo Laporte's blog entry re. the missing Kim family: http://leoville.vox.com/library/post/missing-techtver.html
Makes them look like the perfect couple in a way, successful, with kids, take time for themselves with the kids...doing it right.
Darling family. I'm not plugged into the places others here are, so didn't know who he was. Everything I know is on this thread.
Placemark for news updates.
Hopefully good news for this family.
There are several ways to get to Gold Beach from Portland. They could have driven west from Portland and picked up 101 or they could have driven south on I/5 and taken 2 or 3 different routes to the coast. Those roads are two lane and cross the Coast Range mountains.
I suspect they got a very late start and the last call was from a land line as Cell sites a almost non-existent in those regions...
In the news forum, just use the ZIP code for any state. In the other forums, it has to be added as a keyword.
bttt. Just got an e-mail alert from C/Net, I knew the FReepers would be all over this one. Fingers & toes crossed for their safe return, but I'm getting doubtful on this one...
Then again, there was a couple stuck in the Santa Cruz mountains last week that were rescued just yesterday, so ya never know.
...They're searching roads that are not well-traveled and that have been snowed in" from a weekend storm, Inspector Kim Lewis of the San Francisco Police Department's Missing Persons Unit said. Lewis said police are currently conducting a land search but that helicopters will be dispatched later Friday.
CNET's James Kim and family missing -- have you seen them?
engadget.com story
Update 2: According to Crave, officials investigating the case have narrowed their search to a stretch of Oregon's Highway 38, which is on the route that the family would most likely have taken to get to the Gold Beach motel where they had reservations.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6140118.html
This story at least indicates some tips are coming in and possible sightings, but in these cases, it's still a needle in a haystack. Let's hope they took shelter and just can't call out.
bump
probably disappeared in the snow
Thanks for the updates. Also, the zdnet story said that there *had* been a snowstorm on Saturday, as well as high winds and heavy rain.
There was lots of ice and there still is ice in the backcountry where the searches are taking place.
I'm so worried about the little baby. Reminds me of the family that got caught in the "storm of the century" that time in Utah, I think it was. I think about '92 - I was out in the same one, stranded, but in NM.
It doesn't look good, but it's not hopeless yet. I can't stand the thought of those little girls in this terrible cold, and of course the parents too. Let's hope for a miraculous rescue.
Few more new snippets in SF Examiner (first I'd seen that they actually told the hotel they were experiencing bad weather when they called about late arrival):
~~~~~
" ... As they made their way south, the Kims stopped in Portland, where they ate lunch with friends at about 2 p.m. Saturday, Wright said. That was the last anybody who knew them saw of them.
The last call from either James or Kati Kim’s cell phone went out at about 2 p.m. Saturday, Wright said, but they made several calls to the hotel in Gold Beach from land lines on Saturday afternoon, saying they would be late for their reservation due to heavy weather.
.....
Oregon state officials report neither of their credit cards have been used since Saturday.
Officials in Curry County, where Gold Beach is located, said they were using 4-by-4 trucks, a helicopter and a Sno-Cat to search an area known as Bear Camp Road that was snowed in over the weekend.
Members of the Kim family have contracted with one or more helicopter companies to fly along the major roads between Interstate 5 and U.S. Highway 101 at the coast, according to Oregon State Police. ..."
~~~~~
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.