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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/04/SEARCH.TMP
12-03) 22:17 PST -- The last known person to interact with the missing Kim family of San Francisco said Sunday night that she remembers seeing four happy travelers finishing their dinner in an Oregon highway restaurant and departing for a late night drive in the rain.
"They were sitting in the booth, and they looked very happy,'' said Karen Smith, who on the evening of Nov. 25 dined in the Denny's restaurant in Roseburg, in southwest Oregon. "Their child was cute. They got up to leave, the dad paid the bill and I told the mom how cute their child was.''
On Sunday night, Smith was back in the same restaurant, where she recalled meeting the family exactly eight days earlier.
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Smith said the family left the restaurant about 9 p.m.
"I didn't ask them where they were going,'' Smith said. "I didn't want to pry into their business. But it was very late to start a long drive.''
According to authorities, the Kims were heading for Gold Beach, a town on the coast on the other side of the Coast Range, where they had a hotel reservation. The family was apparently setting off on a drive of 135 miles on winding two-lane roads in cold and rainy weather, over roads that might have received a dusting of snow. They had called the hotel to tell them they were running late, and to request that a key be left for them. They never arrived.
Smith said she has often driven over Highway 42, the road that connects Roseburg with Coos Bay on the coast, and that it's hazardous.
"It's tricky to drive, even during daylight,'' she said. "But that night it was cold, black and rainy."
A waitress at the restaurant also recalled seeing the family, and told a colleague that she "kind of feels responsible'' for not questioning the family about its travel plans or advising them about the long, remote drive that they apparently intended to make.
About 40 personnel from various law enforcement agencies in Oregon searched for any trace of the family Sunday from the ground and air in southwest Oregon. The air search was to be suspended at darkness but ground crews expected to continue the search into the evening, according to Oregon state police.
Police in Oregon also said family members have hired private resources, including helicopters, to assist in the search.
All possible routes -- and remote area roads are being checked, according to Oregon state police, who describe some of the roads as narrow and curvy with steep bordering embankments. Some roads are near 4,000 feet in elevation and some sections have about 6 inches of frozen snow. Sno-Cats are being used in those areas.