Fatal Angeles Forest Outing : Mountain-Climbing Lawyer Found Dead

Benjamin E. King, a Beverly Hills attorney, was a mountain-climbing devotee who had tackled the slopes of the Himalayas, the Alps and the Andes and written a book on climbing.

“For somebody who didn’t do it full time for a living, he was about as experienced as you can get,” said Cliff Meyer, one of King’s partners in a large downtown law firm. “One would have thought the Angeles National Forest would have been a piece of cake.”

But on Wednesday morning, in a steep, slippery, nearly inaccessible area of the forest called Strawberry Peak, 5,000 feet above Los Angeles, members of a 50-man search-and-rescue team found the 56-year-old King’s body.

Missing at Dinner

They had been looking for him since he failed to keep a dinner appointment at his mother’s home after a planned Sunday hike.

According to sheriff’s deputies and Meyer, King was going to sandwich his climb in the forest, about 15 miles north of downtown, between a morning telecast of a Rams game and dinner at his mother’s.

“When you include travel time, he couldn’t have been planning on going very far,” Meyer said.

King’s car was located Monday. On Tuesday, members of more than half a dozen search-and-rescue teams from China Lake to San Diego combed the area before spotting a backpack from a helicopter. On Wednesday, 26 searchers were airlifted to Strawberry Peak. Less than two hours later, 350 feet from the backpack, they found King.

Autopsy Scheduled

There were no signs of foul play. An autopsy will be performed by the county coroner’s office.

Sgt. Santo Marino, who coordinates the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station’s search-and-rescue team, said the area where King was found is “treacherous” because of its angles and slippery shale-composition rock surfaces. “The normal person that is going hiking, and even someone with expertise, would not venture into that area without someone with him,” Marino said.

King was a senior partner with Buchalter, Nemer, Fields, Chrystie & Younger. Younger is former state Atty. Gen. Evelle Younger. King had been a member for 22 years and specialized in business litigation.