Distraught Father Vows to Press Hunt for Missing Son, 3

The wind whipped across the boulders and through a stand of chaparral. It would be cold again come nightfall. Kevin Zwieg hugged himself and wept and spoke--in the present tense--of the young son he cannot find.

“Travis is just an all-around boy. Everybody he meets falls in love with him,” the 30-year-old father said.

Then Kevin Zwieg broke down again, sobbing hoarsely. “I’ll never quit looking for him,” he vowed. “Never.”

It has been three days since 3-year-old Travis Zwieg was last seen by his father, playing fetch with a golden retriever in the dirt yard of a family friend’s cabin. Travis knew the area around the cabin, was best friends with Baby, the dog, and--normally--never left his father’s side, friends said.

But at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, while Zwieg was fixing a chain saw, he looked up and his child was gone. At least a dozen teams of rescue workers from throughout Southern California have sought the toddler ever since, from the ground and the sky, so far in vain.

Wednesday passed, again with no trace of the sandy-haired child, last seen in a red T-shirt and blue jeans. Searchers combed the area across California 74 about a mile from the cabin, after six-inch-long footprints were found leading across the asphalt and into a ravine. But by nightfall, the prints had still yielded no sign of Travis, and various theories about his disappearance were being debunked, one by one.

The most recent theory--that he had been dragged off by a cougar--was discarded Wednesday after expert federal trackers determined that animal prints next to the child-sized footprints actually belonged to a large dog that was apparently chasing a deer.

Trackers found that the child’s footprints picked up again and ended in a stand of chaparral where it appeared a small person had sat down.

“I’m prepared for the worst,” said Zwieg, a heavy-equipment operator from nearby La Quinta.

Zwieg said he and Travis came often to the cabin in Pinyon Pines, where his friends Rick Russell and Sherry Jones live as caretakers.

Often, he said, he was also accompanied by Travis’ mother, Nancy Finley, 34, and their other children, Jessica, 4, and Corey, 4 months.

Sunday morning, Zwieg was preparing to cut firewood and Travis was playing fetch with Baby, using a worn-out doll.

A short time later, Jones came out of the cabin and asked where Travis was.

“I turned around, and there was no sign of him. I realized he was gone,” Zwieg said.

Rescuers suspended the search for Travis about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, saying there is little hope the child could have survived three nights in sub-freezing temperatures. It has rained and snowed since the child disappeared. Winds have reached 50 m.p.h. Nighttime temperatures have dropped below 20 degrees.

Inside his friend’s cabin, Zwieg said, Travis’ mother has barely slept for three nights. “She’s trying to be optimistic, but she’s really distraught.”

Her optimism is matched by Zwieg’s determination.

“I’ll find him,” Zwieg said. “I will never quit looking for my little guy. He’s my best friend.”