BREA : Oregon Park Officials Still Seek O.C. Man

Officials at a national park in Oregon said Thursday that they are still searching for the body of a Brea mechanical engineer who disappeared while visiting a snowy, mountainous park last fall.

Jill Stahlnecker, spokeswoman for Crater Lake National Park, said that just last week a helicopter flew over the park in a futile search for Glenn Allen Mackie, 33, who vanished Oct. 23.

“We’ve also sent boats out onto the lake recently to look,” she said. “There is talk that someone might have to rappel down some of the mountainsides and look at some of the thickly weeded areas.”

Mackie was taking a car tour of national parks in the West by himself when he disappeared. His car was found in the parking lot of a 7,100-foot-elevation viewing area shortly after a sudden heavy snowstorm hit the mountain. A five-day search ensued, using as many as three dogs and 40 people on the ground, but he was not found.

Officials speculated he was buried in the snow and said that his body would probably appear when the snow melted this summer. They said there was no indication that he had left the area.

Stahlnecker said almost all of the park’s snow has now melted.

“We’ll keep looking periodically, but it’s also possible that he’ll be found by a hiker one day,” Stahlnecker said.