Author’s Missing Son Walks Out of Arizona Forest

Alex Dunne, son of best-selling author Dominick Dunne, walked out of a popular hiking area along the Arizona-Mexico border Thursday night, ending nearly a weeklong search, his father said.

The 38-year-old Dunne had been missing since last Friday, when he left his ailing mother’s home in Nogales, Ariz., to go hiking or mountain biking.

His 1980 Toyota station wagon, with the mountain bicycle inside, was found Wednesday parked near a trail head in rugged Madera Canyon in the Coronado National Forest, 45 miles south of Tucson.

Details of his return were not immediately available, but Nogales authorities reported that the San Francisco resident “just walked out of the forest.”

“He was dehydrated and tired,” said a Nogales Police Department dispatcher, adding that Alex Dunne’s condition was otherwise good.

The elder Dunne, who took a break from covering the O.J. Simpson trial when his son turned up missing, left Nogales late Thursday to meet with his son.

“We’re just ecstatic and we’re on our way out there,” he said.

Alex Dunne’s older brother, actor and director Griffin Dunne, 40, also had helped in the search.

About 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Dunne emerged from the forest at the location where his car was found. A Nogales police officer who had been guarding the car radioed the discovery, authorities said.