Missing Clergyman Found in Forest in San Diego County

A pastor who disappeared hours before he was to deliver his Sunday sermon was found alive and well in the snow-capped hills of San Diego County on Wednesday, explaining to searchers that he felt overwhelmed by life and had decided to get away.

The Rev. Ron Dybvig, 55, of Ventura said he drove to Cleveland National Forest early Sunday and decided to hike in an effort to clear his head, said San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Curry. Temperatures at the time were subfreezing, he said.

“I think he had just overdone it,” Curry said. “He had been taking care of others for a long time and it got to the point where he hadn’t taken care of himself.”

Dybvig survived two days without food or water, spending nights under a clump of bushes with only a light jacket to protect him from a steady snowfall. He finally decided to return to civilization Wednesday. A group of teachers at a nearby youth camp discovered the wandering Dybvig and led him to a neighboring ranger station.

Aside from swollen feet caused by hours of walking in the snow with wet canvas shoes, Dybvig was in good condition, authorities said.

“He was dazed,” Curry said. “But, frankly, we were surprised with the shape he was in. We were not very confident he would be in very good shape at all.”

Dybvig was treated for frostbite to his toes at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa near San Diego, said Claude LeMond, a church council member and family friend.

Dybvig was being kept at the hospital overnight for observation, he said.

LeMond drove Dybvig’s wife, the couple’s 15-year-old son and another couple to San Diego on Wednesday to visit Dybvig in the hospital, he said.

LeMond said it was an emotional reunion when Dybvig saw his family.

“They were holding on to each other and they were trying not to cry,” he said.

Searchers had been looking for Dybvig in the area after his car was found abandoned Tuesday.

Parishioners at Santa Paula’s Emmanuel Lutheran Church, who had been praying for Dybvig since his disappearance, called his safe return proof that prayer works. The group had held a vigil Tuesday night attended by about half of the church’s 100 members and a few of the county’s neighboring pastors.

“As cold as it was, if he was really out there for several nights, I don’t think he would have lasted except for the grace of God,” church member Penny Terry said. “A lot of our faith really has been invigorated.”

Dybvig’s wife told authorities that she last heard her husband as he bustled about their Balboa Street home early Sunday. She heard the front door close about 6:30 a.m. and assumed that he would be at church when she arrived for the morning service. But he never got there.

Tuesday morning, an employee of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park found the pastor’s white 1998 Mercury Tracer parked near Paso Picacho Campground. A thick blanket of snow covered the car, indicating that it had been there for more than 24 hours, authorities said.

More than 65 people--including the sheriff’s search-and-rescue team, volunteers and members of the U. S. Border Patrol--combed the area until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Search efforts were hampered, however, because of the rough terrain and snowfall.

Dybvig was spotted about 9 a.m. Wednesday when he wandered toward the youth camp.

Park rangers contacted sheriff’s officials, who wrapped a blanket around the wet and shivering Dybvig, handed him a cup of coffee and then listened as the pastor explained why he disappeared so abruptly, Curry said.

“He was despondent, just overwhelmed by life in general, I guess,” Curry said. “He didn’t say he came down to kill himself or anything. He just said he came down to get away from it.”

Dybvig told authorities that he first wanted to drive to the Anza-Borrego Desert to hike. But after calling the area and learning that he needed a permit to walk the trails, he decided to head for Cleveland National Forest.

After parking his car, he wandered over the snow-covered grounds until it got dark, he told authorities. He slept curled under a clump of bushes, and used a layer of leaves and his lightweight jacket to stay warm.

“He just laid under that tree and contemplated for two days,” Curry said.

By Wednesday morning, exhausted and cold, he decided to return to his car. But he headed in the wrong direction. Eventually, the teachers found him.

When parishioners learned that their pastor--the man they turned to for spiritual and emotional guidance--felt driven away by problems of his own, they were quick to rally to him.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Terry said. “He obviously needs us right now. Of course, our prayers now are going to have to be for wisdom.”

Terry and others said they understand that pastors carry a heavy burden because they are the ones who are expected to tend to everybody else’s problems. It is a heavy responsibility, they added.

“I can’t speak for his emotional condition, but I know pastors are stressed all the time,” church member Crystal Rupp said. “They carry so much and they can’t even share it with anyone. But he is a strong man, and he will come back into full capacity again.”

No one could say for certain why Dybvig might be depressed. Some speculated that he was upset over the number of times his church was forced to move--four times in the past year, the latest time in December after the building the group had been renting was sold. The church now shares a building with Trinity Lutheran Church in Santa Paula.

“He had been more down about the prospect of losing the church and not finding a place than we had realized,” LeMond said late Wednesday.

The church will be allowed to stay at its present location in Santa Paula until another site can be found, he said.

“They had been bounced around a little bit,” said John Huffman, pastor of Ventura’s South Coast Fellowship and a friend of Dybvig said: “And the growth hadn’t been exactly what he wanted. But I think his desire never was growth as much as it was to touch people. We’re all so grateful he is OK.”

Sunday’s services at Emmanuel will go on as scheduled, with Bishop Paul Egertson delivering the morning message.

LeMond said Dybvig can take time off from his post if he opts to, but can also return whenever he feels ready.

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Times Community News reporters Anna Gorman and Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this story.