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Article published Aug 29, 2008 Searchers battle fog, rain; still no clues in Happy Valley man's disappearance
By Mark Boxley of The Daily Times Staff
A dense fog and a third day of rain greeted volunteers as they converged on the Look Rock parking area Thursday to continue the search for a missing Happy Valley man.
Like Wednesday, about 50 volunteers showed up at about 8 a.m. ready to head into the thickly wooded area around the only clue in the disappearance of 51-year-old Michael Hearon: An abandoned ATV found about a mile from his Bell Branch Road residence.
A neighbor told law enforcement officials they saw Hearon riding the ATV on Saturday, which was the last time anyone saw him. He was reported missing on Monday by family members, and officials and volunteers have been searching his 100-acre property and the surrounding area ever since.
And while it has been cold and wet, and the terrain has been steep and rough, volunteers have kept coming back day after day to carry on.
U.S. Park Ranger Jamie Sanders was preparing to take a group of eight people to an area around a cave Hearon reportedly frequented. Searchers had explored the cave and didn't think the man was inside, but decided to search the area around it.
"It is a really rocky kind of area, so it's possible that if he did go to the cave and was hiking around up there, that he could have slipped and fell on one of those rocks," Sanders told the group. "So because of that, we're going to go and really do a good little grid area around that cave."
She explained that the volunteers had to work hard to keep a line straight and tight to make the search work.
"Because if we stay tight, and stay in a line and move as one group, then I can say that yes, it was a very tight group, we didn't miss any land we covered that land 90 percent, let's move on," she said. "If I give something like, we got all teeter-tottered and got lost and stuff like that, then they're going to be like, 'OK, so you got 50 percent coverage on that,' and then they're going to have to have people go in and do it again.
"So ultimately we're trying to be as efficient as possible so we can get as much land (covered) as possible."
Communication key
Sanders drove the group to the area around the cave and hiked in with them to the search area. She said that communication was key, and that if anyone saw anything suspicious at all, they needed to yell it out. But do not touch it, she said.
"We think the highest probability is he's fallen, hit his head, had a heart attack, whatever," she said. "But just in case there's any foul play, we want to make sure we can preserve that scene if there is something.
"So ultimately we're going to treat it as if it is a crime scene even though it's highly (likely it is) just an accident site," she said. "But if you do see anything suspicious at all that looks like it could be in reference to (Hearon's disappearance), I'm not talking about litter, I'm talking about a bloody shirt or something like that ... call it out, let's flag it, point it, let somebody know. But just don't touch it."
The area was wet throughout, and when volunteers weren't pulling themselves up slippery embankments, they were trying to keep from sliding down steep, muddy ravines. Periodically someone would call out "hold up" or "we're moving," as the line was kept straight and in check while individuals navigated obstacles like boulders, fallen trees and streams.
But at the end of the day, searchers came up empty-handed, again. Aside from the ATV, there was no evidence that could suggest what happened to Hearon.
Helicopter search next
Blount County Sheriff James Berrong said Thursday that his office would be working with the Knox County Sheriff's Office today to use a Knox County helicopter for an aerial search. Five cadaver dogs were also brought in from North Carolina to help investigators, and divers with the Blount Special Operations Response Team were searching bodies of water in the area.
According to earlier information from authorities, Hearon left his primary residence in Maryville at 10 a.m. Saturday with plans to visit his 100-acre Happy Valley property.
His parents, who generally hear from him daily, were alarmed when they had not heard from him by Sunday. They contacted other family members, who began calling other friends in an attempt to find him.
Some of his family members drove to his Happy Valley property, which adjoins Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to look for him. When they still had not heard from him by Monday at 5:30 p.m., they called law enforcement authorities.
Sanders said she received the first call from the family on the disappearance and took the initial report, before the case was turned over to the Blount County Sheriff's Office.
Curiosity and speculation were thick in the air Thursday among the volunteers, with discussions about Hearon and his possible fate taking place during almost every break. The possibility of foul play was one of the considerations, but authorities say there just is not evidence that points either way.
Nothing has been found to support foul play as a factor in Hearon's disappearance, but there is nothing that rules it out, either, Berrong said.
The search will continue today.
Anyone with information that could assist in locating Hearon should immediately call the Blount County Sheriff's Office 24-hour hot line at 273-5200.