By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS — A Lane County Sheriff’s search team Saturday was unable to find a 45-year-old Yachats man who has been missing since late July after bringing in specially-trained dogs for the second time.
Two “human remains detection” dogs, their handlers and 20 volunteers worked the Keller Creek Road area on the east side of Cape Perpetua where Dustin Steyding’s truck was found in early September.
Steyding left a home remodeling job in Yachats on July 22, his family reported him missing Aug. 25, and a friend found his truck Sept. 4.
It was the Lane County team’s fourth day of searching in the area. It searched the area Sept. 5-6 and first brought in dogs Sept. 9.
The Lane County Sheriff’s office is heading up the ground search because the truck was found in the very northern part of that county. Keller Creek Road takes off from Yachats River Road 10 miles east of Yachats.
While the search had no success Saturday, sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Tom Speldrich told YachatsNews on Monday that “This is still an active case and further searching is likely to take place soon.”
Steyding’s disappearance has stumped searchers and his friends and family.
Stedying was helping remodel a house in Yachats when he left mid-day July 22 and didn’t return. After weeks of trying to reach him, a brother who lives in Mapleton filed a missing persons report Aug. 25 with the Lincoln County sheriff.
On Sept. 4, a Yachats friend who was driving Forest Service roads looking for Steyding found his 1994 Ford F250 about a mile up Keller Creek Road, south of the intersection of Yachats River Road and Forest Service Road 5590 in Lane County.
The Lane County search and rescue team combed the area Sept. 5-6 but found no clues to Steyding’s whereabouts.
Steyding’s keys and cell phone were in the truck, McGuire said, and there was no sign of a struggle, break-in or that he jumped into another vehicle.
“There’s nothing to indicate he’s with someone,” McGuire said.
The area has no trails, is thick with underbrush and there are steep and dangerous ravines, according to McGuire and friends who have searched for him.
Steyding is in good physical condition, worked years as a Forest Service Hotshot firefighter, is experienced in the woods and commonly goes out for hikes or runs in the forest to stay in shape, friends and McGuire said.
“There’s not really any trails in that area, it’s extremely dense with a lot of underbrush and a lot of it is very steep,” McGuire said. “But he has experience as a Hotshot and they’re used to going off into the brush. He would go into the woods for a day with nothing.”
McGuire has used his thermal imaging drone to scan the area, but the tree canopy and thick underbrush prevented him from seeing much.
On Sept. 9, McGuire said, three “human remains detection” dogs from Lane County and two that Lincoln County requested from a regional search group worked the area with their handlers and “flankers” who walk nearby searching for clues.
McGuire said the Lane County search team would return with their dogs Saturday, Sept. 16 to re-check a couple of areas. “There’s some areas they want to go in and hit again,” he said.
But McGuire said the chances of finding Steyding alive after seven weeks in the woods is slim.
“We are unfortunately assuming the worst and that he’s deceased,” he told YachatsNews.
The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information on Steyding’s whereabouts to call them at 541-265-0777 and reference case number 23S-07321.
I have been riding my bicycle up and down Kellar Creek Road this summer and called the Forest Service in August about a blue Ford truck with New Mexico plates that was always parked up the road about a mile. Don’t understand why it took until Sept. 7 to begin searching for this missing person. Did his truck have New Mexico plates?
Stan – Oh my gosh, it seems like the police should have been alerted of this information somehow as soon as the missing persons report was filed. That is sad and awful.
Yes, it did have New Mexico plates. There is a photo of it in the previous article published about Dustin last week.
Do you recall when you called the forest service and for how long you saw the truck there prior to that? I’m trying to understand how long his truck was there exactly. I really hope the police are investigating other possibilities, since there is apparently no evidence that he went into the woods. Maybe somebody put his truck there.
To answer your question, Dusty’s friends and family were not aware of his disappearance from work/home and so nobody was looking for him for way too long. After his brother came to Yachats looking and spoke to Dusty’s employer and realized he’d left and not returned, and that he’d left all of his belongings there (he also lived in the house he was remodeling), he immediately reported Dusty as missing. There was no media release or missing person’s post on social media and the public wasn’t made aware of Dusty‘s disappearance after the missing persons report was initially filed. I am not positive, but maybe because with his truck being gone, they wondered if maybe he left to go on a trip or something. News eventually trickled through town and through Dusty’s social circles by word-of-mouth, and on 9/4 after hearing that he was missing, one of Dusty‘s friends realized she had seen his truck up there on 9/2. At the time, she hadn’t thought anything of it because she didn’t know he was missing. Another friend drove up that day and verified it. The next day was the first search.
Thank you for commenting here about having seen his truck and reporting it. There are a lot of lessons to be learned in Dusty‘s disappearance.
Seems to me they are often found around two miles from the last known location, if they are found at all. 1 to 2 miles.