Family, nonprofits persist in search for missing 75-year-old hiker

A multiagency effort to find a missing 75-year-old hiker has been ongoing for almost a month in the Mount Charleston area and has not slowed down.

Rock Stanley’s granddaughter Courtney Stanley said the family has been working tirelessly since he went missing Aug. 23.

“We won’t give up on him because can you imagine if he is alive and we all stopped what we were doing now and just start grieving?” Courtney Stanley said. “That would be horrible.”

Her grandfather was last seen leaving the The Retreat lodge on Kyle Canyon Road around 5 a.m. to go for a hike. Rock Stanley was wearing a yellow jacket and a white long-sleeved shirt with a Texas logo on it.

Rock Stanley had made the trip to hike Mount Charleston about 30 times and, as he had done a handful of times, he did the hike alone. He left his wife, Karen Stanley, at the lodge when he left in the morning and planned to come back later that day, according to a Facebook post from his son, Brian Stanley.

His planned hike was up the North Loop Trail to the summit and returning down via the South Loop Trail, Red Rock Search and Rescue Team Commander Craig McVeay said.

Through word of mouth, the family connected with a certified drone pilot, a nonprofit dog search group and a visual tracking expert who specializes in missing persons in the wilderness or mountains. The tracking expert has camped out on Mount Charleston to conduct searches, according to Courtney Stanley

Her brother and uncle also have traveled to Nevada to conduct searches of their own.

The family raised money to hire a drone pilot, Courtney Stanley said, but the pilot and tracker both volunteered their time. She said the money raised will go toward hiring a hiking guide who is familiar with the area and who can conduct searches off the main trails.

The Metropolitan Police Department reached out to Red Rock Search and Rescue on Aug. 24 to assist with the search. McVeay said Las Vegas police and Nevada National Guard flew helicopters and the Civil Air Patrol provided a fixed-wing aircraft to fly over the area.

Persistent searchers

McVeay said Red Rock Search and Rescue has conducted 10 searches and continues to do two or three per week. Nearly 60 volunteers have been out on searches totaling about 140 search shifts and more than 1,400 hours.

“That’s one of our character faults, with the team, is just our persistence,” McVeay said.

He said Red Rock Search and Rescue does not give up on missing person cases and has cases that have been open for four and five years.

The searches in the next couple of weeks will focus on decision points along trails where people could take a turn and end up off an established trail, McVeay said.

Mount Charleston’s elevation and topography, which includes scree and shale, create challenges for hikers and search teams. In addition, monsoonal rains have damaged trails on the mountain.

“There’s quite a few places where the damage to that trail could force you off the established trail and you could easily lose your way on a temporary trail,” McVeay said.

He advised hikers to check the weather before planning hikes during the summer months.

“When it’s that darn hot out there and if you don’t have to go, don’t,” McVeay said. “Go during a cooler part of the time of the day or look at the 10-day forecast.”

Hikers should be prepared by taking water, food and a shelter with them on hikes.

“If you’re out there somewhere and you think you’re lost and you’re going to call for help, sit down, stop moving,” McVeay said. “You make it so much harder on us to find you if you tell us ‘I’m here’ and then you keep moving.”

Canine helpers

Lori Wells, president of Search Dogs 24/7, was part of a team that searched trails on Mount Charleston on Sept. 4. Search Dogs 24/7 is nonprofit organization that assists families and law enforcement with missing person searches.

“We will go anywhere where there is a need,” said Wells, who is an active dog handler.

The team that searched for Rock Stanley included six handlers and three dogs. Two trailing dogs went out on the search and another dog came along to be on standby.

Using scent articles provided by the family, the dogs found Rock Stanley’s scent along the North Loop Trail, according to Wells. She and her dog went about 2 miles up the North Loop Trail and picked up Rock Stanley’s scent that entire distance. The scent was mainly along the trail, but her dog went off trail a couple times for short periods, which Wells said could have been spots where Rock Stanley stopped to rest.

After picking up Rock Stanley’s scent on North Loop Trail, one dog went to other areas around Mount Charleston to rule out where he had not been.

The team could not go up to Mummy Spring or Fletcher Peak and is working to schedule another search of those areas.

“It’s hard to say, but he’s up there,” Wells said.

‘One of the kindest people’

Rock Stanley was a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps serving for 36 years. He taught high school in Texas for 34 years and was a coach.

“He’s touched a lot of people’s lives in a good way. We’ve always said this: He is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet,” Courtney Stanley said. “He is definitely the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back.”

With all the rescue efforts, Courtney Stanley said she has not had much time to reflect on the tragic nature of her grandfather’s disappearance.

“I know that because there is that small chance of hope that he’s still alive, I think that’s keeping us from shutting down and starting the grieving process,” Courtney Stanley said.

In the days after Rock Stanley went missing, Courtney Stanley drove her grandmother, Karen Stanley, back to Texas from Nevada.

She described her as a rock and said that during the approximately 20-hour drive Karen Stanley did not cry once.

“One time in the hotel room she had left for a few minutes and I gave myself a second to cry and I was pulling myself together and she walks in and sees me upset and then immediately cracks a joke,” Courtney Stanley said. “She wasn’t going to let us get defeated or get sad. She’s not going to lose hope until we find him.”

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.