Possible Fosset items found in California

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A hiker in rugged eastern California found items possibly belonging to millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished on a solo flight more than a year ago, authorities said today.  view map

The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found a Federal Aviation Administration identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1005 in cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday.

"It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs," Morrow said. "My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker's stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever."

After unsuccessfully trying to reach Fossett's family, Morrow said he turned the items in to local police Wednesday.

"We have some ID that has the name Steve Fossett," Mammoth Lakes police Investigator Crystal Schafer said. "They were turned in to us and are in our possession."

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. Fossett was declared legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles.

The area where the possible ID was found is outside of the 20,000-square-mile search area that the Nevada National Guard, the state's Civil Air Patrol and other Nevada groups checked last fall for Fossett. Two mountain climbing groups this summer also looked for Fossett's remains in the same area — at least 50 miles east of Mineral Peak.

The search cost the state of Nevada $1.6 million.

Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford said he is sending two officers to assist authorities in Madera County, Calif. A Nevada Division of Emergency Management worker also has been sent there.

Sanford said he is pleased that the remains of Fossett may be found. But he said the remote Sierra Nevada peak was considered outside the area where they had been told Fossett would be flying. Sanford said Fossett had been thought to be flying along U.S. Highway 395, not higher in the mountains on the west side of the Sierra.

Dan Burns, a spokesman for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, said the state has not been asked at this point to send people to help search for Fossett.

Morrow, 43, who works in a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, said he initially didn't know who Fossett was. It wasn't until he showed the items to co-workers the next day that one of them recognized Fossett's name.

Morrow said he consulted local attorney David Baumwohl, and they initially tried to contact the Fossett family but were unable to get through to their lawyers.

"We figured if it was us, we'd want to know first. We wouldn't want to learn from the news," Baumwohl said.

Michael LoVallo, a lawyer for Fossett's wife, Peggy, said Wednesday: "We are aware of the reports and are trying to verify the information."

Morrow said he returned to the scene with a friend the next day to search further and did not find any airplane wreckage or human remains. They did find a black Nautica pullover fleece, size XL, in the same area, but he said he wasn't sure if the items were related.

Fossett took off from Hilton's Flying M Ranch, about 80 miles southeast of Reno. Mammoth Lakes, about 140 miles southeast of Reno, is at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. Peaks in the area top 13,000 feet.

Searches in recent months for signs of Fossett had been concentrated in two areas about 50 miles apart - one in California about 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes and another in Nevada near Walker Lake about 80 miles northeast of Mammoth Lakes.

One of Fossett's friends reacted to Wednesday's news with cautious optimism.

If the belongings turn out to be authentic, then that could help narrow the search area for possible wreckage, said Ray Arvidson, a scientist at Washington University, who worked on Fossett's past balloon flights.

"It would be nice to get closure," Arvidson said.

A self-made millionaire, Fossett founded the investment firms Marathon Securities and Lakota Trading.

After making his fortune, he turned his attention to a seemingly nonstop pursuit of adventure, swimming the English Channel, competing in an Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race, climbing the world's most challenging mountains and becoming the first person to circumnavigate the world in a balloon. In 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without stopping or refueling, covering 23,000 miles in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer jet.