At 3:23am on January 29th, 2019, Taos Search and Rescue was called out for a search in the Angel Fire area for a 52 year old male.
Four elk hunters had left the lodge at a private hunting camp in Mora County at 6:00am the previous day, January 28. The subject and three other hunters were in one UTV. When they got to their hunting area, the four spread out. The subject was by himself. The other hunters heard one shot, followed by a second and then a third, but not three quick, consecutive shots indicating emergency. The other hunters believed that the subject probably wounded the elk, then shot twice more. The other hunters found the elk dead, with throat cut to bleed out. The subject wasn’t with the elk. The other hunters in the party field dressed the elk, expecting the subject to show up. Around noon, when the subject didn’t return, a search was initiated.
TSAR members Gary and LJ K. responded to the initial callout, and deployed from incident base with a member of Cibola SAR at 8:30am. The team was assigned a search area to the west of the last known location of the subject, and proceeded to the search area by vehicle. The road conditions (rocky, muddy, icy and a stream crossing) necessitated high clearance four wheel drive. After driving as close as possible to the assigned area, the team proceeded on foot approximately 1/2 mile to the southeast corner of the area. Upon reaching the assigned area, the team received a phone call from IB advising them to return to base as the subject had been located.
TSAR members Kenton and Kristine responded later, but did not arrive at Incident Base before the subject was found.
As with all search and rescue incidents, Taos Search and Rescue was just one of many teams responding to this mission, and we thank our colleagues in the New Mexico SAR community for their fast and professional response to this incident.
Disclaimer: Mission Reports from Taos Search and Rescue are written from our perspective and from the accounts of our responders, and may lack detail about the entirety of the search and rescue response. Media are encouraged to contact the New Mexico State Police. For comments, corrections or questions about this report, please email [email protected].