OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — An underwater camera will be added to the tools searchers use today as they continue looking for a 47-year-old state official who disappeared during a day hike on June 24.
“We were out again today, but found nothing thus far,”‘ said Olympic National Park spokeswoman Cat Hoffman on Monday.
The search began eight days ago, sprawling out from where Gilbert Gilman, the deputy director of the state Department of Retirement Systems, was last seen.
A ranger saw him park at the Staircase Ranger Station in the southeast corner of Olympic National Park.
Today’s search plan includes adding four to six people from Thurston County Search and Rescue trained in swift water rescue, Hoffman said.
They will use an underwater camera to check the North Fork of the Skokomish River.
No clues to Gilman’s whereabouts have been found, either through the search or through a missing person profile.
The missing person profile includes searches of the person’s vehicle, place of employment and other areas.
It includes interviews with family, friends and co-workers regarding such factors as personality, mental state, substance abuse, potential family problems, fitness level and wilderness experience.
“The profile hasn’t turned up anything,” said Hoffman. “We have nothing to go on.”
Hoffman said the search dogs, using a scent article retrieved from Gilman’s car, searched new areas of the park but still found no clues.
Monday’s effort involved 44 searchers and another 15 people getting food and other supplies and organizing maps and other information, she said.
