QUILCENE — About 50 people from agencies in four counties continued to search for a 76-year-old Port Orchard man Wednesday afternoon in Olympic National Forest near Quilcene.
Cecil Socrates Mann left his home Saturday on what his family thought was a one-day fishing trip.
When he failed to return that day, the family contacted the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Tony Hernandez.
A flier distributed by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said Mann “has medical issues and has never been gone overnight before.”
Law enforcement officers attempted to call his cellphone, but it was turned off, said Keppie Keplinger, spokeswoman with the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management, who added that the investigation in Kitsap County began Sunday.
Records showed that the last call on the cellphone originated from the Quilcene area.
The search was focused on the Tunnel Creek Trail area Tuesday afternoon after Mann’s 2007 Ford Focus was found wrecked on an unpaved road leading to the trail, which is in the Olympic National Forest west of Quilcene, Hernandez said.
Crews continued the search through the night Tuesday, with the county Department of Emergency Management operating a communications van outside of the Forest Service headquarters in Quilcene.
On Wednesday, searchers from Jefferson, Clallam, Kitsap and King counties — along with Border Patrol agents — were crisscrossing the area, which is just south of the Clallam County line, Keplinger said.
Two helicopters — one from the Border Patrol and another from King County — were involved in the search.
Joe Nole, chief criminal deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, was leading search efforts on the ground, Hernandez said.
Mann’s birthday is Oct. 12. He was born in 1935.
Keplinger said many of the searchers are volunteers. “When an older person goes missing, it raises the red flag,” she said.
“If you get more people out there searching, it increases the chance of success.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
