Missing Couple, 911 Connection

Oregon State Police and county law enforcement officials say that a motorist witnessed the crash that killed a California couple back on June 8th, and dialed 911 to report it. However, the accident site wasn’t found by a state trooper and fire units, and the call was never linked to a massive state-wide search for the couple by public and private teams when they didn’t return home from a vacation. The couple was returning to Portland from the coast and crashed off U.S. 26, not far from the roadway, but slightly downhill and behind brush. Officials did not explain why neither the trooper, the handling dispatchers or the fire personnel didn’t recognize the description of the accident vehicle once they heard reports of the missing couple, or even if they did know about the missing couple. Officials say the couple likely died immediately, and that the nearly one-month delay in finding them didn’t contribute to their deaths. Read more about an initial response delay, and listen to the motorist’s 911 call with a definitive description here. [update]

Listen very closely to the logging tape of the phone calls and the radio dispatch. In particular, listen to the information the witness gives the Washington County dispatcher, and how much of that information is then subsequently passed along to each of the other jurisdictions. Also note the location that the State Police dispatcher gives at the very end as she reports “UTL.”

This is the third high-profile incident in the last 7 months where one or more persons went missing in rural Oregon. A California family became lost in coastal Oregon just after Thanksgiving 2006, and the father died while walking out for help. In February 2007 a woman with medical problems drove up a rural Oregon road and died. A witness spotted the woman driving, but through several circumstances, the woman wasn’t found for 11 days.

The caller said the crash occurred on Highway 26, “about a quarter mile west of milepost 26, on the north side of the highway.” He added that they were “headed east” and that the car drove straight off into “the bush.” The dispatcher inaccurately confirmed, “A quarter mile east of Highway 26?”

“They veered across the on-coming lanes,” the caller said, adding, “You can’t even see them from the roadway.” He described an unknown compact model red car.

While relaying the information to some other agencies, the dispatcher left out information about the accident being on the north side, and that it was one-quarter mile west of milepost 26. He did notifiy the State Police that the vehicle was invisible from the roadway.

Update: Local media have identified the initial call-taking dispatcher at Bruce Botkin of Washington County 911, and describe him as a “veteran” dispatcher.