K-9 units. off-road vehicles. Helicopter. Days of a coordinated search involving 15 counties in California and southern Oregon, and yet nothing has been found except for a tell-tale mountain bike, helmet and clothing.
These are just some of the search and rescue efforts undertaken to locate 66-year-old Terry Knight of McCloud, California, who went missing on June 22. According to a series of Facebook posts from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, despite ongoing efforts to locate him, as of Saturday, June 25, only his personal belongings have been found near Mount Shasta’s Mud Creek.
Courtney Kreider, a representative for the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, told SFGATE that Knight is both a local and an experienced mountain biker, making the case somewhat unusual. The department is particularly concerned that Knight, who has a heart condition, requires medical attention while in the area, which is dense and difficult to navigate.
“There are many, many fallen trees. It’s a very dense area and you would literally have to be standing over someone to find them,” Kreider said. “Some of the vegetation is up to your ears. And so this part is difficult.”
HOUR 74 MISSING PERSON UPDATE: #Search and Rescue teams are checking in ➡️ 13 different counties are looking for McCloud’s Terry Knight, 66. Last seen mountain biking on 06/22/22 09:12. INFO🤳🏼 @SiskiyouSheriff SCSO Dispatch (530) 841-2900. #siskiyoucounty #k9searchandrescue #McCloud pic.twitter.com/OT76ViiuRr
— Courtney Kreider (@KreiderCourtney) June 25, 2022
Since Knight’s disappearance, comments from concerned Facebook users have flooded the sheriff’s page, offering prayers for his family and asking the sheriff’s office for updates. Knight’s unexpected disappearance has rocked the former logging town of McCloud, which has fewer than a thousand residents. “I can’t even imagine how they’re feeling right now,” said one user, Ronda Ball, referring to Knight’s family. “I really hope they find him today,” Leslie Payne commented.
A post on Wednesday, June 29, on the Siskiyou sheriff’s Facebook page says no new leads have been received since Saturday, even after interviewing Knight’s family members, acquaintances and close friends. Flyers have been distributed to local businesses and residents, but rescue teams continue to work in the dark, working long days and nights in heavily forested and unmapped areas.
“It was definitely disappointing that we couldn’t find him,” said Kreider. However, she said search and rescue teams heard “growling” and found a bear den not far from Knight’s bike and clothes. “We couldn’t find anything else, but there’s a chance wildlife is affecting it,” she continued. She stressed that bears are not usually aggressive and don’t want to be around people, and no cubs have been seen either. The city of Mount Shasta also says bear attacks are “very rare.”
Unfortunately, enforced disappearances are not uncommon in Shasta territory. The sheriff’s office said there was an “abnormal” number of enforced disappearances in Siskiyou County in general. Since the 1980s, there have been so many, as the Siskiyou Daily News reported, that the local sheriff’s department has even set up a special team to revive long-forgotten cases of the common cold.
Anyone with new information that may help the department locate Knight is urged to call the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Public Information Line at (530) 598-9375.
This is an evolving story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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