Search for Missing Oregon Family Abandoned

Search for Missing Oregon Family Abandoned

Friday, March 17, 2006
The Associated Press

ASHLAND, Ore. -- With no leads to follow, authorities say they gave up searching for an Ashland family missing since March 4.

The Stivers family was last heard from as it was leaving for an overnight trip on the Oregon coast.

On Thursday, search and rescue teams from Oregon and California scoured Highway 199 and Bear Camp Road, the two closest routes from Ashland to the coast, police said.

More than 50 people searched with snow machines and a helicopter. Snow and low clouds curtailed their efforts.

The missing are Marlo Hill-Stivers, Peter Stivers, their children Sabastyan, 10, and Gabrayell, 9, and Stivers' mother, Becky Higgenbothum, and her husband Elbert Higgenbothum.

Hill-Stivers' mother, Rose Hill, reported them missing.


The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has distributed about 5,000 faxes as fliers in southwestern Oregon, and photos of the family have been posted on the center's Web site, police said.

The family was in a 35-foot Dolphin motor home with Arizona plates, where the Higgenbothums are from. They have not answered calls to their cell phones, and the bank accounts of all four adults have not been touched since March 4, police said.

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