By Tillie Fong
Rockie Mountain News
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — Two of the three snowmobilers missing since Sunday were found late Tuesday night by a search helicopter, but the third was reported to be dead.
Murry Melloni, of Littleton, and Craig Morris, of Florida, were found alive around 5 p.m. when their campfire was spotted two miles west of Elliot Ridge by a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter on its way to Eagle.
They were taken to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, where their conditions were unknown late Tuesday night.
Paulette Horr, spokeswoman for the Summit County Sheriff's Office said they were suffering from exposure when they were found.
John McKibben, of Kremmling, died Monday night, Melloni told authorities. The search for his body was called off around 10 p.m. because of predictions of heavy mountain snow and high wind advisories overnight. The recovery will resume this morning.
Sunday, the trio had gone on a day trip snowmobiling in the area north of Silverthorne. When they failed to return in the evening, friends and family started searching for them. But when three members of that search party got stranded Monday evening at a cabin in the Elliot Ridge area north of Silverthorne, the brother of one of the three missing men contacted authorities.
Sheriff's deputies tried to look for the three snowmobilers Monday night but were forced to abort their search because of blowing snow and dangerous conditions.
Text messages received from the snowmobilers gave the rescuers hope of finding them.
Crews had been concentrating their search in an area east of Elliot Ridge, where Melloni and Morris had thought they were.
"The people were disoriented," said Horr. "They thought they were on the east side, when they were on the west side."
Horr said that preliminary information indicated that Morris had struck out on his own Monday to look for help, while Melloni and McKibben had hunkered down somewhere. When Melloni woke up Monday morning, he found that McKibben had died, and he went looking for Morris.
The two reunited sometime Tuesday and built a campfire.
Copyright 2008 Denver Publishing Company
