Search continues for missing hiker

GRAND JUNCTION, CO — Search teams combed the Bangs Canyon area off Little Park Rd. Saturday morning for missing hiker Adam Roach. The Bangs Canyon Special Recreation Management Area is administered by the Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction Field Office. Roach was first reported missing by his brother on January 27, 2006. Roach was thought to have been hiking in the Colorado National Monument a few days earlier. Until today, that’s where search efforts were being concentrated.

“Authorities received a call yesterday from a Little Park Rd. resident after they read about the search,” Incident Commander Tim Henderson said. “When shown a photo of Roach, the resident felt that a person seen in the Little Park area on January 24 might have been the missing hiker.”

Many visitors to the area can get the Colorado National Monument and surrounding BLM public lands confused. About 33 people were part of the search effort, which focused in the area of Tabeguache, Ribbon and Wagon Trails. Teams on foot, horseback and ATV, along with one communication team worked until about noon, when the search was called off after no physical evidence of Roach was found. Agencies participating in the search effort were the National Park Service, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue Control, and the BLM.

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