The son of a missing hiker traveled from Russia to the trails of east King County on Thursday to retrace the steps where his father was last seen alive.
With the help of the King County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team, 34-year-old Sergey Cherepov and his wife hiked out to the Goldmyer Falls area, where his 59-year-old father of the same name disappeared last September.
The older Cherepov was here on a business trip and hiked out to the falls with two business associates. According to the sheriff's office, he started to feel ill and split off from his group to head back to the car.
"He left the hot springs, came back down toward the caretaker's cabin, mistakenly took a left that went over an old log bridge that has since been washed out," said Detective Ed Christian. "And we actually have witnesses who saw him walking there, and that is the last place he was seen."
A game camera captured a photo of the man in a t-shirt, shorts, and boat shoes. While the weather was warm that day, colder temperatures and rain moved in that night.
Through an interpreter, his son said he remembers getting the phone call from authorities, and at first thought it was some sort of joke.
Christian said the unresolved case still gets to him.
"I've done over 3,000 SAR missing persons, and this is only the third person we haven't found," said Christian. "If I knew what happened to him I'd find him. As simple as that."
