- This story was updated at 10 p.m. Sunday with new developments from Sunday’s search
By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office hopes to bring in more and fresh search teams from around Oregon on Monday as they race against time to find a 2½-year-old boy missing from property along the Siletz River since Saturday afternoon.
They are searching for Dane Paulsen, whose parents told Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies that he was last seen at 4:25 p.m. Saturday playing in the front yard of their house at 20738 Siletz River Highway, four miles north of the town of Siletz.
A search Saturday night and again on Sunday with deputies, four search and rescue teams, police from six other departments and more than 100 volunteers found no trace of the boy.
Dane – who has brown hair and green eyes — was wearing a gray, fuzzy hooded fleece coat with teddy bear ears, black pants and blue and white shoes, the sheriff’s office said.
More than 100 Siletz community members also helped search Saturday evening, but on Sunday were asked to stay out of the primary search area which consisted of a three-mile radius around the house and nine-acre property. Instead they gathered at a campground on the north side of the Siletz River and helped search outside of the main area of interest.
In addition to Lincoln County Search & Rescue, Sheriff Adam Shanks said help Sunday came from Benton, Polk and Lane counties, the county’s major crime team, the FBI and Siletz Valley Fire. Marine patrol teams with divers from Lincoln and Clackamas counties were also searching the Siletz River, which borders the property where the boy lived with his parents.
One major mysterious element of the search was eliminated Sunday, the sheriff’s office said Sunday night.
A station wagon and man, both unfamiliar to the Paulsen family, were seen near Ojalla Bridge near the family’s property about 30 minutes before Dane’s disappearance, the sheriff’s office said. After alerts on Facebook by the family and police notification, a person who saw the notices and the car called police Sunday afternoon. Sheriff’s deputies found the car and man and determined he was not a person of interest, said Shanks.
“There is no hard evidence that makes this a criminal investigation,” Shanks told YachatsNews on Sunday night.
Shanks said there was never a direct link of the vehicle to the boy’s disappearance, no suspect and no license plate – so therefore it did not meet the criteria to use the statewide Amber Alert system.
Dane’s parents, who the sheriff’s office has not yet named publicly, are fully cooperating with investigators and searchers, Shanks said, and giving full access to their home and property.
The sheriff said searchers scaled back their efforts on foot and horseback after dark Sunday night, but continued to fly the area with drones equipped with thermal technology and follow up on hundreds of tips that have come in since Saturday night.
Shanks said they are requesting assistance Monday from other sheriff’s offices around Oregon to bring in crews to relieve those who have been helping since Saturday. There will also be more boats and divers combing the Siletz, which borders the family property.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday night searchers had covered 382 acres using 88 trained search and rescue members, four boats and four divers from Lincoln and Clackamas counties, four drones, six human-scenting dogs, 40 investigators and 138 volunteers from the community. It said the FBI’s victim services division is helping the Paulsen family.
But as two nights out in the elements approached, Shanks said that time was of the essence for someone so young.
“Our primary focus is covering as much of the area in a three-mile radius,” he said. “But time is not on our side on something like this.”
The property borders the Siletz River, which is flowing high and fast.
“Dane is friendly and fearless, and is comfortable around strangers and water, but cannot swim,” a news release from the sheriff’s office said Sunday night.
The sheriff’s office asked volunteers to not descend on the primary search area, but to gather at the Elks Toketee Illahee campground on the north side of the river opposite the property where the boy went missing and receive search instructions there.
“We really want the primary search area to be as undisturbed as possible,” Shanks said.
Shanks did thank members of the Siletz-area community for volunteering and the person who spotted the station wagon and called police, eliminating a major and potentially complicating factor in the search.
The sheriff’s office asked anyone who might have information on Dane’s disappearance call its tip line at 541-265-0669 or non-emergency dispatch at 541-265-0777.
So sad. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of this child.
Just wanted to say how very sorry I am for what the Paulson family is going through and that my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Please find this child alive and well. My heart is broken over this.
To the family: I hope your baby boy is found safe and sound. This must be so indescribably painful for you. Sending prayers of hope, comfort, strength and a miracle for little Dane.