Missing Mushroom Pickers, Nov. 30

On November 28, 2016, at about 1024 hours, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office received a report of two missing mushroom pickers off Haynes Way Lane in North Bend.  Deputies spoke with the reporting party who reported that he had been with two other people when they came to this area to pick mushrooms.  The reporting party, Jamie Stallings, said they had come to this location the day before at about noon.  The two pickers, Jonathan Rooke and Amie Culley both of North Bend, were only supposed to be gone only for about an hour. As it became dark, Jamie became worried about them and attempted to locate them by himself but was unsuccessful.   Mr. Stallings stayed the night in the pickup truck they were driving. The next morning, Jamie attempted to locate them again but could not.  Mr. Stallings walked to a residence on Haynes Way and used a phone to call a friend to come get him.  Once Mr. Stallings arrived home, he called and reported Jonathan Rooke and Amie Culley as missing.  As Coos County Sheriff’s Deputies were in route to the location they came upon Jonathan Rooke, in his pickup truck, driving down Haynes Way at about mile post 3.  Mr. Rooke told the deputies that Amie Culley was still up in the mountains and he was going to get dry clothes, then come back and get her. The Sheriff’s Deputies and Rooke then went up to the area Ms. Culley was supposed to be in and began to hike through the woods to where Jonathan said Amie was at.  At this point Ms. Culley had been in the woods for over 24 hours.  She was not dressed for the weather and had no food or water.  The deputies hiked for about a mile in on a trail and then up a steep terrain onto an old cat road in an attempt to get to where Ms. Culley was supposed to be last seen.  While traversing this area Mr. Rooke got ahead of the deputies and the deputies lost contact with him.  Deputies waited for about 45 minutes attempting to contact Jonathan or Amie by voice and using a whistle but were unable to locate either one. At this time personnel from North Bay Fire joined the deputies in the search and the deputies and fire personnel hiked even farther through the area trying to locate them but were unsuccessful. The searchers backtracked and searched back down to the main trail for about another 45 minutes in an attempt to locate the two.  There was no sign of the two. At this time the searchers regrouped and requested a full Search and Rescue response.  While waiting for Search and Rescue personnel to arrive at about 1500 hours, Jonathan and Amie were able to make it back out to the road on their own. Ms. Culley was hypothermic and was treated by medics and transported to Bay Area Hospital by Bay Cities Ambulance.  Deputies interviewed Jonathan Rooke as to why he separated from the deputies initially going in and he told them he thought the deputies were following him and when he noticed they were not there, he panicked and kept walking to find Amie. Deputies were assisted at the scene by North Bay Fire Department and Bay Cities Ambulance.