Hunter's body found; questions remain

The body of a hunter missing for a week in the woods near the base of Three Fingered Jack was recovered on Friday, November 1.

Terry W. Carver, 40, apparently froze to death after wandering directionless in a fairly small area about a mile from where his pickup had been parked just north of Round Lake.

Although the discovery answered some questions about Carver's final hours, it has raised others.

Carver was reported missing on Saturday, October 26 by hunting partner Royce D. Nelson. Nelson, 30, told authorities that he and Carver had split up at about 3 p.m. the day before. Nelson made it back to Carver's truck that evening, Carver did not. Nelson hiked out the next day and alerted authorities.

A massive search was launched, including as many as 40 people, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters from Portland and the latest in infrared and night vision equipment.

At one point searchers apparently walked as close as 100 yards from the body, according to Mark Foster, coordinator of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Hasty Team, stationed in Camp Sherman. But thick pine and fallen logs prevented them from making the discovery before the official search was halted on Tuesday, October 29.

Others did not stop looking. Carver's uncle, Roy Carver, and friends Terry had made when working as a logger continued to search. On Thursday afternoon they found Carver's denim jacket hanging from a tree. They saw ravens circling, and notified authorities.

"The family and his logging friends put in a lot of time and energy," said Hasty Team leader Foster. He took a team into the woods and searched that night by flashlight, then started again at daybreak.

They found Carver's rifle against a tree, then a string of clothing. Carver, delirious, had removed everything except a sweater and T-shirt as he stumbled down a slope, one foot bare, the other entwined in a wad of jeans and underwear Carver could not get off over his left boot.

"In the latter phases of hypothermia, people begin to feel very warm and hot, just before they die," explained Foster.

Earlier searchers may have missed Carver's tracks because they had been misinformed, emphatically, by Carver's hunting partner about what kind of boots Carver was wearing, as well as where the two split up, Foster indicated.

Elk were thick in the area and trampled some tracks, snow falling from trees obliterated others. Carver had back-tracked over his own trail and, toward the end, was not leaving boot tracks at all.

When he saw the track of the bare right foot, Foster said "it was clear to me that I was going to have to make sense of it, because he was going to be at the other end."

Carver traveled down a slope toward First Creek, clambering over logs as large as three feet in diameter, according to Foster. Finally he crawled into a corral-like enclosure of fallen trees under a canopy of branches above, out of site of aircraft, and died.

Foster thought Carver died probably on Saturday night, October 26. Searchers heard three shots Saturday at about 4 p.m. But because there were many hunters in the general area, and the search was focused near the base of Three Fingered Jack which echoed the shots and disguised the source, they were unable to pin down the location of the gunfire.

If he had been alive on Sunday, Carver probably would have responded to one of the nearly 40 people who were in the area, blowing whistles and making noise, some only 100 yards away from where he lay.

Or he would have been spotted by helicopters with infrared equipment which flew over the area on Sunday night and could clearly see the body heat emanating from searchers and elk.

What is unknown, for now, is why Carver did not make it out of an area he supposedly knew well, why he traveled in circles, up and down the same hill.

"Something had to have interfered with his thinking process, because there is no logical reason he didn't make it out," said Foster. "This guy used to work in the woods. We were out of there in 45 minutes."

Foster back-tracked Carver's trail, and said there was no evidence the hunter had tried to light a fire or build any sort of shelter, survival strategies that his friends and family said Carver knew well.

Other items found among Carver's possessions, including more ammunition and $500 in cash, have raised other questions.

Foster has asked that the state medical examiner do an autopsy to see if there were any complicating factors leading to Carver's death, which is still under investigation.