GOLDENDALE, Washington (STPNS) -- Dwight A. Kipp, of Lyle, Wash., disappeared May, 25, 2006, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, 35 miles northeast of Carson, where Skamania County Sheriff?s deputies and searchers looked for him for days.

A mushroom hunter found his remains Sept. 11 in the area of Tillicum Campground, west of Mount Adams, about 35 miles northeast of Carson, near where searchers looked for the 50-year-old man more than a year ago.

According to information provided by Skamania County Undersheriff David L. Cox, the human remains appear to be those of Kipp, although final confirmation had yet to be determined several days after the skeletal remains were found.



The unidentified mushroom hunter stumbled across skeletal human remains at about 5 p.m. last Tuesday, about five miles away from where searchers began looking for Kipp on May 29, 2006, four days after two of his friends reported him missing.

?By the evidence located at the scene, the remains are believed to be those of Dwight A. Kipp,? Cox said in a press release issued Friday. ?Detectives do not suspect foul play in Mr. Kipp?s death,? Cox added.

Kipp and two friends were in a Ford Ranger that got stuck in snow north of Lone Butte, on Thursday, May 25, of last year. According to his friends, Kipp hiked toward Trout Lake to get a tow truck, but when he failed to come back by the next day, the friends hiked out of the forest, according to Skamania County Sheriff?s reports at the time.

After checking for him to show up in Lyle or elsewhere, but without luck, the friends called the sheriff's office the following Monday, to report that Kipp was missing. The sheriff?s office launched a search for Kipp the following day.

More than 30 ground searchers with snowshoes and snowmobilers, involving six agencies, and one K-9 unit, looked for Kipp in a 24-square-mile area for more than a week. They found no trace of him.