Daily Sitka Sentinel

Haines Search Winds Up As Forester Points the Way JA

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A little local know-how led to the speedy location of a 74-year-old man on the third day of searching after he went missing on a berry picking hike near Haines, the Coast Guard said.
    Valentino Barattin of Haines had been seen late Friday as he headed uphill into the woods off Sunshine Mountain Road. A helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka joined in the search Saturday night, using infrared radar, night-vision goggles and a spotlight.
    The helicopter returned Sunday to continue searching, and picked up local forester Greg Palmieri at the Haines airport later in the day.
    “‘This is what I think happened,’” Palmieri told the helicopter crew, according to aircraft commander Lt. Jason Maddux. Palmieri works in the state Division of Forestry in the area that covers 286,000 acres of state forest land from Haines to the Canadian border.
    Palmieri pulled out his iPad with a map, and pointed to the area around Walker Lake, about a mile from where Barratin’s parked car had been found.
    “(Palmieri) knew the area very well,” Maddux said.
    Palmieri, who was on the incident command team, said that by Sunday morning searchers had covered roughly 80 acres of the “high probability” areas adjacent to the road, and by that afternoon the search managers wanted to have the available Coast Guard helicopter cover an area that was “possible but less likely.”
    The target area was a draw between the place where Barattin entered the woods and Walker Lake.
    Which turned out to be where he was.
    It took about five minutes for the Jayhawk to cover the 20 miles from the airport to Walker Lake, where the crew found a man in bright yellow coveralls and orange coat, waving to the helicopter. They were looking for someone described as wearing a light shirt and jeans, but after a few passes overhead, the crew determined that this was the man they were looking for.
    “He was not waving frantically, he wasn’t acting like a guy lost in the woods,” Maddux said. “He looked great – he didn’t look like a 74-year-old guy.”
    Although it was only about a mile from where Barattin had parked, Maddux could see how it was easy to get lost, with dense brush, hilly terrain and the lack of a trail.
    According to troopers, Barattin told searchers later that he had become disoriented and had slightly injured himself, so he decided to stay put until help arrived. He was taken to the airport where EMTs were waiting.
    The search included three Haines SAR Teams, a Haines-based SEADOGS certified search dog, two Juneau-based SEADOGs, a USCG helicopter, Alaska Mountain Guides, Skagway Fire Department, Haines Borough Police Department, Haines Volunteer Fire Department and Alaska Wildlife Troopers.
    Others besides Maddux in the helicopter crew were Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Jacobs, AST1 Tyler Holt and AMT2 Jake Ylitalo.