Johnson recaps the search to find Hendrichs’ remains
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – Umatilla County Search and Rescue Sergeant Dwight Johnson has participated in numerous searches, and he said he can’t recall one that was as large as the group that gathered on May 8 at Meacham to find the remains of Deb Hendrichs of Idaho. He said there were around 90 people on hand.
“We got a great response from our cooperating counties as well as two very capable search and rescue teams from Idaho,” he said.
There were several K9 units and drones taking part. In addition to the county’s two drones, Delmar Aviation from the Pendleton UAS Test Range sent a UAS. Johnson said help kept coming from unanticipated places.
“ODOT provided us with an incident command post,” he said. “The construction company, Knife River, actually shut down work on I-84. Union Pacific sent a representative up and set up a speed limit on the railroad.”
Hendrichs’ remains were recovered by a K9 unit a few hours into the search. Johnson said she was about half a kilometer from her car that broke down on the Meacham interchange.
Johnson goes into detail about the mission in Monday’s KUMA Coffee Hour. Listen to the complete interview at https://elkhornmediagroup.com/kuma-coffee-hour/.
