Search for CTUIR member Wesley Dixon Jones expands beyond river

MISSION – Authorities have widened the search area for Wesley Dixon Jones, who’s been missing since Oct. 5, away from the Umatilla River.

Umatilla Tribal Police (UTPD) Det. William Morris said in a release from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) that with the help of CTUIR Geographic Information Systems an aerial drone search was conducted on Nov. 18 in three previously unsearched locations. Morris did not specify locations other than they were farther away from the Umatilla River.

“The new searches, which included the drone, are more land-oriented than river-oriented,” said Morris. “And that’s really the main nature of the expansion, to move into fields with tall grass that you can’t easily see something that a drone would be able to see more easily.”

He added even though Jones hasn’t been found, the search and investigation are ongoing.

“One way of looking at it is that it (Nov. 18 search) didn’t yield anything,” he said. “The other way of looking at it, which is how I look at it, is that it ruled out certain things. We don’t know where Mr. Jones is, but we know he’s not in those fields.”

Anyone with information is asked to call UTPD at 541-278-0550.

Members of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue team search on Oct. 8 on a property along Parr Lane LEE GAVIN/CTUIR

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Elkhorn Media Group