Into the Woods with NM Search and Rescue

This week’s show once again finds us outside the NMiF studio and — in one segment, way outside the studio. A couple of weekends ago, I joined Correspondent Elizabeth Miller and NMPBS videographers Ethan Weiner and RJ Torres for a field shoot in the Cibola National Forest. The purpose: to document how New Mexico Search and Rescue works and, more specifically, how the group shifts from the frenetic hours immediately after someone goes missing to an “evidence search,” to use the parlance of SAR. (Among the things I learned on the shoot is that there is a lot of SAR parlance.) 

On March 2, a Saturday, 69-year-old Leslie McIntyre and her dog went for a walk with Rachel Searles, a longtime friend and neighbor. They ventured a little ways into the woods, and McIntyre tired, then decided to turn back. Searles continued the dog walk for a few miles and returned. 

McIntyre never came home. 

After debating internally for about 10 minutes, Searles called 911, sparking a flurry of activity, as New Mexico Search and Rescue mobilized to look for Mcintyre in shifts over the next 36 hours. It was a painstaking effort, conducted partly in the pitch-black forest, some of the searchers who were there told us. 

But they didn’t find McIntyre. 

As the weekend drew to a close, the SAR incident commander and Bob Rodgers, the NM SAR resource officer for the state Department of Public Safety, realized they wouldn’t have the manpower to continue the search once Monday dawned. That’s because NM SAR is composed almost entirely of volunteers, folks who have 9-5 jobs during the week. 

So, they called off the search. 

Earlier this month, crews returned to the area, under the banner of Search and Rescue, to look for clues as to what happened to McIntyre — and they took the opportunity to turn the mission into a training exercise. It was a massive effort that included more than 100 volunteers. Some of them remained at a high-tech command post. Others went out into the sprawling search area, some with cadaver dogs, some on horseback, some flying drones. 

I was fascinated to learn how different an “evidence search” is from looking for a live subject. Searchers were hunting for bits of clothing or some other clue — possibly as small as a fingerbone — instead of calling out a name in the dark or tracking footprints. And this was something of an unusual mission.  

State Police tells us there have been more than 1,000 SAR missions in New Mexico since 2012. In all but five cases, they found the missing person alive.  

Crews found some potential items of interest in their search for what happened to McIntyre; it’ll be up to State Police to determine whether any of them lead to answers. 

You’ll see Elizabeth’s piece, expertly edited by NMiF Senior Producer Lou DiVizio, at the top of this week’s episode. You can also watch it on our YouTube page. 

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer