He made sure that the families were briefed on any updates from the various boreholes and rescue attempts before he spoke to the news media crowded at the mine's entrance.

Murray, donning mining coveralls, even took two family members, who are experienced miners, into the mine with him so that they could give detailed bilingual progress reports to the families.

But after Thursday's "mountain bump" that exploded tunnel walls and killed three rescue workers and halted the underground re-entry effort, the irrepressible Murray has not been seen at media briefings.

Company officials explained that Murray was "ministering" to the miners' families or at the mouth of the mine consulting with mining experts on the next strategy to reach the trapped men.

But it turns out Murray also had become a stranger to the trapped miners' families.

"We feel that Bob Murray has abandoned us. Mr. Murray has not been present since the tragic accident Thursday night," said Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the trapped miners' families - who until Sunday never communicated directly with the media, except through Murray.

Murray's absence probably wouldn't have been so noticeable or felt so keenly by the families if he hadn't been such an around-the-clock force in the first days of the collapse.

"In the beginning, Bob Murray reassured the families with the promise that he would get the families' loved ones out dead or alive," said a family statement read by Olsen. "It's time to live up to that promise and show the kind of resolve this community is used to."

Murray Energy Corp. Vice President Rob Moore confirmed that Bob Murray has not visited with the families of the missing six since Thursday. Moore said Murray has been attending to the needs of the three men who died and the six who were injured on Thursday.

"We continue to sit and wait," Olsen read. "We are at the mercy of the officials involved and their so-called experts. Precious time is being squandered here and we do not have time to spare."

gwarchol@sltrib.com