Plea for volunteers as search for missing Uintas hiker resumes

The family of an elderly, partially deaf Arizona man missing in the Uinta Mountains nearly a week pleaded for volunteers to help as the search resumed Friday.

Melvin Heaps, 74, left for a hike along the Crystal Lake Trailhead in Summit County Monday. When he didn’t return home that night, family members called 911.

The terrain in the Crystal Lake area can be rugged and challenging, even for an avid outdoorsman as Heaps, who family members say has hiked in the Uintas numerous times in the past.

However, Heaps also is hearing impaired. Family members say he is deaf in one ear and wears a hearing aid on his other ear. If the battery has drained, family fears, he may not be able to easily hear helicopters overhead or searchers shouting for him.

Earlier this week, deputies found Heaps’ vehicle at the Crystal Lake trailhead, located about two miles off the Mirror Lake Highway and about 27 miles east of Kamas.

Since then, search teams from Summit and Wasatch counties and the U.S. Forest Service, joined by dozens of volunteers, dog teams and family members, have scoured the trails in the area. No further trace of Heaps has been found.

The Garrett Bardsley Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting in missing persons cases, is helping Heaps’ family to recruit and organize volunteer efforts.

On Friday, the foundation asked for volunteers both on foot and horseback to join the search, when resumed at 7 a.m. At the end of the day, the foundation announced it would continue sending search parties Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 7 a.m. each day.

It warned volunteers who were unable to arrive before 4 p.m. to “consider waiting until the following day, unless you are planning on camping overnight.”

Official campsites are not available, the foundation said, but volunteers should be able to find a “dispersed campsite” without facilities or amenities. Volunteers were also encouraged to bring water, food and sun protection.

For more information visit the foundation’s website at http://www.findgarrett.org/missing/melvin-heaps/.

When last seen, Heaps wore a red, long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans with suspenders. He usually wears a straw hat when hiking, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office says.

Anyone with information on Heaps whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 435-615-3600.