Trucker missing for days emerges from wilderness

LA GRANDE, ORE. — A trucker who was missing for four days in a snow-covered part of Oregon after his GPS mapping device sent him up the wrong road walked 36 miles (58 kilometers) and emerged safely from a remote and rugged region of the state.

Jacob Cartwright, 22, showed up Saturday near the town of La Grande, where an intensive search involving aircraft had been taking place since he went missing Tuesday.

Cartwright was being evaluated in an emergency room but appeared OK, said nursing supervisor Danita Thamert at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, in eastern Oregon.

“He looks to be pretty good,” she said. “He’s a big boy. He kept moving and stayed warm enough. So it doesn’t look like he’s going to have too many injuries.”

Cartwright’s boss, Roy Henry of Little Trees Transportation, said Cartwright was driving a truckload of potato chips but the tractor-trailer got stuck after he took the wrong turn in an area with limited cellphone coverage.

The trucker started walking away from the direction he had come from without any food or water just after midnight Wednesday wading through snow at some points. He didn’t stop until Saturday morning when he neared La Grande, where he lives, Henry said. From there, the trucker got a ride from a passing motorist to his home.

Cartwright’s wife returned home from meeting with local officials about the search for her husband only to find him in their house.

“He took his cowboy boots off and put on flip flops,” Henry said.

Cartwright told his wife “he was hurting real bad and was real cold. So she packed him up and took him to the hospital.” Temperatures in the region have been dropping into the 30s at night.

After interviewing Cartwright, Oregon State Police used information he provided to locate his truck.