Johnston update shared

CREEDE—The Mineral County Board of County Commissioners heard from Sheriff Fred Hosselkus on the recent missing persons case during the monthly meeting on Nov. 6.

Hosselkus stated that they still have been unable to find any sign of Matthew Johnston.

“I met with his family and they understand what we have tried to do and where we are at. We just don’t know if he’s up there. For all we know he could have abandoned the vehicle and taken off; his life was pretty rough at the time he disappeared so it’s really hard to speculate. Right now, we just have to wait until we have more evidence before we spend any more time looking for clues,” explained Hosselkus.

A 9-1-1 call from Johnston’s cell phone came through on Sept. 4 with a garbled messaged of Johnston saying he was lost and thirsty. The call was traced, and his vehicle was found parked at an overlook on Wolf Creek Pass. After the initial search began, teams requested a flight for life team and conducted a backcountry search for the missing person to no avail. Later in the week, SAR teams continued the search with a dog team and infrared cameras that are meant to detect heat sources in the area, including a warm body, to which nothing was found.  The search was suspended on Sept. 19 due to a lack of evidence.

Commissioners thanked Hosselkus for the update and agreed that more evidence was needed in order to continue the search.