Searchers Comb Mountain for Scout Lost Since Friday

Search and rescue teams continued to comb the rugged San Bernardino National Forest Monday for a 13-year-old El Monte Boy Scout lost in the wilderness since Friday.

Jared Negrete, who was on his first overnight backpacking trip, was last seen Friday at about 6 p.m. when he fell behind his fellow Scouts on a hike to the summit of 11,500-foot Mt. San Gorgonio.

The eighth-grader, who is 5 feet 2 inches tall and 150 pounds, was wearing green pants and a tan shirt and was carrying a two-quart canteen of water.

“He’s young, very shy, a little bit overweight and was allowed to get a little behind the others,” said Frank Barney, a bishop at El Monte’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors Boy Scout Troop No. 538.

Another group of hikers spotted Jared straggling behind and notified the troop leader at the mountain summit, Barney said. But the leader, an experienced backpacker, said he would pick up Jared on the way down, Barney said.

A Boy Scouts of America spokesman said he hadn’t been fully briefed on the incident and was trying to determine whether the troop leader had been negligent.

“Obviously we would be concerned if proper safety procedure was not in fact followed,” said Mike Bassett, director of support services for the 387 troops in the Boy Scouts’ San Gabriel Valley Council.

As soon as the troop leader realized that Jared had strayed, he accompanied his five other Scouts back to the base camp and then hiked about five miles in the darkness to summon help. San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, along with search and rescue teams from as far away as Sierra Madre and San Dimas, began searching a 130-square mile swath of the San Gorgonio Wilderness, a jagged, rocky terrain about 17 miles northeast of Redlands.

By Monday their search was focused on a six-square mile area, where a print believed to match one of Jared’s high-top tennis shoes was found. At least 70 officers, some of whom were airlifted by helicopter into the dense evergreen forest, tramped through the brush until dusk but there were no more clues. The search was scheduled to resume again today at dawn.

Low temperatures have been around 50 degrees, and officers said that there was sufficient water in the mountains as a result of recent storms.

“They’re checking every crack and crevice--anywhere that a 13-year-old boy would go,” said Deputy Debra Dorrough. “We’re reasonably confident he can survive.”