READ FULL STORY BY NICOLE BLANCHARD Idaho Stateman

A pair of khaki pants on the ground, off-trail in Central Idaho’s Sawtooth Range, was the first sign to Sandy Epeldi that something was not right. The 59-year-old Boise man was exploring near remote Benedict Lake north of Atlanta during a six-day backpacking trip in late July when he found the clothing. The pants had obviously been outside for some time, Epeldi told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. They were inside out, with undergarments still attached. “I knew something bad had probably happened,” Epeldi said. “That’s not something you usually find in such a remote place.”

Within a few moments of searching, Epeldi and his hiking companion, Frank Burke, located a boot. Then they found the contents of a wallet that contained the ID of a man they’d already heard of: Jack Forest Thomas. The 66-year-old Nampa man went missing while hiking in 2016. “He just happened to vanish into the part of the wilderness that’s my favorite part to go into,” Epeldi said. “The year after Jack went missing, I did a route really similar to his and it was always in my mind: ‘Are we going to stumble upon something out here?’ ” When Thomas went missing in 2016, law enforcement looked for about two weeks before calling off the search.

After that, it was up to Thomas’ loved ones to find him. Boise County officials recovered Thomas’ remains a few weeks after Epeldi and Burke found his belongings — more than seven years after he disappeared. Idaho is one of many states where missing person searches fall largely to volunteers who are led by a mishmash of local sheriffs’ offices and nonprofits that are often short on resources. Search-and-rescue officials from around the state told the Idaho Statesman the system works quite well, with the exception of funding shortfalls.

But families of the missing said finding answers becomes much more complicated once sheriffs decide it’s time to call off a search. Search-and-rescue experts say a more formalized system could make it more likely that missing people are found alive or their remains are recovered in much less time — all while saving families the pain of taking on their own investigation.