Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Gordon Phillips briefs on efforts as teams of searchers spread out from the Mima Falls campground Tuesday in the Capitol State Forest looking for Brian Wallace.
An Olympia man who was missing for three days in Capitol State Forest was found safe Tuesday afternoon.
Brian J. Wallace, 52, of Olympia left Saturday for a hike from Mima Falls Campground and was reported missing at 9 p.m. Monday, according to Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Gordon Phillips.
Wallace was found at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday about 80 feet off the road, on a spur off the D4600 Line, about two miles north of the Mima Falls trailhead. He waved down searchers, Phillips said.
Searchers had gathered at the Evergreen Gun Club and the first groups were deployed late Monday night, Phillips said. Search teams included 4x4s on the roads, three German shepherd search dogs from Pierce County, a bloodhound from Grays Harbor County, and mounted searchers from King County, among other personnel.
Before Wallace was found, searchers located his car, jacket, shirt, one boot and his backpack, Phillips said.
Phillips said that people with hypothermia frequently misinterpret their body signals and shed clothing. Temperatures were below freezing Sunday and Monday nights.
“I was out there last night,” Phillips said, “I know how cold it got.”
Wallace is on medication for Type 2 diabetes, according to the missing person’s report. He was being checked by medics Tuesday afternoon.
