Published: October 26, 2009 03:02 pm      

Search scaled back for missing Eufaula family

RED OAK — The search for a missing Eufaula family continued Saturday in southeastern Oklahoma, but the size of the search party was scaled back.

The Latimer County Sheriff's Office said Saturday's search was limited to a select number of ground personnel working with aerial searchers.

Bobby Dale Jamison, his wife, Sherrilynn, and their 6-year-old daughter, Madyson, have been missing for about two weeks. Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beauchamp launched a search for the family when their pickup truck was found in the Red Oak Mountain area Oct. 17, eight days after a resident remembered seeing the family.

The pickup was parked at a well site, about 30 miles from the family's Eufaula home. Inside the pickup, investigators found Bobby Dale Jamison's wallet, Sherrilynn Jamison's purse, maps, a GPS device, a substantial amount of cash and a cell phone last used Oct. 8.

Beauchamp said the family had gone to look at a couple of 40-acre plots of land for possible purchase and that they apparently planned to move a shipping container to the secluded mountain area and live there.

Mud-slicked roads made search conditions treacherous Friday, and Beauchamp said he planned to scale back the search Saturday, the first day of black-powder deer hunting season, because it would be too dangerous to have crews searching heavily wooded areas.

Beauchamp said he was not ready to call the search a "recovery" effort for bodies, but as the days have turned into weeks, some searchers have begun to prepare themselves for the worst.

Monty Jackson, a searcher and former state forester, said he doesn't make assumptions about what has happened or what he expects to find.

"We'll just look and see if we can find some clues," Jackson said. "It's hard to say what's going to happen."

Beauchamp said thick foliage and windy conditions also hampered air searches.