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May 21, 2008 6:51 pm US/Central
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MN Professor Missing In Canyonlands National Park
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) ―
Rangers are on the lookout for a biology professor from Minnesota who hasn't been seen for 10 days.
Jerry O. Wolff planned to return from a backpacking trip at Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah on Friday.
As of Wednesday, rangers hadn't found any evidence of the 65-year-old professor from St. Cloud State University. He's supposed to be in an especially rugged part of the park called the Needles district.
Chief Park Ranger Denny Ziemann said he's calling in an airplane when it's available from the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. The massive search includes two dozen park service employees and professional dog handlers.
Wolff had a backcountry permit and was alone. He hired someone to drop him off at the head of 22-mile-long Salt Creek Canyon. The drop-off point is at the end of an arduous 4-wheel-drive route, Ziemann said.
The professor teaches mammalogy and ecology, and when he's not in the classroom he's doing research in the field.
"He wasn't registered as going there to do a study, he was just registered in the park, so that was something else that was a little peculiar in that regard," said Police Chief Jim Hughes of the Sartell, Minn.
The main search for the professor happened within the first few days. Since crews never found his tent or camping gear or any other indication of where he might be, they've scaled back the search considerably.
Hughes involvement in the search started last Monday, just a day before the professor was last seen getting his back-country permit in Utah.
"We received a phone call from a friend who was concerned that they hadn't heard from him. We responded over to the residence. We looked through the windows, from what we could see we could see a vehicle. The place was locked up," said Hughes.
Police sent some of the professor's clothes to park rangers, so dogs could pick up his scent.
Wolff's home is on the market and police don't know of any big financial problems in his life. So far, they don't think anything criminal happened to him.
Police in Sartell don't suspect foul play, but they do think they may know why he's gone.
"I think it was one of those decisions that someone made to up and leave," said Hughes. "Where somebody decides one day they want to just up and leave, and want to be left alone, and that could very well be the case at this point."
So far, the park hasn't been able to conduct an intensive, daily search in such a vast area.
"Gradually it reaches a point where we need to phase it to nothing. It remains an open file," Ziemann said Wednesday. "This is not uncommon. Occasionally you'll find some remains 20 years later."
The National Park Service Web site describes Canyonlands as a colorful desert landscape of canyons, mesas and buttes eroded by the Colorado River and its tributaries.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)