The search for a 27-year-old turkey hunter who vanished in Chaffee County, Colorado, last week entered its sixth day on Monday.
The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office received word late Wednesday that the missing man, Kaden Sites of Salida, had not returned to town when expected. Sites had gone out for a quick hunt around 1:30 p.m. and missed a doctor’s appointment around 3:45 p.m. that same afternoon, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office. When he missed the appointment, family located his truck near the Blanks Cabin Trailhead on Shavano Mountain, one of Colorado’s fourteeners located in the San Isabel National Forest. Sites’ cell phone was found inside his truck, with the battery completely drained.
Since Sites’ disappearance, hundreds of volunteers and more than a dozen agencies and volunteer organizations, including Colorado Parks and Wildlife and multiple Search and Rescue teams, have covered 2,743 linear miles as of Sunday. All participating searchers are tracked, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“Local search and rescue teams were immediately deployed and began a very comprehensive search utilizing dog teams, drones, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and a large number of ‘boots on the ground’ searchers,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sites is 6 foot 2, weighs 160 pounds, and has light brown hair, a goatee, and mustache. Although initial reports initially suggested Sites was wearing a ghillie suit, the description of what he was last seen wearing has since been revised to a sweatshirt.
In lieu of an artist’s sketch, the Sheriff’s Office also shared an AI-generated image of what Sites was possibly wearing when he went missing, which includes a gray or black hoodie and a Badlands bino harness. He was also carrying a shotgun. The AI image also shows Sites wearing tan work pants, a camo hat, and sunglasses. It would be an unusual choice for a turkey hunter in the East or South, where full camo is standard during turkey season; camo is not as ubiquitous among some Western hunters.
Officials and volunteers are still hopeful Sites might be found alive. The day he disappeared, temperatures that afternoon peaked in the high 50s, with wind gusts in the high 30s and even low 40s. There has been no precipitation reported since April 15, but temperatures fell below 20 degrees over the weekend.
“I think the body is an amazing thing, especially for a younger man like him,” Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich told The Mountain Mail Monday. “Of course, it becomes more unlikely as the days go by of success. But we’re going to keep working on every aspect of the case.”
Hannah Sites says it’s unlike her brother to be late to return home from a hunt.
“He will always come back before [dark]. So it was definitely shocking when he didn’t,” Hannah told KKTV11. “We’re definitely struggling with the waiting, but just waiting to hear anything has been really tough.”
Hannah also expressed gratitude for the community’s efforts to find her brother. Officials have asked the public to stay out of the search area to avoid interfering with the search efforts.
The search for Sites comes on the heels of a similarly massive search for two elk hunters who went missing in Colorado’s Rio Grande National Forest, a few hours south of the current search area, in the fall. The bodies of the two men, Ian Stasko and Andrew Porter, were ultimately located after an intensive six-day search by foot, horseback, and aircraft. Officials determined they died from a lightning strike.
Natalie Krebs contributed reporting.