By Tom Crawford

News Editor

 

Peter Achermann

The effort to locate a missing man from the Leader area continued this week with no success as of Tuesday morning.

Peter Achermann, 82, a long-time resident of Moose Lake Township north of Leader, has been missing since Friday afternoon. A large scale search effort began Saturday evening shortly after his car was found in a wooded area of Becker Township, six or seven miles north of Staples. More than 100  people - family, friends, volunteers and others -  searched much of the day Sunday, with about 75 people combing the area on Monday. 

On Tuesday morning, volunteers and members of the Staples Fire Department resumed the search.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department was coordinating the effort, with five to six deputies on the scene since Saturday afternoon. “I’m still optimistic we can find him alive,” Chief Deputy Tom Burch said late Monday afternoon as the volunteers prepared to begin the last organized search for the day.

“Someone could survive  out there in this weather. It’s not like hunting season, when it gets pretty cold,” he said. The search has been concentrated in the five to six square miles north and east of where Achermann’s car was found on a minimum maintenance road, just north of Cass County Road 32.

Much of the search area is either tax forfeited county land or Potlatch land, with some privately owned hunting land mixed in. It is all wooded with swamp and a drainage ditch a half mile to the east. 

Burch said efforts so far have included repeated sweeps of densely wooded terrain by volunteers who almost need to hold hands to keep sight of each other. Searchers are on foot, four-wheeler, or horseback, with a helicopter equipped with infrared sensing devices also used. 

Search and rescue dogs from the Central Minnesota Search and Rescue team were involved in the search Sunday. On Monday, a Pope County deputy and his bloodhound spent much of the day in the woods but did not turn up any trace of the missing man.

Burch on Monday night, said the searchers have covered the same ground more than once, so the search area could be expanded, if necessary, on Tuesday. 

“We’ll be back at it. We’ve had tremendous support from the community, a lot of volunteers, family friends have been here all three days,” he said.

The search was taking a toll on those involved, with fatigue evident on the faces of young men and women after three days of hard slogging through swamp and woods. They kept at it, spurred on by the thoughts of a loved one for many, if not all involved. 

“The hardest thing was last night, walking away knowing he was still out there,” Marsha Achermann, Mike Achermann’s wife, said.  All eight of Peter and DeLaine’s children, along with a number of adult grandchildren,  were in the area, either searching, providing food and water, or staying with DeLaine at the family’s home. 

The family reported Peter missing when he failed to arrive home Friday afternoon after a trip to Staples, stopping at the Lakewood Health System to pick up medicine. They live roughly 24 miles from Staples.

 The sheriff’s department put out an alert late Friday.  Family members and sheriff’s deputies drove the roads north and east of Staples Saturday hoping to find his 1995 Chevrolet station wagon.

Late Saturday afternoon  a car was found on a minimum maintenance road in the woods north of Joe Hasselberg’s place in Becker Township. Jorg Achermann drove to investigate, found his dad’s car and called the sheriff’s office.

An initial search effort took place Saturday night before nightfall. A helicopter with heat sensing devices was in the air overhead Saturday night. 

Full scale search efforts got underway Sunday and lasted all day. Members of both the Motley and Staples fire departments, as well as Cass and Wadena County Sheriff’s Mounted Posses, took part. Only darkness brought the effort to a temporary halt.

Search efforts resumed early Monday morning, with people doing organized searches and following up on tips and reports. Deputy Burch said one poor man with a long beard like Achermann’s, who lives on Highway 64 north of Motley and likes to walk along the highway, was reported as the missing man more than a dozen times a day for the past three days.

“We have deputies here working with the search effort. We also have two investigators also on this case, checking out leads like that,” Burch said. He added there has not been any indication of any foul play in this case.

On Tuesday some family members were distributing flyers with Peter’s photo around the area, while others were going door to door in the Becker Township vicinity, 

The children of Peter and DeLaine, all from Leader unless otherwise noted,  include  John, Mike and Marsha Achermann from Montana; Tess Aslagson from Rogers, Michelle DeJarlais, Franz, Desiree and Keith Greenwaldt from Motley, Renee Johnson from Washington state; and Jorg. 

The family said they have had no previous indication Peter was experiencing any disorientation or dementia issues. He is an experienced woodsmen  but his age and physical condition would likely prevent him from going very far in difficult wooded terrain.

Gary Timbs, the driver of a courtesy cart at the Lakewood Health System hospital, recalled his Friday afternoon rider. “Peter is one of my favorite riders. He was wearing one of his Swiss hats, a floppy hat, with red, white and blue material  and stars. I bought one of his caps last year.” 

Timbs, who referred to Peter as a fine country gentleman, said “He seemed perfectly alert and healthy when I saw him early Friday afternoon. He was cheerful, and said that normally ‘I would walk, but I will take a ride today.’”