Family and friends renew search for Canadian hiker reported missing in Joshua Tree National Park
Family and friends returned Tuesday morning to the area of Joshua Tree National Park, where 51-year-old Paul Miller vanished, while taking a hike, during a two-week visit to the park with his wife Stephanie, last July.
Dawne Robinson is Paul’s sister.
“When I’m here, I kind of feel paul. I know it is strange, but for years, he talked about coming to this place,” said Robinson.
Dawne, her husband David, and Paul Miller’s long-time friend Ken Jenkins plan to search the area in and around the 49 Palms Oasis, over the next nine days. On Saturday, two more friends from Canada will join them in the search.
Miller. a father of two, was on a long-planned visit to Joshua Tree .. with his wife, when he drove to this area of the park. for what was supposed to be a quick hike, before they returned to Canada. The only trace of Paul left behind, was his car, in a parking lot near the trail.
“I thought they would find him quickly, so it is really hard to imagine that here we are ten months later, and I’m out here with his family and friends, searching and trying to find answers,” said Paul Miller’s friend Ken Jenkins.
A printed flyer, with the headline “Find Paul Miller” is posted at the trail entrance, part of an effort to continue the search, which peaked last summer, when search and rescue crews .. and volunteers undertook a massive effort to comb the area, only to come up empty..
Robinson says the Sheriff’s Department is not invovled in the case, because there are “no signs of foul play”.
She says they’ll make as many trips back to the park as necessary to find closure.
Robinson says they are using social media to invite people out to the 49 Palms Oasis area this Saturday and Sunday morning at 6:00, for walks, to enjoy the beauty and to help search for any sign of their missing loved one.
“We miss him desperately. Paul is the kind of person that was large in life. So, with him gone from our lives, there’s been a huge hole,” said Robinson.
The trio says they are grateful for park service employees and others who have already helped in the search for Paul, but say they’re not giving up their efforts in finding him; a man they say loved the outdoors, and who was also an experienced hiker.
More information on the search for Paul Miller can also be found in this Facebook Group:
