Body Found on Cascade River Road Believed to Be Missing Arizona Man

Marblemount, WA – On Thursday, December 1st, Search and Rescue members located a body East of Marblemount along Cascade River Road near Sonny Boy Lane  during their continued  search for a missing 79-year old  man from Arizona.

Officials have not released the identity of the remains found, but they believe they are likely those of  Missing 79-year old George Todd, of Arizona.

Mr. Todd was last seen on November 13th in the Everett  area where he was contacted by Law Enforcement. During his contact with Law Enforcement, Mr. Todd  told Officers that he had been in Washington State looking for an old friend and he was headed back to Arizona.

On November 16th,  Hunters traveling East of Marblemount found an abandoned vehicle stuck in the mud along a remote area of the  Cascade River Road near Sonny Boy Lane.  The hunters noted the GPS coordinates of the vehicle, photographed the  vehicle and notified Law Enforcement of their find.   The hunters noted there was a light dusting of fresh snow in the area and there were no visible tracks around the vehicle.  A suitcase and clothing  were both visible in the vehicle.

 

Deputies from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area and  identified 79-year old George  Todd of Arizona as the owner of the vehicle.  A search and rescue mission was launched at that time with no luck on locating the missing man.

Early the following morning on November 17th,  the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office sent out a press release pictured below,  requesting help from the community in locating Mr. Todd. The press memo stated he may be on foot in the area and suffered from hearing loss and may have early stages of dementia.  Search and Rescue continued their search.

On November 18th and 19th, Skagit Breaking reached out to Mr. Todd’s Son, Bryan Todd who lives out of the area and he provided us Mr. Todd’s Cell phone information, which went straight to voicemail. He also put us in contact with one of the hunters who had found the vehicle and we were able to make contact with him and get the GPS coordinates of where the vehicle was found. We confirmed with Bryan Todd that  there was no active bank  account activity on Mr. Todd’s accounts and over the course of two days provided the family with local information and we  offered to do what we could to help privately as we have helped with several missing persons cases in the past.

On November 20th, Skagit Breaking Volunteers Chris Nelson and Brian Queen drove the hour and a half from Burlington to the area the vehicle was found abandoned along  Cascade River Road and conducted a small private search of the area and took photographs for the family who live out of the area.

Chris and Brian  drove the dirt roads and walked along the shoulder of the road looking for Mr. Todd but were unable to locate him.  They  found  a sheet roughly a mile from where the vehicle was found stuck in the mud. They photographed the sheet and contacted Mr. Todd’s Family to see if they recognized the sheet  but the family did not and Chris and Brian were  unable to connect it to the missing man.

 

On November 24th, Skagit Breaking Volunteer Chris Nelson  went back to the area with Patrick Marker from OverSkagit.com and Patrick used his  drone to take aerial video of the area around where the car was found abandoned.  Patrick made contact with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office to see if they had an area they would like searched using the drone and he was  told the banks of the river down stream would be a good place to get aerial video in case Mr. Todd has slipped into the river.

The area Mr. Todd’s car was found is directly next to the Cascade River, and Patrick used the drone to take video from the bridge just West of where the vehicle was found, focusing down river on both sides of the river looking for any signs of Mr. Todd.  He also searched up river on both sides of the river using the drone.  We did not locate Mr. Todd using aerial video and again we drove the gravel roads in the area and looked for signs of Mr. Todd but found nothing.

 

On December 1st, just after noon, volunteers with the  Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue returned to the area to continue their  search for Mr. Todd.  During the expanded search, searchers located human remains near Cascade River Road and Sonny Boy Lane.  The remains were recovered and turned over to the Skagit County Coroners Office for Identification.

Mr. Todd’s Family who lives out of the area  was notified by the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office of the discovery of the remains and are awaiting official confirmation on the identity of the remains from the Skagit County Coroners Office.  The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said there is no indication of foul play.

 

Click here to view our previous story on Missing Person George Todd