Lushevskiy Search 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 21:25 West Valley SAR Evgeniy "Eugene" Lushevskiy is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who came to the United States in 1998.
Eugene, 19 years old at the time, was last seen on Sunday October 31, 2004 when he left to go hiking somewhere in the foothills or mountains north of Claremont. A storm front with an unseasonably early snowfall came in that night. He was reported missing to Claremont PD on Tuesday November 2, 2004.
On Friday November 5, 2004 evidence was discovered that Eugene was dropped off in Mt. Baldy, at the Sierra Hut Trailhead, on the night of October 31st to begin a hike to the summit of Mt. Baldy. The Chino Hills Sheriff’s Station initiated a Search and Rescue mission based upon this information. West Valley Search and Rescue (WVSAR) began a hasty search of the mountain trails that night. The search quickly expanded to a county-wide and then state-wide call for alpine-qualified searchers.
On Saturday November 6, 2004 Eugene’s backpack was found near the summit of Mt. Baldy. Among the items located in the backpack was Eugene’s video camera. The images on the camera showed portions of his trip to the mountain, night hiking, cooking over a fire and sunrise on the morning of Monday November 1, 2004. Early winter storms hampered the search, but it continued both on the ground and via helicopter over the next couple of weeks with as many as 115 Search and Rescue members on the mountain in a single day.
The Claremont Police Department together with San Bernardino Sheriff's Department and Search and Rescue Teams state-wide made extensive efforts in their search, nevertheless Eugene's fate remains unknown.
Over the years most of the original search area has been searched again, always with Eugene in mind. During the summer of 2010 the topic of the search for Eugene came up again. Corporal Whitten from Volunteer Forces and Bob Gattas from WVSAR talked about the one place on the mountain that we were never able to search from the ground due to the extremely hazardous terrain. After extensive research and scouting via helicopter we thought that a ground search was possible if we could get a group of searchers who were comfortable on steep slopes together on a day with good weather so Sheriff’s Aviation could insert the search teams and run radio relays into the area. Everything had to be perfect to safely conduct the search.
On Saturday October 16, 2010, two teams from WVSAR with two search dogs and their handlers from the Sheriff’s Search Dog Team were inserted via helicopter onto the summit of Mt. Baldy at about noon. Their assignment was to search the northeast slope of Mt. Baldy into the narrow canyon that finally dumps out into North Fork Lytle Creek Canyon for possible evidence. The searchers were supported by operations leaders, radio relays, ground transports and a rescue team held in reserve in case anything went wrong. The mission was planned to last about 6 hours.
They spent all afternoon searching through extremely rough and hazardous terrain, locating several pieces of possible evidence in the canyon mixed with other debris. During the search one team member became incapacitated and was unable to continue moving down canyon. The path out of the canyon required rope work to get down a waterfall just below the team's position. The search team provided first aid to their incapacitated member and prepared to stay in the field overnight with her.
The rescue team from WVSAR was dispatched to begin hiking up the canyon from the bottom and additional rope rescue personnel were requested to assist. Six rope rescue-qualified members from San Gorgonio SAR, Rim of the World SAR, WVSAR and Wrightwood Phelan SAR who were assisting with The Basic Search and Rescue Academy, were immediately dispatched along with two members of the Cave Team to assist. These additional members arrived at the search team shortly before sunrise after a brutal hike up the canyon, post holing through debris and climbing the lower waterfall.
After sizing up the problems of multiple rope systems and carry-out through the lower canyon, the decision was made to see if Sheriff's Aviation could hoist the injured member out at first light. Sheriff's Aviation made arrangements to launch a helicopter at first light and successfully hoisted the injured member to a waiting ground ambulance. The member was transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation and treatment of her injuries. She was treated for dehydration and released several hours later.
The remaining search members and the members who came in to assist them hiked out, completing the mission at about noon Sunday October 17, 2010, spending over 24 hours on the mission.
The search was successful because no searchers were seriously injured and we gained “ground level” intelligence on this very hazardous canyon. It will be some months before we know if any of the items recovered from the canyon will shed any light on what happened to Eugene.
Jeff Lehman
The remains were found to be those of Lushevskiy. Read the article in the Daily Bulletin.
SAR Dog, West Valley SAR in Missions
Reader Comments (2)
Hope you post on here if any of the evidence found turns out to be consistent with the missing hiker.
Hard to imagine he could disappear so throughly.
Yes. Here is the article,
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17437316?IADID=Search-www.dailybulletin.com-www.dailybulletin.com