PORTLAND, Oregon - The mother of a Portland man who disappeared last summer near Bagby Hot Springs fears the worst.
The mother, Carol Degagne, said she no longer believes Steven Moline is alive and wants to know what happened after she reported him missing on July 12.
He was with four friends last June, driving toward the springs in the Mount Hood National Forest when they decided to turn around because they were low on gas. Moline decided to get out and walk. The friends called 911 and said he had wandered off in the forest.
Degagne said her 30-year-old son had epilepsy and other illnesses and wouldn't have tried to walk that far.
"I knew something was wrong," she said. "He could drive there with his eyes shut. In order for my son to ever get out of that car in that spot, he'd be threatened for his life, or he'd be out of his mind."
One passenger, Tom Bush, has refused to help with the investigation or identify a fourth passenger in the car, known only as "Dan," said investigator Eric Lee of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.
"I periodically leave messages to get him to change his mind," Lee said, "but Mr. Bush has made it known he does not want to talk to us."
Investigators have no reason to believe Moline is dead, Lee said. It remains a missing person case.
Based on the account from the driver, Ruth Lockwood, and her boyfriend, deputies and trained volunteer search-and-rescue groups spent more than 12 hours searching the area on July 16 on foot, in all-terrain vehicles and with dogs. They found no sign of him.
In the more than four months since Moline disappeared, Degagne and friends and family have visited the area dozens of times, sometimes searching for days and sleeping in an RV. A few times, Degagne said, she smelled something odd, but she never found any sign of her son.
"Something isn't right," she said. "A mother knows. I really believe he was buried up there."
Lee, the Clackamas County sheriff's officer assigned as the case agent, said investigators have no reason to believe Moline is dead, or that the events of June 30 happened differently than the witnesses reported.
Degagne is unconvinced. She said her son knew his physical limits, and would get in touch by phone or text message daily. He would not, she said, simply disappear.
"He would never do that. He would never just leave," she said. "I wish every day somebody would prove me wrong, but that's just not Steven."
