Hundreds scour Randsburg area for missing men
BY JASON KOTOWSKI Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com
A massive search in rugged, mine shaft-riddled terrain continued Wednesday for two Santa Barbara men who went missing early Sunday morning after leaving a Randsburg motel.
And loved ones on two coasts waited for word on their fates.
Related Photos
An abandoned mineshaft on private property in Randsburg is out of the hands of the Bureau of Land Management's control as they can neither backfill nor fence off. Thousands of abandoned mines dot the landscape around the state. May of 2011.
Daniel Carbonaro was one of two Santa Barbara men found dead in a ravine in Randsburg Thursday afternoon after an exhaustive search for them.
Randsburg, a living ghost town, once housed 4,000 people. Today, it has fewer than 100. File photo from 2001.
Randsburg, a living ghost town, once housed 4,000 people. Today, it has fewer than 100. File photo from 2001.
The men left the motel without food, water, cell phones or heavy clothing, Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said. Hundreds of searchers were going over an 1,100-square-mile area, much of it desert.
"We have a tremendous amount of resources out there," Pruitt said.
Chris Wayne Rice, 29, and Daniel Preddy Carbonaro, 27, had stayed at the Cottage Inn Motel and planned to travel to Cuddeback Dry Lake bed in San Bernardino County. They left the motel at 2:30 a.m. in a Polaris Razor XP 900 ATV.
No one's heard from them since. They left their vehicles and other belongings at the motel.
Pruitt said temperatures have been below freezing at night. The search has been hampered by the rough terrain and the numerous mine shafts studding the area.
"It's just a difficult search with no clear indication where (the men) are," Pruitt said.
Roberson's sister-in-law, Eve Fox, said Roberson is athletic and adventurous, the type of person who doesn't shy away from a challenge.
"He loves motorcycles, dogs, being outside and kind of pushing the envelope," Fox said. "He's a little bit of a daredevil."
Fox lives in Woodstock, N.Y., and has been keeping in touch with other family on the west coast on the search's progress.She said more and more people have joined in.
Robert Dietrichson, who fields calls on behalf of the Rand Desert Museum, said there have been a number of incidents over the years where people on motorcycles or off-road vehicles have fallen into mine shafts. He said he didn't know offhand how many mine shafts were in the area.
Kern County Sheriff's Department searchers were being assisted by agencies including the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, California City Police Department, Bureau of Land Management and the Indian Wells Mine Rescue Team.
Carbonaro is described as 6 feet 2 inches tall, 185 pounds, black hair and hazel eyes, last seen wearing a black "Fox" windbreaker and dark jeans. Rice is described as 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, blond wavy hair and blue eyes, last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the Kern County Sheriff's Department at 861-3110.
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