posted 04-07-2003 01:22 PM            

Dog leads searchers to body

By DAVID HUNN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: dhunn@bakersfield.com

Sunday April 06, 2003, 10:460 PM

After 12 days of searching, a pit bull finally led sheriff's volunteers Sunday afternoon to the body of an Oildale man, curled up against a rock in the remote, snow-covered Greenhorn Mountain wilderness above Glennville, with his dog still watching over him, barking to protect his partner.

The dog, Rudy, had worn his paw pads bloody from running back and forth from the Glennville area in what Kern County Sheriff's Search and Rescue volunteers described as a heroic effort to save his master, John Ray Willingham.

"We've had almost 12 days to think about this," sister-in-law Carol Morovich said. "We knew if we found the dog, we'd find him."

Sunday night, the family was disoriented and dizzy in their grief, Morovich said.

"He waited for us to come, and we didn't come," daughter Lisa Willingham said through sobs and tears. "We tried to look for him."

But in the end, freezing temperatures, a disorienting liver disease, and a lack of food or water stranded Willingham, 49, in new snow, and eventually killed him, despite the efforts of almost 50 Search and Rescue volunteers from five different agencies, with 15 off-road vehicles, nine horses, a portable command post and helicopters, searchers and family members said. Sheriff's officials said there was no apparent trauma to the body.

Willingham left his Oildale home on a warm morning March 25 to lead his dog into the mountains to run and play.

He drove up Highway 155 from Glennville toward Shirley Meadows Ski Resort and then squeezed his 1990 Toyota Celica past large boulders blocking a forest-service dirt road, searching for a place to let his dog run, family members said.

But the road was rough, and he first got one flat tire, then, after swapping with a spare, another, Morovich said.

When Willingham didn't return home for the night, family members worried, and called Posted byities that night.

"The whole family has been out looking for 10 days," Morovich said.

After days of searching, deputies received a call that a resident above Glennville had seen Rudy wandering, barking.

A woman tried to coax the dog into her car, but it would only get so close before running back up the mountain, toward Willingham, the family said.

The dog's sighting led rescue teams to Willingham's car Saturday, and around it they also found campfire scars and empty water bottles.

Finally, Sunday, the teams found his body by a stream about five miles from his car toward Glennville.

The Glennville lights may have enticed him to try and walk to the small town, Search and Rescue Cmdr. Rocky Lacertoso said.

But Willingham had liver cancer and needed medication daily, Morovich said. Without it, he most likely got confused and may not have been able to get himself out of the woods.

When searchers arrived, Rudy was back by his side, growling and barking. He wouldn't let the teams get close until Sheriff's Capt. Bob Fallon gave him jerky and made friends, Lacertoso said.

Sunday night, Rudy was back with his family, after crying the whole way down the mountain.

Morovich said the dog would go to the vet today.

"In some ways you beat yourself up because you want to say your final goodbyes," she said. "We're so sorry we didn't get there in time. It just leaves a lot of stuff you'd like to say. 'Did we tell you we love you?' All those things you didn't get a chance to say.

"Some day we will."