Search for Koch Called Off

Update:  Talking with Karen Koch

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The official search for missing hiker David Koch has been called off.  Here is the message from his sister Karen Koch, left on the Naked Conversations blog's comments:

I want to say a special thanks to the North Shore Search and Rescue workers, and all the SAR teams from Rainier, Washington, Coquitlam, as well as others that have been involved in the search and rescue effort for my brother David Koch... Please know that our hearts are truly filled with the deepest, deepest appreciation for all your efforts, we can never thank you enough for all you have done...That in and of itself has been the biggest gift you could give us and to my brother David...It has been an extremely painful, and harrowing experience to be faced with, feeling so helpless as a family member and loved one..to not be able to reach out and indeed be an integral part of the team on the front lines...you know...to be the one to see the first glimpse of David, to grab hold of him and save him from whatever peril may have befallen him...Your efforts in this quest have not gone unnoticed, nor unappreciated...We know you have given much physically, mentally as well as emotionally and/or of spirit in your own ways...for us it is as if you have offered David, and our family a breath with every step you trode throughout Grouse Mountain..for that we will never forget you efforts...

It is hard on all of us now that the search in one form has ceased..an empty feeling in the pit of you inside..a whole with nothing to fill it...My mother is facing the emptiness of her birthday tomorrow, June 6th, without her son...

I ask you keep us all in your prayers at his time, especially my mother, as her birthday is tommorrow, June 6th..as the search is called off for David...

Again many thanks for the efforts and wishes of all,
sincerely and brokenheatedly

Karen Koch

The family says they plan to continue a search in some form.  For ongoing information,  check out the family's web site for the missing Wisconsin man.

Aside from the total lack of clues to Koch's possible whereabouts, the case has been unusual because of the extent of pick-up by bloggers.  Media in Vancouver and Wisconsin have covered the story, but bloggers have been credited with keeping the story current with regular postings.