"I have a really hard time believing that he would get lost": Wife of missing hunter

Coos Bay, Ore.- Stephanie Higgins can’t believe the turn her family’s life has taken the last few weeks. The man she has known and loved since she was a teenager is missing in the Curry County wilderness.

“My husband and I dated since we were 15 and we used to skip school and go turkey hunting up there,” said Higgins of the area off Bear Camp Rd. where her husband, Shawn, disappeared about three weeks ago.

Shawn and his son, Trevor, were hunting in the area with family. When Shawn didn’t make it back to a meeting place, Trevor went looking for him. According to his mother, Trevor was navigating his way through a treacherous area, when he ran out of daylight. Rather than risk getting even deeper into the wilderness, he built himself a shelter where he was found four days later.

“It was bittersweet because I really had in my mind for those four days that they were together, that Trevor ran into his dad,” said Stephanie. “And that wasn’t the case. He never saw him.”

Trevor was rushed to the hospital and treated for hypothermia. Stephanie says he’s now back at work at will make a full recovery.

But the mystery of what happened to Shawn still remains.

“It’s very unlike him. He’s definitely an outdoorsman and it’s just really unbelievable. Out of all the people- that’s what people keep saying,” said Stephanie with a sigh. “I have a really hard time believing that he would get lost. I mean, that is the one thing that really bothers me. That, and the fact that we have found nothing, literally nothing. He’s just gone.”

While the official search has been called off, the Curry County Sheriff’s Office says it will continue sending search crews in as resources allow. It’s asked people who don’t know the area not to go in on their own. Stephanie agrees.

“If I could, I’d send 300,000 people down there. I’m desperate. But you can’t just send anyone down there, they won’t come out.”

For now, Stephanie will continue hoping, praying, waiting and looking. And her family and friends will continue to help her and her boys make it through.

“There’s still a lot of good in this world,” Stephanie said of the last few weeks. “A lot of it came from my little town.”