QUILCENE — Intensive search efforts by numerous agencies have not yielded any clues to the whereabouts of a Kitsap County man missing since Sept. 15, the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management reports.
“After efforts by personnel from multiple agencies, we have scaled back the search today,” incident commander Joe Nole said Friday of the search for Cecil Mann of Port Orchard. Nole is chief criminal deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.
Mann, 76, left his home at approximately 10 a.m. Sept. 15. Family members concluded he had gone fishing when they noticed some of his fishing gear was missing. Mann recently moved to Washington state from Oregon and was unfamiliar with the area.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department began searching for Mann on Sept. 16 after hearing from Mann’s family that he had not returned home.
Mann had made a call to his granddaughter from his cell phone on Saturday. The message he left was garbled. However, before his phone was turned off, records indicated that he was in the Quilcene area of Jefferson County.
On Sept. 17, a hiker reported finding Mann’s car, a 2007 Ford Focus, about nine miles off Highway 101 in the Tunnel Creek area of the Hood Canal-Quilcene north forest district. The undercarriage of the car had been significantly damaged from traveling along deeply rutted roads, according to Nole.
Coordination of the ground search was turned over to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 18. Search and rescue teams canvassed the area, comprised of very steep terrain, until nightfall. A helicopter search was completed by the Border Patrol and Guardian One out of King County. Neither agency reported seeing any signs of the missing man.
Agencies involved in the search included Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, Kitsap Explorer Search and Rescue, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson Search and Rescue, Clallam Search and Rescue, three K9 teams, Olympic Mountain Rescue and Jefferson County Emergency Management.
Mann is described as Caucasian, 5 feet 8 inches, 135 pounds, with blue eyes and gray hair. He is wearing either a tan or green windbreaker jacket and blue jeans.
Anyone with information about Mann’s whereabouts should call one of the following:
— Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Nole, (360) 344-9747.
— Kitsap County Sheriff’s Detective Nicole Menge, (360) 340-5722.
— Kitsap County Detective Sgt. Eric Bockelie, (360) 340-5645.
— Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound, 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
