PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — On Monday morning, a day after he and his friend didn’t return home, a missing hunter was found by Linn County deputies before he was arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Deputies said Bryan Keith Spaulding, 52, was located at 11:03 a.m. in the Crabtree Lake area outside of Sweet Home where he was hunting. He was later lodged in Linn County Jail. The firearm he was charged with possessing was his hunting rifle.
The search began after 9 p.m. on Sunday when deputies said the wife of Spaulding’s friend called the Sheriff’s Office, saying her husband and Spaulding hadn’t returned home from a hunting trip. An hour later the woman called off the search because she had heard from her husband.
Then, at 2:17 a.m., the wife called deputies again. Her husband and Spaulding had not returned and she was concerned. Deputies said they responded to the area and located Spaulding’s friend, who said Spaulding never returned to the vehicle after trying to “flush out some elk.”
Spaulding was then located at 11:03 this morning. He didn’t require medical attention.
