MERLIN, Ore. (AP) - It started as a little mistake as the Kim family missed a freeway turnoff while driving home to San Francisco from a Thanksgiving vacation, then decided to take a one-lane road through snowy mountains rather than doubling back to the main highway.
But small things added up to death for James Kim. The car carrying Kim, his wife Kati and their two young daughters bogged down in falling snow, and they parked on what they thought was a visible spot along the remote road.
With almost no food or water, the family waited a week, running the car to keep warm at night, then burning the tires. When the small supply of baby food ran out, Kati Kim nursed her daughters, Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months. James Kim sampled berries that grew among the towering Douglas firs around them.
On Saturday, Kim made a series of fatal errors, setting off on foot for help, then leaving the road after about three miles and fighting his way through the rugged countryside, ending up down the Big Windy Creek canyon.
On Monday, a helicopter hired by the family spotted Kati waving an umbrella and rescued her and the two girls.
For two days, helicopters and rescue teams combed the woods looking for the father.
Just after noon on Wednesday, a helicopter hired by the family spotted his body in Big Windy Creek about a half mile from where it joins the Rogue River, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said.
Members of the Jackson County SWAT team were lowered from a helicopter, loaded the body in a litter, and flew it out. An autopsy will be performed.
Kim had walked about eight miles from the car before he died.
After the body was discovered, the family remained in seclusion.
The Kims had been active in the San Francisco area. James Kim wrote reviews about digital music and audio devices for CNET Networks Inc.'s Web site and on a blog. He also appeared on the company's video segments and on television. Kati Kim ran a pair of boutiques the couple owned.
The rescuers were "devastated," said Anderson, who had to turn away from the microphones, overcome by emotion, after announcing Kim's death. "Most of us breathed and lived this for days. You do take it personally."
Authorities said that over a period of days, Kati Kim recalled more and more details that allowed them to piece together her husband's final days.
After visiting Seattle and Portland over the Thanksgiving holiday, the family headed back to California, planning to stay overnight at a luxury lodge along the Rogue River near Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast.
After stopping for dinner in Roseburg on Nov. 25, they headed south on Interstate 5, intending to cross the Coast Range on Oregon Highway 42.
Kati Kim told searchers that when they realized they had missed the turnoff, they looked at a roadmap and found a direct route that went from the little town of Merlin over the mountains to Gold Beach. They did not consult their two laptop computers for an online map.
After leaving the freeway, the Kims drove past a gas station, pizza parlor and coffee shop. On the way they passed at least three yellow signs warning that Bear Camp Road to Agnes and Gold Beach might be blocked by snowdrifts.
The road is paved but one-lane, originally built to haul logs out of the Siskiyou National Forest. It is now mostly used by rafters after descending the popular wild and scenic section of the Rogue River in summer. It is not plowed in the winter.
Driving higher through the snow in their all-wheel-drive silver Saab station wagon, the Kims came to a fork. A fourth yellow sign warned of snowdrifts blocking the way if they took the left fork to Gold Beach. They took the right fork, not knowing where it went.
Kati Kim told searchers they got stuck in snow once, managed to get turned around, then decided to stay put because they were low on gas. They stayed with the car more than a week, running the engine for heat and after the gas ran out huddling together inside for warmth.
James Kim left the car, and then the road, and bushwhacked five miles down the steep canyon, covering about eight miles through rough country, but ending up about a mile as the crow flies from the car. Some time later Kati Kim left a note in the car, then headed out herself shortly before she was found, Anderson said.
"It seems superhuman to me to cover that amount of distance given what he had," said Anderson.
After finding Kati Kim, searchers poured into the surrounding area. Trained trackers followed Kim's footprints through the snow until they descended the Big Windy below the snow line, then scuffs in the mud and mossy rocks through the underbrush. The weather remained dry, but temperatures dipped well below freezing at night. Fog hung in the creek bottom.
On Tuesday searchers were heartened to find first a pair of pants Kim had be wearing over his jeans, then farther down the creek some other wet clothing - two shirts, a cap, a sock and a girl's skirt. A searcher had to be lowered from a helicopter to gather them up.
"They were laid out in a well defined area, in a pattern," state police Lt. Gregg Hastings said. The pattern led officers to hope that "little signs are being left by James."
But an expert on hypothermia said it was a bad sign: victims of cold often feel a false sense of warmth and shed their clothes.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
