NORTH BEND, Wash. (AP) - The search for a wing suit-wearing skydiver in the Washington Cascade foothills will continue by helicopter as the weather allows, but officials don't expect to find him alive.
No one saw a parachute Thursday, and if 29-year-old Kurt Ruppert, of Lake City, Fla., was caught in a tree or lost in the forest, the King County sheriff's office believes he's dead of hypothermia.
Sgt. Cindi West says the ground search was suspended Sunday after dozens of searchers covered 9 square miles at Mount Si (SY), a steep and heavily forested 4,200-foot peak about 30 miles east of Seattle.
Fog prevented a helicopter search Monday.
Ruppert was taking turns with two friends who were waiting on the ground when he jumped out of a helicopter at 6,500 feet.
