WALLACE — The recent death of a hunter in southern Shoshone County has raised questions about the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office procedures for handling lost or missing people in the surrounding wilderness. 

On the morning of Nov. 6, the sheriff’s office received a call about two overdue hunters — an older man and a woman — who had been hunting in the Clarkia region. According to the SCSO, the hunters called a family member around 4 p.m. the previous day to say they were stuck in the snow but planned to ride their ATV out. 

By 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the hunters were located by a private search party, but the man had died. 

Interim Sheriff Lance Stutzke said the office followed its normal procedure for overdue persons, which begins with gathering as much information as possible, checking the residence and planning initial search efforts.

Stutzke put out a release on the SCSO Facebook page explaining the timeline of events and how they were involved in the search. One of the more prevalent questions that appeared in the comments was: Why wasn't search and rescue called in to assist?

"At what point did SCSO call SAR (search and rescue) for help?" Wyatt Cowan asked. "Or mutual aid from neighboring counties? There are a lot of resources willing to help, yet you rarely ever ask."

Deputies attempted to ping the hunters’ cellphones, but the triangulated signal only indicated the phones were somewhere between Wallace and Clarkia, an area of roughly 500 square miles, Stutzke said. 

Family members were already searching the region, and the sheriff’s office deployed its backcountry team to assist. The search lasted about 10 hours. 

“I know people are wondering why search and rescue wasn’t immediately called in,” Stutzke said. “But that isn’t how we do that. There are steps we follow before we do that because, almost always, the initial search efforts are successful, or the missing people find their way out.” 

Stutzke said if the initial call had indicated an emergency beyond the hunters being overdue, search and rescue would have been dispatched immediately. The only information they had was that the hunters were stuck and planned to get out via ATV. 

“After the initial call and search efforts by our deputies, we were in the initial conversations concerning dispatching search and rescue,” Stutzke said. “But the hunters were located within 30 to 40 minutes of those discussions beginning.” 

Silver Valley Search and Rescue, a volunteer organization created to assist in such situations, was not called to help. SVSAR President Robert Wheelock said that isn’t uncommon. 

Wheelock said liability issues prevent his group from responding unless officially requested by the sheriff’s office. 

“It doesn’t matter who requests us. We can’t go until they call us out,” Wheelock said. 

Because they are a volunteer group, the group is only covered by the county's insurance when they are officially called.

Wheelock said his volunteers would love to be called out immediately in these situations but understands protocols exist.

“My challenge is that these protocols ultimately change whenever a new sheriff comes in,” Wheelock said. 

Stutzke said it is unknown whether exposure or an underlying medical condition caused the man’s death. The matter remains under investigation. 

“We get many calls every year of overdue hunters or outdoor recreators. The vast majority turn up quickly and everyone is OK,” Stutzke said. “We are very sorry to the family of the deceased and truly wish this had a better outcome.”