Story Published: Feb 9, 2012 at 2:59 PM PDT
Story Updated: Feb 9, 2012 at 2:59 PM PDT
Senior Trooper Don Frerichs helping Jason Cooper where he was found in the woods.
ROSEBURG, Ore. - A man who ran into the woods wearing shorts and sandals after a fender bender on a remote stretch of Oregon highway on Monday was located Wednesday afternoon, 48 hours after he disappeared.
Jason D. Cooper, 37, of Temecula, Calif., was taken to Mercy Medical Center where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
The case started Monday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m.with a report of a traffic crash on Highway 138E near the Lemolo Lake junction.
Oregon State Police troopers arrived on the scene around 3:30 p.m. One of the drivers involved in the two-car crash told troopers that a man got out of the other vehicle acting strangely and fled south into the woods wearing a fleece jacket, shorts and sandals.
Troopers trudged through foot-deep snow following the man's tracks for more than a mile. The search was called off due to darkness. Troopers continued to patrol the area until midnight looking for Cooper.
State police contacted lodges in the area and a state transit outpost, warning them that a man may be on foot in the area and to contact police if he was spotted.
There were no reports Tuesday, so OSP Roseburg Patrol Sergeant Dave Randall and Fish & Wildlife Division Senior Trooper Don Frerichs returned to the area at 9 a.m. Wednesday to renew the search.
They found tracks leading across the highway to the north. Randall and Frerichs followed the tracks into the woods on foot for about five miles to a point where it appeared the tracks headed further away from the highway on a remote road.
They returned back to their pickup, got the snowmobiles they had brought with them and traveled up the remote road about 1 ½ miles where they found Cooper lying on the ground covered with tree branches.
Cooper, who had no food or water, told them he couldn’t walk anymore and used the branches to try to keep warm.
Frerichs gave Cooper a sandwich and water before taking him back to the highway on a snowmobile.
An ambulance from Roseburg met the troopers and Cooper mid-way and took the hypothermic Cooper to the hospital for treatment.
