Search for Missing CTUIR Member Expands Away from Umatilla River

MISSION – The search area in the case of missing Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member Wesley Dixon Jones has moved away from the Umatilla River to more land-oriented areas, according to the Umatilla Tribal Police Department (UTPD).

UTPD Det. William Morris said with the help of CTUIR’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) an aerial drone search was conducted Nov. 18 in three previously unsearched locations. Citing the investigation, Morris did not specify the locations other than they were farther away from the Umatilla River.

“The new searches, which included the drone, are more land-oriented than river-oriented,” he said. “And that’s really the main nature of the expansion, to move into fields with tall grass that you can’t easily see something that a drone would be able to see more easily.”

Morris said even though Jones hasn’t been found, the search and investigation are ongoing.

“One way of looking at it is that it (Nov. 18 search) didn’t yield anything,” he said. “The other way of looking at it, which is how I look at it, is that it ruled out certain things. We don’t know where Mr. Jones is, but we know he’s not in those fields.”

According to GIS, the drone used for the search has wide-angle and telephoto cameras that capture high-resolution images and video.

The 71-year-old Jones was last seen at approximately 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 5 along east Short Mile Road on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in a gray 2003 Ford Escape with Oregon license plate SM15454. When the vehicle returned west on the same road Jones was no longer visible in it. The driver’s identity hasn’t been disclosed because of the investigation.

Jones is described as a 5-feet, 8-inch-tall Native American weighing approximately 140 pounds with long black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black and red Tiger Scott jacket, black shirt, black sweatpants and boots.

Since Oct. 6, the UTPD has conducted searches with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue, aerial drone searches over parts of the Umatilla River and searches on foot. Other areas included in the investigation are between Cayuse and Bingham roads as well as Short Mile Road to Cayuse Road, including River Road.

During the weekend of Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 a search led by the MMIW Search & Hope Alliance included an area east of Sampson Lane and Short Mile Road along the railroad right-of-way, as well as upriver around the Cayuse community.

Anyone with information regarding the case can call the UTPD at 541-278-0550.

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is comprised of the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla Tribes, and formed under the Treaty of 1855 at the Walla Walla Valley, 12 Stat. 945. In 1949, the Tribes adopted a constitutional form of government to protect, preserve and enhance the reserved treaty rights guaranteed under federal law.