Family of a Gainesville native who has been missing for a week since going hiking on Blood Mountain say they are still hopeful he will be found safe.
Charles Hosch, age 67, was last seen hiking on the Byron Herbert Reece Trailhead near the Lumpkin-Union county line on Tuesday, Nov. 11. His daughter, Julia Hosch, spoke on WDUN’s “The Martha Zoller Show” Tuesday morning, Nov. 18, saying it’s still unclear what happened to him on the trail.
“We know that he parked his car at the trailhead. We have credible belief, based on somebody he talked to on the trail, that he got all the way up by 1:30 p.m., and we just don’t know what happened to him on the way down,” Hosch said. “We just can’t find him.”
Law enforcement and emergency response agencies from across the North Georgia mountains have aided in the search, using search and rescue teams, K9s, drones, helicopters and volunteers.
Julia Hosch said her father was an experienced hiker who was well-versed in the Blood Mountain area and trails. She also said they do not believe he intended to be on the trail for long.
“He was an Eagle Scout here…This is a day hike that dad has done many times before,” Hosch said. “For whatever reason, this one went differently. The challenge is, he was not really prepared or dressed for a multi-day excursion in the woods, and so we’re sort of racing against hours here to give him the best chance possible.”
Charles Hosch is a Gainesville native, but was living most recently in Dallas, teaching law at Southern Methodist University. He also started a law practice in Texas. Julia Hosch said Charles was back in Georgia, visiting family, when he went on the hike.
“He was here visiting with his older brother, Hayward,” Julia Hosch said. “He drives a lot. He did it a lot to visit his parents, and was driving back to Dallas on Wednesday morning (Nov. 12), but on his way back, we wanted to go hike Blood Mountain.”
She said the family and search teams are continuing to ask Northeast Georgia residents to share Charles’ photos and information in the hopes that someone who may have encountered him on the trail that day may have some information leading to his location.
“If there’s a chance that he talked to somebody on this trail, if anybody saw him, had a conversation with him, that gives us one more time stamp of where he was on this trail, and it helps us narrow down our search,” Hosch said. “If you were there, please connect with us and the (Union County) Sheriff’s Office. If you weren’t there, please continue sharing, because you might be the link to somebody that we haven’t been able to reach yet.”
The Union County Sheriff’s Office has asked anyone with information on Hosch’s location to call their Emergency Operations Center at 706-439-6091.
The post Family of Charles Hosch “still hanging in” a week into search appeared first on AccessWdun.
