Missing ATV rider found after four-day search

Published 10:08 pm Sunday, September 7, 2008

SEATTLE — An ATV rider who was missing for four days in Spokane County is reported to be in critical condition at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center with head injuries.

Twenty-one-year-old John Wipf was taken to the Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane on Sunday and then was transferred to Harborview on Sunday evening.

Wipf was found at the bottom of a steep embankment about a quarter-mile south of the area crews and family members had been searching in south Spokane County.

Rescue crews called off the official search for Wipf on Saturday night, but members of his church and family continued looking for him. One of them found him and his ATV on the side of a ravine Sunday.

Wipf was last seen about 10 a.m. Wednesday. Searchers began looking for him Thursday.