View full sizeSenior Trooper Don Frerichs lends a hand to Jason D. Cooper, 37, after he was discovered beneath pine boughs in an attempt to keep warm in remote area of Douglas County Wednesday.It started out Monday afternoon as a minor traffic accident, a low-speed rear-ender on a high Cascades highway that traverses the Umpqua National Forest near Diamond Lake.
But what startled the driver who had been hit from behind wasn't so much the crash, but the actions of the other motorist.
That man, wearing shorts, sandals and a light fleece top, got out of his car, ran south and disappeared into the deep woods.
Oregon State Police troopers, including Sgt. Dave Randall, arrived on scene in about 90 minutes. They followed tracks for about a mile through the 2-foot snowpack, but had to stop at dark. They patrolled the area until midnight, without any sign of the man.
It might have ended there, but after searching the man's car and calling his family on the cellphone he left behind, their concern heightened.
Randall discovered that the man, 37-year-old Jason D. Cooper of Temecula, Calif., was a former Marine sniper who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had run-ins with law enforcement, including an assault on an officer.
"I found out that he had panic attacks during stressful situations and sometimes just had to run away," said Randall, also an ex-Marine.
The troopers became concerned about the survival chances of a man dressed for a cool summer night, not the subfreezing temperatures of the central Oregon Cascades in winter. After alerting rangers and the crew at a nearby Oregon Department of Transportation maintenance facility, they left.
A day passed but on Wednesday, Randall and Senior Trooper Don Frerichs of the Fish and Wildlife Division returned to the crash scene at milepost 71 south of Lemolo Lake.
Just to the north of the highway, they discovered tracks in the snow that led into the forest.
"There was no sky to be seen in there," Randall said.
They followed the tracks for five miles until they came to a rough road, where the tracks continued into the deep snow. "We were beat, exhausted," Randall said.
So he and Frerichs trudged back to their vehicle and hopped on snowmobiles they had brought along and retraced their steps.
Randall said Frerichs was in his element during the search. In July 2005, Frerichs saw a woman slip and fall into the swift-moving North Umpqua River. He ran for a half-mile along the river's bank as the woman's screams began to fade. He got ahead of her, jumped into the river and hauled her to shore. For his efforts, he won an Oregon Peace Officers Association lifesaving award.
Around 3 p.m. Wednesday and about a 1 1/2 miles beyond where they had turned around, the officers came upon Cooper. He was laying on the ground, covered with pine boughs he had gathered to keep warm, but was obviously suffering from hypothermia.
Because of his past contact with police, Randall addressed him as Staff Sgt. Cooper and asked him how he was doing.
"He asked me how I knew he was a Marine and I said, 'Hey, a Marine always knows a fellow Marine.' After that, we were fast friends."
Cooper told the troopers that at one point he removed his sandals because the straps were cutting his feet. He walked several miles through deep, crusty snow in his bare feet until the ice slashed into his skin, so he put the sandals back on.
He told them that he was so cold he could not stand up. When Randall asked him if he was scared being out in the woods alone for two days, Cooper replied, "Of what?"
After Randall and Frerichs gave Cooper a sandwich and extra clothing, they bundled him onto a snowmobile and took him back to the highway. An ambulance took him to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, and from there he was transferred to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland, where he was listed Thursday in fair condition.
Cooper does not face charges related to the incident, police said.
"The amazing thing is he will not have any long-lasting effects from the hypothermia or frostbite," Randall said. "He's a tough, tough guy, physically and mentally tough. The real deal."