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One year later, disappearance still mystifies By CHRIS BRISTOL MailTribune.com By CHRIS BRISTOL Posted May. 28, 2000 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:21 AM By CHRIS BRISTOL Posted May. 28, 2000 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:21 AM » Social News Medford native's plane, lost near Spokane, hasn't been found Bathed in warm sun on the tarmac at a small airport in suburban Spokane, Wash., Leslie Morgan watched as her husband, Tim, climbed aboard a single-engine Cessna 152 for a routine instruction flight. Have fun, Leslie said, quickly adding, I love ya. Tim smiled, indulging his wife as always. Love you too, he shot back. Moments later, the little orange-and-white two-seat trainer lifted off and quickly made altitude, heading east toward the rugged Idaho border on the horizon. Also on board was Ed Morrett, Tim Morgan's longtime flight instructor. This was a year ago today. The two men were supposed to be gone only 90 minutes. They have not been seen since. Because he was a native of Medford, Tim Morgan's disappearance had repercussions for a number of people in the Rogue Valley. His wife grew up here, too. Their families remain in the area. Tim's parents still live in the house where he grew up, next to McLoughlin Middle School. Teresa Smith of Eagle Point can't believe her 40-year-old brother is still missing. Despite a two-week air-and-ground search that covered thousands of square miles, the wreckage was never found. It was the last thing anybody expected to happen, she says. And Tim not being found, that was absolutely the last thing. Especially for my sister-in-law, Teresa quickly points out. You really ought to call Leslie, she adds. She's the one who's had it the hardest. Tim Morgan and Leslie Childress were both 14 years old when they first met. Technically they had known each other since grade school at Jackson Elementary, but it wasn't until they both got jobs delivering the Mail Tribune that they first met met. I liked his sense of humor, Leslie says, speaking by phone from her home in Elk, Wash., about 20 miles north of Spokane. He claimed he remembered me because I was the little red-haired girl in first grade. They began dating their junior year, graduating from Medford High School in 1976. The year after that, they got married. Then Tim got a job as a commercial printer at Sterling Business Forms, and in short order they had two kids: Mandy, now 22, and Justin, 20. Although she always loved Tim's sense of humor, Leslie says there were lots of other things about him that she liked, too. He was outgoing, she says. Comfortable, too. A little on the stubborn side, but never too proud to admit when he was wrong. Physically awkward as a teenager, he kept getting better looking as a man. Tim also had an adventurous streak, combining his love for the outdoors with the need for speed — — boating, skiing, you name it. Above all, Tim wanted to fly. He literally dreamed about it. He was always talking about it, Leslie says. He used to tell me that in his dreams he was always flying, like a little bird. The family moved to Washington in 1986, when Tim got an offer to transfer to Sterling's operation in Spokane. Four years later he went to work for a spinoff company called Liberty Business Forms. — 1998, with the kids ready to head out on their own, Tim finally decided to pursue his lifelong dream of flying, Leslie says. Training almost exclusively with Morrett, he earned his solo pilot's license in just four months. I knew there was some risk, Leslie says now, but it's almost like you can't stop living and you can't stop pursuing your dreams just because you?re afraid of dying. If it's something you really want to do, you should do it. On May 28, 1999, Tim picked up Leslie from work, and together they drove out to Felts Field. Because they both worked the night shift — Leslie's on the support staff at Sacred Heart Hospital — and since they also live so far out of town, Leslie would usually wait in the car while Tim flew. The flight that day was to be his final run before he could take the test for his full pilot's license. — then, Tim and Morrett, 44, had flown together dozens of times. They did not file a flight plan. The Cessna took off about 12:30 p.m. in clear skies. Since it was supposed to come back about 90 minutes later, Leslie went shopping for an hour or so, then returned to the airport and took a nap in the car. She awakened at 4:15 p.m. and instantly knew something was wrong. The plane had not returned. Airport staff also knew something was probably wrong by then. Attempts to contact the plane by radio proved fruitless, and by 6 p.m. the airport was asking other pilots to search the immediate area, particularly areas where instructors took students for practice. The first night was the hardest, Leslie says. She went home around 7 p.m. to be with Mandy and called Morrett's family. As it turned out, his family was not aware of what was going on. The next day, civil air patrols in Washington and Idaho began a massive aerial search. Volunteer pilots were sent out to search in quadrants of 48 square miles apiece, quickly racking up hundreds of sorties across a wide area of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Search coordinators called for a stand-down nine days later. A related effort on the ground — — concentrating around the defunct Horse Haven airstrip about 15 miles northeast of Coeur d?Alene — ended a few days after that. Witnesses had seen a small plane buzz the runway about the same time the Cessna disappeared from radar. The search was the second-longest for a missing plane in Washington history. Rescuers had never found a survivor more than two days after an airplane crash; the plane's emergency locator transmitter apparently was not functioning. Lt. Col. Karl Moore, of the Washington Civil Air Patrol, says the searchers were hampered by the lack of a flight plan and the rugged terrain. The area where this plane probably is may have been gone over by search planes maybe 100 times, he says, and not once did anyone ever see it because of the heavy tree cover. Leslie, who participated in the search, says she understood the decision to call it off. I think it helped me so much to be able to go and search, she says, because it made me realize what is out there and what they're up against. It's like the trees are so thick and ravines are so deep and the mountains are so high. One day we parked our truck and walked for a little ways. We were probably only 20 feet from the truck, but we couldn't see it because the brush was so thick. Visibility was a constant problem, in large part because there was still snow on the ground in the mountains and the plane was mainly white. One searcher told the local newspaper, It's like looking for a grain of salt in a sugar bowl. In August, Leslie returned to the Rogue Valley for a family get-together at Teresa's home in Eagle Point. The subject was Tim, of course, but nobody called it a memorial. We didn't want to make it something sad, Teresa says. At that point, common sense told us one thing, but our hearts were telling us another thing. Leslie says it's been hard to let go. She knows it would be hard no matter what the circumstances, but not having found the wreckage has made it much more difficult. Her husband's disappearance also has put her in a legal and financial bind. She has to wait eight years before Tim can be declared legally dead, and even though he had life insurance through his company, a Dangerous Activity clause voided any settlement. She also can't make her mortgage, barely scraping by on her wages from the hospital. She and Tim recently had refinanced the house, and now she's talking about letting the bank foreclose. It is a dubious anniversary today. Leslie says she plans to go up to the Horse Haven area and poke around a bit, try to do something constructive. She will be joined by family, including Mandy, who lives with her now. Meanwhile, she's been thinking about moving back to the Rogue Valley. Her parents still live here, and so do her brothers. But it won't be easy. She admits changing her mind about 50 times. I don't feel like I can leave this area until we put closure to this, she says, crying softly. Where he's lost up there is such a beautiful place. I like to go up there whenever I can. It makes me feel close to him. By CHRIS BRISTOL MailTribune.com By CHRIS BRISTOL Posted May. 28, 2000 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:21 AM » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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