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Bodies found at crash site near Wimer By BILL KETTLER WIMER - The bodies of an elderly Wimer man and a California woman were found late Sunday two days after they set out on a drive to take in some local scenery. Police said Richard Tripp, 76, died of injuries suffered when the 1941 Willys Jeep he was driving ran off a logging road about 10 miles north of Wimer. His passenger, a California woman of approximately the same age, also died in the crash. Police declined to identify her until relatives have been notified. Jackson County sheriff's deputy Larry Walters said the woman had come to visit Tripp, and he decided to take her for a ride Friday evening to look at the Pleasant Creek Valley. They set out sometime around 6:30 p.m. Roads in the hills north of Wimer climb to more than 3,000 feet, providing picturesque viewpoints and panoramic vistas that extend more than 40 miles to the southwest. Walters said Tripp's family called the sheriff Sunday when they became concerned for their father. Jackson County Search and Rescue units were called in to search for the pair, and dozens of volunteers cruised a maze of dusty gravel roads looking for them. Search and rescue volunteers riding on a spur of Bureau of Land Management Road 34-4-10 noticed a tree with a fresh scar and stopped to investigate about 5 p.m. Walters said they saw the Jeep about 100 feet down from the side of the road. Tripp had been ejected from the vehicle. The woman's body was still in the passenger seat. Neither was wearing seat belts, Walters said. "They had a roll bar," said Ralph van der Star, who coordinated the search. "But it didn't do them much good." A tire mark on the side of the road suggested the Jeep may have left the road as it was coming downhill, but Walters said the cause of the accident could not be immediately determined. There were no skid marks to indicate Tripp had lost control of the Jeep. Walters said it was impossible to know when the accident occurred, "but we're pretty sure it didn't happen today." Search and rescue volunteers worked for about an hour to remove each body, loading them on a litter, then guiding the litter up the side of the hill while a winch lifted it to the road. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.