Search for missing geologists suspended

Sunday, July 11, 1999 | 9:08 a.m.

Nye County sheriff's Lt. Tony Philips said the sheriff's office had been planning to send a 20-member search team on four-wheelers into rugged terrain Saturday to search for geologists Steve Karolyi, 62, and Kenneth Moore, 42.

The two Coos Bay, Ore., scientists are believed to have gone to an area in northern Nye County, about 100 miles east of Tonopah, on June 21 to stake out a potentially valuable gold claim.

Karolyi and Moore were reported missing when they never showed for a June 29 meeting with an Oregon businessman who gave them thousands for the project.

Late Friday afternoon, Philips said Coos Bay police contacted a woman who said she is Karolyi's girlfriend. The woman, whose name was not released, told police she believes Karolyi is alive and well, but she could not tell them where he is.

The development in the case does not explain, however, why the two failed to meet in Tonopah with the project financier Roger Villaneuve, owner of Villaneuve and Associates. Villaneuve said he gave the pair $15,000 to stake the claim, and he was preparing to give the two thousands more to complete the project during the meeting.

Nye County initiated a search for the two on Tuesday and called in the Civil Air Patrol for assistance.

Volunteer pilots with the Civil Air Patrol flew over a 100-mile region in northern Nye County for four days until about 4 p.m. Friday, when the search was canceled.

Philips said he is at a loss to explain where the men are, but it's feasible they could be out in the desert staking the claim, or that they could have vanished on their own accord.

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