Community News

Family of missing hiker wait on authorities

Story by Suzanne Nielsen; photo by Michael Chammaa and reprinted with permission of the Daily Herald.

February 14, 2007

The family of missing New Jersey hiker Joel Gove (47) are waiting to hear from American and Netherlands Antilles authorities to determine the next step in their search for Gove.

Gove's former wife Amy Gonzales, who has been on Saba twice since Gove disappeared December 28th, told The Daily Herald yesterday that that the search would continue to concentrate on Saba because of the reaction of the Cadaver Dogs recently here.

The search dogs, who spent the last week of January on Saba, indicated human remains in a steep ravine on the north side of the island. Since Gove was the only person to have gone missing in that time frame, the group felt there was a high possibility that Gove's body was located on this area. No other evidence, such as Gove's backpack, water bottle, or an article of clothing, was found, however.

Merrill's Investigations of Maine organized the search, and owner Mike Harrington, who accompanied the seven-dog team to Saba, said that the dogs were trained to recognized human remains, and would definitely not have confused this with an animal cadaver.

Harrington said that his group would organize a focused search of the area, if called upon by the family. This would entail creating a search pattern grid and using GPS to cover the ground thoroughly. There has been talk of rappelling into the ravine off the surrounding cliffs, although locals see this as improbable given the terrain. Local hiker Michael Chammaa, who has scoured the area four times, said that it is so overgrown, it would be impossible to spot anything from the air.

Both Gonzales and Harrington said that there is no posted reward for recovering the body, contrary to island rumors. Since the team left Saba on January 27th, numerous locals have penetrated the area several times from below and above. Again, nothing has been located.

Gonzales said that $50,000 has been spent so far and she is continuing with fund raising to defray the costs of a continued ground search and has spoken to New Jersey government officials and politicians to get their attention and support.

The ravine where cadaver dogs spelled human remains is steep and over grown.

Click here for a larger version of the photo.


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Story © Suzanne Nielsen, 2007.