The story was compelling. A Marine home on leave from his first tour of duty in Iraq was injured in a fall while hiking down a mountain with a friend and vanished after the friend went to call for help.
As one of the largest search and rescue operations in state history was under way, speculation ran high that the marine, Lance Corporal Lance Hering, 21, might have lost his memory or become disoriented as a result of his head injury, or that a mountain lion or bear had attacked him.
On the second day of the search, investigators began to have their suspicions and have since said that it was all probably a hoax and that the Marine might be on the run.
"The mystery has gotten deeper," Lloyd Hering, the corporal's father, said.
What is known is that Lance Hering left his parents' house on Aug. 29 to hike with Steve Powers, a high school friend.
The search lasted five days, using helicopters, dogs and hundreds of volunteers, before being called off.
In the first days of the search, Hering's mother, Elynne, wore a T-shirt with the Marine motto, "Semper Fi," as she combed the mountains. She later collapsed from dehydration and exhaustion.
Powers also joined the search team, with many risking their lives.
Days after the search ended, Powers confessed to detectives that it had all been a set-up to help Hering avoid returning to Iraq. Powers, a student at the University of Colorado, was charged with false reporting, a misdemeanor.
Calls to Powers' lawyer were not returned, and his father, answering a call to his house, said his son was not answering questions.
Hering's parents now say that they do not know what to believe and that they fear that their son may be a victim of foul play.
"There is no shred of evidence at all to confirm this man's new story," Lloyd Hering said of Powers' confession. "It may be as completely false as the lies he told us all for 10 days."
Lloyd Hering is a Vietnam veteran, and the corporal's brother Brendan, 23, who flew in to join the search, is in the Air Force. The family has repeatedly said Lance Hering, who is due back at Camp Pendleton, California, tomorrow, is a proud Marine who would not flee.
"His parents have one perspective," the Boulder County sheriff's commander of detectives, Phil West, said. "A couple of people have come forward saying Lance thought it would be cool to stage his own death and go live in a foreign country under an assumed name."
West said the authorities would seek restitution for the more than US$10,000 that the search cost.
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