WA: Police worried about US rescue team

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-1999
WA: Police worried about US rescue team

By Paul Ruffini and Andrea Mayes

PERTH, Aug 17 AAP - An American rescue team that flew into Western Australia today to
search for a US adventurer missing in the desert may also be risking their lives, police warn.

Sergeant Wally Wolfe from Broome Police, who was involved in the aborted search for
33-year-old Robert Bogucki from Alaska, said the Miami-based 1st Special Response Group did
not know the terrain and could need rescuing themselves.

The Australian Quarantine Service has allowed the eight rescuers to bring in three cadaver
dogs to sniff for Mr Bogucki's body.

"This desert is different to other deserts," Sgt Wolfe said.

"It's not a flat desert, it has very harsh terrain and they are going to find it very rough
going."

Sgt Wolfe said he could not understand why they were bringing dogs in.

When police abandoned the search for Mr Bogucki eight days ago, they had confined the
search area to 600 square kilometres approximately 280km east of the Great Northern Highway.

"The dogs will last about five minutes out there in the spinifex," Sgt Wolfe said.

"It's not just a stroll in the park."

He said the group had made no inquiries about the terrain and were unlikely to have any
knowledge about Australian desert conditions.

"The question I have is, who rescues the rescuers?" he asked.

Mr Bogucki's parents, Ray and Betty, asked the Special Response Group to try to recover the
body of their son, a volunteer fireman, who has been missing in the Great Sandy Desert for
more than three weeks.

Ray Bogucki holds out little hope his son is alive but would like to give him a Christian
burial.

Group leader Garrison St Clair said today they wanted to add a "fresh perspective" to the
search with the dogs, and had flown over at the request of the family and the US State
Department.

"There's certainly some question in everyone's mind whether Mr Bogucki is still alive at
this point, so the dogs will be given commands to look for possible remains as well as a
living individual," Mr St Clair told ABC radio.

The Special Response Group - made up of volunteers drawn from the military, police and
emergency services - helped recover bodies following last year's tsunami on Papua New Guinea's
north-west coast.

Major Len Tracey from the Australian Army's regional surveillance unit at Karratha said
there was unlikely to be much left of Mr Bogucki's remains because of desert scavengers.

However, Major Tracey, who has taken desert survival courses, said there was a remote
chance Mr Bogucki was alive, as there was water in the desert and food could be taken from fig
trees and other flowering plants.

"I reckon if he's dead it's going to be a hard search," Major Tracey said.

"But, you know, maybe if it was my son I'd be willing to pay for the long shot."

Meanwhile, Sgt Wolfe said today that the army surveillance unit based at Broome had refused
an earlier request to help in the search for Mr Bogucki.

"We asked them and they were going on an exercise and wouldn't change their itinerary from
where they were going down in the desert," Sgt Wolfe said.

Mr Bogucki's bike and camping gear were found at the beginning of the Great Sandy Desert on
July 26. He had written to his parents telling them he planned to cross the desert.

AAP pr/kr

KEYWORD: CYCLIST NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.