ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine — Searchers on Sunday returned en masse to the area where an Ellsworth man is believed to have gone missing in January, but once again came up empty.
John Kelly, management specialist for Acadia National Park, said Monday that 30 trained searchers gathered Sunday to hunt in the area of Sargent Mountain for Timothy Philpott. The group was led by members of the Maine Warden Service and included 10 canine search teams, park staff and volunteers with Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue.
“They were searching the last known location,” Kelly said, adding that cell phone tower data suggests that Philpott hiked to the top of Sargent Mountain on the day he was last seen two months ago.
“We had no luck yesterday,” Kelly said.
Philpott, 50, was last seen about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12, in Ellsworth, Acadia officials have said. Rangers began searching for him the following morning after park maintenance staff noticed his car had been left overnight at the Parkman Mountain parking area on Route 198 near Northeast Harbor.
Backcountry overnight camping is not allowed in the park, which is why park personnel became concerned. In the winter, the only place overnight camping is allowed in Acadia is at Blackwoods Campground, about 4 miles away as the crow flies from where Philpott’s vehicle was found.
Kelly said the large, organized effort on Sunday, during which temperatures reached around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, was the first since the most recent snowfall accumulation several weeks ago. He said rangers have been conducting cursory searches since then as time allows, but have not turned up any additional evidence about where Philpott may be.
When the agencies might coordinate another large search effort is unknown, he said.
“There’s nothing planned at the moment,” Kelly said.
