David Gimelfarb, 28, Chicago man msg. 8/11/09 Costa Rica

[packy]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/chicago-man-missing-in-costa-rica.html

"Volunteers from the Chicago area are assisting the local Red Cross and Costa Rican authorities to comb the rugged Parque Nacional Rincon de la Vieja in Costa Rica for the whereabouts of David Gimelfarb, 28, a student at the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago. Family said Gimelfarb, a resident of Chicago's Buena Park neighborhood, has not been seen since Aug. 11, when he was seen by a park ranger.

According to a Costa Rican police report filed by his father, David Gimelfarb was staying at the Hotel Guachipelin in Guanacaste province. Roma Gimelfarb tried calling his son at the hotel on Aug. 12, but he couldn't reach him. The hotel told him his son left a day before for the national park and had not returned. Repeated calls yielded no more information, according to the police report.

Worried, the parents traveled to Costa Rica on Thursday. When they arrived, they learned that there was already a search party from the local Red Cross in the park searching for their son. Their son, the group said, went to the park alone for a hike. His rental vehicle, a 2009 Hyundai Tucson, was found in the park. It was locked, according to the police report."

(More at link with his picture)

[packy]

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Grad-Student-Missing-in-Costa-Rica-53350632.html

"The Highland Park parents of 28-year-old graduate student David Gimelfarb are searching their son after he disappeared while hiking in Costa Rica.

The doctoral student who went to South America a week ago was last seen by a park ranger about 10 a.m. on August 11. Gimelfarb was reportedly driving a rented sport-utility vehicle the Parque National Rincon de la Vieja, friend Michael Kipnes told Chicago Breaking News. His parents, Roma and Luda Gimelfarb, have flown to Costa Rica to look for him.

"He [Roma] was OK," Kipnis said about his conversation with David's parents. "She's not holding up very well." (More at Link)

[packy]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-costa-rica-missing-17-aug17,0,6226174.story

"While search crews canvassed a rugged mountain region in northern Costa Rica on Sunday for signs of a missing Chicago doctoral student, friends and family of the man set up camp online to share stories, post updates of the investigation and provide comfort for those struggling with the loss.

By Sunday evening, 167 people had become members of a Facebook group dedicated to the search for David Gimelfarb, 28, a psychology student who vanished Tuesday while hiking the remote Rincon de la Vieja, a 35,000-acre national park in the Guanacaste province. Gimelfarb's family had become concerned last week when they had not heard from him in two days, and park rangers had found the student's SUV in the area's parking lot." (More at link)

[packy]

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Gimelfarb.Costa.Rica.2.1132801.html


"There were dashed hopes Monday in the case of a Chicago graduate student who disappeared last week in Costa Rica.

CBS 2's Anne State reports.

A family friend said the disappearance of David Gimelfarb was publicized on Costa Rican television and prompted one lead.

Someone claimed to have seen David in a town four hours away. Police checked it out, and it was the wrong guy.

Monday night, there was fear that David may have fallen." (More at link)

[packy]

http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2009_08/0818092.cfm

"Costa Rica steps up search for David Gimelfarb
By Mike McDonald
Tico Times Staff | mmcdonald@ticotimes.net
Search teams increased efforts Monday to find David Gimelfarb, the 28-year-old doctoral student from Chicago who disappeared last Tuesday in Costa Rica's Rincón de la Vieja National Park in the northwest province of Guanacaste.

Red Cross officials from San José said 10 extra members of the Red Cross joined the search in the park, increasing the total number to 25. Combined with park rangers and local residents, close to 70 people are looking for the Chicago resident, who was still missing as of Monday afternoon.

Officials were not sure exactly how much of the park had been searched, but Freddy Román, a press officer for the Red Cross, said that teams had covered “good portion” of the area.

If search efforts don't muster any results after eight days, teams will begin looking for signs of Gimelfarb outside the boundaries of the more than 14,000-hectare (34,000-acre) national park, he said." (More at link)

[packy]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/davidGimelfarb120.jpg

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/chicago-man-missing-in-costa-rica.html

[Nut44x4]

Chicago Tribune
August 25, 2009 Tuesday

Web is search engine for missing student;
Facebook users pushing U.S. to step up hunt in Costa Rica

While rescue crews intensify their search for a Chicago doctoral student missing in a remote region of Costa Rica, help is coming from an unlikely army of online supporters from around the globe.

In the week since friends created a page for the student on the popular social networking site Facebook, nearly 1,100 people have logged on to raise money, share research and pressure U.S. officials to get involved. Last week, military helicopters with infrared sensors were sent to scan the dense forested region of Rincon de la Vieja national park in northern Costa Rica.

In the rapidly changing digital age, the same social networking sites that are often derided as places to trade gossip and waste time are increasingly being used to solve crimes and aid police in the hunt for missing persons. Yet police and private investigators say they've only begun tapping into the resources on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, where millions of people around the world instantly share information at the click of a button.

Within hours after the parents of David Gimelfarb, 28, landed in Costa Rica on Aug. 13 to begin searching for their son, friends back home set up the Facebook site to bring attention to the case. Before long, hundreds of supporters had joined the site, urging each other to contact the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica and to pester elected officials stateside to use military resources to locate Gimelfarb.

"Please badger your [senators] and [representatives]," one post read. "Phone calls, e-mails, faxes. Don't let up on them until the Embassy takes action -- it is the only way these political appointees will move."

In the groundswell, some began researching private search-and-rescue organizations with specialized skills and more advanced technology. Others set up online accounts where supporters could donate money. A few offered to fly to Costa Rica to join volunteers. One Chicago artist opened an online shop where proceeds from her sales went toward the search.

"There are so many people that it becomes like a critical mass, and decision-makers find it hard to resist," said Roger Hyde, multimedia manager for London-based ResQglobal, a private search-and-rescue operation now involved in the hunt for Gimelfarb. "I don't know that we would have been made aware of it had it not been for Facebook. Without social media, none of this would have happened."

There are now hundreds of sites on Facebook and MySpace devoted to missing children, teens and adults.

In May, Facebook played a central role in the search for Craig Arnold, a well-known poet, who vanished while hiking a volcano on a tiny island in Japan. For days, Arnold's friends, family and well-wishers followed regular updates on the "Find Craig Arnold" page on Facebook as authorities in Japan searched the ravines and rugged trails leading up to the volcano. Authorities finally decided that Arnold had fallen off the side of a cliff, and later updates detailed family's efforts to bring his body home.

Gimelfarb, a Chicago resident and a third-year doctoral student at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, was on a solo trek through the popular national park when he vanished Aug. 11. After Gimelfarb's abandoned SUV was found by park rangers, his parents flew to Central America to organize local authorities and the Red Cross in a search.

Despite the large search party on the ground, Luda Gimelfarb, the student's mother, was critical of officials at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica for not lending air support and military-type infrared equipment. Days later, after countless calls and e-mails from Gimelfarb's family and supporters online, the embassy relented.

By Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) had arranged for two U.S. military helicopters with infrared sensors to begin searching the 35,000-acre park. Kirk downplayed the Web site's role, saying, "It's particularly appropriate for the U.S. military to provide support in this kind of a search. We have a lone American under deep jungle canopy. Time is of the essence."

But Gimelfarb's friends are convinced that urgency would not have been there had so many people not been called to action through Facebook. Rathna Koka, a family friend who spent five days in Costa Rica last week helping search for Gimelfarb, said the scope of the rescue effort changed when news of the disappearance spread online.

"None of this would have been possible without Facebook," Koka said. "The time and energy that so many people have put into this, people who don't even know [Gimelfarb], has just been amazing."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1028244597&start=6

[packy]

Appeals for help in the search for David Gimelfarb through social networking.

http://doingcostarica.blogspot.com/2009/08/david-gimelfarb-missing-in-costa-rica.html

[Faith]

Missing US Man May Be Lying In Volcano Crater

http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/september/07/deascdsa.jpg

A grainy photo of the crater of the Volcán Rincón de La Vieja, Guanacaste, appears to show the body of man that could be that of David Gimelfarb, who has been missing since August 11 and all search efforts so far have failed to locate the man, dead or alive.

The Cruz Roja Costarricense (Red Cross), with the help of the park rangers, police and tourist guides, will this morning resume their efforts to locate the missing man, using the photo as a possible clue to the man's demise.

The photo is an aerial shot that appears to be of a man face down and arms extended in the volcano's crater.

Gimelfarb was last seen driving his rented vehicle and parking in the lot before going into the national park. The man was notice missing by park rankers and employees of the Hotel Guachipelín, alerting authorities.

Search teams included the use of US military helicopters "black hawk" and the British rescue team ResQglobal receiving a request from retired United States Secret Service Agent - and Senior Vice President of our Strategic Partner SOS Security Incorporated, Scott Alswang. See photo journal.

Last week the Cruz Roja decided to call off the search efforts, however, the Gilmfarb family never lost hope. David's father has been continuing the search efforts, while his mother is in a San José hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown due to her son's disapperance.

http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/september/07/cr01.htm

[packy]

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Red-Cross-Resumes-Search-for-Gimelfarb-58036112.html

Friends of missing hiker David Gimelfarb claim that a report out of Costa Rica that says his body was spotted in a crater lake in the rainforest is false.

"We're really not sure what that is (in the photo). I've been trying to figure that out this morning," said friend Christine Shaw.

"Please ignore sensationalized news reports like the one reported by Inside Costa Rica and now picked up be the AP," Chris Shaw, the administrator of the Help Find David Gimelfarb Facebook page wrote. "The picture in the original news story is of a bag that was floating in the sulfuric lake at the bottom of this crater. Yesterday specialized search crews were called in to retrieve it because it is dangerous to touch the water due to sulfur content. David’s father was on site with them and will be able to confirm what happened there. We are not even sure this bag is related to David’s disappearance."

Nevertheless the Red Cross, which pulled out of the search last week, says a search team in Costa Rica has resumed the hunt because of the report. (More at link)