Washington County nonprofit uses drones to help find missing people

Think Out Loud

Earlier this month, the Malheur Enterprise reported that the remains of a 27-year-old Idaho woman had been found in a remote area of Malheur County. Last June, Gwen Brunelle told her family she was driving from Boise on a brief trip to California. Her car was found abandoned days later on a gravel pullout less than 30 miles west of the Idaho border.

The breakthrough in the case came with the involvement of Aloft Drone Search, a nonprofit in Sherwood that uses aerial and underwater drones to search for missing people. Its founder, John Jones, was contacted by Brunelle’s father in March to help find her. Before Jones traveled to southeastern Oregon, he and his team of volunteers began reviewing more than 13,000 images that were previously taken by an Idaho drone company that had also assisted with the search. Last month, Jones alerted the Malheur County Sheriff of something a volunteer had found in one of the drone images that led to the positive identification of Brunelle’s remains. Jones joins us to talk about the discovery, and the role drone technology can play in locating missing people.