Still No Resolution In Hunt For Missing Man in Yellowstone National Park

Search efforts are ongoing in Yellowstone National Park for an Oklahoma man who is thought to have vanished into the park's backcountry during the long Memorial Day weekend.

Peter Louis Kastner, of Oklahoma City, became the subject of a search when rangers found a car he had rented parked at the Hellroaring Trailhead in the northern end of the park. The car, a red 2010 Cadillac STS sedan with Oklahoma plates, had been parked overnight and was not linked to a backcountry permit, park officials said when the search began two weeks ago.

Since the man went missing, park rangers have hiked hundreds of miles looking for him, brought in dog teams to search, and had a fixed-wing aircraft searching the northern area of the park this past weekend.

"The search remains active," Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said Tuesday. "Our contract helicopter has arrived for the season, and we expect to utilize it for aerial searches later this week. After that, we intend to use dog teams again in the highest 'probability of detection' areas.

"If those efforts fail to turn up any leads, we will keep the case open but are likely to reduce the scale and frequency of our ongoing search efforts," he added.

Mr. Kastner has been described as 6-foot-1-inch tall, weighing 185 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Based upon information from his family, he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps after serving for four years. During his service, he was injured twice by Improvised Explosive Devices while serving in Iraq. He had moved to Oklahoma City from the Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota, area to attend college. His family is concerned about his mental state, and said he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome related to his injuries.