Esperance man found safe
An Esperance man who was missing for about 24 hours was yesterday located safe and well in Cape Le Grand National Park.
Esperance police thanked the community for its assistance in the search for 39-year-old Scott Stihec, who had been reported missing on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Stihec was last seen by his neighbours about 11am on March 11, leaving his house after loading his vehicle with fishing gear.
But after inquiries with his family in South Australia gave police a lead on his possible whereabouts, the 39-year-old was found shortly after noon yesterday.
A local helicopter pilot was deployed early yesterday morning, carrying two State Emergency Service volunteers conducting an aerial search for his vehicle.
Department of Parks and Wildlife rangers were also advised of Mr Stihec's disappearance and were monitoring the area for any signs of him.
A ground search proved to be unnecessary, though Senior Sergeant Richard Moore said a search and rescue course currently running in Esperance would have proved timely if additional resources were required. It is understood officers from Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Wiluna and Warburton are currently in Esperance for the course.
"It's fortunate we were running a land and search rescue course this week in Esperance with 13 police officers involved and two instructors from Perth," he said.
"You've got to have someone qualified as the incident controller and we had one of the instructors from the emergency operations unit, so he was the incident controller and I just liaised with him.
"If we had to use (the officers) half of them would have been doing the mapping and the other half would have been out on foot looking for the gentleman.
"So they would have got hands-on experience rather than just through tuition."
Sen. Sgt Moore said the community had shown great compassion during the search.
"People rang Crime Stoppers, people rang the police station, so the response from the community was excellent," he said.
Mr Stihec was taken to hospital as a precaution. It is understood the only injury he sustained was a cut to his hand, which police believed had become infected.
