Family says search goes on for longtime Wichita dentist missing in Colorado

Updated 4:15 p.m.:

Family said that officials and volunteers were still looking for Jim Shadid on Thursday afternoon.

“We can’t lose hope that our father is still alive and he’s waiting to be found,” daughter Jamie Shadid said around 4 p.m. Central time.

In a phone interview, Jamie Shadid, her mother Marilyn and sister Kristi Shadid said the support from officials and volunteers has been overwhelming. Jamie Shadid said her father has helped in the search and rescue of others in the past.

“The more ... we can get the word out, the more prayers are going to go out and that’s what we are relying on now,” Marilyn Shadid said. “All the support has just been overwhelming.”

Original 12:19 p.m.:

Searchers in southwest Colorado are looking for former Wichita dentist Jim Shadid, who has been missing since Sunday, when he went scouting for a hunting spot for elk.

Day four of the search started around 6 a.m. and involved two helicopters, searchers on four-wheelers and horseback and volunteers on foot. There’s also search and rescue teams from neighboring counties.

“Right now unfortunately, we have a negative result at this time and the search continues,” La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Chris Burke said just before noon Central time.

He said helicopters were covering the northern area of Hermosa Creek drainage area, west of Purgatory Resort, where Shadid went missing.

The 79-year-old’s Facebook page says “use to be a dentist, now a mountain man.”

Susan Jones, a former employee at Shadid’s previous practice in east Wichita, said Thursday morning: “If anyone could survive out there it would be Jim Shadid. He was an outdoorsman. He was doing that even when he worked.”

She said he would go hunting and hiking often even before selling off the practice and retiring. Family said he retired and sold the business in 2000 and then moved to Durango the next year. The Shadid’s three children eventually followed them to Colorado.

Family said he had been a dentist in Wichita for nearly 30 years.

Shadid, who Jones said followed in his father’s footsteps as a dentist, is a “great, great guy.” She said his wife, Marilyn Shadid, still emails her at holidays and checks in on how things are going.

She wrote her Wednesday, saying: “Prayers are needed. Jim is missing.”

A site called findjimnow.com is posting updates on the search. “No signs of Jim today unfortunately,” a post at 10 p.m. Wednesday said. “The search will continue for Day 4 tomorrow - we won’t lose hope!”

Searchers were asking for volunteers who were strong hikers to help with the search Thursday morning. The post included a spot to meet in a mountainous area about an hour drive north of Durango, where Shadid lives.

Shadid and his wife went scouting for a hunting spot Sunday morning, then she returned to the vehicle and he continued down a trail.

After about 45 minutes, he called her by a radio and said he would return in 20 minutes. But he never did.

“I wasn’t that concerned about him,” Marilyn Shadid said.

The couple has been married for 56 years, and Jim Shadid has “decades of experience” in the wilderness, so she thought he would eventually find his way back. Once hours passed, she said she started to get worried.

Hunters in the area joined in the search and emergency officials became involved as well.

“He went out to scout for hunting, thinking he was only going for a short while so didn’t bring anything with him (very unlike him as he is a very experienced outdoorsman),” his daughter Jamie Shadid wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “We think he got disoriented and never returned. Search and Rescue have been out with drones, helicopters, dogs and many folks on foot during daylight hours since Sunday but no signs of him yet.”

She said Wednesday that more than 20 volunteer hikers showed up “and more are coming” to help with the search.

“We are so deeply touched and grateful by the outpouring of love and support from both folks we know and strangers,” she wrote.

Contributing: Helena Wegner with McClatchy

This story was originally published September 7, 2023 at 12:19 PM.