Mystery Deepens In Case of Missing Marine

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 12 — The story was compelling. A marine home on leave from his first tour of duty in Iraq was injured in a fall while hiking down a mountain with a friend and vanished after the friend went to call for help.

As one of the largest search and rescue operations in state history was under way, speculation ran high that the marine, Lance Cpl. Lance Hering, 21, might have lost his memory or become disoriented as a result of his head injury or that a mountain lion or bear had attacked him.

On the second day of the search, investigators began to have their suspicions and have since said that it was all probably a hoax and that the marine might be on the run. Read more in The New York Times...

Image by Dennis Schroeder/Rocky Mountain News via Associated Press