Search Intensifies for Bob Arum's Son

Five independent teams, for a total of 20 park rangers headed by director Kelly Bush, as well as helicopters are searching Seattle's Cascade Range for John Arum, the 49-year-old son of Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum (above right) , who has been reported missing since Sunday while on a weekend camping and hiking trip.

The 78-year-old Arum received the news on Tuesday, forcing him to leave a Los Angeles press conference that was the start of a three-city press tour touting the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium.

"We are doing aerial searches this afternoon. So far, however, as of this afternoon, there have not been any clues that have been found. This morning, we had significantly better weather than we had yesterday. So we started out the day getting our teams in place. And part of that was flying in personell to be on the scene," said Kerry Olson, spokeswoman for the North Cascades National Park.

"We had about 12 people on the ground searching yesterday. This morning, we had five independent teams for 20 people total. Those are ground-searching crews," said Olson. "They're searching a number of areas that are possible where he could be and they've broken it up into different segments of probability."

Olson said that "two canine teams have been requested, and we're hoping that we get those within the next day," adding "They're trying to canvas all of those areas depending on which direction he might go."

John Arum, an avid hiker and environmental attorney in Seattle, was expected to arrive home Sunday after hiking the Storm King Peak, according to friends and family.

"They're doing grid searches for clues or any signs at all. They're searching around camp, up and down the streams, and in the ridges on the side around the camp," said Olson. "They have a couple of different groups with mountaineering skills who are climbing. They're covering all of the areas and the ridge lines on all of the possible climbing routes."

John Arum "is an expert hiker and climber" who has been on a quest to climb the 100 highest summits in Washington and has "18 left to complete" said Top Rank's Dena duBoef.

Rangers are looking for John Arum in the northern Cascades, which rise more than 8,500 feet. DuBoef said that Bush informed her that Arum's campsite and his tent were discovered, but that the searchers did not believe that he had been there since he left for his hike on Saturday.

According to a report by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, a pair of sunglasses and a pair of binoculars belonging to John Arum were found near the tent.

"What I can tell you that John left his home on Friday, and that on Sunday, he did not return home. Bob got the call yesterday (Tuesday) before the first press conference that he was missing," said Dena duBoef. "I spoke to Bob before today's (New York) press conference, and he was going to drive to the camp base. The only thing that Bob knew at that time was that they had found John's tent two miles from the base site."

DuBoef said that Bob Arum told her that the rangers had been limited to searching on foot by the overcast, foggy, rainy conditions as well as the high forest trees until Wednesday, when helicopters were used, according to Olson.

"They had been able to do ground search, but no air search because of the clearance. So no helicopters were able to get there. But when I spoke to Bob at about 12:30 p.m. ET, he sounded much more uplifted spiritually," said duBoef.

"He had had a meeting with about eight rangers who were extremely qualified and who knew what they were doing," said duBoef. "Bob felt really good about it, and the fact that they were now going to begin the helicopter search and that they believed that John left on Saturday for his hike. Bob is now staying at the base of the mountain."