3 years later, searchers still looking for Beavercreek hiker who disappeared off Pacific Crest Trail

Three years ago this week a Beavercreek man went missing while hiking in Washington.

The last confirmed sighting of Kris Fowler, 34, was Oct. 12, 2016, when he was last seen along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Fowler was a Wright State University graduate and considered an experienced hiker.

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News Center 7's Gabrielle Enright spoke with Fowler's step-mother Monday about how the search is going.

When he went missing, Sally Fowler started a Facebook group, which now has 7,600 members, that has helped other families locate their missing loved ones.

“I’m just trying to pay it forward and help these other families on what to do and who to contact,” she said.

The family finds comfort in helping others, but they’d like to know what happened to him.

“The day he left for the trail, there was a really bad storm that came in the next day. There were a lot of people trapped and stranded. We feel that is when he met his demise,” Sally Fowler said.

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Searchers combed through a 500-mile area looking for Kris Fowler, and this summer they discovered a bag that may have belonged to him.

“Every single day there’s somebody out there looking and searching,” Sally Fowler said. “We can’t confirm that it’s his. We really think it’s his.”

Though Sally Fowler never stops searching, she knows her stepson was doing what he loved when he disappeared.

“I know he was in love with it out there. I think that he’s at peace.”

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