thedrifter
02-13-07, 06:03 AM
Missing Marine's kin worry about one son, wonder about other
Web site seeks brother as another prepares for Iraq
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
February 13, 2007
It's been more than five months since Lance Cpl. Lance Hering walked away from Eldorado Canyon, his family and the Marines - and his parents have more questions now than ever.
"The longer Lance is gone, the more we get involved with what happened to him," Lloyd Hering said, speaking of his son Monday.
The reasons why the 6-foot- 1-inch, blond young man disappeared, just three weeks before he was due back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and another deployment to Iraq, make his parents uneasy.
In a few weeks, their other son, Brendan, is scheduled to go to Iraq, and if the situation there is as harrowing as Lance seemed to think, the Herings worry mightily about him.
Lloyd Hering said he has flown to Washington, D.C., a couple of times in recent weeks, talking to officials about "the wisdom of the war or lack thereof."
Steve Powers, Hering's partner in rock climbing and in the staged disappearance, recently said, "I very sincerely believe that there not only was but is danger to Lance's life."
After telling Boulder sheriff's deputies that Hering fell while rock climbing, which prompted a fruitless search of Eldorado Canyon involving dozens of trained searchers, Powers later told police the pair had staged the disappearance.
After a videotape turned up showing someone who looked like Lance boarding a Greyhound bus in Denver, Powers said Hering had witnessed a homicide committed by his fellow Marines in Iraq, and that if he went back he might be killed by American troops.
"Lance didn't have a backpack or a jacket when he boarded the bus in Denver," Lloyd Hering told 850 KOA radio in an interview aired Monday. "He was alone and lost and running. It wasn't pretty."
He said eyewitness accounts point to Lance being in a small Iowa town for a few days shortly after his disappearance in Colorado. But the last reports were of him walking out of that town, and there the trail ends, at least for now.
Camp Pendleton reports no new information.
"We are at a dead end," said Boulder County Sheriff's Office spokesman Cmdr. Phil West.
West wouldn't comment on the Iowa eyewitness accounts, but said, "We had good initial leads, but they've all pretty much petered out. We've just hit stone walls."
Hering's parents have set up a Web site, lancehering.com, with links to a blog, in case he wants to make contact or wonders if there are any people still worrying about him.
"It's real important that he knows there are people who care for him," said Elynne Hering, Lance's mother.
Web site seeks brother as another prepares for Iraq
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
February 13, 2007
It's been more than five months since Lance Cpl. Lance Hering walked away from Eldorado Canyon, his family and the Marines - and his parents have more questions now than ever.
"The longer Lance is gone, the more we get involved with what happened to him," Lloyd Hering said, speaking of his son Monday.
The reasons why the 6-foot- 1-inch, blond young man disappeared, just three weeks before he was due back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and another deployment to Iraq, make his parents uneasy.
In a few weeks, their other son, Brendan, is scheduled to go to Iraq, and if the situation there is as harrowing as Lance seemed to think, the Herings worry mightily about him.
Lloyd Hering said he has flown to Washington, D.C., a couple of times in recent weeks, talking to officials about "the wisdom of the war or lack thereof."
Steve Powers, Hering's partner in rock climbing and in the staged disappearance, recently said, "I very sincerely believe that there not only was but is danger to Lance's life."
After telling Boulder sheriff's deputies that Hering fell while rock climbing, which prompted a fruitless search of Eldorado Canyon involving dozens of trained searchers, Powers later told police the pair had staged the disappearance.
After a videotape turned up showing someone who looked like Lance boarding a Greyhound bus in Denver, Powers said Hering had witnessed a homicide committed by his fellow Marines in Iraq, and that if he went back he might be killed by American troops.
"Lance didn't have a backpack or a jacket when he boarded the bus in Denver," Lloyd Hering told 850 KOA radio in an interview aired Monday. "He was alone and lost and running. It wasn't pretty."
He said eyewitness accounts point to Lance being in a small Iowa town for a few days shortly after his disappearance in Colorado. But the last reports were of him walking out of that town, and there the trail ends, at least for now.
Camp Pendleton reports no new information.
"We are at a dead end," said Boulder County Sheriff's Office spokesman Cmdr. Phil West.
West wouldn't comment on the Iowa eyewitness accounts, but said, "We had good initial leads, but they've all pretty much petered out. We've just hit stone walls."
Hering's parents have set up a Web site, lancehering.com, with links to a blog, in case he wants to make contact or wonders if there are any people still worrying about him.
"It's real important that he knows there are people who care for him," said Elynne Hering, Lance's mother.