Missing man had simply left for holiday

WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) - While Jason Carey's family searched hundreds of miles for him and prepared for the worst, he'd been staying with a friend, apparently to escape the pressures of the Christmas holiday.

"He's got a lot to answer for when we see him," said one brother, Wayne Carey said. "Just wait. There may be a death in the family yet!"

Wayne and brother Jon Carey logged more than 600 miles on a pickup truck, searching for their 26-year-old little brother, who was last seen on Sunday when he said he was going to look for a Christmas tree.

Jason called his girlfriend Thursday after a convenience store clerk reportedly recognized him from a newspaper photograph and asked if he knew people were looking for him.

"He said he went to the Palisades to get away from Christmas," said Wenatchee Police Sgt. Marty Bryan.

The Palisades is a small community near Wenatchee.

Wenatchee police and Chelan County sheriff's deputies had been looking for Carey since Christmas Day. He left home Sunday with his dog, Buddy. His family got worried when he didn't show up at his mother's house on Tuesday.

No charges are likely to be filed.

"There's not really anything we can do. He's an adult. He can come and go as he pleases," said Capt. Jerry Yonaka of the sheriff's office.

"But I'm sure the family will take care of this in their own way."

Wayne Carey, a former Navy search and rescue specialist, said Thursday that he'd already braced himself to find his brother dead. Jason's mother, Vicky Carey of Wenatchee, feared that her son was alone and injured in the woods.

Beginning Christmas Day, Jon and Wayne Carey, armed with maps, survival gear, two rifles and a mobile phone, headed into remote, rugged areas.

They said they slept just seven hours in four days of searching, coming home occasionally to shower, eat and refuel the pickup. They searched lower Swakane Canyon and icy Oklahoma Gulch on Tuesday. They covered Badger Mountain early Wednesday, then a vast area stretching south of Wenatchee in the afternoon, using high-powered spotlights when it got dark.

They slept a few hours in the Tarpiscan area and then returned home Thursday morning. After just a couple of hours of rest, they were back on the road by noon, searching the wooded canyons north of Cashmere, before learning that Jason had called to say he was OK and would be home Friday.