Volunteers are racing against the weather – hoping to find a missing snowmobiler in eastern Iowa before blowing snow and dangerous wind chills limit the search. Fifty-two-year-old Martin Davis went missing after leaving his rural Cedar Rapids home for a snowmobile ride on Sunday.
The search party has included officials from the Linn and Johnson County Sheriff’s Departments, an Iowa State Patrol aircraft and 30 of Davis’ co-workers. Mike Jolliff is a supervisor at Clipper Windpower, where Davis works as a maintenance man.
“The company actually o-k’d us time to come out her and take care of this because he’s one of our teammates,” Jolliff said. Davis’ girlfriend, Tiffany Koss, says Davis told her he was only going to be gone a short while. Lights and a TV were left on and his house was unlocked, also leading Koss to believe Davis planned to return soon. Donovan Young, a friend of Davis, says there are hundreds of miles of snowmobile trails in the area.
“We’re hitting a lot of area out there that a lot of people never, ever see,” Young said. “It’s going to be tough, but we have to go find him.” Martin Davis is a brother of former Iowa Hawkeye wrestler Barry Davis, who is now the University of Wisconsin wrestling coach. Davis arrived Monday to help in the search.
By Dave Franzman, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids