A 24-year-old Roseville man has been missing since Friday morning, and search crews spent Sunday combing the steep canyons of the Auburn State Recreation Area after his car turned up parked at a nearby skate park. Ian Roberts was last seen around 9:45 a.m. Friday, and his family did not report him missing until roughly 19 hours later, early Saturday morning. By Sunday, roughly 50 search and rescue personnel, helicopters, drones and tracking dogs were fanned out across rugged terrain trying to find him.
Family Helped Track Down His Vehicle
Roseville police logged the missing person report for Roberts at about 4:45 a.m. Saturday, according to ABC10. Family members worked with law enforcement to track Roberts's vehicle to the Auburn Skate Park, and Placer County deputies confirmed the car was there, which is what prompted the search of the surrounding Auburn State Recreation Area. Roseville and Auburn sit roughly 17 to 20 miles apart along the Interstate 80 corridor, between the Sacramento Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills, per regional travel data compiled by Rome2Rio.
According to the Placer Sheriff, Roberts had not returned home the night before his family reported him missing, and Overlook Park — where the skate park sits — is closed Sunday because it is being used to coordinate the search response. The skate park is a one-acre facility at 855 Pacific Avenue inside the 54-acre Overlook Park, which runs along the edge of the American River Canyon and serves as a major trailhead into the recreation area, according to the Auburn Area Recreation and Park District.
Helicopters, Drones and a Statewide Infrared Plane Join the Hunt
Sunday's search effort includes multiple drones, two K9 search and rescue teams, and 20 Placer County Sheriff's Office ground searchers, per the Placer Sheriff's account. The agency's Falcon 30 helicopter and the California Highway Patrol's H20 helicopter are also flying the area, and outside agencies are contributing another 30 search and rescue personnel on top of the sheriff's office's own 20-person ground team. Operations are expected to wrap up in the mid-evening hours before dark, the department said.
A lieutenant with the Placer County Office of Emergency Management requested a flight from the state's Fire Integrated Real-time Intelligence System, and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services agreed to provide it for additional aerial intelligence. FIRIS deploys fixed-wing aircraft with infrared sensors that stream real-time imagery to incident commanders, according to Cal OES. The terrain they are scanning is unforgiving: the Auburn State Recreation Area spans roughly 30,000 to 40,000 acres across 40 miles of the North and Middle Forks of the American River, marked by steep canyons and dense foothill brush, per California State Parks.
Volunteers Make Up the Backbone of the Search
The Placer Sheriff's account describes its search and rescue team as made up of highly trained volunteers who regularly work complex operations like this one. The unit draws from a pool of roughly 240 trained volunteers who complete extensive instruction in ground, K9, overhead and technical mountain rescue work, according to a YubaNet report on the program. The Placer County Sheriff-Coroner-Marshal's Office, established in 1851, has jurisdiction stretching from the Sacramento Valley to Lake Tahoe.
Roberts is described as 6 feet tall and 210 pounds. He was last seen wearing a brown t-shirt, dark shorts and gray shoes, and possibly a beanie, according to a missing person flyer distributed by Roseville police and the Placer County Sheriff's Office. Anyone with information on his location is asked to call the Placer County Sheriff's Office non-emergency line at (530) 886-5375 or the Roseville Police Department's non-emergency line at (916) 774-5000.
Open Questions and Recent Area History
It remains unclear why Roberts traveled from Roseville to the Auburn Skate Park or what happened between the time he was last seen and when his car was located there. Investigators have not said publicly whether they suspect foul play or an accidental fall into the canyon below Overlook Park, and the sheriff's office said it will release additional information as it becomes available. Under California Penal Code Section 14214, law enforcement agencies are required to accept missing person reports immediately, without a waiting period or age-based restrictions, according to San Francisco Police Department policy guidance.
The recreation area has drawn emergency responders before. In March, a stabbing near the Quarry Trail along the American River confluence injured a minor and led to an arrest, Hoodline reported at the time. The Placer County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team says it will resume the search Sunday with 20 personnel, as the multi-agency effort to find Roberts continues.
