Oregon Man Kept Diary As He Froze To Death

Setting out with $5,000 cash and no cell phone, 68-year-old Jerry William McDonald made his one-way trip to the foothills of the Cascade Range in Oregon in his blue 1997 GMC truck, likely not knowing he would be driving to his long, cold death. The body of McDonald was found by a U.S. Forest Service survey crew last Thursday, about 60 miles east of the state capital of Salem and only three miles from the town of Marion Forks, deep in the Oregon woods. With his body, the crew found a 1970s calendar edited to represent 2011 - and the man's diary after being snowed in on February 14th. According to McDonald, he drove his truck into the woods on Feb. 7 and made camp, then woke up one day to find himself in the middle of a very heavy snowstorm. Weather records show that the area he was in was hit with multiple heavy snowstorms, confirming his diary entries as true. McDonald started logging his days on his calendar. He noted the first day, "Snow." He was prepared in case of an emergency and had packed food and a gallon of water, but is wasn't enough for his long entrapment. He died on April 15, according to the Linn County Sheriff's Department -- the day of his last entry -- of hypothermia and starvation. McDonald ran out of food a month before that. On March 16, he noted: "No Fo" for "No Food." After that, he did not mention his hunger or lack of food. Oddly, police say McDonald made no attempt to travel on foot. Perhaps he believed he was far from civilization - however he was only three miles from the closest town...more