He went missing 2 years ago. His mom is now looking in the Tri-Cities

More than two years ago, Austin Oldfield walked into the Gifford Pinchot forest and vanished.

The Louisville, Ky., native left his car, food, camping gear and computer equipment and a mystery behind him.

His disappearance in Southwest Washington left his mom and sister hunting for him. Now his mother, Billie Oldfield, has brought her search to the Tri-Cities.

She carries his iPad, and pictures of him along with a folder filled with notes about his disappearance.

“He loves Washington, and he’s been here before,” she said. “He kind of toyed with the idea of moving to Washington.”

The last time anyone from Kentucky heard from him was a text message to his girlfriend Sept. 17, 2015, when he set up his camp. He was supposed to break camp in October 2015, and they expected to hear from him.

When the call never came, they became worried, and called the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office. His car, a Saturn sedan, was found parked near Lone Butte, but they found no sign of Austin Oldfield.

More than 100 search and rescue volunteers spent five days searching the woods for the man before authorities called off the search, according to media reports. Investigators believe Austin died in those woods, according to news reports.

They learned last year that a father and daughter picked up a man in the fall of 2015 and gave him a ride to the town of Trout Lake, about 160 miles from the Tri-Cities.

The pair described the man as seemingly delirious. They snapped a picture of a man wearing a gray T-shirt with long hair walking away from the truck.

Family members believe that was a dehydrated Austin Oldfield, roughly a month after he was supposed to leave the woods.

Skamania County resident, Nikkia Furman, produced a series of videos about his search for Austin Oldfield, including taking a photo on a Ben Franklin Transit bus in the Tri-Cities where people said they recognized the missing man.

That’s what brought Billie Oldfield to the Tri-Cities this week.

Her visit, including a stop at the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission, has turned up no signs of her son. While some people said he seemed familiar, she was told he just looked similar to the other people.

“I’m in the process of taking some fliers over there that they can put up,” she said.

Billie is asking anyone with information of his possible whereabouts to email her at billieoldfield@outlook.com.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "He went missing 2 years ago. His mom is now looking in the Tri-Cities."