Missing hiker’s family faces all possible outcomes

In the immediate days following his disappearance, El Paso County pulled out all of the stops in the search for missing hiker Kevin Rudnicki.

Kevin Rudnicki was last seen on September 2nd, nearly 26 days later, there are still missing posters along the trails.

No one has seen or heard from him but that doesn’t mean the search doesn’t continue.

El Paso County Search and Rescue teams have searched through this mountain for days but came up empty-handed.

The search has been narrowed down to specific areas and search teams are deployed whenever any tips are received.

But one man, Jay Desroches, who has never met Rudnicki is taking matters into his own hands.

“El Paso Search and Rescue are doing their thing, we’re just doing anything to help them out. When they had to slow down, we just didn’t,” Desroches said.

He’s been hiking for days on end hoping he can find something.

“There are some areas it’s really difficult to get in. We’ve been staying out overnight. We’ve been in areas where it takes a day to get to and repelling and searching caves. We’re marking off spot by spot at this point,” he said.

Rudnicki’s teacher is the last person believed to have seen him.

So where could he be? It’s a question we’re all asking ourselves.

“Talking to the mountains, asking the mountains, ‘Where is he?’ Just any kind of clue because there has been nothing,” said his mom, Melissa Reynolds.

She describes her son as an experienced hiker, known for not sticking to the trail, but her hopes are that he may even be off the mountain somewhere else.

“We’re still hoping that he ran away. But at the very least, we just want to find him and get him off that mountain,” Reynolds said.

A mountain both Reynolds and Desroches will continue to search day after night.

Desroches already plans to head out again.