The remains of Redwood City resident George Sliter, a retiree who went missing Sunday morning in the Aptos hills were found Tuesday around 10 a.m., the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office has reported.
Sliter, 74, was last seen around 8:30 a.m. Sunday at the Monte Toyon Retreat Center, where he was staying with friends.
The search for Sliter entered its third day Tuesday morning. At its peak, more than 100 Search and Rescue volunteers were looking for him on foot, on horseback, on ATVs and dirt bikes, and with police tracking dogs.
The area where Sliter went missing is adjacent to The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, a rugged 10,000-acre wilderness.
Details on where Sliter was found and what caused his death were not immediately available.
According to friends and Sheriff's deputies, Sliter had breakfast with friends at the retreat center early Sunday morning, then said he planned to take a walk in the woods before rejoining them for church services at 9:15 a.m.
His friends worried and reported him missing when he never showed up for the services.
Two women reported that they had been walking in the woods when a man matching Sliter's description asked them how to get to the retreat center around 10:45 a.m., later that morning.
- Watsonville Patch Editor Jennifer Squires
Remembering George Sliter
Redwood City-Woodside Patch Editor Jennifer van der Kleut said:
"I remember meeting George on my third day on the job as the new editor. George was the first person to show up to our presidential debate viewing party on Oct. 3, full of enthusiasm. I had the chance to talk with him at length that evening. He spoke lovingly of his children and his love for his church, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Redwood City. I wish that tragic event had ended differently. My heart goes out to George's family and friends."
Former Redwood City Patch Editor Stacie Chan:
“I ‘met’ George via email in January 2011 and I knew I had met someone who cared deeply about his community. He was active in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Redwood City and asked me how to use Patch to promote the church’s events.
We then ‘chatted’ about everything from the speed bumps on McGarvey near Jefferson to the rewelding of the Hetch Hetchy pipeline. A highly educated and informed resident, George was a joy to talk to. I finally met him at an Occupy Redwood City event and we were able to talk in length about Occupy’s wants to make the city, county and state a better place.
It’s a true tragedy when someone so caring and involved in his community is lost. I hope he serves as an example for Redwood City on how to selflessly give back. My deepest condolences to his friends and family.”
Did you know George Sliter? Please share your memories of him in the comments section below.
Patch will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
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I saw him a a few other events, but the next time we had a chance to talk was at Hoover School, where he was helping out with an after-school program, teaching math. That's where I learned about his tutoring. He had developed a novel approach to teaching math, and he spoke passionately about it at length, told me how he'd tried to give it away to some local school district, that turned out to be too inflexible to accept it. He gave me a game he invented as a learning aid: two dice and a little slip of paper with instructions in a small, ziplock bag. He was pushing the program to another school, but frankly I wasn't listening. I was transfixed on his face, his emotion. Gone was the reassuring voice of experience. Here instead was a fiery advocate for education and equality, with a school boy's enthusiasm for math. If I live as long as he did, I hope I still have such passion. I met him several times since, and am thankful for the opportunity. My heart-felt condolences go to his family, both at home and at the Unitarian Church. This is truly a great loss. I'm so very sorry.
Carolyn Chaney
We will miss him.