More Woes For Snow-Rescued Couple

Arizona authorities have filed felony drug charges against two members of a family that was rescued from a snowbound motor home earlier this week.

Warrants were issued in Snowflake, Ariz., for Elbert and Becky Higginbotham on Wednesday, a day after they and four relatives were rescued in a mountainous region of southern Oregon.

The two are charged with possession of dangerous drugs for sale and possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show. The records show Elbert Higginbotham is also wanted on a charge of misconduct involving weapons.

In an interview with the Ashland Daily Tidings published Friday, Elbert Higginbotham acknowledged he had been arrested on drug charges in Arizona, where the couple live, but he said the drugs were not his.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

The newspaper said the warrants were issued after Arizona authorities saw TV coverage of the rescue.

The family — the two Higginbothams, Becky Higginbotham's son, his wife and their two children — had set out from Ashland in the motor home on March 4. They were found stranded on a back road in the Coast Range, a remote, snowy area of southwestern Oregon, on Tuesday. Their chances of survival were so bleak that searchers had given up looking for them, CBS News correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.

They survived, along with the family dog and cat, in their snowbound recreational vehicle by rationing dehydrated food and other provisions.

Two adults were found after they left the RV, which had gotten stuck in snow, to seek help. Hours later, rescuers found the others and they were reunited in Glendale, about 80 miles north of the California border.

Later, Peter Stivers and Marlo Hill-Stivers ran up to a van as it pulled into town with the two children and Stivers' mother and stepfather, the Higginbothams.

"I love you baby," Marlo Hill-Stivers told her daughter, Gabrayell, 8.

"I love you too, mommy," she replied.

Authorities and Elbert Higginbotham say he was house-sitting for a friend in Heber, Ariz., when police raided the home. Higginbotham said he knew the drug was in the residence but called the arrest entrapment.

"We weren't dealing in any way shape or form," he said. "We told the cops who were doing it, and now they are making it out like we did it."

Deputy Cmdr. Kelly Clark of the Navajo County Sheriff's Department told the newspaper that the Higginbothams were arrested last year but weren't charged at the time because they agreed to cooperate with investigators.

"We let them go because they expressed an interest in working with law enforcement," Clark said. "We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since."

Police in Ashland said Friday they had not been contacted by Arizona authorities about the warrant and had no reason to arrest the couple.

Higginbotham said he planned to contact Arizona authorities.

"I've done some stupid things in my life," he said. "I've got to call them and take care of business. We don't run from things."