Lost Family Found, Safe And Sound

Some had given up hope of ever seeing the Hill-Stivers family alive again after they disappeared in the wilderness 17 days ago.

But the family defied amazing odds, and was found Tuesday, safe and sound, in a remote, snowy area of southwestern Oregon. 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.

Their trip started as a vacation. Six members of the Hill-Stivers family — Pete Stivers, 29, Marlo Hill-Stivers, 31, their children Sabastyan, 9, and Gabrayell, 8, and Stiver's mother and stepfather, Elbert and Becky Higginbotham — began a short journey in an RV more than two weeks ago.

The group left Ashland, Ore., on March 4, setting out across the mountains to the coast, which normally takes a couple of hours. A relative reported them missing March 8, and a desperate search began.

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, Becky and Elbert Higginbotham of Arizona.

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

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

Peter Stivers rested his hands on the shoulders of his 9-year-old son, Sabastyan.

"He had fun. They enjoyed it," Peter Stivers said. "They didn't know we was in trouble."

"Since I've been so good, my dad's going to buy me a rocket," Sebastian told The Early Show.

Still, for the adults — and their worried loved ones — it clearly was an ordeal.

As Peter Stivers explained to the The Early Show, the family was driving when they "took a wrong turn and we got stuck and we was like, OK, we'll dig out a little bit." But as they dug out, the got stuck again, Stivers said.

"We were cold, we could see our breath ... I was trying not to break down. I'd hide my heads under the blanket and cry a little bit but not let anyone see me," Marlo Hill-Stivers told The Early Show.

They were lost, and ultimately got stuck in about 4 feet of snow, at about 3,800 feet, on a dicey mountain road.

"We thought we'd take the scenic route," said Elbert Higginbotham. "Every time we took a corner, it seemed like we took a wrong corner."

At one point, the RV slid off the road. The family tried to hand-dig the RV out but could not.

Elbert Higginbotham says the family sustained itself on snow and dehydrated food they had loaded for the trip. They had enough propane to keep the RV heated.

Police Chief Rick Mendenhall of Shady Cove, Ore., who helped in the rescue, told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen that they had about an eighth of a tank of gas left and about a quarter of a tank of propane left when he reached them.

"But they were all in real good spirits," Mendenhall said. "Their mental status was all good. They were pretty happy to see me. All their vital signs were within normal limits."

"I'm so proud of my family. They stuck together. They didn't lose it," said a bearded Higginbotham.

The family decided they had to save themselves. Describing to The Early Show how he and his wife took a tent and supplies, hoping to hike out and find hope, Peter Stivers said, "She had a couple of cans of food and a jar of peanut butter and a thing of potatoes and can of beans."

On Tuesday morning, a worker from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management found Stivers, 29, and Hill-Stivers, 31. The worker told the family Tuesday morning that he had a premonition he'd find them safe and sound, Gonzales reports.

Later, rescue workers in a helicopter made contact with the other four, said Sgt. David Marshall, spokesman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department. Snow machines were sent to pick them up.

Even then, getting out wasn't easy.

"There was a short window," Elbert Higginbotham said of the family's helicopter rescue. "It was just enough time to land the one ship and dump the medic and get back out as the weather was closing in on the helicopter."

The RV was found near an old airstrip about 14 miles west of Glendale, a town of fewer than 900 people along Interstate 5, about 80 miles north of the California border

After the family was reported missing, rescue teams from Oregon and California scoured the two closest routes from Ashland to the coast. But police didn't know exactly where they had been heading, and they eventually called off the search when there were no leads.

At the time, police said family members did not answer calls to their cell phones, and the bank accounts of all four adults had not been touched since March 4.

The area is too remote for cell phone service.

During the initial search, authorities focused on the U.S. 199 corridor south from Grants Pass, a well-traveled route across the Coast Range, rather than narrow and windy back roads that are more direct routes.

Sgt. Jim Alderman, spokesman for the police department in the city of Ashland, said it was a puzzle why the family chose their route.

"We don't know why they went the way they did," he said. "We don't know why they were up there where they were."

The Stivers family has lived in Ashland for several years but rarely traveled, said Andi Black, general manager at DJ's Video in Ashland where Hill-Stivers worked.

"She's just super-responsible," Black said. "So we knew something was wrong ... this is totally unlike her."

"I knew we were going to hear something eventually," said Char Seward, a close friend and co-worker of Marlo Hill-Stivers. "But after two weeks and two days of not hearing something, it was exhausting."