Lost & Found Couple Found Again

Arrested On Drug Charges, In Motor Home Previously Stuck In Snow

(AP)  The joy of a couple's rescue from the snowy mountains of southwest Oregon turned sour after they were arrested on drug charges in Washington state, authorities said.

Elbert and Becky Higginbotham were arrested Tuesday after they were stopped without incident near the coastal city of Long Beach, Wash., a Pacific County dispatcher said. The Higginbothams were in the same motor home where they spent 17 snowbound days this month.

Their rescue last week attracted national attention. Arizona authorities recognized the Higginbothams as a couple who had been caught with methamphetamine and a shotgun and then reneged on a promise to cooperate with investigators and disappeared.

Gary Butler, sheriff of Arizona's Navajo County, said he had arranged with authorities in southern Oregon to detain the Higginbothams and have them sent back to his state, where warrants were issued last week. But the couple dropped out of sight again on Sunday.

Butler said the couple had probably faced probation on the drug charges but now could spend time in jail for felony flight.

Elbert Higginbotham, his wife, stepson and the stepson's wife, and that couple's two children, ages 8 and 9, had gone on a weekend trip March 4 to the Oregon coast and were not seen again until their rescue last Tuesday.

The couple had come to Oregon to visit Becky Higginbotham's son and family in Ashland.

A relative said he helped the Higginbothams load their vehicle Sunday and discussed which way they might head. "They said they were going to California," said Ezekiel Hill, 23, of Ashland.

But instead, the couple started out heading north on Interstate 5, said Ed Hill, Ezekiel's father.

"We gave them $38 for gas; it's all we had," he said.