Hiker Finds Steve Fossett ID

Record-Setting Pilot Who Once Flew All The Way Around The World Without Stopping Missing Since Fall 2007

(CBS/AP)  A hiker in rugged eastern California found an ID and other items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett, the adventurer missing more than a year since going on a pleasure flight in a borrowed plane, authorities said Wednesday.

The items were found in the area of the town of Mammoth Lakes, Inyo National Forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said.

"We have some ID that has the name Steve Fossett," Mammoth Lakes police Investigator Crystal Schafer said. "They were turned in to us and are in our possession."

A hiker who found the ID and some cash came to the police department office Tuesday, Police Chief Randy Schienle told CNN.

"The ID is well weathered," Schienle said. "We have heavy winters up here."

A sweatshirt was also found in the area, but no wreckage was located, he said.

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February.

This year's biggest search for Fossett focused on Nevada's Wassuk Range, more than 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. That search ended last month.

Mammoth Lakes is a community at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where peaks top 13,000 feet.

Fossett made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets. He gained worldwide fame for more than 100 attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.

He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

[lochlan-2009]

Didn''t they do a flyover and post it on the net for people to search and try to find his plane? I think you can use those images to limit the area your searching now.

[pepperwood2]

Come on now Fess up? WE all know that this is the inhabitat of the endangered BigFoot species.

I''m sure those animal hairs found will match up to that fact. Steve did his homework and was probably aware of this. He decided to bail out in that area to see if he could contact BigFoot and to do a story to enhance his world renowed accomplishments. All this to be done incognito of course.

All this BS about Amelia Earhart going down in the Pacific. Wouldn''t surprise me if she got lost over these same Mountains. When they find Steve; They''ll also find Bigfoot & Amelia''s Plane.

[ludvig1-2009]

You are correct Generey with your "person of interest" comment. I once noticed similarities in crimes miles apart from reading about them on the internet with someone apprehended in one of the crimes and when I contacted the police to tell them about the similar crimes I read about, I got questioned like I had something to do with it. From now on I''ve joined the "Don''t snitch" generation.

[republic1776]

Steve''s having a drink with Elvis, and Osama Bin Laden.

[incog-nito]

This doesn''t tell us anything. The only way we know for sure if he''s dead, is if a severed hand was found attached to the ID with the name "Steve Fossett."

[generey]

This "hiker" just messed up big time; he will now be considered a "person of interest" in the matter. When will people learn??? LOL.

[pollroller1]

I saw this this guy on the TV that claimed he found the internet and right behind him was this small single engine airplane.

[calgal4]

In response to the Vicar1...
The planet doesn''t need saving...humans need saving. The planet will still be here after we''re gone.

[spadeisspade]

There is NO WAY Steve Fossett is dead. He was getting too old to keep up with the pressures of all his other death defying acts that he decided to hole up somewhere rather than risk the public eye seeing him get old and decrepit.

[albrightw]

It aint over till it''s over. The body will eventually show up in the future. Don''t worry about it.

[iphyt4u]

I walked up that same mountain, and I was greeted by two guys, one looked like Jimmy Hoffa, and the other like Jim Morrison. Spooky...

[tom395-2009]

It kind of makes sense! Apparently he took out one of Hilton''s old fabric planes from the ranch runway that is only 50 miles (30 minutes)from Mammoth Lakes for what may have been just a short pleasure flight. Steve went to school in California and was a good friend of Richard Branson who is also known to hang out in Mammoth. Maybe this is R.I.P. for Steve.

[credibility2]

How creepy, especially since his wife recently had him declared dead.

[apndrgn]

Weathering of an artifact is easily accomplished artificially. Even were they to find the plane it would not proove he did not fake his death, parachute and plant the info for a hiker. With your average person, sure, but with steve faucet, dental records may be the only proof. Big brother produces these jewels in times of stress to opiate the masses.

[easeup-2009]

Or hiking!

[easeup-2009]

This is why I''ll never take up jogging--the thought of finding a badly decomposed body makes me ill.

[zorar-2009]

(Steve Fosset)He knew when to FLY away (or to get the H E L L out of Dodge)from the oncoming finacial crisis in 2007...smart move!

[barbaraf4]

What if the hiker was actually Fossett? What if he staged his disappearance and this was the final action to "prove" his death?

[fertang]

Certainly points that way.

[thevicar1]

NEVER trust those hiker-types.
Eating trail-mix and drinking power-bar energy drinks all day, grow their beards like hippie-freaks and listen to John Mayer music on MP3 players all day while they borrow their friends VW Beetle without even telling him where they are going or when they will be back.
Sleeping in sleeping bags and living for days in a Starbucks, amped up on Latte-Mocha Crappusomething-or-other because the coffee shop just so happens to have a WiFi hotspot but Church isnt good enought for them since they only worship mother-nature and insist the WE have to save the planet, and the whales, and the ozone so they can have some kind of spiritual re-awakening on My-space-Tube-Face!!!

No...I am pretty sure the hiker killer Fossett!