MERLIN, Oregon (CNN) — The body of a San Francisco man who had walked into the Oregon wilderness to summon help for his stranded family was found Wednesday in a steep ravine where he had left clues for searchers.

Read more on CNN.com.

by Mike Fennelly

Some of you may remember a week or two back I posted about having some Big Things coming our way here at PopDigerati. If you don’t, feel free to scroll back and leisurely read through all of our previous articles, clicking on an ad or ten along the way. I’m sure you’ll find it spuritually invigorating. There. Doesn’t that feel better?

This article isn’t the Big Thing – this is the teaser article to say that The Big Thing is in the works, and confirmed, and that you, loyal PopDigerati readership, can get involved and help us out with this one. In the near future, we’re going to be interviewing one of the executive producers of ABC’s Desperate Housewives, which we’re just going to assume that you’ve probably heard of. Just in case you’ve been down in the bunker since Y2K, we’ll say that he also executive produced “Frasier”, as well as the criminally underrated “Out Of Practice” from last year. There’s more, but since I’ve already called this the teaser article, you don’t get to find out yet.

Here’s where you come in : Bearing in mind that this is at least peripherally a tech blog, we want you guys to let us know the questions you’d ask our mystery guest. Submit them down in the comments section, keep ‘em at least marginally intelligent, and remember that anything along the lines of “OMFG WHOO IS GOEING TO DYE THIS SEASONS???! BREE IS SO HOTTTT!!! I <3 DH!!” is just going to get laughed at by all involved.

By Leslie Katz and Greg Sandoval
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Update: The wife and two daughters of missing CNET senior editor James Kim have been found alive and well in southwest Oregon, and the search efforts have shifted to locating James Kim, authorities said Monday afternoon.

A full-scale ground and air search has now shifted to the CNET editor, who left the car on foot Saturday morning to seek help and has not yet been found, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said at the news conference in Merlin, Ore. “He’s a resourceful guy and we’re hoping for the best,” said Mike Weinstein, a detective with the Portland Police Bureau’s Missing Persons Unit.

Read more about the article on CNET.

Road search under way for missing CNET editor

By Leslie Katz
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: December 1, 2006, 11:55 AM PST

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Federal and state law enforcement officials are combing remote roads off Oregon’s Highway 38 and Interstate 5 in search of missing CNET senior editor James Kim and his family, police said Friday.

“They’re searching roads that are not well-traveled and that have been snowed in” from a weekend storm, Inspector Kim Lewis of the San Francisco Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit said.

James Kim

Have you seen James Kim?
Contact the SFPD at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and at 415-553-1071 after-hours. The Portland Police Bureau’s Missing Persons Unit can be reached at 503-823-0446.

Lewis said police are currently conducting a land search but that helicopters will be dispatched later Friday.

The 35-year-old Kim, his 30-year-old wife Kati and daughters Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months) left their home in San Francisco last week on a Thanksgiving road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They were last seen on Saturday, November 25, in Portland, Ore., according to the SFPD’s missing persons’ report.

The Kims were driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with California personalized plates of “DOESF.”

Lewis said the SFPD has received about 10 tips and is pursuing all of them. “We have been having leads coming in with regards to sightings,” she said. “Whether or not they are valid, we don’t know.”

Kati Kim

Many more tips have come in to a call center set up in Salem, Ore., she said. That number is 1-800-452-7888.

Ryan Lee, a longtime friend of the Kims, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had brunch with the Kims in Portland Saturday. The Kims told their friend they planned to stop by a clothing boutique in Portland before driving to Gold Beach on the Southern Oregon Coast, where they said they had a hotel reservation for Saturday night.

The hotel reportedly received an early evening phone call from the Kims saying they would be arriving at the hotel later than expected. They never showed up. Lewis said the last call recorded from James Kim’s cell phone was made to a friend in San Francisco at 3 p.m. and suggested that the call to the hotel may have been made from a landline. She said the SFPD is still waiting for credit card information to come in.At CNET, James Kim is a senior editor covering digital audio. He also co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadgets blog. Formerly he was an on-air personality on the now-defunct cable television network TechTV. He and his wife own two stores in San Francisco–Doe, a clothing store in the city’s Lower Haight area, and the Church Street Apothecary in the Noe Valley neighborhood, where they live.

James, Kati and Sabine Kim

The family was expected to return to San Francisco on Monday, November 27. When both James Kim and Kati Kim failed to show up for appointments on Tuesday, November 28, co-workers began to worry for their safety. The Kims are known for keeping in touch daily with their friends and co-workers, either by phone or e-mail.Those with information about the Kim family’s whereabouts are asked to contact the SFPD immediately–at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and at 415-553-1071 after-hours. The Portland Police Bureau’s Missing Persons Unit can be reached at 503-823-0446.