BERNE TOWNSHIP — About 40 law enforcement officers fanned out over the hills surrounding the home of a missing Berne Township man Friday morning.
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But the ground search for him ended without any evidence of his location.
Searchers with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, the Fairfield-Hocking Major Crimes Unit, State Fire Marshal’s Office, K-9 dogs with the Ohio Search Dog Association Inc., and volunteers who know the area began a search around the woods surrounding 2699 Eckert Road around 9 a.m. Friday.
They were hunting for Mark A. Johnson, 49, who has been missing since his home burned down Monday evening. The fire was intentionally set, officials say.
“There’s about 50 acres of wooded area around his home and we hope to cover about 20 acres of it this morning,” said Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen at the start of the search.
By the afternoon, the searches had covered more than 60 acres without turning up any new information.
Firefighters from five departments fought the fire that destroyed the two-story wooden home at 10:22 p.m. Monday. State Fire Marshal’s office investigators have been called in to investigate the fire’s cause.
Two of Johnson’s friends since childhood, Dennis Gierhart and Mark Nye, stood vigil outside the command center for the search.
They shared memories of their friend and how he liked to work with wood and how gentle he was with living creatures.
“It’s just so really surreal,” said Gierhart.
“He used to butcher animals in his shop but he couldn’t kill them,” Gierhart said about how didn’t like to hunt or hurt animals. “I can’t imagine he would do anything to hurt himself and his family.”
Nye said the three along with some friends were together Saturday watching the OSU-Michigan game.
“He seemed normal then. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Nye said. “He was going to go pick up his two children after the game and take them out to movie. If there was something going on with him, I didn’t notice it.”
Phalen said detectives have been establishing where Johnson had been in his last few hours and monitoring things like his phone, checking accounts and credits cards.
“So far there hasn’t been any activity since the day of the fire,” Phalen said.
Sgt. Alex Lape of the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said the last searchers came in around 1:30 p.m.
“We went through the areas using grids and picket searches, where you walk along within eyesight of the person to left and right, and didn’t find anything,” Lape said.
Lape said family members also helped out walking over areas that they knew Johnson loved in the woods.
“We just don’t have a lot more to go on,” Lape said. “We still hope he’s out somewhere alive and will show up. We’d like him to contact us if he is in the area, or if anyone else has any information about him or the fire we urge them to contact us.”
The State Fire Marshal’s office said no additional searches are planned.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Johnson or the fire should call the fire marshal’s office at (800) 589-2728 or the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office at (740) 652-7911.
