By KELLY DAVIS
Independent-Mail
November 15, 2004

GREENVILLE — Continued cool weather, leaf-clogged vistas, steep terrain and most of all, time, dimmed optimism Monday that rescue workers would find missing hiker Joseph John Mancino — or that he would walk out of the wilderness surrounding Jones Gap State Park on his own.

No one in recent memory has disappeared as long in the mountainous park.

The last person to go missing as long in any South Carolina state park was Jason Knapp, a Clemson University sophomore who disappeared from Table Rock State Park in 1998 and never was found, said Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area assistant park manager John Culbreth.

Mr. Mancino, 75, was last seen Saturday. He failed to meet with a group of Greenville Natural History Association hikers after turning back from a trek on the Jones Gap and Ishi trails. Hundreds of searchers had failed to find even a trace of the former Anderson County school administrator by Monday.

"It’s very unusual to find no clue," said Joe Hambright, Sadler’s Creek State Park manager and the state Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department search and rescue team coordinator. "A person walking is going to leave something, a footprint, a candy wrapper."

Greenville County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Michael Hildebrand said Mr. Mancino’s disappearance does not look suspicious.
"Right now, the information we have is that he said he was going to turn back," he said. "He was on the trail with a group, and he apparently got tired and said he was going to turn back."

A March 30, 1976, story published in the Anderson Independent, a forerunner of the Anderson Independent-Mail, said former Pendleton High School principal Joseph John Mancino was charged with attempting to poison his wife, Julia, with arsenic. He later pleaded guilty and served 40 months in jail.

Reports stated the administrator had a relationship with a 19-year-old former Pendleton High School student in the year before the arrest.

When he went hiking Saturday, Mr. Mancino was wearing a hat, not overnight gear. However, Mr. Culbreth said if he is able to cover himself in leaves at night, a hiker could stay warm enough to survive several days.

Temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Monday morning and were around 40 at noon, River Falls Fire Department Chief David Embry said.

The Jones Gap Trail is rated moderately difficult, and the Ishi Trail that branches off, which the hiking group had started up before Mr. Mancino decided to turn back about 2 miles into the trek, is considered strenuous. On his way back to the trailhead, Mr. Mancino could have gone any of four different directions by mistake, Mr. Hambright said.

Searchers faced daunting challenges. A person falling down a slope in the park is likely to drag leaf litter and other debris over himself, becoming virtually invisible to searchers, Mr. Culbreth said. The area also is riddled with feeder creeks, which create gullies tough to see into.

"It’s very difficult terrain to search," Mr. Culbreth said.

There are black bears and bobcats in the park, but it would be extremely unlikely that either of those animals would attack, he said.

Mr. Mancino’s wife, Lynn, arrived at the park Sunday, left for home that night and returned again Monday morning, Mr. Culbreth said.

A tracking dog from Anderson County was brought to the park Sunday but did not hit on a scent.

The search was scheduled to continue full tilt Monday night and today, but that pace cannot continue, Mr. Hambright said.
"If we have no solid clues (Tuesday) afternoon, we may have to scale back," he said.

Anderson Independent-Mail reporter Charmaine Smith contributed to this story.

Kelly Davis can be reached
at (864) 260-1277 or by e-mail at
davisk@IndependentMail.com.