Published: November 10, 2008 11:00 pm      

Man, brother missing in Colorado

Authorities in two states are searching for two brothers — one of them from Ashland — who were declared missing after they failed to return last week from a hunting expedition in Colorado.

William Mark Boso, 32, a manager at AK Steel’s Ashland Works, and his brother, Charles Michael “Mike” Boso, 43, of Kalamazoo, Mich., were expected to return to Kalamazoo on Friday from an annual elk-hunting trip in the mountains near Meeker, Colo., but never showed up, said Lt. Jim VanDyken of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department.

The brothers left Kalamazoo the morning of Oct. 30, informing family members they were planning on driving “straight through” to Meeker, an 18-hour journey, VanDyken said.

The following morning, Mike Boso called his wife and told her that he and his brother had arrived in Colorado “and that they were getting ready to go up into the mountains,” he said.

Mike Boso also told his wife that the brothers would be out of cell phone range and that he would talk to her again on Nov. 7, VanDyken said.

Family members have had no contact with the two men since that Oct. 31 phone call, he said.

VanDyken said his department had been working with the sheriff’s department in Rio Blanco County, Colo., and with the Meeker city police in an effort to locate the two men. Search efforts have been hampered by bad weather, he said.

Meeker and Rio Blanco County are located in northwestern Colorado, in the White River Valley. The region is known for its rugged terrain and spectacular beauty.

A spokesman at the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that there had been no new developments in the search for the two brothers.

The brothers and the vehicle they were traveling in, a maroon 2000 Ford F-350 pickup with Michigan plates, have been entered in national computer data base as being missing, he said.

“Unfortunately, there’s not much else we can do at this time other than sit back and wait to hear from somebody,” he said.

Mark Boso and his wife, Donnelle, both attend Ashland’s Second Free Will Baptist Church. The Rev. Randy Skaggs, the church’s pastor, said Monday that Donnelle Boso had left for Colorado, where she is originally from, to be with her family and to await news on the search for her husband.

“Mark is a very responsible young man,” he said. “We’re all just hoping and praying” that he and his brother will be found.

Church members had a prayer vigil for the Bosos on Sunday evening, Skaggs said.

Skaggs also said the church was posting updates on the search on its Web site, secondfreewill.com.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.