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JOSEPH MICHAEL BUSHLING
MISSING SINCE MAY 8, 2011
Army Spc. Joseph Bushling was days away from starting training to be a nurse.
“He had a career path in mind,” said his father, Kevin Bushling.
That path veered May 8 when Joseph Bushling vanished near Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County. The elder Bushling wonders if his son is the victim of foul play.
“This is just totally out of character for him,” Kevin Bushling said. “This is nothing he would have done.”
Kevin Bushling said he has no evidence of something nefarious and there were no threats against or concerns for his son before his disappearance. But Kevin Bushling does not know how else to explain his son’s absence.
Joseph Bushling, 26, called another soldier sometime Sunday and left a message on his phone saying he ran out of gas on the west side of Granite Mountain, about 40 miles from the military installation’s main gate. Searches have been conducted by ground and air of areas both on and off the base with no sign of the soldier or the black 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer he borrowed. Paula Thomas, public affairs officer for Dugway Proving Ground, said the base has been searched three times and the commanding officer is “100 percent certain” Joseph Bushling is not on the base, which is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
Thomas said the soldier who loaned Joseph Bushling the car has reported it stolen. Base police have entered Joseph Bushling and the vehicle into nationwide law enforcement databases in case police elsewhere discover them, Thomas said.
Kevin Bushling, in a telephone interview from his home in Arkansas, said his family is from California and moved to Arkansas in 2000. Joseph Bushling enlisted about 2½ years ago and spent about a year deployed in South Korea but has not seen combat, the father said.
Joseph Bushling was assigned to a medical clinic at Dugway. He was days away from going to Fort Carson, Colo., then to San Antonio for his nursing training.
Kevin Bushling said his son has no history of mental illness nor does he believe Joseph Bushling decided to desert. There has been no activity on his son’s bank account or phone, Kevin Bushling said.
“Everything he owned he left there in his room on the base,” Kevin Bushling said.
Anyone with information can contact police at Dugway Proving Ground by calling 435-831-2929.
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Update: 5/28/13 - 34 walking miles southwest of Dugway the car that Joseph had borrowed from a friend. Next they found his hat, but nothing else until this weekend when some bone fragments were discovered.
Kurt Hadfield from Great Basin Search Team told ABC4, “We did find some clothes articles and there were some bones that were found that were turned over to Tooele County."
It will be a while before we hear if those bone fragments are human, let alone Joseph's.
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