Private investigator finds missing Eugene man after two-month search
A private investigator found Michael Trevor Owen Naughton’s body on an abandoned spur road east of Vida, ending a search that began when his vehicle was found Feb. 19.
A private investigator ended a two-month search for Eugene resident Michael Trevor Owen Naughton after finding his body on an abandoned spur road east of the Gate Creek area, more than a mile from where searchers had found his vehicle the night he was reported missing.
Naughton, 42, was reported missing Feb. 19. Lane County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue located his silver 2009 Ford Fusion with Idaho plates that same night in the Gate Creek area after he was last seen in the Vida area of McKenzie Highway, east of Springfield, while walking to get gas. From the start, the search stretched across rough ground in a remote stretch of the McKenzie River corridor, with Lane County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue working alongside Oregon State Police and drone operators from Mohawk Valley Fire and Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District.
By March, the case had become a prolonged effort through a landscape still marked by the Holiday Farm Fire. Naughton’s mother said a yellow gas can could be important to understanding what happened after he reportedly ran out of gas. The area’s fire damage, fallen timber and isolated roads made the search harder for ground crews and helped explain why the case remained open for so long.
The break came April 21, when the family-hired private investigator found Naughton on a road littered with downed timber from the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Search-and-rescue volunteers then used chainsaws to clear a trail so they could reach and recover the remains. The discovery was publicly reported April 22.
The Lane County Sheriff’s Office said there was no indication a crime occurred, and thanked the private investigator along with the many staff, volunteers and partner organizations involved in the search. For Lane County, the case underscored how a missing-person search in the McKenzie River corridor can turn into a long effort across fire-damaged, hard-to-reach terrain, where even a vehicle found on the first night does not guarantee a quick answer.
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