Kyle Doan’s father shares frustration regarding stalled search efforts for his missing son

By Jacob Dizon

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    SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (KSBY) — For the past four months, the family of Kyle Doan has been searching for their son who was swept away by floodwaters on January 9.

At a press conference Tuesday, the family called on both the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to resume their own searches.

“We wanted some explanation as opposed to vagueness as to when they actually do intend to go out and actually perform another boots-on-the-ground search, and they haven’t been very forthcoming with us which has been hard,” admitted Kyle’s dad, Brian Doan.

According to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, it has been roughly two weeks since the department conducted its own searches for Kyle, but they add another large-scale search event will be coordinated when storm-damaged areas of the Salinas River improve.

However, no dates for that search have yet been provided to the Doan family.

“It is constant, circular word salad, it is very general and vague,” Brian Doan told KSBY. “It is frustrating, there is no excuse why they cannot cooperate with the volunteer groups that we have personally sponsored to come out here.”

Back in March, the Doan family enlisted the Idaho-based nonprofit, K9 Task Force to assist in the search.

“When they came out they basically did a full search of the creek and the confluence and came up with the odor hits that were back in the creek, not too far from where my wife was rescued,” Doan recalled.

Amid an ongoing search that has spanned more than a quarter of the year, Brian Doan says he and his family are tired of waiting for answers.

“We are still on a mission to bring him home and we just want people who say this is a top priority to act upon those words,” he added.

The Sheriff’s Office says their next area search will include search and rescue teams, drones, and K9s.

The K9 Task Force team says last year they responded to 41 calls for service nationwide.

“We have a good history of helping tie in those clues and evidence for law enforcement to help build that puzzle,” explained K9 Task Force president Tori Swan.

Swan says though the organization is not directly affiliated with a law enforcement agency, her team makes it a top priority to abide by the policies of local police and sheriff departments and not impede upon their respective searches.

Brian Doan meanwhile, says another K9 search was supposed to take place Tuesday, but due to lingering weather impacts in the area, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office had the K9 Task Force hold off.

“Our K9 teams should be out here today, we should have been able to plan lodgings and travel arrangements for them last week. We have not been able to do that because they have stonewalled the policies and procedures our K9 captain goes through,” Doan said.

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