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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-missing-man-costa-rica-0810-20100810,0,2297082.story
He moves like a ghost over the hilly, rugged terrain in northern Costa Rica.
Locals say he is disheveled, with long matted hair and a scraggly beard. They say he speaks softly in Spanish but seems confused about who he is or where is he's from. Once he politely asked a stranger for a drink of water. Once a local farmer saw him scavenging for food in a secluded corner of his land.
One year ago this week, a promising doctoral student from an affluent Chicago suburb disappeared while on a solo trek through the remote Rincon de la Vieja, a majestic 35,000-acre national park in Costa Rica's Guanacaste province. For months, rescue workers canvassed the densely wooded region for signs of David Gimelfarb, 29, a determined and capable hiker who friends said had traveled alone to Central America to relax and clear his mind after the death of his grandmother.
On the anniversary of his disappearance, the Gimelfarbs cling to hope that their only son is still alive — a belief rooted in faith and supported by at least 30 independent sightings of a mysterious man wandering the back roads and tiny coastal villages not far from where David Gimelfarb was last seen.
"We show people the photograph of what David looks like, and they all say, 'Yes, that's him,' and that makes us feel like we're on the right track," said Luda Gimelfarb, David's mother, who has spent months in Costa Rica over the last year organizing searches with local police and Red Cross volunteers. "They say his hair is longer and his beard is longer and that he seems confused.
"He sort of drifts into town one day and then he's gone, and nobody knows where he'll show up next."
When Gimelfarb broke off contact with his family in Highland Park on Aug. 11 last year and Costa Rican police discovered his rented SUV abandoned outside the park's entrance, it touched off a massive search effort online, on the ground and in the halls of government.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., helped arrange for two U.S. military helicopters equipped with infrared sensors to search the mountainous jungle region of Guanacaste, while private investigators and Gimelfarb's own parents walked the area on foot. Thousands followed the search effort on Facebook, where a page built by Gimelfarb's fellow students at Chicago's Adler School of Professional Psychology offered support and prayer.
It's impossible to know if these random and scattered sightings are, in fact, Gimelfarb, his mother said. She said she has encountered people over the last year who've tried to rip off the family and make a profit off her son's disappearance. But on the chance that it is him, and that he needs help, Luda Gimelfarb said she can't let it go.
"If he had simply perished down there, we would have found something of him, but we haven't," she said. "Everybody has come to the same conclusion, that David is not in the park. Where did he go?"
On Wednesday, Luda Gimelfarb will be among family and friends expected to gather at the Daley Center in Chicago to raise awareness of David's disappearance and, once more, ask for the U.S. government's help in locating him. The search has already drained the Gimelfarbs' savings, and they know there is still more to be done.
"It's not that our government has the responsibility to do everything, it's that embassies don't even seem like they have a plan to deal with these kinds of things," said Chris Shaw, a friend of David Gimelfarb's who has been active in the search effort. "It's beyond frustrating."
The U.S. Department of State, which has jurisdiction in such cases, receives thousands of calls a year about Americans who've gone missing and has precious few resources to find them.
"We don't have the capability to be physically out looking for persons in other countries," said Rosemary Macray, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs. "We have to rely on our contacts in those countries and the local authorities and the families themselves to handle the real search effort."
Efforts can be complicated by language and cultural differences, political pressures, and the resources a host country is willing to put forward, Macray said.
As a result, a growing number of private investigators, for-profit companies and nonprofit agencies have sprouted up to help families cut through the political red tape.
One of the first calls the Gimelfarbs received last year after their son disappeared came from Jeff Dunsavage, a New Jersey man who launched "The Missing Americans Project," a Web site dedicated to sharing information and resources about U.S. citizens who've gone missing in other countries. Nine of them, including David Gimelfarb, have disappeared in Costa Rica.
"The government is too damn slow to respond in these missing persons cases, and these families need someone to help get them what they need quickly," said Dunsavage, who created missingamericans.ning.com in October 2009 after his brother disappeared in Honduras.
The involvement of people like Dunsavage and others has been a blessing for family and friends of David Gimelfarb, who at least know they are not alone.
"You don't know how to react when something like this happens," Shaw said. "There's no manual or handbook to follow when someone you love goes missing. You just do the best you can for as long as you can."