Welcome to Oscar Hintta's missing-person website
You are here: www.MibSAR.com/Cases/Hintta/Hintta.html
To download and share a Facebook-friendly web ribbon for this case, click on ribbon and either drag the image onto your desktop, or right-click on the image and save it to your desktop. Page Contents
Incident
(Photo courtesy of The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System [NamUs]) On November 16, 1988, Oscar Hintta — a 64-year-old retired custodian from Calumet, Michigan — went deer hunting with a friend in the Kenton Ranger District of the 1-million-acre Ottawa National Forest.
The two hunters went off in different directions along USFS 1100, a gravel road situated in southern Houghton County's Duncan Township, about six miles northwest of Kenton, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
When Oscar did not return to their vehicle at the appointed time, 1:00 p.m., his friend notified authorities a couple hours later.
- Name: Oscar Francis Hintta
- Age: 64
- Hometown: Calumet, Michigan
- Race: White
- Sex: Male
- Height: 5'8"
- Weight: 180 lbs
- Hair: Short, gray
- Eyes: Blue
- Clothing: Hunter-orange jacket, pants, hat, & gloves
- Boots: Sorel hunting boots
- Rifle: 30-06 caliber Weatherby or Sako rifle with scope
A three-day search effort by a number of parties was significantly hampered by a freak storm that swept the area, dumping record amounts of rain before it turned to heavy, wet snow.
Search teams included:
- Houghton County Sheriff's Office deputies and detectives
- Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC)
- US Forest Service Rangers
- Michigan State Police (MSP) troopers from the L'Anse Post
- Michigan State Police canine team from the Negaunee Post
- Baraga County Search and Rescue
- Dogs North search dogs
- Baraga Village Police Department
- Ontonagon County Search and Rescue
- US Coast Guard helicopter
- Duncan Township Volunteer Fire Department
- Local hunters
- Community volunteers
Click on map to view high-resolution imagery of where the search area is located in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan A diabetic with a heart condition, Oscar was never seen or heard from again. No trace of Oscar, his clothing, or his hunting rifle have ever been found in the 1-million-acre Ottawa National Forest.
If you know anything about Oscar's whereabouts, or the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, please report it to the authorities.
News media archive
National missing-person database
Learn more about this case on NamUs, The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
Facebook poster
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Report a tip
Report a tip to the Houghton County Sheriff's Office (case no. 2046-88) at 906.482-0055. Report a tip anonymously via Crime Stoppers USA at 800.222.8477 or via their Internet-based E-tips program.
Operational cartography
Geo-Magnetic Compass beta — The Quint-North Bush Compass Rose — for field operations
Search quadrangle for field operations USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle list for field operations:
Team MibSAR
Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR),
Long Range Special
Operations Group (LRSOG)
www.MibSAR.com
Marquette, Michigan
United StatesThe founder of Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR), Michael Neiger of Marquette, Michigan is the lead investigator with MibSAR's Long Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG)
E-mail Michael Neiger
A 26-year veteran Detective/Sergeant with the Michigan State Police (MSP), Michael holds a Ph.D. from Wayne State University, and is certified by the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) as a SAR Tech I and SAR Tech Field Team Leader (FTL), the top two, field-deployable, search-and-rescue certifications offered by NASAR.
The design and hosting of this missing-person web site, and associated social-media-friendly graphics, are courtesy of Michael Neiger — Lead Investigator with Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR).
MibSAR is a small, Long Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG) based along the south shore of Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan. LRSOG search-and-recovery operators are dedicated to investigating select unsolved missing-person cases and homicide cold cases in the remote bush between the Great Lakes in northern Michigan, USA, and the Arctic Ocean’s Lower Hudson Bay in Ontario, Canada.
MibSAR is a FEMA NIMS ICS document- compliant SAR Team
An independent, volunteer investigator, Michael Neiger holds, or has held, memberships in the following professional organizations:
National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) International Society of Professional Trackers (ISPT) International Association of Cold Case Investigators (IACCI) International Crime Scene Investigators Association (ICSIA) International Homicide Investigators Association (IHIA) American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) International Association for Identification (IAI)
are provided free of charge to victims, their families, and law enforcement agencies.
You are here: www.MibSAR.com/Cases/Hintta/Hintta.html
