Search efforts continue for a missing SMU law professor, Charles Hosch, who disappeared while hiking on Georgia’s Blood Mountain more than a month ago.
Family members, professional search teams and volunteers remain committed to bringing him home.
Hosch was last seen on Nov. 11. Since then, search operations have expanded into another phase, with large-scale efforts coordinated in mid-December.
As stated in the most recent update on the search website from Jan. 4, search efforts continued with support from Georgia K-9 Search and Recovery and Backcountry Unit Search, along with community volunteers. Hikers have also left flowers and written prayers on Blood Mountain in Hosch’s honor, and search operations will continue this week.
In a massive planned search on the weekend of Dec. 13 and 14, more than 100 professional search personnel from multiple states deployed across the mountain in what family members described as “the most comprehensive search effort to date.”
Teams from Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia assisted, along with K-9 units and drone operators.
Weather conditions on Dec. 13 allowed full deployment, and searchers reported locating a possible clue, though it has not been confirmed as related to the case.
Harsh winter conditions limited operations the following day, Dec. 14, with wind gusts and temperatures dropping to near 10 degrees. However, family members and select teams continued searching where conditions allowed. No confirmed findings were reported that day.
Searches resumed throughout the week following the major weekend effort, with continued involvement from ground teams, K-9 handlers and drone operators.
In a holiday message released Dec. 23, the Hosch family said they would pause ground searches briefly for Christmas, with operations resuming Dec. 26. They expressed gratitude for the continued support and emphasized their determination to keep searching.
“We remain hopeful,” the Hosch family said in a statement on the search update website BringCharlesHome. “We press on.”
The Hosch family has also shared a video titled “A Professor’s Final Lesson,” which shows Hosch’s law partners stepping in to teach his final class of the semester at SMU. In the video, they convey the message Hosch would have given his students before their exam.
To support the operation, the Hosch family launched a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe, where they have raised over $78,000, to help cover food, transportation and equipment for search teams and volunteers.
An update posted to the search website on Dec. 31 shared the family’s hope for the search as it continues in the new year.
“Tonight, we mark the end of a year we never imagined. We don’t know when we will find Charles, but we believe we will,” the Hosch family wrote. “Charles taught us that the most important work requires patience, persistence, and faith in what is right. We honor him by continuing with that same steadfast spirit.”
For more information and search updates at Blood Mountain, visit BringCharlesHome.com.
