Fowler-O'Sullivan Foundation
With safety and compassion as our core principles, the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation provides assistance to families of missing hikers, connects them to vetted resources, facilitates searches on their behalf once official efforts have been suspended, and supports initiatives to prevent future missing hiker cases.
The Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation began with two missing Pacific Crest Trail hikers: Kris Fowler and David O’Sullivan.
I became involved in the search for Kris in 2017. During that effort, I learned about David, who had disappeared near Idyllwild, California, earlier that year. Working alongside their families and other volunteers showed me what families face when official search efforts end but their loved one is still missing.
I founded the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation in 2020 in honor of Kris and David. Since then, our search efforts have helped locate missing hikers and bring them home to their families. We have grown into a national organization that assists families, organizes searches, provides peer support, and develops hiker-safety and prevention programs.
We are also developing the Advanced Aerial Search Imaging Initiative, which will use specialized aerial photography to search large and difficult areas. Our Leadership Program will establish trained and properly equipped search leaders and teams in regions throughout the United States, allowing us to respond more quickly when a hiker goes missing.
What began with the searches for Kris and David continues to guide everything we do—because every hiker deserves to come home.
—Cathy Tarr, Founder and Executive Director
Programs
Hiker Safety Cards
Designed with hikers in mind, our Hiker Safety Cards are tear-proof and weather-resistant. Put one in your backpack and forget about it until you need it. Developed with input from search and rescue professionals, each card provides practical instructions on what to do if you become lost or injured and how to help rescuers find you.
Garmin inReach Program
Since 2021, the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation has provided 72 Garmin inReach satellite communicators to Pacific Crest Trail hikers, along with activation and up to seven months of subscription service.
These devices have already helped save lives. Recipients have used them to call for help after suffering injuries that left them unable to walk, when lost, and to report a backcountry fire. By transmitting an SOS and the hiker’s location, an inReach can help emergency responders reach someone faster when every minute matters.
This is one of FOF’s largest and most important hiker-safety programs.
RECCO Backpack Tag Program
The Fowler-O'Sullivan Foundation RECCO Education Program helps educate hikers about RECCO reflector technology as an additional wilderness safety tool. RECCO reflectors can be attached to a backpack or carried by a hiker and may help helicopter search teams locate missing hikers during aerial search operations. If a missing hiker is known to have a RECCO reflector, aviation search teams equipped with RECCO detectors can fly grid patterns over the search area to attempt to detect the reflector signal. Many outdoor gear and clothing companies also sew RECCO technology directly into jackets, boots, and equipment. The foundation promotes RECCO awareness as another tool that may help save lives and improve wilderness search efforts.
SAT Commincator Recycling Program
The Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation’s Satellite Communicator Recycling Program turns unused Garmin inReach, SPOT, and ZOLEO devices into potentially lifesaving tools for hikers.
Device owners deactivate their communicators before donating them. FOF then verifies that each device has been cleared for transfer, checks its condition and battery life, and redistributes suitable units to hikers who need them. Recipients are informed that the device is pre-owned, must sign a liability disclosure, and are encouraged to test the unit with the manufacturer before taking it on a hike.
This program gives unused satellite communicators a second life while helping more hikers carry a reliable way to communicate or call for help when they are outside cellphone coverage.
Volunteering + Events
Idyllwild Trail Days
Idyllwild Trail Days is an annual event in Idyllwild, California, sponsored by Nomad Ventures, a Southern California outdoor retailer with locations in Idyllwild, Joshua Tree, and Escondido.
Held during Pacific Crest Trail hiking season, the event gives the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation an opportunity to connect with PCT hikers from across the United States and around the world. We enjoy talking with hikers about backcountry safety, sharing information about our programs, answering questions, and distributing safety materials and giveaways.
Idyllwild Trail Days is always a wonderful opportunity to support the hiking community and help more hikers prepare for a safer journey.
Crime Con
The Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation attended CrimeCon in Denver, Colorado, in 2025 and Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2026. This national event attracts up to 7,000 attendees and brings together families, advocates, investigators, forensic and DNA experts, medical examiners, law enforcement professionals, and others involved in missing-person cases.
FOF also has a special connection to CrimeCon through Andrea Lankford’s book, Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail, which won CrimeCon’s 2024 Nonfiction Book of the Year. The book features FOF founder and executive director Cathy Tarr and tells the story of the searches for missing Pacific Crest Trail hikers that ultimately led to the creation of the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation.
FOF received a very warm welcome at both events. CrimeCon gave us an opportunity to meet readers familiar with our story, introduce our work to new people, make valuable professional connections, and learn about resources that may assist with missing-hiker cases.
Organized Search Efforts
The Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation organizes volunteer search efforts for missing hikers after official searches have been suspended. Volunteers assist with ground searches, aerial imaging, image review, base-camp operations, communications, documentation, and other needs based on their experience and abilities.
Each search brings together people who are willing to contribute their time and skills to help a family find answers and bring their missing loved one home.
Remote Aerial Image Viewers
FOF’s volunteer image viewers help search for possible clues in aerial photographs collected during missing-hiker searches. Because this work is completed remotely, volunteers can participate from anywhere in the world. Our image-viewing team has included volunteers from the United States, England, Australia, and other locations.
Under the guidance of our Image Viewer Administrator, volunteers carefully review assigned images and flag anything that may need closer examination. Their time, patience, and attention to detail allow thousands of aerial images to be thoroughly reviewed, regardless of where the search or the volunteer is located.