Note: This story was updated at 1:15 a.m. May 27.
WINDROCK PARK—The two off-road riders who went missing Saturday evening were found at about noon Sunday. Their sister, Kara Ferguson, said the riders were her brothers, Travis Lampkin, 27, of Knoxville, and Austin Turner, 11, of Andersonville.
Ferguson said the two left her home near Windrock Park north of Oliver Springs at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. She started to worry at about 8 p.m. because the Polaris RZR side-by-side vehicle the two were riding had a half-tank of gas.
Unable to get help from authorities, Ferguson said, she and others spent Saturday night looking for her brothers.
They later learned that the Polaris RZR had flipped on a trail known as Trail 9. Ferguson’s brother Travis Lampkin managed to get it upright again, but then a tire went flat and it ran out of gas. It also got dark, and Lampkin and Austin Turner weren’t sure where they were, Kara said.
She said the two had been coming down from the area around the wind turbines on Buffalo Mountain when they apparently got lost and took the wrong trail.
Travis and Austin didn’t have any food or water, Kara said. And her younger brother was only wearing shorts and a T-shirt. The two built a fire with a lighter that Travis had, and they slept in the Polaris RZR.
They started walking the next morning.
Kara Ferguson said she thinks her two brothers were found by a man and a woman in a Jeep, who brought them up to another trail known as Trail 12. They then used a radio to request help. The Anderson County Rescue Squad came to help remove them, Kara said.
She said her brothers were fine, not injured, and about six miles from where the RZR was.
Ferguson said the Rescue Squad did not find her two brothers, as reported earlier. (We apologize for the error.)
She said those who helped her search overnight on Saturday included April and Jonathan Russell, Shaun Russell, Ray Phillips (the head of security at Windrock), and Seth Alcorn, an Oliver Springs firefighter who also works for Knox County.
More help arrived at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, when many friends and family arrived, Ferguson said. Also, riders entering the park were told to be on the lookout for the two missing riders.
She said Travis had an iPhone, but it was dead and there was no service in the mountains.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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