Police searching for missing Ashland family

ASHLAND, Ore. — Six members of a family are more than a week late returning from a trip to the coast, and Ashland police say the circumstances are suspicious.

Peter Stivers and Marlo Hill-Stivers left March 4 for what was expected to be an overnight trip. They brought along their two children and Peter Stivers' visiting parents.

Sgt. Robert Smith said the couple's ATM card hasn't been used and calls to Hill-Stivers' cell phone go directly to her voice mail.

"That's what's taken this to a different level for us," he said.

The couple also departed a day before they normally get paid, and left a pet bird in their apartment.

"I believe if they had intentions of just getting away, they would have waited 18 hours to pick up their paychecks," said Char Seward, who works with Hill-Stivers at DJ's Video in Ashland and lives in the same apartment complex.

"When she hugged me goodbye it was not a farewell hug, it was a see-you-later hug."

Police don't know which spot on the coast the couple and their children, Sabastyan, 10, and Gabrayell, 8, were headed for. They were traveling with Peter Stivers' mother and stepfather, Becky and Elbert Higenbothem, in the older couple's 35-foot brown and white Dolphin motor home with Arizona license plates.

Hill-Stivers' mother, Rose Hill of Ashland, reported them missing on March 8.

State Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, has been working with local and state police on behalf of the family. All appearances suggest the family was responsible and unlikely to leave town so suddenly and not return, Buckley told The Oregonian newspaper.

"In that respect it could be something very serious," he said. "At the same time, there's also some conversations about the family having some disputes within the family."