THE CONTINUING SAGA OF SABA VISTOR JOEL GOVE

Look, I have nothing against the island of Saba...but I do have a problem when officials were FIRST asked to post fliers of missing Joel Gove and responded, "No, it would be bad for tourism."


I also have a problem with Mr. Gove's ex-wife having to fund and gather her friends and family to search for him...and now SHE is responsible for retrieving his body?!?! How absolutely insensitive! This proves to me that no one on that island cares about the welfare of their visitors if the man's ex-wife has to retrieve Gove's body! Ridiculous!

Dogs hit on scent in hiker search

(Source)--Cadaver dogs that searched the small Caribbean island of Saba for missing Trenton resident Joel D. Gove reacted positively for the presence of human remains in a steep ravine, and Gove's former wife is now organizing a private search team to recover what she believes is his body.

Gove, 47, an environmental consultant who lived and worked in Trenton, disappeared Dec. 28 while hiking the rugged, 5-square-mile Dutch island on a holiday vacation. Searches of the island by Saba police and by friends and co-workers of Gove had been fruitless until after Jan. 19 when his former wife, Amy Gonzales, and friends of Gove went to Saba with cadaver dogs and other privately funded searchers, Gonzales said yesterday. (Like my deceased grandfather used to say, "If you want something done right, do it yourself!")


"All the dogs hit on one area," she said. She described the area as a steep ravine off the All Too Far trail where Gove was last seen hiking. The dog handlers all reported 100 percent possibility that human remains exist at the location, Gonzales said. "There's a body up there and there's nobody else missing on that island except for Joel," said Gonzales. "The problem is, with the terrain and the high angle, for the safety of everyone there, they said they could not go further." "We're thinking he might have taken a picture or something, and went too far," Gonzales said.


The last person to see Gove, a fellow hiker passing in the opposite direction, said Gove was in good spirits and headed toward an old sulfur mine. The mine was searched and nothing was found. Gonzales said the area the dogs identified was near but not in the mine.


Gonzales said she's organizing hiking and mountain-climbing specialists to go back and hopefully retrieve Gove's body. Gonzales said since the latest trip she's reached the conclusion that Gove, with whom she remains close, is dead. They have a teenage daughter. She said the moment of realization that he was gone was when the cadaver dog handlers reported back to her. "That's the reality of it," she said. "We'd like to have some closure."


She didn't talk in detail of the cadaver searches until yesterday because she was working with Saba authorities on the possibility of having Dutch military officials come to the island with the gear necessary to climb the ravine. Now she believes the effort will have to come from this country.


Saba's top police official, Lt. Gov. Sidney Sorton, could not be reached by phone yesterday to discuss the development. (Gee, doesn't that sound familiar?)


Gonzales said she believes she will need about $75,000 to fund a hiking crew to travel to the island with rappelling gear to descend into the ravine and retrieve the body. (Why on earth would SHE have to retrieve the body? Isn't that what officials do?) Also, Gonzales will continue to work with a group of people, some friends of Gove's, who have come forward to assist her. One is a private investigator from Maine who was friendly with Gove and spearheaded the recent search.


Tax-deductible donations for the benefit begin at $50. Donations to the Joel Gove Search Fund may be mailed to Kidsbridge, P.O. Box 4561, Chambersburg Station, Trenton, N.J., 08611. Additional information is available at (609) 695-8355 or at www.stevelamanna.com. Contact Kevin Shea at kshea@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.