Aerial search for man turns up empty

IDAHO CITY -- The family of a missing Idaho City man is now offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide information to his whereabouts.

Steve Kalogerakos, 42, was last seen around Christmas in Idaho City.

Now that the temperatures are warming up and the snow is melting in the surrounding areas, family members participated in an air search looking for any clues to jump start this investigation.

Nearly five months after his sister Maria last spoke to her brother, she and her husband flew to Boise from Chicago - not giving up hope of finding him.

"It's really hard on anybody. You can't sleep, you can't eat, you can't do anything without wondering what happened," said Maria Kalogerakos.

Maria Kalogerakos and her husband are taking the search of her brother Steve into their own hands.

"Hopefully we will find something because it's been too long, and our hope is just demolishing," said Maria Kalogerakos.

Maria says she is receiving all the help she needs from law enforcement, but they are facing their own challenges in the case.

Idaho City Police Chief Scott Turner says at this point he would be surprised if Steve were still alive.

So finding out how he may have died is at the front of everyone's mind.

"After doing interviews and talking with friends and family we have no indication to lead us one way or the other. We're kind of walking the fence so to speak until we receive another tip, or he's actually located," said Turner.

Turner says this last winter's snowfall made searching for Steve by foot nearly impossible.

Now that most of the snow has melted, or is melting, searching is easier but still difficult.

"This county is 2,200 miles of trees and mountains, and where do you start? It would take us a lifetime to search every square foot of it," said Turner.

One of the reasons they conducted the search by air is because of the thickness of the foliage. Turner tells us that if they were to conduct the search by ground they could be standing next to a body and not even know it.

"I'm determined to find him," said Maria Kalogerakos.

But today's air search brought them no closer to finding Steve Kalogerakos.

"We'll keep searching, keep posting. Hopefully somebody will come up with something, maybe some type of lead for us," said Maria Kalogerakos.

Boise County conducts several searches for missing people each year, but this case is different than most of those because searchers believe Steve Kalogerakos may be dead – thus making the search efforts much more challenging.