Skier's disappearance, return may stay a mystery

More than 100 days after Constantinos "Danny" Filippidis went missing from Whiteface Mountain, State Police and Filippidis’ family are no closer to understanding what led the skier to end up in a rental car section of the Sacramento Airport.

State Police said Thursday they considered the case still open but had no new information on Filippidis’ disappearance.

Filippidis was on a ski trip with some fellow Toronto firefighters. At around 2 p.m. Feb. 7, he decided to go on one last ski run while his friends returned to the lodge. When he still hadn’t returned by 4 p.m., they began to look for him.
  
Searchers eventually found his identification in his car but no sign of him. The disappearance sparked a massive search effort, involving more than 130 members.
 
Six days later, Filippidis’ wife received a call from a number she didn’t know. On the other line was Filippidis. He called her by a nickname he used for her but sounded lost and confused. After calling him back, she was able to convince him to call 911.

Sacramento County Sheriff spokesman Shaun Hampton recalled the morning deputies found him wandering around the rental car area of the airport. When he called his wife, Filippidis had purchased a new iPhone and had gotten a haircut somewhere.

He was clearly in need of medical attention and was still wearing his ski gear, he said.
 
“Based on our initial encounter with him we basically demanded (EMS) take him to a hospital,” he said.

Hampton said that deputies believe Filippidis spent the night near Richards Boulevard along the I-5 corridor.
 
“It’s a huge transient thoroughfare,” he said.

It’s unclear how Filippidis moved from Richards Boulevard to the airport, which is about 13 miles away.

“I don’t know how he got there,” Hampton said. “It’s very difficult to travel through there.” Hampton speculated that Filippidis could have hitchhiked or possibly caught a cab.

The Sacramento Fire Department’s airport branch declined to describe Filippidis’ condition when they found him, citing privacy laws.

The idea of Filippidis spending time near a major trucking corridor supports the explanation he gave police, that he was picked up by a trucker at some point near the ski resort and spent most of his time in the truck’s cab, sleeping.

But Filippidis’ time covering the nearly 3,000 miles between Whiteface and I-5 in Sacramento remains a mystery. Trucks routinely move through the area around the ski resort and are a main source of goods and materials. But so far State Police have not been successful in finding a trucker who may have picked Filippidis up.
 
As for Filippidis, he has remained publicly silent. He returned from California on Feb. 13 and State Police interviewed him the next day. They said they don’t believe any crimes were committed and Filippidis returned to Toronto. He has cooperated with the investigation and spoken to police after their initial interview.

Last week, Frank Ramaganano, president of the Toronto firefighters’ union said Filippidis had still not returned to work from the incident and was receiving medical care but declined to elaborate further, citing Filippidis need for privacy.

“He hopes to be back at some point,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of discussions with him and he’s working with the department’s doctor.”

By timesunion.com