Searchers Look For Remains Of Girl Missing For 12 Years

Four dog teams from King County Search and Rescue joined Cowlitz County searchers yesterday near Longview to look for the remains of 8-year-old Rima Traxler, who disappeared 12 years ago.

Searchers combed 15 acres of Mount Solo, west of Longview, but found nothing, said Longview police Detective Scott McDaniel.

"But we're not done yet," he said.

Traxler, a Longview girl, vanished on May 15, 1985. She was last seen walking home from school.

The search on Mount Solo had been planned since last summer, when local authorities, after conferring with the FBI, decided to go back to the area where the body of another Longview girl, 12-year-old Kara Rudd, was found earlier this year.

Joseph Kondro is currently in the Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Wash., awaiting trial in connection with the slaying of Kara, who disappeared last year from outside her school.

Her body was found Jan. 4 in a ravine on Mount Solo.

Kondro knew both girls' families, according to police.

Police said they plan to search the area again, probably within the next few months.