Search resumes for missing snowmobiler

Volunteers are back out today searching for a missing snowmobiler who never return home Sunday night.

Marvin Davis, 52, told his girlfriend he was going for a short snowmobile ride south of Cedar Rapids late Sunday afternoon.

Volunteers had some new clues Thursday but were asking other snowmobilers to confirm if they were valid.

Scott Ramspott said a neighbor in the Country Estates subdivision overlooking Coralville Lake spotted a single snowmobiler having trouble with the machine between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday on the frozen lake.

The neighbor couldn't be reached this morning.

Searchers also found boxes that could have contained spark plugs for Davis' machine on the opposite shore, on the Lake McBride Recreational Area peninsula.

Ramspott said another witness reported seeing a snowmobiler in the Sugar Bottom area about the same time.

Any snowmobiler who had mechanical trouble or changed plugs on or near Lake Macbride Sunday afternoon is asked to call Ramspott at (319) 329-7768. Doing so would enable searchers to disregard the sighting and boxes as signs of Davis.

Davis lives on Club Road SW between The Eastern Iowa Airport and the Airport National Golf Course. Searchers at first believed he rode toward a bar on trails and back roads, but have since shifted to search closer to Davis' home.