Dozens search for family missing in heavy snow

(CNN) -- A family that set out Sunday to cut a Christmas tree in the snowy woods has not been heard from since, investigators said.

More than 80 searchers combed rugged terrain north of Sacramento, California, looking for Frederick Dominguez and his three teenage children on Wednesday.

Dominguez's former wife, Lisa Sams, reported Dominguez and their three children missing on Monday evening, according to police in Paradise, California, a town of 27,000 about 90 miles north of Sacramento.

Crews found the family's vehicle, police said, but it contained no clues to the family's whereabouts.

Searchers wearing heavy coats and gloves trudged over steep terrain Wednesday looking for the father and three children, ages 12, 14 and 18. Watch searchers in heavy snow »

Sgt. Steve Rowe of the Paradise Police Department said that rescue crews suspended their search at 1 a.m. Wednesday due to rough weather and low visibility but resumed it a few hours later.

"The weather has eased up a bit, and there's low clouds, so they're hoping to get more searching in," Rowe said. Watch ex-wife describe phone call from Dominguez »

The National Weather Service predicted more snow in the area, with as much as 10 inches by Wednesday night. A winter storm warning was in effect.

The family vanished in a region so remote that it lacks cell-phone service, Rowe said.

The four are apparently unfamiliar with survival techniques and did not take anything with them that would help during a prolonged stay in such a harsh climate, Rowe said. Yet it's possible that they stumbled onto one of several cabins near where they went into the woods, he said.

Police vehicles equipped with snow chains rumbled up mountain roads to help conduct the search, which also involved a snowmobile and dogs.

"We don't know exactly what direction they went in," Rowe said, "or where exactly they went." E-mail to a friend

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