Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson (center) and Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings soberly talk in more detail about Wednesday's discovery of the body of James Kim, 35, of San Francisco. Kim had tried to walk for help deep in the rugged Siskiyou National Forest. (Sol Neelman/The Oregonian)

GRANTS PASS -- The search for the missing San Francisco father lost in the Southern Oregon woods for 12 days came to an end at 12:03 p.m. Wednesday when his body was spotted at the bottom of a rugged canyon in the Siskiyou National Forest, a half mile from the Rogue River.

Searchers had hoped for a better outcome because of the pattern of clothes James Kim had left in his five-mile scramble down Big Windy Creek, a drainage that flows into the Rogue.

Authorities don't know how or when Kim died but planned an autopsy Wednesday night. The results would be made public today.

"It appears to me that he was highly motivated and he knew what he was doing coming down," an emotional Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson told reporters. "We were having trouble in there. He traveled a long distance. That was some of our frustration. We could never get ahead of him."

The plight of Kim, a 35-year-old senior editor for a high-tech media company in San Francisco, transfixed the country after his wife and two young daughters were found Monday on a narrow road, high above the creek, where they had been stuck in snow for nine days with little food or supplies.

When rescuers reached Kati Kim and the girls -- 4-year-old Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine -- on Monday, they were told that James Kim struck out two days earlier to find help.

James Kim walked five miles back up the Bureau of Land Management road before dropping into the steep and treacherous Big Windy Creek drainage. Searchers have no idea why Kim left the road for the creek, Anderson said. Rescuers tried to reach him Monday and Tuesday but couldn't get far because of the conditions.

Wednesday, searchers waited out a heavy fog that grounded several helicopters. Once the fog lifted, a pilot with Carson Helicopter Services spotted Kim's body in the creek about a half-mile from the Rogue River. Although he had hiked five miles down the creek, his body was only about 11/2 miles in a straight line from the family's car.

The Carson helicopter returned to a landing zone above the canyon and picked up a Jackson County Swat team member who was lowered on a 200-foot yellow rope into the canyon.

A helicopter lowers two Jackson County SWAT team members on a 200-foot rope into Big Windy Creek shortly after noon Wednesday following the discovery of James Kim's body. One SWAT team member had already been lowered into the canyon and radioed for assistance. (Jamie Francis/The Oregonian)

Kim's body was found where the creek is 25 feet wide and lined with sheer cliffs that would have prevented searchers from climbing down to the water.

On Tuesday, a team of searchers in rafts floated the Rogue River to the mouth of Big Windy Creek but couldn't climb up the river's walls.

As the helicopter returned to pick up other rescuers, there was a fleeting moment when searchers thought Kim might be alive. Someone at the landing zone said, "They found him and he's talking."

The mood at the landing zone quickly changed as rescuers and support personnel moved about and prepared for Kim's return.

Sgt. Dean Perske of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife division said people were ecstatic. "This has made my year," he said.

But within a moment, the mood turned to despair when someone broadcast a special communication code. Everyone fell silent and the mood of the rescue staff went flat. "We may have gotten bad information," Perske said then.

Rescuers hooked a red-orange litter to the rope on the helicopter, and Kim's body was hauled out.

About an hour later, emotional officials overseeing the search held a nationally televised press conference. "At 12:03 p.m. today, the body of James Kim was found in the Big Windy Creek," Anderson announced.

It was the only sentence Anderson could muster, as he turned from the bank of microphones to hide his emotions. Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police stepped up and confirmed Kim was dead.

"We're trying to find a few more details, but given these events, we're not going to release much more," Hastings said.

Kim's family -- who paid for search helicopters and other equipment -- remained in seclusion and asked for privacy.

"We want the Kim family to know that we appreciate all of their support," Hastings said. "They are the true champions throughout this whole ordeal. This is extremely tough on those who have an emotional connection" to Kim.

Anderson later said finding Kim dead took an emotional toll on the nearly 100 searchers. "We were devastated," he said. "I'm crushed."

The 2005 Saab station wagon owned by James and Kati Kim sits on a Bureau of Land Management road to the Siskiyou National Forest. It became stuck Nov. 26 after a snowfall.

News of Kim's death spread rapidly. Friends and strangers following the saga on television and the Internet posted condolences on a Web site set up by CNET, Kim's employer. Others laid flowers at the door of one of the family's small stores in San Francisco.

Scott Nelson Windels, a spokesman for the Kims, issued a statement that read: "The friends and community of the Kim family are deeply saddened by the news received today about James Kim. We want to send out our utmost thanks to the search and rescue teams who risked their lives in the efforts to bring James back to us. They are true heroes to risk their own lives for a stranger."

Wednesday's effort started upbeat. Despite four nights in the wet, freezing canyon, Anderson and Hastings said searchers were hopeful of finding Kim alive after finding more clues to his location.

Searchers found two gray long-sleeved shirts, a red short-sleeved T-shirt, one wool sock, a girl's blue skirt and pieces of an Oregon state map along the drainage. They thought Kim left the items in a pattern for anyone looking for him.

Although the terrain was described as extremely dangerous, the plan called for bracketing the drainage with 26 searchers spaced evenly across the area. Searchers would comb rocks, boulders, cliff faces and gullies.

From the air, the canyon looks like a picturesque postcard of one of Oregon's mammoth national forests. Light snow dusts the mountainous region lined with knotty pines, Douglas fir and larch. A smattering of roads jag back and forth.

But up close, searchers say, the drainage gives way to sheer cliff faces, craggy rocks and boulders, and ice-cold water feeding the Rogue River.

Carson pilots also planned to drop 18 family-made "care" packages along the creek in case Kim was still alive. Each package contained an orange sweatshirt, sweatpants, a wool blanket, a hand warmer, socks, gloves, flares and food. Also enclosed was a letter to Kim from family members.

Jamie Francis of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.