The engineer whose cell phone records helped find the Kim family in a search-and-rescue drama that riveted the nation told police the Kims were "most likely in the vicinity of Bear Camp Road" two full days before they were found, according to a Portland police detective's report.

The Edge Wireless engineer provided a far more precise idea of where to look for James and Kati Kim and their two young daughters than had previously been understood.

The Portland Police Bureau report, released Wednesday, said Detective Michael Weinstein immediately relayed that information the evening of Dec. 2 to the Oregon State Police, which headed the investigation into the San Francisco family's disappearance.

Yet no detailed search of the logging roads around Bear Camp Road was begun in earnest until two days later.

The Josephine County Sheriff's Office and state police did not order a search of the area with a heat-seeking helicopter that Saturday night or Sunday, even though the Oregon National Guard had one fueled and awaiting orders. Sara Rubrecht, emergency services manager for Josephine County, did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.

Kati Kim, 30, and daughters Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, were found Monday, Dec. 4, by a volunteer pilot on a logging road that forks off Bear Camp.

James Kim, 35, who had set off for help that Saturday morning, was found dead of hypothermia the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 6.

Eric Fuqua, the Edge Wireless engineer who helped create the network that handles cell phone calls in Southern Oregon, told Detective Weinstein that he traced a "ping" from the Kims' phone to a particular tower. He said he had a computerized "probability program" that could identify the most likely locations of the Kims' phone.

Fuqua said he and co-worker Noah Pugsley discovered that one of the Kims' cell phone numbers registered two very brief hits on the Edge Wireless system in Southern Oregon.

Fuqua created a map of every possible area the phone signal could have originated from, and it covered a much wider area than Bear Camp Road.

"Fuqua pointed out that, based on his experience and training, he estimated the Kims' cell phone was most likely in the vicinity of Bear Camp Road," the report stated.

On Sunday, Dec. 3, searchers dispatched a four-wheel-drive truck down logging road 34-8-36. The Kims' Saab station wagon had turned off Bear Camp Road onto this paved spur, which can easily be mistaken as a continuation of the main road.

The truck departed at 1:30 p.m. but could not traverse the snowbound road, county documents showed.

That night, the volunteers in the truck reported their assignment to check the road was "not completed." The Kims' car was later found 21 miles down that road.

Lt. Gregg Hastings, a state police spokesman, said official search leaders didn't send up helicopters because they didn't know exactly where to look.

According to Hastings, the state police were "aware the map was pointing to Bear Camp Road, but they also thought it could be anywhere within a 26-mile radius. They didn't understand the map that well."

The Portland police report recounted several turns in the case at which lack of access to records left investigators frustrated.

For example, the Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland, where the Kims stayed Nov. 24, refused to turn over credit card or cell phone contact information that could help track them, even after Weinstein faxed them a request Nov. 30 on Portland Police Bureau letterhead.

Weinstein's report said he tried to explain he didn't have time left in the day to secure a subpoena, and "the Kim family were believed to be in immediate danger." The hotel's general manager did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

The same day that Portland police issued their report, Spencer Kim sent an e-mail launching a "private-public sector initiative . . . in honor of James L. Kim, my beloved son."

Kim asked friends and associates to help review laws to allow release of credit card and phone records to next of kin in case of emergency.

He also called for the U.S. Forest Service to enforce restrictions on access to logging roads with clear signs, roadblocks and closed gates during the winter. And he urged making it a federal crime to tamper with those signs and gates.

Peter Sleeth and Elizabeth Suh of The Oregonian contributed to this story.