By Cleo Westin cleo.westin@gazette.com April 20, 2026 | updated 16 hours ago
Undated authentic pictures of Kaden Sites (left) and an AI generated image of him (right) as law enforcement continue their search for turkey hunter who went missing on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (All images courtesy of the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office)
The search for a turkey hunter on Mount Shavano in Chaffee County by more than a dozen agencies continued into its fifth day Monday as officials released an AI-generated image of the man.
The Sheriff’s Office posted the generated image of 27-year-old Kaden Sites of Salida on social media Monday, showing what he was believed to be wearing and had with him when he went missing, according to the office.
The post by the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office depicts Sites with items not previously stated he possessed, including a pack on his chest, sunglasses and a hat.
A request for clarification to the Sheriff’s Office by The Gazette on whether the items were facts of Sites’ appearance or erroneous output by artificial intelligence was not responded to immediately. The caption on the post with the AI-generated image does not provide any specifics on what he possessed.
The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office had previously posted three authentic photos of Sites before generating one.
Sites is 6-foot-2, 160 pounds with light brown hair, a goatee and mustache. He was believed to be carrying a shotgun while wearing a black or gray hoodie, ripped khaki pants and hiking boots.
What Sites was thought to have been wearing at the time of his disappearance on Wednesday has been changed several times in the days since by the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office in their updates on social media.
The Sheriff’s Office initially reported on Thursday that he was wearing a green hoodie, which deputies disproved on Monday after that hoodie was found at his home. It was reported on Friday that he may have put on a ghillie suit, which uses foliage-like material for camouflage, but that was confirmed not to be true on Sunday.
Sites’ last known contact was on Wednesday afternoon near the Blanks Cabin Trailhead, north of U.S. 50 heading west from Salida to Monarch Pass, with his cellphone in his truck after he failed to show up for a doctor’s appointment later that day.
Anyone with information on Sites’ whereabouts on Wednesday can contact the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office at 719-539-2596.
As of Sunday morning, a few hundred searchers had covered a combined 2,743 miles in looking for Sites since his disappearance, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The following agencies are participating in the search effort:
- Arapahoe Rescue Patrol
- Douglas County Search and Rescue
- Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
- Chaffee County Emergency Medical Services
- Chaffee County Office of Emergency Management
- Chaffee County Search and Rescue, both south and north divisions
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife
- Colorado Search and Rescue
- Custer County Search and Rescue
- Mesa County Search and Rescue
- Park County Search and Rescue
- Summit County Search and Rescue
- Teller County Search and Rescue
- United States Search and Rescue Dogs
- Western Mountain Rescue Team