Search on for missing Ore. Christmas tree cutters

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A search is under way for an Oregon couple who have been missing since Tuesday morning, when they told their children they were leaving to go cut down a Christmas tree.

Authorities say searchers on snowmobiles and ATVs are combing snowy, high-elevation forests in southern Oregon for Jennifer and Keith Lee of Medford.

The Lees are in their late 30s and have four children, the oldest 18. Police say the couple told their kids they were leaving to cut a ``silver tip' tree — a high-elevation species — but didn't say where.

The search began in the area where the Lees got their tree last year. But it has refocused on the high Cascade Range between Medford and Klamath Falls after police found a piece of paper with the numbers 140 and 37 written on it — a possible reference to two highways in those mountains.

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