Search Continues For Missing Dallas Firm Co-Founder In Ga.

Dozens of people are searching the wooded terrain of northern Georgia for Charles M. Hosch, co-founder of Dallas boutique Hosch & Morris PLLC, who has been missing for nearly a week, having last been seen on the Appalachian Trail on Veterans Day. 

Hosch was visiting Georgia as he and his brother, Heyward C. Hosch III, handled matters relating to their father's death last year, according to his daughter, Julia Hosch Singh. Her father grew up in nearby Gainesville, Georgia, where his family has lived for seven generations, she told Law360 Pulse Monday.

Hosch Singh said authorities are trying to speak with anyone who was on the trail on Veterans Day who may have seen her father or can share any pictures they have from that day.

"He is somewhere and would very much like to be found, and I speak that with utmost confidence," Hosch Singh said. "We will accept all the help we possibly can until we find him."

She said photos from that day could help them identify other possible witnesses and better understand how icy it was that day on the trail.

"Basically, we need to find every connection that was on the mountain that day, so that hopefully we can continue to put together Dad's timeline and find him," Hosch Singh said.

Hosch Singh said a fellow hiker told authorities they spoke with her father at the top of a 4-mile up-and-back hike on Blood Mountain. She said the hike is known as challenging but manageable in a day.

"We do have credible evidence from someone he spoke to that he got to the top of the mountain, which has helped our search team immensely narrow down the radius of where to look, but this is part of the Appalachian Trail, [and] not everything is super visibly marked," Hosch Singh said. "There are also new areas of this trail that Dad may not have recognized from when he was a kid and may have gotten interested in trying to go down and then gotten lost."

Charles Hosch and his brother, both Eagle Scouts, frequently hiked Blood Mountain as kids, Hosch Singh said.

"Dad has significant outdoor training that is relevant to this stretch of mountains in Georgia and has hiked this many times before," Hosch Singh said.

Charles Hosch and Kathryne "Kate" M. Morris founded Hosch & Morris in 2019. Charles Hosch practiced law at Strasburger & Price for nearly 36 years before co-founding the boutique. Strasburger & Price, which had nearly 200 lawyers in nine offices in Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, merged with Clark Hill in 2018.

"If Dad weren't a lawyer, he would be a preacher. He is a lover of people," Hosch Singh said. "He is a lover of stories. He's taught Sunday school for 30 years. He has taught at SMU, the next generation of lawyers, for about that long."

Hosch received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1980 and earned his law degree from the Harvard Law School in 1983.

"There's no one other than my mom that I look up to more as a leader, as a scholar, as a lover of stories and people," Hosch Singh said. "He is thoughtful. One of the reasons he continues to be enchanted with Georgia is the deep ways to get into nature and hiking."

Hosch Singh said her dad recently wrote a list of the titles of 1,000 stories he remembered about his family.

"He's looking forward to, at some time, in his retirement, writing all of those down," she said. "He's been telling them over the dinner table for years, so when I say my dad is thoughtful and smart and cares about people and their stories, I mean it. Storytelling and teaching are who he is as a person professionally, personally and everywhere in the middle."

Hosch Singh said her dad wasn't hiking for speed.

"This is somebody who deeply, deeply loves this area, loves this woods, loves the stories of the Appalachian Trail and wanted to enjoy it and take a hike to remember his family and growing up here," Hosch Singh said. "At the same time, he also has so much that he is still actively doing in Dallas and at home. ... He very much has a lot going on in Dallas and people he loves and things he's involved in."

Hosch Singh said she "would not wish this on anyone."

"That said, the silver lining in all of it is the community that Dad has built, both in Georgia and Dallas," Hosch Singh said. "I literally cannot answer all of the texts and emails and social media comments of people just sending us prayer and resources and ideas and support in every way that they can, and that, I think, is how we're going to find him is that continued community support."

Union County Sheriff Shawn Dyer told Law360 Pulse on Monday that the terrain is treacherous, rocky and steep, but the county's search and rescue team is searching the mountain methodically. He said officials do not suspect foul play.

Dyer said the county has had 60 to 90 people assisting in the physical search, in addition to support staff.

"We're doing everything we can to find this man," Dyer said. "We're pulling all of our resources together."

--Editing by Rich Mills.

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