For those wondering why they searched Middle Mountain, Sgt Bender spoke to the Durango Herald and I transcribed some of that interview regarding why the search there.
At 01:25...
Reporter "Can you give us more of an exact location where the remains were found?"
Bender "Middle Mountain Road is about 12 miles long and we searched that by/through the entirety. We also searched/checked drainage's off either side and it was in one of those drainage's that we found the majority of the items."
At 01:48...
Reporter "What prompted the search of that area?"
Bender "We, from the very beginning, have had a/specific areas that we wanted to search. We searched those in November and December. When snows came we could not get any further than we had and when the snows melted we...actually have been doing searches almost on a weekly bases since the snows have cleared and Middle Mountain was just one more of those areas we wanted to check."
At 03:12...
Bender "The search at Middle Mountain had been planned for at least 2-4 weeks because we wanted to have it so thorough, we needed specific resources and for people to be able to plan their schedules to be able to be up there potentially for multiple days as it turned out it was 5 days. We had on each day an average of about 45 people in the searches. They included search and rescue personnel and LE personnel."
http://new.livestream.com/durango-herald/events/2212840