Search Committee

The Search Committee was one of the first functional committees created by the Boulder Free Zone, formed in the wake of Mother Abagail's sudden departure. Its existence reflected the community's deep attachment to the old woman who had drawn them together through shared dreams, and its failure to find her marked a turning point in the Zone's psychological adjustment to life without her charismatic presence.

Formation and Purpose

The Search Committee was proposed by Stuart Redman at the August 18, 1990, mass meeting at Chautauqua Auditorium, where the Free Zone ratified its first governing documents and elected its Permanent Committee. The item appeared as the seventh and final point on the mimeographed agenda distributed to the crowd: "To see if the Free Zone will approve a Search Committee of at least fifteen persons, its purpose to find the whereabouts of Abagail Freemantle, if possible." The proposal passed with no opposition, and Harold Lauder was placed in charge of the effort, a decision that Stu pushed through the ad hoc committee on the grounds that the search had originally been Harold's idea. The committee was to operate on a weekend-and-evening basis, a schedule that Stu and Nick Andros accepted without protest, tacitly acknowledging that the search was unlikely to succeed.

Activities and Scope

Harold Lauder led the Search Committee in a methodical but ultimately fruitless effort. He produced survey maps of the areas his volunteers had already covered, which he delivered to Fran Goldsmith at her apartment. The searchers combed the foothills and wildlands west of Boulder, but the terrain was vast and the old woman had vanished without a trace. Harold himself spent most of his time on the Burial Committee instead, where his fellow workers nicknamed him "Hawk." When Fran asked him how the search was going, he smiled but offered little hope. The committee's lack of results gradually confirmed what most people already suspected: Mother Abagail had gone into the wilderness of her own accord, and she would not be found unless she chose to return.

Community Response and Significance

The Search Committee's inability to locate Mother Abagail did not cause panic or despair in the Free Zone. Instead, the community absorbed her absence with a kind of resigned acceptance, treating it as a religious mystery rather than a crisis. People speculated that she had gone off to "pray for guidance" so she could help them choose the right path at the upcoming mass meeting. This attitude reflected what Glen Bateman identified as the community's faith in her as a "theocratic symbol"—an earthly representation of a covenant with God. As Bateman explained to Stu Redman, the people were "perfectly certain she is going to come back," and the Search Committee's failure did not shake that conviction. The committee was formally approved at the August 18 meeting, but by then the search had already become a formality, a way for the community to demonstrate its concern while accepting that the outcome was beyond human control.

Harold Lauder's Role and the Committee's End

Harold Lauder's leadership of the Search Committee gave him a visible public role in the Free Zone, but it also provided cover for his darker purposes. The search expeditions took him into the hills west of Boulder, where he had opportunities to be alone with Stu Redman—opportunities he considered using to assassinate him. On one such expedition, Harold carried a loaded Smith & Wesson .38 in his army surplus flak jacket and came close to shooting Stu at Chautauqua Park, but he held back at the last moment. The Search Committee thus became a stage on which Harold played the loyal citizen while nursing his murderous plans. When Mother Abagail finally returned on her own, gravely ill and near death, the Search Committee's work was effectively over. She had come back not because she was found, but because she had completed her self-imposed penance in the wilderness. The committee was never formally disbanded; it simply faded away, its purpose fulfilled by the old woman's own will.