Interesting.

I know my phone has a GPS chip in it, but I don't know if it can display coordinates. I'll have to check into that.

Cell phones have the ability to broadcast your position. Most of the time, cell phones only broadcast your position if you call 911. However, since I'm a hiker, I set the locator function to "on" so that my position is broadcast continually. In other words, as long as there's a cell tower, the phone company has a "track" of where I am. Now, in deep wilderness this may not be particularly useful, but at least they'll have a last known position for me. The Sheriff's office here won't even start a search unless they can verify where a person is by finding a vehicle at a trailhead or other positive proof that the person is actually there. At the very least, a cell phone track might be able to persuade the local authorities to start a search.

HJ