Rescuers call out for hiker missing for nearly 2 days. Then, a yell comes in darkness
A hiker lost in California backcountry for nearly two days was found after volunteer rescuers followed her shoe prints and called her name for hours, deputies said.
The woman’s family called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office just before 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, deputies said in a news release.
The family last heard from the 50-year-old woman at about 8:30 a.m. the day before when she sent a text message saying she was going for a hike “near the Lake Morena campground in Campo,” deputies said.
While they were looking into the missing woman’s case, deputies said the San Diego County Parks and Recreation told them she “had missed her checkout time at her cabin near Lake Morena.” Her things were also still inside the cabin.
Not long afterward, deputies found her car parked close to a nearby trailhead.
Volunteers from the sheriff’s office search and rescue team started looking for the woman, while a sheriff’s helicopter did an aerial search, deputies said.
Using an off-road vehicle, members of the San Diego County Parks and Recreation also scoured the area, according to deputies. A team with the U.S. Border Patrol also looked for the woman with a rescue dog, deputies said.
At about 10 p.m., the group of volunteers “identified what they believed were the woman’s shoe prints on a trail and began to follow them,” according to deputies.
“Volunteers would frequently yell out the woman’s name into the darkness, hoping to get a response,” deputies said.
Then, at about 4 a.m., nearly six hours after they started to call out for the lost woman, deputies said “volunteers heard a woman yell back.”
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About an hour later, the volunteers found the woman “in a steep and rocky area almost 10 miles from where she had parked her vehicle,” deputies said.
Though she was exhausted, the woman was in good health, according to deputies.
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Volunteers waited with the woman until the sheriff’s office helicopter could hoist her from the area at about 8 a.m., deputies said.
Rescuers flew her to the Lake Morena campground, where deputies said she received medical care.
“She was soon reunited with her family,” deputies said.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 8:41 AM with the headline "Rescuers call out for hiker missing for nearly 2 days. Then, a yell comes in darkness."
