• South County Search - 2009
On Sunday, February 8, 2009, a pickup ended up stuck in the snow near North-South and Omo Ranch roads. SAR members were called out late in the evening. The subject was found okay but cold and hungry in the early morning hours
Paul Duer, SAR 007, said:
SAR Coordinator Nolan Tracy issued a callout at about 10:15 p.m. for a 24-year-old male overdue in the Pi-Pi area. The subject had left his vehicle parked on North-South Road and had not returned. He was reportedly dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and work boots.
SAR teams arrived about midnight. Because of snow and ice near the PLS, they set up a Command Post several miles away at Omo Ranch Road and North-South Road. Management assigned OHV teams to cover the dirt roads and assigned Canine teams to start searching from the PLS.
Almost immediately, several teams began reporting fresh boot prints in the patchy snow. Then about 2:30 p.m., OHV Team 4, at the eastern part of the search area, reported that the boot prints they were following had reached the end of "Road 76" and had turned downhill toward the Cosumnes River. Not long after they began hiking in that direction they began hearing faint responses to their shouts.
Unfortunately, it soon became clear that whoever was shouting back was on the other side of the river and thus unreachable. SAR Coordinator Tracy drove to opposite in hopes of pinpointing the the shouting. Sure enough, Detective Tracy found George standing on the road in the vicinity of Pi-Pi Campground, cold, hungry and thirsty but otherwise in good condition.
At Command Post, George said his truck had run out of gas, so he had left on foot to find cell service. He had lost his way sometime after he left the pavement and climbed the hillside. Though he did find a dirt road (Road 76), it ended in the middle of nowhere so he decided to head downhill again. Near the bottom, seeing a road in the moonlight on the other side of the river, he had plunged across barefoot, holding his boots and socks in his hands. It was near there that Nolan Tracy found him. A quick look at the soles of the boots confirmed the tracks seen by several teams were his.
This was a smooth, nearly textbook SAR operation. SAR teams were on track quickly, began zeroing in almost from the start, and found the subject in three and a half hours. It was also a nighttime find, something we seem be doing more and more of lately.
Special appreciation goes to the patrol deputy (sorry, didn't catch his name) for his heads-up work in marking the PLS clearly and preserving the scent articles in subject's truck.
—Paul Duer
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