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Highway 50 Search
November 1999
Like many others, I got a callout on Tuesday night, November 9, 1999 to go searching for a missing female the next morning. Accordingly, at 7:00 a.m. a group of us met at Fire Station 16 in Kyburz and Deputy Scott Stewart told us what it was all about.
The missing subject was a 31-year old woman named Dawn. On Sunday, she had been visiting her mother in Placerville when she suddenly said she had to "take care of some business" back home in Carson City. Leaving her young daughter in the mother's care, she drove off in her 11-year old Mitsubishi pickup. All this was rather strange behavior for Dawn, a devoted mother.
She never arrived in Carson City. She was last seen Tuesday morning, checking out of the Kyburz Motel where she had stayed the night because of chain control on Highway 50.
Scott also briefed us on the subject's emotional state, which is often a big factor in SAR. Her boyfriend had died in September, and she had not yet gotten over his loss. Also, she had gotten into serious trouble at her job and had not yet squared things with her boss. These current problems, her uncharacteristic behavior, and several personal and confidential factors led searchers to consider several possibilities, one of which was that Dawn may have intended to take her own life.
However, if she had merely driven off the road, then the primary search area lay along Highway 50 from Kyburz to Echo Summit. So we divided up that stretch into zones approximately two miles long, and the first few teams, including Dave McCracken and I, were assigned to walk the highway and check for a vehicle over the side.
Dave and I parked at Fred's place (the paved road about a 1.5 miles west of Wright's Lake Road) and walked east for nearly two miles along the highway. Wherever a car could have traveled over the edge, we peered down into the canyon. We walked down side roads, we slid down banks and we clambered back up again. We found old bumpers and car parts, a camper shell, a memorial cross, and a prescription bottle which we checked the name on. (Dave even thought of calling CP for the name of Dawn's boyfriend to see if it matched the bottle. No luck) We kept searching eastbound until we met Hatch and Judy Graham walking westbound. None of us had seen any sign of Dawn.
When we returned to CP Frank Munoz immediately turned us around and assigned us to a section of Silver Fork Road south of the Fitch-Rantz bridge. Driving along slowly and checking over the edge, we found a promising set of tracks on a side road where someone had driven in and not returned. We followed them for a quarter mile until we could go no farther, but found no white Mitsubishi pickup or any other clues. After making sure Cathy Dickerson and Katy Bolger extracted themselves from their side road safely (we were all out of radio contact with CP) we headed back to the fire station for lunch.
No other teams had found any evidence either, so after lunch Scott led an informal "What next?" meeting in the fire station living room. Was there anywhere a car could have gone over the edge that we hadn't checked thoroughly? No. Was there anywhere else we could search? No. The logical, if unsatisfying, conclusion was that Dawn just wasn't in the area. Based on that assessment, we were released about 2:00 in the afternoon.
The "Dawn" incident was one of those rare searches that didn't end in a find. Not every search does, of course, but I think everyone left the fire station hoping that Dawn's story may yet have a happy ending.
In true training officer style, there are a couple of lessons I want to pass along about side-of-the-highway searches. First, wear bright clothing. The shoulder was narrow in spots, and no doubt motorists were not expecting to see pedestrians that early in the morning. Thanks goes to Marty for shielding us with a Sheriff's vehicle whenever he could, and to Scott for getting Caltrans to set up some portable signs saying, "Caution. Highway workers next 10 miles."
Second, the noise of traffic at 50-60 mph drowns out your radio. Use speaker mikes or earphones if you can.
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