Two 11-year-old girls missing
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April 14,1984 |
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By Jim Fairchild
After RMRU member Dave Ezell's marriage to Sandy up in Fern Valley, wife JoAnne and daughter Carol and myself were looking at the exhibits in the Riverside County Park Visitor Center. The pager activated and said to call Walt Walker. In an attempt to use the phone at the Visitor Center I learned from the ranger on duty that she had for some hours known of a search for two eleven-year-old girls in the Camp Lawler area. Interesting, to say the least. Upon reaching Walt this was verified, and the three of us were soon at the camp attempting to gather pertinent information on which a search could be launched.
At long last Dave Weakly, a sergeant with the Hemet Sheriff Station, appeared back at the camp. He had been out searching. His daughter was attending the camping session, but was not one of the missing. It turned out that two girls at camp had been with the missing ones and had seen them last. They were recruited to guide me to that spot (Point Last Seen - PLS) to see if any definitive tracks were to be found. We spent half an hour on that enterprise, then returned to base with little more than some chevron prints having been located. Just before reaching the vans which were now present, a radio message saying the girls had hiked up to Pine Cove came through. We waited for them to be returned to camp, then returned to our original activities, grateful of the wellbeing of the missing. Dark Canyon has been the location of many missions in the past, and it’s sure to be in the future.