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7 year old girl missing from park
By Jim Fairchild
Abductions
are ever greater, disrupting lives, terrorizing
the victims, bringing horror and anguish for the
relatives and those responsible for the abducted.
In addition, abductions often lead to agonizing
search time, for those in mountain rescue. The
possible abduction of April Cooper, seven years
of age, from Woodchuck Park, Just south of Vail
Lake, was almost completely overshadowed in the
news media by the Ho girls kidnap and
murder.
The
first report of Aprils disappearance came
on Saturday afternoon (13 Dec.). The Riverside
County Sheriffs Office (RSO), Hemet Search
& Rescue, and the RSO Mounted Posse were on
the search through Sunday Afternoon. When RMRU
and the Riverside County Underwater Search and
Recovery Team arrived, the first order of
business was to search several small to medium
sized ponds within the camp. While Walt Walker
gathered information for us, we observed what was
truly a thorough underwater search, as we tended
their measuring lines from the water's edge.
Then,
RMRU deployed in small teams into the brush
dense, climax chaparral that is the
specialty of low, rolling hills, albeit steep!
Joe Erickson and I were to seek tracks uphill
from Aprils trailer home at the edge of the
park. We found plenty of tracks, none small.
Nevertheless, we saw and smashed through hundreds
of yards of brush. The other teams did the same.
As the sun wend down it became increasingly
opined that April was with another family, seen
at noon, that was headed for Santas Village
in the San Bernardino Mountains. When all was
sufficiently dark, a number of us were assigned
to go out to accompany dog handlers. Two of us
wet with two Bouvier de Flanders canines from San
Diego, that were trained for air-scent and scent
article trackers. It appeared that the dogs were
competent and enthusiastic. They alerted into a
laundry cubicle, and then across a drainage and
two hundred yards up a trail, then became
un-alert. April may have been seen in that area
on Saturday. We persisted in this up and down the
brushy trails searching for a couple of hours,
then the "Shes with the family that
went to Santas Village" opinion won
out, and we went home. No traces found, no
further information of any help.
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