Missing Female

March 16, 2007
Gavlin Hills, Near Lake Matthews
2007-003

by Jim "Bill" Bakos

RMRU was paged out to search for a missing female in Gavlin Hills (Lake Mathews area). She'd had a fight with a friend of hers and ran off, saying she was going to take a full bottle of prescription painkillers.

I arrived on-scene and got a briefing from the Sheriff's Deputies handling the case. One deputy had seen the subject near a rocky out-cropping on his way to the home she'd run away from.

Just minutes behind me were John Dempsy and Jim and Grace Manues. Knowing that Gwenda Yates and Kevin Walker were on their way in with both rescue vehicles, we split into teams of two and hit the trail. Soon we were joined by the Sheriff's helicopter, Star 92, and we started covering as much area as quickly as possible - if she had in fact ingested those painkillers, she didn't have much time!

After an hour or so we were called back to base to get a second briefing from the Sheriff's Office. We learned that she had allegedly called her friend, and said she had gotten a rid to Riverside and that she was Okay. We'd been tracking and cutting for sign the whole time out, and really didn't find anything conclusive. So with this information the Sheriff's Office called off the search and we all went home.