MENDOCINO CO., 3/23/26 – An older woman was located alive Wednesday in a remote forest after being lost in the woods for three days.
The 71-year-old woman from Upper Lake was found after she activated her satellite-based SOS device, allowing deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office to pinpoint her location.
The woman, who has not been identified, first went missing Sunday.
On Tuesday, a CALFIRE officer noticed that a 2014 Buick SUV had been abandoned for three days near the Chamberlain Creek Waterfall trail on Road 200 off Highway 20, a rural area in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The car was locked and nobody was inside.
The officer searched the immediate area near the car but was unable to locate anyone.
The officer determined that the car was registered to a woman from Upper Lake, then met with sheriff’s deputies Wednesday to report the woman as a possible missing person.
As deputies requested a search party to help locate her, dispatch received an emergency notification from a satellite-based SOS device at about 12:45 p.m. The notification was possibly coming from a Skunk Train railbike in the area of Camp Noyo.
With the help of other emergency personnel, deputies searched the area where the notification came from and located the older woman. She was in good health and spirits and did not need any emergency medical care, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
She was taken back to her car and returned home to Lake County.
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Good news, but “older” than who ? Just stating the age and letting us decide whether she’s “older” or “younger” would seem sufficient.