How Searchers Withstood Grueling Conditions to Recover the Body of an Arcata Woman (Photos of the Search)
Multiple agencies and volunteer organizations struggled in grueling conditions to recover the woman whose body was located inland and east of Wedding Rock about 220 feet deep at the bottom of a crevice.
The search the first night had to be put on hold due to “treacherous terrain, dangerous conditions and darkness,” the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office explained. Late the next morning, the searchers found the woman’s body.But then it needed to be gently hauled up a narrow crevice.
“It went as smooth as we could possibly hope getting her out before dark,” Kai Ostrow of the Southern Humboldt County Technical Rescue said about the recovery.
The recovery began Sunday night when searchers with Eel Valley Technical Rescue, State Parks and Cal Fire were able to locate two possible spots where the woman might have fallen, he said. The person who was with the hiker when she was lost was able to help them narrow down the area to look. But, because of the conditions, they needed to wait for daylight to continue the search.“[T]hey absolutely made the right choice in holding off,” said Ostrow. “Even in daylight it was sketchy out there!”
On Monday morning, Southern Humboldt Tech Rescue arrived on the scene about 9:45 a.m. They were assigned to search one of the crevices. “We were crawling through huckleberry [bushes to find it],” Ostrow said.
He explained that the area off trail near Wedding Rock had many dangerous areas in it including several crevices that could easily swallow an unwary hiker. When they got to the fissure they were assigned to explore, they found it was very deep and narrow. “It was a tight crevice in there,” Ostrow explained. “There was a lot of different ways to fall into it…It took awhile to get the [rope] system rigged up.”
When the team reached the bottom, they located the woman’s body. However, the crew ran into difficulties. “We couldn’t even have radio contact being down underground like that,” Ostrow explained.They eventually had to stabilize one of the crew members part way down. That person could get radio reception and relay messages to the crew at the bottom.
The team carefully raised the woman’s body to the surface.
Once they got to the top they needed to get the woman to the Humboldt County Coroner’s van through thick brush. An inmate crew chainsawed through enough of it to allow the team to carry the woman out.
“We didn’t want to leave trails,” Ostrow said. But they needed to be able to walk rather than crawl out. “We used [the inmates] selectively,” he said. “They cleared our exit to help get her out.”
Once back to the parking area, the Humboldt County coroner’s office and the Sheriff’s Department took charge of the body and the SHCTR team could begin to relax. Since last Wednesday through Monday, the volunteers had only had one day off from searching for this woman and for a missing Canadian man.
The team was eager to eat as they hadn’t had time all day. Even though the the two searches had exhausted them both emotionally and physically, Ostrow said, “We feel good about doing our part of the job well.”
Ostrow explained, “It has been hard on the Team, spending days scouring the coastline without being able to successfully resolve the search for Rick Eastep. While [Monday]’s mission has come to a tragic conclusion, there is a peace of mind that comes from knowing that at the very least, we can help provide this woman’s family with some small measure of closure.”
Still, he said, “It is hard. We need more personnel.” He pointed out the Eel Valley Technical Rescue had been called to the recovery first and had a great showing of 10 people. Yet, if they had had more, “they might not have needed our help [the next day],” he said.
The two teams had trained together last summer and that helped them coordinate efforts during this search on Monday.
He said if people are interested in being a part of these elite tech rescue teams, “Encourage people to join their volunteer fire departments,” he said. “That’s the first step.” He added, “With the economic downturn in our community, some are having trouble taking time off to volunteer.” This, he explained, is leaving many teams and volunteer fire departments shorthanded.
Even with the difficulties, the volunteers of Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue and the other search groups involved continue to be there to help the victims and their families.
UPDATE: Woman Hiker Dead in Fall Near Wedding Rock Identified as Local Dancer
Earlier Chapters:
- Medical Rescue at Wedding Rock North of Trinidad, According to Scanner
- Search and Rescue Ongoing for Arcata Woman Missing Near Wedding Rock
- Body of Missing Arcata Woman Found Near Wedding Rock
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RIP🕊🕊🕊
I hope she enjoyed the little time she had here and didn’t suffer. RIP. I hope whoever she was hiking with knows this wasn’t their fault, do not blame yourself!!
And as always, thank you so much SHTR.
🕯🕯
So sad for her family. Just out having fun and it ended tragically. Thank you to our incredible volunteer technical rescue teams! Incredible community love.
Just Saying – You said it all. Condolences and thanks to the helpers.
I looked up some of the requirements to join the local search and rescue team the other day. For being a volunteer organization, run by volunteers. the requirements are extremely steep imo.
It seems like it might be time for them to rethink some of their requirements, so they can make more use of the community and those willing to help. There seems to be no limit to the number of people willing to help in humboldt. its just that many. cannot meet all the requirements or calls. but would still be invaluable man power in these situations.
i also understand the importance behind the training and needs to comply with procedures, as often location of activity are considered active crime scenes.
Briceland Fire has an auxilary team that helps them. Perhaps you could find a team near you and offer to provide assistance that way?
Yeah I am in eureka, I might call a few different ones and see what I can possibly to do help. There are so many times that are existing volunteers are running themselves into the ground and possibly getting sick because they just don’t have enough people. Which i hate to see happen.
Great additional information. Thank you Kym.
One GOOD way to help is to donate funds to this ELITE TEAM of Volunteers to help better equip themselves with the equipment and training that helps them to achieve rescues like this. I’m not sure if they have any kind of a donation fund account to do this with, BUT, if anyone has this information, please share it with the rest of us. I’m willing to donate what I can. Oh and one more thing, thanks to the HCSO Inmate crews who does a fantastic job with helping on things like this. Even the ‘bad’ people steps up to try and do a good deed.
To be clear that was a California Department of Correction’s inmate crew from Alder Camp. Not a Humboldt County Sheriffs office inmate crew they do work like clearing the highway which the CDC crews do also but the CDC crews are trained to fight fires as a hand crew.
Thank you for posting this Kym. There have been many vicious attacks on the performance of the rescue people that were completely unwarranted, especially on the lOCO site. I hope those who spoke out with such criticism will read this article to learn more of what really happened. And, even better, keep their hands of the keyboard when they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. It’s bad enough when it’s minor news but to post on an article when a person lost his/her life is beyond insensitive and even downright cruel.
Our search and rescue teams are some of the best available. I’d trust any of them with my life. The sacrifices they make, the danger they put themselves in – they are true heroes in my eyes.
wheres the grueling part.. i must’ve missed it. it would have been grueling if they had rescued the woman the night it happened when she very possibly could have still been alive but they waited.. too dark, too cold.. even though they knew the area where she fell. she very easily could have survived.. it wasnt a straight drop.. she was probably gripping the sides trying to get a foothold as she slid down. sounds like 3 people rappelled down and looks like everyone else enjoyed a pleasant day near the ocean. guess what? people climb rocks and rappel for fun.. even that isnt “grueling” and its quite safe when you have nice equipment like they do. had to bring in the inmates for the only real work. this is just propaganda to hide the fact they left this woman for dead until it was convenient to retrieve her. i bet it really was grueling for the unfortunate woman to lay there waiting.. waiting for rescue but really just waiting to die.
As far as we know, the poor woman died immediately.
I was told by Kai Ostrow, who is one of the people I have seen over and over do heroic things for people, that the area the searchers were had a number of cracks and fissures that it would be easy to stumble and fall in after dark. (It’s easy for you without a name to talk about some sort of imaginary place but Kai, as anyone who knows him can attest, was there and is extremely experienced.) He said that the searchers on Sunday made the right call to suspend the search overnight.
Grueling descent into a fissure, grueling recovering a heavy body and bringing the poor woman up, grueling crawling through huckleberry bushes, and doubly grueling after having spent four out of the last five days volunteering to look for lost people.
What do you do for others?
I’ve been there. It’s extremely dangerous with full visibility. The narrow openings to some of these fissures are occluded by brush and they descend almost vertically to the ocean undercutting the rock below.
“as far as we know, the poor woman died immediately”…
**i would really like to know how anyone would have known this the night it happened.**
they didnt bother to stick around long enough that night to even find the hole she fell in so they dont even know how far down she originally fell.. maybe she wasn’t down that far and tried to climb out then fell further or was gripping the side not far down waiting for help until her strength gave out.. for all anyone knows she might have been calling for help. i know exactly where this happened.. i have “crawled” through those same bushes (you would only have to actually crawl if youre tall).. i guess i was having too much fun (like the unfortunate woman) to notice how “grueling” it was. bright lights tend to let you see in the dark so i guess they need more fundraising/training to learn how to use them because if used correctly (point them infront of you, not into your eyes) they will prevent you from falling into a big hole. you could also use machetes and even a walking stick to probe infront of you and go really slow if youre still too scared. they gave up way too easy. if the scanner call was a little after 6 so then when did sohums team even get on scene? its a long drive up.. so they put in what, 2hrs looking? hcso, 1/2an hr.. coast guard played with their helicopter like they do anyway.. park rangers and calfire arent trained for this kinda stuff. the search and rescue was a pretty pathetic effort.. sorry that it was so “grueling” to retrieve the body of the woman they gave up on and left as dead after a heroic 2 hrs of looking. they spent more time driving there than looking that night. geez.. buy some brighter lights if you’re so fucking scared of the dark.
i do lots for my community.. esp the earth and animals but i dont fundraise or advertise my good deeds.. and i dont exaggerate my efforts.
i do want to say THANK YOU to those who give their time but you really could have done better this time. i would be ashamed of the effort on this one, not bragging about how grueling it was.
and kym, its pretty lame to put me down for not using my real name.. how many people on your site do?? .. almost no one.. lame.
and its no imaginary place for me.. ive played in the park countless hrs, ive looked down those crevises.
You put a lot of responsibility on the people who risk themselves to try and help a person who got herself where she should not have been. Where does the responsibility end for the victim and her friends who got themselves in this situation?
I wasn’t there and I didn’t talk to anyone who was and I don’t think you did either. So we are both entitled to our opinion. I base mine on talking to a member of a team that I have seen over and over again be willing to go beyond what others would do to help victims and he was there the next day. SoHum Tech Rescue wasn’t on the scene the first night. He did speak to the other team who was there. I know some of them a little also and respect them highly. These are volunteers who give of their time over and over again. If they say that this was the best decision, I believe them. You can choose not to believe them. If you think you could do better, then please either join a team or start your own. There are many people lost each year and more experts are needed to help search.
As to your other points, I was listening to the scanner. There were people on the scene by about 6:30. Maybe if they had had your alleged personal knowledge of the area, they might have done differently. But they made the choices based on the info they had. Your understanding of the actual search time the first night is flawed from what I heard listening to the scanner and talking to people involved. Neither of us knows what the person who was with the woman was able to tell the first responders, it probably was crucial in their decision making process.
As for not using your real name, most folks on here don’t. But Kai did. He and his team have been searching without pay for four out of the last five days for missing people. I can see what he did and what he has done in the past. So…I obviously choose to believe him over an anonymous person who can claim to be anything. That’s the reality of choosing to be anonymous, your knowledge and deeds in real life don’t transmit well to others and they may be unsure of what to believe about you.
Daaaanng. I wouldn’t have gone there. But I’m kinda with ya on some of that. My first thought too was. ‘wtf, too dark? Don’t they have some bright ass LED headlights and safety ropes? And of course she wasn’t gonna be just stuck in the bushes because she would’ve been screaming for help, so yeah, turn on some lights and go straight to the crevasses and watch where you step. Shit, the prisoners would’ve gone right in like gimme that machete, I, I mean hand me that rope
Don’t mess with red mom. She will censor and ban u if you differ.
Censorship site
REALLY grueling only disagreed with me and said I was lame. That never gets people banned. Calling for violence, like you did, does get you deleleted and if one continually repeats the offense, it can get one banned.
You have your rails crossed.
I never called for violence.
All I did was call someone a dumbass for hiking the coast in a huge winter storm.
Maybe people should hear that before hiking instead of you telling them it was fine and been done many times.
Actually, I misremembered…slightly. You used a slur against a nationality. You called for kicking a man in the ass who is almost surely dead and at the least severely injured. While being a troll looking to anger people doesn’t get you deleted on its own, this level does:
You said, (on a post where grieving family members were looking for answers)
Man. What a dumbass.
Praying for his return and someone to
Swift kick his ass for being a dumbass.
Typical Canuck
If you want to make those kind of comments on that kind of post, I’ll delete you. And sleep well at night. On the other hand, you can claim censorship and fuss about how terrible I am all you want.
Misremembered slightly??
Calling someone a dumbass and calling for violence is not in the same ballpark.
Get it straight before you slander the anonymous.
Perhaps you’ve needed them enough that a “swift kick in the ass” doesn’t bother you, but I don’t allow calling for that here especially in those circumstances.
You, of course, always have the choice of leaving should you not like what I say. I am bound by my rules to let you stay even when I don’t much care for your speech–as long, of course, as you stick by the rules.
Is “Canuck” a slur? I learned it from Canadians, so I’m guessing not.
Depending on the context it is (look it up). And in the context of calling someone a dumbass…I think we can safely say it wasn’t meant in an sweet way.
Kym, less derogatory than “honky” … certainly the Vancouver Canucks don’t find it derogatory.
I’m not trying to split hairs with you on semantics. I appreciate your light hand on censoring the inanity that often flow out of online forums.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canuck
“English Canadians use “Canuck” as an affectionate or merely descriptive term for their nationality. [6]
If familiar with the term, most citizens of other nations, including the United States, also use it affectionately, though there are individuals who may use it as derogatory term.”
With no examples or reference given to the last assertion.
“Censor ship site.” ” She will censor and ban u if you differ.”
~baloney.
Wow you must NOT have been one of the amazing people out looking for her. But sitting at home on your ass mocking the good people who risk their lives to save or retrieve people.
SHTR are an amazing group of people who go out and do some of the hardest rescues around.
[edit]
Better yet next time there is a missing person maybe you should play hero and go look yourself, not sure what stopped you this time…
The people who go out and do rescues dont look for worship or do it to be heros but because they are honest to goodness humans.
These crevasses are incredible. At some points you can look down over 200 feet and see the ocean water down there- hundreds of yards inland from the shoreline. A friend showed me them one day after we ate some mushrooms and as the shrooms kicked in I said let’s get away from this area! I don’t want to see them fenced off. But they are dangerous for regular people…they are unmarked and off trail. So sorry this happened. With epic natural wonder comes danger.
I’ve been to this exact spot as well. As soon as I saw the new pictures I knew exactly what happened. This is one of the most dangerous hidden spots in the park. The large cracks are everywhere on top covered with slippery duff and weak dense shrubs everywhere. To criticize the efforts of rescuers is absurd especially if you have zero idea what they were really dealing with.
Why didn’t someone rappelle down that night to check to see if she still alive ?? If they had reported night that they had called off the search aka left her in the cave.
There’s tons of climbers in the community that would have put on a down jacket and repelled down that night with a headlamp. Those rocks are not out of the ordinary darngous especially for anyone who has climbing experience.
Yes, they are out of the ordinary. Imagine rappelling into a cave with 200′ of vertical with the floor being battered by ocean undulations while not having any distinct location to anchor ropes and where any step could reveal hidden fissures.
The report states THEY WERE NOT SURE WHERE SHE WAS, as in the person she was with did was not sure where they were.
I am sure if the person knew WHERE she was she would have been rescued that night no matter what.
Why didn’t you go risk your life to look for her yourself 👍
HELLO
Honest question. Answer- They are not ordinary at all!! Many points of entry spread over a large area. It is not a single crevasse but a lot of individual crevasses between many rock outcrops. Some meet together, some go individually to shelves below, some drop individually all the way to the subterranean ocean waves. Eerie and surreal and baffling topography. No simple way to find the correct path.
uh No. There are not a ton of climbers around here that would have happily jumped in the search. The ones that can were already helping. Whats with you armchair rescuers?
As I feared, the woman fell into one of the deep cracks (crevices) found in the Mussel Rocks headlands east of Wedding Rock. I used to climb on that overhanging rock during my HSU days (late 60’s), and often explored a crack system that you can actually walk into from the bottom. It becomes narrower as you walk deeper into the crack. I never rappelled down from the top, but vaguely remember looking down into some of these openings when bushwhacking over the top of the rock formation. In many places brush obscures the opening. The density of brush should discourage most casual hikers from wandering into this area. If one is off-trail after dark it is dangerous terrain, with or without a flashlight.
I did SAR back in the eighties. An HSU student from Orange County went to look at the waves at Wedding Rock one January day, and we never found him, just his coat, tangled in the rocks. Those were the days before the internet, but I heard, in person, sniping at how we should have been there faster, looked harder, etc. The most critical are those who do NOTHING for their fellow citizens. They sit at their keyboard and think life is like a video game. Thank you, Kym, for showing both sides, not the petty meanness of the LoCo devotees.
Was she off trail, how did it happen?
Good reporting.
Prayers.
Rip, condolences.
Yes, she was off trail.
We have a large county that is protected by a mostly volunteer force and deserve respect. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement so that we can increase the likelihood hood of a successful and less traumatic experience for the victim and the bystandards involved. With 6 years of fire service experience, 4 years in the Marine Corps with a combat deployment I agree that our first responders need some work. Yes, they do train, but how often? Once a year to stay within standards?
It was night when the rescue was being attempted and the danger was mostly for the people on the edge, not the crevice/cave. Caves are dark…even during the day. Like the article said, it was so deep/intricate that they lost radio communication…how much light do you think was down there? No, there wasn’t any verbal contacts with the victims, but with a fall like that, if alive, the chances of being unconscious is high, and no one even attempted to just repel to at least check.
I’m not here to put down our emergency responders, and I am thankful for their hard work…but again, we have room for improvent and we should always be striving to be better than we were yesterday. Our county is an attractive place for adventure athletes who are probably more competent than many of the first responders because they practice these skills everyday. These are the people we need to try and recruit to our special response teams as more people decide to recreate in our beautiful, yet dangerous, natural land scapes.
Thank you to everyone who serves to strengthen our community and has constructive criticism.
Thank you to all the volunteers of the Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue Team. You do the training to do the work that no one else does. I have great respect and gratitude for the time, expertise and compassion you show. And I would remind others who are questioning your decisions that the first rule for all first responders is to not become victims, yourselves. If it isn’t safe for first responders to act, then their responsibility to their team and to others is to not act, because acting unwisely might make the situation worse for everyone else. It is so easy to second-guess others’ decisions. If you haven’t done this work, please ask questions instead of making assumptions. So very sorry for the loss of this lovely young woman, and I’ll bet every member of the team who recovered her wishes the ending had been better.
I am both very sad and very disappointed.
She was to young to die and I can’t explain it.
First responders, meet the second guessers!
Second guessers, when you dig a hole, and you’re in over your head, stop digging!
First responders: GOOD WORK, all!
Carry on.
Sounds like the same situation at
8500 Simmerly Rd in Spyrock.
Chris Giauque was reportedly bashed in the head with a Large rock and thrown
Down an opening of sorts, in a rock cropping; Called ” The Bottomless Pit” 08/09/03 going on 18 years ago.
By one of the Suspects. Suspects wife worked at the same bank as a LEO’S
wife. Wonder if Suspect’s wife ever found out he was having an affair with a Stripper in San Francisco? He was sneaking her up to the property, while his wife was pregnant with his kid at home. LEO’S NEVER SEARCHED FOR
CHRIS DOWN IN THE PIT; WHY?
$400,000 reward now. B.Y.O.R.
Bring your own rope.
Could it be the LEO’S WIFE at the bank
Didn’t want her co-workers hubby to get in trouble, thus ruining their friendship?