On Tuesday, January 17, 2012 a citizen reported that his companion was missing. El Dorado Search and Rescue responded with resources and operated in the overnight period. Early in the morning of Wednesday January 18, 2012, a full callout for all ground resources was made (except snow-enabled).
The subject was located as deceased Wednesday AM by a SAR team. The EDSAR Cliff Rescue team, assisted by other team members, assisted law enforcement with a rope-assisted recovery of the subject.
Circumstances surrounding the death of the 50 year old male are under investigation by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.
This is a venue for El Dorado SAR members to provide fill-in information and first-hand accounts of specific previous searches. After SAR302 posts the first item about a recent search, any SAR member is invited to add their comments/observations/feelings/experience as it relates to said search. The postings are then edited and posted to the ESARC website (edsar.org) for public viewing.
4 comments:
Responded to call-out at 0515 Wednesday a.m. Met two STARS volunteers at the Cross Roads Cafe on Grizzly Flat Road at 0635 who were driving the Comm Van and another rescue vehicle and were unsure of the directions to get to Cosumnes Mine Road site. Kim Nugent had provided specific directions to the CP via the EDSAR Face Book site previous night, so they followed me to the site of the CP and we arrived at 0705. Deputy Jamey Morgan was IC.
Met with Linda Colombo and Tait Schaffer, who turned over period one operational plans to Steve Maricle, Nancy Bentley and myself. Josh Bendick and I cross-checked and confirmed Linda's UTM's for details for Operational Period two search segments. Linda recommended we begin at the PLS and fan out into immediately adjacent segments for the initial period two search.
It was determined there were enough Mgt. people available to staff the CP, so I teamed up with Dan Schmidt and we fielded as Search Team Nine at approximately 0820, with Search Team 11 (Kathy Albrecht and Josh Bendick), along the river trail below the PLS camp site (about 100 meters from the PLS).
Excellent field information had been provided to Linda C. by Paul Duer and John Nugent's search teams from the previous night's hasty search along the established trails. Linda C. did an excellent job of collating this information and providing detailed information to Dan, I and other teams about the segments we were assigned to and clues to look for.
Road down to the PLS was narrow, rutted, with a lot of obstacles, so Dan and I decided to walk the .75 miles to the river instead of taking a vehicle. River trail was flat and easy to follow. Search Teams 9 and 11 worked both sides (river and above the river) of the trail along the river. At approximately 0915 the subject was located by another search team (I believe Grant Nelson and Dan Frink). Grant and Dan requested deputy assistance, and sounds we heard from (family members?) on-site suggested the subject was 11-44. Our team began a steep vertical ascent of the ridge to the site of the subject or Cosumnes Mine Road. Terrain was very loose soil, duff and downfall. CP advised our team, due to steepness of the slope, to return to the river trail and head back to the PLS via the established trail.
About 100 meters from where we began our search, we met Lt. Bryan Golmitz, Cherie and Dennis Duane and their dogs. Lt. Golmitz assigned Dan Schmidt to assist Tait in setting up the technical rescue, and the remainder of us to return to the CP to await further instructions for the subject recovery process. The Duanes drove me back to the CP and arrived at approximately 1000.
Awaited further instructions at the CP and was released from the search at 1530.
Steve Steinbrecher
SAR 394
Grant said: I can't log into the blog page (forgot user name and password). Below is my account of the Wednesday activity. You may publish it for me.
Dan Frink (on his first search) and I were assigned zone G on Wednesday (January 18) morning. This was bounded by Cosumnes Mine Road on the east, the North Fork of the Cosumnes on the west, and north and south boundaries that ran roughly on the fall line. We parked Dan’s truck at the southeast corner of our search area. The slope was steep, heavily wooded, but had little undergrowth. We started by working north, down slope from the road, roughly along contour lines. The relative lack of brush allowed us to keep 10- 15 yards between us and still cover the area well. We reached the north end of the search zone, dropped 20-30 yards, and proceeded south. Near the south end of our zone, I spotted something unusual about 20 yards down slope. It was a straight black object sticking up at about a 45 degree angle that did not look natural. I told Dan that we may have something and we proceeded down.
The object was a shotgun barrel and the subject was hunched over it face down on the ground, his upper body laying against the gun stock and a down tree propping the gun upwards. We obviously stayed away from the muzzle! From several yards away, I yelled our subject’s name 2 or 3 times and got no response. I gloved up and touched his exposed, ghost white hand and found it quite cold. Mistakenly, I did not check radial or carotid pulse. We called CP and asked for a deputy. We decided not to try to safe the gun because this would have required us to move the body and we did not want to disturb potential evidence. Due to the steep canyon and tree cover, we could not get a GPS fix. Visibility to landmarks was non-existent, so we could not triangulate. We were about 220 vertical feet down from the road. There was no way we could be seen from the road. We told Jamie of a landmark on the road (Dan’s truck) and used a whistle to help Jamie and Bryan locate us. In retrospect, we could have given our best guess as to our location on the map and provided those coordinates to CP or Jamie. After Jamie and Bryan arrived, Dan flagged an extraction route down to the river where a footpath led to a narrow road. I flagged a route back up to the road.
Some observations: Perhaps be skeptical of the description the RP provides. We were told the subject was wearing a black and yellow jacket. Our subject was actually wearing a forest green jacket that blended quite well with the surroundings. I should have checked for a pulse. We should have moved away from the body once we were pretty sure he was deceased. This would have preserved potential evidence should this have turned out to be a crime scene. Our search area would have been easy to cover in our assigned 3.5 hours and we would have had a high POD. If the gun barrel was not pointing up, we would have necessarily gotten much closer to see the subject. This would have been a tougher assignment in summer deciduous foliage.
Mt Demo 2-3-11 from EDSO press release: Missing hunter shot to death
The Sacramento man whose body was found earlier this month in the Grizzly Flat area was shot and killed by a member of his own hunting party, authorities announced Tuesday.
Xiong Neng Vang, of Sacramento, was found on Cosumnes Mine Road in the Grizzly Flat area by search and rescue volunteers on Jan. 18.
The 62-year-old was first reported missing by his family one day earlier.
Vang was located on the side of a mountain at around 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 18 after a full evening of searching.
On Tuesday, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Lt. Bryan Golmitz told the Mountain Democrat that Vang’s death was caused by a shotgun wound to the head.
Authorities have not yet released the name of any suspects in the shooting.
“No arrests have been made at this point,” said Golmitz. “Detectives have determined that one of the victim’s hunting partners was responsible for the shooting.”
As of press time, the shooting was still under investigation.
Linda Colombo for debrief:
Cosumnes Mine Rd Search Jan 17-18
Upon arrival at about 11 Pm on the 17th, searchers were staging at the point where Cosumnes Mine Rd turns to dirt.
We traveled down to the road leading to the point last seen, established sign in and Jamie gave a quick briefing. Parameters for the search area were delineated and Five Hasty Teams were sent out with maps to either run roads, or staying on trails, search in and around the PLS .
A member of Search and Rescue happened ( amazing coincidence) to speak HMONG and was given the assignment to stay at the PLS in case the lost person returned.
Upon return of teams a thorough debrief occurred and multiple indications plus a few clues surfaced. Areas on the maps where the teams thought a re-search should be done were outlined and this information was used to write the Team Assignments for the 2nd Operational Period. Where ever two or more segments overlapped, a higher priority was given to that area for next search segment. All those areas within the constraints of the original parameters were segmented into very small areas due to the steepness of the terrain and perceived danger to searchers. Each segment was given a 3 and a half hour search time. This process allowed for more concentrated coverage in all areas being searched. OHV teams were given assignments to stop at any area along their route that was open to visibility of the opposite canyon wall, get out, using binoculars, search that canyon wall for color, movement or unusual shapes. The night search had shown the viability of seeing activity in the dark on the opposite bank and canyon wall.
At first light the original CP was moved up to the break in the road from paved to dirt. 15 Assignments were prepared, so upon arrival of fresh searchers teams were put out almost immediately in priority order. No assignments were written with the resource indicated, just the area needing coverage. Ops was to decide on the type of resource. This seemed to work very well with the knowledge of the previous evening’s searching and the availability of different resources in the morning.
At one point there was a complication with Canine specifics in that an area dog going into the PLS was not going to work due to too much human activity in that area since the beginning of the search. A trailing dog would have worked.
Proof of the excellent coverage by all teams was in the almost immediate “find” .
Due to the complicated location and condition of the lost person, extrication was extended over a long period of time.
Excellent, by the book search.
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