California Woman Found, 'Emaciated,' After 12 Days in Wilderness

Esmeralda Marie Pineda was camping with three friends in the Northern California wilderness on Aug. 25 when she told them she wanted to go home to Sacramento. She was gone when they woke up the next morning, NBC News reports. “So, her friends went searching for her during that day, and couldn’t find any signs whether she had made it out,” said Sgt. Dustin Moe of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies found the 24-year-old on Friday, “severely dehydrated and emaciated” and in need of immediate medical attention after 12 days in the wilderness. Pineda was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

“She was able to pick her head up and kind of wave at us when we were driving in the area,” Moe said, per KCRA. “It’s just shocking what the human body can endure for that long period of time.” Pineda had last been seen near the middle fork of the Yuba River and Sweetland Creek, officials said. The area is “treacherous in nature and required skilled Nevada County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue volunteers to repel into and out of the canyon to look for her,” the statement added. Pineda was found at the top of the river canyon, indicating that she’d made a steep climb, sheriff’s officials said. There are no trail systems in that area, “so people just generally don’t go down there,” Moe said. (More search and rescue stories.)