[This story has been updated with additional information made available since it was initially posted.]
It was intended to be a one-night camping trip to Death Valley National Park for a mother and her 11-year-old son, but they were stranded for five days after their vehicle became stuck in an isolated section of the desert. The mother was eventually rescued, but her son failed to survive the intense heat.
Authorities are still piecing together the details, but the tragic incident apparently hinged at least in part of the use of a GPS unit for navigation in a remote area with few landmarks.
Alicia Sanchez, 28, and her son Carlos, age 11, left Las Vegas on Saturday, August 1, for an overnight camping trip to Death Valley National Park. It's not clear why they ended up in one of the most remote sections of the vast desert park.
Sanchez apparently had no maps, but reportedly relied on a GPS unit in her vehicle for directions in the desert. After their vehicle became stuck in the sand, a hike to a peak in an attempt to get a cell phone signal was unsuccessful. The pair then remained with their vehicle, along with their pet dog; they tried to survive on the supplies they brought from home, including bottled water and snacks.
No one else was even aware the pair was in the extremely remote area until family members from other parts of the country contacted authorities late Wednesday afternoon. According to a park report,
The family reported Sanchez planned to come to the park with her 11-year-old son to camp and visit Scotty’s Castle, and that she’d sent a text message on August 1st saying that she was in the desert and changing a flat tire.
There were no further details about her plans or last known location.
Ranger Matt Martin checked the high elevation campgrounds in the Panamint Mountains (Wildrose, Mahogany Flats, and Thorndike) and district ranger Aaron Shandor checked the Furnace Creek campground and the surrounding developed area – neither with any success.
Rangers then began planning for a full-scale search beginning at first light on Thursday, August 6th, including the use of a VX-31 SAR helicopter from China Lake Naval Air Station. The VX-31, with rangers providing ground support, began searching the south end of the park at 6 a.m., as did other rangers and members of the Civil Air Patrol.
At 10 a.m., ranger Amber Nattrass came upon a wheel rim with a flat tire and a water bottle on a dirt road leading into the Owlshead Mountains at the southwest corner of the park. Only one set of tire tracks were seen. Nattrass followed this set of tire tracks and discovered that the vehicle had left the established roadway and been driven into designated wilderness.
Nattrass continued to follow the tracks and found Sanchez’s vehicle just after 11 a.m. She found the woman conscious but suffering from exposure and severe dehydration; her son had not survived. Nattrass, a park medic, began treating Sanchez after requesting a medevac. VX-31 with paramedics on board responded, and they began assisting Nattrass with medical care.
A medevac helicopter from Mercy Air in Pahrump, Nevada, arrived and transported Sanchez to Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.
“It’s in about as remote and isolated an area as you can find,” Death Valley National Park Chief Ranger Brent Pennington told the Associated Press. “How she got to that point, I don’t know.”
Summer high temperatures at Death Valley commonly run above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and were reportedly near 111 degrees in the area of the incident on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Comments
Bogator -
Thanks for the very informative cautions about relying soley on GPS navigation in remote areas.
Anonymous asks
I understand the intent of that statement, and realize the above story didn't provide a lot of details about how far this location was off the main road. However, a little more information confirms she made the best decision she could under the circumstances by staying with the vehicle.
According to a story in today'sLas Vegas Review-Journal, the woman in this incident had driven down a "30-mile stretch of deserted dirt road."
Given the brutal heat that's common in the area during the summer, it seems impossible that the woman could have survived that walk without a LOT of water, if she had gone for help.
The Review-Journal story notes,
That story cites a starkly similar case from July 1996, when four German tourists vanished after taking an abandoned dirt road into a remote valley in the southern part of the park and then vanished.
Their rented minivan was found, with three flat tires, only about 20 miles from the spot where the latest incident occurred. No trace has ever been found of the four: a man, a woman and two young boys.
I don't claim to be an expert in desert survival, but I worked for several years at Lake Mead, most of that in a area that has heat almost as extreme as that in Death Valley, and we did get some good training from those well-versed in hot weather emergencies. When the air temperature (measured in the shade!) is well above 100 and the relative humidity is extremely low, a person's chances of survival on an extended hike are slim to none, unless he has a lot of suitable liquids to drink—and even that's no guarantee until those conditions.
Sadly, among the keys in this case was the fact that no one knew enough about this woman's plans to report her missing in a timely manner. If that had happened, it's quite possible both of them would have been found in time.
The news story mentioned above includes the park's standard advice for summer visitors to Death Valley: stick to the most heavily traveled roads, where they are likely to get help quickly in the event of trouble.
I've seen articles warning of all these dangers and more when exploring wilderness areas all the time. The bottom line is people don't listen, they don't read or they don't think it applies to them. I also believe there are signs posted around these areas explaining the dangers. People make the choice to ignore them. Even tragedies like this are forgotten too soon.
When I heard this story I wondered why they didn't eat the dog. True it was a little dog but it would have provided something that may have helped the child. I'm an animal lover but if it was between my child and a dog...
Ranger Holly
http://web.me.com/hollyberry
I think one of the symptoms of dehydration/heat stroke includes delirium, so it's possible that there was a loss of sensible thought. She also could have panicked, especially seeing her child in distress. I don't think eating the dog would really have helped, since they probably needed more water than they had and a cooked dog doesn't yield that much water. I might have not given the dog water over giving my son the water, but that's neither here nor there.
Plus she was hispanic, and if English was her second language, there may have been some difficulties there, since I've noticed that a lot of warnings are English only.
Staying with the vehicle has generally been the better strategy when lost. It's a bigger target to find, and it's always easier to find a still target than a moving target.
I agree that proper planning could have prevented the tragedy. People are too reliant on technology, and assume that nature is tamer than it really is. We see people walk up to alligators all the time, and warn them that those critters certainly could outrun them at that close distance. GPSs are a tool, but are not infalliable. It's like relying on outdated maps. We've had enough troubles with bad routings in urban areas, no way would I trust my GPS in a rural area.
Most unfortunate and tragic incident to say the least. Perhaps a little education by watching some of these outdoor survival shows could possibly enhance ones knowledge on the practicality and basic application of outdoor survival skills. I keep thinking too many Americans are watching silly sitcom shows and getting fat like a couch potato, instead should be watching something more worthwhile like a good documentary film on outdoor camping skills and etiquette. A good book or two on such matters could possibly save ones life. Being outdoors is a total learning experience but don't the learn the hard way and be foolish enough not to know where your water resources are and basic needs.
When I visited DV a few years ago, there was a survival story from a few years back from the local paper posted prominently at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center. Family of 5, car broke down in the back country. They waited 1 day and when no one came by, they knew they would soon run out of water. They waited until dusk, dad put his youngest on his shoulders, and they took off walking back the way they came. They eventually made it out to a road where someone came by and found them. If this mother and son could have managed 3 mi/hr, they could have covered 30 miles in 10 hours. I know you're tought to stay put when lost, and that's sage advice over 95% of the time. But when you're looking at blistering heat and a dwindling water supply, that rule does not always apply. Compound that with the fact that you told no one specifically where you were going and when you would be back. As for the dog, it was a dachsund. A small dog with little fur could likely survive on minimal water resting under the vehicle.
I live in Telluride, Co, and my Garmin wants me to go over high backcountry 4x4 mountain passes all the time when I put in a destination. I am sure other people who don't live here get sent down these all the time. It seems like Garmin will be sued over these one day before they make the corrections.
I'm still very confused by this story. They were heading to Scotty's Castle, which is in the north east area of the park, but instead ended up in the south west corner....a difference of 3-4 hours! I hope that more information comes through because this just baffles me how anyone could have ended up that lost. The area they were in isn't even on the way from Las Vegas to Scotty's Castle. It's pretty much a straight shot up the highway to the Castle. I'm just very, very confused...
Ranger Holly
http://web.me.com/hollyberry