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Missing Teen Girl Found In Woods Alive on Last Day of Search.


Doc Reeves

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Rescuers miraculously find a young girl on the last day of their search and ruin a great setup for a true crime episode 

 

A missing Washington teenager who vanished last month after she ran out of gas was found alive Saturday in a remote section of the Cascade Mountains, authorities said.

Speaking to reporters, King County sheriff’s spokesman Ryan Abbott said it was a “miracle” that Giovanna Fuda, 18, was found after a week-long search.

“She’s in stable condition,” he said. “This is a remarkable ending

Fuda was last seen on July 24, when she left her home in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley without telling her parents where she was going. Her car was found abandoned the next night near a mountain pass roughly two hours northeast of Maple Valley.

“We don’t know why she was up there,” her father, Bob Fuda, told NBC affiliate KING last week.

Authorities said the car, a 2008 Toyota Corolla, had run out of gas. Her purse was still in the vehicle but her cellphone was gone. The King County Sheriff’s Office initially described her disappearance as “suspicious.”

Abbott said the area was a dead zone for cell service so it was difficult to trace her location through her phone’s GPS. Dense brush also made it impossible to search with a helicopter, he said.

On Saturday, after a bloodhound tracked her scent more than a mile down the highway, a search and rescue team trekking up a ravine and following a creek found her notebook, shoes and clothing, Abbott said. They eventually found her, too, a few miles from her car, he said. She was alert and conscious but incoherent.

“We don’t know how she got up in that area,” he said, adding that she may have gotten turned around while walking to get gas. He said she likely survived by drinking water from the creek, but she had no food with her and he wasn’t sure what she ate.

A family friend who was involved in the search, Jeff White, told KING that Saturday was the last day of the rescue effort

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Some more details. 
 

 

A day after search-and-rescue crews found Gia Fuda, an 18-year-old Maple Valley woman who’d been missing more than a week, alive in the deep woods near Stevens Pass, her parents said their daughter was scraped, scratched and dehydrated, but otherwise in good health.

“She’s beat up pretty good,” said her father, Bob Fuda. “She wandered around in some pretty steep and dense terrain up there and at one point slid down a bank. But there’s no broken bones.”

Gia Fuda remained at a Monroe hospital, where she was resting Sunday afternoon and being treated for dehydration, added her mother, Kristin Fuda.

“She’s doing well, they’re just filling her up with lots of fluids,” she said.

Since being rescued Saturday afternoon, Gia, who left the family’s Maple Valley home to take a drive early on July 24, has told her parents that she got lost in the woods after her car ran out of gas, the couple said.

“She locked up the car, grabbed her keys, cellphone and little bag and started off toward town, trying to get cell reception,” Bob Fuda said. “At one point, she decided she was going to head up into the trails and try to get back into town, but little did she know that town was quite a ways off.”

His daughter “got turned around and lost,” and ended up spending the next eight days “wandering around up there for miles,” her father said.

Rescuers found her Saturday afternoon, sitting on a rock next to a creek up a steep, wooded ravine about 1.2 miles from where her car was found, 10 miles east of Skykomish on Highway 2, sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Abbott said.

“All she said was, ‘I don’t know where I am,’ ” Abbott said. “She hadn’t eaten in so long that she wasn’t making a lot of sense, so we just rushed her off to the hospital to get her some treatment.”

For eight days, search-and-rescue teams from multiple jurisdictions fanned out into the woods of the Cascade foothills, searching without luck. 

About 50 volunteers searched each day, using a helicopter, several dog teams and rescuers specialized in mountain rescue techniques and tracking skills, said Jen Brenes, president of King County Search and Rescue. 

The teams also tried to calculate where the missing woman might be based on her cellphone activity, but the area is a dead zone for cell service, Abbott said. Bloodhounds had tracked her scent 1.75 miles west from where her car was found. But then, “for some reason she turned into the woods,” Abbott said.

Then, Saturday afternoon, as rescuers methodically worked their way through a search pattern based on where her car was found, volunteers sweeping through a ravine along the Scenic Creek recovered a notebook with Gia’s name written in it, Brenes said. Several more personal items — her car keys, some clothing and a Bible — also were found.

“That caused us to redirect our attention to that area,” Brenes said. 

A mountain rescue team with technical climbing skills ultimately located the young woman several hundred feet up the ravine, “seated on a rock right on the creek,” Abbott said.

It’s very unusual for us to find someone alive after eight days,” Brenes said. “That doesn’t happen very often.”

When she was reunited with her parents, who were in the area for the search, Gia’s first words were “I’m fine,” said her mother. 

“She thought she’d only been up there three days,” Kristin Fuda said. “She’d totally lost track of time.”

Gia drank water from the creek, but other than a few berries, she hadn’t eaten since getting lost, her parents said. At night, she sheltered next to trees, rocks or in caves, her father said. 

Kristin and Bob Fuda said Thursday that they had dinner with their daughter on July 23 at their Maple Valley home. 

The next morning, they said, she left the house around 8 or 9 a.m. without mentioning where she was going, although her parents said that wasn’t out of the ordinary. When she didn’t return and they hadn’t heard from her by that night, they called the police.

“We’re just so grateful; that search-and-rescue team is an amazing group of volunteers,” Bob Fuda said.

“She’s very lucky,” Abbott added. “We’re absolutely thrilled.”

Early Saturday evening, Kristin Fuda updated her Facebook page. 

There was no text, simply an earlier photograph of her smiling daughter.

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Girl was last soon on coffee shop camera and her interactions at the shop suggested that she was totally sober. 
 

also, when some people become delirious and hypothermic they can feel as tho they are burning. There have been cases of people finding skiers and lost hikers in snow frozen to death in only their underwear. 

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cant wait for the Lifetime movie about this to be made.

 

"She got mad at her parents... then it happened"

 

Hell,  it can be filmed in less than a week with total social distancing in place....      all the movie needs to do is show her walking around dazed for 2 hours including commercials,  the ladies would love that

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9 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

without telling her parents where she was going

Glad she is safe.  This part above, can't be stated enough on how important this is.  I spent a lot of time hiking in Big Bend when I was younger.  Rangers always impressed upon us how big the park is, and how people die each year from not respecting the land and not having a point of reference for the rangers on where to start their searches.  

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Only half have the navigation chromosome, and maybe someone gave her bad directions?

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/07/14/women-stranded-muskegon-river-tubing/87074472/

Three women were stranded overnight on the banks of the Muskegon River earlier this week after a first-time tubing trip turned into a 20-plus hour ordeal, according to the Muskegon Township Fire Department.

The women, all in their 20s and from Muskegon and Muskegon Heights, set out alone at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Deputy Fire Chief Bob Grabinski said. They were rescued by fire officials around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“They went and bought some tubes and they went to the Maple Island Bridge, which is one of the access points to the river, a popular spot,” Grabinski said Thursday. “They were misinformed: Somebody said (the river) makes a big loop and they’d come right back to their car.”

Grabinski said the women did not know the individual who offered the faulty advice, and no one has come forward to claim credit. The women were unfamiliar with the river and had never gone tubing.

“They thought it was great,” Grabinski said of the alleged circular river. “They believed it.”

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Just now, BabaYaga said:

Glad she is safe.  This part above, can't be stated enough on how important this is.  I spent a lot of time hiking in Big Bend when I was younger.  Rangers always impressed upon us how big the park is, and how people die each year from not respecting the land and not having a point of reference for the rangers on where to start their searches.  

Fucking A. You need to stay with your fucking car and if you do leave to get gas, leave a note. I’m mean seriously- basic elementary school safety shit. 
 

seems the girl told her parents she initially turned into the woods to climb up and get cell service. No one is saying why the hell she was out there in the first place.

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2 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

Fucking A. You need to stay with your fucking car and if you do leave to get gas, leave a note. I’m mean seriously- basic elementary school safety shit. 
 

seems the girl told her parents she initially turned into the woods to climb up and get cell service. No one is saying why the hell she was out there in the first place.

Yep.  Good 'ol Mother Nature DOES.  NOT.  GIVE.  A.  SHIT.  You are a walking bag of meat with a single built in advantage - your brain.  So use it.  You turn an ankle, get lost, get sick, etc. it's your ass.  I do a little high mountain hunting but know a lot of guys that do it full time.  They are obsessed and in phenomenal shape, and they are all to a man paranoid about the mountains and what can happen.  Think triple redundancy on everything for 7-10 day hunts.  First thing they will tell you, if you are relying on anything that needs batteries or a charge, you have no place up there.  

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1 hour ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Isn't every lost person that's recovered found on the last day of the search?

Very similar to all of the deer hunting shows.....it was the last day of the 37 year, 9 month and 4 day deer hunt and Larry's patience was starting to run thin.  The sun was going down and the season was over at sundown.  Larry hadn't left the blind the entire time and was almost ready to throw in the towel when the deer of a lifetime that he had been after finally appeared at 1,085 yards uphill with a 97 knot crosswind.  Larry took the shot and bullseye! knocked him det.  (now another commercial from our sponsors Yeti, Polaris  and Mossy Oak beef jerky.

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7 minutes ago, deadshank said:

Very similar to all of the deer hunting shows.....it was the last day of the 37 year, 9 month and 4 day deer hunt and Larry's patience was starting to run thin.  The sun was going down and the season was over at sundown.  Larry hadn't left the blind the entire time and was almost ready to throw in the towel when the deer of a lifetime that he had been after finally appeared at 1,085 yards uphill with a 97 knot crosswind.  Larry took the shot and bullseye! knocked him det.  (now another commercial from our sponsors Yeti, Polaris  and Mossy Oak beef jerky.

How I wish they went

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6 hours ago, deadshank said:

Nobody but her EVER drives in the highway / country road that she ran her car out of fuel?

She doesn’t stay by her vehicle that’s on a road?

There is more to this story.  
 

Yeah, I'm thinking something else. Run out of gas and head into the wild to find a station or help? Took phone but not her purse. Doesn't add up.

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24 minutes ago, BERT said:

I love this place. Always a hand full of people second guessing any story out there. 

Not saying she's not lying about something, just saying i find y'all assholes funny. 

The alternative is to say she's an outstandingly, stupid, human being. I prefer she was on shrooms or Sid, and just kinda wandered off in to nature..  much more Disney like.  

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28 minutes ago, BERT said:

I love this place. Always a hand full of people second guessing any story out there. 

Not saying she's not lying about something, just saying i find y'all assholes funny. 

Are you the kind of person who just takes everything at face value, regardless of how much shit doesn't add up?

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that road she was on is extremely remote. I drove it overnight coming back from eastern Washington and saw at least 15 deer next to and just standing in the middle of the road. maybe 1 big rig coming the opposite way. zero cell service for an hour at least maybe more.

probably just an impatient, dumb decision thinking going up would get to cell service. I'm more curious where she was going with a bag packed and not telling parents, driving that far out on that road. There is NOTHING out there and not much in that direction. Running out of gas and making a dumb decision in the middle of the night, i totally buy that. But where the fuck was she going.

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4 minutes ago, cam4mav said:

that road she was on is extremely remote. I drove it overnight coming back from eastern Washington and saw at least 15 deer next to and just standing in the middle of the road. maybe 1 big rig coming the opposite way. zero cell service for an hour at least maybe more.

probably just an impatient, dumb decision thinking going up would get to cell service. I'm more curious where she was going with a bag packed and not telling parents, driving that far out on that road. There is NOTHING out there and not much in that direction. Running out of gas and making a dumb decision in the middle of the night, i totally buy that. But where the fuck was she going.

Middle of the night ? I'm car camping and getting a plan together the next morning. It's Summer she wasn't gonna freeze to death.

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21 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

You are a male correct? 

You're planning and ideas don't belong in the discussion given the sex of the subject of the search.

Anyone remember the Hawaii chick that got "lost" when the way back to civilization was as complex as walking down hill? 

Yeah, well, she was fulla shit too. Dumb and fulla shit. Wonder how that survival app her friend was developing is working out.

Last time I checked, yes.   

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2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Middle of the night ? I'm car camping and getting a plan together the next morning. It's Summer she wasn't gonna freeze to death.

I’ve been up in that area and can say that it can still get brisk in the evening at this time of year. It can be extremely hot and taxing during the day and then you get drizzled on for 2 hours and then it can dip in to the low 60s. If you don’t have some quality waterproof stuff you can get into real trouble.

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