‘Little adventurers with a story to tell’: missing sisters, aged just five and eight, found by rescuers after 44 hours lost in the California wildness
- Pair ‘safe and sound’, thanks largely to their survival training, local sheriff says
Armed with some outdoor survival training, granola bars and pink rubber boots, five and eight-year-old sisters survived 44 hours in rugged Northern California wilderness before they were found dehydrated and cold but in good spirits on Sunday, authorities said.
A fire chief and firefighter from a local volunteer department found Leia and Caroline Carrico in a wooded area about 2.3km from their home in the small community of Benbow, where they had last been seen Friday afternoon, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said.
Benbow is about 20km northwest of Sacramento.
The girls were “safe and sound” and uninjured, thanks in part to survival training they got with their local 4-H club, Honsal said.
“This is an absolute miracle,” he said. “This is rugged territory, this is an extreme environment. How they were out there for 44 hours is pretty amazing.”
A photo of one of the girls posted by the sheriff’s office and already being widely shared on social media shows her wearing pink rubber boots, dirty jeans, a long pink shirt and a woollen cap. She is standing while a firefighter kneels down and talks to her.