Mendocino County Sheriff's officials reported Tuesday that 76-year-old Naomi Alice Kerwin of Albion was found alive at 7 p.m. Monday in the Albion Ridge Road.
Kerwin had been reported missing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Lt. Dennis Bushnell of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Kerwin, who suffers from Alzheimer's, had last been seen on Saturday walking her terrier Rosie in the Albion Ridge Road area, Bushnell reported.
Bushnell said Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies began an immediate search of the area before Mendocino County Search and Rescue and the Albion Fire Department were called out. The search was fully under way at 10 p.m. Saturday with 12 personnel.
On Sunday morning, officials requested more personnel, air units and K-9 teams, with approximately 60 personnel involved, Bushnell said. Additional agencies involved in the search were Cal Fire, the California Highway Patrol, Sonoma County Search and Rescue and Marin County Search and Rescue.
Also included in the search were members of Lake County Search and Rescue and K-Corps, according to Sgt. Gary Basor, the Lake County Sheriff's Office's Search and Rescue coordination.
He said the sheriff's office received a mutual aid request Saturday shortly before 10 p.m.
“We responded with 17 members of our Search and Rescue team,” which included K-Corps, Basor said.
When Kerwin was found Monday night, she was 200 feet off the road down a hill in dense brush, Bushnell said.
Basor said the location where Kerwin was located was about a quarter of a mile from the point where she was last seen.
“She was dehydrated and somewhat lethargic, probably wasn't going to last the night based on what my team has said,” Basor said.
The Lake County technical rope rescue team – composed both of Search and Rescue members and teenage K-Corps members – assisted with packaging Kerwin and pulling her up out of the canyon, according to Basor.
During the search Bushnell said there were 160 searchers from various agencies on scene, with resources including people on foot and ATVs, as well as mounted and air units.
He said Kerwin was OK and had returned home.
This was the first call out for the local Search and Rescue in a while, said Basor.
“Search and Rescue-wise, it's been relatively quiet,” he said.
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