Two northern California girls found alive on Sunday, after vanishing from their home on Friday, apparently hid in a bush and screamed for help until they lost their voices.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Leia Carrico, 8, and her 5-year-old sister, Caroline Carrico, were found “safe and sound” after they disappeared from home on Friday. Search crews found the little girls around 1.4 miles away from their family’s home, in “rugged territory” near Richardson Grove State Park.
The girls were last seen at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, at their family’s off of the 3000 block of Twin Trees Road in Benbow. The children reportedly wanted to go for a walk but their mother told them no. Thirty minutes later, the girls were gone.
ABC 7’s Kate Larson wrote that the girl’s mother said the children hid out in a Huckleberry bush in the woods and screamed until their voices became hoarse.
Leia and Caroline Carrico eating pizza in the hospital tonight after spending the wknd lost in the woods in Humboldt County,after wandering too far from home. Their Mom told me they hid in a Huckleberry bush and lost their voices yelling for help until rescuers found them this AM pic.twitter.com/FPueQvCMdk
— Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) March 4, 2019
Both girls had rubber boots on when they disappeared, and ate granola bars on their outing while tossing the wrappers on the ground. Delbert Chumley and Abram Hill from the Piercy Volunteer Fire Department found the girls around 1.4 miles away from their home after following their boot prints in the search area.
“The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at,” Lt. Mike Fridley said.
#searchandrescue #update Leia and Caroline were found approximately 1.4 miles south of their residence near Richardson's Grove. Here's a first look from the scene where first responders located the girls.
Press release with more information as soon as possible today. pic.twitter.com/k2bUTQOtrt— Humboldt County Sheriff (@HumCoSO) March 3, 2019
“This was rugged territory, this is an extreme environment and how they were out there for 44 hours is pretty amazing but it shows a resilience of people that actually grew up in this community. These girls definitely have a survival story to tell,” Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal explained during a Sunday press conference.
According to a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office news release, the girls were found “huddled together under a bush.” They responded when rescuers called out to them. The girls said they began following a deer trail when they lost track of where they were.
Four K-9 units, a helicopter, the Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue, CAL FIRE, and “250 personnel from across the state” scoured the woods and neighboring areas looking for the girls, the sheriff’s department said.
Benbow missing girls found safe https://t.co/4SgVZ6HqjA pic.twitter.com/IRMQieNeNf
— Humboldt County Sheriff (@HumCoSO) March 4, 2019
“People gave up their weekends. They care about this community. We cannot do this alone,” Honsal said, explaining that numerous people volunteered to help find the children.
[Feature Photo: Leia and Caroline Carrico/Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office]
