14 DAY TRIAL // The two hikers going missing in California are now safe and sound, authorities say. Rescue crews have brought to safety the second teenager who went missing on Easter Sunday.
They encountered 18-year-old Kyndall Jack on Thursday, four days after the massive search mission was debuted in Trabuco Canyon. The Sheriff's office staff airlifted her to UCI Medical Center in Orange, and she is now stable.
CBS Los Angeles informs that she was found within a mile range of the spot where the car used by her and her companion was parked.
Jack was hiking with 19-year-old Nicholas Cendoya when they realized they couldn't get back to the vehicle and called 911.
The call was cut short by the phone battery giving in, but it helped pinpoint their location. Cendoya has been discovered dehydrated and confused on Wednesday.
According to LA County Sheriff’s Search And Rescue Reserve Chief Mike Leum, Jack was also dehydrated and had trouble breathing when they caught up to her.
“[She was] complaining of shortness of breath and had difficulty breathing. She was in pain, obviously, completely dehydrated, very weak. She was going in and out of consciousness,” Leum says.
Jack was on a rock ledge when emergency crews approached her. The thick brush in the area lowered visibility and made it difficult for deputies to spot and reach her.
“We told her, ‘Don’t move. We’re coming to get you.’
“First she saw me and I could not see her so I was screaming, ‘Can you see me?’ and she said ‘Yes.’ And I could not see her. [...] She was on top of a rock behind a bush. And I asked her to wave,” Leum recalls.
A reserve deputy sheriff has been severely injured during the mission as a result of a 60-foot (18-meter) fall and he has been transported to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
Capt. John Muir of the Orange County Fire Authority described that Jack's family was relieved and overjoyed by news of the rescue.
“They cried. They hugged us. They thanked us immensely,” Muir says.