Woman Missing Since November Found Alive In Diamond Fork Canyon
May 3, 2021, 10:46 PM | Updated: Jul 11, 2023, 8:47 pm
Search and rescue crews found a woman in a tent in Diamond Fork Canyon who had been missing since Nov. 2020. (Utah County Sheriff's Office)
(Utah County Sheriff's Office)
SPANISH FORK, Utah — A woman who has been missing up Diamond Fork Canyon since November 2020 has been found alive. Utah County officials said the 47-year-old woman was found in a tent.
Crews came across the woman Saturday. They said she was in bad physical shape and only had a small amount of food and water with her.
“This woman… had lost a significant amount of weight and was weak, but she was apparently also resourceful,” read a press release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “We now believe she knowingly chose to remain in the area over the months since November 2020.”
Search and rescue crews said she told them she had been living off of grass and moss, and drinking from a nearby river.
The was taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation.
Crews first began looking for the unidentified woman when her car was found at a campground parking lot on Nov. 25, 2020.
“They also found camping equipment and information that identified the person who was camping there,” read the release.
A search was conducted by ground and by air, but the woman could not be found.
Search teams believed the car and camping equipment might have been abandoned, so the car was impounded and the equipment was taken for safekeeping, according to the release.
“Over the next several months efforts were made to identify and contact family without success,” the release continued. “Detectives did make contact with this woman’s former co-workers but they did not get any information that suggested where this woman might be.”
On Sunday, a Utah County Sheriff’s Office sergeant returned to Diamond Fork with an aerial search organization to look for evidence that she might still be in the area.
“During one of the first passes, the drone crashed and the Sergeant and drone pilot set out to find the drone,” read the release. “As they walked into the hills they found a tent that they believed was abandoned. About then the zipper of the tent opened and there was the woman SAR officials searched for in December 2020.”
