Deputies scanning every corner of the woods for missing sisters found granola wrappers — it helped them rescue the girls
Children going missing might be every parent's biggest nightmare. A couple had to experience that when their two daughters wandered out of their house and got lost in the woods nearby. But a miraculous rescue followed after two days of the girls being missing. Many search parties went out to look for the girls in the thick woods, but their survival instincts and knowledge of surviving the outdoors helped them get through 2 and a half days in the cold weather, per ABC News.
The girls were lost in a Northern California forest and became each other's hope in that difficult time. The older sister, Leia Carrico, 8 and her younger sister, Caroline, 5, shared that they got lost while walking on a deer trail after they walked past a fallen tree on their family's 80-acre property. Their dad had warned them not to cross that tree, but the two of them were looking for adventure and had no idea that they'd be stuck in such a challenging ordeal. "Leia wanted a little, tiny adventure. But I wanted more," Caroline admitted. They were lost on a Friday afternoon in 2019 and the volunteers found them on the Sunday after that, around 1.4 miles away from their house. Their dad, Travis Carrico, shared that they had walked 6 miles before they were found.
Leia shared that the two of them had walked in a circle before they realized that they were lost. "I wasn't sure which way home was, but it turned out that home was way back south," she recounted. They used Caroline's rain jacket as a shelter and huddled close to each other under a huckleberry bush when the temperatures dropped to 38 degrees. "Caroline slept a little, but I kept watch on both nights," the 8-year-old added. They wanted to go to a sunny spot before they went missing at 2:30 PM, but their mom had said no to them. The mom realized that the girls were missing around 3 PM on that Friday. There was a multi-agency search, including the U.S. Coast Guard and teams using canine units and a Blackhawk helicopter to find the girls, per ABC 30.
"We found some clues during the day that made us change our direction. We found granola bar wrappers and were able to confirm with the mom that yes, those were granola bars that were bought in the last few days. The wrappers showed what direction they went in," Mike Fridley from the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office shared. They also found some boot marks and it was confirmed that they belonged to the girls. In the meantime, the sisters had no food for two nights and survived by drinking rainwater from huckleberry leaves like their parents had taught them, per ABC News. When her sister cried the entire night the first night, Leia encouraged her to think happy thoughts about their family.
The kids had been on camping trips with their family, participated in 4-H and watched shows about people getting lost, which helped them survive the cold. Leia also tried to start a fire, but gave up because it started to get sunny. The most important thing the girls did that day was to stay put in one place after they realized that they were lost. "We heard crackling and we thought we heard somebody say, 'Dad.' And we called their names again and they said, 'We're right here.' I think I was more excited than they were," Volunteer Fire Chief, Delbert Crumley, shared, after he found the girls at 10:30 AM on a Sunday, along with firefighter Abram Hill. Their parents gave them a big hug after they came back. The two of them were taken to the hospital and had no injuries.