Fifteen members responded to assist San Rafael detectives for a evidence search on a homicide.

Marin SAR was requested to start a trailhead search in the West Marin area for a vehicle of two missing woman from San Francisco who did not return from a hike the previous day. As the search was beginning, the two returned home in S.F. They said that they got caught out after dark on the Cataract trail on the North side of Mt. Tam and spent a very cold night huddled together until they could move again when morning came.

Marin SAR got started for a missing father and son who were overdue from a hike during a storm. As the callout was initiated, the subjects were located safe.

Nineteen SAR members responded to assist San Rafael PD with an evidence search related to a shooting. Members put in 2.5 hours each.

Eleven members departed Marin in the height of a storm and drove 7 hours to Crescent City to assist in the search for a missing mushroom picker. The next morning teams were deployed into thick vegetation down steep canyons. On the second day teams searched a wide area around the PLS. The search was suspended late on day three of the search due to another major storm coming in. Temperatures were in the high thirties with rain during most of the search. Other responding teams to assist Del Norte included Mendocino, San Mateo, BAMRU, Humboldt and CARDA.

Fifteen members responded for a evidence search after an officer involved shooting. Members put in 4 hours each.

Marin SAR was requested to respond for a missing 56 y.o. male who’s car was located at the Tennessee Valley trailhead after he was reported missing by his family. He was reported to be despondent. Fifteen Marin SAR members were joined by Park Police, National Park Rangers and several CARDA teams. As teams were deploying the missing subject walked into the command post in light running clothes. His legs were badly scratched and bruised and his body core temperature was 94 degrees. He said he was out on Coyote Ridge and took several sleeping pills overnight, walking out at first light. He was taken by Southern Marin Fire to Marin General Hospital.

Fifteen Marin SAR members responded to assist Contra Costa with a 40 y.o. despondent cancer patient who left his house on foot and did not return near Marsh Creek in the Eastern part of the County. As Marin was leaving the Hanger we were canceled. New information developed that the subject was likely in hiding. He was later found through investigation.

Thirty Marin SAR members with five CARDA dog teams and two rangers responded for two overdue hikers who left for a hike with their two dogs around 4pm and were locked in by rangers at 7pm. When they did not Members who had just cleared the Marinwood search were diverted to the new incident and twelve new recruits in their overnight training nearby were pulled out to assist with the search. The search area included an extensive trail network, steep brushy terrain and many steep drainage’s. At 3:15am, a Marin search team located two hikers on the Kent trail, about 200 yards North of the Stocking trail. They became lost after it got dark. Except for being cold, they were in good condition.

A 16 year old developmentally disabled autistic boy wondered from his home around 5pm. The parents notified the Sheriff’s office around 7pm and than began a hasty search. At 8:15pm, Marin SAR members responded to Marinwood Fire to launch a search. Just as teams were deploying, a resident called in a suspicious person walking in the middle of Lucas Valley Road. Deputies responded and located the missing boy. He was cold, but otherwise in good shape. Sixteen SAR members responded.

Twenty four Marin SAR members with eight CARDA dogs teams and rangers responded for four overdue teenage hikers who were reported missing in the Rock Springs area of Mt. Tam. By 6am, nine teams were deployed to cover area trails. At 7am a CARDA dog team located the four on the Simmons trail. They apparently were caught out after dark and were unable to navigate. They huddled together and planned to head out at first light. Also assisting was Henry 1 from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office.

Twenty Two Marin SAR members and a CARDA team responded at 2230 hrs. to assist deputies in the search for a missing 82 y.o. woman who left her daughter’s house after a disagreement. She was reported to have dementia and was despondent. Three hours into the search the subject was located in San Francisco through investigation at a friends house.

Marin SAR was requested for a missing Autistic man on Mt.Tamalpias last seen on a trail above Kentfield. The subject was located by deputies as the team was responding.

Thirty members responded to the Civic Center Sheriff sub station at midnight to search for Arlene Siatos. She was last seen by her husband leaving her home in North San Rafael around noon to go on a walk, twelve hours before a search was initiated. Arlene was know to have Alzheimer’s, but had not become lost before. She had a routine of taking the same walk each day to the Marin Civic Center and back, about a 3 mile round trip. Marin SAR members, joined by three CARDA dog teams and deputies conducted a hasty search around the civic center and community around her home.

Mutual aid search and rescue teams from Sonoma, Alameda, Napa, San Mateo, Bay Area Mountain Rescue, CAL-ESAR and CARDA with local help from the Marin Alzheimer’s Association, Open Space rangers and Salvation Army began to arrive on scene at 0800 to continue the search. The search area was expanded and teams went door to door in the surrounding area. Other teams search the open space areas and hasty searched China Camp State Park, marsh land, levee’s and waterways. In all, seventy people responded to support 25 Marin SAR members who remained on scene. At 1900 hours the search was scaled back with no clues. Members remained at the command post most of the night to follow up on leads or clues.

Eight Marin members returned the next morning to follow up on clues called in from the public. At 1100 hours, two callers who read the Independent Journal, recalled seeing a woman that matched Arleans description on the Quarcus trail, on top of San Pedro Ridge, at about 1800 hrs. on July 20th. This location was 1000 ft in elevation above her house and a significant hike. By 1pm Marin recalled the team and requested mutual aid again from surrounding counties and local Marin fire departments. Ground teams and

Mutual aid teams from Cal-ESAR, CARDA, the California Youth Authority, Marin County Fire and Urban Search and Rescue team, Marin Openspce and State Park rangers, U.S Coast Guard, Contra Costa, Napa and Santa Clara SAR teams with fourteen Marin SAR members began searching the steep canyons and drainage’s of San Perdo Ridge. The effort was focused on the North and West side of the ridge. Seventy ground searchers with a California Highway Patrol helicopter searched the entire day with no further leads or clues. The search was scaled down that night.

With no further leads, the Sheriff’s investigations unit continued the effort with additional flights and a plan was put together to search two additional drainage’s in the afternoon with twenty Marin SAR members. At 1400 hrs, Arlene was located in good condition by a mountain biker on a trail in the South end of China Camp State park. She was dehydrated, bruised and dirty, but otherwise in good shape. She was about two miles from the point last seen and was located near sea level. It appeared that she was in the canyon above the trail that was not searched during the four day effort. She had no recolection of where she traveled.

Twenty members responded for an evidence search that took about three hours to complete.

Mill Valley Police requested SAR for a 78 y.o. missing woman with Alzheimer’s from the downtown area. As SAR members were setting up the C.P. the woman was located near Tiburon, about 6 miles away. It’s believed she walked that distance in about three hours.

Marin SAR responded a search manager and put the unit on standby for a missing 44 y.o. female with said she was going to commit suicide with a gun. She said she was in a nearby State Park. The missing subject had been in contact early in the incident by cell phone. An interview was conducted, scent articles collected and attempts where made to track her. Eight San Rafael officers, four deputies and a park ranger carried out search assignments during the night. A larger search was planned at daylight. At 0530 hrs. the subject was located by San Rafael PD in a vacant lot behind her house, deceased.

Over four days, twenty twoMarin SAR members responded for a missing hiker in the Imigrant wilderness. Eric Tucker was five days overdue from a 50 mile loop backpacking trip. The search area covered 9 -7.5 minute topographical maps and was between 8,000 and 11,000 ft in elevation, stretching from Hwy. 120 to the North and deep into Yosemite National Park to the South. Members where deployed by helicopter on overnight assignments in difficult terrain that included boulder fields, steep cliffs and thick vegetation. During the search a Fallon NAS helicopter crashed while putting up a repeater. The flight crew and State OES communications technicians miraculously escaped with light injuries, but the aircraft was destroyed. Marin members also worked in several overhead positions throughout the incident. The day after the search was suspended Eric walked out. He was apparently in a remote drainage about two miles away from the trailhead where he took a 30 ft. fall and injured his leg while traveling cross county. He was out for nearly 12 days.

During the Fair search and rescue members conducted over two dozen missing children searches and assisted with traffic control, first aid and staffed the Sheriff’s Department, OES and search and rescue booths. Over thirty members participated over five days.

Fifteen SAR members returned for another evidence search for looking for clues in the area where the homicide occurred the previous week. Members searched for three hours after new information developed in the case.

At 0930 hrs. San Rafael PD requested a search for a missing 81 y.o. woman who had disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Twenty five SAR members, a CHP helicopter three CARDA dogs assisted San Rafael in clearing a wide area around the PLS by 0200 hrs. At 0830 Marin requested mutual aid to assist in searching a wide area around San Rafael. Thirty four Marin SAR members, joined by six CARDA K-9 teams with more SAR teams responding began to deploy. At 0930 hrs. the missing woman called and said she was safe She has gone into hiding and was located through investigative efforts by San Rafael PD

Twenty members returned to search additional areas around the location of the homicide scene.

At 2400 hrs. San Rafael PD requested an immediate need evidence search as part of a homicide investigation. Eleven members cleared a school and immediate area around the incident by 0300 hrs.

San Rafael PD requested a search at 1630 hrs. for a missing 71 y.o. male walk-away from a care home in North San Rafael. Twenty Five members responded and set up a C.P. with San Rafael Police at a nearby fire station. About two hours into the search a Marin team located the subject about 1 mile away in a field near a marsh. He was confused but in good health. Other assisting agencies were two teams from CARDA and the CHP helicopter.

At 0915 hrs. Novato PD requested a search for a missing disabled elderly woman from a care home in Novato. Fifteen members were diverted from the Contra Costa search and another ten responded directly. Early into the search we had a confirmed sighting at the cemetery where her mother was buried recently about four miles away from the PLS. Through the day a wide area around the care home and cemetery were covered by thirty ground searchers, aircraft, 5 K-9 teams from CARDA, Open Space Rangers and units from Novato PD. At 1730 hrs. she was found in a Safeway store in San Francisco asking for help in getting home. She was unable to explain how she got there.

Fifteen members mobilized at 0800 hrs. to respond for a missing 23 y.o. female who left from her house despondent the night before. Several parks were adjacent to her residence. As we were enroute, we had a search develop in Marin and had to cancel our response to this incident. About an hour into the search a CARDA K-9 team located the woman near death under a bridge about a 1/2 mile from her residence.

Ten Marin SAR members responded to assist Contra Costa SAR and Walnut Creek PD in the search for a missing 82 y.o. female with Alzheimer’s who was last seen the previous evening. The subject was located in an abandoned house by a search team about an hour after the second operational period got underway. She was in good condition.

Nine Marin SAR members responded to conduct a wide area evidence search for the additional remains of Xianna Fairchild in the area where her skull was found the previous month. Other teams assisting Santa Clara Allied SAR teams searching that day included Alameda, San Mateo, Bay Area Mountain Rescue, Cal-ESAR, CARDA and Contra Costa. Searching was difficult due to heavy vegetation, poison oak and steep hillsides.

Thirty Marin SAR members were joined by Water District, Open space and State Park Rangers to search for an overdue mountain biker. Mill Valley PD and Sheriff’s Deputies conducted a hasty search for several hours without luck. At 10pm a command post was established and a search and further investigation was initiated. About two hours into the search the missing subject was located by Mill Valley PD in a local bar. The subject said he had just arrived after riding over Mt. Tam from Faifax.

Marin SAR was put on standby for two missing children on bicycles last seen near the Five Brooks Trailhead in the Pt. Reyes National Seashore. The two were located in the town of Olima a short time later.

Five Marin SAR members responded to assist in the search for two missing skiers between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski resorts. Bryan Richmond and Brendan Allen were located by local SAR teams under 6 feet of snow, deceased, by local SAR teams using probe poles. Marin was canceled en route. The two 17 y.o. men were known to be excellent skiers and were victims of an avalanche.

Twenty four Marin SAR members responded to assist San Rafael PD for a large area evidence search related to an officer involved shooting. Members were on scene for over five hours.