Support truly
independent journalism
A 70-year-old man who went missing for nearly a week in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains was found alive and has been reunited with his family.
Warren Elliot got lost near his campground at Rubicon Springs and spent five days in the wilderness near the Rubicon Trail, an expansive off-roading area.
In a video from the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Elliot is seen walking under his own power, wearing a torn t-shirt, reuniting with his family.
Elliot got lost on Friday, July 19th in an area he was familiar with, and was forced to survive on river water and berries.
"He ended up getting turned around and went the wrong way down the creek as he thought he was heading back to camp," Sergeant Kevin Griffiths with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News. "He said during the night, he was freezing. He would pull his hands inside of his shirt and just shiver all night long.”
A 10-agency team, sometimes numbering up to 100 people, searched for him.
“From the point he was last seen, near Cadillac Hill, to the area he was found, Hell Hole Reservoir, is roughly 9 miles as the crow flies; however, he walked much further than that over the five days,” according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
Elliot was spotted by a fisherman who thought at first he heard an owl, then realized he heard another human voice. The 70-year-old was found near a reservoir about 10 miles west of Lake Tahoe.
“He was starting to doubt that he was going to get out of it after the days kept going,” Sergeant Sage Bourassa, of the sheriff’s office, told KCRA. “He was even choked up himself just to know that he was going to survive this.”
A Highway Patrol helicopter picked Elliot up and reunited with his family on Wednesday.
Elliot was a volunteer “Jeeper,” who brought visitors on off-roading Jeep trips through the Rubicon Trail area, as part of the Jeepers’ Jamboree organization.
“The relief is amazing,” Bob Sweeney, a fellow Jeeper with the Jeepers’ Jamboree, told KCRA. “To know that somebody can be out in the woods, out in desolation, for six days, that’s amazing.”
