Missing Teen-Ager Found Uninjured in Rugged Country

A teen-ager lost in rugged East County country since Dec. 23 was found Friday, unhurt but disoriented, by two men scouting the area for a future deer-hunting expedition.

Andrew Irish Campbell is in Sharp Memorial Hospital, where officials say he has no broken bones or serious injuries but has some frostbite damage to his feet and a bruised back.

Leonard Campbell, the 15-year-old youth’s stepfather, and other relatives had been searching for him since sheriff’s deputies gave up the hunt last Saturday when tracking dogs lost the youth’s trail at Buckman Springs Road.

Looks Like Prisoner of War

“He looks like he’s a prisoner of war,” the elder Campbell said in an interview at the hospital. “His mother said he looks like he lost about 20 pounds.”

Andrew Campbell became separated from his companions while on a fishing trip before Christmas. The other boys returned home safely, but did not notify Campbell’s parents. Sheriff’s deputies searched the Cleveland National Forest around Lake Morena where the teen-ager had last been seen but gave up when dogs lost the youth’s trail at a road. Deputies assumed that he had been picked up by a passing vehicle.

Mark Orsborn, 29, of El Cajon, and his father, Bill Orsborn of La Mesa, spotted Campbell about 3 p.m. Friday, as they were driving home along a truck trail in the rugged area.

‘Was Staggering, Sort of’

“We saw this young kid coming up out of a gully. He was staggering, sort of,” Mark Orsborn said. The men asked Campbell if he needed help or wanted a ride, and the youth asked them to take him to Guatay, “and then it clicked, who he was and everything,” Orsborn said.

“He didn’t make a lot of sense and didn’t seem to know what he was doing there or what day it was,” Orsborn said.

Orsborn said he and his father gave Campbell some hot chocolate and started to drive him back to his home in Guatay but, when they reached the Four Corners area about 4 miles away, Campbell recognized the parked cars of some of his relatives, “and his face really lit up.”

Tried to Eat Crawdads

“He didn’t remember too much, but he said he’d been out there for days with nothing to eat, that he had tried to eat some crawdads but had gotten sick,” Orsborn said. Campbell also told the men that he had kept alive by “covering himself up” during the coldest parts of the night, and that he had eaten snow for lack of anything else.

In the hospital Friday night, nursing supervisor Pauline Renner said that Campbell had ordered “two hamburgers and a 7-Up” for his first full meal in a week.

Renner said the youth was in fair condition but badly dehydrated from lack of food and liquids. He will remain in intensive care until the extent of the frostbite damage is determined, she said.

Orsborn said he and his father had gone into the backcountry in their four-wheel-drive vehicle “for a leisurely day running truck trails” and were on their way home when they found the teen-ager.

“I’m sure glad we went out there,” Orsborn said. “Finding the kid, that certainly makes your day.”