Search Is Launched in Forest for Missing Orange County Teen
A search continued late into the night Friday for a 16-year-old from Orange County who disappeared while hiking with friends in the afternoon.
The teen-ager, whose name was not released, was last seen by his companions around 1:30 p.m. The group had been hiking in the Heaton Flats area of the Angeles National Forest. The boy’s parents reported him missing at 6:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy James Tipping.
“He apparently went off by himself during the hike,” Tipping said. “His friends looked around for him and when he didn’t come back, they got scared and called us.”
Temperatures in that area of the forest were expected to range from the middle 30s to the high 20s.
“There is a lot of concern because he was only wearing jeans and hiking boots and was not wearing a shirt,” Tipping said. “It’s going to be cold up there. It’s also kind of a rough area with the typical dangers of a national forest.”
A sheriff’s mountain unit and 15 San Dimas search-and-rescue experts are looking for the boy. His parents are at the base camp at the dead end of East Fork Road.
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