Girl Endures Desert Trek to Save Family

A 13-year-old girl, desperately seeking help after her family’s car ran out of gas, walked up to 20 miles through the Mojave Desert in subfreezing temperatures to alert rescuers to her stranded mother and baby brother, Air Force authorities said Saturday.

The girl, covered in mud and exhausted, was found by Air Force officials on the base about 8 p.m. Friday, after spending 24 hours searching for help. She was uninjured and assisted rescuers, who found her mother and brother about 9:15 a.m. Saturday.

Authorities said the mother and 22-month-old boy were hospitalized at the base with hypothermia. The boy suffered frostbite to fingers and toes and was in serious condition Saturday at the base hospital, but it was unclear whether any amputation would be necessary, they said.

None of the family members suffered life-threatening injuries, officials said.

“It’s a dramatic story,” said George Fox, a base spokesman. “After two nights out there with temperatures below freezing, they’re probably thanking God they’re alive.”

Fox declined to identify the family, saying they requested privacy. He could not provide information as to why the woman’s husband, a base airman, apparently did not contact authorities during his family’s absence.

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Authorities at the base said they were unable to provide many details but did offer this account of what they believe happened:

The family’s ordeal began about 8 p.m. Thursday, when the woman apparently became lost trying to find the back entrance to the base on a return trip from Barstow. Fox said the base’s back entrance is in the middle of the desert and can be difficult to find.

After the car ran out of gas, the woman decided to abandon the car and head off with her two children in an attempt to find help. They apparently headed north, following the rim of Rogers Lake, a dry lake in the center of the vast base.

At some point during the trek, the mother grew tired from holding the boy and stopped. The teenager pressed on. Finally, about 8 p.m. Friday, 24 hours after leaving the family car, the weary, mud-covered girl stumbled across security guards near the NASA section of the base.

Authorities estimated that she had walked 15 to 20 miles. She had a blanket and water bottle to sustain her during the night, when temperatures fell to the low 20s.

“She was in pretty good shape,” Fox said.

After a medical evaluation, the girl was able to narrow the search area for authorities, who had already launched foot patrols and helicopters, one with a heat-seeking device.

About 9:15 a.m. Saturday, a Ft. Irwin helicopter patrol spotted the mother walking alone along the eastern shore of the lake.

She had left her young son behind swaddled in a blanket. She was able to direct the Kern County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team to the child about 15 minutes later.

Fox said he did not know where the child had been left.

“It was in the wilderness out there,” he said.

Fox said the family has been reunited. An investigation is ongoing, he said.

“At the present time, our whole thing was to get the family,” he said. “Any incident like this has a follow up.”