Missing Teenager Found Unharmed

A 13-year-old girl who wandered from a Girl Scout camp in the rugged San Jacinto Mountains above Hemet was found unharmed Wednesday after search and rescue teams combed the hills and circled the back country in a helicopter.

The girl, visiting from Japan, apparently spent the night in brush behind a stable supply shack about a quarter- mile from the camp’s main building. She was discovered Wednesday afternoon walking along a hiking trail.

“It appears that she had purposely been hiding throughout the night, dodging our efforts and trying not to be found,” said Sgt. Mark Lohman, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The search included about 50 volunteers, who scoured the area by foot, horseback and helicopter.

“She’s a young girl who made a mistake,” he said. “She should never have left the camp. But kids make bad choices all the time, and this one had a happy ending.”

Relatives said Yuri Kumagai had made it clear that she was adamantly opposed to leaving her home in Sengai, Japan, to spend part of her summer with an aunt and uncle in Irvine. “She didn’t want to be here from the beginning,” said the uncle, Ken Hamamoto. “This is something her mother wanted--an international experience.”

After arriving in California on July 19, he said, the girl spoke incessantly of her disappointment at missing badminton practices back home. Apparently that frustration continued at Joe Sherman Camp, a 700-acre facility in the mountains, where she and two cousins had been staying since last week.

“Her world was all about getting back to Japan,” Hamamoto said. “I think she might have been trying to get to the airport.”

If so, she didn’t get far. After walking away from the main camp area at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said, the girl spent the night with a canteen of water and a bag of snacks.

She either didn’t hear or ignored the search going on around her. Her uncle rode in a helicopter and called out to her using a bullhorn. “Wave your hands!” he shouted. “You’re tired, let’s go home.”

Hamamoto returned to Irvine with his niece late Wednesday. He said the girl’s mother will fly to California this week to take her daughter home.

“We will definitely try to impress on her how thankful she needs to be,” the uncle said.

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Successful Search

A 13-year-old girl from Japan who left a campsite in the San Jacinto Mountains was found safe Wednesday by searchers.