The following press release was issued by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office:
On 10-08-2020 at approximately 3:23 P.M., Deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to check the welfare of Patricia Ahern at her residence located in the 44000 block of Little River Airport Road in Little River, California.
The reporting party was a family member calling from out of the area, who was concerned for Ahern after learning Ahern did not make a scheduled medical appointment. Ahern was described as having medical related issues and it was believed she might have fallen somewhere in the area of her residence.
Due to another exigent call for service involving search and rescue efforts for an unrelated missing person in the Fort Bragg area, Deputies were unable to immediately respond and requested the assistance from the California Highway Patrol and California State Parks.
Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Rangers with California State Parks responded to Ahern’s residence and conducted a lengthy search of the residence and nearby properties, but Ahern was not located.
At approximately 1700 hours, Deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office continued with efforts to locate Ahern and Mendocino County Search and Rescue Volunteers were contacted and initiated a deployment to assist with this continuing investigation.
A more comprehensive search of the residence and property was conducted utilizing Search and Rescue personnel and on 10-09-20 at approximately 1:00 A.M., Mendocino County Search and Rescue Volunteers located Ahern in a ravine located a significant distance downhill from her residence.
Due to the complexity of the rescue resulting from the steep rugged terrain, the Albion Little River Fire Department was requested to assist in Ahern’s rescue.
Albion Little River Fire Department and Mendocino County Search and Rescue personnel were able to safely rescue Ahern and she was transported by ambulance to the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast District Hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank all agencies who assisted during this investigation and who contributed to Ahern’s safe rescue and recovery.
Posting the “44000 block” kinda sucks. Puts a dot on someone’s house literally miles away from the incident. Essentially false information.