Missing 75 Year Old Alzheimer’s Women

Written by Glenn Henderson

Day 1:

The team was activated for a search on Monday, October 6. We were to assist San Diego County with a search for a missing 75 year old Alzheimer's person. Sally Estabrook went missing on Saturday evening, October 4 from a camp ground near the town of Julian. The terrain is steep hills and a lot of heavy brush. There are many houses in the area but it is very rural.

We arrived about 7:00 AM on Tuesday. The area was gridded off and teams were assigned to search each grid. No clues of any kind were turned up. We completed multiple assignments and were released at 5:00 PM. Teams responded from Orange County, San Diego County, San Bernardino County and (RMRU and DSAR) from Riverside County. The searchers included Mounted Posse, Dog teams, helicopters, mountain bikers, off road vehicles, and ground pounders like us.

Patrick and 2 SDMRT Members
Photo by Eric Holden.

RMRU Members Involved: Cameron Dickinson, Glenn Henderson, Eric Holden, Matt Jordon,Rob May and Patrick McCurdy.

Desert Search and Rescue Members Involved: Donna Beane and Sharon Ollenburger.

Day 2:

We started searching at 8:00 AM. I was assigned to trail with a dog team along with DSAR members Sharon Ollenburger and Chris Stevens. We completed our assignment and returned to base for another assignment. Assignment two the three of us were sent out about a mile from base and worked our way through open spaces and areas of heavy brush back to base camp. No sign of any kind has been found so far. Sharon and I were pretty beat and Chris had to make a meeting in Palm Desert so we checked out at 1:30 PM.

RMRU member Matt Jordon had spent the night in the campground after searching all yesterday. He was assigned to another team and was still on scene at 7:00 PM. The total number of searchers was down today from yesterday. Laguna Hotshots did respond mid-morning with 28 firefighters that researched the campground and surrounding areas but to no avail. The search continues tomorrow, hopefully the day Sally will be found.

Patrick going over fence
Photo by Eric Holden.

RMRU Members Involved: Glenn Henderson and Matt Jordon.

Desert Search and Rescue Members Involved: Sharon Ollenburger and Chris Stevens.

Day 3:

Day three started at 8:00 AM with Patrick, Cameron, and me responding. We were only checked in for about 10 minutes when we received our first assignment. We were to recheck an area that was north and west of the campground that Sally had disappeared from. When we first arrived at our starting point it looked like an easy assignment but it quickly turned into heavy brush and many, many downed, dead trees. It took us all morning to finish a fairly small assignment. When finished we returned to base and ate some lunch.

Our afternoon assignment sent us south and west of the campground. Brian from the San Diego Mountain Rescue team was added to our team. We had a deep wash filled with reeds, downed and dead trees. It was a dry area until we got to the end of our assignment when it became marshy with a large private pond at the end. Upon completing this assignment we returned to base and were released at 5:00 PM.

There have been no clues of any kind so far. The Mutual Aid part of the search has been canceled for Friday and Saturday. Those days will be covered by San Diego County teams. If nothing is found the Mutual Aid will be reinstated on Sunday and RMRU will return with more help for probably the last day of Mutual Aid.

Patrick and Others in Base
Photo by Eric Holden.

RMRU Members Involved: Cameron Dickinson, Glenn Henderson and Patrick McCurdy.

Day 4:

Today went pretty much the same as the previous three days. Sally has been missing for 9 days now and the search will probably be scaled back starting tomorrow. Today was our fourth day for RMRU and probably the last. We checked in at 8:00 AM and got into the field around 9:00 AM. We were put into pretty high probability areas but again, no clues or sign of any kind.

It was a really quiet drive home as we knew we were leaving Sally out there somewhere. It was especially hard as we hiked for a short time with Sally's son. He was very composed but you could see the strain was taking a toll on him. We were released at 5:00 PM.

Two SDMRT Members Searching
Photo by Eric Holden.

RMRU Members Involved: Cameron Dickinson, Glenn Henderson, Matt Jordon, and Patrick McCurdy.