Alzheimer’s Woman Missing

June 9, 2016
Pinyon Pines Area
2016-027

Written by Eric Holden

RMRU Was called out to assist with the search for 71-year-old Josephene Youssef, out of the Pinyon Pines area. DSSAR and the Riverside Search Dogs had already been working the mission for a couple of operational periods. On our first day I met Rob and Lew at base and we had two assignments. We searched along the roadside cutting for any signs that anyone went by foot across the highway. We ended up not finding any signs. Our second assignment was a grid search of the area by the subject's house and unfortunately did not find any clues.

The next day the search went OES (Office of Emergency Services) and more resources were called out. RMRU had another mission going on so no members responded this day. Unfortunately, no sign of Josephene was found.

On our third day June 11 I returned to the search with Judy and Rob. Gwenda and Lew assisted in running base. We searched an old ranch that has been abandoned for some time. The ranch had many outbuildings but unfortunately we saw no signs of our subject. After lunch we returned to the field and hiked up nearby mountain to get a good view of the entire surrounding area. We used spotting scopes and binoculars to try and spot any sign of our subject. Even with the great bird’s eye view, we did not spot anything.

Our Fourth day June 12 I returned to the search again this time teamed up with Sierra Madre. We ended up searching a lot of ravines and washes without luck. My final assignment was to assist one of the dog teams. The dogs were having a hard time as it has been 90+ degrees all day and the ground was very hot for their feet. Eventually we returned to base.

After multiple days of searching, the large scale search was called off and unfortunately Josephene still remains missing. Our thoughts go out to her friends and family.

RMRU Members Involved: Joe Erickson, Eric Holden, Lew Kingman, Rob May, Judy Spowart, and Gwenda Yates.