Rescuers Follow SOS Notes In Forest To Find Stranded Mom And Her Son, 9

A mother and her nine-year-old son were rescued from a remote California forest after leaving handwritten SOS notes. They became lost on their way to a Boy Scouts camp when their GPS led them onto old logging roads in the Sierra Nevada foothills. They lost GPS signal and became stuck about 10 miles from the nearest paved road. The pair was reported missing on Saturday (July 12) after failing to arrive at the camp.

A volunteer search-and-rescue team, coincidentally training nearby, was dispatched. Using a location-sharing app and information from campers who had seen the woman’s car, the team narrowed down their last known location. Within four hours, the search team found the first note, which read, "Help. Me and my son are stranded with no service and can’t call 911. We are ahead, up the road to the right. Please call 911 to get help for us." A second note was found further up the road, and about a mile later, the mother and son were located in their car, which had become stuck.

The mother and son had spent the night in their vehicle, using a cooler packed with food and drinks. The boy used a whistle to sound three short bursts, a recognized distress signal taught in Boy Scouts, which helped alert the search team. Lt. Greg Stark of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office praised their actions, stating, "They did everything right. They put themselves in the best position to be found."

The rescue team used ham radio to communicate due to the dense forest and tree canopies making cellphones and conventional radio frequencies ineffective. An El Dorado County retiree listening in on his home ham radio setup relayed the message to authorities.