*** Search for 11 year-old Girl in Chugach State Park, Alaska ***

Thu Jun 13 10:57:21 1996
From: Bruce_Bowler@jhqnov.dot.state.ak.us
Subject : Good news
To: SARINFO@mindlink.bc.ca

SEARCHERS FIND LOST GIRL HUNGRY, COLD, UNHARMED

By RON MCGEE and DANIELLE STANTON
Daily News reporters

   Almost 24 hours after she was lost and four miles west of where
her father last saw her, Jennifer Talbot was found midday
Wednesday unharmed amid thick alders on a steep Chugach State Park
hillside. Rescuers cut a path through the brush and passed the handles
of her litter overhead hand by hand 1,500 feet up the slope to a flat
area where a helicopter could land.

   Except for being cold, tired and hungry, the 11-year-old was in
fine shape, said her father, Mike Talbot. Jennifer was taken by
helicopter to Columbia Alaska Regional Hospital and was released
within two hours.

   One of her rescuers, Army National Guard Pvt. Bobby Sager, was
taken by helicopter to Elmendorf Air Force Base's hospital and
treated for a mild case of hypothermia. Sager was so excited about
finding the girl that he stumbled over branches as he tried to
reach her and fell into a creek, said another rescuer, Army
National Guard Spc. Tracey Bayless.

   Jennifer set out with her father and her 13-year-old brother,
Aaron, from the Glen Alps parking lot Tuesday to hike the Williwaw
Lakes Trail. They started on the Powerline Trail and then climbed
a popular route in a gulley between 3,200-foot Little O'Malley and
4,600-foot False O'Malley mountains.

   At the top, the trio entered a rolling area hikers call the
ballpark about 1 p.m. Jennifer bounded ahead of her father and
brother. Talbot said he yelled for her not to go any farther. She
turned around and headed back toward them, but he lost sight of
Jennifer in the rolling hills.

   Jennifer said Wednesday she had seen what she thought were
goats and followed them off the trail. She couldn't find her way
back, she said.

   Talbot and his son searched for Jennifer, then returned to the
parking lot and reported her missing at 5 p.m.

   A small army of rescuers assembled at the Glen Alps parking lot
and searched for the girl throughout the night. Another hiker had
reported seeing a person who matched her description almost two
miles west of where she separated from her family.

   Chugach State Park superintendent Al Meiners said rescuers
concentrated on a two-square-mile area near the Middle Fork Loop
Trail Tuesday night. A Blackhawk Air National Guard helicopter and
two Alaska State Trooper helicopters joined the search.
"We wanted to knock off the real obvious (places)," Meiners said.
"We were looking for any type of clue that could help us focus in an
area."

   Meanwhile, Jennifer was realizing that she was in trouble.
"I was worried that they would never find me," she said.
Clad in a wool sweater with a T-shirt underneath, jeans, two
pairs of socks, gloves and a headband, the Northern Lights
Elementary student walked all night through wind and drizzle, she
said. Temperatures dipped into the upper 30s.

   She crossed a creek, drenching her pants and shoes, she said.
At 6 a.m., she found a protected area in the brush, tucked her
arms, legs and head into her sweater and slept for a half hour.
As Jennifer fell asleep, at least one radio station broadcast a
request for experienced hikers to help in the search.

   The parking lot began to look like a combat staging zone. The
Salvation Army set up a tent and began handing out hot soup, pound
cake, and socks and gloves to rescuers. Busloads of Alaska
National Guard Youth Corps students marched into formation before
being sent on the search.

   Army, Air Force, National Guard and Civil Air Patrol members
arrived with trucks and equipment. And ordinary people by the
dozens showed up to see if they could help. Barbara Ward, a member
of the Sourdough Ski Patrol who counted and briefed volunteers before
they joined the search, estimated that 350 people were involved.

   Rescuers began a grid search, in which teams of 40 people
walked 20 feet apart through designated areas, Meiners said.

   At noon, Jennifer's family boarded the Blackhawk Air National
Guard helicopter to view the search area. They returned with long
expressions and moist eyes. Just as they landed, clouds rolled in
and it started to drizzle.

   A half hour later, the family was hurriedly assembled inside a
truck and told that Jennifer had been found and was unharmed. They
clasped hands in a circle and prayed, shouting "Praise God." The
drizzle ended and the sun peaked from behind clouds.

   A team composed of mostly Army National Guard members from
Fairbanks found her as it swept a mountainside two miles west of
where the hiker apparently had spotted her. The National Guard
members had been brought in for the Big Lake fire and were
diverted to the search.

   They were yelling, whistling and clapping their hands. Sager
was the first to hear Jennifer respond to his yells, Bayless said.
Jennifer was cold and hungry but in good spirits, Bayless said.
Her soldier rescuers broke out their MRE rations and gave her a
half-dozen Snickers candy bars. "She gobbled them down," Bayless
said.

   Jennifer, drenched up to her neck from a fall in a creek, said
she could hear helicopters overhead, but was unable to get their
attention because she was hidden by brush. She had climbed onto a
rock and was drying herself when she heard her rescuers.
"I said, I'm right here," and started jumping up and down,"
she said. "I was just like, Finally."

   Mike Talbot said having his daughter back was "the best
feeling I've ever had." Jennifer's mother, Mindy Garner, thanked the
hundreds of people who helped find her and said: "I am very thankful
to God I have my daughter back."


Bruce Bowler
SEADOGS, Junea, Alaska

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