An area resident called the Walker County Sheriff’s Office dispatch on Thursday to file a missing person report on a female relative.
The case was turned over to the Investigations Division who utilized emergency methods to track the female’s recent locations.
An investigator was able to make phone contact with the female who was stranded in a remote location, but she did not know where she was.
Pilot Captain Ray Capps, Captain Darrell Mote and Pilot Cody Waldrop flew the Sheriff’s Office helicopter to the area that was found using emergency tracking procedures. The wide area to search, due to the terrain, was located south of Oakman.
Investigators in the helicopter were eventually able to locate the subject in the woods off of Bethel Road.
Numerous deputies and land owners in the area started looking for road access that would lead down to where she was located.
Two of the land owners found one of their gates had been breached and followed the trail down to the subject’s location.
Regional Paramedical Services (RPS) paramedics were staged in the area to evaluate the subject upon her rescue.
The entire search operation took approximately two hours with approximately an hour and 40 minutes of flight time of searching and guiding personnel to the area.
There were no suspicious circumstances or mental health issues, the subject simply drank too much the night before.
“We are thankful she was found safe and would like to emphasize the value and importance of our Aviation Division in search and rescue operations,” Sheriff Nick Smith said.
