LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Two young sisters missing from their Northern California home since Friday afternoon were found alive on March 3 following a massive search that included helicopters and tracking dogs.
Leia Carrico, 8, and Caroline Carrico, 5, were found “safe and sound” on Sunday morning by a fire captain and firefighter who had followed the girls’ boot tracks, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said.
“This is an absolute miracle,” he said.
Though the girls were dehydrated and cold, they were uninjured and “in good spirits,” Honsal said.
#searchandrescue #update Leia and Caroline found safe by Piercy Volunteer Fire search team!
— Humboldt County Sheriff (@HumCoSO) March 3, 2019
He said the girls were trained in outdoor survival through their local 4-H club and that authorities believed that helped them. They also were wearing boots and had eaten granola bars at some point while they were missing, he said.
“To have a positive outcome like this is just absolutely amazing,” Honsal said.
Using helicopters and tracking dogs, dozens of police and rescue personnel combed a vast and rugged rural area in the frantic search for the sisters.
#searchandrescue #update Leia and Caroline were found approximately 1.4 miles south of their residence near Richardson’s Grove. Here’s a first look from the scene where first responders located the girls.
Press release with more information as soon as possible today. pic.twitter.com/k2bUTQOtrt— Humboldt County Sheriff (@HumCoSO) March 3, 2019
The girls had last been seen around 2:30 p.m. Friday outside their home in Benbow, a small community about 200 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The searchers included National Guard members from Fresno and the U.S. Coast Guard, which provided one of its helicopters on top of a Black Hawk helicopter also being used.
![CA girls](https://https://i.ntd.com/assets/uploads/2019/03/CA-girls-615x404.png)
Rescuers were hopeful about finding the girls Saturday after they came across prints from the girls’ rubber boots and wrappers from the granola bars, Lt. Mike Fridley said.
“The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at,” Fridley said.
5-year-old Caroline and 8-year-old Leia Carrico have been found. #BreakingNews @HumCoSO pic.twitter.com/S6LbXgaMyg
— Monica Petruzzelli (@monicareports) March 3, 2019
Fridley said he was the one who got to call the girls’ mother and tell them her daughters were alive.
“She melted on the phone,” he said.
A tearful reunion captured by Mark McKenna as Leia and Caroline Carrico are returned to their parents after 44 hours lost in the woods near Benbow, California. pic.twitter.com/zXkncqZNln
— Thadeus Greenson (@ThadeusGreenson) March 3, 2019
Honsal described the search area as vast, rugged and rural and the conditions as cold and sporadically rainy.
Posted by Humboldt County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, 3 March 2019
By Amanda Lee Myers