Dog rescues woman missing for days in central Utah

EMERY COUNTY, Utah (KTVX) – A dog is being credited with saving his owner, an elderly woman with dementia, after she wandered from a cabin in Utah’s central mountains and was lost for nearly three days in the scorching summer heat.

“She was really lucky she had her dog with her,” said James Thomas, the wildlife officer who found the woman.

The incident happened last month near Joe’s Valley in western Emery County. On June 24, the woman went for a walk with her dog in the evening near her family’s cabin and did not return. Her family members searched for her all night, but when they could not find her, they sought help in the morning. The woman was last seen wearing a T-shirt and flip-flops.

Search and rescue teams searched for the woman in the triple-digit heat of the day, but couldn’t find her. That’s when Thomas and his K-9, Kip, were called in to help. They searched through the evening and night, when temperatures in the mountains dropped into the 50s. The cool weather allowed Kip to work longer.

“When we run in 38 degrees, he only works for 15 minutes and then he has to take a break,” Thomas said. “At night, he can run for an hour.”

Around 3:30 a.m., Thomas and Kip heard barking. They walked toward the area, thinking it was the missing woman’s dog, but they didn’t find her. Kip continued running toward the mountainside, but Thomas didn’t think the missing woman would be in such high terrain, he said.

The next day, a neighbor told Thomas he had also heard barking in the early morning hours. A look at nearby security footage showed the woman and the dog walking west toward the mountainside, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Thomas and the concerned neighbor again set out to find the woman, this time to higher ground.

They heard barking again in the evening. As Thomas and the neighbor approached, the barking continued. Eventually, Kip reached the woman and her chocolate labrador, who never left his owner’s side, despite not being on a leash.

The woman had scratches and bruises on her arms, was barefoot and severely dehydrated, but Thomas said she was happy to see him and Kip.

“She thought she was only gone for 10 minutes,” he said. “It was a good feeling to see her alive. It was pretty remarkable what she had been through.”

Thomas stayed with the woman until help arrived. A helicopter pulled the woman from the mountainside and medical teams treated her at the scene.

The rescue is one of several in recent weeks in which people have become lost in Utah’s wilderness during periods of extreme summer heat. In a handful of cases, hikers have died or been hospitalized after running out of water.