Oregon Woman And Her Mentally Disabled Daughter Lost In Idaho Wilderness, Woman Deceased
BY Herschel Smith
3 years ago
An elderly dementia sufferer died after getting lost in a remote forest after following GPS guidance to travel to a funeral with her mentally-disabled daughter.
Deputies say the pair – Dorothy ‘Kae’ Turner, 84, and daughter Heidi Turner, 58 – were following a navigation system from Pendleton, Oregon to Salt Lake City when they got lost in the northern Idaho forest. Relatives say Dorothy suffered from dementia.
Dorothy left to find help when their car broke down, but died from exposure to the elements while Heidi, who is mentally disabled, stayed behind. She survived her ordeal, although no further updates on her condition have been given.
A hunter discovered the mother’s body in the Solitaire Saddle area of the Panhandle National Forest and reported it to the authorities at 11.45am Friday, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies then discovered the broken-down gold 2015 Chrysler Town and Country minivan nearby with the daughter still alive and suffering from minor injuries.
A family member who reported them missing said they were taking an ‘unusual route’ through Idaho, according to the East Idaho News. They were reported missing from Pendleton, about 5 hours southwest of the forest, on Wednesday.
‘They were en route to Salt Lake City, UT from Pendleton, OR for a family funeral. Kay suffers from dementia and we have reason to believe that they may be lost and/or in danger,’ family member Doniell Taylor Arnold said in a Facebook post Thursday.
The maps and pictures of this area show it to be extremely remote, except obviously for hunters.
Take a look at the woman who ventured out on her own. With her age, she had no hope of survival in the wilderness.
Lesson: Don’t allow family members to go out into the bush unprepared. That lady never had a chance.
Five people have disappeared into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and never come out, with bodies never recovered.
The GSMNP is more than half a million acres. Jones Gap in S.C. is around 13,000 acres, and people have gone missing for a period of time there. Later, it was learned that they didn’t know what they were doing in the bush.
The missing hikers were not prepared to spend the night in the woods, according to rescue crews. They did not take food, water or flashlights.
The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office used their drone with thermal imaging to search for the teens. The area is remote with little cell coverage, according to Jones.
If efforts to find them with the drone are unsuccessful …
They ended up having to walk out on their own.
I’ve hiked Jones Gap many times. You can die there, and I almost lost a dog from a slick rock leading to a waterfall.
Your strategy in the bush is just this: be prepared enough not to have to panic. If you panic, adrenalin shoots into your system, you make stupid decisions, you expend too much energy, you get tired, the exhaustion leads to being cold, and being cold leads to exposure and possible hypothermia.
Be prepared enough to be able to say, “Well, we’re not where I thought we were. We’re going to spend this night in the bush. Let’s make camp before dark, gather firewood, set up some shelter, find water, gather bedding materials, and ration food. We’ll find our way out tomorrow.”
Continuing when it’s almost dark leads to death. Always carry the following: med kit, flashlight, redundant means of fire start, rubberized poncho or tarp, parka, large bore handgun, water and water filter, food energy, cordage and knife. Even on day hikes. Especially on day hikes.
On November 7, 2021 at 10:44 pm, MTHead said:
Something is very weird about this. As Pendlelton to Salt lake is a straight 4 lane freeway drive to the S.E.. With hardly any turns. I-84 to I-15 south to Salt lake.
They would have had to go N.E to get to the panhandle. No GPS would have given that bad of info..
Something ain’t right. Check her bank account. Sounds like someone wanted her lost.
On November 8, 2021 at 1:16 am, Archer said:
What MTHead said. Pendleton to SLC is extremely straight-forward. I’ve made that drive myself, albeit I started further west and stopped for lunch in Pendleton. East on I-84 to Boise, then south on I-15 to SLC. At no point should they have turned north toward the Idaho panhandle.
I’ll consider the possibility their GPS was malfunctioning, or that they didn’t understand its functions and added a waypoint far off their expected route (the most likely scenario, I think). Foul play is also a possibility, but it isn’t the only explanation.
On November 8, 2021 at 9:54 am, Fred said:
The woman obviously failed to properly set the correct destination. Even selecting Avoid Highways would not have taken her that way.
And the dirty little secret of people, especially late teens and early twenties, who disappear is that they don’t want to be found. That’s according to the FBI. In fact, most people who disappear don’t want to be found. So you see, they’re not lost at all.
That has nothing to do with wilderness survival, so yeah, learn some skills and properly equip your group.
But this story brings up the question of a car kit. It’s a bad idea overall to abandon a disabled vehicle on a remote road. But, they do close roads up there, sometimes for the entire season.
On November 8, 2021 at 10:55 am, why me said:
The first sentence tells everything – “elderly dementia sufferer”.
The new thoughts on dementia is “brain failure”. So how is a “brain failure” person supposed to plan, pack, drive, and return successfully?
We throw too many things off to “momma’s a little more forgetful”. Versus having a formal exploration for dementia. Once that diagnosis is made, there is NO telling when and what information will slip past.
On November 8, 2021 at 12:41 pm, billrla said:
File this story under: Don’t do that.
On November 8, 2021 at 11:29 pm, 21stCenturyCassandra said:
@Fred. Did you miss the part where she has dementia?
On November 9, 2021 at 10:42 am, Fred said:
Nope. The proximate cause of her failure is not instructive to us. What can and should we do, is instructive.
But, since you mentioned it, don’t get dementia isn’t helpful either. So here: never take statins or attempt to lower your cholesterol. Throw your TV in a dumpster. Eat well including fish, eat eggs daily, read above your ability, engage with folks smarter than you (if you’re the smartest person in the room you’re in the wrong room) work logic problems.
My parents used to joke that the tv sucks your brains out. It’s only amusing because there is a basis in truth to it. It does redirect your neural pathways.