By CHARLENE DEAN
PVT
Three women left Pahrump Thursday, July 22, expecting to take a sightseeing tour to Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley and be home in time for dinner.
That was not to be.
Donna Cooper, 62, Gina Cooper, 17, and a house guest visiting from Hong Kong, 19-year-old Jenny Leung, left the Cooper residence around 11 a.m., made the trip to Scotty’s Castle and seemingly disappeared.
Although it was unusual for Donna Cooper to not tell the caretaker for the family’s property — this reporter — that she wasn’t coming home, no one, including Cooper’s husband, who was in Florida, became alarmed until Gina Cooper didn’t show up for work at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Being a responsible young woman, not calling her employer was out-of-the-ordinary.
Rodger Cooper requested his caretaker assist with filing a missing persons report with Nye County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Mark Cannon was dispatched to take the information. After consulting with Cooper’s husband in Florida by phone, the deputy returned to the sheriff’s office and filed a nationwide “be on the lookout” for the three missing women.
The women had been in Death Valley 28 hours and counting. The family was frantic. Gina Cooper was an athlete for Death Valley Academy but Donna Cooper had been suffering from sudden bouts of heat exhaustion and Leung stood five-foot-seven-inches tall and only weighed about 110 pounds.
When no word came from NCSO by 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the caretaker called asking if something could be done to get air support involved in a search for the women.
An NCSO dispatcher, only identified as “Lori,” answered the call. She said, “We can’t tell California what to do to get involved.” There was no mention of calling Nye County Search and Rescue. Asked what could be done by an individual, she gave a list of phone numbers including Death Valley National Park Ranger Station, Inyo County Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol.
The calls were made. None of the agencies had any of the details other than the “be on the lookout” released by NCSO the evening before. No alarm had been raised.
A return phone call came from Inyo County Deputy Richards who listened to the details and said he was heading to the ranger station in Death Valley to see what could be done. He said air support was likely and promised to be in touch within the next couple of hours. It was 10 a.m., and the temperatures in Death Valley would reach 128 degrees.
At noon on Saturday, tense family members and friends learned California officials were in action. Two aircraft from Victorville had been dispatched to start searching Death Valley. A helicopter from one of the Air Force bases in California, it was hoped, would join the search. Three teams of Special Forces were on the ground searching the back country — those trained to withstand the harsh environment and lend help to those who might succumb.
Financial information about Cooper’s credit cards was obtained online by her daughter in Florida who reported to Deputy Richards only two transactions on Thursday, one for fuel and one for tickets to Scotty’s Castle. Wherever they were, the women were without food or water. It was 2 p.m. They had been missing for 49 hours.
With California aircraft and DVNP employees, deputies and dispatchers from Inyo County all working together, it would still take five hours, and, according to CHP Pilot Scott Steele, one final pass over an area miles from Scotty’s Castle to find the missing women.
It was 5 p.m. Saturday when the call came from California Highway Patrol that the women had been found. A CHP helicopter had spotted the car on a deserted stretch of dirt road.
Although Cooper was, according to Steele, 128 miles from Scotty’s Castle, she had traveled over 400 miles on the unmarked system of trails in Death Valley and run out of gas.
Cooper said she had GPS onboard, and tried to use it. “It kept telling me to go one mile and turn either right or left on Saline Valley Road.” Cooper said she never saw a road sign and sometimes she’d go one mile and there was no turn at all.
Cooper said by the time the fuel light came on in her Hyundai Accent, she had traveled so many miles there was no turning back. So she kept going forward hoping to come out of the desolation to “a paved road leading somewhere.”
“It didn’t happen,” Cooper said. “When the car stopped the first night, we were in relatively little shade, but it was late and we slept in the car.
“At that point we had three-quarters of a bottle of water between us.”
Gina Cooper took a two-mile hike the next morning to see if she could get above the rocks and see some sign of life to which the group could walk. Her report — desert and more desert.
Cooper decided they had to move to another location. It was starting to get hot.
“It was a miracle when the car started, and even more of a miracle when we got turned around and back-tracked 45 miles on a below-empty tank of gas,” she said.
The car came to a stop at a cluster of trees Cooper said she remembered having passed. Having no other choice in the scorching heat, the group made an “X” in the road behind the disabled car out of two found poles, four big rocks and Gina Cooper’s San Francisco 49ers bandana used as a spot of red in the cross. They wrote “Help Us” and “Please Call Police” across the rear of the car, and walked into shelter offered by the trees.
“The road was so hot it was burning my feet through my shoes,” said Cooper.
“What we found was amazing. There in the middle of nowhere were three trailers, a screened sleeping porch and a couple of storage containers.
“There was no one around, and needing any kind of help we could get, we peeked into the window of one of the trailers and saw a two-way radio on the table.” The women proceeded to try the doors and windows until finally, a screen opened far enough to allow Leung to slip through and open the door for the others.
They never did get the radio working but they found something much more important — water — and food. “We turned on the faucets and hot water came out of both of them. It didn’t matter. It was water,” Cooper said.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, a noise captured Leung’s attention and going outside she was thrilled to see a helicopter making circles over the property. Grabbing a yellow blanket and waving it frantically, she screamed for Cooper who was inside.
“When I came out to see what she was yelling about — well — I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in all my life as that helicopter. I could see the CHP on the bottom of it and knew we’d been found,” said Cooper with tears in her eyes.
As it turned out, Cooper was on Saline Valley Road and had never seen a road sign anywhere.
The group was airlifted to the California Highway Patrol office at Lone Pine, to fill out a report and make arrangements to get fuel.
“They put us in touch with a guy named ‘Lizard’ Lee,” said Cooper. “Apparently he lives in the desert and keeps extra fuel somewhere. He brought enough gas to give me three-quarters of a tank and met us back at the car.”
Cooper and the girls pulled into her Pahrump driveway at 3 a.m. Sunday morning — safe and sound.
“We are more grateful than words can ever express,” said Cooper. “And to Marilyn Moyer and Peder Samuelson, of Atherton, Calif., who own the property where we stopped, you saved our lives. Thank you so much.”
The one thing she asks of Death Valley National Park is to mark every road at every intersection — it could save a life.
Go away, troll.
Unprepared sheep.. too funny. These are the people that cost us money when search and rescue and sheriffs dept have to go out and find them.
Take gas, money, water, food, and STAY ON PAVED roads.
If you are heading into DEATH VALLEY, you might want to be prepared.
Wow. It’s certainly easy to sit behind a keyboard and spew forth venom isn’t it? Much useless advice here in the comments section,
some good advice as well. We all do the best we can in situations – while they did make a few mistakes and probably need to hear some of the comments, they did make some key life saving good decisions and need to be applauded for that too. And there is no excuse for some of the hate, the negativity, and the judging and name calling. Most of you could not have done any better, and the end result turned out good and that is the most important thing!
We go to DV each week…
Do you think we do such stupid stuff?
DRO
Bring Tony and drop him off somewhere …maybe Ballarat…he like that..
I have to laugh; very interesting human interest story. As a former resident of NYE county, I am hardly surprised at the negative responses. This mentality is what drove me away. Equally disappointing but hardly surprising was the response of the NCSO. Remember, each person employed by NCSO is representative of the larger community. This not withstanding the kneejerk reaction by the Nikki aka an NCSO employee. Having said this, everyone should consider there are more positive and constructive remarks made than those stretching their own personal greatness by virtue of the misfortune of others. Perhaps it’s time for reflection; learn from the story, not the ‘greater than all good’ responses. Congrats on making it. Peace.
actually, I’m not
Donna — Thanks for sharing your story. I always carry extra water & supplies when travelling, but after reading your story, I’ll be taking along another couple gallons from now on.
Sounds like you kept your wits about you in a really tough situation. It’s too bad there are a few people who get off on insulting others online. We all make mistakes, but you salvaged the situation and got everyone out alive and well. Congrats!
When you look at the road on google maps, it’s pretty clear that the GPS wasn’t even lost – it was doing what all these systems do when the road turns more than a certain amount – you were on Saline Valley Road, and it was telling you to turn left or right onto the next chunk of that road.
I think the problem started with what endpoint was set. If you put in “Scotty’s castle, Death Valley”, it probably found “Scotty’s Castle Road”, and then stuck a waypoint on the exact center of that road (that’s what GPSes usually do when you just give them a street name). So, you were getting a best route to a point on the map, just not the right point on the map.
As for the trolls claiming you should have a paper map and compass – short of USGS survey maps, you’re probably not going to find these roads on any map at all. And maybe that is the acutal problem with GPS navigation – a lot of roads that probably should never be used for navigation get on the database, and if there’s no other alternatives, into the wild you go.
GPSes are actually fantastic for offroad navigation, but you need to check that the waypoint is actually where you’re looking to go. I got lost on some back roads in Indiana a while back, and the road atlas was completely useless (an unmarked green place on the map), while the GPS got me back onto the primary road perfectly, telling me to make lefts or rights onto unmarked roads that I only overrode when it wasn’t paved.
Next time you go to Scotty’s Castle, it’s probably best to navigate to the Death Valley Visitor’s center – there’s likely to be a much better marked route from there.
Donna, so glad to hear you made it.
You might want to check if your GPS system is the kind that will let you mark a waypoint and/or follow a “breadcrumb trail” back the way you came. Simple, handheld GPS units that can do that can be better than the pure road-navigational kind when the roads run out.
If you’d had such a device from the start of your journey, you could have just pointed the car back to where you entered the desert, or followed the breadcrumb trail back.
Thannk you. I was just going to post to ask this same question. I have an old (about 12 year old) gps which I used to use to roam the desert in Southern California. I used to alway turn on the breadcrump function as soon as I left a “known” road and took off cross country. Would use it on return to make sure I was retracing my steps. Do not more “modern” GPS devices not have this same function?
Donna,
Good that you all got home safely.
You are for sure getting online grief for your misfortunate outing.
And it is clear from your posts that you did do a lot right after you got lost.
I would suggest for someone like myself, who has travelled through the area and knows Saline Valley Road and Scotty’s Castle, that you try to let some of us know what/where actually did go wrong. Your posts show us what you did that was good, but I can’t discern what went wrong.
Getting lost is the result of what went wrong, not what went wrong.
The roads typically driven from Pahrump to Scotty’s Castle are asphalt. You ended up on dirt roads that had no signs.
For those of us wondering, we believe that relying on GPS can be a problem. Good area maps, like AAA’s Death Valley Map, can help quite a bit.
You see, since you got on dirt roads, well then it seems that you must have been going somewhere after Scott’s castle. And we don’t know how you got to Saline Valley Road, except by going past the Eureka Dunes, which means a whole other issue, because the dirt road that goes that way ends in Big Pine and becomes asphalt.
So we are left to surmise that you went to go check out Ubehebe Crater, then made a turn towards the RaceTrack. If from the RaceTrack you went down Lippencott Mine Road, then you were on one gnarly scary road that I would be suprised you went down, since by then you would know to turn back. So then we guess that you took the Hunter Mtn road from TeaKettle junction, went up and over the pass (a long way) and then made a right turn onto Saline Valley Road, instead of going straight and finding the highway in short order.
So it would be really nice to learn what really went wrong, and what the mistakes were. I have done a ton in the outdoors and to this day errors arise. We all do that. At the end of the adventure we review them and learn from them. The armchair quarterbacks like me just want to know, since we have learned that learning from others is an invaluable tool to our own adventures. For instance I have never relied on a GPS in a car due to a friends misfortunes over 10 years ago, not from my own. The great thing about your story, is that we all can learn from you, because you are alive to tell us all about it and give us insight. Glad you are alive to recount your adventure.
Map and compass rule not GPS…
Try Siberia for another exploit that you can tell us all about and feel sorry for you.
Not. U did a stupid thing and don’t blame tech or police or your car or anything…period.
DRO
I’m with Mike on this. I would love to know their route. I’m completely flummoxed as to how they could have traveled from Pahrump to Scotty’s Castle and ended up in the Saline Valley on the way home. The easiest route was Bell Vista/Ash Meadows Road out of Pahrump to CA 127, make a right and then a quick left onto CA 190, then take 190 to the Scotty’s Castle Highway and that to Scotty’s Castle. That’s a total of four roads, paved all the way. Now they might have taken a longer route up 95 to avoid paying the park fee (really?) but that would still be all paved roads. As soon as they got off a paved road they should have realized something was wrong. I can’t believe they accidentally went over the Racetrack Road and up over Hunter Mountain. Or any of the even worse roads out of there. And the long route over the Big Pine Road seems equally implausible. If they returned on the Scotty’s Castle Highway they likely would have had to have made a right on 190 instead of a left (there are signs there by the way!), gone through Stovepipe Wells (I suppose it is possible they confused that with Furnace Creek) then over two much more serious mountain passes than the ones they drove over on the way there. How could they not realize they were going the wrong way? The only good thing they did was not panic. They should be billed for the rescue efforts.
want to exchange links Tyler
Sudsy,
So glad to hear that God was watching over you. What an adventure that was. I really enjoyed reading the story but was glad it had a happy ending. Hope you are all recuperated.
I wonder how different your outcome would have been with a SPOT satelite messenger. you could have signaled for emergency help.
I’m usually excited to check out this weblog in the evenings.Please keep on churning out the content. It’s extremely entertaining.
i am happy the girls were found ok….but i am inclined to agree with Nikki and a few others on this topic.
Common sense would say take water food etc with you when entering Death Valley any time….
i for one heard the panic and fear in this caretakers voice when her friend was missing.. she was asking for prayers.. this should be a learning lesson for all..
Spencer Jones: Unless you have a SAFE means of carrying extra fuel, DON”T!!! Gas does NOT belong in the trunk of a vehicle, especially in hot temperatures. Think about what you are suggesting.
While some do not like the “negative” comments, it is important to learn from this. If you are only carrying enough water for what you plan, you are not carrying enough water for an emergency.
You need to know how far you are planning on going. If the distance is 100 miles and you have not arrived, you have a problem. Don’t keep driving until you have an emergency. Turn around, go back. You should know where you are going and how far it is, as well as how long it should take to get there. You should also look at a map to see what roads you will be taking so that you can notice a problem asap. As stated, common places are accessible by paved roads. If you get off a paved road, then you have a problem.
You need to understand the tools you are using. A GPS is a nice tool, but if you don’t think about what it is *suggesting*, not telling, that you do, then you will have a problem.
While it is good that everyone survived, it is also important to place the blame for what happened on the correct party and that is not the GPS, a tool. There were many serious mistakes made along the way and if you don’t understand that, then future problems will occur.
Please take TONY with you next time!
U are all so stupid…
DRO