Yoga teacher found alive after going missing 2 weeks ago in Hawaii forest

[Crabby Appleton]

Source: abc News

A woman missing for over two weeks in the Makawao Forest Reserve on Maui, Hawaii, has miraculously been found alive, a family friend and rescuer confirmed to ABC News.

Amanda Eller had been missing for 16 days when she was found in good condition at about 5 p.m. local time.

"We found her in a stream bed, she was waving up at us while we were in the helicopter, and we got her out nice and safe," Chris Berquist, who was in the helicopter, told ABC News Radio late Friday. "She was not injured. She has a little bit of exposure from the sun, a little bit of sunburn. She lost her shoes a few days in. But no injuries."


Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/yoga-teacher-found-alive-missing-weeks-ago-hawaii/story?id=63269194

[Billy Ray Joe Bob.]

1. Amazing story....nt

..

[mahina]

2. Thank God. This is the best news.

So many people were looking for her. I’m so happy they found her

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Only way to survive 16 days is by being intelligent and calm.

I highly recommend exercising both attributes at all times.

[Nitram]

14. And not losing your shoes.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. She had shoes the first few days only. I don't know how she lost them. . . . nt

[jpak]

35. That is a common thing among people that are "bewildered"

They lose clothing and footwear.

I don't know why - except maybe they are so terrified they cannot thing straight.

[forgotmylogin]

19. It's a good thing she found the stream bed.

Dehydration can kill in days; a healthy person can go without food for much longer.

Also following a water source increases your chances of finding civilization and being rescued since water is a natural navigation landmark.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Yes. Further, you have a good chance of getting out to the ocean where you'd be more visible.

... unless it is one of those streams that flow over a cliff!

[Red Mountain]

4. It's a little odd

That she got lost that long given the Reserve is only 3.27 square miles.

A brisk walk in any one direction would have brought her out of it quickly.

There are walking and mountain biking trails in the Reserve. And other people.

But what do I know? Maybe there are circumstances I'm unaware of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makawao_Forest_Reserve

Happy for her and her loved ones.

[bitterross]

5. Something sounds fishy here

I'm with you. Two weeks in that small an area? I believe people do typically walk in circles when lost. But it still seems odd when you look at the map of trails that she didn't run across one of them.

http://www.mauirunner.com/2016/04/makawao-forest-reserve-trail-run.html

[Lefta Dissenter]

6. Is that area to the west

additional wild area where she could have been wandering?

[bitterross]

8. Great Question. Maybe?

I dunno, the articles don't give a clue.

I also find it odd that they do not describe her condition as more severe. She was found in good condition. No mention of dehydration (yes, that happens even in damp areas), no mention of general scrapes, bruises or general traumas.

[raccoon]

9. I find it odd that she wasn't extremely hungry.

I find it odd that she wasn’t extremely hungry. Two weeks isn’t long enough to starve for most people, but it is quite long enough to get extremely hungry.

Yes, I’d say there’s something hinky going on here

[Polybius]

17. Maybe she ate something?

Not sure of her survival skills, but there are fruits. Coconuts probably.

[forgotmylogin]

20. The appetite will shut off after a day or two.

It's a natural mechanism when the body slows metabolism and converts to using fat reserves for emergency nutrition.

https://neurogum.com/blogs/thinktank/why-don-t-you-feel-hungry-after-not-eating-for-a-long-time

What you will find is that you don’t feel particularly hungry even after not eating for a while. This is most obvious when fasting. You may feel hungry initially. However, after a while, those hunger pangs start to disappear. It looks like adrenaline plays a role there.

What adrenaline does is drive a process called lipolysis. This is the process your body undertakes when it wants to break down your fat reserves to give itself some energy. Lipolysis also prevents you from burning through your muscle when you don’t eat for a while.

[...] there would be periods where early humans just couldn’t access food. Maybe there was a predator roaming around that everybody needed to hide from. Or, the time of year meant less food.

That’s where lipolysis probably started kicking in for those early humans. Their bodies would burn through their fat reserves so that they could keep going during lean periods. The elimination of hunger pangs that comes from this would distract from the issue and ensure the human could focus on getting food rather than how much he or she needed food.

[CentralMass]

29. I read that she lost 15lbs.

[jovibennett]

7. I've been running in that park

and it does seem odd that she didn't run into a single person in 16 days or a trail she couldn't have followed back to a safe area. Every trail I took I encountered all kinds of people hiking and biking. I don't know why she went off the trail. But she's been found safe and that is all that matters. I will say it is a beautiful park.

[forgotmylogin]

24. Just saw this on MSNBC - what I don't understand...

Is why you'd park your car to take a walk and leave your cell phone and wallet!

She was in stretch pants and a tank top with no pockets, so perhaps she wasn't wanting to carry them - perhaps unburden and not be distracted - but this is an exact case why you'd want to wear a fanny-pack or a strap to clip your phone to!

I don't know about phone reception where she was, but surely a GPS signal could have helped her navigate back.

Even if you don't get lost, you don't want to leave that behind for someone who happens across your car!

[bluedigger]

12. A guy got lost for about six weeks down in Puerto Rico when I was working there.

He wandered off a trail and couldn't be found. Search was called off, and his family went back to Ohio. Then six weeks later he stumbles out onto the road a mile from where he parked. Lived off of rainwater and grubs. There was a pocket knife and compass in the glove box of his car...

[Cal Carpenter]

15. "She was several miles above Twin Falls, over in deep H'aiku, way off the beaten track."

From the article linked to in the OP.

[kiri]

25. maybe not very bright?

In any situation, there are 50% below and 50% above in IQ, geographical sense, etc. Losing shoes? How do you do that? Every hiker knows that shoes/boots are vital to keeping alive.

3.3 square miles = take the square root and it means about 1.8 miles in every direction. A slow walking pace is 2 miles/hr. In 16 days, without shoes, maybe 1 mile per DAY!

This tale does not meet the sniff test.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. Thick vegetation impedes travel. Every hiker knows that. Many ways to lose a shoe.

Lose one shoe, little or no point in keeping the other. Keep the laces.

Shoe might have been trapped in rocky hole, allowing the foot to escape but imprisoning the shoe.

Shoe might have floated downstream while being washed.

[kiri]

30. imaginative

imaginative, but it seems she was incredibly stupid, unaware, unable to get a sense of direction from the sun, unable to follow a stream down, unable to retrieve a shoe. Canyons, steep slopes? All in 3 miles in every direction?

"weed whacking" thru underbrush; 1 step per hr for 16 days... 1 step per hour (protect your eyes).
And you can always get down and crawl (done that when lost trail in snow).

I call BS on this tale.

[LanternWaste]

40. Provide us with objective evidence the story is untrue.

Or, simply wallow in your unsupported allegation.

BS, indeed.

[mn9driver]

10. She was found in a ravine between two waterfalls.

Looking at a topographic map of the park, these ravines are basically narrow, cliff canyons with streams at the bottom. She somehow got herself into a trap that she couldn’t escape from. She couldn’t go up the cliff, and she couldn’t go past either waterfall.

Since she was injured, it seems likely that she somehow fell into it and remarkably didn’t break her neck, but couldn’t get out. Luckily she had plenty of water available.

[csziggy]

21. That's what I was wondering - what the terrain was

Getting lost in steep and convoluted territory could be very easy - unlike the mostly flat land here in Florida. And people manage to get lost in the pine flats of the Southeast so I understand how even an experienced hiker could get lost in Hawaii - or as you say, into a place she could not get out of.

[left-of-center2012]

11. "She lost her shoes a few days in. But no injuries."

[Nitram]

13. How did she "lose her shoes?"

[lavenderdiva]

16. I thought the same thing

How do you lose your shoes when you are hiking and then lost while hiking? It didn't seem like she was disoriented as the article said she clearly remembered her name, her father's name, and his exact phone number. There are a lot of things about this situation that just don't make sense to me. If she was in such great shape, how do you stay put in one place (the ravine) for 2 weeks? From the picture of her feet being severely sunburned (from losing her shoes), and yet her face just looks tanned. I have a lot of questions about this story....

[csziggy]

23. If you normally wear shoes, your feet would have no exposure

But other parts of your body would already be suntanned. So the feet could burn from unaccustomed exposure while your face and arms would just tan more.

When I was running my farm, my arms and face were well suntanned, but since I wore jeans and tee shirts, my shoulders and legs were not. I learned that on vacation it was a problem if I wore tank tops and shorts, those areas would burn very quickly.

[Hekate]

32. She absolutely was not dressed for hiking. Her footgear was sandals.

[underpants]

27. Maui Wowee

Insert that into every question about this story.

Just saying.

[wishstar]

36. A different article said there was a flash flood that occurred washing away her sandals

[NBachers]

28. According to the film clip, she'd been wearing sandals. If she tumbled down a steep incline, the

sandals could've fallen off and been un-retrievable. It could be very painful to walk in bare feet if she wasn't used to being barefoot.

It's probably just me, but I found the film clips of that guy annoying. But, whatever, I'm glad she's back and safe.

[left-of-center2012]

33. She went hiking wearing sandals?

okie dokie

[Hekate]

31. I saw part of a film clip, & she looks like death warmed over: all skin & bones and sunburn blisters

Reading this thread, one would get the impression she was hunky-dory, and this is not the case. The sun is nothing to take lightly in Hawai'i. I imagine her skin is also compromised by every inch being covered with mosquito bites. She's injured, all right.

As for how you get lost in a small area of tropical forest: you leave the trail. Maybe this yoga teacher decided what she really needed that day was peace and meditation, away from all those hikers and runners clogging up the trails. Maybe she didn't realize this area of under 4 square miles was not Central Park, but a geologically rugged natural piece of a volcanic island. A lot of posters seem to be under the impression that it's flat and easy to see where you are, like a city park.

A combination of stupidity and bad luck that could have been fatal. Plus, I have no idea why her car was not broken into and her cell phone and wallet taken.

[Captain Stern]

34. The linked article neglects to mention that she had a broken leg.

That might explain why she wasn't able to walk very far.

[Liberty Belle]

37. She had a broken leg and ate fruits and moths to survive. More here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212131085

She also slept in a wild boar's den, covered with ferns. She's lucky she wasn't gored, however if you must be lost in the forest, Hawaii is better than some other places due to the abundance of fruits and absence of predators -- no wolves, bears, mountain lions, and also no snakes or scorpions.

As for how she lost her shoes, after she fell 20 feet into a ravine and broke her leg, a flash flood washed away her sandals.

[Bantamfancier]

38. This person had no business taking a hike.

She was totally unprepared.
At the minimum one should always have:
Knife
Lighter
Whistle
Water
Then if it’s someplace I’ve never hiked before.
Cell phone
Compass
Topo map
Food
Emergency blanket
Paracord

If you go one on one with nature unprepared, you will lose.

[LanternWaste]

41. No doubt, the important thing for you is to point your finger

while yet lacking all relevant information.

relevant info: "If you speak allegations unprepared, you will lose."

[lastlib]

39. She should've used my survival strategy---

In my pack, I carry an ordinary deck of playing cards. What's the first rule to apply when you're lost in a wilderness? Stay Put! Let searchers find you. Okay, so you're not going anywhere for awhile--what are ya gonna do? Break out the deck of cards and play solitaire! In five minutes, somebody is going to be looking over your shoulder and tell you to "put the red eight on the black nine"--VOILA! You're FOUND!

[MicaelS]

42. She has been found alive. That is all that matters. n/t