Crime & Safety

Missing Female Hiker Found Huddled on Rock Ledge

Fading in and out of consciousness, Kyndall Jack, who was lost in Trabuco Canyon since Easter Sunday, is flown to a hospital. One rescuer falls 60 feet and suffers a serious head injury.

Kyndall Jack, the last of two hikers missing since Sunday in Trabuco Canyon, was rescued Thursday after searchers found her curled in a fetal position on a rock ledge.

Jack, 18, was loaded onto a helicopter just before noon and taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange. Her discovery came on the heels of last night's rescue of her companion, Nicholas Cendoya, 19.

A reserve sheriff's deputy who was helping rescue Jack suffered a "serious" head injury after falling 60 feet from a steep hill. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital, where he was listed in serious but not life-threatening condition, Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jason Park said.

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"He’s responsive," Park said of the deputy, who was working on his day off and was the third rescue party member to be airlifted from the wilderness this week.

Finding Kyndall

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The first person to spot Kyndall was Fred Wenzel, a reserve deputy who makes $1 a year and is a machinist by trade. He gave her his rescue harness to be airlifted into Air 5, an L.A. County Sheriff's Department chopper. Wenzel said he wasn’t concerned about the risk of giving up his own rescue harness.

"She was more important," he said, noting that Jack was drifting in and out of consciousness and "confused about what date it was, where she was.”

Earlier, Wenzel's rescue crew had been airlifted onto the northwest side of a hill opposite Falls Canyon. He took the top ridge route and saw her in thick brush.

"It was all poison oak, it was nasty,” he said. "We heard a voice -- very, very distant, very muffled."

Kyndall had dug herself into a small rock ledge.

"She was just hanging on the rock in the fetal position and just yelling for help," said Wenzel. “You spend years and years preparing for this, and it all pays off on a day like today.”

When Wenzel found her, Jack was wearing workout shorts and a dirty hooded sweatshirt.

She looked beat up and very dirty, with cuts, and complained of pain to both her lower legs, said Wenzel.

She spotted the rescue team before they could pinpoint her location. Jack was weak, injured and unable to move her right arm to wave to them.

For days the volunteers and search teams had been calling out for Jack through the canyons. At one point, they told female volunteers not to shout because other volunteers thought it was Jack answering their cries.

When Jack’s faint voice called back to the team today, Deputy Reserve Chief Mike Leum of Montrose Search and Rescue heard her cries, but didn't know where she was.

“I couldn’t see her, and I was screaming, ‘Can you see me?' ” Leum said.

When the rescue team finally spotted her, “I told her, ‘Don’t move. I am coming to get you,’ ” said Leum.

“She wouldn’t have made it much longer. She’s really, really lucky,” added Lt. Jim Moss of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. “She was in bad shape. ... She wasn’t saying much. She was just really happy to see us.”

Later, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Jon Muir said he and Park informed Jack's family of her rescue.

"They cried, they hugged us, thanked us immensely," Muir said. "This is a good outcome. This is why we do what we do."

Jack arrived at UCI at 12:21 p.m. suffering from hypothermia, confusion and dehydration, UCI Medical Center spokesman John Murray said.

"Doctors here checked her for internal injuries and found no major injuries," Murray said.

Jack will be moved to the intensive care unit because it's the best place to continue monitoring her, but she was in good condition, Murray said.

"She's likely to be here for a few more days," he said.

Her parents didn't wish to speak with reporters, but wanted to thank everyone who aided in the search, Murray said.

Earlier Rescue

Cendoya was found Wednesday evening about a half-mile from where he and Jack parked their car, Park said.

Dazed and dehydrated, Cendoya was shoeless and in surf shorts, Park said. He was conscious and was being interviewed by authorities.

Dr. Michael Ritter of Mission Hospital said Cendoya was in "very serious condition" last night, but was "doing better today. He's awake and talking."

Cendoya suffered cuts from the thick brush, officials said. He told officials he covered himself with brush in an attempt to say warm overnight, Ritter said.

"Nick said the thing that kept him going was praying," Ritter said. "He would pray every day and every night to give him the strength to get out of there."

Physicians gave him fluids intravenously and will start feeding him soft foods and liquids, Ritter said.

Cendoya ran the risk of "muscle breakdown," which can lead to kidney failure, the longer he exerted himself without fluids, Ritter said. He should be healthy enough to be released from the hospital in a couple of days, Ritter said.

Cendoya and Jack got separated Sunday evening, but Ritter did not know how or why, the doctor said.

-- City News Service contributed to this report.


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