capitola51
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Thanks for that link. I did see that the journalist mentioned a '4-wheeler' for sale in the article, but I cannot find any advertisement for same.
Thanks for that link. I did see that the journalist mentioned a '4-wheeler' for sale in the article, but I cannot find any advertisement for same.
Couple of questions. Could you provide a link to a description of the trashed campsite? I couldn't find anything detailed. Also, how do you know the crash followed the site disturbance and not the other way round?The food at campsite wasn't disturbed. So I don't think it was animals. It appears her belongings were dumped. Not only disturbed. At the campsite. So I think it might suggest vandals. And the crash seems suspicious. That's just my opinion. The crash didn't deploy air bags. ( estimated going 20mph) It makes no sense to me. The site being disturbed followed by a crash and her roaming the woods. She is a competent, intelligent woma,.so none of these events are consistent to her patterns
Couple of questions. Could you provide a link to a description of the trashed campsite? I couldn't find anything detailed. Also, how do you know the crash followed the site disturbance and not the other way round?
This has been a tough one to put together, thanks for your postings so far. I have been through all reports including all those referenced in this thread plus a thorough web search.Here’s one link that includes a description of her campsite.
<snipped for focus>
Note: Not stating as fact:
By reading info from the previous article and this report, it seems that possibly hikers found some of Sandra’s things strewn about on July 2. Then family was notified. On July 4, other hikers saw Sandra barefoot & bruised. By July 5, her niece had seen the campsite trashed and LE had found her wrecked car. Possibly the sequence of these events??
There are two reports of SH sightings - the one in StrangeOutdoors <The Sandra Johnsen Hughes disappearance in Sierra National Forest — StrangeOutdoors.com> referring to a 'bruised and barefoot' SH (but does not give location and their map is wrong) and one in the MCSO FB post of July 26 mentions the hikers <Log into Facebook> encounter on the 4th July, so we can add that very useful data point to the timeline, thanks for pointing it out.@capitola51
Great post; very thorough!
I’ll keep digging as well
ETA:
What are your thoughts on the hikers seeing Sandra barefoot and bruised on July 4?
Asking because I didn’t see it included in your timeline.
August 9th 2020 sighting by hunters I read that she looked thinner than in the photos of her posted online. A couple of questions come to my mind I wonder where she got the bottle of water that she had in her hand (when the hunters saw her and asked her if she needed help and she said "No") and how was she keeping herself fed? I mean it was a month before that she was seen last. If she was walking away from her disarrayed campsite then if she was sustaining herself from that campsite why was her sleeping bag found so far away? If she was sustaining herself from the disarrayed campsite then she wouldn't be far from it. A month is a long time without water and food. So I wonder why she was thinner and how she survived a month.Updated timeline MOO
June 26 2020 Last heard from by her family
July 2nd 2020 Johnson Meadows. Other hikers found her tent, camping gear and supplies abandoned and strewn about.
July 4th 2020 Encountered by hikers unknown at or near crash site close to Chiquito trailhead.
July 5th 2020 (afternoon) car found by a non profit offroad team near Chiquito trailhead. 775 O & R posted on FB “this was a far one”. They noted that the vehicle was “wrecked into a tree and rolled back into a ravine” <Log into Facebook> and scroll down to July 5, 2020.
July 7th 2020 MCSO FB post “She has been sighted by others on foot since the vehicle was located.”
July 9th 2020 “spotted this past Sunday, 8/9/2020, along Road 5S01 near Portuguese Creek”
August 9 2020 hunters sighting 5s01 nr beasore - chiquito creek nr portugese overlook (noticeably thinner) (possibly mistaken identity)
July 21st 2021 Ghost sighting at Shuteye Peak
This has been a tough one to put together, thanks for your postings so far. I have been through all reports including all those referenced in this thread plus a thorough web search.
SH’s niece made a social media post that included the wording “…almost as if her car and belongings had been emptied carelessly…” and subsequently many media and news pages picked up on that possibly inaccurate wording and they are all over the place with dates, so I favored the Facebook posts from Madiera County Sherrifs Office (MCSO), and 775 Offroad & Recovery and ended up with this timeline:
June 26 2020 Last heard from by her family
July 2nd 2020 Johnson Meadows. Other hikers found her tent, camping gear and supplies abandoned and strewn about.
July 5th 2020 (afternoon) car found by a non profit offroad team near Chiquito trailhead. 775 O & R posted on FB “this was a far one”. They noted that the vehicle was “wrecked into a tree and rolled back into a ravine” (<Log into Facebook> and scroll down to July 5, 2020).
July 7th 2020 MCSO FB post “She has been sighted by others on foot since the vehicle was located.”
July 9th 2020 “spotted this past Sunday, 8/9/2020, along Road 5S01 near Portuguese Creek”
August 9 2020 hunters sighting 5s01 nr beasore - chiquito creek nr portugese overlook (noticeably thinner) (possibly mistaken identity)
July 21st 2021 Ghost sighting at Shuteye Peak (anecdotal)
There are two reports of SH sightings - the one in StrangeOutdoors <The Sandra Johnsen Hughes disappearance in Sierra National Forest — StrangeOutdoors.com> referring to a 'bruised and barefoot' SH (but does not give location and their map is wrong) and one in the MCSO FB post of July 26 mentions the hikers <Log into Facebook> encounter on the 4th July, so we can add that very useful data point to the timeline, thanks for pointing it out.
I will add now that I have seen the picture of the car location where it “hit a tree and rolled back into a ravine” it would seem that SH may well have been injured or even unconscious for a time after the initial impact, and therefore unable to control or stop the roll back. LE noted the air bag had not gone off and quoted a minimum deployment speed, but Saabs are well designed tough cars and the impact has deformed the girder-like front fender, so that’s not a trivial impact and could have been a fair bit more than 20mph. I note that airbag deployment is not speed related - if someone smashes into you while you are waiting at a light you will want the air bags to work. So while whether or not an air bag deploys can be a useful guide for LE to estimate general impact speed, strictly speaking air bag deployment is not based on speed, but contingent on the deceleration rate and direction during an impact.
Am I correct please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it was a low speed impact type of "rollback." I thought I read it was low speed.She could have tried to back up the car after the incident and accidentally rolled back into the ditch where it became stuck.
Am I correct please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it was a low speed impact type of "rollback." I though I read it was low speed.
Or it could be someone else. We just don't know. If her documents were scattered at her campsite maybe the person who drove her car got them from her campsite as well. IMO to set up a campsite a person has to know where they are in case they want to leave for sometime and be able to come back. So she would park her car at her campsite (if that's allowed where she set up) and know the road closest to it. So it just seems so random to me that she would have an accident in the area close to her camp (if her car was found near the camp, I'll have to look at an article to see how far the crash was compared to her campsite.)She could have tried to back up the car after the incident and accidentally rolled back into the ditch where it became stuck.