Just want to say I am surprised I hadn't heard of this case, and I live about 30 minutes from there.
The trees here, mostly palo verde and mesquite trees, are about 20 ft tall and wide ,which make them appear like bushes from an aerial view. There are a ton of prickly pear, chollas and shrubs as well, so traversing the terrain is not easy, as everything has thorns. Not to mention that it is nearly impossible to actually see to far ahead while walking through, since the trees and bushes are so low to the ground. You can walk around a bush and all of a sudden, you see a pack of wild burros, javelina or cows in front of you. Not fun. I spent about 2 months in this area (from Lake Pleasant to Castle Hot Springs) last summer, searching for a lost dog. The roads leading to Castle Hot Springs are rough in many areas, and almost all of the searching I did was on foot because of this. Because it is still cold this time of year, I'm curious if any type of thermal or FLIR camera/video/drone was used during the search.