A solid news story about my friends’ missing relatives *UPDATED* FOUND!!!
Bookworm on Jan 23 2010 at 12:35 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
UPDATE: 1/23/10 @ 7:30 PST: Ryan and Viola have been found, scared, thirsty, hungry, cold — AND SAFE! Thanks to all who helped publicize this story.
Our local ABC news affiliate did a really solid story on the missing couple I blogged about earlier today:
If you’re in California or Western Nevada, and think you’ve seen Viola Liu or Ryan Barrett, please contact the Fremont Police Department, at 510.790.6800.
And if you do social networking (Twitter, facebook, etc.) or blogging, please rebroadcast this story.
UPDATE: The most recent news is that the couple may have been headed to Lake County, California, an area roughly two hours north of San Francisco. As the news report says, there’s been snow there too, but it’s definitely a less daunting prospect than the Sierras:
LAKE COUNTY – Family members and law enforcement are seeking information about the whereabouts of a missing Fremont couple who stopped in Lake County last weekend.
Ryan Barrett, his girlfriend Viola Liu and their three dogs left home for a camping trip on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan. 16, according to Barrett’s uncle, Richard Jenkins of Corte Madera.
“They were scheduled to return home on Monday evening, Jan. 18,” said Jenkins. “We have not heard from them.”
Jenkins said his family filed a missing persons’ report with the Fremont Police on Wednesday.
Barrett and Liu, both 31 years old, hadn’t given their families a definite destination for their camping trip, according to Jenkins.
Family told Bay Area media that they had found evidence on Barrett’s laptop that he had been looking at maps for various areas around Northern California.
The couple haven’t answered their cell phones, which go straight to voice mail, according to information issued by the Fremont Police Department.
A small break in the case came when it was discovered that Liu’s credit card was used for gas in Upper Lake on Jan. 16, according to Genevieve Glassy, Barrett’s stepmother.
Jenkins said his nephew is familiar with the mountains. Barrett had with him a tent, sleeping bags, camping gear, dog food, freeze dried food and water.
“We think they may have been camping in the back country near Upper Lake and were caught in the recent storms,” Jenkins said.
That’s a very real concern; Lake County Public Works reported on Friday that a portion of Elk Mountain Road was closed due to heavy snow, and as much as 3 feet of snow had fallen in that area as well as along Bartlett Springs Road. Four wheel drive with chains is required in both areas, where work to reopen the roads isn’t scheduled to begin until Monday.
Barrett and Liu are driving a red 2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with a red camper shell; the pickup’s license plate number is 7P61451, according to the Fremont Police.
Barrett is a white male, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Liu is a Chinese-American woman, standing 5 feet, 7 inches tall, 130 pounds, with brown hair with highlights, and brown eyes.
The three dogs accompanying them include two huskies and a Labrador retriever, Jenkins said.
Jenkins said he’ll be in Upper Lake area on Saturday to put up flyers in an attempt to help locate the couple.
Anyone with information about the couple is asked to call the Fremont Police Department at 510-790-6800, or dial 911 to contact local authorities, who also have been notified of the missing couple’s possible presence in the county, Glassy said.
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- Good news about the missing Egyptians
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4 Responses to “A solid news story about my friends’ missing relatives *UPDATED* FOUND!!!”
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Book, is the weather there flyable? If so, is the Civil Air Patrol working on this?
I don’t know, David. The weather has been wacky, along the coast with brilliant sunshine one minute and heavy rains the next. I don’t know what’s going on in other parts of the state. I have to assume, of course, that everything that can be done is being done.
[...] sending out an SOS to other bloggers trying to alert people to this story about a couple who may be lost in the snows: Ryan Barrett and his girlfriend, Viola Liu left on Saturday, January 16, at 2:00 p.m. to go [...]
Nature can bite back. I had a couple of damn fool moments myself, which fortunately I survived. I took a five day canoe trip with a friend when we were 13. We did one portage where the river turned to rapids. As portaging is a pain in the neck, not to mention other body parts, we decided to try shooting the rapids when we came to the second portage. We walked the portage path, and from looking at the rapids, concluded they were doable. After we capsized the canoe, we concluded we were mistaken. Theory met reality. We were very fortunate to have capsized the canoe where we did, because not long after the point where we capsized the canoe, we would have gone over a 5-10 foot vertical drop. There is no telling what might have happened to us had we taken the canoe over that drop.
Some years later, I and a group of Brits climbed a 15,000 foot volcano in South America. The climb was one that amateurs could do. No special equipment was needed. Just keep walking . On the way down from the summit, perhaps due to the fog, I got disconnected from the main group. I eventually found my way back, and got back to the cabin about a half hour behind the rest of the group. I found out I had been very fortunate, as had I gone in the wrong direction, I most likely would have been lost forever. That hut was the only inhabited place on the mountain, and most of the land at the base of the mountain was uninhabited forest.
OTOH, there was one time on that trip when I ignored warnings, and I was correct to have done so. I took a bus from a town in Peru to a place where I would initiate a 3-5 day hike. The locals on the bus warned me that there were a lot of bad guys in the mountains. I laughed off those warnings, as I had previously observed that the locals were rather jocular towards the gringos. Which was fine by me: I liked the give and take. I had a good hike. One night a local invited me to spend the night in his stone hut. I shared the food I had. He wanted to know what the price for gold was, as someone from Lima had been purchasing it. I told him, so he could bargain a better price.
This occurred before the advent of Sendro Luminoso. During the days of Sendero Luminoso, such warnings should have been heeded.