Deputies Call Off Mountain Search for Missing Tujunga Hiker : Mt. Lukens: Officials say the hunt will be resumed if they obtain new information. The woman apparently left her home Saturday.
A search for a 44-year-old Tujunga woman reported missing after she went for a hike in the Angeles National Forest near her home was called off Wednesday after a three-day search was fruitless, authorities said.
Searchers in a helicopter and on the ground with dogs Wednesday saw no sign of Nita Jones, an experienced hiker whose home is only a few blocks from the fire road that they believe she took on a five-mile trek up Mt. Lukens on Saturday. The lack of results prompted Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to end the search Wednesday evening.
“We’re permanently calling off the search,†Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Hays said. “We have no place else to look since we’ve looked in every direction within a reasonable distance.â€
After three days on the mountain and in Haines Canyon the searchers had found only two water bottles and a towel believed to have belonged to Jones.
“We have no affirmative reason to think foul play is involved,†Hays said. But, he added, “The search only will be renewed if we get some new information.â€
Authorities believe Jones went up the mountain on foot, with a knapsack but no sleeping bag on Saturday morning. Deputy Gary Griffith, part of a Sheriff’s Department mountain rescue team, said Jones left a note on her door that said: “Gone to climb the mountain. Be back tonight.â€
A Saturday morning newspaper was found inside her home, helping to place the day she left, Griffith said. No Sunday paper was found.
The note on the door of the small wood-frame house on France Avenue was left for a neighbor who parks a car in Jones’ driveway because Jones did not have a car. But the note was not discovered until Monday when a person scheduled to give Jones a ride to work at GlenFed Insurance Services in Glendale came by the house and didn’t find her.
By Monday night, searchers had begun looking for Jones on Mt. Lukens. On Tuesday, the towel with Jones’ initials on it was found about 4.7 miles up a fire road that leads to radio communications towers at the top of the mountain. Near the top of the mountain, about five miles up the trail, searchers found the two empty water bottles similar to others found in Jones’ refrigerator at home.
“There is a great view from the spot where the bottles were,†Griffith said. “It is conceivable she may have sat down there and rested.â€
On Wednesday, a team of 12 searchers with four dogs given a scent from Jones’ clothing combed the upper half of Mt. Lukens but did not find the woman’s trail. Griffith said the terrain was very rugged off the fire road.
“As long as an individual stays on the fire roads, it is safe up there,†he said. “But if you go off, it’s a lot of rocks and brush. It’s a hard area to find someone.â€
Jones’ son helped search the mountainous area himself Wednesday and the missing woman’s aunt and uncle stayed at the search command center in Haines Canyon. Dane Jones, 21, who lives on Santa Catalina Island, said he, too, saw no sign of his mother but declined to comment.
“It’s been too many days not to hear from her. I am worried,†said Mildred Caldwell, the missing woman’s aunt.
Jones was described by her family as an avid camper and hiker. But she never before camped overnight on Mt. Lukens, choosing only to go on day hikes or to ride her mountain bike on the trails.
“She knew what she was doing, knew the trails pretty well,†said her uncle, Robert Caldwell of West Los Angeles.
Times staff writer Julie Tamaki contributed to this story.
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