An apparently disoriented woman, missing for three days from Eden, was found alive but suffering from dehydration and exposure after a massive search Friday at Magic Reservoir.
Blaine County Sheriff Gene Ramsey said the search for Jane L. Ehlers, 47, began on Wednesday, May 15, when his office was notified by the Jerome County Sheriff’s Office that the woman might be somewhere in the Blaine County area. According to Jerome officers, the woman went missing on the evening of May 14 when she left home in her car and failed to return.
Ramsey said his officers searched several areas in the county but had no success. A break in the case came at about 3 p.m. Friday when the woman’s vehicle, a 2006 Chevrolet Trail Blazer, was found at Lava Point on the southwest side of Magic Reservoir.
“When she was found, she was dehydrated and showed some signs of exposure because she had been out there for a few days.”
Gene Ramsey
Sheriff
Ramsey said the vehicle was actually found in Camas County, so authorities there were notified. However the Camas County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of Blaine County officers in the search.
Ramsey said a massive search, involving police, the Camas and Blaine County search-and-rescue operations and an emergency helicopter from St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center got under way at about 6:45 p.m. Ehlers was later found about a quarter mile from her vehicle. Ramsey said she was immediately flown by emergency helicopter to St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls.
A condition report on Ehlers was not available from the hospital by press deadline Tuesday.
“When she was found she was dehydrated and showed some signs of exposure because she had been out there for a few days,” Ramsey said. “Her feet also had multiple lacerations from walking on the lava.”
Ramsey declined to discuss why the woman became missing, other than to say “she was probably in a critical situation in her life.” He described her state of mind as “disoriented.”
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
