Man who was lost in
Calif. mountains for 3 days with 3 kids says he
overcame fear with faith
Frederick
Dominguez and the children, who vanished while looking for a Christmas tree,
were rescued Wednesday by a helicopter from a snowy ravine, just as another
storm was bearing down in the foothill region about 100 miles north of
Sacramento.
“You just
want your kids to be safe and you’re just praying, ‘God, keep my kids alive,’”
Dominguez told reporters at Feather River Hospital in Paradise.
The
rescue came as relatives and friends were starting to lose hope. One snowstorm
had covered the family’s tracks, and an even bigger storm was hours away from
burying the four even deeper.
“I’m just
amazed how well they did,” Lisa Sams said after seeing
her children and ex-husband for the first time since they went missing. “It was
like butterflies in my stomach, like if you were going to go on a very first
date.”
The four
appeared to be in good shape as they bounded from a California Highway Patrol
helicopter that ferried them to safety in two trips; Alexis, 15, and Joshua,
12, were taken out of the woods first. Their
38-year-old father smiled at cheering relatives and friends later as he and his
18-year-old son, Christopher, emerged from the aircraft.
They were
taken to the hospital and checked for dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite,
physician Kurt Bower said. They were released within hours, but early Thursday,
Alexis was readmitted for pain in her toes from minor frostbite.
Brian
Clarke, Sams’ fiance, said
doctors were running tests on the teenager and expected to release her after
keeping her through the day.
“I’m
praying that’s all,” he said.
Citing
privacy laws, a hospital spokeswoman said she could not release details about
the extent of the girl’s frostbite or what treatment she was receiving.
After he
had been checked at the hospital, Dominguez described three harrowing nights in
the wild as he tried to keep his children from panicking and succumbing to the
numbing cold. Joshua needed constant reassurance.
“I said,
‘Son, I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I thought we weren’t
going to make it,’” Dominguez recalled. “My kids were relying on me, and I’m
scared, but you can’t tell them you’re scared.”
The
ordeal began Sunday, when Dominguez and the children left church and headed to
the mountains to cut a tree for Christmas.
Because
the father had custody of his children at the time, his ex-wife did not know
they were missing until she learned Joshua failed to show up at school Monday.
By the
time authorities learned they were missing and began their search Monday night,
the first storm had dumped 8 inches of snow around the family’s parked pickup
truck, obliterating its tracks. The family went missing about 25 miles northeast
of Chico, near the hamlet of Inskip.
By
Wednesday, the storm had dumped more than a foot of snow in the mountains,
leaving wind-driven drifts 7 feet high in some areas.
The
family members— found less than a mile and a half from the road — said they got
lost by going from pine tree to pine tree, trying to find the perfect Christmas
tree, until they realized they were lost.
“I just
remember walking and walking and thinking, ‘We’re not going to make it.’ I
remember being really, really scared,” Alexis told CNN Wednesday night.
They
eventually wandered into a culvert that allowed a creek to flow beneath a dirt
road, and stayed there until their rescue. It was a miserable place — dark,
cramped, wet and cold — but provided just enough shelter.
One night
it rained, sending snow melt shooting through the tunnel. At one point, Alexis
lost a shoe and slept a night with her foot exposed. Dominguez ripped his sweat
shirt and tied the shreds around her foot, rubbing it to keep it warm.
Outside,
they used twigs and branches to create an SOS — “Help.” They used humor and
songs from church to lift their spirits.
The
breakthrough in the search came mid-afternoon Wednesday when the highway patrol
helicopter spotted the father atop a small bridge and landed nearby, sinking
into 2 feet of snow. Dominguez said he ran across rocks and snow in his bare
feet when Alexis heard the helicopter.
Cloud
cover had prevented an aerial search until a brief lifting of the clouds.
Flight
officer David White said it was the last opportunity for the chopper, and that
snow was falling heavily as it descended.
“With
another storm coming in, they were just happy to get out of there and get
home,” he said. “It’s probably the best Christmas ever.”
Dominguez
moved to the rural foothill town of Paradise about a year ago from Los Angeles
to be closer to his children, who live with Sams.
He joked that next Christmas,
he’ll buy a plastic tree.