Search for missing American expat from San Felipe in Devils Canyon suspended

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The State Directorate of Civil Protection announced todaythat it suspended the search of the American Kat Hammontre, 68 years old and resident of the town of San Felipe, Mexicali, who missing since April 11 in the area of El Cañón del Diablo in the lower part of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, where she practiced hiking in the company of friends.

The canyon is the second route of ascent to Picacho del Diablo (the highest peak of the Baja California Peninsula) and the Blue Bottle spot, in San Pedro Mártir (Internet)

4 Winds / Main picture: Cañón del Diablo (turimexico.com)

April 15, 2019. – Antonio Rosquillas Navarro, state director of Civil Protection, gave notice of the suspension of the search to the Attorney General of the State (PGJE), so that it initiates a ministerial investigation and tries by its means of locate the sexageria in an area where temperatures of up to 32 degrees are already registered.

The official reported that Hammontre went out with her friends to the canyon on Thursday, April 11 at dawn. They were going to observe the waterfall that forms inside the ravine. She got tired and asked her friends to continue the walk while she rested in a stream in the company of a dog. No more was heard of her.

When on the afternoon of Thursday, April 11, the group of walkers arrived back to the vehicle support units, the husband of the American woman notified that Kat had not returned.

He immediately began a search operation involving dozens of civilian rescuers and the State Civil Protection Directorate, elements of the Bomberos de Mexicali corps, the En-Sar Ensenada Search and Rescue organization, a helicopter of the Mexican armed forces. and Red Cross staff with the support of rescue dogs.

One of the small waterfalls in the lower part of the Devil’s Canyon (Internet)

The group did not find the woman, but did locate two marijuana cultivation fields in the area that were reported to the Army and the Attorney General’s Office for investigation.

Regarding the woman’s background, Antonio Rosquillas revealed that, due to reports from her husband and friends, she has poor physical condition since she is in a period of recovery from cancer, and recently suffered a fracture in three fingers of one of her feet. .

“We suspended the search. We combed everything around the place where he was seen alive the last time. We speak of a perimeter of 5 kilometers around and we do not locate it, “said the state official.

In June of last year, the civil organization Emergency Prevention Agrestes  requested the governor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid the creation of a State Search and Rescue Group specialized in areas of difficult access.

Laguna Salada and the San Pedro Mártir mountain range (Facebook)

It should have sufficient economic resources , an official ambulance service that promptly attends to emergencies in roads and villages, and a special helicopter for rescue operations in rural areas and emergency aeromedical transfer .

His request, which was not answered, was based on media statistics that did not include accidents in towns, in motor vehicles, drowned in beaches, maritime or aerial accidents.

The regions where there were cases with hikers, workers and settlers affected in accidents are: Laguna Salada (period 1996-2016), 21 dead and 89 rescued. Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (span 1987-2017), 4 dead and 36 rescued.

Also the Sierra de Juárez   (period 2000-2017), 5 dead and 139 rescued. And south of Ensenada to (phase 1996-2017), 1 dead and 3 rescued.

Source: 4vientos

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