Missing Woman Found Clinging to Tree in NV

Feb. 16, 2022
A 64-year-old woman missing since Feb. 14 was rescued by Reno firefighters after being found clinging to a tree on a steep slope.

A woman who vanished on Valentine’s Day was found clinging to a tree on a “steep slope” in Nevada, rescuers told news outlets.

Gayle Stewart was reported missing on Monday, Feb. 14, after leaving her house in Reno at about 8 a.m., News 4 reported. The Reno Police Department began the search for the 64-year-old that day.

Family and friends scoured the area searching for Stewart. One person, a friend of Stewart’s son, began searching on a nearby cliff, the Reno Fire Department said.

The rescue is “kind of a miracle story,” Seth Williams, the battalion chief for the fire department, told KOLO.

The woman was found 400 feet off the road clinging to a tree, the news outlet reported. She was on a steep slope, firefighters said.

“The son called up some friends to start searching for her and one of the boys just decided to head off this cliff thinking maybe she fell down there and found her clinging to a tree,” Williams told the news outlet. “He said the last thing she said was ‘help’ and then didn’t talk anymore.“

Firefighters responded to the area to help stabilize the woman. They spent about 30 minutes creating a rescue system to pull Stewart to safety and took her back to the road, the fire department said.

The woman was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover, KOLO reported.

©2022 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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