Search-and-rescue team finds woman who wandered from camp

July 5, 2003

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — A Glendale woman was found safe Friday after two search and rescue teams scoured the mountains for her.

Sizanush Migzanyan, 23, walked away from the Buckhorn Camping grounds Thursday afternoon clad in shorts, a summer top and flip-flop sandals after apparently arguing with her mother, said Mike Leum, a member of the Montrose search-and-rescue team.

The team, along with the Antelope Valley search-and-rescue team, was called out to search for Migzanyan about 6 p.m., and with several hours' start on the search teams, dogs were called out to help find her.

Leum was assigned to work with a bloodhound named Betty, who immediately smelled Migzanyan's scent on one path, he said.

Migzanyan's sandal tracks were soon found on the trail. About 4:30 a.m., teams found the woman about two miles away from the Antelope Valley side of the mountain, Leum said.

Migzanyan had walked 10 miles away from the campsite with no food or water, but she was OK, Leum said.

"She's a very strong individual, physically, and very strong-willed. It was almost more a mind-over-matter thing," Leum said.

The woman had told searchers, "she had gotten confused, she thought if she kept walking she would end up where she started," Leum said.

Darleene Barrientos

Copyright 2003,  Los Angeles Times