Two missing people are found dead in Sierra foothills
Two missing people — a hiker and a fisherman — were found dead Thursday in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
• Ann Marie Herford, a 66-year-old traveling nurse from Michigan, was reported missing on Nov. 14 when she failed to show up for work at a Sonora hospital. Her car was found the following day at a trailhead near the town of Arnold.
After a week of intensive searching that focused on the Arnold Rim trail network, the Calaveras County sheriff’s office scaled back the effort.
On Thursday, Nov. 30, a sheriff’s team and volunteer searchers discovered the body in a steep and densely forested area between San Antonio Creek and Forest Road 5N56, about 2 miles north of where her car was found. A helicopter was used to recover the body.
• Michael Babb, 57, of Wheatland, had been missing since Thanksgiving, when he reportedly had planned an early-morning fishing outing at Englebright Lake, in Nevada County about 12 miles west of Grass Valley. On Wednesday, Nov. 29, a ranger found Babb’s car near the lake’s Narrows Boat Ramp, though he was not believed to be using a boat.
On Thursday, Babb’s body was found on land near the lake’s dam, close to the boat ramp. The cause of death has not been determined, the Nevada County sheriff’s office said.