Woman found alive after 12 days in 'treacherous' Northern California forest

(KTXL) — The Nevada County Sheriff's Office said it found and rescued on Friday afternoon a 24-year-old woman who had been missing for 12 days in a remote area.

The woman, Esmeralda Maria Pineda, was found "severely dehydrated and emaciated" and needing immediate medical attention, the agency said.

Deputies located her at the top of a river canyon near the Yuba River and Sweetland Creek. That is a forested area south of New Bullards Bar Reservoir, about 90 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Firefighters with the North San Juan Fire Department attended to Pineda before she was taken to a hospital in a CHP helicopter.

“The Sheriff’s Office and our search and rescue volunteers covered extensive ground throughout our search, and we are thankful today to find her alive,” said Sergeant Dustin Moe in a statement issued by the sheriff's office.

The agency said that the area was "treacherous in nature" and that search and rescue volunteers had to rappel into and out of a canyon to search for Pineda.

Search crews also had been using off-highway vehicles during the 12-day search.

Pineda was reported missing after being seen for the last time at a Nevada County mining camp near the middle fork of the Yuba River and Sweetland Creek on August 26.

In the days after, the sheriff's office said she was considered at-risk and that she may have been trying to return to the Sacramento area.