Calif. rescue team finds 70-year-old man after weeklong search

A Fresno man was found alive almost a week after he disappeared while on a fishing outing. 

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The family of 70-year-old Rondy Earl Packard Sr. reported him missing on June 28 after Packard did not return home from his outing, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. A resident said they had last seen him that afternoon driving his Nissan pickup near Pine Flat Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

“You can just imagine the stress that this family has been under for almost a week now,” Fresno County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Lt. Kathy Curtis told KABC-TV.  “And of course, we’re concerned, because the weather is heating up and we don’t know what his situation was as far as food or water.”

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team conducted an “extensive ground and aerial search operation” in the “remote wilderness,” according to the department. A volunteer Jeep team and an air squadron worked alongside deputies, an off-road vehicle unit and a helicopter. The California Office of Emergency Services was also involved in the rescue.

A member of the volunteer air squadron spotted Packard’s vehicle “in an extremely remote area” around 1 p.m., 20 miles northeast of Pine Flat Lake. Packard was found near his pickup around 3:30 p.m. Due to the rugged terrain, the California Highway Patrol’s H-40 helicopter hoisted Packard from the scene and safely transported him to awaiting medical personnel.

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“He was alive, alert and in good health,” according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. 

KABC-TV reports rescue teams took Packard to the hospital, and he is expected to make a full recovery.