Finding Zooey

MISSING PERSON CASE

Rescued on April 24, 2023

This is the case report for missing person Zooey V. (name purposely misspelled), female, 28yo, who arrived at Burbank Airport on Friday mid-day, last confirmed sighting at Starbucks on Hollywood Way in Burbank.

I received a message from missing person advocate Heather (Twitter @peanut_gallery3) at about 4:30a.m Monday, April 24, 2023, regarding Zooey’s case. The case details known then were that family and friends had been searching for Zooey, who flew into Burbank Airport for an art show in Pasadena where Zooey’s art was being exhibited, but she never arrived. It was known Zooey arrived in Burbank, but she never made it to the art show. Zooey had been missing for nearly three days when I entered the search.

I headed to the Burbank area at about 7 a.m. I contacted Zooey’s family while en route. After our conversation, I was sent a batch of cryptic text messages Zooey had sent to her father, godmother, and another friend. These text messages included some photos she sent while walking.

The family filed a missing person report with the Burbank Airport Police, who referred the case to detectives at Burbank PD. Because Burbank PD detectives would not be in until Monday, the Airport PD did great work and had Zooey listed in NCIC and the CA Attorney General's missing person database. Airport police also found very important clues, including surveillance of Zooey sleeping on a bench at the airport and footage of her walking away without luggage.

Zooey indicated in a text message she did not trust Uber or Lyft drivers and was walking from Burbank to Pasadena. This was concerning because Zooey was unfamiliar with Los Angeles, and Pasadena is not a walkable route from the airport.

Zooey’s text message about not liking Ubers.

Those she was texting with the entire time encouraged her to return to a Starbucks she had visited earlier so they could pick her up. They told Zooey it was unsafe to walk alone in the area she was traversing. Later Zooey sent photos as she was walking. One was a google maps screenshot showing her location was near I-5 and the 134 freeway. Other photos included a power line tower, a bridge overpass, and a graffiti area with spray paint cans. The messages confused her family and friends, and they started questioning whether it was actually Zooey who was sending them.

At this point, I consider this a critical search and rescue mission. My impression from the messages is that the missing person is in duress and possibly suffering a manic episode. To determine her direction of travel and pace, I decided to walk the LA River and find the locations in the photos she sent. As I am walking the river and finding the exact locations, the amazing team I work with is plotting the points and calculating the distance between points so we can estimate the pace she is walking.

The data proved that Zooey was walking south along the bike path inside the LA River, bordered by the I-5 freeway on the west and the river to the east. Because I found the actual photo locations, we could calculate her approximate travel speed. In her last text message, she mentioned she was tired. This was important because we now knew she had fallen asleep on a bench at the Burbank Airport. Using the knowledge she was tired, I looked for the next “decision point” as she walked south along the river. This would be a walking bridge that crosses over the river and enters a residential/equestrian area.

The red arrows show the missing person’s direction of travel along the LA River bike path.

At this decision point, her options were to cross over the bridge and exit the River or continue walking south. Because she had disclosed she was scared of being in an Uber alone, I figured that since it was getting dark, she would be scared to continue walking along the river, and would take the walking bridge over the river.

Based on that calculation, I mapped out a search zone that I thought was the most probable area of detection. Zooey’s friends and family had scheduled a community search at noon. I met with the volunteer searchers at nearby soccer fields. Twenty volunteer searchers, many from the deaf community, showed up. With the help of a sign language interpreter, I explained the search grid to the volunteers and went over safety concerns, and then the volunteers broke up into small groups and started searching.

My calculations were correct; Zooey crossed that bridge more than 48 hours earlier. She also stayed in that area near a golf course and horse stables. Less than 30 minutes after dispatching the volunteer searchers, we had eyes on Zooey. We found Zooey 8.1 miles from the last confirmed sighting of her on surveillance footage.

The decision point, the designated search area, and the location the missing person was found

Volunteer searchers had been searching for Zooey for 48 hours before I got involved. They did a fantastic job. They were searching for her on the other side of the I-5 freeway in Griffith Park. I understand why they decided to search there; she was initially walking in that area before she started walking along the river bike path. Based on training in lost person behavior, I felt that crossing back over the I-5 was most likely too scary of a task for her, and she most likely took the walking bridge, which was closer to lights and residential areas.

I escorted Zooey’s friends and family to the LAPD San Fernando station, where she was being medically evaluated. Once they settled in and knew what was happening, I left. I got a call from her family last night, and she is receiving medical care. I’m confident that Zooey will thrive.

I have decided to share more of our rescues because I think the data is important for those in the missing person community to have and evaluate. There are many repeating patterns in lost person behavior, and that data is the key to finding and rescuing people in the future.

As always, I am grateful to the amazing team I work with. Thank you for finding so much data for the 48 hours before I got involved and putting together all the text messages so we could determine her direction of travel. Thank you for putting me and the other volunteer searchers in a position to find Zooey.

____________________________

Steve Fischer

Search and Rescue Pilot and Ground Search Technician - Missing Person Private Investigator