Body of Tacoma woman lost while mushroom foraging recovered in California

After a 15-day search, a 71-year-old Tacoma woman was found dead Saturday night in the rugged mountains of Northern California, according to the local sheriff’s department.

The Del Norte County Sheriff’s office recovered her body outside of Gasquet, a rural area along Redwood Highway, about 20 miles south of the Oregon border. According to her family and multiple news reports, Vana Sisopha was foraging for mushrooms with her husband and daughter in the Smith River National Recreation area when they became separated on Friday, Feb. 3.

Her husband arrived at the Gasquet Ranger Station around 8 p.m. that night, reported local news outlet Wild Rivers Outpost. Both his daughter and wife were missing.

Sisopha was an avid forager of more than 20 years, according to a GoFundMe started by her family to help cover funeral costs, and she had visited that region a handful of times.

Search teams from multiple agencies — including the state Office of Emergency Services, a joint search-and-rescue group from nearby Jackson County (CORSAR) and volunteers with Del Norte Search and Rescue — headed into an area called French Hill. Helicopter search teams with the U.S. Coast Guard joined the effort, reported local ABC affiliate KRCR.

They found the 44-year-old daughter on Saturday, Feb. 4. She was treated at a nearby hospital for mild hypothermia and released two days later, according to Wild Rivers.

The search for her mother (and a medium-sized black dog) continued. The night of Feb. 6, the sheriff said Sisopha was likely to be “extremely fatigued at this point … If she was seen, she would not be very mobile at all because of the elements she’s been in,” he told Wild Rivers.

The winter season in the popular recreation area, managed by the National Forest Service, brings average daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s that dip below freezing at night.

As the search continued into a second week, a snowstorm briefly suspended it Feb. 14.

On Sunday, Feb. 19, Del Norte County Search and Rescue said teams had recovered Sisopha’s body.

“A myriad of search teams assisted in strategically surveying the area including various K-9 teams,” the agency wrote on Facebook. “To reiterate this area is very difficult to navigate due to the very slippery terrain and ledges. Teams continued searching into very late hours before locating the female subject.”

All search team crews reported back safely, the agency said, adding the effort was “one of the largest active searches in Del Norte in years.”

On the GoFundMe page, the family thanked the rescue teams, volunteers and “the many fellow mushroom picking brothers and sisters of the Latino community who helped us.”

In addition to her husband and daughter, Sisopha is survived by three other children and several grandchildren.