A tearful reunion took place after the missing 10-year-old spent the night lost in the woods. Photo: Kittitas County Sheriff
On June 4th, a family visit to the Cascade Mountains outside of Seattle, Washington turned into a nightmare. A 10-year-old girl vanished in a remote area with no cell phone service. Miraculously, the missing girl was found the next day. She had spent the night in the woods, wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt as temperatures dipped to 38F.
Shunghla Mashwani, who arrived in the US from Afghanistan two years ago, became separated from her family in the Cle Elum valley. The Mashwani family told rescuers that they enjoyed spending time in the high backcountry because it reminded them of home. Shunghla explained that she became lost when her family was heading back towards a footbridge. She couldn’t find it on her own.
After her parents realized she was gone, they searched frantically for her. A cabin owner in the area heard them calling and offered his satellite phone to contact authorities. That call kicked off a massive search and rescue effort by teams from all over Washington State.
Over 100 of them, many of whom were volunteers, combed the area through the night. Two helicopters joined the search from the air, but as night fell, so did their hopes. Amazingly, though, at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, two rescuers found her. They called for a boat to get her across the Cle Elum River and back into the arms of her grateful family. She had a few bumps and bruises, but was otherwise unharmed. Officials told reporters that Mashwani slept between two trees in an attempt to stay warm during the night.
The girl was found unharmed and taken to the waiting arms of her family. Photo: Kittitas County Sheriff
When she realized she was lost, she decided to hike downstream. “I was thinking, I will find my dad and keep walking in the forest to find my dad,” Shunghla told Seattle’s KING-News.
The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office applauded her instincts in a Facebook post. “She said she knew it was the right thing to follow the river,” they wrote. “She proved an extraordinarily resourceful and resilient 10-year-old.”
