Washington woman found alive near river
Photo by Chanse Watson SCSO Sgt. Eli Lopez details the location in which he found Allyssa Rae Gall, 24, who was reported missing Thursday near the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Because of her location in the gully, it would have been difficult to see her from a distance.
Photo by Chanse Watson/ The crashed vehicle the three girls were in last night when they hit ice and slid off the road. This is where Gall got out and started waking. There was no major damage to the car and the three occupants were not injured.
Photo by Chanse Watson/ The search and rescue base camp just down the road from the Prichard Tavern. The base camp was established not too far from the crash site. At the time of this photo, Gall is in the ambulance awaiting transport to SMC.
Gall
PRICHARD — A multi-agency search and rescue effort was successful in locating a missing Spokane Valley, Wash., woman Thursday afternoon.
The woman, 24-year-old Allyssa Rae Gall (also known as Alice Parker), was found by rescue crews in the wilderness near Prichard, Idaho, after a nearly nine-hour search.
Gall was reported missing early Thursday morning when two teenage girls (14 and 18 years of age) arrived at the Wallace Inn, saying they were involved in a car crash and that their friend was gone.
The receptionist who spoke with the girls, Sadie Bryarly-Harris, told the News-Press the three were traveling north on Coeur d’Alene River Road Wednesday night around midnight with the intention of watching the Geminid Meteor Shower from a rural area.
Once they reached milepost 38 on Coeur d’Alene River Road, though, they decided to turn around.
On their way back down the river, their vehicle hit a patch of ice near Prichard and crashed into an embankment close to milepost 22.
The three were stranded with no cell service.
After roughly an hour of sitting in the car, the girls told Bryarly-Harris and SCSO, in follow up interviews, that Gall left the car to pee, and then they fell asleep after she left.
Upon awakening, the girls noticed that their friend had not returned.
The two teenage girls then set off to find help around 3 a.m.
They stated that they tried to knock on several doors in the area, but no one answered.
Eventually, the girls were able to get a ride from an unknown male over Dobson Pass and were dropped off at the Wallace Inn, where Bryarly-Harris called the police.
Initial attempts to pin down where the incident occurred proved difficult since the teenage girls do not know the area well — saying only that it must have been near Dobson Pass, since that’s what the unknown male told them.
The search and rescue effort, comprised of personnel from SCSO, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, the Cataldo Idaho Department of Lands Office, Idaho State Police, and Shoshone County Fire District No. 1, set up a base camp just north of the crash site.
Crews started by searching the area around the crash, then spreading out from there.
It wasn’t until Eli Lopez, SCSO detention sergeant, made a discovery around 2 p.m. that everybody could breathe a sigh of relief.
“We were just fanning out and trying to cover some ground,” Lopez explained. “I said I wanted to take the end closest to the river (because) I felt in my heart that if we were going to find her, it would be closer to the river.”
Keeping his eyes peeled, Lopez began his search pattern by heading into the woods on a gated trail, then he veered off toward the crash site to the south.
He checked out a couple areas that looked like they could be where someone would seek shelter such as large old slash pile and an area with collapsed logs.
It was after he checked this spot when he started to hear rustling from a nearby gully.
As he got closer, he saw the top of her hair first — then without warning, she stood straight up.
“I thought, what in the world is that?” he said. “It was a little startling.”
Lopez then asked Gall if she was who she was, announced himself, and assured her that she was safe.
Gall was found roughly a half mile northwest of the crash site wearing a black Star Wars sweatshirt, jeans, and no shoes.
SCSO Capt. Jeremy Groves said she was suffering from severe hypothermia and was a bit delirious.
“She was very, very confused when we were asking her questions,” Lopez added. “She said that she had been making phone calls and just wanted to take a nap.”
Gall did not have her phone with her.
In addition to the hypothermia, Groves said it is possible Gall could be suffering from frostbite on her toes since she was not wearing any shoes.
Following a brief conversation with Lopez, Gall walked herself to the base camp where she was then taken by ambulance to Shoshone Medical Center in Kellogg.
For Lopez, finding Gall made his entire year — not to mention this was his first time out helping with the search and rescue teams.
“That was kinda cool,” Lopez said. “I’m happy because you come out here thinking the worst thing and you find (her)... now she gets to have Christmas and her family is gonna be happy.”
Groves made it clear that he was appreciative of everyone who assisted in the operation.
“This incident was a huge success due to all involved entities coming together and working alongside each other.”