A young girl who was stranded alone in the Washington state wilderness for more than a day has been praised for her courage and resourcefulness.
Ten-year-old Shunghla Mashwani went missing on 4 June while her family members walked back across the river to a parking area at the Cathedral Pass Trailhead in the Cle Elum River Valley, according to the Kittitas County Sheriff. When the group of around 20 adults realised they’d lost Shunghla, they immediately went back and started searching.
“Shunghla told her family and rescuers she found herself suddenly separated and alone when the family was travelling back toward the footbridge and couldn’t find the bridge on her own,” a statement by the sheriff’s office read.
The family, who like to spend time in the no-cell area because it reminds them of their native Afghanistan, looked for Shunghla for two hours before a passerby offered to use the Starlink phone at their neighbouring cabin to call 911.
Local authorities and search crews launched a massive search for Shunghla using drones, helicopters and K-9 units. According to CNN, Shunghla’s father also recorded a message that was broadcasted over the wooded area, as concern grew over its steep and rugged conditions.
First responders from neighbouring counties joined the search and swift water teams also searched the river, fearing the worst.
On the evening of 5 June, roughly 25 hours after Shunghla went missing, two volunteers found her just one mile and a half from where she was last seen. Another team used an inflatable rescue watercraft to bring her to the other side of the river, where she arrived with only a few scrapes.
“I was thinking, I will find my dad and keep walking in the forest to find my dad,” Shunghla told local news station KING. “...I was thinking I would go to sleep and wake up and find my mom and dad in the forest.”
Images shared by the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office show Shunghla and her father sharing an emotional embrace after being reunited. Authorities have praised Shunghla for being brave and for sleeping between two trees to protect herself from the cold night.
“The prospect of a little girl being out there alone in the woods is terrifying,” Kittitas County inspector Chris Whitsett also told KING. “She was a remarkably composed and resilient little girl. We’re ecstatic that we were able to find the result that we did instead of the result that we feared.”
