Lacking Lady Dies Hours After Being Rescued from Storm Drain: Experiences

• A girl who was lacking in California for 2 weeks died simply hours after authorities pulled her out of a storm drain in severe situation, it has been reported
• Yafang Zhou, 59 — who had final been seen on March 25 — was rescued from the underground storm drain system in Poway, authorities stated
• “What she was doing in there, what drove her in there, how she got here to be in there — we’re unclear,” San Diego Fireplace-Rescue Battalion Chief Erik Windsor stated, per NBC 7 San Diego

A girl who was lacking in California for 2 weeks has died simply hours after being rescued from a storm drain, authorities have stated.

On Monday, April 7, Yafang Zhou, 59 — who had final been seen on March 25 close to her Union Avenue dwelling in downtown San Diego — died at Palomar Medical Middle at about 4:15 p.m. native time. Her loss of life got here simply hours after she was pulled from an underground storm drain system in Poway, per NBC 7 San Diego, citing the San Diego County medical expert’s workplace and San Diego County Public Data Officer Chuck Westerheide.

The lacking lady’s loss of life got here slightly below two hours after she was rescued from the manhole within the space of 14710 Beeler Canyon Highway, native ABC-affiliated station KGTV famous.

Authorities from the Poway Fireplace Division, San Diego Fireplace Division and the San Diego Police Division (SDPD) carried out the rescue mission from round 1 p.m. to 2:35 p.m., the outlet acknowledged.

Amid the seek for Zhou on Monday, SDPD officers heard a lady’s voice coming from beneath a manhole cowl, NBC 7 San Diego reported, citing lieutenant Jonathan Dungan. The officer stated the girl was taken to hospital in a severe situation following the rescue.

It is not identified how she ended up within the storm drain system. Authorities on the scene stated she was discovered roughly 10 toes underground, native station KUSI reported.

“What she was doing in there, what drove her in there, how she got here to be in there — we’re unclear,” San Diego Fireplace-Rescue Battalion Chief Erik Windsor stated following the rescue mission, per NBC 7 San Diego.

“It is vitally uncommon to have somebody in there,” he added, noting that it is potential Zhou might have been in underground for days, the outlet reported.

“Out of respect for Yafang and her household, no extra particulars can be launched right now,” Dungan stated, per the station.

The rescue got here after SDPD confirmed Zhou was lacking in an Instagram submit, writing that she’d final been seen round midnight on March 25.

Investigators pinged Zhou’s cellphone in the course of the search, and it led them to close Beeler Canyon Highway, which is the realm the place she was discovered, per KGTV.

Fireplace Chief Windsor stated of the rescue, “Models entered into the sewage system into what we name a confined house. They went by means of all of the processes to allow it to make a secure entry, after which firefighters had been actually contained in the sewage or storm drain, crawling on their stomachs to attempt to find the sufferer,” KGTV famous. 

“Firefighters had been opening manhole covers all alongside the storm drain system, after which they had been finally in a position to lastly find right here in an space uphill from the place we had been looking, at which level they reestablished the rescue efforts, constructed a system of ropes and pulleys, and lowered personnel down into the storm drain,” he added, per the outlet.

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free each day e-newsletter to remain up-to-date on the most effective of what PEOPLE has to supply​​, from movie star information to driving human curiosity tales.

Windsor additionally stated it is “potential that she entered into the storm drain system from one of many shops, which might naturally be open the place water would move out into the creek or another means, however one of many issues that we investigated after we first arrived right here was to see if there have been any open or disturbed manhole covers, which might have indicated to us an ideal place to begin.”

“There weren’t any, so we picked a central one and began looking from there, hoping actually, initially, that we’d simply get fortunate going in a single course or the opposite. And finally… after we went uphill, that is once they discovered her,” the hearth chief continued, KGTV acknowledged.

The San Diego County Communications Workplace, the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Workplace, the San Diego Fireplace and Rescue Division, the San Diego Police Division and the Poway Fireplace Division did not instantly reply when contacted by PEOPLE for extra info.