A California woman was found dead in an Arizona desert more than a month after she disappeared, despite the fact that she had called 911 and had given a dispatcher her coordinates.
Amanda Nenigar, 26, who was reported missing on Feb. 28, was discovered undressed underneath a tree in the desert on Friday at around 7:30 p.m., according to reports by local news outlet AZ Family.
The La Paz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in an announcement over the weekend that Nenigar’s family had been notified and requested privacy.
Nenigar called 911 for help, according to portions of the call posted by Nenigar’s sister on Facebook and reviewed by HuffPost. In the call, which was routed to a nearby California Highway Patrol office, she told the dispatcher she was tired and had tried to pull her car over, but ran off the road instead. Asked where she was, Nenigar began describing her surroundings.
“I’m like kind of stuck in a valley,” Nenigar told the dispatcher. “I see trees, I see possibly a canal.” She said she believed she had only been out in the desert for a day, according to the clipped audio.
“Everybody is probably worried sick about me,” Nenigar said.
The dispatcher instructed Nenigar how to find her location using Google Maps, and she gave him her coordinates. But law enforcement ended up looking for her in a completely different location, some 30-40 miles away from where her body was eventually found, AZ Family reports.
Nenigar’s car was discovered on Mar. 7, just outside Cibola, Arizona. Her body was ultimately found about a mile and half away from her car, La Paz County Sheriff William Ponce told Los Angeles TV station KTLA on Tuesday.
“We believe she went under the tree to try to get some shelter from the elements. As you may know, it gets hot in the Arizona desert,” the sheriff said. “Her clothes were strewn along the path that we believe she took prior to making it to that tree where she ended up passing.”
Nenigar’s sister, Marissa Nenigar, said California Highway Patrol should have acted with more urgency to rescue her.
“She did not have to die like this,” she told KTLA. “If they would have listened to her 911 call and wrote down the coordinates, again, she would still be here with us. She would still be alive. Her daughters wouldn’t be without a mother right now.”
Nenigar’s family told AZ Family they are looking to pursue legal action.