La Mesa Woman Safe After Sleeping Under a Wynola House Overnight

Patricia McGinn of La Mesa has been found conscious but dehydrated, disoriented and hungry, according to the Sheriff's Department. The 63-year-old La Mesa woman went missing after she wandered away from her Ford pickup after stopping to relax on a drive out into the backcountry. Two laborers observed her to be disoriented on Friday, as they chatted with her in a neighborhood of Mountainbrook Road.

Over 100 volunteers and agency personnel searched for McGinn from Friday afternoon until she was found at 2:30 pm Saturday in a canyon in the 5000 block of Mountainbrook Road. Neighbors heard her calling for help.

Sheriff's Search and Rescue (SAR) Volunteer John Armstrong, who is an emergency medical technician, checked her and then she was taken to Pomerado Hospital to be checked.

McGinn told SAR volunteers that she slept under a house during the night. It is still not known why she ended up in Santa Ysabel. McGinn lives in La Mesa.   

Participants in the search included Sheriff's SAR, ASTREA helicopter team and Rural Division, the California Highway Patrol, Red Cross, U.S. Forest Service, Intermountain Fire & Rescue and San Diego Mountain Rescue, as well as two rescue dogs and two horses. They searched a square mile area of Wynola to find McGinn.