Missing Teen Found Safe in Mountains

A 13-year-old girl who was a reluctant visitor from Japan walked away from a Girl Scout camp in the rugged San Jacinto Mountains but was found unharmed Wednesday after search-and-rescue teams combed the hills and circled the back country in a helicopter.

The girl, whose mother wanted her to have an international experience, according to relatives, apparently spent the night in some brush behind a stable supply shack about a quarter-mile from the camp’s main building. She was found Wednesday afternoon on a hiking trail.

“It appears that she had purposely been hiding throughout the night, dodging our efforts and trying not to be found,” said Sgt. Mark Lohman, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The search included 50 volunteers who scoured the area by foot, horseback and helicopter.

“She’s a young girl who made a mistake,” he said. “She should never have left the camp. But kids make bad choices all the time, and this one had a happy ending.”

Indeed, relatives said Yuri Kumagai made it clear that she was adamantly opposed to leaving her home in Sengai, Japan, to spend part of her summer with an aunt and uncle in Irvine. “She didn’t want to be here from the beginning,” said the uncle, Ken Hamamoto. “This is something her mother wanted.”

After arriving in California on July 19, he said, the girl spoke incessantly of her disappointment at missing badminton practices back home. Apparently that frustration continued at Joe Sherman Camp, a 700-acre facility in the mountains above Hemet, where she and two cousins had been staying since last week. “Her world was all about getting back to Japan,” Hamamoto said. “I think she might have been trying to get to the airport.”

If so, she didn’t get far. After walking from the main camp area about 4 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said, the girl spent the night comfortably ensconced with a canteen of water and a bag of snacks.

She didn’t hear or ignored efforts to find her. During the search, her uncle called out to her with a bullhorn from a helicopter. “Wave your hands,” he said he shouted. “Sorry I’m so late coming to get you. You’re tired; let’s go home.”

When Salvador Huereque, a member of the Hemet Mountain Posse, came across the girl walking calmly down a camp trail about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, he didn’t immediately recognize her. “Do you know this girl?” he said he asked, holding up a picture.

“Yes,” the girl said.

“Have you seen her?” Huereque asked.

“Yes,” the girl said.

“Are you Yuri?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Hamamoto returned to Irvine with his niece late Wednesday. He said the girl’s mother will fly to California later this week to escort her daughter home.

“We will definitely try to impress on her how thankful she needs to be,” the uncle said.