CONTACT:
Lieutenant Mark Ober
603-788-4850
603-271-3361
April 20, 2020
Thompson & Meserve’s Purchase, NH – Friday evening, April 17, at approximately 6:00 p.m., Fish and Game Conservation Officers responded to a call that a teenager had gone for a walk on the Great Gulf Trail in Thompson & Meserve’s Purchase and had become lost off trail. The call came in via 911 from the teen who had been out for a walk by herself and had somehow lost the trail and could not find her way back out.
The teen, identified as 17-year-old Maria Young of Berlin, had parked along Route 16 to go for a nature walk. She found her way to the trestle bridge that crosses the Peabody River and is the entrance to the Great Gulf Trail. She decided to take the trail a short way up and during that time lost her way. She ultimately decided to hike uphill in an attempt to get to a higher elevation and hoped to locate a trail. When she reached the summit of a knoll and did not locate a trail, she made the call for help.
Having no gear or warm clothing, and with nightfall closing in, Fish and Game Conservation Officer Bob Mancini and his K-9 partner Ruger were dispatched to locate her.
After nearly an hour and a half of searching, K-9 Ruger located Young at 9:15 p.m. approximately 2 miles from where she had started. She had made it to within 800 feet of the Daniel Webster Scout Trail and was ¾ of a mile east of the Dolly Copp Campground when she was located.
Young was cold but otherwise uninjured. After being provided with a warm jacket and a flashlight, she was escorted down the Daniel Webster Scout Trail to the campground where she was reunited with a family member.