Search and rescue finds three people in two days

Elmore County sheriff's deputies and county search and rescue teams successfully found three missing people in two separate search incidents Monday and Tuesday.

Monday, two rafters whose "cataraft" had overturned while they were running rapids on the South Fork Boise River below Anderson Dam, where found after several hours of searching. The pair had lost their oars and were unable to get out of the river area. Authorities had been notified Sunday night when the pair had not returned home as planned, prompting the search.

Using both ground and aerial assets searchers found the two men early Monday unharmed.

About the time the searchers were returning home Monday they were sent back out for a new search. Authorities had received two phone calls, one from a friend and the other from a sister of a 50-year-old Boise woman, both of whom said they had found suicide notes from the woman.

A new search was launched that evening but had to be temporarily suspended due to darkness. It was resumed Tuesday morning.

As the search was underway dispatchers received a report of a fire in the Prairie area. When deputies arrived they discovered the fire had been caused by the missing woman's campfire. Two hunters in the area, who had come across the scene a little earlier, had found the woman semi-conscious, slumped over the wheel of her vehicle, which was being threatened by the fire. The hunters moved the woman and her vehicle and waited until deputies arrived. The hunters were praised by a sheriff's department spokesperson for their quick action.

Deputies then took the woman, whom authorities believe may have been suffering from a drug overdose, to the Prairie Airport where LifeFlight, the Prairie QRU and an Elmore County ambulance were standing by. The woman was taken by air ambulance to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center where she was being treated.

The fire was extinguished a short time later.