A “resourceful” 10-year-old girl, who authorities say survived alone and lost in the woods of Washington state for over 24 hours after she got separated from her family Sunday, shared how she endured the ordeal.
Shunghla Mashwani disappeared in the Cle Elum River Valley while playing in the woods during a gathering with extended family at the Cathedral Pass Trailhead on Fish Lake Road, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said.
When the family, who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan two years ago, walked back across a footbridge over the Cle Elum River to eat lunch at the trailhead, officials said they realized that Shunghla was gone. About 20 family members began a frantic search for the child, who was reported missing around 2 p.m.
Shunghla told her family and rescuers she was unable to find the footbridge they had crossed on her own after they suddenly became separated, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rescuers said Shunghla was “resourceful and resilient” after sharing how she had followed the river and slept the cold night between trees. (Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office )
Shunghla hiked on her own through the dense forest, following the river downstream and spent the cold night between trees, the sheriff’s office said.
BODY OF OREGON MAN WHO WENT MISSING SPREADING ASHES OF LOVED ONE FOUND NEAR WOODED AREA
“She said she knew it was the right thing to follow the river,” the sheriff’s office said. “She proved an extraordinarily resourceful and resilient 10-year-old.”
Around 3 p.m. Monday, two volunteers found Shunghla alive with only minor scrapes about 1½ miles from where she was last seen.
She was taken upstream on an inflatable watercraft and reunited with her family.
