The puzzling disappearance of Saeed Emadi at Strawberry point
Saeed Emadi, disappeared Strawberry Point, California, July 8, 2020.
Revised April 2024
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 66-year-old, Saeed Emadi was camping with friends at the Ice House Reservoir off Highway 50 when the group went for a hike near Strawberry Point, east of Sacramento in California. He became separated from the other hikers and has not been seen since.
Where is the Ice House campground?
Ice House Campground is located next to the boat launch ramp on the northwest shore of Ice House Reservoir in the Crystal Basin area of Eldorado National Forest. It is popular with anglers, boaters, cyclists, and families.
The disappearance of Saeed Emadi
According to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office Saeed became separated from his hiking partners while crossing the southern fork of Silver Creek. He called his friends with his cell phone at about 3.30 pm on July 8, 2020, after becoming separated, according to the sheriff’s office. He told them he was on a hill near a road and that the lake was below him. The friends responded by calling the authorities. That's the last anyone heard from him as there were no further cell phone calls and he did not respond.
The day Saeed went missing, he was wearing a hat, headphones, a button-down shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. He was 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and about 190 pounds. He was a diabetic, and it was likely he did not have his medication with him. Although in good physical shape with day hike experience and a “never quit” attitude, he was not familiar with the heavily wooded terrain and had no climbing experience.
The search
According to Sgt. Anthony Prencipe, a group of about seventy law enforcement officers and volunteers searched the area without any luck. He said the sheriff’s office has reduced the search to a limited, ongoing one after the agency used personnel to search 24 hours a day for about the first 10 days that Emadi was missing. Prencipe said, “In that area, there’s a mass of wilderness, and it’s a big open area.”
His son, Bijan Emadi, says search crews believe they found a print of his father’s shoe about a mile from where he was last seen. “My dad buys everything at Costco, so we contacted Costco for any shoes he had bought in the last year. We were able to send that to the search and rescue team, and they were able to determine a match to the shoe print pretty quickly.”
In mid-July 2020 further footprints were found near Granite Springs Road, more than a mile away from Strawberry Point.
The family was initially hopeful the match would lead to a rescue, but unfortunately, the clue led nowhere despite search and rescue crews from 19 counties using helicopters and drones. The National Guard and California Highway Patrol helicopters joined the search but there was no sign of Saeed Emadi or his belongings.
Exclusive articles for members of StrangeOutdoors that are not available elsewhere on the site.
See the latest Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com
Read more strange stories from California
The puzzling disappearance and death of Paul Miller in Joshua Tree National Park
The strange disappearance of George Penca in Yosemite National Park
The strange disappearance of Harold Drake from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
The disturbing disappearance of Arvin Nelson in the Los Padres National Forest
The disturbing death of Katherine Wong at the Bear Valley Ski Resort
The disturbing death of Evelyn Consuela Rosemann in Yosemite National Park
The haunting case of the Mathias Group (Yuba County Five)
The puzzling disappearance of Jared Negrete from Mount San Gorgonio
The strange death of Timothy Nolan in Yosemite National Park
The strange disappearance and death of Stephen Michael Morris in Shasta-Trinity
The disturbing death of Thomas Heng in Sequoia National Park
The strange death of Larry Conn in Kings Canyon National Park (Member Only)
The puzzling disappearance of Matthew Greene from the Ansel Adams Wilderness (Member Only)
The perplexing disappearance and death of Mike Herdman in the Los Padres National Forest
The strange disappearance of Michael Madden from the Stanislaus Forest
The bizarre disappearance of Stacey Arras from Yosemite National Park
The strange disappearance and death of Jeannie Hesselschwerdt in Yosemite National Park
The strange disappearance of Rosemary Kunst from the Marble Mountains Wilderness
The mysterious disappearance of Carl Landers from Mount Shasta (Member only)
The Strange disappearances from Donnell Vista Point in the Stanislaus National Forest (Nita Mayo, Patty Tolhurst, Breck Phelps)
The strange disappearance of Jerry Lee McKoen from Door Knob Snowmobile Park
The disappearance and death of Thomas Mullarkey at the Bear Valley Ski Resort
The mysterious disappearance and death of Barbara Thomas in the Mojave Desert
The shocking events on Mt Baldy in December 2019 - the Sree Mokkapati and Tim Staples deaths
The mysterious disappearance of Bill Ewasko in Joshua Tree National Park
Sources
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/20/search-continues-for-missing-northern-california-hiker/
https://www.ktvu.com/news/search-continues-for-bay-area-man-who-disappeared-during-hike-in-el-dorado-co
https://www.calexplornia.com/a-quick-look-at-ice-house-reservoir/
http://www.californiasbestcamping.com/crystal_basin/icehouse.html
