The puzzling disappearance of Saeed Emadi at Strawberry point

July 29, 2020 StrangeOutdoors.com

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.

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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.

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