Missing 72-year-old Pinoy hunter in California found

SAN FRANCISCO — The 72-year-old Filipino hunter who was lost for almost three weeks in a California forest survived by eating squirrels and other animals he shot with his rifle, and by making fires and packing leaves and grasses around his body to stay warm, his family said last week.

Gene Penaflor of San Francisco was found Saturday (Oct. 12) in Mendocino National Forest by other hunters who carried him to safety in a makeshift stretcher, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

He disappeared after heading out with a partner during the first week of deer hunting season in the rugged mountains of Northern California, a trip he takes annually.

The forest is about 160 miles north of San Francisco.

“He goes hunting every year, and he comes home every year,” his daughter-in-law Deborah Penaflor told the Associated Press outside Gene Penaflor’s home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood.

“We’d gotten a little complacent that he would always come back.”

Gene separated from his hunting partner for a couple of hours as usual to stalk deer.

While they were apart, Gene fell, hit his head and passed out, Deborah said.

He woke up after spending what appeared to be a full day unconscious, with his chin and lip badly gashed.

He noticed fog and morning dew and realized he’d been out for a while, Deborah said.

Gene had a lighter, a knife and water with him when he went hunting.

But his daughter-in-law said the knife and water bottle somehow got lost in the fall.

Still, he was able to use his rifle to kill squirrels to sustain him while he awaited rescue.

He also found water in a nearby drainage.

To stay warm, Gene made small fires and packed leaves and grasses around his body.

When it rained or snowed, he crawled under a large log and managed to stay dry, authorities said.

“He knew at some point he was going to die, but he figured he’d last as long as he could,” Sheriff’s Detective Andrew Porter told The Ukiah Daily Journal.

The Sheriff’s Office said an initial search involving several agencies was called off when a storm was on its way and there was no sign of the missing hunter.

The family returned to San Francisco dejected.

“We were depressed,” Deborah Penaflor said.

“We were walking his dog and hoping the search would start up again.”

The search was reactivated last Saturday, and a group of hunters found Gene when one of them heard a voice calling for help from the bottom of a canyon.

He was found about three miles from where he disappeared.

The family returned north to aid in the search late last week.

They distributed missing-persons flyers around the area hoping other hunters would be on the lookout.

When they heard he’d been found alive, they rushed to the mountain to meet him.

“There were tears of joy on the top of that mountain,” Deborah said.

Gene arrived home last Sunday looking weak and wearing a hospital bracelet.

“I didn’t panic because panic will kill me right away. I knew that,” Gene told a KTVU-TV reporter upon his arrival home. — Filipino Reporter