About 260 police and Self-Defense Force members, as well as volunteers, continued their search Saturday for a 7-year-old girl who has been missing since last Saturday near a mountainous campsite in Doshi-mura, Yamanashi Prefecture.
On Saturday, police said that a 27-year-old male volunteer searcher also went missing Friday afternoon after calling 110 to say he had fallen from a cliff and was injured. He was unable to give his location and searchers had not found him as of early Saturday afternoon, Fuji TV reported.
Meanwhile, police and the SDF widened the perimeter of their search for Misaki Ogura who went missing in thick mountain woods after she was last seen running by herself behind some other children at around 3:40 p.m. last Saturday.
Ogura had come with her mother and sister in a group of about 30 people from Narita City in Chiba Prefecture. She was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and jeans.
Searchers have used tracker dogs and a drone equipped with a sensor capable of detecting body heat but so far no trace of Ogura has been found.
A stream runs through the woods down the mountain but a search downstream proved fruitless. Searchers have been cutting down tall grass in an effort to find the girl.
Police are also checking nearby farmhouses and empty huts.
© Japan Today
25 Comments
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Disillusioned
Hope they find this little girl. Rule #1 of search and rescue is, pair up!
macv
hope they find her unharmed
Cheeba
The SDF members participating in the search and rescue operation should wear bright colors, not camouflage.
Bob Kunihiro
Hope they find her....keep the faith.
Chip Star
My heart goes out to this little girl, her family, and her friends. I too hope she is found, but after seven days . . .
coskuri
Last Saturday is 28/9 or 21/9 ?
If it's one week ago, it's really worrying for both missing persons.
Concerned Citizen
Poor girl and her family.
rkom76
There is an app called what3words that would help emergency services find the lost rescuer. If the lost rescuer has his smartphone (with signal and gps) he can install the app and give someone the 3 words combination. Each combination of words is related to a specific point of 3 by 3 meters in the world.
coskuri
There was a man that had let his boy in the wood as punishment and lied about it. In France, the Fiona case, the mother had "lost of sight just 5 minutes" her toddler in a park at the entrance the woods. There was a huge search... meanwhile the police checked street cameras to find the child had never been brought to the area.
In theory. There was a recent a case in Italy. The hiker talked a long time. They never found him by GPS. The family sues as they want to know how come the emergency call center is not able to locate a person...while gadgets like Pokemon Go are so precise.
BeerDeliveryGuy
Under the postwar principle of civilian control of the military, the SDF can only be mobilized within Japan by request of the prefectural governor.
sf2k
read the article, dogs are being employed
MarkX
I wonder why they haven’t posted a picture of her? Haven’t heard from the parents either which seems a little strange. I fear after 7 days they won’t find her alive. But we can still hope.
BackpackingNepal
A searcher is missing. He needs to be searched equally as well.
Rescuers, Police, Locals, Media, Dogs & Drones
What is missing among them is Intelligent Advanced Device Satellite Map Track.
drlucifer
Hope the little girl is found safe. The family must be going through hell and nothing but getting their daughter back safe matters.
The SDF joined the search 2 days ago why didn't the SDF join the search from day one.
I don't know whether helicopters are used for the search, Human life is very important and cost should never be a consideration in this little girls case. It is not like a missing mountaineer who knows the risk and still decided to go mountaineering.
Hope the police are also looking at it as a crime, there is a possibility the girl could have been abducted by someone with a car.
MarkX
Has anybody thought that maybe she was abducted? Just wondering.
John Beara
7 days... let's face it. It's over :(
mmwkdw
I've read some articles about how the following Smartphone Application has helped Emergency Services locate people in distress accurately within the West, I wonder if it's in use here ... and could have helped the Searcher who fell off a cliff....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words
mmwkdw
The Parents must be distraught. This is any Parents worst nightmare. I really hope, that there's a happy outcome from this situation for them.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Water nearby and still not cold at night, fingers crossed,
Norman Goodman
The lost volunteer is unnamed. I saw on the TV the search was called off and there was zero mention of him. So what's the deal?
Norman Goodman
The volunteer was found. Carry on.
kwatt
So many rescuers have searched her all over very carefully for days but can't find anything of her yet. Only possible thing is she would be kidnapped by psychopath.
Teri Tagami
Please check young male Doshi mura residents from this area again rather than focus on other campers. It's possible that it's an abduction of opportunity. Has this become a cold case?