Monday, 21 April 2025

REGIONAL: Multiagency effort helps locate missing Willits man

MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – A multiagency effort over the weekend helped locate a missing Willits man who was found alive after getting lost in the woods for several days.


John Bass, 50, was located Monday morning not far from Fort Bragg, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.


Smallcomb said the sheriff's office was contacted at 7 p.m. Dec. 31 by Bass' family, who said he and his brother went to the Jackson State Forest off of Highway 20 near Chamberlin Creek at around 1:30 p.m. and began picking mushrooms in several locations, but later became separated.


Over the next three days a multiagency effort was launched to find Bass, Smallcomb said.


Numerous Search and Rescue teams from Contra Costa, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties, along with personnel from the California Department of Forestry, California Highway Patrol, California Emergency Services and various fire departments took part in the search, aided by Bass' family and friends, according to Smallcomb.


Smallcomb said that at one time more than 180 people were involved in the search effort.


At 9 a.m. Monday they found Bass in an area near the Two Log Logging Road. Smallcomb said Bass was verbally responsive, but he didn't have current information on his medical condition.


Smallcomb said the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and its Search and Rescue Team thanked all of the agencies and citizens who assisted in the large search effort.


He said the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office wanted to remind mushroom hunters to take safety precautions – as well as warm clothes, a flashlight, extra food and water – when visiting the county's forests.


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