Woman missing since blaze turns up
Found walking in hometown months after Camp Fire
An Oroville woman who disappeared during last year’s deadly Camp Fire suddenly turned up Thursday night, walking along a street in her hometown.
A detective from the Butte County Sheriff ’s Office discovered Wendy Carroll, 47, while driving down Lincoln Boulevard in Oroville at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Carroll had been listed as missing last November, after the most destructive wildfire in state history all but incinerated the town of Paradise. The inferno, which started Nov. 8, killed at least 85 people and destroyed roughly 11,500 homes. Friends of Carroll thought she might have been staying in the area around that time, officials said.
“I was just minding my own business, driving back to the office, and there she was walking up the street,” said Jake Smith, a Butte County sheriff ’s detective.
He had never met Carroll in person, but he’d pored over an old booking photo — the only picture that Butte County sheriff’s officials had of Carroll — until he knew her face from memory: hazel eyes; brown hair; 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 145 pounds.
“Hey, can I ask you a random question?” Smith recalled asking the woman, as he pulled up his car. “Are you Wendy?”
Carroll looked at him dubiously at first, but eventually she confirmed her identity. She let Smith take a picture and offered a phone number to share with her loved ones. She knew she was named among the missing, Smith said, but did not contact law enforcement to say she was safe.
Carroll told Smith she was reluctant to do so because of “unresolved legal issues,” though it turned out she didn’t have any outstanding warrants, he said.
After a brief conversation, Smith drove away and Carroll continued walking down Lincoln Boulevard.
Just one person remains on the list of unaccounted people from the Camp Fire: Sara MartinezFabila, 51. Like Carroll, she’s a person without a stable address “who’s been in the wind for a while,” Smith said.
People who stay on the move are the most stubbornly hard to find, officials said.
Smith joined the investigations unit on Nov. 9 — a day after the fire flared up — and his first assignment was to put together a list of missing people. Residents of Paradise fled en masse, so the initial list of those missing contained hundreds of names, most of whom were located fairly quickly. After months, just three people lingered.
The first, John Demianew, was found when Sacramento police arrested him Feb. 9. On Thursday, Carroll became the secondtolast name taken off the list. The last missing person is MartinezFabila.
Investigators are uncertain if she was in Paradise at the time of the fire, but they are following leads suggesting MartinezFabila was seen after the blaze. Anyone with information can call the Butte County Sheriff ’s Office investigative unit at 5305387671.