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Missing Girl Found Safe After All-Night Search In Marin County Park

SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) -- A nine-year-old girl from New Mexico who went missing from a Marin County park campsite was found safe Saturday morning after an all-night search that involved more than 100 people.

Marin County Sheriff's Department Lt. Douglas Pittman told KCBS reporter Anna Duckworth that Ida was found by two women who were biking along a park trail shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.

They heard the girl "crying for her mom" on a slope off of a trail in the northern end of the park, according to Lt. Pittman. The women called 911 on a cellphone, gave the girl some water and waited with her for about 30 minutes before Marin county fire personnel reached them, Pittman said.

"She was in good spirits," Pittman said. "She said she was hungry."

Her first words after being reunited with her parents were "Mom, I'm fine."

The girl had wondered about a mile and a half from her parent's campsite in the park after 12:15 p.m. Friday, the last time that her father said he had seen her, sheriff's search and rescue unit leader Michael St. John said. The couple, from Santa Fe, New Mexico, searched for their daughter for about an hour to an hour and a half before calling authorities for help, sheriff's deputies said.

Search teams worked through the night looking for Ida Rothschild, who was visiting Samuel P. Taylor State Park with her parents and two younger boys on Friday afternoon when she disappeared. Some 200 search and rescue personnel resumed the search Saturday morning.

Pittman said that the two women who found Ida live in the unincorporated San Geronimo area only a couple of miles from the state park, which is about six miles west of Fairfax.

They knew about the search for Ida and decided to ride their bikes to the park Saturday with the idea of "who knows, maybe we'll find this girl," Pittman said.

After reaching Ida, Marin fire paramedics took her to the command post set up for the search, gave her bananas and apples to eat and examined her to clear her medically, Pittman said. The girl was in good condition but suffered some scrapes from walking against the brush.

Ida was soon greeted by her mother and father, who brought along her younger brothers, aged 5 and 2. The reunion was both touching and amusing, Pittman said.

When the family walked in, her mother, said jokingly "Ida, where have you been?"

Ida then replied firmly, "Mom -- I'm fine," Pittman said.

Pittman said she the area where she was located had been searched earlier but Ida told authorities she kept moving throughout the night and morning, which authorities anticipated and planned to look there again this afternoon.

Ida never had anything to eat or drink during the ordeal and told searchers that "she didn't sleep, was walking all night" hoping to happen onto her parent's camp, Pittman said.

"She said she lost track of where she was" on Friday in the park which has thick redwood groves, Pittman said. "She could no longer see the campground."

The U.S. Park Service made one of its cabins at the park available for Ida and her family to relax in and stay for the night, Pittman said.

With the ponds and creeks in the park, the sheriff's office had to bring in divers to aid in the search, but they were never used, St. John said.

The sheriff's departments that sent search and rescue teams to the park today to join Marin's included those from Solano, Sonoma, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Monterey counties, St. John said.

Marin county fire, Cal Fire, the Marin County Water Rescue Team and Marin sheriff's detectives and investigators were also there.

Authorities were gratified by the successful search, the sheriff's search and rescue unit leader Michael St. John said.

"We've had some that ended differently," he said. "It's good this had a different outcome."

TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report

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