A 65-year-old woman named Sonia has been missing since Monday, August 31, when she set out to pick mushrooms near the Boréon area of Saint-Martin-Vésubie, according to CNEWS. She was last seen around 11am near the Vacherie de Salèse, having lost her phone earlier that day and stopped at a shop to buy a replacement, the outlet reported.
Gendarmes deployed helicopters, drones and a canine unit after being alerted the same evening, but called off ground searches after four unsuccessful days, according to CNEWS. The gendarmerie company continues to investigate the case as a worrying disappearance under the authority of the Nice public prosecutor's office.
With official search efforts suspended, Sonia's family organised their own search parties, mobilising around 40 volunteers including ultra-trail runners, hunters and fellow hikers, according to France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. "The ground has been searched so thoroughly," her twin sister Katia told the outlet, recalling that gendarmes had told the family, "If she's there, we should have found her." Investigators consider it most likely that she became lost in an area with no mobile signal.
Gendarmes resumed searching the Boréon sector today, Tuesday, September 8, using a drone, France 3 reported.