California Woman Went Missing for 2 Weeks. Officials Rescued Her from a Storm Drain, but Hours Later She Was Dead: Reports

Yahoo

09-04-2025

A woman who was missing in California for two weeks died just hours after authorities pulled her out of a storm drain in serious condition, it's been reported
Yafang Zhou, 59 — who had last been seen on March 25 — was rescued from the underground storm drain system in Poway, authorities said
"What she was doing in there, what drove her in there, how she came to be in there — we are unclear," San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Erik Windsor said, per NBC 7 San Diego
A woman who was missing in California for two weeks has died just hours after being rescued from a storm drain, authorities have said.
On Monday, April 7, Yafang Zhou, 59 — who had last been seen on March 25 near her Union Street home in downtown San Diego — died at Palomar Medical Center at about 4:15 p.m. local time. Her death came just hours after she was pulled from an underground storm drain system in Poway, per NBC 7 San Diego, citing the San Diego County medical examiner's office and San Diego County Public Information Officer Chuck Westerheide.
The missing woman's death came just under two hours after she was rescued from the manhole in the area of 14710 Beeler Canyon Road, local ABC-affiliated station KGTV noted.
Authorities from the Poway Fire Department, San Diego Fire Department and the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) carried out the rescue mission from around 1 p.m. to 2:35 p.m., the outlet stated.
Amid the search for Zhou on Monday, SDPD officers heard a woman's voice coming from underneath a manhole cover, NBC 7 San Diego reported, citing lieutenant Jonathan Dungan. The officer said the woman was taken to hospital in a serious condition following the rescue.
It's not known how she ended up in the storm drain system. Authorities at the scene said she was found approximately 10 feet underground, local station KUSI reported.
"What she was doing in there, what drove her in there, how she came to be in there — we are unclear," San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Erik Windsor said following the rescue mission, per NBC 7 San Diego.
"It is very unusual to have someone in there," he added, noting that it's possible Zhou could have been in underground for days, the outlet reported.
"Out of respect for Yafang and her family, no additional details will be released at this time," Dungan said, per the station.
The rescue came after SDPD confirmed Zhou was missing in an Instagram post, writing that she'd last been seen around midnight on March 25.
Investigators pinged Zhou's phone during the search, and it led them to near Beeler Canyon Road, which is the area where she was found, per KGTV.
Fire Chief Windsor said of the rescue, "Units entered into the sewage system into what we call a confined space. They went through all the processes to permit it to make a safe entry, and then firefighters were literally inside the sewage or storm drain, crawling on their stomachs to try and locate the victim," KGTV noted.
"Firefighters were opening manhole covers all along the storm drain system, and then they were eventually able to finally locate here in an area uphill from where we had been searching, at which point they reestablished the rescue efforts, built a system of ropes and pulleys, and lowered personnel down into the storm drain," he added, per the outlet.
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Windsor also said it's "possible that she entered into the storm drain system from one of the outlets, which would naturally be open where water would flow out into the creek or some other way, but one of the things that we investigated when we first arrived here was to see if there were any open or disturbed manhole covers, which would have indicated to us a great starting point."
"There weren't any, so we picked a central one and started searching from there, hoping really, initially, that we would just get lucky going in one direction or the other. And ultimately... when we went uphill, that's when they found her," the fire chief continued, KGTV stated.
The San Diego County Communications Office, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, the San Diego Fire and Rescue Department, the San Diego Police Department and the Poway Fire Department didn't immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.
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