A retired Long Beach schoolteacher has been missing for four days in a rugged Mojave Desert off-roading area amid triple-digit temperatures, raising concerns about her well-being.
Authorities and volunteers have conducted multiple searches for Julie Goforth, 63, who was last seen early Friday riding her dirt bike in the sprawling El Mirage Dry Lake Off Highway Recreation Area near Adelanto. As of Tuesday morning, neither she nor her bike had been found.
Goforth’s family has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her safe return. “We just want her to come home,” said her daughter, Candice Walker.
Goforth, an experienced rider, had recently gotten the new dirt bike, and she visited the 27,000-acre off-roading area with a friend to try it out, according to her daughter. But after struggling a bit to ride the bike, Goforth separated from her friend, telling him she was going back to their vehicle, Walker said. The friend later returned to the vehicle to find that Goforth wasn’t there, she said.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies have searched for Goforth on horseback and in off-road vehicles, using search-and-rescue dogs, drones and a helicopter, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Volunteers with the Victor Valley Search and Rescue Team also have joined in the effort. A search party organized by Goforth’s family members and friends went out Tuesday, using bikes, all-terrain vehicles and even a few planes, her daughter said.
“So many days have gone by, it’s hard to imagine that she’s still alive, but we’re having hope that she is,” Walker said. “And if not, we just want her to come home. Just bring her home to us so we can at least say our goodbyes.”
Goforth’s disappearance is especially concerning due to the heat — area temperatures topped 100 degrees Friday and Saturday — and the possibility she has no water, officials said. Her riding partner, who came into the visitors center at the off-highway vehicle area shortly before 10 a.m. Friday and told employees she was missing, said she had a hydration pack with about a gallon of water, according to Carrie Buelna of nonprofit Friends of El Mirage, who works at the visitors center.
“That water wouldn’t last her this whole time,” Buelna said Tuesday. “We do have concerns for her well-being.” It should have been a relatively straightforward undertaking to navigate from the area where Goforth was riding to the spot where the vehicle was parked, especially for someone familiar with the area, Buelna added. “None of it is really making sense to us.”
Although the bike was new, Goforth rides at the off-roading area five or six times a year, her daughter said. While family members initially suspected she suffered a fall — perhaps into one of the old mine shafts that dot the area — the fact that search teams have covered so much ground to no avail has raised concerns that something more nefarious may have happened, Walker said. “Your mind just starts wandering,” she said.
Goforth retired from her job as a schoolteacher, most recently at Albert Baxter Elementary School in Bellflower, within the past two years, her daughter said. She is outgoing and active and enjoys surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and volunteering at a farm once a week, Walker said.
Goforth is about 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a white shirt and black and white dirt-bike pants and riding a gray and white Kawasaki KLX 300R dirt bike, sheriff’s officials said. Anyone with information is asked to contact San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Det. Harris at (760) 552-6800.
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