Travel Nurse Practitioner Who Disappeared on Hike Found Dead

Ann Herford, FNP, a traveling nurse practitioner from Michigan who went missing while hiking in California last month, was found dead on Thursday, according to authorities.

Herford, 66, had last been seen on November 12 near the trailhead for the Arnold Rim Trail in Arnold, California. Her car remained parked at the site, triggering a weeks-long search in the area for her whereabouts.

According to a Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office press release, she was found dead on Thursday on a “sloped hillside beneath heavy tree canopy and dense foliage,” north of where her vehicle had been originally parked. Herford’s body was located outside the trail system after efforts expanded to include “searches by air and ground in the dense forest of tall trees, thick manzanita, and mountainous terrain.”

Her “tragic death is not suspicious,” the sheriff’s office stated.

“We think at this point that this was strictly an accident,” Sgt. Chad Poortinga, of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, had previously told MedPage Today.

According to Calaveras County Coroner Kevin Raggio, Herford died of exposure.

“She was out on a hike and she was not prepared with the right clothing,” he told MedPage Today. Herford was found wearing a pair of shorts, a hoodie, and a T-shirt.

“It was cold,” he said, estimating the elevation in that area to be somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 feet. Raggio suspects she got out there, got lost, and couldn’t find her way out.

In January 2021, Herford’s husband Don, a farmer who owned a transmission repair business, passed away. The couple had married in 1977 and enjoyed “many traveling adventures” together, according to Don’s obituary.

Joe Fibranz, a family friend, told the Huron Daily Tribune that working as a travel nurse practitioner helped Herford cope with the loss of her husband. “She’s a really kind, hard-working person,” he told the Tribune in the days after her disappearance. “She’s like a mother to me.”

Herford cared for patients in different areas of Michigan and also worked on a Native American reservation in the Southwest for a time, Fibranz said. She was an avid hiker, he noted, and California might have been her favorite place to visit.

Brandon Neal, Herford’s nephew, often hiked with his aunt, and told Sacramento’s KCRA that she loved going hiking and exploring new places.

On November 14, Herford failed to show up for work at Adventist Health in Sonora, California, and colleagues reported her missing the following day.

Co-worker Anna Wettengel called Herford “amazing.” She told KCRA that at their first meeting, Herford had “the biggest smile on her face … She was super excited to come in and help out any way she could.”

Please enable JavaScript to view the

comments powered by Disqus.