Found at the foot of a cliff several hundred meters away... a woman went up the mountain to pick mushrooms and lost contact. "I want to add a dish to my birthday" Reporter | Madam | Woman

To add a dish to her birthday, Ms. Zhong, 58 years old from Sangzhi in Hunan, and a pair of siblings from a neighbor went up the mountain to pick mushrooms. However, they got lost due to a mysterious incident, and hundreds of local people searched for several days without any results.

On July 17th, the reporter learned that on the 7th day after Ms. Zhong lost contact, her body was found under a cliff about 300 meters deep.

58 year old woman goes up the mountain to pick mushrooms and loses contact

Recently, a notice seeking someone spread online. The notice states that Zhong, female, 58 years old, from Fujian Po Village, Furongqiao Bai Ethnic Township, Sangzhi County. She wore a white hat, a green striped shirt on top, gray pants on the bottom, and green release shoes with white shoelaces. She got lost at 12:00 noon on July 11th in the Po Suo Luo community in Fujian. Her family is extremely anxious. If anyone knows her whereabouts, please contact the police or herself.

According to a previous report by the Xiaoxiang Morning Post, at around 8:00 am on July 11th, 58 year old Ms. Zhong went up the mountain with a pair of neighbors to pick mushrooms.

Ms. Zhong has been working in the city for many years and doesn't often go to pick mushrooms because it's her birthday two days later. She wanted to add another dish, so she followed her neighbor who is relatively familiar with the local terrain up the mountain without bringing her phone.

Three people arrived at the foot of this large mountain called "Shuluo Jie" by car, then walked for over an hour up the mountain and picked them separately. At around 11am that day, the three of them had met to drink water. Half an hour later, the three of them shouted to each other and everyone responded.

At 11:50, the companion called out to Ms. Zhong, but there was no response. Neighbor siblings couldn't find anyone on the mountain, and then went down to Ms. Zhong's house. They found out that she hadn't returned home, so they quickly notified the family.

Ms. Zhong's family sent people up the mountain to search for no results, and then mobilized the villagers to search on the mountain until midnight. Afterwards, hundreds of local police stations, rescue teams, and villagers participated in the search, but there have been no results. Ms. Zhong's family also introduced that there was a cliff near the place where the three of them were picking mushrooms, but everyone searched many times and couldn't find anyone.

The body was found hundreds of meters off a cliff

The reporter noticed that several relatives of Ms. Zhong have also forwarded the missing person notice on social media and posted multiple search and rescue videos of rescue personnel.

On the afternoon of July 17th, these relatives announced that Ms. Zhong's body had been found under the cliff. The reporter dialed the phone number of Mr. Xiong, the family member in the missing person notice, and he introduced that Ms. Zhong had found her, but the person was not there.

Zhang Yangzhou, the captain of the Zhangjiajie Thunder God Emergency Rescue Team, who participated in the search and rescue on the mountain, told reporters that Ms. Zhong's body was found at noon on the 17th at a cliff several hundred meters deep. "The personnel involved in the search and rescue had a WeChat group, and I learned about this news from the group." Zhang Yangzhou introduced that after Ms. Zhong lost contact, the Thunder God emergency rescue team sent two vehicles with a total of 8 people to the scene for search and rescue at around 1 pm on July 12th. The search and rescue also lasted the whole day on July 13th.

That cliff was searched by Zhang Yangzhou and others multiple times. They had once lowered the rope down the cliff, but it was too deep. They descended more than 200 meters and found that the rope was not long enough. It is estimated that a rope of four to five hundred meters long is needed.

Zhang Yangzhou said that he had suggested that the family members find a professional mountain rescue team to search and rescue, and because the cliff is long, a person needs to be arranged to go down with a rope every other distance to search.

Zhang Yangzhou said that later on, family members posted articles searching for rescue teams familiar with rope rescue technology or experienced in mountain search and rescue to participate in the rescue.

It took over 5 hours to transport the body down the mountain

At 7:30 pm on July 17th, when the reporter contacted Zhang Guoqiang, the captain of the Zhangjiajie Mountain Rescue Team, he and five teammates had just finished the search and rescue mission and were preparing to go down the mountain.

Zhang Guoqiang introduced that he and his teammates arrived at Furongqiao Bai Ethnic Township on the evening of July 16th to meet with Ms. Zhong's family. "Because there were no results from the search for several days, almost all of the family members had to give up." Zhang Guoqiang said that he and his teammates learned about Ms. Zhong's basic characteristics from the family members. After staying in the market town for a night, they woke up around 6:00 am on the 17th and arrived at the foot of the mountain before 7:30 am. They then spent more than an hour entering the mountain to reach the last place where Ms. Zhong appeared.

Six team members used exclusion method, with a group of two to three people running parallel, spaced 20 meters apart, tying ropes down the cliff and conducting searches at the location where Ms. Zhong suspected to have fallen.

Six people went down the cliff to search for two rounds, but there was still no result. Everyone has arrived at another suspected falling point for the third round of search. Each person descended from the cliff with a 100 meter long rope. About half an hour later, around 11 am on the 17th, a teammate saw a white object below, which seemed to be a plastic bucket.

"Such a steep cliff, usually no one brings the bucket here," Zhang Guoqiang said, because Ms. Zhong brought the bucket when she went up the mountain that day. They preliminarily judged that Ms. Zhong's falling point was here.

Afterwards, they discovered white hats scattered among the trees. The rescue team immediately asked their partners to bring other rescue equipment up the mountain, tie all the ropes together, and then descend from the same position to search. At 12:17 noon on the 17th, rescue team members finally found Ms. Zhong's body under a cliff about 300 meters deep.

"We sorted and wrapped the bodies of the victims, and then lowered them to a cliff more than 400 meters deep." Zhang Guoqiang said, "It was very difficult to search and rescue the bodies of the victims on the cliff, and it took time to wait for transportation equipment. It wasn't until around 5 pm in the afternoon that Zhong Nushi's body was lowered to the roadside below the cliff and was taken to her home at the foot of the mountain at around 6 pm in the evening.".

Subsequently, Zhang Guoqiang and his teammates dismantled all ropes at 7:20 pm and prepared to descend the mountain.

After finding Ms. Zhong's body and preparing to carry out rescue operations at the foot of the cliff, Zhang Guoqiang saw a lily growing on the steep cliffs of the mountains. He took a photo and posted it on his social media with a caption: It is said that under every lily like this, there is a resting soul. It's been 7 days, we'll take you home.