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Dublin Area News

Teen search-and-rescue volunteer helps find Alzheimer's patient

A high school senior from Marin County is being hailed a hero for finding an Alzheimer's patient who had been missing for three days in Monterey County, but she's not comfortable taking the credit.

17-year-old Nicole Rehder trains in search and rescue techniques every month in preparation for emergency calls like the one she got last Wednesday night to help find a woman with early onset Alzheimer's. 

"I took the day off from school and we left at five in the morning," said Rehder. 

Rehder told KTVU she and her team had finished searching their designated area when they spotted a fire road not on their map.

"We decided 'Why not? Let's go search,'" Rehder remembered. "There was a 15-foot slope and she was lying down on a pile of sticks she had no shoes on." 

She called out the woman's name, fearing the worst.

"'Are you okay?' She said 'Yes,'" said Rehder. "Right when I heard that, I was so thankful she was alive."

The teen refused to take any credit for saving the woman's life, calling it a team effort. Her team leader said he was proud of Reher and her troupe's actions as time was running out.

"If they're not able to figure out how to get them out, an Alzheimer's patient will just stay there. In some cases, they'll die there," said Michael St. John of Marin County Search and Rescue. 

St. John said there are 70 search and rescue volunteers, 25 of them teenagers. All of them willing and ready to put their classes and careers on hold to help others.

The volunteers do about 15 missions a year. Their budget for the year is just $10,000 dollars and is provided by Marin County. Those volunteers donate the equivalent of $1.4 million dollars in their hours.

_{Tue, 22 May 2012 00:20:35 -0700}

Suspect arrested for murder and kidnapping of Sierra LaMar

A 21-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with one count of murder and one count of kidnapping Monday in connection with the disappearance of Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar, according to authorities.

KTVU confirmed Monday evening that Santa Clara sheriff's deputies were holding 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres in custody as a suspect in the case.

Garcia-Torres, a resident of San Martin, is the owner of the red VW Jetta that authorities sought and seized in connection with the case on May 8th.

Garcia-Torres was being questioned about the disappearance of the 15-year old girl from Morgan Hill.

Shortly after 10 p.m. when KTVU broke the story, officials confirmed that Garcia-Torres was booked on one charge of murder and one charge of kidnapping.

At the Santa Clara County sheriff's office Monday night, there were high hopes that the arrest is the break investigators have needed to solve the disappearance of Sierra LaMar.

A KTVU camera crew was at the Safeway store on Tenant Avenue in Morgan Hill at around 6 p.m. when sheriff's detectives took Garcia-Torres, a store employee, into custody.

KTVU followed the detectives to the sheriff's headquarters in San Jose and were outside at around 9 p.m. when detectives took Torres to the main county jail.

Sources tell KTVU detectives questioned Garcia-Torres for two hours about the missing teenager, trying to find out her location.

Authorities were mum when pressed for more details.

Sources said there is some DNA evidence linking Garcia-Torres to the clothing found in Sierra LaMar's backpack.

We have also been told that Garcia-Torres has been under around-the-clock surveillance since he was identified, including at his job and at his San Martin home.

The sheriff's office was declining to comment on the arrest or provide any details about what Garcia-Torres has said including whether he knows LaMar.

The sheriff's department said it plans to release more details at a news conference Tuesday.

_{Mon, 21 May 2012 21:28:38 -0700}

Veterans meet with VA officials to discuss delayed disability claims

Hundreds of veterans gathered in San Francisco Monday afternoon to meet with members of Congress and Department of Veterans Affairs' officials about their backlogged disability claims.

The regional VA office in Oakland has approximately 34,000 backlogged cases, VA Western Regional Director Willie Clark said.

Additionally, an inspection by the department's Office of Inspector General revealed 39 percent of sampled claims at the Oakland office were processed incorrectly.

The OIG report also said that as of December 2011 the average claim's pending period was 269 days -- 89 days longer than the targeted 180 days.

"It is a problem that we intend to have addressed...immediately, so that these claims can be handled in a timely manner consistent with the law," Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, said Monday.

"Our country is swift to go to war but not swift in responding to the war heroes when they come home," she said.

Clark said the VA's goal is to meet that 180-day mark with 90 percent accuracy by 2015.

To try to streamline the backlog, the Oakland office stopped taking new claims, filtering them to other VA offices around the country.

According to Clark, there are more than 600,000 claims backlogged in the 18 offices he oversees.

"The problem is bigger than what has been identified and it's our intention today to find out more specifically ... why it's taking so long to be processed," Speier said. "If we need more staff to be brought to Oakland, then we're going to demand that more staff be brought to Oakland."

"We have the data, all of which is damning," Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said. "We will fix Oakland VA."

Sgt. First Class Ari Sanderberg, who served three tours in Iraq as well as a tour in Bosnia, has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and brain trauma.

Sanderberg said he went more than a year and a half in the VA system without hearing back about his disability claim.

"I suffer from depression and the haunting memories of the horrors of war which has caused me to attempt suicide," Sanderberg said. "I'd like to use this opportunity to express to the VA benefit section how the unnecessary delay, the loss of documents and the mishandling of information cause added stress and anxiety to my already difficult life."

Sanderberg said it wasn't until he called Speier that his claim was expedited.

"If it were not for her, I would still be floating around the system," he said.

Dean Lundholm of Walnut Creek has been out of the military since 1991 and still goes to PTSD meetings. Lundholm, who had been in a coma and suffers from brain lesions, said it took him six years to get his claim adjudicated.

Lundholm said he has heard others talk about their struggles with the VA, including one veteran in his PTSD group who took a bullet in the head while serving in the Army in 2007.

"Now, he walks and talks so he can get a small medical retirement from the Army but no compensation from the Veteran's (Benefits) Administration," Lundholm said. "You can't tell me that a guy gets a bullet in the head, has visible scars, and no compensation."

_{Mon, 21 May 2012 19:48:34 -0700}

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