Police give update after missing woman was found dead in desert weeks after telling them her exact coordinates

Police have given an update after a missing woman was found dead in the desert weeks after she told them her exact coordinates.

Amanda Neningar went missing on 28 February near to the California-Arizona border before her body was found in the evening of 29 March.

Though Nenigar called 911 a day before she was reported missing, the call was put through to the wrong state, and the dispatcher was unable to locate her.

In a statement the next day, La Paz Country Sheriff's Office said: "Late Friday evening Amanda Nenigar was located deceased. The family has been notified and issued a statement requesting privacy and thanked the public for their assistance in trying to locate Amanda.

"We ask that you please respect the family during this time and avoid spreading rumours and assumptions."

The 26-year-old had made a 911 call after she crashed her car in a ditch, leaving her stranded in the desert.

She was missing for weeks (Facebook/Amanda Nenigar)

"Everybody is probably worried sick about me," Nenigar said in a call shared on social media by law enforcement.

The mum-of-two was told to find her coordinates on Google Maps and to give her location to the dispatcher, where she did.

But the California Highway Patrol dispatcher was unable to locate her.

It turned out Nenigar was in Arizona, not California, and Californian police ended up looking for her 30-40 miles away from where she was eventually found.

When Arizona police reviewed the 911 call they found her vehicle half a mile away from the coordinates she gave.

La Paz County Sherriff William Ponce said: “We believe she went under the tree to try to get some shelter from the elements.

"As you may know, it gets hot in the Arizona desert.”

But her family were angered by the response as her sister told KTLA that if they had ‘listened to her 911 call and wrote down the coordinates, again’ then she ‘would still be alive’.

Now, California Highway Police have released a statement, explaining the lengths they went to in order to try and find Nenigar.

California Highway Patrol told Tyla in a statement: "On Feb. 27, 2024, at approximately 8:23 a.m., the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) El Centro Dispatch Center received a 9-1-1 call from a woman advising she had been involved in a crash.

"Over the next hour, the dispatcher who intercepted the initial call attempted to work with the caller to determine her location, so that an officer could respond to the scene. It was determined the caller’s name was Amanda Nenigar.

She was found dead in the desert (GoFundMe/Marissa Nenigar)

"Although Ms. Nenigar’s location was unclear, at 9:40 a.m. CHP units from the Winterhaven Area and Blythe Area were dispatched to search for her in their respective areas.

"When efforts to locate her on the ground were unsuccessful, Border Division deployed a plane to search for the victim. At approximately, 2:30 p.m., search efforts concluded after personnel were unable to locate Ms. Nenigar.

"Unfortunately, she was not located that day. She was found deceased a month later in Arizona.

"An investigation into the facts and circumstances of Ms. Nenigar’s death is being conducted and further inquiries should be directed to the La Paz County Sheriff’s Department."

LADbible has contacted La Paz County Sheriff's Office for a comment.

Topics: Google Maps, Social Media, US News

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_