How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
LAKEPORT, Calif. – County law enforcement officials are looking for an 18-year-old male who is alleged to have escaped from the Juvenile Hall on Tuesday afternoon.
Isaiah Dominguez escaped from confinement at approximately 1:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Lake County Probation Department.
Dominguez, who turned 18 on Tuesday, was being detained at the Juvenile Hall facility for a property crime, officials reported.
The teen escaped during a mandatory school session, quickly scaling the perimeter fence and fleeing the area on foot, Probation Department officials said.
The report said the Lake County Sheriff’s Dispatch was immediately notified and a search was conducted in the area with negative results.
The Probation Department said its officers have conducted searches where Dominguez is suspected to have associates, and search efforts continue.
An arrest order was issued to Lake County law enforcement agencies by his supervising probation officer for violation of his probation, the report said.
Due to his status as an adult, probation officials said charges also will be sought against him for escape from the Juvenile Hall.
Dominguez is 5 feet 6 inches tall, has black hair and brown eyes, and weighs 135 pounds.
If you have information concerning his whereabouts, please contact your local police department or the Lake County Sheriff’s Department at 707-262-4200.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A three-day search for a missing girl ended with the discovery of her body Wednesday morning.
Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen confirmed that the body of 9-year-old Mikaela Renee Lynch was found in Cache Creek not far from the family’s vacation home in the city of Clearlake.
The child, who was autistic and unable to speak, had wandered from the yard of her family’s vacation home on Harbor Drive Sunday afternoon.
A Wednesday afternoon report from Clearlake Police Sgt. Nick Bennett said the girl was found at approximately 10:43 a.m. by a local dive team in the waterway several homes north of where she disappeared. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Earlier in the day police had announced that the girl's family would offer a public statement at the incident command post, located at the Church of Latter-day Saints on Lakeview Way.
However, after the discovery of Mikaela’s body, they chose not to appear. Instead, Clausen announced the news to a small group of reporters and asked that the family’s privacy be respected.
He didn't offer many additional details on the case or the discovery during the short press briefing at the command post.
“It’s difficult for me to stand here,” said Clausen, who spoke softly and appeared upset.
Clausen, who said the investigation is wrapping up, added that the case did not appear to involve foul play.
The discovery brought to an end an exhaustive search that had stretched out over an estimated 10-square-mile area and lasted nearly 72 hours.
A multiagency search involving resources and personnel from around Northern and Central California had joined the efforts to locate the girl, whose family lives in San Francisco.
Submarines, boats, search dogs, search and rescue volunteers, door to door searches and helicopters from the California Highway Patrol, REACH and Cal Fire had been employed in the effort to find the child, police said.
Community members and people from all over California had assisted professional search and rescue teams in combing nearby fields and marshlands, neighborhoods and Cache Creek, according to Bennett.
The girl’s teachers and family friends had come to Clearlake earlier in the week to help in the search, including walking door to door in the city, asking for people to check their properties.
On Tuesday, police had received a surveillance video clip from a neighboring vacation home showing the girl running north on Harbor Drive just minutes after her parents reported her missing on Sunday afternoon.
As she was reportedly in the habit of doing when she was hot, the girl had taken off her clothes, which were found after she disappeared, and left the home’s yard, where she had been playing with her brother, according to police.
That video clip helped searchers refocus their efforts, and Clausen said it had provided an important timeframe and direction of travel.
At the command post early Wednesday afternoon, Placer County’s mountain search team was on hand, as were officials from Marin, Northshore Fire and other local and regional agencies.
A number of searchers were returning from the field as other tearful volunteers were seen leaving a briefing in which they were told the girl had been found deceased.
Two men arrived to ask if they could volunteer and were told that volunteer efforts had been suspended because of the discovery. One of the men appeared to break into tears moments later.
Among the resources that had been made available to local officials this week was assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is funded by the US Department of Justice.
Bob Lowery, executive director of the organization’s missing children division, said a member of their “Team Adam” – former and retired law enforcement officers with knowledge and expertise relating to missing children – had been deployed immediately to offer knowledge, suggestions and best practices in the search for Mikaela.
Clausen confirmed that they had been at the scene and added that they were just a phone call away if needed.
A key piece of the advice the center offers law enforcement, Lowery said, is that when searching for children with autism, it’s not like anything they’ve dealt with before.
There have been an increasing number of cases nationwide involving children with autism wandering from their homes, said Lowery. They have been known to walk great distances and hide from search teams. “They have a diminished sense of fear.”
Lowery had been concerned that the girl may have been headed for the water, which had turned out to be the case. “Children have a natural attraction to water for some reason,” he said, adding that his team advises parents and police to try to get to nearby water immediately when children with autism go missing.
Not long after the child’s Mother’s Day disappearance, some had begun to publicly speculate about how the child had been able to leave the family’s home and why she was unclothed.
Lowery said such speculation resulted from a lack of understanding about autism and the associated behaviors commonly seen in children diagnosed with it.
He said wandering – including getting out of secure home environments – and taking off clothing are not unusual for such children.
“Parenting a child with autism is very challenging,” he said.
The girl’s aunt, Yvonne Heidt, had told Lake County News earlier this week that she had never seen parents more in love with a child than Michael and Bari Lynch were with Mikaela.
The story of the little lost girl had captured the attention of people around the region, many of them parents, who shared that they saw in her disappearance their own worst fears come true.
People from Lake County and much farther afield posted condolences to the family on social media after the news was announced.
“I don't think there is a single person in the county that didn't have their breath held, hoping for a happy outcome,” wrote Justin Hamaker of Lakeport in a poignant post on Lake County News’ Facebook page. “This is devastating and heartbreak. My sympathies to her family for their loss.
Julie Johnson Rowe wrote, “Mikaela Lynch and her family are a part of my families school community here in San Francisco. This news is so heartbreaking that I cannot even breath right now. My prayers and thoughts will continue to be with the Lynch family, and we as a community will do whatever possible to ensure that they receive all the help and support they need. Rest in peace sweet Mikaela, you will definitely be missed here on earth but I can only imagine the awesome welcoming you will receive in Heaven.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – True to their word, Clear Lake High School’s shop teacher and two students had their heads shaved on Tuesday as part of a fundraiser for this weekend’s Relay for Life.
Teacher John Moorhead, along with students Tyler Martin and Nate Powers, went under the shaver at the high school Tuesday afternoon.
They had set out to raise about $500, but Moorhead said they raised closer to $1,000 for the annual relay event. It takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Don Owens Field at Clear Lake High School, 350 Lange St. in Lakeport.
The annual event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fight against cancer.
“Lake County has raised more money for Relay for Life than Beverly Hills,” said Moorhead.
That’s thanks to enthusiasm on the part of people like Moorhead, Martin and Powers.
Originally, Moorhead had been prepared to shave not just his head but his beard and eyebrows to raise funds.
However, wife Rose Davidson prevailed on him to keep his 25-year-old beard, raising money in a counter fundraiser to spare it. The eyebrows ended up staying, too, he said.
He said the fundraiser “just hit a chord,” since everyone knows someone who has had cancer.
Moorhead said he has a friend in Santa Rosa who is a survivor, and another friend who recently died battling the disease.
“It’s close to home,” he said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
On Tuesday the National Transportation Safety Board released a new set of targeted interventions to put the country on a course to eliminate alcohol-impaired driving crashes.
The 19 recommendations call for stronger laws, swifter enforcement and expanded use of technology.
“Most Americans think that we’ve solved the problem of impaired driving, but in fact, it’s still a national epidemic,” NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said. “On average, every hour one person is killed and 20 more are injured.”
Each year in the United States, nearly 10,000 people are killed in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers and more than 173,000 are injured, with 27,000 suffer incapacitating injuries.
Since the mid-1990s, even as total highway fatalities have fallen, the proportion of deaths from accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver has remained constant at around 30 percent.
In the last 30 years, nearly 440,000 people have died in alcohol-related crashes.
Investigators cited research that showed that although impairment begins with the first drink, by 0.05 BAC, most drivers experience a decline in both cognitive and visual functions, which significantly increases the risk of a serious crash.
Currently, more than 100 countries on six continents have BAC limits set at 0.05 or lower. The NTSB has asked all 50 states to do the same.
“The research clearly shows that drivers with a BAC above 0.05 are impaired and at a significantly greater risk of being involved in a crash where someone is killed or injured,” said Hersman.
Among the other findings, investigators said that high-visibility enforcement efforts, such as sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols paired with media campaigns, deter alcohol-impaired driving. And to increase the effectiveness of these programs, the NTSB recommended that police use passive alcohol sensors to help better detect alcohol vapor in the ambient environment.
The NTSB, which in December 2012 recommended that states require ignition interlocks for all DWI offenders, said that because only about one in four offenders ordered to have an interlock actually have one installed, states should employ measures to improve interlock compliance.
Further, the board said that an intervention known as administrative license suspension, which allows law enforcement authorities to immediately suspend or revoke a driver’s license at the time of a DWI arrest, would be more effective if states required offenders to have an ignition interlock on their vehicles before licenses could be fully reinstated.
The NTSB recognized the effectiveness of specialized state DWI courts in addressing the particular challenges represented by repeat offenders. DWI courts hold offenders accountable through intensive monitoring, treatment for underlying disorders, alcohol testing and graduated sanctions.
The NTSB recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration assist states in maximizing their effectiveness by providing the courts with current best practices.
Over the past year, the NTSB sharpened its focus on impaired driving and has taken a number of actions, including issuing recommendations following a December 2012 special report on wrong-way driving.
That report revealed that more than 60 percent of wrong-way crashes were caused by alcohol-impaired drivers.
In May 2012, the board hosted a forum on substance-impaired driving to understand how the latest research, technology, and countermeasures were being used by a range of advocacy groups as well as federal, state and local authorities to address substance-impaired driving.
On Tuesday the NTSB issued 10 safety recommendations and reiterated nine others to NHTSA, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
“Alcohol-impaired crashes are not accidents,” said Hersman. “They are crimes. They can – and should – be prevented. The tools exist. What is needed is the will.”
The report, “Reaching Zero: Actions to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving,” can be seen below.
COBB, Calif. – A 3.1-magnitude earthquake occurred near Cobb late Tuesday night.
In a preliminary report, the US Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 11:11 p.m.
Its epicenter was located three miles west of Cobb and 13 miles southwest of Clearlake, at a depth of 2.3 miles, the US Geological Survey reported.
The survey reported early Wednesday that it received three shake reports – from Calistoga, Middletown and Watsonville.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Efforts continued in Clearlake on Tuesday to locate a San Francisco girl reported missing Sunday afternoon.
By Tuesday evening more than 48 hours had passed since 9-year-old Mikaela Renee Lynch’s family reported her missing to police.
The blue-eyed, brown-haired child – weighing 70 pounds and standing 4 feet tall – left her family’s Harbor Drive vacation home on Sunday afternoon, according to police.
She has autism, is unable to speak and does not respond when called, according to a new flier issued by Klaas Kids on Tuesday.
When she left the family’s home she was unclothed. She reportedly had a habit of taking off her clothes when hot – Sunday’s weather was warm – and police said her clothes were found left behind. A diaper like the one she was wearing also was found nearby.
As the search entered a new day on Tuesday, police said they had received an important new clue as to where Mikaela went in the form of a surveillance video clip from a neighboring vacation home, as Lake County News has reported.
Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen said the video – which is not being released publicly due to it being evidence in an ongoing investigation – gave searchers a timeframe and a location for the girl.
He said it showed Mikaela running down Harbor Drive in a northerly direction at approximately 1:31 p.m., minutes after her parents had reported her missing to police.
“It solidified what we already believed,” Clausen said.
The girl’s family as well as a large support group were on scene during the search, he said.
The search effort is based at an incident command post housed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 14970 Lakeview Way in Clearlake. There, police were continuing to invite community members to come and volunteer to take part in the search.
On Tuesday dozens of searchers continued to focus on the general vicinity of the girl’s last known location on Harbor Drive, extending to Highway 53 and Old Highway 53, Clausen said.
Fliers distributed to residents in the area asked that people check their outbuildings, vehicles, crawl spaces and other areas around homes in the event the girl was hiding there.
In addition, Clausen said an aquatic search was conducted, with boats working their way up and down Cache Creek from Highway 53 to the Cache Creek Dam, where flows had been reduced on Sunday.
Between law enforcement personnel and community volunteers, Clausen estimated that the search area covered a total of 10 square miles.
A Cal Fire helicopter was used for the search on Tuesday, as were Cal Fire hand crews, who Clausen said searched the nearby marsh.
He said K9s also have been used extensively in the search to find the girl.
As of Tuesday, no new physical evidence tracing the girl’s location had been found, Clausen said.
In response to questions posed by community members about whether or not registered sex offenders in the vicinity had been checked out for possible connections to the girl’s disappearance, Clausen confirmed that they had.
Regarding search plans for Tuesday night, “We’ll scale them back but we won’t call it all the way off,” said Clausen.
He said the search will resume at full force at daybreak on Wednesday.
Clausen said new resources from agencies around the region are expected to arrive on Wednesday in an effort to allow others to be released.
Control Costa County’s unmanned submarine with sonar and video was used to search the water on Tuesday, with San Francisco County to send its submarine on Wednesday, Clausen said.
In addition to the help from cooperating agencies, the small police department has devoted its resources to finding Mikaela in a case that has gained regional media attention over the last few days.
“It’s taxing, but we can’t complain,” said Clausen. “Our families are still intact.”
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251 or call 911.
Additional updates will be posted as they become available.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
