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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Officials searching for a missing 9-year-old San Francisco girl are refocusing their efforts on Tuesday thanks to a new piece of evidence – a brief video clip of the girl running down the street near her home.
Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen said about 70 to 100 volunteers from local and regional agencies – along with community members – were continuing their search on Tuesday for Mikaela Renee Lynch, who was last seen at her family’s vacation home on Harbor Drive early Sunday afternoon.
Clausen said that early Tuesday police got an important new clue as to where the girl may have gone in the form of a surveillance video clip from a neighboring vacation home. That clip has not been released by police.
Michaela’s parents had reported her missing just before 1:30 p.m. Sunday; Clausen said the video showed the child running down Harbor Drive in a northerly direction at approximately 1:31 p.m.
It was just a small video clip, but Clausen said it was an important clue. “Now we have a last known direction,” he said.
The clip is an “absolutely positive” development, he added, explaining that search efforts were being refocused in the direction she was last seen traveling.
Clausen said the video showed the girl unclothed. Her family said she had been clothed when she was last seen playing in the yard, but found her clothing after she disappeared.
The child had a habit of taking her clothes off, Clausen reported. “That is not unusual for that to happen.”
A diaper found nearby also is believed to have been one she was wearing at the time she was last seen at her home, Clausen said.
Clausen said the girl’s disappearance continues to be handled as a case of her wandering away. He said there is no evidence to indicate she was abducted.
In an effort to find Mikaela, community members have circulated hundreds of fliers with information on the brown-haired, blue-eyed little girl, who is 4 feet tall and weighs 70 pounds.
One of those community members taking part is Elizabeth Hoskins, who on Tuesday was passing out fliers and putting them on cars, and helping comb the search area.
Hoskins said she wanted to get active in the search because of her concern for Mikaela.
She said she met one of the girl’s teachers from San Francisco on Monday evening, as the woman was walking door to door in the city’s Avenues areas, asking people to search their outbuildings for the child.
A group of fellow parents and teachers from Mikaela’s school in Ocean Beach had reportedly caravaned to Lake County to help try to find her.
The incident command post remains located at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 14970 Lakeview Way in Clearlake.
Early Tuesday morning Cal Fire inmate crews and engines were staging at the command post, where Clausen said the search was scaled down for a four-hour period, from 3:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.
The search was ramped back up at 7:30 a.m., Clausen said. A Cal Fire chopper joined the effort on Tuesday morning.
Clearlake Police and Lake County Fire have been aided by agencies from around the region, including sheriff’s and search and rescue personnel from Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties.
In addition to Cal Fire’s helicopter, REACH and the California Highway Patrol also have sent helicopters to help patrol the area of nearby Cache Creek, and search K9s have been employed.
Clausen said officials have searched a five-square-mile area, adding that the many citizen volunteers who have taken part have expanded the search area another five square miles through their efforts.
Nearby Cache Creek has been a focal point of the effort to find the girl. On Sunday, Yolo County officials acted on a request from the incident command to reduce flows through the Cache Creek Dam to aid in the search.
On Tuesday another dive team is expected to arrive from a regional agency, and Clausen said Control Costa County is sending an unmanned submarine with sonar and video to help search the water.
Community members are still invited to take part in the search. They can report to the command center to get directions on where to look.
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
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County’s fourth Wildfire Safety Expo will be held on Saturday, May 18.
It will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kelseyville Lumber Home Improvement Center, 3555 N. Main St.
Presented by the Lake County Fire Safe Council, this free community event will provide information to homeowners to help them prepare for a wildfire.
Partners for this event include the Kelseyville, Lake County, Lake Pillsbury, Lakeport, Northshore, and South Lake Fire Protection Districts; the Lake County Fire Chiefs’ Association; Cal Fire; the Bureau of Land Management; and US Forest Service.
A vendor fair will focus on fuel reduction methods, home fire safety information, and fire safe landscaping tips.
Representatives from Lake County’s Animal Care and Control will be on hand to answer homeowners’ questions and provide information on the Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection program.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Master Gardeners will be available for fire safe landscaping tips, and information for the National Fire Protection Association's Firewise Communities program also will be available.
“After the 2012 fire season, I think residents recognize the importance of being ready for the probability of wildfire. The Expo will provide them with the information they need to help accomplish that,” said Lake County Fire Safe Council Project Coordinator Linda Juntunen. “This event also provides an opportunity for the community to talk with local firefighters and thank them for the work they do. It’s a chance to acknowledge and thank all the first responders and volunteers that assist with wildfire response.”
Smokey Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog will be on hand for the kids; children’s games, and drawings for free prizes will be held throughout the day.
Thanks to the generosity of the Lake County Fire Chiefs’ Association, there also will be a bounce house this year. Firefighting demonstrations will be conducted, and present-day and antique fire equipment will be on display.
“This event is for Lake County residents and will provide ‘one stop shopping’ for homeowners to take responsibility for their own safety and protection during the upcoming fire season. One of our themes is ‘Help them (firefighters) help you.’ Make it possible for the fire agencies to protect your homes safely and effectively” said Jeff Tunnell, fire mitigation and education specialist for the Bureau of Land Management.
Take responsibility by learning how to protect your home and create the necessary defensible space. Be fire wise and fire safe this season. Be sure to attend the Wildfire Safety Expo. It’s an event with something for the entire family. And it’s free.
Contact Juntunen at 707-263-4180, Extension 106, for additional information.
Hot and dry conditions are giving rise to more wildland fires around California this year, according to state fire officials.
This year so far, a 47-percent increase in wildland fires has been recorded, according to Cal Fire’s latest Fire Situation Report.
Those fires have burned over 36,000 more acres than at the same time in 2012, the agency said.
“All signs are pointing to a very busy summer ahead for firefighters,” said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.
Fire officials are urging homeowners to visit www.readyforwildfire.org and learn about how to prepare for the upcoming fire season.
See this week’s Fire Situation Report above.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The third annual A Taste of Italy dinner to benefit Hospice Services of Lake County will take place on Monday, May 20.
The event will take place at Park Place restaurant, located at 50 Third St. in Lakeport.
Three seatings are available at 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The three course gourmet Italian meal will include an antipasto platter, Tuscan soup or a classic Caesar salad and a choice of Osso Buco De Maiale, Pollo Marsala, Scampi Fra Diavolo or a vegetarian pasta dish as a main course. Dessert and coffee or tea are included in the price of dinner. Locally produced wines from local wineries will be offered for purchase.
The dinner price also includes a chance to win a one week stay at a luxury condo resort on the Lahaina coast on Maui, Hawaii. The condo sleeps four and is handicap and child friendly. It has a gourmet kitchen, large living and sitting area and a lanai overlooking the beach.
Proceeds will help support the Wings of Hope family bereavement camps and the school bereavement programs on school campuses for students coping with the loss of a loved one.
Dinner tickets cost $60 in advance and include dinner and a chance to win the Hawaiian condo stay. Raffle tickets may be purchased separately for $25 each. The drawing will take place on May 20 during the 8 p.m. dinner seating. The winner does not need to be present to win.
To purchase tickets and to find out more information contact Freda at Hospice Services of Lake County, 263-6222. See pictures of the resort at http://www.lakecountyhospice.org/about/news-details.asp?id=17 .
After doing time for two sex crimes in Los Angeles – against a 12-year-old girl, and later a 15-year-old – J.M. registered as a drug and alcohol counselor. He joined a field in which the top complaint by clients is sexual misconduct.
A year later, he was convicted again, this time on a drug possession charge. His sentence spanned a third of the time he was registered to counsel addicts.
J.M.’s case illustrates some of the shortcomings of California’s system for overseeing the state’s 36,000 registered or certified substance abuse counselors, the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes finds in a report released Monday.
The report, “Suspect Treatment: State’s lack of scrutiny allows unscreened sex offenders and unethical counselors to treat addicts,” can be seen below.
Californians who seek help for addiction must rely on a fragmented public-private system that does not screen counselors for felonies such as sex crimes or for convictions after they start working. Some counselors whose credentials are revoked for misconduct continue to treat clients. Others flout education and training requirements with no consequences, the Senate report finds.
Counselors are the front-line staff at public and private treatment programs, ranging from luxury residential rehabs to no-frills subsidized outpatient care. Many draw from their own struggles with substance abuse to excel at a difficult job.
In the absence of screening, those with criminal histories more serious than drug or alcohol convictions are free to enter the field, the Senate report says. To work as counselors, they need only register with one of seven private organizations. After five years, they’re required to get enough education and training to become certified. Neither category – registrants or certified counselors – undergo criminal background checks.
The oversight office identified 23 registered sex offenders – mostly rapists and child molesters – registered or certified in the past eight years. The number is undoubtedly much higher – the oversight office focused only on names that were unusual enough that it could determine that the counselor and the sex offender were one in the same.
The investigation found that the failure to properly screen counselors convicted of other serious crimes also raises concerns. For example, the report cites a Santa Rosa woman with four theft convictions who became a counselor and then stole $55,000 from a client.
California is one of only two states among the nation’s 15 largest that makes no attempt to review criminal backgrounds. All except for California and Pennsylvania either run fingerprint-based computer checks or ask applicants to report their own histories and punish those who don’t disclose.
California also is unusual in lacking a system to find out about convictions that occur after a counselor has started working. The Senate report finds that such an effort would bear fruit. Several counselors have racked up DUI or drug convictions while treating clients. One was sentenced to attend a class run by the organization that registered and employed him as a counselor.
The state’s lack of screening allows health care professionals who have lost their licenses for misconduct to work as counselors. Among them are certified nurse assistants who abused patients, a San Bernardino County doctor who prescribed dangerous drugs over the Internet to patients he’d never met and engaged in sexual misconduct with two patients, and a nurse who stole the identities of patients at a San Bernardino hospital.
The state’s system is so lax that counselors whose credentials have been revoked can register with another organization. The state revoked one Los Angeles counselor’s registration for living with a client. Less than a month after the state’s investigation, she registered with a different organization and continued working.
Another, in San Bernardino, was registered with two organizations when she was convicted with her boyfriend of embezzling $136,000 from the program where they both worked. One of the two revoked her, but the other did not, allowing her to keep treating clients.
The report found 52 counselors who apparently circumvented a regulation requiring them to become certified within five years of registering. Many reached the limit with one organization, and then, within weeks, switched their registration to a different one. Some of these uncertified counselors will have worked for as much as nine years – almost double the regulatory ceiling – by their renewal dates.
The report recommends that the Legislature address these shortcomings by putting the state in charge of credentialing drug and alcohol counselors. Barring that, the state could authorize and require certifying organizations to do criminal background checks and ensure that authorities are notified of subsequent criminal conduct, among other things.
The non-partisan Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes was created in 2008 by Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to bolster the Senate’s ability to gauge government performance.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – As evening approached on Monday, officials and volunteers from agencies around Northern California continued looking for an autistic child who is believed to have wandered from her family’s home the previous afternoon.
Nine-year-old Mikaela Renee Lynch has been the focus of a growing search effort since she disappeared on Sunday. She was last seen playing in the family’s yard on Harbor Drive, according to police.
Officials at the incident’s command post – housed at the Mormon Church at 14970 Lakeview Way in Clearlake – said about 100 volunteers were searching for the girl on Monday.
Local police and fire departments were aided by agencies from around the region.
The multiagency search included search and rescue and sheriff’s personnel from the counties of Lake, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma, as well as a Cal Fire.
A video report posted above by John Jensen of Lake County News shows the work under way at the command post and in the search area.
Teams combed nearby fields, and searches also were conducted on the water on nearby Cache Creek and from the air by helicopter, according to Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen.
Scott De Leon, head of the Lake County Public Works and Water Resources departments, said that on Sunday Yolo County officials, who operate the Cache Creek dam, reduced the flows through the dam at the request of those overseeing the search.
Mikaela is a white female, standing 4 feet tall and weighing 70 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes. She is unable to speak.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251 or call 911.
Email Elizabeth Larson at