A 27-year-old woman who disappeared more than a month ago in the desert near the California-Arizona border was found dead Friday night outside Cibola, Arizona.
Amanda Ninejar's naked body was found under a tree less than two miles from where her abandoned blue Toyota Camry was discovered weeks earlier. La Paz County Sheriff William Ponce said her clothes were scattered nearby, leading investigators to believe she was overcome by the daytime desert heat. Although they have not determined her cause of death, officials suspect she died from exposure, Ponce said.
“We are devastated,” her sister, Marissa Ninejar, told The Times on Monday. “I'm just sick to my stomach when I think about what she went through.”
The missing persons case has generated so much interest online that authorities have asked on social media that people stop calling 911 to request updates. In another post, after news of her death, the La Paz County Sheriff's Office wrote that people should “please respect the family during this time and avoid spreading rumors and assumptions.”
Ninejar's family reported her missing on February 28 after her phone kept sending calls straight to voicemail and she never called back. The day before, Ninejar left the hotel she was staying at in Blythe at 3:44 a.m., according to surveillance video from the hotel.
About three hours later, she called police to say she had gone off the road and was unsure of her location. She told the dispatcher she was trying to get to Palm Springs, according to a recording of the 911 call released by law enforcement.
“I think I fell asleep at the wheel,” she said. “I was tired so I went to park the car, but I guess I like getting out of the way.”
In the nearly hour-long 911 call, Nenigar tries to work with the dispatcher to give him her location. But she has no cell service and can't remember which way to travel. At some point during the call, she read the coordinates, but the dispatcher had difficulty pinpointing her exact location. It is reported that her phone collided with a tower in Palo Verde.
During the call, Ninjar tells dispatchers that people are trying to kill her and she is trying to escape. Her mother, Jaime McBroom, said Ninejar was struggling with her mental health and struggling with addiction.
“She was trying to get over it,” she said. “Her mind goes through psychosis when she withdraws or her body detoxes, and I think that's why she ended up there.”
About 50 minutes after the 911 call, Ninejar told the dispatcher she was scared. “Will you guys find me?” she asks.
Her car, which was stuck on a rock in the desert three miles from any main road, was discovered more than a week later. But Ninjar was not found.
Ponce, the sheriff, said his agency intervened about seven days after Ninejar's disappearance when one of his commanders heard from residents about the search for the woman. Law enforcement forces combed the area using aircraft equipped with night vision devices. They also used drones, and officers and residents searched on horseback and using off-road vehicles for about 10 days. US Fish & Wildlife searched the area using its vehicles, Ponce said.
The area where Ninjar disappeared is remote and mountainous. Daytime temperatures have recently been in the 70s and 80s, and at night temperatures can drop into the 20s in an area of land adjacent to the Colorado River, Ponce said.
“It's frustrating to be in the position we're in now,” Ponce said. “The first 24 to 48 hours of any investigation are critical. I believe that if we had known about this incident immediately after her disappearance from other local agencies, we could have begun to begin some type of search. We did not know she was in our area.”
Ninejar's favorite moments were those she spent with her daughters — an 8-year-old and a nearly 2-year-old — according to her mother and sister. I loved celebrating their birthdays and taking them to pumpkin patches. She cherished her family's annual camping trips.
“She loved her girls so much,” Marissa Ninejar said.
With few leads, McBroom has spent nearly every day of the past month searching the desert for her daughter. She called her name and played the music of Selena, one of Ninjar's favorite singers, hoping her daughter would hear it.
As news of Ninjar's disappearance spread across the Internet, friends and strangers reached out with offers to help search for her.
Sometimes, the advice only resulted in dead ends. People reported seeing them in other states, such as Oklahoma. Other messages were downright cruel. A scammer called Marissa Ninejar saying her sister had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom.
McBroom once consulted a psychic to try to determine her daughter's whereabouts. But nothing was achieved.
“I've saved her life so many times,” McBroom said, her voice cracking with emotion, “but I wasn't able to do it this time.”
