Two sisters, aged 5 and 8, are found ALIVE 1.4 miles away from their woodland home 44 HOURS after they went missing - and cops say the girls used their survival training skills to stay safe
- Sisters Leia Carrico, eight, and Caroline Carrico, five, have been found safely
- Authorities said sisters vanished after walking off into a wooded area near home
- Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said girls were found after 48 hours in woods
- First responders discovered them about 1.4 miles from where they disappeared
- Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said the girls were not injured in ordeal
- Police found granola bars and boot prints while searching over the weekend
California police have confirmed that two young sisters who were missing for two days have been found.
Eight-year-old Leia Carrico and her five-year-old sister Caroline Carrico were last seen outside their home in Benbow, north west of Sacramento, on Friday at 2.30pm.
Authorities said the sisters vanished after walking off into a wooded area near their home.
On Sunday afternoon, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office announced that the girls had been found safely around 10.30am after they spent more than 48 hours in the woods.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said during a press conference that the girls were found 1.4 miles away from their home.
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California police have confirmed that two young sisters, eight-year-old Leia Carrico (left) and her five-year-old sister Caroline Carrico (right), who were missing for two days have been found
The sheriff's office shared a photo of one of the girls (pictured) being rescued
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal (pictured) said during a press conference that the girls were found 1.4 miles away from their home
'I am pleased to report that we are all witnessing a miracle today,' Honsal said.
Honsal said they were located by a a fire captain and firefighter who had been following their boot tracks in the search area.
Though the girls were dehydrated and cold, they were uninjured and 'in good spirits,' Honsal said.
The sheriff's office also shared a photo of one of the girls being rescued.
'Here's a first look from the scene where first responders located the girls,' the sheriff's office tweeted in the caption of the photo, which showed a first responder talking with Caroline.
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Honsal said the girls were trained in outdoor survival through their local 4-H club and that authorities believed that helped them.
They were also wearing boots and had eaten granola bars at some point while they were missing, he said.
'To have a positive outcome like this is just absolutely amazing,' Honsal said.
Using helicopters and tracking dogs, dozens of police and rescue personnel combed a vast and rugged rural area in the frantic search for the sisters.
Several volunteers also came out to help first responders search for the sisters. One mother and son drive 1.5 hours just to help find Leia and Caroline.
Authorities said the sisters (pictured) vanished after walking off into a wooded area near their home
Boot prints and granola bars left behind by the sisters (pictured) were found in the search area on Saturday, Humboldt County Sheriff's Lt Mike Fridley said on Friday
Their mother, Misty (right) told authorities she had only just purchased that same brand of granola bars. The sisters are also pictured with their father during Halloween
Dozens of volunteers came out to help first responders search for the sisters over the weekend
One mother and son drive 1.5 hours just to help find Leia and Caroline
Before they disappeared, the girls had asked their mother, Misty Carrico, if they could go for a walk.
She said 'no' but noticed soon after that the girls were gone. Authorities said the girls were believed to have walked off into the wooded areas.
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said they were notified of their disappearance around 6pm after the mother and neighbors tried to search for the girls themselves.
Authorities were unable to find the girls during their search on Friday night and continued first thing Saturday morning.
The searchers included National Guard members from Fresno and the US Coast Guard, which provided one of its helicopters on top of a Black Hawk helicopter also being used.
Rescuers were hopeful about finding the girls Saturday after they came across prints from the girls' rubber boots and wrappers from the granola bars, Lt Mike Fridley said.
'The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at,' Fridley said.
Their mother told authorities she had only just purchased that same brand of granola bars.
Fridley said he was the one who got to call the girls' mother and tell them her daughters were alive.
'She melted on the phone,' he said.
Honsal described the search area as a vast, heavily-wooded terrain with cold and and sporadically rainy conditions.
On Sunday, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office announced that the girls (pictured) had been found safely after spending about 48 hours in the woods
Authorities were unable to find the girls during their search on Friday night and continued first thing Saturday morning
