Kelsey Pittman’s family had already reported her missing weeks earlier when authorities found her car parked outside Death Valley National Park.
Pittman was known to go by “Infinity Jane” or “Jane Jones,” but her family had few clues about where she was — until their search eventually led them to a rugged part of the Sonoran Desert where people prefer to live off the grid.
Pittman was known to visit Las Vegas, but the last time anyone heard from her was in November, when she made contact with local police in Utah.
Besides her abandoned vehicle, there were no signs the 33-year-old was in the Inyo County area, or camping out in Death Valley, Joshua Tree or Slab City.
But now, the search is over. Authorities this week said she was found alive — in Colorado.
“The Inyo County Sheriff’s Office is relieved to announce that Kelsey Pittman has been located alive in the state of Colorado,” the agency said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
Out of respect for her and her family’s privacy, the department said it would provide no other details about the case.
The news closes the chapter on a monthslong search that involved law enforcement agencies in multiple states.
Pittman’s family in North Carolina reported her missing in November.
Inyo County sheriff’s deputies first became involved in the case when they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked near Slab City on Feb. 9.
Deputies found a 2009 Chevrolet HHR with North Carolina plates parked in the area. The vehicle was registered to Pittman. Deputies searched the vehicle and the area but did not find her.
A missing persons investigation was launched. Even her mother came to Inyo County to join in the search, the Sheriff’s Office announced earlier this month in a news release.
The Slab City community is made up of RV dwellers, artists and other bohemians living off-grid.
Conditions in the area where Pittman’s vehicle was found are notoriously harsh, and hikers have been known to become disoriented in extreme heat and disappear and die in the surrounding desert.
Investigators coordinated with multiple police agencies, drone pilots, cadaver dog handlers and volunteer search-and-rescue crews to look for Pittman, until they exhausted those efforts. In announcing her discovery, Inyo County officials thanked search-and-rescue workers for their efforts.
