Missing traveling nurse died of exposure after disappearing on hike in Northern California, report says

A traveling nurse practitioner who prompted a weeks-long search after disappearing on a Northern California hiking trail last month died of exposure, according to officials and a local report.

Ann Herford, a 66-year-old Michigan resident, was found dead on November 30 on a steep hillside near the Arnold Rim Trail in Arnold after going missing in the area two weeks earlier, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said last week. Herford’s death was not considered suspicious.

On Wednesday, the Huron Daily Tribune in Michigan reported that the Calaveras County Coroner ruled Herford’s official cause of death as exposure. Fox News Digital reached out to the coroner's office but did not immediately hear back.

Herford was staying alone at the Best Western in Sonora and was last heard from on November 11, when she had "expressed interest in hiking" during a breakfast with a friend, according to authorities.

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Herford was reported missing days later after failing to show up for work at Adventist Health in Sonora.

Hundreds of searchers took part in the effort to locate Herford over the next several weeks, combing dense forest, thick manzanita and mountainous terrain by air and ground.

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Deputies and search teams found Herford’s body on a 35-degree sloped hillside beneath a heavy tree canopy and dense foliage near San Antonio Creek, north of where her vehicle was found parked on November 12, the sheriff’s office said. 

Family members had told authorities that she enjoyed hiking, though she lacked the necessary skills to survive in the wilderness and would never plan to travel more than a couple of miles at a time.