Reader-submitted photo.

UPDATE, 11/23: Lost 14-Year-Old Girl and Search Team Airlifted to Safety from Ridgewood Woods

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At least half a dozen people have contacted the Outpost over the last few minutes to inquire about a large police presence in the Ridgewood Drive area of Cutten, and about a helicopter circling overhead with a large spotlight affixed to its undercarriage, shining down on the ground below.

We likely won’t have more solid answers about this until tomorrow, but it seems likely that it is related to a call about a girl lost in the woods that our own “Just-In” of Scanner Traffic Indicates caught just before 5 p.m. today. At 4:53 p.m., he noted:

Ridgewood area, search & rescue, 14 y/o female lost in woods off the end of Berry Ln; HCSO deputy has been on phone with her and it may be an extensive walk; add’l units enroute.

Then, a couple of hours later:

A “Pager 30” broadcast from HCSO dispatch, which is a call-out for the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team. No info is broadcast over the dispatch frequency, but I’m not sure if it goes via pagers, phone, or on another radio frequency. [In 20+ years of listening I’ve never heard an actual dispatch]

We’ll update when we know more.