Katharina Buczek
Born on July 26, 1966, Sandra Johnsen Hughes enjoyed the outdoors. In college, she trained to become a park ranger and was extremely experienced when it came to outdoor survival.
By the time she was 54-years-old in 2020, Sandra had been married twice. She was also living and working in Maui, Hawaii.
However, after she decided to travel to California for a solo camping trip in June of that year, she mysteriously disappeared.
It all began on June 26, when Sandra last spoke to her family. She had left Maui to visit Madera County, California, and intended to go camping alone in the Sierra National Forest near Johnson Meadows.
Yet, around one week later, hikers discovered Sandra’s sleeping bag and camping gear strewn about near Johnson Meadow on July 2, 2020.
Then, two days afterward, hikers reportedly spotted Sandra in the area on July 4, 2020. She was reportedly barefoot and had a bruise on her face. But, when the hikers offered medical assistance, she supposedly turned them down.
It wasn’t until July 5, 2020, that Sandra’s abandoned campsite was discovered by authorities between Beasore Road and Minarets Road. Police found identifying documents and contacted her loved ones. They also claimed the campsite looked disheveled, which sounded alarm bells for Sandra’s family.
According to Sandra’s niece, Ashley Macus, this is extremely uncharacteristic for Sandra – who would not leave her campsite messy.
“She’s trained in outdoor survival; she’s trained for it. She would never leave her campsite a mess. Even a piece of litter on the ground would bother her. So, there’s so much that happened that’s just, as a family, we can’t really explain,” Ashley said.
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