Fear of freezing to death prompts two criminals to call 911

Two men trying to evade arrest on January 22, ended up calling 911 and telling officers they were freezing to death and in fear of dying.

Tristen Crossland and Derek Dion were the lone occupants of a car that was pulled over by a California Fish and Wildlife officer on the morning of Friday, January 22, near Highway 50 and Wrights Lake Road when they decided to flee on foot.

Officers from El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, California Highway Patrol (CHP), and U.S. Forest Service were called in to assist after the men ran down into the snowy canyon and crossed the river. During the chase, a firearm was dropped by one of the men and recovered by officers. A search of the vehicle the men had fled from uncovered illegal drugs.

Officers stayed in the area and the two men were spotted by a USFS Officer a few hours later, but they fled back into the canyon and across the freezing river, again eluding capture. The officer yelled to the two men that they were in danger of freezing and to give up, but the two continued to flee into the forest.

At 8:40 p.m., Crossland called 911 and reported he and Dion were somewhere across the river and were freezing to death, and in fear of dying. Because of the alleged crimes the men were involved in, Search and Rescue volunteers were teamed with Sheriff's deputies to locate the men.

The conditions during the search were far from favorable. SWAT Team members spent the night in freezing temperatures while crossing steep, rocky terrain in the driving rain and snow. They searched nearly seven miles of the canyon before finding the freezing men at 9:17 a.m. Saturday, January 23. The SWAT Team found both men suffering from severe hypothermia and probable frostbite.

While SWAT members searched for the men, Dive Team members and SAR personnel had been working in these same conditions through the night, securing a river crossing. Using this crossing, the team extricated the two suspects into a waiting ambulance.

Arrested were the 30-year-old Crossland, a parolee from Eureka, Calif., and Dion, 32, a probationer from Hayfork, Calif., who had four active warrants for his arrest.

Both men were taken to a local hospital for treatment and turned over to Fish and Wildlife Officers for arrest and prosecution.

"You will never see two men so happy to go to a warm, dry jail cell," said the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.