Missing St. Helena woman found safe

Laci Issel, 33, left St. Helena Hospital yesterday afternoon and authorities are attempting to locate her. She is 9 months pregnant and has other health issues. She was last seen about 11 p.m. in St. Helena. | Buy photos

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Comment

By ALISHA WYMAN
Register Staff Writer

Police and crime coverage

November 21st, 2009

Robbery report on Soscol unfounded

Computer stolen from Volunteer Center

November 20th, 2009

Drug bust after traffic stop

$20,000 in tools stolen at Berryessa

Loan shark sent to jail

November 18th, 2009

Stabbing leads to arrests near South Napa Marketplace

No charge in September incident

Drug bust at Fuller Park

Woman arrested for suspected vehicle theft

Man arrested after violence with bottle

St. Helena coverage

October 31st, 2009

Upvalley recall election set

October 26th, 2009

$8 million donation to St. Helena Hospital

October 21st, 2009

St. Helena schools may ask to extend bond

October 5th, 2009

Coolest thing on four wheels

October 4th, 2009

St. Helena may scrap business caps

Alisha Wyman articles

November 21st, 2009

Robbery report on Soscol unfounded

Storm causes several vehicle accidents

November 20th, 2009

Drug bust after traffic stop

$20,000 in tools stolen at Berryessa

Loan shark sent to jail

A woman who walked away from St. Helena Hospital Tuesday sparked a large-scale search that lasted overnight but ended Wednesday when a resident spotted her 2.8 miles away.

Laci Issel, 33, left St. Helena Hospital Tuesday afternoon. Issel is nine months pregnant and has other medical issues, so law enforcement officials were concerned for her safety, said Napa County Sheriff’s Capt. Tracey Stuart.

A resident picked her up at a car wash on Pratt Avenue Tuesday evening. When the resident went to call police, Issel left.

Issel was last seen when she knocked on another resident’s door at about

11 p.m. She fled again when the residents called for police to come help her.

About 50 Napa County Search and Rescue volunteers, dogs, an airplane, Sheriff’s deputies and St. Helena Police scoured the area starting at midnight Wednesday.

A citizen spotted Issel walking near Crinella Drive and Park Street in St. Helena at 12:05 p.m. and flagged down searchers, Stuart said. A medical evaluation showed that Issel appeared healthy and she was returned to the hospital.

13 comment(s)

sty@mom1 wrote on Sep 9, 2009 11:47 AM:

" Why would this woman, 9 months pregnant, take off from the hospital and police? Sounds odd to me "

Froggie1559 wrote on Sep 9, 2009 11:50 AM:

" Napa Sheriff's Search & Rescue team, along with other teams from around the Bay Area, are looking for Laci. I hope they find her safe and sound. Good luck. "

Froggie1559 wrote on Sep 9, 2009 11:56 AM:

" sty@mom1: perhaps there are issues we don't know about. We're on a "need to know" basis. They're trying to respect her privacy. "

gaslight wrote on Sep 9, 2009 12:33 PM:

" Nixle just reported the Sheriff's Office has found her. "

irishrover94503 wrote on Sep 9, 2009 12:36 PM:

" Napa Sheriff Department just texted that the individual has been found safe. Details I am sure to follow. Has NVR Newsroom received this update? Was sent at 12:31 p.m. "

mc94574 wrote on Sep 9, 2009 12:38 PM:

" Hopefully a safe ending to this story. Thank you to the community members who helped locate her. "

midvalley wrote on Sep 9, 2009 1:27 PM:

" I am glad she was found. A big congratulations to the Napa County Sheriff and St. Helena Police Department for all there hard work. If it wasn't for reverse 911 and Nixle I do not think they would have found her so fast. Good job! "

MarkMiwords wrote on Sep 9, 2009 2:19 PM:

" I am glad they found her, and that she is safe. But just so Ms. Issel knows, the residents of St. Helena received no less than 8 phone calls about this from the police, starting at 2:21 a.m. Those that live near Pratt Ave were woken at dawn by bloodhounds and Search and Rescue teams on the ground and circling around in the sky. The search for her was massive. Once again I am glad she is safe, but I truly hope Ms. Issel will not do this sort of thing again. "

Napagrrl wrote on Sep 9, 2009 2:33 PM:

" I don't know if this will be printed, Register, but I've seen references to other news subjects' MySpace and Facebook pages. For a bit of insight, a simple Google shows that there's a lot more going on in this young woman's life than was (or needed to be)reported. I feel bad for her and her apparent circumstances. "

isar4u wrote on Sep 9, 2009 2:43 PM:

" THANK YOU SAR, as usual your dedication is unsurpassed. Thank you for waking up at a ungodly hour and missing work to locate one of our citizens. I am greatful she was found alive and well. Soon there will be a new addition to the population of St. Helena. Whithout your help this may have come to a different conclusion. "

steph wrote on Sep 9, 2009 4:04 PM:

" Napagrrl, your (all of our) compassion is deserved by this poor woman.
I hope she'll get the treatment she needs, and her baby will be ok. Looks like there are good people taking care of her to the best of their ability. "

Downtown Local wrote on Sep 9, 2009 6:20 PM:

" When living in Deer Park, I had an "escapee" using my garden hose and then asking for a ride into town. The hospital up the hill has a psych ward that rarely has this issue and you don't see it in the news unless they're pregnant and "at-risk". "

shgirl wrote on Sep 10, 2009 1:10 PM:

" napagrrl: i agree with you. the woman has several blogs which are quite disturbing. my heart breaks.

on another note, i am so extremely happy + grateful for the efforts that were put forth to find her safely. good job! "

Join the conversation

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Create an account

Comment Guidelines

The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.

What gets your comment posted?

• Staying on topic

• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less

• Avoiding name-calling

• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger

What gets your comment deleted?

• Personal attacks

• Derogatory remarks

• Name-calling of any sort

• Going off-topic

• Hate speech

• Racially-insensitive comments

• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict

• Posting e-mail addresses

• Posting comments of a commercial nature

• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.

The fine print

- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.

- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.

- Comments may take several hours to be posted.

- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.

- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.

- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.

Search: