American Who Vanished in Himalayas Turns Up 9 Days Later

A California native who vanished during a Himalayan trek has turned up alive in what his family calls a "miracle." Per NBC Bay Area, 44-year-old Samuel Vengrinovich was last seen on June 6 near Dharamsala as he set off on a glacial hike. Sister Natasha Vengrinovich of San Francisco says her brother, who'd been living in Israel and then India for the past decade, last heard from her sibling via text the day before he disappeared. She told KTVU that Vengrinovich had met some fellow hikers and had hunkered down with them at a campsite at Mount Triund, but that he set off alone on a perilous portion of a hiking trail.

Those close to Vengrinovich say conditions where he was hiking were "very harsh," and that Vengrinovich didn't have the right equipment for that kind of trek, per SFGate. Natasha Vengrinovich says her brother had also left his bag and cellphone back at camp. "My mom is a desperate wreck," she told KTVU last week. "My dad is awake day and night. ... We are doing the best we can at the moment, but we are very scared." Then, on Sunday, a big update on the family's GoFundMe page.

"After nine days of intense searching in the remote Himalayas, Samuel has been found alive," read their post. "A HUGE miracle." As it turns out, Vengrinovich had broken his arm during his hike and couldn't make his way back to the others. Natasha Vengrinovich tells the Jerusalem Post that her brother survived for nine days without food or water and "ate insects along the way to survive" as he tried to "[follow] the river to get to Dharmasala village." Vengrinovich is now recuperating at a local hospital, and the family continues to raise funds to pay for his medical bills and other costs related to the search. The GoFundMe had raised more than $67,000 as of Tuesday morning. (More hikers stories.)