A donation made last year to equip the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team with eight new e-bikes paid off last week, as they turned out to be instrumental in successfully locating a 74-year-old man with Alzheimer’s who was missing for roughly 24 hours after walking away from his Cedar Ridge home Wednesday morning.
Dan Iwata was found alive Thursday morning by two Search and Rescue Team volunteers who were riding on e-bikes, which were purchased in January 2025 with a $56,000 grant from the Sonora Area Foundation.
“Thank you to everyone who supported the Tuolumne County Sheriff Search and Rescue fund that enabled the purchase of these e-bikes,” the foundation said in a statement. “We’re so happy the bikes helped searchers find Mr. Iwata and that he’s safe and sound.”
The Sheriff’s Office released more details Thursday evening about the overnight search for Iwata.
Sheriff’s deputies first received a report about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday that Iwata had gone for a walk from his home in the Broken Bit Road area of Cedar Ridge earlier that morning and had not returned.
Deputies initially began searching the surrounding areas on foot and in vehicles but were unable to locate Iwata, so the Search and Rescue Team was called to assist.
The Sheriff’s Office also activated its Unmanned Aerial Systems team to search for Iwata with a drone, asked the California Highway Patrol to issue a Silver Alert, and contacted the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to coordinate mutual-aid resources for continued search Thursday.
Search and Rescue Team members resumed searching Thursday morning using quads, side-by-side utility task vehicles, e-bikes and a K-9 dog. The CHP also assisted with a helicopter, while the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office provided an additional K-9.
As concern continued to mount, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office was preparing to launch its helicopter, and additional search-and-rescue resources were on their way from Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Nevada counties, when Search and Rescue volunteers Levi Cover and Diana Rapa discovered Iwata while riding e-bikes.
Iwata was found alert and was evaluated by medics at the scene before being transported to Adventist Health Sonora for further medical examination, the Sheriff’s Office said, though his condition as of Friday wasn’t available.
The Sheriff’s Office thanked the CHP, Cal OES, and sheriffs’ offices in Calaveras, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, and Nevada counties for the support each provided in the search, along with community members who shared information and reported possible sightings.
“We would also like to extend our utmost thanks to the Sonora Area Foundation for the donation that enabled the TCSAR team to purchase E-bikes, which were instrumental in this successful outcome,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
The Search and Rescue Team’s Trek brand Rail 9.7 Gen 4 e-bikes are battery-powered mountain bikes that allow team members to go farther, faster and quieter than ever before when they have to look for people in urban, suburban and wilderness environments.
Money for the e-bikes was raised by the Sonora Area Foundation in the wake of a series of high-profile searches for missing people in summer of 2024, during which the team used e-bikes loaned to them by agencies outside of the county.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Oliver, a Search and Rescue Team coordinator, previously told The Union Democrat that e-bikes extend the range and speed of searches by allowing searchers to access trails and areas they would not otherwise be able to reach on larger, gas-powered vehicles, including those known as side-by-sides, quads, and all-terrain vehicles.
Tuolumne County’s search and rescue team since 1975 has been responding to “calls of all kinds, in all seasons, and at all hours,” and it’s one of the oldest in continuous service in the state, the agency’s website stated.
The team consists of more than 30 volunteers who often risk life and limb to help others in need, the website stated. They respond to an average of about 50 calls per year, as well as provide mutual aid to agencies in other counties.
While the team receives support from the county Sheriff’s Office, it’s largely funded through donations to the nonprofit Central Sierra Search and Rescue Inc. from individuals, groups and businesses in the community.
