North Carolina woman found alive months after car found near Death Valley

By Kerry Breen
July 25, 2025 / 2:05 PM EDT / CBS News

A missing North Carolina woman was found alive in Colorado more than eight months after her disappearance. … Kelsey Pittman's family last spoke to her in November 2024, the Inyo County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Inyo County is home to California's Death Valley National Park. Pittman was 33 at the time.

Pittman was last seen in St. George, Utah, on Dec. 2, 2024, according to her profile in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NAMUS.

On Feb. 5, 2025, deputies from the Inyo County Sheriff's Office and the National Park Service were called to a remote area of Death Valley after receiving a report of an abandoned car on private property, the sheriff's office said on social media. Death Valley is about 260 miles from St. George.

The area where the car was located is commonly used by campers during the winter months, the sheriff's office said. Officials confirmed the car, a 2009 Chevrolet HHR with North Carolina plates, was registered to Pittman.

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