Full Notification

On Monday, October 13th at approximately 2:10 pm, Campbell Police Officers responded to the area of Whiteoaks Road and Shelley Avenue on a report from OnStar that a vehicle had been involved in a roll-over collision in the area. Officers began systematically searching the area and used different techniques to locate the vehicle; they had OnStar activate the vehicle’s horn to see if they could hear it and they turned on their sirens at nearby locations to see if they could be heard over OnStar. At that time, those techniques did not assist in locating the vehicle.

During the search, it was determined that the owner of the vehicle, Melissa Vasquez, lived less than 2 blocks from the initial location that OnStar had provided. Officers attempted contact at the address, but no one was home. After approximately two hours of searching the area (CHP also searched Hwy 17 up to Summit Road), Officers received an updated location from Ms. Vasquez’s cell phone of 4th Street in Downtown San Jose (a 7 mile radius). The location information was given to the San Jose Police Department who searched the general area for the vehicle. Campbell Dispatch then broadcasted the information County-wide to make sure all jurisdictions had the information regarding the investigation.

At approximately 2:50 am this morning, we received a telephone call from Ms. Vasquez’s mother because she had been unable to reach her daughter. Campbell Police Officer Dave Cameron responded to the address in Campbell and met with Ms. Vasquez’s step-mother who she lives with. Officer Cameron then began inquiring about whether the Ms. Vasquez had the “Find My Phone” feature on her iPhone. The step-mother did not have any specific information, but knew that she had an iPad. Not knowing where the iPad was, Officer Cameron contacted the cell phone company to determine its location and found that it was in the vicinity of the residence. The step-mother was able to locate the iPad in the home, however, it was locked.

Amazingly, Officer Cameron was able to guess the correct password after only 3-4 tries using his knowledge of commonly used password combinations. After logging in, the “Find my Phone” application was also locked, however, Officer Cameron used the same password to login in. At that point he realized that the location feature on the application was not on. He then activated the “lost phone” feature which then displayed a map of the phone’s location (14555 Mt. Hamilton Road).

Officer Cameron contacted the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and the San Jose Police Department who responded to the address on Mt. Hamilton Road. Officer Cameron was able to take screenshots of the iPad showing the map of the iPhone’s location. He then forwarded the images to the San Jose Police Department Officers on Mt. Hamilton Road who coordinated the search effort. Using the images, the Officers were able to locate the vehicle less than 20 minutes later approximately 500 feet down the side of the mountain.

Multiple agencies including the San Jose Police Department, the San Jose Fire Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, and CHP coordinated a rescue operation including a Coast Guard helicopter that assisted in transporting Ms. Vasquez to Regional Medical Center where she is currently in stable condition.