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FOUND: Utah woman’s mother reported missing amid California fires has been found

Posted at 6:08 PM, Oct 12, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-13 12:24:03-04

UPDATE: The Utah woman's mother who was reported missing has been found. Cherlene Allen said her mother was found at Walmart late Thursday night. 

She said her mother didn't have her phone and wasn't near a TV to see the news. 

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah - Across Northern California, 26 people have died in the fires. The Mercury News in Sonoma Countyreported Thursday 400 people are unaccounted for.

Charlene Allen's mom, Norma Zarr, is one of those people.

“Somebody’s gotta know something somewhere," Allen said.

Allen lives in Eagle Mountain, Utah but is from the Santa Rosa area. Her mom recently moved back to the area, to a home on East Morris Court.

The area was forced to evacuate due to the threat of fires Tuesday. That is the last time neighbors told Allen they saw Zarr, who left in her silver Honda CRV, which is about 12 years old.

“I’ve definitely gone through the waves of feeling like I’m gonna throw up every five seconds to balling my eyes out to just getting my pen and paper out and doing everything I can to focus and put all my efforts into finding my mom so that she’s safe," Allen said.

Allen still has a lot of family and friends in the area who, despite some dealing with burnt down houses, are doing their best to help. Zarr's house is still standing, but she has not come home despite the evacuations being lifted.

Local police and the sheriff's office are also helping. Allen's sister placed her mom on the sheriff's office's missing persons list. They have checked in on safeandwell.org to see if Zarr checks into a shelter. They have called hospitals. People are sharing the information on Facebook, the Santa Rosa Firestorm Update, and the Tubbs Fire Missing Person Report, but they still have had no luck yet.

When they call Zarr's phone, it goes straight to voicemail.

Allen said her friend, Ann, spoke to neighbors and her mom's roommate and was told Zarr's friend Mindy stopped by to pick up Zarr's phone after she left. Nobody seems to know any more information about Mindy, however, except that she lives in Clearlake.

Any time there has been an emergency, Allen said her mother makes sure to get in touch with her family.

“She always calls one of us, so the fact that she hasn’t called any of us is concerning, and it makes us worried because she has a lot of health problems," Allen said. "That's why I checked the hospitals because if she’s not there then where is she?”

Zarr has arrhythmia, pulmonary disease, lupus, and other health problems. In the last year, she has had pnuemonia twice and had to be on oxygen.

As far as Allen knows, her mother is not currently on oxygen, but with lung problems she is worried her mother cannot breathe with the smoke in the air. She said she hopes perhaps her mother just packed up and went somewhere to escape the smoke.

“It makes us scared that something really bad is wrong with her," Allen said. "It gives us relief knowing that she could be with her friend Mindy, but again, why isn’t she calling us?”

Norma Zarr is described as being 61 years old and standing 5-feet 8-inches tall. She weighs around 150-155 lbs. She grew up in Sonoma County and attended high school in Healdsburg.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Sonoma County Sheriff Office.