LA PAZ COUNTY, Ariz. — A woman found dead in the Western Arizona desert called 911 and gave the operator her exact GPS coordinates, but first responders still couldn't find her.
Amanda Nenigar, 26, went missing in late February and was found dead in La Paz County on March 29.
"This is really scary," Nenigar told 911 operators on February 27.
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Lost in the middle of the desert, Nenigar spent some of her last moments alive trying to explain to 911 operators where she was.
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"Well, that's okay. We're here. We're trying to figure out where you are," the 911 operator responded.
They tried, but ultimately, never found her.
“How could you leave somebody there when they’re begging for help," Monique Varela, a friend, told 12News.
Loved ones said they believe it's because law enforcement was looking in the wrong place.
In the first five minutes of the 911 call, the operator told Nenigar how to find her GPS coordinates using Google Maps.
He said those coordinates placed her near Blythe, California.
Gray Hughes, a true crime YouTuber, said the operator likely made a fatal flaw, writing down the coordinates in decimal degrees rather than degrees, minutes, seconds.
“She gave out as her GPS coordinates. He came up with something 16 miles away over by Highway 95," Hughes said.
Hughes said by writing down the coordinates exactly how Nenigar said it on the 911 call, he was able to place her in La Paz County where she was later found.
He said, unfortunately, by the time he became involved in the case, it was too late.
Friends and family searched consistently until Nenigar's body was recovered.
“Even when I was out there. It like made me take a few breaths because you look at it and you’re just like how can somebody come out here and be found?" Varela said.
Those who helped find Nenigar said they believe all the clues were there from the start, and the coordinate mishap could have cost Nenigar her life.
"It's hard not to think it didn't," Hughes said.
12News asked a California Highway Patrol spokesperson about the 911 call. He told us he had no information to provide at this time.
The Nenigar family created a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses. Anyone who would like to donate can click here.
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