Missing Riverbank woman ate nothing but ‘2 grasshoppers and a fly’ since vanishing

As Jamie Tull’s parents searched frantically for their missing daughter, the 33-year-old ex-teacher hid out in a dry cow pasture without shelter in rural Merced County for 17 scorching summer days, living off bugs and livestock water to avoid coming home.

The former Modesto school teacher who went missing nearly three weeks ago in Merced County was found Friday morning emaciated and badly sunburned – but alive – on grazing land on the outskirts of Planada.

The three men who found Tull – her father’s employee, a ranch hand and a family friend – said it was “truly a miracle.”

“The reality is, had she been in the field another 20 feet, we would’ve never found her,” said Robert Carpenter, who works for Tull’s father.

Tull, who family members have said suffers from bipolar disorder, was last heard from after she crashed her vehicle July 17. The Riverbank woman was on the phone with her husband, Apollo Tull, at the time of the crash.

She called him in tears, saying, “I’m not going to see you again.”

According to Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, the search for Tull included combing the fields on foot with police dogs, flyovers from aircraft, and the help of the California Highway Patrol. Tull would’ve been found earlier, Warnke said, but she was hiding from searchers.

“She didn’t want to be found,” he said.

Tull was found in a field about a quarter-mile east from the crash scene, on remote private property frequently traveled by mountain lions and coyotes off East Childs Avenue near South Cunningham Road. She was wandering the field when she was spotted near a fence. Her personal belongings were discovered near the water tank, which led to a cattle trough.

During the 17 days since she went missing, Tull only ate two grasshoppers and a fly, she told investigators.

She asked investigators to leave her some food and water and to “go away,” Warnke said.

“Evidently, she’s got some issues emotionally as to why she didn’t want to be found,” Warnke said. “We’ll let the family work through that.”

Tull had good vital signs but suffered from extreme exhaustion and sunburn. She was transported to the burn unit at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, the sheriff said. An update on Tull’s condition was not available Friday.

Reached by telephone Friday morning minutes after the news, Tull’s mother, Sandy Devenport, choked back tears, saying she was “barely alive” and had no further comment.

Since Tull’s disappearance, her family had been working feverishly to find her.

They set up a website, www.helpfindjamie.com, and offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to her safe return.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s detectives were fielding tips from the public. Over the last two weeks, they said they had received no credible information regarding her whereabouts. There were unattributed media reports that she had been spotted in Monterey County and the surrounding areas.

Early on, family members said she might have been in Yosemite National Park.

Detectives continued to treat the case as a voluntary, at-risk missing adult case.

Early on, her husband Apollo Tull and her mother, Sandy Devenport, spoke to The Modesto Bee about the difficulties Tull was having.

They said Tull had struggled in recent months after she decided to stop taking her medication, a decision they said was based on the advice of counselors.

Apollo Tull admitted that he and Jamie Tull had been having marital troubles. According to Stanislaus County Superior Court documents, she petitioned for divorce on June 23.

However, both Apollo Tull and Devenport said she told them she changed her mind and that she wanted to make the marriage work.

Both said she left Woodrow Elementary School in Modesto’s Sylvan Union School District after Apollo Tull said she got “her dream job” teaching at an elementary school in Riverbank. However, he said Tull recently resigned from that position.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Missing Riverbank woman ate nothing but ‘2 grasshoppers and a fly’ since vanishing."