California Desert
California woman Amanda Nenigar died in the Arizona desert after her 911 call was transferred to the wrong state.
(Photo : ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)

Relatives of a deceased California woman say that they are "numb, upset and mad" after their loved one died in the Arizona desert - in part because her 911 call was transferred to the wrong state.

Amanda Nenigar was found dead on Friday, a month after her February 28 disappearance. Nenigar, 26, was naked and lying under a tree - leading law enforcement to believe she was trying to cool off shortly before her death.

During her initial 911 call, Nenigar told a dispatcher her exact location, described her clothing and said that she was standing in a mountainous region. The young woman was stranded in the desert after her car got stuck in a ditch.

The California Highway Patrol initially responded to Nenigar's call but became confused by her descriptions - ultimately searching 40 miles away from where she was likely calling from, according to KPHO.

Days later, when given the same information, Arizona law enforcement uncovered Nenigar's missing car, a mile-and-a-half away from the location that she first gave the 911 dispatcher.

"I don't know why they didn't transfer her to dispatch in Arizona," Amanda's sister Marissa told KPHO. "She gave them her exact location and someone could have went and got her. They could have found her."

After discovering Nenigar's car, law enforcement continued searching the area with dogs, drones, helicopters and off-road vehicles. At the same time, her family became increasingly concerned that she had been kidnapped or human trafficked.

When Nenigar's body was finally found, it was just half a mile from where authorities first discovered her car - miles away from where the California Highway Patrol erroneously began their search efforts.

"I'm just really numb, upset, and mad," Marissa told KPHO. "Who knows what she went through, suffering for that many days out there alone? I just don't understand why she was naked. That's so crazy," she said.

"Whoever that dispatcher was, he failed my sister horribly, horribly."