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I have an outdoor pond, in my small back yard. In the pond I have 2 red ear sliders, the female is quite big, full grown.
Yesterday morning she was sunbathing on the floating ramp, seemed to be very happy and smiling. At about 9:00 am I have left and came back an hour later, to find an empty pond. I have looked around in the garden, there is no turtle. The pond is under a huge lemon tree, and I have never seen any racoons or big animals in my yard, especially not during the day, except for an occasional squirrel.
What could have happned?
Thanks for all ideas.

is your pond fenced off so the turtle can not get out or did is it open so she could climb out and just walk away, turtles are curious, probably exploring and just wondered off

thats happened to me before too.... is there any streams or swimming pools near you?? if there are maybe you could check there and see

I would check in the mulch of the garden, she might have burried herself.

Turtles are escape artists, chances are she walked away. She may wander back (if she can, and I don't know anything about a turtle's memory or ability to navigate back to a pond) once hungry because she associates you with food.

Check local pools, ponds, bodies of water. Chances are she won't be in the wide open, so look for places of shelter.

Also, keep in mind that her shell is natural camoflauge, and she will blend in, so overlook nothing. Motion is detected better than color, so if she's staying still it will be harder. Is it cold where you are? She may be buried, but she won't be down very deep.

Enlist friends to help, the more eyes the better. Also put out smelly food (tuna, chicken, etc) to lure her back.

That's the best I can do =/ Good luck, please update us as to your progress!

-spike

Did the OP find the turtle?

One of my turtle recently left the pond crawled into a planter with knee high shrubs and buried himself head first. I found him by mistake when I was coiling up my garden hose. I pulled him out and set him there but the next day he was buried in again. It has been a couple of weeks and I can only assume he is hibernating. I have 4 other RES turtles and they are all still in the pond. I live in So Cal so it has been nice and warm........who knows, your may be buried in a planter.......

Turtles hibernate underwater, well most semi-aquatic ones do at least. They won't hibernate unless temperature is below 13 degrees celsius at least.