Alaskas 586,000 square miles afford countless ways to get lost, whether by fate or design. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. The great majority of cases involve young runaways who eventually turn up alive, said investigator Bill Hughes, who manages the clearinghouse. In August of that year, Jane and Leroy stopped by Richards trailer. Most of them went to the historic Kennecott Mine near the community of McCarthy at the end of a road that snakes into the southern portion of the park. In 2018, Oquilluks sister Alice Topkok took a DNA test at the urging of the Alaska State Troopers Missing Persons Clearinghouse. Like her, Sewell would like to know what really happened to Griffis. Before taking off, he told friends in the southern U.S. that he "might winter over'' in Alaska, Sewell said. Lemaitre was never seen again. Richards belongings had been moved into a shed. Race officials saw him an estimated 200 feet below Race Point. The letter had been hand-delivered by Captain Andy Greenstreet, the commander of the detachment that covers the Kenai. Chance of rain 40%. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), View craigmedred.newss profile on Facebook, the 46-year-married father of three walked away. He also left a corral at the lodge open. He lives today on the edge of the park in eastern Alaska. Thirty-two-year-old French adventurer Francois Guenot paddled his kayak out of Kamishak Bay on the Gulf of Alaska coast in June 2014 and disappeared along the north shore of Shelikof Strait. It has been tough for the LeMaitre family. One of Leons favorite pictures is of Richard at age 5, wearing fishing boots given to him by his grandfather. ANOTHER Woman Disappears While Out Jogging; California - Lipstick Alley He ended up dead in an old school bus along an abandoned and overgrown road just north of Denali National Park and Preserve. At that point, one would think hed realize Something is wrong here. and then turn around and head back to the area where he came up. And I like beer.. Then in June, the Kufels noticed what they described as a tremendous amount of bird activity in the woods across the street from Richards trailer. Troopers say Chocknok, 84 at the time, had talked about visiting Dillingham 43 air miles to the south, but he never made it on any flights. Heidi worked at a coffee shop; Dolly helped her husband, an electrician, run his business. The Mystery of Why People Go Missing in Alaska - The Atlantic More than 53,000 people have been reported missing in the state since the clearinghouse was established in 1988. "People are swept away in the river and their bodies are never found, so it can't be ruled out," said trooper Mike Brandenburger. Shuey said that the letter had been filed away by a clerk who no longer works for the Alaska State Troopers, and that the agency hadnt adopted electronic filing until 2012facts that she acknowledges are no excuse and no consolation to the families. He preferred to stay outside, on the front steps. Born in Skagway, on the Alaskan Panhandle, she eventually moved to British Columbia. Three months after the Funny River bones were discovered, Shuey and another investigator found themselves speeding through the Arizona desert in the middle of the night to reach Lake Havasu City by morning. . She enlisted the help of other volunteers. The Race Point timers, whod been high on the mountain in inclement weather for more than three hours, were headed down to warm up when they passed LeMaitre. I suspect he didnt realize that the pile of rocks just ahead of time was the turn-around point and instead saw the goat trail and followed THAT until.??? "It was like he was planning on coming back.". Alaska authorities also are sending saliva samples from relatives of three missing fishermen involved in a boating accident a few years ago. A couple of months before he disappeared, Rick made a secret trip to Anchorage to buy Christmas presents for the kids and then drove to a friends house to wrap them, coming home with an armful of ribboned gift boxes. What finally tipped the scales for the investigators seems to have been the skeletons right leg, which showed the markings of an old injury. im sorry for your loss, Pauline. Was it possible that the remains released to the Bennetts and now buried near Lower Summit Lake were those of Rick Hills, and the scattered bones found in the Funny River fire, Richard Bennetts? Thats how people in these parts dispose of garbage, but this seemed far more than the usual amount. The officer there now knew nothing of the case. Dolly seemed to rely on Heidi for steadiness, Heidi on Dolly for uplift. I spent two days with them, going over the investigation, discussing theories, and retracing Ricks last known movements. and dont forget about Nick Begich and co, and all the rest, though they were in flight and not just off on a trailhead somewhere. A few hundred more patrol towns and villages, mere flecks in the landscape. That may never happen. Troopers say Chocknok, 84 at the time, had talked about visiting Dillingham 43 air miles to the south, but didn't take a flight. The search was expanded. Much of the park -- like much of wild Alaska -- is seldom, if ever, visited. About a third work in and around Anchorage, the only Alaskan community that can pass as a city. The two men made the summit, but they almost didn't make it back to civilization. Two families, two bodies, and a wilderness of secrets. She had a high, lilting voice that sounded cheerful even when she wasnt. Robert Hunter, the lead investigator on the case, received the anthropologists findings in March 2006 and discussed them with a superior. They proceeded slowly, scanning their eyes over everything. If he succumbed to hypothermia, of course, that wouldnt help the situation. Keith Mallard, who has participated in scores of searches. Seibold, like Griffis and a host of others gone missing, was an adventurer -- and a competent one. See Photos. There was something about them that stayed with me, growing more vivid as the years passed and I suffered losses of my own. Richards closest neighbors, Frank and Nancy Kufel, retirees who lived down the road, appeared to be the last people whod had contact with him. LeMaitre's 41-year-old daughter, MaryAnne, flew north from her home in Utah to continue the search for another month with the help of others. For a long time, there was hope they might find at least a hint to explain the disappearance. Soldotna, a fishing town of about 4,000 people, sits along the Kenai River in the western lowlands. Sewell grew up in the territory. A jogger vanishes from the top of Mt. Some 80 percent of the Yukon's meager population of 33,900 huddles in Whitehorse, another 285 miles down the highway. He had quietly hoped the man would turn out to be his son, even though troopers had ruled out that possibility the previous summer. View phone numbers, addresses, public records, background check reports and possible arrest records for Jenna Dawn Miller in Anchorage . That means one of every 161 people goes missing in the state, which has a population of nearly 644,000. The next day, he reported her missing. Winds light and variable. It brings every thing forward. He was lightly dressed and moving slowly, but they judged him to be doing fine. Human remains found in 1996 in Central, an Interior community of under 100 northeast of Fairbanks, were put into storage. His voice as gravelly as ever, he told me he was frustrated. He liked to get high on cocaine or pills and then go out drinking all night, and he ran with a crowd of men and women who had been in and out of jail. The legendary Japanese climber Naomi Uemera who disappeared on the descent of the first successful winter climb of North Americas tallest peak leads a list of mountianeers who have gone into the Alaska Range or the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains never to be seen again. The first year was particularly hard on Dolly; she essentially stopped eating, and by the time I met her shed dwindled to about 100 pounds. There were, to borrow one troopers phrase, a great number of equally plausible alternative inferences.. Sabine Duellmann, a German national who vanished soon after landing in Anchorage on a United Airlines flight in 1998. The lower jaw was missing. Jim Miller, 39, left his Anchorage home Sept. 22 in the midst of personal problems, including pending heart surgery. Heidi and Dolly also couldnt accept that he might have gotten lost and succumbed to the elements. And he led the hunt for Griffis. It was a lucky discovery that brought closure for the family. Missing in Alaska without a trace - Anchorage Daily News "We were go able to go back to that year and track him,'' Sewell said. She died last April. That same month, the body of Dr. Liam Walsh was found in Hatcher Pass, about 50 miles north of the states largest city. Why hadnt the police told them about the bones? Rick Hillss skull hasnt been found. Dolly was the talker, the instigator who moved things along. The boots are too big; the tops reach all the way to his crotch. In September 2007, Paul Schoch, a 68 year-old adventurer from Brule, Wisconsin, was dropped off by airplane at 4,500-foot Skolai Pass in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park for a few days in the wilderness. But if theres anybody who could, it would be my son.. For the sake of his family, Rick had tried many times to quit partying, only to be drawn back in. Jenna Miller Profiles | Facebook He was last seen near 3,000 feet on the mountain towering above the bay. FAIRBANKS Alaska State Troopers are trying to find the location of a Fairbanks woman whose pickup truck was found abandoned along the Parks Highway near Healy on Sunday. All rights reserved. (if stored in your account) No. Hed disappeared on a ski outing in November. There are cases like this all over the state. When everyone was settled around the dining-room table, the captain started reading. Brad Broach in a selfi taken above the Alyeska Resort shortly before he disappeared. View all posts by craigmedred. Jenna Miller. Leon, Jane, and Leroy reported Richard missing to the Alaska State Troopers, noting that they hadnt found any of Richards camping gearhis tent, sleeping bag, and mess kiton the property, and that some of his guns were missing too. The mountie still harbors a hope that somebody, somewhere might stumble upon an orange remnant of the survival cocoon, lending at least a hint of exactly where Griffis might have disappeared. Out there, it can go from clear one hour to zero visibility the next, said Peter Atchak, Search and Rescue leader. Within hours, news of the discovery spread from the firefighters camps to the small communities along the Sterling Highway, the road that transects the peninsula. "Once the foliage and the leaves fall off the trees and clear the way, we'll probably put some planes back up in the air and see if we can see anything that way," Megan Peters, spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on July 13, and that was the end of it.