Girdwood is a densely forested area. No piece of headband. While cross-checking records with the state medical examiners office, Shuey learned that Richard Bennetts remains had been found and released to his family years earlier. The officer there now knew nothing of the case. He knew them.. On the day he left home for the last time, Rick had asked two of the kids whether they wanted to come with him. There was no evidence of criminal activity at the scene of the truck, troopers said. Blue signifies thin ice or open water, and green a nearby shelter. The team investigates the missing jogger's final steps and the potential existence of this enormous predator. That means one of every 161 people goes missing in the state, which has a population of nearly 644,000. How about the guy from Anchorage married man with 2kids I believe? dont know how i missed that. The accounts of Richards state of mind, the approximate height of the skeleton, the jeans and sweatpantsthey all added up. . Red means a rough ice road. It appeared, they said, that he sat down on a rock, possibly to rest, and died from a heart attack or some other natural cause. Leon isnt the only one whos had that idea. They took over the search, but did not call in an Alaska Air National Guard Pavehawk helicopter with sophisticated, heat-sensing technology until the next day. It is hard the family and friends of all of the missing who live with never knowing. Spread across almost 38,000 square miles of mountaintops, glacier ice, forests and slopes thick with brush, the Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek World Heritage Site is larger than the state of Maine and far wilder. Mounties found where Griffis paid for a bus ticket north. Heidi worked at a coffee shop; Dolly helped her husband, an electrician, run his business. Jane felt her heart pound. He lives today on the edge of the park in eastern Alaska. A few were marked for Jane, with whom Richard had always been close. 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. 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. I still couldnt believe he would take his own life. One can only hope the Broaches find closure. Im sure shes up there with him sitting on that ledgein that beautiful state! But the search for Griffis was especially difficult. From the air, it was easy to see why Alaska attracts certain kinds of peoplenot just loners and misfits but explorers and adventurers as well, anyone drawn to wild, wide-open spaces. No one has ever been able to figure out what happened to him. There have been random searches for Michael almost ever since by people who come to the mountain with their own guesses as to where he might have gone. Richard wouldnt do that. Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee is about a 20th the size, yet it attracts 134 times as many people every year. you can contact the editor directly at craigmedred@gmail.com. They felt bound to him by circumstance, and by their shared experience of a grief few others could understand. 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. Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com. Sincerely, Colonel James Cockrell, Director, Alaska State Troopers.. Searchers were on Marathon where the race took place within hours once his wife alerted race officials hed yet to come down long after he was expected to do so. Sewell is now a mountie in northern Manitoba, but in 2007 he was the official Canadian government presence in Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, a wide spot along the Alaska Highway just across the U.S. border in Canada, northeast of the Wrangell Mountains. They were startled to find the trailer completely cleaned out. Some on the list are thought to be victims of foul play. Last year the Justice Department awarded a two-year, $1.75 million grant to the Nation's Missing Children Organization and Center for Missing Adults, a clearinghouse that works with authorities. Rick may have re-injured his leg when his Dodge plowed into the snowbank. You guys better look at this, she said. But it was aided by the fact Schoch died in one of the few areas of Wrangell-St. Elias accessible enough to attract people. She talked about how her family had searched and agonized for 10 years, only to find out that Ricks ashes were buried above a lake they drove past all the time on their way to Anchorage. It was a rainy and cold July day. Alaska Offers Countless Ways to Vanish - Los Angeles Times The body of Nephi Soper, who went missing in the Chugach Mountains above Anchorage in February, was found on an iceberg in Taniana Lake in June. "He finally agreed to call his mother when I told him, 'Look, if you don't call her, I'll have to file a big report.'". Because of senility, he might have set out on foot, only to encounter a bear or fall into the nearby Nushagak River, although a thorough search of the area turned up no sign of either. They were there to watch runners trudge 3,022 feet from near sea level on Resurrection Bay to Race Point visible high above the city, before turning and charging back downhill to race past the crowds along Fourth Avenue. Ben Sewell of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His voice as gravelly as ever, he told me he was frustrated. Alaska State Troopers were notified. Theres Maryellen McMillin, who disappeared from her Fairbanks home with her green Subaru station wagon in November 1998. Searchers in aircraft repeatedly combed the route from his drop off to the summit. Disappearance on Mount Marathon On July 4, 2012, runners gathered in Seward, Alaska, for a three-mile trail race up the mountain that looms 3,000 feet over Resurrection Bay. In Anchorage, the statewide coordinator of search-and-rescue at the time, Lieutenant Craig Macdonald, had told me about some recent cases, including that of Rick Hills. She was at home when I visited, only partially lucid, so I spent two days with Leon at the house of his sister, Jane Potter, who lives down the street. Until 1 a.m., the date claimed that he searched for her. At right is a photo of. That same month, the body of Dr. Liam Walsh was found in Hatcher Pass, about 50 miles north of the states largest city. LeMaitre was the final, back-of-the-pack competitor in that race. Richards belongings had been moved into a shed. Then hed wandered onto an abandoned airstrip, and there his footprints ended. But intensive searches turned up no sign of the experienced outdoorsman other than unconfirmed sightings. They found no sign of LeMaitre. He remains missing. See Photos. Like her, Sewell would like to know what really happened to Griffis. All he could do from Arizona was check the news from Alaska every day for updates on the Funny River bones. He might have eaten poison berries, by accident or by designthe location was ideal for someone who wanted to vanish, and Alaska is famous for attracting dropouts, runaways, and end-of-the-roaders who wish to conduct a life, and sometimes a death, in isolation. Eric Miller knows his brother went into the Chugach National Forest and disappeared. Keith Mallard, who has participated in scores of searches. In 2018, Oquilluks sister Alice Topkok took a DNA test at the urging of the Alaska State Troopers Missing Persons Clearinghouse. At left is LeMaitre's driver's license photo. In June 2014, soon after the discovery of the Funny River bones, Shuey asked for a list of people in the area whod gone missing in recent years. "He was so unique because of that pod thing,'' said Thompson, now a ranger stationed in the isolated Alaska coastal village of Yakutat, population 600, near the southern edge of the 13.2-million-acre park -- a park bigger than the nation of Switzerland, but far more rugged. The letter had been hand-delivered by Captain Andy Greenstreet, the commander of the detachment that covers the Kenai. Alaska authorities never paid him much notice. @RedBalloonBooks. So it wasnt until crew members found a human skull that they stopped to consider that the pieces might go together. Many were runaways who eventually returned home, but some were people who will never be seen again. Disappearance on Mount Marathon - Outside Online As I left to catch my flight home, they were bent over a map on the dining-room table at Dollys house, discussing the logistics of dragging the Kenai River. Somewhere in the northeastern corner of this vast, unoccupied region are believed to be the bones of Richard Lyman Griffis from Spokane, Washington, by way of Oregon, California, New York and Florida. Wipert's body is still out there somewhere along with that of Griffis. The clearinghouse is a repository of data submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout the state. MISSING IN ALASKA Clip - Killer Mermaids? (2020) History Channel That means one of every 161 people goes. ANOTHER Woman Disappears While Out Jogging; California Mother of Two is Missing as Police Discover Her Cell Phone in a Wooded Area Discussion in 'Missing Persons Forum' started by ProperGent36, Nov 6, 2016. He adored them; he had nicknames for each of them and took them fishing every chance he got. At the time, Luciana was the highest unclimbed summit in North America. Then they noticed some bones scattered across a wide grassy area. "He contacted my sister regarding his expedition fall '06 It is surmised his cancer, which had been in remission, had returned and this walk in the woods and down river was to defy the odds. Sewell, when tracked down, confessed he didn't remember a whole lot. Volunteers were flown in to comb the area on foot. "One man didn't want to be found," Hughes said. They didn't worry about him for months. Dolly and Heidi ruled out suicide: Rick had never shown any inclination, and they didnt believe he would abandon the children, who were 5, 9, and 13 at the time. His body is believed to be entombed in a glacial crevasse in a remote corner of the 49th state that once came close to claiming one of the most storied mountaineers in Alaska history. His patched together boat was found on a beach at Cape Douglas. Dolly and Heidi contacted Leon shortly after getting the news. Vast wilderness is what attracted Griffis to Alaska in the same way it did McCandless before him. "Information is so hard to track, especially for missing adults," said Kym Pasqualini, director of the Phoenix-based center. Eric Miller wrestles with opposing theories about his brothers disappearance. Heidi and Dolly also couldnt accept that he might have gotten lost and succumbed to the elements. When I first met Dolly, in January of 2005, her son Richard Thomas Hills had been missing for almost a year. It was like he was planning on coming back.. She and Dolly took turns filling me in. The medical examiners office released the remains, and the Bennetts had them cremated. "Rich (was) always creative, wrote, created and invented," said Narkowich. 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. Log In. They found what was left of him in the spring of 2014. There are a number of theories about what causes the disappearances, ranging from local . Nothing. Shuey spent 14 years as a trooper in the field. "We were go able to go back to that year and track him,'' Sewell said. The Alaska State Troopers announced that they were able to positively identify a body that had been classified as missing for 32 years with the use of DNA evidence. The truck was registered to Luann Miller, 51, of Fairbanks. Two years after 68-year-old Paul Schoch from Brule, Wisconsin disappeared in 4,500-foot Skolai Pass in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, hikers discovered his remains about 12 miles from where park rangers had earlier found his campsite. The two women came to believe she was closer to the truth about what had happened to Rick than anyone else, certainly closer than the Alaska State Troopers. His remains were found near Edna bay almost 12 years to the day of his disappearance. He left bacon in the sink thawing out, Striker Overly, a hunting guide from Tok, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner at the time. He was clean-shaven with light-brown hair and glasses. The samples could provide a DNA link to the missing. They tracked him to where he'd been dropped off by the bus along the Alaska Highway. Less than six years after Griffis went missing, 66-year-old Michael LeMaitre of Anchorage left the coastal community of Seward along with hundred of other runners competing in the annual Mount Marathon race. They were things he knew we could use, Jane told me. 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? or. The hike of roughly 30 miles he planned from a cabin where he was staying along the upper Ambler River to the village of Kobuk, where he planned to catch an airplane flight back to join his wife in Wisconsin, should not have been a problem. Dolly and Heidi had obtained a thick stack of official case files, many of them marked privileged. The lower jaw was missing. That outcome would lessen the agony for the Bennetts, and the humiliation for the State Troopers. "Missing in Alaska" Alaska's Birds of Slay (TV Episode 2015) - IMDb But it didn't. Top 8 creepiest unexplained disappearances - Sharing Alaska But the troopers didnt make the connection. The man may have gotten lost and frozen to death. My brother Patrick chambers was listed in your missing article. 2023 Anchorage Daily News. But we may never get to know what happened to him.. There are others. no, but there were indications in that case he might be having some personal issues. What finally tipped the scales for the investigators seems to have been the skeletons right leg, which showed the markings of an old injury. The late Bradford Washburn -- the famed director of the Museum of Science in Boston who died at the ripe, old age of 96 at his home in Lexington, Mass. Before taking off, he told friends in the southern U.S. that he "might winter over'' in Alaska, Sewell said. Investigators had traced the Samsung phone to Beaver, but theyd decided to wait this time for DNA confirmation before releasing the bones to his family. They found nothing. People are swept away in the river and their bodies are never found, so it cant be ruled out, Trooper Mike Brandenburger said. Id never heard of the Funny River, much less the fire that had ravaged the Kenai. If a truck came along and ran me over, I wouldnt care, she said under her breath. For Leon, Bette, and Richards two sisters, the ceremony marked the end of a nightmarish year. They said it was because they didnt put their reports in computers then, Dolly said. Of those, three were also involved in the Richard Bennett case. First thing I noticed, it had Levis on. Clearly something catastrophic happened to him. Either he died in the Alaska wilderness or he ran away -- or both. I spent two days with them, going over the investigation, discussing theories, and retracing Ricks last known movements. Dolly was the talker, the instigator who moved things along. Jenna Miller. The medical examiners office ordered a round of expedited DNA tests. I really hope that people will continue to search up there for Michael and eventually solve this very strange puzzle. They interviewed friends and acquaintances police had overlooked. In the two weeks immediately after his disappearance, a small army of people scoured the rain-forest-covered mountainsides around the resort of community of Girdwood, but they found nothing. Hed lost a son, thought hed found him, and lost him again. Find your friends on Facebook. The boots are too big; the tops reach all the way to his crotch. 2015. He let Heidis question hang in the air. Fewer than 70,000 people traveled to Wrangell-St. Elias in 2013. The next day, he reported her missing. After about a quarter mile, hed come upon a house and walked up to the back porch, perhaps hoping to find help. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Seventy-one-year-old Jerry Warner from Missouri was missing for more than a year before his body was found along Willow Creek just upstream from the busy George Parks Highway.