AK AK - Lael Grant, 33, Sitka, 14 Oct 2012

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http://www.kcaw.org/2012/10/21/search-continues-for-missing-sitka-woman/

by Ed Ronco, KCAW
October 21, 2012 11:44 pm

Family urges help in finding Sitka woman

lael-grant.jpg
 
Does anyone know what they are saying on the ground? I lived in Sitka for 20 years and it is a very small place. Nelson logging road would be one of the few places to dump a vehicle to have it not be found quickly. I just wonder what people are thinking happened?
 
It's heartbreaking that this case is getting so little attention because of the isolation of the town where she is missing from. I'm very distressed about this case and wish that people could get behind it to get more help. This case is easy solvable. There is no way on or off the island except by ferry or airplane, so that means that the person responsible for this is still living among the other few thousand that live there.
 
Based on what I see on the facebook missing page her family is trying hard to find her but there is no media coverage or anything. Frustrating to me can't imagine what her family is going through.
 
The death certificate was issued this past June and Lael Grant has been declared dead; homicide suspected.

http://www.kcaw.org/2015/06/25/lael-grant-declared-dead-homicide-suspected/

A Sitka woman missing for nearly three years has been declared dead. Police are now investigating her disappearance as a homicide.

Other details emerged over the course of three hours of testimony at the inquest. Former Sitka Police detective Jason Sexton told the court about Grant’s involvement with drugs and Sitka’s drug culture. He said Grant liked to hike — often alone — but the Nelson Logging Road was not where she usually went. He had no explanation why her car would be parked there.

Ryan Silva, who is still working as a detective with the Sitka Police Department, was even more direct. “This case remains open as a potential homicide.”

That Lael Grant never left Sitka was also the conclusion of the jury. The three men and three women deliberated less than 20 minutes before returning a verdict. They ruled that Lael Grant died in Sitka on or about the 20th of October 2012, “due to circumstances yet to be discovered.”
 
She looks so fragile, like a child. Her poor kids...I hope her loved ones will get answers soon.
 
Interesting article which mentions Lael

Erika Grant Burkhouse’s sister, Lael Grant, was last seen early the morning of Oct. 15, 2012 driving away from a friend’s trailer in Sitka. Five days later, the car she was driving was found where a logging road came to a dead end.

“We literally scoured the town,” Burkhouse said. “I mean, out the road, up the mountain. When the car was found five days later, then we focused on that area. We searched for two weeks. We just didn’t find anything at all.”

Lund shared her expertise and advised the family on creating its own Help Find Lael Grant Facebook page.
“She truly was a Godsend,” Burkhouse said. “She kind of walked us through many parts of it, even the investigation, and what we needed to do because we had no clue what we were doing. You’re so overwhelmed.”

Burkhouse described her sister as a wonderful person and loving mother, but also a woman consumed by drug addiction. Sitka police consider her disappearance a possible homicide. Sitka is an island; she had no money or means to leave. Her family, seeking closure, filed for her death certificate last year.

“That one has always stayed with me, will always stay with me,” Lund said. “I think I see my own mother in Lael, with the drug abuse, wanting to be sober but just never grasping that sobriety. My mom could have come up missing just as easily, you know, in and out of drug deals.”

http://www.anchoragepress.com/features-cover/accidental-activist
 
Now in NamUs: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Updated Charley Project Link: Lael Marie Grant – The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance
Grant was last seen in Sitka, Alaska at 3:00 p.m. on October 14, 2012. She has never been heard from again.

On October 20, her vehicle was found abandoned eight miles outside of Sitka, along the Nelson Logging Road, in the ATV parking lot next to the Tony Hrebar Shooting Range. It contained her grocery store receipts, her favorite pair of headphones, her identification and other items. Authorities determined it had been there since October 18.

An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of Grant. She enjoyed going on solo hikes, but not in the Nelson Logging Road area, and investigators don't know why her car came to be parked there. Sitka is on an island and only accessible by air and water, and you need identification to board a plane or ferry. Grant didn't have any identification at the time of her disappearance, suggesting she hasn't left the island.

Grant had grown up in Sitka and lived there with her two sons, who are now being raised by her mother. At the time of her disappearance she was under a great deal of stress; she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and her father had died. She disappeared two days after his funeral.

Grant was involved with drugs, particularly methamphetamine, and authorities believe she was the victim of a homicide. She was declared legally dead in June 2015.
 

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