CO CO - Michelle Vanek, 35, Mount of the Holy Cross, 2005 - Largest Search In CO History

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Missing Woman's Trail Littered With Questions

Michelle Vanek Still Missing After Largest Search In Colorado History



POSTED: 10:53 am MST December 5


MINTURN, Colo. -- Out of water and exhausted near the summit of her first 14,000-foot peak, Michelle Vanek sat down on a rock on a windy September afternoon and implored her hiking companion to go ahead.

It was the last anyone saw of the 35-year-old Lakewood mother of four, who disappeared high on Mount of the Holy Cross in a case that remains an unsolved mystery despite the largest search in Colorado history.

Did she stumble and fall to her death or mistakenly wander down the wrong route, eventually to be overcome by the elements, as searchers speculate? Was she killed by an animal, perhaps indicated by a spattering of blood spotted in the snow some distance away? Or did a mysterious squatter who refused to answer questions from sheriff's investigators have anything to do with her disappearance?

Newly released investigative documents detail the numerous missteps taken by Vanek and her hiking partner, Eric Sawyer, and the exhaustive seven-day search that ensued. But the complete story remains elusive.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/5468911/detail.html?rss=den&psp=news
 
vanek_michelle2.jpg


Charley Project - http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vanek_michelle.html
 
I had forgotten Michelle, but the high country is melting out, slowly, so hikers should keep their eyes open.
 
NamUs Profile

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/show/13019

Case Information
Status
Missing
First name
Michelle
Middle name
Last name
Vanek
Nickname/Alias
Date LKA
September 24, 2005 16:13
Date entered
11/21/2011
Age LKA
35 to years old
Age now
42 years old
Race
White
Ethnicity
Other
Sex
Female
Height (inches)
60.0 to 70.0
Weight (pounds)
145.0 to 160.0
 
http://www.vaildaily.com/news/7637824-113/eagle-county-cross-hiker

"Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness on Thursday."

It's a short article. It states that the Eagle County Sheriff's investigators were
called out there to see if the skull belonged to a person who went missing in that area.
Michelle Vanek went missing in 2005. They haven't determined yet who it belongs to....

That skull belonged to James Nelson, another hiker who went missing on Holy Cross in 2010. Michelle Vanek is still missing.
 
Michelle has been missing for ten years now. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are scary; she was left alone for only a small amount of time by her hiking partner. When he returned, she was gone and despite an extensive search, she was never found. Investigators believe that she died due to a mishap in the wilderness. I hope her family can bring her home soon.
 
I find the following part so odd (and it deserves to be read two times):
At the end of the first day of the search, rescuers encountered a mysterious backpacker coming down the trail who refused to talk. He hid behind a tree and then ran down the trail, Deputy Steve Wilson reported. Others said he defiantly refused to talk with them.

Searchers later encountered a tent with a light on, but the person inside would not respond to their questions or open the tent’s zipper.

The next day, sheriff’s investigators met someone they believe was the same person. After declining to provide an ID, he reluctantly told Deputy Karen Waddell his name was Peter Martin. He was not questioned further, and investigators do not presume he was involved in Vanek’s disappearance.
http://www.denverpost.com/2005/12/03/missing-hikers-trail-littered-with-questions/

So, soon after the disappearance a man with a very odd behaviour, who refuses to talk, runs away and hides.
However that is not the part I find the really odd thing, but how it could be that he was not questioned further, and secondly, how it despite him not being questioned further could be presumed that he had nothing to do with the disappearance??:confused:
 
That skull belonged to James Nelson, another hiker who went missing on Holy Cross in 2010. Michelle Vanek is still missing.

I find the following part so odd (and it deserves to be read two times): http://www.denverpost.com/2005/12/03/missing-hikers-trail-littered-with-questions/

So, soon after the disappearance a man with a very odd behaviour, who refuses to talk, runs away and hides.
However that is not the part I find the really odd thing, but how it could be that he was not questioned further, and secondly, how it despite him not being questioned further could be presumed that he had nothing to do with the disappearance??:confused:
Odd behavior is not grounds for an arrest warrant. So far there is no evidence connecting him to Michelle's disappearance. I am personally suspicious of the guy, but e everyone is presumed innocent under the law.
 
Odd behavior is not grounds for an arrest warrant. So far there is no evidence connecting him to Michelle's disappearance. I am personally suspicious of the guy, but e everyone is presumed innocent under the law.

That is true, however the question is how they could presume him innocent if they did not even question him? :confused:
 
I don't think she was abducted. What applies to them at high altitude also applies to any abductor.

If it's such a hard route and effort to get up and down the mountain without planning and food/water, then how anyone was able to get her off the mountain let alone not be seen is unlikely.

Checking out hiking forums and sites a lot of comments seem to say this is a hard climb compared to others, so weird choice for her first big one. Also makes the decision to carry on after running out of water just appalling.

Trouble with someone killing her is, there are easier locations for someone to do this than just hanging out casually at what I assume was over 13ooo feet waiting to commit an opportunistic murder.

The guy acting strange. Wonder if he came across her gear after she fell and just took it. Then after realizing people were looking for someone missing and he likely had her gear, panicked rather than turning it all over. Tin hat stuff but trying new angles.
 
June 1, 2023 possible boot found Oct 2022!


<<In October 2022, a local man and his son were hiking off-trail in a boulder field when they found a boot. The pair took photos but left the boot where they’d found it. Vail Mountain Rescue Group President Scott Beebe said the man contacted a friend, one of the rescue group’s mission coordinators.

After a team failed to find the boot — the discoverer pointed to the wrong spot on a map — a team and the man went up again and found it.


Beebe said the boot is a distinctive one, and was later identified by the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office as being identical to the boots Vanek was wearing when she disappeared.

The team did what’s called a “scuff search” in the immediate area, looking for any signs of clothing or the hiking poles Vanek was using. That search came up empty.

When the snow is out of the area this year, probably late July or early August, teams with cadaver dogs will head up again.

The area where the boot was found is teeming with animal burrows, Beebe said. The dogs will search as many as they can looking for human remains.

While Vanek’s remains are still missing, the location of the boot gives searchers a better idea of what happened that day. In essence, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.​


Beebe and others are being tight-lipped about the exact location the boot was found. The group doesn’t want independent searchers looking, especially since it’s off any trail.

“You have to bushwhack to get there,” he said.

Beebe said Vanek followed Sawyer’s directions down the mountain, but took a wrong turn.


The searchers, as many as 800 people over the course of the eight-day effort, were mostly searching the western side of the boulder field. The boot was found in a spot that searchers intended to scour on the last day of the search but they were thwarted by about 18 inches of new snow.

Beebe noted that the map notes from the time state that the area was “impossible to search.


Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek has a search grid map from that search hanging on his office wall, a reminder of a case still unsolved.

Mount of the Holy Cross is a challenge even for the experienced, van Beek said. Beebe said just the hike to the location of the boot takes the better part of three hours, and that’s with people who are in shape and know the terrain.

“Look at how often people who stay on the trails (get lost), van Beek said, adding that several people every season get turned around. Most of those people self-rescue, but the rescue group knows the terrain well through hard experience.

It isn’t just Mount of the Holy Cross that can closely guard its secrets. Since van Beek took office in 2015, he said there have been a few sets of human remains discovered. Those remains sometimes belong to people who hadn’t been reported missing.​


Vanek’s case hasn’t been fully resolved.

“It’s all assumption, but an educated assumption,” van Beek said. Beebe’s own educated assumption is that Vanek succumbed to hypothermia. She was dressed only lightly, and overnight temperatures dipped into the low 20s in that week. It’s likely she went to sleep and never woke up, he added.>>
 
June 1, 2023 possible boot found Oct 2022!


<<In October 2022, a local man and his son were hiking off-trail in a boulder field when they found a boot. The pair took photos but left the boot where they’d found it. Vail Mountain Rescue Group President Scott Beebe said the man contacted a friend, one of the rescue group’s mission coordinators.

After a team failed to find the boot — the discoverer pointed to the wrong spot on a map — a team and the man went up again and found it.


Beebe said the boot is a distinctive one, and was later identified by the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office as being identical to the boots Vanek was wearing when she disappeared.

The team did what’s called a “scuff search” in the immediate area, looking for any signs of clothing or the hiking poles Vanek was using. That search came up empty.

When the snow is out of the area this year, probably late July or early August, teams with cadaver dogs will head up again.

The area where the boot was found is teeming with animal burrows, Beebe said. The dogs will search as many as they can looking for human remains.

While Vanek’s remains are still missing, the location of the boot gives searchers a better idea of what happened that day. In essence, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.​


Beebe and others are being tight-lipped about the exact location the boot was found. The group doesn’t want independent searchers looking, especially since it’s off any trail.

“You have to bushwhack to get there,” he said.

Beebe said Vanek followed Sawyer’s directions down the mountain, but took a wrong turn.


The searchers, as many as 800 people over the course of the eight-day effort, were mostly searching the western side of the boulder field. The boot was found in a spot that searchers intended to scour on the last day of the search but they were thwarted by about 18 inches of new snow.

Beebe noted that the map notes from the time state that the area was “impossible to search.


Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek has a search grid map from that search hanging on his office wall, a reminder of a case still unsolved.

Mount of the Holy Cross is a challenge even for the experienced, van Beek said. Beebe said just the hike to the location of the boot takes the better part of three hours, and that’s with people who are in shape and know the terrain.

“Look at how often people who stay on the trails (get lost), van Beek said, adding that several people every season get turned around. Most of those people self-rescue, but the rescue group knows the terrain well through hard experience.

It isn’t just Mount of the Holy Cross that can closely guard its secrets. Since van Beek took office in 2015, he said there have been a few sets of human remains discovered. Those remains sometimes belong to people who hadn’t been reported missing.​


Vanek’s case hasn’t been fully resolved.

“It’s all assumption, but an educated assumption,” van Beek said. Beebe’s own educated assumption is that Vanek succumbed to hypothermia. She was dressed only lightly, and overnight temperatures dipped into the low 20s in that week. It’s likely she went to sleep and never woke up, he added.>>
We are getting into late summer here in colorado. I wonder if that follow-up search in the location where the boot was found has taken place - or will be soon.
 
After 18 years of wondering – of questions whose answers remained frustratingly out of reach – a weather-beaten hiking boot tucked against a boulder in the wilderness south of Vail might finally have solved the mystery of a woman who vanished without a trace
 

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