CA CA - Ruthanne Ruppert, 49, Yosemite National Park, 14 Aug 2000

JerseyGirl

Forum Coordinator
Staff member
Forum Coordinators
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
55,637
Reaction score
192,138
Name: Ruthanne Ruppert

Missing from: Yosemite National Park

Date Missing: August 14, 2000

Description: Ruppert was 49 years old when she went missing. White female, 5'05" tall, 140 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. Ruppert has a prosthetic eye.

Case Info: Ruppert was last seen in the Curry Village area or the Yosemite Medical Clinic at about noon on Monday, August 14, 2000. She was scheduled to go on a backpacking trip in the park but had to postpone trip due to an infection. She is believed to have gone on a day hike from Yosemite Falls to the Foresta area based on witness observation. Ruppert's backpack was found in 2008 in the Fireplace Creek drainage, an area consistent with the hiking route from Yosemite Falls to Foresta.

Cold Cases - Investigative Services (U.S. National Park Service)

MP_Ruppert.jpg
 
Per this article - Hope dwindles for finding Yosemite hiker - the infection was in Ruthanne's eye. And above, it says she had one prosthetic eye. So I have to wonder, just how impaired was the vision in her remaining eye? Perhaps she fell or got into some sort of accident because she simply couldn't see whatever danger.
 
Ruthanne's profile on NamUs:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Circumstances of Disappearance
Ruppert was last seen hiking in the Yosemite back country near Eagle Peak. On August 14, she had stated that she planned to hike in to catch up to a back country hiking group which had left that morning but would turn around and exit the back country if she could not catch up to them by 4pm. Circumstances around her disappearance are unknown.
 
Missing person Ruthanne Ruppert was last seen in Yosemite National Park on August 14, 2000. Tip Line printed across the bottom 888-653-0009. NPS image.
Missing person Ruthanne Ruppert
NPS image.

Name: Ruthanne Ruppert

Missing from
: Yosemite National Park

Date Missing: August 14, 2000

Description: Ruppert was 49 years old when she went missing. White female, 5'05" tall, 140 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. Ruppert has a prosthetic eye.

Case Info: Ruppert was last seen in the Curry Village area or the Yosemite Medical Clinic at about noon on Monday, August 14, 2000. She was scheduled to go on a backpacking trip in the park but had to postpone trip due to an infection. She is believed to have gone on a day hike from Yosemite Falls to the Foresta area based on witness observation. Ruppert's backpack was found in 2008 in the Fireplace Creek drainage, an area consistent with the hiking route from Yosemite Falls to Foresta.
 

Ruthanne Ruppert left her home in Florida to vacation in Yosemite National Park in August of 2000. The trip was not an unusual one for Ruppert. She was an extremely experienced climber and often traveled to reach new heights. One of her favorite experiences to share was that she had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and did so with a frozen foot! As other people fretted over Y2K, Ruppert went to the Argentine Peak in Colorado to ring in the new year.

The trip to Yosemite should’ve been a piece of cake for such an experienced climber. Ruppert had planned to be a member of a backpacking group traveling 30 miles across the park. She was devastated when she woke up with an eye infection that caused her to miss the group while receiving medical care. Although she was upset, she still needed to figure out how to spend the rest of her trip. She rented a tent cabin in Curry Village and went shopping. After this, Ruppert seemed to simply vanish.

Her stock of supplies was left behind, not something an experienced hiker would forget. Her family is certain she would not have left them and had no intentions to harm herself. It seems missing that trip was the biggest issue in Ruthanne’s life and certainly wasn’t something she would go to extremes over. After a search and rescue operation, nothing could be found of Ruppert.

Oddly enough, eight years later, Ruppert’s backpack was found in Fireplace Creek, stuck in a drainage area. Fireplace Creek is almost eight miles away from Curry Village. How Ruppert’s backpack ended up there, along with her whereabouts, remains a mystery.[
 
So, she either tried to catch up to the group on her way to Foresta or she pitched a tent in Curry Village and went shopping. Since her backpack was found in 2008 on the way to Foresta, I think she tried to catch up to the group.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
75
Guests online
699
Total visitors
774

Forum statistics

Threads
589,921
Messages
17,927,691
Members
228,002
Latest member
zipperoni
Back
Top