Re: Three Missing Sisters Found After Multi-Day Search

A large-scale, multi-day search for three missing sisters began on Tuesday, July 7th, after the girls’ mother notified Grand Teton National Park that they were overdue from a backpacking trip in the Teton area. Concern for their welfare mounted after they failed to meet their mother for a planned rendezvous in Chicago before a flight to Switzerland.

Rangers initially combed parking lots, trailheads and developed areas in the park to locate the vehicle in which they were traveling, but failed to find their SUV. On Wednesday, July 8th, the search expanded beyond Grand Teton, and the Teton County sheriff took over as the SAR incident commander after the girls’ SUV turned up at a trailhead on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, about 30 miles south of Jackson, Wyoming.

A total of 43 Grand Teton National Park personnel, along with a Teton Interagency contract helicopter, joined additional Teton County and Bridger-Teton National Forest searchers during the extensive search effort that lasted all day Wednesday and well into Thursday morning. Search personnel consisted of ground crews, dog teams, riders on horseback, and the interagency helicopter. Crews focused on nine search areas south-southeast of the Jackson area in the Gros Ventre Wilderness of Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The search for three missing sisters culminated when they were found at 10 a.m. on July 9th after a helpful tip from an area outfitter redirected the search effort. Megan Andrews-Sharer, 25, and her sisters Erin, 22, and Kelsi, 16, were spotted by searchers during a reconnaissance flight over a remote area in upper Horse Creek drainage, approximately seven miles west of where their vehicle was found on July 8th at the Swift Creek trailhead.

The hikers were cold, wet, and hungry but otherwise healthy, having spent several rainy and chilly nights in the backcountry. The girls left with appropriate clothing, a tent, sleeping bags, a water purifier, and other equipment for their multi-day trip, and these provisions allowed them to survive their unexpected situation. By staying together, using their tent, and rationing their food, they were able to wait for help to arrive. Shortly after they were spotted, the girls were flown to the Swift Creek trailhead and reunited with their father.

Searchers later learned that the three girls lost the trail on July 4th and decided to stick together and stay put in an effort to be more easily found and to not get into further trouble. This decision greatly increased their odds of being found. Their one significant mistake was not telling anyone what trailhead they were leaving from and their intended route. Finding the SUV at the trailhead proved to be helpful because it reduced the search area from the 3.7 million acres and every highway between Jackson, Wyoming and Chicago, Illinois, to a search area of roughly 100 square miles.

The Andrews family gave a final press conference on July 10th in Jackson, which was well attended as this incident attracted both local and national media attention. The girls’ father wanted an opportunity to meet the agencies involved in the search and to thank them in front of the media. He specifically and favorably noted the support and substantial participation by NPS staff during the press conference.

Their press conference: