She’s been missing for nine days, and Alaska State Troopers have now called off the active search for missing Talkeetna musher Melanie Gould.
There have been no leads since June 4 when Gould's truck was found abandoned on a wilderness road more than 100 miles outside of Talkeetna, not far from Cantwell.
For days, troopers have been searching an extensive area off the Denali Highway working alongside search and rescue crews from the Mat-Su Valley, Fairbanks, Anchorage and Healy, as well as Alaska State Park rangers and crews from the Healy and Cantwell fire departments.
“I've been to that exact search area myself over the last few times a couple of times and the terrain is such that you are not going to leave a whole lot of footprints. It's not a field of mud or big snow fields, so I'm not surprised that we haven't found any footprints or things of that nature,” said Talkeetna Trooper Shayne Calt.
Despite her disappearance for nearly a week and a half, troopers say it is still entirely possible that Gould is alive and well.
