Ground and air searches continued today off the Denali Highway for a missing musher.
Alaska State Troopers say Melanie Gould was last seen Memorial Day. Her truck was found north of her home in Talkeetna on Saturday with no sign of Gould, who has competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race seven times.
Troopers say Gould may have chosen to go off to be alone. But her friends say that doesn't make sense. They say she would never have taken off without arranging to have someone care for her dogs, and would never have left behind her favorite dog, Jane.
Talkeetna Roadhouse owner Trisha Costello says Gould offered to stay late at work on Memorial Day to do laundry, but Costello told her the work could wait until Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The mystery surrounding a missing Talkeetna musher continued Sunday after another day's search failed to turn up any sign of her.
Friends of Melanie Gould have been alarmed since she disappeared last week.
Three volunteer groups, two of them with search and rescue dogs, looked for her Sunday around the Denali Highway area where her light blue Toyota pickup was found the day before, said troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.
"We haven't found any sign of her," Ipsen said Sunday evening after the search ended for the day. "The dogs didn't pick up her scent."
A wildlife trooper spotted Gould's pickup Saturday afternoon a quarter mile off the highway on a mining trail that narrows into a four-wheeler path, Ipsen said. The spot was about 18 miles from Cantwell. The vehicle was towed to Talkeetna and impounded. There was no evidence of a struggle or wreck, Ipsen said.
Gould didn't show up for work at the Talkeetna Roadhouse on Tuesday night, or another job Wednesday at a bakery. Friends are especially concerned because she didn't make arrangements for the care of her team of about a dozen sled dogs.
The last firm evidence of a location was Tuesday, when she bought gas in Talkeetna that she put on her credit card, Ipsen said.
Troopers flew the area extensively on Saturday and plan to fly it again today, Ipsen said. Other searches plan to be back out as well.
At this point, troopers are classifying the matter as a "welfare check."
"She could still be out camping somewhere. We don't have anything to indicate anything bad has happened to her," Ipsen said.
Her friends are plastering the road system with fliers and appealing for help on Facebook.
They say anyone with information should call Talkeetna troopers at 907-733-2256.
"She may come walking out of the woods and say 'what is all this fuss about?' And that's what we always hope will happen," Ipsen said.
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.
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