Rural Alaska

Massive search underway in Unalakleet for missing woman

A major search was underway Friday -- the third day in a row -- in the Western Alaska village of Unalakleet for a 74-year-old woman last seen Wednesday, Alaska State Troopers said.

Vivian Foote had been walking near her home, as she frequently did. But she didn't make it back.

Her daughter, Sheri Foote, discovered her missing around 2 p.m. Wednesday when she went to pick her up for a flight to Anchorage. About an hour later, she notified the Unalakleet Search and Rescue team, said Middy Johnson, coordinator of the search group. Ironically, Vivian Foote's late husband Robert was one of the founders of Unalakleet Search and Rescue.

Thirty to 50 volunteers mobilized right away and searched door-to-door as well and the surrounding areas, including by the mostly frozen river, Johnson said.

Within an hour, the team was looking for any fresh tracks or breaks in the river ice. They found none of that, he said.

At 5:50 p.m. that first day, the Unalakleet search group told troopers that Foote was missing and that the initial search found no sign of her.They divided the community into grids, looked inside homes and checked abandoned buildings into the night, Johnson said.

The search effort in the Norton Sound village of nearly 700 people now has grown to more than 120 volunteers, according to a post on a Web page for a fundraising effort to bring search dogs to the village.

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Searchers have checked outlying camps, fishing areas and beaches, Johnson said. On Thursday, the day after she went missing, volunteers searched shoulder-to-shoulder on an overcast day throughout the town, moving from the river side of town to the ocean side, where there is open water. On Friday, volunteers again checked the outskirts of town by snowmachine, Johnson said. Troopers said some searchers were in boats.

Winds have gusted to 40 mph with blowing snow and ice fog, hampering troopers' efforts to get to the village. A trooper normally stationed there is off duty, Johnson said. Weather improved Friday and a trooper arrived to investigate what happened and help with the search. Temperatures Wednesday were below zero but it warmed up to the low 20s on Friday.

A 2 p.m. Friday update on the Unalakleet Joint Response Group Facebook page said the effort at that point was focused "on the areas south and east of the village … and the river." Unalakleet, about 148 miles southeast of Nome, is at the mouth of the Unalakleet River.

Volunteers were encountering some overflow but were sticking together to stay safe, the post said.

Johnson said that Foote showed early signs of Alzheimer's disease. A lifelong Unalakleet resident, Foote loves to knit, tell stories and visit family. On Wednesday morning she was seen heading toward her nephew's home and then around 11:30 a.m. walking toward her own home. But her nephew reported that she didn't make it to his place. No one out during the noon hour -- a busy time as people head home for lunch or stop by the post office -- saw her.

Search and rescue dogs are arriving Saturday, Johnson said.

The community was gathering Friday at the Covenant Church -- the search headquarters -- for a potluck, a debriefing and "singing, sharing and prayer," a post on the Facebook page said.

Everyone needed to recharge, Johnson said. Foote's family is beyond grateful for the big search effort, he said.

"It is baffling right now," he said. "We want answers for the family and for everybody."

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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