On September 24, 2005, Michelle Vanek, a 35-year-old mother from Colorado, left to hike the Mount of the Holy Cross with a friend, but she never returned home.
At one point during the trek, she reportedly became tired and stayed back as her hiking companion continued to the peak. Yet, when her friend descended, Michelle was nowhere to be found and remained missing for nearly two decades.
That was until September 2024, when a female search team finally found some of Michelle’s items and her physical remains. But DNA testing didn’t just confirm the bones belonged to Michelle; it also suggested foul play wasn’t involved in her death.
Leading up to her tragic passing, the mom of four resided in Lakewood, volunteered at her local church and a nonprofit for teenage mothers, and had been considering re-entering the workforce.
Michelle was also an avid athlete and wanted to climb a big Colorado mountain. So, when her family friend, Eric Sawyer, offered to lead the way, she took him up on it and set her sights on Holy Cross.
The morning of September 24, the pair drove to the Half Moon Campground before following the 15-mile Halo Ridge Route trail. They ventured to over 5,000 feet of elevation and, as the early afternoon set in, Michelle started to get tired.
She also didn’t have a lot of water or food left and began experiencing altitude sickness. That’s why she told Eric to continue on and reach the peak without her. Meanwhile, she planned to wait and meet up with him again when he headed back down for their joint descent.
It was 1:42 p.m. when Eric reportedly made it to the summit, phoned his wife, and traveled back to find Michelle. However, she was nowhere to be found.
Eric began screaming her name, scouring the trail, and asking other hikers if they’d seen Michelle. They hadn’t, and soon, Eric traveled back to the trailhead and contacted the police.
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The subsequent search for the 35-year-old became the state of Colorado’s largest hunt for a missing hiker in history. The initial quest lasted for eight days, involving dogs, horses, helicopters, a plane dispatched by the U.S. Forest Service, and up to 850 searchers combing the mountain.
“We ended the last day with not a clue, not a gum wrapper, not a boot print, absolutely nothing. How can anyone just vanish into thin air?” one searcher, Tim Cochrane, wrote in a report to the sheriff.
Michelle’s case remained in the news for months, and as time went on, conspiracies surrounding her death also emerged. Some people online pointed to wild theories, like alien abduction; meanwhile, others focused on Eric Sawyer, suggesting Michelle’s own friend had been responsible for her murder.
All the while, her husband, Ben Vanek, was fighting to process his grief amidst the overwhelming speculations.
“Because nothing was found, your brain goes to the oddest things: was she kidnapped? Was she killed and buried? We knew that she would have never left the family. She was too proud of all she accomplished. She just loved her kids, me, her nieces and nephews,” Ben said.
Then, 17 years later, in 2022, there was a break in the case. A ski coach and his son were bouldering in the region of Lake Patricia when they found a hiking boot on a rock.
The ski coach had heard of Michelle’s case, so he contacted authorities, and soon, it was confirmed that the boot belonged to her.
While this find offered a glimmer of hope, though, it also raised more questions. The boot was located on the other side of the mountain, away from where most of the initial search for Michelle had unfolded.
Next, in 2023, another piece of the puzzle emerged in spiritual fashion. Vail Mountain Rescue team member Scott Beebe says, in the fall of that year, Michelle came to him in a dream and stated she “wanted to be found by a team of women.”
Some might’ve written off this occurrence, but Scott, a Lutheran pastor, took it as a sign. So did Michelle’s husband, Ben, who remembers her as a very spiritual and religious person.
So, the dream was shared with the rescue team’s leadership, and in October 2023, team member Emily Brown contacted all 17 women part of Vail Mountain Rescue.
“The Michelle Vanek case had historically been dominated by males. The initial eight-day search… and every effort in between has only been run by males. Personally, I don’t think Michelle wants to be found by a man,” Emily wrote.
This led six women to agree to a renewed search and, in the end, the female-led mission successfully located Michelle’s remains. It was September 2024 when they came across hiking poles, a small backpack, and articles of clothing, all of which were believed to have been with Michelle when she disappeared.
The following month, a team traveled back to the site and recovered even more evidence. This included Michelle’s intact spine and a scapula bone with a necklace wrapped around it. Ben reportedly purchased that necklace for his wife during a Las Vegas vacation.
“When we saw that, we all started bawling,” Scott recalled.
DNA testing confirmed the remains were Michelle’s. Moreover, a fracture to her spine suggested Michelle had fallen. This dispelled some of the rumors that swirled in the years since her vanishing, with the police believing foul play had never been involved. Instead, it’s thought Michelle likely began downclimbing toward the lake in search of more water when she accidentally fell.
“It feels like peace. I don’t try to use the word closure; that means the end. She will always be a part of our lives, but this is a chapter we can now close for Michelle. It feels like a cloud was lifted around our house and family,” Ben shared.
And in the wake of the dream that pushed the female-led team to renew the search, Scott thinks female intuition proved superior, saying, “We let men look for 19 years. Women found her in less than three weeks.”
By Katharina Buczek
Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing in... More about Katharina Buczek
