Reporter: It was a sunny morning in September 2005 when Michelle Vanek and her hiking partner Erick Sawyer, set out from the Halfmoon Trailhead near Minturn, Colorado. They hoped to summit one of the states’ most challenging fourteeners – Mount of the Holy Cross. What began as a new adventure soon turned into tragedy – an unsolved mystery that has puzzled the Colorado mountain community for almost two decades. Until now. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I’m Katelyn Whitcomb. Today we’re exploring a 19-year-old cold case that reshaped Colorado’s search and rescue community. What happened to Michelle Vanek, the mother of 4 from Lakewood?   

Scott Beebe: “I think what intrigued me about the Michelle Vanek case is that she disappeared so completely. And the search went for; I think it was either seven or eight days, and I was mesmerized. glued to the news, to the paper, wanting to find out, every everything I could because I had climbed holy cross in the other 14ers, and I remember from my initial climb, how could somebody disappear so completely?”

Reporter: That was Scott Beebe, the president of Vail Mountain Rescue Team. Beebe moved to Eagle County, Colorado in 2008, 3 years after Vanek vanished. He was immediately determined to reignite the investigation.

It was early afternoon on September 24, 2005. About 500 feet below the breathtaking summit of Mount Holy Cross, Vanek was trailing behind her hiking partner, Sawyer. Exhausted and dehydrated, Vanek decided she couldn’t go any further. Sawyer decided to continue up the mountain, leaving Vanek to navigate the technical descent back to the trailhead on her own. The two friends parted ways, and this would be the last time Michelle Vanek was seen alive.

Beebe: “We had never had a case where we didn’t find who we were looking for. And this, you know, it just went on from year after year after year, and we’re all saying, how could somebody disappear so completely?”

Reporter: Erika German, the chief of Vail’s Earth and Water Rescue team, decided to join Beebe’s search for Vanek in 2012. After moving to Colorado a year prior, German was drawn to Vanek’s case after hearing how her disappearance haunted the community.

Erika German: “That day, you know, they started hiking on the wrong trail. They forgot their lunch. Didn’t have enough water. It was her first time doing something like that, and he took her on a really advanced route. And then when they did separate, he didn’t give her any sort of map. He just said, “Hey, like, go down that way, and I’ll meet you over there.” So, it’s, like, multiple mistakes, multiple things just had to go wrong for something really bad to happen.”

Reporter: According to the Colorado Search & Rescue Association, approximately 3,000 search and rescue incidents and 400,000 volunteer hours are logged annually across rescue teams in Colorado. Eagle County is home to some of the state’s most difficult trails with the Vail Mountain Rescue team conducting over 150 missions a year. Beebe says the number of searches has been climbing in recent years.

For 17 years there had been no development in the case until 2022 when a hiker and his son stumbled upon the sole of a boot near the Northeast side of Holy Cross. Forensic analysis confirmed that it belonged to Vanek. The investigation had finally reached a turning point.  Later that evening, Beebe had a dream that changed the trajectory of the case.

Beebe: I was in bed, and I woke up, I heard a woman’s voice, and I believe to this day, I believe it was Michelle. And the voice said. I don’t want to be found by a guy. Guy’s got me into trouble, I don’t want to be found by a guy. That’s all it was. And I remember I sat up, I woke up, and I sat up, looked at the clock, it was 2 o’clock in the morning, and I’m going, what was that all about?

Reporter: Beebe assembled an all-women search team urging them to put themselves in Vanek’s shoes.    

Beebe: “When you go into the field, I said, you will run the mission. If guys are involved, that’s great, they’re packing mules. Right? But you gals are the ones in charge. And so here it is. And by golly, Erica took lead, one of the leads, and Emily and a handful of others. And they took it on, and drones, satellite photography, they said, we’re going to do this, and by golly, they did.”

Reporter: Immediately the seven women began studying maps and creating search plans, determined to crack the case. In August 2024, the team began searching gullies, retracing steps and even went as far as hiring a female pilot for their helicopter missions.

German grew restless and began conducting solo searches. On September 13, 2024— 19 years after Vanek went missing– German returned to the mountain one last time with Vail Mountain rescue volunteer Zack Smith. The two navigated a new route until they came across something they feared they would never find, the Belongings of Michelle Vanek.  

German: “Zach saw like a little piece of her red shirt and then I was still traversing across and saw what was her jacket, and then right when I saw that, he was like, I see a ski pole up there, and that was kind of like, well, she definitely had ski poles with her. And when I got up to the ski pole and picked it up and saw her mitten on there, that was, like, the moment for me, that it was definitely her.”

Reporter: Eagle County Sherriff’s office examined the belongings and forensic testing later confirmed the remains were those of Vanek.

German: “We definitely both got, like, probably, like, adrenaline shakes because we were just like, oh, my gosh, can’t believe afterwards so many searches and so much time that we’ve finally found her. And it’s a very, like, steep area with a lot of loose rocks so we go worked our way over to where we could just sit on a safe ledge, and then we called Scott, and we were like, what do we do next?”

Reporter: German made sure she was the one to recover the belongings. She knew that’s what Vanek had wanted when speaking to Beebe in his dream.

German: “I’ve not quite felt a calling like that before… and just wanted to keep going with it. And now, after the Search and Rescue Conference, it’s been pretty amazing because so many other teams are are feeling motivated to reopen a lot of their cold cases and look at things differently and now of the ton of people reach out and, hey, can you work on this case?

Reporter: Local Vail resident Marissa Bates says she thinks of Vanek every time she hits the trails with her dog, Blue. 

Marissa Bates:  “I remember Scott telling me about it when he said he felt it in his heart to put a women’s team out there. It melted my heart, like, it seriously was amazing. Women think differently than men, and they go about things differently, and that maybe could have had an impact.”

Reporter: Michelle Vanek’s story is a reminder for us all to stay safe in the backcountry. With the cold weather months approaching, proper planning and the right gear are essential before venturing into the wilderness.

Beebe: “Being prepared, have a plan that you all agree to. This is, you know, here’s where we are, here’s where we’re headed. Here’s the plan to get there, and if if something happens, you, Mountain’s not going anywhere. You can come back tomorrow; you can come back next year.”

Reporter: Thank you for listening. I’m Katelyn Whitcomb.