Yosemite’s Most Mysterious Disappearance: Stacy Arras

…

As she walked out of the cabin, George noticed that his daughter was wearing her flip-flops, so he told her to change into her hiking boots instead, which she did.

When Stacy left the cabin, she was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and a windbreaker.

She also took a small Olympus camera, which she was using to document her trip in some way or another.

She would end up going on this journey with a man named Gerald Stewart.

Gerald was somewhere in his 70s.

Some sources say 70, and some say 77.

All indications are that they really didn’t know each other all that well and likely met well on this trip.

It’s assumed that George was okay with his presence, but we really don’t know that either.

Moving on, Stacy wanted to get some good pictures of the nearby Sunrise Lakes, so she started asking people for directions.

Eventually, wrangler Chris Grimes set them on the correct path, so Stacy left the camp with her chaperon Gerald, and the two began heading off towards the Sunrise Lakes.

The hike to the lakes is a pretty easy mile and a half around a ridge with minimal elevation change.

The duo had been hiking for a short while—reportedly about 20 minutes—when Gerald became winded and needed to stop.

Stacy told him that she was going to continue on towards the lakes and take her pictures.

She then left on her own.

Back at camp, Chris Grimes was tending to his horses in a corral when he looked towards the ridge.

He reportedly saw Stacy standing on a rock and gazing into the distance.

It is possible he was the last person to see her alive.

Mr.

Grimes went back to work in the corral, never imagining that anything would go wrong.

Gerald Stewart, when he was done catching his breath, continued on down the trail towards the Sunrise Lakes, expecting to encounter Stacy at some point.

Instead, he eventually ran into another group of three hikers.

He asked them if they had passed Stacy on their way up.

They said they hadn’t.

It was likely this point when Gerald realized something might be wrong.

Of course, it must have also crossed his mind that Stacy left the trail at some point to go photograph one of the lakes, as you really have to leave the trail to get up close to the lakes or get a better vantage point on them.

What actions Gerald took to find Stacy after running into the hikers is unknown, but he eventually made his way back to camp to report to Stacy’s father that she was missing.

Staff from the Sunrise High Sierra Camp were the first to get out there and start searching.

This makes sense, as the situation was still developing.

Stacy could have just decided to walk around one of the lakes, so they went out looking for her, but of course, that was unsuccessful.

Once they realized that Stacy was truly missing, they decided to get park rangers involved in the search.

The official search began on July 18th, with many park personnel, professionals from nearby cities and counties, and volunteers.

Well over 100 people were involved in the search on certain days.

In one example, there were 80 people walking around on foot, eight dog teams, and three helicopters.

The National Guard brought in a 30-member Sierra Madre search and rescue team.

The search focused on the area around the Sunrise Sierra Camp and the Sunrise Lakes.

Searchers reportedly scoured a 5-mile area using grid patterns.

The lakes in the area were searched by rangers in the event that Stacy fell in and drowned.

Other teams used ropes to rappel down rock faces or climb up them.

The entire area was described by some people as a war zone because of all the personnel and helicopters flying overhead.

When it comes to the terrain, they told reporters that it is barren except for the lake and strewn with giant granite boulders and pocked with steep ravines.

Nighttime temperatures, even in the summer, were near freezing.

Still, park rangers remained along the trail at night in case Stacy were to turn up.

On July 20th, the use of helicopters was scaled back as search coordinators felt that most of the area that would be coverable by air had already been completed over the prior few days.

From that point, ground searchers became the main focus.

On July 22nd, almost a week into the search, operations began to be scaled back.

Up to this point, nothing had been found at all.

The park service’s Linda Abbott called the situation unusual, saying, “We usually find some trace.

” She added that there are many nooks and crannies and ravines in that area, and it’s impossible to look everywhere.

“If we haven’t found any trace by dark, we’ll be forced to reduce the search to just a few men looking on a casual basis.

”

On July 26th, the search for Stacy Arras was officially called off.

At this point, there was no reason to believe that Stacy could be lost and still alive.

Park ranger Tom Haaker stated, “It’s just like she vanished.

There are no tracks or no clues.

It’s a complete mystery.

” Some searchers tried to explain the outcome by saying that there were countless places where someone could slip and fall into a crevasse, or if she was injured, she could have crawled under a ledge or into a hollow.

Besides that, K9 handlers said that the lack of typical summer thunderstorms may have hampered the search dogs, as conditions throughout were always dry and dusty, and dogs were unable to pick up scent.

In total, over 8,000 man-hours were expended on the search for Stacy, and over 50 hours in helicopter time.

The cost was somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000.

It was a huge search effort, one of the largest in the history of the park.

Stacy’s mother, Carol, said of the search, “The tough part is not knowing.

You would have thought that some trace of her would have shown up.

Perhaps her faded blue blouse, a windbreaker, at least something.

” Searchers felt much the same about the outcome, saying, “We didn’t even find a gum wrapper,” perhaps referencing the fact that Stacy was known to possibly be carrying chewing gum and also cigarettes.

The ’80s were a different time.