(May 20) -- A massive search has been launched in Nepal for a 23-year-old Colorado woman who disappeared during a remote nature hike late last month.
ROSEMARY: Following is all the information available from news reports and the website set up by Aubrey Sacco's parents.
It's been months and there's still been no further word on the disappearance of Aubrey Sacco, a young American who left some of her things at a hotel, took a bus from Kathmandu to SYABRUBESI on April 19th, and began the 7/8 day LANGTANG trek in the Himalayas on April 20th. She planned to follow the Lonely Planet guide. She should have returned to Kathmandu between April 30th - May 1st.
We have not heard from her since she began the trek. She is trekking ALONE. Nepali agencies are working on this, including the US Embassy.
If you have any contacts or information to help with our search please eMail both:csacco2700@gmail.comfindaubreyglitter@gmail.com
I learned about Aubrey's disappearance while researching my own trip. (We went to different parks, in different directions.) It's my fervent hope that this young woman has gone totally native and is living in a tea house sharing nak cheese with a handsome Sherpa, but I fear that's not the case. Not to blame Sacco, but having just returned from trekking in Nepal, I can't imagine anyone going off on her own, even on a well-traveled trail. One lazy step can send you over the edge - maybe not into thin air or a dramatic crevasse atop Everest - but perhaps down a grassy slope or off one of the swinging bridges where it's possible that unseen, even a minor injury can turn deadly.
I saw one poster about Aubrey at the airport in Katmandu and mentioned her to our contact at the local trekking company. He told me her body had been found, which was NOT confirmed by anything I've read online since I returned. It would not be the only piece of misinformation the man gave us, so I assumed, like many people, he was pretending to know more than he did. Perhaps he said it to make sure my husband and I stayed on the trail and didn't explore on our own.
There are, of course, theories that she's been kidnapped (where's the ransom request?) or sold into slavery (I may be naive, but does this really happen much? And wouldn't be easier to find a young girl at a bar in Manhattan than on a mountainside in Nepal?) I prefer to think she's drinking a Fanta or Everest beer in one of the plywood "guesthouses" sprinkled along the trails. Or perhaps she's joined one of the monasteries and is making butter candles. I hope so.
Namaste, Aubrey.
Come back tomorrow when we feature guest blogger and fellow adventurer Tim Hallinan, author of The Queen of Patpong, a Poke Rafferty thriller.
Oh I hate to hear a story like this. Her poor family...surely she'd let them know if she was dropping off the grid....
ReplyDeleteAnd this is precisely the kind of thing that keeps me headed to Rome instead of Nepal:)
As a mother of a 23 year old daughter, this story is a tough one.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Ro, I hope she's having tea somewhere, but I fear the misstep on the trail you mention.
The sold into slavery thing actually happens a LOT, but I doubt in Nepal.
It's very attractive blog post "Into Thin Air? AUBREY SACCO, age 23,is MISSING in NEPAL" , my son likes it very much, thank you for your giving out,
ReplyDeleteoh! that's sad news. Once I have lost in Pakistan while I was busy in my trekking trip but that's to our guide who found me after 3 hours. It was an amazing experience.
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