THE day before Fauna Jackson disappeared without a trace into the rugged and mountainous wilderness of Grand Teton National Park, she posted a seemingly innocent message on Instagram.
Advertisement
“Last day in Wyoming tomorrow!” she wrote on a selfie with other volunteers the day before she vanished.
‘I can’t wait to be home and see everyone. “Today I’m going to be blazing a trail, pretty siked (sic), I love you all a bunch and can’t wait to see all of you soon!”
Grand Teton National Park Superintendent David Vela offered no reason why the girl changed her appearance and fled, but thanked rescuers for their efforts. The details of the incident are under investigation.
An expensive search was conducted involving more than 100 people, including search and rescue, the civil air patrol, sheriff’s deputies, and volunteers. Not only that, the OH teen apparently “fled” from officials when they approached her. They even used infra-red imaging to detect heat sources on the ground.
Mystery continues to surround Jackson’s brief disappearance, but on Wednesday her Instagram painted the portrait of a girl who was excited to return home.
Thankfully she was later found alive and well, yet the girl they were looking for was completely different to the one they saw. And it’s got everyone stumped. She was taken to a hospital for a welfare checkup and placed in protective custody.
And as her rescuers approached, she ran not toward them, but away.
Ms Jackson was spotted just 4km away from her last sighting, near a popular tourist spot known as Snake River Outlook.
Eventually, they rescued the uninjured teen who had cut and and dyed her hair. Why did she walk away?
She had also changed her clothes and wasn’t wearing her other hiking boot.
Authorities haven’t provided any explanation.
“We’re just so happy to have our beloved daughter back”, James Bennett, Ms Jackson’s stepfather, said. Or did she not want to be found at all? They later expanded their search, setting out across the park’s 125,000 hectares, where between the summits and lakes live creatures that can kill.
According to Ms Jackson’s father, the teenager made no purchases on her debit card, nor did she make any calls.
Missing persons posters were plastered near where she went vanished. Ms Jackson’s math teacher, Chad Vahue, told WLWT.
Jackson had been documenting her trip on social media, posting instagram photos of herself at Old Faithful and atop mountain peaks.
Along the photo she added the caption: “Can’t wait to go to Wyoming, it’s gonna be a real blast”.
Fauna Jackson, from Cincinnati, went missing in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park on Thursday morning (local time) after taking a bathroom break.
Advertisement
“She’s very strong minded, very smart, able to handle all the tasks we had over the course of the summer – trail-building, invasive removal, restoration work”, Alan Edwards, with Groundwork Cincinnati chapter, told ABC affiliate WCPO. And she showed a lot of leadership potential’.
