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Alaska State Troopers are looking for Valerie Sifsof, 43, who was last seen at the Granite Creek Campground near Mile 64 of the Seward Highway. Sifsof was reportedly upset when a fellow camper says she left their camp. (Courtesy AST / July 12, 2012) |
Searchers are looking for a missing Anchorage woman who was last seen early Sunday at a campground on the Seward Highway, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers were notified Wednesday that 43-year-old Valerie Sifsof had been camping Saturday with another person at the Granite Creek Campground, near Mile 64 of the Seward, when she became upset and walked away from the campsite at about midnight.
The other camper tried to find Sifsof, who reportedly left behind her keys, identification and cellphone, but left the campground at about noon Sunday. Sifsof was reported missing after she didn’t contact friends or family. Her family says the other camper was her boyfriend.
Troopers’ Helo-1 scanned the area Wednesday and Thursday but to no avail. The Alaska Mountain Rescue Group and MATSAR Search and Rescue personnel are looking with dogs and combing the area in and around the creek Friday.
Since news of her disappearance, her family has been actively searching the area, dealing with the dense brush that surrounds the campgrounds. On Friday, troopers searched by four-wheeler and brought in three teams of search dogs as well as a raft for Granite Creek. Family members began looking in the early morning and coordinated with AST around ten a.m. Troopers said they are making another sweep through the area and will raft down to Six Mile Creek from the Granite Creek Campground
"We are going to continue until we have exhausted our resources here and we think we have covered the area adequetly," Seargent Michael Zweifel said.
Sifsof stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall and has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt-type jacket, blue sweatpants and black boots.
AST spokesperson Megan Peters said there have been unconfirmed reports of Sifsof seen in the Anchorage area, but search efforts will continue.
Anyone with information on Sifsof’s whereabouts is asked to contact AST in Girdwood at 907-783-0972 or the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 907-269-5497.
