Crews renew efforts in ’06 missing-person case
Provincial government firespotter, 70, disappeared from Hinton-area lookout
Twelve years have passed since Stephanie Stewart went missing from a fire lookout near Hinton, leaving behind little more than a smear of blood on a stair and a pot of boiling water on a stovetop.
But investigators are hoping a new search of the area can turn up clues in her disappearance.
A team of around 100 people, including RCMP and search-andrescue crews from around the province are combing an area near the Athabasca Fire Lookout Tower where 70-year-old Stewart was last seen on Aug. 26, 2006.
They’ve established a command post near the tower and hope to cover 7,970 hectares over the next five days.
During the fire season, Stewart lived at the isolated lookout post about 25 km north of Hinton, working as a seasonal fire spotter for the provincial environment ministry.
A slight woman — just five-foottwo and 105 pounds with blue eyes and chin-length grey hair — police said she was nevertheless an experienced outdoorswoman. She had spent more than a dozen years working as a firespotter.
Robin Slater, a friend, told The Canadian Press in 2016 that Stewart was from Canmore. She described her as a phenomenal woman who cycled solo across Canada and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. At the lookout, she tended a large garden, embroidered, painted and read stacks of books.
Coworkers worried when Stewart failed to call in the morning weather report on Aug. 26, 2006. They attempted to contact her several times before reporting her missing.
An employee sent to check on Stewart found the cabin empty. There was a boiling pot of water on the stove and some blood on the stairs leading up to the cabin. Several blankets, pillows and a gold women’s analogue watch were missing from her room, police said at the time. They don’t believe Stewart fell victim to an animal attack.
Mike Cook, a provincial search and rescue official, said extensive searches of the area were done at the time.
“There (are) no real new leads in this — it’s something that we never let go,” he said “We’ll continue on this as we do many other searches in the province.”
Fifty volunteer SAR personnel from eight provincial teams are aiding in the search, he said. RCMP units, including an underwater recovery team on loan from British Columbia, are also combing the area. Cook said new technology and fresh eyes could turn up something they’ve missed.
For example, they now have GPS that shows exactly where each searcher has walked, revealing areas that may have been missed.
Earlier this year, RCMP appealed for tips in the Stewart case and two other cold cases — the 1983 disappearance of Shelly-Ann Bacsu, a 16-year-old Hinton girl, and Deanna MacNeil, a 44-yearold woman last seen on Nov. 28, 2013 in Mundare. All three are being investigated as homicides, but there is no suggestion they are connected.
Stewart’s disappearance led the province to tighten security measures at its 128 fire-watch towers, according to a newspaper report at the time. Those measures included self-defence training for fire watchers and new two-way radios with panic buttons. Signs that once pointed visitors toward popular lookouts have been taken down, and lookouts with road access now have locked gates.
A government spokesperson said at the time that no one else has ever disappeared from a fire lookout.