Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Search in Nepal Heats Up for Missing US HikerUpdated: 1 hour 14 minutes ago

David Lohr
 Contributor

AOL News (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.

The family of Aubrey Sacco recently traveled to Nepal to join in the search, but the sheer scale of the search area, combined with a shaky government infrastructure, is making the effort difficult.

"They are looking at roughly 80 different trails that she could have taken," Sacco family spokeswoman Aileen Barry told AOL News. "Not only that, but there is supposed to be a big government strike starting on Monday. If that happens, everything will be shut down, and the army and local search teams will no longer be able to help with the search."
 
Sacco was last heard from on April 20, when she set out on a weeklong hike in the Langtang Valley just south of the Tibetan border.

According to Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide publisher in the world, the area is "relatively isolated" and consists of "picturesque alpine wilderness and affords brilliant views of the mighty peaks of Langtang and Ganesh, as well as a sprawl of endless 6,000m+ summits."

Sacco was familiar with the area and had gone hiking there in the past. "She is no stranger to traveling," Barry said. "She has been traveling her whole life, and she is a very free spirit."

After graduating from the University of Colorado last year, Sacco, a talented artist and photographer, decided to spend some time traveling the world before determining which direction to go in her life. That journey began in December in Sri Lanka, an island country in South Asia. At the request of her family, Sacco chronicled her journey on a personal blog titled Glitter the World: Spreading the Sparkle One Country at a Time."

"I am currently on a five-month journey through Sri Lanka and Southern India," reads an introductory post on Sacco's blog. "I will be in Sri Lanka for one month, teaching yoga. ... I will then be spending my remaining time in India."

The last blog entry was made on April 15, just five days before Sacco's disappearance. In it, she wrote, "In India I have come to understand that the most incredible experiences are of something beautiful, magic, unique or rare."

Sacco's life-changing trip was nearing its end. On the day she went missing, she called her parents and updated them on her adventures and her plans to complete the trip in the Langtang Valley.

"She said she was going on April 20 and returning on the 29," Barry said. "She left her luggage, including her cell phone, her computer, her guitar and clothing, at a hotel, rented a backpack and took off."

Barry said authorities have confirmed that Sacco made it to two different check-in stations along the Langtang Valley trail, but whatever happened to her after that remains a mystery.

"Not long after she set out on the trail, there was a strike with dangerous protests," Barry said. "There were no phones, no transportation and no way for her to get back in touch with her parents. We think she turned around and went back up to the trail, but nobody has heard from her. We don't know if she got lost or if somebody kidnapped her. There are really no answers."

When Sacco failed to make contact with her family by May 4, it contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nepal and requested assistance. In response, the embassy began working with the Nepal government, the tourism board and local police. Several search parties were dispatched to the area, but no sign of Sacco was found.

Concerns for her safety were heightened on May 15, when she failed to make her return flight back to the U.S. In response, her father, Paul Sacco, along with her brother Crofton and Barry's nephew, Dinesh Shakya, an expert on Langtang National Park, decided to fly to Nepal to help in the search.

"We feel we've done as much as we can from our little control center at our home, and now we feel it's important to be on the ground and actually be talking with the people who are coordinating the search," Paul Sacco said in a May 17 interview with CBS4denver.com.

According to Barry, the men landed in Nepal on Wednesday, where they were met by representatives of Nepal's U.S. Embassy.

"They called last night to give us an update," Barry said. "They said the Nepalese Army has search crews with dogs out on the trails, and U.N. advisers have also joined that team. They are supposed to be getting helicopters up for the search today."

Barry said concerns over another possible strike have led the Saccos to contact outside resources. As a result, several search and recovery teams from all over the world are heading to Nepal to assist in the search.

"We want to be prepared, because this next strike is supposed to bring some heavy-duty clashes," Barry said.

Meanwhile, the Saccos are asking anyone who can assist in the search to contact them by e-mail at csacco2700@gmail.com.

"I pray to God she is found safe," Barry said. "Her thing is to spread glitter around the world, and I want her to continue doing that."

(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/sueann37/1274374426217.jpg)


Forgot her picture

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=10219519&ref=search&sid=1570897983.2534659815..1

(http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v230/1186/68/n10219519_5257.jpg)

http://www.aubreysacco.com/acs/home.html

http://blogs.bootsnall.com/aubrey/

http://picasaweb.google.com/GlitterTheWorld/FirstEverSchoolPictureDay#5452981709929870002

Me and Latha ~ she is just Beautiful!
Photo information
Loading…
 
Mar 25, 2010
1600×1066 pixels – 200KB
Filename: IMG_5665.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 18mm
Flash Used: Yes
Latitude: n/a
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more info

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_CFjO5HEtk5E/S6zh-VsScrI/AAAAAAAACcA/X7Dwsx6Dh3w/s720/IMG_5665.JPG)

Thanks Klaas


http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/

Colorado man headed to Nepal to find daughter

The Himalayan Times
 
 
 
 Associated Press


DENVER: A Colorado man whose daughter is overdue from a trek in Nepal is traveling there to try to find her.



Paul Sacco of Greeley had a flight Monday to Nepal. He and his wife haven't heard from their 23-year-old daughter, Aubrey Sacco, since April 20, when she e-mailed plans of hiking alone through Nepal's Langtang region.



She planned to finish around April 30, but while she was in Langtang National Park, protests and strikes demanding the resignation of Nepal's prime minister shut down businesses, transportation and much of the local communication networks.



She had been scheduled to fly Saturday from Nepal to Sri Lanka, but no recent sightings of her have been reported.



Aubrey Sacco graduated from the University of Colorado last year.

http://**/greeley/ci_15127247

Dad of missing Nepal hiker finds daughter's laptop
The Associated Press
Posted: 05/20/2010 02:33:38 PM MDT
Updated: 05/20/2010 03:08:16 PM MDT

(http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2010/0510/20100510_082230_cd10sacco.jpg)

DENVER—The father of a Colorado woman who went missing while hiking in Nepal has discovered the missing woman's laptop and journal in the last hotel where she stayed.

A friend of missing hiker Aubrey Sacco told The Associated Press Thursday that the 23-year-old's father, Paul Sacco, is in Nepal looking for Aubrey. Aubrey Sacco has been missing since last month, when she left for a solo hike in the Himalayan mountains.

The family friend, Aileen Barry, says Paul Sacco found some personal items belonging to Aubrey at the last hotel where she stayed. Barry said Sacco has also met with officials from the U.S. embassy but that no more clues have been found to indicate what happened to Aubrey Sacco

Don't know if this has any connection or not. Why, she went into Nepal I will never understand. I have friends from there and they are even afraid to go back to visit.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Missing+doc%27s+briefcase+found&NewsID=244921&a=3

Missing doc's briefcase found
Last Updated : 2010-05-22 11:33 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)



CHITWAN: Police today found the briefcase belonging to Dr Bhaktaman Shrestha, executive director of BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, Bharatpur, who has been missing since last Tuesday.

According to Bikas Adhikari, sub-inspector, Area Police Office, Muglin, Yam Bahadur Thapa of Labaltar, Darechok-3, had found the briefcase in Ghoptebhir on Wednesday morning.

After learning that Dr Shrestha was missing, Thapa had told about the briefcase to the manager of Manakamana Cable Car, who in turn informed the police.

Police said the briefcase contained Dr Shrestha’s and his wife Shilu’s identity cards and their passport size photographs and two blank cards of Karmachari

Sanchaya Kosh.

Dr Shrestha’s car was found in Kudahar Chowk, Pokhara-10 on Wednesday evening. Police suspect at least two vehicles were used to kidnap him as the car was found in Pokhara whereas the briefcase was found in Darechok.

Meanwhile, police found three bodies in the Narayani River while searching for Dr Shrestha. Bishwonath Ojha, a member of the search team, said the bodies are yet to be identified.


 

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100521/NEWS/100529945/1002&parentprofile=1001
Mother holds out hope for daughter missing in Nepal
May 21, 2010


Recent developments
Authorities in Nepal are searching for a young man who recently had contact with Aubrey Sacco, said Aileen Barry, a friend of the family.
Aubrey apparently met the man in India, and family members learned recently that he was also in Nepal when Aubrey was there, Barry said.
Paul Sacco, the father of Aubrey, recovered his missing daughter's laptop computer and journal from the last hotel where she stayed.
The journal was heartbreaking to read, Barry said.
“There were so many passages like ‘Thank you Mommy and Daddy for letting me take this trip,'” Barry said. “They had to stop reading it.”
» How to help: A fund for the search for Aubrey Sacco is set up at Colorado East Bank & Trust. The website is www.coloeast.com. The nearest branch is in La Salle, 207 1st Ave., but there are locations in Keenesburg and Dacono as well.
La Salle's branch number is (970) 284-0211.
» Where to go: A gathering with music for Aubrey will be at 5 p.m. Sunday at Greeley Central High School, 1515 14th Ave. Participants should bring soccer balls and glitter ribbons. The event is free and will be held outside. In case of bad weather, the event will be in the gym.


 Connie Sacco sits in the room with the TV playing soft, comforting music. An orange cat climbs on her lap and purrs. A laptop glows by her side, and the phone sits at her feet.

She wanted to talk in here, in the living room of her Greeley home, because she wanted to get out of the other room, where she's spent most of her time since her daughter, Aubrey, went missing in Nepal after April 29. It's nice to hear a little music. The house has been too quiet — like a morgue, she says. Then she laughs a bit. She's only half-kidding.

It's still pretty quiet through the music and the purring, until the phone rings, and Amanda Allen, Connie's future daughter-in-law, explodes like a sprinter out of the blocks to find it. Connie can't find the phone until she looks down at her bare feet. She sheepishly apologizes to Amanda.

As the conversation about her daughter goes on, she knows she can't stay there. She sighs and asks you if you want to see the other room. She gets up before you answer. She and a bevy of friends, family and neighbors call it Ground Zero. A piece of paper on the door — a sign, of sorts — says so in black marker, and underneath, it says “Glitterville.”

A map of Nepal and the line of trekking trails, including the one where Aubrey vanished, is marked with pins, neon sticky notes and scrawled notations. Connie stands before the map and starts talking. She talks about this trail, and how Aubrey was seen two days after she signed in at Langtang National Park. A hotel clerk thinks she had pizza and a Coke. Connie is doubtful. Aubrey does not drink Coke.

She points out other trails and areas where Aubrey could be, where others may have seen her, where she could have gone astray. She could have gone down here, or maybe she went to see some chanting monks down this way, only if she did, it's hard to find your way back. Connie talks nonstop about all of it. If she were a TV show, she would be well past a commercial break.

The map is marked from hours, days and weeks of phone calls, e-mails and Facebook messages from a seemingly endless corps of people wanting to help search for her. Her husband, Paul, and her son, Crofton, both guided by family friend and Nepal native Dinesh Raj Shakya, are over there now, looking for her, and though this makes her think her work here is done, she knows that's not true. She won't let herself be done. Most of this work, because of the 12-hour difference, is done during graveyard hours. Her face shows it. She's exhausted. But she'll sleep when Aubrey's home. Aubrey, then, will clean the house, she says. Then she laughs. She's not kidding.

She is asked if, maybe, she's a little obsessed with the search. She gives you a wry smile.

“I think we obsess about our children since the day they are born,” Connie said. “I'm a mother. This is my job now. It's my job to be obsessed.”

And since Aubrey's disappearance, she's been working overtime.

» » »
Connie will admit she's a bit of a worrier, and that worrying nature — a common trait among mothers — doesn't exactly mesh with Aubrey's free spirit.

Aubrey teaches yoga. She is an artist. She loves and creates and paints bright and colorful things — Aubrey called it glitter — and that's why Connie's asking friends to attach sparkly, flashy ribbons — glitter, if you will — to their trees and mailboxes. But nature's flashiest, most colorful creatures are birds, and many birds migrate, flying thousands of miles across the world, and so, even though she was only 23 and tiny, she was a traveler. This, of course, made Connie nervous.

Connie once called the police because she didn't hear from Aubrey the whole night, and her daughter was furious. She was in college by then. But Connie called it holding her daughter accountable. She simply needed to know where she was.

This is what worries Connie the most. She believes Aubrey is alive. She calls Aubrey “her little girl” when she says this. Connie believes if Aubrey was dead, she would know it. She would feel dread, and though the stress and worry is compounded daily, she doesn't feel that black, hopeless gnawing in the gut that something is really wrong. But Aubrey understands her, Connie said, and she finds it hard to believe that her daughter would string her along like this. She never has before.

Still, there are many plausible theories for this, including a Maoist strike that stranded travelers the day after Aubrey's expected return, the loss of any communication, even the Internet, as a result of that strike, or the trails that braid off from the safe trek through Langtang. One of those trails strands many trekkers because it's hard to climb out of the area once they head down to the bottom. Though Aubrey is tiny, she's tough. Amanda, who is also one of Aubrey's best friends as well as her brother's fiancé, remembers playing soccer against her when they were both young and being afraid of her speed and ferocity.

That's why Connie stays in the house, afraid to even go to the mailbox, because the phone might ring, and it might be her. She stays up all night, almost every night, sifting through hundreds of e-mails, praying one of them will be from Aubrey. She hasn't worked in weeks, though she jokes she has an understanding boss: She works in her husband's law office.

Her youngest, Morgan, doesn't know what to do, and Connie keeps telling him to seek out the support of his friends. Connie has that support, she says, and she thanks God for it. Neighbors pop by, bringing meals or, more importantly, their company, and Amanda has slept there every night. Without that support, Connie said, the crushing quiet of the house, especially now that her husband and son are gone, would probably drive her insane.

She needs help monitoring the phone, the e-mails and the possible sightings. It is all-consuming.

Ah, those sightings. In most missing person cases, there are hours of worry, but those are coupled with moments of hope, even elation, and all of the ups and downs are wearing her down.

The last time was the worst. This was the day before Saturday, when Aubrey was due back on the flight home, and Connie heard through their extensive contacts that a small, foreign woman who did yoga was needing to get home to catch her plane. It HAD to be her. Connie already had plans for her. Like cleaning the house after they celebrated her return.

It was 2 a.m., but Connie was so excited she got everybody up, and they gathered together in Ground Zero, by the map, in their exhaustion, and waited anxiously as the hotel owner brought the phone to the woman. And the woman answered with a French accent. That was crushing.

“It was hard to go to bed that night,” Connie said.

Still, even if that disappointment led to another sleepless night, it also showed just how much help they really have. The U.S. Embassy in Nepal, soldiers, the police, volunteer searchers, even the Maoists who shut the city down are all out looking for her. Strangers are now friends, including Scott MacLennan, founder of The Mountain Fund, which works to eliminate poverty in mountain communities. MacLennan has devoted a ton of his time and energy to help the Saccos find her. There are many other examples, too many to mention, but another stands out: A helicopter pilot said he would devote his time to searching for her if they only paid for his gas.

A Facebook post Thursday from a hiker on the Langtang trek said he was thinking of Aubrey and that there were posters with her photo everywhere and that locals, including volunteers, were engaged in trying to find her.

Representatives from the embassy told Connie just a couple days ago that they've never seen such an organized search in their lives. Connie said her family and friends are “winging it,” but they have a weapon.

“When you're obsessed to find your daughter,” Connie said, “you can put together some pretty amazing searches.”

All of this continues to give Connie hope, and that hope is what allows her to sleep at times, even if it's only for a few hours. There is hope everywhere. She sees it every time she passes another house with those glittery ribbons on their tree trunks. It means others are thinking of Aubrey. Maybe not as much as her. But even if they keep her in their thoughts for a little time every day, it increases the chances that she'll be found.

Connie presses a glitter ribbon pin in your hand. She reaches down into a box by the door and cuts a long swath of sky blue and yellow ribbons. That is for your tree or house.

“Spread the word,” she said. “Until Aubrey comes home.”

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100524/NEWS/100529819/1051&ParentProfile=1001

Family, friends hold on to hope at gathering for Aubrey Sacco


By Dan England,
Even as dark thoughts began to hang over the friends and family of Aubrey Sacco, they gathered Sunday armed with the things she loved most to drive those thoughts away.

If you didn't know Aubrey, you might think Sunday's gathering was eccentric. Friends lit incense, hung Himalayan prayer flags and decorated a “hope tree” with bright ribbons near the entrance of Greeley Central High School, where Aubrey, 23, graduated a few years ago. And everyone wore crazy hats and sunglasses, and some wore glitter on their bodies. It was exactly the kind of gathering Aubrey would have ordered up to get people to stop worrying about her.

“People probably think we're nuts,” said Aileen Barry, a family friend who has helped coordinate the event. “But that's OK. We need to be a little nuts right now.”

They needed the music, even a CD recorded by Aubrey and Paul, her father who is now in Nepal searching for her. They needed the loud pep talk, the kind given by football coaches, by Connie, her mother, who said the gathering of 50 (and growing) was good because it let Aubrey know they wanted her home. And they needed the laughs after Connie said Aubrey would be grounded indefinitely once she did come home. It was probably the first time Connie spent significant time out of the house in weeks.

Aubrey was due back from the Langtang National Park trek on April 29, and a search for her started soon after. Paul is directing the search from Nepal, and Connie is directing it from the den labeled “Glitterville” by a hand-drawn sign on the door.

They needed it all because Barry said everyone was now looking into darker possibilities, such as kidnappings or worse, even as they continued to hold out hope that she would be found on the trail or in one of the nearby villages.

Indeed, the gathering shifted back and forth from a happy, crazy, fun party to a somber, tear-filled remembrance every few minutes, and sometimes it was both at the same time.

“We're trying not to look into that stuff,” Barry said, “but we've got to look into that stuff.”

Friends such as Kari Lynch, 23, and Chrissy Swanson, 22, enjoyed the music and the balloons and all that glitter as others wrote messages to her in cards.

“I think it helps,” Lynch said. “It's helpful to see everyone together, and I think it's helpful to the family to see how many love her.”

Michael Hamling decorated that hope tree with dozens of bright ribbons, almost to the point where you couldn't see the bark any longer. She decorated herself, too, so much with glitter paint that she gave off a glare in the early evening sun. Hamling played in an orchestra with Aubrey when they were younger and swapped art projects with her. She remembered one such project when Aubrey coated a doughnut in glitter and then ate it.

“I'm trying to keep the worst things out of my mind,” Hamling said. “Aubrey was always so positive. She believed in that. She never focused on the negative. So why should we?”

A strong wind blew and almost took a shiny butterfly balloon to the sky. But Hamling chased it for a few yards, and just when it seemed the balloon was going to get away for good, she pinched a small piece at the end and brought it back to earth.

That symbolic gesture was replaced by another, when they all gathered in a circle and released all the balloons, including the butterfly, to send positive energy to Aubrey for her safe return.

(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/sueann37/100527-missing-hiker--bridge-5a_h2.jpg)


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37374391/ns/today-today_people/

Parents vow to find daughter missing in Nepal
Aubrey Sacco, 23, is a ‘free spirit’ who disappeared while hiking alone
 
TODAY
Aubrey Sacco disappeared during a planned 10-day hike in Nepal. Her parents are convinced the free-spirited 23-year-old is alive, and her father has vowed not to return from Southeast Asia until she is found.
 
May 27: Aubrey Sacco was last seen trekking through the Himalayas. When she failed to call home, her parents began to worry, calling it “every parent's nightmare.”
Today show
 
Aubrey Sacco is no shrinking violet. The 2009 graduate of the University of Colorado with degrees in studio art and psychology is, in her own words, an artist, traveler and yogi. Her motto, expressed on her Web page, is “Make love to life.”

Late last year, the globe-trotting 23-year-old set off on a trek to India and the Himalayas. Starting with a stint as a yoga instructor at a resort in Sri Lanka, she eventually made her way to Nepal, where she set off on April 20 for a trek through Langtang National Park in the Himalayas. She planned to finish the hike by April 29 or 30.

She hasn’t been seen since. It is, her mother, Connie Sacco, told NBC News, “every parent’s nightmare.”

Traveling alone
The Greeley, Colo., mother said Aubrey checked in with park officials when she began the hike, but she never checked out of the park. Connie Sacco believes her daughter was hiking alone without a guide or porter. She did not make contact with her parents at the end of April as she had promised.

“She’s a free spirit. She’s an artist, she’s a yogi, she knows herself. She’s the strongest person I’ve ever known,” Connie told NBC in a report that aired Thursday on TODAY. “She’s my best friend in the world. She knows that, and I know she knows we’re trying to find her.”

Om Bahadur Rana, the police chief in the Rasuwa area, said police teams were searching the trekking route and interviewing inn owners and villagers. Word has been sent to local monasteries, which are often visited by foreign trekkers.

Rana said the teams are searching for clues up to 300 feet on either side of the mountain trail. Police sniffer dogs will also join the search, he said, adding that no one has reported seeing a woman meeting her description leave the area.

‘A big place’
The search was unable to begin sooner because mass protests on May 1 and a general strike imposed by Maoist former rebels shut down all transportation in Nepal until May 7.

 
Missing hiker Aubrey Sacco started off her Asian travels with a stint as a yoga instructor in Sri Lanka.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Thousands of Western backpackers visit during the spring season to hike in Nepal, home to dozens of popular mountain trails as well as Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.

Aubrey’s father, attorney Paul Sacco, has flown to Katmandu to help with the search. Friends have created a Facebook page to keep Aubrey’s friends up to date on developments in the search.

The U.S. Embassy in Katmandu is also involved in trying to find a traveling companion that Aubrey may have met along the way. The Nepalese government is coordinating search efforts.

“The best way to find my daughter is to have all those people on the trail looking for her. Even though we have some good people, it doesn’t hurt to have numbers. It’s a big place,” Paul Sacco told NBC News.

Positive thoughts
Aubrey Sacco is an experienced traveler. According to ColoradoDaily.com, she had traveled to Panama, Japan and Asia under grants arranged by the University of Colorado.
 
“She is incredibly courageous and a free spirit,” Paul Sacco told ColoradoDaily.

The father said he won’t come home until he finds his daughter. He’s hoping to find other trekkers who may have run across her during her travels. Both parents feel she is alive.

“I feel that she’s just lost, she’s just gotten off the trail and she’s just missing,” Connie Sacco said. “My gut is that she’s waiting for her father to come and get her.”

“She may not be lost, but there’s no communication,” Paul Sacco told The Associated Press. “It’s terrible. But what do you do? Do you wait a month? It’s so frustrating. Aubrey is a student of Eastern philosophy, and she firmly believes that positive thoughts from everyone will fix any problem, and I really believe that.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100602/NEWS/100609949/1051&ParentProfile=1001

Foul play creeps into fears of Aubrey Sacco's family

One thought has haunted Connie and Paul Sacco throughout the long, exhausting search for their daughter, Aubrey, that has stretched into more than a month.

“She can't just disappear into thin air,” said Aileen Barry, the family's spokeswoman and friend.

So the Saccos have expanded their search in Nepal beyond the area of the Langtang National Park's main trekking trail and its nearby villages and hotels because they fear foul play is a real possibility, Barry said Tuesday.

“They're still very hopeful,” Barry said. “But they're also being very realistic and looking at other options and things she might have faced.”

The Saccos always considered that, of course, but they were hopeful she may have just lost her way because they were told by Nepal officials that the area was safe. Paul, however, held a news conference Monday in Nepal, where he has searched for Aubrey for two weeks, to talk about other Western tourists who have disappeared while trekking alone in Nepal.

Those cases include Julian Wynne, a British tourist trekking in the Everest region who vanished in December 2008 and hasn't been found since, Paul said at the news conference, according to The Times of India.

Paul traced Aubrey to a hotel, where she stayed on April 21, and resumed trekking the following day, staying at a hotel for lunch. She vanished and no one has reported seeing her since.

That's especially disturbing, given that a substantial reward of 100,000 rupees is being offered for information leading to Aubrey's whereabouts, Barry said.

“That could feed a family for years over there,” she said, “and yet no one has come forward.”

Sacco is now searching hospitals, jails and other places, and back home in Greeley, Connie and Barry have appeared on several national TV news programs, including “The Early Show,” the “Today” show and CNN.

“There's something else there,” Barry said, “and that's what we're trying to find out.”

Positive thoughts
Aubrey Sacco is an experienced traveler. According to ColoradoDaily.com, she had traveled to Panama, Japan and Asia under grants arranged by the University of Colorado.
 
“She is incredibly courageous and a free spirit,” Paul Sacco told ColoradoDaily.

Well then, Good Luck.  ::MonkeyWink::

http://www.vigilantpress.com/family-of-missing-girl-in-nepal-offers-reward/2086.html
Family Of Missing Girl In Nepal Offers Reward
June 9, 2010

Colorado lawyer Paul Sacco,in high hopes of finding her missing daughter alive.

The 23 year old Aubrey Sacco was on solo post-college trip to Sri Lanka and India when she told herfamily that she had gone to Nepal.She graduated at University of Colorado in 2009. Sacco told her family that on April 20th that she’d be hiking alone in the Langtang National Park,base of the Himalayas north of Kathmandu,Nepal’s capital.

Her father, Atty Paul Sacco,believes that she’s still wanting to be found.

In his interview via Skype from Kathmandu,”I have a strong connection to her. Sometimes a family member can feel if a person is dead or in pain, like intuition. I have a very strong feeling that she’s alive.”

On May 19, Paul Saco andhis son along with a Nepali family friend who resides in Colorado arrived in Nepal to help coordinate efforts on searching. Through discussions with the witnesses and invetigation reports, the Sacco fmily learned that:

• Aubrey left a Kathmandu hotel on April 20 and took a bus to Langtang National Park. She left the belongings that she wouldn’t be hiking with — like luggage and a computer — at that hotel and never came back for them.

• Aubrey started her trek on April 21 and stayed the night at a hotel in the park. There, she spoke with a trekking guide, and they talked about opportunities for her to volunteer with schoolchildren in Kathmandu after she finished the hike, according to her mother, Connie Sacco, who is following events from Colorado.

• The guide says he saw Aubrey continue her hike on April 22. That day, a different hotel farther along the trek has a record of her having tea — her last known location, according to Paul Sacco.

The family offered a reward for about 100,000 Nepali rupees($1,320) for any infornation leading to her discovery.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/09/colorado.missing.hiker.nepal/?hpt=C1
Lack of witnesses, records baffle dad searching for Nepal hiker
June 9, 2010
(CNN) -- Three weeks into his personal search for his daughter in Nepal, Colorado lawyer Paul Sacco keeps running into this: The last trace of 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco was at a hotel a day after she began hiking in the Asian country in April.

Still, Paul Sacco plans to keep looking, buoyed by his belief that someone must have noticed the outgoing, 5-foot-tall artist and yoga instructor sometime after that. He also was given hope by the local Buddhist monks, who tell him they sense she's alive and still in Langtang National Park.

He says that he, too, feels she's still waiting to be found.

"I have a strong connection to her. Sometimes a family member can feel if a person is dead or in pain, like intuition. I have a very strong feeling that she's alive," Sacco said in an interview from Kathmandu via Skype this week.

Aubrey Sacco, of Greeley, Colorado, was on a five-month solo post-college trip through Sri Lanka and India when she told her family she'd gone to Nepal. The 2009 University of Colorado graduate said on April 20 that she'd be hiking alone in Langtang National Park at the base of the Himalayas north of Kathmandu, and would check back with them around April 29, according to her family.

Having not heard from her, the family started contacting the U.S. Embassy in Nepal around May 4. Embassy officials put missing-person posters in the airport and tourist areas and asked police and the Nepali military to start searches, according to embassy spokeswoman Nicole Chulick, and the Sacco family made contacts with other people in Nepal who also started looking.

On May 19, Paul Sacco, one of his sons and a Nepali family friend who lives in Colorado arrived in Nepal to monitor and help coordinate efforts. Through discussions with investigators and witnesses, the Sacco family says it has learned this:

• Aubrey left a Kathmandu hotel on April 20 and took a bus to Langtang National Park. She left the belongings that she wouldn't be hiking with -- like luggage and a computer -- at that hotel and never came back for them.

• Aubrey started her trek on April 21 and stayed the night at a hotel in the park. There, she spoke with a trekking guide, and they talked about opportunities for her to volunteer with schoolchildren in Kathmandu after she finished the hike, according to her mother, Connie Sacco, who is following events from Colorado.

• The guide says he saw Aubrey continue her hike on April 22. That day, a different hotel farther along the trek has a record of her having tea -- her last known location, according to Paul Sacco.

"What is very frustrating is that according to all the park's records, she just disappeared [after that tea]," Paul Sacco said. "There is no hard evidence as to where she is."

Sacco has speculated that Aubrey, at the end of her trek, might have had trouble finding a bus back to Kathmandu because of disruptive Maoist protests against the government in the capital in the beginning of May, and that she might have stayed in the park or tried to hike all the way back to the capital.

The family has offered a reward of 100,000 Nepali rupees (roughly $1,320, which experts told him was a good amount) for information leading to her discovery. Nepali police and soldiers continue to investigate and search, as do volunteers, including villagers who are helping at the urging of two Maoist leaders, Sacco said. Sacco, his son and family friend also have searched the trails for days.

The family also is working with private search-and-rescue teams, and the embassy this week helped arrange a local TV interview with Sacco to spread the word of Aubrey's disappearance, Chulick said. The embassy also has helped Sacco connect with Nepali authorities after he arrived, and a deputy of the embassy's consular section accompanied Sacco on one of the search missions, according to Chulick.

Sacco, who said he is grateful for all the help, said perhaps three-quarters of the park's hikable terrain has been searched. He now hopes to focus on a region through which Aubrey would have hiked had she decided to make a seven-day walk back to Kathmandu.

He said that, partly because Aubrey is a student of yoga and Eastern philosophy, he has consulted with Buddhist monks who claim psychic ability, including those who are said to have pinpointed missing hikers in the past.

"The general consensus among these people is that she is alive and she's in the park," he said.

That helps keep Sacco going in Nepal, where he is hosted by an American, Scott MacLennan, who is executive director of the Mountain Fund, a humanitarian organization that combats poverty in developing mountain communities. Sacco met MacLennan after Aubrey disappeared, and MacLennan has been helping the family conduct the search, Connie Sacco said.

On her Asian trip, Aubrey taught and took yoga classes in Sri Lanka, and volunteered at schools in India, helping them with art and music, her family said. She kept a blog of her travels; the last entry came on April 15.

"This is not an irresponsible traveler," her mother said. "She embraces the culture wherever she travels. She's the one you'll usually find with the villagers as opposed to the high-end places. She wanted to learn about places where she could volunteer."

"Her motto is 'glitter the world,' and she just glitters with her love and energy," Connie Sacco said.

Paul Sacco is able to do some of his law work from Nepal. His son, a law student, has put off an internship to look for Aubrey. Sacco said he'd stay there "as long as I feel I can be effective."

He said someone in the park must have seen her after the April 22 tea, and urged anyone with information to contact the family at findaubreyglitter@gmail.com or through a Facebook page dedicated to the search.

"She's bubbly and funny. Anybody who saw her is going to remember her," he said.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=United+States+warns+against+traveling+to+Nepal&NewsID=247070&a=3

United States warns against traveling to Nepal
Last Updated : 2010-06-16 2:27 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)

 AP


KATHMANDU: The United States has warned its citizens not to travel to Nepal after months of street protests and political turmoil in the Himalayan nation.



The warning, issued by the State Department, said the United States remains concerned about the security situation in Nepal.



The Maoist former rebels shut down the country for more than a week last month protesting against the government. Street demonstrations turned violent with clashes between communist supporters and police.



No tourists were harmed during the protests, but a general strike shut down hotels, restaurants and transportation.

http://sify.com/news/kin-hikes-reward-for-american-trekker-missing-in-nepal-news-international-kgqpucgijhf.html
Kin hikes reward for American trekker missing in Nepal
June 16, 2010

 Almost two months after a young American hiker went missing in Nepal, her family Wednesday trebled the reward for anyone who found her, refusing to call off their month-long search and rejecting the possibility that she may not be alive.

Paul Sacco, a former soccer player who travelled to Nepal last month to search for his 23-year-old daughter Aubrey, who went missing during a hike in the Langtang National Park in northern Nepal, said his family is now offering a reward of NRs.300,000 to anyone who finds her.

Aubrey, who was on a 'voyage of self-discovery' that took her to Sri Lanka, India and then Nepal, had planned to trek in Nepal and then do voluntary service.

She entered the Langtang trail April 20, according to park records, staying overnight at the Namaste Hotel.

On April 22, she had lunch at the Lama Hotel and then simply vanished into thin air.

Her family in Colorado initially thought she was late in communicating with them due to the general strike called by Nepal's opposition Maoist party last month that caused hundreds of tourists to be stranded.

However, when the silence stretched on, her father arrived in Nepal with her brother Crofton to retrace her trail and try to find her or at least people who had seen her.

In their anxiety, they have even consulted psychic Buddhist monks who say Aubrey is alive though hindered by a negative presence that is causing her 'to make mistakes'.

A search is also on for a Canadian or American, tentatively identified as Mitch, who had travelled with the young woman to Kathmandu from India.

There were indications by Aubrey that she was growing tired of his presence and wanted to shake him off. Paul Sacco thinks it is 'peculiar' that the man did not contact any of the authorities in Nepal or US even though Aubrey's disappearance is now on the national news in the US as well.

The new reward announcement comes even as the US State Department issued a travel advisory asking Americans not to travel to Nepal.

Aubrey Sacco's disappearance is the latest in a string of incidents involving western tourists, mostly travelling alone.

In December 2008, British trekker Julian Wynne disappeared in the Everest region. In 2006, Kristina Kovacevic, a German trekker, was found dead in northern Nepal with police saying she fell down a mountain and her sister Karoline alleging foul play.

In 2005, German tourist Sabine Gruneklee and Celine Henry from France went missing after they entered the Nagarjuna forest on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley on separate days. Gruneklee's body was found a year later but the French volunteer is still listed as missing.

Between 2003 and 2004, three more tourists went missing, including an Indian, Kushagra Vasant Singh, from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
SEARCH

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5492814/the_search_for_aubrey_sacco_missing.html?cat=25

Link to videos of the search at this site:


The Search for Aubrey Sacco, Missing After Hiking in Nepal (Video): Would You Help Get Aubrey Home?  Published June 16, 2010 by:
Radell Hunter


Aubrey Sacco Went Missing in Nepal, Her Family Needs Your Help in the Search for Her
Paul and Connie Sacco need your help to find their daughter Aubrey. Aubrey, 21, was a recent Colorado college graduate when she headed overseas for a five-month jaunt through India, Sri Lanka and eventually Nepal, according to CNN. But the 23-year-old young woman is now missing, presumably in Langtang National Park.

Were you in Nepal in April, 2010?

If you or anyone you know made the trek to Nepal during the month of April, even if you aren't sure if you saw Aubrey or not, please contact this writer.
Snipped:

Mystery of missing US girl deepens after 2 months
Last Updated : 2010-06-28 1:12 PM
KATHMANDU: More than two months later, there are still no answers. 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco who disappeared during a solo trek to Langtang area in Rasuwa district on April 21 is still missing.

Nepal Police, Nepal Army, US embassy and three private firms conducted a joint search, but that search produced no results. Om Bahadur Rana, DSP at the district police office Rasuwa on Monday said that the police recorded statements of seven persons near the hiking trail they knew she was last on. “All of the houses, hotels and monasteries in Rasuwa and adjoin area were searched, but there are no clues at hand,” Rana told THT. No trace has ever been found of Aubrey - no arrests, no evidential proof, no answers.

The authorities are now treating the case of the missing woman as a criminal matter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also started a formal missing person's investigation and is helping the US Department of State in the search mission. The agency is also working with Nepali authorities on the disappearance of Greeley woman, News Agencies quoted Denver FBI spokesman Dave Joly as saying. Her father, Paul Sacco said that FBI agents visited his home thrice to know the details about the case.

Now frustration and even some anger seem to be setting in, her family believes she is alive. Her mother Connie said that they have also offered to help protect whoever is brave enough to come forward with information that would lead to finding Aubrey. She believes that someone knows exactly what happened to her, but is refusing to tell authorities what they know. “If they are frightened, threatened or endangered in coming forward with information we will do our very best. But it is morally wrong to withhold information and not come forward on the whereabouts of a missing person, whether a woman, child or a man. In my country that is considered "obstruction of justice," Connie, who is following the events from Colorado, said.

Paul who was in Nepal for nearly a month returned home after an unsuccessful trip to find her. DSP Rana said that there is not a trace of evidence as to what happened. “We are doing everything in our power to find Aubrey,” he added.

According to the records, Aubrey had entered the Langtang trail from Syaphrubesi on April 20. She stayed overnight at Namaste Hotel in Pahiro on April 21. The following day she was seen last while having lunch at Lama Hotel. Since then, the girl has been out of touch.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Mystery+of+missing+US+girl+deepens+after+2+months&NewsID=248127

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24062142/detail.html

FBI Joins Hunt For Missing Colo. Trekker In Nepal
Aubrey Sacco Disappeared in April While Hiking Alone

POSTED: 3:11 pm MDT June 27, 2010

DENVER -- The FBI has joined the hunt for a 23-year-old Colorado woman who vanished while trekking alone in Nepal.

Denver FBI spokesman Dave Joly said Sunday the agency will assist the State Department and Nepalese authorities in the disappearance of Aubrey Sacco of Greeley.

Her parents have not heard from Aubrey since April 20, when she e-mailed plans to hike alone through Nepal's Langtang region, near the Tibetan border.

She planned to finish the trek about April 30, but while she was in Langtang National Park, protests and strikes demanding the resignation of Nepal's prime minister shut down businesses, transportation and much of the local communication networks. She was supposed to check in after she finished the trek, but never did.

Her father, Paul Sacco, journeyed to Nepal in May to look for Aubrey, and he found her laptop and journal in the last hotel where she stayed.

The father told Greeley Tribune in May that FBI agents have made two or three visits to his home.

Aubrey Sacco graduated from the University of Colorado last year.

She had been in south Asia for five months, teaching yoga and traveling. She was hiking alone without a guide or porter. There were not many other backpackers in the area because it was end of the trekking season.

A Facebook page has also been created by a relative to share information on the search for Sacco.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122096637808141&ref=mf

(http://www.thedenverchannel.com/2010/0511/23521020_371X480.jpg)

Hard for me to get interest in this one.. kinda like the boys that decided to go hiking in Iran..

When you throw yourself on the railroad tracks it is nobodys fault but your own.

This girl was full of giggly ignorance.. Says a whole lot of our educated young adults.

jmho

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/
Colorado Woman Missing in Nepal
23-year-old Aubrey Sacco went missing in April, FBI has joined the search.
Video  06/29/10

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100629/NEWS/100629677/1002&parentprofile=1001
Sacco family: Search for Aubrey will go on ‘until we find her'
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
(http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=GR&Date=20100629&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=100629677&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&maxw=300&MaxH=300)
Paul Sacco, father of Aubrey Sacco, looks over a map of the Langtang National Park, where his daughter disappeared three months ago while in Nepal, at their home in Greeley. The family continues to keep the search alive.
JIM RYDBOM/jrydbom@greeleytribune.com
Every night, the Saccos gather around the patio table in the back yard, while the mosquitoes feed on them, and discuss strategies.

The goal is to find their 23-year-old daughter, Aubrey, who disappeared three months ago while trekking alone in Nepal.

Everyone staying with the Saccos in their Greeley home has a job, even if the job is to look cute and relieve the crushing stress for a moment. That's baby Luca's job. He is Paul and Connie Sacco's first grandchild.

It's a job he does well, and that's good, because since Paul returned a few days ago from searching for Aubrey in Nepal, there hasn't been much of a break.

The search has sucked up all of their free time and a decent portion of Paul's job as an attorney. Even now, as the FBI searches for her and treats it like a criminal case, they're working to the point where Connie chided the bureau the other day for not answering her questions. So now the FBI doesn't tell them everything, but every day, someone sends them a brief update.

“I told them, ‘You can't just expect them to back off completely,' ” Connie said.
They're not as obsessed as it sounds. Mary Ann Dewbray, Paul's sister, came to visit because she was worried and had to see for herself how they were doing. She was pleased at what she's seen so far. The Saccos are sleeping and eating well (friends have delivered many meals). In a way, the work helps them because at least they're doing something.

“I do think they realize, too, that they need to step away at times,” Dewbray said.

That means playing with Luca and petting their orange cat and watching the World Cup, but even the Cup leads back to Aubrey. The Saccos are huge soccer fans. Aubrey played for Greeley Central High School.

Today they will get up about 4 a.m. so all the national morning shows can set up their cameras. The attention made Connie uncomfortable at first, but now she's so determined to spread the word and keep Aubrey in people's thoughts, she calls Good Morning America “GMA,” as if she's on a first-name basis with the show.

Connie spends time on Facebook and the Internet, and Paul works his contacts in Nepal in between moments at work. Paul is back home, but they still don't have anything resembling a normal life.

It's difficult to say when they will. If they ever will.

Feeling frustration
Paul considers his trip to Nepal a success. He and 300 others scoured the Langtang National Park and the trail where Aubrey trekked for a few days before she vanished. That search, he said, means he can rule out, for the most part, a fall, a plunge in the river or an animal grabbing her. He also believes he can rule out her murder. Connie and Paul believe she was abducted.

Paul and Connie are frustrated, even angry, at villagers in the area. Paul believes they know something and aren't talking, despite a huge reward and even more money to secure safe passage to India to soothe fears of retribution. Villagers are afraid because they have been blamed in the past when they reported seeing a Westerner's body, Paul said.

A couple of villagers suggested to searchers that they knew something but didn't want to say anything.

“We literally had people say to us, ‘You'll never see her again,' ” Paul said. “Or someone else told us, ‘No one will ever say what happened.' That implies something.”

The Saccos already have spent tens of thousands of dollars searching, and that could grow. It's a self-funded search, and it's taking a toll. Paul kept his job as an attorney throughout the search, and he was even working in Nepal. Business has been slow, he said, because he believes clients don't want to bother him during Aubrey's disappearance.

“Work could be better, honestly,” Paul said. “I want them to bother me with work. I need to work so I can pay for all this.”

People have generously donated — some from overseas, some strangers.

“The reason we've cried the most lately throughout all this is because of the kindness people have shown,” Paul said.
They appreciate help they've received from U.S. embassy workers in Nepal, but they are still frustrated.

“I want the U.S. government to get involved,” Paul said. “I want them to put people on the ground to work with the Nepal police. We need our country behind us. Why can't we do that?”

They believe Aubrey is still alive. They call it family intuition. They believe they would know if she were dead.

“It doesn't mean we haven't looked into it,” Connie said. “We've had those talks. But as the days go by, I get more confused. I feel like this is a frickin' Alfred Hitchcock movie, and it's a good one.”

So they will gather around the table outside at night for their daily family meetings. When they aren't talking strategy, Connie can look in her back yard for signs of hope. The mosquitoes are out, but so are the dragonflies and yellow butterflies, and those are exactly the kinds of bright, colorful, “glittery” things Aubrey loved. Seeing those insects brings back so many memories of her artwork, and that's why they call the den in their home where they work to find her “Glitterville.”

Just how long they work, whether it's days or weeks or months, may not only depend on Aubrey. Paul considered the question. Then he turned to Connie.

“If this goes on like this, it will be terrible,” Paul said to her. “It will kill us. Don't you think? How long can we really go on?”

Connie then turned to Paul.

“Until we find her,” she said.
(http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=GR&Date=20100629&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=100629677&Ref=V1&Profile=1002&maxw=137&MaxH=137)

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/fbi-joins-search-effort-for-aubrey-sacco-us-hiker-missing-in-nepal/19536096?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl1|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Ffbi-joins-search-effort-for-aubrey-sacco-us-hiker-missing-in-nepal%2F19536096


FBI Joins Search Effort for US Hiker Missing in Nepal
 
 
David Lohr Contributor

AOL News
(June 29) -- Despite seeing several large-scale searches end in disappointment, family members are not ready to give up on 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco, who went missing more than two months ago on a remote nature hike in Nepal. Instead, they are hopeful that recent involvement by the FBI will help move the case forward.

"The FBI is looking at it and they're saying it is a criminal matter," Sacco family spokeswoman Aileen Barry told AOL News. "They've asked us to hold off so they can get their people in line, so we can't say a lot about what they're doing. But honestly we don't know a lot."

Sacco was last heard from on April 20, when she set out on a weeklong hike in the Langtang Valley just south of the Tibetan border. The Colorado native was familiar with the area and had gone hiking there in the past.

When Sacco failed to make contact with her family by May 4, they contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nepal for assistance. Officials were able to confirm she had made it to two check-in stations along the Langtang Valley trail, but whatever happened after that remains a mystery.

Last month, Sacco's father, Paul Sacco, flew to Nepal along with her brother, Crofton, and Barry's nephew, Dinesh Shakya, an expert on Langtang National Park. The trio remained there until last week.

"They walked the trails, went up in helicopters, out with the search teams, but nothing," Barry said. "They found nothing."

The FBI is revealing few details to the family, but Barry says they do know agents are reviewing lists of hikers who signed in on the trail around the time Sacco went missing. Calls by AOL News to the FBI office in Denver were transferred to the State Department, but have yet to be returned.

"They have trekking numbers and passport numbers for those people, so they are meticulously going through each of those people," Barry said. "I know some are from Hungary, Israel and the United States."

In addition to the FBI, the Sacco family has its own team of private investigators looking into the case. They have turned up a few leads, Barry says, but are having difficulty getting locals to confide in them.

"There have been Nepalese people who have said, 'We know where she is and you'll never find her.' "

Barry explained some residents may be tight-lipped because of an incident that officials at the U.S. Embassy in Nepal related to the Sacco family.

"The embassy told us that 15 years ago there were two fishermen who found a body in a river," Barry explained. "These fishermen went to the authorities and told them. Afterward, they were arrested. There was no trial and they were thrown in prison. They just got out, so that is on everyone's mind and they aren't talking."

In an effort to help loosen tongues, the Sacco family has increased the reward for information from 100,000 Nepali rupees (about $1,300) to 300,000 rupees (about $4,000). It's a significant sum in Nepal, where the average income is less than $200 a year.

The family wanted to offer more money, but officials at the embassy asked them not to, for fear of "endangering other tourists," Barry said.

At this point in the case, kidnapping for ransom seems unlikely, as no one has attempted to contact the Sacco family. As a result, they are concerned she may have been kidnapped by members of an underground sex-trade ring. According to the U.S. State Department, between 10,000 and 15,000 women and girls from Nepal are sold into sexual slavery every year.

"The tourism department and embassy says it wouldn't happen to a Westerner," Barry said, "but how do we know that?"

As a result of ongoing political violence and the "harassment of female travelers" in Nepal, the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens earlier this month, alerting them to the potential risks of traveling there.

"The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu strongly recommends that you do not hike alone or become separated from larger traveling parties while on a trail," the warning read. "Solo trekking is dangerous, has contributed to injuries and deaths, and makes an individual more vulnerable to criminals. Foreign trekkers have gone missing while trekking alone."

Meanwhile, Barry said, the Saccos will continue doing everything in their power to locate their daughter and will not stop until she is found -- dead or alive.

"All of us have committed that we are going to find her. We know it's a crime and something happened to her," she said. "She didn't just disappear."
 

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Missing+US+girl%27s+travel+partner+in+Thailand&NewsID=248193

Missing US girl's travel partner in Thailand
Last Updated : 2010-06-29 12:31 AM
The Himalayan Times


KATHMANDU: It has been more than two months but the whereabouts of a missing American trekker, Aubrey Caroline Sacco, are still unknown.

Aubrey (23) went missing on April 23 from Langtang area in Rasuwa district.

Nepal Police, the Nepali Army, the Embassy of the United States in Nepal and three private firms had conducted extensive search operation to find Aubrey, but to no avail.

The authorities now suspect involvement of a criminal group and are treating the case as a criminal matter.

According to highly placed sources, the US Embassy has located Aubrey’s ‘travel partner’ Steve Miller in Thailand. Aubrey, along with Miller, had entered Nepal via Darjeeling. Sources claim that Miller had not checked into Langtang Park. “Miller had accompanied her till they reached Hotel Elite,” add the sources.

The search team had found her laptop, journals, a guitar and a few more items from the hotel.

Nepali Police admitted that it failed to figure out what might have happened to her. But it said it would investigate from scratch from a new angle.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation too has chipped in and has begun investigating into the case helping the US Department of State and the Nepali authorities.

DSP Om Bahadur Rana at the District Police Office, Rasuwa, today said the police recorded statements of seven persons, who had last spotted Aubrey, near the hiking trail. “We have already combed all the houses, hotels and monasteries in Rasuwa and adjoining areas, but are clueless,” Rana said. A special team of police has been assigned, he added. DSP Rana, however, refused to share the details of the fresh approach police were going to take.

It has been more than two months since Aubrey went missing but her family has not lost hope yet. Her parents believe she is still alive.

Her mother Connie believes ‘someone knows exactly what happened to her, but is refusing to tell the authorities’. “If they are frightened or threatened to come forward and share the information, we will do our best to save them. But it is morally wrong to withhold information on the whereabouts of a missing person, whether a woman, child or a man. In my country that is considered obstruction of justice,” said Connie who is following the events from Colorado.

Aubrey’s family has offered a reward of Rs 3 lakhs for whoever can find her.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jul/03/fbi-helping-hunt-for-american-missing-in-nepal/

FBI helping hunt for American missing in Nepal
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 3, 2010 | 12:33 a.m.
The FBI says it's helping the U.S. State Department in the investigation of a Colorado woman who disappeared while trekking alone in Nepal.

Denver FBI spokesman Dave Joly (JOLLY) said Sunday the agency is also working with Nepalese authorities on the disappearance of 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco of Greeley.

Sacco hasn't been heard from since April 20, when she e-mailed her parents from Nepal. She planned to finish her trip around April 30.

Her father, Paul Sacco, told the Greeley Tribune that FBI agents have made two or three visits to his home.

Paul Sacco went to Nepal in May to look for his daughter. He says he recovered her laptop computer and journal from a hotel.

Aubrey Sacco graduated from the University of Colorado last year.

NEW YORK, June 29, 2010
FBI Joins Search for Colo. Hiker In Nepal
The Search for Aubrey Sacco Continues
(CBS)   Twenty-three year old Aubrey Sacco, a self proclaimed free spirit headed off to the far east last fall on a search for adventure. But when Sacco set off on a ten day trail through Langtang National park in Nepal, she lost touch with her parents.

It's been two months now since Paul and Connie Sacco (Aubrey's parents) have gotten an update on her condition and whereabouts.

Last month, Sacco's father and brother traveled to Nepal in an effort to locate her. The search was fruitless but they did recover Sacco's laptop, video camera, and a journal all left at her hotel room, but there was no trace of Sacco.

"We just feel the energy you know and we just feel like she needs our help to her get home," said Sacco's mother, Connie.

Now, Sacco's missing persons investigation is being treated as a criminal investigation with the Denver FBI involved.

Paul and Connie Sacco spoke to co-anchor Erica Hill this morning on "The Early Show" about the continued efforts to search for their daughter. Though this case has taken a serious turn, Paul Sacco is thankful to have the FBI involved.

"Well, the FBI has a lot of investigative resources that they can bring to bear that even the government of Nepal doesn't have," said Paul.

But having visited the trail his daughter went missing on, Paul has a new perspective on what may have happened in his daughter's situation.
Well, the most important thing was I learned that the trek is not as dangerous as a lot of people believe it is," said Paul. "When people hear the word Himalayas, they think of Mount Everest. And really this is a trail not unlike the ones in Colorado, but it just goes on forever. But it isn't as dangerous as we had previously thought. So it's very unlikely she had an accident."

Though Sacco's parents believe that something may have gone awry in her disappearance, they still have faith. Sacco's mother Connie has said that she felt an energy that her daughter needed help, but that same energy is reassuring her that Sacco is alive somewhere, and just needs some help getting home.

"I feel her energy. I don't feel the dread," explained Connie. "I feel the worry, you know, quite a bit, but not a dread. Not like we've lost her. And my husband is feeling the same way. Our family does. We all seem to have the same view and that gives us our strength to keep this search going until we find her."

Because there is no evidence to the contrary, Sacco's parents and friends are putting in full force to bring her back. Sacco's friends have dedicated a Facebook page to the missing hiker as the search continues on.

Sacco's parents are haunted by the worst case scenarios; the idea that she may be alive but she may be stranded with a kidnapper or that their efforts to bring her back are not swift enough.

The Sacco's are speaking out asking for as much help as they can get regarding information on their daughter. As the investigation wears on, small bumps in the road are arising.

While the people of Nepal have been nothing but welcoming and helpful in the search for Sacco, Pal says that the closer they are to Sacco's last known location, the harder it seems to be to get information.
"It's such an irony. The local people are very friendly. They try to be helpful as a rule that's how these people are," said Paul. "However, the more time has gone on, the more we've realized that at the hotel area where our daughter went missing, particularly at that spot, the people are not talking. We know that they know something, that they saw something, but they're not talking for fear of reprisal."

The last time Sacco's mother heard from her before her hike began, she had not said anything that would rouse suspicion.

"She told us that she was going to be gone seven to ten days," said Connie. "We listened to that, we tracked it, we counted the days for her return and hoping for an e-mail from her it telling us that she was okay."

The only things recovered by Sacco's father from her hotel room were items that are usually left behind on a hike to keep a backpack light. No useful information was found in the diary to help search efforts on the mountain.

Aubrey Sacco simply vanished without a trace, but her parents are staying optimistic and hopeful for her return.

Video at link  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6629751n&tag=related;photovideo

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Police+continue+search+for+missing+US+hiker&NewsID=249591

Police continue search for missing US hiker
Last Updated : 2010-07-13 10:41 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)



KATHMANDU: It's been nearly three months since Aubrey Caroline Sacco, 23, was last seen and police say they still don't have any leads on her disappearance.

Though the search for the missing Greely woman continued in Langtang buffer zone and adjoining areas, no leads have led the search attempts any closer to finding her till date, said Om Bahadur Rana, DSP at the District Police Office, Rasuwa.

A team of police is on the way to Ghoda Tabela area in Langtang region on Tuesday to collect some clothes reportedly found by the locals. DSP Rana said a police team has been sent to Ghoda Tabela after locals informed that they found ‘suspicious’ clothes yesterday. The team is expected to collect the clothes by this evening. According to Rana, they also circulated flyers of the missing woman in the region.

A tourist guide who talked with her in Namaste Hotel in Pahiro on April 21 said that Aubrey was interested in volunteering work in Nepal. “We exchanged our e-mail addresses while I met her in Pahiro,” Renjin Dorjee said. “I asked Aubrey to be in touch with me in Kathmandu after completing the Langtang trek to discuss the volunteering opportunities, but she didn’t,” he added.

Aubrey, who was scheduled to return on or around April 30, begun her trek on April 20 and was last seen at Lama Hotel area in Langtang National Park in April 22.

Meanwhile, officials said that the US Embassy in Kathmandu inquired from the police about a badly decomposed body which was found at Ghyangphedi area on June 4. “Officials from the US Embassy visited the District Police Office (DPO), Nuwakot three days ago and inquired about the details of the female body,” Hari Bahadur Pal, DSP at Nuwakot DPO said. According to him, the embassy officials collected the pictures and related documents prepared by police before cremating the body. DSP Pal claimed that the unclaimed female body was cremated after documenting the incident as a joint search team confirmed that it didn’t match with the missing woman’s description. The joint team comprised of members from US Embassy and private search firms, he added.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/elmwoodpark/news/2514582,franklin-park-aubrey-072210-s1.article
Area benefit planned to help family of woman missing in Nepal

July 20, 2010


By MARK LAWTON mlawton@pioneerlocal.com
For weeks Paul and Connie (Biernat) Sacco have been coordinating a search for their missing daughter from a room in their house in Greeley, Col.

"We call it Ground Zero," Paul Sacco said. "As many as six people with buttons and pins to mark maps and as many as six computers at once."

Greeley is halfway between Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo. It's less than 1,000 miles from the west suburbs of Chicago where the Saccos grew up and attended East Leyden High School.

It is on the other side of the planet from Nepal, where their 23-year-old daughter disappeared three months ago.

Aubrey Sacco was born in Colorado. She attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, during which she gained an interest in Eastern philosophy, meditation and yoga.

She completed degrees in psychology and studio art in May 2009, and then planned a trip to Sri Lanka and Southern India.

"When she left in December, she had a teaching job (lined up) at a high-end resort in Sri Lanka that is frequented by Europeans and Australians," Connie Sacco said. "She decided since she's spending all this money to fly out there, maybe she would stay and travel."

Her trip was to take five months. She taught yoga for a while, and took meditation courses and studied under yoga masters. After that she headed north to Nepal.

Nepal is between India and China. It is a roughly the size of Arkansas but is mountainous. It contains eight of the world's 10 tallest mountains, including Mt. Everest.

It is also one of the poorest and least developed countries on the planet. The unemployment rate was 46 percent in 2008, according to the CIA World Factbook, and a quarter of the population lived below the poverty line.

On April 20, Aubrey Sacco e-mailed her parents that she was going to hike through the Langtang Valley.

"She just said she was leaving for the trail in the morning and there was no Internet or phones in the mountains and she would contact us when she got back from the trek," Connie Sacco said.

Her trek was supposed to take 10 days. She mentioned there were side trails that she might check out and her parents didn't start to worry until May 4 or 5 when they still hadn't heard from her.

"I started making some phone calls," Sacco said. "We learned that the Maoists had a strike in Katmandu. It literally shut down the entire country. All transportation was stopped. Everyone we talked to said just hold out, she was probably in the mountains and just couldn't get back."

The strike ended, but when they still hadn't heard from their daughter, the Saccos contacted the embassy, police and tourism board. Police and others started searching but Paul and Connie Sacco wanted to do more.

"We felt we needed to expand the search and understand the search," Paul Sacco said.

On May 16, Paul Sacco and his oldest son, Crofton, flew to Katmandu, the capital. They stayed for a month and took part in a search of the area with 200 or 300 people.

They found a trekking guide who spoke to Aubrey Sacco the first day of her trip. They found she stayed overnight at one hotel and ate at another her second day.

"Then after that everything is speculation," Paul Sacco said

The search continued but there were challenges. While some people searched for free, others expected to be paid. There are several languages, which has sometimes made communication difficult. Local villagers, Sacco believes, may know more than they are saying but are reluctant to talk because of repressive actions by officials in the past.

At the ruling level, there is little enthusiasm for the search.

"It's bad press," Sacco said. "And tourism is the national industry. They want to forget us. It's been touchy to keep the local police and government motivated to look for foreigners."

The family's response had been to keep the pressure up, an effort that got a boost when FOX News broadcast their story.

"We got a call from some businessmen in Nepal," Paul Sacco said. "I thought our search was going full speed. They said after the FOX broadcast the authorities had renewed their search."

Since then all the major TV networks have broadcast Aubrey Sacco's disappearance along with any number of newspapers and Web sites. The FBI has offered assistance.

Still, responsibility for the search has fallen mostly on the shoulders of the Saccos.

"In any other country, if someone gets hurt in a national park or fell off a ledge or disappeared, there is a manhunt," Paul Sacco said. "An A-to-Z gathering of people and resources and a system designed to share information between groups. The government pays for those things. In our case there is nothing. The family has designed the search, coordinated the search and financed the search."

So what happened to Aubrey Sacco? Three months after her disappearance, the Saccos believe she is alive.

"If she was murdered, it must have been a perfect murder where all the evidence is gone," Paul Sacco said. "That's unlikely. Because we could not find her in the Langtang area, we've concluded she is no longer there. She's been kidnapped and moved or hiked and perhaps was kidnapped, something like that."

"We feel like she is still with us," Connie Sacco said. "Perhaps under someone's influence."

The Saccos want to expand their search and hire more searchers, translators, and helicopters as well as offering a reward. That takes money.

To help, friends and family have organized a fund-raiser event at the Moose Lodge, 8601 W. Fullerton in River Grove from noon to 6 p.m. July 31.

There will be music, food, raffles, bags tourney, games and a silent auction. For more information, e-mail Jennifer Biernat at jbeernut@tampabay.rr.com.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/elmwoodpark/news/2560960,elmwood-park-sacco-080510-s1.article
Benefit helps search continue
August 5, 2010

Friends and family gathered July 31 at the River Park Moose Lodge to raise money to find Aubrey Sacco.

Sacco, 23, went missing about three months ago during a trip to the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal.
Her parents, Frank and Connie, are graduates of East Leyden High School in Franklin Park and former members of St. Cyprian Parish in River Grove.

The Saccos have been forced to conduct nearly all of the searching for their daughter in Nepal on their own and out of their own pocket.

The family wants to expand its search and hire more searchers, translators, and helicopters as well as offer a reward.

http://www.theimproper.com/?p=10542
How Julia Roberts, Liz Gilbert Fail Women in 'Eat, Pray, Love'
August 3, 2010

(http://www.theimproper.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/julia-roberts-epl.jpg)
Julie Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love; Inset, Aubrey Sacco, who is missing in Nepal.

The book “Eat Pray Love” issued no travel warnings; nor does the movie. Somebody needs to remind women traveling alone that Halloween-night-style caution is always necessary.

I’m the only guy I know who read “Eat Pray Love,” Liz Gilbert’s wildly successful travelogue cum romance novel that’s now a movie starring Julia Roberts.

She portrays the lovesick and soul-searching editor who met her second husband in Bali.

As an author and veteran travel writer –120 countries explored and chronicled — my immediate instinct was that “Eat Pray Love” on the big screen could motivate an army of women into possibly unsafe situations.

I forgot about the “Eat Pray Love” phenomenon until I heard about 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco  (a close friend of my cousin) from Greeley, Colorado. She has been missing since April when she didn’t return from a solo trek in Nepal’s Himalayas.

Sacco’s disappearance struck me like a lightning bolt and renewed my urge to warn women about some of the realities of eating, praying, and loving alone in foreign lands.

“Eat Pray Love” is an entertaining read about a visit to three countries by an overburdened New Yorker, who, I sense, prior to penning her travelogue, was the sort of vacationer who’d rarely strapped on a backpack, instead opting for forays more suited to luggage with wheels.
What concerned me from the get-go is that becoming the new queen of women’s travel writing is a huge responsibility because, although we live in a world full of mostly decent people, the evil ones have a knack for targeting women roaming alone.

On behalf of my books, “The Frugal Globetrotter,” “In Search of Adventure” and “Globetrotter Dogma,” I’ve lectured extensively about world travel on the campus circuit.

Discussing travel topics like malaria, inoculations, robbery, rape, and kidnapping is serious business. My books celebrate the joy of traveling and forewarn about the dangers.

I always tip my cap to my two favorite hardcore female travel writers:

Carla King, who has ridden motorcycles solo across Asia (China/India), Europe and America — several times.

And, Lisa Alpine, who in the midst of visiting 112 countries, hitched rides in canoes solo through the tributaries of the Amazon.

These are the sort of empowered solo travel experts I’d want advising my daughter about the realities of globetrotting. Their personal tips to women traveling solo end this shout-out.

When Gilbert’s cinema-ready narrative came out, my hunch was that it was going to inspire many women to pitch their troubles over the back fence and venture out to distant lands to reinvent their souls, and I’m all for that.

However, women and men, unfortunately, still need to endure different rules while on the road.

That said, many of the warnings attached to girls and boys trick-or-treating on Halloween follow us throughout our lives.

Although not a guide, “Eat Pray Love,” once canonized, might have supplied prologue and epilogue warnings about the realities of roving alone–and when not to do it.

The big screen version could have done the same to give women an important head’s up about the potential dangers of traveling solo.

I don’t know if Aubrey Sacco read “Eat Pray Love,” but she’s still missing while her father, brother, the FBI, and Nepalese authorities scour a remote region of northern Nepal.

Her father has offered a reward to whoever finds her. Our hearts go out to her family.

The search for Aubrey Sacco continues check out Facebook
Bruce Northam hosts American Detour.

http://www.everestnews.com/stories2010/nepalnews08252010.htm
  Ang Tshering writes from Nepal - August 2010
(snip)
The Search for Aubrey Sacco

In May, at the request of the family and the US Embassy in Kathmandu, Asian Trekking launched a search effort to find a missing trekker.

Aubrey Caroline Sacco was trekking in the Langtang National Park when she was reported missing. Her last known whereabouts were in the Lama Hotel Area on the 22nd of April. She was trekking alone.

Asian Trekking, local organization and individuals coordinated a search and rescue effort in the Langtang National Park and the adjoining region. Unfortunately, the search produced no results. Our heart goes out to family and friends of Aubrey.

I extend my continued support to the family. If anyone should hear of any news of Aubrey, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
(snip)

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100826/NEWS/100829774/1002&parentprofile=1001
For Aubrey Sacco's family, answers seem to be close
August 26, 2010

 Just by the laws of percentages, one day soon, Paul and Connie Sacco believe they will know what happened to their daughter Aubrey.

“The theories are narrowing,” Paul Sacco said from his Greeley law office, “and the number of searchers are increasing.”

Aubrey disappeared in early May while trekking in Nepal. Paul even traveled to the country himself to search for her but returned alone. And now the FBI is involved. The search has yielded many theories and clues but no real answers. But the Saccos remain hopeful as the search broadens beyond Nepal's Langtang National Park, where she last checked in.

The FBI and the U.S. Embassy in Nepal are still working, and U.S. Sen. Mark Udall's office has stepped up the intensity as well, Paul Sacco said. But the Saccos want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton involved or even President Obama.

“Without them involved, this is just a small case,” Connie Sacco said. “But this isn't a small case to us.”

The Saccos are still as involved as ever. They're spending all their free time and thousands of dollars on the self-funded search, and they have made contacts with “serious insiders” in Nepal, Paul Sacco said, who may eventually be more capable of getting information. It looks more and more like Aubrey was kidnapped, he said, but he also said the search is still a broad one.

They also continue to believe their daughter is alive.

“There's no evidence still that she has been killed or is dead,” Paul Sacco said. “In some ways it's more ominous. As it goes on, the more you think something bad has happened, but on the other hand, we don't have any evidence of that, and that makes me want to be really positive.

“If I was a betting man, I would absolutely think that she's alive. The agony of it is it just goes on and on and on.”

Friends and family are selling T-shirts, dragonfly bracelets (the insect was a favorite of Aubrey's) and are always looking for signs that she's alive. Even things like seeing the moon brings comfort because they believe she's looking at the same moon.

Mostly, they continue to tell their story to anyone who will listen, on Facebook, through the media and in person.

“The more the story gets out, the more resources come to your aid,” Paul Sacco said. “I don't mean just money. I mean is all of a sudden a name comes to me from somebody, and another name, and they turn out to be extremely helpful people. And when she finally comes back, it will be the story of the world.”


To help
The search for Aubrey Sacco is mostly self-funded, even with the FBI's help:
• www.mountainfund.org is helping to search for Aubrey.
• A fund for Aubrey Sacco is set up at Bank of the West, 4290 10th St., Greeley, CO 80634.
• The e-mail for a Paypal account set up is aubreysaccorescuefund@gmail.com.

"until we find her . . ."

Tampa Bay family of missing woman wants U.S. gov't help
 Adam Freeman     11 hrs ago

Spring Hill, Florida - The Tampa Bay family of a Colorado woman missing in Nepal, is making a new push to help find her.

Aubrey Sacco, 23, hasn't been seen or heard from since April. Her family wants to U.S. government to help in the search, but they're frustrated that isn't happening.

Sacco was backpacking through the Southeastern Asia country, when she went on a hike by herself near the Himalayan Mountains.

Despite a search from the Nepal government, a private investigator, even her father, there are still no clues.

"I don't think anyone thought it would be taking this long to find her, not at all," said Jennifer Biernet, Sacco's aunt who lives in Spring Hill.

Biernet is behind a new effort to get the U.S. State Department more involved in the search.

Everyday Biernet is faxing letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, trying to get her attention on Sacco's story.

Starting Wednesday, mobile billboards with her picture are also traveling around Washington D.C.

"To have her really look at this, to have her people look at this, and see what they can do," Biernet said.

Later this month Biernet plans to travel to D.C. herself in hopes of reaching the right person.

"You never know what connection we could make and get somebody on this case," she explained, "we think with the U.S. technology and resources, that they could do a better job."

The family is also trying to get in touch with other lawmakers, including Florida Governor Charlie Crist, in hopes they can help.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=149715

http://www.uccsscribe.com/news/search-for-missing-boulder-grad-continues-1.2417047
Search for missing Boulder grad continues
By The Scribe
scribe.eic@gmail.com
Published: Monday, November 29, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 10:11
University of Colorado at Boulder graduate and Greeley, Colo. native Aubrey Sacco, 23, went missing April 20 as she attempted to travel across Nepal and trek the outskirts of the Himalayas. Since she was reported missing in the early days of May, her parents, Paul and Connie Sacco have instigated a massive search and rescue operation in hopes of locating their daughter. Paul and his oldest son, a 2007 UCCS graduate, Crofton Sacco, flew to Nepal in search of Aubrey last June, only to discover her laptop computer and some other personal items where she was staying. Nearly seven months since her disappearance, her family and friends remain hopeful she is still alive. Paul commented Nov. 25 about the latest developments, saying, "We have launched a new on-the-ground investigation using a number of local people in Nepal that we are very excited about, although response from some of our government officials in the U.S. is not as quick as we would like. We are using different angles to find Aubrey based upon recommendations of some very experienced state department people."

http://www.uccsscribe.com/mobile/news/sacco-family-remain-hopeful-as-search-for-missing-cu-boulder-grad-continues-1.2427581
Sacco family remain hopeful as search for missing CU-Boulder grad continues
December 14, 2010

For most people, April 20 may be just another day, but for the Sacco family of Greeley, Colo., it marks the last time they Sacco had contact with their daughter, Aubrey.

As a UC Boulder graduate, Aubrey Sacco, 23, traveled to the outskirts of Nepal in hopes of teaching yoga to locals while taking classes on meditation and learning about eastern philosophies. She went missing over seven months ago, and despite numerous rescue operations of the Lantang National Park, where she was last seen and heard from, the family's vexations of U.S. government support are increasing.

"In general, of all the people that have helped, the government has been the most surprising, and the most disappointing," Paul Sacco said, "Early on, the State Department and Department of Justice brought many of their resources to bear, given their geographic limitations. After all, Aubrey disappeared on the other side of the world; at about the six month mark, however, they officially forgot us."

All has not been lost, though, and even as the search for Aubrey enters into month eight, many foreign and local officials are still maintaining the search and assistance for the Sacco family.

"Thankfully, some of the agents within the bureaucracy still carry the torch for Aubrey and are still helping behind the scenes," expounded Sacco. "God bless those agents and people that are sticking with us. The Nepal police and Nepal Army are also helping in the search but it is difficult to obtain information or disclosure of their search records," he added.

"The lesson to be learned here is that we put too much faith in our institutions; 8,000 letters were written to Hillary Clinton begging her to free up more resources to help our own FBI and Embassy find Aubrey. We received no response. We even wrote to [former] President Bill Clinton but were told by insiders that he only helps with the easy cases in which he can quickly affect a positive outcome," he said.

With no hard leads or evidence to draw conclusions that anything negative happened to Aubrey, the family said that there are several persons of interest that may have information of her whereabouts and what may have happened. No matter what, Paul, Connie and their sons, Morgan and Crofton, still believe in their hearts that Aubrey is alive, but "because she became lost in such a strange and spiritual part of the country, many of the disappearance theories are optimistic, although we have to be realistic that the negative ones are still possible," Sacco added.

As days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, the musician, artist and world traveler's message of "Make Love to Life" has not been overlooked or ignored; the immense floodgate of Aubrey Sacco supporters across the country and globe has summated into the thousands due in part to a Facebook page, which was created to spread awareness about her disappearance; friends, family and supporters from all corners of the world post daily messages of support, prayer and love in hopes of getting the young yogi back home to her family.

AubreySacco.com has assimilated into a pipeline for the family and supporters, alike, to receive the latest updates and become aware of the series of fundraising events and products available for people to get involved and assist in the search effort.

Students are encouraged to log onto the website for more information on how to make a difference in the continuing search relief.