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Author Topic: 23 year old Colorado woman Aubrey Sacco missing in Nepal, April 20, 2010  (Read 30785 times)
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trimmonthelake
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« Reply #20 on: June 29, 2010, 09:15:15 AM »

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
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« Reply #21 on: June 29, 2010, 09:20:36 AM »

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

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.
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SuzieQ
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« Reply #22 on: June 30, 2010, 07:40:01 PM »

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."
 
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SuzieQ
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« Reply #23 on: July 03, 2010, 11:43:03 AM »

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.

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« Reply #24 on: July 04, 2010, 11:11:59 AM »

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.
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« Reply #25 on: July 04, 2010, 11:16:29 AM »

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
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« Reply #26 on: July 13, 2010, 01:49:49 PM »

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.

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« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2010, 08:42:21 PM »

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.
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« Reply #28 on: August 05, 2010, 09:06:17 PM »

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.
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« Reply #29 on: August 14, 2010, 07:11:59 PM »

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


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.


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« Reply #30 on: August 29, 2010, 10:11:35 PM »

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)
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« Reply #31 on: August 29, 2010, 10:13:24 PM »

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.
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« Reply #32 on: August 30, 2010, 12:11:19 AM »

"until we find her . . ."
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RIP Grumpy Cat :( I will miss you.


« Reply #33 on: October 07, 2010, 11:05:24 AM »

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
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« Reply #34 on: December 04, 2010, 10:06:40 AM »

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."
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« Reply #35 on: December 20, 2010, 07:34:48 PM »

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.
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