Missouri deputy attorney general found alive after six days in Wyoming

Shaun Mackelprang, a Missouri deputy attorney general who set out alone for Wyoming's highest peak, was found alive on the morning of August 26 after six days in the Wind River Range, disoriented and dehydrated but conscious.

Search crews reached Mackelprang, 55, around 9:45 a.m. Mountain time in the vicinity of Scott Lake and safely prepared him for helicopter extraction from the backcountry, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office said. He was flown out and taken to a hospital. The office later shared photographs of rescuers with Mackelprang aboard the aircraft.

Mackelprang began his trek August 20 from the Green River Lakes Trailhead, planning to reach Gannett Peak, a 13,804-foot summit in western Wyoming, by way of Tourist Creek. He was hiking alone. Search operations began after he was reported missing and his vehicle was found at the trailhead, the sheriff's office said.

A name in the summit register

The turn in the search came from a stranger. A hiker who summited Gannett Peak later photographed the register at the top, and Mackelprang's name was written in it, his brother Romel Mackelprang said. That told rescuers he had gone missing on the descent, somewhere in the terrain between the peak and his tent.

So that really limited the scope of the search.

Mackelprang signed the register a day after leaving the trailhead, an entry that showed he had reached his goal before something went wrong on the way back. That single piece of information turned an open-ended search across a vast range into a focused one. Once crews located his tent, they concentrated on the ground between it and the summit.

He was found wandering near a lake that probably resembled the one where he had pitched his tent, his brother said.

How the search unfolded

The effort drew ground search teams and the sheriff's office drone team, along with a helicopter crew from Tip Top Search and Rescue, a volunteer group in Sublette County. Crews searched August 25 but stopped as winds worsened, then returned early on August 26, Romel said. Once they reached his brother, rescuers started an IV and prepared to fly him to a nearby medical facility.

This successful outcome is the result of the tremendous effort and coordination of Tip Top Search and Rescue volunteers, Sublette County Sheriff's Office personnel and the SCSO Drone Team, along with the support of everyone who provided information or assistance throughout the search.

Mackelprang had expected to reach the summit August 21 and hoped to be back August 22, according to Romel, who at 70 is the oldest of the four siblings and lives in Salt Lake City; Shaun is the youngest. When August 22 passed without word, the family held off, because thunderstorms had moved through the mountains and bad weather could easily delay a descent.

Concern set in on August 23, when the family's sister, Sheila, made the first calls and spoke with officials in Wyoming. By August 25 the family knew something was seriously wrong. The Sublette County Sheriff's Office issued a public missing-person report that day, five days after Mackelprang started up the trail.

During the search, the sheriff's office had asked anyone who encountered Mackelprang in the mountains to come forward. Tip Top's coordinator, Kenna Tanner, said crews were trying to reconstruct his route and to reach people who might have seen where he had been along the way.

Authorities did not publicly say whether Mackelprang was carrying a satellite communicator, a personal locator beacon or any other emergency device.

A career in Missouri law

Mackelprang has worked in the Missouri Attorney General's Office for decades and serves as a deputy attorney general in its criminal division, based in Jefferson City. His disappearance drew national attention because of that role in state law enforcement.

We are thrilled to hear that Deputy Attorney General Shaun Mackelprang has been located.

In her statement, Hanaway thanked the sheriff's office and its drone team, the Tip Top volunteers and their helicopter crew, and Wyoming state leaders. Her office said it had stayed in close contact with the officials running the operation, and during the search it had asked for prayers for Mackelprang's safety and for everyone involved.

Mackelprang has been working through the highest points in all 50 states, his brother said, which explains the Gannett Peak attempt. His public social media had documented the pursuit for years, with posts from Missouri's Taum Sauk Mountain in 2023, from Hoye-Crest on Maryland's Backbone Mountain, from Mississippi's Woodall Mountain, and from the trail toward California's Mount Whitney.

Gannett Peak, at 13,804 feet, sits deep in the Wind River Range and is among the harder state high points to reach, a long approach through remote backcountry that Mackelprang was attempting on his own.

A brother's relief

Romel Mackelprang said his brother was dehydrated and disoriented when rescuers reached him, six days after he had walked into the range. He was overwhelmed with gratitude for the volunteers who had combed the mountains, and said the searchers and rescue crews deserved every bit of credit for bringing his brother out alive.

He said his brother's Christmas gift this year would be a Garmin GPS unit, and that he planned to tell him he could no longer take on peaks like Gannett alone.

What led to the disorientation remained unclear. The family said it did not yet know the sequence of events that left him off course on the descent, and the full extent of his physical condition when he was found had not been made public. He had reached the summit days before he was located wandering below it.

The family had held off in the early days, hoping an experienced hiker would make his own way back down before crews were sent out.

Recovery and open questions

Mackelprang was taken to a hospital after being flown out of the range, the sheriff's office said. A person in the attorney general's office described him as very weak but conscious and alert, First Alert 4 reported. His prognosis and how long he would remain in care were not disclosed, and officials had not detailed how he had survived the days he was gone.

The sheriff's office credited the outcome to its volunteers, its own personnel and drone team, and the many people who fed information to searchers over the six days he was gone, with the attorney general's office in Jefferson City tracking the operation from afar as the family waited for news.

For now, how Mackelprang lost his way on the descent, and how he survived six days alone at altitude, remain open questions for a man recovering in a Wyoming hospital and a family that had prepared for the worst before the news reached them on August 26.