The Lunchbox on the Snow: How a Nine-Year-Old Vanished and Returned

The Lunchbox on the Snow: How a Nine-Year-Old Vanished and Returned

A child's lunchbox sat upright on top of the snowpack at 9,200 feet, containing an untouched peanut butter sandwich, a juice box, and a still-warm activated hand warmer-found at 6:12 a.m. after a night when temperatures reached minus 17°C. How did a nine-year-old carry that box four and a half miles through darkness and stop at a blind curve no one can see until twenty yards away?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events recorded in the trail register, witness accounts, and search-and-rescue logs to outline what happened from the November-eleven style of routine Thursday breakfasts to the hike that began on January 13, 2019 and led to the lunchbox discovery the next morning; what could explain the deliberate turn off the maintained trail and the footprints that continued into broken rock toward Ledge Steps?

Person: Paige Price
Person: Sherry Price
Date: January 13-14, 2019
Location: Forest Service Road Seven-Bravo and Merritt Creek Trailhead, Suttler County
Status: Returned (child found after night on mountain)

- The lunchbox was found at 6:12 a.m. on January 14, 2019 sitting upright on top of the snowpack at 9,200 feet.
- Inside the lunchbox were one untouched peanut butter sandwich, one juice box, and one activated hand warmer that was still warm.
- The last snowfall had ended at 11:15 p.m. the previous night, meaning the lunchbox appeared after that time.
- Sherry logged her hike at the Merritt Creek Trailhead kiosk at 11:07 a.m. on January 13, 2019 with destination "Berry Bench" and estimated return 1:00 p.m.
- Search was activated at 4:30 p.m. on January 13, 2019 after Frank Adler called 911 at 3:51 p.m.; footprints were followed past Berry Bench toward Ledge Steps at roughly 8,600 feet.

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