ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska musher missing since late May has been found alive two days after police called off a search for her.
The Anchorage Daily News reports Melanie Gould, an Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race veteran, contacted police in Cantwell on Saturday and was taken to a Mat-Su hospital.
Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters would not give Gould’s condition or say where she was found.
Gould, a 34-year-old musher from Talkeetna, was last seen May 31 buying gas near her home.
The owner of the Talkeetna Roadhouse where Gould was a part-time housekeeper said she didn’t show up to work on May 31 or the next at her full-time job at a bakery.
Later, a friend went to her cabin overlooking the mountains, where she had no running water or electricity, and found her dozen dogs there, including her favorite, Jane. Her truck was gone.
Gould’s friends organized into search teams and local pilots were using their own planes and helicopters to try to find her. The roadhouse owner also used her large database of contacts to send out alerts across the country.
Two set up a Facebook page, “Have you seen Melanie Gould?” The page shows a photo of the blond-haired woman smiling.
Then, on Thursday, troopers called off the search and said it wouldn’t resume until evidence or credible information regarding her whereabouts was given to narrow the search area.
Gould’s truck was found a quarter-mile off the Denali Highway about 18 miles from Cantwell, a community just south of Denali National Park and Preserve.
Gould ran the Iditarod from 2000-07. Her best finish was in 2006, when she finished 18th.
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