The search for Stephanie Roller | Forensic Files

when we were called to join the search for Stephanie we arrived down here our teams uh got their standard gear out and
we began to break up into twos groups of two and begin to cover the area on the first day uh we really concentrated on
the high probability areas along the river there's a pond behind her house and there's a big wetlands area that is
crisscrossed with hiking trails so our team spread out into those locations at that particular point we didn't know
what the circumstances were so we were looking for somebody who was possibly injured somebody who had uh who had run
into trouble with uh with somebody uh when she had gone out for a walk the nighttime temperatures were probably in
the single digits Thursday uh our second day out here was Thanksgiving unfortunately again and didn't find
anything I think you never totally give up hope but a long time had gone by it had been extremely cold at night it been
snowing practically every day the chances were getting less and less at that point we wanted to really do an
allout push on Friday I was out here on Friday and we had a big group of people from all over Colorado searching both
the river and nearby areas what appeared to be a body in the river was reported the day we actually found her it was
sunny and starting to warm up which probably helped because she began to emerge from the snow cover she was
actually found not too far from where we're standing right here and she was out among some of the rocks that you can
see out in the water right now when it came across the radio that she was located I think it
was a sense of relief that we had finally closed it but at the same time finding
somebody who is no longer living is not good news

When Stephanie Roller went "missing" on Thanksgiving week of November 2010, scores of volunteers showed up to search for her. Glen Kraatz and Shari Topping of the Summit County Colorado Rescue Group explain how they worked to find her and the factors involved in a search in the rugged Rocky Mountain high country.

Brief Summary

The search for Stephanie faced harsh conditions, ending with the discovery of her body in the river.

Key points

The Search for Stephanie. A dedicated team searches for a missing person in challenging conditions.
A Heartbreaking Discovery. The search culminates in the tragic finding of a body.

Episode quotes

You never totally give up hope.

Reflecting on the search effort.

1:03WatchMar 6, 2014

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