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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

The search for Adrienne DeVries

A firsthand account from Kurt Erickson of St. Louis County Rescue

Kurt Erickson
Posted 7/24/14

On Wednesday, July 23rd at about 1900 hours St. Louis County Rescue Squad was dispatched to a report of a missing woman at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park. The woman is an employee of the …

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The search for Adrienne DeVries

A firsthand account from Kurt Erickson of St. Louis County Rescue

Posted

On Wednesday, July 23rd at about 1900 hours St. Louis County Rescue Squad was dispatched to a report of a missing woman at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park. The woman is an employee of the State Park. The usual state of confusion at the early out set of a call started with the initial call it self. Based on the call info and a phone call to dispatch it clearly was thought the lady was missing UNDERGROUND. While this would have been an interesting search to under take it proved not to be the case.

Jon Olson ad I were up on Crane Lake. This delayed our response and took us over an hour to get to the scene. Matt Graves, Peter Hughs, John Hanson and a few others were already on the scene. They had started gathering preliminary info. John, thanks for asking the assistant park manager to fill out the missing person form. Her hand writing was super. I could actually read her's with out my glasses!

By about 2020 we were dispatching search crews to begin a surface search of like ground level locations. While Park personnel assured us that he buildings had all been searched, crews were assigned to re do all building search's. Crews were also asked to again redo that with different teams doing different buildings to have a different set of eyes looking at each building and the grounds around each building. The Park HQ building is the place last known. Alaskan Shaft was her stated destination.

It should be noted that the Park staff confirmed that the woman's car was still in the lot and personal belongs were still in her locker. Contact was made with her husband who lives just a few blocks from the mine and he had not heard from her. She was reported to be of good mind and responsible in reporting for her shift and be aware of time and place etc. with no known medical issues.

Once the buildings and grounds had been thoroughly covered our search effort went to concentrating on the Alaskan Shaft area. This is where the woman was reportedly going to go pick litter. Some crews had already been dispatched to the area and the building searchers once freed from building search went to assist in the Alaskan Shaft area. There are a number of walking trails around the Alaskan Shaft with heavy woods. The area is full of old open pit mines with vertical walls that are easily 100 drops. There are old under ground shafts that come to the surface, some are protected and some are not. The rock around the edge of all cliff faces is unstable and heavily fractured. All searchers were sent in teams. All were cautioned to be sure of every step they took.

Park staff were asked to search all levels of the main mine to determine if she had been able to get into the actual mine. They searched it well with negative results. Keep in mind this shaft drops over 2500 ft and has about 20 levels.

The missing woman was said to not be a good walker. She had twisted an ankle some days ago that was still bothering her. She often complained of back pain and had walked down to the Soudan store last week and called her husband to come pick her up and drive the few bocks back up to the mine.

Exhaustive effort went into the nighttime search of the trails and woods surrounding the Alaskan Shaft. Search crews were finding nothing!

By this time search crews were comprised of Breiting FD, Morse Fall Lake FD, DNR staff and St Louis County Rescue were working with about 35 people on scene. Once again I am always impressed with the cooperative TEAM effort that goes into resolving these calls. Tower Ambulance also became involved once she was located.

During the ground search phase John Hanson, was doing a wide area sweep by ATV on some of the out lying trail area. John found a suspicious foot print that caught his eye. This was about 1.2 miles east of command post op's. John wanting more confirmation on the print request Leroy be detailed to him from the ground crew that Leroy was on by Alaskan Shaft. John Marked the print and returned to CP to pick Leroy up. Joe Swanson of Morse Fall Lake FD went with John and Leroy.

Leroy using his MANTRACKER skills found interest in the print that John had found. Leroy began his track. Several more prints were discovered that were heading NE and based on Terrain Navigator plotting starting to get way out of the search area. Leroy was lock on to the print and comfortable about the age of the print, size of the print etc and he wanted to stay on it. As it turns out Leroy, John Hanson and Joe Swanson found our victim laying down in a fairly open area. She was found to be wet and cold with mild hypothermia and had been burning alot of calories. This helped in depleting her energy reserves and had her very exhausted. They built a fire to help begin to warm her. John Hanson was able to find a wheeler connection to the new Vermillion State Park RD. Breitung Fire's Matt Tuchel and another Breitung FF had been dispatched with the SLCRS Orion to respond to the victim. Upon their arrrival the victim was exported out to the new State Park road. She was found at about 0300 hrs on the morning of the 24th.

Erik Thorp had grabbed the Tower ambulance and responded to the new road where he meet up with the search party and the victim. The victim was transported to Ely Hospital to be checked over out of precaution. It was felt by on scene folks that she was stable, but they wanted her checked out at the hospital.

We did find a dead area in ARMER coverage in the Cable Bay area on Lake Vermilion. Team Hanson had a hard time talking to us due to being on the very fringe of the coverage area. This is in the new State Park area and according to the Park Manager the usage is already way up even though the new park is not officially open and is not even built yet.

The victims husband had been notified and had a friend bring him to Ely Hospital.

DNR had taken an employee gone missing very seriously. There were several ranking DNR Conservation Officers that were calling command to offer there support and to send us help and or equipment. I had requested that they be geared up and ready to begin assisting with a search in the morning. We were planning a crew change over for 0800 hours and bring in fresh searchers and a change over in command staff had she not been found.

Once again though in dealing with a number of people through CP I am amazed that people don't know we are an all volunteer group. DNR staff at the park did not know, victims husband and friend did not know and some other too. We through the successful resolution have helped spread the word to a few more the type of work we do and our ability at getting it done.

I think we need see if any of our local papers are willing to note the special effort and great tracking skill of our very own " WOODSMAN and TRACKER EXTRAORDINAR, Leroy Aho." Team Hanson (Hanson, Aho and Swanson) due to their determination stuck with that track (ended up being about 3.8 miles) and while the woman was still stable, given the cold night and fog settling in, zapping more of her energy, she would have started to crash faster and faster. Had she not been found with in the coming day we may have had a much different out come. SO, A REAL BIG THANK YOU to Team Hanson and "Woodsman" Leroy. And for the rest a big thank you for all the support that help Team Hanson make the find!!!

Kurt Erickson

1st LT.

St. Louis County Rescue