Update: At 4 p.m. Monday, authorities halted the search effort for Kristina Elizabeth Young, 36, pending further investigative leads, according to an Alaska State Trooper dispatch online. The Juneau Police Department will maintain the case as a missing person case.
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Two friends of a Juneau woman whom authorities are looking for stood together Monday afternoon at a parking lot overlooking the Mendenhall wetlands. They hoped the search would come up empty. That might mean Kristina Elizabeth Young is still alive.
“Over a month, that’s the last time I spoke to her,” Christina Wheaton said. “But just because we don’t talk often that doesn’t mean she matters any less.”
Authorities launched a massive search — by ground with canines and handlers, by air in a Temsco helicopter and by water in jet boats — for the 36-year-old woman after her brother George Benjamin Young, 40, was found dead Sunday afternoon.
Juneau Police Department spokesman Lt. David Campbell said a passerby found George’s body lying face down in Lemon Creek while driving along the Egan Drive bridge around 4 p.m. Sunday. Police believe the two siblings were together on the banks of Lemon Creek near Glacier Highway when George’s body was taken by the water’s current.
Signs of trauma from traveling down the creek were visible on his body, but obvious signs of foul play were not present, according to a JPD press release. Police sent his body to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage and his next of kin have been notified.
Police are now focused on locating Young’s sister, Kristina.
“We have some video images from 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon of Kristina purchasing alcohol at a liquor store,” Campbell said in a phone interview Monday morning.
Police found those purchased alcohol containers on the banks of Lemon Creek with her brother’s personal items. No one has reported seeing Kristina since Sunday afternoon and Campbell said police do not know her whereabouts or well-being at this time.
A brief search by Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search took place Sunday night, lasting about an hour and a half, said SEADOGS Team Manager Bruce Bowler. After an 8 a.m. Monday briefing at the JPD station with SEADOGS, an area hydrologist, the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers, the search continued again.
“We’re out here in full force,” Bowler said while six dogs and a dozen other volunteers took a break to regroup at the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge parking area on Egan Drive. They’ve been meeting there since 9 a.m.
Another group of volunteers is testing a jet boat’s capabilities in the shallow waters by Harris Harbor before bringing the boat to Lemon Creek to put two dogs on it for a faster search, Bowler said. Trooper Ryan Anderson said Temsco Helicopters was asked to assist with an aerial search because the high grass is making the search difficult for volunteers surveying the area on foot.
So far, a second body has not been found. The only thing that has been is a dark San Diego Padres baseball cap, but no one knows if it actually belongs to Kristina or her brother, Bowler said. SEADOGS handlers log everything they find, just in case it’s related to the case.
A gillnet that SEADOGS put in the water Sunday night is also helping volunteers collect clues in the water. The gillnet snagged around noon Monday and several volunteers worked to set it straight, but from far away at the wetlands parking area, Kristina’s two friends could only see a crowd forming in a manner that caused some panic.
“I hope he didn’t find anything,” Wheaton said anxiously. “That doesn’t look good.”
Wheaton and her friend eventually left the area to search for Kristina’s car, a light blue sedan with a Superman decal on it, hoping to find her somewhere nearby and alive.
Bowler said his dog team will stop searching for Kristina only “when she’s found.”
Police have described Kristina as a white female, approximately 5’4” tall, 140 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Police are asking anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts to contact JPD immediately at 586-0600.
• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.
SEADOGS handlers Liam Higgins, left, and Allen Butner search for a possible missing woman Monday after her brother George Benjamin Young, 40, was found dead in Lemon Creek on Sunday.
A search is underway for Kristina Elizabeth Young, 36, the sister of a man found in the Mendenhall wetlands Sunday.
