Case Signal's List: Melanie Gould - News Articles & Videos

• Gould’s brother has been busy since the recovery taking care of his baby sister. Sue Deyoe spoke with Gould’s brother about what he said he hopes is the last chapter in the search for Melanie.
• note: Although all dogs are well cared for, there are still a few that need PERMANENT homes.  Tupper was mistaken when he said they were all spoken for.

• Missing Talkeetna resident and former Iditarod musher Melanie Gould was found alive and unharmed on Saturday.
• Trooper Spokesperson Megan Peters said that Gould contacted them Saturday. Gould was transported to Mat-Su Regional Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
• A spokesperson for the family said they are eternally grateful for all the assistance they received from Talkeetna residents, that Gould is in good care and a formal statement will most likely be made later this week. Gould’s family has traveled to be with her.

1 more annotation...

• Missing Talkeetna resident and former Iditarod musher Melanie Gould was found alive and unharmed on Saturday.
• Trooper Spokesperson Megan Peters said that Gould contacted them Saturday. Gould was transported to Mat-Su Regional Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
• The Facebook site dedicated to finding Gould announced Saturday afternoon that she was found alive and unharmed and later that day it was taken offline.
• A spokesperson for the family said they are eternally grateful for all the assistance they received from Talkeetna residents, that Gould is in good care and a formal statement will most likely be made later this week. Gould’s family has traveled to be with her.

2 more annotations...

• Troopers are still calculating the cost but say one thing is clear: Mealanie Gould won’t have to pay. In fact, troopers say no one does because there is no law that requires it.
• “We are given a budget to do search and rescues in the state and that’s what we work off of,” says Lt. Dave Tugman of the Alaska State Troopers. “There are no state statutes or criminal statutes or civil statutes.”
• Troopers say Gould did nothing illegal, even though she apparently knew people were looking for her but avoided them.
• They say Gould didn’t asked to be looked for and they won’t discuss if there could be mental health or other issues that prompted her to leave her home with a kennel full of dogs unattended. They do say that letting someone know where she was going and when she planned to return might have spared a lot of worry.

2 more annotations...

• Amanda Olson, one of the friends who helped organize a search that spanned 11 days, says Gould was released from the Mat-Su Valley Regional Hospital on Sunday night to friends and family.
• “We really don’t want answers,” says Olson. “We are just happy that we found her, and alive,” an outcome, that Olson says, was much better than what she had feared
• Troopers are saying very little about the case, beyond confirming that Gould was found by a volunteer searcher on Saturday near Cantwell and appeared in good physical condition. A spokesperson says Gould apparently knew that people were looking for her but avoided them.
• Olson says, the volunteer who found Gould, was setting up a base camp for searchers near Cantwell, and then went looking for her himself.  According to Olson, it helped that Gould knew the volunteer, who found her hungry and thirsty. After being given hot drinks and food, she was then taken to the hospital
• “Anger is understandable,” says Jim Gottstein, an attorney and mental health advocate. “But I think it’s misplaced.”
• Gottstein says he knows from personal experience how a combination of stress, sleep deprivation and other factors can lead to a personal crisis – and that these episodes are more common today than we may think. But Gottstein is quick to add that it would be wrong to speculate about Gould’s state of mind.
• “I can see both sides of it.  I think it’s understandable that people want to know.  But I think people have a right to privacy and we should respect that,” says Gottstein. “Having pressure on you is not helpful.  I mean that’s obvious.”
• “To be a good friend to her right now,” says Olson, “is to support her no matter what, not asking those questions. Not making her feel awkward or pressured.
• “What we’re going to do, which we do with all major searches, we’ll look at the assets we used, resources, talk with the searchers themselves, the ones that were actually on the ground and find out what worked, what they did well,” said Lt. Dave Tugmon, who is the statewide search and rescue coordinator for the troopers. “It was more of a training than anything.
• Lt. Tugmon says he can’t talk about the Gould case specifically, but believes it’s always a good idea to let someone know where you’re going on an outing

• But the problem, is, sometimes people don’t want anyone to know where they are going or why.  
• And when it comes to Melanie Gould, Jim Gottstein says, people should move on. “Melanie at some point may or may not want to talk about it.  I think she should make those decisions privately. I would like people to be thankful she was found OK.

10 more annotations...

• Alaska State Troopers confirmed that missing Talkeetna resident Melanie Gould was found on Saturday.  Megan Peters, Trooper spokesperson, confirmed that she had contacted Troopers in Cantwell.  They transported her to Mat Su Regional Hospital.  A local search party of friends that had launched efforts after the Troopers had terminated their efforts said they found Gould Saturday morning unharmed.
• The facebook site posted to keep friends updated posted that Gould was alive and unharmed around 1 pm on Saturday.  By Saturday evening the facebook site had been taken down.

• Saturday, Alaska State Troopers informed KTVA-CBS 11 News that she called them to pick her up near Cantwell. What troopers did not tell KTVA is that her friends found her during their own search and called forces to pick her up and transport her to a local hospital.
• One of Gould’s friends, Amanda Olson, said Gould spent the night in the Matanuska-Susitna Regional Medical Center and was released Sunday morning. Olson said when the group of friends found Gould she was dehydrated and tired, but not injured. Currently Gould is staying with her family in an undisclosed area in the state.
• When KTVA asked why Gould left without telling anyone, Olson said she didn’t know, and does not plan on asking Gould any time soon.
• “She is ok and that at this time we just want to respect her privacy and let her recover from what she's been through, and when she's ready I'm for sure she'll be willing to talk to all of us about what was going on,” Olson said.
• “But right now she just needs some time to recover and get adjusted again to where everything is at.”
• Olson is one of three administrators on the Facebook page created to find the once missing Melanie Gould titled, "Have You Seen Melanie Gould?"
• Olson said the page is still created, but not published for the public to view. She said the administrators will reinstate the page after they get some much needed rest and relaxation now that their friend Melanie Gould is safe. 

5 more annotations...

• there are now mixed opinions on whether Gould owes an explanation as to why she disappeared

• “I can verify that Melanie Gould contacted troopers in Cantwell and we are now transporting her to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center,” AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said.
• The initial post to that page announcing Gould had been found drew 333 comments and 664 “likes” in four hours. The page itself has 3.289 “likes,” which is a good indication of how far the search effort reached.
• On Friday, the Facebook page came alive with notices about searchers heading to Cantwell, with solicitations for equipment to borrow. Three hours after a notice asking for some kind of van, the page contained a notice that Gould had been found.
• “Everyone — remember it is Melanie’s business whether to tell anyone what happened. She doesn’t have to ever tell any of us anything. Accept that. What matters is that she is back and safe. Be prepared. This is not a television show where you get everything revealed to you at the end. Thank you for everything,” was the latest update as of 5 p.m.
• A number of the comments on that update agreed, but a few argued that after the state and volunteer groups invested time and resources searching for multiple days, Gould should at least give a brief explanation.

3 more annotations...

• Missing Iditarod musher Melanie Gould turned up today, 12 days after she'd last been seen and two days Alaska officials had given up the search for her.
• Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that Gould contacted authorities today, but beyond that provided few details.

• "She seems to be in good condition," Peters told the newspaper. 
• She would not say where Gould, 34, had been during the time she was missing, but did say that she had seen the police and volunteers looking for her but had "decided to stay away."
• Gould's friends had become worried about her when she didn't show up for work at the Talkneeta Roadhouse on May 31 without checking in, but when they realized the veteran musher's sled dogs uncared for in her empty home, they feared something was really wrong.
• Talkeetna Roadhouse owner Trisha Costello said it raised flags when she didn't show up for her shift.
• "We talked Monday night [May 30], she even offered to stay late to help me," Costello said. "She's reliable and conscientious. She would be mortified to know I had to work the whole day without her."
• Friends went to her house to check on her. Instead, they found her sled dogs in the empty home, food on the table, her cell phone on the counter and laundry hanging dry.

• "It looked like as if she just walked away," Costello said. 
• Neighbors said they saw Gould leave her house the night of May 30 around 8 p.m. A local taxi driver reported seeing the woman driving north toward the Denali park entrance later that night, according to Costello.
• "It's beyond normal. The fact she left her dogs, especially (Jane). She loved that dog," Costello said. "It's highly unusual for her to leave them without asking anyone to care for them."

9 more annotations...

• An Alaska sled dog musher who had been missing since the Memorial Day weekend has been located alive and safe, the Alaska State Troopers said Saturday.
• Melanie Gould, the subject of a search that started June 1, contacted troopers in Cantwell, a community outside of Denali National Park
• Gould was transported from there to a hospital in Wasilla, said Megan Peters, a trooper spokeswoman. "She appeared to be in good condition," Peters said in an email.

• Peters did not elaborate on Gould's medical state.
• Gould did tell troopers that she knew they had been searching for her and that she stayed away from those efforts until now, Peters said.
• Friends said they were fearful because it was out of character for Gould to leave her dogs without care or to fail to show up for work without notice.
• Troopers have maintained through the entire search that there were no signs of foul play in Gould's disappearance.

5 more annotations...

• Megan Peters, Trooper spokesperson, confirmed that she had contacted Troopers in Cantwell.  They were transporting her to Mat Su Regional Hospital.  A local search party that had launched efforts after the Troopers had terminated their efforts found Gould Saturday morning.
• The facebook site posted to keep friends updated posted that Gould was alive and unharmed around 1 pm on Saturday.  Word spread quickly across downtown Talkeetna and by 1:30 pm many residents along the downtown streets had heard the word.
• No more is known on Gould’s condition at this time.

1 more annotation...

• according to spokeswoman, Megan Peters, she was transported to Mat-Su Regional Hospital for care, but wasn't believed to be in any danger.

• Missing for more than a week, Talkeetna musher Melanie Gould contacted Alaska State Troopers in Cantwell today. Troopers say Gould, 34, was not in danger, but she is being transported to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.
• “She is safe and doing well,” said Megan Peters, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman.
• Peters would not release further details about Gould’s whereabouts since she left Talkeetna, her condition or why she was in Cantwell.
• The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race veteran was last seen on May 31 at 3:20 a.m. at the Sunshine Tesoro in Talkeetna buying fuel for her car and bottled water.
• A wildlife trooper found Gould’s unoccupied pickup truck Saturday, June 4 on the side of the road on the Denali Highway, about 18 miles away from Cantwell.

3 more annotations...