The mystery of three Wisconsin sisters who went missing during a Wyoming camping trip has a happy ending.
Searchers found the trio, ages 16 to 25, late Thursday morning in northwestern Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Wilderness, about 7 miles from where their car was found parked near a trailhead, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Lori Iverson said.
A helicopter crew spotted the sisters — Megan Andrews-Sharer, 25; Erin Andrews-Sharer, 22; and Kelsie Andrews-Sharer, 16 — at about 10 a.m. MT before landing and collecting them.
“They’re tired, cold (and) hungry but otherwise healthy and happy to be on their way out,” Iverson said.
Their rescue in Gros Ventre — part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest — ends a couple days of anxiety for their family, which reported them missing Tuesday after they failed to meet their mother in Chicago as scheduled.
“The girls were found by search teams and are in a helicopter on their way back to civilization to reunite with the family,” read a post on a website dedicated to the search. “They are okay, we have no other news beyond that for now.”
Details about why the trip didn’t end as scheduled, such as whether they were lost, weren’t immediately available.
Relatives believe the sisters left Milwaukee around June 28 and likely arrived in Wyoming July 1 for what was supposed to be a five-day trip. The family said it had last heard from the sisters on Saturday.
“They were supposed to meet their mother in Chicago (Tuesday) to board a plane for Switzerland. They did not meet her,” the pastor at the family’s church, Dr. Susan Patterson-Sumwalt, said in an online post to the congregation this week.
Family members said the sisters had packed food for five days, along with tents and sleeping bags, according to the Teton County Sheriff’s Office. Search teams located their vehicle Wednesday.
A vigil was held in Milwaukee Wednesday night at United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay.
The oldest sister, Megan, worked at the church, and recently left to travel with her sisters for four months, CNN affiliate WISN reported.