Missing sisters found alive in Wyoming

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 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 OK, we have no other news beyond that for now.”

The sisters were reunited with their father.

The Teton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a guide became aware of the search Thursday and gave searchers coordinates of where he saw a person walking Wednesday in an area with no trails. Given a new focal point, the helicopter crew quickly found the sisters.

The written statement credited the women for being prepared for an “unexpected situation.”

Details about why the trip didn’t end as scheduled, such as whether they were lost, weren’t immediately available.

Family members told deputies that the sisters had packed food for five days, along with tents and sleeping bags.

Relatives believe the sisters left Milwaukee around June 28.

The family said it had last heard from the sisters on Saturday, according to a post on the Facebook page of the United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay.

“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 church, Dr. Susan Patterson-Sumwalt, said in an online post to the congregation this week. The oldest sister, Megan, worked at the church; the other two sisters lived in Ohio.

The sisters were reported missing Tuesday and authorities located their vehicle Wednesday.