Tracks in the Snow: The Strange Case of Amy Wroe Bechtel
Tracks in the Snow: The Strange Case of Amy Wroe Bechtel
On a warm July afternoon in 1997, 24-year-old runner and musician Amy Wroe Bechtel drove into the mountains outside Lander, Wyoming, to scout a training route. Later that day, her white car was found neatly parked in a turnout along a canyon road. The doors were locked. The keys were gone. Amy was never seen again.
What followed was one of the most intense and baffling missing-person searches in Wyoming history. Volunteers, deputies, and search-and-rescue teams scoured rugged terrain by foot, horse, helicopter, and dog. The wilderness yielded nothing-no shoe print, no clothing, no trace. As days turned into weeks, the focus shifted from the mountains to the people in Amy's life, and a small town found itself caught between unwavering support and growing suspicion.
In Tracks in the Snow, Linda Davidson reconstructs the case with meticulous care and a victim-first lens. Drawing on contemporaneous reporting, public records, search-and-rescue practice, and decades of follow-up, she traces:
Amy's life in Lander as a driven runner, coach, and newlywed
The frantic early search and the harsh realities of mountain rescue
The shifting investigation-from accident, to stranger abduction, to scrutiny of those closest to her
The role of media, rumor, and online "detectives" in reshaping public perception
The long shadow the case has cast over Lander, outdoor culture, and the families involved
Part true-crime narrative, part study of uncertainty and loss, Tracks in the Snow refuses easy answers or sensational shortcuts. Instead, it offers a clear, compassionate account of what is known, what remains in doubt, and how people go on living when a story never gets its ending.
For readers of The Cold Vanish, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, and Missing 411, this is the haunting, carefully told story of a young woman who went for a run in the mountains she loved-and the community that has spent decades searching for her in the silence she left behind.
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