On October 22, NBC Montana shared a release sent out by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. According to the release, Danette’s last confirmed location was in a recreation area near Buffalo Bridge on October 8. It goes on to say that “Danette had been with friends in that area and became separated from them after a breakdown had occurred on a vehicle they were operating. The friends she was with attempted to locate her, but eventually assumed she got a ride from other friends or people who were present in the area as this would not be out of the ordinary for Danette to do.”
Dateline reached out to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for additional information but has yet to receive a response.
After returning to town, Dana immediately began searching for her sister. She says she took her trailer to the river near Buffalo Bridge on October 17 and stayed there until November 4, hoping her sister would return.
“They had search and rescue and volunteer searches out there,” she said. “I was just making a presence.”
Dana told Dateline massive searches of the area were conducted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and tribal police. “They had an intensive search at the river area. Hundreds of man hours and volunteers,” she said. “Drones, water sonars, boats, tracking dogs, horses, ATVs.”
But they found no sign of Danette, which Dana finds odd. “She has these [flip-flop] shoes on — we scoured the entire area. We would’ve found some piece of her articles [of clothing],” she said. “Her shoes weren’t tied to her feet.”
Dana says her sister knows how to survive in wildlife and believes she would have made her way safely out of the area. “She was homeless for a couple of years. She was a survivor and a walker,” she said. “She could have walked out of there.”
Dana also believes her sister wouldn’t have gone in the water because she has arthritis. “It would have hurt her bones. The water is cold,” she said. But if she had, Dana says her sister is a strong swimmer. “We had respect for water and knew how to be in water.”
“I believe something happened. Somebody did something to her on accident or on purpose,” Dana said.
Comments