The strange and disturbing disappearance of Stephanie Stewart from a fire lookout in Alberta
Stephanie Stewart Disappeared August 26, 2008, Athabasca fire lookout, Hinton, Alberta.
Revised July 2024
70-year-old Stephanie Stewart worked for eighteen years as a wildfire spotter for the Alberta Natural Resources Group, which kept watch at 128 wildfire lookouts across Alberta in Canada.
For the previous thirteen years, she spent the summer at the isolated Athabasca lookout, 25 miles northeast of Hinton (90 miles / 145 km north of Edmonton), on a high ridge in the northwest part of the province. The area is on the outskirts of Jasper National Park. Only a desolate road leads from the valley to the 40-foot-high lookout and log cabin.
From Canmore, Alta, Stephanie was healthy and adventurous despite being 70. She had cycled solo across Canada and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
When she failed to make her scheduled radio check-in for work on August 26, 2008, her supervisor checked her at the lookout to see if she was okay. But she was gone. Stephanie had vanished and was never seen again.
The calls to the Athabasca lookout
Athabasca lookout
Every morning, Stephanie’s Supervisor at the Natural Resources Group would either make or receive a phone call from her to confirm she was okay and to update each other on operational status. That day on August 26, 2008, was no different. Still, it was bizarre for the supervisor to try to get hold of Stephanie, and after several calls, whoever answered hung up repeatedly without saying a word. Then the phone was unplugged from its socket, and the line went dead.
Stephanie's supervisor immediately grew concerned and went to the lookout as she had never missed a call during her many years there.
Subsequently, it was learned that Stephanie had spoken to family members on the phone around 9 pm the evening before.
The disappearance of Stephanie Stewart
When the supervisor arrived at the lookout site, he found her truck still parked outside. He checked the living accommodation, and a pot of water was left boiling on the stove unattended. But there was no sign of Stephanie. She had vanished into thin air.
He immediately called the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) to come to the lookout and begin a search. Stephanie was reported missing at 9:00 am on August 26, 2006.
At the time of her disappearance, Stephanie wore glasses, stood 5 feet 2 inches tall (158 centimetres), weighed roughly 105 pounds (48 kilograms), and had blue eyes and mixed grey, auburn hair.
Further investigation by the authorities showed some items were missing from her cabin: two pillows with blue covers, a burgundy bed sheet, a Navajo-patterned duvet, and a gold watch.
Marc Symbaluk, a Hinton Search and Rescue volunteer, managed the initial search for Stewart. It was one of the largest undertaken in the province. “Stephanie has a special place in my heart,” says Symbaluk, who adds that he can see the lookout tower where she worked from the back deck of his home.
Aftermath
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, of which Stephanie was a member, has implemented multiple safety recommendations that have since spread throughout Canada following the disappearance. These include lockable gates and fencing around the lookouts and cabins. Bush from around the cabins has been removed to improve visibility for anyone approaching, and window and door locks have been improved. Staff also received self-defense training, and panic buttons are in each location.
What happened to Stephanie Stewart?
Foul play - Forensic evidence and other information gathered during the early days of the investigation led by the RCMP ruled out any hint that Stephanie was attacked by a wild animal such as a bear or wolf, died in an accident or suffered a medical episode that caused her to wander away. They concluded she must have been abducted or killed by someone.
Because of the boiling water, she must have received a visitor that morning just moments before the phone calls, or a person or persons unknown had spent the night with Stephanie, whether she wanted their company or not, and the phone calls spooked the perpetrator. Either way, the supervisor who arrived on-site that morning must not have been too far behind the assailant. There were reports of a significant amount of blood at the scene, but no details were released.
Did Travis Vader murder Stephanie? - Vader is serving a life sentence for the murder of Lyle and Marie McCann, aged 78 and 77. The couple disappeared shortly after they left their Edmonton-area home in their RV for a camping trip to British Columbia in July 2010. Vader, a drug addict with a history of arson, theft, and weapon charges, killed the McCanns during a robbery west of Edmonton. After murdering the couple, Vader disposed of their bodies in the woods and then burnt their RV. The McCanns’ remains have never been found. Vader was apparently in the area of the lookout when Stephanie disappeared.
Did Stephanie run off to start a new life? - Her Dodge Ram truck was still parked on site. It’s not probable Stephanie would set off to start a new life on foot in the forest. The area was very isolated unless someone came and picked her up on the highway.
The tower was about 3 miles (5 km) off a major highway. People could drive up there and look over the valley extending to the edge of the Rocky Mountains. However, since Stephanie's disappearance, access to the lookout from the road has been blocked by the public.
Friend Robin Slater said, "Her perfect place was the lookout, where she tended a huge garden, embroidered, painted and read stacks of books." She welcomed the many visitors who came to her lookout.
Stephanie’s daughter Lorie said, “Mom’s a hell of a woman. She’s very strong, she’s very capable … The tower life is her life.”
Her body and the missing cabin items have never been found. Was it a random, unexplained murder in the wilderness or something else that happened in the lookout tower in that isolated part of Alberta?
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Sources
https://thetruecrimefiles.com/stephanie-stewart-disappearance/
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/a-pot-of-boiling-water-and-a-smear-of-blood-12-years-later-fresh-clues-sought-in-stephanie-stewarts-disappearance
https://www.westernstandard.news/news/who-murdered-stephanie-stewart/article_f2c358d1-7fa2-5a35-b859-2d856d6cddfe.html
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/police-renew-calls-for-information-to-help-locate-wildfire-tower-worker-missing-for-15-years-1.5563446
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/hundreds-search-for-woman-missing-from-fire-lookout-tower-1.587111
