Search for missing Florida woman in Colorado gets suspended
The search for a woman who was last seen in Grand County has been called off due to lack of clues after an extensive search period.
Authorities started to grow suspicious when a rental car was spotted at a trailhead in Colorado for an extended period of time during the week of July 31. The vehicle remained at the trailhead past its scheduled August 10 return date, with authorities able to track the car to 55-year-old Svetlana Ustimenko of Florida. This launched a missing persons investigation which has yet to yield results.
The vehicle was found at the popular Deadhorse Trailhead area off of Grand County Road 73, which is located near Fraser.
On August 11, local police officers started to comb through the area around where the vehicle was found, with efforts involving multiple search and rescue teams continuing on August 12 and 13. Two additional searches took place on August 18 and August 20, though no clues were found regarding Ustimenko’s whereabouts.
Throughout the searches, many tactics and tools were used, including drones, dogs, and on-and-off trail searching by rescue personnel that involved entering steep and rugged terrain.
Overall, it’s estimated that more than 750 volunteer hours were involved, in addition to the heavy role played by law enforcement.
Authorities ultimately came to the conclusion that Ustimenko is not in the primary search area.
With no additional leads, it was announced on August 22 that the search had been suspended pending new information.
The investigation into the case revealed that Ustimenko had recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and that she “was struggling as she tried to cope and was attracted to the Colorado mountains.”
Anyone who believes they may have seen or talked to Ustimenko is asked to contact the Grand County Sheriff’s Office at 970-725-3311.
According to authorities, this case is not related to the missing persons case of 34-year-old Melissa Whitsitt, which is ongoing in the same county. Anyone with information about Whitsitt is asked to contact the Winter Park Police Department at 970-722-7779. Both cases are believed to be isolated incidents with no ongoing threat to the public at this time.
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