Found Deceased MT - Meghan Rouns, 27, horseback riding, horse found, phone found in saddlebag, McMaster Hills Rec Area, NE of Helena, 4 Oct 2024 *Active Search*

[Unalienable Rights]

For information about today's search, see replies by JE & CG to a comment by SS on the police FB post.
(click on "Newest" comments.)

https://www.facebook.com/lccsomt/posts/952459043593709

 

[bestill]

Has anyone seen any reports that they are searching today?

 

[Pseudonymph]

I’m wondering if she was thrown from the horse but into the water. That could be very bad.

 

[GRT]

Has anyone seen any reports that they are searching today?

I believe the search is ongoing. This was published 44 minutes ago.

Tragic end to search for missing woman in Lewis & Clark County, body found in Missouri river

UPDATE: October 10 at 10:54 a.m.

www.kulr8.com

 

[bestill]

I'm still trying to understand but I think this means she might have posted the trailride to the app at the same time she did a snapchat photo?

The speed data is interesting too as they took a slower gait to get to where the black dot as compared to the rest of the ride. Maybe she walked up a steeper trailView attachment 536106 away from the lake to a ridge where she could get cell service to post her stuff to the internet.

Edit: The end of her recorded ride is shown to be in the trailhead parking lot at the east end of the trail system (black dot). She and her phone were in that parking lot 5 hours after she left her trailer at the other parking lot. (If the data is correct and i'm interpreting it correctly)

Are you saying there are two parking lots involved? I'm confused.

According to this info the 5 hours of total time and only 1:46 hours of moving time?

 

[acutename]

I’m wondering if she was thrown from the horse but into the water. That could be very bad.

might be what they think since they are searching the water and say phone pings are there- water would mask any thermal effect too and make tracking tough. For locals, is that lake deep?
Is the bottom rocky or silty? Either one could make footing difficult even if a person was conscious.

 

[Missing Susan]

I am trying to understand the app.... she uploaded her planned trail ride, but it ended short of the lake in a parking lot? Or did she stop in the parking lot on the way back from the lake? It doesn't seem like a horse accident. Her phone was in the saddlebag when the horse was found and the recorded speeds are consistent with walking, maybe a slow trot. Usually if a horse is spooked enough to throw the rider, it's going to take off and the speed would be much higher!

She uploaded her track starting at the west parking lot, down to the lake , then back up to the East parking lot. (they are at opposite ends of the park)

Whatever happened to her was after she uploaded her track. Her track wouldnt show the horse bolting and wandering off, otherwise there would be no one to interact with the app to upload anything.

I'm going to guess that if she left the parking lot on her horse, she would take the fastest route back to her trailer rather than backtrack to the lake.

 

[Missing Susan]

Here is the similar she uploaded from earlier this year:

She goes down to the river at the same spot. It was 6 miles and took her only 2 1/2 hours total to do the same/longer route.

The ride she vanished on took much longer so she seems to have stopped along her route to account for 5 hours total time

 

[NervousNellie]

I believe the search is ongoing. This was published 44 minutes ago.

Tragic end to search for missing woman in Lewis & Clark County, body found in Missouri river

UPDATE: October 10 at 10:54 a.m.

www.kulr8.com

I have seen WS posts that indicate her horse was found by her husband, yet this update does not mention who found the horse. Parent (presumably dad) last saw her at 2pm, she sent a snapchat after 4pm - when exactly what the horse found? I ask because if her husband is the one to find her horse, why is her dad the one to report her missing? Like everyone here, I have more questions.

ETA: I had my timeline confused - she was reported missing by her parents (Friday at 8PM) before the horse was found (sometime Saturday morning?).

 

[Snoopster]

She uploaded her track starting at the west parking lot, down to the lake , then back up to the East parking lot. (they are at opposite ends of the park)

Whatever happened to her was after she uploaded her track. Her track wouldnt show the horse bolting and wandering off, otherwise there would be no one to interact with the app to upload anything.

I'm going to guess that if she left the parking lot on her horse, she would take the fastest route back to her trailer rather than backtrack to the lake.

I zoomed in closer on her activity track on AllTrails from a couple of days ago (thanks for finding that) and this doesn't look good.

 

[acutename]

View attachment 536105

the end of the ride shoots up in altitude very quickly from the graph... like straight up

 

[Angelcat13]

On Sunday the focus was on Hauser Lake, a robotic-operated vehicle and divers were brought in a mile and half downriver from Canyon Ferry Dam.

Rouns’s cell phone GPS data maps heavy presence in the lake.

"Her horse was found just up the hill from the lake, so this has become our primary area to search from the evidence we have gathered," said Willy Wegner, the operations lieutenant of Lewis and Clark County Search and Rescue.

In addition to the evidence that has been found, search and rescue teams have been using a process of elimination method.

Search continues for woman missing northeast of Helena

Search and rescue teams, the Sheriff’s Department, and numerous volunteers continue the search for a 27-year-old woman, who went missing on Friday, October 4th.

www.ktvh.com

I am a bit confused/concerned about the focus on the lake. I understand her GPS shows that she had been in that area, but I don't see that would have been swimming her horse in full tack and falling off the horse into the lack, though possible, is also one of the lesser likely scenarios I can think of. Was she known to get off and secure her horse while she went for a swim? If so, then I guess drowning could be a possibility. Whenever we have done this, it was also as a group so that at least one person stayed with the horses in case something happened.

Did she definitely go riding alone or was she known to meet up with anyone else to ride with? I saw that they found a spur that didn't belong to her - again, not necessarily "evidence" of anything bad as I'm assuming the area is frequented by other riders so finding a spur, a horseshoe or any other pieces of equipment might not be uncommon.

My biggest concern is that they haven't been able to locate her by ground or air searches and so far there is nothing showing on thermal scans. I do believe the most likely scenario is that she was thrown, but I also have to wonder if it is possible that she may have run into someone (whether she knew them or not) that may have seen a female alone and either caught her while she was already off her horse or may have lured her off her horse (possibly under the pretense of needing help with an injury or an injured animal).

Again, I don't think this is the most likely scenario, but the longer it goes without finding any sign of her I don't think we can completely rule this out either.

 

[Snoopster]

the end of the ride shoots up in altitude very quickly from the graph... like straight up

That's why I don't think it was properly tracking her activity at that point. I'm thinking she fell off the horse during the chaotic end of the green tracking.

 

[GRT]

I zoomed in closer on her activity track on AllTrails from a couple of days ago (thanks for finding that) and this doesn't look good.

View attachment 536132

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but it almost looks as though she intentionally rode in the water, but then something happened and her horse started moving erratically. Did she fall into the water?

 

[Snoopster]

The view of the area where her AllTrails tracking (green) seemed to end.
What if the horse took a stumble/tumble as they descended to the water's edge? Or if the edge gave way on the slope? (ETA - Note: view is looking south)

google maps - McMaster Hills by the river

 

[mickey2942]

Wow. Is it safe to upload your trails and routines? I am not so sure about that. Anyone can access the information?

 

[azure]

I zoomed in closer on her activity track on AllTrails from a couple of days ago (thanks for finding that) and this doesn't look good.

View attachment 536132

Very interesting, and very concerning. It looks like the horse gets out of the water and wanders around in confusion nearby until found.

But most confusing is that another poster said she would have had to upload that route herself. Which would mean all of that wandering was intentional, and she was conscious and with her phone afterwards. Seems very odd.

 

[NervousNellie]

This article says the horse was found Saturday morning.

Search underway for woman in the McMaster Hills Recreation Area

The Lewis & Clark County Sheriff's Office is searching for an adult female horseback rider in the McMaster Hills Recreation Area.

www.kxlh.com

Sheriff Dutton says the last known contact anyone had with Meghan was at about 4:20 pm on Friday when she took a picture on SnapChat. She was last known to be wearing blue jeans, a black shirt, possibly a grey hoodie and a ball cap.

Her horse was found early on Saturday morning, and her phone was located in a saddle bag; investigators are utilizing data on that phone to locate areas of interest.

 

[Tower]

Wow. Is it safe to upload your trails and routines? I am not so sure about that. Anyone can access the information?

You can block the information and make it private. I haven’t looked at Meghan’s AllTrails but if the folks here on Websleuths can view her track, she has it set to public. I use a similar app and only my kids and two of my best friends can track me (my husband is a little less tech savvy or I would give him acccess, too).

 

[momsof3]

You can block the information and make it private. I haven’t looked at Meghan’s AllTrails but if the folks here on Websleuths can view her track, she has it set to public. I use a similar app and only my kids and two of my best friends can track me (my husband is a little less tech savvy or I would give him acccess, too).

I use AllTrails too and that data is extremely concerning. A question for AllTrail users that are in a less populated area (I'm in the NE) - how accurate is your "history?" Is it sometimes "off" in really remote areas? Because mine has always been very accurate which, along with the picture of the steep incline to the lake, make it look like the horse somehow wound up in the lake moving/swimming and then bolted up out of the lake and up one of the hills. Very concerning if as accurate as my history has been. Also, I need to check my settings!

ETA - even if AllTrails data is not in the precise location, I can’t figure out what, other than some frenzied activity, could cause that AllTrails “profile.” Even if it wasn’t exactly in the lake, it’s clear that something extremely unusual was happening during that time. And it does seem like the horse “bolted” after that unusual activity.