Alaska Community Fears Fate of Missing Mom
Friend: 'I've Got This Gut Feeling That Something Bad Has Happened'
The last morning anyone saw McBroom, she had shoes for walking rather than working, Rissel said.
Then, at about 8:30 a.m. Oct. 31, an Alaska State Trooper responding to a report of a possible drunken driver whose pickup was swerving erratically on the Seward Highway talked to McBroom while she was stopped in a pullout, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. After testing her sobriety and running her on a database, the trooper left her with a suggestion she take a nap.
"She pulled over because she was tired. There's no signs of any kind of intoxication, nothing was in the system to make us want to hold on to her longer," Peters said. "There was no reason for us to keep her."
It wasn't until that evening, when McBroom didn't return from work, that her family began calling her cell phone. She was reported missing the next day.
After her truck was discovered, more than 20 searchers, police officers, troopers and railroad personnel mounted an expansive search that lasted until dark, said police Lt. Dave Parker.
A trooper helicopter peered down between the trees on the cliff tops and scoured the coastline for any sign of McBroom. The Alaska Railroad brought a truck equipped to ride on tracks so searchers could cover more ground as they peeked into crevices in the shoreline rock, Parker said.
At the end of the day, the only clues they had were what they started with: the truck and the belongings inside, which included her cell phone.
Police are now left to wonder if McBroom's pickup was moved after the trooper talked to her -- a possible sign of foul play -- or if she simply ditched it and hitched a ride. Or, given the proximity of the embankment, did McBroom jump or fall into the frigid water below, surging with tides up to 30 feet that day?
"If she had ended up in the water, she'd be gone. There's just no way around it. She would have been swept away," Parker said. "But if she had hitchhiked or gone someplace or gotten picked up -- it's a busy highway. That's always the potential, but as I understand it, we haven't gotten any leads from people who have seen her."
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