Search for missing Lac du Flambeau woman continues

Authorities continue the search for a 37 year-old Lac du Flambeau woman who’s been missing since mid-March. 

Melissa Beson was last seen March 17 and T.J. Bill, the chief of the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Department, told The Lakeland Times last week searches for Beson are still being conducted.

“It’s a little limited right now because of the snow cover,” he said. 

Bill told the Times family members had contacted authorities regarding Beson’s status the evening of March 23. 

“They called in for a welfare check,” he said. “What we do is we go around looking around certain houses, make phone calls, check social media sites.We couldn’t find anything.”

The following morning, Bill said Beson’s family was advised nothing about her had shown up and that a missing persons report should be made something he said was done that day, which was March 24.

“We don’t know if she’s missing in the forest now,” Bill said. “We don’t know. We have nothing to suggest that but it’s a possibility. We don’t know if she was picked up by someone, somewhere out of the area. We have no idea.”

He said based on protocols and previous missing persons cases, where the person was last reported seen can be a starting point.

In this case, Bill said that’s where the search for Beson began. 

“It’s more of last-known location,” he said.

Since March 17 and when Beson was reported missing on March 23, there has been a storm that dropped several inches of snow. 

“That Monday and Tuesday, we went out with aerial drones and began searching the area where she was at and we’ve done extensive operations with the drones, covered a lot of area,” Bill said.

Then, he said a few days into the search, there was a storm system that went through that resulted in ice and more snow. 

“Then, we had a couple of warm days but it hasn’t warmed enough to get rid of the snow,” Bill said. “In the low-lying areas, there’s as much as six inches of snow. The search efforts are hindered because of that.”

He said there are no open lakes in the area but the Bear River does run through. 

“We’ve done searches on the Bear River just in case,” Bill said. “The clarity of the river is good and it’s not real deep so we’ve been able to cover a lot of the river with the aerial drones. There are deep points and then there are some ice shelves as well so we also use an underwater drone as well and haven’t located anything.”

Searches conducted during ground operations focusing on what he described as “areas of interest” haven’t turned up anything. 

Bill said that effort has included members of the Newbold fire department’s search and rescue team using their K-9s. 

“I can’t tell you how great these volunteers are,” he said. “They’re amazing. I cannot put it into words ... they’re phenomenal and I don’t know how they do it.”

On Thursday, April 3, an “endangered person alert” was issued by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Wisconsin Crime Alert Network (WCAN) that included two photos of Beson. 

As of Friday, April 11, that alert was still in effect and Bill said there have been tips regarding alleged sightings of Beson “or she was staying at places” as a result of that WCAN notice as well other platforms that have issued information about her. 

“We’re not ignoring any of that, either,” he said. “We’re following up there as well. We’ve been working with the Wausau police department and Mountain Bay Metro (formerly DC Everest Metro). They’ve been phenomenal, too, as far as helping us followup on leads that we’ve been getting.”

Up to this point, Bill said, nothing has been substantiated as far as whether she was still in the area or anywhere in central Wisconsin although there was a tip that was being worked on that Beson had been seen in the Wausau area on Thursday, April 10.

In the meantime, there was another round of ground searching for Beson scheduled for Friday, April 11. 

“We don’t know if she’s there but we can’t ignore it,” he said. 

If anyone has information regarding Beson, they’re asked to contact the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Department at 715-588-7717.

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].