More Clothing Found in Search for Missing Woman In Malheur County
By Joe Hathaway on Tuesday, September 26th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
MALHEUR COUNTY – Even more new clues have emerged in the case of a missing Boise woman.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office tells Elkhorn Media Group that more articles of clothing have been found in the search for Gwen Brunelle.
As previously reported, a T-shirt was discovered along a barbed wire fence on Sunday, September 10th, spurring new rounds of searches in the area. Gwen left her home in Boise on June 26, telling family and friends she was headed to California. She was last seen at a Jordan Valley, Oregon, gas station on June 27.
The following day her vehicle was found roughly 17 miles north of Jordan Valley, at a turnoff on Succor Creek Rd.
Extensive searches in the area over the summer revealed nothing, until the T-shirt was discovered by volunteers on September 10th. The T-shirt triggered another round of searches over September 22 and 23, where a civilian helicopter crew spotted boots and socks nearby, according to Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson. The boots and socks were found roughly 1.5 miles from where her car was found.
“We had a crew put on a bunch of miles hiking in that area where her boots and socks were discovered”, says Johnson. “Our thinking was if she had taken her boots off, she wouldn’t have gotten very far, because that ground is pretty unforgiving on the feet. But it turns out we think she may have had another pair of shoes with her.”
Johnson says nothing turned up on the initial search on the 23rd, and on the 24th another search was launched with around 40 people and three dogs.
Still no trace of Gwen was found.
Sheriff Johnson says at this point, his office isn’t planning any future searches. He says he hopes even more clues will turn up soon, as that area is full of wildlife and that there will be an abundance of hunters in the region this fall, as well as ranchers moving cattle.
He says he hopes someone will spot something related to Gwen’s disappearance.
