GLENDIVE — A multi-county search effort continues for 36-year-old Renee Arcand, who was last seen at the Intake Fishing Access Site at the Intake Diversion Dam, north of Glendive, on the night of Monday, June 26.
Dawson County Sheriff Ross Canen said Wednesday that search and rescue teams have been searching for Arcand by boat, plane, and on the ground and those efforts continue.
Canen said Arcand was reported missing by a travel companion who said he last saw Arcand while the pair were sleeping in a car at the campsite with two dogs in a vehicle. Arcand's companion says when he woke up, Arcand was gone. Her companion reported her missing Friday, June 30.
There were no eyewitnesses who saw Arcand go into the nearby Yellowstone River, but Canen says the best assumption is that she did.
The Yellowstone River remains high for this time of year, and the river is muddy with many tree snags and hazards in the water.
Arcand is originally from Wisconsin and had been working at the Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch in the North Dakota Badlands. Canen said Arcand and her travel companion were coworkers.
Arcand's two dogs were camping with them, but one dog is now missing in a separate but related incident. Canen said after Arcand went missing, her travel companion was driving back to North Dakota and let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. Both dogs ran away. Arcand's larger dog returned but her smaller dog, shown in Arcand's missing person poster, did not. Canen said the small dog is missing near the Montana-North Dakota state line.
On July 14 and 15, Badlands Search and Rescue performed 24 hours of search efforts for Arcand, including using side-scan sonar, visual searching, debris fields, and shoreline searching totaling 22.5 miles of the Yellowstone River.
Canen said the Richland County Sheriff's Office has been assisting in the search, and that North Dakota counties up to the confluence of the Yellowstone-Missouri rivers have been alerted to search as well.
Canen says there is no criminal investigation related to Arcand's disappearance.
Arcand is described as 5'5, 150 lbs., with brown hair, hazel eyes and tattoos on her leg and wrist.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Dawson County Sheriff's Office at (406) 377-5291.
