Family hopes for positive outcome as searchers look for missing Texas couple outside of Moab
Jun 25, 2024, 10:42 PM | Updated: Jun 28, 2024, 9:23 pm
MOAB — Searchers planned to resume efforts Wednesday to find a missing Texas couple believed to have vanished from an off-road trail outside of Moab.
Ray and Maranda Ankofski, ages 58 and 50, were last heard from early Friday afternoon as they were setting out on the Steel Bender trail, family members told KSL TV
According to a statement from the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, searchers began looking after an abandoned vehicle was reported Monday morning. They subsequently also found a UTV belonging to the couple in the area.
Donna Stevens, Ray’s sister, told KSL TV that in addition to those vehicles, searchers also located a cooler and other belongings that could have come from the ATV, but no signs of Ray or Maranda themselves.
“We’re all in Texas, we’ve posted multiple things on multiple ATV groups,” Stevens said. “I feel kind of helpless when, you know, you’re sitting here in Texas and it’s like, ‘yes, we could hop a plane and go to Moab,’ but I’m not sure to do what.”
The family said they were hoping to keep attention on the case and keep local eyes looking, though the sheriff’s office’s statement Tuesday asked for the public to avoid the Steel Bender Trail while the search was ongoing.
Stevens said the couple had been to Utah and Moab multiple times before, that they were very outdoorsy and would have been prepared for the elements, but didn’t know if they were caught in a storm or some other adverse event Friday.
“I would have thought that they would have been able to get back from the mile-and-a-half where they were at,” Stevens said.
She said she was grateful for the support that the community had expressed so far.
“We’ve been doing a lot of praying right now,” Stevens said. “Prayers, prayers—we need prayers.”