Rosemary Theresa Kunst

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Siskiyou County Sheriffs Department (CA)

Missing From:

Etna, CA

Summary:

Rosemary Kunst, 70, of San Anselmo, set out alone for a short afternoon walk from a retreat camp at Spirit Lake in the Marble Mountain Wilderness on August 18, 2000 and never returned. A six-day search by more than 150 people found only a few strands of her hair in heavy brush south of the lake. Investigators believe she became lost; she has never been found.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Rosemary Theresa Kunst was a 70-year-old widow from San Anselmo in Marin County. In 1998 she had barely survived a car crash that killed her husband, Bud, and her family saw the August 2000 trip as her way of proving she could get back to the life she had led before. The couple had three sons and three daughters. In August 2000 she attended a week-long retreat run by the Earth Circle Association, a Quartz Valley organization that teaches Native American spiritualism and environmental practices. The group of about 20 people hiked roughly 12 miles into the Marble Mountain Wilderness, about 20 miles from Etna, and camped at Spirit Lake, a small oval mountain lake in the Wooley Creek drainage of the Klamath National Forest, surrounded by some of the steepest and most heavily brushed terrain in Northern California. On Friday, August 18, 2000, the day before the group was due to hike out, Kunst stayed behind at camp while her companions left on a day hike at about 9 a.m. At about 1 p.m. she told the camp cook she was going on a short walk to commune with the spirit of her late husband. The cook made her a sandwich and gave her some trail mix; she took her journal and was last seen at the south end of Spirit Lake, walking toward a ridge. She never returned. Her fellow campers searched for her until about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, then hiked to a spot where a cell phone would work and called authorities. The official search, led by the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department with incident commander Grizz Adams, began at daybreak on Saturday, August 19. Because the point last seen was 12 miles from the nearest trailhead, searchers were flown in by helicopter. Two helicopters, search dogs and about 50 people from Siskiyou, Shasta and Marin counties worked the first days; teams from Del Norte County, CARDA and WOOF search-dog handlers, the Air National Guard, the California Highway Patrol and National Guard troops joined later, with a command post at the Scott Valley airport. Members of the Kunst family, including her three sons, took part. In all more than 150 people covered nearly five square miles of steep, rocky, brush-choked ground around the lake. The only clue ever found was a tuft of hair, four strands, located by a dog team in heavy brush up to 12 feet high on a steep rocky finger of land about half a mile south of the lake and far from any trail. The hair matched hair from Kunst's hairbrush. Tracking and cadaver dogs never picked up her scent. Adams said mountain lion and bear attacks in the area were almost unheard of and that a fall was more likely, but that a fall would normally leave some evidence. The search was suspended at about 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 24, 2000 with the family's reluctant agreement. The sheriff's department said it had no reason to believe Kunst was the victim of a crime or had taken her own life, and that the working assumption was that she was no longer alive. Her family said she was not despondent and had no history of leaving without warning. The family provided dental records to be kept on file. Investigators believe she became lost or injured in the heavy forest terrain. She has never been found, and her case remains open with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office.

Additional Details:

Investigating agency: Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, 305 Butte Street, Yreka, CA 96097, (530) 841-2900 (24-hour dispatch) or (530) 842-8300. Dental records are on file with the sheriff's office and the California Department of Justice.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 23, 2026