WYOMING (NewsNation Now) — Grand Teton National Park is 310,000 acres; it’s nearly the size of Connecticut. Now, one mother, visiting from Ireland, is combing through it looking for her son.
Cian McLaughlin, 27, has been missing since June 8. He was last seen in the park going out for a hike.
When we met Grainne McLaughlin, she was in her son’s car after finishing another exhausting day hiking.
“At this phase we have absolutely no idea,” Grainne McLaughlin told NewsNation. “We are trying to understand what may have happened.”
Originally from Ireland, Cian McLaughlin was living in Jackson, Wyoming, working as a snowboard instructor and bartender.
He was hiking on the Lupine Meadows trail the day he was last seen. A witness saw him around 3:45 in the afternoon.
“We are really appealing to anybody who was in the park June 8, 9 or 10 to look back at their videos or photographs in the background,” Grainne McLaughlin said. “If you met Cian, he has a very Irish accent.”
He was an experienced outdoorsman, but the conditions on the trails were particularly dangerous in early June. There was melting snow and ice.
“Back in June we were told this was not a rescue anymore, that it was definitely a recovery, which is very hard to hear,” Grainne McLaughlin said. “But I just felt the need to come back here to the Grand Teton to connect with him and do the searching myself.”
With winter coming, she is worried she could be running out of time to find her only son.
“I know he is there. And I want is to bring him home.”