Search continues for missing snowmachiners in Big Lake

Volunteers and military aircraft have joined the coordinated search for a missing Anchorage couple in the Big Lake area.

According to the Alaska State Troopers, a family member asked for a welfare check on Laverne and Vanton Pettigen on Tuesday. The couple had not been in contact since late last week. The last known sighting of the Pettigens was on Sunday afternoon, when an unidentified friend says they might have seen the couple riding snowmachines.

Troopers went to the Pettigen’s Big Lake condo, where they confirmed that the couple’s snowmachines were missing from the garage.

Wildlife troopers, Alaska’s Rescue Coordination Center, the volunteer search and rescue organization MAT SAR, and more than fifty local volunteers have all joined in the search.