When David Thornton lifted the wooden floorboards under the bed in his rented cabin on January 14th, 2023, he expected to see old insulation or perhaps a rodent nest.

Instead, his gaze fell on a worn metal suitcase with rivets carefully wrapped in layers of electrical tape and covered with a thick layer of dust.

The cabin was located 12 km from the town of McCarthy in Wrangle St.

Elias National Park in Alaska, the largest national park in the United States, covering more than 33,000 km of wilderness, glaciers, and abandoned mines.

David had come here with his wife Sarah and two children for a winter fishing trip, renting this remote cabin through a local agency.

The family planned to spend a week here, enjoying the silence and beauty of the Alaskan winter.

But the discovery under the floor turned their vacation into a nightmare they would never forget.

David called his wife and together they pulled the heavy suitcase out into the light.

The rivets were old and rusty and the electrical tape was cracked from age.

After cutting the tape with a kitchen knife, David slowly opened the lid.

What he saw inside made him recoil and closed the lid again.

Inside the suitcase lay a human skeleton contorted into an unnatural position as if the body had been forced into a space that was too small.

The remains of dark clothing clung to the bones and a lock of long hair was still attached to the skull.

Next to the skeleton lay an old GPS navigator with a cracked screen.

Sarah screamed, grabbed the children, and ran out of the cabin.

David took out his satellite phone with trembling hands and called the Alaska State Police.

The nearest police station was in the town of Chaititina, 80 kilometers from the cabin.

Detective Marcus Holloway and forensic scientist Jennifer Park arrived at the scene 5 hours later, having traveled across snow covered roads on snowmobiles.

When they examined the contents of the suitcase, it became clear that this was not a recent crime.

The degree of decomposition of the body, the condition of the clothing, and the rustcoed metal of the suitcase indicated that the remains had been there for many years.

Holloway photographed the sight of the discovery, carefully documented the position of the suitcase under the floor, and carefully removed all the contents for examination.

In addition to the skeleton, clothing, and GPS device, the suitcase contained a dark blue sweater with stains that looked like dried blood and a fragment of a tourist map with handwritten notes.

It took 3 weeks to identify the remains.

Forensic expert Dr.

Elizabeth Chen from Anchorage conducted a thorough examination of the bones.

Based on the condition of the teeth and anatomical features, she determined that the remains were those of a woman between the ages of 25 and 30, approximately 165 cm tall.

The dental records were compared with a database of missing persons.

And on February 7th, 2023, a match was found.

The remains belong to Carolyn Maize, 27, a Minnesota resident who disappeared 14 years ago in August 2009 during a solo hike in Wrangle St.

Elias National Park.

DNA analysis taken from bone marrow finally confirmed her identity.

After 14 years, Carolyn was finally found, but the circumstances of her death raised more questions than answers.

Carolyn Elizabeth Mace was born on March 12th, 1982 in Duluth, Minnesota to a teacher and a nurse.

She was the eldest of three children and grew up to be an active and curious girl fascinated by nature and hiking since childhood.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2004 with a degree in ecology, Carolyn worked for a conservation organization, but her true passion was traveling to wild places.

Every summer she went on long hikes in America’s national parks.

In 2009, having saved up enough money and taken a month’s vacation, Carolyn decided to fulfill her dream of hiking one of Alaska’s most challenging routes from the town of McCarthy to the Ruth Glacier in Wrangle St.

Elias National Park.

Carolyn flew to Anchorage on August 5th, 2009, rented a car, and set off on a long journey to McCarthy.

The McCarthy Road, famous for its potholes, frost heaves, and old railroad ties embedded in the asphalt, stretched 96 km through a deserted area.

Carolyn arrived in McCarthy on August 8th, 2009 and stayed at a local campground.

That same day, she met a local named Jake Harrison, who worked as a guide for tourists.

Jake offered to help Carolyn plan her route, showed her the best places to camp on the map, and warned her about the dangers, bears, creasses, and glaciers, and changeable weather.

Several tourists at the campground saw them studying maps and talking by the campfire on the evening of August 8th.

On the morning of August 9th, 2009, Carolyn set out for the trail head leading to the Ruth Glacier.

She signed the national park’s visitor log indicating that she planned to return on August 17th.

Her route was supposed to take 8 days.

5 days one way, one day to rest at the glacier, and 2 days to return.

Carolyn was an experienced hiker and had all the necessary equipment, enough food, and a satellite phone for emergency communication.

She was last seen by park rangers on the morning of August 9th when she began her hike along the trail.

After that, Carolyn Mace seemed to disappear into the vast Alaskan wilderness.

When Carolyn did not return on the scheduled date of August 17th, 2009, the park administration became concerned.

Her rental car was still sitting untouched in the parking lot at the trail head.

On August 18th, a search operation was organized.

Park rangers, volunteers from local communities, and tracking dogs combed the area along Carolyn’s presumed route.

Helicopters were used to survey the glaciers and valleys from the air.

The search continued for 3 weeks, but yielded no results.

The only clue was a broken bracelet found near a stream 5 km from the trail head on August 23rd.

Carolyn’s parents identified it as belonging to their daughter, a silver bracelet with an engraving that she always wore.

But apart from this bracelet, no clothing, backpack, or any other traces of the missing woman were found.

The search operation was officially suspended on September 10th, 2009 due to the onset of cold weather and the lack of leads.

Detective Robert Miller of the Alaska State Police, who led the investigation, concluded that Carolyn most likely died as a result of an accident.

The most likely scenario was that she had fallen into a glacial creasse.

There are dozens of active glaciers with deep creasses in the park, many of which are hidden by snow and virtually invisible.

If Carolyn had fallen into such a creasse, her body could have been buried dozens of meters under the ice, making it virtually impossible to find.

This version seemed logical, and the case of Carolyn Ma’s disappearance was transferred to the category of unsolved cases with the note presumed death as a result of an accident.

Carolyn’s parents, Thomas and Margaret Mace, did not agree with this version and continued their own search for another 2 years.

but found nothing.

14 years later, when Carolyn’s remains were found in a suitcase under the floor of a cabin, the accident theory collapsed.

Detective Marcus Holloway, assigned to lead the new investigation, realized he was dealing with a murder.

The body had been placed in a suitcase and hidden under the floor, which ruled out any possibility of an accident or suicide.

Someone had killed Carolyn Mace, hidden her body, and kept the secret for 14 years.

Holloway began by researching the history of the cabin where the body was found.

The cabin belonged to a local resident named Clayton McGregor, who built it in the late 1990s and used it as a hunting base.

In 2011, McGregor moved to Anchorage for health reasons and had since been renting the cabin to tourists through a local real estate agency.

The cabin was vacant most of the time, rented out only a few times a year to experienced hunters and fishermen.

Holloway interviewed Clayton McGregor on February 20th, 2023 in Anchorage.

McGregor was 78 years old and suffered from arthritis and heart problems.

The old man categorically denied any involvement in Carolyn’s disappearance, claiming that he had never seen her and did not know how her body ended up in his cabin.

According to him, in 2009, he was still living in the cabin permanently.

But in August 2009, he left to visit his daughter in Fairbanks for 2 weeks.

When he returned, he did not notice anything unusual.

McGregor’s alibi was confirmed.

Airline records showed that he had indeed flown to Fairbanks from August 5th to August 20th, 2009 during the period of Carolyn’s disappearance.

This meant that someone else had used his cabin during that time.

The detectives returned to the 2009 investigation files and compiled a list of all the people who had been in contact with Carolyn before her disappearance.

Jake Harrison, a local guide who had helped Carolyn plan her route, attracted particular attention.

Harrison was questioned in 2009 and claimed that he last saw Carolyn on the evening of August 8th at the campground.

His testimony did not raise any suspicions at the time as he had an alibi.

On the morning of August 9th, he was leading a group of tourists to the Kennakott Glacier, which was confirmed by the tour operator’s records.

But now the detectives decided to dig deeper.

They discovered that Harrison had an uncle named Milo Shelton who lived in the McCarthy area and had a criminal record.

Milo Shelton was born on October 23rd, 1949 in Oregon and had been working as a geologist in Alaska since the 1970s.

In 1986, he was convicted of assaulting a woman in Anchorage and served 3 years in prison.

After his release in 1989, Shelton moved to a remote area near McCarthy, built a small house, and lived as a recluse, rarely interacting with people.

Local residents remembered him as a strange, withdrawn man with a difficult personality.

In 2010, Milo Shelton disappeared.

His house was found empty and no one knew where he had gone.

Some speculated that he had died in the woods or left the state, but officially he was listed as missing.

Detective Holloway decided to check the exact location of Milo Shelton’s house.

Using old land records and statements from local residents, he determined that Shelton’s house was only 2 km from Clayton McGregor’s cabin, where Carolyn’s remains had been found.

It was too close to be a coincidence.

On March 3rd, 2023, a group of investigators and forensic scientists went to Shelton’s abandoned house.

The wooden structure was half collapsed.

The roof had caved in, but the basement remained relatively intact.

Descending into the basement, the detectives discovered a place that resembled a makeshift cell.

Metal rings driven into the wall, a chain with handcuffs, an old mattress on the floor.

Forensic scientists took soil samples, fragments of fabric stuck between the floorboards, and several hairs found on the mattress.

DNA analysis conducted at a laboratory in Anchorage yielded stunning results.

The hair from the mattress belonged to Carolyn Mace.

Hair from another person was also found on a sweater found in the suitcase with the body.

The DNA did not match the convicted felon database, but genetic analysis showed a relationship to Jake Harrison, Milo Shelton’s nephew.

This meant that the hair belonged to either Milo himself or another close relative.

Since Milo had no other siblings except Jake’s mother, the hair was almost certainly his.

This evidence painted a horrific picture.

Carolyn Mays had been kidnapped, held in the basement of Milo Shelton’s house, and probably killed there.

The reconstruction of events compiled by investigators based on all the evidence gathered was as follows.

On August 9th, 2009, Carolyn set out on a hike along the trail to the Ruth Glacier.

At some point, probably on the first day of the hike, she met Milo Shelton.

He may have introduced himself as a local resident, and offered to help or show her a shortcut.

Carolyn, trusting and open, agreed.

Shelton led her to his house, which was off the main trail, and attacked her there.

He may have knocked her unconscious or used physical force.

He then locked Carolyn in the basement of his house, chaining her to the wall.

The broken bracelet found by the creek may have been dropped during a struggle or escape attempt.

It was impossible to determine how long Carolyn had been held captive, days, weeks.

The examination of the remains could not provide a definitive answer, but it was clear that she ultimately died in the basement of Shelton’s home.

The cause of death could not be determined due to the condition of the remains, but several bones showed signs of trauma, broken ribs, a crack in the skull, indicating the use of force.

After Carolyn’s death, Shelton placed her body in a metal suitcase, which he probably had as part of his old camping equipment.

He wrapped the suitcase with duct tape to seal it and carried it to Clayton McGregor’s neighboring cabin.

Since McGregor was in Fairbanks at the time, the cabin was empty, and Shelton was able to enter without risk of being discovered.

He lifted the wooden floorboards under the bed, hid the suitcase in the crawl space, and replaced the floorboards.

It was the perfect hiding place, which remained undisturbed for 14 years.

But why did Shelton hide the body in someone else’s cabin instead of on his own property or somewhere in the woods? Detectives speculated that he was afraid of a search.

After Carolyn’s disappearance, an active search began with helicopters flying over the area and rangers searching all the buildings.

If the body had been found in Shelton’s house or on his property, he would have been arrested immediately.

By hiding the body in a neighboring cabin, he redirected suspicion to another person if it had been found.

It [snorts] is also possible that Shelton planned to dispose of the body later in a more reliable way, but did not have time or did not dare.

What happened to Milo Shelton himself? He disappeared in 2010, a year after Carolyn’s murder.

Detectives checked all records, bank accounts, medical records, any traces of his presence.

His last activity was recorded on March 7th, 2010 when Shelton withdrew cash from an ATM in Kitina.

After that, there was complete silence.

His body was never found and he was officially declared missing.

In 2023, during a new investigation, detectives requested records of unidentified deaths in Alaska between 2010 and 2020.

Among them was a record of an unidentified man found dead in a forest near the Copper River in June 2020.

The body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and it was not possible to establish his identity.

Detectives exumed the remains and conducted DNA analysis.

The results showed a match with Jake Harrison’s related DNA.

It was Milo Shelton.

The medical examiner examined Shelton’s remains and concluded that death was caused by a gunshot wound to the head.

No weapon was found near the body, ruling out suicide.

It was murder.

Who killed Milo Shelton and why remains a mystery? Perhaps he was the victim of a robbery.

Or perhaps he had conflicts with other people.

Or maybe someone found out about his crime and decided to take revenge.

Jake Harrison was questioned on March 20th, 2023.

He categorically denied any involvement in his uncle’s death or Carolyn’s disappearance.

Harrison claimed that he had virtually no contact with Milo, knew about his criminal past, and avoided contact with him.

He had an alibi for the period of Carolyn’s disappearance, and no evidence of his involvement was found.

The case was officially closed on June 12th, 2024 as solved postumously.

The Alaska State Police issued a statement acknowledging that Carolyn Mays had been kidnapped and murdered by Milo Shelton in August 2009.

Since the alleged killer is dead, no criminal case can be brought, but the victim’s family has received answers to questions that have tormented them for 14 years.

Carolyn’s parents, Thomas and Margaret Maize, who were 72 and 70 years old in 2024, held a press conference on June 15th.

They thanked the detectives for their work and expressed relief that they finally knew the truth about their daughter’s fate.

“We lived in uncertainty for 14 years,” Thomas Mace said.

“Every day we hope that Carolyn was alive, that she was out there somewhere and would come back one day.” “Now we know that she is gone.

And while it breaks our hearts, there is a certain grim relief in knowing the truth.” Caroline’s remains were cremated and her ashes were scattered in Wrangle St.

Elias National Park on June 23rd, 2024 in a place she loved so much.

The ceremony was attended by her parents, friends, colleagues, and several park rangers who participated in the search in 2009.

A small memorial plaque was placed on the trail leading to Ruth Glacier with the inscription in memory of Carolyn Mace 1982 2009 who loved nature and died following her dream.

May her spirit always be with these mountains.

The GPS navigator found in the suitcase with the body was examined by specialists.

Despite the damage, some data from the devices internal memory was recovered.

The last saved coordinate was dated August 9th, 2009 at a.m.

and pointed to a spot 3 km from Milo Shelton’s house.

This confirmed the theory that this was where Carolyn met her killer.

The fragment of a map found in the suitcase was examined by forensic experts.

On it, Carolyn had circled an area marked Old Miner’s barracks.

Detectives checked the location and found that there were indeed ruins of an old building left over from the gold rush of the early 20th century.

Perhaps Carolyn had planned to visit this place during her hike and met Shelton on the way there.

Or perhaps Shelton himself showed her this mark on the map, luring her into a trap with the promise of showing her an interesting historical site.

It was impossible to determine this for certain, but this detail added another tragic touch to the story.

The case of Carolyn Mace caused a public outcry and drew attention to the issue of safety for solo travelers in remote areas of Alaska.

Rangel St.

Elias National Park, despite its beauty, is one of the most dangerous parks in the country due to its vast territory, lack of cell phone coverage in most areas, and infrequent ranger patrols.

After the tragedy with Carolyn, the park administration tightened its visiting rules, now requiring solo travelers to register with a detailed itinerary and make daily check-in calls.

Additional satellite emergency phones were also installed on popular trails.

Carolyn Mace’s story was the subject of the documentary film Lost in Alaska, released in November 2024.

The film recounted her life, disappearance, investigation, and the discovery of her remains, including interviews with her parents, friends, and detectives who worked on the case.

The film won several awards at documentary film festivals and helped draw attention to the problem of missing persons in remote areas of America.

Carolyn’s family established a foundation in her name that supports safety programs for solo hikers and helps families of missing persons organize private searches.

The cabin where the remains were found was demolished at the request of owner Clayton McGregor in August 2024.

The old man did not want the place to be associated with tragedy and decided to get rid of the building completely.

The land was sold to new owners who promised to build a new cabin there and use it only for personal needs without renting it out to tourists.

Local residents in McCarthy still discuss this story and it has become part of local folklore.

A warning that the wild nature of Alaska harbors not only natural dangers but also human evil.

Milo Shelton’s house was completely destroyed during the investigation.

Detectives dismantled it piece by piece in search of additional clues.

Nothing significant was found, but the site where the house stood is now marked on maps as a crime scene, and local rangers regularly patrol the area.

The question remains whether Milo Shelton was a serial offender or whether Carolyn was his only victim.

Detectives reviewed all cases of missing women in the McCarthy and Kitina areas from the 1980s to the 2000s.

There were several unsolved cases, but none of them could be definitively linked to Shelton.

The lack of other evidence led investigators to believe that Carolyn may have been his only victim after his release from prison in 1989.

David Thornton’s family, who found the body, received psychological counseling after the traumatic experience.

The discovery had a particularly strong impact on their children, an 11-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter, who were in the cabin when the suitcase was opened.

Both children underwent therapy for a year after the incident.

In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News in September 2024, David said that the family would never return to Alaska for vacation because the memories of the discovery were too painful.

We just wanted to go fishing and spend time in nature, he said.

Instead, we found someone’s grave.

That’s something you can never get rid of.

Every time I close my eyes, I see that suitcase and what was inside.

The story of Carolyn May serves as a reminder of the fragility of life and the unpredictability of fate.

A young woman with dreams and plans set out on a journey that was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime and encountered a monster in human form.

For 14 years, her body lay in a metal coffin under the floor of a hut until chance led to its discovery.

If the Thornton family had not decided to lift the floorboards under the bed, Carolyn’s remains might never have been found, and her fate would have remained a mystery forever.

Now, 15 years after her death, Carolyn has finally found peace.

And her story has become a warning to all who travel alone in wild places about the need for caution and vigilance.

Because danger can come not only from nature but also from those who hide in its shadows.