Alaska gives up official search for Oak Park woman

Authorities have called off the search for an Oak Park woman and a friendwho disappeared while on a canoe trip on an Alaska lake Memorial Day weekend.
The search for Oak Park resident Kathy Garrigan, 24, and Alaska nativeTravis Alexander, 19, ended Monday evening, more than two weeks after theywere reported missing, said Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.Officials had found no evidence of foul play, and the incident has been ruleda drowning, Ipsen said.
A companion on the trip, Liza Lomando, 20, was found dead in the lake May29. Searchers had found a digital camera showing the three drinking from awhiskey bottle while in the canoe.
The three worked in Nenana, Alaska, as AmeriCorps volunteers with TribalCivilian Community Corps, a program providing education and job skills foryoung Native Americans.
“We’ve been searching for over two weeks and haven’t found anything sincethe first couple days,” Ipsen said.
Ipsen said the search involved sonar equipment, helicopters from the AlaskaAir National Guard, divers from a nearby Air Force base and volunteersdragging the lake.
“We’ve been doing everything possible, and unfortunately nothing has turnedup,” Ipsen said. “It’s unfortunate we have to end the search without anyresolution for the family.”
The Garrigan family, however, has not lost hope and will continue thesearch with money raised by the Kathy Garrigan Volunteer Fund, said JamesO’Shea, Kathy’s cousin.
O’Shea said between 20 and 40 volunteers in 13 boats were still searchingthe lake Tuesday. He said the family has hired an expert on sonar technologyto continue probing the depths of the 2,500-acre lake, a popular boating,fishing and water-skiing area 45 miles south of Fairbanks.
“The search will continue until we find them,” O’Shea said.
Garrigan attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and was a 2005graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., where she playedvolleyball.
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 gfsmith@tribune.com