German police, rescue dogs and drones are scouring the Bavarian Alps for a 32-year-old Manitoba man who went missing during a hike 15 days ago.
On July 30, Jeff Freiheit, a school teacher from Brandon, Man., set off for a month-long journey from Munich, Germany to Venice, Italy. His friend, Chris Kennedy, said he was preparing for the hike for months.
Kennedy called Freiheit an avid hiker, having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu and Everest’s base camp in the past. The Der Traumpfad trek is a well-known European expedition and it is described as something an average hiker can accomplish.
“He was training for this before he left, doing 30 kilometres a day hikes,” Kennedy said. “He’s a great athlete, a university basketball player. No one was worried because we knew he could do this.”
On Aug. 1, Freiheit spoke with his wife, Selena, on FaceTime, when he was in Bad Tölz, a small German town which acts as a gateway to the Alps. The following day, he posted a video on Instagram giving an update on his trek.
“Day three, it’s been a good morning so far … just to give you an idea of what the next three hours entails, here we go,” Freiheit said. He then shows the ascent he was about to make on the Brauneck mountain, which he said is 650 metres high and around 2.5 kilometres in length.
“Wish me luck, it will be a lot of fun,” he added.
Hours later, and out of breath — and smiling — Freiheit films himself on top of the mountain.
But after that, all communication with Freiheit came to a stop and he has not been heard from since. He also didn’t arrive at the overnight stops he booked ahead of time.
“He had a strict itinerary, so it’s a big concern because he had the whole month planned. There is no rational reason why he would go off that plan,” Kenedy said.
The search operation
Last week, Selena and Freiheit’s mother, Kathy, flew to Germany to help with the search. Selena even launched a volunteer search party on Facebook.
According to Kennedy, groups of volunteers have been helping search every day.
“I think it hits home to a lot of people, as many people have done this hike before and it could happen to anyone,” he said.
Since Freiheit’s disappearance, a large-scale police and mountain mission has been ongoing in the Alps. It includes police, mountain search crews, helicopters, dogs and drones — all looking to find any trace of the Manitoban.
On Friday, rescuers were searching a part of the mountain that is “very rugged, with ditches and parlty heavily overgrown with dense mountain pines,” one of the search party members, Sylvia Frei told a local German media outlet, adding that finding a person or a clue in the area is “extremely difficult.”
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“Although there is still a lack of crucial evidence, this area holds the greatest risk potential of the day’s stage of the missing person and can be considered from the terrain most likely,” Freiheit said.
Yesterday, Selena posted on Facebook about a potential lead investigators are looking into.
“At this point in the search for Jeff, we need to be able to narrow down his possible location to a very specific spot. The ONLY way we can do that is through key witnesses with detailed accounts of where they may have seen him last,” Selena wrote on Facebook.
“We got a tip that two girls helped an English man (who may or may not have been Jeff) in this grocery story in Jachenau. We need this message to find it’s way to those two girls who might have seen him on August 3rd. “
Friends of Freiheit have organized a GoFundMe campaign to help the family with travel expenses and the hiring of private search parties. As of Friday afternoon, it had raised more than $35,000.
‘I just want Jeff back’
Selena and Freiheit’s mother, Kathy, are currently in the German town where he was last seen, trying to talk to many people as possible and search for clues about this disappearance.
She told a German media outlet that giving up hope is not an option, and she has to “stay strong.”
“I’m working on autopilot right now. I just want Jeff back,” she said.
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