On Jan. 6, 1982, the ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado was in the unrelenting grip of a raging blizzard. As the temperature plunged to -28C, local miner Alan Lee Phillips was driving through a mountain pass when his truck got stuck in a giant snowdrift.

This was long before cell phones and, knowing his life was on the line, Phillips used his headlights to signal SOS in Morse code. Incredibly, a sheriff on a commercial jet saw the signal through the snow, knew it was a distress call, and alerted the crew who radioed Breckinridge authorities.

Local fire chief Dave Montoya heard the call and offered to drive up the pass. When he found the stricken vehicle, he also found a familiar face. He and Phillips had worked together in the mines years before.

But any euphoria felt by authorities disappeared when it became clear two women went missing the same night. The first was Annette Schnee, 21, a hotel housekeeper who left work, saw her doctor, then hitchhiked to a drugstore before vanishing.

Hitchhiking was common in mountain towns during the 1980s.

Hours later, Bobbie Jo Oberholtzer, 29, called her husband, Jeff, from a work celebration and said she’d be home soon. She never made it, prompting a search party the next day.

When a neighbour found Bobbie Jo’s license on his property, Jeff rushed over and — on his way — spotted his wife’s distinctive blue backpack along the road, with her right glove, a tissue with traces of blood, and an orange........

© Sarnia Observer