On August 15, 1997, two-year-old Lauren Elise Anderson vanished while wading with siblings and friends near a tributary of the Seventeen Mile Slough, part of the Nenana River system in Nenana, Alaska. At the time she was about 36 inches tall and 20 pounds, with dark hair and dark eyes. She was wearing an unknown shirt and pants when she disappeared.

An immediate 11-day official search used helicopters, airboats and tracking dogs; authorities even diverted a quarter-mile section of the rain-swollen channel. No trace of Lauren or her clothing was found and the official search was suspended. More than five weeks later, her parents Bruce and Zoanne Anderson led renewed searches with volunteers from Nenana and Tanana, but nothing turned up. Lauren is presumed to have drowned in the river’s powerful currents, though her body was never recovered.

Did anyone in the Nenana area in August 1997 see Lauren or recall details that could help explain what happened that day?