CRAIG
Search and rescue crews recovered the body of a Tacoma, Wash., woman and continued their search today for a Helena man who was with her on a raft that capsized in a swollen and fast-moving Dearborn River. Lewis and Clark County Coroner Mickey Nelson identified the dead woman as 48-year-old Melody Alvestad. Sheriff Cheryl Liedle said the woman's body was found at about noon Monday, not far from where another member of her rafting party was rescued Sunday night. Searchers on the ground found the body while looking for the woman and a missing Helena man who had been rafting the Dearborn when their raft capsized Sunday. The search for the man continued today on the river in the Craig area between Helena and Great Falls. "We're going to go back up with ground crews and ATVs," Liedle said this morning. "We're going to concentrate our efforts on the shoreline as best we can. It's very limited because of the steep cliffs on how much of the shoreline we can search." Alvestad, the Helena man rescued on Sunday and the missing Helena man were part of a threeraft group of seven people, most of them from the Helena area, Liedle said. The search-and-rescue work begun Sunday night included a Homeland Security helicopter that carried eight people and made an emergency landing late Sunday because the rotor touched a tree, Liedle said. No one on the helicopter was injured. Liedle said four of the seven rafters reached land safely. Her office received a call for help at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The man rescued from a riverbank shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday received medical attention at a Great Falls hospital and was released, Liedle said.
