Dateline NBC series hopes to find Samantha Sayers, others still missing
NBC News this past week pointed out that in the seven years its Dateline NBC “Missing in America” online series has been in existence, around 57% of the series’ subjects have been found.
Samantha “Sam” Sayers, a former Girard resident, remains among the 43% still missing.
“Please take a moment to look at their faces and read and share their stories. Someone, somewhere, saw something that may help authorities. Could it be you or one of your friends?” NBC News asked in an article published Friday.
Seven years of Dateline’s Missing in America: 156 still missing
Sayers, a 2008 graduate of Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, left on the morning of Aug. 1, 2018, for a day hike at Vesper Peak in the North Cascade range, northeast of Seattle, where she lived. She was expected to return that evening and check in with family, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Search-and-rescue teams, assisted by dog teams and drones, searched the area for three weeks before suspending operations.
When she graduated from Collegiate, Sayers went by the last name of Steinbaugh, according to the Erie School District, who confirmed her enrollment in 2018. After Collegiate, Sayers attended the State University of New York at Fredonia, where she graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in technical theatre and theatre design and technology, according to her LinkedIn account.
Sayers received court permission to change her last name from Steinbaugh to Sayers in May 2009, after her stepfather adopted her and her brother in February 2009, according to a name-change petition on file at the Erie County Courthouse.
Sayers was healthy but bald because of alopecia, an autoimmune disease that leads to hair loss, her mother, Lisa Yax Sayers, said on Facebook in 2018.
If you have information about Sayers, call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at (425) 388-3393.
Where on Earth Is Sam Sayers?
