Olga Mauger, Missing Since 1934 -- NamUs #MP27783

By: Shane Lambert

Time of writing: December 7th, 2020

Olga Mauer has one of the older cases that is still listed at NamUs. She went missing on September 17th, 1934 from the wilderness near Dubois, Wyoming.

She had black hair, her eye color is not listed, she was 21 years old at the time of her disappearance, she was 5'5" to 5'9", and she weighed between 120 and 150 pounds. NamUs says that she "and her new husband went scouting for elk, camping up at Togowotee Pass when she went missing." I decided to take a look at her case tonight and found the following supplemental details for those looking at this historical case.

1. The earliest newspaper coverage that I could find of her disappearance was from September 20th, 1934 in the Jackson's Hole Courier (front page; the points below until No. 10 are from that article)
2. An airplane was used in the search for her
3. Two-Gwo-Tee Pass is how the area is spelled
4. There were "scores" of men involved in the ground search
5. The husband reported her missing at a camp; he said that he left her resting while he pursued "big game"
6. The searchers believed that they found tracks of the woman's about "eight miles from where she was last seen" but this was later disputed
7. Olga Mauger had been married just six days earlier
8. She was only "lightly clothed" and likely would not have survived the night due to the altitude according to those familiar with the area
9. She was believed to have had three sandwiches but no blanket
10. Mr. Mauger was reported to have been in a sleepless state over the ordeal
11. She went missing on a Monday afternoon; one article said that cries for help were heard from a canyon on the Wednesday night that followed (Casper-Star Tribune/Sept 20 1934/Page 1; points to No. 15 are as per this source)
12. This source also said that she was recently married
13. The husband's name was Carl S. Mauger as per this source. As per another one, it was Carl R. Mauger. The print in these old newspapers can be hard to read and maybe to blame. The middle initial is likely "S"
14. The camp they went to was called the Floyd Stalnacker camp
15. Carl said that he left her to rest in the forest but when he returned, he could not find her
16. No one had any hope of her being alive by the soonest Friday (Casper-Star Tribune/Sept 21 1934/Page 1; points 17 and 18 as per this same source)
17. A paper sack of her's was found; she had used it to carry lunch
18. Her tracks were reportedly found in a wooded area known as Turpin Meadows
19. The search continued into October but there were periods when inclement weather caused stoppages (Casper Star-Tribune/Oct 3 1934/Page 10; Points 20 to 22 are of this source)
20. There were reports that she had been found but these were not true
21. The county attorney said he intended to question the husband, a man who stayed in the frontier area during the entire search; the husband claimed that he had not been arguing with his wife
22. The period of time that he claimed to have left his wife alone in the forest was a mere 20 minutes, which was later seemingly contradicted
23. Olga Mauger had a doppelganger in Bridgeport, Nebraska that had to be ruled out as the missing woman (Casper Star-Tribune/Oct 14 1934/Page 11)
24. The husband was held in jail as per an article in the October 9th 1934 Casper Star Tribune (Page 10); he had the unfortunate luck of resembling a man with a warrant out for his arrest, a man with the name Carl Mager as opposed to Carl Mauger; Mauger didn't have the birthmark that Mager had
25. Heavy snow in the region ended all hope of finding her
26. In 1941, Carl Mauger filed for divorce from his missing wife. They married on September 11th, 1934 and she disappeared on September 17th of that year as per the Casper Star-Tribune May 6/1941 Page 5.
27. This same source said that no trace of the missing woman was ever found. It also said that the search was intensive but affected and hindered by snow.
28. A major piece on the disappearance was published in the San Francisco Examiner on Nov 23 1941 -- page 81
29. It says that the husband married Olga's "rival after seven years of waiting"
30. Bloodhounds were used in the search as per the SF Examiner
31. Olga's younger sister believed that the missing person had a motive to disappear
32. Olga's maiden name was Schulz
33. The balance of the Nov 23 1941 piece is that there should be suspicion around the husband because of his other romantic interest and suggestions of friction in the days after the wedding between Carl and Olga
34. Olga was wearing tan breeches, lace boots, a blue shirt, and a green and grey pullover tam. She had a little hatchet in a belt and a paper bag with sandwiches.
35. In this source, Carl is cited as stating he had returned much later than 20 minutes, the time he had promised to return in.
36. Indian trackers were employed to apply "their special talents." These were people who were believed to have the skill to tell whether a stone had been turned recently or years earlier.
37. A Casper Star-Tribune article on the 20th anniversary of the disappearance said no more was known of her fate than the day she disappeared. This is pretty much true as of the time of writing of this article as well.

What confused me with this scene is that Olga and her husband Carl were on a big-game hunting expedition. I've assumed that Carl was in possession of a gun. I've wondered, on that note, if simply firing this into the air or firing a blank might have helped his wife find him in the immediate aftermath of her disappearance. However, I found nothing that conclusively said that he had a gun with him as they were on a scouting mission to find elk, perhaps with an aim of hunting them at another time.

There was suspicion surrounding the husband but my personal feeling was that he did not kill her. The one article that cast him poorly for marrying his wife's rival was not convincing. Anyone might wish to re-marry if his or her spouse is missing for seven years, especially under the conditions that Olga went missing. That the next wife was a rival of her's only speaks to his affections for both women, not to something diabolical. Furthermore, I found no mention of a murder-for-life-insurance motive.

But one interesting point of view that would look to increase the husband's guilt was made by one of the 20 Indian trackers that were asked to lend their skills to the search. I think it's important to point out that these Indians were people that weren't assimilated like modern Indians. These were people that would have been raised by Indians that actually lived off of the land and, in 1930, I think these Indians would have had a lot of the outdoor skills that their ancestors had. That they were sought for their tracking abilities speaks to a level of authority that they had on the region.

These people said that the footprints that were found eight miles away were NOT Olga Mauger's.  What's also interesting is that these Indians said that Carl Mauger's path away from his wife would have kept him in full view of her sitting place from the moment he left her to the moment he claimed he turned around. If true, that's something powerful to consider: the scene the Indians described was rugged and difficult terrain but wide open for viewing (September 23rd 1934 Casper Star-Tribune):

"The Indians said the footprints found eight miles from the spot where Mauger said he last saw his wife, were not those of the missing woman. They also pointed out that, although the country is rugged, it is open and that Mauger was in full view of the place, where he claimed he left his wife until he reached a small path where he said he turned around and retraced his steps."

I don't think the footprints eight miles away were those of the missing woman's. That's a huge distance to hike. In fact, some hikes in uneven terrain of that length would take an already-tired individual all the sunlight hours at the time of year that Olga went missing.

If the husband is to be treated as a suspect, then it calls into question the last time someone other than him saw his wife. They did camp alone away from a group that was also in the area.

But the scenario the husband offered as an explanation isn't a bad one in my view. His wife grew tired before him, which makes perfect sense given the differences in physical abilities between the sexes. He wanted to get up a peak and said he would be 20 minutes to return. It ended up taking him much longer, which jives with my personal hiking experience. Points that appear close in wide-open terrain actually can take a long time to reach (my other website is a hiking website).

What if he took an hour to return or more? Does Olga get mad waiting or does she think that she has to go get help out of fear that something happened to him? If she can't navigate her way back to the camp, then she is lost with little food as the evening looms. Furthermore, her screams might have been heard and her lunch bag was found -- in my mind, those circumstances both mitigate the suspicion that a reasonable person might direct toward the husband.

Olga might have panicked when her husband didn't return, attempted to make her way back to their camp, and got lost. She then suffered from exposure to the elements. This opinion might not totally jive with the Indians' point of view, though, because according to their assessment the two people never would have been out of view of one another in the wide-open area. How then, could they become separated? A counterpoint to that calls into question the strength of the eyes of the two people and exactly how far they were from one another. If Olga loses sight of her husband just for a few moments, then it might have been enough to cause her to panic.

People claimed that they may have heard her screams come from a canyon at night -- the third that she was missing. Surely, this would be a time when she would be most desperate and near her life's end. I do believe that they did hear screams because they would echo in a canyon. Furthermore, since canyons are the low points in a region it's where the night-time air would be the least frigid and thus most attractive to someone facing the hardships of the mountain nights.

She couldn't live forever with no food or heat. There were snowstorms in the area, meaning that a dead body could get covered up. Also, animals move bodies or parts around, including to secret spots like underground dugouts or dens. Lastly, if the area had avalanches then they could move her body to low points that one would not think to search, even after the spring melt of the next season. When someone dies in a forest, there are, in fact, loads of ways that the body can still be moved around.

Chances are, in my opinion, that Olga is within a couple of miles of her last-known location, long dead. Her remains might not be intact but she's there. That the area was scoured over by hundreds of people doesn't mean that they couldn't miss her. Many people are found not far from where they went missing years after their disappearance despite extensive searches taking place.