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girls reported being sexually assaulted by the soldiers manning a checkpost in Ghora Tabela, near where Aubrey disappeared. Later, two American women were attacked in the same region in separate inci- dents, one in 2011 and the other in 2012. If the Nepali police keep records of exactly how many female trekkers have been the victims of vio- lent crime, they won’t say (the police didn’t respond to repeated requests for information for this story). For that matter, it’s hard to determine how many trekkers, male or female, have gone missing over the years, whatever the reason. Tourists in Nepal come from dozens of countries, meaning news about them gets scattered across the globe. According to Chris- topher Patch, Deputy Consular Chief at the U.S. Em- bassy when Aubrey disappeared, dozens of Western trekkers have vanished on popular trekking routes in the last decade. Tat’s an alarming number for any- one contemplating a trip in Nepal. Paul and Connie knew none of this when Aubrey called from Darjeeling to tell them she intended to trek solo in Langtang. By Connie’s own admission, she couldn’t have located Nepal on a map back then. Still, they tried to dissuade Aubrey from going. Paul was scheduled for hip surgery on the same day Au- brey wanted to start her hike. Connie pleaded, “Can’t you at least wait until Dad is out of surgery? What if something happens?” On the desk in Aubrey’s room, Connie kept a clock counting down the days until Aubrey’s return (she was scheduled to fy back from Sri Lanka on May 22). Near the light switch in Aubrey’s room, Connie hung a map dotted with pushpins, each marking one of the towns or cities in Southeast Asia that Aubrey had visited. Red thread linked the pins together, like a mandala calling her home. Yet an- other thread would stand between them and seeing Sacco, Aubrey’s best friend and future sister- in-law (she married Crofon in 2011), says she changed in Asia. When Aubrey called her from In- dia, says Amanda, she could tell the party girl was gone. “She didn’t need all of that to feel energized and happy.” In Langtang, she must have had plenty of zip. By 10 a.m., she’d covered a distance that usually takes four hours, arriving at the Namaste teahouse, a red, blocky building above the river. She may have sat on the sun-warmed deck overlooking the water, marveling at her surroundings. While lingering there, she met a young trekking guide, Renzin Dorjee Yonzan, who grew up in Langtang Valley and guided tourists during breaks from his studies at a Kathmandu university. Locals say Aubrey and Renzin hit it of. Tey talked for hours—about travel, volunteering, and the local Tamang culture. At one point, Renzin gave Aubrey a book—Ethnic Groups in Nepal. Later, they retired to separate rooms, and then, say some, to the same room. Only the two of them know what happened between the parchment-thin walls of the Namaste. But the following morning, afer hugging and promising to meet again in Kathmandu two weeks later, Ren- zin hiked down the valley, while Aubrey went up. N E A R L Y F O U R Y E A R S afer Aubrey Sacco lef the Namaste teahouse, any would-be trekker who Googles images of Langtang National Park to get a preview of the scenery will see Aubrey at the top of the page. She’s smiling, her shoulder-length brown hair disheveled. She’s wearing a blue halter top, her round, expressive face pressed close to a yellow dog. In another photo, she’s sitting on a roofop, wearing a bright orange skirt and strum- ming a guitar. Go ahead and Google it: It’s eerie to see her smiling there, amid the snowcapped peaks and colorful prayer fags, as if she’s still in the park today. But the Google search doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t show the other young women whose lives were ended, or profoundly altered, during treks in or near Langtang National Park. In 2005, Frenchwoman Celine Henry and German Sabine Gruenklee vanished fve weeks apart. Investigators found blood, clothing, and pages from both of their passports in a hiking park called Nagarjun Forest, on the southernmost edge of the Langtang-Helambu trek. Police told the Nepali Times that they felt certain a serial killer was “raping women, killing them, and burying them.” Yet no killer was found. In April 2010, just days before Aubrey arrived in Langtang, three French P H O T O S B Y A U B R E Y S A C C O ( L E F T ) ; T R A C Y R O S S ( 2 )