A day after rescuers flew Shaun Mackelprang out of Wyoming’s Wind River Range, bruised, scraped and exhausted after a five-day ordeal, the Missouri deputy attorney general was awake in a Pinedale hospital Thursday.
“I cannot say enough about the dedicated men and women who worked to save my life,” Mackelprang wrote in a letter.
“Their selfless desire to serve those who might otherwise be lost for good stands as witness to the greatness of the human heart,” he added.
He specifically thanked Tip Top Search and Rescue and the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office for being “ready and prepared to stand up for me in my time of need.”
“It’s no easy task to put your life on the line for someone else, especially a stranger who has no place in their lives,” he said. “These women and men did so without a second thought. May God bless them for their good deeds and compassion.”
On Thursday, Mackelprang was still recovering from whatever happened during the days between standing atop 13,804-foot Gannett Peak on Friday and being found near Scott Lake on Wednesday morning.
Now, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office is providing a clearer picture of how the search ended.
Found Near Scott Lake
Mackelprang's rental vehicle was found at the Green River Lakes Trailhead, but finding the man who left it there meant searching a vast swath of rugged Wyoming backcountry.
Multiple ground teams fanned out through different areas while air crews and the Sublette County Sheriff's Office Drone Team searched from above.
As tips came in from other hikers, searchers followed them farther into the Winds.
“It was a ground team that was just clearing an area and came upon him,” Sublette County Sheriff's Office spokesman Travis Bingham told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
No single clue led them there.
Bingham said hikers began providing tips after seeing the missing-person notice. Searchers also learned Mackelprang signed the register atop Gannett Peak on Aug. 21, confirming he had reached Wyoming's highest point.
“There's not really one smoking gun thing that pointed us there," Bingham said. "You just follow the clues."
Despite five days in the mountains, he was still on his feet.
“It was slow, but he was on his own power, and they assisted him,” Bingham said. “He was able to walk. I mean, they didn't have to carry him to it.”
The team took its time helping Mackelprang reach the helicopter.
“It's just the area, right? Like backcountry wilderness in Wyoming,” Bingham said. “It's the mountains, the rocks, the terrain, the weather played a factor.”
Bingham said simply covering the country where Mackelprang could have traveled was a challenge.
“It's just a vast area you're looking for somebody in — glaciers and big rocks,” Bingham said. “The terrain of it is very difficult.”
‘Tremendous’ Improvement
Mackelprang was dehydrated and disoriented when rescuers found him.
By Thursday, however, his condition had improved significantly.
Romel Mackelprang was with his brother at the hospital in Pinedale, where he said Shaun had made “tremendous physical improvement” since his rescue.
A day earlier, Shaun mostly slept. By Thursday, he was awake, talking and “in good spirits,” Romel said.
He remained extremely sore and was recovering from bruising, exhaustion and numerous scrapes suffered during five days in the mountains, his brother said.
The family isn't yet ready to give a detailed account of what happened after Shaun reached Gannett Peak. Mel said he hopes they can talk more about that once his brother has had more time to recover
Romel said Wednesday he suspected Shaun might have become disoriented among similar-looking lakes after descending from Gannett, though the family still doesn't know exactly what happened.
What is known is that Mackelprang accomplished what he went into the Winds to do.
Gannett was No. 45 in his quest to reach the highest point in each of the 50 states.
Mackelprang set out alone Aug. 20 from the Green River Lakes Trailhead. By Friday, he had reached the summit and signed its register.
Another hiker later photographed the entry, giving his family and searchers evidence Mackelprang had made it to the top.
To Serve The People
The mountains are where Mackelprang goes in pursuit of high points. For nearly three decades, his career has put him in the middle of high-stakes battles of another kind.
Mackelprang has spent much of his professional life with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, where he rose through leadership positions in the Criminal Division and now serves as a deputy attorney general.
When Mackelprang applied for a vacancy on the Missouri Supreme Court in 2017, he told the judicial selection commission he had already spent 19 years with the Attorney General’s Office.
“I've done the work for the appellate courts,” Mackelprang said at the time, adding that he had personally briefed more than 1,000 cases and reviewed their records.
He has represented Missouri in criminal appeals, post-conviction proceedings, and capital cases in state and federal courts. U.S. Supreme Court records have identified him as chief counsel or division chief of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division in cases involving Missouri death-row prisoners.
His work has put him in litigation involving murder convictions, death sentences and claims of wrongful conviction.
In 2015, Mackelprang argued on behalf of Missouri before the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Zink v. Lombardi, a challenge brought by Missouri death-row prisoners to the state's execution procedures.
Among those prisoners was Marcellus Williams.
Williams was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle and maintained his innocence through years of appeals.
In 2024, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell sought to vacate Williams' murder conviction and death sentence in a proceeding that raised claims involving actual innocence and constitutional error.
When the case reached the Missouri Supreme Court, Mackelprang was one of four Attorney General's Office attorneys identified as representing the state.
The Missouri Supreme Court declined to overturn Williams' conviction Sept. 23, 2024. Williams was executed the next day.
In 2025, the Missouri Attorney General's Office credited him with providing assistance in the case that resulted in the removal of St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery. The case included allegations of unlawful arrests, failure to transport inmates for critical medical care and misuse of taxpayer resources.
During his 2017 bid for the Missouri Supreme Court, Mackelprang said his years with the Attorney General's Office had “cemented in me my desire to serve the people.”
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
