Like the others heading to Gillette this weekend, Karly Brennan and her daughter Kaylee have never met Derek Schaff.
All they know is that the 43-year-old Gillette man disappeared in the Weston Hills recreation area, about 30 miles north of Gillette, and has been missing for three months.
The assumption by authorities is that Schaff is still out there.
His work truck was found in mid-June, high-centered on a dirt road high above a steep cliff with his cell phone and other belongings found below.
Since then, there has been no activity or contact with his family or friends, leading authorities to conclude he never left the area and is out there somewhere.
Karly and Kaylee want to be part of the effort to help find him and return him to his family.
They’ve been here.
They know the ambiguous grief and heartache of not having answers or knowing what’s happened to a missing loved one.
They also know what it’s like to feel ignored and are here to support the Schaffs because they don’t want another family to experience what they did.
This is why they joined Badlands Search and Rescue, a group founded by seasoned search and rescue volunteer, Travis Batemen, based in Watford City, North Dakota, and why they’ve driven six hours one way across two state lines from their home in Bismarck to be here.
Bateman’s group — along with other volunteer search groups and dog teams from both in and out of state — has been brought on by Stacy Koester.
As the founder and president of Wyofind Search, Rescue and Recovery — a Gillette-based nonprofit dedicated to locating missing persons — Koester has coordinated with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office for the last two months in the ongoing search for Schaff.
This is the second time the Brennans have sacrificed their weekend to come to Gillette.
The Brennans were along for WyoFind’s last large-scale coordinated search in July that uncovered more of Schaff’s belongings, building a trail of clues toward where he might be, and renewing hope that they’ll be able to finally locate him.
Nobody on the search is receiving any compensation, apart from travel expenses and meals covered by WyoFind, courtesy of a GoFundMe that raised more than $8,000 to bring even more volunteers for this weekend’s search, including 10 K-9 teams from both within and outside of the state, a drone team and more than 20 volunteers.
The Other Side
Karly and Kaylee don’t view this as a sacrifice, they said.
In fact, they are more than happy to be here because they know what it’s like to be in the Schaff family’s shoes, as terrified loved ones grappling for answers in a situation that feels both hopeless and completely confusing.
They think about their own experience, Brennan said, when they trudge up the steep, rugged cliffs in search of Schaff. The ability to do something — anything — to help get answers is more than worth the sore muscles and sunburn, they said.
Brennan can still remember how hopeless and confused they felt on June 5, 2021, when they learned that a man they considered to be family disappeared.
Joby Seagren, 41, had dated Karly’s sister. And though they were never married, she called Seagren her brother-in-law.
The couple had been broken up at the time he disappeared, though the families remained in close contact.
Brennan remembers the helpless feeling of them all sitting at a picnic table near the Missouri River, south of Bismarck, where Joby Seagren disappeared while kayaking.
They’d been told he’d seemingly fallen in. His empty kayak was found floating downstream with only his life jacket in it.
They attempted to piece together events of that day as first responders hurried by their table without even glancing at them or stopping to provide an explanation, Karly said.
Unanswered Questions
All they knew was that Seagren was supposed to be working that day but instead had gone kayaking with a new girlfriend and friends the family didn’t know. Seagren had struggled with addiction but had been sober for three years leading up to that day, Karly said.
As far as they knew, Seagren was in a great place with a good job and working hard to reestablish his relationship with his two young children.
The fact that he had been kayaking struck them all as odd, Karly said, considering Seagren had never been and was terrified of the water.
Also unclear was what had happened. They were told that one minute he was there, and then he simply was gone. The implication was that Seagren had drowned, and that his body was somewhere in the river.
More troubling yet was that Seagren’s vehicle left in the parking area had been robbed.
All of his expensive stereo equipment and other belongings were gone the same day he disappeared. They suspected foul play, Karly said, but were having trouble getting any answers from authorities and finding out if anyone with him that day had been questioned.
The lack of communication from law enforcement and first responders added to the turmoil, Kaylee said, because the family had no idea what was being done and felt they weren’t getting any information.
“It was like nobody even knew we were there,” Karly said.
The search wrapped up within a couple of days with no trace of Seagren. One of the first responders on the search told Brennan that Seagren’s body would surface eventually, and when it did, someone would find it, she said.
“That was heartbreaking to hear,” Brennan said. “That they were just going to give up like that.”
Searching For Help
Not knowing where else to turn, Karly scoured social media looking for divers or other volunteers who could help find him.
This led her to Bateman and his Badlands Search and Rescue group, which does water rescues. She sent him a message, and he wrote back right away, Brennan said.
Within days, Bateman and his team drove to Bismarck and spent a couple of days searching the river.
They came up empty, but even so, it was the communication with Bateman that made the family feel as if they were being taken seriously and someone cared, Brennan said.
Bateman sat down with them and walked them through how river currents work, what the cold temperatures would mean, and what to expect when Seagren’s body eventually surfaced.
“Travis was very upfront and realistic with us,” Karly said. “He told us it was more than likely that Joby had drowned and that we should be prepared for that.”
The honesty was refreshing, Brennan said.
“It’s hard to hear those things, but it’s important to be upfront with the families versus letting them sit there for days and nobody talking to them and acting like we didn’t exist,” she said.
Kaylee agreed.
“Otherwise, you sit there playing out a million different scenarios of what might have happened,” she said.
That conversation stayed with both women. Someone had shown up, and someone had listened.
“At least we could go home that night with peace,” Kaylee said.
For the family just being heard had made all the difference.
“Travis asked simple things like had we eaten,” Karly said. “You know, those basic things that you forget to do when you’re grieving.”
Giving Back
Nine days after he disappeared, and one day after Bateman’s team had gone home, Seagren’s body was found by a fisherman in the main channel of the river. It was Bateman who alerted them.
“He couldn’t tell us a lot,” Brennan said, “but he wanted to give us a heads up, so we could be prepared.”
Authorities officially identified Seagren and said there were no obvious signs of trauma.
His death was determined to be accidental with no foul play, which the family has a hard time accepting given the lack of investigation, Karly said.
“We’ll probably never know what truly happened,” she said, noting that the girlfriend wouldn’t speak to them and, to their knowledge, wasn’t questioned.
Bateman’s kindness, however, made a huge difference in one of the most painful experiences of their life, the women said.
It stuck with them, and they decided they could help others in the same situation.
Neither set out to be volunteer search and rescuer or to join Bateman’s group. But a year later, that’s exactly what happened.
At first, Karly, who works in home healthcare and has a heart for helping others, started attending trainings in incident command and learning how to be a liaison for families of the missing. The following year, Kaylee, a pre-school teacher, decided to join her.
“I had been watching my mom do all these trainings, and I wanted to be part of the team also,” Kaylee said.
Their first missing person search was for Renee Arcand, a 36-year-old Montana woman who disappeared while camping with a male companion along the Yellowstone River, 16 miles north of Glendive.
Authorities believe she may have fallen into the river and drowned, but her body has yet to be found.
Coming To Gillette
Badlands has been on multiple searches for Arcand and continues to look for her and others.
When they heard about the search for Schaff in Gillette, the women were instantly interested, primarily when they heard that multiple search and rescue groups would be there, including volunteers from Carbon County Search and Rescue West Division, and four Colorado-based cadaver dog teams from the Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States.
“I thought it was just so awesome, and I just really wanted to be part of the opportunity to bring this man home,” Karly said.
“Everyone needs to be brought home,” Kaylee agreed, “and you can’t forget about these people or ever stop looking.”
Koester, who is heading up this weekend’s search, said she appreciates the Brennans and all the other volunteers who are willingly giving up their time to come help search for Schaff.
“It is truly an honor to work beside these women who have turned tragedy into determination to help others,” Koester said. “I am so thankful for these ladies, their teams and all the teams who are coming to assist in the search to bring Derek Schaff home to his family.”
Koester hopes this weekend’s effort, their fifth and largest search to date, will lead to his discovery and bring his family the kind of answers the Brennans so desperately wanted in 2021.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
