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2 months later, police say they will keep looking for missing Steamboat resident Matthew Shelters

Matthew Shelters
courtesy photo

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — It has been two months and still no signs of missing Steamboat Springs resident Matthew Shelters.

Police have thoroughly sifted through cellphone data, and psychics were even enlisted to help find the 38-year-old, who was last seen leaving Back Door Grill on Oak Street at 12:20 a.m. on April 24.

“We continue to follow up on any leads,” Steamboat Police Chief Cory Christensen said. “The leads have trickled off.”

Christensen said Shelters’ family has been working with a nonprofit organization called Find Me.

“It’s a group that has been working with the family, and they are primarily psychics,” Christensen said.

Shelters’ brother and father could not be reached for comment.

The psychics provided police with very specific GPS coordinates. Christensen said police checked the locations and found nothing.

The locations were all in Routt County. A few were along the Yampa River while others were on private land in more remote areas.

“The landowners were very cooperative in all cases,” Christensen said.

The other piece of information police have exhausted was Shelters’ last know cellphone location.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation helped the local police analyze that data.

“They did offer any assistance we might need,” Christensen said.

Police know approximately how far the cellphone was from a tower near Anglers Drive.

“The tower is constantly asking your cellphone where you are at,” Christen said.

Christensen said the cellphone tower near Anglers Drive is equipped with three antennas that each collect data in a 120-degree arc.

Knowing the distance the cellphone was from the antenna with a margin of error of about 1/10 of a mile, police were able to map an arc where Shelters’ phone was last functioning.

“Whether Shelters was with it, we don’t know,” Christensen said. “We have nothing on him.”

The arc goes from the downtown Steamboat Springs area, goes over the 13th Street bridge crossing the Yampa River near Bud Werner Memorial Library and then goes onto Howelsen Hill.

Police have thoroughly searched the areas along the arc.

Christensen said Shelters’ cellphone was stationary for the 45 minutes leading up to 1:59 a.m., which is when the cellphone last communicated with the tower.

“Other than the fact we find it highly suspicious Matthew Shelters is gone, we have zero evidence that a criminal activity occurred, but we’ll keep looking,” Christensen said.

To reach Matt Stensland, call 970-871-4247, email mstensland@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @SBTStensland.

 


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