SHUT OUT

Grand Teton National Park Bans Woman Accused of Giving Fake Info on Missing Man

The woman will also pay nearly $20,000 in restitution for intentionally providing false information to federal investigators, the National Park Service said.

Heather Mycoskie, 40, was banned from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming after she allegedly gave false information about the whereabouts of a missing man, the National Park Service said in a Thursday press release. Under a deferred-prosecution agreement signed in February, Mycoskie will be unable to enter the park for five years and will pay $17,600 to the U.S. Department of Treasury, according to the release. Mycoskie originally told officials she had spoken with Cian McLaughlin, 27, the day he went missing in the park on June 8, 2021. In her June 21 report, she provided a description of McLaughlin that matched officials’ and said he told her he was heading to Taggart Lake to jump off his favorite rock. This led investigators to waste 532 hours searching for McLaughlin in a different area than other official reports placed the missing hiker. The investigation into Mycoskie’s report found that she never saw someone matching McLaughlin’s description and that she intentionally made up the report to “ensure search efforts continued,” according to the release.