The River Keeps Its Secrets: Three years after Renee Arcand went missing near Glendive, investigators and her family keep an open mind about what happened

Mary Arcand had no idea that a text from her daughter Renee on June 21, 2023, would be the last before she vanished without a trace seven days later while passing through eastern Montana.

A simple explanation of the case would indicate Renee Arcand, 36 at the time, wandered into the high rushing summer waters of the Yellowstone River and got swept away in the current. However, a deeper look at certain details leaves only a mystery that Mary and the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office keep trying to solve.

Renee was reported missing from the Intake Fishing Access Site and campground almost 20 miles northeast of Glendive on June 30, 2023, by Chris Hansen, the companion, now 64, who spent a few days traveling with her between Buffalo Gap, N.D. and the site of her disappearance.

June 2023According to Mary, Renee hopped in her navy-blue Scion xB and departed her home in Madison, Wis. headed for Oregon on June 2 after attempting to leave one day earlier — she had forgotten something. The cross-country road trip was how Renee, a recovering-yet-struggling alcoholic, had planned to seek out a fresh, sort of restart on life in a land far from home.

“She was struggling,” Mary said. “She was just trying to take control of her life ...”

Three days later, on June 5, Renee was passing through North Dakota when her car broke down near Medora, where she met someone willing to repair the vehicle in exchange for a few days of labor at the Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch.

Over the next four days, Mary received two videos from Renee documenting her temporary situation, which lasted a total of about two weeks before she left on June 19 in pursuit of employment at Home on the Range outside of Sentinel Butte, N.D. Based on the following series of events, the prospective job did not pan out and Renee continued westward to Oregon.

Somewhere between breaking down near Medora and seeking employment at Home on the Range, Renee met Hansen. He tagged along with her until they ended up at the campground at Intake on June 24, where Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have a record of their presence through a neon pink FAS fee envelope available at the campground entrance. The form on the envelope indicated Renee and Hansen planned to camp for five days.

Renee was last seen by a groundskeeper at Intake on June 26, and possibly the next day just hours before she disappeared by a couple camping nearby her and Hansen.

Open Minds

What happened then between June 27 when Renee was last seen and June 30 when Hansen reported her missing to law enforcement? That is one of the first questions Dawson County Undersheriff Jake Feist, the lead investigator on the case, had to wrestle with.

Immediately following the report that Renee was missing, the DCSO activated a search party — on foot and by boat — to look for any evidence near Intake and along the Yellowstone River that could indicate her whereabouts.

Since the day Renee went missing, multiple agencies across eastern Montana and western North Dakota have collaborated on about 15 searches, averaging five every year, according to Dawson County Sheriff Ross Canen.

The searches have mostly been focused on the Yellowstone River, specifically on the Elk Island area nearly 21 river miles downstream from Intake. Canen noted every law enforcement and search and rescue agency from Glendive to Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota has information about Renee’s case.

“Why we focus on the river is they were camping right on the banks of the river during the June rise,” Feist said. “There’s a probability that she may have ended up in the river.”

River searches for Renee have included the use of blood hounds, drones with infrared imaging, cadaver dogs, hydrology experts and more.

“The hydrology of the Yellowstone River is so unique,” Feist said.

In the meantime, Feist and Sheriff Ross Canen spent time questioning Hansen as the only witness close enough to Renee at the time of her disappearance to possibly know what could have happened.

Hansen’s story, at least the one he told the sheriff’s office, is that he and Renee had consumed enough alcohol to cause them to black out, making his memory a bit fuzzy on some of the details in the days leading up to when she went missing. On the night of June 27, 2023, he says he decided to go to bed while Renee stayed up, but she was gone when he woke up the next morning.

When asked why he waited three days to report Renee missing, Hansen told the DCSO he thought she possibly hitched a ride back to Glendive or another nearby town for the day but would be back. When Renee did not return, Hansen set out to retrace their steps back to North Dakota.

“Is it dumb? Is it suspicious? Yeah, at face value it’s very suspicious somebody’s missing and you don’t turn it in,” Feist said. “But when you start looking at a story and verifying it and seeing all of the places that he went, he wasn’t deceptive.”

The DCSO has also searched Renee’s Scion xB twice for any clues that may help lead to finding her. As far as investigators can tell, all of her belongings were still in the vehicle when they impounded it, and there was no sign that a deceased body was ever inside.

Although the DCSO did not obtain information or evidence in its investigation that indicates any foul play as part of Renee’s case, Canen and Feist have not ruled it out as a possibility.

“We’ve got to keep an open mind with the whole thing,” Feist said. “Bottom line is I don’t believe anybody, and that’s my job.”

‘... she’s not in the river’

In the eyes of most people, Renee is yet another missing person in the world. But to those closest to her, she is a beloved daughter, sibling and friend with a heart to help everyone she crossed paths with.

Renee’s compassion for others was evidenced during a trip Mary and her sister-in-law took to North Dakota and eastern Montana following her disappearance. Mary noted she was amazed — but not surprised — by the number of strangers she met who were touched by Renee before she went missing.

“People knew her and remembered her,” Mary said. “She was one of those people who would give you the shirt off her back, and she couldn’t afford it. She was just like that.”

“That’s what was kind of sad about the situation,” she added, recalling Renee’s struggles as an alcoholic. “She kept her struggles to herself, and I think she preferred to try to help other people opposed to trying to help herself sometimes.”

There are nuanced details relayed to Mary by investigators that continue to keep her up at night. She said DCSO investigators told her Renee’s dogs slept with Hansen in the car the night she went missing, and in a separate conversation told her the dogs had been tied up outside.

Another inconsistency, Mary said, is what she was told about the dogs while Hansen was retracing their steps back to North Dakota. He initially said, according to what DCSO relayed to Mary, that the dogs took off on him after he stopped and let them out for a few minutes, but later indicated he “dumped” the dogs.

Hansen was later charged with animal cruelty in connection with abandoning the dogs, according to the DCSO, and a warrant remains outstanding for his arrest. Investigators are privy to his whereabouts, but Canen noted he cannot be extradited on the misdemeanor charge. The charge is unrelated to Renee’s disappearance.

“It just concerns me that all of a sudden a story has changed,” Mary said. “Because of those two items, to me, there is a lot of question regarding his story.”

While Mary acknowledges all the known facts in Renee’s case seem to point to an incident with the Yellowstone River, she will not let alternative theories escape her mind until she can be sure. She said that is certainly the most obvious answer to what happened, but it “bothers (her) to no end” that most of the information available has come from Hansen as the principal witness.

“Sometimes I just feel like she’s not in the river,” she added. “I just feel like if she was there, I should have found her.”

Despite the mystery of Renee’s disappearance at Intake, Mary keeps the best memories of her daughter at the forefront of her mind; the memories that help strangers better understand who Renee is.

“It’s very hard,” Mary said through choked-back tears. “Until they find her, I’ll never rest.”

Anyone with any information related to Renee Arcand and her disappearance is encouraged to reach out to the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office at 406-377-5291.