The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The family of a U.S. Marine veteran and Sisters High School graduate has launched a campaign seeking information on her whereabouts.

Kirsten Anne Clarke reportedly left service and cut off all contact with family and friends in March 2023. Clarke's family lived in Sisters from 2006 to 2020, and still maintains property and connections in the area. Kirsten Clarke graduated from Sisters High School in 2011. She was a cross country runner. She served as a Navy corpsman (medic) attached to a Marine unit.

Veterans advocate Anginette Echols, an advocate for Disabled American Veterans Jackson County, is assisting the Clarke family. Echols provided information posted widely on social media:

"We have a missing Marine. In March 2023, she unexpectedly left service and cut off all contact with family and friends. In 2022, she requested her family send her all her savings bonds, birth certificate, and other documentation. She claimed per email, she needed them for "orders" or she was going to be in trouble. Although her father discouraged against sending her records abroad, He did so at her request. her family feels she may have gotten into some trouble and may not know how to get out of it.

"Her best friend from high school received the same messages of no contact. All emails and packages have not been picked up and mail is being returned. (Even her FPO/APO letters are saying unable to forward.) Her family attempted to send a package in October 2023 with signature. It is still sitting in Glendale, Arizona, and has not been returned yet. If Kirsten is safe, her family will respect this but this behavior is unlike their daughter so they are asking for the veteran communities' help."

Echols and Lorna Clarke both told The Nugget that they do not know what happened to cause Kirsten to cut off contact. They are urging her to seek help from the Veterans Administration and to let her loved ones know she's OK.

Echols noted that, "Kirsten was an avid cyclist. She used to cycle from Sisters to Bend all the time."

She surmises that she might be found on the road.

Echols noted that, since she explicitly cut off contact, they don't expect Clarke to reach out to her family, which is why they urge her to contact the VA. They

just hope she will reach out to someone.

"They're not trying to force her to come home," Echols said. "They just want to know that she's safe."

Anyone with information is asked to call Dave and Lorna Clarke at 541-270-8921 or email: [email protected]

(Editor's Note: This story was edited to reflect Kirsten Clarke’s status as a Navy Corpsman attached to a Marine unit and to clarify Anginette Echols’s status as an advocate for Disabled American Veterans Jackson County).

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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