Mother of missing paddleboarder reflects on search and rescue efforts

Nina Rea has been on a never-ending mission to find her daughter, Emily Rea, since she went missing in the Hungry Horse Reservoir this summer.

“She's got that perfectionistic bent. She's optimistic, but also realistic,” Nina said of her daughter, speaking over Zoom from her Georgia home on Oct. 3. “She's very sensitive and is tuned into what someone else may need. In a friendship, she's an excellent listener. She's cautious, but my glory, she is independent.” 

Emily, 33, was alone when she put her paddleboard into the reservoir sometime after 8:30 p.m. on July 16, according to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. Emily’s vehicle was found at the Riverside Boat Launch area on July 17, along with her paddleboard, which was discovered upside down in the Flossy Creek area more than 2 miles west of the boat launch with her paddle stowed and assembled. The location was consistent with the direction the wind was blowing the night before, according to the Sheriff’s Office.   

The Hungry Horse Reservoir was once a densely forested valley before the dam was put in place, creating a deep lake. Nina said local authorities told her there is no good underwater map of the area, making search and rescue efforts difficult. 

Still, nothing has been spared in trying to find Emily.  

The Sheriff's Office has been working with multiple agencies to deploy search and rescue units, including K-9 teams, boat teams equipped with sonar and underwater robots, ground teams, the Two Bear Air helicopter, and drone teams. 

Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino said Tuesday the search will continue in the Hungry Horse Reservoir for Emily. The Sheriff’s Office has used divers, dozens of volunteers and now directional sonar to look for her.  

Heino said the environment is extremely challenging — the maximum depth of the reservoir is about 300 feet, but there are numerous ridges and shelves to examine.  

When searchers see something that might be a body, they stop and drop a remote underwater vehicle with a camera down to the site to get a better look, according to Heino, but he likened it to dropping a cable off a 28-story building into a 5-foot circle.  

And the reservoir, once being a river bottom, is rife with old tree trunks and brush. Often, they’ll examine a feature only to find out its a stump. He said they even snagged an old telephone line that once ran up to Spotted Bear.  

“It’s extremely difficult,” Heino said.  

He also noted that the main search area where her paddleboard was found encompasses about 4 square miles.  

In addition, the water gets cold very quickly. If a body has sunk, it’s in water that’s not much warmer than freezing.  

Beyond the reservoir search, the Sheriff’s Office has followed up on numerous leads in the past few months and conducted an exhaustive ground search, which turned up nothing, Heino noted. This included following up on one report that Emily may have been at the Izaak Walton Inn, which didn’t pan out. 

Even claims by psychics were followed up on by authorities as news of Emily’s disappearance spread across the country, Nina said.  

In addition to helping with search efforts, friends and strangers alike have pitched in time, money and resources to ease a burden, Nina said. Emily’s beloved dog, Hugo, was taken care of immediately and later adopted by some friends.  

And back in Georgia, Nina’s neighbors were banding together to take care of the community garden she oversaw, among many other niceties that have brought her comfort during these last few months.  

It’s a testament to how much Emily’s community cares about her, Nina said.  

“All these names of Emily's friends, her besties, that I have heard the names of or seen in texts, they wanted to come over, to give hugs ... They wanted to know what else they could do. There wasn't a need unmet — with the exception of not finding Em,” Nina said.  

Emily's career as a speech pathologist centered around helping children, but she also helped friends manage and renovate a vacation rental property in Halfmoon. Nina said this included everything from tiling to appliance repair and landscaping. A lover of the outdoors, Emily also spent many summers net fishing with college friends in Alaska. Nina said these are just some pieces of the many facets of Emily.  

MOST RECENTLY Emily worked at the nature based The Skola school in Whitefish and was living in West Glacier. But her story begins out East.  

Nina, whose first name is also Emily, said her daughter is the seventh woman in her family to carry the name. She said she bears it appropriately — the women in her family are “strong, competent and perfectionistic.”  

Emily is no different and began showing signs of her independence at an early age. Nina said she remembers when Emily insisted that she didn’t need to learn how to ride a bike with training wheels.  

"Our house had a declining sloped gravel drive that turned onto a lane and led to a paved driveway at the bottom ... She gets on the bike and goes down our driveway, pedaling, makes the turn onto the lane, goes to the bottom and turns around on the paved driveway,” Nina said.  “She did not stop pedaling until her tires spun ... at which point she didn't fall off her bike. She stepped off and walked it back up the hill and said, ‘See, I don't need training wheels.’”  

Accompanied with this drive was a strong desire to help others. Emily was born in Massachusetts and spent her first 10 years there before the family moved to Athens, Georgia. While in Massachusetts, Emily became interested in volunteering at a camp for challenged kids where they offered hippotherapy, a form of physical, occupational and speech therapy in which a therapist uses the characteristic movements of a horse to provide carefully graded motor and sensory input, according to the National Institutes of Health.  

Later in Georgia, she got involved with Butterfly Dreams Farm Equine Therapy and began volunteering there. She attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts where she would meet Brooke and Aaron — friends who would eventually connect her with the speech pathologist job in Whitefish. Nina said Emily made the move to Montana just before the pandemic hit.  

It’s all about love when it comes to Emily, Nina said, whether it’s the love she has given to people in her life or the love that has surrounded her and her husband Cleve since she disappeared. Friends from around the globe sprang into action when they heard she was missing, with her closest forming the #EyesforEmily communications campaign and ensuring that she was quickly put on all the missing persons’ lists. 

People who were close to Emily pushed through the sadness and worry to do what they could to help, Nina said.  

"Emily is not a project, she is not a campaign, she is a beautiful young woman who has a heart deeper than most I've ever known,” Nina said. “When you share that from your core, people resonate with that, and they share back. So, her friendship group is solid and they're hurting almost as much as her dad and I are,” Nina said. 

There is no doubt that the realities of the situation weigh on her, Nina said, particularly as search efforts are narrowed down and colder weather sets in.  

“There is precious little to go on, and we've been told from the very beginning how unique this case is — from the topography to the remoteness and lack of physical evidence. You want to go, ‘But what about this? And what about that?’ Just grasping at last straws, but there's only so much that can be done,” Nina said.  

Recently, the family put up a $25,000 reward for a valid tip leading to the return of Emily by Nov. 30 — applying only to non-water recovery information. Nina was hoping this would incentivize more tips to come in, but it hasn’t led to anything yet. 

The search and rescue efforts are still waiting for the chance to use a specialized side scan sonar to navigate the challenging deep-water terrain. Nina said the equipment’s owner is waiting on a part he needs to operate the sonar, so that effort is on pause at the moment.  

As a mom, she feels frustrated as leads pare down and search efforts come to a natural close. She and Cleve have been astounded at the time and effort local authorities have expended looking for their daughter, so despite biting at the bit for any new information, they try not to “hound them all the time.”  

She reflected on a recent letter from the Sheriff’s Office letting her know that at this current time, there is no cause to continue looking into foul play.  

“I don't think that I was ready for that. Though I know practically that there comes an end,” Nina said. “She's an only daughter. Her dad and I are just heartbroken, and yet there's always hope.”  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com. 

    A missing persons flyer made by the family of Emily Rea, a 33-year-old West Glacier resident who was last seen in the Hungry Horse Reservoir on July 16, 2024. (photo provided)

  

    Titled "four generations of Emilys," Emily Rea is seen here a baby surrounded by her mother, grandmother and great grandmother who are all named Emily. (photo provided)
  

    Search and rescue crews conduct excursions looking for Emily Rea near the Riverside Boat Launch in the Hungry Horse Reservoir. (photo provided)
  

    Crews deployed K-9 units in the search for Emily Rea. (photo provided)
  

    A sign warns Hungry Horse Reservoir visitors that search and rescue operations are occurring in the area for Emily Rea, who disappeared from the Riverside Boat Launch area on July 16, 2024. (photo provided)
  

    A Sheriff's Office search and rescue boat patrols an area near the Riverside Boat Launch in the Hungry Horse Reservoir during the search for 33-year-old Emily Rea of West Glacier. (photo provided)
 

    Emily Rea, 33, of West Glacier is seen journaling on a dock. Rea has been missing since July 16, 2024. (photo provided)