Overview

Last Seen: September 19, 2009
Location: Four Seasons Resort, Teton Village, Teton County, Wyoming
Age: 53
Status: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP18171
Doe Network: 4841DFWY

Main circumstances: Major disappeared while packing to leave the Four Seasons Resort. Her vehicle, purse, wallet, personal belongings, two cats and a large amount of cash remained behind. A door leading outside was open, and tracking dogs subsequently followed her scent away from the resort before losing the trail. No confirmed sighting has publicly resolved her disappearance.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Katherine Ann Major Disappearance: The Unsolved 2009 Teton Village, Wyoming Case

Katherine Ann Major, also identified in records as Katherine Schupp Major and known as Kathy, disappeared from Teton Village, Wyoming, on September 19, 2009. She was 53 years old when she vanished from the Four Seasons Resort after being told to leave the hotel following a shoplifting incident. More than sixteen years later, Major remains listed as missing, with NamUs case number MP18171.

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: September 19, 2009
Location: Four Seasons Resort, Teton Village, Teton County, Wyoming
Age: 53
Status: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP18171
Doe Network: 4841DFWY

Main circumstances: Major disappeared while packing to leave the Four Seasons Resort. Her vehicle, purse, wallet, personal belongings, two cats and a large amount of cash remained behind. A door leading outside was open, and tracking dogs subsequently followed her scent away from the resort before losing the trail. No confirmed sighting has publicly resolved her disappearance.

What Happened to Katherine Ann Major?

On Saturday, September 19, 2009, Katherine Major was staying at the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village, a resort community near Jackson, Wyoming.

According to published accounts of the investigation, hotel surveillance reportedly captured Major taking more than $700 worth of merchandise from a spa cabinet. Resort personnel contacted law enforcement. Major admitted taking the merchandise and agreed to pay for it. The hotel ultimately declined to pursue charges but told her that she would have to leave the property.

Major returned to her room to pack her possessions. Approximately 40 minutes later, when she was checked on, she had disappeared.

The circumstances inside the room immediately raised questions. A glass door leading outside was open and the room safe was reportedly ajar. Yet Major had apparently departed without many of the possessions a person voluntarily leaving town would normally be expected to take.

Her wallet, purse and toiletries remained at the hotel. Her white Jaguar convertible was still parked in the Four Seasons parking garage. Most unusually, approximately $45,000 in cash was reportedly left behind, along with Major’s two cats. Investigators found no evidence of a physical struggle in the room.

The Note Left in the Hotel Room

A short note addressed to Major’s mother was discovered on the counter. It asked that her cats be cared for and ended with the words, “I have nothing.”

The note, combined with the belongings she abandoned, became an important part of the circumstances investigators had to evaluate when determining Major’s possible state of mind and what may have happened after she left the resort.

Authorities also found an assortment of objects inside the hotel room, including medication bottles, hospital syringes, wigs or hair pieces, gloves, rope, two cellular phones, a tape recorder and a book whose center had reportedly been cut out. Other published case information has mentioned a camera, computers, sunglasses and jewelry.

Katherine Major’s Last Known Route

Investigators brought tracking dogs to the Four Seasons in an attempt to determine which direction Major had traveled.

According to the Charley Project’s account of the investigation, the dogs followed Major’s scent out through the glass doors of her room, across Granite Loop Road and north toward Obsidian Drive. The trail then reportedly went downhill toward Garnet Drive and continued north in the direction of a barn and open fields.

Eventually, the dogs lost the scent.

No publicly confirmed evidence establishes what happened after that point.

Could Katherine Major Have Left Teton Village?

Public missing-person information has continued to leave open the possibility that Major traveled away from the area. Case information states that she could potentially have used public transportation, a taxi, limousine or another transportation service. Authorities also noted that she could have worn a wig, glasses or another form of disguise.

Her own vehicle remaining at the resort does not establish that she stayed in Teton Village. At the same time, the abandonment of her money, identification-related belongings, pets and vehicle has made the disappearance particularly difficult to explain as an ordinary voluntary departure.

There has been no publicly verified subsequent sighting establishing that Major successfully traveled elsewhere.

Search and Investigation

Major’s disappearance has remained associated with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office Investigative Unit handles major investigations, follow-up on criminal cases, evidence assessment and older case files and works with agencies including the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.

Published case summaries have stated that both investigators and members of Major’s family came to believe she may have died. That belief, however, is not the equivalent of a confirmed death. No remains have publicly been identified as Major, and the publicly accessible missing-person resources reviewed for this article continue to classify her as missing.

There is likewise no publicly established evidence showing that another person harmed Major. Her case should therefore not be described as a confirmed homicide unless authorities release evidence supporting such a conclusion.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

Katherine Major’s case remains active in contemporary missing-person resources.

In November 2024, Cowboy State Daily reported that Major remained one of the people missing from Teton County. The report again directed anyone with information about the outstanding cases to law enforcement.

Another significant recent development involved case visibility rather than the discovery of new physical evidence: in August 2024, the Doe Network added Katherine Ann Major to its missing-person database as case 4841DFWY.

More recent Wyoming missing-person compilations also continue to identify Major as missing, record September 19, 2009 as her last-contact date and associate her with NamUs MP18171.

As of August 25, 2026, a review of publicly available case databases, law-enforcement information and news reporting located no announced recovery of Katherine Major, identification of her remains, arrest, criminal charge or official resolution of her disappearance. CaseTrace continues to display her as missing and links her record to NamUs case 18171.

Why the Katherine Major Case Remains Unusual

Several circumstances have made Katherine Major’s disappearance distinctive.

She vanished during a relatively short period while she was supposedly packing. She apparently left on foot despite having a luxury vehicle available in the hotel’s garage. Her purse, wallet and a substantial amount of cash remained behind. She also left her cats, possessions and a troubling note addressed to her mother.

Tracking dogs provided investigators with a probable route away from the resort, but the scent disappeared near open areas before authorities could establish where she went next.

Those facts support several possible scenarios, but none has been publicly proven. Whether Major intentionally disappeared, experienced a crisis after leaving the resort, died accidentally in the surrounding area, obtained transportation from someone else or encountered circumstances not yet known to investigators remains unresolved.

Katherine Major Is Still Missing

Katherine Ann Major was approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed roughly 120 to 125 pounds when she vanished. She had brown hair and green eyes, a scar on the lower-right side of her abdomen and a mole on her right cheek. She was reportedly wearing an off-white Cloudveil hooded sweatshirt with embroidery on the left arm.

Her disappearance is now one of Wyoming’s longstanding unsolved missing-person cases. The passage of time does not eliminate the possibility that someone remembers an interaction, vehicle, transportation request, conversation or unusual event associated with Teton Village on September 19, 2009.

Anyone with credible information concerning Katherine Major’s disappearance should provide it directly to law enforcement rather than posting a possible tip publicly.