Overview

Last known location: Caribou Hotel, Glennallen, Alaska
Last confirmed activity: Security footage reportedly showed Evans entering the hotel on the night of November 11, 2025, with investigators reporting no evidence that she later left.
Presumed date of death: November 12, 2025
Location: Caribou Hotel, Glennallen, Alaska
Age: 86
Residence: Valdez, Alaska
Case status: Evans is believed to have died in the hotel fire, but investigators did not recover identifiable human remains. The Department of Public Safety stated the missing-person case would remain open until Evans was located and identified.
Case reference: AK25113809

Authorities have described the fire as preliminarily accidental, and no publicly available evidence reviewed for this article indicates that Evans was the victim of a homicide.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Mary Jo Evans Case: Valdez Woman Believed Lost in 2025 Glennallen Caribou Hotel Fire

Official law-enforcement and news sources identify her as Mary Jo Evans. I was not able to independently verify the expanded name “Mary Josephine Evans,” so the name used by authorities is used throughout this article.

Brief Case Summary

Last known location: Caribou Hotel, Glennallen, Alaska
Last confirmed activity: Security footage reportedly showed Evans entering the hotel on the night of November 11, 2025, with investigators reporting no evidence that she later left.
Presumed date of death: November 12, 2025
Location: Caribou Hotel, Glennallen, Alaska
Age: 86
Residence: Valdez, Alaska
Case status: Evans is believed to have died in the hotel fire, but investigators did not recover identifiable human remains. The Department of Public Safety stated the missing-person case would remain open until Evans was located and identified.
Case reference: AK25113809

Authorities have described the fire as preliminarily accidental, and no publicly available evidence reviewed for this article indicates that Evans was the victim of a homicide.

The Disappearance of Mary Jo Evans

Mary Jo Evans, an 86-year-old longtime Valdez resident and local business owner, became the subject of a missing-person investigation in November 2025 after relatives became concerned when they could no longer reach her.

The City of Valdez later said family members had last heard from Evans around November 5, 2025. Authorities initially reported that she was last seen in Valdez around that same time. Some subsequent reporting described her as last seen alive on November 8. Investigators ultimately developed more recent evidence, however: security-camera footage reportedly showed Evans entering the Caribou Hotel in Glennallen on the night of November 11.

Evans was believed to have been traveling from Anchorage toward Valdez on November 11 in her blue 2020 Ford Escape, Alaska license plate JTD365. Valdez police worked with multiple agencies and private companies while attempting to reconstruct her movements. The investigation included assistance from Alaska State Troopers’ patrol and aircraft sections, Anchorage International Airport Police, Canada Border Services Agency, cellular-service providers and Ford Motor Company’s satellite vehicle-tracking resources.

The Caribou Hotel Fire in Glennallen

At approximately 8:12 a.m. on November 12, 2025, Alaska State Troopers received a report of smoke at the Caribou Hotel in Glennallen.

Troopers and local firefighters responded. Early information indicated that everyone had safely evacuated, but the fire spread rapidly and eventually engulfed the hotel. At least five vehicles were also damaged. Firefighters from GlennRich Fire Rescue, Gakona Volunteer Fire Department and Kenny Lake Volunteer Fire Department responded to the blaze.

At that stage, authorities apparently had not yet connected Evans’ disappearance to the hotel.

That connection would not be made for nearly two weeks.

A Glennallen Resident Recognizes Evans’ Vehicle

On November 24, 2025, a Glennallen resident who had seen a Valdez Police Department missing-person post contacted Alaska State Troopers.

The resident reported that one of the vehicles severely damaged during the Caribou Hotel fire appeared similar to Evans’ missing Ford Escape. Troopers went to the site and confirmed that the burned vehicle was, in fact, Mary Jo Evans’ 2020 Ford Escape.

The discovery dramatically changed the direction of the investigation.

Responsibility for the case shifted from the Valdez Police Department to the Alaska State Troopers and Alaska State Fire Marshal’s Office, although Valdez police continued to assist. The investigation was associated with case reference AK25113809.

Investigators Search the Burned Hotel

Department of Public Safety and State Fire Marshal personnel returned to the Caribou Hotel site and conducted an extensive search beginning around November 26.

Searchers used specialized resources, including dogs from MAT+SAR, and investigators physically excavated the heavily damaged structure. Despite those efforts, they were unable to locate human remains. Officials attributed the difficulty to the duration and extreme intensity of the fire.

Reports initially emphasizing that no remains had been discovered led to uncertainty in the community about what had happened to Evans. But additional evidence eventually allowed investigators to reach a much firmer conclusion about her fate.

Security Footage Becomes Critical Evidence

According to reporting based on information from Alaska Department of Public Safety officials, security-camera footage showed Evans entering the Caribou Hotel on the night of November 11, shortly before the fire.

Investigators found no evidence that she ever came back out.

Officials also said Evans was the only hotel guest who remained unaccounted for after the fire. Taken together with the discovery of her destroyed vehicle outside the hotel, investigators concluded that Evans most likely died when the building burned the following morning.

That evidence also explained why an incident initially reported as a hotel fire with everyone safely evacuated later became connected to a missing-person death investigation.

Investigators Believe Evans Died in the Fire

On December 2, 2025, the Alaska Department of Public Safety issued its most significant public update.

Officials said Evans was believed to have been staying at the Caribou Hotel when it burned and that investigators believed she was deceased at the scene. No human remains had been recovered despite extensive searches.

The preliminary fire investigation determined that the blaze appeared to have been accidental in nature.

Nothing in the publicly released investigative information reviewed for this article indicates that authorities suspect foul play or homicide.

Why the Case Technically Remained Open

Even though investigators believe Evans died in the November 12 fire, the absence of identified remains created an unusual distinction between the investigators’ conclusion and the formal missing-person status.

The City of Valdez’s December update, citing the Department of Public Safety, specifically stated that the missing-person case would remain open until Evans was located and identified.

In other words, authorities reached a strong investigative conclusion about what happened without recovering physical remains that could be formally identified as Evans.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of August 20, 2026, the latest substantive public Department of Public Safety update I located remains the December 2, 2025 update associated with case AK25113809.

That update continues to state that investigators believe Evans died at the Caribou Hotel, that extensive searches did not locate human remains and that the preliminary investigation determined the fire was accidental. The current City of Valdez media-release archive also lists the 2025 Mary Jo Evans release but does not show a newer 2026 case announcement among its published releases.

Accordingly, the most recently documented public status is that Mary Jo Evans is presumed to have died in the November 12, 2025 Caribou Hotel fire in Glennallen, but her remains had not been recovered and identified in the last official case update located for this article.

The case remains an example of how a missing-person investigation, a catastrophic structural fire and a community tip converged weeks after Evans disappeared. A resident recognizing Evans’ vehicle from a social-media missing-person post ultimately supplied the connection that led investigators back to the burned hotel and, eventually, to their conclusion about what most likely happened to her.