Angela’s Search
Rebekah Barsotti went missing on July 20, 2021. She had recently separated from her husband and picked up some of her last belongings that day. Rebekah’s phone and other personal items were found at a popular area along the Clark Fork River arranged neatly in the sand.
Just days after Rebekah’s disappearance, her mother, Angela Mastrovito, moved to Missoula, Montana from Virginia to look for her daughter and find answers about what happened. Angela and her husband Gerry uprooted their lives in Virginia and moved into Rebekah’s trailer in Missoula. The police stopped searching for Rebekah after they exhausted all leads and did not find her in the river, but Angela has kept the search for her daughter alive.
She has organized vigils and volunteer-led search parties, created a Facebook page and raised money for a reward for information that leads to finding her daughter.
Angela has worked tirelessly to find answers about her daughter and says she won’t stop until Rebekah is found.
*Just over a year after her disappearance Rebekah Barsotti’s body was found in the Clark Fork River and her cause of death was determined to be drowning.
The small-town Montana disappearance attracted national attention:
Angela and Gerry Mastrovito moved to Missoula, MT from Virginia after Angela’s 33-year-old daughter, Rebekah Barsotti, went missing in July 2021. They have been staying in Rebekah’s trailer since her disappearance.
Angela holds a vigil in front of the Missoula County Courthouse on Oct 28, 2021 to bring attention to her daughter’s disappearance.
Sheriff Mike Toth of Mineral County handled Rebekah Barsotti’s missing persons case. He believes that Rebekah likely drowned after her personal belongings were found along the shoreline of the Clark Fork River near Superior, MT. River searches were conducted after Rebekah went missing and Sheriff Toth says he has done everything he can based on the information he has. However, Angela was not satisfied with the searches or how the authorities handled the case.
Volunteers (clockwise) Analise Moore, Karmen Moore, Marcene Austin, Ann Nowak, David Prieto and Dennis Lazzar discuss how to best search for Rebekah near the site she was last known to be. They heard about the search through local media channels and the Facebook page that Angela created for her daughter’s disappearance.
David Prieto and Marcene Austin search through thick brush near the riverside area where Rebekah’s belongings were found. Police focused most of their search efforts on the river.
Angela makes notes and sorts through documents on Rebekah’s case using her bed as a desk.
