Great Smoky Mountains rangers expands search for missing Illinois man

A 57-member search team is combing Great Smoky Mountains National Park for an Illinois man who has been missing for more than a week after his vehicle was found at a popular visitor center.

Marcin Bachleda-Blaszczak was last known to be at the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking lot on August 22, 2025, according to the National Park Service (NPS). He was reported missing two days later and his vehicle was then found in the visitor center’s parking lot.

Park rangers and volunteers, along with local agencies, have expanded the search in and around the park, looking both on and off trails and using drones to help cover the area, as they look for Bachleda-Blaszczak, according to NPS.

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Marcin Bachleda-Blaszczak was last known to be at the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking lot on Aug. 22, according to the National Park Service (NPS). (National Park Service)

Drones are normally prohibited inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, but are temporarily being allowed for the search.

Bachleda-Blaszczak’s family said nothing seemed unusual shortly before he disappeared.

Bachleda-Blaszczak is described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and approximately 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. (National Park Service)

“The day before, I believe, was when he had pizza with his dad, you know, chatted with him, said he might pick up a shift the next day at work,” his cousin, Corrina Auten, told CBS Chicago.

“It was very, you know, like a normal, normal conversation. There wasn’t anything strange or amiss,” she said. “The next thing we knew, he didn’t show up for work and he was missing.”

Foot bridge across the creek along the Fighting Creek Nature Trail originating at the Sugarland Visitors Center on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Ron Buskirk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, File)

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Rangers first searched the area around Sugarlands before widening their search. The team grew to 47 rangers and volunteers by Saturday and 57 by Sunday, according to the NPS.

Bachleda-Blaszczak is described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and approximately 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

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Officials asked anyone with information or who believes they have seen Bachleda-Blaszczak to contact Great Smoky Mountains National Park dispatch at GRSM_Dispatch@nps.gov.