A woman was drowned after when she being swept away by a river in Alaska while trying to reach an abandoned bus by the book and the film,” Into The Wild.”
The newlywed women, Veramika Maikamava, 24, from Belarus, and her husband, Piotr Markielau, also 24, were attempting to reach Fairbanks Bus 142, where Christopher McCandless met his end in 1992. The couple was trying to cross Teklanika river along the stampede trail near Healy, Alaska when the woman was swept under the water.
According to the state troopers, Veramika was swept by the high and fast running river due to the recent rains. It was her husband who informed the state troopers about his wife’s untimely demise on Thursday night. He told the state troopers that he managed to pull his wife out of the water about 75 to 100 feet downstream, but he was too late as he was already dead.
The couple was married recently, and not even a month of their marriage was completed. The bus they were attempting to reach was none other than the one which was featured in Into The Wild, a 1996 book by Krakauer that was later made into a film in 2007. Both the book and the movie are based on the true story of Christopher McCandless. He traveled to Alaska with minimum supplies and food and spent his summer living on the bus. He was found dead inside the same bus in 1992. This was also depicted in the movie, which made this bus into a tourist spot. Many fans have attempted to cross the river to reach the bus. In 2013, three German hikers got stranded on the bus after the flood became treacherous for the return due to high Swift running water.