Sudden & Unexplained Disappearances
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Richard Lyman Griffiths was an inventor. He was also a very well-traveled man.

This time, he had ventured to the wilds of Alaska with the specific intention of testing his latest invention. It was the fall of 2006 and he had invented a survival pod for camping. Problem was, he hadn't told anyone where he was going or what he was intending to do and so he wasn't reported missing for months. When a search was started, Bensner District went out to look for him after the Mounties had worked out that he'd bought a bus ticket heading north.

A bus ticket would have taken him to the Alaska Highway and they discovered that he had left some personal items at a lodge near White River. He had apparently told some guests there that he was heading upriver to test his survival cocoon. It was bright orange. Neither he nor the bright orange cocoon have ever been found. Alaska Dispatch News followed up on his disappearance retrospectively.

Speaking with former Mountie, Sergeant Ben Sewell, nothing has ever surfaced, he said, although he wonders if one day at least a piece of the orange cocoon might show up somewhere. Alaska Dispatch said the disappearance never made it into the newspapers at the time, years ago, and they add that his vanishing is like all the others, who over the years have turned to ghosts, their disappearances leaving no trace of them at all behind.

Richard Haspel was described by his friends and family as a quiet and shy man who because of his mental disability liked to take off on his own for long bike rides and hikes. It was said to have been his way of coping with his illness. Although he suffered with this illness, his brother and other members of his family said that he was always good at reporting back to them and he had always been able to look after himself and he'd never come to any harm.

His brother did add, however, that he had not gone quite so far into the wilderness on his own before. It was July 10th in 2005 when he arrived at Denali National Park in Alaska. When he registered and applied for his camping permit, he said he would be returning by the 18th. He took the shuttle bus provided at the park to Wanda Lake.

He never returned. A search began for him, including both ground and air search efforts, in a landscape of rugged wilderness. Two days into the search, a pilot saw his tent near the peak at an elevation of just over 4,000 feet, five miles northeast of the lake. The pilot had been out looking for a plane that had crashed. The following day, the rangers flew to the spot where his tent had been seen. It was confirmed to have been his, along with the bear-resistant food canister.

there was no sign that the camp had been disturbed by bears or any other predators there was still food inside the bear proof canister some of which had been eaten but there were a plentiful amount left his tent also appeared not to have been tampered with or suffering from any damage they knew this was the missing man's provisions because they had also found a journal with his handwriting in it the last entry in the journal had been on the seventeenth the day before he was due to return

strangely however his pairs of shoes three were confirmed as gone by his brother his brother also said he was physically fit enough as he was an avid walker who would take weights in his backpack to improve his stamina and endurance

the searchers checked all drainages and any possible routes that he could have taken from the tent they found footprints indicating that the area had been trodden on by other hikers but according to searchers none of those matched up with the missing man's

The area was thoroughly searched for days, and yet no traces of him could be found by the seventh day. They found a disposable camera, a sock, and other footprints, but they said that these were not connected to the missing man, never been found.

in september two thousand and fifteen thirty six year old timothy nolan was found dead in the yosemite national park following an extensive search effort his last contact with his family had been on the first of september after which he planned to set off on his solo hiking trip

He didn't return from his five-day trip, and his family alerted the authorities. National Park spokesman Scott Gediman described the search for him utilising search and rescue teams and dogs, as well as aerial searches. Posters with his details had also been distributed and displayed. Mariposa Gazette described the search as extensive, ever since he had been reported missing.

The Sierra Sun Times said it was actually park visitors who later came across his body.

Strangely, his body was found later on a well-travelled trail in the High Sierra Cap Loop. This was the same area that had been previously extensively searched. Investigators, after the discovery of his body, were "working to determine the cause of death", according to a park spokesman, implying that it wasn't immediately obvious how or why he had died.

According to local news journal The Fresno Bee, this was the third man to be found dead in the national park that month.

28-year-old Christopher Sylvia had set out on a lone hike over several days along the Pacific Crest Trail, California. It was February 2015. The day after he set out, he phoned his roommate to ask him to come and collect him the following day at a Buddhist temple in San Diego County. His roommate agreed that he would meet him there. But when he arrived there the next day and waited, Christopher never showed up.

the newspaper reports state that his friend believed he must have continued on hiking after changing his mind about being picked up and that perhaps his cell phone was out of range and he couldn't call his friend to let him know

However, when he failed to make it to his final destination either, and his friends still couldn't get hold of him on the phone, that's when the concern for him really set in. A search was initiated, and quite quickly some of his hiking gear was located along the trail, not far from the agreed pickup point at the temple. However, despite a continued and extensive search, there were no signs of the man himself. Some hikers also found his sleeping bag and his backpack.

Thirteen miles off the highway, his ID was found. He was described as an experienced hiker and the newspaper reports described his hiking trail as a well-travelled and well-populated route, one that was safe for solo hikers. It was not described as completely remote nor a very difficult or risky hike, and although it was rugged in parts, it was not heavily forested. Despite an extensive search for him, however, no trace of him was found.

The sheriff and search and rescue efforts were called off after an extended search for him had taken place over a number of days, which turned into two weeks.

A spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department told reporters, "It's now been two weeks since he was heard from and we are still running any leads." His mother, Mrs. Nancy Sylvia, said her son had gone on the hike not long after breaking up with his girlfriend and wanting to clear his head. But she didn't say he was in any way suicidal, and besides which, if he had been, where was his body?

he was sad but when i spoke to him he sounded good she said adding i don't understand why he just left his gear behind a hiker mary litch who had come across an abandoned pair of shoes which at the time she thought could have been his said that she's a regular hiker along the trail i consider it a safe place she said a very safe place many people hike here alone

I've come across mountain lions, but they're always shy. I'd have more concern about people than them. The lengthy search had got progressively harder due to the change in weather, with fog and rain, but over 30 volunteers had kept hard at it. People on the Pacific Crest Trail mailing list received the following email. It is with deep regret that I inform the hiking community the search has been terminated.

One recent theory is that a camp of drug smugglers might have been encountered, leading to his disappearance and demise. There are other possible theories being under consideration by Eileen. The writer of this email did not however state what those other theories might have been, and the mystery still remains as to what could have happened to the missing man.

in september two thousand and fifteen officials from scamania county called off their search for a man who had last been seen over a month earlier county sheriff spokesman david brown said that their search for austin oldfield had proved fruitless two hunters had seen him last and they said that he had told them he was lost they offered to show him the way but they say that as they were doing so he took off running in the opposite direction

at the time he had no shoes on the hunters found this very bizarre the missing man had been on a planned lone two-week trip sending a text to his girlfriend on september seventeenth of two thousand and fifteen this being his last known communication coming from kentucky he had set out for gifford pinshot national forest to go camping and hiking

two days later he was reported missing after he failed to phone his relatives as he had said he would his car was located at the camp-site and the two hunters had seen him close to lone butte approximately one mile from his camp-site when searchers began to look for him they found his camp-site but no sign of him at this point there were over fifty people searching for him along with canines some searchers rappelled down the crevices

as the days passed more people joined in the search and his sister and her husband came to look for him according to his sister he had carefully planned the trip months in advance she said that he had been in good spirits prior to his trip had been visiting friends along the way before he entered the national park

and had been looking forward to the trip for months she feels that far from any suicidal inclinations he had been taking the trip for a sense of renewal and fresh starts after having quit smoking and drinking some months before this and was now drinking health drinks instead he also had a daughter which his family say he would never have left behind forever and he would have stayed in contact with her throughout the trip

despite the busy period in which he went into the national forest with lots of hunters and hikers and campers no one else came forward to say they had seen him his sister thinks that this is the strangest thing about it in july two thousand and thirteen the rieger family from oklahoma were on vacation in ecuador the family decided to take a short hike from their hotel along a scenic trail at some point along the hike the two boys ran on ahead but only one of them returned

the elder son it seemed had disappeared into thin air the boys were close to each other on the hike separated only momentarily when the elder vanished the really strange thing about it is his father told newspapers that whatever happened to him was in the space of a few minutes we were right behind him you couldn't get lost the whole of the trail is visible if he was hurt he would have been seen

searchers couldn't seem to locate the boys tracks and indeed they stated that they didn't detect any other tracks in the boys vicinity either no one heard him shout or scream no sounds of any thrashing in the undergrowth or of a fall there was no blood there was no scent the army troops were called in and the soldiers rappelled down the ravines tracker dogs went through the dense vegetation fire-fighters came and volunteers from the village below joined in as well

some have suggested given that they could not find a body in the ravines and that they couldn't detect his scent that the most logical thing that could have happened was that he was suddenly lifted from the ground by something it's as though he was disappeared somehow into invisibility said his father i could see i was there i don't know why they couldn't find him he would have been seen i cannot come up with a scenario that makes any sense nothing makes sense

in july two thousand and six student adjoo eroga was standing alone on a country road just by lake superior having stormed off site of a tree-planting project he'd been told to re-do the trees he'd just planted and he was angry he'd already redone his work once and now he was exhausted

stuck there in the middle of the forest several kilometers from the company base he had been told that if he was quitting he'd have to wait for the team to finish and then he would be taken back to the base to get his belongings and leave well he waited there for nearly four hours just standing and he was last noticed there at about quarter to four in the afternoon at six p m when the team finished he'd disappeared concerned the supervisors and team looked around for him two of them even staying there overnight in case he turned up

the police officers arrived at about eleven p m but they said it was probably too dark to do a proper search at dawn the search began with helicopters and canine units to pick up the students trail however the dogs could find no scent of him the police's original theory was that he'd decided to walk through the wilderness back to the camp they had nothing else to go on but no footprints or scent to track either he was never seen again

at one stage the ontario police suggested that because he was a fit young man he may have run across an access road and then run the length of sixty kilometers to the trans canada highway where he would have hitched a ride but despite how fit he was it seems a highly unlikely theory a web-site later put together by the heartbroken family says that there is no evidence of foul play and no evidence that he walked off leaves an unacceptable mystery

people simply don't just vanish the co-owner of the company he was there working for was quoted as saying he was certainly strong enough both in will and physically to be able to take care of himself but where did he go and what did he meet that was stronger than him

the fresno bee on august eighth two thousand and seven wrote search halts for missing woman in yosemite no sign of eighty-year-old hiker found after eight days scouring the park

After looking for eight days, searches withdrew, for the 80-year-old but very fit and very experienced hiker Ottavina Bonaventura had disappeared after getting separated from her hiking party in Yosemite National Park. When her family and friends had first heard of her disappearance, they'd not been immediately too distressed. They described her as a fitness fanatic who loved a challenge.

Every morning she went to the gym, they said, and just a year earlier, at the age of 79, she'd ridden a bike across Iowa, a task that took an entire week. Her daughter Pam Cernovich told reporters, she pushes herself like crazy, she's competitive with herself. Growing up, she was described as a bit of a tomboy. She used to climb mountains, said her daughter. In

in fact she traveled internationally to climb in peru the swiss alps and patagonia she was a retired computer programmer and she was not known to be unwell nor on any medication although some newspapers claimed she suffered from memory loss this has since been clarified her memory was the same as any eighty-year-old no worse on learning of her stamina and fitness and strong character the park ranger search for her had been expanded geographically

adrian freeman spokesman for the national park said clearly this person breaks all expectations of age and physical condition the more we learned about her the more respectful we became of her abilities in fact they expanded their search to one hundred square miles as a result

far from fearing the worst as they began their search they quickly changed this expectation to one of hopefulness however eight days after searching with no signs of her and no clues about where she could be they were seriously worried and their hopes were now fading fast the missing woman had hiked alone down a trail near volskang heikamp and never returned

over a hundred and fifty searchers had been joined by helicopters combing the forests fields and lakes and the rivers park's spokesperson freeman said that while the inclination for most lost hikers might be to remain close to where they'd got lost a determined woman such as bonventura would probably have pushed on had she become lost

she was last seen on july thirtieth when she left her hiking group near emmerich lake saying that she was going to return to her tent at volskang high sierra camp to check on the food storage this was about seven miles southeast of tolum meadows park officials were hoping to interview anyone who had been issued with a wilderness permit in the hope that they might have caught sight of her as they were desperate for any leads or clues about where she might be

spokesperson freeman said individuals had come from throughout the state to join in the search effort which involved helicopters and search dogs

on tuesday august fourteenth fifteen days later the body of missing otorina bonaventura was found in the echo creek drainage an area described as a rugged wilderness area southwest of tulum meadows officials announced they had found her deceased in this remote spot

a park ranger who was described as being on a routine patrol as opposed to the official search which had by then been called off found her body at around five p m that afternoon in a vegetated area beside a dry creek bed near echo creek just three miles from her camp ground by air said spokesperson adrian freeman but in a spot that is unreachable via established trails

She said it's just such a huge, rugged area and searching is very difficult out there. She said that the coroner's office would determine cause of death, but that the park service did not believe there was any foul play. Well, despite her fitness and determined nature, one has to ask, how could she end up in a spot unreachable via trails? And why? Close by, a girl by the name of Stacey Arras also disappeared.

In searching archive files from the National Park Service from 1981, I found that they describe what happened. They say, last seen she was wearing a white windbreaker, light-coloured short-sleeved blouse, shorts, grey hiking boots, size 8 or 9, gold ankle bracelet, 5 foot 5 inches tall and 120 pounds.

On the missing persons poster that the park service created, it highlights her vulnerability. They say, with her blonde hair combed forward, she looks 16 years old. When her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, she looks 12.

When last seen, she was wearing an off-white pullover windbreaker with a horizontal zipper, front pouch above the breast line and a hood that hangs down the back or tucks inside. She's wearing upper and lower narrow teeth retainers. It continues, she may be carrying a small Olympus camera with an embroidered neck strap, multicoloured, predominantly black. She may also be carrying cigarettes and gum.

Well, Stacey was on a horse-riding trip with her father, George, and seven others in the Sunrise Meadows area of Yosemite National Park in California. It was July 17th, 1981. After they'd been riding for a few hours, the group stopped at cabins at the Sunrise High Sierra Camp, a small site with eight other cabins and located approximately one and a half miles from Sunrise Lakes. It's the last camp before the end of the High Sierra Loop.

Here, they climbed off the horses and were going to have some refreshments and then stay there for the night. The cabins overlooked a meadow. After refreshments and a change of clothes, Stacey set off with her camera to take photos of the lake. She was never seen again. She'd apparently asked her dad if he wanted to go with her, but he declined, and instead, a 72-year-old man who was travelling with them accompanied her.

They walked off together, but after a short while the man became tired, and so he sat down to take a rest while Stacey continued on to the lake.

The others, back at the cabin, had watched the pair as they set off, and they later recalled that they saw the elderly man sit down to take a rest. The group said they continued to watch Stacey walking down the hill herself, until she disappeared from view as a couple of trees blocked their sight of her. She remained out of sight after that, but the watchers were not concerned at that point. It was natural she would disappear from their view due to the landscape now coming between them.

There are conflicting reports. The Fresno Bee says the man was 77 and he walked with Stacey for at least 20 minutes away from the camp before stopping, a further distance than the other reports say. Regardless, the elderly man sat and waited for some time for her to return from the lake and when she didn't, he started to grow a little concerned and he returned to the camp to ask the rest of the group to go with him to bring her back to camp.

Among the trees she'd walked into, they'd discovered the lens cap of her camera. In the trees and at the lake, there was no sign of Stacey, however. She did not return to camp that evening, said National Park Service spokeswoman Sharon Johnson at the time. Over the next few days, hundreds of searchers, including the National Guard, scoured the area between the camp and the lake, but no clues were found about where she could be.

Eight members of CLMRP, which is the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group, joined the search on July 23 at the base camp run by Park Ranger Durr and Joint Operation Leader Minor Harkness of Sierra Madre.

not a shred of evidence of stacey was discovered they wrote in their report then the mclatchlan knew this said the search has been called off the saratoga teenager just seems to have disappeared said the superintendent of the national park service robert o'binuees

volunteers and rangers had logged thousands of hours searching for her her disappearance became a mystery some people felt the teenage girl may have taken a walk and that unless she did walk off intentionally hopes of finding her alive now were slim

park spokeswoman linda abbott said the girl's last talk with her father was over footwear she was wearing thongs until her father told her she should be wearing hiking boots if she planned to walk to the lake if she had planned on walking off she wouldn't have gone off in thongs said the park spokeswoman

The McLatchly News said the lack of the usual thunderstorm may have hampered the search, according to park rangers, because dog teams were brought in to the area but they were unable to pick up any scent because of the dry and dusty conditions.

We're looking again in the National Park Service archives. Chief Ranger Charles W. Wendt's report of 23rd July 1981 states, "...the air operations began in earnest on Saturday, July 18th." There is also a letter sent from the superintendent of the NPS to Dave McCoy of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Resort, thanking his organisation for help in the search efforts.

He writes, although the search was unsuccessful and not a single clue found, we feel that Stacey had the best possible chance due to the professional efforts of organisations such as yours. The search for Stacey was incredibly thorough. San Jose Search and Rescue, dressed in orange jumpsuits, scaled down ravines on climbing ropes and searched drainage creeks for spots where a body could be laying hidden. Park officials said it was possible the girl had hiked to a road and left the park.

Park spokeswoman Linda Abbott says, I can tell you that nothing was turned up. According to the Mariposa Gazette, the 77-year-old man who had accompanied Stacey and then stopped to sit down while she continued, told National Park officials that he had spoken to a group of people coming from the direction that Stacey had taken, but that they had not seen the girl. It seems that Stacey disappeared among the trees in an area very popular with hikers.

only her camera lens cap was found how could she simply vanish like this the spot in which she disappeared is very close to a highway that runs parallel a distance of a kilometer away searchers found no signs of any struggle no signs of violence just the lens cap of her camera did one of the other hikers in the area come across this teenage girl the mps missing posters described as sometimes looking like a vulnerable eleven-year-old

did they snatch her fast without being seen and manage to get her to the highway before any one saw them although that would have required not being seen for a kilometer in a very popular spot or was she hidden in a tent near by and yet surely this would have been very hard to do successfully in an area so popular with visitors

had the serial killer, Carl Stainer, found her easy prey. He'd been known to visit Yosemite and had indeed abducted and killed several women in Yosemite National Park. In 1999, a serial killer was roaming Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. It began when a letter was sent to the police along with a hand-drawn map. The letter said, We had fun with this one. The map indicated a location where a body had been dumped.

The police went to the location on the homemade map and there they found a body. It was a young woman. Her throat had been slashed so savagely that her head was severed. Her killer took her head with him. He later confessed that he was intending to keep it as a trophy, but then decided to throw it into a pool of water. The killer's name was Carl Stainer and his own brother had once been abducted and held for years by a child predator. Stainer was employed by the National Park Service. His victim, Julie Sund, had

had gone missing in the National Park. Search and Rescue had looked extensively for her with dogs. The FBI were called in when her purse was found in Modesto. She'd been abducted from outside of her cabin, and she was at least his fourth victim. Park Ranger Joe Smith, in the National Park Service Division of Law Enforcement in Washington, D.C., told the Sun-Sentinel in 1994...

Our visitors leave the urban areas thinking they are getting away from it all, but they're being followed into the parks by professional criminals. In fact, between 1988 and 1992, the Park Service reported 104 homicides, 393 rapes in its 365 parks.

during two thousand and six eleven deaths were investigated across the system two involved women who'd been pushed off cliffs one at pictured rocks national lake shore on the southern shore of lake superior and the other at golden gate national recreation area

Ocala National Forest was where hitchhiker, prostitute and serial killer Eileen Warnos disposed of one victim's body. And this was six miles from there, honours student John Timothy Edwards was murdered and his 21-year-old sister raped and tied to a tree. But can serial killers be blamed for the many hundreds of people who've disappeared and continue to disappear in wilderness areas in the blink of an eye?

On June 19, 2015, Cochise County Sheriff's Office in Arizona made the following statement. Janet Caspijon was last seen outside a campground bathroom in Rustler Park Campground in the Coronado National Forest.

NBS News reported, Eduardo Castrojohn says Janet, his daughter, had gone to mail a letter at the pay station not far from where they parked their camper and stopped to use the restroom. Janet was going to wait outside, but when her mother came out of the bathroom, she was gone. Her father, Eduardo, said, My wife ran up to our camping spot to see if she'd made it back here, but she never got back. I was here and I never saw her.

we immediately started searching for her asking other campers their sense of panic and fear for the well-being of their daughter was intensified because although janet was forty-four years old she had suffered traumatic brain injury in her twenties which had left her with terrible damage she was partially blind now and her brain function had been severely impaired

so she was incredibly vulnerable. Please, for my daughter's sake, if you saw something at all come forward, we're worried because she can't see and people may not believe her. She was my constant companion. She needs help now, her father urged reporters. The family had been on a camping trip. It was Father's Day weekend. They'd made plans to spend the weekend in Rustler Park with Oscar, her brother, and several church members.

Rustler Park is a wildflower carpeted meadow lined by pines and fir trees and set amid a rugged wilderness area high in the mountains in Douglas, Arizona.

it's a very popular hiking and camping destination the family had camped there several times before this trip had started out just like the others the family had left their home in la cruz on thursday eighteenth of june and by evening they'd arrived in deming new mexico where they stopped at a church and then stayed for the night in their camper

The next day, after breakfast, they left for Arizona, arriving at the Rustler Park campground somewhere between 1.30 and 2 p.m.

They were anticipating Janet's elder brother arriving later that evening. At 4pm, they ate a late lunch prepared by her father. After lunch, at approximately 5pm, her mother Lydia asked if she wanted to go for a walk. At first, Janet said she didn't want to go. Her father says, go honey, so you can take the payment to the pay station. So Janet agreed to go.

Janet and her mother walked off about 1,000 feet from the camper, according to reports including from the Le Creuset Sun News. They went down a curved path to the pay station. Janet deposited the payment envelope. Her father says, about 300 feet from the pay station there's a bathroom, and my wife decided to go to the bathroom. Janet's mother said Janet didn't need the bathroom, and so she started walking back the very short distance to the camper where her father was.

On her way over, she simply just somehow disappeared. After only a couple of minutes, her mother emerged from the bathroom and returned to the camper to find only her husband there. Janet was not there. Her mother said panic began to set in immediately as she and her husband began to search for her in the immediate campground area, shouting her name and whistling, but they received no reply and they couldn't see her anywhere.

Her parents said there were no footprints going off the main path. There were no signs of a struggle to suggest their daughter had been attacked and no signs that she'd suffered an accident. They'd heard no shouts for help, no screams, no cries. There was nothing there, said her father. When their son Oscar arrived as planned three hours later, he called 911.

Unfortunately, it was not until another four hours had passed that help arrived. The county sheriff's office, along with the search and rescue team, began hunting for their daughter around half past midnight, according to Carol Kappa, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. The search lasted all night until 6am. No sign of their daughter was found. A fresh search began at 9am the following morning. A helicopter was brought in to search overhead.

As a new week began, searchers were still trying to find any signs of her, any clues. Kappus, the spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said we were not able to find Janet. The rescue team has continued, on a semi-monthly basis, to canvass the park in search for the missing woman. She added, this is one of those cases that's unfortunate that it's happened, but it's not like we're going to give up.

Oddly, La Cruz Sun News reported, Kappas added that a man camping at the park disappeared under similar circumstances not long after Janet was reported missing. Who was this man and what happened to him?

lee peltier was fifty-nine years old at the time of his disappearance he was a man of great experience when it came to the outdoors he was an avid hiker and hunter and he often went out hunting on the one hundred acre family farm where he lived in lake it was this experience and the sheer lack of any clues as to his whereabouts that makes his disappearance all the more unsettling it was a very cold november day in two thousand and eighteen when peltier and three of his friends set out

one of his friends was john warner who was one of the owners of the cabin where they were staying when they made their trip to the namadis state national forest on the day lepeltier vanished he and warner had headed toward a pond where they had a simple plan his daughter megan would later say

peltier was going to walk to a slightly lower elevation where he would flush out any deer that were drinking from the pond which in turn would send the deer in the direction of warner however after waiting for quite some time with no deer coming his way warner was left feeling puzzled he reasoned to himself that perhaps lee might have gone trailing a solo deer on his own

it's common practice for hunters to fire three shots into the air to alert others if they're in trouble but warner had heard no shots as lunch time approached warner returned to the cabin but there was no sign of peltier there and all afternoon peltier didn't show up and as day turned into night his companions began to worry

there was no cell-phone coverage at the cabin so they couldn't call him and they couldn't call for help and so they built a bonfire and listened out for any rifle shots but none came as darkness fell so did the rain which got progressively heavier then came the snow the temperature dropped and the hazardous weather conditions forced the men to become gravely concerned for peltier

they had no idea where he might be or what had happened to him and so they decided to drive out until they could get a phone signal as soon as they could they called the authorities shortly afterwards five officers from the pine county sheriff's office arrived at the cabin and a search on foot and by a t v began they could find no sign of peltier and no clues either soon there would be hundreds of people scouring the forest for him but all to no avail

According to Fox News, the search included Pine County Sheriff's Department and a canine search team. As the search continued, one theory developed that Peltier must have fallen into the pond. But inquiries with his cell phone provider showed that his phone was still working until 5.30 in the morning, when the phone died. If he had fallen into the pond during the day, his phone would have stopped working much earlier. Peltier's cell phone record showed he'd tried to call his friends during the afternoon, but of course there was no signal.

with the searchers yielding no answers his friends and family were left upset and baffled two years on those sentiments remained k b j l news reported mystery unsolved it's been two years since the twin cities man disappeared in the noradji forest while deer-hunting and his family are still looking for answers

peltier's daughter megan de courcet told them the men had separated intentionally and one was going to go down below and one on a ridge to flush out some deer behind the pond and he was never seen again

since that day said the newspaper in two thousand and eighteen his family have been working with police and local volunteers to try to piece together what had happened that day the family said they'd been searching for the last couple of years and hadn't found a thing no clue no rifle no boots no cell phone nothing the newspaper said it was almost as though he and his equipment simply vaporised according to his daughter her father was dressed brightly at the time in an orange jacket red sweatshirt and orange hat

speaking to st paul's pioneer press peltier's son david who owns a crane company said they typically find lost people within a half mile of their last known location peltier had no supplies with him when he vanished no backpack and no water his daughter said to have seen no trace of him to have no signs it's so bizarre he's been hunting all his life he grew up on a farm and loved the outdoors he would have known to fire his gun he would have left a sign

forty and researcher of the nineteen fifties harold t watkins related an incident in the summer of nineteen o five in which three young german men from berlin university who were students of seismology went to an isolated township of farmers and fishermen on the northeastern coast of iceland they left on horseback to explore the wild rugged region when they set out it was sunny and bright and they were in high spirits sharing entertaining stories as they rode along

after some time they came to a stop at a small group of farmsteads where they planned to disembark and go for a swim in the lake then they planned to pitch their tent along its sandy shore a farmer warned the young man that this area had an evil reputation this place is uncanny said the farmer and in twenty years i've known only three people who ventured in here and they would not stop here even one night they returned here saying they did not like the atmosphere on the shore where you plan to camp

the germans asked him why the farmer noted the glances between the germans conveying disbelief and showed that he was actually annoyed all i will say is that this place is uncanny i and my forebears have lived here for more than three hundred years and i tell you young gentlemen that i myself would not spend a night here for ten thousand gulden the german men laughed we're students of science not connoisseurs of old wives tales if you mean spooks are here such things have no place in our philosophy

so have a good day and without the germans spurred on their horses and rode off laughing the farmer knew the region they did not and he did not share their light-heartedness in due course the three germans reached the shores of the hot lake from which the steam rose they pitched their tent and sent away the native guide with their horses come back in a week's time they told him we have food enough to last until then

the guide casting a gloomy look on the young man left at a gallop as if he had a desire to put as much distance as possible between him and the spot where they were when two of the germans went out on the lake in a collapsible dinghy they were going to gather data on the temperature and depth of the lake the third man who was their leader walked along the shore examining the rocks and becoming quite absorbed in what he was doing

about half an hour later he turned around to look across the lake at his friends but there were no sign of them or the dinghy and the whole lake was visible from shore to shore they couldn't have landed on the further bank and wandered inland for he would have seen them and the dinghy he shouted out repeatedly but all the answers he got in return was just the echo of his own voice where were his two friends what had become of them he wondered

he roamed the sandy beach for an hour or more and then as night fell he went into his tent he had no ability as a tracker and no map of the region and he feared that if he tried to follow the track taken by their guide he would just become hopelessly lost in what the fortian harold watkins calls the fey wilderness which was many miles from habitation says watkins it may be surmised that he spent a very bad night

he began to fancy that he could see out of the corner of his eye shapeless things watching him and waiting fear in its most elemental shape seized him and against it none of his science and rationality could prevail he peered out over the dark and stealthy waters of the lake he had a rifle and some ammunition and towards midnight he began to fire at shadows in the blackness

all that is definitely known says watkins is that the guide when he returned with the horses a week later found a demented man and had to gallop back for help a search party was organised and in a boat they dragged the lake but no trace of the missing men or the dinghy was found

forty three year old trucker donald duggar was last seen in warroad minnesota at just after five a m on august twelfth two thousand and twelve at the time of his disappearance he lived in russia minnesota and worked for a trucking company based in warroad

it would later be reported that he had just returned from a long-haul trip and was unloading his personal belongings from his work truck to transfer them to his own vehicle then drive home it was around five a m when he called his sister then called nine one one to report activity around his truck

according to the vanished podcast in dougar's nine one one call he told the police operator that someone was messing around outside his truck in the call he says there's movement and what possibly sounds like him saying i don't know what they are for sure

A police car was dispatched to his location, and when the cop arrived, Duggar told him that he saw approximately ten people run off, dressed in camouflage, and that he heard one of them speaking about a needle. Six days later, his car was found abandoned inside Beltrami Island State Forest, stuck on a tree stump on an ATV trail.

footprints led southwards away from the vehicle towards winner forest road later a camouflage hunting glove would be identified as belonging to him and it was found about two miles from his car along with shoe prints believed to be his

ground and air searches failed to find any sign of duggar however and authorities asked hunters in the forest to be on the lookout for any signs of him along with what they said anything unusual such as clothing or any items that seemed out of place tracker dogs failed to locate him hunters turned up no sign of him park rapids enterprise newspaper said the thick terrain is not suitable for a walk-through type search and there's no phone coverage at all

helicopters horses and inmates from russo county jail all failed in their efforts to locate him valley news live reporter asked russo county sheriff steve gust any ideas what he would have been doing out here in the middle of the forest to which gust replies no reason why he'd be out here big mystery disappearance unknown and he's still missing

so i came across a very unusual disappearance that i wanted to go into involving a young man who began to have some very strange experiences as he was driving before completely vanishing in the steens mountain region of southeast oregon

this was two thousand and thirteen and the story begins for dustin's self aged nineteen when he began to become fascinated with tv shows about living in the wilderness and living off the grid and he began to get a craving for experiencing this way of life himself at least for a while

later his mother would say that dustin became particularly enamored with the biographical movie into the wild about a man called christopher mccandless who took off into the alaska wilderness after getting rid of all his personal belongings his money his car before entering denali national park with just minimal supplies hoping to live off the land

during this time in the forests mccandless came across an abandoned bus on the eastern banks of the shoshana river and he used it as a makeshift shelter months later he would be found dead off the stampede trail north of the boundary of the national park it was determined that he starved to death although it was also speculated that he could have died of poisoning after eating wild potatoes

well in dustin's self's case it was reported that as well as wanting to try to live off the land for a while he had also become interested in a church in oregon which practised a south american religion that used hallucinogenic tea as a sacrament although both his mother and the church itself said that dustin never actually went to the church

in february two thousand thirteen dustin left his family home in the oklahoma suburb of piedmont in his toyota pickup truck in march two thousand thirteen his pickup truck was found in steens mountain by the foreman of juniper ranch a few miles north of the location one month after his father had reported him missing the last known contact from dustin was reported in the bend bulletin of oregon

dustin self they say sent a text to his ex-girlfriend march the sixteenth saying he was lost hallucinations rocked his brain he'd seen plants running around he wrote self was about fifteen hundred miles from his home according to a harvey county sheriff's report

he thought he was near denio nevada he wasn't his pick-up truck they say was teetering on an embankment along a seldom traveled road winding through stonehouse canyon on the mountain however they continue rather than lead to self's whereabouts the discovery of the truck only fed the mystery

the sheriff's department found snacks and energy drinks in dustin's truck along with a gps and his laptop his sleeping bag a sub zero one a green tent and cell phone were gone search crews were brought in and they scoured the terrain around the canyon but they found no sign of dustin nor any of his belongings efforts were made to ping his cell phone but this proved fruitless

david glurp harvey county sheriff said we never found him his tent or sleeping bag and the bulletin says the road on which dustin's truck was found splits off east steens mountain road passes over a cattle guard and winds up the mountainside criss-crossing the creek

well it's a rugged road where the going would have been so slow his truck had reached two and a half miles up the road which the bulletin says could have been snow-covered at the time and it was muddy the truck had slid off the road and when it was found there were blizzard conditions his mother told newspapers that while dustin was very prepared before he set out and he had bought the best gear he'd only camped with his family for a couple of days at a time before

the bulletin says the only possible clue they found in the search for dustin were the remnants of a warming fire under a rock about two hundred yards uphill from the truck on april twenty first although it wasn't clear if dustin had made that fire and they say almost as big a mystery as where self is now is why his truck ended up where it did

up the mountain from where dustin's truck was found there are a couple of cabins spread far apart which are owned by a ranching family in the area but searchers found no evidence that dustin had broken into either of the cabins or taken any food from them

the bulletin spoke with sandra downs who passed dustin's truck early in the morning of march fifteenth at field station a gas station fifty miles south of stonehouse road the day before his last text message she said he mentioned to her that he had plans to head to lake view one hundred miles west

daryl williams president of harvey county search and rescue used a gps at field's garage to plot the route to lakeview and it gave directions to stonehouse road which was where dustin ended up and so it appeared very possible that dustin's gps had sent him in the wrong direction but williams wondered why when dustin arrived at stonehouse road

following the gps directions did he then turn on to the road and start the incline when it was such a rough uneven muddy road and possibly snow-covered dustin's vehicle was a two-wheel drive but williams said that kind of road needed a four-wheel drive and he added that it was only drivable about three months of the year

We'll fast forward to October 2014, autumn of the following year, and a deer hunter stumbled across skeletal remains on Steen's Mountain. They would soon be identified as Dustin Self. His wallet was there too. The New York Daily News reported that the deer hunter was crawling through the rocky steep terrain in search of deer. The location of Dustin's remains was seven miles from his truck.

authorities believed he died of exposure but oregon live say questions remain in his death his remains showed the young man had hunkered down in the trees and stripped his clothes before he died this of course could mean that he was suffering from hypothermia and his behaviour was paradoxical undressing oregon live reported that the hunter who found dustin's remains jeffrey neale had spotted a deer and was trying to sneak up on it according to search and rescue lead williams

he cut through a grove of eight feet quaking aspens first he found a coat then a pair of pants then a leg bone as far as we could tell said williams he had no clothes on the coat contained a toyota key a cell phone and cash the sheriff's report said the next day's search yielded more items including dustin's driver's license and credit card

strangely however oregon live reports williams said the recovery team did not find a tent or sub-zero sleeping bag oregon state medical examiner dr karen goodson told them there's no evidence of any injuries to his bones and added that they were not able to determine exactly when he died his mother told oregon live i can't figure out what happened there's no logical reason why he didn't use his vehicle for shelter or find shelter down lower

He knew the first rule of survival was shelter. Dustin's ex-girlfriend, Belle Taylor, said that while Dustin had been inspired by the story of Christopher McCandless, he believed his mission came more from the David Icke book, Human Beings Get Off Your Knees, in which the author outlines conspiracy theories about government and society. Dustin wanted, she said, to find a place off-grid where the government couldn't track him, and that was why he'd headed to Oregon.

his mother countered though that she'd spoken with dustin about the david ike book but didn't feel it overly influenced him while his father victor told oregon live that dustin's inspiration for mccardless was overblown he said i think he was just on a nineteen year old's adventure and he reflected on the fact that dustin's gps may have misdirected him he said he had tried to give dustin a gps messenger before he left which could send out an sos and give his location at the touch of a button

Well, Oregon Live simply end their report with Self and Tyler are left to grieve and wonder the unknown. And here's probably why. Although the Sheriff's report lists Dustin's last contact as a text message to his ex-girlfriend, Val Taylor, she told Oregon Live that Dustin phoned her at 6.15am on the day he went missing. At the time, she was returning from Disney World with her family.

she took his call as they were waiting to board a flight from florida she said he was getting worse and worse his conversations were getting weirder and weirder so i went into the bathroom to talk to him so my parents couldn't overhear what he was saying she told the newspaper that he told her he had been driving around a town for five hours and could not find how to get out she said he said there were devil-worshippers at every gas station he stopped at to get help

and that all the plants and animals were dead everywhere and he was trying to bring them back to life he was really really upset and really scared and then the line went dead on april fifth two thousand and seventeen a female hiker was walking along the sul dock hot springs road in the daniel j evans wilderness area of olympic national park when she spotted something in the bushes

as she looked more closely she recognised what it was a bike with a trailer behind it she recognised it because she had seen a young man riding it a couple of hours earlier although she couldn't see the young man now when she saw a ranger a little later she mentioned this to him the following day the ranger noticed that the bike and trailer were still there and appeared to be in exactly the same position

the ranger managed to identify who the bike belonged to from a notebook that was there along with an array of camping equipment the scene looked as though the man to whom everything belonged twenty-two year old jacob gray was oddly interrupted the ranger thought because everything was in exactly the same position a tarpaulin lay on the floor surrounded by camping utensils there was also one strange detail

four arrows had been stuck in the ground all facing from east to west though where these arrows were actually pointing to and what it meant the ranger had no idea

jacob's bicycle appeared to be in good working order with no damage to it and no flat tires a search effort was organized but it wasn't until a week later that an official search was carried out on april the twelfth tracks were found that searchers believed could be jacob's on april the fifteenth a pair of shorts were discovered a few miles downstream in the river although they couldn't be identified as jacob's

Jacob's father helped search the river himself, donning a wetsuit. Then, on August 10th, 2018, 18 months later, a team of biologists studying marmots came across skeletal remains, camping gear and a wallet up on a treeless ridge above Lake Ho. Eventually, these remains would be identified as Jacob Gray.

this location was fifteen miles from his bike and trailer and much higher up too in very rugged terrain which at the time of jacob's disappearance would have been covered with snow his father randy said jacob's clothes were found scattered along the ridge line jacob's cause of death was determined as inconclusive by clulham county coroner's office with no clear cause of death

assistant coroner telena sundane told local newspapers the cause and manner of death could not be determined john billman writing for biking magazine describes jacob's second-hand yellow and red child's trailer loaded with pots pans blankets fuel bottles dehydrated meals sleeping bag and a tent among other things

He seemed well prepared, although Billman points out that the bike was very heavy and too small for him. Tracker dogs had been brought in when the official search began. Journalist Billman kept in close contact with Jacob's family members during the long months he was missing. His sister Mallory told Billman, "'He's a really athletic surfer,' she said. "'Jacob was an introvert. He was really lost,' she said. "'He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.'

He sought answers in the Bible. Jacob's Bible was found with his bike and trailer. It's a mystery how and why his body was found where it was, high up on a barren ridge that was covered with snow when he vanished. He'd circled Isaiah 34, 14, says Billman, which says, And all the desert creatures shall meet with the wolves. The hairy goat also shall cry to its kind. Yes, the night monster shall settle there. ♪

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