Strange National Park Disappearances

[c.d.]

There are a number of these videos and they are all quite strange. I have to believe that they have natural explanations but still....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEae0u52M-c

c.d.

[Pcdunn]

Interesting link.

I wonder if the one about the corpse found with bones in the socks but otherwise body missing from clothes couldn't be natural decomposition and animal scavenging?

I hadn't heard about the Rocky Mountain National Park story of two men disappearing a year apart.

Some of the cases seem to involve planned disappearances that went awry somehow. Very strange stuff, indeed.

[Harry D]

Can't watch the video right now but is Stacy Ann-Arras included? That's one of my pet cases. She went on a horseback riding trip with her dad and a small group through Yosemite National Park. They stopped for a breather, Stacy went off with a camera to take some pics of the nearby lake. Her dad and everyone else watched from a distance as walked behind some trees, but she never reappeared. There was a massive manhunt to find her but all they ever recovered was the lens cap of her camera just inside the treeline.

I think she wandered off and got turned around on herself, tried to find her way back but ended up venturing deeper and deeper into the outback. It can never be underestimated how easy it is for someone to disappear in the wild, but it's unbelievably freaky that she was there one minute, gone the next.

[c.d.]

Hello Harry,

You're right, that case is quite bizarre. It is included in one of these videos but I am not sure which one. Sorry.

c.d.

[John G]

Thanks for the link c.d. I've viewed a number of the volumes and there's certainly some fascinating cases. I also note that at least one of the cases-the Number 1 rated case from Volume 5, Joe Keller- has now been solved: http://clevelandbanner.com/stories/j...accident,39991

[c.d.]

I have to think that getting lost and then an ensuing panic whereby the lost hiker compounds the problem could be a factor in some of these instances. Bad weather, hypothermia, injury, health problems, suicide and intentional disappearance could also be included as well as foul play. Still the fact that extensive manhunts don't turn up any clues is troubling.

c.d.

[Pcdunn]

I was astonished at the story of the teen girl on a high school field trip who was walking surrounded by classmates and teachers, from the bus area to their first stopping point, and yet had vanished by the time they took roll call.

I could see someone at the tail of the parade sneaking off for a smoke, or the call of nature, getting lost or killed by a predator-- but from the middle of a crowd, without being noticed?

[Harry D]

Hello Harry,

You're right, that case is quite bizarre. It is included in one of these videos but I am not sure which one. Sorry.

c.d.

Bigfoot researcher David Paulides discusses the case in one video.

[Abby Normal]

I have to think that getting lost and then an ensuing panic whereby the lost hiker compounds the problem could be a factor in some of these instances. Bad weather, hypothermia, injury, health problems, suicide and intentional disappearance could also be included as well as foul play. Still the fact that extensive manhunts don't turn up any clues is troubling.

c.d.

Hi cd
I just watched an episode of gone last night. Two girls in a car were following a car of boys to a party at a gravel pit out in the country. At some point right before the boys got to the party they noticed the girls weren't following them any more. They never showed up at the party.

First the police thought they had run away. Then they thought accident or foul play. Suspected they might be in the Missouri River or nearby lake. Searched the lake ...nothing. Thought they were abducted had a suspect then suspect cleared.

40 years later during a drought someone noticed a car in a creek under bridge less that a mile from where the gravel pit party was. It was them, remains still in car... no foul play. Just a sad accident. Two girls lost at night looking for a party.

Unbelievable. Sometimes stupid police, nature and or circumstances have more to do with missing persons mysteries than foul play. If this can happen in flat wide open area near a town and in country near farms and right off a road, then imagine how easily it could happen in huge mountainous national parks, also with wild animals who could eat remains. I suspect this same sort of thing happens in a lot of these national park mysteries.

[Harry D]

Jared Negrete's another one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Jared_Negrete

Shocking negligence from the scout leader. As Jared was the straggler of the group, they left him behind and said they'd collect him on the way back down. When they returned from the expedition he was gone. The search turned up Jared's backpack, food supplies and his camera. He'd taken some snaps during the time he was missing, one including a close up of his face. Jared himself was nowhere to be found and he remains missing today.

[Abby Normal]

Jared Negrete's another one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Jared_Negrete

Shocking negligence from the scout leader. As Jared was the straggler of the group, they left him behind and said they'd collect him on the way back down. When they returned from the expedition he was gone. The search turned up Jared's backpack, food supplies and his camera. He'd taken some snaps during the time he was missing, one including a close up of his face. Jared himself was nowhere to be found and he remains missing today.

Hi Harry
when I was about nine or so I was on a camping trip with my "Indian Guides" group and we had hiked to the top of a mountain. It was a hot day and when we got back I was so hot, I left the group and ran down to the dock and jumped in the water. No one else was around. I am was a good swimmer, but my exhaustion combined with the coldness of the water and I went into some kind of shock/paralysis where I could literally not move. The water was over my head and I thought I was going to drown. somehow I managed to grab hold of the dock and hand walk myself to the shore.

if anything happened slightly different I may have drowned and who knows if they ever would have found me.

[Pcdunn]

Young kids can be lost so easily if attention isn't paid to them. There was a case out here in Colorado of a little boy walking with family members, he wandered off the path, no one noticed at first... He ended up snatched and killed by a mountain lion.

[c.d.]

Hello Abby,

Your experience made me think of a story told by George Plimpton author of "Paper Lion." Apparently he liked to go night swimming by himself. One time he was out pretty far and got a real bad cramp and thought that was the end of him. The interviewer asked if it was thoughts of his wife and kids that gave him the strength to make it back to shore. He replied that it was some dirty movies that he had in the back of his closet that he didn't want anyone to find after it was gone.

c.d.

[Harry D]

Hi Harry
when I was about nine or so I was on a camping trip with my "Indian Guides" group and we had hiked to the top of a mountain. It was a hot day and when we got back I was so hot, I left the group and ran down to the dock and jumped in the water. No one else was around. I am was a good swimmer, but my exhaustion combined with the coldness of the water and I went into some kind of shock/paralysis where I could literally not move. The water was over my head and I thought I was going to drown. somehow I managed to grab hold of the dock and hand walk myself to the shore.

if anything happened slightly different I may have drowned and who knows if they ever would have found me.

Yeah but that would've been your own dumb fault!

Leaving a child behind in the middle of nowhere is beyond neglectful, especially from an organisation like the Scouts. Something probably spooked the poor kid, or maybe he started to panic that they weren't coming back for him and set off to find them. Who knows?

I can vaguely remember another case where a mother was hiking through the woods with her young sons. One of them either ran on ahead or got left behind momentarily. When they went back for him he was nowhere to be found.

[Abby Normal]

Hello Abby,

Your experience made me think of a story told by George Plimpton author of "Paper Lion." Apparently he liked to go night swimming by himself. One time he was out pretty far and got a real bad cramp and thought that was the end of him. The interviewer asked if it was thoughts of his wife and kids that gave him the strength to make it back to shore. He replied that it was some dirty movies that he had in the back of his closet that he didn't want anyone to find after it was gone.

c.d.

LOL! so true