December 25, 2024 • 20 mins
Mysterious Missing 411, Garrett Bardsley's unsolved missing persons case. The strangest part of Garrett's story... is NOT his disappearance.
Visit the CanAm Missing Project for more information on the Missing 400 cases like Garrett's and thousands of others. David Paulides, former police detective, has dedicated his life to looking into these cases and finding the truth - https://www.canammissing.com/page/page/8396197.htm
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Strange mysteries, unexplained phenomena.
And the shadows in between.
This is The InBetween Official Podcastwith your host,
Carol Ann!
My son is at a great age.
We're taking summer vacationsto different parks and monuments
(00:38):
has become a tradition.
I'll tell you why.
Because of these missing 411 storiesby David Paulides.
If I lose sight of my kid for a second.
When we're out in the woods,my heart starts racing.
Today's story is a missing 411 nightmare
that is not only a head scratcher,but a heartbreaker.
(00:58):
My name is Carol Ann,and welcome to The InBetween,
where we tell storiesof the strange and mysterious.
And be sure to stick around to the endto find out
who has the most magically positivelike button experience this week.
Now it's story time. The.
Kevin and Heidi Bardsley have
(01:20):
a busy family with four kidsthat seem to be involved in everything.
Most of their timeseems like it's spent chauffeuring one kid
or another, from one sportto another, or one activity to another.
Their youngest garret is a happy, healthy,five foot tall,
110.12 pound year old kid
(01:41):
who loves baseball and the outdoors.
It's getting close to the end of summer,and Garrett's Boy
Scout troop decides to go on a wildernessweekend.
It's not an official Boy Scout event.
They just want to get out one more time,just one last time, before school starts.
Their scoutmaster,
Wally Trotter, can't join him that weekendbecause he's got to work.
(02:04):
But he brings his son and Garrett's friendAlex to the meeting site that Thursday
morning to help pack the trucksand sea off the other kids in the dads,
including Kevin, Garrett and Garrett'stwo brothers, Cameron and Jaren.
Thursday, August 19th, 2004.
The troop heads up high into the high.
(02:26):
You into mountains in Utah.
They have to hike for about an hourbefore they even get to their camp,
which is somewhere arounda circle of lights called the lakes.
Friday morning, Garrett and Kevin
wake up early and decide to go fishingto see if they can catch their breakfast.
They grab their gearand head out of camp on a well
established trail that they've been onseveral times already.
(02:48):
That takes them to the lake shoreless than a quarter mile from camp.
Garrett accidentally slips on the shorerocks, getting his shoes and socks wet.
So his dad says, why don't you headback to camp and get some dry ones?
Kevin watches his sonhead off down the path to camp,
still carrying his fishing poleuntil he can't see him any longer.
(03:11):
Then he goes back to fishing,just waiting for Garrett to return.
After about 15 minutes, Kevin realizesthat Garrett hasn't returned yet,
so he two headsback down the trail to camp.
When he gets there, he asks the otherpeople in the camp, Where's Garrett?
And they all say, oh, we haven't seen him.
And Kevin knows there's trouble.
(03:33):
He and others from their campstart fanning out calling Garrett's name.
He's only been missing for a few minutes,so he can't be that far, right?
But their calls are met with silence.
Back at home, while Trotter is at work
trying to be productive,but he notices this intermittent feeling
(03:54):
of apprehensionthat keeps coming over him,
making him think that maybe there'ssomething wrong with his son, Alex,
but eventually an oppositefeeling of peace envelops him,
and he knows Alex is fineand he puts those concerns behind him.
Later that morning,while his instinct tells him
he needs to call Gary Hansen,one of the supervisors on the trip,
(04:18):
but he thinks, well,I can't do that because no one on
the mountainis going to have cell service.
Little did he know that at that verymoment, Gary is down from the mountain
and starting to make calls for helpin searching for Garrett.
That's when Wally's phone rings.
He listens intently for a moment,tells the caller, I'm on my way.
(04:39):
Flies into his boss's officeand says, I'm out,
and he is on his way,driving up to the mountain.
While he's thinking, I am sure by the time
I actually get there,they will have found him already.
But when he arrives at the campsite,he finds
that his imagination is far from reality.
The goodnews is that the Sheriff's department
(05:00):
and the FBI both mobilized quicklyin getting a search organized.
The bad news is thatGarrett is out in the elements
without any camping gearexcept his fishing pole
and not much camping experience,much less survival experience.
And this is the latter part of August, upat about an altitude of 10,000ft.
(05:22):
So it's chilly, especially at night.
And he's only wearing a hoodie with at shirt underneath it,
sweat pants and his wet shoes and socks.
Within hours, hundreds of law enforcementofficers and volunteers
are combing the mountainside,most likely while thinking the same thing.
He can't be that far.
(05:43):
Fridaynight brings helicopters with loudspeakers
calling Garrett's name and search lines.
According to Wally,he's never seen a spotlight
that can light up the treesand the mountainside like that one did.
How could Garrett not see that?
Later that night,after many of the searchers have gone home
(06:05):
for the night, several menstay awake all night long,
lighting bonfiresalong the shore of the lake,
hoping that they'll act as beaconsto guide Garrett back to camp.
But it doesn't work, and the temperature
drops to 18 degrees that night.
Of course, the thing Kevin wantsmost is to have his son back.
(06:27):
But he also wishes his wife, Heidi,was by his side and she's on her way.
But she is on a cruise with friendswhen Kevin calls her.
Can you imaginehow hard that phone call is
to, as a parent, have to call your spouse
and tell them that you lost your child?
(06:47):
Heidi says the immediate sick feeling
in the pit of herstomach told her all she needed to know.
Garrett was never going to be found,
but she also knew it was her job to try.
So as much as she didn't want to go,she headed for the mountain to be there
for her husband and to do everythingthat she could to find her son.
(07:09):
Interestingly enough, Kevin
receives the same divine message
on one of the first of many timeshe would hit
his knees to beg God,
please, I will do anything you ask.
Just let me have my son back.
(07:30):
The answer he receives isyou don't have to worry about Garrett.
His test is done.
Kevin, however, does not want to acceptthat as an answer.
For the next couple of days, he does notstop moving and never runs out of energy.
He stays out searching until long afterall the other searchers have gone to bed.
(07:50):
When he's the last one standing,he hikes to his car,
drives to town and calls peoplehis wife, his daughter,
other family membersjust to hear their voices.
Then he would drive back up the mountainand force himself to sleep
for like an hour or so.
Once Heidi arrives on the mountain,Kevin calms down a little,
(08:13):
but doesn't stop searchingbecause searching is the only thing
he can do to keep the grief and the panicand the guilt at bay.
The only time he ever takes away fromthe search is to take a few minutes here
and there to offer up, yet another prayerfor the safe return of his son.
(08:33):
But even that little respiteis getting harder and harder
for Kevin to take,because he keeps getting the same answer.
Don't worry about Garrett.
Saturday morning dawnedsunny and a bit warmer, which warms up
the shivering volunteers and their hopeand vigor for another day of searching.
But it's also the last day of the scoutingtrip.
(08:56):
It's time for the Scouts,including Garrett's brothers
and his friendsAlex and Tanner, to go home.
Wally.
Remember, he's one of the Scout mastersfor the troop, helps
the boys pack up their gear to go home,and admits that one of the hardest things
for him of this entire ordeal
is watching Cameronand Jared Garrett's brothers
(09:19):
pack up his things in his backpack.
Guilt is also starting to take its toll.
Heidi can't eat or sleep.
Not when she knows heryoungest child is lost out
in the wilderness without food or shelter.
Saturday night is the hardest for Wally.
The nice, warm sunshinethey had in the morning turns to rain,
(09:41):
and by the time he's done searchingfor the day, he is cold, wet and tired.
He goes back to his tent, changeshis clothes, crawls
into his sleeping bagand tries to get some rest.
But the scoutmaster in himknows what this means.
If Garrett is still alive out there.
He's now wet a wet bodyand freezing temperatures.
(10:05):
Garrett's probably not going to make itthrough the night, and Wally
is overwhelmed with guiltjust for being warm.
By Sunday, two days after Garrett
had last been seen,searchers still hold out hope.
Garrett is alive.
But the day brings nothing new.
Not to mention that now it starts to snow,
(10:26):
which makes looking for any cluesalmost impossible.
And many volunteers, including Wally,
have to go hometo get ready for work on Monday morning.
On Tuesday, the rescue mission isofficially changed to a recovery mission
with just 50 search and rescue personnelstill searching to bring Garrett home.
(10:46):
Wednesday would bring the only clueto ever be found in this entire mystery.
Searchers find a sock, a sockthat Heidi identifies as being Garrett's.
It's found about a half a mile from camp,
in the middle of a wideopen boulder field,
and it looks like it was taken offand thrown away while it was wet.
(11:08):
The number of volunteers swelled toabout 2000 on the second weekend,
but by Sunday, nine daysafter Garrett has gone missing,
Summit County declaresthe official search to be over.
No trace of Garrett
is ever found, except that one sock,not even his fishing pole.
(11:30):
But before you start thinkingthis is the end of the story, it's not.
The following year is a really toughone for the bards leads.
Naturally, they spend every momentthat they can on the mountain
looking for Garrett until October,when winter closes
that door for themand reality begins to set in.
(11:50):
They noticeimmediate changes in their family.
The three remaining kids, Courtney,Jared and Cameron,
grow closer and become more protectiveand more sensitive to each other.
Cameron.
He's the one that was closestin age to Garrett, so he takes this loss
especially hard.
The two boys had always shared a roomuntil just a few months
(12:14):
before, when Cameron decidedhe wanted his own room.
But after Garrett is gone,Cameron doesn't want to be alone, and
Jared immediatelytakes him into his room and says,
I want Cameron to be with me.
Kevin is more sensitive to Heidi'sfeelings as well, and does
whatever he can not to add to the painshe's already feeling.
(12:36):
Their faith holds them together
as a family, as they struggle to move away
from the easy emotional pit ofwhy did this happen?
Why us?
And move towardfinding the purpose of it all?
Because they know that how they reactand move
forward is totally up to them.
(12:57):
And it won't take longbefore the signs of purpose
they're searching for startto show themselves.
People start to contact the bards.
Liz, and share their stories.
One man decides to donate moneyevery month to a different charity.
Another man, a music teacher on the EastCoast, pledges to spend his free time
finding and fixing up instrumentsfor inner city schools.
(13:21):
One local man,who suffers from involuntary convulsions
feels a strong urge to join
the search for Garrett,despite his disability.
His wife says, are you nuts?
And the man says, I went to bed that nightand just felt
this overwhelming impressionthat I needed to go.
The man drives up the mountain, hauls outhis backpack and starts up the trail.
(13:47):
Suffering from convulsions the whole way.
As the man walks into the forest,
the convulsions stopand he never experiences them again.
But the biggest purpose driven flag
comes in June of the following summer.
An 11 year old namedBrendan Hawkins is in the Uinta mountains,
(14:08):
just five miles from whereGarrett went missing the summer before.
Brennan is with 1400 other Boy Scouts
at the bearRiver Boy Scout camp on Friday, June 17th.
Several boyssee Brennan removing his climbing harness
after scaling the climbing wall,
but no one knows what happens to himafter that.
(14:29):
He's just gone.
As the Summit County Sheriff,
Dave Edmunds is once againorganizing a search effort.
He puts a call in to Kevin Bardsleyand says, you have the experience.
You have the contacts.
You know what the family's going through.
You want to give us a hand.
On Kevin's part, there is no decisionto be made, but there is a slight hitch.
(14:52):
His daughter Courtney is getting marriedthe following weekend,
so it's kind of a busy weekfor the whole family.
Courtney actually shoos him out the door,
saying,mom and I will take care of wedding stuff.
You go.
Kevin packs up some food and water,loads up his radios and GPS.
Is and heads for the mountains.
(15:14):
Kevin's presence is a godsend,
not only because he bringsa lot of experience and volunteers
with him, but also because he understands
what the Hawkins family is experiencing.
He explains the process and calmsa lot of their fears,
and when he tells them
that he truly understands what they'regoing through, the Hawkins No.
(15:37):
He truly meansthat he is not just blowing smoke.
And because of what the Barnsley's went
through the summerbefore, Summit County paid attention
and now has a core of experiencedsearchers and technical experts
ready to mobilizein the event of another missing child.
Brennan is the first on the receivingend of those lessons learned.
(16:01):
Heidi, Kevin and Wally all sayGarrett has played
a big role in making sure another kiddidn't end up like him.
BrennanHawkins is found on the fourth day,
five miles away and up hillfrom where he went missing.
Kevin says I would like to think
that Garrett was on the mountainthat day that Brennan went missing.
(16:24):
Not to mention the factthat because of that search taking place,
another scout that was on the mountain,who is having serious
heart problems,was able to be taken to hospital quickly
because there were helicoptersalready in the area.
In August of 2005,so one year after Garrett went missing,
(16:46):
the Barnsley's organized another searchin hopes of finding Garrett remains.
I didn't think Garrett would be found,but she knew that she had to try.
Their job, she said, was to doas much as they possibly could.
The rest they trusted to God.
She was right. Garrett did not come home.
(17:06):
But so many other good things.
Some might call them.
Miracles have come from Garrett.
Searchthat she and Kevin say it's not a loss.
Everything that they have enduredso far brought forth
blessings to so many livesthat have been changed.
They know he has saved at leasttwo other scouts, and Heidi thinks
(17:26):
that they haven't even seenthe full extent of his influence yet.
Heidi says she thinks that Garretthas touched more lives this way
than he would haveif you just lived a regular, full life.
Garrett's family and the scoutswould return once more to the Mira
Lake trailhead in high Uinta,the same place Garrett was lost.
(17:48):
That's where Cameron receives his EagleScout Award,
which is the highest achievementor rank attainable in the Boy
Scoutsthat only 4% of Scouts ever achieve.
And since Garrett was workingtoward that same goal, he was honored
with the spirit of the Eagle,an award for scouts
who are working toward their eaglebut died before it could be completed.
(18:12):
Heidi and Kevin occasionally visit
that lake, the lakewhere Kevin last saw their son,
and they appreciate the sacredfeeling that the area holds for them.
And though it's technicallya nameless lake, they and others
have named it for a young man who spirit
still lingers in their mind.
(18:35):
It's Garrett's Lake,and it will always be Garrett's Lake.
Oh my gosh.
I cannot tell you how many times I had
tears in my eyesas I was getting this story ready to go.
I have never been a helicopter parent,
but stories like thismake me want to become one.
And we here at The In-betweenwant to extend our sincerest
(18:59):
condolences to the Bardsley family
and extend our wishes that some dayGarrett will be brought home.
Now, for those of you
who are new to the channel, ormaybe just haven't joined us in a while,
you may not be familiarwith our seemingly magical like button.
If you show it some love and click on it,it'll show you some love.
(19:20):
Back in the evening idea.
What I'm talking about hereis the most magical thing
shared with us in the last week from you,the Inbetweeners
and Sandboarding ski writesI've been a nail biter for years.
I tap the like button and poof
my nails grew back and look beautiful.
Thank you ink.
(19:41):
And I'm sure the like buttonthanks you for showing it some love.
Now everyone go out and hitthat like button and let us know
in the comments what miraclesthe like button has bestowed upon you.
For more stories of peoplevanishing into thin air, click here.
Be careful out there and we will see youhere again on The InBetween.
(20:06):
Thanksfor tuning in to The InBetween Podcast.
Enjoy the full visual experiencewith me over on YouTube.
Just search for @TheInBetweentales.
I'm Carol Ann,and until next time, be careful
out there.
Strange mysteries, unexplained phenomena.
And the shadows in between.
This is The InBetween Official Podcastwith your host,
Carol Ann!
My son is at a great age.
We're taking summer vacationsto different parks and monuments
(00:38):
has become a tradition.
I'll tell you why.
Because of these missing 411 storiesby David Paulides.
If I lose sight of my kid for a second.
When we're out in the woods,my heart starts racing.
Today's story is a missing 411 nightmare
that is not only a head scratcher,but a heartbreaker.
(00:58):
My name is Carol Ann,and welcome to The InBetween,
where we tell storiesof the strange and mysterious.
And be sure to stick around to the endto find out
who has the most magically positivelike button experience this week.
Now it's story time. The.
Kevin and Heidi Bardsley have
(01:20):
a busy family with four kidsthat seem to be involved in everything.
Most of their timeseems like it's spent chauffeuring one kid
or another, from one sportto another, or one activity to another.
Their youngest garret is a happy, healthy,five foot tall,
110.12 pound year old kid
(01:41):
who loves baseball and the outdoors.
It's getting close to the end of summer,and Garrett's Boy
Scout troop decides to go on a wildernessweekend.
It's not an official Boy Scout event.
They just want to get out one more time,just one last time, before school starts.
Their scoutmaster,
Wally Trotter, can't join him that weekendbecause he's got to work.
(02:04):
But he brings his son and Garrett's friendAlex to the meeting site that Thursday
morning to help pack the trucksand sea off the other kids in the dads,
including Kevin, Garrett and Garrett'stwo brothers, Cameron and Jaren.
Thursday, August 19th, 2004.
The troop heads up high into the high.
(02:26):
You into mountains in Utah.
They have to hike for about an hourbefore they even get to their camp,
which is somewhere arounda circle of lights called the lakes.
Friday morning, Garrett and Kevin
wake up early and decide to go fishingto see if they can catch their breakfast.
They grab their gearand head out of camp on a well
established trail that they've been onseveral times already.
(02:48):
That takes them to the lake shoreless than a quarter mile from camp.
Garrett accidentally slips on the shorerocks, getting his shoes and socks wet.
So his dad says, why don't you headback to camp and get some dry ones?
Kevin watches his sonhead off down the path to camp,
still carrying his fishing poleuntil he can't see him any longer.
(03:11):
Then he goes back to fishing,just waiting for Garrett to return.
After about 15 minutes, Kevin realizesthat Garrett hasn't returned yet,
so he two headsback down the trail to camp.
When he gets there, he asks the otherpeople in the camp, Where's Garrett?
And they all say, oh, we haven't seen him.
And Kevin knows there's trouble.
(03:33):
He and others from their campstart fanning out calling Garrett's name.
He's only been missing for a few minutes,so he can't be that far, right?
But their calls are met with silence.
Back at home, while Trotter is at work
trying to be productive,but he notices this intermittent feeling
(03:54):
of apprehensionthat keeps coming over him,
making him think that maybe there'ssomething wrong with his son, Alex,
but eventually an oppositefeeling of peace envelops him,
and he knows Alex is fineand he puts those concerns behind him.
Later that morning,while his instinct tells him
he needs to call Gary Hansen,one of the supervisors on the trip,
(04:18):
but he thinks, well,I can't do that because no one on
the mountainis going to have cell service.
Little did he know that at that verymoment, Gary is down from the mountain
and starting to make calls for helpin searching for Garrett.
That's when Wally's phone rings.
He listens intently for a moment,tells the caller, I'm on my way.
(04:39):
Flies into his boss's officeand says, I'm out,
and he is on his way,driving up to the mountain.
While he's thinking, I am sure by the time
I actually get there,they will have found him already.
But when he arrives at the campsite,he finds
that his imagination is far from reality.
The goodnews is that the Sheriff's department
(05:00):
and the FBI both mobilized quicklyin getting a search organized.
The bad news is thatGarrett is out in the elements
without any camping gearexcept his fishing pole
and not much camping experience,much less survival experience.
And this is the latter part of August, upat about an altitude of 10,000ft.
(05:22):
So it's chilly, especially at night.
And he's only wearing a hoodie with at shirt underneath it,
sweat pants and his wet shoes and socks.
Within hours, hundreds of law enforcementofficers and volunteers
are combing the mountainside,most likely while thinking the same thing.
He can't be that far.
(05:43):
Fridaynight brings helicopters with loudspeakers
calling Garrett's name and search lines.
According to Wally,he's never seen a spotlight
that can light up the treesand the mountainside like that one did.
How could Garrett not see that?
Later that night,after many of the searchers have gone home
(06:05):
for the night, several menstay awake all night long,
lighting bonfiresalong the shore of the lake,
hoping that they'll act as beaconsto guide Garrett back to camp.
But it doesn't work, and the temperature
drops to 18 degrees that night.
Of course, the thing Kevin wantsmost is to have his son back.
(06:27):
But he also wishes his wife, Heidi,was by his side and she's on her way.
But she is on a cruise with friendswhen Kevin calls her.
Can you imaginehow hard that phone call is
to, as a parent, have to call your spouse
and tell them that you lost your child?
(06:47):
Heidi says the immediate sick feeling
in the pit of herstomach told her all she needed to know.
Garrett was never going to be found,
but she also knew it was her job to try.
So as much as she didn't want to go,she headed for the mountain to be there
for her husband and to do everythingthat she could to find her son.
(07:09):
Interestingly enough, Kevin
receives the same divine message
on one of the first of many timeshe would hit
his knees to beg God,
please, I will do anything you ask.
Just let me have my son back.
(07:30):
The answer he receives isyou don't have to worry about Garrett.
His test is done.
Kevin, however, does not want to acceptthat as an answer.
For the next couple of days, he does notstop moving and never runs out of energy.
He stays out searching until long afterall the other searchers have gone to bed.
(07:50):
When he's the last one standing,he hikes to his car,
drives to town and calls peoplehis wife, his daughter,
other family membersjust to hear their voices.
Then he would drive back up the mountainand force himself to sleep
for like an hour or so.
Once Heidi arrives on the mountain,Kevin calms down a little,
(08:13):
but doesn't stop searchingbecause searching is the only thing
he can do to keep the grief and the panicand the guilt at bay.
The only time he ever takes away fromthe search is to take a few minutes here
and there to offer up, yet another prayerfor the safe return of his son.
(08:33):
But even that little respiteis getting harder and harder
for Kevin to take,because he keeps getting the same answer.
Don't worry about Garrett.
Saturday morning dawnedsunny and a bit warmer, which warms up
the shivering volunteers and their hopeand vigor for another day of searching.
But it's also the last day of the scoutingtrip.
(08:56):
It's time for the Scouts,including Garrett's brothers
and his friendsAlex and Tanner, to go home.
Wally.
Remember, he's one of the Scout mastersfor the troop, helps
the boys pack up their gear to go home,and admits that one of the hardest things
for him of this entire ordeal
is watching Cameronand Jared Garrett's brothers
(09:19):
pack up his things in his backpack.
Guilt is also starting to take its toll.
Heidi can't eat or sleep.
Not when she knows heryoungest child is lost out
in the wilderness without food or shelter.
Saturday night is the hardest for Wally.
The nice, warm sunshinethey had in the morning turns to rain,
(09:41):
and by the time he's done searchingfor the day, he is cold, wet and tired.
He goes back to his tent, changeshis clothes, crawls
into his sleeping bagand tries to get some rest.
But the scoutmaster in himknows what this means.
If Garrett is still alive out there.
He's now wet a wet bodyand freezing temperatures.
(10:05):
Garrett's probably not going to make itthrough the night, and Wally
is overwhelmed with guiltjust for being warm.
By Sunday, two days after Garrett
had last been seen,searchers still hold out hope.
Garrett is alive.
But the day brings nothing new.
Not to mention that now it starts to snow,
(10:26):
which makes looking for any cluesalmost impossible.
And many volunteers, including Wally,
have to go hometo get ready for work on Monday morning.
On Tuesday, the rescue mission isofficially changed to a recovery mission
with just 50 search and rescue personnelstill searching to bring Garrett home.
(10:46):
Wednesday would bring the only clueto ever be found in this entire mystery.
Searchers find a sock, a sockthat Heidi identifies as being Garrett's.
It's found about a half a mile from camp,
in the middle of a wideopen boulder field,
and it looks like it was taken offand thrown away while it was wet.
(11:08):
The number of volunteers swelled toabout 2000 on the second weekend,
but by Sunday, nine daysafter Garrett has gone missing,
Summit County declaresthe official search to be over.
No trace of Garrett
is ever found, except that one sock,not even his fishing pole.
(11:30):
But before you start thinkingthis is the end of the story, it's not.
The following year is a really toughone for the bards leads.
Naturally, they spend every momentthat they can on the mountain
looking for Garrett until October,when winter closes
that door for themand reality begins to set in.
(11:50):
They noticeimmediate changes in their family.
The three remaining kids, Courtney,Jared and Cameron,
grow closer and become more protectiveand more sensitive to each other.
Cameron.
He's the one that was closestin age to Garrett, so he takes this loss
especially hard.
The two boys had always shared a roomuntil just a few months
(12:14):
before, when Cameron decidedhe wanted his own room.
But after Garrett is gone,Cameron doesn't want to be alone, and
Jared immediatelytakes him into his room and says,
I want Cameron to be with me.
Kevin is more sensitive to Heidi'sfeelings as well, and does
whatever he can not to add to the painshe's already feeling.
(12:36):
Their faith holds them together
as a family, as they struggle to move away
from the easy emotional pit ofwhy did this happen?
Why us?
And move towardfinding the purpose of it all?
Because they know that how they reactand move
forward is totally up to them.
(12:57):
And it won't take longbefore the signs of purpose
they're searching for startto show themselves.
People start to contact the bards.
Liz, and share their stories.
One man decides to donate moneyevery month to a different charity.
Another man, a music teacher on the EastCoast, pledges to spend his free time
finding and fixing up instrumentsfor inner city schools.
(13:21):
One local man,who suffers from involuntary convulsions
feels a strong urge to join
the search for Garrett,despite his disability.
His wife says, are you nuts?
And the man says, I went to bed that nightand just felt
this overwhelming impressionthat I needed to go.
The man drives up the mountain, hauls outhis backpack and starts up the trail.
(13:47):
Suffering from convulsions the whole way.
As the man walks into the forest,
the convulsions stopand he never experiences them again.
But the biggest purpose driven flag
comes in June of the following summer.
An 11 year old namedBrendan Hawkins is in the Uinta mountains,
(14:08):
just five miles from whereGarrett went missing the summer before.
Brennan is with 1400 other Boy Scouts
at the bearRiver Boy Scout camp on Friday, June 17th.
Several boyssee Brennan removing his climbing harness
after scaling the climbing wall,
but no one knows what happens to himafter that.
(14:29):
He's just gone.
As the Summit County Sheriff,
Dave Edmunds is once againorganizing a search effort.
He puts a call in to Kevin Bardsleyand says, you have the experience.
You have the contacts.
You know what the family's going through.
You want to give us a hand.
On Kevin's part, there is no decisionto be made, but there is a slight hitch.
(14:52):
His daughter Courtney is getting marriedthe following weekend,
so it's kind of a busy weekfor the whole family.
Courtney actually shoos him out the door,
saying,mom and I will take care of wedding stuff.
You go.
Kevin packs up some food and water,loads up his radios and GPS.
Is and heads for the mountains.
(15:14):
Kevin's presence is a godsend,
not only because he bringsa lot of experience and volunteers
with him, but also because he understands
what the Hawkins family is experiencing.
He explains the process and calmsa lot of their fears,
and when he tells them
that he truly understands what they'regoing through, the Hawkins No.
(15:37):
He truly meansthat he is not just blowing smoke.
And because of what the Barnsley's went
through the summerbefore, Summit County paid attention
and now has a core of experiencedsearchers and technical experts
ready to mobilizein the event of another missing child.
Brennan is the first on the receivingend of those lessons learned.
(16:01):
Heidi, Kevin and Wally all sayGarrett has played
a big role in making sure another kiddidn't end up like him.
BrennanHawkins is found on the fourth day,
five miles away and up hillfrom where he went missing.
Kevin says I would like to think
that Garrett was on the mountainthat day that Brennan went missing.
(16:24):
Not to mention the factthat because of that search taking place,
another scout that was on the mountain,who is having serious
heart problems,was able to be taken to hospital quickly
because there were helicoptersalready in the area.
In August of 2005,so one year after Garrett went missing,
(16:46):
the Barnsley's organized another searchin hopes of finding Garrett remains.
I didn't think Garrett would be found,but she knew that she had to try.
Their job, she said, was to doas much as they possibly could.
The rest they trusted to God.
She was right. Garrett did not come home.
(17:06):
But so many other good things.
Some might call them.
Miracles have come from Garrett.
Searchthat she and Kevin say it's not a loss.
Everything that they have enduredso far brought forth
blessings to so many livesthat have been changed.
They know he has saved at leasttwo other scouts, and Heidi thinks
(17:26):
that they haven't even seenthe full extent of his influence yet.
Heidi says she thinks that Garretthas touched more lives this way
than he would haveif you just lived a regular, full life.
Garrett's family and the scoutswould return once more to the Mira
Lake trailhead in high Uinta,the same place Garrett was lost.
(17:48):
That's where Cameron receives his EagleScout Award,
which is the highest achievementor rank attainable in the Boy
Scoutsthat only 4% of Scouts ever achieve.
And since Garrett was workingtoward that same goal, he was honored
with the spirit of the Eagle,an award for scouts
who are working toward their eaglebut died before it could be completed.
(18:12):
Heidi and Kevin occasionally visit
that lake, the lakewhere Kevin last saw their son,
and they appreciate the sacredfeeling that the area holds for them.
And though it's technicallya nameless lake, they and others
have named it for a young man who spirit
still lingers in their mind.
(18:35):
It's Garrett's Lake,and it will always be Garrett's Lake.
Oh my gosh.
I cannot tell you how many times I had
tears in my eyesas I was getting this story ready to go.
I have never been a helicopter parent,
but stories like thismake me want to become one.
And we here at The In-betweenwant to extend our sincerest
(18:59):
condolences to the Bardsley family
and extend our wishes that some dayGarrett will be brought home.
Now, for those of you
who are new to the channel, ormaybe just haven't joined us in a while,
you may not be familiarwith our seemingly magical like button.
If you show it some love and click on it,it'll show you some love.
(19:20):
Back in the evening idea.
What I'm talking about hereis the most magical thing
shared with us in the last week from you,the Inbetweeners
and Sandboarding ski writesI've been a nail biter for years.
I tap the like button and poof
my nails grew back and look beautiful.
Thank you ink.
(19:41):
And I'm sure the like buttonthanks you for showing it some love.
Now everyone go out and hitthat like button and let us know
in the comments what miraclesthe like button has bestowed upon you.
For more stories of peoplevanishing into thin air, click here.
Be careful out there and we will see youhere again on The InBetween.
(20:06):
Thanksfor tuning in to The InBetween Podcast.
Enjoy the full visual experiencewith me over on YouTube.
Just search for @TheInBetweentales.
I'm Carol Ann,and until next time, be careful
out there.
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