The Bigfoot Connection: Why Can't Search Teams Find These Missing Hikers?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Shenandoa National Park in Virginia is two hundred thousand acres
of wilderness. While the majority visit to see its beautiful
forests mountains, some also arrive searching for answers about the
unsettling disappearances that have taken place there. Such mysteries have
led some to speculate that the famed Bigfoot may somehow

(00:28):
be involved. Yes Bigfoot, a giant, hairy creature that some
say lives in North America's woodlands. Bigfoot, by most accounts
a bashful creature that avoids humankind, but others suspect that
this elusive creature might have a darker side, particularly when

(00:48):
it comes to hikers who have disappeared in locations such
as Shenandoah, a well known sasquatch stomping grounds. Its eeriness
factor only increases when certain case come to mind, such
as the case of a park ranger who went missing
in nineteen eighty seven under mysterious circumstances. Several other hikers

(01:09):
have also disappeared on the park's trails since then. While
a few missing people are later discovered, many others seem
to disappear without a trace. These disappearances leave many questions,
Is it possible that Bigfoot witnessed whatever happened to these folks,
was the creature responsible for these disappearances, or perhaps something

(01:32):
less cosmic, that a lot of people simply get lost
or have accidents or run into bad weather and it's
just a coincidence they do so in Bigfoot's backyard. When
a person goes missing in a large wilderness area like Shenandoah,
the possible reasons why that might be are numerous. The
woods can be treacherous if you are unprepared. You can

(01:56):
easily lose your way, fall, or get surprised by sudden tempests.
You don't need Bigfoot in these areas to put yourself
into danger. There's plenty to go around already. Tonight we'll
cover a bit about what we do know or think
we know, and what people say about Bigfoot. We'll hear

(02:16):
about the real risks of hiking in wild places, and
will also ponder whether something unknown might have taken up
residents in the long, dark trails and deep valleys of
Shenandoah and the Pacific Northwest. Just keep in mind, as
exciting as it is to think about mysterious beasts roaming
about in the woods. It is always wise to be

(02:38):
vigilant and adequately prepare for any hike. The wild might
be dangerous enough on its own without a giant, hairy
hominid lurking nearby. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, weirdos.

(03:04):
I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll
find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange
and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming
up in this episode, we explore the possible connection between

(03:27):
unexplained disappearances and alleged Bigfoot encounters. We'll look at disturbing
cases like the experienced park ranger who vanished in nineteen
eighty seven, leaving behind only his belongings and mysterious journal entries,
and the twelve year old boy who somehow survived two
freezing nights alone in the wilderness. What secrets lie hidden

(03:49):
and shadowy forests of North America? Could there be something
big and furry out there that could explain the vanishings
of people into thin air? Is there something nasty and
beastly among the natural beauty? Now bult your doors, lock
your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me

(04:11):
into the weird darkness. Bigfoot is usually considered a shy
time wanting no interaction with us lowly humans. The stories

(04:36):
we do here tend to paint a picture of a large,
hairy creature that reclines deep in the woods, leaving only
footprints or strange sounds in the night. But there are
some troubling tales from American history that offer a less
rosy view of these enigmatic beasts. So many of these
stories may simply be due to natural phenomena. They still

(04:58):
fascinate and baffle people today. But before we delve deeper
into the unexplained details of these cases, it's important to
consider why some regions of North America have become so
closely associated with sightings of Bigfoot. The Pacific Northwest, with
its large woods, uneven tops, and wild unattended inside areas,

(05:20):
has been a hotspot for detailed encounters for a huge
number of years. Tribes of Native Americans in the area
have long reported tales of large humanoid creatures that live
in the forest by different names Sasquatch, Scucum, and Semequis,
among others. The thick forests of Washington, Oregon, and British
Columbia give large animals plenty of room to hide. These

(05:44):
forests are home to some of the tallest trees in
the world, including Douglas firs and redwoods that reach heights
of more than three hundred feet. The thick underbrush, steep terrain,
and common fog or rain can allow anything to quickly
vanish in the wilderness. Even today, scientists occasionally find new
species in these areas. The forests have many secrets yet

(06:07):
to be revealed. Today's modern interest in Bigfoot can be
traced back to nineteen fifty eight, with the discovery of
enormous footprints near bulldozers on a construction site in California.
The prince resulted in newspaper stories that popularized what became
known as Bigfoot. Since then, thousands of people across North

(06:27):
America have claimed to have encountered the creature, but scientists
remain dubious about whether such a creature exists. Most experts,
in fact, think the wide majority can be explained by bears,
especially when they rise on their hind legs, or by
humans seen through the haze of darkness in the quiet
hills of Okfuski County, Oklahoma. In the nineteen twenties, something

(06:51):
strange and troubling occurred that would come to be part
of local Creek Indian folklore. One day, the members of
the tribe found owned one of their own who had
died under suspicious circumstances. The thing that made the scene
especially strange was how he was found, his legs drawn up,
his hands folded underneath his head as if in prayer

(07:14):
in his final moments. The man, the investigation showed had
died of massive injuries, like a beating. What's even worse
is what they found around his body, huge footprints and
handprints pressed into the soil, and the signs of a
desperate struggle. Before this event, there had been a sighting
of a long haired creature around the area. The indigenous

(07:37):
people there thought it as a sacred guardian of the forest.
Could this being, which fit many definitions of what we
now refer to as bigfoot, have killed the man? Adding
to the mystery, investigators eventually found stacks of bones in
the vicinity, including human remains. Sometimes inexplicable happenings can affect

(07:59):
a whole community, so it was with Port Chatham or
Port Luck A little fishing village at the southern end
of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Roskaya Govin had been the site
of Russian and Native fishermen, lumberjacks, and miners since the
seventeen hundreds, but something strange started happening in the nineteen
twenties that would ultimately render it completely deserted. It began

(08:23):
with reports of a wild man spotted in the wilderness
surrounding the town. Witnesses claimed to have discovered huge footprints
and spotted trees that had been uprooted, as though ripped
from the soil by a force of nature. While these
sightings had been frightening, things turned even darker in nineteen
thirty one. One day they discovered a lumberjack named Andrew

(08:46):
Kamblick dead, apparently killed by a heavy logging machine that
had smashed him in the head. What stumped investigators was
that the equipment had somehow been tossed about ten feet
farther away from Kamlock's body, a supernatural feat that appeared
impossible for a typical person to pull off. With tails

(09:07):
of the hairy giants still fresh in people's mines and
large footprints found near the scene, many residents suspected the
creature they dubbed Nanintach was to blame surrounding Port Chatham.
More bodies were allegedly found in the years that followed
along the trails. Local cannery workers were so terrified they'd

(09:28):
show up for work one season, returning the next year
only when they were assured they'd have armed guards. In fact,
hunters have even come across a twisted shot moose with
its head entirely severed, so gruesome they fled the scene
in fear. By nineteen forty nine, the line was abandoned
and the entire town was deserted. But other researchers say

(09:52):
there may be a more mundane explanation for Port Chatham's desertion.
Alaska Route one was built along the Kinai Peninsul in
the nineteen forties, linking Anchorage with many peninsula towns. The
new road facilitated growing numbers of people living and working
in other places, while Port Chatham remained isolated and without
any road access. Might this practical explanation not some strange

(10:17):
adduled beast have prompted everyone to leave. The area remains
a source of fascination for visitors to this day. Native
elder Sally Ash says, people continue to come in search
of the creature even after the local tribes warn them
not to. Port Locke is a really creepy vibe, she says.
They tell us, don't go out on a foggy day.

(10:39):
That's when he's shuffling around. Ash believes that the being
has the supernatural ability to transform itself into a series
of other animals to elude those after it. The Port
Shatham story gets even juicier if we factor in the
wilderness of the Alaskan forests. The Canai Peninsula, which is
where Port Chatham was located, is an astonishing piece of

(11:02):
land that juts into the Gulf of Alaska. It boasts
enormous glaciers, thick forests, and some of North America's most
remarkable wildlife, including brown bears, moose, wolves, and mountain goats.
During the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, when the bizarre
events supposedly occurred, Alaska was still a frontier territory. The

(11:25):
United States had bought it from Russia in eighteen sixty seven,
but it wouldn't gain statehood until nineteen fifty nine. Port
Chatham and similar places were notoriously remote, with people using
boats as their only means of getting around or bringing
in goods. The isolation meant that in some cases, if
something went wrong, help could be days or even weeks away.

(11:50):
Weather in this part of the world could be downright nasty,
long dark winters, and storm after storm rolling in from
the Gulf of alaskaircumstances could readily twist innocuous wildlife encounters
into something more mystical and menacing, especially for some people's minds. Isolation,
brutal weather conditions, and the proximity of large predators led

(12:14):
to a landscape where folklore and the reality were intertwined.
Mount Saint Helens and Washington State has long been associated
with the legendary creature known as Bigfoot, but in May
nineteen fifty something would happen that would provide a new
chapter in the mountain's mysterious history. A seasoned thirty two
year old skier, Jim Carter, was among a group of

(12:36):
twenty others for a would be routine skiing trip outside
Ape Canyon. The day was perfect, blue skies and good
skiing weather. During a break at a place called Dog's
Head about eight thousand feet up the mountain, Carter told
his friends he was going to ski ahead to photograph them.
What happened next flummoxed and terrified witnesses. Carter suddenly started

(13:00):
flying down the mountain at breakneck speed, as though something
was chasing him. According to those present, he was going
like the devil. One witness recalled, making dangerous jumps over
crevices that no good skier would attempt under more ordinary circumstances.
They watched in horror as he slipped over the canyon wall,

(13:21):
but when they went to look for him, Carter was
gone without a trace. All they found was his box
of film. A huge search was undertaken, but that only
made it more mysterious. Several of the searchers reported hearing
strange sounds and witnessing large, hulking shapes moving through the trees.
Others wrote that they were overcome with horrible smells. Bobley,

(13:45):
a professional mountaineer who assisted with the search, described it
as the most eerie experience I have ever had. He
said he felt as if he were being watched when
he got separated from the rest of the searchers, and
that the hair on the back of his neck would
stand up. While seventy five people searched for five days.
They never found Jim Carter or his equipment. There had

(14:09):
been about twenty five reports of somewhat attacked by ape
like men in the Saint Helens and Cascade areas over
a twenty year period, Lee would tell The Longview Washington
Times later, and one such incident reportedly included a Centralia
troop of boy Scouts who were allegedly hysterical following an
encounter with creatures they called mountain devils. Mount Saint Helens,

(14:32):
where Jim Carter vanished, has long inspired mystery and legend.
Even before its famous nineteen eighty eruption, it was considered
a sacred place by local Native American tribes. The Moltnoba
tribe called it Lowala Clo or Smoking Mountain, and told
stories of ancient battles fought between a race of supernatural

(14:53):
beings on its slopes. Ape Canyon, the area where Carter disappeared,
is named after a toorious nineteen twenty four incident in
which the miners said they were attacked by several ape
men who plastered their cabin walls with rocks over the
course of a long evening. This case, Wet National had
put Mount Saint Helens on the Bigfoot Ule Logus decades

(15:15):
before Carter went missing. The terrain of the mountain also
helps explain how someone might disappear so thoroughly. Even today,
people still go missing in the region's elaborate web of canyons, caves,
and dense forests, despite modern search and rescue equipment. Volcanic
scenery includes deep crevasses, unstable ground, and steam vents that

(15:38):
pose perilous conditions. Recognizing these features helps explain why searching
for missing persons in this area can be incredibly difficult
as well. A different kind of mystery was brewing in

(16:03):
Canada's Yukon Territory in two thousand and four. Bard Schleier
was a world renowned expert on predators, from grizzlies to
Siberian tigers. Yet even his unparalleled wilderness expertise couldn't prevent
his mysterious fate. Schleier vanished during a solo hunting trip
in the remote Yukon Territory, leaving behind eerie clues, his

(16:26):
gear scattered, his pants turned inside out, and his remains
discovered under circumstances no predator attack could explain was his
demise The work of a deadly animal, a human assailant,
or something far stranger lurking in the untouched wilderness. That
story when weird Darkness returns. Bart Schleier was not your

(17:14):
average hunter. He was one of the world's foremost authorities
on large predators, notably grizzly bears and Siberian tigers. He
had spent years tracking and observing dangerous animals, often alone
in the wilderness for months at a time. With all
that expertise and knowledge, he was one of the last
people you'd expect to get into trouble in the wild.

(17:38):
In September of two thousand and four, Schlier was flown
by floatplane to a remote lake in the Reed Lakes
region on a bow hunting trip. So remote the only
access was by air. There were no roads, no settlements
in sight. When the pilot returned three days later to
see how he was doing, something felt wrong. The camp

(17:59):
looked largely normal, with half a meal still laid out,
but Schleier was missing. Much of its necessary gear was missing,
including his bow and inflatable boat. But curiously, he had
not taken his backpack, bear, spray knife, or radio. When
Schlier did not arrive for his scheduled pick up. The

(18:20):
Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a search. Beverly spotted his
inflatable boat abandoned along the lake shore. About sixty yards
into the trees, they found his bow and arrows leaned
up against a tree. What they found next was baffling.
Schlier's hunting pants lay on the ground, turn inside out,
as if pulled off. Continuing along the strange trail, searchers

(18:43):
discovered his baseball cap, camera and face mask spread along
a path. Then came the grizzly discovery, a piece of
a skull and some small bones, the rest of Schleier's
body nowhere to be found. Bear tracks droppings were found
around the area, but experts noticed something strange. There were

(19:05):
no signs of a struggle, little blood, and no torn
clothing or other evidence you would expect from a bear attack.
The moss on the forest floor when they found it
in the clearing had not been disturbed, and the pants
seemed to have been stripped off gently, not removed by
the claws of some predator. Even more confusing, a forensic

(19:26):
study of the skull and bones revealed no gnawing or
chewing damage by animal teeth. Considering Schleier's familiarity with big
predator behavior and his professional hunting skills, there was little
reason to believe that he had been surprised by any animal.
Some have speculated that he may have died with a
heart attack and then be torn apart by scavengers, but

(19:50):
he had been in superb health. Some speculated whether someone
else could have attacked him, But who else would have
been so far away and why would they have left
his valuable equipment behind the mystery of Bartschleier's death becomes
even more interesting. Once he had successfully tracked and studied
the dangerous animals he was following, he would have known

(20:12):
his way home. Schleier would also have known just what
to do when in the presence of a bear, wolf
or mountain lion. When large predators attack prey, they tend
to leave very distinctive signs. Bears, for instance, frequently drag
their prey to a secure location and bury it under
dirt and plants, which scientists refer to as a cache.

(20:34):
Wolves ate the kill on site, leaving behind scattered bones
and shredded fur over a large area. Like most cats,
mountain lions often drag kills up into trees or heavy brush.
The absence of these common indicators in Schleier's case has
raised the question among some researchers whether another explanation could

(20:55):
be at hand. Others have proposed the existence of an
unidentified form of predator with another pattern of hunting in
the isolated areas of North America, although most scientists believe
this is unlikely. The vast outdoors of the Yukon territory
still includes many areas that have hardly been mapped by people.

(21:16):
One of the strangest cases occurred in nineteen eighty seven,
when sixteen year old Teresa Ann Beer went on a
camping trip in California's Sierra Mountains with Russell Welch, a
forty three year old self professed expert on Bigfoot. The
pirod traveled to shut Eye Peak, about twenty five miles
from Bass Lake, allegedly to search for the mythical creature.

(21:38):
Welch maintained he had seen a bigfoot several times around
and even embedded himself in a team of sorts with
a pack of creatures that he'd been in regular contact with.
Days later, when Welch returned to Fresno without Theresa officials
quickly grew alarmed. His explanation for her disappearance was extraordinary.

(21:59):
He said that while they were hiking, they had separated,
and that a bigfoot had seized Teresa and taken her
away into the wilderness. There was a search of the
whole area, but nothing was found. What made the case
stranger still was Welch's steadfast adherence to his bizarre story.
Even when presented with a plea deal that would have

(22:21):
allowed him to avoid prison time in exchange for explaining
to authorities what actually took place, he refused to alter
his version of events. Many are stumped by that decision.
If he was making up the story, why choose a
motive so unbelievable that it'll make him seem more guilty.

(22:42):
No one knows what really happened to Teresa Ann Beer
Not to this day. She has never been found and
the case remains unsolved. Although many might think she got
lost in the wild or that something happened to her,
Welch has never backed down from his story about the
bigfoot of duction. More recent cases have continued to confound investigators.

(23:05):
In twenty eighteen, Jordan Girder went missing while camping in
the boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness in Minnesota. His truck
was discovered illegally parked, but there was no sign of
where he had entered the woods. Six months later, the
authorities found his campsite in a very remote area, as
one officer pointed out, as if someone were looking for

(23:26):
a spot to avoid contact with people. It was a
grisly scene. Blood came from the tent and into the
sleeping bag, but no one had fought back. They recovered
Girder's gun with loaded magazines, and his cell phone, which
contained no messages suggesting distress. Later, ten bones presumed to

(23:47):
belong to Girder were discovered, but not his skull. Investigators
ruled out suicide since the gun had not been fired,
and animal attacks since there wasn't any sign of a
type of violence typically left behind predators like wolves. The
case remains unexplained. Many of these complex cases reflect the

(24:07):
critical importance of tracking skills and wilderness knowledge. Professional trackers
possess the remarkable ability to reconstruct events by carefully studying
the signs left behind in a scene. Their trained eyes
scan the environment for a variety of subtle clues that
most people would overlook. They began by examining footprints and

(24:28):
their patterns, which can reveal whether someone was walking calmly
or fleeing in panic. The way tracks catch the light
can indicate fresh disturbances in the underbrush, helping trackers determine
how recently someone passed through an area. Broken branches and
disturbed vegetation provide another crucial set of clues, as they

(24:48):
often clearly mark the direction of travel. Trackers pay particular
attention to signs of a struggle, such as scuffed up
ground or overturned gear, which might indicate something unexpected occurred.
They also look carefully for evidence of wildlife activity in
the area, including feeding sites and territorial markings that might

(25:09):
explain what happened. Weather conditions play an important role, too,
as experienced trackers can interpret how rain, snow, or other
weather events have affected tracts and other evidence, helping them
establish a timeline of events. While these traditional tracking methods
remain invaluable, contemporary search and rescue operations now blend these

(25:31):
time tested skills with modern technology. Teams regularly employ thermal
cameras to detect body heat, drones to survey large areas quickly,
and GPS mapping to coordinate search efforts and document findings. However,
even with all these cutting edge tools at their disposal,
the wilderness can still guard its secrets. Nature's ability to

(25:54):
obscure evidence in the sheer vastness of remote areas mean
that some mysteries remain unsolved, despite our best efforts and
most advanced technology. These mysterious cases serve as a powerful
reminder of how crucial proper preparation is when venturing into
remote areas. Experienced outdoor enthusiasts understand that following certain fundamental

(26:16):
safety practices can mean the difference between life and death
in the wilderness. The first and most basic rule is
to always inform someone trustworthy of your exact plans before
heading out. Share your intended route, destination, and expected return
time with a reliable person who can alert authorities if
you don't check in as scheduled. This simple step has

(26:40):
saved countless lives by ensuring that search and rescue operations
can begin quickly if something goes wrong. Carrying essential survival
equipment is equally important. Any wilderness excursion should include basic
navigation tools such as a map, compass, and GPS device
to help prevent getting lost. Emergency shelter and warm clothing

(27:02):
are crucial as weather conditions can change rapidly in remote areas.
Fire starting materials should always be packed in waterproof containers,
as the ability to make fire can be essential for survival.
A well stocked first aid kit, extra food in water,
and some form of emergency communication device such as a
satellite phone or personal locator beacon round out the basic

(27:25):
survival kit that every outdoor enthusiast should carry Before embarking
on any wilderness adventure. Thorough research of your destination is essential.
Study the local wildlife and their typical behaviors to avoid
dangerous encounters. Learn about seasonal weather patterns and associated hazards,
such as flash floods during rainy seasons or avalanche risks

(27:46):
in winter. Familiarize yourself with natural hazards in the area,
including steep cliffs, unstable ground, or rapid water crossings. It's
also crucial to know the locations of ranger stations and
other emergency resources that can provide help if needed. Perhaps
most importantly, experienced outdoors people notice stay constantly aware of

(28:08):
their surroundings and trust their instincts if something feels wrong,
whether it's an unusual silence in the forest, unexpected weather changes,
or simply an inexplicable sense of unease. It's wise to
take such feelings seriously. Our subconscious minds often pick up
on subtle danger signals before we consciously recognize them, and

(28:30):
in the wilderness, ignoring these warnings can have serious consequences.
Every culture throughout history has developed tales of mysterious creatures
dwelling in the wilderness, and even these stories serve multiple
important purposes in their societies. Such folklore often acts as
a teaching tool, helping parents and elders instill a caution

(28:51):
in children who might otherwise wander into dangerous areas. These
stories also serve as vessels for preserving crucial knowledge of
local geography and wildlife, passing down important survival information from
generation to generation. When people encounter natural phenomena they don't
fully understand, these tales can provide explanations that help communities

(29:13):
make sense of their environment. Perhaps most importantly, such stories
helped bridge communities together, creating shared experiences and values that
strengthen cultural bonds. When twenty two year old Jacob Gray

(29:36):
disappeared in Washington's Olympic National Park in twenty seventeen. His
disappearance puzzled searchers and left his father on a desperate
search for answers. When the search pointed toward Bigfoot researchers
whose stories were chilling tales off unexplained disappearances in the wilderness,
the line between fact and legend began to fade. Might

(29:57):
this shadowy folkloric figure offer answers to what transpired in
the jungle? Like raine wrenched jungles of the Pacific Northwest.
That story is up next. In April twenty seventeen, on

(30:33):
a rainy day in Washington State's Olympic National Park, a
twenty two year old man, Jacob Gray, went missing without
a trace. He disappeared while riding his bike through the park,
leaving only his bike and camping gear near the soul
Duck River. Despite months of extensive searching by professional rescue teams,
there was no indication of what had happened to the

(30:55):
young cyclist. The case piqued to the interest of John Billman,
journalists who'd spent years investigating the cases of people who
go missing in the wilderness. Billman also knew that such
disappearances were more common than most people realized. More than
six hundred thousand people go missing every year in the
United States, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Person's

(31:17):
System or NAMUSE. Though the vast majority of them are
eventually found alive or deceased, a remarkable number of them
seemed to disappear entirely when they venture into America's wilder places.
What made Jacob's case so interesting was that it began
to challenge typical explanations. His bike was undamaged, and there

(31:38):
were no indications of an accident or foul play. Jacob
was young and healthy, five foot eleven one hundred and
forty five pounds. A lifelong server, he was at ease
in the outdoors and impressively fit. He'd even been planning
an ambitious bicycle trip across the country from California to
Vermont to visit his brother. Jacob's dead appearance came as

(32:01):
he was grappling with personal obstacles, but this didn't stop
his family and friends from keeping up hope. His parents
had gotten divorced four years earlier, and he was exhibiting
signs of depression. His family feared that he was developing schizophrenia.
Worried about his mental health, his parents had dispatched him
to Bellevue, Washington, to live with relatives. They hoped he

(32:22):
would go to community college and settle down there. Instead,
Jacob quit school, but he did take a job at
a nursing home and a climbing gym. He devoted much
of a spare time to riding trails in a mountain
on his bike. Randy Gray would not accept defeat what
his son, Jacob went missing. Randy, a sixty three year
old home builder from Santa Cruz, California, took the extraordinary

(32:46):
step of liquidating his world to find his son. He
sold his home and shuddered his profitable contracting firm. He
purchased a camper, filled it with supplies, and drove to
Washington State to begin what would turn into an epic
quest for his missing son. Several factors complicated the search
for Jacob. National parks, like Olympic function like small governments.

(33:09):
They don't often cooperate well with outside agencies. The park
officials were convinced that Jacob either drowned in the river
or hitchhiked away, and they saw any further search as
a waste of resources. However, Randy needed proof before accepting
these explanations. As he searched, Randy came across some unsettling
possibilities on the shores of Washington State and British Columbia.

(33:33):
Human feet washing ashore still shod are common. Most times.
When Randy would hear of a foot discovered and a
new balanced shoe the brand Jacob wore, he would have
horrible dreams. He pursued every lead, however implausible it seemed.
He even consulted a psychic who told him Jacob was
abducted and chased down bizarre clues, such as four arrows

(33:57):
that were found laid out in a perfect line near
J's abandoned campsite. The search took Randy to some unlikely places.
He searched jails because sometimes missing persons end up in custody.
He even went to investigate a cult called Twelve Tribes
that had been getting recruits along the Pacific Crest Trail
in Vancouver, Canada, and each lead was a dead end.

(34:20):
Randy would not give up hope. A breakthrough of sorts
arrived when Randy encountered a group known as the Olympic Project.
While they were most famous as bigfoot researchers, they were
also incredibly well versed in Olympic Mountains intel. The group
was founded in two thousand and eight by a deputy
sheriff who thought Sasquatch were lurking in the local woods.

(34:41):
Although their focus was primarily in the search of Bigfoot
using scientific methods such as fossil records and DNA evidence,
they also created a special team known as the Olympic
Mountain Response Team, which assisted in searching for missing persons,
of which Jacob was one. The organization invited Randy and
Bill to live in their building called the Bigfoot Barn.

(35:04):
The location was especially valuable as it was the closest
private property to where Jacob's bike had been discovered. The
Bigfoot researchers turned out to be invaluable allies in the search.
They were in good physical condition, were extremely familiar with
the territory, and took a methodical approach to the search.
They volunteered hundreds of hours and walked hundreds of miles

(35:25):
over months to help search for Jacob. Though the Bigfoot
Investigators never made a direct connection of Jacob's disappearance to Sasquatch,
they told tales of other unexplained disappearances. One member, Tanya
Barba believed Bigfoot was the culprit behind cases of small
children being missing and then later found in places they

(35:45):
only could have reached by traveling hundreds of miles through
wilderness areas. She told of the case of Casey Hathaway,
a three year old boy who went missing in North
Carolina and was miraculously discovered three days later, well away
from where he advance. Even as temperatures hovered as low
as freezing and the weather proved harsh, Randy was keeping

(36:06):
an open mind about everything. He even wrote that he
could picture Jacob being adopted by a family of Bigfoot,
not least because that would mean his son was alive
and someone was taking care of him. Its openness to
any explanation attested to the desperation of parents of the
missing for answers. Having a family member go missing without
an explanation is among the worst psychological traumas a person

(36:29):
can suffer, according to experts. Pauline Boss, a researcher and
family therapist, refers to it as frozen grief, a permanent
state of uncertainty in which people cannot grieve because they
don't know what happened to their loved one. The National
Institute of Justice calls these cases the nation's silent mass disaster.

(36:50):
The law makes these situations even tougher. In most places,
you can't be declared legally dead until you've been missing
seven years. For families of limbo can be agonizing, As
Marcella Gett, whose brother went missing while riding a bicycle
in Nova, Scotia, said, not having an answer to what
happened makes it impossible to find any peace. There's no

(37:12):
one event, no one cause to hold accountable, only an
infinite series of questions about whether their loved ones suffered
or called out for help. It took eighteen months of searching,
but Randy ultimately received answers he had been looking for,
unfortunately not what he wanted to hear. A group of
biologists studying marmots in a remote corner of Olympic National

(37:36):
Park came upon Jacob's clothes on August tenth, twenty eighteen.
The skeletal remains were located by rangers fifty three hundred
feet up in the mountains, roughly fifteen miles from where
the bicycle was discovered. But even after Jacob's body was found,
questions remained. The coroner's cause of death was listed as inconclusive.

(37:58):
One curious detail was that Jacob's boots had been found
bundled in garbage bags. His brother, Micah, said it might
mean suicide, claiming that people do crazy things before they
commit suicide. A few days after the discovery, Randy, Micah,
and Billman hiked to the spot where Jacob died. On
the visit, they discovered two additional human bones, including a

(38:20):
bone from a finger, which they believe belonged to Jacob.
Rather than hand them over to authorities, though, they held
a small ceremony on the mountains and made a memorial
cross from tree branches found with parachute cord. Randy hadn't
actually discovered his son, but he was right about the
search in one important way. Most people who become lost

(38:41):
in the mountains tend to go downhill, but Randy had
always maintained that Jacob would have climbed up. He couldn't
explain why he felt this way, It was just a
parent's intuition. This would turn out to be the case,
as Jacob's remains were located up in the mountains, proving
that at times times the instinct of the parent can

(39:02):
be more accurate than that of search and rescue statistics.
The story of Jacob's a chilling reminder of the dangers
that wilderness areas present and the extraordinary measures parents will
take in searching for a missing child. Randy's search ended
in heartbreak, but the fact that he even searched illustrates
the indomitable nature of a parent's love. If only we

(39:24):
would have answers about our child's fate. It also showed
how America's wild places, while glorious, can bear dark mysteries
that sometimes take months or even years to decipher. Since
nineteen sixteen, over one thousand people have vanished in US

(39:46):
national parks, and Shenandoah National Park has its own haunting
share of mysteries. Amid stunning landscapes, hikers have disappeared under
baffling circumstances, with some whispering of a possible connection to
bigfoot sidings in the dense, untamed forests. Are these vanishings
the result of natural dangers, human missteps, or something far

(40:09):
more elusive lurking in the shadows. That's up next on
weird Darkness. Since the National Park Service was founded in

(40:37):
nineteen sixteen, over one thousand people have been reported missing
in National Parks, and several chilling missing person cases have
unfolded at Shenandoah National Park, a two hundred thousand acre
patch of high peaks, rushing rivers, and wild waterfalls in
Virginia with an unlikely connection to the mystique surrounding the

(40:58):
elusive cryptid Bigfoot. Although better known for its pristine beauty,
the sprawling East Coast forests are also infamous for alleged
Bigfoot encounters. While some come in search of the elusive creature,
most head to the area just for a leisurely hike,
but it doesn't always work out that way. Some terrifying

(41:18):
disappearances in the park include a Shenandoah National Park ranger
who went missing in nineteen eighty seven. M n was
an experienced hiker who had covered almost the entire Appalachian
Trail a grueling trek, but his family disclosed after he
went missing that he also suffered from mental health issues.
A huge search featuring two hundred volunteers was conducted for

(41:41):
the ranger, However, his pack journal, personal belongings, empty drug containers,
and running shoes were the sole evidence of him. According
to Listverse, the drugs weren't dangerous, but could induce hallucinations
have taken in excess together, he did not show any
signs of suicide ideation, according to his journals. With no

(42:01):
signs of resolution for days, the search was down to
fifty people, but then the missing ranger was found. A
father and son had reported seeing m n and said
he was on a trail headed south wearing only socks.
The search went cold again, though volunteers turned up his backpack, boots, pants,
and a stick with his initials on it. His body

(42:24):
as yet to be found. Another one of the terrifying
stories was about a twelve year old boy named Donnie Wentz,
who disappeared in nineteen ninety two after being separated from
his church group. The boy, who wasn't an experienced higer,
roamed the woods for two days, spent the frigid nights
sleeping under leaves and eating butterfingers. He hiked the days

(42:46):
and found shelter and warmth on the knights below rock overhangs.
At some point, Donnie encountered a park ranger and told
him that he was tired and concerned that he would
miss wrestling practice. The ranger helped the child into a
vehicle and heated him up before a paramedic assessed his
injuries two days after he hid in the woods. He
was perfectly healthy and had cuts and scrapes and only

(43:08):
very mild hypothermia. He said that he'd gotten lost trying
to outrun his friends back to the parking lot. Disappearing
in twenty twelve was another hiker, but nobody really knows
why it happened. Robbie Fitzgerald was only on a three
mile hike on Shenandoah Mountain where he lost his cell
phone and shirt. He may have become disoriented after returning

(43:29):
to get his phone. According to the belief, his body
has not been recovered despite a massive search of the area.
He was an experienced hiker and had a trail pack
in his car, which was left at the trailhead. In
just two years, Michael Hugh CAMLETTI vanishes while out for
a hike in Standardsville. A week later, the Army vet's

(43:50):
car was found with a note left on its windshield.
He had written that he planned a hike a north
south route to the Monongela National Forest and would be
back in four days, but he was never seen again.
Kimoletti was an experienced hiker for whom it's believed could
have altered his plans during the trip and became lost.
Another experienced outdoorsman who went missing was Earl Funk. The

(44:14):
Staunton resident disappeared into Shenandoah in two thousand and eight,
even though he lived in a cabin mere miles from
the park and spent countless hours hiking in the woods.
A huge search eventually located Funk's hat, machete, boot, ten steak,
and ATV. His body was eventually found. He was found
to have sadly died of environmental exposure during a particularly

(44:37):
cold October. In October twenty seventeen, another hiker, David Wayne Harding,
disappeared two miles away from Shenandoah. The sixty two year
old at glaucoma that required medication, which led to him
being classified as endangered missing by park officials. His remains
were never found, although rangers closed park trails for a

(44:58):
large search effort. He is still considered as missing. A
thirty two year old Waynesboro woman, Melissa Torgenson wet missing
without a trace July first, twenty sixteen. Her sister reported
her missing six weeks later. The California native had been
hiking just under five miles from Shenandoah and disappeared without
a trace. No indication of foul play has been established,

(45:21):
and police have suggested that extreme temperatures may have led
to heat exhaustion. All cases that could be explained simply
by extreme weather or wildlife conditions, But who's to say
there wasn't another factor whether or not Bigfoot actually exists.
The legends surrounding this mysterious creature have become deeply woven

(45:43):
into North American folklore. Even in our modern technological world,
nature still holds the power to surprise and mystify us.
These stories also inspire people to protect wilderness areas, suggesting
that these remote places might still harbor undiscovered secrets waiting
to be revealed. In recent years, researchers have begun approaching

(46:03):
mysterious disappearances and possible Bigfoot sidings with increasingly scientific methods.
They deploy motion triggered cameras and remote, hard to reach
areas where sightings have been reported, hoping to capture evidence
of unknown creatures. Environmental DNA testing has become another valuable tool,
allowing scientists to identify traces of unknown animal species from

(46:25):
samples of soil, water, or other environmental materials. Researchers also
set up sophisticated recording devices to capture unusual sounds reported
in these areas, analyzing them for patterns that might indicate
the presence of unknown creatures. To better understand the phenomenon,
they maintain extensive databases tracking patterns in sightings and unexplained events,

(46:48):
looking for commonalities that might help explain these mysterious occurrences.
The combination of traditional folklore and modern scientific investigation demonstrates
how these mystery is continue to capture our imagination while
pushing us to better understand the natural world around us.
Whether through ancient stories or cutting edge technology, humans continue

(47:11):
to explore the possibility that there might be more to
discover in our wilderness areas than we currently know. Although
these methods have not technically proven the existence of Bigfoot,
they have helped solve some mysteries and paid interesting dividends
in our knowledge about known wildlife. They've also deepened our
understanding of how people perceive and interpret unexpected encounters in

(47:33):
the wild. The strange cases we've examined offer several important
lessons about our relationship with the natural world and how
we approach its mysteries. First and foremost, these cases remind
us that nature commands and deserves our deepest respect. Even
the most experienced outdoor enthusiasts occasionally encounter situations that defy

(47:55):
their understanding, proving that wilderness can humble even those who
know best. These mysteries also serve as powerful reminders that
our world still holds many secrets. Scientists continue to discover
new species every year, from tiny insects to previously unknown mammals,
demonstrating that our knowledge of the natural world remains incomplete.

(48:20):
This ongoing process of discovery suggests we should maintain a
sense of wonder about what might still await discovery and
remote corners of our planet, bigfoot or not. The importance
of scientific thinking shines through in each of these cases.
While it's tempting to jump to conclusions or accept the
first plausible explanation, a scientific approach requires us to keep

(48:43):
an open mind while methodically examining the evidence. By carefully
working backward from what we observe, we can often uncover
logical explanations for seemingly inexplicable events, even if the answer
isn't immediately apparent. These cases also underscore the paramount importance
of safety and outdoor adventures. Whether someone's planning an expedition

(49:05):
into remote wilderness or simply taking a day hike on
local trails, proper preparation can mean the difference between a
safe return and a dangerous situation. The mysteries we've explored
show how quickly things can go wrong when people venture
unprepared into wild places. Finally, these cases highlight the value

(49:26):
of diverse perspectives and understanding mysterious events. Native American tribes
bring centuries of accumulated knowledge about the land and its secrets.
Early settlers contributed their own observations and experiences, while modern
researchers add scientific methodology and technological tools to the investigation.

(49:46):
Each of these viewpoints offers unique and valuable insights, and
together they help us build a more complete understanding of
the unexplained events that continue to puzzle us. Many of
these cases likely do have natural health explanations, but some
details remain a mystery to experts. The mix of surprises,
seemingly missing evidence, and unexplained circumstances leave people wondering what

(50:10):
may have actually happened. These mysteries are a reminder that
even in our modern world, there are still questions that
need answering, whether such creatures exist in the North American
wilderness or not. These stories have become a significant part
of our cultural history. They remind us to protect wild
places and study nature more closely, and to hold on

(50:31):
to a sense of wonder about the world we live in.
They also remind us that the wilderness, despite its beauty,
deserves respect and thoughtful preparation. We will eventually, hopefully answer
some of these questions as science and technology advance. There's
still a lot to learn about our world, and perhaps
even some old surprises in store within the deep forests

(50:54):
and remote mountains of North America. It should be noted
that most of the big Foot sightings reported by witnesses
are benign, The entities characteristically described as skittish and evading
human interaction. But then how do we predict the behavior
of a creature we don't even have proof exists. Both
Bigfoot and the wilderness are full of twists. They keep

(51:16):
us thinking long after our experience with them. We may
never know what really happened in these cases, and that
keeps people's minds turning about what could still be out
there in the untouched wilderness regions of North America, maybe
even a giant hairy humanoid we lovingly call Bigfoot. Thanks

(51:43):
for listening. If you like the show, please share it
with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories,
true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. All
stories used in Weird Darkness aren't purported to be true
and less stated otherwise, and you can find links to
the author's stories and sources I used in the episode description,
as well as on the website at Weirddarkness dot com.

(52:06):
Weird Darkness is a registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness. And
now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave
you with a little light James one verse seventeen. Every
good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change
like shifting shadows. And a final thought, While it is

(52:29):
true that we all face giants, it's also true that
every giant is defeatable. Greg Laurie, I'm Darren Marler. Thanks
for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Hey, weirdos. Before

(52:53):
ending this episode, I wanted to give you a sample
of what I've been experimenting with on another podcast and
YouTube channel in ton Weird after Dark, where two ghost
hosts conduct a deep dive discussion into the latest Weird
Darkness episode. Not only do they talk about what you
just heard in this episode, but they also cover aspects
of the stories and topic that didn't make it into

(53:15):
the episode. I give them all the resources that I
pulled from to put together the episode, whether I used
the information or not, and then they go that much
deeper into the topic, usually bringing up points that never
even occurred to me while creating the Weird Darkness episode.
I have not shared Weird after Dark here in this
podcast and YouTube channel because my policy is well, no

(53:37):
AI voices will be used in this podcast and YouTube
channel the ghosts or I will admit AI. But if
I had not just told you that, I'm guessing a
lot of people would never have known, and because they're AI,
they will not be staying in this podcast and YouTube channel.
This is just my way of sharing this little thing
on the side that I'm working on. So if you're

(53:59):
up for listening to the the experiment here is Weird
after Dark.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Welcome to Weird after Dark, where we pull back the
curtain on the latest creepiest things we've been immersing ourselves in.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
All from the world of Weird Darkness, hosted by the
one and only Darren Marler, the professional voice actor with
that incredible voice.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
We are your ghost hosts, and Tonight, Wow, Tonight, we
are plunging into a mystery that is so pervasive and
frankly so unsettling.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
It just bridges that gap between folklore, true crime, and
something utterly inexplicable.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
That's right. We are tackling the recent deep dive into
the Bigfoot connection. Why can't search teams find these missing hikers?

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Oh? Just the title gives me chills.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
This isn't just about, you know, blurry photos of a
creature in the woods. This is about a pattern, really
disturbing pattern of disappearances across North America, a pattern.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
That just it defies rational explanation, and it's tied sometimes
very directly to sightings of these large, seemingly highly intelligent
humanoid creatures. And when we say defies explanation, we really
really mean it. Our mission tonight is to pull out
the most important, the most bizarre, and honestly the most

(55:29):
horrifying little nuggets from the research.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
A lot of it from David Paled's and others.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Right, we want to understand the terrifying scope of this problem,
look at the history behind it, and really examine the
forensic anomaly.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Well weird little details.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Exactly the details that make these specific missing person's cases
just fundamentally different from you know, any other tragedy in
the wild.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
It's a huge, overwhelming stack of source material and the
goal is really to make sense of the nonsense, to
look at these vanishing acts and try to figure out
are they the result of nature, human action.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Or something else entirely. I am already feeling that chill
of the forest at dusk just thinking about this. But
before we venture too far into those woods, we have
to mention something that is going to make your holidays truly,
truly horrifying.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Oh yeah, speaking of things dark and unspeakable, you need
to prepare yourselves for twenty four days of pure, unadulterated
audio horror.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I am so exciting for this.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
It's called Advent of Evil, and it's a brand new
saga that begins Monday, December first, and.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
It runs straight through Christmas Eve.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Every single day.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
This is the kind of holiday cheer you didn't know
you needed. So imagine this a quiet coastal town, Marshport, Maine,
classic creepy setting, of course, a veteran police officer, Matthew
Klein and his family. They get this mysterious package, no sender,
no tag, just sitting on their doorstep.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
And inside an antique wooden advent calendar with twenty four
little doors.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
But behind each of those tiny doors is a dark,
unspeakable secret. And once that first store opens, the nightmare
just begins.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
And Matthew has to confront these horrors from his past
that you know, refuse to stay buried oh so good,
And the whole town of Marshport is suddenly thrust into
this sinister, just existential dread.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
It is a countdown to pure supernatural terror. I am
canceling all my cheerful holiday plans. I'm just going to
lock myself in the dark and listen to this.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
That sounds about right.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
So Advent of Evil begins December first. Make sure you
don't miss a single terrifying day.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
But for now, let's talk about the original terrifying mystery
of the woods.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
The missing four one one phenomenon. Let's do it, Okay,
let's unpack this with some numbers that should frankly alarm everyone.
When we talk about missing persons, we are talking about
a massive, constant disaster.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
We really are NAMUSE, which is the National Missing and
Unidentified Person System, They report over six hundred thousand people
go missing every year in the US.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Six hundred thousand.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
It's a staggering figure. And you know, a lot of
that is tied to urban disas, appearances, runaways, conventional tragedies.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Right.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
But David Paulites he zeroed in on a very specific
and deeply unsettling subset.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Of that, the ones that vanish in the wildlands exactly.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
Paul I'd's found that at least sixteen hundred people are
currently missing in US wildlands under circumstances that just they
defy conventional search and rescue logic.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
And that's the key part the logic.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Yeah. The sheer volume of these highly mysterious pattern vanishings
is the first terrifying clue that something beyond simple bad
luck is happening here.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
And this is such a critical distinction we have to make.
Not every person who gets lost in a national park
is a missing four on one case.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Right, not at all. No Paul Eyd's set up these
very specific criteria patterns that repeat over decades across different regions,
and that's.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
What distinguishes these sixteen hundred cases from the other six
hundred thousand disappearances.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Yet it's exactly if a case doesn't have these key anomalies,
it doesn't make his list, And.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
That's the technical detail that gives this whole theory so
much weight. These cases are chosen because they break all
the standard protocols. We have to mention those criteria.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Yeah, absolutely do.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Let's just lay them out because without them, you don't
really understand why these cases are so terrifyingly unique.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
The patterns are pretty extensive, but the most the most
salient ones include a few key things. Okay, first, there's
no scent trail search dogs. Highly trained dogs frequently can't
pick up a cent even right after the person disappears.
It's gone. It's gone. Or if they do find a scent,
it just ends abruptly, as if the person was suddenly,
you know, lifted off the ground.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
WHOA Okay, what else?

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Missing clothing or footwear? We'll get into this more, but
victims are often found or their last scene without their shoes,
even when it's not cold enough for hypothermia.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
That is so weird.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Then there's proximity to water. A huge number of these
disappearances happen near lakes, creeks, rivers, even if the person
wasn't swimming or anything. And the weather the weather. Yeah,
the disappearance off happens right before or even during a
sudden really severe weather event like a storm just pops
up out of nowhere. It's like a cover, it really is.

(01:00:08):
And finally, the unusual demographics the age and the physical
state of the victim just don't match where they're found
or how far they supposedly traveled.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Okay, that last one that brings us to the most
unsettling specific demographics. It's not just a random sampling of
the population that vanishes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
No, not at all. The majority of these unexplained disappearances
involve two really narrow vulnerable age groups, which are young
children from about twenty months to twelve years old, oh god,
and the elderly usually between seventy four and eighty five.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
So the question is are these just the easiest targets
or are they just less able to say what happened
to them if they're found.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
That's the million dollar question.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
The timing of it all is so unnerving to me too.
It's often in the late afternoon, right between like four
and six pm, yep, just before dark, just before darkness
falls and the weather turns bad. It feels almost calculated,
like whatever is responsible is just waiting for nature to
create the perfect screen for its movement.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
And that waiting period is crucial because search teams they
usually run hard for about ten days. They use everything, helicopters,
ground teams.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Dogs, all the resources, all of them.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
And then if nothing turns up, the case is dropped
or you know, severely scaled back. Yeah, and that solidifies
the cold vanish.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
But here's where it gets really interesting and frankly, just
physically impossible to explain away the inexplicable track. This is
the pattern that just shatters all search and rescue protocols.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
It really does. Police's data shows that a chilling fifty
percent of children who are found deceased, Yeah, they're discovered
miles away from where they disappeared, miles and often after
they've crossed incredibly rough terrain. We're talking cliffs, steep inclines, yeah,
dense bush.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
In a timeframe. That's just it's impossible.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Searchers deem it impossible for a small child to do
on their own.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
How does a two year old walk twelve miles miles
overnight uphill through a thick forest with no one helping them.
Search experts have testified that even a healthy, motivated adult
would struggle with that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
They absolutely would.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
A toddler lacks the motor skills, the motivation, the endurance.
It's just it's not possible.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
It completely defies logic and physics, which is why the
theory of a non human or at least a highly
unusual human agent becomes necessary to explain the facts on
the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
So when experienced trackers look at the route.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
They often say it out right, this child did not
walk here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
And if they don't walk there, they were carried, And
who or what is carrying toddler's miles a pill into
the wilderness exactly. Now, let's talk about the missing gear,
because this is where all the conventional explanations just fall apart.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
Right when bodies are found, they are often missing clothes
or shoes, And we need to pause on this because
there is a standard but still terrifying explanation.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
For that paradoxical undressing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Paradoxical undressing, Yes, explain that for the listener, because it's
a necessary but pretty gruesome detail.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Okay, So it happens in the final stages of severe hypothermia.
The person's blood vessels suddenly dilate, which makes them feel
intensely burning hot even though they're freezing to death. So
in a panic, they start ripping off their clothes because
they genuinely believe they're overheating. It's a known, if rare
forensic thing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
So if a hiker is found naked, it often points
to death by exposure.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
Right, But these cases, they're.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Different, precisely In the missing four one of one cases,
the absence of shoes or socks or sometimes even pants,
it often appears meticulous. It doesn't look like that panic
tearing you see with paradoxical undressing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
And a lot of these cases happen when it's not
even cold enough for hypothermia to be a factor.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Or the missing item is specifically the footwear, which is
really hard to lose by accident. Why just the shoes?
Why are key items sometimes found neatly staged or bundled up,
As we'll see later, it's the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Difference between chaotic behavior and intentional action. And the final
furiating piece of this puzzle is what Polyades calls the
knowledge gap. Why is the government so quiet about this?

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Polities argues, and this is a powerful indictment that the
Department of Interior, so the National Park Service and the
US Forest Service, they don't reliably track this specific type
of missing person data.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
Their fear, he says, is that if they revealed the
true scope of these inexplicable losses, especially the patterns of
children vanishing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
It would shock the public.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
It would shock the public so badly that visitor numbers
would fall off a cliff.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
So they treat it like a state's secret. They act
like these sovereign entities, and they're reluctant to share data
with outside agencies or even local law enforcement.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
And it creates all this bureaucratic red tape that ensures
the pattern is never seen nationally, only in these little
regional pockets.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
And if you can't see the pattern, you can't look
for an intelligent cause, they are effectively concealing the true
scope of this this invisible phenomenon.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
It's like they're hiding a pandemic, a danger that's unseen
missing person.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
But this isn't new, This vanishing thing isn't new at all.
Let's look at some of the terrifying historical precursors to
these cases.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Yeah, the patterns stretch back centuries. We have to start
with the eighteen sixty eight mister Wolf case in Michigan.
It was near a lumber camp. A three year old
girl disappeared.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
A remote environment, a young child, already hitting all the
four to one in one criteria. What did she say
when they found her?

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
Well, she was found safe, but she was deeply distressed.
She claimed mister wolf wouldn't let her leave the area.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Okay, mister wolf.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
And this this creature engaged in specific, almost human like behaviors.
It ate her hat and her gloves.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
A wolf that eats successories, that is already highly suspicious.
Wolves usually go for you know, flesh, not fabric.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
Well, the detail that turns this into a potential sasquortch
encounter is what she said next. What she claimed, mister
wolf that her berries in his hand.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Wait wait, wait, a wolf with hands? You don't feed
a child with a paw. That completely changes the profile
from a predatory animal to a a gigantic hairy bipedal creatures.
He's potentially a sasquash, engaging in behavior that is intelligent, deliberate,
and in a really twisted way, almost parental or caring

(01:06:11):
towards the child.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
This is a consistent terrifying thread in some of the
younger missing children cases, This idea of a gentle abduction
or a territorial creature that's sort of watching over the child.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
And the language she is, mister Wolfe. It suggests this
large hairy presence that she just she anthropomorphized it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
It provides this incredible historical context for the modern hypothesis
that Bigfoot might be taking children, not necessarily to harm them,
but maybe maybe out of confusion or curiosity.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Or some bizarre protective instinct.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
Yeah. Now, let's fast forward to twenty ten, the robot
Grandma case. Oh, this story, this takes the high strangeness
into completely different territory. The UFO et overlap.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
This one is utterly bizarre. Give us the details on
the three year old boy. They call him John Doe.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Okay, so, John Doe vanished on October first, twenty ten.
He was found five hours later in this dense thicket,
seemingly just stunned.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
And what was his story.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
He reported that he followed someone he saw it was
his grandma, to a cave, and he noted that inside
the cave, even though it was dark outside, the interior
was unusually bright.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
And that's when he realized this person was not his grandma.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
Correct when she turned, he concluded she was a robot
because she had an unusual light coming from her head.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
A light from her head.

Speaker 3 (01:07:25):
Could be a headlamp, an instrument, maybe even some kind
of implanted device.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
We don't know, robot grandma. That detail is incredible and
completely inconsistent with any kind of normal Woods lore.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
The encounter got even weirder and more clinical. The robots
started getting pushy, asking him to defecate onto sticky paper
that she placed on the ground. Why he refused, and
she got angry. He also saw what he described as
small guns and dusty objects nearby around the cave.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Sticky paper for defecation. That sounds less like a wilderness
creature's den and more like a horrifying clinical or scientific examination.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
Like a study of human biology.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Maybe exactly. That's the implication. This points directly to the
medical examination component you hear about in alien abduction theories
and the connection to the boy's actual family is just chilling.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
What happened to his real grandmother?

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
So three weeks before the boy disappeared, his actual grandmother
told authorities that she and her husband were at the
very same creek where the boy went missing. She woke
up feeling pain and discovered a small bloody spot at
the base of her neck.

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Right, the bloody spot on the neck often linked to
alleged abduction evidence. Combined with the bizarre examination request in
the cave and the robot with the light.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
This is high strangeness defined.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
It links this modern case to the possibility of I
don't know, interdimensional activity or alien intervention. It suggests that
the same remote hotspots that might hold Bigfoot might also
hold other phenomena.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Building on that idea that these are highly intelligent, large
bipedal creatures, we have to look into the deep historical.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Record to prove this isn't some new thing invented in
the twentieth century exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Let's talk wild man, because that's the historical link. Okay.
David Paladies did these extensive archival searches, and he found
frequent articles in newspapers from the seventeen hundreds and eighteen
hundreds about a creature known as the wild man and
the descriptions. They were consistently described as a large, bipedal,
hairy being enormous in size with long arms, so.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
The descriptions aligned perfectly with the modern bigfoot profile. What's
crucial here is that eighteenth century observers didn't just call
it an enormous bear. They gave it a human connotation,
wild man or wild woman.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
That's the distinction. They recognized, the bipedal gait, the long limbs,
the intelligence. They refused to classify it as just another
apex predator.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Which suggests that encounters with enormous hairy people have been
happening coast to coast for centuries.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
And this feeds directly into Native American traditions, which you know,
they didn't need Polity's research to tell them about these creatures.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
No, They've known all along.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
The indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest have this deep
complex lore surrounding Sasquatch, scucum semequiz. The cultural stories are explicit.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
I've heard about the Headless Valley.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
The Yukon and Nani Valley. They hold these ancient legends
of cannibal giants responsible for the headless valley phenomenon. It
is human heads washing up on river shores, a truly
gruesome historical account of missing body parts.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
Cannibal giants causing mass disappearances. That is the most primal
fear underlying all these missing four one one statistics.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
But it's important to say not all the lore paints
them as monsters. Some tribes view Bigfoot as a spiritual being,
or even a protector.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Of the forest, a nature spirit, a.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
Nature spirit that guards its domain fiercely against human encroachment,
and this often comes with specific warnings like never whistle
in the woods.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Wait what no whistling is that a hunting dage?

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
No whistling is believed to be a communication method used
by Bigfoot, a call or a signal.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
So to whistle in the deep woods.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
Is to announce your presence to the creature in its
own language, which is seen as profoundly disrespectful or provocative.
It's a key cultural warning for avoiding an encounter.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Never whistle in the woods. That is a highly specific,
intelligent rule of engagement. Now let's go even bigger. I
want to talk about the giants. The historical discoveries that
Polyade's claims were covered up.

Speaker 3 (01:11:29):
This is where history gets truly melodramatic, and it feeds
the deepest conspiracy theories. Polyads found repeated archival accounts of
giant skeletons consistently measuring seven to nine feet tall, discovered
all across the US.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
And these weren't just random large bones, right. They were
found with artifacts that suggested intelligence.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Correct. They were often found near pottery, sophisticated tools, or jewelry,
suggesting a technologically intelligent race of giants.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
For instance, a nine foot skeleton found in a Wisconsin
mound in eight teen ninety seven was discovered alongside copper
relics copper. Another eighteen ninety seven account from Maryland noted
a seven foot Indian skeleton whose bones were nearly as
thick as those of a horse. That's insane, and the
skull suggested a very advanced cranial capacity copper tools.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
We're talking about an advanced, massive prehistoric or proto Bigfoot
race living in North America that predates the accepted historical timeline.
This is where I have to pause and challenge the archive.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Though that's fair, how reliable our newspaper reports from eighteen
ninety seven, sensationalism was rampant. We have to acknowledge that right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Could this just be sensationalism or a misinterpretation of remains,
or is the archival evidence substantial enough to warrant the
cover up. Theory that follows the claim is that these
remains were all turned over to the Smithsonium.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
The accounts often state that the Smithsonian Institution took possession
of these artifacts and skeletons for study, but when researchers
try to follow up here gone, the Smithsonian denies having
any North American giant skeletons that match these descriptions. This denial,
whether it's based on bad record keeping or deliberate action,
is the core engine fueling the speculation.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
The idea that the truth about a giant past is
being actively concealed from the public. They are concealing the
truth about copper tool using giants who roam the continent.
If that's true, it completely rewrites the history of this land.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
And if Bigfoot is a descendant of this giant lineage,
it explains its sheer size, its physical capability, and perhaps
its extreme intelligence.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
The intelligence is key colleagues and other researchers all agree
if Bigfoot were not highly intelligent using stealth, cunning, maybe
environmental knowledge far beyond our own.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
It would have been captured by now.

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Absolutely, its continued elusiveness is proof of its capacity for
planning innovation.

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
And this intelligence links back to the high strangeness theories,
particularly that UFO connection. For the ultimate fringe theory that
connects all these dots, the large intelligent wild man and
the inexplication vanishing acts, poly Thees found an article from
sixteen eighty sixteen eighty. It described a large black cloud
like mass landing which then released a huge hair covered

(01:14:09):
being that briefly appeared and then disappeared.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
So we have the wild man, the giant, and now
the E two UPHO connection all rolled into one. This
suggests Bigfoot is either extraterrestrial or maybe use this technology
that allows it to appear and disappear quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
Which would explain the instantaneous vanishing acts and the abrupt
loss of scent trails that characterize the four and eleven cases.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
And while most modern sightings are benign, you know the
creature is shy, it avoids human contact.

Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
We have to note that the historical articles, particularly those
describing the wild man. They do imply aggression.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Killing livestock, confronting people.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
General territorial defense, suggesting they are capable of violence when
they perceive a threat.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Let's ground this in some specific, unrecovered cases that perfectly
illustrate the four and eleven criteria. We have to start
in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Two hundred thousand acres of dense forests.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
And allegedly a sasquatch stomping.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
Ground, Shenandoah is a massive hotspot. It has contributed to
over one thousand missing person's cases reported nationally since nineteen sixteen.
The park seems to have a high capacity for just
swallowing people whole, and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
One of the most famous cases involves an experienced ranger
MN who went missing in nineteen eighty seven. This guy
had hiked nearly the entire Appalachian Trail.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
An expert woodsman, and yet he vanishes. What did they
find at his last known location.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
They found his backpack, his journal, and other personal belongings.
Investigators noted he had empty containers of non dangerous drugs,
things like pseudofed.

Speaker 3 (01:15:40):
Which if you take too much, could induce hallucinations right.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
But his journal showed no signs of suicidal ideation or distress,
and crucially, they found his running shoes, so.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
He might have been a little disoriented, but he was
equipped and experienced, yet he still vanished.

Speaker 2 (01:15:55):
Days later, the critical baffling sighting happened. A father and
son reported seeing m N on the trail headed south,
and he was wearing only socks. His boots, pants, and
stick were found later scattered around, but his body was
never recovered.

Speaker 3 (01:16:08):
Wearing only socks in the wilderness, Why would an experienced ranger,
even if he was hallucinating, meticulously remove his protective outerwear
and footwear and then just keep trekking.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
It points right back to that baffling four to eleven
criteria missing clothing without a clear forensic reason.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
If he was truly hallucinating and suffering from exposure, you'd
expect him to be thrashing or tearing at things, struggling.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Not just continuing a hike in socks.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
It implies a bizarre form of intentionality, or maybe maybe
the clothing was removed by another agent who deemed them
unnecessary for the journey.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Now, let's contrast that tragedy with the inexplicable survival of
Donnie Wentz in nineteen ninety two in the same park.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
Donnie Wentz was a twelve year old totally inexperienced hiker
who got separated from a church group. He survived two
frigid nights alone under rock.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Overhangs, supposedly subsisting only on butterfingers candy bars.

Speaker 3 (01:17:02):
Survival on butterfingers a.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
Horrifying menu, but a testament to his luck. I guess
The amazing part is his condition. When they found him,
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
Sound perfectly healthy. Two days later, he only had minor
cuts and scrapes, and he was primarily concerned about missing
wrestling practice.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
The search party was stunned in freezing temperatures. An unequipped
felve year old should have been severely hypothermic, dehydrated, near death.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
So how is a non experienced child in perfect health
after two freezing mites in the wilderness. This raises the
same question as the mister Wolf case.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
Was something intervening, was.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
He in a protected area, was he being cared for,
or was he, for some unknown reason just immune to
the harsh conditions?

Speaker 3 (01:17:41):
And the Shenandoah mystery just keeps going. Others like Robbie
Fitzgerald in twenty twelve, an experienced hiker who vanished on
a simple three mile looppike after losing his phone and shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
But his vehicle and essential trail pack were left at
the trailhead. Experienced hiker body unrecovered key items left behind.
It's the same pattern.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
And Earl Funk in two thousand and eight, and experienced
outdoorsman who died from environmental exposure during a cold October.
The complexity there is the scattering of his gear across
a huge search area.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
His hat, his machete, one boot, at ten stake, his ATV,
all located zupperately.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
The scattering of gear is a significant pattern in four
hundred eleven cases. It doesn't look like a simple fall
or at a sudden medical event. It looks like an
intelligent agent was sorting through his.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
Belongings, removing necessary survival items and just distributing them haphazardly
across the environment.

Speaker 3 (01:18:32):
Yeah, let's move to a place that is historically associated
with Bigfoot now, Saint Helen's near the infamous Ape Canyon.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Right the site of that notorious nineteen twenty four event
where miners were allegedly attacked by multiple eight men.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
And in nineteen fifty Jim Carter, a seasoned thirty two
year old expert skier, he vanished near Ape Canyon. He
was ahead of his group taking pictures of the mountain,
and he wasn't lost.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
He was seen acting in a terrifying, frantic manner.

Speaker 3 (01:19:01):
Witnesses saw Carter suddenly change his posture and just ski
down the mountain, going like the devil.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
Making dangerous death defying jumps over deep crevasses.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
As if being chased by something unseen, something invisible to
the people watching.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
A terrified frantic dash straight toward peril and the searchers.
They found his ski tracks leading over crevasses and right
off the steep canyon walls a sheer drop. They never
found him or his equipment, only a box of his
undeveloped film, which truly terrifying. Is the atmosphere during the
search itself. If a creature was responsible, it made sure
the searchers felt its presence absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
Searchers reported hearing strange loud sounds, not animal sounds they recognized,
and seeing large, hulking, shadow like shapes moving through the
thick trees at the edge of their vision and the smells.
Others were overcome with these overpowering, horrible smells.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
The classic Bigfoot stench. It's supposed to be a warning mechanism.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
Bob Lee, a professional mountaineer involved in the search, he
just described it as the most eerie experience he ever had.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
He said, the hair on the back of his neck
stood up, and he felt constantly.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Watched, intensely unwelcome and threatened, even though he saw nothing concrete.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
That's not a fall, that's not a mountain lion, that
is an intelligent entity, potentially Bigfoot, staking its claim using
psychological warfare, the smells, the sounds, the feeling of being
watched to ensure the searchers know they are unwelcome trespassers.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
We have to venture north now, where the wilderness is
truly unforgiving, into the remote, cold darkness of Alaska and
the Yukon.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
These environments produce some of the most chilling cold vanishes
on record.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
Let's start with the total desertion of Port Chatham or Portlack, Alaska.
This remote fishing village essentially disappeared because of fear.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
This community existed for centuries, but things changed dramatically in
the nineteen twenties.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
With persistent reports of a wild man and huge footprints.
The creature was locally dubbed nanty Kinak, and.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
The incidents turned deadly, confirm ming the fear was rational.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
In nineteen thirty one, a lumberjack named Andrew Kamlock was
found dead from massive head injuries. Investigators determined he was
crushed by a logging machine, likely pinned against a tree.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
But here's the anomaly.

Speaker 3 (01:21:12):
The heavy logging machine had been inexplicably tossed ten feet
away from his body, and large footprints were found nearby.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
A heavy logging machine tossed ten feet That requires an
impossible level of strength for any known human or conventional animal.

Speaker 3 (01:21:26):
We're talking about a feet of superhuman power.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
It just confirms the existence of a massive, powerful agent.

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
Subsequent bodies were found along the trails, mutilated, sometimes partially eaten.
It terrified the small community to the.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
Point where cannery workers demanded armed guards to protect them
during their shifts.

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
By nineteen forty nine, the fear, combined with some economic shifts,
led to the total desertion of the town.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
No one returned, and while sure isolation in the New
Alaska root one contributed to the economic decline. You cannot
deny the psychological impact of a massive creature tossedeing machinery
and murdering villagers.

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
The local native elder's warning sums up the persistent dread.
Don't go out on a foggy day. That's when he's
shuffling around.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
Fog is the perfect natural screen. It allows a giant
creature to move silently and unseen.

Speaker 3 (01:22:15):
Now let's talk about Bart Schleier in the Yukon two
thousand and four. This is a case of an expert
vanishing that defies all forensic explanation.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
Bart Schleier was a world renowned wildlife biologist and an
expert bowhunter. He specialized in tracking major predators like grizzly
bearers and Siberian tigers.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
He was the most prepared man in the woods. He
vanished during a remote solo bow hunting trip.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
He was dropped off by floatplane for a two week trip.
When the pilot came back, he found half a meal
left at Schleier's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
Camp, suggesting an abrupt departure.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
Exactly what else was found.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
His inflatable boat was abandoned along the shore, and his
bow and arrows were leaned against a tree sixty yards
into the woods. But here's the crucial point.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
He left his gear.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
He left behind his key survival gear, his backpack, his knife,
his radio, and most importantly, his bare spray all at
the camp.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
Why would an expert in predator behavior deep in bear
country leave his bare spray and his radio.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
It implies whatever caused him to leave the camp was
either non threatening happened so quickly he couldn't react.

Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
Or it was a threat he knew the bear spray
wouldn't deter.

Speaker 3 (01:23:23):
Then came the bizarre evidence found further along the path
where he had disappeared.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
What did they find?

Speaker 3 (01:23:28):
Searchers found his camouflage, face mask with only minute traces
of blood and hair, and most strangely, his hunting pants
lying on the ground turned inside out inside out, as
if they were gently stripped.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
Off inside out pants a gentle removal. This is crucial.
If this had been a typical struggle with a grizzly bear,
the pants would be shredded, torn and the moss around
the area would be all.

Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
Churned up exactly. Further forensic analysis revealed a piece of
his skull and small bones sixty meters away Crucially, there
were no signs of struggle. The moss was undisturbed, and
the remains they should no tooth punctures or gnawing damage.
This completely rules out a typical bear attack or common.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
Scavenging bear's attack. Viciously, they tear clothing, and they always
cash their kills. They bury them to eat later, and
there was no cash found, So we're left with a
non animal intelligent force that didn't behave according to any
known predator norms. Why were the pants inside out? Was
he taken, examined and then discarded?

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
The detail of the inside out pants suggests a deliberate,
methodical handling of the body. It's an act of care
or maybe examination that defies the logic to be either
a wild animal or a rushed human killer.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
And that highly technical forensic anomaly, the lack of struggle
and the lack of gnawing, it's definitive evidence that Bartschleier's
death was not due to a conventional wilderness tragedy.

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
So given the sheer number of cases with these baffling anomalies,
the missing clothing, the impossible speed of travel, the lack
of a cent trail, if it's not conventional animal per dation.
What are the leading theories for why these people vanish?

Speaker 2 (01:25:04):
The theories really lean into intentional abduction. This could be
by an intelligent Sasquatch, or at least a human who
uses the bigfoot mystery as a cover.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
Which brings us to the case of Teresa Ann Beer
in nineteen eighty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
The sixteen year old who went camping in the Sierra
Mountains with Russell Welch.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
Right. Welch was a forty three year old self professed
bigfoot expert who claimed to be in regular contact with
the creatures.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
Teresa vanished and Welch returned alone, claiming a bigfoot had
seized Teresa and taken her away.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
Now, a conventional criminal would use a more believable story
or immediately fold under questioning. Welch did the opposite.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
He did he refused a plea deal that would have
let him avoid prison if he just explained what really happened,
admitted to murder or an accidental death.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
He maintained, under massive legal and personal pressure, that the
bigfoot abduction story was true.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
That raises a profound psychological question. Why stick to an unbelievable,
self incriminating lie if it wasn't in some form true
to him.

Speaker 3 (01:26:02):
It suggests a deep, maybe delusional commitment to the paranormal explanation.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
Or maybe a terrifying truth he couldn't articulate any other way.

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
We also have to impartially report the possibility of human
unhuman crimes murder, kidnapping. Of course, while it's highly unlikely
to account for the sheer mass of these patterned, geographically
disperse four hundred and eleven cases, the possibility is always there.
The disappearance of Stephanie Stewart in Alberta in two thousand
and six happened in an area where a known serial

(01:26:31):
killer was.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
Operating, and that reminds us that not all cases are paranormal.
Sometimes people are just truly evil and the wilderness provides
the cover.

Speaker 3 (01:26:38):
But the truly inexplicable cases lead us straight back into
the fringe. The portal or alien hypothesis okay, explain this.
This hypothesis tries to apply physics to the vanishing act.
The idea is that people slip into interdimensional rifts or
wormholes in geographic hotspots like Yosemite or parts of the
Sierra Mountains, places.

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
Where magnetic fields are naturally strong, or unusually.

Speaker 3 (01:26:59):
Weak right, the sudden end of cent trails and the
immediate disappearance would be perfectly explained by just stepping through
a portal.

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
And if we consider alien abduction, the remote parks offer
the perfect camouflage, no witnesses, dense cover, and high strangeness
already established in the.

Speaker 3 (01:27:15):
Region, it makes subductions easier and cleaner than in a
city center.

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
This leads us to the baffling Canadian mystery of Michelle
Trudeau in nineteen ninety eight in British Columbia.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
He was the brother of the current Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau and son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
Meaning virtually unlimited resources were available for the search.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
The official story is that he drowned in a small
crystal clear lake after an avalanche, but his body was
never recovered, and that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Is the anomaly. Coconea Lake is a small Alpine crystal
clear body of water. Given the families resources, deep sea
submersibles and expert cold water divers should have been able
to recover his remains even years later.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
If he was simply drowned and submerged, so was the
avalanche a deliberate cover story.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
For a vanishing, a disappearance so complete that an inexplicable
but plausible natural tragedy had to be used to explain
the lack of a body.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
It remains a profound mystery in Canadian history. It feeds
that idea that high profile vanishings sometimes require high profile,
yet incomplete explanations.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Regardless of the cause. The human cost of these cold
vanishes is immense. The frozen grief this concept really needs
the way it deserves.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
It's a tragedy that just compounds itself. The term frozen grief,
which was coined by family therapist Pauline Boss, describes a
permanent state of uncertainty.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Where you can't mourn because you don't know the fate
of your loved one.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
The National Institute of Justice rightfully calls these missing cases
the nation's silent mass disaster.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
You can't have a funeral, you can't get closure, you
can't begin to heal, and legally, this agonizing limbo can
last for seven years in most states before a person
is legally declared dead.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
Seven years of perpetual agonizing uncertain.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
We see this trauma and the desperation that comes from
it so clearly in the heartbreaking search for Jacob Gray.

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
He disappeared in Olympic National Park in twenty seventeen. Jacob
was a healthy twenty two year old, but he's grappling
with depression.

Speaker 2 (01:29:13):
And Randy Gray, Jacob's sixty three year old father, he
took this extraordinary step of literally liquidating his world. He
sold his house, his business, to live in Washington and
search for his son for eighteen months.

Speaker 3 (01:29:27):
He committed every single resource he had to finding an answer.

Speaker 2 (01:29:30):
And Randy pursued every lead possible. He consulted psychics who
claimed abduction. He followed leads about cults recruiting along the
Pacific Crust Trail, and.

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
He encountered these profoundly disturbing clues that echoed the high
strangeness of the four hundred eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
Cases, specifically the arrows Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:29:47):
Near Jacob's abandoned camp, Randy found four arrows laid out
in a meticulously placed line. This isn't coincidence, this is
deliberate staging.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
And he was tormented by the horrifying regularity of disembodied
human feet in shoes washing ashore in the.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
Area, often in new balanced shoes the brand Jacob wore.

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
The agony of not knowing led Randy to join the
very community of people who study these things.

Speaker 3 (01:30:09):
He joined the Olympic Project, the Bigfoot researchers, and while
they never tried to convert him to the cryptid theory,
they helped him search using their intimate knowledge of the
wild terrain.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
And Randy at one point became so desperate for a
positive answer that he even entertained the idea that and
this is a quote, Jacob could be adopted by a
family of Bigfoot, which would be good.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
That statement just reflects the absolute breaking point of frozen grief,
acceptance of an unbelievable scenario just to achieve closure and
imagine a continued life for his son.

Speaker 2 (01:30:42):
This search ended eighteen months later, and here's the final
four HIT eleven pattern confirmation. Jacob's remains were found fifteen
miles and five three hundred feet up the.

Speaker 3 (01:30:52):
Mountain, confirming Randy's intuition that Jacob went against the natural
downhill pattern of lost hikers.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
But even with the closure, the cause of death was
officially inconclusive, and the final infuriating clue that returns us
to the forensic anomalies his.

Speaker 3 (01:31:06):
Boots were found bundled neatly in garbage bags.

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
Why Why would a person struggling with exposure or an
accident stop to meticulously bundle their own protective footwear and
plastic bags.

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
Why the clean footwear staging just like the carefully stripped
pants of bart Schleier.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
It suggests a different kind of intelligence operating in the
deepest parts of our wilderness, one that cleans up after itself,
leaving behind only the most baffling clues.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
So, given the high strangeness and the real dangers, whether
they're natural, criminal or encryptid, what does this all mean
for you, the listener? When you venture into.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
The wilderness, preparation remains paramount.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
Absolutely we have to provide practical, non judgmental advice. The
wilderness is inherently dangerous, regardless of what you believe is
lurking in the shadows.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
Always inform someone trustworthy of your exact route and your
expected return time.

Speaker 3 (01:31:55):
Be specific and essential gear is non negotiable. You need
to carry a physical mass app, a compass, GPS, emergency shelter, firestarters, and,
especially in these remote four to eleven hotspots, a personal
locator beacon or a satellite device.

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
Research the local wildlife. The weather specific hazards like cliffs
or rapid elevation changes. But perhaps the most crucial piece
of advice when you're dealing with the unknown is.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Psychological trust your instincts. If you feel an unusual silence, descend,
the sudden absence of bird song, or an overwhelming sense
of unease and being watched ticket seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
Your subconscious often detects environmental dangers or unusual presences before
your conscious mind can process them, and.

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
The mysteries continue to drive modern research, even if they
haven't led to the capture of a giant, hairy, bipedal creature.

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
Yet we've seen the deployment of increasingly sophisticated tools, motion
triggered cameras across wide grids, environmental DNA testing aDNA of
soil and water.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
Samples, and advanced audio recording devices capable of picking up
ultra low frequency sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
And what of these modern methods.

Speaker 3 (01:33:02):
Proven, Well, they haven't proven Bigfoot exists, but they have
deepened our understanding of known wildlife behavior and crucially, human perception.

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
How suggestion, fear and fatigue can cause us to interpret
a large shadow in the fading light as something sinister.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
The legends endure because they attempt to bridge that knowledge gap.
They give a name to the inexplicable terror of the
cold vanish.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
Whether it's through ancient stories of the wild man, the
complex mythology of the Native American nations, or cutting edge
forensic science applied to impossible cases, these.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
Mysteries continue to push the bounds of what we know
about the untouched wilderness and what we don't dare to face.

Speaker 2 (01:33:41):
I think we have to leave you with this final
provocative thought. When a highly skilled, fully equipped expert like
bart Schleier leaves his knife and his radio behind and
his camouflage hunting pants are found generally turned inside out.

Speaker 3 (01:33:54):
Are we witnessing an animal, a careless criminal, or different
of intelligence one deliberately and meticulously erasing its presence from
the scene.

Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
The fact that forensic science rules out the standard explanations
means the most terrifying clue of all is not the body.

Speaker 3 (01:34:11):
It's the systematic, inexplicable lack of evidence left behind in
these vast wild places.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
Well said, these stories keep the world just a little
bit darker and a whole lot weirder.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
Now, before we vanish back into the shadows, remember that
terrifying twenty four day journey into holiday horror starts soon.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
That's right, It's the Advent of Evil, a twenty four
episode audio saga beginning Monday, December first and running through
Christmas Eve.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
It focuses on Matthew Klein and his family receiving an
antique advent calendar that thrusts Marshport, Maine into as sinister
nightmare as each door is opened.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
And if you want to follow along with the story
in print. The novel is available now in paperback, hardcover,
and on Kindle Plus.

Speaker 3 (01:34:52):
For a limited time, you can grab the Advent of
Evil gift Pack. It includes a signed novel by the author,
Scott Donnelly, along with an Advent of Evil bookmark, pen, highlighter,
hot chocolate, Chai tea, Chocolate's, a candy cane, and horror stickers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
You can find links to purchase the book or the
gift pack at Weird Darkness dot com, Forward and Ceandivent
to Evil. That's Weirddarkness dot com, Forward slash, Advent to Evil.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Thank you for joining us tonight on Weird after Dark.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
You can find more episodes of this deep dive into
the macabre at Weird Darkness dot com bash. Just search
for After Dark For more stories.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
Of the paranormal, true crime, strange and Macarbre, including numerous
stories that never make it to the podcast. Check out
the Weird darknwsplog at Weirddarkness dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
Stay safe out there, stay observant.

Speaker 3 (01:35:35):
And please never whistle in the woods.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
We'll see you next time in the Weird Darkness.

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