June 16, 2025 • 19 mins
10 CLASSIC "Missing 411" Type Disappearances with Steve Stockton
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, friends, and welcome to another episode. This time we
take a look at ten of the strangest national park disappearances.
In the United States National Park System, there are more
than eighty four million acres of preserved woods, deserts, mountains,
and other wilderness. In the past one hundred years, there
(00:26):
have been a number of individuals who have simply vanished.
Among those who vanished were hikers, children, campers, hunters, and
seasoned outdoors people. But is there more to these disappearances
than just kids wandering off or hikers becoming disoriented. What
could cause someone to seemingly vanish into thin air? Are
(00:50):
there two approaches people take when explaining these mysterious disappearances,
the first being accident by misadventure and the other supernatural
in nature. Most hiking experts would say that those missing
had made common mistakes, like taking on more than they
can handle or failing to time their turn back to
(01:12):
beat the sunset. Others believe that there's some type of
portal entity cryptid, and some have even gone as far
as suggesting the government is involved. Whatever you believe, there's
no denying that the following ten cases are definitely unexplained.
(01:37):
Number ten prob Deep Schan prob Deep Schan was a
twenty five year old Canadian Army reservist who disappeared from
Australia's Mount Kashiasuko National Park, located in the southeastern state
of New South Wales. Sean was studying abroad in Australia
in May twenty thirteen when he decided to take a
(02:00):
seventeen hundred mile road trip from the Gold Coast to Melbourne.
Sewn rented a van, drove to the park's Charlotte Pass
in the snowy mountains, and simply vanished. The last sign
of him being alive that day with a footprints a
fellow hiker saw him printed in the snow. A search
(02:21):
for Schn began when the rental company discovered that the
van he rented had not been returned. Seawn hadn't told
anyone what route or sidehikes he was planning, and the
search may have started days or even a week after
he went missing, since it was the rental company that
first reported the disappearance. Once the van Sean had rented
(02:42):
was located, searchers were about to figure out his hiking
plans by looking at the search history on his laptop
Shawn's family hired private searchers after Australian authorities called off
the search after two weeks. The investigators used tower data
from Shann's phone and a train dog to track his
trail to a treacherous area called the Western Fall Wilderness.
(03:06):
The search for Shan was the biggest search in Mount
Koshasuko National Park since the disappearance of four snowboarders in
August of nineteen ninety nine. Their remains weren't discovered until
the next spring, when the snow meltings and their bodies
were found in a snow cave. Why did shron choose
to go hiking just one day before his van was
(03:26):
due back to the rental agency. Why did he embark
on a difficult and time consuming hike in snowy weather.
Why would a trained military reservist make a choice like that.
Despite a private search costing his family more than four
hundred thousand dollars, Sewn has never been located. In twenty fifteen,
(03:48):
even though Seawan is still missing, the Corner's office determined
that he died on or in the days shortly after
May fourteenth, twenty thirteen, while walking in the national park.
His family is firm in their belief that they will
see him again someday. Miracles do happen, said his mother.
The family still continues to search the area where Sean
(04:10):
was last seen. Number nine David Gonzalez. David Gonzalez disappeared
while camping with his family in Fonsken, California, on July
thirty first, two thousand and four. David asked his mother
if he could have the truck keys. There was a
(04:33):
box of cookies in the truck and he wanted a treat.
The vehicle is only fifty yards forty six meters away,
and his mother watched him as he walked to the
parking lot near the Big Bear Lake campsite in northern
California San Bernardino National Forest. She turned her back for
a second, and when she looked around again, David was gone.
(04:56):
David's mother reported that she heard no sound at all
back was turned, though she did see a bige truck
speeding out of the campground around the time that her
son went missing. Since there were no signs of abduction,
authorities did not pursue that lead. The cookies that David
went to get were still in his family's locked vehicle,
(05:17):
so he never made it to the truck. Rescue teams
in San Bernardino County scoured the woods for David. They
found no signs of struggle or of the boy. The
search went on for nine days, but rescuers never found
him alive. In twenty fifteen, hikers stumbled upon David's remains
about a mile from his family's campsite. Authorities chalked this
(05:41):
up to a mountain lion attack. But how could a
mountain lion have silently dragged a nine year old boy
a mile without leaving any blood or signs of struggle.
Surely David would have screamed and cried out, but nobody
at the campground, including his mother, reported hearing or seeing
any thing. Number eight Catherine van Alst. Eight year old
(06:07):
Katherine van Alst disappeared from Devil's Den State Park near
Arkansas's Ozark National Forest when she and her family were camping.
Catherine apparently was playing with her brothers when she wandered
off and got lost. What makes Catherine's disappearance remarkable is
she was found six days later. When found, she was
(06:29):
wandering the woods and was eerily calm. University of Arkansas
student border Chadwick was part of the search party that
found Catherine. He told the Pittsburgh Press that when he
found her, she walked starically out of a cave and
just said, here I am. Many other hikers have gotten
lost in that part of the Ozarks and haven't been
(06:50):
as lucky as Catherine. A grown woman was lost there
for seventeen days and died just fifty yards from the road.
How did Catherine in surviving the woods for six days?
Did someone take her only to return her six days later?
Or is there an explanation of this story that we
simply can't comprehend. Either way, someone or something might just
(07:15):
be lurking in Devil's den. Number seven Paula Weldon. There's
an area in Green Mountain National Forest near Glastonbury Mountain
and Vermont's Long Trail that believers in the paranormal call
the Bennington Triangle. There. He got this name because of
a handful of mysterious disappearances which occurred between nineteen forty
(07:39):
five and nineteen fifty. Paula Weldon was the second person
to go missing in that area of Green Mountain National
Force during this period. Eighteen year old Paula was a
college student who set out on Long Trail in December
nineteen forty six. She was dressed for walking and not
a long hike, wearing jeans, a co and sneakers. Her
(08:02):
attire would imply that she planned to return before dark,
when temperatures were supposed to dip below freezing. Paula told
her roommate that she was taking a long walk, and
she never returned. Several people spotted her as she hitchhiked
away to the trail and walked to the trailhead. When
Paula was not back to her dorm by dark, her
(08:23):
roommate let the school know and the search began. Classes
were suspended so students could help with the search. The
process was disorganized at first, until Paula's father called in
favors from police into surrounding states. Unfortunately, the search didn't
pan out, and frustrated family and friends had their own
(08:45):
theories about what happened to her. Did Paula run off
with a boyfriend, was ship ducted, or did she fall
victim to exposure. Her body has never been found, so
her disappearance remains a mystery. Now, there is a rumor
that this area of the Long Trail is home to
a creature called the Bennington Monster. Could this sasquatch like
(09:09):
cryptid have something to do with her disappearance? We may
never know. Number six Larry Jeffrey. In nineteen sixty six,
a young boy by the name of Larry Jeffrey disappeared
near the peak of twelve thousand foot Mount Charleston in
the Humboldt Toyabi National Forest, just a short drive from
(09:31):
Las Vegas. The search began immediately after Jeffrey wandered away
from his brothers, and within days the National Guard and
a team of bloodhounds had joined the search. When Jeffrey disappeared,
he was wearing light clothing, and authorities were doubtful that
he could survive the cold temperatures of the desert at night.
(09:51):
Searchers found and lost the trail a few times, and
they discovered evidence that Jeffrey had been eating insects and
forged berries along the way. Overall, around one thousand people
searched for sixteen days but never found him. One searcher
said it was though Jeffrey had just walked into oblivion.
(10:15):
Number five Charles mccullor. In nineteen seventy four, nineteen year
old Charles or Chuck mccullor left his home state of
Virginia for an extended photography and hiking trip. Charles was
a keen photographer and he was planning to visit all
the national parks to take photographs, but was inexperience in
(10:35):
the wilderness and was said to be very ill prepared.
It seems that he had planned to hike to Crater
Lake along the North Road. A heavy snowfall during the
previous two weeks dropped over five feet of fresh snow
on the area. Cross country skiers reported that at the
time the snow was so soft and powdery that even
(10:56):
with skis, they were sinking up to their waists. Charles
had told his friend that if they did not hear
from him by February first, to call and reported missing.
When Charles failed to call his friends, they filed a
missing person to report immediately. An extensive air and ground
search in the northern section of the park was started,
(11:16):
but no clues as to charles disappearance were uncovered. A
year later, two hikers from Texas took a wrong turn
and ended up in a remote canyon when they stumbled
upon an old, dirty, ripped backpack in a place called
Biby Creek. The hikers called in the park rangers, and
one of the seasonal rangers remembered the description of Charles' backpack,
(11:39):
so another search took place in the area where the
backpack was found, and the very next day charles remains
were located. The skeletal remains were described as bizarre. There
were footbones in the socks, but charles jeans were empty
except for the broken off ends of his shin bones
sticking up rangely. The jeans were unbuttoned and the belt
(12:02):
buckle left undone. The rest of him was simply gone,
as if he had just melted away. The official cause
of death was determined to be natural causes Number four.
Douglas Leg. On July tenth, nineteen seventy one, eight year
(12:23):
old Douglas Leg was on a hike in the Adirondack
Force Santanoni Reserve when his uncle spotted poison ivy and
told Douglas to put on long pants to protect himself.
Douglas quickly headed back towards the family's cabin, which was
a straight and short distance away, but he never returned.
Unlike a lot of the kids who have gone missing
(12:44):
in the National parks. Douglas was very familiar with these woods.
His family owned the cabin where they were staying, and
described Douglas as a mini woodsman because they all hiked
there together so often. Douglas disappearance sparked one of the
Southern Adirondack's largest search and rescue missions, with more than
six hundred people searching the woods. But like David Gonzalez,
(13:09):
Douglas left no trail. Unlike in the Gonzales case, though
rescuers used dogs in their search. Some accounts describe dogs
following douglas scent over a thirty mile trail through difficult terrain.
How could a young child, even one experience in the woods,
(13:30):
have traveled alone for such a distance. The family became
so desperate to find Douglas that they began suspecting each
other and even close friends, of abducting Douglas, but investigators
were certain that Douglas had simply gotten lost. It's been
nearly fifty years and Douglas has never been found. Number
(13:54):
three John Divine Olympic National Park in north in Washington
State has a feature that's not as majestic as its
mountain views. At least nine hikers have mysteriously disappeared from
the area in the past thirty years, one of whom
was seventy three year old John Divine. In nineteen ninety seven,
(14:16):
John planned a hike into the park from Mount Baldy.
The trails are tough twenty four miles, and though John
was elderly, he was also an experienced long distance hiker.
John was camping with his friend Greg Bauser, and they
had split up on the day that John went missing.
Greg went off to hunt, while John took off on
a day hike. John never returned. The fruitless search for
(14:40):
John lasted a full week until the rescue helicopter crash
killed three people and injured five others. By that time,
weather conditions had deteriorated, making the chances of finding John slim.
Friends and family said that John wouldn't want to put
people in danger on his behalf, and the search was
(15:00):
called off. The search helicopter's crash is as mysterious as
John's disappearance. Before takeoff, the pilot used a hand signal
indicating that he was going to wait five minutes for
conditions to improve before attempting it. A moment later, the
helicopter departed vertically without warning and crashed into the side
(15:21):
of the mountain. Unfortunately, John was never found and his
disappearance remains a mystery. Number two Alfred bill Hearts, five
year old Alfred bill Hearts is the first accorded drowning
in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, though whether Alfred actually
(15:42):
drowned as controversial. On July second, nineteen thirty eight, Alfred
had gone on a fishing trip with his parents and
ten older siblings for the Independence Day weekend. Alfred was
with his family on a trail near Fall River when
he fell behind the rest of them and vanished. A
search began immediately and expanded to more than one hundred
(16:05):
Civilian Conservation Corps members within forty five minutes, but there
was barely any sign of Alfred anywhere. The authorities originally
believed Alfred had fallen into the river. They dammed it
up and dragged it for six miles, but didn't find
any sign of him. Bloodhounds tract Alfred sent five hundred
(16:26):
feet uphill before they reached a fork in the trail
and lost the scent. A couple hiking in another part
of the park six miles away and twenty five hundred
to three thousand feet higher in elevation than the spot
Alfred disappeared from. Reported hearing a cry and seeing a
small boy resembling Alfred on a high ridge in a
(16:46):
treacherous area called the Devil's Nest near the top of
Mount Chaplain. By the time investigators arrived there a day later,
the boy was gone. An extensive ten days search involving
one hundred and fifty two volunteers turned up no indication
of the child's whereabouts. Due to the passage of time
since Alfred's disappearance, his case is no longer being investigated.
(17:10):
He was never found. Number one Bessie and Glenn Hyde.
Bessie and Glenn Hyde were honeymooning in northern Arizona at
the Grand Canyon when they vanished. They were traveling down
the Colorado River by skal in October of nineteen twenty
eight and planned a boat through the Grand Canyon. Bessie
(17:33):
would have been the first woman ever to do so successfully.
Glenn had run tough for rivers before, but Bessie was
a boating nubie. The couple ran across other boaters a
few weeks before their disappearance. Why said they got the
feeling that Bessie wanted to turn back, but Glenn was
pushing her on. If they completed the trip successfully, they
(17:54):
could go on a paid lecture tour. So this trip
was more than just fun. There was possible money at stake.
Cut to several months later, the Hidees boat was discovered
that winter, seemingly undisturbed. It was upright and full of supplies,
but the couple was simply gone. There are many theories
about what happened to the Hides. Did they disembark and
(18:17):
try a two difficult side hike, did they have an
argument that turned violent, or were they abducted? Their conflicting
reports about what happened to the Hides, and more than
one Bessie Hyde sighting in the years that followed, well,
there you have it. Those are our choices for ten
(18:39):
of the strangest National Park disappearances. If you've enjoyed this
video or have any other strange National Park disappearances you'd
like for us to cover, please let us know in
the comments below. We're working on future episodes covering other
similar vanishings with odd and bizarre circumstances. In the meantime,
(19:00):
stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other. I'm
Steve Stockton and i'll talk to you next time.
Hello, friends, and welcome to another episode. This time we
take a look at ten of the strangest national park disappearances.
In the United States National Park System, there are more
than eighty four million acres of preserved woods, deserts, mountains,
and other wilderness. In the past one hundred years, there
(00:26):
have been a number of individuals who have simply vanished.
Among those who vanished were hikers, children, campers, hunters, and
seasoned outdoors people. But is there more to these disappearances
than just kids wandering off or hikers becoming disoriented. What
could cause someone to seemingly vanish into thin air? Are
(00:50):
there two approaches people take when explaining these mysterious disappearances,
the first being accident by misadventure and the other supernatural
in nature. Most hiking experts would say that those missing
had made common mistakes, like taking on more than they
can handle or failing to time their turn back to
(01:12):
beat the sunset. Others believe that there's some type of
portal entity cryptid, and some have even gone as far
as suggesting the government is involved. Whatever you believe, there's
no denying that the following ten cases are definitely unexplained.
(01:37):
Number ten prob Deep Schan prob Deep Schan was a
twenty five year old Canadian Army reservist who disappeared from
Australia's Mount Kashiasuko National Park, located in the southeastern state
of New South Wales. Sean was studying abroad in Australia
in May twenty thirteen when he decided to take a
(02:00):
seventeen hundred mile road trip from the Gold Coast to Melbourne.
Sewn rented a van, drove to the park's Charlotte Pass
in the snowy mountains, and simply vanished. The last sign
of him being alive that day with a footprints a
fellow hiker saw him printed in the snow. A search
(02:21):
for Schn began when the rental company discovered that the
van he rented had not been returned. Seawn hadn't told
anyone what route or sidehikes he was planning, and the
search may have started days or even a week after
he went missing, since it was the rental company that
first reported the disappearance. Once the van Sean had rented
(02:42):
was located, searchers were about to figure out his hiking
plans by looking at the search history on his laptop
Shawn's family hired private searchers after Australian authorities called off
the search after two weeks. The investigators used tower data
from Shann's phone and a train dog to track his
trail to a treacherous area called the Western Fall Wilderness.
(03:06):
The search for Shan was the biggest search in Mount
Koshasuko National Park since the disappearance of four snowboarders in
August of nineteen ninety nine. Their remains weren't discovered until
the next spring, when the snow meltings and their bodies
were found in a snow cave. Why did shron choose
to go hiking just one day before his van was
(03:26):
due back to the rental agency. Why did he embark
on a difficult and time consuming hike in snowy weather.
Why would a trained military reservist make a choice like that.
Despite a private search costing his family more than four
hundred thousand dollars, Sewn has never been located. In twenty fifteen,
(03:48):
even though Seawan is still missing, the Corner's office determined
that he died on or in the days shortly after
May fourteenth, twenty thirteen, while walking in the national park.
His family is firm in their belief that they will
see him again someday. Miracles do happen, said his mother.
The family still continues to search the area where Sean
(04:10):
was last seen. Number nine David Gonzalez. David Gonzalez disappeared
while camping with his family in Fonsken, California, on July
thirty first, two thousand and four. David asked his mother
if he could have the truck keys. There was a
(04:33):
box of cookies in the truck and he wanted a treat.
The vehicle is only fifty yards forty six meters away,
and his mother watched him as he walked to the
parking lot near the Big Bear Lake campsite in northern
California San Bernardino National Forest. She turned her back for
a second, and when she looked around again, David was gone.
(04:56):
David's mother reported that she heard no sound at all
back was turned, though she did see a bige truck
speeding out of the campground around the time that her
son went missing. Since there were no signs of abduction,
authorities did not pursue that lead. The cookies that David
went to get were still in his family's locked vehicle,
(05:17):
so he never made it to the truck. Rescue teams
in San Bernardino County scoured the woods for David. They
found no signs of struggle or of the boy. The
search went on for nine days, but rescuers never found
him alive. In twenty fifteen, hikers stumbled upon David's remains
about a mile from his family's campsite. Authorities chalked this
(05:41):
up to a mountain lion attack. But how could a
mountain lion have silently dragged a nine year old boy
a mile without leaving any blood or signs of struggle.
Surely David would have screamed and cried out, but nobody
at the campground, including his mother, reported hearing or seeing
any thing. Number eight Catherine van Alst. Eight year old
(06:07):
Katherine van Alst disappeared from Devil's Den State Park near
Arkansas's Ozark National Forest when she and her family were camping.
Catherine apparently was playing with her brothers when she wandered
off and got lost. What makes Catherine's disappearance remarkable is
she was found six days later. When found, she was
(06:29):
wandering the woods and was eerily calm. University of Arkansas
student border Chadwick was part of the search party that
found Catherine. He told the Pittsburgh Press that when he
found her, she walked starically out of a cave and
just said, here I am. Many other hikers have gotten
lost in that part of the Ozarks and haven't been
(06:50):
as lucky as Catherine. A grown woman was lost there
for seventeen days and died just fifty yards from the road.
How did Catherine in surviving the woods for six days?
Did someone take her only to return her six days later?
Or is there an explanation of this story that we
simply can't comprehend. Either way, someone or something might just
(07:15):
be lurking in Devil's den. Number seven Paula Weldon. There's
an area in Green Mountain National Forest near Glastonbury Mountain
and Vermont's Long Trail that believers in the paranormal call
the Bennington Triangle. There. He got this name because of
a handful of mysterious disappearances which occurred between nineteen forty
(07:39):
five and nineteen fifty. Paula Weldon was the second person
to go missing in that area of Green Mountain National
Force during this period. Eighteen year old Paula was a
college student who set out on Long Trail in December
nineteen forty six. She was dressed for walking and not
a long hike, wearing jeans, a co and sneakers. Her
(08:02):
attire would imply that she planned to return before dark,
when temperatures were supposed to dip below freezing. Paula told
her roommate that she was taking a long walk, and
she never returned. Several people spotted her as she hitchhiked
away to the trail and walked to the trailhead. When
Paula was not back to her dorm by dark, her
(08:23):
roommate let the school know and the search began. Classes
were suspended so students could help with the search. The
process was disorganized at first, until Paula's father called in
favors from police into surrounding states. Unfortunately, the search didn't
pan out, and frustrated family and friends had their own
(08:45):
theories about what happened to her. Did Paula run off
with a boyfriend, was ship ducted, or did she fall
victim to exposure. Her body has never been found, so
her disappearance remains a mystery. Now, there is a rumor
that this area of the Long Trail is home to
a creature called the Bennington Monster. Could this sasquatch like
(09:09):
cryptid have something to do with her disappearance? We may
never know. Number six Larry Jeffrey. In nineteen sixty six,
a young boy by the name of Larry Jeffrey disappeared
near the peak of twelve thousand foot Mount Charleston in
the Humboldt Toyabi National Forest, just a short drive from
(09:31):
Las Vegas. The search began immediately after Jeffrey wandered away
from his brothers, and within days the National Guard and
a team of bloodhounds had joined the search. When Jeffrey disappeared,
he was wearing light clothing, and authorities were doubtful that
he could survive the cold temperatures of the desert at night.
(09:51):
Searchers found and lost the trail a few times, and
they discovered evidence that Jeffrey had been eating insects and
forged berries along the way. Overall, around one thousand people
searched for sixteen days but never found him. One searcher
said it was though Jeffrey had just walked into oblivion.
(10:15):
Number five Charles mccullor. In nineteen seventy four, nineteen year
old Charles or Chuck mccullor left his home state of
Virginia for an extended photography and hiking trip. Charles was
a keen photographer and he was planning to visit all
the national parks to take photographs, but was inexperience in
(10:35):
the wilderness and was said to be very ill prepared.
It seems that he had planned to hike to Crater
Lake along the North Road. A heavy snowfall during the
previous two weeks dropped over five feet of fresh snow
on the area. Cross country skiers reported that at the
time the snow was so soft and powdery that even
(10:56):
with skis, they were sinking up to their waists. Charles
had told his friend that if they did not hear
from him by February first, to call and reported missing.
When Charles failed to call his friends, they filed a
missing person to report immediately. An extensive air and ground
search in the northern section of the park was started,
(11:16):
but no clues as to charles disappearance were uncovered. A
year later, two hikers from Texas took a wrong turn
and ended up in a remote canyon when they stumbled
upon an old, dirty, ripped backpack in a place called
Biby Creek. The hikers called in the park rangers, and
one of the seasonal rangers remembered the description of Charles' backpack,
(11:39):
so another search took place in the area where the
backpack was found, and the very next day charles remains
were located. The skeletal remains were described as bizarre. There
were footbones in the socks, but charles jeans were empty
except for the broken off ends of his shin bones
sticking up rangely. The jeans were unbuttoned and the belt
(12:02):
buckle left undone. The rest of him was simply gone,
as if he had just melted away. The official cause
of death was determined to be natural causes Number four.
Douglas Leg. On July tenth, nineteen seventy one, eight year
(12:23):
old Douglas Leg was on a hike in the Adirondack
Force Santanoni Reserve when his uncle spotted poison ivy and
told Douglas to put on long pants to protect himself.
Douglas quickly headed back towards the family's cabin, which was
a straight and short distance away, but he never returned.
Unlike a lot of the kids who have gone missing
(12:44):
in the National parks. Douglas was very familiar with these woods.
His family owned the cabin where they were staying, and
described Douglas as a mini woodsman because they all hiked
there together so often. Douglas disappearance sparked one of the
Southern Adirondack's largest search and rescue missions, with more than
six hundred people searching the woods. But like David Gonzalez,
(13:09):
Douglas left no trail. Unlike in the Gonzales case, though
rescuers used dogs in their search. Some accounts describe dogs
following douglas scent over a thirty mile trail through difficult terrain.
How could a young child, even one experience in the woods,
(13:30):
have traveled alone for such a distance. The family became
so desperate to find Douglas that they began suspecting each
other and even close friends, of abducting Douglas, but investigators
were certain that Douglas had simply gotten lost. It's been
nearly fifty years and Douglas has never been found. Number
(13:54):
three John Divine Olympic National Park in north in Washington
State has a feature that's not as majestic as its
mountain views. At least nine hikers have mysteriously disappeared from
the area in the past thirty years, one of whom
was seventy three year old John Divine. In nineteen ninety seven,
(14:16):
John planned a hike into the park from Mount Baldy.
The trails are tough twenty four miles, and though John
was elderly, he was also an experienced long distance hiker.
John was camping with his friend Greg Bauser, and they
had split up on the day that John went missing.
Greg went off to hunt, while John took off on
a day hike. John never returned. The fruitless search for
(14:40):
John lasted a full week until the rescue helicopter crash
killed three people and injured five others. By that time,
weather conditions had deteriorated, making the chances of finding John slim.
Friends and family said that John wouldn't want to put
people in danger on his behalf, and the search was
(15:00):
called off. The search helicopter's crash is as mysterious as
John's disappearance. Before takeoff, the pilot used a hand signal
indicating that he was going to wait five minutes for
conditions to improve before attempting it. A moment later, the
helicopter departed vertically without warning and crashed into the side
(15:21):
of the mountain. Unfortunately, John was never found and his
disappearance remains a mystery. Number two Alfred bill Hearts, five
year old Alfred bill Hearts is the first accorded drowning
in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, though whether Alfred actually
(15:42):
drowned as controversial. On July second, nineteen thirty eight, Alfred
had gone on a fishing trip with his parents and
ten older siblings for the Independence Day weekend. Alfred was
with his family on a trail near Fall River when
he fell behind the rest of them and vanished. A
search began immediately and expanded to more than one hundred
(16:05):
Civilian Conservation Corps members within forty five minutes, but there
was barely any sign of Alfred anywhere. The authorities originally
believed Alfred had fallen into the river. They dammed it
up and dragged it for six miles, but didn't find
any sign of him. Bloodhounds tract Alfred sent five hundred
(16:26):
feet uphill before they reached a fork in the trail
and lost the scent. A couple hiking in another part
of the park six miles away and twenty five hundred
to three thousand feet higher in elevation than the spot
Alfred disappeared from. Reported hearing a cry and seeing a
small boy resembling Alfred on a high ridge in a
(16:46):
treacherous area called the Devil's Nest near the top of
Mount Chaplain. By the time investigators arrived there a day later,
the boy was gone. An extensive ten days search involving
one hundred and fifty two volunteers turned up no indication
of the child's whereabouts. Due to the passage of time
since Alfred's disappearance, his case is no longer being investigated.
(17:10):
He was never found. Number one Bessie and Glenn Hyde.
Bessie and Glenn Hyde were honeymooning in northern Arizona at
the Grand Canyon when they vanished. They were traveling down
the Colorado River by skal in October of nineteen twenty
eight and planned a boat through the Grand Canyon. Bessie
(17:33):
would have been the first woman ever to do so successfully.
Glenn had run tough for rivers before, but Bessie was
a boating nubie. The couple ran across other boaters a
few weeks before their disappearance. Why said they got the
feeling that Bessie wanted to turn back, but Glenn was
pushing her on. If they completed the trip successfully, they
(17:54):
could go on a paid lecture tour. So this trip
was more than just fun. There was possible money at stake.
Cut to several months later, the Hidees boat was discovered
that winter, seemingly undisturbed. It was upright and full of supplies,
but the couple was simply gone. There are many theories
about what happened to the Hides. Did they disembark and
(18:17):
try a two difficult side hike, did they have an
argument that turned violent, or were they abducted? Their conflicting
reports about what happened to the Hides, and more than
one Bessie Hyde sighting in the years that followed, well,
there you have it. Those are our choices for ten
(18:39):
of the strangest National Park disappearances. If you've enjoyed this
video or have any other strange National Park disappearances you'd
like for us to cover, please let us know in
the comments below. We're working on future episodes covering other
similar vanishings with odd and bizarre circumstances. In the meantime,
(19:00):
stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other. I'm
Steve Stockton and i'll talk to you next time.
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