Killed By A Sasquatch? The Disappearance & Death Of Jordan Grider

This video covers the disappearance and death of Jordan Grider in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hey there, folks, got an interesting one for you in
this video. I initially heard about this case when I
saw a comment that it was a possible death by Bigfoot.
The truth of that scenario I will let you decide
after watching the video, but it certainly gives me interesting
material for a video title. Whatever is going on here?
I think you'll find that the case is a bit

(00:39):
of a mystery, with no single theory really fitting the
circumstances perfectly. This case takes us to Minnesota and the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, located within the Superior National Forest.
This area is a popular canoeing, fishing, and hiking location.
It is also the most visited wilderness area in the US.

(01:00):
This pristine and forested location is vast and filled with
small lakes and rivers. In twenty eighteen, a man named
Jordan Grider went to spend a winter camping in this location.
There are plenty of dangers here, whether it be animals
or harsh weather. Unfortunately, something happened to him out there.
What was found was pretty disturbing. Twenty nine year old

(01:37):
Jordan Grider was from Moriarty, New Mexico. He was an
experienced outdoorsman, and was considered something of an unconventional person.
Jordan was known to sometimes up and leave for weeks
at a time where he would just live out in
the woods. It was a way of life he had
come to know and love. Growing up, Jordan struggled with
reading and learning due to his dyslexia. He was homes

(02:00):
school during that period. He had five brothers who followed
a more conventional lifestyle as they grew up, but Jordan
began to take to living off the grid more and more.
In fact, prior to twenty eighteen, he had spent the
past ten to twelve years living in the woods of
Kentucky and Upper New York, so he knew how to
take care of himself. When he was left alone in

(02:20):
the wilderness, he would tell people, I'm not homeless. I
have a home. I just choose to have it outside.
In twenty eighteen, he decided he wanted to head north
from New Mexico and live in the wilderness somewhere that
was near water. He picked the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,
located in Minnesota, as his destination, a pretty good choice

(02:41):
given its high density of ponds and lakes. Jordan had
been visiting his parents and five brothers in New Mexico
for a few months through the end of September twenty eighteen.
By early October, Jordan had made it up to Minnesota
and the Boundary Waters area. He parked his truck and
set out into the woods, wandering and searching were a
good place to build a campsite and live out the

(03:02):
Minnesota winter. While in the area, Jordan did have a
phone with him, as he used it to send a
picture to his family of a beaver pond near his campsite.
This message was sent on October eighth and was one
of the last messages Jordan would send from his phone.
It would seem Jordan left the area to at least
once drive to the nearest store and purchase goods. This

(03:24):
based on a receipt that would later be found in
his possession and dated for October ninth. Sometime in early
to mid October, but after the tenth, a forest service
agent noticed Jordan's truck parked in front of a gate
that led to some private cabins. His truck was actually
blocking access to the gate. The forest service agent had

(03:44):
the truck towed to the Sioux Hustler Trail parking lot,
with Jordan's family paying the tow bill. The forest service
agent may have tried to find Jordan before towing the truck,
but he was unable to discover where Jordan had gone
into the woods. At the time, he had no reason
to believe Jordan was in any trouble, so no search
was started. Moving someone's vehicle like that can in some

(04:06):
instances be dangerous. It reminds me of the Vance family
in Colorado if you recall that video. In this instance,
at least the forest service agent was kind enough to
have the vehicle towed to a nearby location rather than
some yard miles away. It seemed likely that Jordan would
have used the Sioux Hustler trail, so the hope was
likely that he would see it when he came back

(04:28):
out of the forest. On October twenty second, twenty eighteen,
authorities were called to do a welfare check on Jordan.
The problem was that nobody really knew where his camp
was located. They were able to find a starting point
for their search by using the photo Jordan had sent
his family of the beaver pond. This welfare check was
kind of like a search and rescue, except it wasn't

(04:50):
only a few officers went out to look for Jordan,
and they didn't find him. This didn't totally deter the authorities, however,
as they knew Jordan was out there somewhere and that
he hadn't been in touch with any of his family
for a while, he very well could qualify as a
missing person at this time. Sometime in late October, a
Forest Service agent discovered a baseball cap in the area

(05:12):
around the Sioux Hustler Trail and kept it as potential evidence.
At the time, there was no certainty as to whether
or not it belonged to Jordan. Unfortunately, it wasn't until
many months later, on April fifth, twenty nineteen, that two
Border patrol agents, a Forest Service agent and a Minnesota
conservation officer stumbled upon something important related to the case

(05:34):
in what appeared to be Jordan's camp site. It would
seem they were in the area specifically looking for Jordan.
One of the searchers saw a nice south facing slope
that would offer good protection from the north wind. The
slope led right into the camping site. The conservation officer
stated that it was a super remote place and if
you were looking for a spot to avoid contact, with

(05:56):
people Jordan really did find it. Group contacted the Saint
Louis County Sheriff's Office to let them know they had
updated information related to the status of Jordan Grider. They
stated that they had found clothing and other items on
the ground near the site, but they had not located
Jordan himself. The discovery was near the Sioux Hustler Trail,

(06:17):
and the officers on scene stated they found large amounts
of blood in the area. Two to four feet of
snow on the ground made it difficult to not only
travel in the area, but also to look for clues
on the ground. Deputies from the Sheriff's department showed up
on location and they immediately noticed Jordan's Chevrolet twenty five
hundred parked near the Sioux Hustler trailhead. Inside they could

(06:40):
see several large black garbage bags on the seat of
the truck. They then met at the confluence of the
Sioux Hustler Trail and the Echo Trail before heading to
Jordan's campground via snowmobile. Upon arriving at the scene, the
deputies stayed five hundred feet away from the camp while
taking pictures of the area. At this point, they weren't

(07:00):
really sure if what they had was a crime scene
or not. The first discovery was a dark piece of
cloth lying in the snow that appeared to be a
piece of shredded sleeping bag. It looked to them like
there was blood on it. They also found a sleeping
bag cover just north of the camp. Grass was found
under the cover after it was moved, indicating the cover
was there prior to the winter snowfall. South of the camp,

(07:23):
they found a shredded jacket. When removed, the jacket also
had grass under it. The campsite itself was nothing special.
A green tarp hanging between two trees was being used
in lieu of a tent. This can be a very
common practice. Under the tarp was a hammock that was
also tied between the two trees. Underneath the tarp and

(07:44):
hammock appeared to be a large pile of camping equipment
and other items a relatively simple camp site. The disturbing
part was that the hammock appeared to be covered in
a large amount of dried blood. Inside the hammock, they
found a pistol, a burretta ninety two US nine millimeter,
and a number of other personal items. The hammock appears

(08:05):
to be in great condition. The green tarp tent was
cut in half and placed on the ground to be photographed.
Authorities noted several areas of blood spatter on the inside
of the tarp. Inside the hammock was a sleeping bag
which also had blood on it. Upon further investigation, they
discovered that the pistol was loaded and the safety was on.

(08:25):
Deputies were unable to pull back the slide, probably due
to corrosion. The gun had not been used. Some of
the items found in this area include a sketchbook, a
go pro, a black wallet with one hundred and seventy
eight dollars in cash, and a driver's license belonging to
Jordan Grider, some mail with Jordan's name on it, a

(08:45):
black stocking cap with blood on it, a blue inflatable
pillow with blood on it, a plastic bag containing addresses
and pens, and two keys. The initial determination made by
the Onseen deputies was at a thorough search of the
area would be much more efficient once the snow had melted.
This makes sense since it certainly helps to be able

(09:07):
to see the ground when looking for clues. Despite the
discovery of what appeared to be blood. Jordan Grider was
nowhere to be found. Authorities bagged up what evidence they
could carry with the intention to return the next day
for the rest. They decided to search for Jordan again
once the snow melted, and also bring in cadaver dogs
to assist. A group of officers returned to the area

(09:29):
on April twenty fifth to search for human remains. This
included numerous rescue squad members and folks from the Department
of National Resources, the Forestry Service, and of course, the
Sheriff's Department. The group rode into the area on ATVs
this time and then split up, with each man focused
on finding anything relevant to the situation. Some personnel stayed

(09:51):
at the campsite and collected Jordan's belongings and returned them
to Jordan's truck, which was still parked near the Sioux
Hustler trailhead. Authorities knew that the last known contact Jordan
had with his truck was on October ninth of the
prior year, based on a dated receipt found in his camp.
Other investigators went around marking items that they deemed important

(10:14):
with flags and numbers. On this same day, Jordan's truck
and camp items were towed from the area. The following
items were located and marked as evidence. A possible humorous bone,
a possible rib bone, a couple unknown bones, a possible femur,
a few pieces of green cloth that appeared to be

(10:35):
from a sleeve or cuff, some black cloth and webbing,
a black holster for a pistol, a shirt, another possible femur,
a handgun magazine with AMMO inside, a possible vertebrae, a
bunch more fabric and webbing material, a possible forearm bone,
numerous broken bone pieces, a gray sock, another handgun magazine

(10:58):
with AMMO, a Samsung cell phone that was in some
pants near the camp area, and numerous other bits of
cloth and materials. All of these items were collected and packaged.
The bones were handed over to the medical examiner and
hopes that they would be able to make some determinations
from them. On May eleventh, personnel returned to the campsite

(11:19):
to search the area once again, now that the snow
had subsided even more. This time, they brought along a
cadaver dog to help search for any more remains. The
dogs did their job and found some additional pieces of
clothing material, and some bones, which were promptly turned over
to the medical examiner. Jordan's Samsung cell phone was analyzed

(11:39):
and it was discovered that the last evidence of any
messages being sent or received were on October ninth of
twenty eighteen. There was nothing in the messages that indicated
that Jordan might want to harm himself. There was a
group chat to his family stating how much grain and
beans he had bought and that he was prepared for
a long winter. All indications were that the were going

(12:00):
normal and Jordan was well. The last image was the
picture he sent to his family on October eighth of
the beaver pond. Nothing on the phone could help authorities
figure out why Jordan had died. On May thirty first,
authorities met with Jordan's family to return some items found
at the campsite and also take DNA samples for comparison

(12:21):
to the bones found. The family showed deputies of video
that was taken from Jordan's YouTube channel. Sadly it no
longer exists anymore, but the video showed Jordan using a
military style folding knife to shave his beard. Authorities were
told that Jordan keeps his knives very sharp, and that
it could be a possible explanation that Jordan accidentally severed

(12:42):
an artery while shaving. On August twenty first, twenty twenty,
authorities received the results from the skeletal remains that were
sent off for identification. Based on the DNA samples taken
from Jordan's family, they determined it was six hundred and
twenty one point four billion times more likely that the
bones were from someone related to the Grids than they

(13:05):
would be from any unrelated individual. Basically, the bones were
indeed Jordan's remains. Based on all the evidence recovered at
the scene and also the statements from the family, investigators
did not believe foul play was a factor in this case.
The case was then officially closed pending any new information.
The exact cause of death remained undetermined. However, that's where

(13:28):
all the questions arise from this case. You see. The
authorities never came out with a theory as to Jordan's
cause of death, though they did question his thinking when
it came to trying to survive in a Minnesota winter.
They felt he did not have enough food at his campsite,
and they also said that they found no stove for cooking.
The conservation officer who found Jordan's camp said that what

(13:50):
really stood out to him was how insufficient his resources were.
This itself may seem odd as Jordan's main food source
appears to have been grains and beans, but even without
a stove, he could have cooked over a wood fire.
A used fire pit was found in his campsite. It
is possible that Jordan was planning to stock wood before

(14:10):
winter and use that for cooking, though it would certainly
have been wise to keep a stove for backup. He
also could have been planning to take the occasional trip
back to the nearest town in order to get more
food or equipment. We really don't know what his whole
plan was, as he didn't seem to tell anyone, but
keep in mind that Jordan had spent ten years or
more living this way. I also want to mention that

(14:33):
certain items were found but not listed in the police reports.
Jordan was a musician, and he took a ukulele along
with him that was found and still in good condition. Also,
a large assortment of knives appear to have been found.
None of these knives were listed among the evidence in
the police report. That may be because they were found
in his truck instead of the campsite. But that seems

(14:56):
a little unlikely. You'd think he would want to take
his knives along too, because as his family mentioned, he
really liked them. Not a single knife was listed among
his belongings, yet the media released pictures of knives to
the public. At least one of the knives seems to
be rather weathered, like it's been sitting in the elements
for a while. Some of the others also look a

(15:17):
bit corroded. Now, obviously the authorities found a lot of
items in his camp, and maybe they didn't want a
catalog at all, but when you are dealing with a
situation like this, you would think it would be pretty
important to catalog his assortment of knives if they were
found near his camp, which was covered in bloodstains. Anyway,
that's an aside. What matters is that it appears he

(15:37):
had access to at least one blade, probably more. Jordan's mother,
Rebecca Grider, had a couple theories as to what happened
to her son. As stated in the police reports, her
initial thoughts seemed to be that Jordan accidentally cut himself.
She said that Jordan always liked to be clean shaven,
and that he would sometimes use a very sharp knife
to do this. According to his mother, he also spent

(16:00):
a lot of time whittling. Both of these activities have
the potential to kill you in a freak accident. You
can cut your neck while shaving, and you can cut
your femoral artery while whittling. The conservation officer who discovered
the camp believed that something like this happened to Jordan.
He also said that they found some things that looked
like they could have potentially been used as bandages, and

(16:22):
I would agree with that assessment. Once Rebecca Grider visited
Jordan's camp, she was less certain about this theory. She
could find no wood that looked like it had been whittled,
and found no signs of wood shavings. Because of this,
she felt that Jordan must not have been at the
camp very long before he died. Rebecca also said that
there were no blades found with any blood. All of

(16:44):
Jordan's knives were still in their sheaths, and that fact
pokes a big hole in this theory. If you severely
cut yourself, either from shaving or from whittling, you are
probably not going to take the time to resheath your knife.
Then again, some of them material that was discovered in
photograph does look like it was cut into strips and
perhaps used as bandaging. If you were bleeding and took

(17:08):
the time to do that, maybe you would wipe the
blood off the blade and the knife did get resheathed.
Looking at the pictures, it doesn't appear that any of
these material strips were used as bandages. The accidental cut
theory is certainly plausible, but it does have some holes.
The other theory that Rebecca Grider came up with was
that Jordan was attacked by wolves. She believed that a

(17:31):
pack of wolves surprised and killed Jordan while he slept
in his hammock. She believed he was caught the very
first night he spent at the location. I'm not sure
that could be accurate, as he was at the site
on October eighth when he sent the picture of the pond,
and he must still have been alive on October ninth
when he bought more food. It would seem he was
alive and staying there for at least a few nights.

(17:54):
In a post she made to Facebook in twenty nineteen,
she stated, last October Ordan, twenty nine, went to live
and camp in the forest of Minnesota. He has lived
that way for about ten years. He didn't realize he'd
moved into an area with an aggressive pack of timber wolves.
I think they got him the first night. There is

(18:14):
some evidence to support this theory, though it was not
noted in the sheriff's report. Wolf's scat and prince were
located near the campsite. Photographs of the scat actually exist
to verify this report. Wolf experts seem to have largely
dismissed the idea that Jordan was attacked and killed by wolves. However,
one expert said that the chances of an attack are

(18:36):
infinitesimally small. He's not wrong either. In the last twenty years,
there have only been two recorded attacks on humans in
North America that resulted in death. One was a twenty
two year old man who was killed in Saskatchewan, Canada,
in two thousand and five. It appears multiple wolves stalked
and attacked him before he finally succumbed. Authorities said they

(18:58):
found multiple SKUs uffle sites where he appeared to try
and fight off the animals. The other incident occurred in
twenty ten in Alaska, where a thirty two year old
woman was attacked and killed by multiple wolves. There are
other incidents as you continue to go further back in history,
but it has been a very rare occurrence for quite
some time. You might also note that the more recent

(19:20):
attacks occurred in the north of the US mainland in
Canada and Alaska, where the territory is certainly more wild.
In Minnesota, wolf attacks are even more rare. What has
been described as the first known wolf attack in Minnesota
occurred in twenty thirteen, when a sixteen year old boy
was attacked by a wolf with a deformed jaw. The

(19:42):
boy punched and kicked the wolf until it ran away.
It was later trapped and killed, and it is believed
that the deformed jaw prevented the wolf from properly scavenging. Therefore,
it would have been starving when it made the desperate
attempt on the sixteen year old. Obviously, wolves are certainly
capable of killing humans. The issue with using wolves as

(20:02):
an explanation for what happened to Jordan Grider comes when
you consider the state of his campsite. The theory goes
that Jordan was attacked while asleep in his hammock. That's
why there was blood in it, and that's why he
didn't get a shot off with his pistol. The problem
with that theory is that the hammock was in good condition.
If wolves had attacked him while in it, it should

(20:22):
have been torn to pieces. A wolf expert talking about
this case named Thomas Gable also said that he would
have expected the campsite to feature greater signs of a
struggle and the result should have been messier as well.
He thought it more likely that wolves came along later
and devoured an already dead body, which is completely reasonable.

(20:43):
So the wolf explanation seems plausible, but it also doesn't
fit perfectly with what was found. It's also worth noting
that outside of Alaska, Minnesota has the highest population of
gray wolves in the entire country, at around twenty seven hundred.
So these are the two theories have been developed around
the death of Jordan Grider. There are a few things

(21:04):
that stick out to me when I look at the
photographs of where Jordan died. His boots were found underneath
the tarp tent. Seems clear that he wasn't wearing them
at the time he died. Really, the only time I
would imagine that Jordan wouldn't be wearing his boots is
when he is about to go to bed, sleeping or
waking up. It seems a reasonable assumption that whatever happened

(21:25):
to Jordan, it happened while he was in his hammock.
Additional support for this idea is the fact that most
of the blood was found in the hammock. It seems
to rule out wolves in a way because I can't
imagine them attacking him in the hammock without damaging the
hammock itself, and he would have had a very nice
burretta within reach to defend himself if he had the opportunity.

(21:47):
Could the wolves really have killed him before he had
the chance to grab it and get around or two off?
It seems unlikely. In addition to that, most of the
clothing and material found around his camp doesn't necessary look
torn apart, It simply looks weathered. The tent area just
does not have the appearance of a place where a
pack of wolves killed a man, So then we have

(22:10):
the accidental cut theory. It does seem pretty clear he
wasn't whittling, because there's no evidence for it. No whittled wood,
no wood shavings, et cetera. The only thing left would
be a cut from shaving. But then that theory looks
like what he wakes up in the morning, hasn't put
on his boots yet, he decides he is going to

(22:30):
shave first thing. I would have thought that he would
want to shave down by the water of the beaver pond,
But maybe he wanted to shave by his hammock. If
he wasn't using a mirror and accidentally cut his neck
in just the right way, it could be the answer.
You would have to cut yourself pretty good and in
the exact right spot to cause a wound that would

(22:50):
cause you to bleed out. Maybe he tried to cut
strips of cloth for bandages but realized they wouldn't work.
It could be that he realized he wasn't going to
make it, so he laid down in his hammock and
bled to death. One of the items that had a
lot of blood on it was a ski cap, which
could indicate that the wound was close to the head.

(23:10):
Then again, no knife was found with blood on it,
and they were all sheathed. Would he really take the
time to do that? Did the wolves come along and
pull his body out of the hammock without tearing it
to pieces. This is one of those cases where you
wonder if there was some sort of foul play. But
then again, he was in a location few people would
think to go, and of those people who might think

(23:33):
to go there, what are the chances that they would
be the type to want to kill someone seemingly at random.
I tend to believe his mother when she says that
the campsite did not look very lived in, meaning he
had not been there for very long before he died.
He arrived and something happened fairly quick. Was it an
accidental cut? Was it wolves? It's really hard to say.

(23:55):
There's something about this occurring right when he entered the
area that could indicate in attack. There was a new
scent in the region, and that might have caused animals
to come and investigate. Then again, I could also see
a scenario where maybe Jordan hadn't shaved with a knife
in quite a while. He had been staying with family
and moriarity prior to this, after all, living under a

(24:16):
roof with running water and all the other common amenities
that we are so used to. Maybe he was a
little rusty and accidentally cut himself. It's really difficult to
pin down a good theory on this one. A lot
of the mystery in this case comes from the fact
that we don't really have a body. That's not necessarily
unusual because his body was out there for many months

(24:37):
and there are plenty of scavengers in this area. But
they only found a few bones. Some of them were broken.
The brakes can be chalked up to animal predation, especially
from wolves. They never found any larger bones either, no pelvis,
no rib cage or spine, no scapulos or skull. Now,
those things were probably just dragged off and will never

(24:58):
be found. They what have potentially provided additional evidence. I
find it's a shame that the sheriff doesn't report or
talk about evidence of bite marks on the bones. I
would certainly imagine there were some. In the end, nature
itself can be pretty good at the hiker's motto of
leaving no trace. The problem is it leaves us with

(25:19):
a mystery, a bloody campsite, and a man who will
no longer return home to his family. It is another
one of those cases where you see an experienced individual
who dies from unknown causes with over ten years of
living like this. Jordan Grider had a lot of experience,
but experience is in everything. Anything can happen to you

(25:39):
in the wilderness. As always, let me know in the
comments what you think about this case. Was it a
cut from shaving, was it eaten by wolves? Was it
killed by bigfoot? And until next time, thanks for watching

(26:00):
Bold Bandan