June 26, 2025 • 48 mins
November 15, 1928. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. 29-year old Glen Hyde and his 22- year old wife, Bessie, decide to spend their honeymoon taking a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon down the rapids of the Colorado River and hope to attain a new speed record. Shortly after stopping at the home of a photographer named Emery Kolb, the Hydes vanish without a trace. Their empty boat is eventually discovered on the river nearly 150 miles away with all of the couple’s supplies and possessions onboard, but Glen and Bessie are nowhere to be found. Over the next several decades, there would be a number of surprising twists, including a woman who claimed to be Bessie Hyde and the discovery of an unidentified male skeleton in Emery Kolb’s boathouse. Did Glen and Bessie Hyde drown in the Colorado River, or was something a lot more sinister behind their disappearances? This week’s episode of “The Path Went Chilly” chronicles the Grand Canyon’s most famous mystery, which has remained unsolved for nearly a century.
Support the Show:
Patreon.com/julesandashley
Patreon.com/thetrailwentcold
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Glen_and_Bessie_Hydehttp://charleyproject.org/case/glen-rollin-hyde
http://charleyproject.org/case/bessie-louise-haley-hyde“Sunk Without a Sound: The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde” by Brad Dimock
Support the Show:
Patreon.com/julesandashley
Patreon.com/thetrailwentcold
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Glen_and_Bessie_Hydehttp://charleyproject.org/case/glen-rollin-hyde
http://charleyproject.org/case/bessie-louise-haley-hyde“Sunk Without a Sound: The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde” by Brad Dimock
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome back to the Pathland, Chile for part two of
our series on the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Robin,
do you want to catch everyone up and what we
talked about in our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, this is one of the oldest mysteries we covered,
as it took place nearly a full century ago in
nineteen twenty eight. Involved a newlywed couple named Glenn and
Bessie Hide who lived in Twin Falls, Idaho. But because
Glenn was a very adventurous guy, he decided that for
their honeymoon, he and Betsy were going to go on
a whitewater river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on
the Colorado River, which would right about two hundred and
(01:00):
seventy seven miles, and he was hoping to break the
speed records so that they could become famous. But they
were making good progress, but then they vanished without a trace,
and their abandoned boat would be found in one section
of the river, and even though their supplies and all
their personal possessions were still inside and the boat looked undisturbed,
no trace of Glenn or Bessie could be found. There
(01:21):
was an initial assumption that they had drowned or drive
of exposure after wandering through the park, but nothing. The
search effort failed to turn up anything, but over the
years there would be some weird twists and turns. In
nineteen seventy one, there was another river rafting trip that
was going through the Grand Canyon and a woman named
Elizabeth Cutler told the group that she was Bessie Hyde
and that she had killed Glenn and decided to walk
(01:43):
out of the canyon on her own and start a
new life under a new identity. But this was pretty
much completely debunked as the facts did not line up.
There was another woman, a very famous female whitewater rafter
named Georgie White Clark who died in nineteen ninety two
at the age of eighty one, and she lived a
very private, secretive life, and they wound up finding a
(02:04):
copy of gled and Bessie Hyde's Mary Certificate in her
possessions following her death, so they looked at the possibility
that perhaps she was Bessie, but when they looked at
the backstory of Georgie's life, they realized that this just
was not possible. In nineteen seventy six, the skeleton remains
of a man with a bullet hole in his head
was found inside a boat house belonging to a photographer
(02:26):
named Emery Colb who lived in the Grand Canon on
the Colorado River, and because he was one of the
last people who had seen the hides alive, there was
speculation that perhaps he killed Glenn and kept his remains
in the boat house, but they completely debunked this idea
and realized that the remains likely belonged to a unidentified
man who had shot himself in the Grand Canyon sometime
(02:48):
during the nineteen thirties, and because Cold worked for the
coroner's office at that time, it's been speculated that because
the victim could not be identified, that Colb took his
remains home with him and kept them in the boat
house and forgot about them for several decades before he died. So,
even though this skeleton is not believed to have any
connection to the high case, it's still a big mystery
who exactly this John Doe really is. But nearly one
(03:12):
hundred years have passed and no trace of Glenn and
Bessie has ever been found, so this is still an
unsolved mystery. So I couldn't tell you how many times
I watched the Unsolved Mystery segment about this story when
I was a kid, as I once take this particular
episode off of TV and pretty much wore out the VHS.
It may not be the first Unsolved Mysteries episode ever produced,
(03:32):
as there were others made before it, which were hosted
by Raymond Burr and Carl Malden, but if you decide
to start watching the series on Amazon Prime or YouTube,
this is the first episode you're going to get. The
theme of the episode was four mysterious stories involving a
husband and a wife, and it's pretty much a gold
mine of some of the most memorable segments Unsolved Mysteries
ever produced. In addition to this case, the episode covers
(03:55):
the murder of Shannon Moore by her husband Dave Davis,
the unexplained death of Alien Conway, and the disappearance of
Dottie Kaylor. And of course, while there was hope that
the exposure on national television might help law enforcement solve
the other three featured cases on the show, the Glen
and Bessie Hyde disappearance was nearly sixty years old by
that point, so the segment was pretty much just there
(04:17):
for entertainment, but It's a very well done segment and
does not scamp on the production values for the reenactments,
as you get to see unedited shots of the actors
portraying Glenn and Bessie going down the dangerous rapids of
the Colorado River in a wooden scow, much like the
real people did back in nineteen twenty eight. I used
to find it incredibly creepy that this couple would completely
(04:39):
vanish without a trace, while their supplies and personal belongings
were found inside this completely empty, undamaged boat, especially.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
When you think about the way that unsolved mysteries dramatizes things,
it leaves things out. And then, like you said, this
was the very first episode of the entire series that
came out. So since we've learned a lot of information
two about some of these myths being kind of debunked,
I think it could be as basic as they fell
off of the scow and they passed away. I think
(05:11):
that Glenn was incredibly reckless and Bessie was not experienced,
and even on the easy parts of the rapids, they
were having struggles where Glenn even was falling off and
needing to be rescued from the water. So who's to
say that without life preservers, without any of those other things,
that it wasn't just simply one of those moments where
neither of them were able to actually wrests.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Like a micro version of a ghost ship. And I
couldn't remember the details of it, so I just looked
up the Mary Celeste and I don't know if you
both are familiar with this. It was founded direct in
the Atlantic Ocean in eighteen seventy two with no crew aboard,
but in seaworthy condition and with personal belongings and cargo intact,
and the fate of what happened to the captain and
(05:55):
the cruise still remains a mystery. So this is an
interesting parallel to that, where all the belongings on the
boat are still intact, the boat is still in river
worthy condition, but yet Glenn and Bessie are nowhere to
be found.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
That's horrifying. The entire crew is missing.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, wow, Okay, this is two crazy adventurers going missing,
But that's an entire crew.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I'm gonna have to go do a deep dive there.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But this one too, the way the way it's portrayed,
there really were to me, there also could have been
the ability that at least one of them could have
gotten to a shoreline and tried to hike out. But again,
they're in the middle of the Grand Canyon, right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And it wouldn't have been very easy to get out
of there, even if you were an experienced hiker.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And who knows.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's such a vast, unkind of navigatable place that if
they had climbed out on the banks, especially only one
of them, I could see also perishing on, you know,
in the Grand Canyon, trying to find a resource to
get away, to get out.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
As a side note, the Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring this
story is also the same infamous episode featuring the interview
with Juwel Kaylor that we always liked to poke fun of.
So if you have not seen this episode, track it
down right now on YouTube because it is a gold mine.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
All that being said, if you do further research into
this story and check out Brad Dimmick's book Sunk Without Sound,
it becomes apparent that Unsolved Mysteries greatly exaggerated some of
the more mysterious aspects of the story, such as the
discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse and Elizabeth
Cutler's so called confession that she was Bessie Hyde. Since
(07:37):
the segment put a lot of emphasis on Cutler's confession
that she stabbed her husband to death in self defense
after he beat her up, it's easy to come away
thinking that Glenn Hyde was some sort of abusive brute
who dragged his naive, innocent newlywed wife on a dangerous
trip against her will, with no regard for her personal safety.
And for whatever reason, this segment gets Bessie's age wrong,
(08:00):
claiming that she was only eighteen years old when she
was actually twenty two. They made no mention of the
fact that Bessie already had one previous marriage and divorce
under her belt, which was not very common for a
young woman during the nineteen twenties. So she was definitely
a lot more worldly and independent than the segment portrayed her,
and pretty much ahead of her time. In fact, Bessie's
(08:20):
brother was once quoted as saying she should have been
born a man, and he meant it as a compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, of course he did. I mean, think about the
power that men had compared to women. We couldn't vote,
we education wasn't something prioritized for women. Having your own
financial access was not something that women had when you know,
when they were married, and we talk about there's a
chance she might have been pregnant and sent away, she
was in an abusive first marriage. She's trying to navigate
(08:51):
the world and creating very innovative ways to get a
divorce from.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Her first husband.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So she is absolutely filled with it. This kind of confidence.
It was not given to women at the time, right,
You weren't allowed to have those kinds of feet underneath
of you to say I will do what I want
with who I want.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I'm going to say no to a man. I'm going
to divorce a man against his will or knowledge.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Even if let's say she went ahead and had an
abortion and or put a baby of her adoption, that
too would have been something incredibly controversial back then. So
she just seemed like a very innovative, ahead of her
time kind of woman. And when she runs into Glenn,
it's like this magical relationship where she sees this other
very bold, very clever, very kind of risky kind of man.
(09:39):
And I think she liked that because she was so
bold herself. And could that have been their demise as
being a little too confident. Bessie did show a little
sign of fear throughout this trip and concern, but it
almost seems like Glenn could either comfort her or kind
of override that and continue on with this legacy trip
that he was hoping to have.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
When Brad didn't research sunk without a sound, everything he
turned up about Glenn Hyde suggested he was a gentleman,
and there was no indication that he ever abused his wife.
At the outset, at least, it seemed like Bessie was
just as enthusiastic about this lengthy rafting trip as Glenn was.
You can definitely question Glenn's judgment about a lot of things,
particularly as refusal to bring along life jackets, but it
(10:21):
sounds like he and Bessie genuinely loved each other. Now.
To fully understand Glenn's reasoning for this trip, you have
to remember that adventurers were very popular during this time period.
It was only one year beforehand when Charles Lindbergh took
the world's first solo NonStop transatlantic flight from New York
to Paris in his plane the Spirit of Saint Louis,
(10:41):
which made him one of the most famous celebrities in
the world. So you can see why Glenn would be
tempted to achieve his own fame and fortune by setting
a new speed wrecord for river rafting through the Grand Canyon.
And I'm sure he loved the idea of putting his
wife in the history books by making her the very
first woman to accomplish this feat. And they almost pulled
it off because when you look at the hides and
known movements and see the location where the empty boat
(11:04):
was found, they were only about forty to fifty miles
from their destination and on pace to break the speed
record before they vanished. You can understand why there has
always been a major fascination with this story, even though
in the grand scheme of things, it's not hard to
come up with a logical theory about what likely happened
to Glenn and Bessie.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
And I do very much think she was excited about this.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I think she could have been hesitant, or she could
have concerns because anyone when they see this scal they're like, Okay,
we're going to go on this incredibly complex route. Like
we said, maybe ignorance was bliss because how much exposure
would she have to information, but I think this kind
of high. They had just gotten married, this is their honeymoon.
(11:48):
He Glynn chose a woman who was bold and adventurous,
and she chose a man who was bold and adventurous.
So I think this was very much an exciting thing
for them. I don't think he forced her. I don't
think any of that. I think as a trip went on,
it's possible Bessie started to go, WHOA, I might have
bitten off more than I could chew here, But again
I think Glynn could have probably reassured her and said, hey,
(12:10):
we've got this. Like you know, just keep in mind,
we're ahead of schedule, we're going to make records, we're
going to be in the history books. And to Bessie
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It is exciting, and I can understand why a married couple,
no matter how much you love each other, there's going
to be periods while you're stuck on this small vessel
that you are going to irritate each other to no end.
My husband had these friends that years ago they did
basically an around the world sailing thing, and it was
(12:41):
this big idea with the three kids, the two of
them are going to go and at first everything was great.
But by the time they were getting off that boat,
she was leaving him, they were getting divorced, and she'd
already found another man, and everything was everything fell apart.
It was like a catastrophe. So I think these small,
all enclosed spaces can have different results for people. But
(13:03):
with just Glenn and Bessie, this tiny little boat and
these arduous conditions, I can't imagine the stress that they
were both under for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It's almost like when you think about instances where like
even a healthy couple, I would murder my husband if
we lived in a tiny home, right, I couldn't do it.
I'd probably have to take out some of my kids too, right, Like,
it's just not it's not for me. I need my space,
I need my privacy, and they do too. And then
you think about couples like you have Gabby Petito and
(13:34):
her killer.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yes, And so even had they been super healthy on
their ride, I think there would have been problems because
they're young. They're new now. Remember Glenn and Bessie are newlywed.
So to what extent, I think as you age in
your marriage, you learn the goods, the bads, and the
ugly about your spouse, especially if you haven't been dating
that long and there's still love and respect and admiring,
(14:00):
but you can definitely the longer you're together or start
to realize, oh man, I don't like that, or this
is scares me, or I'm worried. So I think Bessie
and Glynn were good to each other. I think they
went on this adventure. But when I do think they
could fuss hurt each other, I doubt it, But I
also think I'm sure there were moments where people saw
them kind of at each other like I want to
(14:21):
go faster, I need to slow down, this seems too
risky for me.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Could we try this?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And kind of debating back and forth because they're still
navigating their relationship much less the treacherous track they're on
as well, And.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You also have to take into account the fact that, like,
what type of creature comforts can you have? Like maybe
Bessie is bold and she's a risk taker and she's
out there, but when you take away things like getting
to sleep in clean sheets, being able to bathe properly
when you're both probably smelly and you're in this small
(14:53):
space together and you just aren't comfortable a lot of
the time. I think that that could breed resentment, and
it could breed irritation, And I think you're right Ash,
like they did love each other, Otherwise, I don't think
she would have agreed to have gone on this adventure.
But I do think that things can happen to you,
even the healthiest of couples, when you're put into a
(15:15):
pressure cooker like this.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And that's pretty much what Emory Cole felt when they
stopped at his place, because it looked to him like
Bessie was becoming less enthusiastic about the trip and wasn't
sure she wanted to continue. And you can imagine after
visiting him at his house, she's probably thinking to herself, Ooh,
I could sleep in a bed tonight if we stay
here for the little river and not have to be
out in the wilderness. But I don't think that fits
the narrative that like Glenn pretty much forced her against
(15:40):
her will to go back on the remainder of the trip.
I think she went along voluntarily, and I don't think
things escalated into violence where Bessie flat out murdered Glenn
and then just took off.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Of course, another compelling aspect to this mystery was the
discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse nearly fifty
years after the hides went missing, which helped bring their
disappearance back into the spotlight. If this situation happened today,
it would be very easy to answer the question of
whether or not the victim was Glenn Hyde, as all
it would require is getting DNA from Glenn's surviving relatives
(16:13):
and comparing it with DNA from the remains. So it's
quite amusing to watch the Unsolved Mystery segment and see
how they handled this situation. In the pre DNA world
of nineteen eighty seven, doctor Walter Burkby uses a rather
primitive method of superimposing a photograph of Glenn's over the
victim's skull in order to conclude that they did not match.
(16:33):
Since a bullet was found in the skull. I can
see why people would instantly jump on the theory that
Emery Cold murdered Glenn, particularly since Bessy had allegedly expressed
concern to him about completing the rafting trip, as this
would have been a perfect opportunity for Cold to quote
rescue her. But doctor Burkeby pretty much shoots that theory
down in his interview and makes a valid point. If
(16:55):
Cold committed murder, why would he have kept the damn
body around? L Ay Unsolved Mysteries segment frame things, you
get the impression that the hides vanished immediately after visiting
Colb's place. They make no mention of their subsequent meetup
with Adolph Gilbert Seutro or the abundance of evidence such
as Bessie's journal entries which showed that the couple were
(17:16):
still alive for at least the next two weeks after
they parted ways with Cole. I guess this was done
in order to build the suspense over the idea that
Cold murdered Glenn, But once you know all the full facts,
you realize just how absurd this idea really is. In
order for Cold to have been the killer, he would
need to have traveled around one hundred and forty miles
(17:38):
to track Glen down, and instead of disposing of him
in the water or somewhere in the wilderness, he inexplicably
decides to lug Glenn's body all the way back to
his property and store it in the boathouse.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, it just seems like an odd decision, but I
do understand when he sits there and he says, hey, listen,
this is a John Doe.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
No one's going to claim him, so I'm going to
take him home.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
It seems kind of interesting that in his mind it's
possible he thought it was a more respectable, kind of
interesting thing for him to do and kind of find
some kind of scientific or career value to this skeleton.
But it's definitely a bizarre choice. I do not, in
a moment, think that Colb actually went and killed Glenn
to rescue Bessie. I mean, he wouldn't have stuck around,
(18:22):
and if he was that passionate, wouldn't Bessie and him
have ended up together or something. So I think that's
quite a stretch.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Even after it was conclusively determined that the skeleton did
not belong to Glenn Hyde, there was still a big
mystery for a while about who this man really was
and why colp had his remains. It's actually pretty remarkable
that they were able to at least partially solve this
mystery seventy five years after the fact, when the uncovered
the photograph of the skeleton remains of a suicide victim
found a Grand Canyon National Park in nineteen thirty three
(18:53):
and matched it to the remains from Colb's boathouse. Once
it became apparent that Coolb served on the county Coroner's
journey at that time, this became less of a case
of quote deranged murderer keeps victims remains on his property
than quote while meeting citizen keeps an unidentified decedance remains
on his property and forgets about them for four decades.
It's very likely that Cold decided to take the John
(19:15):
Doe's remains home with them, which might seem weird, but
I can understand his reasoning. Since the victim couldnt be identified,
he likely would have been buried in a pauper's grave
somewhere and been difficult to find, so I think Cold
wanted to hold onto the remains on the off chance
that the victim's loved ones might come around looking for
him someday. Sadly that never happened and we may never
(19:36):
find out the true identity of this John Doe. But
the evidence clearly showed that there was no foul play
involved in his death, and due to Emery Colb's connection
to the Hydes, disappearance, the situation pretty much blew up
into a major misunderstanding. As a side note, I originally
covered this story on episode number one twenty one of
the Trail Went Cold six years ago, and I soon
(19:57):
received an email from one of my listeners who had
heard the episode and realized that the unidentified Cold Skeleton
was not listed on the Dough Network. So this listener
took the initiative to submit all the victims information to
the website, and by October the nineteenth of that year
that the seeded finally had his own profile page. And
given the remarkable things that have been done with DNA
(20:17):
and genetic genealogy these past several years, perhaps the Cold
Skeleton will finally get his name back someday.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Robin, that's incredibly cool that a listener was sitting there
hearing your podcast took the initiative to go look on
the Dough network and said, wait a minute, this is
not listed. And so the individual got their own profile page,
And like you said, who knows there is a potential
that through some even maybe other cases, there could be
(20:44):
a link to this individual's identity. It was a long
time ago, but crazier things have happened in the world
a criminal justice, So very very interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Good job, Robin, Yes, thank you. I was pretty flattered
by that. And this listener was a very humble person
who didn't want any credit for it, and they probably
did not want me to mention their name on this episode,
so I won't do it. But it was so cool
that they just realized that this person who died back
in the nineteen thirties was not on the Dough Network,
so they took the initiative to submit him. So put
it this way, if Henry Cole had not kept this
(21:13):
man's remains in his boat house for four decades, he
would not be listed on the Dough Network today. So
silver linings.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Of course, The Unsold Mystery segment also put a heavy
emphasis on the possibility that Bessie Hyde could have murdered
her husband heights out of the canyon and traveled somewhere
to start a new life under a new identity. This
idea came about because of the story shared by Elizabeth
Cutler during a commercial wrapting trip in nineteen seventy one,
where she told everyone else sitting around the campfire that
(21:43):
she was Bessie Hyde and revealed the full truth about
what happened. The way the segment frames it is that
Cutler was dead serious when she told the story and
became incredibly defensive when people tried to question her about it,
later denying that she ever told the story or even
knew who Glenn or best Hide was well. When Brad
Dimmick did further research into this angle in Sunk without
(22:05):
a Sound, he concluded that the details of Cutler's alleged
confession seemed to have been greatly exaggerated by the sound
of things. Since she had worked for many years in
the field of psychology, Cutler had a tendency to say
outrageous things just to see people's reactions. Since this rafting
trip was camped near the spot where the Hide' vote
was found and the guide decided to share the story
(22:27):
about the disappearance, Cutler probably thought this would be a
fun opportunity to troll people and claim she was Bessie Hyde.
One of the members of this group was interviewed on
Unsolved Mysteries and he claimed the Cutler was a very
serious and quiet person throughout the trip, which is why
her story about being Bessie came across as believable. However,
when some of the other group members were interviewed for
(22:48):
Sunk without a Sound, they described Cutler as a witty,
cheerful character who loved to tease everyone, so they just
felt that she was joking when she told them that
she was Bessie. I think it's likely that when the
legend of her story grew and eventually got blown out
of proportion, Cutler tried to deny ever telling it because
technically she did confess to committing murder, which joking or
(23:09):
not could have landed her in some hot water. But
whatever her motivations were, there is concrete evidence that Elizabeth
Keutler was born in Pomeroy, Ohio and was living under
that identity in nineteen twenty eight when Bessie went missing.
So there's no way that they could possibly be the
same person.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I mean, they are able to prove that it's not her,
But it does make you think, a psychologist or not,
what is the motive for claiming you are a killer?
It would be wildly incredible if she made this whole
story that she's Bessie and she says, you know, Glenn
drown this is you know, we were on this wild
trip we were going to make history, and she really
(23:48):
became kind of this infamous legend as Bessie. I could
get that that's for attention, But when you start to say, hey,
I actually killed my husband, I have no qualms telling
you that, and I'm Bessie, it seems like one she
would get in trouble and I assume she didn't, and
two like it boggles my mind that someone would think
(24:08):
that was a smart thing to do. We see false
confessions all the time, but this doesn't seem like someone
who would be desperate for attention like that. Because she
is a professor, I mean she had to work very different,
very hard as someone born in the what twenties or no, no,
nineteen oh eight, right, yes, yes, Okay, so she's born
(24:29):
in nineteen oh eight. This is a woman in the
field of psychology that used to be male dominated. She'd
becoming a professor also a job that started as a
male dominant thing, and she's moving and making waves just
like Bessie did. Why would you kind of regress and say, oh,
I'm going to try to get attention by being Bessie
and saying I killed someone.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Were they drinking? Robin?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It's never been specified, but I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised because that would probably shed a lot of
light on this because they don't get the impression Cutler
knew much about the story beforehand and maybe was learning
about it for the first time when the guy told
it around the fire, and if they were drinking or
possibly even smoking pot, she might have just at the
time thought it was an amusing thing to do, to
spontaneously claim that she was Bessie and that she killed
(25:15):
her husband.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So I don't think it's that wild in that context.
If we've all known somebody that says things just for
pure shock value, and if they've had a little bit
of alcohol, I could see a situation where somebody would
say that completely joking. But if somebody else takes it
the wrong way, or if they retell that story, it
becomes a game of telephone. Whereas she could have very
(25:37):
obviously been teasing or joking about it and been like, oh, yeah, haha,
and I killed my husband and this is how I
did it. And then you get somebody who says, oh, no,
she was a very serious person. That's why we took
it very serious. So I think it's just context matters.
And the way that somebody relays the story it as
we can see with a game of telephone, and like
(25:59):
eyewitness idifications, any ear witness identification, any type of recalling
of events, we don't have one hundred percent accuracy. So
I think that there is a scenario where she could
have been joking and that after she just backpedals like WHOA,
Now investigators are coming to ask me about this, I'm
just going to deny it.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Especially you have to pay attention to to who's saying it,
because you're right, I didn't even think about it from
that perspective. But what if someone's frustrated with her, insecure
about her those kinds of things. Could they then say like, oh,
this is how she meant it and actually try to
slander her character when literally ingest she's teasing, which you know,
I probably wouldn't encourage people to tease about murdering somebody.
(26:39):
But you know, if she really was let's say, drinking
or being silly or taking someone's comment and twisting it
out of jest, and someone else is like, you know what,
I'm really going to try to bring her down, then
they could start that's you know, spreading the rumor there too.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
And then there was a theory that George white Clark
might have been Bessie Hyde, an idea which spread when
a copy of the Hyde's marriage certificate was found in
her possessions after she died, along with a birth certificate
that showed that Georgie's original birth name was Bessie. It
is odd that Georgie would have a copy of that
marriage certificate, but when you consider that her life were
evolved around river rafting through the Grand Canyon, you'd have
(27:17):
to think that she was familiar with the story of
the Hide's disappearance, and she probably decided to acquire their
marriage certificate as a souvenir, much like the Elizabeth Cutler situation.
The problem with believing that Georgie white Clark and Bessie
Hyde are the same person is that there's an actual
historical paper trail for Georgie prior to nineteen twenty eight
disproving the notion that she had assumed a new identity.
(27:39):
And when you consider the fact that Georgie gave birth
to a daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine, there's
no way Bessie Hide would have been whitewater rafting through
the Grand Canyon without anyone noticing she was five months pregnant.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
No, I don't think so, especially because remember they said
she was tiny, she was ninety pounds. I mean, I
feel like you would quite notice that five months at
least a poot where people would make assumptions of saying,
do you guys think she's pregnant?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Right?
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I don't think even Glenn would be that arrogant to say,
I love this woman. You know what I'm going to
do if she's pregnant with my child or someone else's child.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Even if you loved.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Her, you probably wouldn't put your pregnant wife on the raft.
So even poor Glenn, right, I don't think his story
needed to be my pregnant wife made it as a
hero on this trip. I think he would have been
probably more cautious at that point because Bessie becomes a
more fragile woman he wants to protect instead of this
person who's going to be his partner in a legacy.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So while the idea of Elizabeth Cutler or Georgie white
Clark being Bessie Hyde has been conclusively disproven, I guess
it's still tempting to explore the possibility that Betsy really
did hike out of the canyon of her own accord
and started a new life somewhere. During their trip, Glenn
and Bessie were photographed multiple times and were usually shown smiling,
(28:55):
but a number of people have taken note of the
fact that the final photo of the couple, taken by
Ali about Gilbert Sutro, the last known person to have
seen them alive, see some much different picture. So in
this picture, Glenn and Bessie looked pretty sullen, almost as
if the riggers of their journey had completely sucked the
life out of them. Since Bessie had expressed noticeable concern
(29:15):
about embarking on the rest of the trip during her
visit with Emery Cole, perhaps there is some truth to
the idea that she wanted to bring an end to
this and the only way to escape from Glenn was
to kill him and leave the area on foot. Well.
The problem with this theory is that all of the
couple's supplies, including their food, winter clothing, and hiking boots,
were left behind in their abandoned scale. Hiking out of
(29:38):
the Grand Canyon in late November or early December is
no picnic. So I think that if Bessie took off
on her own, she would have at least taken some
of the supplies along with her, because otherwise there's no
way that she would have gotten out of there alive. No,
it just seems likely that when the couple disappeared, they
disappeared together. I know that over the years, Bessie's brother
(29:59):
often liked to point of finger at her ex husband,
Earl Helmet, since he was known for having a violent
temper and had refused to grant Bessie a divorce. Perhaps
he tracked down the couple and murdered them in revenge.
Earle wound up getting remarried in nineteen thirty, and whenever
he was asked about Bessie, he refused to talk about her. However,
there is no evidence at all that Earle was involved
(30:20):
in Glen and Bessie's disappearance, or that he even traveled
to the Grand Canyon National Park at all. Really, what
are the odds that Earl, who lived in an entirely
different state, would have been able to track down the
couple to a remote wilderness area along the Colorado River.
To put this into perspective, even though the Hydes boat
was spotted on the river from the airplane during the
(30:40):
search efforts. It was six days before anyone physically made
it to that location and found the boat. That should
give you an idea of how inaccessible this jagged terrain was.
So I'd say the odds of Glen and Bessie running
into anyone there who murdered them are pretty much nonexistent.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, that did not happen. It's not as if they
are social media vlogging their trip or something right where. Oh, today,
we're at this point. Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to
this point and if someone can hop on a plane
or you know, quickly get to them, or even like
you said, scale down the terrain to find them.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
They're on this wild trip through.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The Grand Canyon, which is just a crazy, incredible physical existence.
And so the fact that some ex husband who couldn't
even find her when she was filing for divorce behind
his back, is going to be able to locate her
in the exact spot alone on this trip and access
her physically is just that just did not happen.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The most logical explanation is that the hides drowned in
the river and their bodies were simply never recovered. I guess.
One of the things that has given their disappearance is
an extra or a mystery, is the fact that their
empty boat was found upright and completely intact, with no
signs of any damage, so on the surface, it doesn't
look like they could have gotten into any accidents which
caused them to drown. After all, all of their supplies
(32:06):
and possessions were still inside the scow, which would not
have been the case if they tipped over. But let's
not forget that earlier in the journey, the rough rapids
had caused Bessie to fall out of the boat before
Glenn was able to rescue her, and Glenn also apparently
fell into the water on two separate occasions as well,
so it's reasonable to assume that this could have happened again,
only this time they were not lucky enough to survive.
(32:29):
There's also been this romanticized theory that Bessie fell into
the water and let heroically dived into save her, but
the two lovers wound up drowning together. According to Bessie's journal,
the couple had made it as far as Diamond Creek rapid,
which was located at river mile two twenty five, and
they were about to enter one of the most dangerous
sections of the river, in particular the two thirty two
(32:51):
mile rapid, which has been nicknamed Killer Fang Falls. This
is a spot where a pair of large, jagged bedrocks
aka the Fangs, protrude from under water at the end
of the rapids and they can just sneak up on rafters,
as there are numerous documented cases of boats being capsized
or seriously damaged after crashing into them. Considering that Killer
(33:11):
Fang Falls is only five miles away from the spot
where the Hide's empty scow was ultimately found, it seems
like this is one of the most logical spots where
they could have fallen into the water. Even though Glen
and Bessie were both considered to be excellent swimmers, this
was a very rough section of the river, and let's
also not forget that Glenn stubbornly refused to carry life
jackets in the boat. If he and Bessie are wearing
(33:32):
life jackets at that time, then this is a survivable accident,
but without them they may not have made it out
of the river alive. This also would have taken place
at the start of December, so even if the couple
made it to shore, the cold winter temperatures could have
caused them to succumb to hypothermia or exposure.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's also interesting when you think about you know, people saying, oh, well,
they were strong swimmers. Like you just said, if you
don't have a flotational device and you hit a current
in a rapid, remember there's different levels of rapids and
when there's actually places where they they are known kind
of fatal risk, like you assume the risk in a
good whitewater rafting boat. You think about this scal that
(34:13):
is basically this handmade floating log. I don't know that
you're going down the river end. I could easily see
them getting bucked out of that, standing up at the
wrong spot and falling over. But if you're a great
swimmer and you get caught up in a current, if
you get ripped under and get caught on a log
or a branch and the current holds you underneath the water,
if you hit your head on a rock, I mean
(34:34):
there's a billion things that at that point you can't
get back to the surface. Like you said, if we
have a life veest on, it's possible to get back
to the surface. But even with that you see people's
life fest get caught on logs and actually be held
underneath the water. So a million things can go wrong.
It is so risky, and especially when it's just the
(34:56):
two of you, if one person has to go in
after the other, it's like all bets are off. There's
no one watching for y'all. There's no one else who
can rescue you. So incredibly scary to think about, but
that is by far the most probable thing. I could
see Glenn falling in and Bessie trying to save him,
and I could also see Bessie falling in and Glenn
trying to save her and both losing their lives.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And considering that Bessie was only five feet tall and
weighed only ninety pounds, it would have been very easy
for her body to disappear and never be found if
she wound up in the water.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So we previously mentioned that while writing Sunk without a Sound,
Brad Dimmick went all out when doing his research, going
so far as to build an exact replica of the
Hides wooden scal in order to recreate their journey along
the Colorado River as closely as possible. After personally navigating
the two hundred and thirty two mile rapid. Dimmick's conclusion
(35:51):
was that Glenn or Bessie likely fell out of the
boat and drowned there well. The empty scow continued to
float down to where it was found at river mile
two thirty seven. It seems odd that the scow could
have potentially collided with the fangs without sustaining any damage,
but in the book, Dimmick recounts incidents from his trip
down the river whereas scow got involved in violent collisions
which failed to leave noticeable damage. Now, I know Glenn
(36:14):
and Bessie's bodies were never found, but the Grand Canyon
is a large place, the search effort didn't launch until
a week or so after the couple went missing, and
there's no way to check every single into the Colorado River.
But there are two little details in this story which
could potentially shed some light on what might have happened
to the couple. You may recall that when Emery and
(36:34):
Ellsworth Colb found the scow, its bowline appeared to be
fastened in a crevice in one of the rocks and
caught on something underwater. Since the brothers were unable to
dislodge it, they decided to cut the bowtline. While the
Colbs received some criticism for this decision and later expressed
regret about it, because some people believe that the other
end of the bowline may have been attached to a
(36:56):
body that was stuck in some rocks under water, which
is why the boat had cut into a halt at
that particular spot. So by cutting the bowline, the Kolbs
may have severed their best chance of possibly recovering Glenn
or Bessie. The other interesting detail is the alleged sighting
by the prospector of the brown leather jacket floating in
the Colorado River. Now, this jacket was never recovered and
(37:17):
no one could confirm this sighting was one hundred percent legitimate.
But if the prospector was telling the truth, what if
he did not just see a leather jacket, but rather
a jacket being worn by somebody whose body was floating
down the river. After all, Bessie was known to have
worn the jacket on this trip, so this sighting could
have very well been the closest edyone ever came to
(37:37):
uncovering conclusive proof that the couple drowned.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Oh absolutely, I mean it could be something as simple
as the jacket fell out of the boat, it could
also be as tragic as saying, you know that was
not just the jacket, that was Bessie in the jacket
floating by. But when you talk about the rope, remember
it was lodged in those rocks, and when they're trying
to heave it out right, pull this line out, they can't.
There's something that's stuck on. The weight is there. So
(38:04):
you know, you would think if it's just a rope,
it almost would feel like you could have an easier
chance of dislodging it. But if there's a weight attached
to that rope and then that weight is stuck underneath
something like an anchor, a body, something like that, it
makes it way harder to dislodge and get that rope
pulled out of those rocks. So think of the weight
(38:26):
it has on the boat itself and then the weight
it has of this object.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Pulling it underneath the water.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
And it really kind of creates like dental floss almost
where it's stuck down in between the two rocks because
of the weight. But if you could, you know, let
go of the weight on one side, you could pull
it out of that crack, and so when they.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Cut it, who knows.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
It could have been a tree log, It could have
been an actual little anchor that they had self created
right that got stuck. But it also could have been
a body. There's really zero way to know that. And
it's sad when you think about the poor colds. They're
sitting there going, oh my god, did we like actually
cut their bodies away? Or at least one of them.
There had to be some you said, there's regret. There
(39:04):
had to be some guilt and a lot of emotion
surrounding that too. Did we blow it? Because these are
two individuals who likely lost their lives in these waters,
but they had no way of knowing that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And I do wonder if either Glenn or Bessie, in
order to protect themselves, could have tied the bowline to
their legs. Like Bessie is a small person, so maybe
she was thinking, this will save me if I get
knocked out of the scow and I go overboard, or
maybe if Bessie fell in and Glenn decided, I'm going
to tie this to my leg so that I can
go in and rescue her and hopefully remain tied to
(39:37):
the boat but still wound up drowning, and for all
we know, maybe if the sighting of the leather jack
was legitimate, maybe Betsy's body was floating downstream at that
at a totally different spot. But Glenn was separated from
her because he was still tied to the bowline and
he was underwater next to the abandoned scow, and the
cold didn't even realize it. So when you look at
(39:57):
all the evidence, the only explanation which made makes complete
sense is that Glenn and Bessie both fell out of
the scow and drowned, likely around the two hundred and
thirty two mile rapid, and their bodies were simply never recovered.
All the other twists in turns of this story, such
as Emery kolbs skeleton and the woman claiming to be
Bessie Hyde, are nothing more than red herrings, though they
have allowed the legend of the story to live on
(40:19):
for nearly a century, and I'm sure this tale is
still told around the campfire in the Grand Canyon today. Obviously,
given all the time that has passed, the Highs disappearance
is no longer being actively investigated by law enforcement, so
I'm not going to advise you to contact the appropriate
authorities in case you have any information. I think the
only chance this case will ever have of being solved
(40:40):
is if someone happens to stumble upon Glenn or Bessie's
skulls remains in the Colorado River somewhere, and with all
the advances we've had with DNA technology, remains could be
positively identified if this ever occurred. Overall, however, I think
it's most likely this story is destined to remain an
unsolved mystery. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Okay, let me ask you guys this honestly, do you
know who fred Noonan.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Is Amelia Earharts navigator?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Dang it?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
No, Robin, I didn't know that, Okay, so let me
just say I did not know that. But in the
back of my head, I was like, I'm pretty sure
that she had a male companion, but I don't know him,
Robin stop. I did not know who his name his
name was, And in my head I just kept thinking, Man,
had they made it, would Bessie be the next Amelia
(41:30):
Earhart of the rap is right where she's this woman
who Glenn even almost gets forgotten, and Bessie becomes this
person that I'm reading to my girls about, right about
this strong woman who has broken the mold.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
She stepped out.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
She's a legend in her own right, and Glenn or not,
Bessie has this legacy behind her, and so it's I
don't know. The whole time, I'm just kind of smiling
thinking of her on the cover of like a.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Who was book?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Who was Bessie?
Speaker 3 (41:56):
And unfortunately you have these two newlyweds who had actually
like literally moved mountains and gone into hiding and tried
to set up residency and fled an abusive marriage all
for the name of love and freedom and kind of
this hunt for adventure. And we have no way of
knowing what happened to them, but most likely in their
(42:18):
pursuit of creating this story that they could go around
the world and tour telling people, they ended up losing
their lives together. Which is just this really tragic start
to what should have been a really long, adventurous life
together and it was cut short.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
It really is a sad case. Betsy was such a
trailblazer at this time to be going from having this
really difficult husband who was prone to these violent outbursts
and for her to go, I don't want to be
with this man. She had the fortitude to leave him,
and even when he didn't want to grant her a divorce,
(42:55):
she doggedly pursued that she moved so that to a
different state so that she would have an easier time
divorcing him, and she basically did an abventia because he
didn't show up. She goes on to Mary Glenn and
they have this amazing adventure planned and I can imagine
how exciting it would be, Like this is like climbing
a mountain. Like I said earlier, you got this exciting
(43:18):
prospect that very few people have been able to accomplish this,
and Glenn has made this boat and although I'm sure
it was a little bit scary, it was also very exciting.
So to think of their mindset at the beginning of
this trip to them disappearing, it's very sad. And then
I do think it does get very convoluted when you've
(43:38):
got Cutler confessing to being Bessie and murdering her husband,
and then Georgie having this marriage certificate and having the
name so similar that it can be very compelling. But
it's very obvious that these two people were not Bessie.
I think that the most likely scenario is that they
(43:58):
perished in this river. I didn't even realize it was
one week when they started the search efforts, so those
bodies very likely could have surfaced and then gone back
down again in that time.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah. I mentioned many times that I was introduced to
this story as a child when it was featured on
Unsolved Mysteries, and we've talked about what a trailblazer Bessie was,
but the segment kind of does a disservice to her
because they don't really talk about her achievements and her
prior divorce or anything like that, and kind of makes
it look like she was kind of a naive newlywed
who was dragged along on this trip by her domineering
(44:30):
husband and wasn't that enthusiastic about it. But actually she
was a very adventurous person who really loved her husband
and was hoping to make history, possibly go down in
the history books like Amelia Earhart. But unfortunately she became
famous for a completely different reason, and that was vanishing
without a trace. Of course, back when I watched this
on TV in the eighties, I thought there was some
(44:50):
credence to the idea that maybe Bessie was still alive
and had killed Glen and had hiked out of the
canyon and started a new life under a new identity.
Also wondered like if Emery Cole was involved in their disappearances,
and what this big mystery was with the skeleton inside
his boat house. But once you do further research into this,
you find out that a lot of this stuff isn't
(45:11):
as mysterious as as it looks, and that all these
angles with like Elizabeth Cutler and Georgie white Clark and
the cold skeleton are nothing more than red herrings, and
that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and
Glenn and Besley probably just drowned after falling out of
their boat and are still somewhere in the Grand Canyon.
I got to give a shout out to the excellent
(45:31):
book Sunk Without a Sound by Brad Dimmick, and Ashley
was talking about at the startup part one, how terrifying
it sounded, the idea of going down the entire Grand
Canyon on the Colorado River on a wooden scow back
in the nineteen twenties, and Brad Dimmick decided to recreate that.
He took the initiative to build his own scow so
that he could try to recreate Glenn and Bessie's journey
as accurately as possible in order to figure out what
(45:53):
happened to them. Even though it sounds like a pretty
terrifying prospect in modern times to go on such a
lengthy trip on such a primitive boat, but it did
pay off, and the book does provide an excellent recounting
of the events and comes up with the most logical
theory about what might have happened. But regardless, this is
still a fascinating mystery, and even though a full centuries passed,
(46:14):
it has not been forgotten, and I'm sure people won't
be talking about it still for centuries to come.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
about the Trail Went Cold?
Speaker 4 (46:23):
Patreon?
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars
tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in
which I talk about cases which are not featured on
(46:47):
The Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to
Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier free
the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer
is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Saw Mysteries,
where you can download an audio file and then boot
up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
(47:10):
the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
first episode that I did a commentary track over was
the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
download a commentary track in which I make more smart
ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
Tier three.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
So I want to let you know a little bit
about the Jules and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad
free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
Path Went Chili mini's, which are always over an hour,
so they're not very many, but they're just too short
to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
so we hope you'll check out those patreons, we'll link
them in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
So I want to thank you all for listening, and
any chance you have to share us on social media
with a friend or d rate and review is greatly
appreciate it. You can email us at the pathwent Chili
at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter
at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to
bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for
warm clothing.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy
Welcome back to the Pathland, Chile for part two of
our series on the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Robin,
do you want to catch everyone up and what we
talked about in our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, this is one of the oldest mysteries we covered,
as it took place nearly a full century ago in
nineteen twenty eight. Involved a newlywed couple named Glenn and
Bessie Hide who lived in Twin Falls, Idaho. But because
Glenn was a very adventurous guy, he decided that for
their honeymoon, he and Betsy were going to go on
a whitewater river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on
the Colorado River, which would right about two hundred and
(01:00):
seventy seven miles, and he was hoping to break the
speed records so that they could become famous. But they
were making good progress, but then they vanished without a trace,
and their abandoned boat would be found in one section
of the river, and even though their supplies and all
their personal possessions were still inside and the boat looked undisturbed,
no trace of Glenn or Bessie could be found. There
(01:21):
was an initial assumption that they had drowned or drive
of exposure after wandering through the park, but nothing. The
search effort failed to turn up anything, but over the
years there would be some weird twists and turns. In
nineteen seventy one, there was another river rafting trip that
was going through the Grand Canyon and a woman named
Elizabeth Cutler told the group that she was Bessie Hyde
and that she had killed Glenn and decided to walk
(01:43):
out of the canyon on her own and start a
new life under a new identity. But this was pretty
much completely debunked as the facts did not line up.
There was another woman, a very famous female whitewater rafter
named Georgie White Clark who died in nineteen ninety two
at the age of eighty one, and she lived a
very private, secretive life, and they wound up finding a
(02:04):
copy of gled and Bessie Hyde's Mary Certificate in her
possessions following her death, so they looked at the possibility
that perhaps she was Bessie, but when they looked at
the backstory of Georgie's life, they realized that this just
was not possible. In nineteen seventy six, the skeleton remains
of a man with a bullet hole in his head
was found inside a boat house belonging to a photographer
(02:26):
named Emery Colb who lived in the Grand Canon on
the Colorado River, and because he was one of the
last people who had seen the hides alive, there was
speculation that perhaps he killed Glenn and kept his remains
in the boat house, but they completely debunked this idea
and realized that the remains likely belonged to a unidentified
man who had shot himself in the Grand Canyon sometime
(02:48):
during the nineteen thirties, and because Cold worked for the
coroner's office at that time, it's been speculated that because
the victim could not be identified, that Colb took his
remains home with him and kept them in the boat
house and forgot about them for several decades before he died. So,
even though this skeleton is not believed to have any
connection to the high case, it's still a big mystery
who exactly this John Doe really is. But nearly one
(03:12):
hundred years have passed and no trace of Glenn and
Bessie has ever been found, so this is still an
unsolved mystery. So I couldn't tell you how many times
I watched the Unsolved Mystery segment about this story when
I was a kid, as I once take this particular
episode off of TV and pretty much wore out the VHS.
It may not be the first Unsolved Mysteries episode ever produced,
(03:32):
as there were others made before it, which were hosted
by Raymond Burr and Carl Malden, but if you decide
to start watching the series on Amazon Prime or YouTube,
this is the first episode you're going to get. The
theme of the episode was four mysterious stories involving a
husband and a wife, and it's pretty much a gold
mine of some of the most memorable segments Unsolved Mysteries
ever produced. In addition to this case, the episode covers
(03:55):
the murder of Shannon Moore by her husband Dave Davis,
the unexplained death of Alien Conway, and the disappearance of
Dottie Kaylor. And of course, while there was hope that
the exposure on national television might help law enforcement solve
the other three featured cases on the show, the Glen
and Bessie Hyde disappearance was nearly sixty years old by
that point, so the segment was pretty much just there
(04:17):
for entertainment, but It's a very well done segment and
does not scamp on the production values for the reenactments,
as you get to see unedited shots of the actors
portraying Glenn and Bessie going down the dangerous rapids of
the Colorado River in a wooden scow, much like the
real people did back in nineteen twenty eight. I used
to find it incredibly creepy that this couple would completely
(04:39):
vanish without a trace, while their supplies and personal belongings
were found inside this completely empty, undamaged boat, especially.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
When you think about the way that unsolved mysteries dramatizes things,
it leaves things out. And then, like you said, this
was the very first episode of the entire series that
came out. So since we've learned a lot of information
two about some of these myths being kind of debunked,
I think it could be as basic as they fell
off of the scow and they passed away. I think
(05:11):
that Glenn was incredibly reckless and Bessie was not experienced,
and even on the easy parts of the rapids, they
were having struggles where Glenn even was falling off and
needing to be rescued from the water. So who's to
say that without life preservers, without any of those other things,
that it wasn't just simply one of those moments where
neither of them were able to actually wrests.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Like a micro version of a ghost ship. And I
couldn't remember the details of it, so I just looked
up the Mary Celeste and I don't know if you
both are familiar with this. It was founded direct in
the Atlantic Ocean in eighteen seventy two with no crew aboard,
but in seaworthy condition and with personal belongings and cargo intact,
and the fate of what happened to the captain and
(05:55):
the cruise still remains a mystery. So this is an
interesting parallel to that, where all the belongings on the
boat are still intact, the boat is still in river
worthy condition, but yet Glenn and Bessie are nowhere to
be found.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
That's horrifying. The entire crew is missing.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, wow, Okay, this is two crazy adventurers going missing,
But that's an entire crew.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I'm gonna have to go do a deep dive there.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But this one too, the way the way it's portrayed,
there really were to me, there also could have been
the ability that at least one of them could have
gotten to a shoreline and tried to hike out. But again,
they're in the middle of the Grand Canyon, right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And it wouldn't have been very easy to get out
of there, even if you were an experienced hiker.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And who knows.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's such a vast, unkind of navigatable place that if
they had climbed out on the banks, especially only one
of them, I could see also perishing on, you know,
in the Grand Canyon, trying to find a resource to
get away, to get out.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
As a side note, the Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring this
story is also the same infamous episode featuring the interview
with Juwel Kaylor that we always liked to poke fun of.
So if you have not seen this episode, track it
down right now on YouTube because it is a gold mine.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
All that being said, if you do further research into
this story and check out Brad Dimmick's book Sunk Without Sound,
it becomes apparent that Unsolved Mysteries greatly exaggerated some of
the more mysterious aspects of the story, such as the
discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse and Elizabeth
Cutler's so called confession that she was Bessie Hyde. Since
(07:37):
the segment put a lot of emphasis on Cutler's confession
that she stabbed her husband to death in self defense
after he beat her up, it's easy to come away
thinking that Glenn Hyde was some sort of abusive brute
who dragged his naive, innocent newlywed wife on a dangerous
trip against her will, with no regard for her personal safety.
And for whatever reason, this segment gets Bessie's age wrong,
(08:00):
claiming that she was only eighteen years old when she
was actually twenty two. They made no mention of the
fact that Bessie already had one previous marriage and divorce
under her belt, which was not very common for a
young woman during the nineteen twenties. So she was definitely
a lot more worldly and independent than the segment portrayed her,
and pretty much ahead of her time. In fact, Bessie's
(08:20):
brother was once quoted as saying she should have been
born a man, and he meant it as a compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, of course he did. I mean, think about the
power that men had compared to women. We couldn't vote,
we education wasn't something prioritized for women. Having your own
financial access was not something that women had when you know,
when they were married, and we talk about there's a
chance she might have been pregnant and sent away, she
was in an abusive first marriage. She's trying to navigate
(08:51):
the world and creating very innovative ways to get a
divorce from.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Her first husband.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So she is absolutely filled with it. This kind of confidence.
It was not given to women at the time, right,
You weren't allowed to have those kinds of feet underneath
of you to say I will do what I want
with who I want.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I'm going to say no to a man. I'm going
to divorce a man against his will or knowledge.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Even if let's say she went ahead and had an
abortion and or put a baby of her adoption, that
too would have been something incredibly controversial back then. So
she just seemed like a very innovative, ahead of her
time kind of woman. And when she runs into Glenn,
it's like this magical relationship where she sees this other
very bold, very clever, very kind of risky kind of man.
(09:39):
And I think she liked that because she was so
bold herself. And could that have been their demise as
being a little too confident. Bessie did show a little
sign of fear throughout this trip and concern, but it
almost seems like Glenn could either comfort her or kind
of override that and continue on with this legacy trip
that he was hoping to have.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
When Brad didn't research sunk without a sound, everything he
turned up about Glenn Hyde suggested he was a gentleman,
and there was no indication that he ever abused his wife.
At the outset, at least, it seemed like Bessie was
just as enthusiastic about this lengthy rafting trip as Glenn was.
You can definitely question Glenn's judgment about a lot of things,
particularly as refusal to bring along life jackets, but it
(10:21):
sounds like he and Bessie genuinely loved each other. Now.
To fully understand Glenn's reasoning for this trip, you have
to remember that adventurers were very popular during this time period.
It was only one year beforehand when Charles Lindbergh took
the world's first solo NonStop transatlantic flight from New York
to Paris in his plane the Spirit of Saint Louis,
(10:41):
which made him one of the most famous celebrities in
the world. So you can see why Glenn would be
tempted to achieve his own fame and fortune by setting
a new speed wrecord for river rafting through the Grand Canyon.
And I'm sure he loved the idea of putting his
wife in the history books by making her the very
first woman to accomplish this feat. And they almost pulled
it off because when you look at the hides and
known movements and see the location where the empty boat
(11:04):
was found, they were only about forty to fifty miles
from their destination and on pace to break the speed
record before they vanished. You can understand why there has
always been a major fascination with this story, even though
in the grand scheme of things, it's not hard to
come up with a logical theory about what likely happened
to Glenn and Bessie.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
And I do very much think she was excited about this.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I think she could have been hesitant, or she could
have concerns because anyone when they see this scal they're like, Okay,
we're going to go on this incredibly complex route. Like
we said, maybe ignorance was bliss because how much exposure
would she have to information, but I think this kind
of high. They had just gotten married, this is their honeymoon.
(11:48):
He Glynn chose a woman who was bold and adventurous,
and she chose a man who was bold and adventurous.
So I think this was very much an exciting thing
for them. I don't think he forced her. I don't
think any of that. I think as a trip went on,
it's possible Bessie started to go, WHOA, I might have
bitten off more than I could chew here, But again
I think Glynn could have probably reassured her and said, hey,
(12:10):
we've got this. Like you know, just keep in mind,
we're ahead of schedule, we're going to make records, we're
going to be in the history books. And to Bessie
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It is exciting, and I can understand why a married couple,
no matter how much you love each other, there's going
to be periods while you're stuck on this small vessel
that you are going to irritate each other to no end.
My husband had these friends that years ago they did
basically an around the world sailing thing, and it was
(12:41):
this big idea with the three kids, the two of
them are going to go and at first everything was great.
But by the time they were getting off that boat,
she was leaving him, they were getting divorced, and she'd
already found another man, and everything was everything fell apart.
It was like a catastrophe. So I think these small,
all enclosed spaces can have different results for people. But
(13:03):
with just Glenn and Bessie, this tiny little boat and
these arduous conditions, I can't imagine the stress that they
were both under for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It's almost like when you think about instances where like
even a healthy couple, I would murder my husband if
we lived in a tiny home, right, I couldn't do it.
I'd probably have to take out some of my kids too, right, Like,
it's just not it's not for me. I need my space,
I need my privacy, and they do too. And then
you think about couples like you have Gabby Petito and
(13:34):
her killer.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yes, And so even had they been super healthy on
their ride, I think there would have been problems because
they're young. They're new now. Remember Glenn and Bessie are newlywed.
So to what extent, I think as you age in
your marriage, you learn the goods, the bads, and the
ugly about your spouse, especially if you haven't been dating
that long and there's still love and respect and admiring,
(14:00):
but you can definitely the longer you're together or start
to realize, oh man, I don't like that, or this
is scares me, or I'm worried. So I think Bessie
and Glynn were good to each other. I think they
went on this adventure. But when I do think they
could fuss hurt each other, I doubt it, But I
also think I'm sure there were moments where people saw
them kind of at each other like I want to
(14:21):
go faster, I need to slow down, this seems too
risky for me.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Could we try this?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And kind of debating back and forth because they're still
navigating their relationship much less the treacherous track they're on
as well, And.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You also have to take into account the fact that, like,
what type of creature comforts can you have? Like maybe
Bessie is bold and she's a risk taker and she's
out there, but when you take away things like getting
to sleep in clean sheets, being able to bathe properly
when you're both probably smelly and you're in this small
(14:53):
space together and you just aren't comfortable a lot of
the time. I think that that could breed resentment, and
it could breed irritation, And I think you're right Ash,
like they did love each other, Otherwise, I don't think
she would have agreed to have gone on this adventure.
But I do think that things can happen to you,
even the healthiest of couples, when you're put into a
(15:15):
pressure cooker like this.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And that's pretty much what Emory Cole felt when they
stopped at his place, because it looked to him like
Bessie was becoming less enthusiastic about the trip and wasn't
sure she wanted to continue. And you can imagine after
visiting him at his house, she's probably thinking to herself, Ooh,
I could sleep in a bed tonight if we stay
here for the little river and not have to be
out in the wilderness. But I don't think that fits
the narrative that like Glenn pretty much forced her against
(15:40):
her will to go back on the remainder of the trip.
I think she went along voluntarily, and I don't think
things escalated into violence where Bessie flat out murdered Glenn
and then just took off.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Of course, another compelling aspect to this mystery was the
discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse nearly fifty
years after the hides went missing, which helped bring their
disappearance back into the spotlight. If this situation happened today,
it would be very easy to answer the question of
whether or not the victim was Glenn Hyde, as all
it would require is getting DNA from Glenn's surviving relatives
(16:13):
and comparing it with DNA from the remains. So it's
quite amusing to watch the Unsolved Mystery segment and see
how they handled this situation. In the pre DNA world
of nineteen eighty seven, doctor Walter Burkby uses a rather
primitive method of superimposing a photograph of Glenn's over the
victim's skull in order to conclude that they did not match.
(16:33):
Since a bullet was found in the skull. I can
see why people would instantly jump on the theory that
Emery Cold murdered Glenn, particularly since Bessy had allegedly expressed
concern to him about completing the rafting trip, as this
would have been a perfect opportunity for Cold to quote
rescue her. But doctor Burkeby pretty much shoots that theory
down in his interview and makes a valid point. If
(16:55):
Cold committed murder, why would he have kept the damn
body around? L Ay Unsolved Mysteries segment frame things, you
get the impression that the hides vanished immediately after visiting
Colb's place. They make no mention of their subsequent meetup
with Adolph Gilbert Seutro or the abundance of evidence such
as Bessie's journal entries which showed that the couple were
(17:16):
still alive for at least the next two weeks after
they parted ways with Cole. I guess this was done
in order to build the suspense over the idea that
Cold murdered Glenn, But once you know all the full facts,
you realize just how absurd this idea really is. In
order for Cold to have been the killer, he would
need to have traveled around one hundred and forty miles
(17:38):
to track Glen down, and instead of disposing of him
in the water or somewhere in the wilderness, he inexplicably
decides to lug Glenn's body all the way back to
his property and store it in the boathouse.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, it just seems like an odd decision, but I
do understand when he sits there and he says, hey, listen,
this is a John Doe.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
No one's going to claim him, so I'm going to
take him home.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
It seems kind of interesting that in his mind it's
possible he thought it was a more respectable, kind of
interesting thing for him to do and kind of find
some kind of scientific or career value to this skeleton.
But it's definitely a bizarre choice. I do not, in
a moment, think that Colb actually went and killed Glenn
to rescue Bessie. I mean, he wouldn't have stuck around,
(18:22):
and if he was that passionate, wouldn't Bessie and him
have ended up together or something. So I think that's
quite a stretch.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Even after it was conclusively determined that the skeleton did
not belong to Glenn Hyde, there was still a big
mystery for a while about who this man really was
and why colp had his remains. It's actually pretty remarkable
that they were able to at least partially solve this
mystery seventy five years after the fact, when the uncovered
the photograph of the skeleton remains of a suicide victim
found a Grand Canyon National Park in nineteen thirty three
(18:53):
and matched it to the remains from Colb's boathouse. Once
it became apparent that Coolb served on the county Coroner's
journey at that time, this became less of a case
of quote deranged murderer keeps victims remains on his property
than quote while meeting citizen keeps an unidentified decedance remains
on his property and forgets about them for four decades.
It's very likely that Cold decided to take the John
(19:15):
Doe's remains home with them, which might seem weird, but
I can understand his reasoning. Since the victim couldnt be identified,
he likely would have been buried in a pauper's grave
somewhere and been difficult to find, so I think Cold
wanted to hold onto the remains on the off chance
that the victim's loved ones might come around looking for
him someday. Sadly that never happened and we may never
(19:36):
find out the true identity of this John Doe. But
the evidence clearly showed that there was no foul play
involved in his death, and due to Emery Colb's connection
to the Hydes, disappearance, the situation pretty much blew up
into a major misunderstanding. As a side note, I originally
covered this story on episode number one twenty one of
the Trail Went Cold six years ago, and I soon
(19:57):
received an email from one of my listeners who had
heard the episode and realized that the unidentified Cold Skeleton
was not listed on the Dough Network. So this listener
took the initiative to submit all the victims information to
the website, and by October the nineteenth of that year
that the seeded finally had his own profile page. And
given the remarkable things that have been done with DNA
(20:17):
and genetic genealogy these past several years, perhaps the Cold
Skeleton will finally get his name back someday.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Robin, that's incredibly cool that a listener was sitting there
hearing your podcast took the initiative to go look on
the Dough network and said, wait a minute, this is
not listed. And so the individual got their own profile page,
And like you said, who knows there is a potential
that through some even maybe other cases, there could be
(20:44):
a link to this individual's identity. It was a long
time ago, but crazier things have happened in the world
a criminal justice, So very very interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Good job, Robin, Yes, thank you. I was pretty flattered
by that. And this listener was a very humble person
who didn't want any credit for it, and they probably
did not want me to mention their name on this episode,
so I won't do it. But it was so cool
that they just realized that this person who died back
in the nineteen thirties was not on the Dough Network,
so they took the initiative to submit him. So put
it this way, if Henry Cole had not kept this
(21:13):
man's remains in his boat house for four decades, he
would not be listed on the Dough Network today. So
silver linings.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Of course, The Unsold Mystery segment also put a heavy
emphasis on the possibility that Bessie Hyde could have murdered
her husband heights out of the canyon and traveled somewhere
to start a new life under a new identity. This
idea came about because of the story shared by Elizabeth
Cutler during a commercial wrapting trip in nineteen seventy one,
where she told everyone else sitting around the campfire that
(21:43):
she was Bessie Hyde and revealed the full truth about
what happened. The way the segment frames it is that
Cutler was dead serious when she told the story and
became incredibly defensive when people tried to question her about it,
later denying that she ever told the story or even
knew who Glenn or best Hide was well. When Brad
Dimmick did further research into this angle in Sunk without
(22:05):
a Sound, he concluded that the details of Cutler's alleged
confession seemed to have been greatly exaggerated by the sound
of things. Since she had worked for many years in
the field of psychology, Cutler had a tendency to say
outrageous things just to see people's reactions. Since this rafting
trip was camped near the spot where the Hide' vote
was found and the guide decided to share the story
(22:27):
about the disappearance, Cutler probably thought this would be a
fun opportunity to troll people and claim she was Bessie Hyde.
One of the members of this group was interviewed on
Unsolved Mysteries and he claimed the Cutler was a very
serious and quiet person throughout the trip, which is why
her story about being Bessie came across as believable. However,
when some of the other group members were interviewed for
(22:48):
Sunk without a Sound, they described Cutler as a witty,
cheerful character who loved to tease everyone, so they just
felt that she was joking when she told them that
she was Bessie. I think it's likely that when the
legend of her story grew and eventually got blown out
of proportion, Cutler tried to deny ever telling it because
technically she did confess to committing murder, which joking or
(23:09):
not could have landed her in some hot water. But
whatever her motivations were, there is concrete evidence that Elizabeth
Keutler was born in Pomeroy, Ohio and was living under
that identity in nineteen twenty eight when Bessie went missing.
So there's no way that they could possibly be the
same person.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
I mean, they are able to prove that it's not her,
But it does make you think, a psychologist or not,
what is the motive for claiming you are a killer?
It would be wildly incredible if she made this whole
story that she's Bessie and she says, you know, Glenn
drown this is you know, we were on this wild
trip we were going to make history, and she really
(23:48):
became kind of this infamous legend as Bessie. I could
get that that's for attention, But when you start to say, hey,
I actually killed my husband, I have no qualms telling
you that, and I'm Bessie, it seems like one she
would get in trouble and I assume she didn't, and
two like it boggles my mind that someone would think
(24:08):
that was a smart thing to do. We see false
confessions all the time, but this doesn't seem like someone
who would be desperate for attention like that. Because she
is a professor, I mean she had to work very different,
very hard as someone born in the what twenties or no, no,
nineteen oh eight, right, yes, yes, Okay, so she's born
(24:29):
in nineteen oh eight. This is a woman in the
field of psychology that used to be male dominated. She'd
becoming a professor also a job that started as a
male dominant thing, and she's moving and making waves just
like Bessie did. Why would you kind of regress and say, oh,
I'm going to try to get attention by being Bessie
and saying I killed someone.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Were they drinking? Robin?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It's never been specified, but I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised because that would probably shed a lot of
light on this because they don't get the impression Cutler
knew much about the story beforehand and maybe was learning
about it for the first time when the guy told
it around the fire, and if they were drinking or
possibly even smoking pot, she might have just at the
time thought it was an amusing thing to do, to
spontaneously claim that she was Bessie and that she killed
(25:15):
her husband.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So I don't think it's that wild in that context.
If we've all known somebody that says things just for
pure shock value, and if they've had a little bit
of alcohol, I could see a situation where somebody would
say that completely joking. But if somebody else takes it
the wrong way, or if they retell that story, it
becomes a game of telephone. Whereas she could have very
(25:37):
obviously been teasing or joking about it and been like, oh, yeah, haha,
and I killed my husband and this is how I
did it. And then you get somebody who says, oh, no,
she was a very serious person. That's why we took
it very serious. So I think it's just context matters.
And the way that somebody relays the story it as
we can see with a game of telephone, and like
(25:59):
eyewitness idifications, any ear witness identification, any type of recalling
of events, we don't have one hundred percent accuracy. So
I think that there is a scenario where she could
have been joking and that after she just backpedals like WHOA,
Now investigators are coming to ask me about this, I'm
just going to deny it.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Especially you have to pay attention to to who's saying it,
because you're right, I didn't even think about it from
that perspective. But what if someone's frustrated with her, insecure
about her those kinds of things. Could they then say like, oh,
this is how she meant it and actually try to
slander her character when literally ingest she's teasing, which you know,
I probably wouldn't encourage people to tease about murdering somebody.
(26:39):
But you know, if she really was let's say, drinking
or being silly or taking someone's comment and twisting it
out of jest, and someone else is like, you know what,
I'm really going to try to bring her down, then
they could start that's you know, spreading the rumor there too.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
And then there was a theory that George white Clark
might have been Bessie Hyde, an idea which spread when
a copy of the Hyde's marriage certificate was found in
her possessions after she died, along with a birth certificate
that showed that Georgie's original birth name was Bessie. It
is odd that Georgie would have a copy of that
marriage certificate, but when you consider that her life were
evolved around river rafting through the Grand Canyon, you'd have
(27:17):
to think that she was familiar with the story of
the Hide's disappearance, and she probably decided to acquire their
marriage certificate as a souvenir, much like the Elizabeth Cutler situation.
The problem with believing that Georgie white Clark and Bessie
Hyde are the same person is that there's an actual
historical paper trail for Georgie prior to nineteen twenty eight
disproving the notion that she had assumed a new identity.
(27:39):
And when you consider the fact that Georgie gave birth
to a daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine, there's
no way Bessie Hide would have been whitewater rafting through
the Grand Canyon without anyone noticing she was five months pregnant.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
No, I don't think so, especially because remember they said
she was tiny, she was ninety pounds. I mean, I
feel like you would quite notice that five months at
least a poot where people would make assumptions of saying,
do you guys think she's pregnant?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Right?
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I don't think even Glenn would be that arrogant to say,
I love this woman. You know what I'm going to
do if she's pregnant with my child or someone else's child.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Even if you loved.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Her, you probably wouldn't put your pregnant wife on the raft.
So even poor Glenn, right, I don't think his story
needed to be my pregnant wife made it as a
hero on this trip. I think he would have been
probably more cautious at that point because Bessie becomes a
more fragile woman he wants to protect instead of this
person who's going to be his partner in a legacy.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So while the idea of Elizabeth Cutler or Georgie white
Clark being Bessie Hyde has been conclusively disproven, I guess
it's still tempting to explore the possibility that Betsy really
did hike out of the canyon of her own accord
and started a new life somewhere. During their trip, Glenn
and Bessie were photographed multiple times and were usually shown smiling,
(28:55):
but a number of people have taken note of the
fact that the final photo of the couple, taken by
Ali about Gilbert Sutro, the last known person to have
seen them alive, see some much different picture. So in
this picture, Glenn and Bessie looked pretty sullen, almost as
if the riggers of their journey had completely sucked the
life out of them. Since Bessie had expressed noticeable concern
(29:15):
about embarking on the rest of the trip during her
visit with Emery Cole, perhaps there is some truth to
the idea that she wanted to bring an end to
this and the only way to escape from Glenn was
to kill him and leave the area on foot. Well.
The problem with this theory is that all of the
couple's supplies, including their food, winter clothing, and hiking boots,
were left behind in their abandoned scale. Hiking out of
(29:38):
the Grand Canyon in late November or early December is
no picnic. So I think that if Bessie took off
on her own, she would have at least taken some
of the supplies along with her, because otherwise there's no
way that she would have gotten out of there alive. No,
it just seems likely that when the couple disappeared, they
disappeared together. I know that over the years, Bessie's brother
(29:59):
often liked to point of finger at her ex husband,
Earl Helmet, since he was known for having a violent
temper and had refused to grant Bessie a divorce. Perhaps
he tracked down the couple and murdered them in revenge.
Earle wound up getting remarried in nineteen thirty, and whenever
he was asked about Bessie, he refused to talk about her. However,
there is no evidence at all that Earle was involved
(30:20):
in Glen and Bessie's disappearance, or that he even traveled
to the Grand Canyon National Park at all. Really, what
are the odds that Earl, who lived in an entirely
different state, would have been able to track down the
couple to a remote wilderness area along the Colorado River.
To put this into perspective, even though the Hydes boat
was spotted on the river from the airplane during the
(30:40):
search efforts. It was six days before anyone physically made
it to that location and found the boat. That should
give you an idea of how inaccessible this jagged terrain was.
So I'd say the odds of Glen and Bessie running
into anyone there who murdered them are pretty much nonexistent.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, that did not happen. It's not as if they
are social media vlogging their trip or something right where. Oh, today,
we're at this point. Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to
this point and if someone can hop on a plane
or you know, quickly get to them, or even like
you said, scale down the terrain to find them.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
They're on this wild trip through.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The Grand Canyon, which is just a crazy, incredible physical existence.
And so the fact that some ex husband who couldn't
even find her when she was filing for divorce behind
his back, is going to be able to locate her
in the exact spot alone on this trip and access
her physically is just that just did not happen.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The most logical explanation is that the hides drowned in
the river and their bodies were simply never recovered. I guess.
One of the things that has given their disappearance is
an extra or a mystery, is the fact that their
empty boat was found upright and completely intact, with no
signs of any damage, so on the surface, it doesn't
look like they could have gotten into any accidents which
caused them to drown. After all, all of their supplies
(32:06):
and possessions were still inside the scow, which would not
have been the case if they tipped over. But let's
not forget that earlier in the journey, the rough rapids
had caused Bessie to fall out of the boat before
Glenn was able to rescue her, and Glenn also apparently
fell into the water on two separate occasions as well,
so it's reasonable to assume that this could have happened again,
only this time they were not lucky enough to survive.
(32:29):
There's also been this romanticized theory that Bessie fell into
the water and let heroically dived into save her, but
the two lovers wound up drowning together. According to Bessie's journal,
the couple had made it as far as Diamond Creek rapid,
which was located at river mile two twenty five, and
they were about to enter one of the most dangerous
sections of the river, in particular the two thirty two
(32:51):
mile rapid, which has been nicknamed Killer Fang Falls. This
is a spot where a pair of large, jagged bedrocks
aka the Fangs, protrude from under water at the end
of the rapids and they can just sneak up on rafters,
as there are numerous documented cases of boats being capsized
or seriously damaged after crashing into them. Considering that Killer
(33:11):
Fang Falls is only five miles away from the spot
where the Hide's empty scow was ultimately found, it seems
like this is one of the most logical spots where
they could have fallen into the water. Even though Glen
and Bessie were both considered to be excellent swimmers, this
was a very rough section of the river, and let's
also not forget that Glenn stubbornly refused to carry life
jackets in the boat. If he and Bessie are wearing
(33:32):
life jackets at that time, then this is a survivable accident,
but without them they may not have made it out
of the river alive. This also would have taken place
at the start of December, so even if the couple
made it to shore, the cold winter temperatures could have
caused them to succumb to hypothermia or exposure.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's also interesting when you think about you know, people saying, oh, well,
they were strong swimmers. Like you just said, if you
don't have a flotational device and you hit a current
in a rapid, remember there's different levels of rapids and
when there's actually places where they they are known kind
of fatal risk, like you assume the risk in a
good whitewater rafting boat. You think about this scal that
(34:13):
is basically this handmade floating log. I don't know that
you're going down the river end. I could easily see
them getting bucked out of that, standing up at the
wrong spot and falling over. But if you're a great
swimmer and you get caught up in a current, if
you get ripped under and get caught on a log
or a branch and the current holds you underneath the water,
if you hit your head on a rock, I mean
(34:34):
there's a billion things that at that point you can't
get back to the surface. Like you said, if we
have a life veest on, it's possible to get back
to the surface. But even with that you see people's
life fest get caught on logs and actually be held
underneath the water. So a million things can go wrong.
It is so risky, and especially when it's just the
(34:56):
two of you, if one person has to go in
after the other, it's like all bets are off. There's
no one watching for y'all. There's no one else who
can rescue you. So incredibly scary to think about, but
that is by far the most probable thing. I could
see Glenn falling in and Bessie trying to save him,
and I could also see Bessie falling in and Glenn
trying to save her and both losing their lives.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And considering that Bessie was only five feet tall and
weighed only ninety pounds, it would have been very easy
for her body to disappear and never be found if
she wound up in the water.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So we previously mentioned that while writing Sunk without a Sound,
Brad Dimmick went all out when doing his research, going
so far as to build an exact replica of the
Hides wooden scal in order to recreate their journey along
the Colorado River as closely as possible. After personally navigating
the two hundred and thirty two mile rapid. Dimmick's conclusion
(35:51):
was that Glenn or Bessie likely fell out of the
boat and drowned there well. The empty scow continued to
float down to where it was found at river mile
two thirty seven. It seems odd that the scow could
have potentially collided with the fangs without sustaining any damage,
but in the book, Dimmick recounts incidents from his trip
down the river whereas scow got involved in violent collisions
which failed to leave noticeable damage. Now, I know Glenn
(36:14):
and Bessie's bodies were never found, but the Grand Canyon
is a large place, the search effort didn't launch until
a week or so after the couple went missing, and
there's no way to check every single into the Colorado River.
But there are two little details in this story which
could potentially shed some light on what might have happened
to the couple. You may recall that when Emery and
(36:34):
Ellsworth Colb found the scow, its bowline appeared to be
fastened in a crevice in one of the rocks and
caught on something underwater. Since the brothers were unable to
dislodge it, they decided to cut the bowtline. While the
Colbs received some criticism for this decision and later expressed
regret about it, because some people believe that the other
end of the bowline may have been attached to a
(36:56):
body that was stuck in some rocks under water, which
is why the boat had cut into a halt at
that particular spot. So by cutting the bowline, the Kolbs
may have severed their best chance of possibly recovering Glenn
or Bessie. The other interesting detail is the alleged sighting
by the prospector of the brown leather jacket floating in
the Colorado River. Now, this jacket was never recovered and
(37:17):
no one could confirm this sighting was one hundred percent legitimate.
But if the prospector was telling the truth, what if
he did not just see a leather jacket, but rather
a jacket being worn by somebody whose body was floating
down the river. After all, Bessie was known to have
worn the jacket on this trip, so this sighting could
have very well been the closest edyone ever came to
(37:37):
uncovering conclusive proof that the couple drowned.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Oh absolutely, I mean it could be something as simple
as the jacket fell out of the boat, it could
also be as tragic as saying, you know that was
not just the jacket, that was Bessie in the jacket
floating by. But when you talk about the rope, remember
it was lodged in those rocks, and when they're trying
to heave it out right, pull this line out, they can't.
There's something that's stuck on. The weight is there. So
(38:04):
you know, you would think if it's just a rope,
it almost would feel like you could have an easier
chance of dislodging it. But if there's a weight attached
to that rope and then that weight is stuck underneath
something like an anchor, a body, something like that, it
makes it way harder to dislodge and get that rope
pulled out of those rocks. So think of the weight
(38:26):
it has on the boat itself and then the weight
it has of this object.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Pulling it underneath the water.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
And it really kind of creates like dental floss almost
where it's stuck down in between the two rocks because
of the weight. But if you could, you know, let
go of the weight on one side, you could pull
it out of that crack, and so when they.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Cut it, who knows.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
It could have been a tree log, It could have
been an actual little anchor that they had self created
right that got stuck. But it also could have been
a body. There's really zero way to know that. And
it's sad when you think about the poor colds. They're
sitting there going, oh my god, did we like actually
cut their bodies away? Or at least one of them.
There had to be some you said, there's regret. There
(39:04):
had to be some guilt and a lot of emotion
surrounding that too. Did we blow it? Because these are
two individuals who likely lost their lives in these waters,
but they had no way of knowing that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And I do wonder if either Glenn or Bessie, in
order to protect themselves, could have tied the bowline to
their legs. Like Bessie is a small person, so maybe
she was thinking, this will save me if I get
knocked out of the scow and I go overboard, or
maybe if Bessie fell in and Glenn decided, I'm going
to tie this to my leg so that I can
go in and rescue her and hopefully remain tied to
(39:37):
the boat but still wound up drowning, and for all
we know, maybe if the sighting of the leather jack
was legitimate, maybe Betsy's body was floating downstream at that
at a totally different spot. But Glenn was separated from
her because he was still tied to the bowline and
he was underwater next to the abandoned scow, and the
cold didn't even realize it. So when you look at
(39:57):
all the evidence, the only explanation which made makes complete
sense is that Glenn and Bessie both fell out of
the scow and drowned, likely around the two hundred and
thirty two mile rapid, and their bodies were simply never recovered.
All the other twists in turns of this story, such
as Emery kolbs skeleton and the woman claiming to be
Bessie Hyde, are nothing more than red herrings, though they
have allowed the legend of the story to live on
(40:19):
for nearly a century, and I'm sure this tale is
still told around the campfire in the Grand Canyon today. Obviously,
given all the time that has passed, the Highs disappearance
is no longer being actively investigated by law enforcement, so
I'm not going to advise you to contact the appropriate
authorities in case you have any information. I think the
only chance this case will ever have of being solved
(40:40):
is if someone happens to stumble upon Glenn or Bessie's
skulls remains in the Colorado River somewhere, and with all
the advances we've had with DNA technology, remains could be
positively identified if this ever occurred. Overall, however, I think
it's most likely this story is destined to remain an
unsolved mystery. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Okay, let me ask you guys this honestly, do you
know who fred Noonan.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Is Amelia Earharts navigator?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Dang it?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
No, Robin, I didn't know that, Okay, so let me
just say I did not know that. But in the
back of my head, I was like, I'm pretty sure
that she had a male companion, but I don't know him,
Robin stop. I did not know who his name his
name was, And in my head I just kept thinking, Man,
had they made it, would Bessie be the next Amelia
(41:30):
Earhart of the rap is right where she's this woman
who Glenn even almost gets forgotten, and Bessie becomes this
person that I'm reading to my girls about, right about
this strong woman who has broken the mold.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
She stepped out.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
She's a legend in her own right, and Glenn or not,
Bessie has this legacy behind her, and so it's I
don't know. The whole time, I'm just kind of smiling
thinking of her on the cover of like a.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Who was book?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Who was Bessie?
Speaker 3 (41:56):
And unfortunately you have these two newlyweds who had actually
like literally moved mountains and gone into hiding and tried
to set up residency and fled an abusive marriage all
for the name of love and freedom and kind of
this hunt for adventure. And we have no way of
knowing what happened to them, but most likely in their
(42:18):
pursuit of creating this story that they could go around
the world and tour telling people, they ended up losing
their lives together. Which is just this really tragic start
to what should have been a really long, adventurous life
together and it was cut short.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
It really is a sad case. Betsy was such a
trailblazer at this time to be going from having this
really difficult husband who was prone to these violent outbursts
and for her to go, I don't want to be
with this man. She had the fortitude to leave him,
and even when he didn't want to grant her a divorce,
(42:55):
she doggedly pursued that she moved so that to a
different state so that she would have an easier time
divorcing him, and she basically did an abventia because he
didn't show up. She goes on to Mary Glenn and
they have this amazing adventure planned and I can imagine
how exciting it would be, Like this is like climbing
a mountain. Like I said earlier, you got this exciting
(43:18):
prospect that very few people have been able to accomplish this,
and Glenn has made this boat and although I'm sure
it was a little bit scary, it was also very exciting.
So to think of their mindset at the beginning of
this trip to them disappearing, it's very sad. And then
I do think it does get very convoluted when you've
(43:38):
got Cutler confessing to being Bessie and murdering her husband,
and then Georgie having this marriage certificate and having the
name so similar that it can be very compelling. But
it's very obvious that these two people were not Bessie.
I think that the most likely scenario is that they
(43:58):
perished in this river. I didn't even realize it was
one week when they started the search efforts, so those
bodies very likely could have surfaced and then gone back
down again in that time.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah. I mentioned many times that I was introduced to
this story as a child when it was featured on
Unsolved Mysteries, and we've talked about what a trailblazer Bessie was,
but the segment kind of does a disservice to her
because they don't really talk about her achievements and her
prior divorce or anything like that, and kind of makes
it look like she was kind of a naive newlywed
who was dragged along on this trip by her domineering
(44:30):
husband and wasn't that enthusiastic about it. But actually she
was a very adventurous person who really loved her husband
and was hoping to make history, possibly go down in
the history books like Amelia Earhart. But unfortunately she became
famous for a completely different reason, and that was vanishing
without a trace. Of course, back when I watched this
on TV in the eighties, I thought there was some
(44:50):
credence to the idea that maybe Bessie was still alive
and had killed Glen and had hiked out of the
canyon and started a new life under a new identity.
Also wondered like if Emery Cole was involved in their disappearances,
and what this big mystery was with the skeleton inside
his boat house. But once you do further research into this,
you find out that a lot of this stuff isn't
(45:11):
as mysterious as as it looks, and that all these
angles with like Elizabeth Cutler and Georgie white Clark and
the cold skeleton are nothing more than red herrings, and
that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and
Glenn and Besley probably just drowned after falling out of
their boat and are still somewhere in the Grand Canyon.
I got to give a shout out to the excellent
(45:31):
book Sunk Without a Sound by Brad Dimmick, and Ashley
was talking about at the startup part one, how terrifying
it sounded, the idea of going down the entire Grand
Canyon on the Colorado River on a wooden scow back
in the nineteen twenties, and Brad Dimmick decided to recreate that.
He took the initiative to build his own scow so
that he could try to recreate Glenn and Bessie's journey
as accurately as possible in order to figure out what
(45:53):
happened to them. Even though it sounds like a pretty
terrifying prospect in modern times to go on such a
lengthy trip on such a primitive boat, but it did
pay off, and the book does provide an excellent recounting
of the events and comes up with the most logical
theory about what might have happened. But regardless, this is
still a fascinating mystery, and even though a full centuries passed,
(46:14):
it has not been forgotten, and I'm sure people won't
be talking about it still for centuries to come.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
about the Trail Went Cold?
Speaker 4 (46:23):
Patreon?
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars
tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in
which I talk about cases which are not featured on
(46:47):
The Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to
Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier free
the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer
is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Saw Mysteries,
where you can download an audio file and then boot
up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
(47:10):
the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
first episode that I did a commentary track over was
the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
download a commentary track in which I make more smart
ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
Tier three.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
So I want to let you know a little bit
about the Jules and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad
free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
Path Went Chili mini's, which are always over an hour,
so they're not very many, but they're just too short
to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
so we hope you'll check out those patreons, we'll link
them in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
So I want to thank you all for listening, and
any chance you have to share us on social media
with a friend or d rate and review is greatly
appreciate it. You can email us at the pathwent Chili
at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter
at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to
bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for
warm clothing.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com