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Blue-haired-woman-TERRIFIES-authorities · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: This story is about a baffling disappearance that happened in
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty in a forest in California. But the most
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Speaker 1: unique part of this disappearance is the incredibly spooky twist
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Speaker 1: that happened very recently. This twist is something that the
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Speaker 1: Madera County Sheriff's Office, who is in charge of investigating
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Speaker 1: this disappearance, they're still trying to wrap their head around
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Speaker 1: what even happened. But before we get into that story,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On March eleventh, twenty twenty,
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Speaker 1: the World Health Organization declared that the COVID nineteen outbreak
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Speaker 1: was so bad that it had become a global pandemic,
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Speaker 1: which meant this new, highly infectious disease had spread virtually
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Speaker 1: everywhere on the planet. And so around the time this
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Speaker 1: global pandemic announcement was made, governments around the world began
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Speaker 1: instructing their citizens to stay home and avoid all physical
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Speaker 1: contact with other people outside of the people that you lived,
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Speaker 1: with the idea being these quarantine measures would help stop
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Speaker 1: the spread.
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Speaker 2: Of the virus.
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Speaker 1: Initially, world leaders and citizens believed these quarantine measures would
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Speaker 1: have a dramatic impact and it would stop the spread
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Speaker 1: and before long COVID would be under control and life
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Speaker 1: would just kind of magically go back to normal.
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Speaker 2: But unfortunately, that is not what happened.
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Speaker 1: By June, so three months into the global pandemic, positive
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Speaker 1: COVID cases were only going up, not down, and so
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Speaker 1: it was around that point in June that people all
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Speaker 1: over the world were starting to come to terms with
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Speaker 1: the reality that COVID was not this simple problem with
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Speaker 1: a simple solution. It was a complex health issue that
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Speaker 1: likely was going to be around for a long time,
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Speaker 1: which also meant these strict quarantine measures also would likely
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Speaker 1: be around for some time now. The efficacy of these
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Speaker 1: quarantine measures were quickly called into question, and it was
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Speaker 1: all over the news and politicians all they wanted to
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Speaker 1: talk about was do these measures work? Is it having
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Speaker 1: an effect on the spread of the virus? But for
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Speaker 1: everyday people, the real concern was not politics. It was practicality.
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Speaker 1: How do you live a full and happy life in quarantine?
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Speaker 1: In June of that year, fifty four year old Sondra
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Speaker 1: Hughes was pondering that question. To that point, her life
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Speaker 1: had really not gone the way she had planned it.
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Speaker 1: She had been married twice, actually, but both relationships had
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Speaker 1: ended in divorce, and she had never had children. She
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Speaker 1: lived in beautiful Maui, Hawaii, but she hadn't really lived
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Speaker 1: there long enough to consider it her home, and prior
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Speaker 1: to that, for the bulk of her adult life, she'd
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Speaker 1: kind of lived this nomad lifestyle, bouncing around all over
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Speaker 1: the country, and so really she had never developed a
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Speaker 1: home of sorts. She was an accountant by trade, but
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Speaker 1: in college she had studied not just accounting, but also
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Speaker 1: wilderness survival, which she happened to be incredible at and
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Speaker 1: was very passionate about. Growing up, she had always been
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Speaker 1: a big outdoor enthusiast, and so she had always thought
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Speaker 1: one day she would become a park ranger, and so
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Speaker 1: that's why she was studying wilderness survival in college. But
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Speaker 1: as these things go, after she graduated college, she did
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Speaker 1: not become a park ranger. She became an accountant. And
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Speaker 1: now thirty years later, here she was. However, in June
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Speaker 1: of that year, with co quarantine restrictions putting her and
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Speaker 1: everyone else's life basically on pause, Sondra suddenly saw an opportunity,
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Speaker 1: and that was to embrace this break from reality and
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Speaker 1: spend this strange time in history back out in nature,
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Speaker 1: getting back in touch with her roots as an outdoor survivalist.
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Speaker 2: And so at the.
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Speaker 1: End of that June, Sondra would sell her place in
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Speaker 1: Maui and she would move to Madera County, California, which
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Speaker 1: is located smack dab in the center of California, situated
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Speaker 1: just south of Yosemite National Park and just north of
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Speaker 1: the Sierra National Forest. Then, on June twenty sixth, after
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Speaker 1: Sondra had gotten settled in her new place in California,
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Speaker 1: she would contact her family and tell them that she
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Speaker 1: planned on going on this extended solo camping trip in
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Speaker 1: the Sierra National Forest and that she would be in
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Speaker 1: touch with them in the coming weeks when she was
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Speaker 1: back out to Sondra. This trip was going to bring
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Speaker 1: her lots of happiness and fulfillment, and and it was
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Speaker 1: going to allow her to continue to adhere to quarantine
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Speaker 1: guidelines because.
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Speaker 2: She'd be all alone.
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Speaker 1: Shortly after speaking with her family on the twenty sixth,
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Speaker 1: Sondra loaded up all of her camping equipment into her
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Speaker 1: Silver Sob Sedan, and then she would drive from her
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Speaker 1: place south and then east a little over an hour
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Speaker 1: until she was deep inside of the Sierra National Forest.
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Speaker 1: At some point, she would leave the main road and
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Speaker 1: she would hop onto a bumpy dirt road that kind
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Speaker 1: of wound through the forest, and that road would bring
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Speaker 1: her out to an area called the Johnson Meadows. The
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Speaker 1: Johnson Meadows are absolutely gorgeous. It looks straight out of
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Speaker 1: a postcard. It's basically a stretch of beautiful green meadows,
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Speaker 1: and then around the perimeter of those meadows are the
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Speaker 1: thick trees of the Sierra National Forest, and then beyond
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Speaker 1: those trees are the snow capped Sierra Mountains. But despite
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Speaker 1: its beauty, the Johnson Meadows are actually fairly dangerous. It's
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Speaker 1: a very isolated part of the Sierra National Forest, and
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Speaker 1: there are lots of cougar and bears and other natural
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Speaker 1: hazards in the area, so it's not really a place
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Speaker 1: you go unless you're prepared to be there, and Sondra
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Speaker 1: was certainly that, both in terms of her survival experience and.
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Speaker 2: The gear she brought with her.
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Speaker 1: So when Sondra drove her car right up to the
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Speaker 1: edge of the Johnson Meadows, she parked her car off
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Speaker 1: to the side of the road so as not to
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Speaker 1: block the road, and then she got out. She collected
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Speaker 1: her things from the trunk, and then she threw it
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Speaker 1: over her shoulder and began hiking into the middle of
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Speaker 1: the Johnson Meadows to look for a place to set
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Speaker 1: up her campsite. Six days later, on July second, some
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Speaker 1: hikers came out of the tree line into Johnson Meadows
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Speaker 1: and began walking across the center of it. And as
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Speaker 1: they're walking along, they notice up ahead what looks like a.
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Speaker 2: Tent and a campsite.
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Speaker 1: They don't see anybody near it, but they clearly see
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Speaker 1: someone is camping in the middle of Johnson Meadows, and
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Speaker 1: so this is totally not unusual. Lots of people go
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Speaker 1: hiking and camping in this area, and so these hikers
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Speaker 1: just began kind of creating a wide berth around this
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Speaker 1: person's campsite because they didn't want to cut right through
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Speaker 1: the middle of it as they went across the meadow.
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Speaker 1: But as they're making this kind of wide berth around
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Speaker 1: this campsite, they looked over at it, and as they
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Speaker 1: passed by it, they noticed that the campsite was definitely
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Speaker 1: abandoned and it looked totally destroyed, like a tornado had
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Speaker 1: crossed right across it. And so when they were parallel
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Speaker 1: with this campsite, the hikers decided to actually go over
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Speaker 1: and look at it and see what was going on.
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Speaker 1: So they walked over to this campsite and they're looking
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Speaker 1: around and they see there's a backpack that's clearly been
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Speaker 1: dumped out and all of its contents are strewn around
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Speaker 1: all over the ground. There's unopened cans of food, there's
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Speaker 1: papers and documents.
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Speaker 2: The tent is in ruins.
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Speaker 1: I mean, the place is just a total mess. And
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Speaker 1: so the hikers didn't really know what to make of this.
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Speaker 1: They couldn't tell if a person had kind of intentionally
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Speaker 1: ransacked this site or if maybe an animal had come through,
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Speaker 1: but as a precaution, they marked down on their map
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Speaker 1: where this destroyed campsite was, and then they hiked out
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Speaker 1: of the forest. When they were back in cell phone range,
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Speaker 1: they called the Madera County Sheriff's office and they reported
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Speaker 1: the site. And so later that day some Madera County
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Speaker 1: sheriffs made their way out to Johnson Meadows and sure enough,
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Speaker 1: the campsite is still there. It's still in ruins, and
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Speaker 1: it's still abandoned. And so they would search the campsite
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Speaker 1: and they would find some ID cards and the name
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Speaker 1: on those ID cards was Sondra Hughes. The sheriffs would
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Speaker 1: leave the forest and get in touch with Sandra's family
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Speaker 1: to find out if they knew why Sondra had left
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Speaker 1: her campsite the way she had. But when Sandra's family
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Speaker 1: heard about the state of Sandra's campsite, they had an
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Speaker 1: immediate and definitive reaction to it. They told the sheriffs
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Speaker 1: that Sondra was incredibly environmentally conscious and was very cleanly
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Speaker 1: and so she would never ever leave her campsite looking
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Speaker 1: that way on purpose. Something else had to have happened.
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Speaker 1: The family would also tell the sheriffs that they had
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Speaker 1: not spoken with Sandra since the twenty six when she
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Speaker 1: started her trip, and so they had no idea where
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Speaker 1: she could be now, and so naturally the family was concerned.
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Speaker 1: The sheriffs were concerned, and so that day they filed
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Speaker 1: an official.
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Speaker 2: Missing person report.
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Speaker 1: Over the next two days, a massive search was launched
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Speaker 1: in Johnson Meadows in the surrounding area to look for Sondra,
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Speaker 1: and so hundreds of people were out on foot, They
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Speaker 1: had sniffer dogs out, there were helicopters in the air,
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Speaker 1: and during this search, the Madera County Sheriff's office was
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Speaker 1: interviewing anybody who was out there, hikers' campers, and asking
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Speaker 1: them if they had had any contact with Sondra, because
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Speaker 1: Sondra was actually quite distinctive looking. Before she left for
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Speaker 1: this trip, she had dyed her hair blue. But unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: no one had seen Sondra and despite this massive search
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Speaker 1: effort over these first two days, nothing new was discovered
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Speaker 1: that could lead authorities to where.
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Speaker 2: She had gone.
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Speaker 1: But then on July fourth, so two days into her disappearance,
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Speaker 1: Sondra Hughes was spotted.
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Speaker 1: Okay, back to the story. Hikers were cutting through the
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Speaker 1: Johnson Meadows area and they saw this woman who was
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Speaker 1: just standing off to the side of the meadow. She
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Speaker 1: was by herself, she had no gear with her, she
12:09
Speaker 1: was barefoot, she had a black shirt on, she had
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Speaker 1: blue jeans on. She had a bruise on her face,
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Speaker 1: and she was just kind of standing there as if
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Speaker 1: she was waiting for something. And as these hikers walked
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Speaker 1: past her, they definitely noticed her, but she didn't wave
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Speaker 1: them down. She didn't act distressed, she didn't look like
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Speaker 1: she needed any help. They just kind of saw this
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Speaker 1: person minding their own business, and they walked right on
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Speaker 1: past her. It wasn't until those hikers got to the
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Speaker 1: parking lot that they saw all these missing person flyers
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Speaker 1: out for Sondra Hughes, and they would see the picture
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Speaker 1: of Sondra and they would see her distinctive blue hair
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Speaker 1: that they would say, oh, my goodness, the barefoot woman
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Speaker 1: we just saw standing in the forest is Sondra Hughes.
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Speaker 1: And so the.
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Speaker 2: Hikers called the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office got really
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Speaker 2: jazzed up.
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Speaker 1: They headed out to where they had claimed to have
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Speaker 1: seen her, but there was no sign of her, and
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Speaker 1: there was nothing left behind that would indicate what she
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Speaker 1: might have gone. The following day, on July fifth, Sondra's
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Speaker 1: vehicle was located, but Sondra was not with it. It
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Speaker 1: was found five miles north of where her destroyed campsite
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Speaker 1: was in Johnson Meadows, and the vehicle was actually at
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Speaker 1: the bottom of a ravine, and this ravine was right
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Speaker 1: next to a winding forest road, and so after looking
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Speaker 1: at the damage on the front of the car, authorities
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Speaker 1: believed Sondra was driving the car on that road and
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Speaker 1: then hit a tree and then she rolled off the
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Speaker 1: embankment down to the bottom of the ravine. There was
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Speaker 1: no blood inside the vehicle, so it wasn't immediately clear
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Speaker 1: if this accident had actually done any physical harm to Sondra.
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Speaker 1: But the most significant thing about the discovery of this
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Speaker 1: vehicle was the state of Sondra's personal effects that had
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Speaker 1: been in the vehicle. Clearly, after the vehicle had come
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Speaker 1: to a stop at the bottom of the ravine, someone
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Speaker 1: had pulled out all of the things inside of the car,
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Speaker 1: all of Sondra's personal things, and kind of thrown them
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Speaker 1: carelessly all over the forest floor, as if they were
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Speaker 1: kind of rummaging through her car looking for something, throwing
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Speaker 1: things as they went, and the Madera County Sheriffs couldn't
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Speaker 1: help but think that this was eerily similar to how
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Speaker 1: her campsite looked in Johnson Meadows, where all of her
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Speaker 1: personal effects had just kind of been chucked all over
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Speaker 1: the place. At this point, authorities did not believe Sondra
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Speaker 1: was actively trying to evade them. Instead, they thought, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe Sondra got hurt, maybe back at the campsite or
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Speaker 1: even during this car accident, and the injury has impaired
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Speaker 1: her cognitive abilities, and so now you know, maybe she's
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Speaker 1: lost in the woods and doesn't know what's going on.
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Speaker 1: There was some discussion about foul play maybe being involved,
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Speaker 1: but that was largely discounted, and so a decision was
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Speaker 1: made to just leave her vehicle where it was at
14:47
Speaker 1: the bottom of the ravine, thinking, you know, maybe Sondra
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Speaker 1: is going to come back to this vehicle, and maybe
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Speaker 1: that's why all these things have been strewn around, because
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Speaker 1: she's coming back and looking for something. And so authorities
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Speaker 1: left a note in the window of her vehicle that said,
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Speaker 1: you know, hey, Sondra, we're looking for you. Please call
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Speaker 1: this number if you see this, and then at the
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Speaker 1: bottom of this note it said your family really misses you.
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Speaker 1: The search for Sondra would continue over the next several
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Speaker 1: days with a new focus around the area where the
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Speaker 1: car had been found, but nothing new was discovered then
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Speaker 1: on the evening of July twelfth, so one week after
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Speaker 1: the vehicle was discovered, a team of searchers had made
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Speaker 1: their way two and a half miles north of the vehicle,
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Speaker 1: and they were actually inside of Yosemite National Park. They
15:30
Speaker 1: were barely inside, and they were right up along this
15:33
Speaker 1: lake called the Spotted Lake. Now, this is an area
15:36
Speaker 1: that's very difficult to get to. There are no main
15:38
Speaker 1: roads that get there, there are no main trails that
15:40
Speaker 1: get there. And so the searchers they're up in this
15:43
Speaker 1: very rugged part of Yosemite and as they're walking along
15:46
Speaker 1: with their flashlights out, they see a sleeping bag and
15:49
Speaker 1: it's laying out right in the middle of the ground,
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Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere, and it looks like it's
15:53
Speaker 1: been used recently, and it would turn out that sleeping
15:56
Speaker 1: bag was Sondra's. But again, when they brought all the
16:00
Speaker 1: searchers out to that area and they searched all around
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Speaker 1: the Spotted Lake and all over this area, there was
16:05
Speaker 1: no sign of Sondra. At this point, authorities were totally baffled.
16:10
Speaker 1: On a map, Johnson Meadows, where her first campsite was,
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Speaker 1: then her vehicle, and then this sleeping bag, were all
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Speaker 1: more or less in a straight line going south to north.
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Speaker 1: It was almost like Sondra from the day she went
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Speaker 1: missing had just begun slowly working her way to the north.
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Speaker 1: But she was doing it without any equipment and most
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Speaker 1: likely barefoot, in an area that was steep and rugged
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Speaker 1: and dangerous and full of cougars and bears, and so
16:38
Speaker 1: authorities knew if they didn't find her soon, even if
16:40
Speaker 1: she was doing this on purpose, she was likely going
16:43
Speaker 1: to succumb to the elements. The search for Sondra would
16:46
Speaker 1: continue for another week after the discovery of her sleeping bag,
16:51
Speaker 1: but by that time, by July twentieth, there hadn't been
16:54
Speaker 1: any new developments. No one had seen Sondra, there were
16:56
Speaker 1: no new leads, and so unfortunately, the authorities had to
17:00
Speaker 1: scale back their search. About three weeks later, on August ninth,
17:04
Speaker 1: two hunters were driving down this very desolate forest road
17:07
Speaker 1: located several miles to the east of where Saundra's car
17:10
Speaker 1: had been found. And as they're driving along, they turn
17:13
Speaker 1: this corner and as soon as they do, they look
17:15
Speaker 1: up ahead and they see there's this woman. Now she's
17:18
Speaker 1: not standing on the road or even.
17:20
Speaker 2: Right next to the road.
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Speaker 1: She's kind of tucked up aways on this hillside in
17:24
Speaker 1: the trees, and she's leaning up against a tree. And
17:27
Speaker 1: so the hunters are looking at her and they're seeing
17:29
Speaker 1: that she's got no equipment with her. There's no backpack,
17:31
Speaker 1: there's nothing, no tent, and there's no other people anywhere.
17:34
Speaker 1: I mean, they're in a very isolated part of this forest,
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Speaker 1: and it's odd to see people here to begin with,
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Speaker 1: let alone.
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Speaker 2: This woman is just kind of casually standing up against.
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Speaker 1: A tree, and so the hunters they're like, okay, let's
17:45
Speaker 1: drive up and see if she needs something, and so
17:47
Speaker 1: they pull up.
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Speaker 2: Right up alongside her.
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Speaker 1: She's still, you know, ten fifteen feet away from them,
17:51
Speaker 1: tucked up in the trees, and so they roll their
17:53
Speaker 1: windows down and they're looking up at her, trying to
17:55
Speaker 1: kind of flag her and get her attention.
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Speaker 2: But the woman is not paying attention to them all.
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Speaker 1: She just continues to prop herself up against this tree
18:03
Speaker 1: and just kind of stares off.
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Speaker 2: Into the distance.
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Speaker 1: And so the hunters they're looking up at her, thinking
18:07
Speaker 1: what's going on with this woman, and they kind of
18:09
Speaker 1: called out to her.
18:10
Speaker 2: They tried to wave her down, but there was nothing.
18:12
Speaker 1: There was no interactions with them, and so ultimately the
18:15
Speaker 1: hunters thought, Okay, well, we don't know what this woman's doing,
18:18
Speaker 1: but it seems like she's here on purpose, and she
18:20
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like she's in distress, she doesn't look hurt,
18:22
Speaker 1: and so they just decided to carry on. So they
18:25
Speaker 1: drove off, and then later that day they would see
18:28
Speaker 1: one of the missing person flyers for Sondra Hughes and
18:31
Speaker 1: they saw the blue hair in the picture and they
18:34
Speaker 1: were like, oh, my goodness, the woman we saw standing
18:37
Speaker 1: up against the tree in the middle of the forest
18:39
Speaker 1: was that woman, Sondra Hughes. The hunters would contact the
18:43
Speaker 1: Madera County Sheriff's office and report the sighting, and they
18:46
Speaker 1: would describe Sondra as looking slightly thinner than the picture
18:50
Speaker 1: of her on her missing person flyer, and they would
18:53
Speaker 1: also say she was wearing overalls and a floral t shirt,
18:56
Speaker 1: which was interesting to sheriffs because the last time Sona
19:00
Speaker 1: was sighted, which was on July fourth, when those hikers
19:03
Speaker 1: had seen her barefoot with a bruise on her face
19:05
Speaker 1: near Johnson Meadows, she had been wearing a black shirt
19:08
Speaker 1: and blue jeans, and so clearly she had changed her outfit,
19:11
Speaker 1: but that didn't really make any sense because she had
19:13
Speaker 1: left all of her things at the campsite and her car,
19:16
Speaker 1: and so the whole situation was just totally weird to
19:19
Speaker 1: the sheriffs. But regardless, they headed out to that road
19:22
Speaker 1: where the hunters had seen Sondra, but like always, Sondra
19:26
Speaker 1: was not there, and there was no sign.
19:28
Speaker 2: She had ever been there.
19:29
Speaker 1: After this, Sondra's case went cold, and so authorities and
19:33
Speaker 1: her family began to brace for the reality that they
19:36
Speaker 1: likely would never see her again. But there was one
19:40
Speaker 1: more terrifying twist coming a year later. On Wednesday, July
19:43
Speaker 1: twenty first, twenty twenty one, Jake Gorba, his wife Victoria,
19:48
Speaker 1: and their three young children were driving in Jake's off
19:51
Speaker 1: roading vehicle up the steep forest road in the middle
19:54
Speaker 1: of Sierra National Forest on their way to the top
19:57
Speaker 1: of shut Eye Peak. Shut Eye Peak is a mountain
20:00
Speaker 1: in the Sierra National Forest with stunning panoramic views from
20:03
Speaker 1: the top, and it's located about five miles to the
20:07
Speaker 1: south of Johnson Meadows, where Sondra's first campsite was discovered.
20:11
Speaker 2: So Jake and his family.
20:12
Speaker 1: They're driving their way up this long, bumpy, winding forest road,
20:16
Speaker 1: making their way towards the top of shut Eye Peak,
20:18
Speaker 1: and when they get about halfway, the kids in the
20:20
Speaker 1: back start complaining that they're hungry, and so Jake and
20:23
Speaker 1: Victoria they decide, you know what, let's just pull over
20:25
Speaker 1: at the next natural stopping point and we'll have a
20:28
Speaker 1: quick lunch and then we'll continue on the rest of
20:30
Speaker 1: the way. And as luck would have it, the road
20:33
Speaker 1: they were on would actually level off and lead them
20:35
Speaker 1: to this kind of short flat section of the mountain.
20:38
Speaker 1: And in this flat section was this beautiful little meadow
20:42
Speaker 1: that butted up against some trees, and so Jake and
20:45
Speaker 1: his wife thought this is a great place to stop
20:47
Speaker 1: and have a little picnic, and so he pulled his
20:49
Speaker 1: truck over on the side of the road, he parked it,
20:51
Speaker 1: he turned the engine off, and then as Jake and
20:54
Speaker 1: his wife are kind of gathering up their things before
20:56
Speaker 1: they get out of the vehicle to go prepare this
20:59
Speaker 1: picnic lunch, they hear their three year old son named Caden,
21:03
Speaker 1: who's in the back seat right near a window, start talking,
21:05
Speaker 1: and so Jake and Victoria instinctively turned around to see
21:09
Speaker 1: who Cayden was talking to, and they saw Cayden was
21:12
Speaker 1: not talking to himself, he was not talking to his siblings.
21:15
Speaker 1: He was turned and looking out his open window, looking
21:19
Speaker 1: across this small meadow into the forest, engaged in some
21:23
Speaker 1: sort of intense conversation with somebody outside, and so Jake
21:27
Speaker 1: and Victoria they see their son, and they look out
21:30
Speaker 1: the window in the direction he's looking and talking, and
21:33
Speaker 1: they don't see anyone. And so Victoria she looks at
21:36
Speaker 1: her son and goes, Kayden, who are you talking to?
21:39
Speaker 2: And what he would say.
21:40
Speaker 1: To her would send goosebumps all over her body, and
21:43
Speaker 1: in fact, what would happen over the next several minutes
21:46
Speaker 1: from that point onward was so unsettling that Jake and
21:50
Speaker 1: Victoria decided, you know what, we're not going to the
21:52
Speaker 1: top of shut Eye Peak. We're turning around and we're leaving.
21:55
Speaker 1: And so they would speed out of the forest and
21:57
Speaker 1: they would get back home, and that night Victoria would
22:01
Speaker 1: make a Facebook post about what her son said and
22:04
Speaker 1: this terrifying ordeal they experienced on shut Eye Peak, and
22:07
Speaker 1: she would post it, and that night the Madera County
22:11
Speaker 1: Sheriff's office would reach out to Victoria via a Facebook
22:14
Speaker 1: message and they would tell her, hey, we saw your post,
22:18
Speaker 1: can we please speak to you and your son? And
22:21
Speaker 1: so the next day the sheriffs met up with the
22:23
Speaker 1: Gorba family, and after speaking with Cayden and hearing what
22:27
Speaker 1: he had to say, they would leave that exchange just
22:30
Speaker 1: as unsettled as Cayden's parents the day before, when Victoria
22:34
Speaker 1: turned around and looked at Caden and said, who are
22:38
Speaker 1: you talking to, Cayden would turn away from the window
22:41
Speaker 1: and look at his mom and he would say, there's
22:43
Speaker 1: a woman out there and she needs our help. And
22:45
Speaker 1: he starts pointing out the window. And so again Jake
22:48
Speaker 1: and Victoria they look from their son back out the
22:50
Speaker 1: window into the tree line, which is where Cayden is pointing,
22:53
Speaker 1: and they don't see anyone. And so they turned back
22:56
Speaker 1: to Caden and they say, honey, we don't see anyone
22:58
Speaker 1: out there. And Cayden, at this point he becomes emphatic
23:01
Speaker 1: and he says, Mom, you gotta trust me.
23:04
Speaker 2: She's right there. She needs our help.
23:06
Speaker 1: She's lying face down, her legs are straight up, and
23:11
Speaker 1: she's dead. And so at this point, Victoria and Jake
23:15
Speaker 1: are looking at their son, thinking what's going on here.
23:18
Speaker 1: Jake promptly hops out of the car and just starts
23:20
Speaker 1: running into the woods to see what's going on. Is
23:23
Speaker 1: there a person out here? But he's out there looking
23:25
Speaker 1: around and there's no one. And while he's out there,
23:28
Speaker 1: his son is pointing in the direction of where he is,
23:31
Speaker 1: claiming there's this woman right near him, and so Jake's
23:34
Speaker 1: looking around, thinking, there's no one out here. I have
23:36
Speaker 1: no idea what my son's on about. And so he's spooked.
23:39
Speaker 1: He runs back to the car, and when he gets inside,
23:42
Speaker 1: Cayden is still looking out the window. He's pointing and
23:45
Speaker 1: he's talking to this dead woman that needs their help.
23:49
Speaker 2: And so Jake and Victoria they were horrified.
23:51
Speaker 1: They turned around, they left, and then that night, when
23:54
Speaker 1: Victoria made that Facebook post, she included in the post
23:58
Speaker 1: what this woman apps carently looked like based on what
24:02
Speaker 1: Cayden said, and what Cayden said was she had a
24:05
Speaker 1: black T shirt on, blue jeans on, and blue hair.
24:10
Speaker 1: And so when the Madera County Sheriff's office saw this
24:13
Speaker 1: post that described seeing a person in a black shirt,
24:16
Speaker 1: blue jeans, and blue hair, they knew that description matched
24:20
Speaker 1: Sondra Hughes. And so when the sheriffs met up with
24:23
Speaker 1: the Gorba family, they brought with them a lineup of
24:26
Speaker 1: several women, and they went right up to Cayden, and
24:29
Speaker 1: without giving him any extra information, they just showed him
24:32
Speaker 1: all these pictures of all these women, and they said, Cayden,
24:35
Speaker 1: can you identify in any of these pictures the woman
24:39
Speaker 1: you saw in the woods, and Cayden looks at these
24:41
Speaker 1: pictures and he picks out three pictures. All three are
24:44
Speaker 1: Sondra Hughes. The sheriffs, along with Caiden and his father,
24:48
Speaker 1: they would return to that section of Shut Eye Peak
24:51
Speaker 1: to search the tree line near the meadow to see
24:53
Speaker 1: if there was any sign of Sondra or any indication
24:56
Speaker 1: that she had been there, but like always, there was nothing.
25:00
Speaker 1: As of today, we still have no idea where Sondra
25:02
Speaker 1: is or what happened to her, and nobody has any
25:05
Speaker 1: idea what to make of the very strange sightings of
25:08
Speaker 1: her that occurred after she went missing. It's all just
25:11
Speaker 1: one big mystery. If anyone has any information about Sondra Hughes,
25:16
Speaker 1: you are encouraged to contact the Madera County Sheriff's Office.
25:20
Speaker 1: The number is right here and also in the description.
25:25
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it.
25:26
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