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Glen and Bessie Hyde Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

0:30
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathway Chili. I'm Robin, I'm Jules.
0:34
Speaker 2: And I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case.
0:39
Speaker 3: November fifteenth, nineteen twenty eight, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona,
0:45
Speaker 3: twenty nine year old Glen Hyde and his twenty two
0:48
Speaker 3: year old wife Bessie decide to spend their honeymoon taking
0:51
Speaker 3: a rafting trip down the rapids of the Colorado River.
0:54
Speaker 3: Shortly after stopping at the home of a photographer named
0:57
Speaker 3: Emery Colb, the Hidees vanished without a and their empty
1:01
Speaker 3: boat is discovered in the river over one month later.
1:04
Speaker 3: Over the next several decades, there would be a number
1:07
Speaker 3: of twists and turns, including a woman you claimed to
1:10
Speaker 3: be Bessie Hyde, and the discovery of an unidentified male
1:13
Speaker 3: skeleton in Emery Colb's boat house, but no trace of
1:17
Speaker 3: Glen or Bessie is ever found after that.
1:21
Speaker 1: The path went Chili, So on this episode we are
1:24
Speaker 1: going to be traveling back nearly an entire century to
1:27
Speaker 1: cover a mystery which took place in the Grand Canyon,
1:30
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenty eight disappearances of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Anyway,
1:34
Speaker 1: if you're an unsolved Mysteries fan, you're probably familiar with
1:36
Speaker 1: this story as it was featured on the very first
1:39
Speaker 1: episode of the show, hosted by Robert Stack. Glen and
1:42
Speaker 1: Bessie Hyde were a newlywed couple who decided to take
1:45
Speaker 1: a very adventurous honeymoon by embarking on a lengthy whitewater
1:48
Speaker 1: rafting trip through the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River,
1:52
Speaker 1: and they hoped to find fame by achieving a new
1:54
Speaker 1: speed record, but they would eventually go missing, and even
1:57
Speaker 1: though the couple's empty boat was found completely into with
2:00
Speaker 1: all their supplies still on board, Glenn and Bessie had
2:03
Speaker 1: seemingly vanished into thin air. This story has become a
2:06
Speaker 1: pretty legendary unsolved disappearance with a number of twists and turns,
2:10
Speaker 1: and even contains a compelling mystery within a mystery, as
2:13
Speaker 1: a skeleton initially believed to be Glenn Hyde, would be
2:16
Speaker 1: found on the property of one of the last people
2:18
Speaker 1: known to have seen the couple alive. Four decades later,
2:22
Speaker 1: there would also be a woman who popped up on
2:24
Speaker 1: another rafting trip through the Grand Canyon and told a
2:27
Speaker 1: number of witnesses that she was Bessie Hyde and had
2:30
Speaker 1: disappeared on her own and started a new life after
2:32
Speaker 1: killing her husband. All we know for certain is that
2:35
Speaker 1: nearly one hundred years have passed since the Hides went
2:38
Speaker 1: missing and they have still never been found. So I
2:40
Speaker 1: thought it was about time that the path went. Chile
2:43
Speaker 1: tackled the very first Mysterious Legends case featured on Unsolved Mysteries.
2:48
Speaker 2: Can my mouth already be hanging open? Because I need
2:51
Speaker 2: you guys to back up and clarify a couple of
2:53
Speaker 2: things for me. One, how cool that it was on
2:55
Speaker 2: the very first episode of Unsolved Mysteries. But okay, a
2:58
Speaker 2: body was founded. They believe Eve to be Glenn Hyde
3:01
Speaker 2: with the last known person he was seen with. And
3:04
Speaker 2: this woman forty years later says, I'm Bessie Hyde and
3:07
Speaker 2: I disappeared on my own after I killed my husband.
3:10
Speaker 2: Is there any information more about those two incidences and
3:14
Speaker 2: are we positive that either are either true or false
3:17
Speaker 2: at this time?
3:18
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we'll definitely talk a lot more about them
3:21
Speaker 1: and talk about whether or not they are credible or not.
3:24
Speaker 1: But I brought up those two twists because I remember
3:27
Speaker 1: when I watched the Unsolved Mystery segment way back in
3:29
Speaker 1: like the late nineteen eighties. That that's what they focused on,
3:32
Speaker 1: the woman claiming to be Bessie and the mysterious skeleton
3:35
Speaker 1: found in the boat house belonging to Emery colp And
3:37
Speaker 1: I was like, what is going on here? Like? Are
3:40
Speaker 1: these connected to each other? I mean, when you first
3:43
Speaker 1: hear about a couple going missing on a whitewater rafting trip,
3:46
Speaker 1: you're thinking, initially, okay, it's probably obviously drowned. But then
3:49
Speaker 1: they had all these weird twists and turns come up
3:52
Speaker 1: in the story several decades later.
3:54
Speaker 2: Yes, that's where I am too. Are these real? What's happening?
3:58
Speaker 2: This is crazy? So keep telling me more.
4:02
Speaker 3: Okay. So our story begins in nineteen twenty eight, and
4:06
Speaker 3: our central figures are a newlywed couple from Twin Falls, Idaho,
4:11
Speaker 3: twenty nine year old Glen Hyde and his twenty two
4:13
Speaker 3: year old wife, Bessie Hyde. Glenn makes his living as
4:16
Speaker 3: a farmer, and the circumstances of how he got married
4:19
Speaker 3: to Bessie are pretty unusual, ironically enough, given what eventually
4:23
Speaker 3: happened to them. The couple first met on a passenger
4:26
Speaker 3: ship traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles in February
4:30
Speaker 3: of nineteen twenty seven, and they pretty much fell head
4:33
Speaker 3: over heels in love with each other. The problem was
4:36
Speaker 3: that Bessie was technically still married to another man in
4:39
Speaker 3: another state at that point. Bessie was born in Maryland
4:42
Speaker 3: and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, under the name Bessie Hayley,
4:47
Speaker 3: and was attending Marshall College when she married a man
4:50
Speaker 3: named Earl Helmick in Kentucky in June of nineteen twenty six.
4:54
Speaker 3: Even though Bessie and Earle had known each other for
4:56
Speaker 3: years and attended high school together, their relationship was pretty
5:00
Speaker 3: much doomed from the start, as Earle was known to
5:02
Speaker 3: have a violent temper. The couple lived together for less
5:06
Speaker 3: than two months before they separated, and Bessie moved to
5:09
Speaker 3: San Francisco to study art in poetry at the California
5:12
Speaker 3: School of Fine Arts. It's been reported that while she
5:16
Speaker 3: was living there, Earl sent Bessie money for an operation,
5:20
Speaker 3: fueling speculation that she'd traveled out West to terminate an
5:23
Speaker 3: unwonted pregnancy or to secretly give birth to a child
5:26
Speaker 3: that she put up for adoption, but this has never
5:28
Speaker 3: officially been confirmed. Whatever the case, Bessie would meet Glen
5:33
Speaker 3: several months later and wanted to marry him as soon
5:35
Speaker 3: as possible, but Earle refused to grant her a divorce.
5:39
Speaker 3: In response, Bessie decided to move to Elko, Nevada, since
5:43
Speaker 3: the state had the most lenient divorce laws in the
5:45
Speaker 3: country at that time. She lived there for a couple
5:48
Speaker 3: of months to meet the residency requirements and filed for divorce,
5:52
Speaker 3: which was officially granted on April eleventh, nineteen twenty eight,
5:56
Speaker 3: when Earle failed to show up in court to contest it. Bessie,
5:59
Speaker 3: then in meeting, mediately traveled to Twin Falls to meet
6:01
Speaker 3: up with Glenn, and they were married the following day.
6:05
Speaker 2: So when you look at this, are we sure that
6:08
Speaker 2: there was money actually sent for this quote operation or
6:11
Speaker 2: is that still part of the speculation That.
6:14
Speaker 1: Is part of the speculation. I mean, this was back
6:16
Speaker 1: during the nineteen twenties, so I don't think we have
6:18
Speaker 1: like any hard records of this, and I think it's
6:20
Speaker 1: pretty much just gossip and rumors that they suspected that
6:24
Speaker 1: Bessie may become pregnant. And of course this is the
6:26
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, when an abortion or giving up a child
6:29
Speaker 1: for adoption with scandalous, so they figured that, well, this
6:32
Speaker 1: is one of those cases where they sent her away
6:34
Speaker 1: before anyone noticed she was pregnant, and then just she
6:37
Speaker 1: miraculously reappeared after she had either terminated or given birth
6:41
Speaker 1: to the child. But it just kind of shows that
6:43
Speaker 1: Bessie was a woman who was kind of ahead of
6:45
Speaker 1: her time for willing to go through this during the
6:47
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, and that she was a very independent woman
6:50
Speaker 1: who probably would not have been happy in a marriage
6:53
Speaker 1: to a guy like Earle and was much happier meeting
6:56
Speaker 1: up with an adventurous guy like Glenn.
6:58
Speaker 2: What's also interesting is that divorce would have been scandalous,
7:01
Speaker 2: and so even if the let's say the pregnancy rumors
7:04
Speaker 2: are false and there was no abortion or adoption, just
7:08
Speaker 2: her fact of saying, like, I'm so much over this
7:10
Speaker 2: other marriage, right, whether she was being abused or just
7:13
Speaker 2: wasn't happy or whatever was happening, she left her husband
7:16
Speaker 2: so had the confidence to have her own independence, and
7:19
Speaker 2: then does this whole elaborate scheme to go get residency
7:22
Speaker 2: somewhere else and actually petition for a divorce, risking the
7:26
Speaker 2: fact that he could show up if he ever found
7:28
Speaker 2: out about it, but really having this confidence that I
7:31
Speaker 2: bet I can beat the system and get away from
7:32
Speaker 2: this man and the very next day go be with
7:35
Speaker 2: my adventurer. Glenn's pretty pretty bold, especially back in the
7:40
Speaker 2: nineteen twenties, but I mean even today, that's a lot
7:43
Speaker 2: of power that she wielded.
7:46
Speaker 1: And it is kind of relevant to what we're going
7:48
Speaker 1: to talk about later because when we explore the theory
7:50
Speaker 1: about whether she decided to disappear on her own to
7:53
Speaker 1: get away from Glenn and start a new life, and
7:55
Speaker 1: you realize, well, she had gone through something like this
7:58
Speaker 1: before with her previous husband, so it's not impossible she
8:01
Speaker 1: could have attempted something like that again. Anyway, since Glenn
8:04
Speaker 1: was an avid outdoorsman and an experienced rafter who had
8:07
Speaker 1: run the salmon and snake rivers in Idaho, he came
8:10
Speaker 1: up with a very unusual idea for a delayed honeymoon.
8:14
Speaker 1: Glenn constructed a two tent. Glenn constructed a two ton,
8:17
Speaker 1: twenty foot long, five and a half foot wide, flat
8:20
Speaker 1: bottom wooden sweep scout, which he named Rain in the Face,
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Speaker 1: and decided that he and Bessie would spend their honeymoon
8:26
Speaker 1: taking a lengthy whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.
8:30
Speaker 1: They would travel to Green River, Utah, and spend the
8:32
Speaker 1: next several weeks in their scou traveling hundreds of miles
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Speaker 1: down the rapids of the Colorado River before they arrived
8:38
Speaker 1: in Needles, California. The Colorado River was considered to be
8:42
Speaker 1: the most dangerous stretch of water in the world at
8:44
Speaker 1: that point, and only forty five people had managed to
8:47
Speaker 1: travel the full two hundred and seventy seven mile length
8:49
Speaker 1: of the Grand Canyon by river. But Glenn was an
8:52
Speaker 1: adventurous thrill seeker who wanted to set a brand new
8:55
Speaker 1: all time speed record, and by taking Bessie along, she
8:58
Speaker 1: would make history by because I mean, the first documented
9:01
Speaker 1: woman to run the canyon. If they succeeded, the couple
9:04
Speaker 1: would likely become famous, and Glenn hoped that Bessie would
9:07
Speaker 1: use the writing skills to publish a book so they
9:10
Speaker 1: can make money recounting their adventure by touring the lecture circuit. Well,
9:14
Speaker 1: in spite of Glenn's vast river rapting experience, Bessie was
9:17
Speaker 1: pretty much a complete novice at this sort of thing.
9:20
Speaker 1: Glenn also made the decision not to carry any life
9:22
Speaker 1: jackets on board the boat, as apparently using life jackets
9:26
Speaker 1: was just not something that was done in Idaho during
9:28
Speaker 1: that time period, and they were not even readily available.
9:32
Speaker 2: Okay, let's backtrack to this idea and the description of
9:35
Speaker 2: their craft. Okay, I love when you describe it. Used
9:38
Speaker 2: it a two ton, twenty foot long, five and a
9:41
Speaker 2: half foot wide, flat bottom wooden sweep scal And after
9:45
Speaker 2: that tongue twister, I went what the heck is that
9:47
Speaker 2: and googled it. Guys, it's basically like a huck Finn raft. Okay,
9:53
Speaker 2: side on it. It looks like you're going to be
9:55
Speaker 2: in an adventure novel. And for someone who's a novice,
10:00
Speaker 2: that's pretty crazy and scary, like my guts, like, uh,
10:02
Speaker 2: they simply had an accident and they drown or something happened.
10:05
Speaker 2: They hit their head on a rock because I would
10:08
Speaker 2: not go down on this sweep scal named rain in
10:12
Speaker 2: the face, right, it looks incredibly dangerous and they're not
10:15
Speaker 2: going down just some quiet river, they're going whitewater rafting.
10:19
Speaker 2: So if you get a chance, google it. It's crazy.
10:22
Speaker 2: I do see where his adventure side said, we could
10:25
Speaker 2: really make something of this if we survived Asterist Right,
10:29
Speaker 2: if we survived this trip, we would be the talk
10:32
Speaker 2: of the town because this is crazy. You are correct, Glenn,
10:35
Speaker 2: it's crazy. So I assume that life vests were basically
10:39
Speaker 2: like seat belts used to be, where they just weren't
10:42
Speaker 2: part of the narrative and they just weren't very common.
10:44
Speaker 2: And so not shaming him for not having life jackets,
10:48
Speaker 2: but my god, he was definitely taking a knowing risk
10:51
Speaker 2: putting her on this sweep scal because, like I said,
10:55
Speaker 2: I just picture, you know, these two main characters with
10:59
Speaker 2: a piece of wood shoving themselves off the you know,
11:02
Speaker 2: side of a slow river. That's not what's happening here.
11:05
Speaker 2: They're going whitewater rafting on this basically flat piece of wood.
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Speaker 3: I picture Bessie, who has gone through this arduous process
11:13
Speaker 3: of getting this divorce from her husband with the violent temper,
11:17
Speaker 3: and then she meets Glenn, you know, she falls in love,
11:19
Speaker 3: they get married, they're going on this honeymoon and then
11:22
Speaker 3: he's like, hey, babe, I've made this scow like on
11:26
Speaker 3: of wood, and guess what, We're going to go down
11:29
Speaker 3: a river and we don't have any flotation devices, so
11:32
Speaker 3: we're just taking our life in our hands. Yes, we've
11:35
Speaker 3: found love and we will be legends if we make
11:37
Speaker 3: it all the way through, but who knows, we may
11:40
Speaker 3: not escape with our lives.
11:41
Speaker 2: It's a big if, right, And I almost see her
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Speaker 2: like an Amelia Earhart character, Like she's got this scarf
11:46
Speaker 2: flapping in the wind, and she's got her goggles on
11:48
Speaker 2: and she's.
11:48
Speaker 1: Ready to go.
11:49
Speaker 2: But that's that's probably not what it looked like.
11:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's one of the big mysteries of this story,
11:54
Speaker 1: because I've heard different narratives where some sources say that
11:57
Speaker 1: Bessie was terrified of the idea, but some other sources
12:01
Speaker 1: say she was enthusiastic. But most women when they hear
12:04
Speaker 1: this story have this reaction saying, not only would I
12:06
Speaker 1: not want to do this, but I certainly want to
12:08
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to do this on my honeymoon to a
12:10
Speaker 1: guy I just married, Because even though Glenn's added like
12:13
Speaker 1: an adventurous guy, going down two hundred and seventy seven
12:15
Speaker 1: miles in like a piece of wood is my idea
12:18
Speaker 1: of a good time.
12:20
Speaker 3: And like, would she have been as aware of the
12:23
Speaker 3: safety risks as we are today? Like, I'm pretty sure
12:25
Speaker 3: that's a big no, because they don't have access to
12:29
Speaker 3: the internet, and if there are accidents doing something similar, like,
12:33
Speaker 3: are you really going to hear about it? So you
12:36
Speaker 3: really are going in blind in a way that we
12:39
Speaker 3: wouldn't today.
12:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they said forty five people made this trip
12:43
Speaker 1: successfully at that point, but I guess they didn't hear
12:46
Speaker 1: the statistics on how many people did nick successfully and
12:49
Speaker 1: drowned who didn't live to.
12:51
Speaker 2: Tell the tell, right, It's absolutely true.
12:55
Speaker 3: It's like an old timey version of like doing K
12:57
Speaker 3: two or something. The Hides began their trip in Green
13:03
Speaker 3: River on October twentieth, and the legend has it that
13:06
Speaker 3: an experienced river rafter who saw glens scow described it
13:10
Speaker 3: as a quote Wooden Coffin, and he expressed his belief
13:14
Speaker 3: that it's not safe enough.
13:15
Speaker 4: For the sort of trip.
13:16
Speaker 3: Regardless, the Hides managed to complete the first leg of
13:19
Speaker 3: their journey and made it to the Grand Canyon National
13:22
Speaker 3: Park in record time. The two hundred and seventy seven
13:25
Speaker 3: mile trip through the canyon on the Colorado River could
13:28
Speaker 3: easily be documented by the mile markers, which were placed
13:31
Speaker 3: at various locations, and on November fifteen, the couple arrived
13:35
Speaker 3: at the Phantom Ranch near River mile eighty eight. They
13:39
Speaker 3: then proceeded to hike up the Bright Angel Trail until
13:42
Speaker 3: they arrived at the home of a photographer named Emery Colb.
13:46
Speaker 3: Emory and his brother, Ellsworth Colb had become legendary figures
13:50
Speaker 3: in the Grand Canyon by successfully navigating the Colorado River
13:53
Speaker 3: and filming the entire experience. Emory's home also doubled as
13:58
Speaker 3: a photography studio named Cold Studio, which had been in
14:02
Speaker 3: business for nearly twenty five years. At this point, Glenn
14:05
Speaker 3: knew that Colb was pretty much the area's foremost expert
14:08
Speaker 3: on the Colorado River, which is why he and Bessie
14:11
Speaker 3: paid him a visit, and while there, the Hides asked
14:14
Speaker 3: Colb to take a photograph of them posing by the
14:16
Speaker 3: canyon's rim. However, during their interactions, Cold noticed that Bessie
14:21
Speaker 3: seemed to have grown tired of the trip and appeared
14:23
Speaker 3: apprehensive because they were about to embark on the most
14:26
Speaker 3: dangerous stretch of the river. Earlier on their journey, while
14:29
Speaker 3: traveling through the rapids of the Cataract Canyon, Bessie, who
14:33
Speaker 3: was only five feet tall and weighed ninety pounds, was
14:36
Speaker 3: knocked into the water, but Glenn managed to grab her
14:39
Speaker 3: ankle and pull her back into the boat. Glunnad also
14:42
Speaker 3: apparently fallen out of the scal on two separate occasions
14:45
Speaker 3: before Bessie managed to get a rope to him. Since
14:48
Speaker 3: the Hides were going to be facing cold winter weather,
14:51
Speaker 3: Cold proposed the idea of them staying with him for
14:54
Speaker 3: a while until the weather improved, but Glenn refused. Colb
14:58
Speaker 3: also offered to let the hides boils his life jackets
15:01
Speaker 3: or some inner tubes, but Glenn turned this down as well,
15:05
Speaker 3: referring to the items as quote artificial aids and assuring
15:09
Speaker 3: Cold but he and Bessie were both very strong swimmers.
15:12
Speaker 3: Before the Hides left, Cold's young daughter said goodbye to them,
15:16
Speaker 3: and Bessie looked at the shoes the girl was wearing
15:18
Speaker 3: and said, quote, I wonder if I shall ever wear
15:21
Speaker 3: pretty shoes again. End quote. The Hides then hiked back
15:25
Speaker 3: down right Angel trail, climb back into their boat, and
15:28
Speaker 3: continued their trip down the river.
15:31
Speaker 2: Let's all think boat in quotes. Okay, because again this
15:34
Speaker 2: is such a bizarre craft that they're going to travel
15:37
Speaker 2: this really treacherous track on, and you listen to the
15:41
Speaker 2: way that Glenn is actually given lifelines, and people who
15:45
Speaker 2: are very familiar with the area are saying like, Hey.
15:48
Speaker 1: Have you thought about this?
15:49
Speaker 2: Do you want us to give you this? And it's
15:51
Speaker 2: almost as though Glenn says, I don't want any of
15:54
Speaker 2: those quote artificial aids because he so desperately wants that story.
15:58
Speaker 2: We did it without this, We did it better than
16:01
Speaker 2: the forty five people before us, right, he wants this
16:04
Speaker 2: grand adventure story. And even in the face of seeing
16:09
Speaker 2: Bessie's struggle, having people warn him about dangers, offering these
16:13
Speaker 2: lifelines to him, seeing that Bessie's kind of getting worn out,
16:16
Speaker 2: and knowing that they've already had close calls on the
16:19
Speaker 2: easier part of the trip, it almost just seems like
16:23
Speaker 2: arrogance and kind of ignorance on his part.
16:26
Speaker 3: I just mentioned K two again. It reminds me of
16:29
Speaker 3: people who are like, I want to hike to the
16:31
Speaker 3: summit of either like Anna Perna or K two or
16:34
Speaker 3: Everest without any oxygen, and it's like this badge of honors.
16:38
Speaker 3: You'd be like, I made it to the top without
16:40
Speaker 3: the oxygen, even though it's far safer to bring that
16:44
Speaker 3: oxygen along with you and just use it.
16:46
Speaker 2: If you need it, Yep, at the end, you made
16:48
Speaker 2: it anyway.
16:48
Speaker 1: It's like giving birth.
16:49
Speaker 2: I'm like, give me all the medicine because I'm gonna
16:51
Speaker 2: have a baby too.
16:52
Speaker 1: Let's just do it. Yeah. I think it was just
16:56
Speaker 1: a cultural thing at that time where Glenn grew up
16:58
Speaker 1: in Idaho, just thinking you just don't wear life jackets
17:01
Speaker 1: because if you take a trip like that and you
17:03
Speaker 1: wear a quote unquote artificial aid the entire time, then
17:05
Speaker 1: to totally invalidates your accomplishment. So I think that's why
17:09
Speaker 1: he stubbornly refused to take them.
17:11
Speaker 3: But it kind of feels like he's being rather reckless
17:16
Speaker 3: and disregarding the safety of his wife, Like he would
17:19
Speaker 3: rather have this badge of honor to be able to
17:21
Speaker 3: make it without an artificial aid than ensure that Betsy
17:24
Speaker 3: is safe. If you don't want the life jacket or
17:26
Speaker 3: the inner two, cool, but like, why don't you ask
17:28
Speaker 3: Betsy what she wants to do?
17:31
Speaker 1: So the following day, the hide stop at a tourist
17:33
Speaker 1: facility and bumped into a tourist named Adolf Gilbert Sutro,
17:37
Speaker 1: whose grandfather had been mayor of San Francisco during the
17:40
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century. In exchange for some supplies, the Hides
17:43
Speaker 1: agreed to allow suit Or to hitch a ride on
17:45
Speaker 1: their boat with them for the next couple of miles
17:47
Speaker 1: while they traveled downstream to Hermit Camp. Sutro took one
17:51
Speaker 1: final photograph of Glenn and Bessie before they went their
17:54
Speaker 1: separate ways, but after this there would be no more
17:57
Speaker 1: confirmed sightings of the Hides. They failed to arrive at
18:00
Speaker 1: the Needles, California at their schedule time, and when Glenn's father,
18:03
Speaker 1: Our Sea Hide, did not hear from them by December
18:06
Speaker 1: to sixth, he organized a search effort involving the National
18:09
Speaker 1: Park Service and several volunteers. Arcia had previously lost two
18:13
Speaker 1: sons when they were children, and was so dedicated to
18:16
Speaker 1: finding Glenn that he pretty much drove himself into poverty
18:19
Speaker 1: by financing multiple searches over the next few years. At
18:23
Speaker 1: one point during their journey, the Hides across passed with
18:26
Speaker 1: a reporter from the Denver Post and shared their story,
18:29
Speaker 1: which soon garnered some coverage in the press, and by
18:31
Speaker 1: the time the couple went missing, the search for them
18:34
Speaker 1: became national news. In fact, the story got so much
18:37
Speaker 1: attention that it even wound up reaching President Calvin Coolidge,
18:41
Speaker 1: who ordered his Secretary of War to authorize an air
18:44
Speaker 1: search of Grand Canyon National Park with an army plane.
18:47
Speaker 1: While on December the nineteenth, the plane finally spotted the
18:50
Speaker 1: Hyde skow, which appeared to be trapped in some rocks
18:53
Speaker 1: in the middle of the water near river mile two
18:55
Speaker 1: thirty seven. Even though the boat seemed to be intact,
18:59
Speaker 1: Glen and Bessie were not inside. It would not be
19:02
Speaker 1: until Christmas Day when a search party which included Emery
19:05
Speaker 1: and Ellsworth Cob made it to this location and located
19:09
Speaker 1: the scow. Much like when it was spotted from the
19:11
Speaker 1: search plane, the boat was fully intact, with no noticeable
19:15
Speaker 1: signs of damage, and was fully stocked with supplies and
19:18
Speaker 1: the hide's personal possession, including their clothing and hiking boots,
19:22
Speaker 1: Glenn's rifle, and a diary that Betsy had been using
19:25
Speaker 1: to chronicle their journey. The only thing which appeared to
19:28
Speaker 1: be missing was the hides themselves. Forty two notches were
19:32
Speaker 1: found carved in the boat's gunwale, which seemed to represent
19:35
Speaker 1: each day of the trip. If the count was accurate,
19:38
Speaker 1: then this meant that the last notch had been carved
19:40
Speaker 1: on November thirtieth, which coincided with the date of the
19:43
Speaker 1: final entry in Bessie's diary. The scow's bowline stretched from
19:47
Speaker 1: the front of the boat into the river and appeared
19:50
Speaker 1: to be fastened into crevice in one of the rocks
19:52
Speaker 1: and had caught on something underwater. Since the Coal brothers
19:55
Speaker 1: had no success with their attempts to dislodge the bowline,
19:58
Speaker 1: they decided to cut it. In spite of this discovery,
20:01
Speaker 1: subsequent search efforts turned up no trace of Glenn or Bessie.
20:06
Speaker 2: Am I right to think that it sounds as if
20:08
Speaker 2: the scal gets there almost like it floated down river
20:11
Speaker 2: without someone on it and gets lodged in this place,
20:15
Speaker 2: And that rope was not officially tied off, it was
20:18
Speaker 2: actually jammed in somewhere and kind of caught up on stuff.
20:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what some people think. And there's even speculation
20:24
Speaker 1: that it could have been attached to maybe Glenn or
20:26
Speaker 1: Bessie's body, and that maybe the cold has made a
20:29
Speaker 1: mistake by cutting the bowline, because if they had pulled
20:31
Speaker 1: up on it, they might have found the couple. But
20:33
Speaker 1: this has never been conclusively proven.
20:35
Speaker 2: Ooh, even if one of them was trying to save
20:38
Speaker 2: the other one. Remember, at certain points Bessie had already
20:41
Speaker 2: had to rope Glenn back in after he was trying
20:44
Speaker 2: to rescue her. So that isn't like an impossible idea
20:48
Speaker 2: because we've seen that action on their ride specifically. But
20:52
Speaker 2: it's also possible they got bucked out of the scal
20:55
Speaker 2: that they one of them fell and hit their head
20:57
Speaker 2: trying to rescue the other one. I mean that could
20:59
Speaker 2: have had anywhere along the route, and then that boat
21:03
Speaker 2: gets lodged just by naturally drifting with the currents.
21:07
Speaker 1: And I think this is what makes it stand out
21:09
Speaker 1: more than most mysteries where people go missing on a
21:11
Speaker 1: boat is if it been found like floating in the river,
21:13
Speaker 1: tipped over, and the supplies were scattered everywhere, then it
21:16
Speaker 1: would seem obvious that they got into an accident and drowned.
21:19
Speaker 1: But this one has an extra feeling of eeriness to
21:22
Speaker 1: it because everything about the boat was intact, all the
21:24
Speaker 1: supplies were there, but Glenn and Bessie just seemed like
21:27
Speaker 1: they had vanished into thin air.
21:29
Speaker 2: I wonder how hard it is. How hard is it
21:31
Speaker 2: to flip a five foot wide piece of like wood
21:35
Speaker 2: with sides on it? Is it a harder thing to
21:37
Speaker 2: flip over than a typical boat or is that easier
21:40
Speaker 2: to tip over?
21:42
Speaker 1: Good question, and I don't want to test it and
21:44
Speaker 1: try it.
21:44
Speaker 2: See come on now, I'm wondering for is it more
21:47
Speaker 2: stability on that and that simply the waves would knock
21:50
Speaker 2: you out because it doesn't rotate or like ride the
21:53
Speaker 2: waves as well as something that has more of a
21:55
Speaker 2: curve to the base of the boat, right, which is
21:57
Speaker 2: why boats have that. But what it all so then
22:00
Speaker 2: be harder to flip over, So that's why it looks
22:02
Speaker 2: quote intact instead of capsize.
22:06
Speaker 3: I think that's possible because of the shape of the boat.
22:09
Speaker 3: You might be more likely to get thrown off since
22:11
Speaker 3: we know that Glenn was thrown off twice, Bessie was
22:14
Speaker 3: thrown off once, and it seems statistically improbable. But there's
22:18
Speaker 3: a lot of debris and logs and rocks in rivers
22:22
Speaker 3: like that, and so a body could potentially get stuck
22:25
Speaker 3: underneath those things. And even though the gases would develop
22:29
Speaker 3: in the gut, which usually brings bodies to the surface,
22:32
Speaker 3: that wouldn't necessarily happen. It seems unlikely with two bodies,
22:35
Speaker 3: but it could have happened the last specific location Bessie
22:40
Speaker 3: had mentioned in her diary was Diamond Creek, rapid located
22:44
Speaker 3: at River mile two twenty five, and evidence was discovered
22:47
Speaker 3: to suggest the hides and set up camp in the area.
22:50
Speaker 3: In fact, two years later, a search party for an
22:53
Speaker 3: unrelated event wound up finding an inscription on the beam
22:57
Speaker 3: of a ceiling in an old shack near Diamond Creek.
23:00
Speaker 3: It read quote Glenn and Bessie Hide November thirty first,
23:03
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty eight. If either Glenn or Bessie had inscribed that,
23:07
Speaker 3: they probably did so on December first of that year
23:10
Speaker 3: and had forgotten that November only had thirty days. There
23:14
Speaker 3: was also an eyewitness account from a prospector who reportedly
23:17
Speaker 3: saw a brown leather jacket floating in the Colorado River
23:21
Speaker 3: around the approximate time the Hides went missing. The currents
23:24
Speaker 3: were too swift for him to retrieve it, but Bessie
23:27
Speaker 3: was known to have worn a leather jacket on the trip. Ironically,
23:31
Speaker 3: the location the boat was found was just over forty
23:34
Speaker 3: miles from the mouth of the Grand Canyon, and if
23:37
Speaker 3: the details in Bessie's diary were accurate, the couple had
23:40
Speaker 3: actually been ahead of schedule and would have easily broken
23:43
Speaker 3: the speed record if they had traveled the entire distance. Anyway,
23:47
Speaker 3: even though the hide's bodies could not be found, many
23:50
Speaker 3: people suspected that Glenn and Bessie had fallen out of
23:53
Speaker 3: their scow and drowned in the river. Others theorized that
23:56
Speaker 3: they may have become separated from the boat and attempted
23:59
Speaker 3: to hike their way to the canyon, but died of
24:01
Speaker 3: exposure before they made it. However, over the course of
24:05
Speaker 3: the next several decades, a number of unusual events would occur,
24:08
Speaker 3: which caused speculation that there was a lot more to
24:11
Speaker 3: the story.
24:13
Speaker 2: Well, also, if you think about them, if they were
24:15
Speaker 2: truly ahead of schedule, is that because of this incredible
24:19
Speaker 2: skill or could it be because of some kind of recklessness.
24:22
Speaker 2: Glenn's already shown some kind of, you know, tendency to
24:25
Speaker 2: be almost arrogant in his confidence of how he's going
24:29
Speaker 2: to do this trip.
24:30
Speaker 1: Right.
24:31
Speaker 2: I'm not going to really pay attention to timelines. I'm
24:33
Speaker 2: not going to worry about what the safest route would be.
24:36
Speaker 2: I'm just going to try to have these claims to fame. So,
24:39
Speaker 2: if he was trying to be the fastest to ever
24:42
Speaker 2: do it, and maybe they were ahead of schedule. Could
24:44
Speaker 2: it be a result of recklessness and not just this
24:46
Speaker 2: incredible feat which then could have led to them getting
24:50
Speaker 2: hurt as well.
24:51
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's entirely possible that they were so ahead
24:54
Speaker 1: of schedule that they were not taking safety precautions. And
24:57
Speaker 1: maybe Glenn thought they were invincible, saying that, or we're
24:59
Speaker 1: going to show like several days before anyone's expecting us to,
25:03
Speaker 1: and that led to him making more chances, taking more risks,
25:06
Speaker 1: and eventually they reached a point where they did something
25:08
Speaker 1: too dangerous and it cost them their lives. So in
25:12
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, a tour group went on a three
25:15
Speaker 1: week commercial rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, and near
25:18
Speaker 1: the end of their trip, they set up camp at
25:20
Speaker 1: Diamond Creek. Since this was near the location where Glenn
25:23
Speaker 1: and Bessie Hyde's boat had been found four decades earlier,
25:26
Speaker 1: the tour guy decided to share the story about their
25:29
Speaker 1: mysterious disappearance around the campfire that night. It was here
25:33
Speaker 1: that an elderly woman in the group named Elizabeth Cutler
25:36
Speaker 1: remarked that she was actually Bessie Hyde. She claimed that
25:39
Speaker 1: Glenn had become so obsessed with completing the rafting trip
25:42
Speaker 1: that things erupted into a violent fight, which resulted in
25:45
Speaker 1: Glenn beating her. In response, she grabbed a knife, stabbed
25:49
Speaker 1: Blent to death, sank his body, and let their float
25:52
Speaker 1: and let their boat float downstream. She then proceeded to
25:55
Speaker 1: hike her own way out of the Grand Canyon to
25:57
Speaker 1: Peach Springs, climbed on a bus, and then went on
26:00
Speaker 1: to start a new life for herself under her new identity.
26:03
Speaker 1: Well The other members of the group initially figured that
26:06
Speaker 1: Cutler was just making up this story, even though she
26:08
Speaker 1: would have been around the same age as Bessie if
26:10
Speaker 1: she was still alive at that time, But word about
26:13
Speaker 1: this story eventually spread, and when historians tracked down Cutler
26:17
Speaker 1: to her home in Palm mo Roy, Ohio and asked
26:19
Speaker 1: her about it, she denied ever telling the story and
26:22
Speaker 1: claimed to have never heard of Glen or Bessie Hyde.
26:25
Speaker 1: Once further research was done, it became clear that Kutler's
26:28
Speaker 1: story could not have been true. Not only was she
26:31
Speaker 1: around half a foot taller than Bessie Hyde, but birth
26:34
Speaker 1: records showed that Kutler was born in Palm Moroy on
26:37
Speaker 1: December the second nineteen oh eight. In fact, old newspaper
26:40
Speaker 1: articles were uncovered which showed photographs of Cutler attending some
26:44
Speaker 1: family reunions in Palm Roy, Ohio during the late nineteen twenties,
26:48
Speaker 1: effectively debunking the idea that she was Bessie Hyde living
26:51
Speaker 1: under a false identity. Cydler died in nineteen ninety eight,
26:55
Speaker 1: and since she had once worked as a psychology professor
26:58
Speaker 1: and had a reputation for playing games with people, this
27:01
Speaker 1: may have been the reason she decided to tell people
27:04
Speaker 1: she was Bessie.
27:06
Speaker 2: That's interesting that you have this psychology professor who's almost
27:09
Speaker 2: making the world her experiment or her playground, right to say, hey,
27:12
Speaker 2: I'm going to do these psychological experiments on people. She
27:15
Speaker 2: has to be a pretty smart cookie to be, you know,
27:18
Speaker 2: young and becoming a professor and a woman back then, right,
27:22
Speaker 2: pursuing that kind of career, and so she's no dummy.
27:26
Speaker 2: But it's really interesting that she would take on such
27:29
Speaker 2: a powerful, hurtful, dangerous narrative to play with people with.
27:34
Speaker 2: This is saying I even she's saying I killed somebody, right.
27:38
Speaker 2: How did she think she.
27:40
Speaker 1: Get away with that?
27:40
Speaker 2: Or what was the perk in doing something like that.
27:44
Speaker 1: But she's a load of saying no, I killed my
27:46
Speaker 1: husband and pretending to be someone else. And it's like,
27:48
Speaker 1: even though it would be effectively debunked, like you're out
27:51
Speaker 1: in the woods alone with these strangers, Like, how do
27:54
Speaker 1: you think they're going to react if they find out
27:55
Speaker 1: you confess to killing someone? And thankfully, I think at
27:58
Speaker 1: the time they just thought she was joking, so they
28:00
Speaker 1: didn't really take it that seriously. But it just seems
28:03
Speaker 1: like a very brazen thing to do, to confess to
28:05
Speaker 1: a murder you didn't do while you're out there in
28:07
Speaker 1: the woods with a bunch of strangers. So the next
28:11
Speaker 1: surprise development took place when Emery Coal passed away on
28:14
Speaker 1: December the eleventh, nineteen seventy six, at the age of
28:17
Speaker 1: ninety six. Two months later, Colp's grandson was going through
28:21
Speaker 1: the boathouse on his property at Cold Studio when he
28:24
Speaker 1: was surprised to discover the remains of a male skeleton
28:26
Speaker 1: inside a canoe being kept in the rafters. Some remnants
28:30
Speaker 1: of clothing, a shoe and a belt were next to
28:33
Speaker 1: the remains, and everything was subsequently turned over to the
28:36
Speaker 1: Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office. The victim was determined to
28:40
Speaker 1: have been a Caucasian mail in his twenties, but most importantly,
28:44
Speaker 1: a bullet from a thirty two caliber gun was found
28:46
Speaker 1: embedded in his skull and there was a bullet hole
28:48
Speaker 1: in his right temple. Tests showed that the bullet originated
28:52
Speaker 1: from a Revolver originally manufactured in nineteen oh two, and
28:56
Speaker 1: the condition of the bones and the clothing fragments seemed
28:59
Speaker 1: to suggest that the victim's death that occurred sometime during
29:01
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. Of course, this began to feel rumors
29:05
Speaker 1: that the victim was Glenn Hyde and that Emery Colb
29:08
Speaker 1: could have murdered him well. Like I mentioned on the intro,
29:11
Speaker 1: this case would be featured on the very first episode
29:14
Speaker 1: of Unsolved Mysteries hosted by Robert Stack, which originally aired
29:17
Speaker 1: on November twenty nine to nineteen eighty seven. For the segment,
29:21
Speaker 1: the show consulted with doctor Walter Burkby, a forensic anthropologist
29:25
Speaker 1: from the University of Arizona. While Birkeby was a nationally
29:29
Speaker 1: recognized expert in his field and it earned the nickname
29:31
Speaker 1: Doctor Death because he specialized and unidentified human remains basically
29:37
Speaker 1: long before the era of DNA testing and websites such
29:40
Speaker 1: as the dough Network, Doctor Birkby was one of the
29:42
Speaker 1: best people to turn to if you ever wanted to
29:45
Speaker 1: identify the skeleton remains of a John or Jane Doe,
29:49
Speaker 1: so the skeleton found in Colb's boat house was passed
29:51
Speaker 1: on to him. The segment showed Birkeby performing a test
29:55
Speaker 1: where he compared the facial structure of the skull to
29:58
Speaker 1: a photograph of Glenn Hyde and to Term and they
30:00
Speaker 1: did not match at all. Well, Burntney was unable to
30:03
Speaker 1: determine the victim's true identity. He was able to conclude
30:06
Speaker 1: with one hundred percent certainty that it was not Glenn.
30:10
Speaker 1: Of course, this only opened up a lot more unanswered questions,
30:13
Speaker 1: creating a mystery within a mystery about who the remains
30:16
Speaker 1: did actually belong to and why Colb had been keeping
30:19
Speaker 1: them on his property.
30:21
Speaker 2: So bizarre, and it's almost like they weren't even hidden.
30:24
Speaker 2: They're just in this canoe. So it's they're going through
30:27
Speaker 2: his stuff and it's like, oh, yeah, here's also a body.
30:31
Speaker 2: I mean, who was that and what the heck was
30:33
Speaker 2: he doing with it? Is it someone that got hurt
30:36
Speaker 2: on a trip with him. Is it somebody that he
30:38
Speaker 2: actually did? No, he's shot, right, this guy shot in
30:42
Speaker 2: the head.
30:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, later on in the episode, we're going to
30:45
Speaker 1: reveal who this person probably was. This is kind of
30:48
Speaker 1: a logical explanation for it. But when Unsolved Mysteries here
30:51
Speaker 1: their episode back in nineteen eighty seven, they still had
30:53
Speaker 1: no idea. So a lot of people watching at the
30:56
Speaker 1: time were thinking that Emery Colb, this legendary photography was
30:59
Speaker 1: actually like a clotset serial killer or something like why
31:02
Speaker 1: was he keeping remains in his boat house? But it
31:05
Speaker 1: turned out that the explanation was a lot less gruesome
31:07
Speaker 1: than barrigely thought.
31:09
Speaker 2: Perfect I'll wait for that one.
31:10
Speaker 1: At first, I'm like, could have been an accident.
31:12
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, there's a man with a gunshot wom'm
31:14
Speaker 2: sitting in a canoe in his space, So okay, I
31:16
Speaker 2: will wait to know more about that.
31:18
Speaker 3: While if you asked doctor Famiu Malik, it very well
31:21
Speaker 3: could have been natural causes.
31:22
Speaker 1: It's very true, very true.
31:24
Speaker 2: The dog did it, absolutely.
31:26
Speaker 1: And he was smoking thirty more marijuana cigarettes. So that's
31:29
Speaker 1: what that is.
31:30
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Well, believe it or not, it wasn't
31:33
Speaker 3: long before rumors started to spread about another woman possibly
31:37
Speaker 3: being Bessie Hyde under a new identity. In May of
31:41
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety two, Georgie White Clark, a legendary figure in
31:44
Speaker 3: the field of river rafting, died of cancer at the
31:47
Speaker 3: age of eighty one. Georgie had worked as a river
31:50
Speaker 3: rafting guide in the Grand Canyon for forty five years
31:54
Speaker 3: and made history in nineteen fifty two when she became
31:57
Speaker 3: the first woman to row the full length of both
31:59
Speaker 3: the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Marble Canyon. Following her death,
32:03
Speaker 3: Georgie's caretaker was searching through her lingerie er and was
32:07
Speaker 3: surprised to discover a certified copy of Glenn and Bessie
32:11
Speaker 3: Hyde's marriage certificate, which also happened to be resting alongside
32:15
Speaker 3: a pistol. Furthermore, when Georgie's birth certificate was uncovered, it
32:19
Speaker 3: revealed that she had originally been born under the name
32:22
Speaker 3: Bessie de Ross, as White and Clark were the surnames
32:26
Speaker 3: of the two ex husbands that she'd previously been married to.
32:29
Speaker 3: Throughout her life, Georgie was always known for being a
32:32
Speaker 3: very secretive woman, even to her closest friends and Georgie's caretaker,
32:37
Speaker 3: who also recalled her expressing a personal hatred towards Henry
32:40
Speaker 3: coleb and refusing to even be in the same room
32:43
Speaker 3: with him, though she never specified why. So naturally, this
32:46
Speaker 3: only fueled speculation that Georgie White Clark was actually Bessie Hyde, however,
32:52
Speaker 3: since Georgie was about five inches taller than Bessie and
32:54
Speaker 3: didn't really resemble her that much. However, since Georgie was
32:58
Speaker 3: about five inches taller than Bessie and didn't really resemble
33:01
Speaker 3: her that much, it didn't take much for historians to
33:03
Speaker 3: debunk this idea, particularly since Georgie's early life was well
33:07
Speaker 3: documented in a biography titled Woman on the River. Georgie
33:11
Speaker 3: married her first husband at an early age. It was
33:14
Speaker 3: only seventeen years old when she gave birth to a
33:16
Speaker 3: daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine. If Georgie was
33:20
Speaker 3: Bessie High, then this meant Bessie would have had to
33:22
Speaker 3: have been five months pregnant at the time she vanished,
33:25
Speaker 3: so the idea of them being the same person was
33:27
Speaker 3: pretty much completely dismissed.
33:30
Speaker 2: And you don't stretch five inches older, you get right,
33:32
Speaker 2: you actually shrink so yeah.
33:34
Speaker 1: That doesn't work.
33:35
Speaker 2: But what is bizarre is why would you have that
33:39
Speaker 2: birth certificate there? Why the marriage certificates that seemed to
33:43
Speaker 2: line up? It is very odd. Are we sure those
33:47
Speaker 2: items were found or could the caretaker have alluded to
33:50
Speaker 2: these ideas thinking that she knew Georgie so well and
33:52
Speaker 2: that Emory Colb and that frustration with him might actually
33:56
Speaker 2: make the caretaker think that she could be Bessie. Was
34:00
Speaker 2: she caught up in somethingre Did she actually turn over
34:02
Speaker 2: those documents?
34:04
Speaker 1: Oh? No, they did find the marriage certificate and it
34:06
Speaker 1: was certified and it was the real thing. And we
34:08
Speaker 1: still don't know how Georgie acquired a copy. And I
34:11
Speaker 1: guess it's my guess that she may have been such
34:14
Speaker 1: a historian about river rafting that maybe she had a
34:16
Speaker 1: fascination with the hide disappearance and decided to acquire it
34:20
Speaker 1: as a souvenir. But if so, she never talked about
34:24
Speaker 1: it or showed it to anybody, because they did not
34:26
Speaker 1: find it in her drawer till after her death. And
34:29
Speaker 1: we still don't know the story about why she had
34:31
Speaker 1: a hatred towards Emery Cole. That is also a big mystery.
34:34
Speaker 1: So I can understand why I'd be tempting to believe
34:36
Speaker 1: that she might be Bessie, but obviously that has been
34:39
Speaker 1: completely debunked. So in two thousand and one, two separate
34:43
Speaker 1: books about the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde were
34:45
Speaker 1: released pretty much simultaneously. Interestingly enough, one of them was
34:50
Speaker 1: factual while the other was fictionalized, and apparently neither of
34:54
Speaker 1: the authors even knew that the other book was being published.
34:58
Speaker 1: The factual book was sunk without a say. The Tragic
35:01
Speaker 1: Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde, which was
35:04
Speaker 1: written by a Grand Canyon River guide named Brad Dimmick
35:07
Speaker 1: and is the most complete and detailed account of the story.
35:11
Speaker 1: As part of his research, Dimmick even went so far
35:13
Speaker 1: as to build an exact replica of the hides Wooden
35:16
Speaker 1: sweep scow and used it to travel down the Colorado
35:19
Speaker 1: River in order to get an exact idea of what
35:22
Speaker 1: the couple went through. The other book was titled Grand Ambition,
35:25
Speaker 1: and while author Lisa Michaels based the story on actual events,
35:29
Speaker 1: it was written in the style of a fictional novel,
35:31
Speaker 1: with Glenn and Bessie as the main characters. Anyway, in
35:35
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, there would finally be some answers
35:37
Speaker 1: about the male skeleton found in Emery Colbs boathouse. The
35:41
Speaker 1: cold case squad at the Coconino County Sheriff's Office were
35:44
Speaker 1: able to determine that the victim was likely an unidentified
35:48
Speaker 1: John Doe, who had been found in the Grand Canyon
35:50
Speaker 1: at Shoshone Point in June of nineteen thirty three. This
35:54
Speaker 1: discovery came about when the son of a former Grand
35:57
Speaker 1: Canyon ranger sent a number of photographs and docum eguments
36:00
Speaker 1: from his father's collection to the Grand Canyon Museum collection.
36:04
Speaker 1: One of these photos featured the skeleton remains of the
36:07
Speaker 1: aforementioned John Doe. When he was originally found. The victim
36:11
Speaker 1: carried no identification, and it was estimated that his actual
36:14
Speaker 1: death occurred about two years beforehand. He had a bullet
36:18
Speaker 1: hole in his right temple, and since a thirty two
36:20
Speaker 1: caliber gun was next to the remains, his death was
36:23
Speaker 1: ruled to be a suicide. Clothing fragments, a shoe and
36:26
Speaker 1: a belt were also at the scene and perfectly matched
36:29
Speaker 1: the same items found with Emery colb skeleton. It turned
36:33
Speaker 1: out that in nineteen thirty three, Colb had been a
36:35
Speaker 1: representative on the County Corner's journey for death inquests at
36:39
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon. Since the John Doe could not be
36:42
Speaker 1: identified and there was no next of kin to claim
36:44
Speaker 1: his remains, it seemed likely that Colb took them home
36:47
Speaker 1: himself and stored them in his boat house. In fact,
36:50
Speaker 1: Colb's grandson, who eventually found the remains four decades later,
36:54
Speaker 1: would recall having seen some bones on his grandfather's property
36:58
Speaker 1: when he was just a small boy during the nineteen thirties.
37:01
Speaker 1: The actual identity of the John Doe is still unknown,
37:04
Speaker 1: but authorities are certain that no foul play was involved
37:07
Speaker 1: in his death and he has no connection to the
37:09
Speaker 1: High Case. As for Glenn and Bessie, the legend of
37:12
Speaker 1: their disappearances continues to live on after nearly a century,
37:16
Speaker 1: but the truth about what happened to them remains a mystery.
37:19
Speaker 1: So I guess you could say the path went chili.
37:23
Speaker 2: Okay, it explains a lot, but that's still really bizarre.
37:28
Speaker 2: I guess back in the nineteen twenties and thirties, if
37:31
Speaker 2: you were called to help with a crime scene and
37:34
Speaker 2: you helped figure out what went on, and no one
37:37
Speaker 2: came forward, why not just take the body home with you? Right,
37:40
Speaker 2: Like I get taking the case file home or taking
37:44
Speaker 2: maybe a piece of evidence or something maybe, but the body.
37:48
Speaker 2: That's kind of crazy, but really kind of interesting too.
37:51
Speaker 2: So he's like, you know what, I'll take it home.
37:53
Speaker 1: I'll uh.
37:54
Speaker 2: It's almost like a little medical specimen I guess for
37:56
Speaker 2: him or part of the career he was doing. But man, today,
38:00
Speaker 2: looking back, that seems very bizarre.
38:02
Speaker 4: Didn't age well for sure, No.
38:06
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure he had good intentions. He's probably thinking, well,
38:09
Speaker 1: if nobody claims this victim, he's probably gonna be burying
38:12
Speaker 1: a pauper's grave and he'll be forgotten about. So I'll
38:14
Speaker 1: just keep the remains on hand in case his family
38:17
Speaker 1: does come forward someday. But you think he lived all
38:20
Speaker 1: the way to the age of ninety six, that at
38:21
Speaker 1: some point he would maybe write into his will for
38:24
Speaker 1: his grandkids say, and when I die and you find
38:26
Speaker 1: some remains in my boat house, this is what happened
38:29
Speaker 1: to them. So it is just kind of amusing that
38:31
Speaker 1: he kind of forgot about them for about four decades,
38:34
Speaker 1: and that after he dies people start suspecting he's a
38:36
Speaker 1: murderer or a serial killer or something because of this mistake.
38:40
Speaker 1: But yeah, it made the whole thing, the connection to
38:43
Speaker 1: the High case, less mysterious than we thought. But it
38:46
Speaker 1: is still a mystery. Who this person? Well, it was,
38:48
Speaker 1: and I guess Cole technically did a good thing because
38:51
Speaker 1: if this victim had been buried in a pauper's grave
38:53
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen thirties, people would have forgotten about him.
38:56
Speaker 1: But now he's part of this very mysterious story.
39:00
Speaker 3: Was it Robin where one of the investigators kept the
39:03
Speaker 3: skull of the victim like on their desk?
39:07
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I'm trying to remember that. Oh, I think
39:10
Speaker 1: it was the lady of the Dunes case. I remember
39:13
Speaker 1: we talked about that and she was eventually identified. I'm
39:17
Speaker 1: just gonna double check her name. Yeah, she was identified
39:19
Speaker 1: by DNA testing a couple of years ago as a
39:22
Speaker 1: woman named Ruth Marie Terry. She was found murdered in Provincetown, Massachusetts,
39:28
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four. But yeah, for many years afterwards,
39:30
Speaker 1: the lead investigator on the case actually kept the victim's
39:33
Speaker 1: skull on his desk, just as a reminder, as a
39:36
Speaker 1: motivator to solve the case an identify her. But I'm
39:39
Speaker 1: sure if this happened today, a lot of people would
39:41
Speaker 1: frat upon that. So I think that about brings an
39:44
Speaker 1: end to Part one. Join us next week as we
39:46
Speaker 1: present part two of our series on the disappearances of
39:49
Speaker 1: Glenn and Bessie Hyde.
39:51
Speaker 4: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
39:53
Speaker 4: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
39:55
Speaker 1: Yes. The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
39:58
Speaker 1: years now, and we offer the standard bonus features like
40:01
Speaker 1: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
40:05
Speaker 1: and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
40:08
Speaker 1: with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollars
40:10
Speaker 1: tier tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in
40:14
Speaker 1: which I talk about cases which are not featured on
40:18
Speaker 1: the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon,
40:21
Speaker 1: and if you join our highest tier tier three, the
40:24
Speaker 1: ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer is
40:27
Speaker 1: a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries,
40:31
Speaker 1: where you can download an audio file and then boot
40:34
Speaker 1: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
40:38
Speaker 1: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
40:41
Speaker 1: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
40:44
Speaker 1: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
40:48
Speaker 1: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
40:51
Speaker 1: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
40:53
Speaker 1: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
40:56
Speaker 1: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
40:59
Speaker 1: Tier three.
41:00
Speaker 5: So I want to let you know a little bit
41:02
Speaker 5: about the Jeweles and Ashley Patreons. So there's early ad
41:05
Speaker 5: free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
41:08
Speaker 5: Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so
41:11
Speaker 5: they're not very mini, but they're just too short to
41:13
Speaker 5: turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
41:16
Speaker 5: so we hope you'll check out those patreons.
41:18
Speaker 4: We'll link them in the show notes.
41:20
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
41:22
Speaker 1: any chance you have to share us on social media
41:24
Speaker 1: with a friend or to rate and review is greatly
41:27
Speaker 1: appreciate it. You can email us at The Pathwentchili at
41:29
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at
41:32
Speaker 1: the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle
41:35
Speaker 1: up because cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
41:39
Speaker 4: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers comedy,