Latest / Crime and Horror / You can't go to National Parks anymore Missing 411 (Part 12)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: People are going missing in national parks and forests all
- 0:03Speaker 1: over North America under baffling conditions. In some cases, people
- 0:07Speaker 1: will be looking right at someone, they'll turn around and
- 0:10Speaker 1: when they turn back, that person's gone. Or people will
- 0:13Speaker 1: go missing and then turn up again in locations that
- 0:16Speaker 1: are impossible to get to. One man, a former police
- 0:19Speaker 1: detective named David Plaidis, discovered that there were thousands of
- 0:23Speaker 1: these cases and no one was looking into it. So
- 0:25Speaker 1: he began looking into it and started putting all of
- 0:28Speaker 1: his findings in a totally fascinating book series called Missing
- 0:31Speaker 1: four one one. On today's video, I'm going to highlight
- 0:33Speaker 1: three missing four one one cases about people who went
- 0:37Speaker 1: camping and then things went horribly horribly wrong. But before
- 0:41Speaker 1: we get into those stories, if you're a fan of
- 0:43Speaker 1: these strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then
- 0:46Speaker 1: you come to the right place, because that's all I do,
- 0:48Speaker 1: and I upload three, four, even five times every week.
- 0:51Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please offer your
- 0:53Speaker 1: seat to the like button and then when they go
- 0:55Speaker 1: to sit down, pull the seat out from under them. Also,
- 0:58Speaker 1: please subscribe to this channel and turn on all notifications.
- 1:01Speaker 1: You don't miss any of my weekly uploads. All right,
- 1:03Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. In nineteen eighty five, Kevin
- 1:19Speaker 1: O'Keefe was a thirty six year old outdoor enthusiast that
- 1:22Speaker 1: lived in Sacramento, California. He loved being out in nature,
- 1:25Speaker 1: going hiking, and camping, and in fact, he had always
- 1:29Speaker 1: wanted to go camping in Alaska. By the summer of
- 1:32Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Kevin was actually doing research on areas
- 1:36Speaker 1: in Alaska that he could potentially go camping, and he
- 1:39Speaker 1: settled on this area called Glacier Bay National Park, which
- 1:42Speaker 1: even by Alaskan standards, is particularly wild and totally remote.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Kevin planned to go camping on his own, so he
- 1:50Speaker 1: decided he would need to take a class on how
- 1:53Speaker 1: to survive the Alaskan wilderness because he's going to be
- 1:56Speaker 1: out there by himself, and he's chosen his place that's
- 1:58Speaker 1: incredibly rugged. So he actually enrolled and participated in a
- 2:03Speaker 1: class teaching you how to go camping in Alaska. Then,
- 2:06Speaker 1: on September twentieth of nineteen eighty five, he flew from
- 2:09Speaker 1: Sacramento to Juneau, Alaska, where he commuted his way up
- 2:13Speaker 1: to Glacier Bay National Park. When he arrived at the
- 2:15Speaker 1: park's headquarters. He went up and introduced himself to the
- 2:18Speaker 1: park rangers that were working there. He told them he'd
- 2:21Speaker 1: be over near the Wolf Point area, which was an
- 2:23Speaker 1: area right against the water, and he said he was
- 2:25Speaker 1: going to be here for about three weeks. He planned
- 2:27Speaker 1: on leaving on October tenth. So everybody who works there
- 2:30Speaker 1: is aware that there's this guy, Kevin o'keeth's going to
- 2:33Speaker 1: be by himself for almost three weeks camping near the water.
- 2:37Speaker 1: No one in Kevin's family or any of the park
- 2:39Speaker 1: rangers heard from Kevin for the next couple of weeks,
- 2:42Speaker 1: but the whole point of this trip was basically to
- 2:45Speaker 1: escape reality and go live in nature for a few weeks,
- 2:48Speaker 1: so no one's raising any red flags. A few weeks later,
- 2:51Speaker 1: on October eighth, which is two days before, Kevin said
- 2:54Speaker 1: he was planning to leave the park, which he told
- 2:56Speaker 1: park rangers, and they knew he was there. A couple
- 2:59Speaker 1: of park rangers were in a boat patrolling some waterways
- 3:02Speaker 1: around Wolf Point, which is the area where Kevin was camping.
- 3:05Speaker 1: The rangers decided to take a bit of a detour
- 3:07Speaker 1: to get inside of Wolf Point and actually check in
- 3:10Speaker 1: on Kevin and just see how he was doing, because
- 3:12Speaker 1: they knew he was out here by himself. They're making
- 3:14Speaker 1: their way down and as they turned this last corner
- 3:16Speaker 1: where they could finally see Kevin's site, immediately they knew
- 3:20Speaker 1: something was wrong. The first thing they noticed was Kevin's
- 3:23Speaker 1: tent was not in the area that it was supposed
- 3:25Speaker 1: to be in. There was kind of a designated spot
- 3:28Speaker 1: on the soil where you'd place your tent, but his
- 3:31Speaker 1: tent was actually down a few meters on this beach
- 3:34Speaker 1: that butted up against his campsite, and some of his
- 3:37Speaker 1: gear was outside of his tent, not strewn everywhere, but
- 3:40Speaker 1: outside of his tent like you had placed it outside.
- 3:43Speaker 1: As they're looking at his tent, they realized that the
- 3:45Speaker 1: top strut that kind of held the top of the
- 3:47Speaker 1: tent together was folded down. It looked like it had
- 3:50Speaker 1: broken right in the middle. They called out for Kevin.
- 3:52Speaker 1: He was nowhere around and they kind of rationalized what
- 3:55Speaker 1: they saw. They thought, you know, he's leaving in a
- 3:57Speaker 1: couple of days. My gas is he's probably preparing his
- 4:00Speaker 1: campsite for an exit. Maybe he went out to go
- 4:04Speaker 1: on a day hike or something. I'm sure everything is fine,
- 4:07Speaker 1: so they leave and come back the next day just
- 4:09Speaker 1: to double check, and when they arrived, there's been no change.
- 4:12Speaker 1: The tent is still sitting down on the beach with
- 4:14Speaker 1: that strut collapse. His gear is sitting outside of his
- 4:17Speaker 1: tent like a sleeping bag and sleeping pad. It's clear
- 4:20Speaker 1: that Kevin has not been to this campsite since the
- 4:23Speaker 1: last time they saw him, which was twenty four hours earlier.
- 4:26Speaker 1: So now they're outright concerned and they decide to launch
- 4:29Speaker 1: a search for Kevin. They began flying little airplanes over
- 4:32Speaker 1: the area where Kevin's campsite was and the surrounding areas.
- 4:36Speaker 1: No sign of Kevin. They brought ground searchers with dogs
- 4:39Speaker 1: onto his campsite. They're looking everywhere, no sign of Kevin.
- 4:43Speaker 1: But they did discover at his campsite that virtually all
- 4:46Speaker 1: of the equipment you would expect to be at a
- 4:49Speaker 1: campsite in Alaska of someone who's staying there for a
- 4:51Speaker 1: few weeks. While it was all there. He had his
- 4:53Speaker 1: backpack fully packed as if he was going to go
- 4:56Speaker 1: on a hike. It'd had food, it'd had extra clothes
- 4:58Speaker 1: and water. It was all packed right up against a
- 5:00Speaker 1: tree all of his sleeping equipment and his cooking equipment,
- 5:03Speaker 1: and oddly, there was lots of food that Kevin still
- 5:06Speaker 1: had left at his campsite that was out in the
- 5:08Speaker 1: open and no animals had touched it, which is a
- 5:11Speaker 1: complete anomaly. As they began searching the outer areas of
- 5:15Speaker 1: his campsite, dogs were able to locate Kevin's boots, his gloveliner,
- 5:19Speaker 1: and his hat. They were tucked away in this gully
- 5:22Speaker 1: about a half mile away from this campsite that they
- 5:26Speaker 1: were not visible to the naked eye. It took dogs
- 5:29Speaker 1: finding it to locate these items. After finding these items,
- 5:32Speaker 1: the early speculation was it looks like Kevin was attacked
- 5:35Speaker 1: by bears or some other predator, but the park rangers,
- 5:38Speaker 1: who knew this area extremely well and had seen other
- 5:42Speaker 1: bear attacks, said, I don't think this is a bear
- 5:44Speaker 1: attack because there's no sign of a death struggle anywhere
- 5:47Speaker 1: at his camp. If you get attacked by a big predator,
- 5:50Speaker 1: you're gonna fight for your life to save yourself. You're
- 5:52Speaker 1: gonna grab onto things and flail around. It's fairly obvious,
- 5:56Speaker 1: and there's none of that. There's also no blood or
- 5:59Speaker 1: remains or any indication that someone was hurt in this space.
- 6:03Speaker 1: And if an animal had come into this camp and
- 6:05Speaker 1: attacked Kevin and eaten Kevin, they certainly would have taken
- 6:09Speaker 1: the food that was out and about in the campsite,
- 6:12Speaker 1: but none of the food was touched. As the investigation continued,
- 6:15Speaker 1: rangers would say, how strange it was that no wild
- 6:19Speaker 1: animals are coming into this campsite. There's no activity, there's
- 6:22Speaker 1: nothing in the area. It's like the animals are staying
- 6:24Speaker 1: away from Kevin's campsite. When they couldn't find any sign
- 6:29Speaker 1: of Kevin, the investigators went to speak with Kevin's family
- 6:32Speaker 1: and asked them, you know, did he have any signs
- 6:34Speaker 1: that he was looking to end his own life? Do
- 6:36Speaker 1: you have any information you can give us about him?
- 6:38Speaker 1: And they said no. He was really happy, well adjusted,
- 6:41Speaker 1: excited about this trip. He had taken a class to
- 6:43Speaker 1: prepare himself for this trip. He told us that he
- 6:46Speaker 1: planned on taking a couple of day hikes, but no overnights,
- 6:49Speaker 1: and he had no plans to meet other people while
- 6:52Speaker 1: he was there. He was just looking to be on
- 6:54Speaker 1: his own in nature. But after just a few days,
- 6:56Speaker 1: they had to call the search off because there was
- 6:58Speaker 1: no sign of this guy he was just on. Knowing
- 7:00Speaker 1: that all of Kevin's gear was still located at his
- 7:04Speaker 1: campsite means he did not leave to go on one
- 7:07Speaker 1: of those day hikes that he had told his family
- 7:08Speaker 1: that he might be going on. Because going into the
- 7:11Speaker 1: wilds of Alaska without your gear is a death sentence.
- 7:14Speaker 1: So Kevin must have been at his campsite when something
- 7:17Speaker 1: horrible happened to him. But we know it wasn't an
- 7:20Speaker 1: animal attack because there was no sign of that and
- 7:22Speaker 1: no animals were coming near this campsite. So if it
- 7:25Speaker 1: wasn't an animal attack, then what was it that caused
- 7:28Speaker 1: his tent to shift down to the beach and have
- 7:31Speaker 1: his gear strewn about on the sand, and have his
- 7:33Speaker 1: boots and gloveliner and hat be located a half mile
- 7:36Speaker 1: away in some gully. And where's Kevin? In two thousand,
- 7:45Speaker 1: Patrick Whalen was thirty three years old, and he was
- 7:48Speaker 1: described as being an outdoor enthusiast bordering on full blown survivalists.
- 7:52Speaker 1: He had hiked thousands of miles across the Pacific Crest
- 7:56Speaker 1: Trail and had spent hundreds of hours camping inside of
- 7:59Speaker 1: National Park, in particular the Glacier National Park in Montana.
- 8:03Speaker 1: That was his absolute favorite place to go. In fact,
- 8:06Speaker 1: he spent so much time there that the park rangers
- 8:08Speaker 1: recognized him and knew him by name. On November two,
- 8:11Speaker 1: two thousand, Pat was driving in Kiowa Junction in Montana
- 8:15Speaker 1: when he hit a deer. Witnesses say that he stopped
- 8:18Speaker 1: his truck, he got out, walked over to the deer,
- 8:20Speaker 1: pulled it to the side of the road, took a
- 8:22Speaker 1: pillow out of his truck, put it under the deer's head,
- 8:25Speaker 1: and then he went and got food from his truck
- 8:26Speaker 1: and put it near the deer's mouth, and then he
- 8:28Speaker 1: just walked away. He abandons his truck. It's unclear whether
- 8:32Speaker 1: his truck was not operational at this point or if
- 8:34Speaker 1: he was just abandoning his truck, but either way, his
- 8:37Speaker 1: truck would get towed. The next day, six months after
- 8:40Speaker 1: the deer incident, Patrick's father called the park rangers at
- 8:44Speaker 1: the Glacier National Park in Montana, and he said, I
- 8:46Speaker 1: haven't heard from my son in months, and I'm worried
- 8:49Speaker 1: about him. I can't get in touch with him. If
- 8:50Speaker 1: there was one place he would be, it would be
- 8:52Speaker 1: at your park. Have you seen him? The park rangers,
- 8:55Speaker 1: who again they all knew pat They said, we haven't
- 8:58Speaker 1: seen him, but we'll keep an eye out for him.
- 9:00Speaker 1: A couple of weeks later, two of these park rangers
- 9:02Speaker 1: are out on a routine patrol through the park when
- 9:04Speaker 1: they come across a very odd scene. They saw this
- 9:07Speaker 1: blue tent sitting in the middle of this campsite. There's
- 9:10Speaker 1: no one around it, and the middle strut that held
- 9:13Speaker 1: the tent together was collapsed. They yelled out to see
- 9:16Speaker 1: if anybody was inside the tent to make sure everything
- 9:18Speaker 1: was okay, but no one calls back. They walk over
- 9:21Speaker 1: to the tent itself and they can tell that this
- 9:23Speaker 1: tent has been out here for some time. It looks
- 9:25Speaker 1: very weathered and sun bleached, but there's no tears in
- 9:28Speaker 1: the fabric and all of the zippers are shut. When
- 9:31Speaker 1: they opened up the tent, there was no one inside,
- 9:34Speaker 1: but there were all the things you would expect to
- 9:36Speaker 1: find inside of a tent at a campsite. Water, food, stove, boots, clothes,
- 9:42Speaker 1: It's all in there. But again, the tent is collapsed,
- 9:44Speaker 1: and based on the pattern of sun bleaching on the outside,
- 9:47Speaker 1: it had been collapsed for some time. When the park
- 9:50Speaker 1: rangers filed their report about what they found. They noted
- 9:53Speaker 1: that it was really odd that no animals had ransacked
- 9:56Speaker 1: this tent because clearly it had been sitting here unoccupied
- 10:00Speaker 1: for a while, and there was food in the tent,
- 10:02Speaker 1: but no animals had touched it. Authorities show up and
- 10:05Speaker 1: they begin searching the area for pat there's no sign
- 10:08Speaker 1: of him. That bring out cadaver sniffing dogs. They don't
- 10:11Speaker 1: pick up any scent. One of the issues they were
- 10:13Speaker 1: up against was they had no idea how long it
- 10:15Speaker 1: had been since he had arrived here and then subsequently disappeared,
- 10:18Speaker 1: because they actually went to the tow yard where he
- 10:20Speaker 1: had had his truck towed following hitting that deer six
- 10:23Speaker 1: months earlier, and his truck was still sitting in the
- 10:25Speaker 1: toe lot, so he hadn't claimed his truck. That was
- 10:28Speaker 1: six months earlier. And here we are, and there's this
- 10:31Speaker 1: tent in the middle of the woods, and we have
- 10:32Speaker 1: no idea where he is. But the most interesting and
- 10:35Speaker 1: terrifying thing that was discovered was inside of his tent
- 10:39Speaker 1: there was an empty buck knife case, so the sheath
- 10:42Speaker 1: was there, no knife. David Pliveis offers a very interesting
- 10:45Speaker 1: theory about why it was there. He suggests that while
- 10:48Speaker 1: Patrick was living at this campsite, he must have been
- 10:50Speaker 1: in his tent one night and he hears something outside
- 10:53Speaker 1: of his tent that apparently was formidable enough that he
- 10:56Speaker 1: felt the need to take his knife out and go
- 10:58Speaker 1: out into the open two in front it. He gets out.
- 11:01Speaker 1: The mosquitoes were very bad in that area, so he
- 11:04Speaker 1: probably hopped out, zipped his tent shut for a minute.
- 11:06Speaker 1: He's standing there with his knife to confront whatever this is,
- 11:09Speaker 1: and then he doesn't go back into his tent. Whatever
- 11:12Speaker 1: was out there apparently got the best of path. But
- 11:14Speaker 1: we can't just say he was attacked by an animal
- 11:17Speaker 1: because there was no blood, There was no remains, there
- 11:19Speaker 1: was no sign of a death struggle in that campground,
- 11:22Speaker 1: and the food that was in his tent was untouched.
- 11:26Speaker 1: No animal had tried to rip open the tent to
- 11:29Speaker 1: get to the food, something that animals do after they
- 11:32Speaker 1: attack people at their campsites. So the million dollar question
- 11:35Speaker 1: is if it wasn't a wild animal that he was
- 11:37Speaker 1: getting out of his tent with his knife to confront,
- 11:40Speaker 1: then who or what was it? And where's Patrick? In
- 11:48Speaker 1: April of nineteen seventy six, nineteen year old Stephen Thomas
- 11:51Speaker 1: was asked by his good friend Bruce Weaver if he
- 11:54Speaker 1: wanted to join Bruce and Bruce's four other friends on
- 11:57Speaker 1: a hike in New York State. Steve didn't know these four,
- 12:00Speaker 1: but he really liked Bruce and he loved hiking, so
- 12:02Speaker 1: he agreed to go. The mountain they were going to
- 12:04Speaker 1: climb was Mount Marcy. It's one of the biggest mountains
- 12:07Speaker 1: on the East Coast, and it's very rugged. It's very windy,
- 12:09Speaker 1: the temperatures dropped dramatically towards the summit. It's a dangerous
- 12:12Speaker 1: place unless you treat it with respect. On the morning
- 12:15Speaker 1: that Steve was leaving for this hike, his mother told
- 12:18Speaker 1: him that she had a bad feeling about the hike
- 12:20Speaker 1: and that maybe he should just cancel because it didn't
- 12:22Speaker 1: seem like a good idea to be hiking such a
- 12:24Speaker 1: rugged mountain with people he didn't know. But Steve, who
- 12:27Speaker 1: had a lot of experienced hikings, said it was totally fine.
- 12:29Speaker 1: He was eager to go and that he would see
- 12:31Speaker 1: her in a couple of days. On April twelfth, nineteen
- 12:33Speaker 1: seventy six, the six men are making their way up
- 12:35Speaker 1: Mount Marcy and they get near the summit by about
- 12:38Speaker 1: three thirty pm in the afternoon, and even though they
- 12:41Speaker 1: could have pressed on and made their way up to
- 12:43Speaker 1: the summit, they were all really exhausted from the trip
- 12:46Speaker 1: so far, and they decided they would make camp where
- 12:48Speaker 1: they were and they would attack the summit the next day.
- 12:50Speaker 1: And they were all eager to do that, with the
- 12:52Speaker 1: exception of Steve. Steve didn't want to stop. Steve was
- 12:55Speaker 1: sitting in Bruce's tent looking at the map of Mount Marcy,
- 12:58Speaker 1: and he said to Bruce, Hey, do you want to
- 13:00Speaker 1: go for a quick walk with me? And I just
- 13:01Speaker 1: want to walk up the path a little ways. And
- 13:03Speaker 1: Bruce was like, no, man, I'm tired. Let's just go tomorrow.
- 13:06Speaker 1: And so Steve just continued to stay up looking at
- 13:09Speaker 1: this map. He made tea for himself, and at some
- 13:11Speaker 1: point he folded the map up and said, Hey, Bruce,
- 13:13Speaker 1: I'm just gonna walk up the path a little ways.
- 13:15Speaker 1: I'll be right back. Bruce told Steve this was a
- 13:17Speaker 1: bad idea. Don't go up there on your own. The
- 13:19Speaker 1: temperatures are dropping, it's getting dark, it's windy. It's just
- 13:22Speaker 1: a disaster waiting to happen. Plus we're all going to
- 13:24Speaker 1: be up there first thing in the morning, so there's
- 13:26Speaker 1: no reason to go up right now. But Steve was like,
- 13:28Speaker 1: you know, I just don't want to sit here. I'm
- 13:30Speaker 1: going to just go. So Steve begins to walk out.
- 13:32Speaker 1: The other hikers that he didn't know too well, are like, hey, man,
- 13:35Speaker 1: just stay here, but again Steve's not listening, and Steve
- 13:37Speaker 1: continues up the trail. When Steve left, he must have
- 13:40Speaker 1: thought he was only going to be gone for a
- 13:41Speaker 1: few minutes, because he threw on a rain jacket, this
- 13:44Speaker 1: yellow rain jacket over a T shirt and pants. Because
- 13:47Speaker 1: he'd been sitting in a warm tent. He just threw
- 13:49Speaker 1: on a jacket and he left his backpack. He just
- 13:52Speaker 1: walked out with no supplies to begin walking up this trail.
- 13:55Speaker 1: At the time Steve was walking down that path, the
- 13:57Speaker 1: snow was very hard packed, so it was easy to
- 14:00Speaker 1: and there was a full moon so there was great visibility.
- 14:03Speaker 1: So it was a good night to be doing what
- 14:05Speaker 1: Steve was doing, albeit if it had just been for
- 14:07Speaker 1: a few minutes. So as Steve is walking away from
- 14:10Speaker 1: the camp, even though the other hikers were annoyed with him,
- 14:13Speaker 1: they weren't concerned. He had loads of hiking experience in
- 14:16Speaker 1: Washington State. He was very eager to do this. And again,
- 14:19Speaker 1: it was well lit, the snow was hard packed. They're thinking, Okay,
- 14:22Speaker 1: he'll be gone for a couple of minutes and then
- 14:24Speaker 1: we'll see him again and it'll be just fine. After
- 14:26Speaker 1: about an hour, it was dark and the temperatures are
- 14:28Speaker 1: now well blow freezing, and Steve has not come back yet,
- 14:31Speaker 1: and he was not dressed for the sub freezing temperatures.
- 14:34Speaker 1: So the hikers walk a little ways down the path
- 14:36Speaker 1: and they're yelling out for Steve, but there's no response.
- 14:39Speaker 1: They decide that they have to go up the path
- 14:41Speaker 1: and look for him because the conditions are going to
- 14:43Speaker 1: kill him if he doesn't come back and get in
- 14:44Speaker 1: his tent soon. When they go back to their tent
- 14:46Speaker 1: to get some of their equipment to go make this
- 14:48Speaker 1: trek to go find Steve, one of those four hikers
- 14:51Speaker 1: that Steve did not know particularly well had brought his
- 14:54Speaker 1: dog along for this hike, which apparently he always did.
- 14:57Speaker 1: This dog was highly energetic, went everywhere with this. He'd
- 15:00Speaker 1: loved hiking. Anytime the dog would go out and go
- 15:02Speaker 1: run around, it would do it in a heartbeat, And
- 15:04Speaker 1: when this hiker went in his tent to not only
- 15:06Speaker 1: get his own gear, but to get his dog and
- 15:08Speaker 1: bring his dog with him to go look for Steve,
- 15:11Speaker 1: the dog refused to leave the tent. In fact, it
- 15:14Speaker 1: coward in the back of the tent and acted like
- 15:16Speaker 1: it was scared of something that was outside of the tent.
- 15:19Speaker 1: The dog's owner would tell investigators later that he's never
- 15:22Speaker 1: seen his dog act that way. He was acting scared
- 15:26Speaker 1: of something to the point where he would stay in
- 15:28Speaker 1: the tent and all the hikers would go looking for Steve.
- 15:31Speaker 1: The dog would rather be alone in a tent, totally isolated,
- 15:35Speaker 1: than leave that tent. That's how scared he was of
- 15:37Speaker 1: whatever it was that was out there. So the men
- 15:39Speaker 1: go out looking and they can't find Steve, and after
- 15:41Speaker 1: a little bit they end up going back because it's
- 15:43Speaker 1: just so dangerous to look for him in the middle
- 15:45Speaker 1: of the night. So the group heads back to their
- 15:47Speaker 1: tents and they're just praying that he found shelter somewhere
- 15:50Speaker 1: on the mountain. The next morning, as soon as the
- 15:52Speaker 1: sun came up, the hikers immediately start looking for Steve,
- 15:54Speaker 1: yelling for Steve. There's no sign of him, and at
- 15:57Speaker 1: some point half the group leaves and walks the four
- 15:59Speaker 1: hours down on the trail to a vehicle where they
- 16:01Speaker 1: could go drive and get authorities, while the other three
- 16:04Speaker 1: continue to look and stay near the camp just in
- 16:07Speaker 1: case Steve were to return. Once authorities were notified, they
- 16:10Speaker 1: launched one of the largest search and rescue efforts in
- 16:13Speaker 1: the history of New York. They spent two weeks combing
- 16:16Speaker 1: this entire mountain helicopters, dog teams, searchers on the ground.
- 16:20Speaker 1: They are looking everywhere. There is no sign of Steve,
- 16:24Speaker 1: even though he had this bright yellow jacket on. They
- 16:26Speaker 1: can't find anything. He's just totally gone. After the official
- 16:30Speaker 1: search was terminated after about two weeks, Steve's older brother Bob,
- 16:34Speaker 1: who is twenty six years old, in amazing shape and
- 16:37Speaker 1: very close with his brother Steve, he quits his job
- 16:40Speaker 1: and moves to the Mount Marcy area and spent a
- 16:43Speaker 1: whole year searching every inch of this mountain. Veteran park
- 16:48Speaker 1: rangers at Mount Marcy would joke that Bob knew the
- 16:51Speaker 1: mountain better than they did. Bob had apparently walked over
- 16:54Speaker 1: twenty five hundred miles on Mount Marcy and had summitted
- 16:58Speaker 1: six hundred times or more, and every time he would
- 17:01Speaker 1: take a different route and search all along the mountain.
- 17:04Speaker 1: He has looked everywhere, and he can't find his brother.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Although Bob would never find his brother, he did locate
- 17:10Speaker 1: the remains of a hiker who had gone missing three
- 17:13Speaker 1: years earlier, so he was able to provide closure for
- 17:15Speaker 1: that family. So why did Steve feel the need to
- 17:18Speaker 1: walk up this trail in the first place? And then
- 17:21Speaker 1: what was the dog so scared of after Steve vanished?
- 17:24Speaker 1: Because the dog never acted that way, but suddenly something
- 17:28Speaker 1: was so terrifying on the outside of their tents that
- 17:31Speaker 1: it abandoned its owner and huddled in the tent in fear.
- 17:34Speaker 1: And then how could Bob have missed his brother Steve,
- 17:37Speaker 1: who was wearing a bright yellow jacket after combing every
- 17:40Speaker 1: inch of this mountain. The only logical answer is that
- 17:44Speaker 1: Steve is not on the mountain. But if he's not
- 17:47Speaker 1: on the mountain, where is he? So, like all of
- 17:49Speaker 1: the missing four to one one cases, we don't know
- 17:52Speaker 1: what happened to these people, and we probably never will,
- 17:54Speaker 1: but that doesn't stop us from theorizing about what could
- 17:57Speaker 1: have happened to them. So get in the comments and
- 17:59Speaker 1: give me your best theory about what's happening to these people.
- 18:01Speaker 1: And not only will I get back to all the
- 18:03Speaker 1: early commenters, I'll also pin the best comment at the
- 18:06Speaker 1: top of the comment section. If you enjoyed today's story
- 18:09Speaker 1: and you haven't done this already, please offer the like
- 18:11Speaker 1: button your seat, and then when they go to sit down,
- 18:13Speaker 1: pull a seat out from behind them. Also, subscribe to
- 18:16Speaker 1: this channel and turn on all notifications. You don't miss
- 18:18Speaker 1: any of my weekly uploads. If you want to learn
- 18:20Speaker 1: more about the Missing four one one phenomenon, I would
- 18:23Speaker 1: encourage you to check out the Missing four to one
- 18:25Speaker 1: one book series by David Poliitis. He's the one who
- 18:28Speaker 1: created Missing four one one. He's the one doing all
- 18:30Speaker 1: the research. He's incredible. I put a link below in
- 18:33Speaker 1: the description of how to purchase his books. I've also
- 18:35Speaker 1: included his YouTube channel where he talks about a lot
- 18:37Speaker 1: of these cases as well. I also have a Missing
- 18:40Speaker 1: four to one one playlist that I've included in the
- 18:42Speaker 1: description below. If you want to get in touch with me,
- 18:44Speaker 1: you can direct message me on Instagram or Twitter. My
- 18:46Speaker 1: username for both platforms is the same. It's John Balin
- 18:49Speaker 1: four one six. I also have a ton of content
- 18:52Speaker 1: over on TikTok, where my username is mister Ballin. If
- 18:55Speaker 1: you have a story suggestion, please submit it to our subreddit.
- 18:58Speaker 1: It's just called mister Ballin. It's LinkedIn description below. I
- 19:01Speaker 1: read that every day and if I intentionally use your suggestion,
- 19:04Speaker 1: I will absolutely credit you. So whether I see you
- 19:06Speaker 1: on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, reddit, some combination, I'm just
- 19:11Speaker 1: incredibly thankful for your support. And until next time, guys,
- 19:14Speaker 1: that's going to do it. See ya,