Latest / Crime and Horror / Top 3 SCARIEST stalkers in the wild Missing 411 (Part 17)

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Top 3 SCARIEST stalkers in the wild Missing 411 (Part 17) · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Every year, hundreds of people go missing under baffling conditions
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Speaker 1: in national parks and forests all across North America. One
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Speaker 1: former police detective named David Plaidis has begun investigating thousands
0:12
Speaker 1: of these very strange disappearances, and he outlines his findings
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Speaker 1: in a book series called Missing.
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Speaker 2: Four one one.
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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to be looking at three cases that
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Speaker 1: all fall within the missing four one one phenomenon where
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Speaker 1: everybody involved claims to have been chased by someone or
0:28
Speaker 1: something out in the middle of nowhere. But before we
0:30
Speaker 1: get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange,
0:33
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story.
0:35
Speaker 2: Format, then you come to the right channel, because that's.
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Speaker 1: All we do, and we upload three, four, even five
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. All right,
0:53
Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. In nineteen eighty nine, twenty
1:08
Speaker 1: two year old Eloise Lindsay was a fresh college graduate
1:12
Speaker 1: and she was at a crossroads in her life because
1:14
Speaker 1: even though she just earned her degree, she really.
1:16
Speaker 2: Didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.
1:18
Speaker 1: And because she was an experienced backpacker, she thought a
1:21
Speaker 1: good way to, you know, kind of get her life
1:23
Speaker 1: together would be to go on a sort of retreat,
1:26
Speaker 1: go out into the woods, go out into nature, and
1:28
Speaker 1: kind of find herself. So she had planned this very
1:31
Speaker 1: detailed forty three point three mile hike along the Appalachian Trail,
1:35
Speaker 1: starting in South Carolina, where the first seven days of
1:38
Speaker 1: the hike she would be totally on her own, and
1:40
Speaker 1: then at the seven day mark, she would meet up
1:42
Speaker 1: with a friend at a particular rendezvous point. Her friend
1:45
Speaker 1: would give her resupplies and would be her companion for
1:48
Speaker 1: the rest of the hike. When Eloise told her parents
1:50
Speaker 1: what her plans were, they were not concerned for her
1:53
Speaker 1: safety because she was an experienced backpacker. She had made
1:56
Speaker 1: trips like this before, and so they said, great, we'll
1:59
Speaker 1: see you when you get back.
2:00
Speaker 2: So on November fourth, Eloiz sets.
2:02
Speaker 1: Out to begin her journey down the Appalachian Trail, and
2:05
Speaker 1: the first couple of days of her hike were great.
2:07
Speaker 2: The weather was.
2:08
Speaker 1: Beautiful, the scenery was amazing, and she had all this
2:11
Speaker 1: time to just kind of be by herself and look
2:14
Speaker 1: internal and think hard about what she wanted to do
2:16
Speaker 1: with her life.
2:17
Speaker 2: But on the third day, when she woke.
2:19
Speaker 1: Up, she was sleeping inside of a tent she had
2:20
Speaker 1: camped just off the trail.
2:23
Speaker 2: She woke up and she had this intense sense of dread.
2:26
Speaker 1: She couldn't really place where it was coming from, but
2:28
Speaker 1: she knew something was wrong, and she's kind of doing
2:30
Speaker 1: inventory of her life, like what's that I forget? Is
2:34
Speaker 1: there something that I'm just not thinking about right now?
2:36
Speaker 1: But she kind of pushes it aside mentally and thinks, Okay,
2:39
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just going to pack up my
2:40
Speaker 1: campsite here and get hiking, and I'm bound to, you know,
2:43
Speaker 1: come up with what it is that's making me feel
2:45
Speaker 1: this way. So she gets out of her tent and
2:47
Speaker 1: she begins packing up her campsite, and she's looking out,
2:50
Speaker 1: kind of scanning the tree line, not because she was
2:53
Speaker 1: looking for anything, but just because she happened to be
2:55
Speaker 1: looking out, and she could have sworn that she saw
2:58
Speaker 1: a man standing, you know, thirty forty feet away behind
3:01
Speaker 1: a tree, and she kind of did a double take
3:03
Speaker 1: and was staring at him. And so, you know, it's
3:05
Speaker 1: broad daylight, it's the morning, and they're near a trail,
3:08
Speaker 1: so what is it like unbelievable that there might be
3:10
Speaker 1: someone near her at that very moment. But she kind
3:13
Speaker 1: of did a double take, and she looked at them again,
3:15
Speaker 1: and this person was gone, and she stood there for
3:17
Speaker 1: a minute, just kind of looking in the direction of
3:19
Speaker 1: where she had seen this guy, wondering, you know, is
3:21
Speaker 1: my mind playing tricks on me? Did I really see
3:24
Speaker 1: someone there? You know, why aren't they showing themselves again?
3:26
Speaker 1: If there was someone there, they clearly must have just
3:28
Speaker 1: been looking at me. Why aren't they, you know, poking
3:31
Speaker 1: their heads out again to communicate with me in some way.
3:33
Speaker 1: We're out in the middle of nowhere, we should be
3:35
Speaker 1: talking to each other. But the guy never shows himself again.
3:37
Speaker 1: And so as she's standing there wondering what she should do,
3:40
Speaker 1: she isn't ready to yell out to this person, because
3:42
Speaker 1: there's part of her that's a little bit nervous about
3:45
Speaker 1: yelling out to some stranger in the middle of the woods.
3:47
Speaker 2: But she starts to get.
3:48
Speaker 1: This really intense feeling that she's being watched, and it
3:52
Speaker 1: feels an awful lot, like the sense of dread she
3:54
Speaker 1: had while she was in the tent, and she's starting
3:57
Speaker 1: to wonder, you know, are my instincts or is my
4:00
Speaker 1: sixth sense picking up that I'm being watched? Like there's
4:03
Speaker 1: some predator out there looking at me right now.
4:05
Speaker 2: And even though she.
4:06
Speaker 1: Has no way of knowing if that's actually true, she's
4:08
Speaker 1: alone in the middle of the woods, and even though
4:10
Speaker 1: she's experienced, she can't help but feel really vulnerable, and
4:14
Speaker 1: because this guy is just not showing himself again, she
4:17
Speaker 1: feels a little bit threatened, and so she begins to panic,
4:20
Speaker 1: and she starts packing up all of her stuff as
4:22
Speaker 1: quickly as she can, and as soon as she can, she.
4:24
Speaker 2: Takes off down the trail away from that guy she
4:26
Speaker 2: saw in the woods.
4:27
Speaker 1: As she was walking down this trail, she couldn't help
4:30
Speaker 1: but think someone was right behind her, and she kept
4:32
Speaker 1: turning around to see if this person or whoever it was,
4:36
Speaker 1: was behind her, and no one was ever there, but
4:38
Speaker 1: this visceral feeling that she was being watched, that sense
4:41
Speaker 1: of dread she had, it just was not going away, and.
4:44
Speaker 2: So she started walking faster and faster.
4:46
Speaker 1: Before long, she was running and she's realizing that she's
4:49
Speaker 1: in a section of the Appalachian Trail that's very remote.
4:52
Speaker 1: She's not near civilization, she's not near her next rendezvous point,
4:56
Speaker 1: and so she's thinking to herself, I need to get
4:58
Speaker 1: off this trail.
4:59
Speaker 2: I need to get to a road. I need to
5:00
Speaker 2: get away from here as soon as I possibly can.
5:03
Speaker 2: And so her.
5:03
Speaker 1: Options were to continue on this trail for several miles
5:06
Speaker 1: and it would probably take her until well into the
5:09
Speaker 1: night before she was going to reach civilization. Or she
5:12
Speaker 1: could take a short cut, because she believed there was
5:15
Speaker 1: a road that was running parallel to her trail, but
5:17
Speaker 1: it was way down the mountain. It would require leaving
5:20
Speaker 1: the trail and basically cutting through the wilderness to get
5:23
Speaker 1: down to this road, but she was pretty confident it
5:25
Speaker 1: was right down there. And because this threat of this
5:28
Speaker 1: person or thing following her was so intense for her,
5:32
Speaker 1: she decided to leave the trail. She couldn't stand the
5:34
Speaker 1: idea of having to spend another night out in the
5:37
Speaker 1: middle of the woods with this person stalking her, and
5:41
Speaker 1: so she walks off the trail and starts running down
5:43
Speaker 1: the mountain. It wasn't long before she started to hear
5:46
Speaker 1: audible sounds coming from what she believed to be this
5:49
Speaker 1: person that was following her, and she would turn.
5:52
Speaker 2: Around and there'd be no one there.
5:54
Speaker 1: And then she started to walk, you know, trying to
5:56
Speaker 1: listen as she's walking, and she would hear footsteps far
5:58
Speaker 1: away from her, and she'd turn her and there'd be
6:00
Speaker 1: nobody there. But she was certain someone was following or
6:04
Speaker 1: someone was stalking her. And the sounds that were coming
6:07
Speaker 1: out of this person, this animal, whatever it was, they
6:10
Speaker 1: sounded like, you know, a deep male voice, but she.
6:13
Speaker 2: Couldn't recognize that it was a language of some kind.
6:15
Speaker 1: It just sounded more like a grunt or a yell
6:18
Speaker 1: of some kind. And so her heart rates elevated. She's panicking,
6:21
Speaker 1: and she's walking as fast as she can, just through
6:23
Speaker 1: the middle of the wilderness, hoping she's walking towards this road.
6:27
Speaker 1: But after walking and running for miles into the middle
6:30
Speaker 1: of nowhere, she has not come to a road. It's
6:33
Speaker 1: now completely dark out, and she knows she's lost, and
6:37
Speaker 1: so she has to set up camp in the middle
6:39
Speaker 1: of nowhere, and she knows somewhere out in the middle
6:42
Speaker 1: of the woods is some person or something that is
6:46
Speaker 1: stalking me, and she's all alone. She has no way
6:48
Speaker 1: to contact anyone. She doesn't have a cell phone. It's
6:50
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, and so she sets up her campsite
6:53
Speaker 1: and she gets in her tent. She SIPs it up,
6:55
Speaker 1: and she lays there, hoping she doesn't hear any sounds,
6:58
Speaker 1: and sure enough, within minutes of inside of that tent,
7:01
Speaker 1: she starts hearing those audible sounds coming from somewhere in
7:04
Speaker 1: the forest, and she hears what sounds like heavy footsteps
7:07
Speaker 1: walking around the perimeter of her campsite. All night long,
7:11
Speaker 1: she hears this, but luckily they don't come up right
7:14
Speaker 1: to her tent, so there's some separation between her and
7:17
Speaker 1: whatever is making these sounds. And then finally, you know,
7:20
Speaker 1: the sun comes up. She is out of that tent,
7:22
Speaker 1: packs it up, and.
7:23
Speaker 2: Continues running in the direction she hopes is the road.
7:26
Speaker 1: And of course, all day long, she has that sense
7:29
Speaker 1: that someone is watching her. She's hearing footsteps coming from
7:32
Speaker 1: behind her. She would turn, she doesn't see anything. She
7:35
Speaker 1: would hear that audible grunting sound, that low voice coming
7:38
Speaker 1: from somewhere behind her, but again she would never see
7:41
Speaker 1: whoever it was or whatever it was that was making
7:44
Speaker 1: the sound. And then again the sun is starting to
7:47
Speaker 1: set and she has not found the road, she hasn't
7:49
Speaker 1: found a trail, and she's thinking to herself, I can't
7:51
Speaker 1: even backtrack, because if I turn around and start walking backwards,
7:55
Speaker 1: I'm bound to run into this very thing I'm.
7:57
Speaker 2: Trying to escape.
7:58
Speaker 1: And so once again, she's sets up her campsite in
8:01
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere. She gets inside, and as soon
8:03
Speaker 1: as she's laying in her tent, she starts hearing those
8:05
Speaker 1: heavy footsteps somewhere out in the woods, kind of walking
8:08
Speaker 1: around the perimeter of her campsite. She's hearing that low
8:11
Speaker 1: audible sound that she can't quite place, and at some
8:14
Speaker 1: point she falls asleep. She gets up the next morning,
8:17
Speaker 1: she jumps out of her tent, packs it up, and
8:19
Speaker 1: starts running, hopefully in the direction that will bring her
8:22
Speaker 1: to civilization. A couple days later, when Eloise was supposed
8:25
Speaker 1: to meet her friend on the trail at the seven
8:27
Speaker 1: day mark and they were going to finish the.
8:29
Speaker 2: Height together, well, Aloise doesn't show up.
8:31
Speaker 1: But after several hours when Eloise did not show up,
8:35
Speaker 1: her friend left the trail and contacted authorities and filed
8:38
Speaker 1: a missing person report, and the police would launch this
8:40
Speaker 1: massive search for Eloise along the stretch of the Appalachian
8:44
Speaker 1: Trail where she had said she would be. And for
8:46
Speaker 1: the next fourteen days, hundreds of police and volunteers and
8:50
Speaker 1: helicopters are scouring this area and there's no sign of Eloise.
8:55
Speaker 1: And so after fourteen days from the time her friend
8:58
Speaker 1: filed the missing person report, the police had to turn
9:01
Speaker 1: the search off and they say, look, we can't find her.
9:03
Speaker 1: Two days after the search was terminated. So twenty three
9:07
Speaker 1: days after Eloise had initially set off for her trek
9:10
Speaker 1: through the Appalachian.
9:11
Speaker 2: Trail, a hunter that was out in the middle of
9:13
Speaker 2: nowhere near the.
9:14
Speaker 1: Appalachian Trail discovers Eloise perched up against the trees. She's
9:18
Speaker 1: totally emaciated, she's dehydrated, she's delirious, but she's alive. At first,
9:23
Speaker 1: she was terrified of the hunter because she believed the
9:26
Speaker 1: hunter was this person that had been following her.
9:29
Speaker 2: But when she.
9:30
Speaker 1: Realized he was there at help, she went with them.
9:32
Speaker 1: She was brought back and brought to a hospital and
9:34
Speaker 1: she was checked out, and besides being dehydrated and emaciated,
9:38
Speaker 1: she was okay. And she would detail in multiple interviews
9:42
Speaker 1: and in her official statement that she had been chased
9:45
Speaker 1: for the past almost three weeks in the middle of
9:47
Speaker 1: the woods and she doesn't know who it was or
9:49
Speaker 1: why they were chasing her. And then interestingly, she said
9:52
Speaker 1: right before she was found, so a couple of days
9:55
Speaker 1: before this hunter finds her, this person, this thing, whatever
9:58
Speaker 1: it was that was following her, got so close to
10:01
Speaker 1: her a couple different times that she was so scared
10:03
Speaker 1: she ditched her backpack that contained all of her life
10:06
Speaker 1: saving equipment, like her sleeping bag and her tent, and
10:09
Speaker 1: had some food and water in there. She ditched that
10:11
Speaker 1: so she could be lighter, so she could run faster
10:14
Speaker 1: away from this thing that is chasing her in the woods.
10:17
Speaker 1: So you got to figure you got to be at
10:19
Speaker 1: such a high level of fear that you're prepared to
10:22
Speaker 1: ditch the one thing you really require to survive out
10:25
Speaker 1: in the wilderness, which was her pack full of supplies.
10:27
Speaker 1: And then after she's ditched her pack and she's run
10:30
Speaker 1: for some distance, she's got.
10:31
Speaker 2: No supplies, no food, no water.
10:33
Speaker 1: She stumbles across this tree in the middle of nowhere
10:36
Speaker 1: that wedged inside the trunk is a cachet of donuts
10:40
Speaker 1: and pound cake and so she takes the donuts and
10:42
Speaker 1: pound cake, and between that and the stream water she
10:45
Speaker 1: had found, that's what kept her alive the last few
10:47
Speaker 1: days before she was found. Eloise says she has no
10:50
Speaker 1: idea what to make of her experience, and law enforcement
10:53
Speaker 1: were baffled by it as well. Some people think Eloise
10:56
Speaker 1: had a mental break and she effectively made this whole.
10:58
Speaker 2: Situation up, that she really was lost in the woods.
11:01
Speaker 1: But no one was chasing her, and she was just
11:03
Speaker 1: kind of paranoid and running around the wilderness for a
11:05
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Other people, including park rangers that work
11:08
Speaker 1: that stretch of the Appalachian Trail, believe it's possible she
11:12
Speaker 1: could have been stalked by wild men, which are basically
11:15
Speaker 1: people that live out in the mountains that are effectively
11:17
Speaker 1: feral that live off the land, and they've been known,
11:20
Speaker 1: according to local legend, they've been known to attack park
11:23
Speaker 1: rangers and people that live out in that area have
11:26
Speaker 1: claimed to have seen these wild men, and they kind
11:28
Speaker 1: of match the description of what she was describing. But
11:31
Speaker 1: as of right now, there's no official explanation for what
11:34
Speaker 1: happened to her other than she got lost and was
11:37
Speaker 1: found again on June seventh, nineteen fifty one, two families
11:44
Speaker 1: from Santa Fe, New Mexico, met up at the Santa
11:47
Speaker 1: Fe Ski Basin to have a picnic together and to
11:49
Speaker 1: enjoy the mountain air. During the summer months when there's
11:52
Speaker 1: no snow on the ground, the Santa Fe Ski Basin
11:54
Speaker 1: is a very popular location for hikers because the terrain
11:58
Speaker 1: is very rugged and if you get up to the
12:00
Speaker 1: of the basin there's these incredible views overlooking the valley.
12:03
Speaker 2: But on this day, the.
12:04
Speaker 1: Two families decided they wanted to have a picnic at
12:06
Speaker 1: the base of the basin, basically looking up the mountain.
12:09
Speaker 1: As the parents were setting up the picnic site, the
12:11
Speaker 1: kids started playing together, and that was Larry and Janet McGee,
12:14
Speaker 1: who were brother and sister aged seven and five respectively,
12:18
Speaker 1: and Stephen Cross, who was three years old. After they
12:20
Speaker 1: finished setting up their picnic site, they look around and
12:23
Speaker 1: realize the kids are gone, and they're thinking, we just
12:25
Speaker 1: saw them like two minutes ago, so they can't have
12:27
Speaker 1: gone very far, and so they start looking around for
12:29
Speaker 1: their kids.
12:30
Speaker 2: And they can't find them.
12:31
Speaker 1: They're yelling out for them, and they're starting to get
12:33
Speaker 1: a little bit more worried, and they start branching out
12:35
Speaker 1: farther and farther, and they realized the only other place
12:37
Speaker 1: they could have gone is up into the woods, which
12:40
Speaker 1: are very steep and very rugged. So they're thinking, well,
12:43
Speaker 1: they can't have gone into the mountains. That would be
12:45
Speaker 1: impossible for these young kids to get very far, and
12:48
Speaker 1: they aren't responding to our calls.
12:49
Speaker 2: It's possible they could have been abducted.
12:51
Speaker 1: And so one of the parents ran down to the
12:54
Speaker 1: main building of the actual ski resort where they kept
12:56
Speaker 1: a staff member in there during the summer months, and
12:58
Speaker 1: they were able to get inside and use.
13:00
Speaker 2: The phone, and they called authorities.
13:02
Speaker 1: So the police come out and they set up these
13:03
Speaker 1: huge spotlights that are aimed up at the mountain, and
13:06
Speaker 1: so the idea was if the kids did get up
13:09
Speaker 1: into the mountain somehow, they would see these lights and
13:12
Speaker 1: hopefully walk down to them. After they set up the spotlights,
13:15
Speaker 1: the police began combing the side at the mountain in
13:17
Speaker 1: hopes that the kids were not abducted. But despite the
13:20
Speaker 1: spotlights and hundreds of searchers and people yelling out for
13:23
Speaker 1: these kids, they never heard back from the kids. They
13:26
Speaker 1: didn't find them, and so all night, they're looking for them,
13:28
Speaker 1: and they're realizing that there's a pretty good chance they're
13:31
Speaker 1: probably not here, and that means they probably were abducted.
13:34
Speaker 1: And so by the following afternoon, things were really starting
13:37
Speaker 1: to look grim. There was no sign of these kids anywhere.
13:40
Speaker 1: And that's when a searcher who was way outside of
13:43
Speaker 1: the primary search area.
13:45
Speaker 2: They were about three and a half miles away, thousands
13:47
Speaker 2: of feet up in elevation.
13:49
Speaker 1: They're up there and they're looking around and they're getting
13:51
Speaker 1: ready to leave when they see something out of the
13:53
Speaker 1: corner of their eye that looks like a person. They
13:56
Speaker 1: turn around and one of the kids is poking their
13:58
Speaker 1: head up from behind a log. The searchers run over
14:01
Speaker 1: to them, and sure enough, the three kids were actually
14:03
Speaker 1: inside of this downed log, and they were all okay.
14:06
Speaker 1: As the searchers are picking them up and calling this in,
14:09
Speaker 1: they're thinking to themselves, how in the world did these
14:12
Speaker 1: kids get so far away?
14:13
Speaker 2: Once the children were brought back down to the search.
14:16
Speaker 1: Headquarters and were reunited with their parents and were checked
14:18
Speaker 1: out by a doctor who said, Yep, they're a little dehydrated,
14:21
Speaker 1: but they're okay. After all that was done, the police
14:24
Speaker 1: asked them the question that everybody was thinking, how did
14:27
Speaker 1: you get where you were found?
14:29
Speaker 2: And Larry, the oldest of the group, he was seven
14:31
Speaker 2: years old.
14:32
Speaker 1: It took him a minute, but eventually he said, you know,
14:34
Speaker 1: they were playing around the picnic area and they went
14:37
Speaker 1: just barely into the tree line when all of a sudden,
14:39
Speaker 1: a bear came out from behind a tree and began
14:42
Speaker 1: chasing them, And the three of them ran three and
14:45
Speaker 1: a half miles up a mountain to find this log,
14:48
Speaker 1: which they jumped inside of. And they hid inside of
14:51
Speaker 1: this log from this bear which apparently was patrolling the
14:54
Speaker 1: area looking for them. And in addition to this bear
14:57
Speaker 1: that was apparently walking around the area looking for them,
15:00
Speaker 1: Larry said they were especially scared of the gorilla that
15:03
Speaker 1: was walking around the area looking for them as well.
15:06
Speaker 1: Now it's easy to discount Larry in the kid's story
15:09
Speaker 1: because you could say, okay, well, the gorilla they saw
15:11
Speaker 1: was actually just a searcher looking for them, Except there
15:15
Speaker 1: was no one in that area looking for the kids
15:17
Speaker 1: near that log until right before they were found. It
15:20
Speaker 1: was kind of like a last ditch effort to push outside.
15:23
Speaker 2: The boundaries of the main search area. It was just
15:25
Speaker 2: kind of a miracle.
15:26
Speaker 1: They actually located them, and Larry and the kids were
15:29
Speaker 1: saying this gorilla and this bear were looking for them
15:32
Speaker 1: on the first day and first night they were out there,
15:35
Speaker 1: so there were no searchers out there at that time.
15:37
Speaker 2: As for the bear, there have been bear.
15:39
Speaker 1: Sightings in the Santa Fe Ski Basin, although it is
15:42
Speaker 1: fairly rare. But if it was a bear that was
15:45
Speaker 1: chasing these kids, it would have caught them. A bear
15:48
Speaker 1: is not going to not be able to catch three
15:50
Speaker 1: small children running up hill. So either there wasn't a
15:53
Speaker 1: bear or it was some other animal that might have
15:57
Speaker 1: resembled a bear. But what type of an animal would
16:00
Speaker 1: chase three small children who are very vulnerable three and
16:03
Speaker 1: a half miles up a mountain, only to abandon them.
16:06
Speaker 2: But even if we say, you know what, there's no
16:08
Speaker 2: way the bear and the gorilla had anything to do
16:10
Speaker 2: with this.
16:11
Speaker 1: This is just kids who got lost and they wound
16:13
Speaker 1: up in the woods and they were found and that's it.
16:16
Speaker 2: Fine.
16:17
Speaker 1: But I have a three year old and a four
16:19
Speaker 1: year old, and I can tell you right now there's
16:21
Speaker 1: no way they could cover a three and a half
16:24
Speaker 1: mile distance uphill in really rugged mountainous terrain in a
16:28
Speaker 1: twenty four hour cycle. There's no way without help, that's
16:31
Speaker 1: not possible. I would say the only caveat to that
16:34
Speaker 1: would be if my children were fearful for their lives,
16:37
Speaker 1: in which case adrenaline would kick in and they probably
16:40
Speaker 1: could cover that distance in.
16:41
Speaker 2: A twenty four hour period.
16:43
Speaker 1: That certainly lends credibility to the idea that Larry, Janet
16:46
Speaker 1: and Steve were in fact running for their lives and
16:49
Speaker 1: they had that adrenaline kick and that's how they were
16:51
Speaker 1: able to cover that distance.
16:53
Speaker 2: But were they really running from a bear or a gorilla.
16:56
Speaker 2: We don't know.
16:56
Speaker 1: And there's been no further investigation into this case, and
17:00
Speaker 1: I think that's because the kids were found alive, the parents,
17:02
Speaker 1: the police, they're happy, and.
17:03
Speaker 2: Everybody moved on.
17:09
Speaker 1: From two thousand and two to two thousand and six,
17:11
Speaker 1: Colin Finnerty was perhaps the most successful college quarterback in history,
17:16
Speaker 1: winning three national championships and being named the Division two
17:20
Speaker 1: Player of the decade. He was also perhaps the toughest
17:23
Speaker 1: college quarterback in history. Most quarterbacks will spend their careers
17:27
Speaker 1: looking to avoid getting smashed by defenders, not Colin. Collin
17:31
Speaker 1: was six foot two two hundred and forty pounds, and
17:33
Speaker 1: he would tell his teammates that he wanted to get hit,
17:36
Speaker 1: and he would hit back, and his coaches hated it
17:38
Speaker 1: about him, but his teammates loved this about him.
17:41
Speaker 2: Colin was also famous for playing through injuries.
17:44
Speaker 1: His junior year in college, he broke his collarbone and
17:47
Speaker 1: he didn't tell anyone, and he played through an entire
17:49
Speaker 1: playoff series that he won. After college, Colin's professional football
17:53
Speaker 1: career was not nearly as successful as his amateur one.
17:57
Speaker 1: He played briefly for two NFL football teams, the vault
18:00
Speaker 1: More Ravens and the Denver Broncos. But when he wasn't
18:02
Speaker 1: getting any playing time and he just could see the
18:05
Speaker 1: writing on the wall that this was not going to
18:07
Speaker 1: be a match, he was not going to make it
18:08
Speaker 1: in the NFL, he left for Europe to play in
18:11
Speaker 1: a European football league. But when his European football career
18:14
Speaker 1: started to sputter out as well around two thousand and nine,
18:17
Speaker 1: he came back to the United States, where he joined
18:19
Speaker 1: a very small time indoor arena football league.
18:22
Speaker 2: And while Collin's love of.
18:24
Speaker 1: Football was still there as much as it ever was,
18:27
Speaker 1: he knew at this point playing at this low of
18:29
Speaker 1: a level that his career.
18:31
Speaker 2: Was effectively over.
18:32
Speaker 1: Around the same time that Colin was hanging up his
18:34
Speaker 1: football leads, he would meet Jennifer, who would become his wife.
18:37
Speaker 1: She was an All state volleyball player and in many
18:40
Speaker 1: ways was just as competitive and as athletic as Colin was.
18:43
Speaker 1: They were kind of like a perfect match for each other.
18:45
Speaker 1: They married in twenty ten, and Cullin, this big man,
18:49
Speaker 1: big time quarterback, was shaking and crying at the altar
18:52
Speaker 1: because he was so nervous and excited about marrying Jennifer,
18:56
Speaker 1: because I think this was a really big turning point
18:58
Speaker 1: for him where he was basically putting football in the
19:01
Speaker 1: past and starting this new life and building a family
19:04
Speaker 1: with Jennifer, and he was really excited about it. The
19:06
Speaker 1: newlywed couple moved into a house together in Michigan, where
19:09
Speaker 1: they had two kids, and Colin landed a good job
19:12
Speaker 1: in medical sales, and by all accounts, Colin was just.
19:14
Speaker 2: Hitting his stride post football. On Memorial Day weekend in.
19:18
Speaker 1: Twenty thirteen, Jennifer's family was planning this three day fishing
19:21
Speaker 1: trip along the Baldwin River in Michigan, and the finnerities
19:25
Speaker 1: decided they would join them, and so Culin and his
19:27
Speaker 1: wife and kids they rented a cabin that was going
19:29
Speaker 1: to be near the campsite that Jennifer's family was staying at.
19:32
Speaker 2: And for the entire weekend it was just this great fishing.
19:35
Speaker 1: Trip where everybody had a great time and the weather
19:37
Speaker 1: was beautiful. And on May twenty sixth, so the last
19:41
Speaker 1: night of this three day fishing trip, Culin, who had
19:44
Speaker 1: recently purchased this pontoon boat that they had used for
19:47
Speaker 1: this fishing trip, he wanted to just go out one
19:49
Speaker 1: more time on his boat, this boat that he was
19:52
Speaker 1: really proud of, and fish for another thirty forty five
19:55
Speaker 1: minutes before ending the weekend. So Colin put on his
19:57
Speaker 1: waiters and his jacket, he grabbed his fishing pole, and
20:00
Speaker 1: he had his family drive him to the stairs that
20:02
Speaker 1: led down to the water where his pontoon boat was.
20:05
Speaker 1: Before he walked down the steps, he turned and told
20:07
Speaker 1: his family that he'd be out for about thirty to
20:09
Speaker 1: forty five minutes and that he wanted to be picked
20:11
Speaker 1: up at the next boat ramped down the way, and
20:14
Speaker 1: that he would call when he needed a ride. Forty
20:16
Speaker 1: two minutes later, at nine to twenty seven pm, Jennifer
20:19
Speaker 1: receives a phone call from her husband, and she's expecting
20:22
Speaker 1: it to be the call where he says, okay, I'm
20:24
Speaker 1: ready to get picked up, But when she answers the phone,
20:27
Speaker 1: Colin is frantic and he's telling her that he's being
20:30
Speaker 1: followed by two men in the tree line. That he's
20:32
Speaker 1: out on the water on his pontoon, but there are
20:35
Speaker 1: two men in the tree line that he can't see,
20:37
Speaker 1: but he can hear them, and they've.
20:39
Speaker 2: Been following him for some time.
20:40
Speaker 1: And before Jennifer can even get a word out, Colin
20:43
Speaker 1: says to her that he's going to beach the boat
20:45
Speaker 1: and take his clothes off, and then he hangs up.
20:47
Speaker 1: Jennifer immediately tries calling Colin back repeatedly, but he's not
20:51
Speaker 1: picking up, and so she's left feeling totally confused about
20:54
Speaker 1: what her husband has just told her. But what stood
20:56
Speaker 1: out to her was how scared he sounded on the phone,
20:59
Speaker 1: and fear was not something she typically associated with Cullen.
21:04
Speaker 2: This beast of a man, this tough football player.
21:06
Speaker 1: He didn't get scared, So for him to be that
21:08
Speaker 1: scared sounding and to be describing people basically stalking him.
21:12
Speaker 1: She knew he was in serious trouble, so she calls
21:15
Speaker 1: nine to one one and she describes where he is
21:18
Speaker 1: in the Baldwin River, and the police take her report
21:20
Speaker 1: and say we'll send someone out right away. After Jennifer
21:22
Speaker 1: got off the phone with police, she called her family
21:25
Speaker 1: and told them about this really strange phone call from
21:27
Speaker 1: Cullin and how she had just called the police and
21:29
Speaker 1: she didn't know what to do, and so her brother
21:31
Speaker 1: tried calling Cullin and Cullen answered, and when he did,
21:34
Speaker 1: Matt said, Hey, Colin, where are you? And Cullin would say,
21:37
Speaker 1: I don't know where I am, but there's these two
21:39
Speaker 1: guys that are still following me. And Matt would say,
21:41
Speaker 1: you know, are you still on your boat?
21:42
Speaker 2: Are you on land?
21:43
Speaker 1: And all Colin said is, you know, it's getting pretty
21:46
Speaker 1: rough out here, and then he hung up. Afterwards, Matt
21:48
Speaker 1: would call Jen and he would tell her about this
21:50
Speaker 1: phone call with Cullen, and it really didn't add any
21:52
Speaker 1: clarity to the situation. And so Jen and her family
21:55
Speaker 1: decide the best thing they can do is go to
21:57
Speaker 1: the boat ramp where Colin had said he wanted to
21:59
Speaker 1: be picked up in hopes that maybe he would make
22:02
Speaker 1: his way there and they would find him. So Jennifer
22:04
Speaker 1: and her family head out to this location and Cullen's
22:07
Speaker 1: not there. They get out, they're yelling for him, there's
22:09
Speaker 1: no sign of him, and shortly after a police car
22:12
Speaker 1: would show up because this was one of the areas
22:14
Speaker 1: where Jennifer had said when he spoke to police that
22:17
Speaker 1: Cullen might be and so the police officer gets out,
22:19
Speaker 1: they take an official statement from Jennifer, and at this
22:22
Speaker 1: point they file an official.
22:23
Speaker 2: Missing person report.
22:24
Speaker 1: Before the police began looking for Culin, they reached out
22:27
Speaker 1: to his wireless service provider and they asked them to
22:30
Speaker 1: ping his.
22:30
Speaker 2: Cell phone from the tower.
22:32
Speaker 1: Any service provider has the ability to roughly triangulate the
22:35
Speaker 1: location of a cell phone based on the last few
22:38
Speaker 1: locations of the phone. The last four locations that the
22:41
Speaker 1: service provider pinged for Cullen were up to four miles
22:45
Speaker 1: apart from each other, which was bizarre in its own way,
22:48
Speaker 1: because the idea that in a very rugged, rough area,
22:51
Speaker 1: in a very short amount of time, that Culin had
22:54
Speaker 1: been moving four, five, six, seven miles just to get
22:56
Speaker 1: to these different points that didn't really make sense, but Also,
23:00
Speaker 1: when they looked at these points on a map, it
23:02
Speaker 1: looked like each of them was either near a paved road,
23:05
Speaker 1: or in order to get to them you would have
23:07
Speaker 1: had to cross a paved road. And so they're thinking
23:09
Speaker 1: to themselves, why does he keep moving point to point
23:12
Speaker 1: if at any one of these locations he's near relative safety.
23:15
Speaker 1: But as strange as these four locations were, the police
23:18
Speaker 1: now had a really solid starting point. So they dispatched
23:21
Speaker 1: people to each of these points, and they began combing
23:24
Speaker 1: along the river where he had last been seen, and
23:26
Speaker 1: within an hour they discovered his boat. It was a
23:28
Speaker 1: little ways down from where he had been dropped off.
23:30
Speaker 1: It was missing an ore, and it was basically beached
23:33
Speaker 1: on the side of the river. It wasn't clear if
23:35
Speaker 1: it had been intentionally beached, but Cullin wasn't in it,
23:38
Speaker 1: and when they searched around the area, they couldn't find
23:40
Speaker 1: any sign that Cullen.
23:41
Speaker 2: Was in the area. They were yelling for him, he
23:43
Speaker 2: wasn't yelling back.
23:44
Speaker 1: Interestingly, a man who owned property near where the pontoon
23:48
Speaker 1: boat was found reported to police hearing screaming or yelling
23:51
Speaker 1: coming from the area where the boat was found. Around
23:54
Speaker 1: the same time that Cullin went missing. But despite this
23:57
Speaker 1: piece of information, it didn't actually help them discover where
24:00
Speaker 1: and actually went.
24:01
Speaker 2: For the next forty eight.
24:02
Speaker 1: Hours, police and hundreds of people searched in the areas
24:05
Speaker 1: where his cell phone had pinged and along the river
24:07
Speaker 1: where his pontoon had been found, but there was no
24:10
Speaker 1: sign of him. Then, on the evening of May twenty eighth,
24:12
Speaker 1: approximately forty eight hours after Culin had gone missing, they
24:16
Speaker 1: discovered his body. It was located less than a half
24:18
Speaker 1: mile away from a paved road, and it was situated
24:21
Speaker 1: in between those four points that the cell phone provider
24:23
Speaker 1: had given. He was laying completely face down, with his
24:26
Speaker 1: right arm under his body and his left arm over
24:28
Speaker 1: his head clutching some grass. When they rolled him over,
24:31
Speaker 1: he had some blood coming out of his nose, but
24:33
Speaker 1: besides that, there was no significant trauma anywhere on his body.
24:36
Speaker 2: Coulin appeared to be wearing all of his clothes.
24:38
Speaker 1: However, it was noted that the strap on his waiters
24:41
Speaker 1: was really badly twisted. Now, if he had never taken
24:44
Speaker 1: his clothes off, that would.
24:45
Speaker 2: Have been something he would have fixed.
24:47
Speaker 1: It would have been very uncomfortable when he started this
24:49
Speaker 1: trip to go fishing.
24:50
Speaker 2: That would have been something he would have fixed. Now.
24:52
Speaker 1: He said to his wife on the phone that he
24:54
Speaker 1: was going to be taking his clothes off, which there
24:57
Speaker 1: was no explanation for that, but he clearly said that
24:59
Speaker 1: to his wife. He reported that to police, and so
25:02
Speaker 1: some have speculated that between that phone call and finding
25:05
Speaker 1: him with the twisted strap and his waiters, that that
25:08
Speaker 1: indicates that perhaps his clothes did come off at some
25:11
Speaker 1: point over the past couple of days and were put
25:13
Speaker 1: back on again, either by him or by someone else.
25:16
Speaker 1: His cell phone had also been found in his front pocket,
25:18
Speaker 1: indicating that those cell phone pings had been his actual location.
25:22
Speaker 2: Initially, Collin's autopsy was completely inconclusive.
25:25
Speaker 1: There was no trauma to his body, there was no
25:28
Speaker 1: obvious thing that killed him. But later on it was
25:30
Speaker 1: determined he died of pneumonia caused by inhaling his own vomit.
25:34
Speaker 1: So we don't know how you get to a place
25:36
Speaker 1: where you're inhaling your own vomit, but I would imagine
25:39
Speaker 1: you're in a pretty panicked state of mind that could
25:41
Speaker 1: happen to you. Many people believe Colin's death was the
25:43
Speaker 1: result of a traumatic brain injury, caused by all the
25:46
Speaker 1: years of playing football and getting hit in the head,
25:49
Speaker 1: and so that can lead to paranoia. And so perhaps
25:52
Speaker 1: this was a fit of paranoia. He got turned around,
25:54
Speaker 1: he got scared, he thought somebody was chasing him, and
25:57
Speaker 1: then you know, he vomits and inhales his vomit, and
26:00
Speaker 1: that ultimately kills him. And in twentyd and eleven, Colin
26:03
Speaker 1: had briefly shown signs of being a little bit paranoid
26:06
Speaker 1: when one day he thought someone was following him, and
26:09
Speaker 1: he actually went to a family member's house and said,
26:11
Speaker 1: I think someone's following me. But he could never identify
26:14
Speaker 1: where this person was or who they were. But even
26:16
Speaker 1: if this was a fit of paranoia and no one
26:19
Speaker 1: was following him in the woods, well why didn't he
26:21
Speaker 1: stop on the paved road every time he crossed it,
26:24
Speaker 1: because that would have represented safety. I mean, in twenty
26:27
Speaker 1: and eleven, when he supposedly had another fit of paranoia,
26:31
Speaker 1: his instincts were to go to a family member and
26:33
Speaker 1: to seek help. And so you would think his instincts
26:36
Speaker 1: in this situation would be similar. He would seek help,
26:38
Speaker 1: he would seek safety, but he continuously left safety. He
26:41
Speaker 1: left the road, he left his boat. His boat was safety,
26:44
Speaker 1: why did he leave his boat? And even if we
26:46
Speaker 1: turn this around and we say no, it was not
26:48
Speaker 1: a fit of paranoia, that he was in fact being
26:51
Speaker 1: followed by someone or something in the woods, well then
26:54
Speaker 1: why would that prompt him to call his wife and
26:57
Speaker 1: say I'm going to get out of the boat and
26:59
Speaker 1: take my clothes off, and then proceed to walk four, five, six,
27:02
Speaker 1: seven miles in a very short period of time, crossing
27:05
Speaker 1: over a paved road at least one or two times,
27:08
Speaker 1: and not stopping, not signaling for help.
27:11
Speaker 2: That doesn't make sense either.
27:12
Speaker 1: And what was that screaming that that resident heard coming
27:15
Speaker 1: from the area where the pontoon boat was found. Unfortunately,
27:18
Speaker 1: there are many questions in this case, and the vast
27:20
Speaker 1: majority of them will go unanswered.
27:22
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it. Guys.
27:23
Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
27:26
Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
27:28
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27:30
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27:32
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