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3 MISSING 411 Horror Stories Animated · Martin Animations

0:01
Speaker 1: Maureen Anu Kelly was born on September 26th of 1993
0:05
Speaker 1: and was raised by a single mother named Mapuana in Spokane, Washington.
0:11
Speaker 1: Following her graduation from Lewis and Clark High School, she
0:14
Speaker 1: listed her occupation on Facebook as guru at spreading the love,
0:19
Speaker 1: but told friends she aspired to become a singer-songwriter. Owing
0:24
Speaker 1: to her heritage as a Pacific Islander, Maureen's instrument of
0:27
Speaker 1: choice was the ukulele, and she often posted videos of
0:31
Speaker 1: intimate bedroom performances on the video streaming site YouTube. Maureen's half-sister,
0:37
Speaker 1: Cherry Kapu, later described her as a very laid-back, carefree girl,
0:42
Speaker 1: and mentioned how in June of 2013, 19-year-old Maureen had
0:46
Speaker 1: called her to request a favor. She called me before
0:50
Speaker 1: she left, saying she was going camping with friends and
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Speaker 1: asked if she could borrow some of my camping gear,
0:56
Speaker 1: Sherry said. She was excited about going and told me
0:59
Speaker 1: she loved me, and that was totally normal for her.
1:03
Speaker 1: She was a very affectionate person. The next day, Maureen
1:08
Speaker 1: stopped by Sherry's apartment to collect the camping gear. When
1:11
Speaker 1: Sherry asked where she was headed, Maureen replied that she
1:14
Speaker 1: and her friends planned to visit the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
1:19
Speaker 1: The reply surprised Sherry. Maureen was very much an admirer
1:24
Speaker 1: of Mother Nature, but she was not an experienced camper
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Speaker 1: She had previously expressed a desire to spend a prolonged
1:30
Speaker 1: period living outdoors, but had never been suited to the
1:34
Speaker 1: realities of wilderness living. I asked her why now, Sherry
1:39
Speaker 1: later said, and Maureen told me that she wanted to
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Speaker 1: go on a spiritual quest, and that really concerned me.
1:47
Speaker 1: As she departed, Sherry waved Maureen off after wishing her
1:50
Speaker 1: the very best of luck, but little did she know,
1:53
Speaker 1: it was the last time they'd ever see each other.
1:59
Speaker 1: Located around three hours' drive southeast of Seattle, the Gifford
2:02
Speaker 1: Pinchot National Forest extends more than 70 miles along the
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Speaker 1: western slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range, from Mount Rainier
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Speaker 1: in the west to the Columbia River in the east.
2:14
Speaker 1: The forest consists of broad, old-growth woodland and high mountain meadows,
2:19
Speaker 1: along with several glaciers and numerous volcanic peaks. The forest
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Speaker 1: also features the Canyon Creek Campground. a small, lightly used
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Speaker 1: camp tucked in the forest adjacent to the eponymous body
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Speaker 1: of water. Eight campsites are available for tent camping only
2:35
Speaker 1: and come complete with a small dining table and a
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Speaker 1: fire ring for warmth and cooking. To get there, Maureen
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Speaker 1: and her friends drove out to Chilachi near Highway 503
2:46
Speaker 1: on June 9th of 2013. From there, they traveled east
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Speaker 1: on Road 54 then turned down a series of small
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Speaker 1: back roads until they reached Canyon Creek, They found the campsite,
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Speaker 1: along with the trail that led to it, completely unmaintained,
3:02
Speaker 1: but Maureen's companions were experienced campers and set about making
3:06
Speaker 1: the area much more comfortable for themselves. The group set
3:10
Speaker 1: about clearing away all the fallen pine needles from the
3:13
Speaker 1: camp stove and table, then, after setting up their tents
3:16
Speaker 1: for the evening, they enjoyed a small campfire dinner. Yet
3:21
Speaker 1: following their meal, the group noticed that Maureen's behavior took
3:25
Speaker 1: a turn for the bizarre. Her fellow campers were well
3:29
Speaker 1: aware of her desire to embark on some kind of
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Speaker 1: spiritual journey, but had no idea what that entailed. So
3:36
Speaker 1: when Maureen approached her tent and began to strip, completely naked,
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Speaker 1: her companions were nothing short of flabbergasted. By the time
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Speaker 1: she was ready to begin her spiritual journey, Maureen was
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Speaker 1: barefoot and wearing nothing but a small fanny pack containing
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Speaker 1: a knife, some matches, and a compass. Her friends advised
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Speaker 1: her against heading out into the woods in such a
4:00
Speaker 1: state of undress, but the nineteen-year-old insisted. She reassured her
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Speaker 1: companions that she wouldn't walk too far, and would be
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Speaker 1: back by midnight at the very least, as well as
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Speaker 1: insisting that her state of undress was essential to the
4:14
Speaker 1: completion of the aforementioned journey. And so, with trepidation, Maureen's
4:20
Speaker 1: friends watched her disappear among the trees, and never to
4:25
Speaker 1: be seen again. When midnight came and went, and Maureen
4:29
Speaker 1: failed to reappear, her friends began to panic. They fanned
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Speaker 1: out into the darkness of the woods, flashlights in hand,
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Speaker 1: and called out to their missing companion, but there was
4:39
Speaker 1: no reply to be heard. Unable to rest while Maureen
4:43
Speaker 1: remained unaccounted for, her friends contacted the local sheriff's department
4:47
Speaker 1: to report her missing. Around an hour later, the first
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Speaker 1: deputies arrived at the campground to begin their investigations. Skamania
4:56
Speaker 1: County Undersheriff Dave Cox later recalled this interaction with unease.
5:02
Speaker 1: Maureen's friends told us that she talked about doing this
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Speaker 1: spiritual quest thing for quite some time, he said. Apparently,
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Speaker 1: she felt it was something she needed to do. Cox
5:13
Speaker 1: said his deputies told the teenagers to be brutally honest
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Speaker 1: with them before asking if Maureen had been under the
5:18
Speaker 1: influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of her disappearance.
5:22
Speaker 1: Each vehemently denied any kind of drug or alcohol use,
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Speaker 1: and according to Dave Cox, their position seemed more than plausible.
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Speaker 1: They could have quite easily tidied up the campsite prior
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Speaker 1: to the deputies' appearance, but upon their arrival, the teenagers
5:38
Speaker 1: seemed alert and focused, with deputies observing no evidence of
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Speaker 1: drug or alcohol consumption at the campsite. Within just a
5:46
Speaker 1: few short hours... Under Sheriff Cox was helping orchestrate one
5:50
Speaker 1: of the largest search-and-rescue efforts Skamania County had ever seen.
5:54
Speaker 1: But right away, the prognosis was grim. The area that
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Speaker 1: Maureen had ventured into, almost completely nude, with nightfall rapidly approaching,
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Speaker 1: is one of the steepest and most hazardous in the
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Speaker 1: entire region. Sharon Ward, a representative of the Pacific Crest
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Speaker 1: Search Dogs Association, personally participated in the search-and-rescue effort. The
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Speaker 1: area Maureen walked off into is amazingly steep. It's called
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Speaker 1: Canyon Creek for a reason, Sharon said. How she got
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Speaker 1: down there is a mystery, but then climbing up again
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Speaker 1: in her bare feet, that had to be tough going.
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Speaker 1: It's a remote area, lots of timber and brush, so
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Speaker 1: her feet would have been cut up by the time
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Speaker 1: she made it up to the other side. And she
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Speaker 1: did make it up there, we're in no doubt of that.
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Speaker 1: A total of 75 professional and volunteer rescue workers combed
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Speaker 1: the woods around Canyon Creek for five whole days. They
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Speaker 1: did so in shifts, employing a multitude of search and
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Speaker 1: rescue techniques over an area of four square miles. But
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Speaker 1: by far the most effective asset at the disposal was
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Speaker 1: the team of dedicated tracker dogs. After honing in on
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Speaker 1: marine scent, the dogs traversed the entirety of Canyon Creek.
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Speaker 1: then headed north into the woods towards a pathway known
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Speaker 1: as Forest Road No. 54. Expert trackers followed close behind
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Speaker 1: and quickly detected a series of human footprints in the
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Speaker 1: soft dirt. Investigators were in no doubt that these belonged
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Speaker 1: to Marine, but after following them north towards the service road,
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Speaker 1: the footprints suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. Investigators then looked to
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Speaker 1: the tracker dogs to continue marking out the trail. but
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Speaker 1: they simply wandered among the trees for a while before
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Speaker 1: returning to follow the scent trail in reverse. For those present,
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Speaker 1: they must have made for an extremely chilling moment. For
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Speaker 1: all intent and purpose, they were standing in the place
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Speaker 1: where Maureen Kelly had simply ceased to exist. It was
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Speaker 1: a truly baffling turn of events, but the search teams
8:00
Speaker 1: followed standard operating procedure and spent the next four days
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Speaker 1: using Maureen's last known location as the focal point for
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Speaker 1: their operations. Rescue workers combed the area around Road No. 54,
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Speaker 1: carefully searching for any new tracks or scent trails, but
8:17
Speaker 1: as the days went by, the weather grew worse and worse.
8:22
Speaker 1: Thick cloud cover prevented helicopter teams from circling the area,
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Speaker 1: while heavy rain impeded the ground team's ability to conduct
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Speaker 1: a proper search. A person could literally walk right on
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Speaker 1: top of somebody and never know it, one volunteer later said. Then,
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Speaker 1: if they were rolled over a log or something, forget
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Speaker 1: about it. We'd have to dig up the whole forest
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Speaker 1: to find them. By June 15th, just less than a
8:48
Speaker 1: week after she'd initially disappeared, Maureen's loved ones began to
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Speaker 1: consider the possibility that the search teams were no longer
8:55
Speaker 1: looking for a live person. Despite the weather on the
8:59
Speaker 1: day of her disappearance being relatively mild, nighttime temperatures would
9:03
Speaker 1: have quite possibly dipped into the 40s. Then, coupled with
9:07
Speaker 1: some light rain, Maureen could have found herself developing hypothermia
9:11
Speaker 1: at an alarming and unexpected rate. This theory became increasingly
9:15
Speaker 1: popular following the rescue effort's conclusion, which came at 6 p.m.
9:20
Speaker 1: on June 15th of 2013. Skamania County Sheriff personally promised
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Speaker 1: Maureen's mother that the investigation would continue and that no
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Speaker 1: matter how tragic her daughter's end, her remains would be
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Speaker 1: brought home. Professionals and volunteers alike continued the search area
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Speaker 1: surrounding Service Road 54, albeit on a much slower and
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Speaker 1: ad hoc basis. But as the months went by, something
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Speaker 1: very chilling became evident. Given that the prevailing theory was
9:53
Speaker 1: that Maureen had fallen victim to the elements, it stood
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Speaker 1: reason that it was only a matter of time before
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Speaker 1: her body, or what remained of it was recovered yet
10:02
Speaker 1: time after time both professional and amateur search teams headed
10:06
Speaker 1: out into the woods and came back empty handed some
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Speaker 1: posited that Maureen's remains had been set upon by hungry
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Speaker 1: scavengers and that they could now be spread out over
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Speaker 1: a much wider area But if that were the case,
10:22
Speaker 1: surely one of the many search and rescue teams would
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Speaker 1: have reported such a discovery. Not even an animal bone
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Speaker 1: was isolated and analyzed as possibly belonging to Maureen, which
10:32
Speaker 1: leads us to believe that her fate may well have
10:35
Speaker 1: been very different from those suggested by search and rescue experts.
10:40
Speaker 1: Last June marked the ten-year anniversary of Maureen's mysterious disappearance,
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Speaker 1: and as frustrating as it is, an entire decade has
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Speaker 1: brought us no closer to understanding what truly happened to her.
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Speaker 1: Yet perhaps the best insight into her ultimate fate can
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Speaker 1: be found in a Facebook status that she posted on
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Speaker 1: June 6th of 2013, just three days before she wandered
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Speaker 1: off into the woods with not a stitch of clothing
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Speaker 1: on her. Happiness, she wrote, is something that cannot be found.
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Speaker 1: Born on September 2, 1965, Andy Puglisi grew up in
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Speaker 1: the small city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. By the time he
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Speaker 1: was ten years old, Andy resided with his mother and
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Speaker 1: stepfather at the Stadium Housing Projects in South Lawrence, named
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Speaker 1: so because it lies in the shadow of the city's
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Speaker 1: Veterans Memorial Stadium. Residents remember the housing project as a
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Speaker 1: fine place to grow up. A short walk from the
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Speaker 1: Sean Sheen Ballpark and Stadium Plaza Shopping Center There was
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Speaker 1: plenty for little Andy to occupy himself with when he
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Speaker 1: wasn't at school. But perhaps his favorite place to hang
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Speaker 1: out was the public swimming pool, just across the street
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Speaker 1: from his apartment building. Around noon on August 22, 1976,
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Speaker 1: Andy was paddling around the pool with a friend named
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Speaker 1: Melanie Perkins. Then, just after 2 p.m., Melanie began to
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Speaker 1: feel hungry. She told Andy that she would be heading
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Speaker 1: home to get some lunch, but Despite her family's apartment
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Speaker 1: being less than 200 yards away, she professed a fear
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Speaker 1: of walking home. In the end, Melanie convinced her older
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Speaker 1: brother to walk her home, and she did not return
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Speaker 1: to the pool that day. Around 5.45 p.m., around 15
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Speaker 1: minutes before Andy was due home for dinner, the pool's
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Speaker 1: lifeguard spotted him wandering around the water's edge. However, when
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Speaker 1: 6 p.m. came and went and Andy hadn't returned home
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Speaker 1: for dinner, his parents went looking for him. They arrived
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Speaker 1: at the pool just minutes later, but little Andy was
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Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. They rushed to contact the police,
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Speaker 1: but initial theories placed Andy as a runaway. Being a
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Speaker 1: child of divorce, the police considered the possibility that he
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Speaker 1: had run off to find his father. However, when they
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Speaker 1: contacted the man, he had no knowledge of his son's location.
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Speaker 1: The next day, a team of police officers, civilian volunteers,
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Speaker 1: National Guardsmen, and off-duty Special Forces soldiers scoured the surrounding
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Speaker 1: neighborhood equipped with sniffer dogs and portable CB radios. The
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Speaker 1: search was then expanded to the city dump, while specially
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Speaker 1: trained divers dredged the bottom of the nearby Shashin River.
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Speaker 1: But perhaps the area of the most interest to search
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Speaker 1: teams was the wooded area adjacent to the public swimming pool.
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Speaker 1: Some theorized that the woods would provide cover for anyone
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Speaker 1: who wished to prey on the swimming children. It would
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Speaker 1: also serve as a concealed passageway to the nearby Blue
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Speaker 1: Star Memorial Highway, Additionally, there is a much larger wooded
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Speaker 1: area across the highway, which extends all the way to
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Speaker 1: the residential areas of neighboring North Andover. These wooded areas
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Speaker 1: were extensively covered by sniffer dogs and off-duty green berets,
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Speaker 1: but there were no signs of any struggle or scent trails. However,
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Speaker 1: as one of the green berets pointed out, if Andy
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Speaker 1: had been abducted right after getting out of the swimming pool,
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Speaker 1: there was very little chance the sniffer dogs would be
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Speaker 1: able to pick up his trail. Either he had been
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Speaker 1: snatched up by an intelligent, predatory, and extremely dangerous individual,
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Speaker 1: or something much more terrifying and inexplicable had occurred. Just
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Speaker 1: six days after Andy was declared missing, law enforcement scaled
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Speaker 1: down the search, and Andy's family was forced to face
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Speaker 1: the heart-wrenching reality that he might never return alive. A
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Speaker 1: week later, a man by the name of Wayne Chapman
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Speaker 1: was arrested in Waterloo, New York, on suspicion of impersonating
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Speaker 1: a police officer. Inside his van, law enforcement discovered indecent
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Speaker 1: images of children, maps of wooded areas, duct tape, high-end
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Speaker 1: camera equipment, and a single blood-stained child's sock. When confronted
15:01
Speaker 1: with the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, Chapman confessed to
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Speaker 1: violating two young boys with both assaults occurring in Andy
15:08
Speaker 1: Puglisi's hometown, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Yet despite being considered a prime suspect,
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Speaker 1: Chapman was never arrested or charged in relation to Andy's disappearance.
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Speaker 1: And that's because, despite the mountain of forensic evidence, there
15:22
Speaker 1: was nothing that directly linked him to Andy's case. And
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Speaker 1: this is where the theories get weird. In 1998, Andy's
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Speaker 1: old friend Melanie Perkins rounded off seven years of hard
15:33
Speaker 1: work by releasing the documentary film Have You Seen Andy?
15:37
Speaker 1: The feature-length documentary explores the events of that faithful August
15:41
Speaker 1: afternoon and reexamines facts surrounding Andy's disappearance. It is a
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Speaker 1: thoroughly well-researched film, and in the process of creating it,
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Speaker 1: Melanie discovered something truly shocking. According to the case files,
15:54
Speaker 1: police have estimated that there were at least five known
15:57
Speaker 1: predators in the vicinity of the public pool on that
16:00
Speaker 1: day Andy vanished, one of whom stalked a school bus
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Speaker 1: full of children with the intention of snatching one. But
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Speaker 1: perhaps the most mysterious and chilling of all the film's
16:10
Speaker 1: testimonies comes from two local men named Alan and Tony,
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Speaker 1: who were children during the late summer of 1976. Around
16:19
Speaker 1: a year or two after the events of that late
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Speaker 1: August afternoon, Alan and Tony were walking through the woods
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Speaker 1: behind the same public pool from which Andy disappeared when
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Speaker 1: they made a startling discovery. Set into the forest floor,
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Speaker 1: maybe fifty feet away from the public path, was a large,
16:35
Speaker 1: perfectly rectangular hole in the earth. It had flat sides
16:39
Speaker 1: and a flat base, the men claimed, almost as if
16:42
Speaker 1: something large had been removed from it, like a chest
16:45
Speaker 1: or coffin. When they returned two days later... The hole
16:49
Speaker 1: had been filled in again, and so effectively that it
16:51
Speaker 1: was almost impossible to discern its original location. Neither believed
16:56
Speaker 1: it was connected to the Andy Puglisi case, but when
16:59
Speaker 1: they heard about the documentary, they decided to finally break
17:02
Speaker 1: their silence. In the documentary, Melanie mentions how she once
17:07
Speaker 1: heard rumors of a forensic dig site in the woods
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Speaker 1: behind the public pool, and believes that this is what
17:12
Speaker 1: the two men had encountered. Alan and Tony disagree. The
17:16
Speaker 1: men claimed that the deep pit appeared to be perfectly
17:18
Speaker 1: cut out of the earth, as if by a giant
17:21
Speaker 1: cookie cutter. There was no police tape, no shovels or picks,
17:25
Speaker 1: and no attending police officers to warn them away from
17:28
Speaker 1: an active crime scene. But most importantly, there were no
17:31
Speaker 1: piles of displaced earth surrounding the hole. The boys walked
17:36
Speaker 1: in the area often and dismiss any idea that they
17:39
Speaker 1: missed or simply didn't remember any law enforcement involvement. To them,
17:44
Speaker 1: the hole was there one day, then gone the next,
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Speaker 1: and they've never been able to properly explain it. Those
17:50
Speaker 1: more practically minded tend to lean on Wayne Chapman as
17:53
Speaker 1: their number one suspect, or tend to have some other
17:56
Speaker 1: more rational explanation. But the mysterious hole in the ground
18:00
Speaker 1: has become a point of fascination for the more preternaturally inclined.
18:06
Speaker 1: Andy's case has since attracted the attention of readers of
18:09
Speaker 1: David Politis' Missing 411 series. The books detail a number
18:13
Speaker 1: of unsolved missing person cases, but these cases tend to
18:17
Speaker 1: fall within a certain category. The subjects are often children
18:21
Speaker 1: and tend to mysteriously disappear around forests, mountains, or bodies
18:25
Speaker 1: of water. But what makes a missing 411 case so
18:28
Speaker 1: unique is the potential for supernatural involvement. So many roll
18:33
Speaker 1: their eyes at the sound of the word, but in
18:35
Speaker 1: this case, supernatural might not necessarily refer to Bigfoot or UFOs,
18:40
Speaker 1: but rather some other more tangible yet unexplainable phenomena. Over
18:45
Speaker 1: the past hundred years, our understanding of the physical space
18:48
Speaker 1: that we occupy has changed dramatically. From the pioneers of
18:52
Speaker 1: nuclear physics to continually evolving laser technology, even our closest
18:57
Speaker 1: ancestors would be floored at the advancements we've made. So,
19:02
Speaker 1: in another hundred years, perhaps scientists will be able to
19:05
Speaker 1: explain how a quarter ton of dirt could just disappear
19:09
Speaker 1: and then reappear a few days later, or why a
19:12
Speaker 1: little boy might be with us one moment, and gone
19:16
Speaker 1: the next. Derek James Engbritson was born on July 5th
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Speaker 1: of 1990 in the small city of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
19:34
Speaker 1: He was an intelligent but shy young man with a
19:37
Speaker 1: love of the outdoors, and he had brown hair, dark eyes,
19:41
Speaker 1: and a bright smile. On December 5th of 1998, Eight-year-old
19:45
Speaker 1: Derek agreed to accompany his father and grandfather to Pelican Butte,
19:49
Speaker 1: near Rocky Point, Oregon. The trio planned to look for
19:53
Speaker 1: a suitable-looking Christmas tree that they could cut down and
19:56
Speaker 1: transport back to their home. It was an annual tradition
19:59
Speaker 1: for the men of the family, and Derek was vocally
20:02
Speaker 1: excited to be the one to pick out the family
20:04
Speaker 1: Christmas tree. The trio drove out to the Butte, parked
20:08
Speaker 1: their truck, and then wandered through the snowy forest, dodging
20:11
Speaker 1: Derek's snowballs as they went. Finally, they came across a
20:16
Speaker 1: suitably sized tree, and after making sure that it met
20:19
Speaker 1: Derek's approval, his father and grandfather began chopping it down.
20:23
Speaker 1: It was a scene not unlike one found on a
20:25
Speaker 1: Christmas card, but unbeknownst to the Engbritsons, it was a
20:29
Speaker 1: day that would end in a living nightmare. While Derek's
20:34
Speaker 1: father and grandfather worked on cutting down the tree that
20:37
Speaker 1: he had selected, They momentarily took their eyes off of him.
20:41
Speaker 1: They stopped watching him for no more than two or
20:43
Speaker 1: three minutes, but when they turned around again, little Derek
20:48
Speaker 1: was gone. Knowing that he couldn't have gotten too far
20:52
Speaker 1: on foot, Derek's father rushed around the forest, searching for
20:55
Speaker 1: tracks and calling out the boy's name. But bizarrely, he
20:59
Speaker 1: was nowhere to be found. And suddenly Derek's father was
21:02
Speaker 1: hit with a terrifying realization. To have disappeared so suddenly
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Speaker 1: and completely... Someone or something must have taken his boy.
21:12
Speaker 1: Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, Derek's father and
21:16
Speaker 1: grandfather rushed back to their truck and sped off in
21:18
Speaker 1: the direction of the nearest phone. Then, at exactly 4.13 p.m.,
21:23
Speaker 1: Derek Engbritsen officially became a missing person. Despite the impending
21:29
Speaker 1: loss of daylight, the Klamath County Sheriff's Department commenced their
21:33
Speaker 1: search effort immediately. They flooded the area around Pelican Butte
21:38
Speaker 1: with deputies and tracker hounds, and at first, their hopes
21:41
Speaker 1: were high. Derek's parents told the police how their son
21:44
Speaker 1: had grown up in the mountains, and that he had
21:47
Speaker 1: been taught a handful of cold-weather survival techniques. What's more,
21:51
Speaker 1: Derek's father mentioned that at the time of his disappearance,
21:54
Speaker 1: his son had been in possession of a small hatchet,
21:57
Speaker 1: meaning that despite being just eight years old, he had
22:00
Speaker 1: a much better chance of fending for himself than other
22:02
Speaker 1: children his age. As the police continued their search, Evidence
22:06
Speaker 1: of his education was obvious. Towards dawn, deputies discovered a
22:11
Speaker 1: small rudimentary shelter made of fur bows and fallen logs. Nearby,
22:16
Speaker 1: they found a trail of small boot prints in the snow,
22:19
Speaker 1: and after following them, deputies found that the prints looped
22:22
Speaker 1: around from the location where Derek's father had last seen
22:25
Speaker 1: him to a small woodland clearing near a highway. However,
22:30
Speaker 1: what they found there, given the circumstances, was truly bizarre.
22:34
Speaker 1: It was a snow angel, and as you might imagine,
22:38
Speaker 1: it raised a lot of questions. Since these were the
22:41
Speaker 1: only tracks found in the area, it stood to reason
22:43
Speaker 1: that they belonged to Derek, but it made no sense
22:46
Speaker 1: why he would suddenly stop to make a snow angel.
22:49
Speaker 1: There was no way he could have covered that amount
22:51
Speaker 1: of ground in the period of time his father had
22:53
Speaker 1: stopped paying attention to him, and a lost and panicked
22:57
Speaker 1: child would not be in the mood to play around
22:59
Speaker 1: in the snow. Suggestions that the snow angel was evidence
23:03
Speaker 1: of a physical struggle were dismissed because it was too
23:06
Speaker 1: well-formed to be anything but deliberate. Police then tried to
23:09
Speaker 1: continue following the small boot prints, but a sudden blizzard
23:13
Speaker 1: made their efforts extremely difficult. Once the blizzard had subsided,
23:18
Speaker 1: the search resumed. Additional sniffer dogs were dispatched to Pelican Butte,
23:22
Speaker 1: and a number of Civil Air Patrol planes joined search-and-rescue
23:25
Speaker 1: helicopters in scanning the area from the skies. Unfortunately, not
23:30
Speaker 1: a single trace of Derek could be found, and just
23:33
Speaker 1: eight days later, The search was called off. Derek's family
23:37
Speaker 1: continued their investigation independently of law enforcement for quite some time,
23:41
Speaker 1: but came up with nothing. They were later joined by
23:45
Speaker 1: hundreds of civilian volunteers from all over North America, but
23:49
Speaker 1: once again, no progress was made. Then one day, a
23:53
Speaker 1: member of the public approached the police with some alarming information.
23:57
Speaker 1: On the day of the disappearance, they claimed to have
23:59
Speaker 1: witnessed a man struggling with a Additional reports were made
24:05
Speaker 1: of an unidentified man driving a two-door Honda who had
24:09
Speaker 1: been asking passerby for directions to the woods. The police
24:13
Speaker 1: made efforts to track the man down, but were unsuccessful.
24:17
Speaker 1: Less than a year later, on September 24, 1999, Oregon's
24:22
Speaker 1: Harney County Sheriff's Department received a call from a horrified
24:25
Speaker 1: member of the public. They had discovered some graffiti in
24:28
Speaker 1: the bathroom of the Sage Hen Rest Area, over 200
24:31
Speaker 1: miles away from Pelican Butte, and it referenced Derek's abduction.
24:37
Speaker 1: Upon being informed of what the graffiti said, Derek's mother
24:41
Speaker 1: told the media, I think it's just a big sick joke.
24:44
Speaker 1: If someone took Derek, if they put this on the wall,
24:47
Speaker 1: they were wanting to be caught. If they were wanting
24:50
Speaker 1: to be caught, why didn't they leave something of Derek's there?
24:54
Speaker 1: Many have speculated on exactly what was written on that wall,
24:56
Speaker 1: but to this day, it has never been made public.
25:00
Speaker 1: This is probably to honor a personal request made by
25:02
Speaker 1: Derek's family as If they did indeed believe it was
25:05
Speaker 1: nothing but a sick joke, it would serve no purpose
25:08
Speaker 1: to broadcast it. However, based on what Derek's mother said,
25:13
Speaker 1: it's not difficult to infer what was written. Someone claimed
25:17
Speaker 1: to have taken the boy, and they most probably claimed
25:19
Speaker 1: to have kept him alive or at least kept his
25:22
Speaker 1: body as some kind of sick trophy. The implication that
25:25
Speaker 1: they could have left something of Derek's at the truck
25:27
Speaker 1: stop strongly implies that they were in possession of some
25:31
Speaker 1: of his personal effects. In 2008, police confirmed that a
25:35
Speaker 1: man named Frank James Milligan was considered a potential suspect
25:39
Speaker 1: in Derek's disappearance. At the time, he was serving a
25:43
Speaker 1: hefty sentence for violating a 10-year-old in a town just
25:46
Speaker 1: outside of Salem, Oregon, and the modus operandi seemed identical
25:50
Speaker 1: to the one used in Derek's disappearance. But to date,
25:54
Speaker 1: Milligan has yet to be charged in connection with Derek's case,
25:57
Speaker 1: and an eventual conviction seems less and less possible. But
26:02
Speaker 1: to have snatched Derek out from right under his father's nose,
26:05
Speaker 1: Milligan would have had to have stalked the family through
26:08
Speaker 1: the woods and then creep out without making a sound,
26:11
Speaker 1: impossible given the thick snow on the ground. If they
26:15
Speaker 1: were using chainsaws to chop down their Christmas tree, then
26:18
Speaker 1: it would be feasible that Derek's father didn't hear his cries.
26:21
Speaker 1: But the two men were using one axe between them,
26:24
Speaker 1: which is hardly capable of making enough noise to cover
26:27
Speaker 1: a child's abductions. But if Frank Milligan isn't to blame
26:31
Speaker 1: for Derek's disappearance, who is? The truth of what happened
26:35
Speaker 1: to Derek that day has remained a mystery for a
26:38
Speaker 1: quarter century now, and his case is unlikely to be
26:41
Speaker 1: solved any time soon. But the question still stands. Did
26:45
Speaker 1: Derek fall victim to a very despicable but explicable form
26:49
Speaker 1: of predator, be it animal or man? Or did something
26:53
Speaker 1: else happen out there in the woods that day, something
26:56
Speaker 1: we're not quite ready to believe yet?