Latest / Crime and Horror / Top 3 IMPOSSIBLE places people were found Missing 411 (Part 18)

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Top 3 IMPOSSIBLE places people were found Missing 411 (Part 18) · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Every year, hundreds of people go missing under baffling conditions
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Speaker 1: in the woods of North America. I'm talking about people
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Speaker 1: that are right in front of someone and then in
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Speaker 1: an instant, they're just gone and they're never found again,
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Speaker 1: or in some cases, they are found again, but they're
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Speaker 1: in places that are impossible to access. One former police
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Speaker 1: detective named David Plaitis has investigated thousands of these strange disappearances,
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Speaker 1: and he documents what he finds in his incredible book
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Speaker 1: series called Missing four one one. Today we're going to
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Speaker 1: look at three of his strangest Missing four one one cases.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of these strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: then you've come to the right channel, because that's all
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into
1:03
Speaker 1: today's stories. On May twenty first, nineteen forty one, Betty
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Speaker 1: Albright and her three year old son Eldridge, traveled to
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Speaker 1: her mother's house in rural Woodstock, Maryland. Betty had asked
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Speaker 1: her mother if she would look after her son for
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Speaker 1: the afternoon so Betty could catch up on some much
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Speaker 1: needed sleep. They arrived at Betty's mother's house at about
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Speaker 1: one thirty and right away Betty went inside, handed her
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Speaker 1: son to her mom and went upstairs to take a nap.
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Speaker 1: As for Eldridge and his grandmother, they went out in
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Speaker 1: the backyard to play. Now, Eldridge loved going to his
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Speaker 1: granny's house because she had this enormous backyard for him
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Speaker 1: to play in. If you were standing on her back
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Speaker 1: porch looking out, it would be two hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: meters of just open grass for him to run around in.
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Speaker 1: And it butted up against this huge forest. And in
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Speaker 1: the middle of her property, looking straight out at the forest,
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Speaker 1: there were there is this three meter gap in the
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Speaker 1: trees that if you walked through it, it would bring
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Speaker 1: you down to this creek bed that was seasonal and
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Speaker 1: there was very rarely any water running through it. From
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Speaker 1: the porch, anyone that was standing in this creek bed
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Speaker 1: you could clearly see. And so Eldridge was allowed to
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Speaker 1: play in the creek bed so long as he didn't
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Speaker 1: go right or left in the creek, which would put
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Speaker 1: him out of view from anybody on the porch. And
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Speaker 1: so this particular day, when eldridg and his grandmother went outside,
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Speaker 1: Eldridge wanted to go play in the creek bed, so
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Speaker 1: he immediately starts running across the yard towards it, along
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Speaker 1: with his grandmother's three dogs. As for his grandmother, she
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Speaker 1: just didn't have it in or two go all the
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Speaker 1: way down to the creek bed, so she decided she
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Speaker 1: would just sit on the porch and read a book
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Speaker 1: and keep her eye on Eldridge. She remembers watching her
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Speaker 1: grandson go all the way across the yard, get to
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Speaker 1: the break in the trees, and then step down into
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Speaker 1: the creek bed, where he began goofing around with the
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Speaker 1: dogs and throwing rocks and having a good time, clearly
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Speaker 1: in view. And for the next five ten minutes she
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Speaker 1: just stared directly at her grandson and the dogs, and
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Speaker 1: at some point, she picked up the book next to her,
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Speaker 1: and she began reading the book and then periodically looking
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Speaker 1: up to check on her grandson, and then back down
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Speaker 1: to the book. At about two pm, she was looking
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Speaker 1: down at her book when she heard her grandson yell
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Speaker 1: out for help. Now, three year olds yell out for
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Speaker 1: help all the time. Sometimes it's a big deal, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes it's not such a big deal. But oftentimes the
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Speaker 1: sound of their voice gives away how serious it is.
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Speaker 1: No matter what they say, it's like their tone gives
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Speaker 1: away should I take this seriously? Or is this just
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Speaker 1: a kid being a three year old? And she would
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Speaker 1: say that the way he was yelling sounded like a
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Speaker 1: real emergency when she poked her head up, even though
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Speaker 1: she had seen him, you know, less than a minute ago,
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Speaker 1: playing in the gap in the trees. Now she's looking
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Speaker 1: and he and the dogs are gone, and so of
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Speaker 1: course she's alarmed. She hops out of her seat, She
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Speaker 1: goes down the steps, and she starts walking across the
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Speaker 1: yard towards Eldridge, and she's yelling his name, and she's
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Speaker 1: walking quickly. When she got about halfway across the yard,
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Speaker 1: she heard Eldridge yell out again, except this time, his
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Speaker 1: voice was coming from way off in the forest, way
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Speaker 1: farther away from the last time he had yelled out.
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Speaker 1: Gave the impression to her that he had moved a
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Speaker 1: great distance from the last time he yelled to her,
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Speaker 1: and it triggered something inside of her that was telling
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Speaker 1: her something is terribly wrong, and she began running towards
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Speaker 1: the creek bed. Still no sign of the dogs. She
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Speaker 1: can't see anything. She just running towards the creek bed.
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Speaker 1: When she gets about ten meters from the break in
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Speaker 1: the trees, she hears her grandson yell out for a
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Speaker 1: third time, barely audible, way off in the forest. He
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Speaker 1: yells out for help, and as he's yelling, it sounds
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Speaker 1: like someone has stifled him and covered his mouth mid yell.
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Speaker 1: So she runs through the break in the trees down
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Speaker 1: to the creek bed where she stops and she looks
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Speaker 1: out in front of her and it's just dense forest
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Speaker 1: and there's no eldridge, there's no dogs, there's nothing. She
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Speaker 1: looks to her right down the creek bed and there's
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Speaker 1: nothing down there. And then she looks to her left
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Speaker 1: and one of her dogs is in the creek bed,
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Speaker 1: maybe ten meter facing away from her, and the dog
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Speaker 1: is positioned in such a way that it's clearly looking
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Speaker 1: at something, and so she runs down to the dog,
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Speaker 1: thinking she's gonna see maybe Eldridge or the other dogs,
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Speaker 1: but there's nothing beyond the dog. The dog is just
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Speaker 1: rooted to the spot. Its hair is raised, it's growling,
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Speaker 1: and it's taking little steps back like it's been spooked
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Speaker 1: at whatever it's seen or whatever it's looking at. And
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Speaker 1: she just looked up and tried to look in the
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Speaker 1: direction the dog was looking, but there was nothing. It
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Speaker 1: was just forest. And so at this point she felt
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Speaker 1: certain that someone must have abducted Eldridge, and so she turns.
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Speaker 1: She tries to pull the dog to come with her,
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Speaker 1: but the dog's not budging, and so she runs back
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Speaker 1: to the house to wake up Eldridge's mother. The two
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Speaker 1: of them come back down to the creek bed. The
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Speaker 1: dog is still in the same position, growling and staring
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Speaker 1: in the same direction, as if whatever it's looking at
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Speaker 1: hasn't gone anywhere, and they look for a couple more minutes.
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Speaker 1: They're yelling for Eldridge and the grandmother is telling her daughter, look,
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Speaker 1: I think he's been abducted. We've got to call the authorities.
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Speaker 1: And finally she relents, and so they do manage to
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Speaker 1: get the dog. They run back to the house and
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Speaker 1: they call the police. Shortly thereafter, the state police showed
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Speaker 1: up with this huge contingent of searchers and they immediately
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Speaker 1: went down to the creek bed where they started pushing
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Speaker 1: predominantly to the left side, which is where the dog
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Speaker 1: was angled, and it was also where the grandmother had
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Speaker 1: heard her grandson yelling from, and very quickly police discovered
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Speaker 1: some of Eldridge's footprints about fifty meters down on the
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Speaker 1: left side of the creek bed. They were in some
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Speaker 1: sand right at the edge, and they were walking away
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Speaker 1: as if he was leaving the area he had been
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Speaker 1: told to stay in, which was in that gap in
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Speaker 1: the trees. But interestingly, the footprints it looked like he
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Speaker 1: had been walking from maybe twenty or thirty meters when
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Speaker 1: inexplicably the prince just stopped, as if he stopped in
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Speaker 1: the sand where he was. But had he gone right, left, straight,
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Speaker 1: turned around, had he gone in any direction, there would
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Speaker 1: have been additional prints in the sand, but there wasn't,
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Speaker 1: which gave the impression that was where someone must have
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Speaker 1: lifted him up and kidnapped him, but they never found
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Speaker 1: any prints connected to a kidnapper. For the rest of
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Speaker 1: the day and that night, they would not find any
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Speaker 1: more signs of Eldridge or the other two missing dogs.
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Speaker 1: The next day, about twenty four hours after Eldridge had
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Speaker 1: gone missing, there were a number of search crews that
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Speaker 1: had gone well outside of the primary search area in
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Speaker 1: hopes of maybe finding one of the two lost dogs
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Speaker 1: because they thought maybe they could bring them to the
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Speaker 1: lost child. And this one crew that was four miles
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Speaker 1: away from where Eldridge had gone missing, they were walking
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Speaker 1: past a swamp when one of them heard what sounded
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Speaker 1: like a child whimpering, and it was coming from inside
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Speaker 1: the swamp, and so immediately they turn and start walking
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Speaker 1: into the swamp, which had fairly deep water, and they
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Speaker 1: get to this clearing and they see there's this rocky
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Speaker 1: overhang with high grass all around it, kind of forming
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Speaker 1: like a cave. And they hear this whimpering again, and
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Speaker 1: it's coming from underneath that rock, and they rush over
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Speaker 1: and they're pulling the grass aside. Then sure enough, tucked
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Speaker 1: underneath this rock inside of this kind of makeshift cave
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Speaker 1: is Eldridge. He was laying on this really well constructed
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Speaker 1: bed of leaves that looked like an animal's den. So
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Speaker 1: either Eldridge had found an animal's den or he had
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Speaker 1: built himself this beautiful bed of leaves. When they approached him,
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Speaker 1: he was sleeping underneath this rock, and so that whimpering
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Speaker 1: sound he was making he must have been making in
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Speaker 1: his sleep. And so as they got closer to him,
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Speaker 1: he woke up and he sat up, and he's very
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Speaker 1: groggy and confused. You know. All of his clothes were
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Speaker 1: really badly torn up, and he wasn't wearing any shoes,
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Speaker 1: but he overall seemed okay. He just was very confused seeming,
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Speaker 1: and so they scooped him up and they brought him
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Speaker 1: back to search headquarters, reunited him with his mother and
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Speaker 1: his grandmother, and everyone's just so relieved that he's alive.
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Speaker 1: But at the same time, people were like, how did
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Speaker 1: he get four miles away in the middle of a swamp.
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Speaker 1: And so after the doctor cleared him saying he was
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Speaker 1: okay besides some scratches and bruises, the police, along with
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Speaker 1: the mother and the grandmother, sat down with Eldridge and
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Speaker 1: asked him, you know, what happened, But unfortunately, Eldridge appeared
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Speaker 1: to not know this had even happened. He didn't even
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Speaker 1: know he had spent twenty four hours out in the
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Speaker 1: middle of the woods by himself. It was like he
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Speaker 1: had blacked the whole thing out. Because Eldridge was found
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Speaker 1: alive and unharmed, the police did not continue to investigate
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Speaker 1: this case, and so we don't know what caused him
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Speaker 1: to suddenly be yelling for help and appeared to be
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Speaker 1: drifting farther and farther into the woods. We don't know
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Speaker 1: what the dogs saw in the creek that scared it
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Speaker 1: so badly. We don't know how Eldridge moved four miles
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Speaker 1: through a dense forest, over multiple swamps, only to wind
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Speaker 1: up in yet another swamp inside of a cave. Although
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Speaker 1: the police came out and said Eldridge must have just
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Speaker 1: wandered off on his own. Basically, everybody involved in this
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Speaker 1: case believes someone or something abducted him. It's just very
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Speaker 1: fortunate he was found alive. Unfortunately, there's no clarification about
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Speaker 1: what happened to the other two dogs, although the way
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Speaker 1: it's worded in the story, it does sound like they
9:30
Speaker 1: were never found in the nineteen fifties, the Thorpe family
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Speaker 1: lived in Dunbar, Pennsylvania, which was a small town of
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Speaker 1: less than one thousand people. Their house was on a
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Speaker 1: very quiet street with very few neighbors anywhere near them,
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Speaker 1: and their property was right up against this forest that
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Speaker 1: was right in their backyard. Their daughter, two year old Anna,
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Speaker 1: loved to play in their backyard, but she was instructed
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Speaker 1: to stay on the grass section of their backyard and
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Speaker 1: not venture into the forest because the forest was snake
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Speaker 1: infested and Anna was terrified of snakes, and so she
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Speaker 1: happily obliged. On May fifth, nineteen fifty, Anna was playing
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Speaker 1: in her backyard in that grassy section, and her mother
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Speaker 1: was in the kitchen looking out the back window into
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Speaker 1: the backyard, and her mother looked down for a second
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Speaker 1: when she heard her daughter scream. She looked up and
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Speaker 1: Anna was gone. She immediately ran outside and she's yelling
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Speaker 1: for her daughter. She's looking all around, and she knows
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Speaker 1: she must have gone into the forest, and she's thinking
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Speaker 1: to herself, she must have been bit by a snake,
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Speaker 1: and she's laying on the ground somewhere. That's why I
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Speaker 1: can't see her. And so she runs into the forest
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Speaker 1: and she's screaming for her daughter and she's not getting
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Speaker 1: any response. She's starting to panic. All her yelling has
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Speaker 1: gotten the attention of her two older sons that were
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Speaker 1: in the house. They come running outside and they joined
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Speaker 1: the search, and they start fanning out and they're looking
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Speaker 1: for Anna and she's just gone. And so after only
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Speaker 1: a few minutes of looking, Anna's mother decides she has
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Speaker 1: to call the police. The police show up and they
10:53
Speaker 1: launched this massive search, and word got out to the
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Speaker 1: residence of Dunbar that one of their own had gone missing,
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Speaker 1: a child, no less, and so virtually everyone in Dunbar
11:02
Speaker 1: showed up to be a part of the search, and
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Speaker 1: they combed that whole forest behind their property and there
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Speaker 1: was just no sign of Anna. After the first twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours had gone by and they had not found
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Speaker 1: any sign of Anna, they decided to expand the search
11:15
Speaker 1: area from a one mile radius to a three mile radius,
11:19
Speaker 1: and within just hours of this change, there was a
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Speaker 1: crew that was three miles away from where Anna had
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Speaker 1: gone missing, and they found Anna and she was alive.
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Speaker 1: She was laying under this BlackBerry bush. All she had
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Speaker 1: on was a single shoe next to her was a
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Speaker 1: pile of clothes. When they went up to her, she
11:34
Speaker 1: seemed okay. They picked her up and they brought her
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Speaker 1: back to these search headquarters where they reunited her with
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Speaker 1: her parents. A doctor looked at her and the doctor said,
11:43
Speaker 1: you know, there's no signs that she was attacked. There's
11:45
Speaker 1: really no signs of any wear and tear on her
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Speaker 1: at all. It doesn't even look like she was outside
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Speaker 1: for the past twenty four hours. When Anna was asked
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Speaker 1: about what happened to her, she wasn't able to give
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Speaker 1: any sort of meaningful answer because she's only two years old.
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Speaker 1: But the reason this case is included in day's video
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Speaker 1: is not because you know she vanished mysteriously in the
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Speaker 1: forest and that she was actually found three miles away
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Speaker 1: versus one, or you know that she was found with
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Speaker 1: just a shoe on. The reason it's included in today's
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Speaker 1: video is because for her to have been found where
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Speaker 1: she was found, the only way, the only way for
12:18
Speaker 1: her to have arrived at that spot was if she
12:21
Speaker 1: crossed ten barbed wire fences. There was no other way
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Speaker 1: for her to have gotten there. The only other way
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Speaker 1: would have been a massive detour that she literally could
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Speaker 1: not have covered an adult probably couldn't have covered in
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Speaker 1: the amount of time given. So this two year old,
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Speaker 1: with no scratches on her body is found on the
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Speaker 1: other side of ten barbed wire fences. I mean, even
12:43
Speaker 1: if you take the barbed wire off of the fence,
12:46
Speaker 1: a two year old climbing a large fence that alone
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Speaker 1: is kind of a herculean task. And to do it
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Speaker 1: without scratching your body, it's not possible. It's truly impossible.
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Speaker 1: A May seventh article in the La Times said the
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Speaker 1: lease were baffled by this ten fence dilemma, and they
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Speaker 1: said the only way it would make sense is if
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Speaker 1: she had been abducted and dumped there. But the police
13:08
Speaker 1: also repeatedly said there was no evidence to suggest she
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Speaker 1: had been abducted or attacked or harmed in any way.
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Speaker 1: It was just where she was found did not add up. Ultimately,
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Speaker 1: the police came out with a statement saying this had
13:21
Speaker 1: to have been an accident, that Anna, the two year old,
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Speaker 1: managed to just somehow walk her way past all these
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Speaker 1: fences and was found where she was and thank goodness,
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Speaker 1: she's alive. But interestingly, the police confiscated her clothing and
13:35
Speaker 1: would not give that back to the parents, indicating there
13:37
Speaker 1: was further investigation happening even though the child had been found.
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Speaker 1: But unfortunately, the police never revealed whether or not they
13:45
Speaker 1: actually discovered anything else about this case. And like in
13:48
Speaker 1: the Elderge case, Anna's parents did not press for more
13:52
Speaker 1: information about what happened to their daughter because she was
13:55
Speaker 1: found alive and unharmed. Now, Anna's case might seem like
13:58
Speaker 1: some crazy anomalaly, and that's all it is, but this
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Speaker 1: is not the first time something like this has happened
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Speaker 1: in this small area in Pennsylvania. Two years earlier, in
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Speaker 1: less than ten miles away from where Anna went missing,
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Speaker 1: another two year old, Ronald Collier, also went missing in
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Speaker 1: the same stretch of woods. His mother had been sitting
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Speaker 1: with him on their back porch, which overlooked the same forest,
14:20
Speaker 1: and at some point his mother had gone inside, leaving
14:22
Speaker 1: Ronald sitting in one of the seats. When she came
14:25
Speaker 1: back out again, Ronald was gone. His mother estimated that
14:28
Speaker 1: she was inside for maybe ten or fifteen seconds. Tops
14:31
Speaker 1: the police and the community came out in force, and
14:34
Speaker 1: they combed through the woods and they could not find
14:37
Speaker 1: any sign of Ronald, and the police got really frustrated
14:40
Speaker 1: with Ronald's parents because they felt like, this is impossible.
14:43
Speaker 1: How could this child not turn up considering the timeline
14:46
Speaker 1: you've given us, which is you went inside for ten
14:49
Speaker 1: to fifteen seconds, and your son is now completely gone,
14:52
Speaker 1: He's completely vanished. Like you must have something to do
14:56
Speaker 1: with this, And so the police made Ronald's parents take
14:58
Speaker 1: polygraph tests, and his parents passed all of them. The
15:01
Speaker 1: search for Ronald continued for several weeks, but unfortunately it
15:05
Speaker 1: was ultimately terminated and they never found him. People in
15:08
Speaker 1: the area believed someone or something, maybe a bear or
15:12
Speaker 1: some other animal, was lurking in the tree line and
15:15
Speaker 1: watching Ronald, and as soon as his mother went in
15:18
Speaker 1: the house, they ran up and snatched the child and
15:20
Speaker 1: ran away with him. However, the police came out and
15:22
Speaker 1: said there was no evidence to back up that this
15:25
Speaker 1: child had been kidnapped, that what's far more likely is
15:28
Speaker 1: Ronald just got up and walked away and disappeared. However,
15:31
Speaker 1: two years later, when Anna's case happened, these similarities between
15:35
Speaker 1: her case and Ronald's case were just too much for
15:38
Speaker 1: locals to overlook, and so people began saying, you know,
15:41
Speaker 1: it looks like Anna was abducted and placed where she
15:45
Speaker 1: was ultimately found inside of those woods, and so probably
15:48
Speaker 1: whoever or whatever took Anna is the same person or
15:52
Speaker 1: thing that took Ronald, but Anna was just lucky enough
15:55
Speaker 1: to survive. Although this mystery predator theory is just that
15:59
Speaker 1: a theory, it does seem more likely than Ronald in
16:02
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds, getting up and running off into oblivion, never
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Speaker 1: to be found again, and Anna scaling ten barbed wire
16:10
Speaker 1: fences in a twenty four hour period without a scratch
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Speaker 1: on her body. Unfortunately, though, we'll probably never know the truth.
16:19
Speaker 1: In September of two thousand and four, forty nine year
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Speaker 1: old Robert Springfield, along with his two teenage sons, left
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Speaker 1: their home in Wyoming bound for the Big Horn Mountains
16:28
Speaker 1: in Montana. They were planning to do some elk hunting
16:30
Speaker 1: on the Crow Reservation, which is the homeland of the
16:33
Speaker 1: Crow tribe, and Robert and his family were members of
16:36
Speaker 1: the Crow Reservation and therefore had the rights to hunt
16:40
Speaker 1: on that land. The specific spot the boys were going
16:42
Speaker 1: to be hunting was Black Canyon, a particularly steep and
16:46
Speaker 1: rugged area, but Robert was well equipped for this type
16:48
Speaker 1: of environment because he had previously served in the United
16:52
Speaker 1: States Marine Corps in their Special Operations Unit, which would
16:55
Speaker 1: have meant he would have received a very high level
16:58
Speaker 1: of outdoor survival training, which is for living up in
17:01
Speaker 1: the mountains. Robert's sons had apparently learned a lot from
17:04
Speaker 1: him and were very competent outdoorsmen as well. They arrived
17:07
Speaker 1: at the reserve on September nineteenth and immediately headed out
17:10
Speaker 1: to do some bow and arrow hunting. Their plan was
17:12
Speaker 1: the two boys would break off from their father and
17:14
Speaker 1: head over to the edge of the canyon and attempt
17:17
Speaker 1: to drive elk down into the valley so their dad
17:20
Speaker 1: could take a shot at them. But late in the afternoon,
17:22
Speaker 1: the two teenage boys had not seen a single elk,
17:25
Speaker 1: and so it was getting to be time to head
17:27
Speaker 1: back to the pre arranged meeting spot, and so they
17:29
Speaker 1: packed up their stuff and they headed there. The boys
17:32
Speaker 1: make it to the meeting area and their father, Robert,
17:34
Speaker 1: is not there. So they sit down and they begin
17:36
Speaker 1: to wait, and an hour goes by, two hours goes by,
17:40
Speaker 1: three hours goes by, still no sign of their dad.
17:43
Speaker 1: They can't get in touch with them. They have no
17:45
Speaker 1: cell phone service, and so they're thinking to themselves, okay,
17:47
Speaker 1: you know, worst case scenario, he got turned around and
17:51
Speaker 1: he'll have to spend the night out in the cold.
17:53
Speaker 1: But he's got warm winter clothes on, he knows what
17:55
Speaker 1: he's doing. He'll be fine. And so as the sun
17:58
Speaker 1: was setting, the boys did finally leave to go tell
18:00
Speaker 1: authorities that their dad was, you know, lost in Black
18:03
Speaker 1: Canyon somewhere. But it was just not registering for them
18:06
Speaker 1: that this could be life threatening, that something really bad
18:09
Speaker 1: could have happened to their dad. He was just the
18:11
Speaker 1: superman figure to them and it just did not cross
18:13
Speaker 1: their mind. Authorities launch a search that night that includes
18:16
Speaker 1: the use of helicopters with thermal imagers doing low flyovers
18:21
Speaker 1: of the entirety of Black Canyon. Thermal imagers pick up
18:24
Speaker 1: a heat signature, and so anyone that is alive gives
18:27
Speaker 1: off a heat signature. And so at night, if you
18:29
Speaker 1: were flying overhead and you saw a person in the
18:32
Speaker 1: middle of a canyon where there's virtually nothing else around them,
18:35
Speaker 1: they would stand out like a bright light. But that night,
18:38
Speaker 1: the helicopters combed all over Black Canyon and they never
18:41
Speaker 1: saw Robert. However, authorities would say that you know this guy,
18:44
Speaker 1: he's trained, you know, former special operator. He probably went
18:48
Speaker 1: and found shelter so he could be inside of a cave,
18:50
Speaker 1: or maybe he made himself a shelter with tree branches
18:53
Speaker 1: and it's obscuring him from the thermal imager, and so
18:56
Speaker 1: we'll just have to look tomorrow. But the next day,
18:58
Speaker 1: despite bringing out hunch of searchers and bloodhounds and people
19:02
Speaker 1: on horseback and more helicopters and planes flying overhead, there
19:06
Speaker 1: was no sign of Robert, and after several weeks of
19:09
Speaker 1: still not finding any sign of Robert, they ultimately called
19:12
Speaker 1: it off. The family was obviously crushed, but more than that,
19:16
Speaker 1: they were just dumbfounded. The idea that something bad had
19:19
Speaker 1: happened to invincible Robert that just didn't add up for them,
19:22
Speaker 1: and so after the official search was terminated, they would
19:26
Speaker 1: continue to make trips into Black Canyon looking for their father,
19:29
Speaker 1: their husband, but unfortunately, like all the searchers, they never
19:33
Speaker 1: found any trace of him and eventually accepted that he
19:35
Speaker 1: was gone. One year later, in October of two thousand
19:38
Speaker 1: and five, a hunter who didn't know anything about Robert
19:41
Speaker 1: Springfield or the fact that he had disappeared. This hunter
19:44
Speaker 1: is in Black Canyon, in the same area where Robert
19:47
Speaker 1: Springfield had disappeared, and this hunter is walking through this
19:50
Speaker 1: really dense forest. He's all alone. He's an experienced hunter,
19:54
Speaker 1: and he's not on a path. He's just kind of
19:55
Speaker 1: combing through the woods. And he starts to hear what
19:58
Speaker 1: sounds like a crow screeching, and at first it doesn't
20:02
Speaker 1: really register with him. It's only in retrospect that he
20:05
Speaker 1: recalls this sequence of events. As he kept walking on,
20:08
Speaker 1: the screeching intensified to the point where he just could
20:11
Speaker 1: not ignore it, and so he stopped and turned to
20:14
Speaker 1: listen to this screeching crow that he couldn't see through
20:17
Speaker 1: the dense forest, but he could tell it was in
20:19
Speaker 1: that general direction, this hunter said, as soon as he
20:21
Speaker 1: stopped and he turned and began actively listening to this crow,
20:25
Speaker 1: he had this weird sensation that the crow was trying
20:28
Speaker 1: to actively communicate with him. It was a very strange experience.
20:32
Speaker 1: He had never had anything like it in his entire
20:34
Speaker 1: hunting career, and he spent lots of time outdoors, and
20:38
Speaker 1: so he felt like he had to go over and
20:40
Speaker 1: see what was going on with his crow, and so
20:42
Speaker 1: he starts walking towards the crow. He still can't see it.
20:45
Speaker 1: It's very thick vegetation, and he's getting closer and closer,
20:48
Speaker 1: and he gets to a place where he can just
20:50
Speaker 1: barely see this crow. It's in a clearing. There is
20:53
Speaker 1: this large tree stump right in the middle of the clearing.
20:56
Speaker 1: And this tree stump is not short, it's like six
20:58
Speaker 1: seven eight feet high in the air. It looks like
21:00
Speaker 1: this tree had broken in the middle and fallen over.
21:03
Speaker 1: And this crow is sitting on the top of this
21:05
Speaker 1: kind of gnarled stump, and the crow is just incessantly screeching.
21:09
Speaker 1: And from this hunter's perspective, he can see the crow
21:12
Speaker 1: and he's kind of staring at it. And as the
21:14
Speaker 1: hunter is looking at this crow, the crow suddenly turns
21:17
Speaker 1: and looks directly at the hunter, and it recognizes the
21:20
Speaker 1: hunter can see the crow, and the crow stops screeching,
21:24
Speaker 1: and it's just staring directly at the hunter. And this
21:26
Speaker 1: hunter would say he felt so unsettled by the sudden
21:29
Speaker 1: behavior of the crow, because it was almost like confirming
21:32
Speaker 1: the crow was looking for him and now he had
21:36
Speaker 1: found him, and he stopped screeching and was looking at him.
21:39
Speaker 1: The bird continued to stare silently at the hunter to
21:42
Speaker 1: the point where the hunter felt compelled to walk out
21:45
Speaker 1: of the vegetation into the clearing to kind of confront
21:48
Speaker 1: the crow, And so he stepped into the clearing, and
21:51
Speaker 1: the crow, the whole time is not screeching anymore, just
21:54
Speaker 1: looking at the hunter, and the hunter's standing in the clearing,
21:57
Speaker 1: and he looks at the crow, and the crow suddenly
21:59
Speaker 1: looks straight down. The hunter follows the crow's gaze down
22:02
Speaker 1: to the ground and he sees at the base of
22:04
Speaker 1: the tree is a human skull. And the hunter's so
22:07
Speaker 1: taken aback by this. He looks back up at the crow,
22:09
Speaker 1: who's looking at him again. And the whole situation is
22:12
Speaker 1: so terrifying to this hunter that he just makes a
22:15
Speaker 1: note of where he is and he runs. As soon
22:18
Speaker 1: as the hunter got out of the woods and was
22:19
Speaker 1: back in cell phone reception, he called authorities. Authorities showed
22:23
Speaker 1: up and he showed them on the map where he
22:24
Speaker 1: had discovered this crow and the skull next to a tree,
22:28
Speaker 1: and sure enough, the authorities make their way out and
22:30
Speaker 1: they find the skull right under this tree. The crow
22:33
Speaker 1: at this point is gone. When they walked up to
22:35
Speaker 1: the tree stump, they discovered it was not just a
22:37
Speaker 1: human skull. It was also a human femur bone right
22:40
Speaker 1: next to the skull, and then next to that was
22:42
Speaker 1: a set of boots that have been placed right next
22:44
Speaker 1: to them, neatly next to one another. And then next
22:46
Speaker 1: to that was a belt that had been tightly wound
22:48
Speaker 1: up and placed next to the boots. And then next
22:50
Speaker 1: to that was a jacket that was not folded but
22:53
Speaker 1: was balled up, and inside of the jacket was a
22:55
Speaker 1: wallet containing cash and Robert Springfield's ID cards. Already launched
23:00
Speaker 1: a search in that area to look for the rest
23:02
Speaker 1: of Robert's remains, but unfortunately they were never recovered. Also,
23:06
Speaker 1: his bow and arrows were never found. The FBI was
23:09
Speaker 1: brought into the case because foul play was suspected, and
23:12
Speaker 1: they eventually determined that Robert must have been shot. And
23:16
Speaker 1: then they later recanted that statement and said, actually, he
23:19
Speaker 1: was hit by a falling tree. But if he was
23:21
Speaker 1: struck by a tree, then where is the rest of him.
23:24
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it have been in that area? And then why
23:26
Speaker 1: were all of his things neatly stacked? Certainly he wouldn't
23:29
Speaker 1: have done that after getting hit by a tree, So
23:32
Speaker 1: who neatly stacked his things? After he was hit, and
23:35
Speaker 1: then also where is his bow and arrows? But despite
23:38
Speaker 1: how improbable it sounds, that is the official theory that
23:41
Speaker 1: he was hit by a falling tree. The family, along
23:43
Speaker 1: with many other people, believe he was attacked by someone
23:47
Speaker 1: or something up in those mountains. But if he had
23:50
Speaker 1: been attacked, his sons would have heard the struggle because
23:53
Speaker 1: they were in an area where sound carried really, really well.
23:56
Speaker 1: And if a person attacked him, why didn't they take
23:58
Speaker 1: the money out of his wall? But also, where Robert's
24:01
Speaker 1: remains had been found was very close to where his
24:03
Speaker 1: original campsite had been with his two sons on the
24:06
Speaker 1: night he had gone missing, and so it was firmly
24:09
Speaker 1: located inside of the initial search grid, meaning had he
24:13
Speaker 1: been under a tree or been left for dead by
24:16
Speaker 1: some attacker in that area, he would have been found
24:19
Speaker 1: in those first couple of weeks that they were looking
24:21
Speaker 1: before the search was terminated. So the fact that he
24:24
Speaker 1: wasn't found means either hundreds of people didn't see him,
24:27
Speaker 1: including a helicopter with thermal imager, or he wasn't there
24:31
Speaker 1: until after the search was terminated, And if so, where
24:35
Speaker 1: was he? And perhaps the weirdest aspect of this entire
24:38
Speaker 1: case is the claim by this hunter that a crow
24:41
Speaker 1: apparently lured him over to this tree stump where he
24:44
Speaker 1: found Robert's remains. If you believe this hunter story, and
24:48
Speaker 1: many many people do, then do you really think it's
24:51
Speaker 1: a coincidence that all of this took place on Crow Reservation,
24:56
Speaker 1: home of the Crow tribe. I think not. But will
24:59
Speaker 1: we ever know the truth about what actually happened to Robert?
25:02
Speaker 1: I don't know. So that's going to do it. Guys.
25:04
Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
25:07
Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
25:09
Speaker 1: found it. So give us the timestamp, and if you're
25:11
Speaker 1: the first to do that, we will pin you at
25:13
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25:40
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26:00
Speaker 1: See