Alaska National Park and Wilderness Disappearances

[Music] [Music] the state of Alaska was acquired by the United States of America in 1867 Secretary of State William Seward was the man in charge of arranging the purchase of the land from Russia and as such the territory was dubbed Seward's folly there were many critics of this transaction given its apparent lack of resources however the purchase proved to be a major success for the states not only in its inherent strategic position but the discovery of gold in the 1890s encouraged a stampede of prospectors and settlers the land which is also the largest state in the American Union in terms of its sheer size was declared officially as the 49th state in 1959 but the land we call Alaska today has a wealth of ancient history with evidence of habitation dating back to between 14,000 BC and 10,000 BC at that point in history existed a land bridge which extended from Siberia to Eastern Alaska which allowed for heavy migration of both humans and animals today the Athabascans allows Inuits you pick sling gates and hide a remained and with these natives comes many unusual accounts and folklore of the area the annuit people speak of a creature known as the koala pollock according to the Inuits this creature resembles a woman with green skin long hair and very long fingernails it said that the Koala pollock resides in the sea and humps twins hice people closer before taking them deep into the ocean being newest among other native groups also speak of the Alaska Bushmen dubbed torn it's tales of the tore Nets have been told since humans first crossed the land bridge to Alaska all those thousands of years ago the newer people we said to have mastered kayak construction which gave them a huge advantage when hunting the tour nets on the other hand were said to be unable to build them and stole one from Inuits this wasn't taken very kindly and brought about conflicts between the two factions which drove the toilets away from the land according to the Anchorage Daily News since that time many stories have come out of the bush of hunters disappearing never to be seen again apparently hunters and the torn it's no longer peacefully shared common hunting grounds it seems that some natives believed that the tourists were stalking their hunters while others believed that their actions of driving the turrets from the land that brought about a curse on their people the natives also speak of this is our work which they described as a large snake-like creature of unknown origin the natives believed that they roam the Alaskan waters and said that they were up to fifteen feet long and which snatch people from their kayaks and while near the waters these are just some and while there are others you obviously can't do much with folklore in terms of determining if the native peoples actually believe these things are occurring or if it was just a method of keeping their children in line but whatever the case may be is still an interesting part of Alaskan and her natives history according to medium calm since authorities began keeping records in 1988 60,000 700 people have been reported missing in Alaska that's five people per 1000 residents reported missing every year on a yearly basis an average of 2,250 people disappear in Alaska twice the national average some of these people are found alive and well while the remains of others are found but many disappear without a trace interestingly while researching this and despite the disappearance rate seeming to be twice that of the national average there seems to be a little catalogued in terms of Alaskan disappearances so after the new year I'll start working on that make further contents on Oscar specifically in regards to the Alaska triangle and specific national parks to so do let me know if that's something you'd be interested in now with that being said let's explore the first disappearance the Glacier Bay National Park is a protected land to the west of Juneau and can be only reached by plane or boat the only road connects the small town of Gustavus and the airfield there to the park headquarters at Barlet Cove the most notable features of the park are it's great Tidewater glaciers and it is in this National Park where the first set of disappearances took place 36 year old Kevin Robert O'Keefe was thought to have disappeared in the Glacier Bay National Park sometime in early October of 1985 initially in late September that year kevin had planned a lone trip to the isolated park it's not clear if there was any specific motivation for this trip other than the fact that he loved the outdoors hiking and traveling speaking of which kevin was an experienced outdoorsman and hiker and he engaged in these activities frequently and was said to be very skilled kevin originated from sacramento california and made the trip to juneau on the 20th of september 1985 and from there took a float plane to Moya inlets it was in this area where kevin set up his tents and established a base camp it's thought that during this time kevin was probably hiking around wilderness areas as was his intention what's on the 8th of october a park ranger by the name of david Nemeth alongside another ranger spotted Kevin's base camp and we're going to stop by to say hello however they quickly realized that something wasn't quite right there were no sign of its occupants and they found his untouched belongings and a broken center pole of the tent the Rangers concluded that the owner was probably just on a hike and they secured the tent with the intention of returning the following day it's important to note at this stage that the Rangers did not believe that the pole was as a result of any kind of struggle and there was nothing else to indicate that it was in any case they returned the following day on the 9th but there was still no sign of Kevin and the ranges stated that it didn't appear as though anyone had stayed the night at the camp the Rangers made a preliminary search of the area but unfortunately couldn't figure out where he might be and couldn't locate any clues the Alaska State Troopers were then informed under land and earth search were organized but this failed to on the 14th of October 1985 the Sitka daily Sentinel reported something very unusual Rangers using dogs airplanes and helicopters have ended their ground search for a California man missing in Glacier Bay National Park since last week Kevin failed to arrive at a rendezvous with a chartered airplane Thursday said National Park Service spokeswoman Nancy Strom CERN she said Rangers looked for O'Keefe on Thursday Friday and Saturday and Park officials will continue to check the shoreline by boats and aircraft periodically O'Keefe was dropped off at Wolf Point near more inlets on the 22nd of September and was last seen on the 28th searchers found a wolf cap and hiking boots half a mile from his campsite he told park employees that he was planning to take a series of day hikes around his campsite at Wolf Point Saturday searchers found gloves scraps of food and an airplane boarding pass the temperature has dropped to freezing at night and has been in the low 40s during the day in the area Kevin's relatives stated that he would only be making short day hikes and would it be making any overnight trips as he didn't like them and found them to be too dangerous rangers said that at the time there were no bear tracks anywhere near the camp of the nearby vicinity and as a result said that animal predation seems to be very unlikely searchers never found anything to indicate a struggle had taken place they said that there were no footprints and no other clues the search dogs failed to pick up Kevin sense and the helicopters never spotted him or anything out of the ordinary it was also mentioned that the searches from the discovery of the boots hats and gloves and boarding pass odd and struggled to come up with the rationale to explain its one proposed theory was that Kevin had simply experienced hypothermia and then later paradoxical undressing but the searches said that the rest of his clothing would have been expected to be found based on newspaper reports and from my understanding it seems that the hats and boots were found in one location half a mile away while the gloves scraps of food and boarding pass were found the day afterwards in another location though I'm not sure just how far away they were so what happened to Kevin and where did he go almost 35 years later and no further trace of Kevin has ever been found at this point I'd like to discuss a couple of other disappearances that's happened nearby the park these individuals were on cruise ships at the time according to Seattle Times calm Anchorage Alaska the woman believed to have fallen overboard from a cruise ship into frigid Alaska waters was 45 year old amber mal coach of Washington State's Alaska State Troopers said late Monday amber was last seen at approximately 12:30 a.m. on the 3rd of August 2009 when she ordered room service at this time the vessel was near alaska's Douglas Island and there was nothing to indicate that anything was wrong it was thought that she had finished up with her room service and had then gone to bed however when a traveling companion realized that she was missing the alarm was raised on the morning of the 3rd the vessel was well within the boundaries of the Glacier Bay National Park at this point and was approximately 75 miles northwest of Juneau the state troopers were quickly notified and this search was underway both ships and helicopters were deployed over the area according to Arlington times calm Amber mal coach's body has been found after she went missing from a cruise ship in Alaska but swing the evening of August 2nd and the morning of August 3rd but much remains unknown about the circumstances of her passing the Arlington times state that the body was located at approximately 4:30 p.m. 12 miles northwest of where she was last seen specifically her body was found on the west side of Douglas Island the Alaska State Troopers boarded the ship on the 4th and reviewed all available footage but didn't make a statement right away the crews firm Holland America did however which angered the state troopers the Arlington Times reported that Holland America spokesperson sally andrew said this based on evidence and information to date it does not appear to be foul play from what we have seen to date it appears to have been an intentional disappearance in response to this alaska state troopers spokeswoman megan peters said that the troopers were not yet willing to conclusively point to a cause she said that the coroner is yet to come to a conclusion we still have to do our investigation and were not going to make any guesses at this time after some time to process what it happened according to Seattle PI comm the state troopers said that they have no idea how Holland America could have come to that conclusion so quickly and were shocked when they made the announcement because investigators were still baffled as to what took place Megan Peters continued where the people actually looking into the exact cause we are the ones doing the interviews and looking at the evidence if we haven't been able to make a determination how can the cruise ship line who are not trained in this area it's clear that the cruise line had gotten under the skin of the troopers with their claims before the investigation was anywhere near its conclusion this seems to have been a fairly controversial debate that took place afterwards with some including Holland America arguing that it must have been intentional others arguing that it was accidental and that she must have fallen while others were stating that a third party must have been responsible it's not completely clear why the cruise immediately jumped to the idea that she must have wanted to have fallen in as there was no evidence to point in that direction he is a quote from the family we as Amber's family are deeply saddened she was a loving mother daughter sister niece and cousin who had a very kind and generous nature we will all miss her terribly as will her many friends we recognize that there has been a great deal of speculation as to the nature of her passing knowing amber as we do we do not believe that this was intentional although no one will ever know what actually occurred the night amber disappeared from the ship we nonetheless believe that it was of an accidental nature thank you to all who have expressed your concern and condolences effectively the family denied that this was an intentional act and it was only the cruise lines word pointing in that direction this led many to believe that it must have been completely accidental however this had its own problems among readers in an article on the Nash punch traveler dog one commenter wrote I don't see any way a person can just fall overboard I have been on eight cruises and four different cruise lines the rails are between waist and chest high the Alaska State Troopers said that the cruise line only allowed them on both the vessel one time to investigate and many found that unusual ultimately there doesn't seem to be any real answers here but the family maintained that they do not believe that this was intentional why was the cruise line so eager to point in that direction and why did they only allow the troopers on board wants to investigate what do you think two similar situations seem to take place nine years later unfortunately the names of both don't seem to have been released so the missing men shall be referred to as John Doe the first disappearance took place on the 10th of July 2018 when a passenger of 73 years was reported to have gone overboard early that morning from the 70s marinara according to Cruz law news.com the cruise ship was returning to Vancouver from a cruise port in Alaska the ship was sailing to Victoria on the 10th day of an 11 day Alaska cruise which began in Vancouver on June the 30th the cruise ship apparently first realized that the passenger had gone overboard when the ship was just north of Cape Flattery at the northwestern tip of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula once more we seem to have another situation where the comments from the cruise line got under the skin of the authorities investigating the captain of the ship told the Coast Guard that video footage showed Jon jumping into the sea from the 8th thick balcony at 4:15 a.m. upon discovering this the ship turned around Northwest and sailed in search of Jon the Coast Guard however stated this in previous post the wet jump was used however we have no indication of why or how the individual went overboard investigation will help determine what happened again we have no clear information on what's led him to going overboard crews are actively searching at this time the Coast Guard obviously took issue with the implication that he had jumped and since the CCTV footage was not released I can only imagine that jon was not seen jumping but fallen between decks since otherwise there would not be a debate on how he went over in regards to falling or jumping as that would be clear so the word jumped could be interchangeable with pushed or fallen given one's own speculation on what took place the Seattle Times stated this the 73 year old man's wife said I was awakened around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday by a breeze coming from the balcony door cracked ohh burn and discovered him missing according to cbc.ca the US Coast Guard used several surface vessels and at least one aircraft to search for the man who is traveling on an 11 day cruise to Alaska Tuesday afternoon they recovered him unresponsive from the water and transferred him to emergency workers waiting on shore he had passed at the Olympic Medical Center the Coast Guard repeated that they have no indication of how the individual went to overboard on the 13th of July 2018 69 year-old John Doe a passenger on board a Holland America cruise ship went overboard in the Glacier Bay National Park the press stated that John was reported missing at 3:50 p.m. that day when he failed to attend a medical appointments on board the ship the Park Service said that it is unclear if the man had actually gone overboard while the Kate Cu you reported that he must have gone overboard sometime on Friday morning the Park Service was notified at 7:30 p.m. that day when a ship white search failed to locate the missing man the Park Service and the US Coast Guard deployed ships and aircraft to scour the 65 mile area along the Glacier Bay where he was believed to have gone overboard the National Parks traveler dog stated that the Park Service suspended the search that Saturday night after being unable to find any trace of him in the water or along the bay National Park Service public information officer Matthew Cahill said that there were a lot of private vessels in the bay that were participating and then there were the charters and the day topics as well we had a minimum of two Park Service vessels at any time during the search inside and right outside the mouth of Galatia Bay the Coast Guard also released a similar statement essentially saying that their search efforts are also ended inconclusively the Park Service and the Coast Guard worked together on determining drift patterns and where they believed he should have ended up but said that he was not where they had expected him to be Cahill said the Coast Guard provided us with probability maps based on the currents and tidal motion we searched the shorelines and waterways from beardsley entrance area right in the upper part of sits a kadai narrows inside the mouth of Galatia Bay out of the bay - including Pleasant Island and lemasurier Island the two islands that are just outside east and west of the mouth of Galatia Bay a statement by the Holland America Line stated that CCTV footage showed that the man went overboard that morning at 6:45 a.m. however this time they made no comments on how the man went overboard nor did the authorities interestingly unlike the other two passenger disappearances the FBI made the ship dock that Sunday and they began their own investigation into the events though this remains secretive and I can find no further information on the extent of their involvement or their conclusions ultimately it's not clear where John ended up or how he entered the water given the FBI's involvement one can only wonder if they had their own suspicions on the disappearance now moving on let's get back onto the land richard Lyman Griffiths a 47 year old inventor from Spokane Washington went missing in the Wrangell sent Elias National Park in September 2006 the park itself sprouts from Alaska's Richardson's Highway across big river valleys and desolate natsu-san mountains all the way to the US border with Canada the district covers five million acres this is almost twice the size of Yellowstone National Park this particular National Park links up with the Glacier Bay National Park much further to the south Richard is believed to have gone missing in the northeastern corner of this vast unforgiving land as mentioned Richard was an inventor and as search was always on the move across the country and this time was no difference Richard had invented what he dubbed the survival cocoon and traveled to the park to test his invention unfortunately Richard never told anyone specifically where he was going and as a result it wasn't established precisely where he'd vanished and he was reported missing almost a year later in August 2007 sergeant ben xual of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the press we were able to go back to that year and track him he paid for a bus ticket north and we tracked him to where he'd been dropped off by the bus along the Alaska Highway he left some of his gear at a lodge near the White River he taught people there that he was going upriver to McCarthy an outpost town in the wrangle scent Elias Park in Alaska to test his orange cocoon it's appeared that Richard had taught some of his friends that he might winter over in Alaska and as a result nobody was all that concerned but as the months continued with no contact his friends began to worry sergeant Sewell lives in the hopes that his orange cocoon might one day surface but state that's no one has ever come across it and as a result believes that it is probably unlikely because something like that should stand right out from the white snow the trail ended at the lodge where he'd been dropped off he told them but he is going upriver with his orange cocoon on the way to McCarthy Rangers did search the whites River Valley but found no sign of his invention it's not clear to me why the lodge didn't report the fact that he hadn't returned and I could find no real information on that perhaps they thought that he was going to go Steve McCarthy or something to that effect but some do find the lack of reporting questionable it's not clear what happened to Richard but both he and his orange cocoon vanished without a trace in the National Park System and while sergeant xual is hopeful he also remains somewhat doubtful that it will ever be solved finally I covered this next disappearance once before on the channel but I feel that it should be included here as some describe it as one of the strangest disappearances that have taken place in Alaska on the 4th of July 2012 65 year-old paul michael la Mettrie disappeared from Mount marathon in Alaska as you might imagine given the name of the mountain this is a mountain used to host races on it however despite its name this area isn't famous for how far the race stretches but rather how unforgiving the route is the runners start in the city of Seward and run approximately half a mile to the foot of Mount marathon upon reaching the mountain the participants have to make the ascent of the mountain which I've read as being described as more of a Scrabble of 2900 feet straight up cliffs mud and shale at which point they reached the checkpoints before having to descend the mountain again and reached the finishing line back ensured according to runners WorldCom all of this occurs in 3.1 to 3.5 miles depending on your routes and on trails so close to town that spectators waiting up the finish line can follow nearly every step even high on the mountain we'll get into this later but I found that to be particularly noteworthy and it's probably something worth remembering as we go forwards given that they are effectively stating that the runners can be seen by the crowd even up on the mountain it's worth mentioning that injuries are not common during this marathon what's no one has ever passed away or gone missing until Independence Day of 2012 the weather on this particular day was not good it was windy rainy and cold roughly eight degrees Celsius or high forties Fahrenheit Tom Walsh was a race steward who had completed this race every year for 16 years prior 2012 and was a passion of his Tom was present on the day that Paul went missing given his experience on the mountain Tom would always wait at the top to ensure the others had made it the race started at around 3:15 p.m. that day and Tom managed to reach the top at around 554 p.m. as more racers made it to the checkpoints at the top lots of them waited together for around 45 minutes to ensure everyone was present they then made their way back down the mountain and saw Paul Paul asked how far away was from the top Tom and the others told him that it was around another 200 feet and with that he went on his way they estimated that it should have taken him around an hour and a half to make it to the top and back down to the finishing line however Paul never came back down and after waiting for some time he was reported missing to the authorities and the search was on the area started to get foggy Ron the time and as mentioned the weather already wasn't great according to strange oak dolls calm search-and-rescue teams were called onto the mountain at around 8 p.m. by his wife Peggy with temperatures falling and rain worsening by 2:00 a.m. an Alaska State Troopers helicopter equipped with infrared radar was scanning the mountain searchers worried that if he wasn't already injured he probably had hypothermia because of his like clothing exhaustion and freezing weather the next morning the 200 and 10th rescue squadron of the Alaska Air National Guard which specializes in searching for crash pilots and missing hikers arrived with its hh-60 Pave helicopter for another infrared scan a team of up to 60 searchers crawled around the mountain looking everywhere even the other side of the mountain away from the racecourse or days after Paul disappeared the official rescue attempts was called off though the shouid volunteer fire department kept looking a cadaver dog was said into the area and friends paid for and analyzed high-resolution photographs of the mountain thousands of hours west spence on that mountain fire man no state troopers search dogs or anyone else found even a single trace as to where he might have gone no footprints were reported no signs of a struggle no items belonging to Paul there was nothing found and the searchers commented that this was highly unusual they said that they expected to find something that would give them an indication of what happened after the official search reached its conclusion sometime in mid-july volunteers continue to comb the area but nothing has ever been found let this sink in for a moment the route is approximately one and a half miles up followed by another one and a half miles down there were hundreds of runners within the view of the thousands of fans watching and yet Paul managed to disappear leaving no trace behind what happened the dogs never picked up a scent thermal detection equipped helicopters never found anything and as mentioned there were no clues left behind while Paul hadn't ascended mounts marathon before it's not like he wasn't experienced with the outdoors many of his friends stated that he was a very talented outdoorsman and couldn't believe that he had gone missing Paul and a turkmeni wilderness races and entered into cross-country skiing competitions despite not having much experience what's always managed to finish in the end he was always out sailing and camping with friends and somehow managed to find the time to achieve a PhD in business and administration and worked at a local Air Force Base for 18 years Peggy recalled that when Paul's envelope arrived confirming that he'll be taking part in the marathon it's red do not make July 4th race your first trip up Mount marathon after reading that she and their youngest daughter did try to talk him out of doing it but he was already set on it another attempt was made the night before the race the runners were consummate up at the local schools gymnasium where they were told if you have not been up that mountain before you should consider going home right now and you should not be in the race obviously the organizers did feel that this event would be too much for someone who hasn't been on the mountain before despite the trail being clearly marked for the run at some points early on during the search it secretly became a recovery machine rather than a rescue mission because of the weather conditions one question that came up frequently was where did he go this might be an obvious question but the searches couldn't figure it out even after plenty of time had passed as the snow had melted nothing was revealed the best the team could come up with was that something certain must have taken place the final hope was that when autumn hit the area this would allow for more visibility but still nothing was found Paul was the only person that has ever gone missing during the mount marathon run and not only did he disappear but the circumstances battled everyone involved where did Paul go please do leave a like if you found the video interesting or a dislike if you didn't feel free to share your honest opinion I'd like to hear your thoughts and I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of you that subscribe to the channel and I'll share these videos I appreciate it a lot and I can't thank you enough I'd also like to say a massive thank you to my patrons your support is crucial and it's massively appreciated so thank you very much to those who have signed up anyway do let me know what you thought of this one and you'll find all of the links in the description below as always thank you very much for watching I hope that you enjoyed this video and if you did remember to like and subscribe if you haven't already it helps me a lot I hope that you have a great day or evening depending on where you are be safe guys and I'll catch you soon peace you

Channel: Top Mysteries

Views: 315,261

Rating: 4.8295355 out of 5

Keywords: Alaska National Park and Wilderness Disappearances, alaska disappearances, alaska national park disappearances, alaska wilderness disappearances, strange and unexplained alaska disappearances, alaska cruise disappearances, alaska missing persons, alaska missing, national park disappearances, strange national park disappearances, strange disappearances

Id: 5E5YSE-T1Oo

Length: 31min 56sec (1916 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 20 2019