- [Narrator] What is up, EWU crew? Today, we are covering five eerie cases of people who have disappeared
in national parks, forests, and vast wilderness areas. The first case is of Jared Negrete, a 13-year-old boy who vanished
during a hike in 1991. He had gone on a camping
trip with his Boy Scout troop in San Bernardino National Forest, which was reportedly his first ever overnight backpacking trip. On the morning of July 19th, the troop left their
base camp for a day hike on Mount San Gorgonio. As they approached the summit
of the mountain that evening, they realized that
Jared was not with them. He had somehow been
separated from the group and no one was sure when it happened. Apparently, another group of
hikers on the trail noticed that the eighth grader had fallen behind. They informed the troop leader and he told them that
he would pick Jared up on their way back down the trail, except they never saw Jared
when they headed back. The troop leader decided to
return the boys to base camp before setting out on foot,
in the dark, to get help. A sheriff-lead search
was launched immediately over an area of 130 square miles. After three days, they
restricted their efforts to an area of six square miles. It was in this zone that they were said to have
discovered a shoe print that matched Jared's shoes. They also found wrappers
from beef jerky and candy which they thought
Jared might have dropped after he disappeared from the trail. Then they found Jared's camera. It had only 12 photos on the film roll. Most of them were pictures of landscapes which he had likely taken along the way, except for the last one, an eerie close-up of Jared's
face from the nose, up. Although you can't see his whole face, it's pretty clear he was not smiling. It appears to have been taken in the dark, or perhaps just in a very shady area. People have speculated that the photo may have
been taken by mistake, that Jared was attempting
to use the camera's flash to light his way at night. Law enforcement and
search-and-rescue teams put in more than a combined 45,000 hours looking for him extensively. No other signs or clues were found after the discovery of the shoe print, food wrappers, and camera. No remains, no clothing, nothing. And, to this day, nearly 30
years after his disappearance, no one has ever seen Jared Negrete again. Number four on our list is a case that's been dubbed, "The
Death Valley Germans." It is rumored that Eastern California's infamous Death Valley
National Park is a place where lots of human remains are found. Accidents are known to
take place in this desert. It has tremendously rough, rocky terrain with extremely high
temperatures during the day, and is very cold at night. So hikers and visitors must
come prepared before they go in. Back in the summer of 1996, four Germans arrived in the United States for an exciting family trip. Egbert Rimkus, a 34-year-old architect, took his 11-year-old son as well as his 27-year-old girlfriend and her four-year-old son on the trip. When they landed in Los Angeles
in early July that year, they rented a car to explore
the California coastline and then headed toward Los Vegas. On July 22, they went to
Death Valley National Park. Apparently, they intended
to make their way to Yosemite National Park before finally catching their
flight home on July 27th. But they never made that flight. When they got to Death
Valley National Park, they bought informational
materials about the area that included a map of
historic and defunct roads. That night, they reportedly
opted to camp out at Hanaupah Canyon, and, interestingly, claims have been made that Egbert was running low on cash and sent a fax to his ex-wife, requesting her to wire more money to him. But it appears he never obtained it. This may explain some of
the decisions they made over the following days. They continued to make
stops along old mining sites and unoccupied geological
stations throughout their journey, and even signed the guestbooks
at some of these places. It seemed that they were
following a shortcut they found on their map. But these roads were super rugged and would have required a
four-wheel drive vehicle to cross, definitely not a minivan. The family struggled as the
road conditions worsened and they eventually
found themselves unable to go any further after
riding on three flat tires for quite some time. They're thought to have
then exited their vehicle and headed out on foot toward
the China Lake military base, which they would have seen on their map. But they didn't make it there. Fast-forward three months. A ranger discovers their
abandoned vehicle in Anvil Canyon while conducting an aerial search for illegal drug operations. When he ran the plates, he found out it had been reported stolen by the rental company. An investigation was launched and while footprints, food wrappers, and alcohol containers were discovered, the family of four was not. Inside the van, they
found a few film rolls that included some
pictures of their travels in Death Valley. A number of searches were carried out over the years to come, but they, too, were unsuccessful. A lot of theories emerged to explain what happened to the Germans. Some people say they
staged the disappearance so they could start a new life elsewhere, while others claim Egbert had an obsession with covert military operations, and their case may have been
linked to conspiracy theories. However, no evidence came up
to support any of these ideas. Finally, in 2009, Los Angeles search-and-rescue
worker Tom Mahood and his friend, Les Walker, decided to search the area themselves. They hoped to find something that would explain what
happened to the family. And they had a theory about
where to look for clues based on all of the acquired
knowledge on the case up to that point. Near the China Lake Naval Weapons Station, they eventually found some answers. It was there that they
discovered a wine bottle, the girlfriend's wallet, a
few other personal items, and human remains. Two sets of adult human bones were found eight miles from the van. An expanded search of this immediate area
revealed more human bones. However, they did not contain enough DNA to confirm if they did, in fact,
belong to the two children. Now, moving on to number three, we've got the case of Douglas Legg, an eight-year-old boy from
Syracuse who went missing in New York's Adirondack Mountains. In July of 1971, Douglas and his family
were staying at their cabin in the Santanoni Preserve. The boy had spent a great deal of time in the woods surrounding the property, even earning the title of mini-woodsman. But one day that summer, something went terribly wrong. On July 10th, Doug and his
relatives left the homestead to hike in the surrounding forest. Not far down the trail, his uncle saw poison ivy and
sent him back to the cabin to put on some long pants. Given his experience and
familiarity with those woods as well as the fact that it
was a very short distance to the cabin, they knew he'd be safe
and would return quickly. Douglas did as he was told but never came back. His family frantically searched the cabin and the immediate area,
but saw no sign of him. They were panicked and perplexed. None of it made any sense. Douglas was just gone. One of the Adirondack's
largest search operations began immediately. More than 600 people were involved in the efforts, including the Sierra Madre
search-and-rescue unit, which Legg's family had
paid to have flown in. Six full weeks of tireless searching would yield not a single
sign of the mini-woodsman. As the years went by, desperate to find out
what happened to Doug, his relatives began to
grow suspicious of friends and even each other. However, this didn't change anything. And the police stood by
their initial beliefs that the child had somehow become lost after separating from his
family on the trail that day. A few leads have popped up over the years, but none of them have ever panned out. It's been nearly 50 years
now since Doug went missing. Some of his relatives
have since passed away, including his mother and father, and the cabin was sold a few
months after the incident. Sadly, the boy was never found. We're now at case number two, which is the eerie disappearance of 16-year-old Teresa Lynn Gibson, also known as Trenny, who was a high school student
in Knoxville, Tennessee. On the morning of October 8th, 1976, Trenny and 30 to 40 of
her classmates loaded onto a school bus for a field trip. At the time, none of them
knew where they were going until their teacher
announced they'd be going to the Smoky Mountains to
explore the nature there. On the bus, Trenny sat with
her older brother's friend, Robert Simpson. Her brother had asked Robert to look after his sister
on the field trip, so when she had failed
to bring a coat that day, Robert gave her his own. When the class arrived
at their destination, the plan was to hike
the Forney Ridge trail from Clingmans Dome to
Andrews Bald and back. The students broke into smaller groups as they walked along the trail. Up at Andrews Bald, Robert and Trenny ate lunch together before heading back separately. Classmates say the young
woman was walking hastily, like she was on a mission, as she passed several
groups along the way. In fact, at the time she was
thought to have gone missing, she should have had one
group of peers ahead of her and behind her, making it even more difficult to understand how any of
this could have happened. One classmate reported that she watched Trenny after
she had passed their group. She said she had seen
Trenny come to a stop and bend over to look at
something on the ground. She then looked toward her right and walked off the
trail in that direction. The classmate says this last image of the missing girl
haunts her to this day. When the group reached the point where she had exited the
trail, they did not see her, even after calling out her name. That was the last anyone ever
saw of Trenny Lynn Gibson. When everyone got back to the bus, the teacher did a head count and realized he was one student short. After checking the immediate area, he decided to send the
students back to the school while he called the National
Park Service for help. A thorough search of the
area would yield no sign of the young woman. Police dogs did pick up her
scent at an intersection where Forney Ridge Trail
meets the Appalachian Trail. They followed it back down
to Clingmans Dome Tower and eventually to the road, where it ended about a
mile and a half away. Nearly 44 years later, Trenny has yet to be found. Over the decades, a number
of theories have emerged. A few months before the class field trip, a frightening incident had taken place at the Gibson family home. A young man named Kelvin Bowman had drunkenly broken into their house in the middle of the night
to get a hold of Trenny, and her mother actually
shot him in the foot to defend her child. He went to jail and vowed to get revenge
when he was released. However, there is no evidence
linking him to this case. It was before the time of cell phones, so he would have had to
follow the bus that day to know where she was. And, at that time, he did not have a car. The other ideas about
what could have happened to Trenny include
theories from getting lost to falling off a cliff, to
being attacked by a wild animal, to being taken, to even
being lured from the trail by somebody. And then there's Robert Simpson. Some people wonder if he
tried to make a move on her while they ate lunch at Andrews Bald. And that would explain why
they descended separately. Later on, Trenny's comb, which her mother said she
wouldn't be caught dead without, was discovered in Robert Simpson's car. However, he was never arrested nor named a person of interest. Interestingly, when the kid was questioned
about his whereabouts after separating from Trenny, he told investigators
that he had left the trail to track a bear. So no one knew where Robert was from the time everyone left Andrews Bald to when he appeared on the bus after 3 PM. To this day, nothing more has
developed within the case. Finally, the last case is
that of Amy Wroe Bechtel, a woman who disappeared in
Wyoming's Shoshone National Park back in 1997. At the time, Amy was
working with a local gym to organize a 10k marathon. On July 24th, she headed
out to run some errands, teach a class at the gym, and planned to enter the national park to map out the marathon route. But she never returned home that day and has not been seen since. Thankfully, Amy's proposed
map for the marathon gave searchers some indication
of where to begin looking. Sure enough, at the location
where the run would have ended, they found Amy's vehicle. The doors were unlocked and
Amy was nowhere to be seen. Her car keys and sunglasses
were on the passenger's seat, but her wallet was gone. A large and extensive search
was launched immediately, but yielded absolutely no results. And, quickly, the missing
person case turned into a criminal investigation. Unfortunately, the crime scene seems
to have been compromised during the searches. Any evidence, such as
tire tracks, fingerprints, fibers, or DNA that may have
been in the car was compromised by someone tampering with
her unsecured vehicle. The case left people confused. None of it made sense. But then law enforcement began
to look at Amy's husband, Steve. Although he did have an alibi that was corroborated by his friend, a few things seemed amiss. Before calling the authorities, his friends had described
Steve as extremely panicked, flustered, and worried
sick about his spouse. But when Steve made the
call around 10:30 PM to report his wife missing, he allegedly seemed quite calm. He even jokingly told the 911 operator, "Hey, this is Steve Bechtal calling." "Um, I've got a missing person, and I'm wondering if you
maybe have an extra?" At some point, investigators did search
the couple's property, and discovered some of Steve's journals. In them, he described
violent acts against women, and, more specifically, against his wife. That's when the investigation
shifted its focus onto Amy's husband. Investigators began to question the guy. And, at first, he was cooperative and even agreed to take a polygraph test. On August 1st, eight days
after Amy disappeared, they brought him in for an interrogation. At some point, their questions got to him. Apparently, they falsely
claimed they had evidence linking him to his wife's demise. Steve became enraged and
immediately left the interrogation. He lawyer-ed up and informed detectives he
would no longer be available for questioning, nor would he follow through
with the lie detector test. And without any evidence, they were unable to
charge him with anything. Several witnesses had told the police that they had seen Amy running
on the national park road where her vehicle had been found. A witness even claimed
she saw a pickup truck that matched the description
of Steve's truck. She saw it speeding away from
where Amy had last been seen, adding that the driver was a white male, and a female who looked
like Mrs. Bechtal was riding in the passenger seat. Steve's refusal to cooperate with the investigation
upset her family members, especially her brother, Nels. Less than a year after
Amy's disappearance, her sisters made an appearance
on the Geraldo Rivera Show in which they begged Steve for answers on what happened that day. 10 years later, Sheriff Sergeant Roger Rizor
told the Billings Gazette, "I believe it was a homicide." "And I believe what happened to her happened on the day she disappeared." "In my mind, there is only one person that I want to talk to, only one person who has refused
to talk to law enforcement, and that's her husband." Yet he walks free to this day. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to hit the like
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