hikers who mysteriously disappeared in the wilderness

matthew kraft was a native of the small town of washington connecticut he was a sweet and honest child who grew into an honest and dedicated teenager while he was in 10th grade at the kent school he decided that he wanted to join the marines after graduating from the kent school he went on to the citadel a military college in south carolina he graduated from the citadel in 2016 and was commissioned as a marine corps officer in february of 2019 24 year old matthew had reached the rank of first lieutenant and was serving as a platoon leader with the 1st battalion 7th marines at 29 palms part of the first marine division based at camp pendleton in california at the end of that month he had two weeks of pre-deployment leave before his unit was due to deploy to afghanistan matthew planned to use the majority of his leave on a 10-day hike along the high sierra route which runs parallel to the john muir trail and goes through both sequoia and king's canyon national parks he planned to begin the 195 mile trek in the sierra nevada mountains in the ineo forest at the gersarge pass and end it near bridgeport in mono county he began the journey on february 24th with plans to complete it on march 4th or 5th but brought enough supplies to allow him to survive for several more days if he were delayed matthew had submitted detailed plans for the hike to the marines who approved his plans for his leave he had also shared these plans with his family but they were more concerned about his safety completing the challenging hike on his own matthew would be hiking at elevations between nine thousand and twelve thousand feet and most of the ground would be covered in a thick layer of snow matthew had previously hiked the route in the summer of 2018 as preparation for this trek and was looking forward to accomplishing this even more challenging winter hike which would require him to ski for much of his journey he had made meticulous plans and brought the necessary equipment for such an intense track through the backcountry he was a very experienced hiker who had previously gone on a two-week trek on the co-host trail through new hampshire and canada and attacked 40 peaks in the white mountains he had plans to hike the appalachian trail matthew also had extensive training with marines that helped prepare him for the difficult conditions he would be facing on his hike he had twice gone through mountaineering training at the marines mountain warfare training center in bridgeport in most of the physical tests he was subjected to in the marines he was almost always the person to beat matthew spent his weekends and shorter leave periods on hikes in the mountains while he enjoyed the outdoors he had a higher purpose for spending so much time in difficult and remote areas he believed that improving his survival skills and physical health made him a better marine this final intense hike before his deployment was his own personal final training activity before he left for afghanistan while matthew had estimated that his hike would end on either the fourth or the fifth depending on the numerous variables that go into such an intensive endeavor his family became concerned by the fourth when matthew's father greg did not hear from him that day he alerted the mono county sheriff's office they searched around the various trailheads in the area where matthew may have come out of the wilderness that night they also looked at cell phone records which showed that the last activity on matthew's cell phone had been near independence california close to where matthew's hike was set to begin in inyo county inyo county sheriff's office search and rescue began their search of that area in the first several miles of matthew's planned route the following day on march 8th around 9 pm they located matthew's vehicle at a campground near lower gray's meadows north of independence as far as authorities could ascertain matthew had begun his hike as planned but never completed it and was still somewhere in either sequoia or king's canyon national park thirteen different agencies were a part of the extremely difficult search for matthew marines from the mountain warfare training center where matthew previously had trained were a part of the military effort to find him over the next 10 days an area the size of the state of rhode island would be searched the terrain along matthew's planned route was challenging enough under good conditions and winter storms raged during several days of the search for him making the effort even more difficult on march 9th approximately two miles into the route from the kearsarge trailhead a search team on foot found a massive recent avalanche debris field evidence of several smaller avalanches was also found in the area due to the potential risk to the teams on foot the search shifted to become primarily aerial on march 15 low-flying aircraft using thermal imaging picked up a heat signature and hopes were renewed that matthew would be found alive unfortunately the heat was found to be coming from a hibernating bear following this disappointment the search was scaled back from an active search and entered a limited continuous mode while his remains have never been found the marines consider matthew to be deceased given the timeline of events severe weather and increased avalanche activity in the search area on-scene search and rescue experts have determined that craft was most likely overcome by severe weather and exposure captain paul guiney a spokesperson for the first marine division said in a statement made on april 11th the marine corps will continue to stand by and support kraft's family friends and marines during this difficult time the marines list matthew's state of death as march 15 2019 the last day of the active search matthew was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain the back country matthew had been hiking is generally only without a thick layer of snow on the ground in august and september the craft family was hopeful that during this two-month window new searches under better circumstances would lead to the discovery of matthew's remains park rangers led two search teams to look for them because the terrain is so challenging only highly experienced hikers can search the area where matthew disappeared meaning that there cannot be as robust of a volunteer search effort using members of the general public as there is in other cases flyers were distributed amongst the hikers traveling along the sierra high route with information about matthew and the specific type of gear he had taken with him for his hike like his catadine water filtration system quick point sleeping system and scarba t1 ski boots in hopes that should a hiker come across any of this equipment during their own hikes they would know to report its location matthew's family has accepted the fact that he most likely died somewhere in the mountains they have purchased a gravesite for him and ordered a headstone for it they held a memorial service for him at the first congregational church of washington back in connecticut in september of 2019. however they still hope to locate matthew's remains and lay him to rest they hope this will provide more details about matthew's final days they also hope that the location where the remains are found will help narrow down the day matthew died which they believe will help with their mourning process without that it's going to be three weeks of mourning every year matthew's father greg said in 2020 it's 365 days of mourning now an electric candle sits in the middle upstairs dormer window of the craft family home every night matthew's father turns it on to symbolically light his son's way back home each time he turns it on he says god bless matt and repeats that phrase every morning when he turns it off 46 year old bradford brooch was a native of tulsa oklahoma but lived with his wife and three daughters in allen texas he worked as an accounting manager at the beck group an architecture and construction firm based in dallas in the summer of 2016 he took a trip to alaska with one of his daughters and stayed at the hotel alieska at the aliesca resort in girdwood however his daughter returned to texas before he did and he remained in alaska for a few extra days on tuesday august 2nd bradford hiked up the north face trail near his hotel he rode a tram back down after completing the hike up disembarking it at 9 05 pm at 9 45 he signed the trail log at the trailhead for the winter creek trail while 9 45 pm sounds like a very late time to start a hike to most people there was still plenty of daylight left for bradford's hike this part of alaska has over 17 hours of daylight a day in august on average there would have been enough light left for bradford to hike safely for almost two more hours bradford briefly talked with another person at the trailhead before heading onto the trail for his hike bradford's family did not hear from him the following day his wife reported him missing at 6 30 in the morning on thursday august 4th when he failed to board his flight back home bradford's belongings were still in his hotel room and his rental car was still parked in the resort's lot he never signed out at the trailhead and there was no other evidence that he had ever come back from his hike according to the alaska state police there was still a strong signal from bradford's cell phone at 10 32 the night he disappeared the cell phone signal placed him in the winter creek trail system where he had gone for his hike this was the last indication of him and his location the winter creek trail is a popular and well maintained trail it is wide and mostly flat it does go through a heavily wooded area so individuals who go off the trail have gotten lost in the woods before but according to the alaska state police they are generally located fairly quickly the trail leads up to the edge of a narrow gorge 100 feet up from glacier creek a hand tram runs across it allowing hikers to pull themselves over the creek to the other side in a metal basket once they reach the other side they can get on to the upper winter creek trail which is a more challenging hike bradford did not leave any notations about his plans when he signed the trail trailog so it is unknown how far he planned to go on his hike that night bradford falling from the tram into the creek was an obvious initial concern during the search for him in 2016 additional safety measures had been installed on the tram although it is unclear if they were installed before bradford went missing even with these extra features however there has been a fatal accident on this tram in june of 2019 a 57 year old man from anchorage died after falling off the tram and missing the safety netting below since bradford's body was not immediately located if he had met with the same fate he would have had to have gone into the water the russian creek was difficult to search but a local resident did raft it looking for bradford and an aluminum watercraft designed for challenging conditions was later deployed to search the creek bradford was not found according to tim de spain a spokesman for the alaska state troopers because glacier creek empties into cook inlet just a few miles downstream from the hand tram bradford's body could not have been carried outside of the area of the water that they had searched over 100 people were involved with the search for bradford the alaska incident management team coordinated the majority of the search effort but multiple other agencies and organizations were involved in it helicopters performed aerial searches and 10 teams of search dogs were brought in their efforts were hampered by a lack of wind without the breeze to bring scents to the dogs they picked up on few cents to follow several items like cough drop wrappers and pieces of food packaging were found during the search but given the popularity of the trail there was no way to say if any of them had been left by bradford authorities found no evidence of foul play in the case or evidence that bradford was attacked by a large animal after more than a week of active and intense searches the teams of people searching for bradford essentially ran out of places to look for him the search was scaled back to a limited mode bradford brooch remains missing in 1994 34 year old shannon shell was living in tucson arizona with her parents she had moved in with them five years earlier following her divorce she worked at jason's deli on east broadway boulevard shannon enjoyed hiking in her free time while she was an experienced hiker she was not a particularly skilled one she had previously gotten lost for two days during a hike on october 12 1994 she set out to complete a goal she had previously failed to accomplish she parked her camaro at the trailhead of the tanque verde ridge trail in saguaro national monument east hiking the trail would take her to manning camp and would be a 32-mile track round trip she had attempted this hike once before and been unable to complete it this does not necessarily reflect poorly on shannon or her hiking abilities the trail is a difficult one to hike and features steep terrain that is difficult for even more accomplished hikers bob love the chief ranger at saguaro national park in 2010 did not believe that shannon would have been able to complete this hike in a single day shannon's timing for the trip also added another level of difficulty for her she had just recovered from the flu shannon locked her valuables her wallet and some jewelry in the trunk of the camaro and set out for her hike it is believed that she had taken several water bottles some snacks extra pieces of clothing cigarettes lipstick and cough drops with her she never returned from the hike over 120 people spent over 2 000 hours searching for shannon helicopters tracking dogs and infrared sensors were all used in the effort six miles up the trail searchers found a fire ring and some footprints a few items were found nearby that may have belonged to shannon but the connection was never confirmed the search ended after eight days and shannon was presumed dead although her remains have never been found you

Channel: heavy casefiles.

Views: 120,782

Rating: 4.896049 out of 5

Keywords: strange disappearances, disappeared, national park disappearances, true, missing in alaska, missing persons, missing persons cases, missing in national parks, missing hikers, missing hikers in national parks, missing marine

Id: SM4P-KlwQKI

Length: 15min 45sec (945 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020

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