Missing on Mount of the Holy Cross

[Music] hmm [Music] there is a mountain in the distant west that sun defying in its deep ravines displays a cross of snow upon its side henry wadsworth mount of the holy cross piques the interest of masses when it was first photographed in 1873 by w.h jackson the mountain attracted those wishing to pray from all over the united states and it gained so much visitation that in 1929 it was declared a national monument these days though it is mostly climbers and hikers who visit the site and because the number of visitors dwindled over the years the mountain lost its monument status in 1950 this mountain has also become somewhat famous for the disappearances that have taken place on it which we're going to get into in this video the mountain itself is actually surrounded by a lot of folklore too and at the center of that a disappearances and people passing away unexpectedly specifically the folklore references those who would go to the site in groups and one of the individuals would split up from the group to go pray alone when the person didn't return the others would go to retrieve them only to find that they're no longer with them of course i can't speak of the validity of folklore but it is interesting nonetheless at any rate let's travel to mount of the holy cross and explore the first disappearance to begin let's talk about james nelson james was 31 years old when he disappeared from mount of the holy cross located near vale james had planned a 25-mile five-day hike on the fall creek trail head and was last seen on the 3rd of october 2010 when two hikers had a conversation with him but james would never return when he didn't appear to his family on the eighth as planned he was reported missing by his fiancee it's worth mentioning that james was an experienced hiker and this was an activity he engaged in a lot though i don't believe that he'd hiked in this area previously at first the authorities told his fiancee that he would probably be back the following day but when he still hadn't emerged the search was on the colorado springs gazette reported that the colorado national guard had dropped search teams all over the fall creek trail and had deployed helicopters over the site james had set off on this trip with proper gear and a lot of supplies which made the searchers feel hopeful that they would be able to locate him okay at this point searchers had been in the area for three days alongside dogs and helicopters but they weren't finding anything of note the entirety of the trail had been scoured at this point which means that for some reason james must have strayed from the trail but why of course all wilderness areas have their dangers but james was an experienced hiker that engaged in this activity a lot he wasn't new to following trails by any stretch it's not made clear as to when but it seems at some point the weather had taken a turn for the worst in the area which officials said made the search a bit more difficult as the many boulders and rocks were now slippery at the end of the fourth day the official search was called off as no clues were presenting themselves and the search dogs had no luck in finding him local fishermen and hunters who were in the area frequently were told about james and the message was spread to keep an eye out for him it seems to me that there was some debate and frustration and a lot of worry present among the searchers as james had taken a gps with him on this trip so they didn't believe he could have just gotten lost that was the end of the trail they didn't find james or any trace of him whatsoever at least until two years later [Music] on the 25th of may 2012 a person that was scouting for campsites near holy cross city came across one that had been seemingly abandoned this unnamed man found the top of the skull and reported the finding to the authorities the authorities once more descended on the area looking for clues and a cadaver dog this time managed to find james's jaw the authorities also found a journal left behind by james that seems to indicate that he started to feel a bit sickly during his trip the authorities reasoned that he may have been suffering from altitude sickness it was then noted that his camera gps and camp stove were missing the finding of the remains reminds me what was found in jared atadiro's disappearance reported by david polidas and jared's father in david's first missing four-on-one documentary that's the end of the information flow on james and the authorities couldn't determine a cause of passing and it's not clear where the rest of his remains ended up in the end it's not really understood what happened to james nelson michelle ray vanek 35 years old and her friend eric sawyer 36 arrived at the half moon trailhead southwest of mintern at around 6 30 a.m on the 24th of september 2005. eric was an incredibly experienced hiker who descended 38 of colorado's 53 14ers after this incident took place eric said that he had a bad feeling about that day and you'll come to see why firstly eric had forgotten his lunch and water purifier in the car and almost immediately after starting their hike they had started on the wrong trail their initial plan was to hike the relatively easy northridge route but they had gone up the more difficult halo routes despite the mistakes the two were enjoying their hiking session for the most part and after realizing their mistakes they decided to continue on as turning back meant that they wouldn't have been able to reach the summit seven hours after starting michelle had run out of water and eric's supply was starting to run low too minutes later the pair were very close to the summit being around 400 yards away michelle stopped in her tracks and told eric that she couldn't go on and needed a break but insisted that eric should continue on to the summit eric did stop with her and said that they could turn back now but michelle urged him to continue on as i can only imagine she may have felt as if she was ruining his goals or the day in general eric told her to wait where she was or to walk the short distance towards the east cross creek trail where he would meet her around 10 minutes or so had passed and eric arrived at the summit at 1 42 p.m that day the denver post reported this on the summit eric called his wife to say that they were running late according to witnesses bill and julia taylor who were also present at the summit he was only there for around five minutes he seemed rushed because he had to get back to his hiking partner julia said sawyer and the tailors exchanged typical pleasantries and snapped each other's pictures before he headed down a short time later they heard sawyer yelling what they thought were calls for help but were actually his shouts of michelle there was around a 25-minute time period between eric leaving for the summit and returning back down to michelle this feels odd to me because michelle said that she can't go any further and needed to take a break it's weird that she would say something like that and then just wander off and start hiking again eric and the tailors were all shouting for michelle and searching around the immediate area but they couldn't locate her and she never replied to any of their calls eric rushed to the east cross creek trail but she wasn't there and i actually get the impression that eric himself was surprised that she had decided to move given that he was shouting for her almost immediately the following day would see more than 100 searches on the scene and they fanned out looking for michelle the colorado springs gazette reported this on the 30th of september 2005. rescuers found no sign of a missing 35-year-old woman during a search thursday of areas near the mount of the holy cross that were previously unreachable because of bad weather the sheriff's office said its investigation continues but said there is nothing suspicious to indicate that eric was involved this was coupled with michelle's husband ben who also echoed that he did not believe for a moment that eric had anything to do with their disappearance though he did lament his decision to leave her behind over the course of seven days over 700 searches descended on the very area that michelle had disappeared from search dog teams scoured the location looking for a set while around five helicopters at least one equipped with thermal imaging technology were up in the air at all times climbers descended and ascended up the ridgelines while volunteers combed the area but absolutely no trace of michelle was turning up the denver post reported that early during the search a watch hanging from the branch of a tree was discovered which is odd in and of itself and at first they believed that they'd found a clue that suggested they were on the right track it's not clear that they ever established who the watch belonged to but they did find that it didn't belong to michelle the denver post also reported that at the very end of the first search day searchers encountered a backpacker who refused to talk to anyone they said that he hid behind a tree and then ran down the trail the searchers also came across a tent with a light on but whoever was inside would also not respond to questions nor would they open the zipper the denver post continued on and stated that the following day sheriff investigators went ahead and met with this person or at least the person they believed was inside the tent they questioned the man and while he wasn't forthcoming the investigators didn't believe that he had anything to do with michelle the same night the weather took a turn for the worse and a storm brought heavy rain and snow down upon the mountain six days after the search began the effort was called off tim cochran one of the search leaders stated this a lot of people coming out of the field on saturday indicated that they were willing to go back in on sunday and my comment was simply this if you can show me a clue show me a reason why i'd crank this thing back up in a minute we never found a ski pole we never found anything typically we do and that would have sustained us for another week if we had one tiny little bit of evidence it's a true mystery typically by now we have some sort of clue or evidence indicating a direction of travel where someone might have taken shelter but we don't the sheriff's department seemed to agree with this as spokesman bill kaufman stated further searches for michelle vanek would likely not lead to her discovery the sheriff's department added that they fully believed that michelle was still up on that mountain they just couldn't point to where reported seven years after her disappearance i found this final piece in the colorado springs in august of 2012 the largest search and rescue operation in colorado history failed to find a trace of her she was last seen at 13 800 feet that's just boulder after boulder some the size of a house so michelle disappeared without a trace at a high altitude in a boulder field absolutely no clues were left behind whatsoever and there was nothing to indicate that a struggle had taken place search dogs had completely failed to find a scent there was no thermal evidence of her presence and over 700 searchers came up with nothing what happened to michelle vanek on the morning of the 8th of august 1994 21 year old christian burke told his roommates that he was going on a solo hike in the mount of the holy cross wilderness area he told them that he would be back by no later than the 11th which would be a thursday and gave him a good three days to spend in the wilderness of course thursday the 11th had rolled around and his roommate still had had no word from him so at some point that day they reported him missing a familiar name came up here and tim cochran was apparently a spokesman for the vale mountain rescue team at that time of course 11 years later he would come to hold a leadership position in the search for michelle vanek in any case on the 16th of august timor told the press that the search had not been successful thus far but was still ongoing it appears that there were around 100 searches present almost from the beginning and over 150 at one point the day afterwards on the 17th the farmington daily times reported this the search for an even man missing more than a week in the mount of the holy cross wilderness area was terminated tuesday afternoon with no sign of the man authorities said the search for christian burke 21 who went hiking alone in the wilderness area on the 8th of august was launched last thursday and at one time more than 150 searches were in the field eagle county sheriff's spokeswoman kim andrei said searchers did not find a single thing however individual search team members will continue to look for the missing man as time permits a team of 14 ground searchers and a dog team scoured the area on the west side of mount of the holy cross between the summit and cross creek on tuesday before being driven out by an afternoon thunder and lightning storm christian's car was found parked at a campground at the base of the mount of the holy cross trail and a log book at the summit indicates that he reached the top on the 8th of august i probably sound like a broken record at this point but i do want to clarify that at no point during the search did the dogs find a sense the next update comes three days later from the cedar rapids gazette this is what they reported on the 20th of august 1994. the body of a former mcgregor man missing for a week has been found on the mount of the holy cross in west central colorado the body of christian burke was found thursday at the twelve thousand four hundred foot level of the mount of the holy cross about one thousand four hundred feet below the summit it seems that christian had been drawn to the mountain for a while as the article also reported that his roommate said that he'd been talking about making the trip to the summit for quite some time captain ken wilson of the eagle county sheriff's department said that the cause of passing was not established and that maybe he was struck by lightning captain wilson stated that christian had been cautioned that there was going to be daily thunderstorms in the area at the time despite the search ending christian was actually found by three veiled mountain rescue workers and two hikers if you follow the missing 411 and david polidis you might have recognized a couple of things so far and will certainly recognise this next part christian's body was found in a boulder field behind some of the boulders it seems that this area had been previously searched and the family had privately hide a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging technology to try to find their son that wasn't lingered on too much though it is said that it's easy to miss a body in boulder fields it was also never clarified if the dogs were in that particular area christian's brother sean had also stated that christian was outgoing ambitious very friendly and was no novice in the mountains and that he'd been doing a lot of hiking there was one major oddity here and that was the fact that a cause of passing wasn't established for christian and the sheriff thought that maybe he'd been hit by lightning there's a one in seven hundred thousand chance of that happening so obviously that is generally very unlikely the way it was discussed it seems that the only evidence to point in that direction was the fact that there was bad weather in the form of thunderstorms during his ascent it's normally apparent if a fall has taken place for obvious reasons so it doesn't appear that was the case here and there were no injuries mentioned to point in that direction also important to note here is that there was no mention of a struggle or any kind of third party involvement if one is to pass away as a result of a lightning strike it is normally because of cardiac or respiratory arrest or both other common injuries seem to include muscle pain broken bones confusion hearing loss seizures burns behavior changes and ocular cataracts the obvious things that could point to that conclusion here would be burns broken bones and cartilage it's tough to really know what they meant there when they said that they weren't sure why he passed away but he might have been hit by lightning it would have been interesting to know if any or a number of those indicators had been present this incident could potentially match the missing 401 criteria christian was alone in a very rural area the weather took a turn for the worse and then he was found in a boulder field there didn't seem to be an obvious cause of passing at least from the information we have present search dogs never found a set and the aerial searches failed i'm not sure that the aerial search failure is specifically listed by david as an area of interest but it certainly catches my attention especially when thermal imaging technology is involved coupled with search dog failures it's also worth mentioning that professional search and rescue personnel speak very highly of the aerial components of the search specific to helicopters unfortunately and unsurprisingly it doesn't look like the data is collected anywhere of successful search and rescue performed by helicopters one would imagine that the number would be fairly high since they are heavily relied upon and have been used in a search and rescue capacity almost since their inception anyway it's unfortunate but that's where the paper trail ended for christian and it's not clear what exactly happened to him that day this next incident reminds me of michelle's disappearance in some ways but thankfully had a different outcome on the 29th of july 1997 the sedalia democrat reported about a lady named kathleen kinder father who had gone missing on mount of the holy cross at the time kathleen was 67 years old and was in great shape for her age as she hiked a lot kathleen didn't actually go missing on the 29th but rather the 26th the press only seemed to have caught wind of it the three days afterwards the farmington daily times then picked up on this incident and was able to acquire some more details that day kathleen had gone to the mountain with one of their good friends whom she hiked with a lot their plan was to hike up the trail located between half moon pass and the mount of the holy cross it's not clear just how high kathleen had made it up it's only made clear that similar to michelle kathleen couldn't quite make it the entire way and stopped close to the summit her friend stopped with her but again similar to michelle she encouraged the friend to continue on i can only imagine that both michelle and kathleen thought that they were ruining the trip for their friends i'm a firm believer that splitting up in situations like these is a major mistake and if you ever find yourself in this situation i would urge you not to split up in any case the friend did continue on and made it to the summit the friend wasn't at the summit for long before coming back down to return to kathleen now similar to michelle the friend just couldn't find kathleen again she came right back to the spot she'd left her but kathleen wasn't present the friend made the route around the immediate area and was calling out for kathleen but there was no response not only had kathleen disappeared but now there was about to be another disaster too the pair had planted a camp in this area and now it was getting dark and the friend couldn't make it out of the area to get help i can't imagine the friend slept much that night but did wait at the camp hoping that kathleen would return early the following morning and in a panic which can also be dangerous at a time like this when still in potentially dangerous territory the friends sped to the nearest forest service office but it was closed which delayed the organization of the search the friend was finally able to get a hold of the authorities who then estimated that the search was delayed by around a day because of the circumstances the authorities took dogs to kathleen's last known location but it doesn't appear that they could locate ascent alongside the dogs they had 57 professional search and rescuers at the spot she had disappeared from as well as national guard helicopters during the search heavy rain and fog hit the area making it all the more difficult for the searchers the search grew in size over a period of four days and nights but because they couldn't locate a single clue as to where she'd gone they started to scale it down kim andrei was the public information officer for the eagle county sheriff and she said that they are going to look at what they might have missed in the high probability area before deciding what to do next the search is focused on a seven square mile area between the half moon pash trail and the mount of the holy cross kathleen was found on the 30th of july 1997 and the alamogordo daily news had this to say eagle colorado a 67 year old woman survived five nights in a boulder field in the colorado mountains by huddling in a space blanket eating cereal bars and drinking rainwater authorities said tim cochrane said that it's an epic story and that he'd never seen anything like it in 20 years it doesn't appear that searchers thought that they would find her in a stable condition at this point she was seen by a physician at the hospital but that evaluation wasn't discussed unfortunately the medical center public information officer only said that she had suffered from dehydration and that while she was awake and alert she was very weak this article states that the dog teams eventually pointed searchers to an area near cross creek drainage but kathleen wasn't there it was an army helicopter that spotted her red parker in the boulder field it's not clear why the dogs had picked up a scent at the creek drainage because kathleen wasn't to be found there the helicopter found her around half a mile away from her starting location tim made it clear that without the helicopter that day she would not have been found so i can only take that as though the dogs weren't close to her kathleen stated that she wasn't sure how she got lost but tripped and fell into a boulder field i'm not sure why kathleen had decided to keep on hiking without a friend similar to michelle she said that she was tired and needed a break so why on earth she carried on i'm not sure the friend also panicked as soon as he or she made it back down to where kathleen was last seen which seems to indicate that the friend thought kathleen was going to wait right there i can only imagine that the pair had discussed that while the friend was being encouraged to keep going onwards to the summit ultimately i'm just glad that kathleen was found in good condition in the end because that easily couldn't have been the case and wouldn't have been if it wasn't for the pilot of that helicopter not to repeat myself too much but a lot of these disappearances that i find generally come after people split up and are alone decisions and mistakes are made that could have been completely avoided had the pair or group stay together so again i know that i have a lot of viewers that love to hike and it's very healthy so it'd be great if more people did it just please don't split up especially in wilderness or just generally dangerous areas it's almost never a good idea and the bad outcomes are generally an order of magnitude worse than any positives on that note of being careful this next incident isn't a disappearance but does serve as a good cautionary tale of the importance of preparation and foresight this incident was reported by the philadelphia times on the 16th of january 1881 one of the most horrible adventures that has become the part of the reporter to chronicle for the past few weeks is that which a party of prospectors underwent while seeking their way to the mount of the holy cross a party of four consisting of messers parker benjamin george ross and wilson started out on their journey under the happiest auspices full of hope with the brilliant prospects of wealth and happiness that was before them they proceeded to fight the boundless realm of snow that surrounded the pass where they were obliged to go should they succeed in making their arduous trip after wandering around through the mountains for two or three days they retraced their steps in order to find a comfortable camping place and make a new start they soon refreshed themselves and started out anew on their perilous journey when about halfway up the mountainside they encountered a sudden heavy snowstorm which lasted for some time full of pluck and courage they defied the stormy elements and pursued their way bravely forward the snow was falling so thick and fast that it was utterly impossible for them to find their way the wind blew with such terrible and unrelenting ferocity that while seeking shelter in the woods they became alarmed and in order to prevent any possible harm they cut down the trees in the immediate vicinity of their camping grounds fearing that the powerful winds would cause the trees to come crashing down they cut every one of the trees down in a distance of 40 feet the weary and unfortunate men could hear the ominous and terrible growling of the mountain lions around their campfire at night as if seeking shelter and protection of man during that fearful period in the evening the being of elk and the bleating of the mountain sheep could be plainly heard in the dim distance as if they were also seeking the men's protection for three days and three nights the storm continued with unabating fury and during the day time the men driven to desperation through contemplation of the horrible fate that was presented to them strove in vain to find their way out of the terrible dilemma in which they were placed by the action of the elements in vain did they seek for the pass freezing their feet hands and face in their efforts to find their way back to civilization destiny however fated the men to remain camped upon the bleak and barren sides of the mountain surrounded by an everlasting endless massive snow finally on the afternoon of the fourth day providence in its mercy tore the clouds of snow and desolation after many weary hours of terrible suffering they finally found their way back to tennessee park they say that for all the gold and silver that might be found in the mount of the holy cross they would not again pass through the same experience well it's safe to say that the group were lucky to have made it out of that without injury or worse it's an old incident that highlights just how fierce the elements can be and why it's absolutely vital to prepare if you're planning on going hiking anywhere or climbing please check the weather and make sure that you're well supplied i've read too many of these disappearances where the simple act of not being fully prepared or splitting up wreaked havoc on the lives of those involved and their families i'm not involved with hikinggearlab.com in any way but they provide some great safety advice so it might be worth having a look at what they've got to say anyway on that note thank you for watching i hope that you found this video interesting and if you did then please do leave a like and subscribe if you haven't already it helps a lot and if not then feel free to leave a dislike i'm just looking for your honest opinion so do share i'd also just like to say a massive thank you to my patrons who helped me to sustain the research and the production of the videos so thank you very much for your support there's a fair few exclusives on my patreon now so if you'd like to check that out and support the channel then you can find the link in the description below i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the disappearances discussed so do leave your thoughts in the comments below i do read them all i hope that you've had a great day or evening depending on where you are be safe guys and i'll see you next time [Music] peace

Channel: Top Mysteries

Views: 50,216

Rating: 4.9113235 out of 5

Keywords: Missing on Mount of the Holy Cross, Mount of the Holy Cross Disappearances, Strange and Unexplained Disappearances on Mount of the Holy Cross, strange and unexplained disappearances, unexplained disappearances, strange disappearances, mount of the holy cross disappearances, mount of the holy cross missing people, mount of the holy cross missing hikers

Id: oqyVY22X_Hk

Length: 31min 40sec (1900 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020