Mount Rainier National Park: Strange and Unexplained Disappearances

[Music] [Music] according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature there are more than 4,000 national parks around the world in the US alone it's estimated that 270 million people visit their park system each year in more recent times many of the parks have been examined under a closer lens as a result of increasing interest in the disappearances that take place on their soil if you listen to David Politis and other researchers who have a vested interest in the topic something that comes up a lot is that there seems to be also activity at interest on the front end in terms of reporting on the case the back end however in contrast is where it starts to fall apart with some wanting the case to be swept under the rug and hidden from view anecdotally I think that assessment is correct I have come across disappearances in the past where certain parks have vowed to never give up the search only for it to be shelved and never spoken about again a short time afterwards sometimes actually it's even worse than that where the official search concludes but families and other agencies want to continue on even finding ways to finance their own helicopter searches which are then refused entry into the park it's clear to see why - having people simply disappear without much of an explanation in the end is presumably not so good for business in terms of attracting people to these parks so concluding the investigation is of absolute paramount importance in many respects what is striking many as odd though other circumstances behind some of these disappearances leading many to conclude that something is off about them as they are not what you might expect the overwhelming majority of disappearance cases reach a conclusion in one form or another usually as is the case for most countries around the world the reported missing is felt safe and well and even in a timely manner however the average missing-persons case doesn't describe some of these situations very well in many situations the missing are simply never found search dogs despite having an incredibly high success and effectiveness rating can't find them thermal imaging equipped helicopters never find a heat signature at any points despite claims that they are so sensitive that they can pick up a heat signature even two days after someone passing away sometimes the search ends up successful but it's only in the sense that they find the body of the missing but this often only leads to further questions in many instances when speaking about this very kind of disappearance the person will be found in shallow water when injured sometimes missing items of clothing most strange of all in my opinion when the shoes are missing the coroner often concludes that the passing was highly probable as being caused by hypothermia but sometimes doesn't mention the circumstances leading up to the passing or struggles to explain why certain actions were taken interesting to note here is that sometimes when lucky the searchers speak to the press and share their insights they - on occasion will make a note of how they thought something was odd about the whole situation I recall one young boy going missing a meal in Pig National Park which I'll leave a link to in the description below the searchers spoke of finding lone intimates and footprints that they believed were the boys after the find the expectation was that he would be found in a timely manner but after an intensive search lasting weeks there was no further trace of him more obvious seeming conclusion often pops up that is that the missing must have come into contact with a wild animal and therefore animal predation must have taken place only when you listen to search and rescue personnel speak on this they'll often tell you that such a circumstance is quite obvious as to put things as mildly as possible there is often a scatter and many clues are left behind in other instances professional trackers are brought in to help and they too don't make a lot of progress once the authorities are involved even when it isn't set out right sometimes there is an air of suspicion in regards to the missing being taken by a third party however in these very specific kinds of disappearance no clues are found to point in that direction other the fact that the mission can't be located and the search dogs are unable to find a sense perhaps indicating that the missing is not in the area anymore or alternatively may have strayed into an area that is less than a cent for one reason or another of course this is not the only scenario that has caused many to have an interest in the topic initially the idea for this video was to examine disappearances from national parks all around the world but when researching and going through all the newspapers I found a string of disappearances that took place in Mount Rainier National Park to start this journey let's go back to 1999 [Music] Mount Rainier National Park is the destination where Joseph or rather Joe would all to his own preference disappeared on the 8th of July 1999 a mere four days after celebrating Independence Day Joe is a very intelligent man and was a success driven person in his 34 years of life Joe managed to graduate from Yale University and became an editor for the Village Voice it appears that he prospered in that job and then went on to work for the New York publisher the new press earlier in life Joe join the Boy Scouts and always had a passion for the outdoors this is a man that absolutely loved nature and be surrounded by it as Joe got older he managed to climb the ranks of the scouts and ended up as an Eagle Scout which is the highest scouting of water my knowledge I mention this because Joe was no lemur when it comes to hiking and survival his skills National Parks rural and wilderness areas are where Joe thrived and it was an activity that he couldn't get enough of the day before Joe disappeared he had made the trip to Seattle to attend unity 99 which is a National Conference for minority journalists Joe was friendly and great at networking and that was precisely his intention for the day on the 8th he had planned a trip to Mount Rainier National Park alone he drove the 70 miles southwest of the location which has been estimated to have taken around two hours in car we can be certain that you arrived at the park at 12:29 p.m. as shown on his car park receipts at the Nisqually entrance from there his position can be tracked as driving to the Longmire area where he started his hike to Mildred points it's important to clarify here that whatever happened to Joe must have happened fairly quickly given that he had only planned for a short hike and was dressed for exactly that scenario he was wearing light clothing and had taken his binoculars as he was an avid birdwatcher Jill never made it back to the conference after this and his friends were surprised but they didn't sound the alarm which in hindsight was a big mistake three days later when Joe didn't turn up for work three of his friends and his ex-partner began to suspect that something was awry together they made the trip to Mount Rainier National Park in the hopes of following in Joseph's footsteps while they were concerned they were all familiar with Joseph d'Or abilities and presumed that he might just be out there doing his thing in my opinion things become a little bit questionable here as the group did not file a missing persons report and saw the 13th though the day they arrived in the park is not clear it could have been the eleventh or twelfth however I would suggest that if Joe didn't turn up for work on the 11th and no one could make contact with him he should have been reported missing that very day and I have absolutely no idea why these people would now become aware that something might be wrong waited so long to me that information by itself is fishy though that might be presuming too much since Joe did travel to the park by himself and eyewitnesses can place him there alone perhaps towards his suspicions here which I've had to come back in edit in Joe's ex-partner was with him at the unity conference it's not clear about the others though anyway after being reported missing on the 13th rangers quickly located his car and came to the realization that he must either be lost or it faced some sort of accident the search began and the press started to report on Joe's disappearance Bruce command was a hiker in the park and saw Joe on the day in question he got in touch with the Park Service after seeing Joe picture being shared in the newspapers he told them that he met Joe on the ramp at rich Trail and that they r at an altitude of around 4,800 feet at around 2:00 p.m. on the 8th the trail was covered in snow and Joe questioned as to how far the trail went on and Bruce said that it went on for another five or ten minutes but that there was a snow bridge that looked dangerous to cross Joe said that was fine and that he planted turn back shortly anyway and the two parted ways with Bruce coming down off the mountain this was the last time that anyone would ever come into contact with Joe would at this point I want to go back in time and look at official press reports near the dates of the incident the central er Chronicle took an interest in this case I'm reported on it twice once on the 16th and once on the 19th on the 16th they stated this searches scoured Mount Rainier in vain for Jill wood last week a helicopter and three teams with search dogs roam the mountains Thursday looking for mr. wood said the park spokeswoman Maria Gillette they were not able to find any significant clues she said officials plan to resume the search today 12th searchers from the Olympic National Park were expected along with four German Shepherd search dogs and eight to twelve volunteer searchers another helicopter has also been placed on standby to assist as well Gillette said it appears he was not on the main trail but he was on a trail following other hikers footprints she also stated that searches discovered some footprints that may have belonged to Joe but thus it was how to indicate the direction of travel or how long they had been there the article describes an anomaly during the search when the search dogs seemed to take an interest in an area of downed trees searchers did come through this area thoroughly but they didn't find any further trace of him this raises the question was this just an anomaly or hurt Joe actually been to that location and if so why couldn't the dogs trace his position after this point it's also worthy of mentioned here that the weather did take a turn for the worst three days into the search when heavy rain began to fall on the 19th the centrality of Chronicle stated this after five fruitless days the search for a New York book editor of Mount Rainier has been suspended no clues emerged enough searching today parks spokeswoman Maria Allah said Sunday after meeting with Joe's family and friends Maria bent points to the conversation with Bruce on the potentially dangerous snow bridge she said that it was a likely possibility that he had tried to cross the bridge which then could have collapsed and caused him to fall while an obvious speculative point to make surely this could have been verified with ease by actually visiting the location and seeing if the bridge had collapsed there were searches all over that area so I have no idea what she's talking about when she says a likely possibility and could have collapsed was the bridge still there or not this is a basic question you feel the park spokesperson would have had knowledge about or perhaps what she meant to say was that he simply fell off the bridge that is bizarre to me that the answer to that isn't known either the bridge wasn't there anymore and you have a strong lead although was damaged along the bridge possibly indicating a fall well there isn't any of that and we're just guessing that joke slipped and fell joke seems to indicate that he didn't plan on crossing the bridge when he told Bruce that he was going to turn back shortly anyway of course there is every possibility that he changed his mind or came into contact with an animal or a third party that pushed him in the direction of the bridge this is all speculation now however I've reread the article and her statements many times over and it just doesn't read like it's a statement of fact but perhaps the bridge did literally collapse and it's just poorly worded now if there was clear evidence of a collapse why was this search not localized beneath the bridge they knew on the 15th that Jo had at least been near that area so why now days later are we thinking about the bridge surely that would have been a great place to start on the 15th I think despite the wording here we have to assume that the bridge had collapsed and there was clear evidence of this because I can't make any sense of that statements otherwise anyway that was what the park officials went with and said that the best bet now was to wait for the snow to finish the melting process over the next few months from what I can gather the snow in the area had already begun to melt even after the snow had cleared Joe nor any trace of him or where he went ever turned up there was absolutely nothing found at all searches said that they didn't believe animal predation had occurred as they would have expected to find clear evidence of that the day in question that Joe disappeared the weather was excellent and conditions were clear or in other words visibility that day was brilliant Joe quite literally disappeared without a trace an astringent dos Campos out it would be completely understandable here if the area was foggy or had been hit with a snow storm or just bad weather in general but it wasn't one would imagine thus if he did make that fall his body would have been discovered in subsequent helicopter and ground searches especially once the snow had cleared this then raises the question could there have been any third party involvement here of course I can find no evidence of this but there is no evidence of anything I was really surprised as absolutely nothing was found in this instance now just to make things stranger then use paper amazingly named the Walla Walla Union bulletin reported this on the 21st of July 1999 with the heading number of hikers missing on Rainier highest in years the REE hikers recently missing on Mount Rainier may be hidden under the heavy snow that blankets the mountain it's the highest number of lost people on the mountain in years the three hikers john rep coeur williams yep june and now joe wood they are presumed passed by friends family members and park officials after becoming lost in separate incidents on the mountain since May rangers who have been here for many years don't remember ever having a year like this Park spokeswoman Maria Gillette said of the toll the missing man disappeared while hiking off snowboarding on the mountain but park rangers have struck out in their rescue and recovery efforts we're very frustrated park ranger NEMA Stephen said at this point let's have a look at the other disappearances that's happened on Mount Rainier at the time unfortunately these disappearances didn't get as much attention as Joe's so less specific details are known but this is what we have john rep care who was 51 years old at the time went to mount rainier with a climbing team on the 16th of May 1999 all of his team mates were more than just that and from what I can gather I don't known each other for a very long time and were friends the group had planned to climb the more snow field which is 8,000 feet up the fourteen thousand four hundred and ten foot mountain things get a little hazy here but John managed to become separated from the rest of the group and they weren't even sure how that had happened but visibility that day was low it seems that the group had been hiking together and at some point during their descent John became separated accidentally and no one had realized that it had happened the group did have radios and John made contact with them and he told them that he was lost this was the first time that they had realized he was missing and they were at an elevation of around 8,000 feet reports aren't specific about the actions that the group took at this point the central 'ya Chronicle on the 19th of May 1999 reported this poor weather hampered the efforts of the searchers looking for a climber who got lost in the more snow field while descending Mount Rainier weather permitting the search was scheduled to resume today for John wrecker who was coming down the mountain Sunday when he became separated from his group said National Park spokeswoman Maria she left on Tuesday the 18:33 searchers on one helicopter swept the area between the snow field at 8500 feet and Paradise glacier at 6400 feet going was difficult because of low temperatures wind precipitation of Papi's ability Gillette said John is an experienced climber who was bent at the top of Mount Rainier before and he was carrying a backpack we're all familiar now with the Walla Walla Union bulletin on on the 8th of September 1999 they reported this a body recovered on Mount Rainier is believed to be John replica 51 who disappeared May 16th after falling behind his climbing team on the more snow field a helicopter pilots who had been involved in the initial search for replicas was flying supplies to camp more on Tuesday when he spotted clothing replicas was known to have worn said Ranger Dave Langley they unfortunately never mentioned what clothing they had spotted which would have been interesting to include I would have loved to have known if he had taken his boots off which seems to be commonplace in some of these disappearances - Rangers will later dispatch to retrieve the body what's interesting here is that the pilots who searched initially had already flown over the area where the clothing was later discovered that would indicate that John was now found months later in an area already searched by the initial search-and-rescue teams now let's move on to William dressed yet Jenn whose body was held by Mount Rainier for two years before was finally discovered William's body was actually found by complete accident as at the time the Rangers were trying to find two missing climbers who were thought to have gotten themselves in trouble but thankfully those climbers were found safe and well traveling back in time though so the 20th of June 1999 William was 27 years old he was highly intelligent and was at the beginning of his career as a medical doctor quite literally William had a bright future ahead of him and had all the hallmarks of being a very successful person on that day William began his hike to camp Muir at 10,000 feet it was overcast 5 degrees Celsius or 42 degrees Fahrenheit and drizzling William arrived at the public shelter at 5:15 p.m. and left 15 minutes later to snowboard down the mountain at the time it was somewhat foggy but not so bad to the points that he couldn't see properly according to all William was an avid outdoorsman that was not familiar with this particular mountain and it was at this time that William disappeared a search similar to those discussed so far was undertaken with professional search dog teams trackers helicopters and Park Rangers scouring the area where William had disappeared but they found no trace of him at the time they couldn't locate his tracks not find any indications as to where he might have gone despite the mild fog he was expected to make it down safely and because of his experience with some amount of ease when searchers found his body two years afterwards they said that they first found his snowboard and then he snowshoes followed by other equipments that they didn't specify and finally they located the body not too far away interestingly the Rangers from Williams body beneath the waterfall at the edge of Nisqually glacier at 5800 feet there's no real wonder why he wasn't found at the time of disappearance I can't imagine anyone thought that William would decide to travel to the waterfall before returning down the mountain I suppose this begs the question why did he travel to the waterfall was that a complete accident did he get lost on his way down or perhaps there might have been another reason but I'm absolutely certain that no one expected to find him in a body of water at the time it's not clear to me if William had simply fallen and was injured as it appears that he began to address somewhat as he was found without his jackets among other equipment various press sources seem to be in conflict here some state that he was only wearing like clothing at the time and some indicate that he removed his jacket but all are in agreement that he abandoned some equipment I think that the expectation is that if you'd fall in a great distance and had badly injured yourself undressing and removing equipment would not be an easy task it's important to note here though that alongside being a highly intelligent individual he was also a bit of a daredevil to some extent according to family members he loved to ride kayaks down raging rivers he enjoyed climbing 19,000 foot peaks and even survived a bandit attack during hiking in Ecuador this actually was a point of confusion and frustration for the family who said that they could not believe that a casual day of snowboarding proved to be his undoing later that year in early November a dual disappearance occurred frança valence eel had planned to hike and climbed the 10,000 foot I can't Maria with his two friends Chris at ona's and Raymond Vitali the three sets are from the parking lot at Paradise and they were pulling their packs on their sleds Frank said that they reached the point where the terrain became rocky and quite harsh Chris and Raymond had smaller well-designed sleds that were easy to stow on their packs where his was much bigger that required a lot of manhandling the three came to the conclusion that Frank's sled was slowing them down far too much to be able to reach the stone hurt at camp were the plan changed and Chris and Raymond went ahead with the intention of fortifying a position for them to camp out at mower and then Frank with this slower means of travel would hopefully make it after the camp had already been set up to save time this was the last time that anyone would ever see Chris and Raymond when speaking to the press Frank told them that he has a general rule and hiking at Mount Rainier which he had done many times and had been to the summit on numerous occasions he said that he likes to gain 1,000 feet of elevation an hour but his long torpedo-like affair of a sled was preventing the group from meeting that goal when the trio were together his altimeter suggested that they had dinner on 2/3 of that and he began to worry about not making it to the shelter in time before it got dark as Frank continued the terrain became so rocky as he couldn't get his sled any further and was forced to turn back Frank said I fear that sometime after I left them they may have made a fateful irreversible decision of their own I regret that I was not with them if they were in a difficult situation maybe I could have helped Frank reported the situation to the Rangers that we hadn't realized that they were missing at the time Frank joined the Rangers in the search for Kristin but all attempts were turning up no results they had helicopters flying overhead and had deployed search teams on the ground including dog teams the searches scoured the area from the carpark all the way to camera and at no point that the dogs find a sense nor did the searchers find any equipments or any trace at all in fact if the missing pair days into the progressing search the weather took a turn for the worst and the mountain was hit with 60 mile-per-hour winds which grounded their helicopters and foster ground searchers to retreat and reorganize at the start of this Franken the searches were hopeful because Chris had hiked a camper where around 100 times in the past including the route that they had taken this time Raymond on the other hand was an expert rock climber and had been to the summit of Mount Rainier in the past the weather did get better on the mountain and the search continued authorities state that for specialized search teams were brought in though I'm not sure how they differed from the search teams already present after 11 days of searching the effort was called off because no clues we're presenting themselves as to what had happened to the pair searches said that they were all over that area and they couldn't believe that they weren't able to locate the hikers unfortunately that's all of the information as I could find in regards to Chris and Raymond I did come across an interesting article by the central air Chronicle though on the 3rd of January 2000 they wrote an article with the heading 1999 was a frustrating year for Rainier search teams they state that a record amount was spent searching for missing hikers and climbers in 1999 but no trace has been found of the missing Mount Rainier chief Ranger John cranberry said I cannot remember a year in which we've had so many people that we just couldn't find and it's a real frustration and it's very unusual that year the park had conducted 17 major search and rescue operations which cost them almost a quarter of a million dollars around five times as much they would normally spend in a year John said that rangers volunteers and prefer general searchers were left frustrated time and time again in 1999 he said that they were not able to find so many victims despite intensive and widespread searches the operations leader for tacoma mountain rescue said that we don't want to go up there and go looking for somebody and not get some resolution in one way or another he then goes on to state that many of the searches were hampered by extreme weather conditions that would roll into the area during the search he said that over fifty thousand dollars were spent on dogs search teams in a single case but that they didn't provide any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing it's not clear why 1999 was such a bad year for Mount Rainier in terms of the disappearances but has mentioned in terms of cost it was five times worse than the average year I couldn't find anyone discussing any kind of reasoning as to why 1999 was worse than usual which perhaps indicates that they aren't sure if the weather was particularly bad that year I would have expected that to have come up as a possible explanation one thing is for certain though the fact that the searchers helicopters and all teams couldn't find any of these missing people was becoming highly frustrating to the Rangers and in many cases did expect to reach some conclusion what was concerning or perhaps even disturbing to some was that there was never any trace found during the time of searching to finish off here in a previous video of mine I said that I'd have a more detailed look at the effectiveness of search dogs and as it happens the Kingston University of London just happened to have conducted such a study dr. Greatbatch Gosling and Allen State this there is widespread and long-standing use of dogs in search and rescue operations and their effectiveness is well accepted within the SAR community however very little published research exists that quantifies the effectiveness within a realistic SAR environment this study included 25 experiments with ten dog handler pairs using randomized target placements whereby they could then calculate the ratio of success mrs. and false-positives a false-positive would be the dog believing that they'd found the item but had not each dog was fitted with a GPS device which recorded their paths an ambient temperature the researchers also wanted to account for wind strength and humidity to see if they altered the success rate at all the results of their study showed that there was no identifiable correlation between humidity temperature or wind speed and effectiveness the dogs were 76.4% successful overall with no effects from the weather conditions they also had an effectiveness score of 62.9% just as a brief explanation the success rating percentage there obviously indicates the successful finding of the target item and they found that the dogs were 76.4% successful at finding the items the 62.9% effectiveness score is considered to be the degree to which the dog is successful in achieving this purpose so what they found was that in some cases before the real find was made the dogs would sometimes report false positives or would become distracted in some instances but frequently they still made the find eventually seventy six point four percent of the time in fact which is a very high success rate despite the minor blips does the high success rate of the dogs make some of these missing person cases that much more unusual the answer to that is I'm not completely sure and I would like to see this same study reproduced in mountainous terrain this study in question was done in the UK in lowlands in facts after having another look at the paper the researchers also state the same thing they say for future studies we recommend further tests following the same methods in different locations and environmental conditions and with mob breeds of dogs to get a fuller more comprehensive picture of basic search dog effectiveness it is important to say though that 76.4% is very high and it makes it absolutely clear why humans have been using dogs in a search and rescue city for at least the last 400 years and in all kinds of environments to in my mind I do find it odd that no trace at all was found in these disappearances despite the extensive search efforts as always though I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter so do share thank you for watching if you found the video interesting then please do leave a like and subscribe if you haven't already it helps me a lot and if not then feel free to leave a dislike i'm just looking for your honest opinion to do share and do show you thoughts on the disappearance is discussed I'd also just like to say a special thank you to my patrons will keep this channel moving forwards so thank you very much for your supports 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 peace [Music] you

Channel: Top Mysteries

Views: 320,982

Rating: 4.8266959 out of 5

Keywords: Mount Rainier National Park: Strange and Unexplained Disappearances, mount rainier national park, mount rainier national park disappearances, unexplained disappearances, strange disappearances, national park disappearances, missing 411, national park missing persons, national park missing person cases, mount rainier disappearances

Id: Als6hbWPxM8

Length: 32min 55sec (1975 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/truthspeaker0017]

Peoples ability to critically think has been diminished, and now I am surprised when they can find their way out of a paper bag.

How many people are really prepared with survival skills before exploring wilderness? Not many.