STRANGE and Unexplained Hunter Disappearances - Unusual Circumstances

[Music] throughout the United States of America there are vast untamed lands hundreds of millions of acres are protected from a large human population still hunters are generally known to travel to desolate and isolated areas deep within the American wilderness generally speaking these individuals hold a great understanding of the wilderness and its dangers but not all of them leave alive many who have traveled to these locations have gone missing over the years most are explained but some awful little to no explanation as to what happened to the missing summer found miles and miles away from their last known location without shoes summer found later in areas already searched and others are never seen again it is these details that set these incidents out from the rest where an obvious answer is present such as animal predation with that being said let's talk about the first case [Music] this first case took place in what is known as the crazy mountains interestingly the most popular legend stipulates that it received its name from a tragic events that took place there it's thought that a woman whose family of homesteaders lost their lives at the hand of a group of Indians burst from a cabin attacked the alleged perpetrators with a tomahawk this caused the Indians to retreat who dubbed her the crazy woman the last time she was ever seen was fleeing into the wilderness if true one can imagine why the mountains are named as search but that isn't where the tragedies of the mountains end thirty eight-year-old proficient hunter Aaron Joseph hedges originated from Bozeman in Montana from what I understand Aaron was well-regarded when it came to his outdoor knowledge and ability errand alongside his two friends Greg Laettner and Joe de PUE traveled to the crazies in early September of 2014 with the intent of elk hunting Aaron's weapon of choice was a bow and arrow which he absolutely loved and became very skilled with over the years while his friends preferred their rifles the three men began their trip at the cottonwood Lake trailhead approximately 20 miles north of the town of Billings in Montana at some point during the day the group set up camp but had a minor altercation when their mule began booking which cost some of their kit to go missing including Aaron's sleeping bag the group made peace and went on their way but became separated at some point while hunting though no one was that worried as they were all equipped with walkie talkie radios during the late afternoon Aaron uses radio and told his two friends that he had mr Turner which would have placed him back at the camp he said that his plan was to travel to the Sunlight lake area where the group had set up a hunting camp the year prior and had a cache of equipment there including a sleeping bag his friends told him that this wasn't a good idea and the area would be dangerous as it got darker given its isolation but Aaron continued on with his plan this was the last time Aaron was ever heard from Aaron disappeared on the seventh of September Greg and Joe grew worried and conducted their own search for him the following morning the pair of friends will later heavily criticized however as their own private search lasted for far too long beginning on the 8th and ending on the 10th of September after an unsuccessful search it was Aaron's wife who notified the police on the 10th authorities stated that they should have been contacted far sooner than ninth at the latest corporal Greg Todd stated it's the million-dollar mystery we have right now we just have so many unanswered questions that it really doesn't give us much of a direction to me that just seems far too long to report somebody missing I can understand if your buddy's missing you can go out and look for him for a day but after that you need more help I might have waited a day he might have killed something and it might have taken some time to get back to the camp so I'll go look for him the next day see if he needs help getting stuff out if I can't find him by the end of the day I'm getting the hell out of there and asking for help unfortunately for Arun just as the official search operation was about to begin the mountain he was on was hit with two feet of snow and the temperatures plummeted to 35 degrees Fahrenheit the search itself was fairly large but was obviously hampered by the continuous onslaught of the weather earth searches were basically impossible for the first couple of days according to strangers calm search-and-rescue teams focus their efforts on the area that stretches from the Cottonwood Lake Trail to trespass Creek 20 dog teams seven horse teams 59 ground searches and National Guard and private helicopters equipped with night-vision equipments and spotlights eventually join the efforts this is were things take a very strange turn during the search around the tresspass Creek area Aaron's boots were found alongside a Camelback bladder a water filter a fire starter and a woodpile this left searchers absolutely astonished as they couldn't believe that Aaron would have chosen to remove his shoes given the harsh conditions secondly they also came to the realization that's Aaron or at this point most likely Aaron's body had to be nearby as it would have been an impossibility to travel very far barefoot or in socks as two feet of snow was on the ground despite this however they couldn't find a single trace as to his whereabouts which was beyond strange on the 22nd of September law enforcement scaled back the search as they couldn't find any evidence as to his whereabouts on the 6th of August 2015 a butcher by the name of Roger best Lana veg was visiting his relatives at the rain and Quran CH in sweetgrass County at the time he had some time to kill as one of his relatives was out fixing a fence so Roger took the time to get up onto a ridge above to take in the Vista afterwards he took a short walk into the nearby forestry and sawn orange hunting vest a backpack a bow socks shorts and sweatpants Roger said my first thought when I saw clothes piled up against a tree I just knew there was going to be a body there there is a lot of bear activity where they flipped the rocks over to eat the bugs underneath I just knew there was going to be a body there but there wasn't roger continued i thought some out-of-state hunter got cold and disoriented and wanted to go back home but he couldn't find his stuff so i gathered it all up put his in the backpack to haul it back out when i was just about done i saw a piece of paper and it was part of his license and it had his name on it it said Bozeman Montana law enforcement searched the area and uncovered less than 80% of Aaron's skeletal remains investigators at the scene found Aaron's mobile phone and were hoping to retrieve data from it but unfortunately it had corroded beyond repair bizarrely the location aaron's remains were found were very close to safety land owner Rebecca rein stated it's pretty low where it was actually it wasn't far off rein road and we would never have guessed it was that close he could see the house authorities were left baffled by this but this wasn't the most confusing realization the point Aran's remains where found means that he would have had to have traveled 15 miles most of which were off trail and over very harsh terrain including rocks and heavy foliage not to mention the heavy snow at the time don't forget that Aaron didn't have his boots on the searches said that this scenario felt impossible and didn't hesitate to show their skepticism at the suggestion that he somehow managed to walk 15 miles barefoot let's also bear in mind that Aaron was literally in site of the things and was close to a road so why on earth didn't he make himself known to passers-by or alternatively head to the safety of the buildings many questions remain here how did he manage to get to the location he was found why did he take his boots off 15 miles prior and then take the rest of his clothes off at the end location during paradoxical undressing the shoes are usually the last Segoe not the first in fact these individuals don't normally remove their shoes all in all it seems to me that something highly unusual happened so Aaron and the lack of an explanation from law enforcement and the searchers only adds to the mystery the circumstances in this case simply do not add up despite no evidence of this existing it seems to me that some third party must have been involved but then again who could have carried this full-grown man 15 miles to the in location in rough terrain this was a tragic disappearance that ended with far too many questions that were left unanswered what do you think happened here moving on let's explore the next disappearance [Music] I want to start this incident by reading a brief post from I fish net by Wigman or whose real name is Adam this is a man who used to get involved with the search and rescue efforts I quote some of you might remember Cory faith he was 17 when this happened he went missing during Nell currents in November of 1991 I had never been part of such a search effort before as they had for him I could not believe that with everyone hundreds of people dogs horses etc we couldn't find him I just remember the pain in his dad's eyes day after day and how surreal it seemed something as a parent now I could not even imagine the circumstances behind Cory face disappearance were highly unusual Cory who was 17 at the time of his disappearance attended the Jesuit High School in Beaverton Oregon on the date of his disappearance the 23rd of November 1991 he asked mark moopan if he could accompany him and his friend Elkins sing in the region west of ty Valley on the fringe of badger creek wilderness Cory was well acquainted with the outdoors and held a high level of training in outdoor survival and had hunted in the past on his person Cory was carrying a solar blankets a compass food ammunition a small backpack and a rifle at this point the three friends arrived at the hunting location of choice and made the decision to split up with the plan of meeting back up at their vehicle at half 6:00 in the evening the weather was cold and their hunt was unsuccessful despite there being an abundance of elk at this location inexplicably on this particular day there were none the man excluding Cory made it back to the vehicle at the prearranged time and waited for Cory to arrive but he never did after waiting for some time the men grew worried and called the Wasco County Sheriff's Office who would lead the search operation the response included helicopters with special search capabilities equestrians hikers and seven of the best-trained search dock teams in the world from the Rocky Mountains si the search was extensive and for 10 days 12 square miles west scoured by over 200 or 50 searchers who couldn't find a single trace of quarry the press were opposing the theory that he may have been accidentally struck by a bullet from another hunter but cadaver dogs never found a grave sites another theory circulating was that quarry may have survived for a prolonged period and once searcher thought they may have found a camp site with an old fire but this was never confirmed with a search effort of this scale it seems highly unlikely that he survived for very long after his disappearance he should have been found the search effort came to an end on the 1st of December but volunteers continued on the struggle for many weeks the sheriff's office at the time admitted that they were confused as to what had occurred as they found it odd that he couldn't be located so they contacted the FBI for assistance but there was no further word from the official investigators or the FBI while two hunters rats on average approximately ten miles from the point where Cory was last seen they discovered his rifle and his backpack a mile away his jacket was found authorities well once more notified and they detailed that his items well located at an elevation of 6,500 feet strangely the sheriff stated that they sort of meant that Cory would have been in the snow to his waist for more than five miles so the location he was found an article by the Eugene Register on the 18th of September 1992 read authorities know the snow was deep there because a helicopter spotted tracks during an intensive search for faith last November the tracks turned out to be animals but the snow was almost waist-deep and that was a good three miles from where the items were discovered today interestingly Cory's grandparents said that Cory had been trained to follow a stream downhill should he become lost but in this instance it's appears that he did the exact opposite so Cory was found 3,000 feet higher than he was last seen and 10 miles away from the hunting area the sheriff stated that he did not believe that Cory could have traveled that distance and was struggling to explained how he managed it's Cory's boots socks pants and skull were never found so what exactly happened to Cory again similar to our own how did he manage to travel the distance he did ten miles and uphill without boots in this case this is rugged harsh terrain in cold weather and waist-high snow on the ground and why would he take them off in the first place what do you think took place here now moving on let's examine the final disappearance [Music] Robert Springfield 48 at the time of his disappearance known as booksy by his friends and loved ones by all accounts was a very good man he took his thirteen-year-old son Colton alongside his adopted son Brent with him on an elk hunting trip in the crow Indian Reservation this spot is in the big horn mountains in the southeast state of Montana Robert and his family we're members of the crow nation Indian Reservation and they were hunting on ground owned by the tribe on this day Roberts had come dressed appropriately and was wearing heavy winter clothing with his weapon of choice which was the bow and arrow the details of this next part are a little hazy but it appears that the group split up during their hunts it's unclear if the two brothers stayed together but Robert was by himself before splitting up they agreed to meet back up at a pre-allocated location the brothers arrived on time and waited for their father but as the darkness began to set in they panicked and called the Bighorn County Sheriff's Office and members of the tribe hundreds of searchers began to pour in alongside highly-trained search dog teams and thermal imaging equipped helicopters but the search failed and Roberts was not located in fact nothing was found no body bones blood or equipment leading searches to believe that animal predation had not occurred in this case just over a year later in October of 2005 Roberts remains were found by elk hunters the Billings Gazette calm reported apparently the group was hunting in the area when one hunter heard a crow in a tree screaming like a woman the man went towards the bird but then shifted direction the family believes that the spirit of Springfield's mother who died just before Thanksgiving 2004 may have helped guide the hunter who found a vest and then the remains bizarrely as the hunter approached the crows location he said that the scene was strange there was a partial skull a femur and untouched wallets a neatly rolled up men's Bell - next to the skull and Subaru robert's bow and arrow was never found the Sheriff's Office initially felt that a tree must have fallen on Robert but didn't really know how to explain these findings and the evidence at the scene didn't support the initial hypothesis it was at this point that they notified the FBI given the strange findings and FBI involvement I thought that it was very interesting and wanted to do some further reading at this point I'd like to read a short extracts from new mavin dot IO who documented something very strange the coals are joined in the lawsuit by another crow family that feels the FBI has failed them Veronica Springfield's husband Robert Springfield 48 disappeared on September 19 2004 on a bow hunting trip with his 13 year old son Colton in the Big Horn Mountains an area he grew up exploring searchers used a grid system to comb the area for any sign of Springfield while a volunteer helicopter pilots used an infrared sensor which also came up with no results at one point more than 200 volunteers and about two dozen trained dogs Scout a 5 square mile area they came back during the spring and still found nothing Springfield's remains where font by hunters in October 2005 in an area the family says was 50 yards from where they had camp during the search they insist searchers had looked at the exact spot where the body was found the family wonders if Springfield an ex-marine and Special Forces member had met foul play and his body disposed of later Veronica said if he was actually up there in that area to put it bluntly we would have smelled something the animals would have been there the birds would have been there but what happened next is almost as upsetting as knowing he was gone the FBI sent the remains to Quantico Virginia for DNA testing and identification it took two years for the FBI to return the body to the family so that they could bury the remains and over those two years the family alleges that the FBI never made contact with them we went to hell Roberts sister myra said they hope that's in defending the lawsuit the federal government's will at least have to answer for their actions this is just absolutely bizarre Roberts was found fifty yards from where the family and the searchers were camped which means that he was found in an area already searched so where was he the dogs couldn't find him and the helicopters never picked up his signature again this is another disappearance where the shoes were removed but by whom and for what reason where did Roberts bow go the boys never heard anything to indicate that something was wrong no shouting out gunshots or anything of that nature confusion by the Sheriff's Office ultimately led to FBI involvement who took the body for testing over a period of two years which seems like a very long time surely they must also have felt that the circumstances behind the disappearance were very strange but as far as I can tell they remained silence so what in the world happened to Robert Springfield I just like to take a moment to thank all of you that have subscribe to the channel and who share these videos like them and just generally show supports I appreciate it a lot and I can't thank you enough I'd also like to say thank you to my patrons for supporting me over at patreon so thank you to Joshua M sondheimer or philia gray Rebecca Simpson khaki Jones math powers Natasha Smith Gelf white sir Justin Dean Allen Jen j71 Benjamin Sereno Zia Teasdale Co AG music David Miller Thomas Wendy boiler Matthew Critchley Devin Hartmann cherish Robinson and David sleepyhead I hope I didn't butcher anyone's name too much anyway do let me know what you thought of this one and you'll find all of the sources and links in the description below there's also a link to buy David's missing for 1/1 books so be sure to check that out 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 [Music]

Channel: Top Mysteries

Views: 151,047

Rating: 4.8360891 out of 5

Keywords: STRANGE and Unexplained Hunter Disappearances - Unusual Circumstances, missing 411, unsolved mysteries, david paulides, unexplained hunter disappearances, strange hunter disappearances, missing 411 hunter disappearances, unusual hunter disappearances, Unexplained Disappearances, missing hunters, missing hunters 411, missing hunters david paulides, missing hunters documentary, missing 411 the hunted, strange disappearances wilderness

Id: u3lGTR8yB44

Length: 21min 32sec (1292 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/runningoutofwords]

Paulides' Missing 411 bullshit.

Also, "Generally speaking, these individuals have great understanding of the wilderness". Lol, dude doesn't know a lot of hunters, does he?

[u/flipshipsideways]

Seems to me like that guy's buddies he went hunting with probably had something to do with this..nothing about how he went missing, how his friends searched for him and where he was found make sense.