david pillai ders an ex-police officer turned author believes something strange is going on in and around North American national parks after cataloging thousands of mystifying deaths and disappearances we join him in asking whether there is something in the woods that is stalking and haunting human beings [Music] [Music] [Music] the national parks of North America are some of the most haunting and beautiful places on earth from Yosemite in Yellowstone in the u. s. to Yoho and Jasper in Canada all offer something stunning and unique whether that be snow dipped mountain ranges serene lakes endless grasslands which stretch as far as the eye can see or forests that seemingly never end these parks attract millions upon millions of tourists from all over the world their landscapes are truly a sight to behold and it's no wonder that so many visitors flock to these areas of outstanding natural beauty year after year but it should also come as no surprise that many people get lost whilst hiking or hunting in these regions and although most of them are located by dedicated search-and-rescue efforts within 48 hours some vanish often in mysterious and inexplicable circumstances never to be seen again magnificent and unforgettable these places may be but in amongst all our splendor there appears to be a dark and sinister truth that authorities seem reluctant to address oftentimes described in the US as the nation's silent mass disaster people have been disappearing from national parks in their thousands over the last few centuries the exact number is not known because astonishingly the u.
s. National Park Service has only very recently begun to compile a database on these missing persons this was a fact stumbled upon by David Politis a former police officer turned author investigating the high strangeness in which these people seemed to vanish Politis has cataloged over a thousand of these bizarre disappearances in a series of books entitled the missing for one one and although his investigations are comprehensive the picture he paints is by no means complete he fears there could be many more cases that are not known to the public and probably never will be Pleiades apparently began working on this project shortly after visiting a national park where he was approached by a ranger who told him that he was part of a search-and-rescue efforts on a couple of recent unexplained disappearances and that he believed something bigger was going on being an accomplished outdoorsman himself Pleiades was intrigued by the notion of experienced hunters and hikers going missing in terrain they themselves were highly familiar with and promised to look into it little did he know it at the time but he had just embarked on an almost insurmountable task involving years of research and investigation which would culminate in an extensive body of work and bring these mysteries well and truly into the spotlight he began by filtering out certain factors so that he could focus solely on incidents which defied conventional explanation logic or behavior the excluded cases that explicitly involved foul play mental illness and therefore the possibility of suicide clear signs of animal attack the possibility of missing persons drowning or being washed away and at least begin with cases in and around urban areas over time he noticed that these disappearances formed into clusters congregating specifically around North American national parks and the Great Lakes Politis concludes that something strange is going on something is indefinable as it is elusive something as unsettling as it is mysterious he believes there could be an unknown quantity behind these disappearances one which is intelligent and patient predatory and unseen what follows is a select few of the strangest vanishings ever recorded in US and Canadian national parks and one must bear in mind when considering these cases the conventional explanations have either been ruled out completely or are extremely unlikely possibly the most famous example of someone vanishing without trace in a national park is that of Dennis Martin a six-year-old boy who had set out with his father grandfather a nine-year-old brother on the 14th of July 1969 to hike up to an area known as Spence field at around 4 p. m.
Dennis his brother and a couple of other young boys they had befriended decided to play a game of hide-and-seek as the game ended all of the boys came out from their hiding places except for Dennis he was nowhere to be seen the last time anyone saw him he was running towards a bush on the edge of the field behind which there was thick woodland his father William Martin became increasingly concerned and proceeded to run two miles up the Appalachian Trail in the hopes of locating his son but nothing was found over the next two weeks more than 1,500 searchers covering an area of 56 square miles and with the aid of helicopters and sniffer dogs searched in vain for the missing child but he was never seen again even a crack team of Green Berets joined in on the search effort although they worked alone and refused to engage with anyone outside of their group which many people saw as strange in and of itself typically the Green Berets would only be called out in matters concerning national security on the day that Dennis disappeared the key family hiking up towards Rowan's Creek about four kilometers away from Spence field as the crow flies heard an almighty scream at around 5:30 p. m. this was about an hour and a half after Dennis was last seen when they looked in the direction the scream had come from they saw what they described as a bear crossed with a man carrying a small child over its shoulder scurrying off into the dense forest the FBI dismissed this saying that the timeframes involved were too narrow and that no one could have hiked that distance over rough terrain in such a short amount of time however a ranger involved in the search by the name of Dwight McCarter proved this assertion to be false when he hiked the same journey in just over an hour trenny Gibson was a high school student from Knoxville who in October 1976 visited the Great Smoky Mountains whilst on a field trip she was with 40 of her classmates and they were hiking from a parking area to a spot called Andrew's bald as the afternoon wore on the students broke up into smaller and smaller groups each determined by their respective walking speeds trenny was about 20 meters ahead of her group when she was seen to suddenly stop in the middle of the path friends later reported that she was looking off to the side almost as if she had seen something of interest in the bush she then stepped off the trail in the direction she was looking and was never seen again police did not initially believe her friends about the point where she had apparently left the path as it was a steep almost sheer drop followed by hundreds of metres of dense woodland that would have been impossible despite massive search efforts trainee Gibson was never found in July 2010 a man by the name of Eric Lewis was climbing Man Rainier with two other people they were all tethered together on the same piece of rope and was spaced about 20 to 30 metres apart the lead climber Don storm junior stopped at 14,000 feet and waited for his two companions hoping they could summit the mountain together he was joined shortly afterwards by the second climber Trevor Lane and they both waited for Erick's who arrived he never did after reeling the rope in they discovered he was not attached to the other end even though they had caught glimpses of him behind them only moments before bad weather had been rolling in and they assumed that he had detached in order to take a rest something which would have been highly irresponsible but not unheard of heading back down the mountainside they saw no sign of him whatsoever and discovered that his tracks seemed to just stop in the middle of nowhere helicopters scoured the slopes but found nothing search-and-rescue discovered his backpack climbing harness and snow shovel at thirteen thousand six hundred feet but Eric himself was never located stephanie stewart was a 70 year old wildfire spotter working for Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada on the night of the 26th of August 2006 she happened to be working at the very remote Athabasca lookout tower situated 25 miles northwest of Hinton she had a very important job looking out for any sign of bushfires during the day and sleeping at the tower during the night on the morning of the 27th of August she failed to carry out a routine radio check in with her supervisor a tusk which was required at least three times a day another fire spotter was sent to the tower to check on her but found that she was gone all that was missing from the cabin was her blanket there were no signs of a struggle or a forced entry having taken place the stove had been lit and a pot of water had been placed on the hob but the contents had long since boiled away her truck was still outside and authorities found no tracks leading in or out of the area other than those left by her own vehicle she was of a sound mind and had a loving family it seems unlikely that she would have just left in the middle of the night for no apparent reason stephanie was never seen again and her disappearance caused the provincial government to change the way lookout towers operate throughout the region Charles McCulloch was a 19 year old amateur photographer from Virginia in December of 1974 he hitchhiked out to the west coast on an extended vacation photographing scenery along the way in January the following year he found himself staying with a friend in Oregon he planned a short excursion out to Crater Lake to take pictures of the beautiful winter landscapes there and then to return to his friends house two days later he never did however massive search-and-rescue efforts were launched but nothing was found no tracks no sense no eyewitnesses nothing a year later a couple of hikers located a backpack 12 miles off the trailhead and after being examined by authorities it was determined that it belonged to Charles Park Rangers got a horse patrol lights at the same area within hours and shortly afterwards they found McCullough's body or what remained of it the scene was strange to say the least all they found of him was his jeans unbuttoned sitting on a log in the middle of nowhere frozen in position as if an invisible man was sat inside them his socks were sticking out of the legs at the bottom as you would expect and inside them they found small foot bones 12 feet away they found the top of his skull his shirt coat boots and all of his other belongings were nowhere to be seen and they never found the rest of his body most perplexing of all was how he even got to this location to begin with on the day he vanished there was seven and a half feet of new snow on the ground making it impossible to travel there at that time even if he'd had a snowmobile a case similar to this occurred in Canada's Yukon Territory in 2004 49 year-old Bart schleier was according to everyone who knew him the greatest outdoorsman you never heard of he was smart strong unbelievably fit and had been hiking and hunting the wilds of North America since his preteen years there was no doubting his experience in September of 2004 he charted a pilot to fly him into a remote region 175 miles north of Whitehorse with the intention of hunting moose alone he was well equipped taking along three crates of supplies which carried his food camping equipment and hunting gear the pilot dropped him off and arranged to return three weeks later to pick him up that was the last anyone ever saw of him when the pilot did returned he found Bart's camp setup and well stocked but could see no sign of the man himself the RCMP mounted an extended search of the area and eventually found a few of his teeth and shards of bone on the ground about 60 feet away from his camp not too far away from these remains they found his dry bag on the ground indented as if he had been sitting on it and his hunting bow propped up against a tree examination of bear and wolf scat in the area ruled out the possibility that he had been eaten by a larger animal and friends are quick to dismiss this anyway saying that he was far too canny and outdoorsman to have been surprised by a bear or some other large predator besides this there was no disturbed ground or snapped branches indicating any signs of struggle and authorities queried if he had in fact been taken unawares by a bear or wolf why had the supplies of his camp not been raided another strange case two years earlier in 2002 centered around a 20 year old surveyor from ela's Lee Georgia Christopher Thompkins was working as part of a four-man crew near dense woodland in Harris County at the end of the day the team headed back to their vehicle and was walking along Warm Springs Road a straight highway which is bordered by woodland on both sides each crew member was walking roughly 50 feet apart and Christopher was last in line within a few seconds he had vanished his colleagues went back to the point he was last seen and found around 12 cents and coins on the ground they also discovered one of his work boots snagged on the barbed wire fence lining the road as well as fibers from his work trousers despite a wide-ranging search involving hundreds of people Christopher was never found several months later his other boot was located by the property owner near a swamp 900 yards from where he vanished the fact that they found the contents of his pockets on the road suggests that he had been turned upside down Todd guide was a 22 year old man from Casanova in Michigan on the night of the 11th of June 2005 he attended a keg party with his cousin but left at around 12:30 a.
m. because he was feeling tired he hadn't drank much but decided to walk home as he preferred not to take the of driving whilst under the influence it's around 1251 a. m.
he called a friend and was heard to say I'm in a field before the call suddenly cut off the friend called him back but heard only heavy breathing and/or wind before the call cut off again Todd then tried to call his friend back two more times the last attempt being at 12:57 a. m. but nothing else was heard from him that night the next day he failed to show for a family gathering which was completely out of character for the young man and when it was discovered that no one else had seen him after the party his concerned parents reported him missing a huge search took place involving over 1500 volunteers and helicopters equipped with infrared lakes and swamps in the area were dragged and dived but nothing was found It was as if Todd had simply dropped off the face of the earth three weeks later on the 2nd of July a couple walking along the shore of Oban Hall Lake saw something out in the water it looked like a man standing upright his head and shoulders bobbing on the surface of the lake it turned out to be the body of Todd gibe the location where he was found shocked everyone as the lake had been searched multiple times in the intervening weeks and it was in completely the opposite direction to where he had been heading the cause of death was listed as drowning whilst under the influence of alcohol but no water was found in his lungs and his blood-alcohol limit was relatively low so who or what is responsible for these killings and/or disappearances Politis is reluctant to single out any particular culprit or cause but he has indirectly hinted at several possibilities and the tone of his books is highly suggestive of something out of the ordinary skeptics have largely disparaged polite as his work arguing him at often times he deliberately omit certain details which do not fit his narrative and that there are rational explanations for every single one of these cases their reasoning includes animal attacks a serial killer or possibly even several people becoming disorientated and injured people having a desire to intentionally disappear or it's suicide drug dealers or drug manufacturers conducting business out in the wilds in killing those who stumble upon their operations quick or sudden death due to illness or exposure animal attacks will always leave telltale signs such as blood pieces of flesh torn clothing tracks scents and signs of a struggle having taken place such as snapped branches or disturbed ground none of the cases polite as presents show any evidence of such and therefore he rules us out as a possibility the same can be said for serial killers it is highly unlikely that they would fail to leave any trace of them having been there becoming lost and disorientated is indeed plausible but many people who disappear are highly familiar with their surroundings and of either hiked or hunted those locations countless times before and even if they do get lost why do organize search parties sniffer dogs and helicopters with forward-looking infra-red still fail to find them in all of these cases the individuals were her sound mind as far as any of their friends or colleagues knew so this makes suicides unlikely although not implausible disappearing intentionally to start a new life on the other hand could be a possibility but doing so would be an immense undertaking would take months of planning and cost a great deal of money something which would be difficult to hide from friends or loved ones in either of these cases this does not explain why search and rescue parties are unable to locate any trace of them whatsoever drug manufacturers operating in remote regions is not unheard of after all anyone who has ever watched the TV series narcos will know that Pablo Escobar used the Colombian jungles to conceal his production operations however the National Parks of North America seemed like an unlikely place for such practices given the number of annual visitors drug dealers would know that killing someone would only invite more unwanted attention to the region in the form of the National Park Service search and rescue parties and police officers finally succumbing to some underlying illness or injury sustained whilst hiking is probably the most likely cause of these disappearances polite is even notes that many of these individuals had some form of disability or condition or reported feeling unwell before they vanished however it is very odd how search and rescue attempts still failed to locate their bodies one would think that an individual who was feeling ill would not stray too far off established trails if at all depending on the nature of an injury accident victims would not be too difficult to locate either especially with the help of sniffer dogs and search helicopters equipped with infrared so when all of these explanations have been exhausted what we left with Politis is mystified by the apparent commonalities between each case such as the fact that instances where dead bodies are found they rarely find the victims shoes or boots or they are in a state of undress and a satisfactory cause of death is rarely established of course some people have suggested that these disappearances are the result of something paranormal or supernatural theories have ranged from woodland spirits to large cryptids such as Bigfoot's or the dogma alien abductions people slipping through interdimensional portals and even certain plant life activating some form of defense to human presence and as unbelievable as these suggestions may sound there have in fact been instances where people experienced such things whilst in national parks and lived to tell the tale there is a bizarre phenomenon which countless people have reported whilst hiking known simply as the silence typically an individual will be walking through woodland when everything will suddenly go quiet all wildlife falls silent the breeze rustling through the leaves dies down and the air around them seems to get heavier by all accounts it is an incredibly unnerving experience as people often report feeling as if they're being watched or stalked by something this same thing happened to Jann Maccabee wife of a renowned optical physicist Bruce Maccabee while she was bow hunting in Ohio back in 2010 it was around 6:30 p.
m.
