Two Men Vanished On The Same Trail In Mount Rainier - Why? (Joe Wood & Vincent Djie)

WEBVTT
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Hey, there are folks in this video. I have a
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rare double feature for you. When it comes to missing
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persons cases, it's actually quite uncommon to have an incident
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where the missing individual just vanishes without a trace. By extension,
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it's extremely uncommon to have two people vanish without a
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trace and virtually the exact same area, even if it's
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years apart. And that's what I want to go over today.
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I'm referring to the disappearance of Joe Wood and Vincent
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g and Mount Rainier National Park. Both of these cases
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I would label as less well known in terms of
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public awareness. You know, there's very few YouTube videos on
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them and maybe a handful of long form news reports.
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And the reason for that is because there is precious
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little information that's publicly available, at least on the Internet.
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That is always a recipe for disaster because all the
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information gaps lead the usual Internet suspects to create wild
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and bizarre theories about what might have happened. I've been
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doing this for a while now, and that's almost always
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how it goes. Someone vanishes, very little information is available
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on the timeline of their disappearance. This leaves gaps in
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the story that can be filled with whatever agenda anyone
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wants to insert. I'm mainly saying this now because I've
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read some pretty ridiculous ideas related to one of these cases.
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And you know, I.
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Usually try to be as cordial as possible when it
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comes to the theories of others, because maybe they really
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thought about it and their theory was genuinely the best
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they could come up with. I guess you really can't
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fault someone for that, but damn, maybe you should spend
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a bit more time thinking about it. Anyway, I'm rambling.
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Maybe we'll go into all that later, but I'm already
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worried this video could get way too long. The good
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news in all of this is I will be presenting
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a lot of new information on both of these cases
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that hasn't been made public before. This information will help
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tighten up the timeline for both cases. But this is
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especially true for the disappearance of Joe Wood. By filling
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in those narrative gaps, maybe it could help us in
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developing a logical and reasonable theory as to what could
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have happened to both men, And to really help us
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along later in the video, I will take you out
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to this location so you can see it for yourself.
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I think doing that is especially important in this video
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for me. If one person goes missing on a specific
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trail and they are not found, well, the cause could
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have been any number of things, from foul play to accident.
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When two people disappear on a specific trail and potentially
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in the same area, well, the first thing I'm going
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to do is take a hard look at that area
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to see what the.
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Terrain is like.
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And while we can glean a lot by looking at
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maps of the terrain, it is very hard to beat
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actually hopping on the trail yourself and going there. Hopefully,
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after doing all that, everything we learn will point us
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in a clear direction to developing a solid theory on
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what happened. Joe Wood was a thirty four year old
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man in July of nineteen ninety nine. He was a writer, journalist,
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and book editor who lived in New York. At the time,
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he was single and heavily focused on his passions. One
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of these was bird watching. Therefore, Joe would sometimes go
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out hiking in a park, enjoy the beauty of nature,
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and use his binoculars despy the specific birds in any region.
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Joe was not considered a particularly experienced hiker, and he
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was not familiar with Mount Rainier National Park. When he
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left for his hike, he was not carrying any survival
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equipment or food, water, and extra clothing. He was, after all,
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first and foremost a birdwatcher. In the year prior to
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his disappearance, Joe discovered that he had a heart condition
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after he had a fainting spell while at an airport.
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The specific heart condition he had is unknown, but it
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was severe enough that he had been considering getting a pacemaker.
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Prior to Joe Wood entering the park and his eventual disappearance,
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Mount Rainier had received a near record snowfall and also
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experienced a late thaw. This created numerous dangers in the park.
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Despite it being mid July when Joe arrived there, it
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meant that hiking areas which would normally be free of
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any snow were still covered in snow. Beyond that, a
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series of thaws and friezes led to the creation of
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numerous snow bridges and snow holes over the park's many rivers, streams,
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and waterfalls. These are potentially deadly hazards when stepped on
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by an unsuspecting hiker. On July sixth, nineteen ninety nine,
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Joe Wood flew from his home home in New York
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City to Seattle, Washington. After landing, he rented a vehicle
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from Dollar Rental near Sea Tech at around three am
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on July seventh. His plans for this trip were to
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attend a conference called Unity ninety nine in Seattle. This
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was a conference for minority journalists and would feature panels
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and discussions on diversity and media with some notable speakers.
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At three pm on July seventh, Joe returned to the
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Dollar Rental and told the clerk that he wanted a
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larger vehicle because he was going to be using it
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for pleasure rather than business. They gave him a Mercury
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Grand Marquee, a real trail tamer of a vehicle. That evening,
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Joe went to the Paramount Theater in Seattle and met
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a female who was also in town to attend the conference.
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Like Joe, she was also a reporter and the two
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had been in a relationship for five years, but had
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separated about six months prior. Joe came to the conference
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to surprise her as he was attempting to rekindle their relationship. Unfortunately,
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she did did not react favorably to his attempts, and
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Joe abruptly left the Paramount Theater heartbroken. Afterwards, Joe had
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reservations to meet a female friend at seven pm at
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a restaurant called The Flying Fish. Joe was fifteen to
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twenty minutes late when he arrived, and his friend said
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that he appeared to be upset. Joe explained that the
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conversation with his ex girlfriend had not gone the way
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he wanted it to. The two had a drink together
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and discussed writing and other business topics while they ate dinner.
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As the conversation moved along, Joe mentioned that he would
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like to go to see Mount Raynier and spend some
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time outdoors to clear his head. Afterwards, the two made
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tentative plans to meet for coffee on July ninth at
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three point thirty pm. Joe then drove his friend home
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and returned to his hotel. The next day, on July eighth,
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Joe Wood did not attend the Unity ninety nine conference
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as expected. Early that morning, he sent an email to
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his ex girlfriend. The contents of the email are not
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in the case file, but it was described as highly
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emotional and it reflected how upset he was about their
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meeting the evening prior after sending that email, Joe Wood
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left his hotel and began driving towards Mount Rainier National Park.
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Whatever happened once Joe entered the park, he did not
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return to his hotel, he did not attend the Unity
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ninety nine conference, he did not return his rental car,
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and he did not make his flight back to New York.
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Days later, on July thirteenth, a missing person's report for
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Joe Wood was filed with the New York City Police Department.
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At the time, Joe Wood had last been seen in Seattle, Washington.
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This required some coordination between the NYPD and Seattle PD.
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Officers in Seattle first went to the Ramado Hotel where
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Joe had been staying and inventoried his belongings while confirming
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that Joe had not returned to the hotel.
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It was reported that Joe.
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Had plans to go see Mount Rainier when he was
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last seen, but nobody knew where he planned to go.
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Within the park. Authorities were informed that he was a
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bit down and out after being rejected by his ex girlfriend,
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but that he was working through it. When interviewed, the
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people close to him acknowledged that he was a bit depressed,
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but nobody, not even his therapist, believed that Joe was
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in a state where he would try to harm himself.
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On July fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine, at around two thirty pm,
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the Mount Rainier National Park Communications Center received a call
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informing them that a man named Joe Wood was missing
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and may have come into the park on July eighth.
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They were told that there was a good likelihood that
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Joe may have been hiking in the park when he
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went missing, and they were also given details on the
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rental car that he had been driving. This information was
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quickly disseminated to rangers park wide, who then began checking
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parking lots and trailheads. Joe's rental car would quickly be
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found within the park at a location called Longmire. Longmire
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was the original park headquarters, and today it houses a museum,
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park store, and a large parking lot. It is also
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a hub for a number of nearby trails. When Joe's
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vehicle was found, the weather in the park was in
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the mid sixties with clear skies, so a hasty search
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was put together. At the time, rangers had no idea
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which trail Joe might have gone to, so they had
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to search everywhere north and south of Longmire. Meanwhile, rangers
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opened and searched Joe's vehicle for any clues. They were
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able to confirm Joe's entrance to the park by finding
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a receipt in the vehicle showing that he entered ray
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Near on Thursday, July eighth, through the Nisqually entrance at
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twelve twenty nine pm. Authorities then began making plans for
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a large scale search and also made phone calls to
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Joe's family and friends in order to learn more about
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him and his plans for hiking within the park. On
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July fifteenth, the search kicked off again at the break
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of dawn. The weather for the day was still good,
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clear and sunny. Searchers were directed to check all trailheads
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surrounding Longmire and also searched the main road in both
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east and west directions. Only one dog searcher showed up
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to help, using scent articles from Joe's vehicle. The goal
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at the time was to discover Joe's direction of travel,
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as they still had no idea where he was going. Fortunately,
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they wouldn't have to wait long. Already, at this point
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images of Joe Wood's face were traveling far and wide.
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It just so happened that a man who was hiking
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in ray Near on July eighth saw the photograph of
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Joe Wood in a Seattle area newspaper. He recognized Joe
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as a man he encountered while out on the trail.
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The witness called park staff early in the morning to
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inform them of his sighting. He would later be interviewed
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by detectives and give a detailed account of his journey
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to the park. On July eighth, The witness said that
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he had parked in Longmire with the intention to hike
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along Rampart Ridge up to Mildred Point. He said the
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weather was nice, in the low sixties and it was
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partly sunny. As he hiked up onto Rampart Ridge and
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the Van Trump Trail, he noticed that about half a
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mile up he started to see snow. Once he was
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a mile up the trail, the snow was continuous and heavy.
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At around two pm, he reached an open area where
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he met a woman sitting on the snow in the sunshine.
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She was described as twenty five to thirty five years
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old with a day pack, and she seemed like a
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typical hiker. The witness talked with her and asked how
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far she had gone up the trail. She said that
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she had only gone up a short way because she
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wasn't exactly sure where the trail was underneath the blanket
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of snow. The two agreed to begin heading up the
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trail a bit with each other. The witness said that
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by this point he realized that he would not be
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making it all the way up to Mildred Point with
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the snow the way it was, and also because he
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was not familiar with the path of the trail up
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the ridge. As the witness and the female hiked upward
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a short ways, they soon encountered two men coming down
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the trail from the Mildred Point region. The witness asked
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them how far they had gone and what the trail
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condition was like. The two men said they didn't know
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how far they'd gone, but they'd gone to some waterfalls
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and then turned back. The men said that the trail
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was relevectively easy to follow, as it went in a
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straight line up the ridge and stayed to the left
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of the ridge top. They also followed the footsteps that
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earlier hikers.
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Had made in the snow.
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The men said that they had stuck some evergreen sticks
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in the snow at intervals to mark the trail for
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their way back. It was about two thirty pm when
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the witness told the woman he had met that he
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planned to continue upward to find the waterfalls. The two
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men referenced. The woman said that she would follow behind him.
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The witness said that the woman was still stowing things
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in her pack by the time he set off again,
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so she was a few minutes behind him. He said
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that he caught several glimpses of her back down the
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trail as he moved upward. Eventually, the witness encountered some
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upright sticks that the men had placed in the snow.
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Their footsteps were also reasonably easy to follow, even though
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the snow was well consolidated and didn't show footprints very distinctly.
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There were also a few fallen trees across the trail
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that he needed to climb over. After hiking up for
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about fifteen minutes, the witness decided to leave the trail
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to his right and climb up to the top of
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the ridge to see if there was a view of
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Mount ray Neier. When he got atop the ridge, he
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found that the density of trees obscured any view of
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the mountain, so he decided to climb back down. When
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he reconnected with the trail again, he decided to stop
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and wait for the woman who was following him, as
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00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:22.519
he was sure that he was still ahead of her.
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00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.639
He was concerned that she might follow his footsteps off
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00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:28.279
the trail and up the ridge, but also he wanted
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00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:30.000
her to know where he was and that he had
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00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.120
not abandoned her. He told authorities that the trail at
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00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:35.759
this point was not obvious as it had been earlier.
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00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:39.799
After waiting a while, the woman never appeared. The witness
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00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:42.159
whistled a few times and then walked back on the
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00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:45.159
trail a bit, but eventually he concluded that the woman
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must have decided to turn back. So the witness continued
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00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:51.120
on up the trail for several minutes, though he said
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00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.080
he was not sure if he was actually on the
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00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:57.080
trail or not. Eventually he saw several more sticks poking
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00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:59.720
up from the snow, and using those as a marker
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00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.759
he could continued forward. Then he came to a meadow
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00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.159
area at about forty eight hundred feet in elevation, where
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00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:09.240
there were more sticks leading the way. Five minutes up
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00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:13.440
from there, the witness encountered a fast moving and imposing stream,
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00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:16.679
partly covered by snow. He said that the hillside to
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00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:19.200
his right had steepened and it appeared to be a
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00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:22.559
longer distance to the ridgetop than it had earlier. The
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00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:26.240
stream appeared extremely dangerous to cross, and the witness assumed
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00:14:26.279 --> 00:14:28.600
that this was the waterfalls that the two men had
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00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:32.320
referred to. The witness decided that crossing the fast moving
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00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:35.519
water in such a steep area was simply too dangerous,
270
00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:38.600
and climbing up to his right also looked too steep,
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00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:41.320
and to make matters worse, he could not see where
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00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:43.840
the actual trail went from that point because there were
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00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:47.519
no footsteps and no more sticks to follow. At this point,
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00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:49.960
he felt he had no choice but to turn back.
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The witness turned around and had been hiking for only
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00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.480
a few minutes when he returned to the small meadow
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00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.440
with the sticks, and he saw Joe Wood approaching from
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00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:01.639
the opposite side of the clearing. The time was somewhere
279
00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:04.879
around three point thirty to four pm. This location is
280
00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:08.240
about two miles up from the junction with Rampart Ridge Trail,
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00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:11.720
As the two men approached each other, the witness noted
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00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.039
that Joe appeared to be out of his element, and
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00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:16.639
he did not look like an experienced hiker and did
284
00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:19.039
not appear to be equipped for a long day hike.
285
00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:21.840
The only map that he saw Joe holding was a
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00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:25.759
yellow copy of the Longmere Trail's handout. These maps can
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00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.240
be obtained for free by anyone who stops by a
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00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:31.320
visitor center. Joe called out to him, and the two
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00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:33.519
men met in the middle of the meadow for a chat,
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00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:37.000
which lasted for a few minutes. The witness described Joe
291
00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:40.200
as friendly and likable. They talked about the trail and
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00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:44.039
snow conditions ahead. The witness noticed that Joe was carrying
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00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:47.440
a bird identification book and a pair of binoculars around
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00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.720
his neck. Joe talked about seeing a few different birds
295
00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:53.200
on his hike. The witness told Joe that he had
296
00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:55.759
just turned around five minutes up the trail because he
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00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:59.360
encountered a dangerous stream crossing. Joe told him that he
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00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.039
probably would go that far because he was getting low
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00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:05.960
on energy. The witness noted that Joe appeared fairly normal,
300
00:16:06.039 --> 00:16:09.039
but did seem a bit tired. Joe never asked for
301
00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:12.559
any assistance or food or water. The witness recalled him
302
00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.799
wearing a pair of khaki long pants, a long sleeved
303
00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:19.000
shirt of some kind tied around his waist, a T shirt,
304
00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.000
and a baseball cap. Joe did have a day pack,
305
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.440
but the witness couldn't recall the color. As far as shoes,
306
00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:28.240
he appeared to be wearing some form of light hiking boot.
307
00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:31.799
As their conversation neared its end, Joe pulled out his
308
00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:34.519
long Mire Trails map and asked if he knew where
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00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:37.879
they were. The witness pointed to their general location on
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00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:40.440
the map and told him to follow the footprints and
311
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:43.600
the sticks, as they were essentially marking the trail as
312
00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.279
shown on the map. Joe asked him to not pull
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00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.639
out any sticks, as he planned on using them to
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00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:51.440
find his way back. The witness asked Joe if he
315
00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:54.039
had seen anyone during his hike up, as he was
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00:16:54.039 --> 00:16:56.639
a bit worried about the woman. Joe said that he
317
00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:59.600
hadn't seen anyone, either the woman or the two men.
318
00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:03.360
As the witness began to leave, Joe's parting words were
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00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.720
that he was about through for the day and that
320
00:17:05.799 --> 00:17:07.839
he would go up to the snow Bridge and then
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00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:11.559
turn around. The witness felt about sixty to seventy percent
322
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.839
sure that Joe would actually follow this plan. During their conversation,
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00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:18.799
there was no mention of Joe continuing up the trail
324
00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.559
to either Mildred Point or Comet Falls. The witness said
325
00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.519
he was not alarmed or concerned about the conditions or
326
00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:29.960
circumstances because Joe was reasonably outfitted, He had reached his
327
00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:33.000
current point on the trail without much trouble, he knew
328
00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.519
what lay ahead, and he had declared his intentions to return.
329
00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:40.559
The witness then continued on down the trail back towards Longmire,
330
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.000
eventually reaching the parking lot around five to five thirty
331
00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:48.119
p m. And went home from there. At this point,
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00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.079
rangers finally had a specific place to begin searching. Based
333
00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:54.640
on the witness testimony, the point where Joe would was
334
00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.720
last seen was at approximately forty eight hundred feet in
335
00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:01.000
elevation on the Van Trump Trail, just below a set
336
00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:05.039
of switchbacks and near an intermittent stream and waterfall. At
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00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:07.640
the time, the stream was covered with snow, but it
338
00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.039
did have a few open holes where a hiker could
339
00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:13.440
potentially see the stream below the trail that Joe was
340
00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:16.480
on is a fairly long route that begins at Longmire
341
00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:19.680
on the Wonderland Trail before turning right on the Van
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00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.119
Trump Comet Falls Trail, which continues along the top of
343
00:18:23.240 --> 00:18:27.039
rampart Ridge. Eventually, the trail takes you to the Mildred
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00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:30.359
Point Trail, or you can continue on towards Comet Falls.
345
00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.720
If Joe was planning to visit one of those locations,
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00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:36.440
then he was potentially looking at a ten mile hike
347
00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:39.559
there and back, but he never brought up any intention
348
00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.720
to visit either location when he met the witness. In
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00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:46.039
order to find Joe, searchers were deployed on both ends
350
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.960
of the Van Trump Trail and on the rampart Ridge
351
00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.160
Loop trail nearby for some additional coverage. A bloodhound dog
352
00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.480
team was brought in up to the Point last scene
353
00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:59.480
and began searching east towards Mildred Point. A helicopter was
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00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:02.319
brought in around midday and focused on the area where
355
00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:05.200
Joe was last seen. No clues were found by the
356
00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.119
air and ground searchers, and no hits were made by
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00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.960
the dog team during this day. Investigators learned even more
358
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.720
information after speaking with the ranger who was running the
359
00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:19.119
Nisqually entrance station on July eighth. She remembered seeing Joe
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00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:21.279
Wood as he entered the park because he stopped to
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00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:25.519
ask her questions about birding and possible locations to see them.
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00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.200
The ranger told him that he should look around creeks
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00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:33.200
and along the Nisqually River. As authorities continued tracing Joe's footsteps,
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00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:35.759
they learned that after he entered the park, he traveled
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00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:39.039
to Longmire and the National Park Inn to use the restroom.
366
00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:41.759
He also stopped by the museum, where he picked up
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00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.920
his map of the Longmire trails. On July sixteenth, search
368
00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:49.640
teams again entered the field with thunderstorms and rain expected
369
00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:52.720
later in the afternoon. All the trails in the area
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00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.960
were covered, as were many areas below the cliffs, along
371
00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:00.240
trail corridors, and even creek beds. No dog teams did
372
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:03.960
anywhere in the search area. The canines did show interest
373
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.240
in a few areas, and those were checked and rechecked
374
00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.359
with no results. The only witness in the case also
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00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:12.559
arrived in the park on this day in order to
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00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:15.319
meet with park personnel and hike up to the point
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00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.359
where Joe was last seen. The witness pointed out the
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00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:20.680
meadow where he had talked to Joe and showed them
379
00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:24.680
the stream just beyond it. Rain, wind and lightning hit
380
00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:28.279
the area around four pm, and all searchers were recalled
381
00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:33.160
back to headquarters. On July seventeenth, the poor weather continued
382
00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:36.640
with fog, heavy rain, and low temperatures. This made the
383
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.160
steep search area especially dangerous. Still, searchers remained on the
384
00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:45.000
ridge until six pm that evening. On July eighteenth, the
385
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:47.480
weather had cleared up a bit and searchers were back
386
00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:51.799
on the trail. Teams focused on specific areas, including locations
387
00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:55.599
where snow bridges and holes formed over creeks. The authorities
388
00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:58.640
very reasonably believed that it was possible Joe Wood could
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00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:01.839
have fallen through a snow bridge. These form when water
390
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:05.240
from streams and creeks begin running below layers of snow.
391
00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:08.920
The running water creates a hollow beneath the snow, and
392
00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:12.599
anyone walking around may not notice the danger before stepping
393
00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:16.240
there and falling into a creek or river. These dangers
394
00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:18.799
were found in the area right around the place Joe
395
00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.000
was last seen. This day was the final big push
396
00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:25.279
by search teams, who put in an intensive full day
397
00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:29.960
of operations, they had no success. This initial search for
398
00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:33.480
Joe Wood lasted about five days. On most of those
399
00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.799
days there was somewhere between thirty and forty ground searchers
400
00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:40.319
scouring the area. I imagine there never was much hope
401
00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:44.359
during this operation. Given that Joe disappeared on July eighth
402
00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:47.680
and a search didn't get started until July fourteenth, when
403
00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:50.319
his car was found, the odds were never good that
404
00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:54.160
he would be found alive. After the initial operation, there
405
00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:58.200
were intermittent searches throughout August and some of September. CA
406
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.240
nines continued to be deployed to in those outings, but
407
00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:05.240
they still turned up nothing. In September, they specifically deployed
408
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:09.000
cadaver dogs in hopes of finding some remains. This shows
409
00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.200
some good dedication on behalf of the NPS, but the
410
00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:15.759
outcome was the same as previous attempts. Over thirty three
411
00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:18.720
hundred man hours were spent during the search for Joe Wood.
412
00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:23.079
The weather undoubtedly played a significant role in this sar incident.
413
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:26.039
When Joe Wood went missing, there was still ten feet
414
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:28.880
of snow on the ground at Paradise. When the search
415
00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:32.359
actually started almost a week later, about two feet of
416
00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:35.319
snow had melted. This would mean that any footprints in
417
00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.960
the snow would have melted away as well. If Joe
418
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:40.960
became lost, he would not last very long without proper
419
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:44.480
food and clothing. He could move around to generate body heat,
420
00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:47.160
but that's about all he could do. If Joe was
421
00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:50.079
injured while up on the ridge, then he was likely doomed.
422
00:22:50.359 --> 00:22:52.920
But Joe was never found, so we have no idea
423
00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.559
what exactly happened to him. To this day, Joe Wood's
424
00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:59.559
case remains open. Okay, so I want you to keep
425
00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:02.680
Joe Wood's case in mind as we cover another missing
426
00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:26.440
person on this exact same trail. In June of twenty twenty,
427
00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:30.000
Vincent G was a twenty four year old Indonesian man
428
00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:33.839
living in Seattle, Washington, on a student visa. At the time,
429
00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.000
he was sharing a home in the city with his
430
00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:40.440
sister Natasha. He was considered a casual day hiker by friends,
431
00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:43.480
and he was known for hiking solo. In the lead
432
00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:45.880
up to June, Vincent told his friends that he had
433
00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:49.519
been getting bolder and doing short off trail sections during
434
00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:52.880
his hikes. He would post about these hikes on Instagram,
435
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.160
and one of his posts in twenty seventeen describes a
436
00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:59.759
hike he did to Malacua Lake in Washington. He actually
437
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.480
said that this was his first hike ever and he
438
00:24:02.519 --> 00:24:05.319
didn't realize what the difficulty was, so it took him
439
00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:08.480
ten hours to complete. There is more than one route
440
00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:11.599
to Molachwa Lake, and it's unclear which one he took.
441
00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:14.079
One is easier than the other, but it could have
442
00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:17.240
been anywhere from ten to eighteen miles with thousands of
443
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:21.599
feet in elevation, pretty brutal for a first timer. Vincent
444
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.240
was known to carry minimal supplies and he had no
445
00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:28.519
overnight experience, nor did he own the appropriate gear for it.
446
00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:34.079
He also never carried emergency gear like a compass, firestarter, knife, GPS,
447
00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:37.880
or extra clothing. Around June of twenty twenty, Vincent was
448
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:41.519
unemployed and working towards a bachelor's of Wine Science from
449
00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:45.880
South Seattle College. He also held a master's of Business Administration.
450
00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:49.960
On June eighteenth, Vincent began a planned trip to visit
451
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.440
and hike around Mount Rainier National Park. It was around
452
00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:56.519
two pm when he entered the park through the Nisqually entrance.
453
00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:59.599
Once he was inside, he drove to Paradise, where he
454
00:24:59.640 --> 00:25:02.720
was seen hiking around the Dead Horse Creek and Skyline
455
00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:06.359
trails during the day. A hiker on the Alta Vista
456
00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:09.160
trail just happened to capture a few photos of Vincent
457
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:12.160
in the snow. When the hiker later learned that Vincent
458
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:15.559
was missing, the photos were sent to the family. Since
459
00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:18.519
Vincent did not actually go missing on this day, they
460
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:22.839
were of little importance to the overall investigation. Later that evening,
461
00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:26.319
Vincent left the park and checked into Alexander's Lodge, a
462
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.640
historic hotel near the park's boundary. While there, Vincent would
463
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:32.880
speak with his parents on the phone, but he did
464
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:36.680
not mention Mount Rayner. After that, he called and spoke
465
00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.000
with his cousin for about twenty minutes. Vincent told him
466
00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:42.240
that he was in Raynier by himself and that he
467
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:46.200
had finished hiking. Apparently, he had become badly sunburned out
468
00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:49.039
on the trail that day, and Vincent's cousin thought it
469
00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:51.720
would be unlikely for him to hike again the day after.
470
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.119
After the phone calls, Vincent sent a text to his
471
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:58.720
sister Natasha, saying that he had arrived safely at the lodge,
472
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:01.640
but he did not tell her anything about his plans.
473
00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:04.880
He also sent her several pictures he took that day,
474
00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:07.799
and one of them has been made public. It is
475
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:11.000
an image of a man standing high on a snowy ridge.
476
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:13.920
Since Vincent was doing a solo hike, he must have
477
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.279
run into this man while hiking out in the snow
478
00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:19.680
and took his photograph. To my knowledge, the man has
479
00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:24.160
never been identified. The next day, June nineteenth, Vincent checked
480
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:26.319
out of his room and left the lodge around ten
481
00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.799
fifty five am. He was seen wearing a baseball cap,
482
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:34.079
red shirt, black shorts, and a blue drawstring backpack. The
483
00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:37.480
weather that day was warm and dry, good conditions for
484
00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:40.960
hiking in. At eleven forty six am, he purchased some
485
00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:45.200
fuel at Ashford Valley Grocery. Vincent was recorded entering the
486
00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:48.519
park at eleven fifty seven am, once again through the
487
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:52.000
Nisqually entrance. Whatever happened throughout the rest of this.
488
00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:53.599
Day we know very little.
489
00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:56.359
The only thing we do know is that Vincent never
490
00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:01.200
left the park. On June twentieth, vincent sister Natasha reached
491
00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:03.880
out to the Pierce County Sheriff's office to report her
492
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:06.640
brother as missing. She said that she had not heard
493
00:27:06.680 --> 00:27:08.799
from him for a while and that all calls to
494
00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:12.279
his phone were going straight to voicemail. Natasha was out
495
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:14.839
of town at the time, so she had authorities go
496
00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:17.359
to their home to do a welfare check on Vincent.
497
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.400
Nobody was home at the time and his vehicle was
498
00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:23.640
not there. Pierce County put a be on the Lookout
499
00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:28.640
or BOLO on Vincent's BMW. Natasha also called the communications
500
00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:31.559
center at Mount Raynier and told them everything she knew
501
00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:35.519
about her brother's whereabouts. Vincent's car was soon discovered to
502
00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:38.240
be sitting in the parking lot at Longmire on June
503
00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:42.000
twenty second. Park rangers quickly put together a search team
504
00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:45.559
to begin scouring the region. Once a missing poster was
505
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:48.920
created and released to the public, it wasn't long before
506
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:53.480
two important witnesses came forward to investigators. The same day
507
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:57.559
that Vincent disappeared, two off duty interpretive rangers were hiking
508
00:27:57.599 --> 00:27:59.759
the Van Trump Trail in order to go see where
509
00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:03.799
the line was on Rampart Ridge at around two thirty PM.
510
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:06.759
As the two were hiking up onto the Van Trump Trail,
511
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:10.119
they noticed Vincent standing still and looking at a map.
512
00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:13.519
To them, it appeared that Vincent was perhaps confused about
513
00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:16.799
his location. This occurred near the junction of the Van
514
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:20.880
Trump and Wonderland trails. As the rangers passed him, he
515
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:24.279
started moving again and followed behind them. They began to
516
00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:26.640
be a bit confused as to why Vincent would want
517
00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:28.920
to go the way they were going, because there was
518
00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:32.559
still snow on Mildred Point and it couldn't easily be accessed,
519
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:35.599
so they decided to stop and let Vincent pass so
520
00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:38.279
they could talk to him. As he walked by, they
521
00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:41.039
asked him if he was heading to Mildred Point. One
522
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:43.319
ranger later said they did this so that he would
523
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.960
be aware of which trail he was on and which
524
00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.000
direction he was going. According to one ranger, Vincent responded
525
00:28:50.039 --> 00:28:52.079
that he was going to try and make it to
526
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.160
Mildred Point. The other ranger recalled him simply saying, yeah,
527
00:28:56.279 --> 00:28:59.519
I think so. He said this without stopping or showing
528
00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:03.319
any dis for further interaction. The rangers took the hint
529
00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:06.359
and allowed Vincent to continue on ahead while they followed
530
00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:10.039
slowly behind. Both rangers quickly lost sight of him as
531
00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:13.119
they continued searching for the snow line. It was about
532
00:29:13.160 --> 00:29:15.680
three point thirty pm when they finally found snow at
533
00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:18.720
around forty five to forty six hundred feet in elevation,
534
00:29:19.240 --> 00:29:21.799
and then they turned around. They said that the snow
535
00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:24.839
was firm, with multiple tracks visible leading up the Van
536
00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:28.640
Trump Trail toward Mildred Point. The rangers did not see
537
00:29:28.680 --> 00:29:31.799
any other hikers during their excursion to the snow line.
538
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:35.720
The search finally had a concrete location to focus on.
539
00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:40.759
Rampart Ridge. Investigators later spoke with the ranger on duty
540
00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:44.160
at the Nisqually entrance. She did not remember Vincent when
541
00:29:44.200 --> 00:29:47.480
she was shown security footage of his arrival. The footage
542
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:50.400
did show her giving him a map at the Longmere area,
543
00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:53.759
and the two spoke briefly. The ranger did not remember
544
00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:56.440
exactly what they talked about, but she said that when
545
00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.279
visitors ask for recommendations, she usually advises that they go
546
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:04.119
to rampart Rich because she knows it's snow free. If
547
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:07.200
visitors ask about Mildred Point, she said that she would
548
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:10.640
have advised them of the snowy conditions. I won't delve
549
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.240
too deeply into the search for Vincent as it was
550
00:30:13.400 --> 00:30:16.640
very similar to the search for Joe Wood. Both teams
551
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:19.920
were essentially searching the same area on the same trail,
552
00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:23.480
and the outcome was the same for both. Despite braving
553
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:27.279
some tough weather and brutal terrain, search teams were unable
554
00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:31.079
to find any clues related to Vincent's whereabouts. On June
555
00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:34.119
twenty ninth of twenty twenty, park rangers called off the
556
00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.440
search for Vincent g after spending a solid week searching
557
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:40.519
for him. They determined that wherever Vincent was in the
558
00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:44.720
park at that point, he was no longer alive. Okay,
559
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.720
So that's the information we have on both cases, and
560
00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:51.400
as you can see, they are remarkably similar. We have
561
00:30:51.559 --> 00:30:54.880
less witness testimony for Vincent, but you can tell based
562
00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:57.119
on what we know that he was doing the exact
563
00:30:57.119 --> 00:31:00.519
same thing as Joe Wood when he disappeared. Both men
564
00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:03.759
parked at Longmire within the park. Both men had the
565
00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:06.480
exact same trail route, which was to begin on the
566
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:09.880
Wonderland Trail and then turn onto the Van Trump Trail
567
00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:13.880
heading towards Mildred Point and Comet Falls. The conditions for
568
00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:17.400
both men were largely the same. There was significant snow
569
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.240
coverage at forty eight hundred feet and above when Joe
570
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:22.880
Wood was in the park and when Vincent was there.
571
00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:25.480
The snow line was around forty five hundred to forty
572
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:29.640
six hundred feet. Both men vanished without a trace. Really,
573
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:32.440
the only difference is the places where each was last seen,
574
00:31:32.839 --> 00:31:35.640
with Joe Wood being seen near the switchbacks not far
575
00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:38.759
from Mildred Point and Vincent was last seen near the
576
00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:41.359
beginning of the Van Trump Trail where it connects with
577
00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:45.759
the Wonderland Trail. So twenty years apart, two men have
578
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.680
vanished on this stretch of trail, and the question is
579
00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:52.559
why now Right away, my suspicions were drawn to a
580
00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:56.759
particular area, the switchbacks on the Van Trump Trail. There
581
00:31:56.839 --> 00:31:59.480
are two ways to reach this set of switchbacks. You
582
00:31:59.480 --> 00:32:02.640
can either climb rampart ridge and walk along it until
583
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:05.000
you come to them, or you can move in from
584
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:07.640
the other direction and take the Comet Falls Trail up
585
00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:10.880
until it turns into the Van Trump Trail. This route
586
00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:13.400
gives you a good view of Comet Falls itself, and
587
00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:16.599
this entire region was part of the search area. There
588
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:18.799
is a lot of footage of Comet Falls in the
589
00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:22.160
case file. Personally, I don't think either man made it
590
00:32:22.200 --> 00:32:24.319
this far, but I knew I wanted to go out
591
00:32:24.359 --> 00:32:27.559
to this area and check out those switchbacks, so in
592
00:32:27.640 --> 00:32:30.039
the summer of twenty twenty five, I drove out to
593
00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:33.559
Mount Rainier National Park and went through the Nisqually entrance.
594
00:32:33.960 --> 00:32:36.960
I went past Longmeyer a short way until coming to
595
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:39.720
a small trailhead on the side of the road. This
596
00:32:39.799 --> 00:32:42.440
is the base of Rampart Ridge and the goal was
597
00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:45.799
to climb up around Comet Falls and circle around to
598
00:32:45.839 --> 00:33:14.000
those switchbacks. All right, hey there folks, coming to you
599
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:19.480
from a Comet Falls trail. As I've probably already said,
600
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:23.440
plans to go up this trail and to go to
601
00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:28.759
the point where Joe Wood was last seen and Vincent
602
00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:32.279
g was trying to get to. I think this might
603
00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:34.240
be a short cut in a way to get there.
604
00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:37.920
So that's the plan right now. It's going to be
605
00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:42.000
a steep trail, but shorter overall. I think I want
606
00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:45.559
to get up there and just see how they could
607
00:33:45.559 --> 00:33:48.759
have gone missing. I'm anticipating that it was a fall
608
00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:53.319
or something, but it helped actually see the area. Very
609
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:56.440
uncommon for two people to go missing on the same trail,
610
00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:58.960
albeit over twenty years apart.
611
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:01.240
Either of them have ever been found.
612
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:04.720
And yes there are a lot of still missing people
613
00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:09.440
and Rainier, but again, two on the same trail. It's
614
00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:12.599
a bit unusual. There's something about this trail that makes
615
00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:13.400
people go missing.
616
00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:17.239
I guess, so this was what I really wanted to do.
617
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:19.480
You know, it's not often you see this kind of thing,
618
00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:23.519
So let's go up here and see what could have
619
00:34:23.599 --> 00:35:01.119
led someone astray. One other reason I wanted to.
620
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:00.639
Take this trail.
621
00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:07.760
Is that in the case file for Vincent's disappearance, there's
622
00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:13.119
some video of what appears to be Calmet Falls, and
623
00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:14.880
it looks like they spent quite a bit of time
624
00:35:14.920 --> 00:35:17.159
searching around there thinking that he actually fell.
625
00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:24.960
And bounced. With you, that's logical thinking.
626
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:28.519
I think they said it was about at about forty
627
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:30.159
eight hundred to five thousand feet.
628
00:35:30.199 --> 00:35:31.400
There was snow at that time.
629
00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:38.719
Well, walking along a ridge can get tricky when you
630
00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:42.280
got snow like that, especially if you're not prepared, and
631
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:46.119
it sounds like Vincent wasn't, and the same could go
632
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:49.880
for Joe. I mean, we've got the same situation snow
633
00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:54.800
at that same elevation at the time of year disappeared.
634
00:35:56.320 --> 00:35:59.880
So there are some questions that need to be answered.
635
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:05.880
The fact that the trail conditions were the same might
636
00:36:05.960 --> 00:36:07.719
indicate what's going on here.
637
00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:34.440
Well, right now, I'm heading up.
638
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:39.599
Some steep switchbacks, my favorite thing in the whole world
639
00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:44.440
to do, and then we'll get paid off with a
640
00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:48.679
view of the falls. This is all just to climb
641
00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:52.360
up Rampart Ridge. If you go the other way the
642
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:56.519
way that Joe would and Vincent g went, and you
643
00:36:56.599 --> 00:37:01.519
kind of have a slower high up, a longer distance,
644
00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:08.000
less inclined. Again, the reason I didn't really want to
645
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:12.559
do that partially because it's longer and I do care
646
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:17.920
about time, but also it seems like since they were
647
00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:20.719
both going to Mildred Point and that's the direction we're heading,
648
00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:23.239
seems like they both got caught up at.
649
00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:26.920
The same point. At least that's my theory.
650
00:37:27.800 --> 00:37:30.159
We know where Joe Wood got to at the very least,
651
00:37:31.400 --> 00:37:33.440
and so I want to get to there or beyond
652
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:39.039
because his case is the one out of the two
653
00:37:39.079 --> 00:37:42.440
that I'm going to focus more on because we have
654
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:48.119
more information. In his case, there was a very detailed
655
00:37:48.119 --> 00:37:53.320
witness statement, and I have a few ideas about that
656
00:37:53.320 --> 00:38:08.480
that I'm gonna check out once we get up there.
657
00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:24.519
One thing that's occurred to me walking on the trail
658
00:38:24.559 --> 00:38:27.840
here is that if someone was lost in this area,
659
00:38:28.519 --> 00:38:31.239
I think you could prevent starvation for quite some time
660
00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:33.400
and give yourself some energy. You know, I don't think
661
00:38:33.400 --> 00:38:37.079
you'd go hungry. There's so many berries off the trail here,
662
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.559
it's insane. It's probably the most food filled trail I've
663
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:41.719
been on in a long time.
664
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.719
Elderberry, blue, huckleberries.
665
00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:53.480
Tons of salmon berries everywhere, and they're huge. Oh and
666
00:38:53.559 --> 00:38:58.519
I'll add to my berry list. There was also thimbleberries. Well,
667
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:03.360
they are just flower and not yet very ripe, so
668
00:39:04.679 --> 00:39:05.760
I guess they wouldn't.
669
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:06.800
Be that helpful at the moment.
670
00:39:08.199 --> 00:39:50.400
Mm hmmmm. So taking a quick break at Comet Falls,
671
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:54.519
which behind me really cold in this area despite it
672
00:39:54.559 --> 00:39:56.599
being summertime, though the weather is.
673
00:39:56.599 --> 00:39:59.559
A bit overcast. Yeah.
674
00:39:59.719 --> 00:40:01.119
Part of the reason I did want to come this
675
00:40:01.159 --> 00:40:03.079
way was probably to take a look at the falls.
676
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:06.559
But coming up here you can definitely see Rampart Ridge
677
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.519
and see that it's a long drop down. If anyone
678
00:40:09.639 --> 00:40:12.719
was up there hiking along it and they fell, you
679
00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:15.519
wouldn't find them forever, you know, once the brush starts
680
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:18.119
growing up around them. I'm not saying that's exactly what
681
00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:21.440
happened here, but if someone did take a tumble, I'm
682
00:40:21.480 --> 00:40:24.440
not surprised that they're never found, but we're still going
683
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:25.119
to go and check.
684
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:26.800
It out, see what it looks like up there.
685
00:40:27.039 --> 00:40:30.239
You know, if there's snow, that might be interesting, because
686
00:40:30.239 --> 00:40:32.119
then we'd be dealing with the same kind of terrain
687
00:40:32.239 --> 00:40:35.679
that both Vincent and Joe were at the time. So
688
00:40:36.199 --> 00:40:39.440
we'll get a little understanding of what they went through, hopefully,
689
00:40:39.840 --> 00:41:21.239
If not, just letting everyone know that this hike is
690
00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:28.440
thoroughly kicking my ass. But in my experience, hiking in
691
00:41:28.519 --> 00:41:34.480
general is a form of self torture where you just
692
00:41:34.559 --> 00:41:37.639
test yourself. You keep going, and things start sucking, and
693
00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:41.159
they continue sucking, and sometimes they keep sucking worse, and
694
00:41:41.239 --> 00:41:43.440
you feel like you want to quit, and it's a
695
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:45.599
test of how hard you can you can keep going,
696
00:41:45.719 --> 00:41:47.800
whether or not you can pull through, and at the
697
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:52.000
end you're still alive, hopefully, and then you can look
698
00:41:52.079 --> 00:41:55.920
back on that hardship and feel like you accomplished something
699
00:41:55.960 --> 00:41:59.880
or you got through something. So anyway, it's just kind
700
00:41:59.880 --> 00:42:04.079
of the missing enigma sermon for this hike, and I
701
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:07.239
thought i'd share with you all as I'm having a
702
00:42:07.360 --> 00:42:10.079
some sort of epiphany right now as I struggle up
703
00:42:10.280 --> 00:42:11.679
Rampart Ridge.
704
00:42:11.719 --> 00:42:47.039
Anyway, on we go. All right, So I've climbed about
705
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:50.840
as high as I'll be going. I think we'll see
706
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:55.599
I don't want to jinx it. And moving along the
707
00:42:55.679 --> 00:42:56.360
ridge here.
708
00:42:58.119 --> 00:43:05.880
A little more flat, thank god, beautiful meadows ridges everywhere.
709
00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:10.320
The views killer though. Any wrong step on this trail
710
00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:16.119
could kill you. Everything is steep, just dangerous, So I
711
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:18.360
don't know. I'm gonna be watching my footing more than
712
00:43:18.400 --> 00:44:56.199
talking for a while. All Right, I finally made it
713
00:44:56.239 --> 00:44:58.199
to where I've been trying to go. We're on Rampart
714
00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:02.239
Ridge now, and and I'm already starting to see what
715
00:45:02.360 --> 00:45:05.719
we might be dealing with here because this trail is
716
00:45:05.760 --> 00:45:06.639
not maintained.
717
00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:08.679
And when I.
718
00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:11.480
Start thinking about what it would look like as an
719
00:45:11.559 --> 00:45:16.320
unmaintained trail with snow covering it, that's like double bad.
720
00:45:17.239 --> 00:45:21.559
So I'm kind of imagining that, you know, some parts
721
00:45:21.599 --> 00:45:24.400
of this are not going to look good when this
722
00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:25.880
area is covered in snow.
723
00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:27.679
It's just all going to look the same.
724
00:45:28.639 --> 00:45:32.280
And so finding the trail through here when this whole
725
00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:36.079
area is covered in snow, what would that be like?
726
00:45:38.400 --> 00:45:43.519
Very difficult is my thought. And I don't know.
727
00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:46.760
Let's keep going down here a bit. I do want
728
00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:49.559
to take a look around. I thought I was gonna say,
729
00:45:49.599 --> 00:45:51.320
I'll take a look around off trail.
730
00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:54.199
I don't think I'm going to do that here.
731
00:45:54.599 --> 00:45:59.480
Things are just too steep and there's meadow flowers everywhere,
732
00:45:59.559 --> 00:46:01.239
and I don't want to be the one to be
733
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:05.480
tramping around in there. So unfortunately, I'm going to stay
734
00:46:05.480 --> 00:46:08.480
on the trail on this one. You know, as much
735
00:46:08.519 --> 00:46:11.920
as I had thought about going around and looking see
736
00:46:11.920 --> 00:46:14.920
if I could find anything relevant to this case, on
737
00:46:14.960 --> 00:46:20.559
the ground, I can't really justify going off trail here.
738
00:46:20.599 --> 00:46:21.400
They don't like it.
739
00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:23.920
When you do that, and then I would essentially be
740
00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:28.719
filming myself doing that, So I kind of doubly bad innocence.
741
00:46:29.599 --> 00:46:32.440
But let's continue on down the trail a bit and
742
00:46:33.159 --> 00:47:21.360
keep getting a sense of this place. So I've been
743
00:47:21.400 --> 00:47:24.920
moving down the switchbacks, and this was kind of the
744
00:47:24.960 --> 00:47:27.639
switchbacks that were described to be right where the right
745
00:47:27.679 --> 00:47:30.079
where the witness in Joe's case turned around. He said
746
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:33.440
he got to the switchbacks and the trail kind of
747
00:47:33.519 --> 00:47:35.639
ended in the snow and he didn't know where to go.
748
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:37.400
I believe that was his testimony.
749
00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:40.639
Uh, And that makes sense because if there's snow on
750
00:47:40.679 --> 00:47:42.840
this hill, the trail's going.
751
00:47:42.840 --> 00:47:48.039
To disappear more than likely. I can see why they
752
00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:48.719
turned around.
753
00:47:49.079 --> 00:47:54.119
Uh, I gotta think Joe did not, because one thing
754
00:47:54.119 --> 00:47:57.480
I had initially thought was that someone fell, but actually
755
00:47:57.519 --> 00:48:00.480
walking around in this specific area, if if you fell,
756
00:48:00.519 --> 00:48:03.480
you're not going to fall to your death. That's probably
757
00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:06.920
you know, if you kept walking, you probably would, but
758
00:48:07.199 --> 00:48:10.559
not in this area. This area is not particularly steep.
759
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:21.800
It's thick with brush and foliage. And again, if snow
760
00:48:21.920 --> 00:48:25.239
was still up here, it would be I wouldn't walk
761
00:48:25.320 --> 00:48:28.000
this trail. It's kind of eerie to think that their
762
00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:30.559
bodies are still up here somewhere, because they have to
763
00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:35.000
be unless they came to a ledge and fell off.
764
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:39.599
But I'm starting to think that's less likely now. I'm
765
00:48:39.639 --> 00:48:43.239
starting to think their bodies are just hidden among this
766
00:48:43.360 --> 00:48:55.159
thick foliage here. Okay, so scratch what I said just
767
00:48:55.239 --> 00:48:58.920
a few minutes ago. It is really steep once you
768
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:01.480
start walking down these backs, a bit to the point
769
00:49:01.480 --> 00:49:04.159
where if there was snow here, I'd be freaked out
770
00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:06.800
about slipping on it, because if you slip right here,
771
00:49:07.079 --> 00:49:15.679
you're dead. I mean, this is exactly the spot where
772
00:49:15.679 --> 00:49:19.119
they stopped. They said there was a creek kind of
773
00:49:19.199 --> 00:49:21.000
river cut into the rock. You could see it on
774
00:49:21.039 --> 00:49:21.480
the maps.
775
00:49:21.559 --> 00:49:22.400
We're right there.
776
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:26.320
And I remember the witness saying it got real steep there,
777
00:49:26.719 --> 00:49:28.880
and he thought the trail kept going. He didn't know
778
00:49:28.920 --> 00:49:31.320
they were switchbacks. He thought you kept going like this,
779
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:35.920
and you don't. If you go that way, keep going straight,
780
00:49:36.760 --> 00:49:40.360
you're dead. I mean, you're gonna slip and fall. He
781
00:49:40.400 --> 00:49:43.559
didn't know that you have to backtrack and start climbing
782
00:49:43.599 --> 00:49:44.840
your way up at this point.
783
00:49:45.360 --> 00:49:48.400
And I don't think Vincent or Joe knew that either. Yeah,
784
00:49:48.440 --> 00:49:49.800
I think this area is just.
785
00:49:49.760 --> 00:49:54.960
A problem when it snows, because if you're not super
786
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:56.559
familiar with this area, you don't.
787
00:49:56.400 --> 00:49:58.840
Have a map, and even if you do have a map.
788
00:49:58.880 --> 00:50:02.199
Switchbacks sometimes hard to see, depending on how good the
789
00:50:02.199 --> 00:50:04.679
map is and how much detail it's showing of the trail.
790
00:50:05.840 --> 00:50:11.920
So I don't know how well they search down there.
791
00:50:13.519 --> 00:50:15.639
I don't know how easy it is to get down there.
792
00:50:17.639 --> 00:50:22.559
But that's hundreds and hundreds of foot feet drop, I mean,
793
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:30.880
and in the snow. I think there's multiple possibilities here,
794
00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:35.880
though it is sure. It's odd that two people have
795
00:50:36.079 --> 00:50:39.239
vanished and we haven't found them on this trail, and
796
00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:43.039
they probably got to right around here. We don't know
797
00:50:43.119 --> 00:50:48.400
that's for sure with Vincent, but judging by how the
798
00:50:48.480 --> 00:50:52.480
trail is on the rampart ridge trail there, some people
799
00:50:52.519 --> 00:50:56.679
call it the van Trump but that one's just rides
800
00:50:56.760 --> 00:50:59.519
right along the ridge very straight, and this is where
801
00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:02.440
it changed and turns into switchbacks, so you're going, it's
802
00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:05.679
just a straight shot. Vincent had a straight shot right
803
00:51:05.719 --> 00:51:08.400
to this point, so he was used to going straight
804
00:51:09.400 --> 00:51:13.159
and then he runs into this and if you don't
805
00:51:13.199 --> 00:51:17.079
know there's switchbacks here, what do you do? Did he
806
00:51:17.159 --> 00:51:21.800
try to go through that slipped in, fell down this
807
00:51:24.159 --> 00:51:30.400
creek that's just dug a hole right into the mountain side.
808
00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:34.719
I'm kind of leaning towards that it's the way that
809
00:51:34.760 --> 00:51:37.519
the ridge trail here is kind of built. It's that
810
00:51:37.639 --> 00:51:42.960
straight shot and then the sudden upwards with the switchbacks
811
00:51:43.199 --> 00:51:47.480
that probably has confused quite a few people. When it's
812
00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:52.320
snowing here right now, you can see the trail anyway.
813
00:51:53.159 --> 00:51:54.679
I'm going to start moving to get out of here
814
00:51:54.719 --> 00:52:01.519
because again running low on GPS battery everything, But I'm
815
00:52:01.559 --> 00:52:03.679
glad I moved a little further to get right down
816
00:52:03.679 --> 00:52:08.400
to the spot where the witness turned back because he
817
00:52:08.519 --> 00:52:11.639
was right. This is confusing if you imagine snow.
818
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:12.000
On the ground.
819
00:52:39.119 --> 00:52:42.880
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. This trail kind of sucks
820
00:52:44.639 --> 00:52:46.280
no matter which way you go about it.
821
00:52:48.559 --> 00:52:49.039
It's just.
822
00:52:50.559 --> 00:52:58.360
Brush everywhere trying to trip you. I'm not a fan
823
00:52:58.440 --> 00:53:05.760
of this one. And I'll also note the Rampart Ridge
824
00:53:05.800 --> 00:53:09.719
trailer Van Trump Trail and Vincent and Joe were on.
825
00:53:11.599 --> 00:53:15.239
It seems like nobody goes up them. I haven't seen
826
00:53:15.280 --> 00:53:18.559
anyone on this trail. When I was on the Comet
827
00:53:18.599 --> 00:53:23.679
Falls Trail, tons of people, someone sees you.
828
00:53:23.840 --> 00:53:28.840
It would be impossible to get lost this one. Nobody.
829
00:53:29.760 --> 00:54:12.519
This is a lonely trail. All right.
830
00:54:12.639 --> 00:54:14.800
At this point, I think we probably have a pretty
831
00:54:14.840 --> 00:54:18.239
good handle on these cases. Let's start with the obvious
832
00:54:18.239 --> 00:54:21.480
that applies to both men. This area of the trail
833
00:54:21.599 --> 00:54:24.400
is dangerous when it is covered by snow. If you're
834
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:28.880
unfamiliar with Mount Raynier, or more specifically, unfamiliar with this trail,
835
00:54:29.199 --> 00:54:32.440
then you could easily be confused. If you've been traveling
836
00:54:32.440 --> 00:54:35.639
along Rampart Ridge for miles and the trail is covered
837
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:38.760
in snow, How could someone possibly know that the trail
838
00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:43.119
suddenly travels upward along a series of switchbacks. A person
839
00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:46.199
could be forgiven for thinking that the trail just continues
840
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:48.840
on the way it had been going. If a hiker
841
00:54:48.880 --> 00:54:52.440
assumed that it did, they would be inadvertently putting themselves
842
00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:56.960
in an incredibly dangerous situation. This area is steep. When
843
00:54:57.000 --> 00:54:59.280
there's snow on the ground, it's slippery, and there are
844
00:54:59.320 --> 00:55:02.719
plenty of snow bridges. There are a thousand places where
845
00:55:02.719 --> 00:55:05.360
you could wind up falling down this ridge straight to
846
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:07.719
your death. And this all has to do with a
847
00:55:07.800 --> 00:55:11.599
series of factors that all came together. Being unaware of
848
00:55:11.639 --> 00:55:14.119
the path of the trail, being unable to see the
849
00:55:14.159 --> 00:55:17.880
actual trail under the snow, making assumptions about where the
850
00:55:17.920 --> 00:55:20.960
path might be. When all of these conditions are met,
851
00:55:21.199 --> 00:55:24.280
there is a high likelihood of death or serious injury.
852
00:55:24.599 --> 00:55:27.519
For example, when Joe Wood was here, the footprints in
853
00:55:27.559 --> 00:55:30.480
the snow all led up to a seasonal creek here.
854
00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:31.280
And then stopped.
855
00:55:31.800 --> 00:55:34.000
This just shows that a lot of people came up
856
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:36.519
to this area and turned around because it was not
857
00:55:36.719 --> 00:55:40.960
obvious where to go next, and no direction looked particularly safe.
858
00:55:41.360 --> 00:55:44.239
That's exactly what witnesses and the Joe Wood case said
859
00:55:44.280 --> 00:55:46.880
as well. Joe Wood said that he would go up
860
00:55:46.920 --> 00:55:50.280
there and probably turn around. But did he actually do that?
861
00:55:50.719 --> 00:55:54.000
We don't know, And I imagine that Vincent G encountered
862
00:55:54.000 --> 00:55:57.079
this same issue when he walked this path. The trail
863
00:55:57.119 --> 00:56:00.719
along Rampart Ridge is pretty straightforward, you get to these
864
00:56:00.760 --> 00:56:05.400
sudden switchbacks. Did Vincent G just continue forward and accidentally
865
00:56:05.440 --> 00:56:08.760
move off trail? If he did, he could easily fall
866
00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:11.280
to his death. Did he hit a snowbridge that he
867
00:56:11.280 --> 00:56:14.119
couldn't see. If he did, he could easily fall to
868
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:16.559
his death. This trail is set up in such a
869
00:56:16.559 --> 00:56:18.719
way that it could be easy to make this mistake
870
00:56:18.800 --> 00:56:21.559
if you're not well aware of the path this trail takes.
871
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:24.880
Because of this, I would put accidental death at the
872
00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:27.559
top of the list for both of these cases. And
873
00:56:27.639 --> 00:56:29.880
if I was a betting man, I would guess that
874
00:56:29.960 --> 00:56:32.320
the remains of both of these men are somewhere down
875
00:56:32.360 --> 00:56:35.960
the slopes on the north face of Rampart Ridge. When
876
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:39.360
it comes to Vincent G, that's the best theory I got.
877
00:56:39.679 --> 00:56:42.440
When it comes to Joe, would we actually have even
878
00:56:42.519 --> 00:56:46.480
more possibilities. As unpleasant as it is to imagine, there
879
00:56:46.519 --> 00:56:50.320
is the possibility that Joe intended to disappear. Nobody in
880
00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:52.559
his life thought it was possible. But we have to
881
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:55.079
consider that he did fly all the way around the
882
00:56:55.079 --> 00:56:57.639
country because he wanted to get back together with his
883
00:56:57.719 --> 00:57:01.119
ex girlfriend and she rejected it him. It was said
884
00:57:01.159 --> 00:57:03.079
that he was in a pretty bad state of mind
885
00:57:03.119 --> 00:57:06.559
after that. Sometimes people do things to themselves that don't
886
00:57:06.559 --> 00:57:09.559
make sense to anyone else. We have to recognize that
887
00:57:09.559 --> 00:57:12.760
that might be a possibility here. But even beyond that,
888
00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:15.119
there is the fact that Joe had a heart condition
889
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:18.639
that had manifested itself as a fainting spell. If you
890
00:57:18.719 --> 00:57:22.320
accidentally faint while skirting along a ridge this steep, you
891
00:57:22.360 --> 00:57:25.440
could easily fall and lose your life. Joe had been
892
00:57:25.559 --> 00:57:28.000
hiking for miles, and it's not beyond the realm of
893
00:57:28.039 --> 00:57:31.880
possibility that he put his cardiovascular system through a little
894
00:57:31.920 --> 00:57:34.880
too much. He indicated to the witness on the trail
895
00:57:34.920 --> 00:57:37.159
that he was a bit tired, and the witness said
896
00:57:37.199 --> 00:57:40.000
he looked kind of tired too. If Joe had a
897
00:57:40.039 --> 00:57:43.159
fainting spell or something happened with his heart, it could
898
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:47.039
easily explain how he disappeared. So altogether, there was a
899
00:57:47.079 --> 00:57:49.920
lot here to work with in terms of analyzing both
900
00:57:49.960 --> 00:57:52.920
of these mysteries and coming up with an answer. But
901
00:57:53.199 --> 00:57:56.880
why haven't they been found? Well, it is seriously difficult
902
00:57:56.880 --> 00:58:00.400
to search ridges that are this steep It's too dangerous
903
00:58:00.440 --> 00:58:03.280
to send ground searchers there without a ton of safety gear.
904
00:58:03.719 --> 00:58:06.559
Air support can't always see what's there because this area
905
00:58:06.679 --> 00:58:09.599
is covered in trees. It's no surprise to me that
906
00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:13.239
they actually weren't found. If somebody falls here, their body
907
00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:17.320
can be anywhere along this deadly steep ridge. Because there
908
00:58:17.360 --> 00:58:21.400
are some clear and even obvious explanations for these disappearances,
909
00:58:21.679 --> 00:58:24.000
it does boggle my mind a bit that some people
910
00:58:24.039 --> 00:58:28.199
would come up with wild theories about what could have happened. Mainly,
911
00:58:28.280 --> 00:58:31.079
I'm talking about those who suggest that Joe Wood was
912
00:58:31.199 --> 00:58:34.320
murdered while hiking on this trail. I haven't seen the
913
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:37.559
same thing with Vincent's case, for whatever reason, even though
914
00:58:37.599 --> 00:58:40.360
both cases are essentially the same. When it comes down
915
00:58:40.360 --> 00:58:43.039
to the facts, people tend to get this idea in
916
00:58:43.079 --> 00:58:46.320
their head that just because someone disappears out in the wilderness,
917
00:58:46.679 --> 00:58:49.199
it must be some kind of foul play. But there
918
00:58:49.239 --> 00:58:52.519
are so many problems with that. First, let's talk about
919
00:58:52.599 --> 00:58:57.679
violent crime in general within national parks. Yes, homicides assaults
920
00:58:57.800 --> 00:59:00.840
and those things. They happen in national Park, but by
921
00:59:00.920 --> 00:59:03.599
far the vast majority of those crimes happen in the
922
00:59:03.599 --> 00:59:06.679
more developed areas of the park. They happen at the
923
00:59:06.760 --> 00:59:10.199
visitors center, in the campgrounds, or in the little villages
924
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:13.159
like they build in Yosemite. They happen where people tend
925
00:59:13.239 --> 00:59:16.480
to congregate, which makes sense. When you cluster a bunch
926
00:59:16.519 --> 00:59:20.079
of people together, conflict will inevitably occur. But it is
927
00:59:20.239 --> 00:59:22.920
very uncommon for these crimes to happen out on the
928
00:59:22.960 --> 00:59:26.440
trail in the middle of nowhere. Crimes do happen out there,
929
00:59:26.679 --> 00:59:29.719
but not very often. Even more rare is to have
930
00:59:29.760 --> 00:59:33.320
a serial killer out on the trail, hiding and waiting
931
00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:36.000
for the perfect victim to show up. And when that
932
00:59:36.079 --> 00:59:39.199
kind of thing does happen, these killers tend to target
933
00:59:39.239 --> 00:59:42.320
women rather than men. In this case, we are talking
934
00:59:42.320 --> 00:59:45.079
about two men who disappeared in an area that has
935
00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:47.559
not heavily traveled when there was a lot of snow
936
00:59:47.639 --> 00:59:50.119
on the ground, and there was when both of these
937
00:59:50.159 --> 00:59:52.920
men were in the park. The idea that somebody might
938
00:59:52.960 --> 00:59:55.679
be lying in wait in the cold for hours on
939
00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.639
a trail that's far from busy is a bit far
940
00:59:58.719 --> 01:00:02.480
fetched possible, but we don't have to go there, really,
941
01:00:02.519 --> 01:00:05.920
because there are so many other more likely scenarios that
942
01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:08.960
we actually have evidence to support. I think a lot
943
01:00:08.960 --> 01:00:12.320
of people with podcasts or YouTube channels, or people in
944
01:00:12.360 --> 01:00:14.920
the media, I think they like to push the idea
945
01:00:14.960 --> 01:00:18.000
of foul play because it adds to the air of mystery.
946
01:00:18.480 --> 01:00:21.480
True crime is a popular genre, and so it fits
947
01:00:21.480 --> 01:00:24.840
a certain agenda. Well, I don't like it. I like
948
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:28.880
reality and analyzing the evidence we actually have. If it
949
01:00:28.920 --> 01:00:31.800
points to foul play, so be it. If it points
950
01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:34.800
to a guy slipping and falling off a cliff, so
951
01:00:34.960 --> 01:00:37.760
be it. People may be less interested in that kind
952
01:00:37.800 --> 01:00:41.039
of thing. It might get less views, but it's the truth,
953
01:00:41.280 --> 01:00:44.360
and that's kind of what matters most, right. I've just
954
01:00:44.440 --> 01:00:47.199
seen too much speculation in one of these cases that
955
01:00:47.320 --> 01:00:50.199
tries to say that race somehow played a role in
956
01:00:50.239 --> 01:00:53.599
the disappearance. To be honest, I probably shouldn't even be
957
01:00:53.679 --> 01:00:56.760
touching this topic. But I'll be very brief. If we
958
01:00:56.880 --> 01:01:00.360
have zero evidence that foul play was involved in a case,
959
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:03.679
than by extension, we have zero evidence that one of
960
01:01:03.719 --> 01:01:06.599
these men was killed because of their race. If we
961
01:01:06.679 --> 01:01:09.239
did have evidence of that, you better believe I would
962
01:01:09.280 --> 01:01:12.400
present it, but we don't. All the while, we have
963
01:01:12.519 --> 01:01:16.880
a whole mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to an accidental death.
964
01:01:17.320 --> 01:01:20.400
It does no service to the missing person, their life,
965
01:01:20.519 --> 01:01:23.000
or even their death to just make things up to
966
01:01:23.039 --> 01:01:26.360
suit a narrative that some content creator wants to build.
967
01:01:26.880 --> 01:01:29.239
The rest of us don't learn anything from it either.
968
01:01:29.719 --> 01:01:31.920
The lesson to be learned from the death of someone
969
01:01:32.039 --> 01:01:34.480
like Joe Wood may be that you should always be
970
01:01:34.519 --> 01:01:36.800
prepared for the worst when you go on a hike,
971
01:01:37.360 --> 01:01:39.599
know the trail you're on, and to turn back if
972
01:01:39.679 --> 01:01:43.800
you encounter conditions you're unprepared for. The lesson is not
973
01:01:44.199 --> 01:01:46.119
to be afraid when you go out on a hike
974
01:01:46.199 --> 01:01:49.639
because someone might kill you. Far more people die from
975
01:01:49.760 --> 01:01:53.840
simple and preventable mistakes related to preparedness than they do
976
01:01:53.960 --> 01:01:58.320
from human predators out haunting the trails. And again, those
977
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:02.400
evil things absolutely do happen, but we shouldn't exaggerate the
978
01:02:02.480 --> 01:02:06.039
rate at which they happen. I fully support hikers arming
979
01:02:06.079 --> 01:02:09.159
themselves when they're out on the trail. Be well trained
980
01:02:09.159 --> 01:02:12.320
and arm yourself. Less than one percent of hikers who
981
01:02:12.360 --> 01:02:15.840
do that will probably ever draw their firearm, but if
982
01:02:15.840 --> 01:02:19.119
you happen to win the lottery of unfortunate events, at
983
01:02:19.199 --> 01:02:21.239
least you were prepared and can come out on the
984
01:02:21.280 --> 01:02:24.159
other side in one piece. And who knows, maybe you
985
01:02:24.199 --> 01:02:27.039
can even take out one of those damn Wilderness serial
986
01:02:27.119 --> 01:02:29.920
killers for the rest of us. Anyway, I don't want
987
01:02:29.960 --> 01:02:32.079
to spend too much more time on this aspect of
988
01:02:32.119 --> 01:02:35.559
the case. I cover a lot of disappearances on this channel,
989
01:02:35.639 --> 01:02:39.079
and many of them are pretty mysterious. It's often difficult
990
01:02:39.119 --> 01:02:42.159
to think up a good explanation for what might have happened.
991
01:02:42.519 --> 01:02:45.960
But with these two cases, we don't really have that problem.
992
01:02:46.159 --> 01:02:49.360
There was a clear recipe for disaster brewing for both
993
01:02:49.519 --> 01:02:53.679
Joe and Vincent. They were underprepared for the trail conditions.
994
01:02:53.960 --> 01:02:56.079
They did not know the layout of the trails they
995
01:02:56.079 --> 01:03:00.000
were on. They continued hiking despite the trail being concealed
996
01:03:00.159 --> 01:03:03.639
by snow cover. On this trail that could easily mean
997
01:03:03.679 --> 01:03:05.559
the end of your life if you make a wrong
998
01:03:05.639 --> 01:03:08.719
turn or take a wrong step. We don't always get
999
01:03:08.760 --> 01:03:12.280
something as clear or as obvious as that. Whatever happened
1000
01:03:12.320 --> 01:03:15.599
to these men, it is terribly tragic, and there's definitely
1001
01:03:15.639 --> 01:03:17.880
something to be learned from it. Let me know what
1002
01:03:17.920 --> 01:03:20.800
you think happened with these two cases in the comments below.
1003
01:03:21.159 --> 01:03:24.400
Should this trail have better markings to help direct hikers
1004
01:03:24.440 --> 01:03:26.800
in the snow? Do you think foul play is a
1005
01:03:26.840 --> 01:03:30.559
possibility in either of these cases? Let me know and
1006
01:03:30.719 --> 01:03:33.239
until next time, thanks for watching.