'Missing 411', by David Paulides: Tracking unusual missing persons cases

findit

Jedi
Missing 411 by David Paulides comes in 2 books: a Western and Eastern edition. SOTT discussed the theme of these books and showed a video with the author in an article last year. In basic terms, the author spent 3 years doing research on missing people from National Parks and Forests. In many cases, people disappeared and were never found. Many of the cases involve children under 10 that are found in remote and difficult locations. The case by case narrative is fascinating to read and spooky when some of the people were only yards or feet away when they disappeared. The author discusses some unique factors regarding the disappearances:
1) Rural settings:All of the missing in the books were located in rural settings. There were usually no witnesses, significant cover, and difficult terrain.
2) Dogs: Dogs play a major role in many of the disappearances. Sometimes the dogs disappear with the victim and are found later with the person; other times dogs disappear and return home without the person; sometimes dogs disappear and are never found.
3) Bloodhounds/canines can't track scent: The dogs were given the person's scent via a worn shoe or shirt; they were brought to the location where the person was last seen, but they either refuse to track or can't pick up a scent. This behavior happened too many times to ignore, though it's not understood why it occurs.
4) Storms: Soon after a person goes missing, reports of storms hitting the area of disappearance seem to occur more than would be normal. This has happened in all four seasons, even when a storm would seem unusual. The storms have caused delays in starting the SAR (Search and Rescue) and have eliminated tracks and scents for tracking.
5) Afternoon disappearance: The most common time for a disappearance is between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
6) Swamps and briar patches: Many of the missing are found in the middle or on the perimeter of a swamp and/or briar patch. Some rescuers commented on the unusual locations where children in particular were found; they simply don't understand how they got there.
7) Conscious or semiconscious state: I understand that when a person goes missing for an extended period of time without food or water, hallucinations can occur; however, these conditions were prevalent even when those factors did not exist. You will read about cases where the missing were found unconscious, lying on the ground, and when questioned later, have no recollection of how they went missing. In some cases the missing do recall facts surrounding their disappearance, and those facts make for interesting reading.
8) Berries: The fact that berries and berry bushes play a common role in many disappearances is quite intriguing.
9) Clothing removed: In numerous cited cases, the missing person is found and at least one major piece of clothing has disappeared or they are inexplicably completely naked.
10) The missing person is found in an area previously searched: Searchers are often adamant that the area where the person was found had been thoroughly searched numerous times in the past.

Some of the cases discussed include children who disappear and hundreds or thousands of people have scoured the area over a period of days and weeks. Search dogs, helicopters, infrared, and in a couple of cases the green berets and FBI got involved. The biggest hotspot in the West was Yosemite Park and in the East it was the Great Smoky Mountains. A lot of high strangeness abounds. If you're interested in buying the books I would go directly to the author's website to order vs. going to Amazon because it is much cheaper to buy. The website is nabigfootsearch.com. A truly fascinating read.
 
I've read the Eastern edition and agree that it's a really fascinating book. From the evidence he's gathered, it's very hard to rule out some sort of hyperdimensional activity/influence, be that "bigfoot" abductions or something else. It's really very interesting.
 
Ah! That reminds me of a boy missing in Crater Lake, Oregon.

Recalling from memory, the father was at least 50 feet from the autistic
boy that disappeared... and it was a bit odd to me. I do not think they
ever found the boy nor his remains. Search party up to 200 searchers
and 6 miles of coverage.

Goober: "crater lake Oregon missing boy"

Curiously, was this event mentioned in the book?
 
findit said:
3) Bloodhounds/canines can't track scent: The dogs were given the person's scent via a worn shoe or shirt; they were brought to the location where the person was last seen, but they either refuse to track or can't pick up a scent. This behavior happened too many times to ignore, though it's not understood why it occurs.

All the examples are strange and this one also speaks to animals who are excellent at tracking.
 
In our family, long time ago, someone disappear and was never found again, never ever. He did not disappear in a wood, nor in USA but here, in Spain, in Barcelona. He gave a rendez-vous with his mother in the center of the city and he never did it. That was the beginning of a long inquest, inquiry with detectives and the police but to not avail. This story was very popular at home, I used to liked it when my mother told me about this man that was happy, with projects and then suddenly disappear like in the air. Many times the idea that he was kidnapped by ETs was in my mind. The tragedy was that her mother died without finding what had happened because nobody knows what happened to this man, a sort of uncle of my mother. He was there and there he was not there anymore.

The subject of people who disappear is really fascinating and mysterious. It is very scary also.
 
There is an interesting interview with the author here. Prior to the interview, the hosts of the show even talk a bit about the cases of cannibalism ("bath salts" case and such) and other weirdness.
 
Keit said:
There is an interesting interview with the author here. Prior to the interview, the hosts of the show even talk a bit about the cases of cannibalism ("bath salts" case and such) and other weirdness.

I'm listening to it and the hosts of that show are really goofy - but the author seems really sharp. The Sott radio crew would do such a better job of interviewing him - that would be a great show!
 
anart said:
Keit said:
There is an interesting interview with the author here. Prior to the interview, the hosts of the show even talk a bit about the cases of cannibalism ("bath salts" case and such) and other weirdness.

I'm listening to it and the hosts of that show are really goofy - but the author seems really sharp. The Sott radio crew would do such a better job of interviewing him - that would be a great show!

I second that. :thup:
 
Gandalf said:
anart said:
I'm listening to it and the hosts of that show are really goofy - but the author seems really sharp. The Sott radio crew would do such a better job of interviewing him - that would be a great show!

I second that. :thup:

Agreed! Looking forward to SOTT crew doing a show on high strangeness! ;)
 
does anyone knows if this books comes in spanish? i was looking for it but i found nothing!
 
Dant, the case of the boy in Crater Lake is on page 46 of the Western edition. The boy's name was Samuel Boehlke, age 8, who disappeared on 10/14/06. On 11/11/06, Ranger David Brennan wrote a report that outlined that $540,000 had been expended in the search. Two helicopters, two-hundred searchers, canines, fourteen agencies, and the FBI participated. The Ranger estimated that there was an 88% probablity of detection in the primary search based on search and rescue efforts, but the boy was never found.
 
After reading Laura's post here: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,31445.msg417818.html#msg417818

I've decided to buy Missing 411: Western United States & Canada and it finally came in yesterday to which I've started reading and now half-way. It's quite a chilling read. Just like anart said, while reading the evidence as revealed in this book, it's very, very hard to rule out "some sort of hyper-dimensional activity/influence."

What I found really interesting is the "storm"/weather factor surrounding the disappearances (thinking of the last session discussion here), which makes me wonder if they were the symptoms or the after-effects or something of the disappearances. Not only that, the author gave a map of USA where there are clusters closer to both coasts while in the central US, there were no missing people (as fitting the book's criteria) except for Texas (which has a body of water to the south). The author even mentioned that he easily would write an entire book on Texas and Florida.

In the case of Bobby Panknin (1963, WA), he disappeared in less than 2 minutes for which he was only alone from his family, which was pretty fast. :scared:

The other thing that caught my eye was the evidence of "scratches" on the people when they were found alive (reminds me of documented encounters with the window-fellers). It was also scary to read about the remains that were found (it almost as if "something" spitted them out).

I just ordered Missing 411: Eastern United States to read on missing reports occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains as I personally often hiked there. Reading these books is making me think twice about hiking alone in any of these parks.
 
Zadius Sky said:
I just ordered Missing 411: Eastern United States to read on missing reports occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains as I personally often hiked there. Reading these books is making me think twice about hiking alone in any of these parks.

As a hiker too there is a rule saying that we should never hike alone. We should always hike with at least one other person if not two.
 
Gandalf said:
Zadius Sky said:
I just ordered Missing 411: Eastern United States to read on missing reports occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains as I personally often hiked there. Reading these books is making me think twice about hiking alone in any of these parks.

As a hiker too there is a rule saying that we should never hike alone. We should always hike with at least one other person if not two.

The creepy part is that many of the people in these books were hiking with others and just walked around a bend, out of sight for only a moment, and were gone. So, safety in numbers isn't always the case.
 
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