Finding a body

Fuck, I don't know where to make this thread. I don't even know what kinda responses I'm gonna get. I figured this was the best place because of this situation. I alluded to this in the jimmy rustling thread, but I figured I need a more appropriate place.

One of my friends turned off his cell phone at his house at 4:24am Saturday morning, drove to Afton State Park, walked into it with his pistol, and never walked out. It's a 1600 acre state park.

My kid and I walked all of the marked trails, and all of the unmarked trails we could find. Obviously he ain't on a trail.

My buddies came out and we started walking all of the game trails and anywhere that looked remotely promising. Obviously nothing.

The sheriff is pretty slow on the uptake, they're just now getting around to putting together a foot search of the non trail areas (they did some ATV work on Sunday, and tried drones, but too much foliage).

This dude was basically the best friend you could ask for. Responsible, mature, easy going (shit, don't think I ever saw him mad), he would drop what he was doing and help you with anything, the fucking dude never said no to anything I asked. For 2 years, he was over every Saturday for Gloomhaven, never missed a week. This week, he turns off his phone at 430am and heads out to end it. I am absolutely devastated.

Sheriff came to talk to me for an hour because apparently I'm the only motherfucker that has spoken to him in quite some time. He said his parents are concerned about him being a "right wing extremist" because "of some things he told them" (like probably not wanting to get vaxxed) and because he has no social media. Really? That's what you've fucking got? First of all, what the fuck does that have to do with anything? Right wing extremists are a danger to themselves now? And second of all, no one with a fucking brain has social media these days, and maybe that's why you people never run into anyone without one, you're dealing with the dregs of retardsville. I figured I'd set the record straight, since clearly i'm the only guy that knows him, and made it perfectly clear that he was unequivocally, just an honest to god, good dude. The kind of dude anyone would want as a friend. He was no more "right wing extremist" than any of us able bodied white males these days.

Eventually, I got the feeling I should probably not be talking to the cops this much about a dead guy. We had gotten to the point in the conversation where I told him "you're not looking for a person, you're looking for a body." "What makes you say that?" What the fuck, dude? What the hell are you talking about? He turned off his cell phone at his house. He has zero food in his house, not even a bottle of goddamned water. He drove 30 miles away with his pistol so he wouldn't be a fucking burden to anyone ever again and he'd leave an easy cleanup. Beyond that, you need a gallon of water a day, and he's not drinking outta the fucking St. Croix river. He's fucking dead, dude. Why the fuck am I doing your job for you?

At any rate. I can't just fucking leave him out there. I grabbed OnX Hunt, which has a pretty accurate maps and allows us to mark with GPS where we've searched and we can do this analytically. I've never done this before, but I've got a pretty good idea of what needs to be done. I've got about half a dozen guys who are willing to get their packs on and start fucking walking 10 feet apart thru the shit looking for this dude who deserves way more than this. Do any of you guys do this kinda shit for a living? Have you done this before? Do you have advice or anything to help this go a little easier? It's a 1600 acre state park. I will walk every foot of it for this dude if I have to, but the reality is he could have just waded 30 feet out into the river and even if I do, I'll still never find him, because he's floating to New Orleans right now.

Cinge said:

This. Dogs or a lot of people so you dont miss anything. I guess the police wont look until a certain time has passed? I assume they are suspicious cause you knew the time he turned off phone, where he went and that he had a gun at that time.

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Nah, it's not suspicious because of that. I am paraphrasing the story.

We play Gloomhaven at noon on Saturday. He's been there every week for 2 years. Never missed a day, never didn't call to say he'd be late or anything like that. 100% reliable dude. When he wasn't there at 1230, I sent him a text. We putzed around for a little while. At 230 when I realized he still wasn't there, I called him. Phone went straight to VM. So, we piled into my truck and headed over to his condo.

We rang the bell when he got there, no response. There isn't an office for his place, and I didn't know what else to do, so I called the police and asked if they'd do a wellness check. I figured maybe he fell, hit his head, hurt his back, something like that, and he was incapacitated in his place and his phone had died or something. They had a resident let them in, they knocked on his door, tried to look in the windows, all that jazz. They got ahold of the property manager who had dude's mother as an emergency contact, turns out she had a key. Mom and Dad came out, opened the place up and found that he was gone, his pistol was gone, and his car was gone. I assumed he had just went on a fishing trip to Lake of the Woods or something and was out of cell service range, because that made the most sense at that point.

His mom, on a hunch, stopped by Afton because he hiked there a lot. His car was first one in the parking lot. They called the Sheriff, they said his last cell phone ping was 4:24am, from the city he lived in, not the park. So, none of this information came from me. Truth be told, the cops know all this shit too, but they just can't say this to the family.

Re: dog -

His family brought this up to the deputy that was out at the park kinda coordinating the initial half-assed search. He said the department doesn't have anything that would work like that, and their K9 units don't track people like that. Mom had brought a shirt out and basically they said it doesn't really work that way. First of all, TONS of people in this park, tons of odors, dogs are gonna lose that pretty quick. A bloodhound might be something different, but the department doesn't own one. They tried using drones, but with the foliage coming in, no go, can't see down under the canopy, and the FLIR can't find anything because of how warm the surrounding environment is right now anyway. Not to mention he's gonna be room temp at this point.

So, we're really down to literally just walking the park, 20 feet apart I think. On the bright side, I've got a lot of able bodied dudes signed up for this shit. I was just hoping there were some other tips/tricks to making this easier. Best thing I can think of is he'd probably do this in an area where he wouldn't bother anyone, based upon what's gone down here. So my hunch is to start with the most remote areas first.

Lanx said:

from listening to true crime, ppl that go like that
1. ppl usually do it near a landmark, a nice looking tree, a rock, a cliff with a nice view, no one just does it out in the open field (if youre looking for him, morbidly think, is this where i want my final moments to be?)
2. aren't found where they wanted to be gone whole, especially if scavengers are involved

not being a debbie downer, just stating what i heard

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Nah man, there's no debbie downer shit here. This is real life and reality at the moment. Debbie downer shit was Sunday when we realized he'd been out there for at least 24h and no one had seen him, and we found no sign of him.

Once we stopped pretending this was a hiking trip that had gone wrong, there's nothing left but reality.

Edaw said:

You should wait and do nothing. Don't go anywhere near what might end up a potential crime scene.

I hope he's ok and everything works out, but stay away now the cops are involved.

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Actually, the cops are blessing this whole thing. They told the family to do exactly what I'm planning to do, the only difference is his family is 50-60 year old, outta shape men, and my group is a bunch of 30-40 year old, athletic caffeine and nicotine addicts. They don't have the resources to devote a shoulder to shoulder manhunt like this, but they realize that's what needs to be done.

Gavinmad said:

You're a solid bro but don't torture yourself.

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It may not be the wildest terrain in the country but it still looks plenty rugged to me with plenty of long unbroken wooded stretches. If he was looking to not be found then you aren't gonna find him, especially with 4 days for scavengers to go to work. He also had the forethought to leave very early in the morning so there wouldn't be witnesses. If you really can't let it go I'd focus my searches on the western section of forest. The northeast may seem more overgrown but between the houses and the river it probably gets significantly more traffic. If I had chosen Afton and didn't want my body to be found, it would be somewhere in that western stretch.

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So, there's a couple things I've got going for me here....one known, and one unconfirmed.

His car is parked at the north lot, away from the visitor center and the majority of the traffic. I think we can safely conclude he wouldnt hike the whole park just to end it. So I think we only need to worry about the area north of Afton Alps.

The second thing, which is what I'm doubting right now, is that the family went in there Sunday morning and talked to everyone in the campground. One camper mentioned that she saw him walking south on the trail in the middle of the park, north of the campgrounds, with his pistol in his hand. When he saw her, he turned around and headed back the way he came. She said this took place at around 4pm.

So, to unpack this - he doesn't own a holster, so I guess you'd have to be carrying it, but....you saw a guy walking with an unholstered weapon and you didn't tell anyone about it until you were asked? You just thought "oh well, time to go back to my fucking tent"? Hard to believe, and people are attention seekers. But, walking from the north makes sense, and turning around as soon as you see another person makes sense if you're a dude who's looking for a quiet place to off himself. The other part that is somewhat questionable is the timeframe...12 hours after he turned off his phone. That means he was still alive when I was at his house, which is frustrating for sure. Now, I get it.. maybe you think it's a good idea, and get out there, and it takes you awhile to find the nerve to do it. But 12 hours? With the sun up, and the park full of people?

It's interesting that you think the western part though, because I think the exact opposite...the eastern part overlooks the river, and that's where you'd be for one last sunrise. However, if we assume the camper is not full of shit, then more poetic would be one last sunset, and there's no way you'd see that from the east side. I'm just not sure where you'd see it from the west.

The forest density is misleading....a lot of that is conifer, so there are large pine stands, and the branches near the ground have long since gone. So, sure, some spots are rough, but it's not THAT rough.

One other thing we noted was when my kid and I were checking an unmarked trail, there was a clearly visible ridgeline to the east. I had her stay on the trail so I could find my way back, and I set out for it. After I got to that line, I saw there was another ridgeline beyond it, kinda peninsula shaped, so I walked out to that to until I reached basically the tip of it. At this point, we were still thinking he might have been injured hiking, so I shouted off the top of that in all directions, then walked back to my kid. She didn't hear any of those shouts. So, maybe 75-100 yards out, and you can hear literally nothing out there. More trails yeah...but you don't need to go far to not be able to hear people, and a 9mm is gonna sound like a twig snap.

BrotherWu said:

Just want to say that I am on a volunteer Search and Rescue team and we handle these types of scenarios all the time. Google the teams in your area and contact them. If you can, grab something he has worn to give a scent to the dogs. They'll likely be on site within hours and find him pretty quickly.

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I had assumed stuff like this existed, and I also assume the family is going this route, but I haven't heard anything from them yet.

Sheriff also said they were going to start foot searches yesterday, but I didn't get an update on that either. I will definitely check on both before I cover double ground this weekend.

BrotherWu said:

Good luck. In my experience, LE searches are often (usually?) not successful. They're pressed for time and resources, their dogs aren't necessarily trained for this type of search, etc.

It's a common thing, particularly for despondent males, to go out in the woods and do harm to themselves. They can make it really hard to find themselves. I hope that is not what has happened here.

It's possible he just wanted to get away from everything and went out in the woods and brought a gun for critters. It's really easy to pop a knee or something in the middle of nowhere and if you don't have coverage you are shit out of luck.

Either way, time of the essence. Here is a team that is in the area. I don't know anything about this particular team but it would be worth your time to suggest that the family call them. K9 | Northstar Search and Rescue | Minnesota

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Thanks for that link, I passed it along to the family.

It is unfortunate that it's probably exactly what we're looking at. I would love nothing more than this dude to show up Saturday and go "hey guys, I went primitive camping all week, forgot to tell you," but that's not what happened. You don't run your house outta food, turn off your cell phone and walk into the woods with a pistol for some primitive camping fun.

Just gotta be real about it. It sucks, but that's what we're looking at. Thanks for the link, hopefully they can get a headstart before this weekend and reduce the amount of ground I gotta cover.