The 411 Missing Persons Phenomenon –

The phenomenon of missing persons near National Parks in the U.S. is becoming more prominent of an issue as unexplained disappearances of children and adults increase in numbers. For decades, a big number of people have gone missing around the country especially places like Lake Tahoe and Mt. Charleston in the Nevada area.

The persons found were retrieved under unusual circumstances in many cases. Some would be discovered miles away from where they were camping, confused about how they got there. Other times it wasn’t a person that was found, but only piles of clothes sometimes neatly folded on the ground. But why would anyone hiking in the wild strip naked, exposing themselves to the elements?

Hikers Mysteriously Disappear In National Parks

Author and retired police officer David Paulides wrote a book about these strange cases called “Missing 411” which talks about this very real problem and theorizes about how and why these disappearances continue to this day. David got the idea for his book after speaking with a ranger who came to him about the people that go missing on an annual basis.

“People disappear in the wilderness all the time. We’re talking about something different. These are unusual things that don’t make sense, that happen to cluster together in three to four, sometimes as many as 20 to 30 people missing at one location,” Paulides said.

Strange Stories Of Missing Hikers Go Back Decades

The first publicized report of a missing child was in a newspaper column in 1966. The boy was 6 year old Larry Jeffrey who was vacationing with his family. He walked away from his brother near Mt. Charleston and never returned. The local authorities set out on a 5 day search made up of a few hundred men. There were no large animals in the area or car access.

So if Larry wasn’t eaten by a predator or snatched by a kidnapper, then just what happened to the boy? That remains a mystery today as he was never found and with no solid explanation for his disappearance. It’s as if he simply vanished into thin air.

Another interesting case concerns a mountaineer named Carl Landers, 69, who disappeared on Mount Shasta while hiking with friends. They were camping at a location called 50/50, a place on the mountain where climbers can stop and rest before reaching the summit. According to his friends Milt Gaines and Barry Gilmore, Carl had complained about not feeling well and decided to take a head start toward Lake Helen. His friends never caught up with him and never saw him again.

Carl was described as a very experienced climber so it was unlikely that he fell. The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department immediately set out on a search with the National Guard covering the air using an infrared helicopter and the US rangers and volunteers covering the ground on foot and skis. No trace of Carl was found. Not even his equipment, backpack, or clothing.

The head of the search, Grizz Adams, told Paulides “…35 years I’ve never had this happen to me …we brought canines in, they didn’t pick him up…we flew around it, we dropped guys at the summit, they came down all sides, they couldn’t find him…they talked to people who were on the mountain, they didn’t see him…”




What or who is behind the mysterious disappearances of thousands of people? One person might have an answer what have caused people to vanish without a trace while visiting the wilds in United States and Canada. The answer he provides us with is very unsettling and shocking.

The Missing Persons Phenomenon

David Paulides, a former policeman, had compiled enough data to notice that these isolated missing person cases were beginning to form clusters around certain mountainous regions. These clusters were of some of the most eerie cases he had uncovered in which missing people –children mostly– vanished into oblivion. Sometimes the only clues left by the unfortunate souls were just their clothing, neatly piled.

This bizarre phenomenon has an even more bizarre beginning. According to Mr. Paulides, his painstakingly and meticulous research didn’t come from an abrupt curiosity. He was visited one night by a government employee who had very interesting information to give up. Mr. Paulides came to find out that some of the missing people disappeared under unexplainable circumstances. Children climbing mountain ranges in short time or those children who crossed rapid-moving rivers that were found alive and had no recollection of how they’d arrived on the other side.



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