Have you ever noticed how much we as a society always often hear and read about people going missing and just up and vanishing sometimes with no trace? Especially along the trails of some of the most famous National Parks? Well, it happens more often than you would think. 

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, “Over 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States every year… tens of thousands of individuals remain missing for more than one year – what many agencies consider cold cases.” It makes you wonder where these people are, just vanishing, and why aren’t they being found. David Paulides wanted to uncover this as well, and his findings may surprise you.

In 1916, Theodore Roosevelt established a system of National Parks so that everyone could enjoy the outdoors and all of what nature offers. However, one former police officer, David Paulides, the author of the book The Missing 411, dives into many strange occurrences and investigates why so many people have gone missing. Paulides found that the National Park Service does not have their base of missing victims, despite how many individuals go missing, but only compile reports from local police. Due to, legally, the National Park System is not required to report any missing people in their forest, but leave that to the local police. But why wouldn’t they write when someone goes out in the first place is there something they are possibly trying to hide from the public?

There are multiple accounts of children abducted by a strange hairy man lurking in the forest and their remains being found miles from the location they went missing. Even clothes from missing individuals were neatly folded and seen hundreds of miles from the reported missing site. For instance, under David Paulides, “In 1955 when 2-year-old Ida Mae Curtis disappeared in Kootenai National Forest. Her mother claimed to see her carried off by a bear. Frightening, yes, but becomes all the eerier when she adds that the bear was “cradling” her in its arms. She was found two days later a mere 300 yards away in a small shelter of sticks. After the ordeal, the girl went on to claim that the bear fed her till she was found.” The strange thing is that children were being abducted by these ‘creatures’ and adults. 

You never honestly know what is hiding in these forests. These disappearances are hardly ever discussed in media to deter the public from being afraid of ever going in their woods again. What do you think is out there lurking in these forests?