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

[Voyageur]

It must be used book since, I think, he sells his books only through his website.

Actually, no Gandalf, it was new on the self of a nearby book store (and they don't sell used). I was very surprised. However, being that it is one of his first books, if not his first, perhaps they were able to buy bulk, or it was ordered for a customer who never bought it.

I'll make inquiry with the book store and test to see if they can order other books.

Edit: you are right, though, as far as I know you have to buy from his website, hence my surprise.

As a note (for anyone who has read it you will know): In this book Paulides starts off telling the story of when he and his dad (when he was a young kid) had going fishing to a spot near Redding, California, five hours away from home, and how after climbing down to the stream valley they had their own strangeness event. With this telling, it makes sense as a marker in his life for future interests.

 

[Beau]

Seems as though Paulides is getting a little too close to the truth, as yesterday he posted about people smearing him and his work online:

The Smear- Definition: Damage the reputation of someone by false accusations, slander.

I don't read the significant percentage of items on social media that are written about me or my books. The majority of the posts are inaccurate, the writer has not read the books and are working off other like-minded posts. It's very similar to a majority of the public forming an opinion just off of news headlines.

Two weeks ago I had someone send me posts about the disappearance of Ray Humphreys. Ray was a 66-year old avid outdoorsman, father of two grown daughters and a physical education for thirty years in the Granite School District in Utah, last teaching in Lehi. For ten straight years, Ray went with family to a remote spot in the Uinta Mountains called Hidden Lake. It's a beautiful spot surrounded by high mountains and big trees. The group decided to put their campsite on the far eastern end of the lake.

Ray and family arrived at the lake on July 18, 2018. They built a fire, had dinner and enjoyed the outdoors. It came time to go to sleep and Ray knew that someone needed to put out the fire and ensure the embers didn't fly around the dry forest. He put on a headlamp, grabbed a collapsible water contained and walked to the lake to fill the container, it was 10 p.m.
Ray never returned. His family hiked out of the area on July 19 and notified authorities.

Search and Rescue Teams arrived quickly. They placed multiple canine teams in the area along with 350 ground searchers. Canines never picked up his scent. The effort to locate Ray was predominantly in the area east of the lake because they had the water/lake as the border to the west. It was the general opinion that he must've got turned around and either walked past the camp or walked the wrong direction to the lake.

At 3 p.m. on July 24, 2018, a Utah DPS helicopter team was working an area outside the primary search area and in the opposite direction when they saw a body. It was on the western side of the Weber River, meaning Ray had to cross it. The sheriff stated that he suffered injuries consistent with the brutal terrain but refused to report what those injuries were. They say they did not know the cause of death, and as of this writing, nothing has been made available to the public. FYI, in my latest book I wrote about the disappearance of Melvin Heaps, 74- years old, lost in the same area, never found.

This post is something I had hoped that I would never have to write. I had always prayed that the derogatory, slanderous posts made about me would never make their way to people associated with search and rescue; unfortunately, it has happened. Let's start with the facts about Ray. His body was located in the opposite direction from where they were searching, he apparently crossed a river, and they haven't determined the cause of death. Read the headlines on this article:
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/lo...cle_480035ec-b8ad-5d15-8845-97f9fa6e0452.html

I was forwarded a link to this site, Back Country Post:
Missing hiker in Uintas - Ray Humpherys
**On page two of this discussion is this, a discussion about Missing 411 and a reference to the Wikipedia post on me, David Paulides. Here is their conversation: (See Photo)

David Paulides Wikipedia Page:David Paulides - Wikipedia
I have purposely tried to ignore this. 90% of what is listed is a lie. I cannot change what is on the page; it takes someone with editing authority who is not the person discussed on the page. Anyone can ask for editing authority. I have devoted the last eight years of my life to missing people, yet when you read the Wikipedia, I'm a cryptozoologist. I have never called myself this, I have never been called this. The page is designed to do one thing, present a biased view of my background, filled with an angle to get families of missing people to view me as a crazy bigfooter. A few factual errors, I spent twenty years as a police officer, I'm not a cryptozoologist, how about discussing my work on missing people and statistics? Please note how Kyle Polich is listed predominantly as an expert who analyzes my work. It is that post that influences people in the Backcountry link to disregard my research, and this should be very discomforting to anyone who understands Missing 411.
Please go to the video made with Kyle as he makes a presentation on Missing 411 and read the comments:

Anyone who knows the Missing 411 topic moderately well will understand that Kyle never read the books and made some catastrophic errors in his analysis. Remember, it is this lecture by Kyle that was placed on Wikipedia that influenced others related to Ray's disappearance. How many other times has this happened? How many others have seen the Wikipedia page and believed what it is purporting?

I cannot tell you how heartbroken I am that people have taken it upon themselves to SMEAR me and my work to the point that people related to Search and Rescue are unwilling to acknowledge the importance. Even more discouraging is the conversation I attached where people claim I am disrespectful with the "Missing 411 conspiracy stuff." Friends, I have never proposed a theory, my books contain facts, this is not related to a conspiracy.

I'm really at an emotional and research roadblock. What good is research if it's been manipulated to keep it out of the hands of people who need it?

The former Chief Investigative Journalist for CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson wrote the book, Smear. She explained how society in the United States is manipulated about how they view certain things by a group of organizations that are hired by political groups to push an agenda. She stated that they employ a strategy of posting something on a site that is viewed to the public as credible, maybe a major magazine, news network (Wikipedia), that is phase one. People read this, and it is viewed as credible based on the site it's posted. Step two is utilizing an expert to discount the position of the opposing view (Kyle Polich-expert). They then work the experts view onto the site that is considered to be credible, sound familiar? The SMEAR is complete.

If anyone knows someone with editing authority on Wikipedia, I'd hope they would see the complete lack of honesty and the manipulative angle someone is taking and change it. It's tough to imagine why Kyle Polich did what he accomplished, or if he understands the ramification of his mistakes.

Please think about this as if it was you.

 

[A Jay]

That Kyle Polich is a real piece of work, and the same goes for his audience members.

I agree that Paulides is getting too close to the truth and that's why he's being defamed and his work is being ridiculed. The evidence he has brought up is so discomforting and disquieting that it simply must be ignored and/or trivialized in order for these "rationalists" to go about living their lives thinking that everything in the world has a reasonable and rational non-high-strangeness explanation.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1058747815742992384

CBC News · Posted: Nov 01, 2018 5:30 PM MT

Montana private investigator Mike Toth has been hired by the Collin family to help with the search for Airdrie resident Cameron Collin, who went missing Oct. 4 at a bachelor party held on a ranch outside Billings.

Toth spoke to the Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. (06:42)

Q: What is the family hoping you can accomplish that the sheriff's office can't?

A: The sheriff's office is focused mainly on a certain area of the land where Collin went missing. There's a couple reasons why the family hired me. One is to help interpret the sheriff's office and deal with law enforcement and kind of be the go-between for them.

Also to follow up on leads the family gets that the sheriff's office is maybe not that interested in.

• Family of missing Airdrie man doubles reward in hopes that someone will come forward
• Family of Airdrie man missing in Montana offers reward for information

In the beginning, the sheriff's office obviously did a pretty good search, but now that it's a month out, they're starting to wind down their search for him. The family obviously wants to keep the search going, so that's my job now — to keep the volunteers going and assist with searching.

Q: What do we know about what happened that night?

A: He flew into Billings about noon on October 4 and met up with the wedding party. He was friends with the bride from college. They went to a couple places in town, then went back to this property that's about 11, 12 miles outside of town.

It's their ranch and they have a barn that they decorated for the wedding. The bridal party drove into town, so that left just the men hanging out on the property.

At one point late in the night, Cam was pretty intoxicated, so the rest of the bachelor party left him alone in the barn and said they were going to go into town.

The last they saw him, he was sleeping in a chair.
When they came back, about an hour and a half later, he was gone. His suitcase and jacket were still laying there, but Cam was nowhere to be found.

They thought maybe he called for a ride and went into town, so they didn't really raise any suspicion until Sunday. That was Thursday night. The family or sheriff's office definitely didn't get notified until Sunday night, the 7th, that he was missing.

Q: What are the theories about what happened?

A: We've had a wide range. We've had psychics reach out to us. We've had family members tell us stuff and friends tell us stuff.
It's anywhere from foul play to the possibility that he's got amnesia or he's had a breakdown and is wandering.

The sheriff's office are searching a creek, that's pretty long and deep — they've been searching that pretty hard, because his cellphone and credit cards and money — nothing's been used since that night. There's been no activity whatsoever.
The theories are that maybe he was kidnapped. Maybe a mental breakdown.

The family obviously are holding on to any hope. They don't want to give up on him. Nobody would. It's worth chasing down any little lead.

Also, I just had a meeting the other day with the sheriff's office and got a debrief, and they're still focused on that creek.

Q: The reward has been doubled, to $10,000 US. Does that help or hurt?

A: It helps. Even when we met with the sheriff about doing it — we figured if there was some foul play, that that would generate some tips, that somebody would say something for that type of money.

So far, nobody has come forward with anything super substantial that we can sink our teeth into.

 

[SummerLite]

This map is to small to see well but is still disturbing.


North America Cluster Map-Version 2
This is a unique product for our organization to release. This has been a working project for several years and only recently came together as a possible retail product. The victims are color coded that indicate if they were a sheepherder, farmer, male or female. The newest addition to this map is that the number of clusters have been elevated to 59.
Release Date: September 1, 2018 North America Cluster Map

 

[Beau]

He has put that map on the back of some of his books, which is really useful for seeing the cluster zones.

 

[hlat]

I've always thought that Paulides' prior books about bigfoot would be a sort of Achilles' heel for him; meaning that anyone that wanted to attack him would predictably aim for that bigfoot research and hence use the "cryptozoologist" label on him, to try to destroy his credibility.

There's no separating the bigfoot research from him, as I think it was the bigfoot research that led him to have the conversation with the park ranger who clued him in about the large numbers of people disappearing from the national parks.

While we can openly state the reality of bigfoot and missing 411 disappearances, both of which belong to a larger reality than what mainstream will acknowledge, I understand why Paulides does not heavily advertise his bigfoot research background.

When Paulides writes, "I have devoted the last eight years of my life to missing people, yet when you read the Wikipedia, I'm a cryptozoologist. I have never called myself this, I have never been called this.", he can't evade the bigfoot books that he's written. I think he would be better off embracing the part of his past that was cryptozoologist instead of trying to deny it.

 

[Beau]

When Paulides writes, "I have devoted the last eight years of my life to missing people, yet when you read the Wikipedia, I'm a cryptozoologist. I have never called myself this, I have never been called this.", he can't evade the bigfoot books that he's written. I think he would be better off embracing the part of his past that was cryptozoologist instead of trying to deny it.

All he's doing in the Bigfoot books is compiling archived stories of witness accounts of Bigfoot sightings. I don't think he is trying to hide or evade from anything, just attempting to make it clear what he's doing. If he was evading, he wouldn't have just recently released another book on Bigfoot sightings. From his site:

10/18/18- As many of you already know, Mr. Paulides' first published books (Publisher- Hancock House) were about Bigfoot, The Hoopa Project, and Tribal Bigfoot. He was approached by two wealthy Silicon Valley executives and told that they each had encounters with the biped when they were younger. They knew Mr. Paulides was retiring from his technology job and asked him to investigate the topic and they would pay for the research. They told him that they wanted to know if the issue was a hoax or if it was a reality. There is much more to the story, but Mr. Paulides eventually agreed to an arrangement where he spent two years in the field interviewing witnesses, scientists and going to the areas where sightings had been alleged.

At the end of 24 months researching the biped, Mr. Paulides authored two books, The Hoopa Project and Tribal Bigfoot, two of the highest rated bigfoot books of all time. There were a series of investigative practices Paulides brought to the research arena. First, he required every witness to sign an affidavit swearing under penalty of perjury of what they observed, or the sighting would not be investigated (First used by John Green decades earlier). He also contracted the services of an FBI trained forensic artist to draw what the witnesses had seen. Neither of these research techniques was in use by any Bigfoot organization at the time, and none have been utilized since.

It has been nine years since Mr. Paulides has authored a book about Bigfoot. It was during the nine years of doing an archival search on missing people; he started to observe articles in newspapers that described a biped we know as Bigfoot. The archives he was searching were sometimes 300 years old. He was astounded to read stories about a biped that had a continuous presence in newspapers starting in the early 1700's. It was at the point that the articles were seen regularly that he began to accumulate them and place them in a folder. It was earlier this year that he started to put the stories in chronological order. It was also during the archive searches he found stories about the discovery of graves and mounds that were unearthed and giant skeletons were found. Many of these skeletons were near the biped sightings. The stories containing giant skeletons and hairy bipeds were placed in a book and released today, Bigfoot Wildmen and Giants. This book has no relevance to the research on missing people and is something of interest that is being presented to the public.

 

[Voyageur]

I'll make inquiry with the book store and test to see if they can order other books

I did check this out, Gandalf. I guess it was more or less a one off i.e. that one was still available in print. The 411 series however is not in print and only available through the used market (steep prices) and of course through Paulides main site.

 

[hlat]

All he's doing in the Bigfoot books is compiling archived stories of witness accounts of Bigfoot sightings. I don't think he is trying to hide or evade from anything, just attempting to make it clear what he's doing. If he was evading, he wouldn't have just recently released another book on Bigfoot sightings.

It seems strange to me that he would deny that he's a cryptozoologist. I think it takes some fine hair splitting to even try to deny that he's a cryptozoologist, being the author of several bigfoot books and seeing bigfoot with his own eyes and sending bigfoot hair to labs for analysis. Also, he must know someone who supports him who would make an edit in wikipedia, so it seems strange to me that he would make a public post asking people to edit it. After ignoring the previous nonsense for years, why start commenting on the present nonsense? Maybe he's not getting enough emotional support or reminders that he's doing a great job.

 

[Hindsight Man]

I haven't read any of his books,though I am familiar with the material as I tend to watch a lot of paranormal clips and vids.As far as I can tell he did a solid job with 411 book.My heart goes out to David though.
If you permit me to vent for a moment,I absolutely can't stand self professed skeptics.As though someone who built a career on debunking anything out of the ordinary is suddenly going to change his mind when confronted with evidence.Then the whole world view would have to shift!No,it's easier to stay in the comfortable trappings of the ''faith''.

I find that I'm actually less annoyed when someone is exposed as a paid shill than someone who genuinely believes it.A ''skeptic'' is someone that merely finds ways to defend conformity.A bunch of poorly read,arrogant ego stokers who get together to talk about how much they agree with each other.Pathetic and disgusting. Did you know that the youtube ''skeptic'' community is somewhat despised for it's behavior?Yeah,they tend to try to de-platform people they don't like and get together to organize little dis info campaigns.The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.They're known as the ''Septic'' community,an apropos name if there ever was one.
Alright rant over.

 

[Voyageur]

There has been scant written about Ryan Shtuka's missing story in sometime, and now see this (there is also a radio talk link at the end);

The weight of silence: Ryan Shtuka's disappearance continues to haunt B.C. ski resort

Lingering fear, speculation in Sun Peaks since 20-year-old vanished in February
Shelley Joyce, Courtney Dickson · CBC News · Posted: Nov 17, 2018 10:00 AM PT | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

As Sun Peaks, B.C., prepares for another busy ski season, the mystery of Ryan Shtuka's disappearance continues to haunt the Interior resort town.

Shtuka, 20, vanished one cold night in February after leaving a house party. Despite extensive searching in the months since, no clues have emerged as to his whereabouts.

While the investigation into Shtuka's disappearance remains open, the lack of clues and a tight-lipped RCMP has sparked wild speculation and instilled lingering fears in the community of Sun Peaks, which lies around 60 kilometres northeast of Kamloops.

Friends and family remember Shtuka as a friendly, likeable, easygoing person.
"He just seemed like a really good guy, really genuine and confident. … Everyone liked him up there. He never made any enemies," said Madelyn Piggin, who worked with Shtuka at the Sun Peaks tube park.
"It's just such an unreal thing to happen that I still think he'll show up one day and he'll be fine."
Local newspaper publisher Brandi Schier said Shtuka's disappearance has affected everyone in the area.
"When it comes down to it, we are a small town," Schier said.
"I think everybody did get pretty emotionally involved, especially if you were a younger person and you knew Ryan. The fact that we haven't been able to return Ryan home to his family has been incredibly painful for everybody up here."

Extensive search

Shtuka, a seasonal worker from Beaumont, Alta., left a house party at approximately 2 a.m. on Feb. 17, according to police. He hasn't been seen since.
In the days and weeks following his disappearance, hundreds of volunteers from Alberta and British Columbia, along with local search and rescue teams and the RCMP, searched the village and surrounding forests, trails and mountains, looking for something that might lead to more information about what happened that night.
The initial concern from friends and first responders was that Shtuka had fallen into a gully, which was covered by heavy snow later that weekend. But even as the snow melted into spring, no sign of him was found.

"When somebody goes missing, until there is a definite conclusion as to where the body is, then it's an open investigation," Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said.

'Vacuum of information'

Schier called the silence from the RCMP a "vacuum of information."
"Misinformation has just been all over place," she said. "Tons of rumours. Spiritual mediums are getting involved."
Jean Strong, editor of the local newspaper Sun Peaks Independent News, said she's read several theories online about what happened to Shtuka.
"Abduction to sex trafficking, to being involved in [the] drug trade, to aliens, to animal attack," she said. "Any other wild theory you can think of has come up online, I think."

Beyond rumours and speculation, Shtuka's disappearance has instilled an element of fear into the community, particularly among young seasonal workers, Strong says.
She said they can relate to Shtuka and don't know whether or not his disappearance was an isolated occurrence.
"I think in some ways that makes people worried, or anxious or afraid," said Strong, who added that some people are too uncomfortable to walk home alone at night in the area where Shtuka was last seen.

Violent death?

Jim Reid, who was staying with friends near the house where Shtuka lived on the night the 20-year-old went missing, told CBC he heard an unusual interaction outside in the middle of that night.
"I heard a guy's voice and it was mad," Reid said.
He said the person he heard was yelling, "get in the car, get in the f--king car."
Reid says he reported what he heard to police, but, after they called him back several times, he hasn't heard anything since.

Those who believe Shutka's life came to a violent end include retired RCMP investigator Bryan Smith, who travelled from Alberta to help with the search at the request of a Shtuka family friend.
Smith, a Mountie for 25 years who had investigated several missing persons cases, has also worked as a ski patroller and horseback guide and has experience with many backcountry searches.
His initial conclusion was that Shtuka had wandered into the deep snow and got lost in the rugged terrain around Sun Peaks.
However, an interview with one of Shtuka's friends changed his mind.
"The friend seemed to be very nervous and very afraid for himself, which was unusual to me," said Smith, who would not reveal the friend's name.

"My gut told me that this was most likely a homicide, not just a missing person."
Smith said he shared his findings with the RCMP.
But after extensive interviews with everyone involved with Shtuka, police say they have no reason to believe foul play was involved.
"At this time there is no evidence that anything criminal happened," Shelkie said, adding that RCMP do not believe people in the Sun Peaks area should be concerned about their safety.

'We want to believe that we'll find him'

Above all, the silence has weighed heaviest on Shtuka's family.
His parents, Heather and Scott, rallied volunteers and spent four months searching Sun Peaks and the area around the town.

Heather Shtuka finds it improbable that her son met a violent end.
"He's not confrontational, he's not an instigator, he's not one of those people that would go out of his way to start something," she said
"He was great, funny, a loyal guy, sarcastic, and great with his friends."
But they're still no closer to finding an answer to what happened.
"We don't know why Ryan went missing, we don't know how he went missing, we don't know where he went missing," Heather Shtuka said.
"We want to believe that we'll find him, that a parent's love will be so strong."

What happened to Ryan Shtuka?

In sum, the only thing that has changed is the assertion by one Jim Reid on what he heard, which a retired RCMP officer took seriously and it had changed his mind (i.e. foul play), which is dismissed by the investigating police due to lack of evidence. The chronology of evidence is something we don't have assess to.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064218392649814016

He's a recent one also out of California. Creepy!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1063187672573722624

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064087786653798400

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064045423852163072

Police notified about body found due to missing 49ers fan
Saturday, November 17, 2018 11:24PM Video / 02:38
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) --
Santa Clara police were notified about the finding of a man's body amid a high-profile missing persons case involving a 49ers fan.

Fishermen made the gruesome discovery near the Alviso Marina Saturday afternoon.

"I was told it was about a mile out from the boat ramp," officials said.

Divers with the Sheriff's Office recovered the body, and now the Coroner's Office is working to figure out who it is.

The marina is San Jose police jurisdiction. However, a call was made to Santa Clara police in regards to their case of a missing man named Ian Powers.

The 32-year-old is a 49ers fan and army veteran from Spokane, Washington.

Powers went missing after a Monday Night Football game at Levi's Stadium on Nov. 5.

He was last seen on surveillance footage leaving Levi's Stadium that night.

He attended the game with his girlfriend Chelsea Robbins and her two children.

In an interview Friday she said the two were separated at the game.

Santa Clara police tracked Powers' cell phone to a nearby parking lot, where his car was abandoned.

They say none of his credit cards have been used since.

Police are calling his disappearance suspicious.

 

[Voyageur]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064218392649814016

Yes, and although from 2013, it continues (written/talked about by David re 411). Here is what the 2013 article leads off with:

February 25, 2013 (CHICAGO) --
The alarming number of young men drowning across the country has caught the attention of federal law enforcement.
For years, criminologists and victims' families have wondered for years if the deaths are connected or if such a link is merely an urban legend. Federal authorities are said to be considering a nationwide investigation.

Numerous college age men have drowned in the past several years and the I-Team looked into whether it was coincidence or connection.

Although mysterious, there was never anything solid to report.

 

[Laura]

All of this is very creepy; one gets the impression that some humans are "hunted", so to say.