April 22, 2020 Matt LaFever 24 comments
Marc Castagnetto poses with Brett while enjoying food and drink after missing for 15 days [Photos provided by Brett]
Around noon on April 20, 2020, a Humboldt County man who prefers we use only his first name, Brett, was driving on rural Titlow Road east of Blue Lake when he noticed a “disheveled” man on the roadside. Brett stopped his vehicle to inquire about the man’s condition and soon realized he was speaking with Marc Castagnetto, the 57-year-old man who disappeared in the middle of a snowstorm after his off-road vehicle got stuck 15 days before.
According to Brett, when he got out of the vehicle, the man seemed “shell-shocked” and revealed that “he had been lost for 12 days and hadn’t eaten anything.” Having provisions in his truck, Brett offered him food and water and probed deeper into the man’s story.
The man told Brett that he had been off-roading when his truck became stuck and was then caught in a snowstorm. Brett recognized the stranger’s tale “because I had read the story in Redheaded Blackbelt.” Not wanting to “feed him the story,” Brett listened intently for other cues he had remembered from the story he had read earlier. Brett became fully convinced he was speaking with Marc Castegnetto after the man described that after he slid off the road, he called his friend for help and then his phone died.
To Brett, it was clear Castagnetto had been through an ordeal. Brett described Castagnetto as “genuinely confused and lost.” Brett drew an improvised map in the dust on his truck in attempts to orient Castagnetto but he seemed “confused by it.”
In a sentimental moment, Brett said he told Castagnetto: “You know people really care for you, they were looking for you. He got emotional, and I did as well.”
Brett said that when Castagnetto was detailing the previous days, he said he had been “following power lines”. These landmarks had brought Castagnetto in Brett’s path because “PG&E transmission lines run near my property”. It is unclear Castagnetto’s route, but it is approximately 25 miles from Castagnetto’s abandoned vehicle to where Brett found him.
Castagnetto explained to Brett that he had been “drinking water out of streams” and he would “sleep during the day because he was afraid of the animals at night.” Brett observed that he looked “beat up pretty good” and Castagnetto’s ankles “were really terrible, swollen, scabbed, really reddish, from insects or a lot of scrapes from the brush.” Brett commented that he had seen pictures of Castagnetto in previous articles and upon finding him “it looked like he lost a lot of weight”.
Brett arranged to transport Castagnetto to Blue Lake to get him a meal and contact authorities. After eating, Castagnetto was taken to Blue Lake Rancheria where the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was contacted. According to a press release from HCSO, “Castagnetto was found to have sustained injuries to his feet. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment and released.”
As to how exactly Castagnetto appeared after traveling 25 miles northeast of where he had ditched his vehicle in 15 days, the HCSO said: “Deputies are investigating the circumstances leading to Castagnetto’s re-appearance on Titlow Hill Road.”
Reflecting on the encounter, Brett remembered Castagnetto as a man “that was very lost, couldn’t understand where he was, [seemed] really hungry, and [was] really, really grateful for the assistance.”
Brett didn’t seem to think he’d done anything extraordinary by stopping to check on a disheveled stranger. If, he said, “I’m lost someday, I’d hope somebody would give me a ride.”
globalnews.ca
![Marc Castagnetto poses with Brett while enjoying food and drink after missing for 15 days [Pictures provides by Brett]](/forum/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fkymkemp.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F04%2Funnamed-24.jpg&hash=936f625271be93fe57b215176a2f3208 "Marc Castagnetto poses with Brett while enjoying food and drink after missing for 15 days [Pictures provides by Brett]")
