Missing 411: The Yosemite Cluster

It is my understanding that there are 800 miles of trails in Yosemite, and if you watch a few first person POV vids, it's apparent that the trails are not well (or at all) marked. A few years ago, I was on a trail I had hiked probably 100 times and SOMEHOW (I'll never figure out), I got lost; totally turned around. I looked at my dogs and said, "Get us out of here" and they took me STRAIGHT to the path out.

The family that died of heat stroke only had half the recommended amount of water for 1 adult, let alone 2 adults a baby and a dog. They also died separated from each other, with one adult sitting under a tree with the baby and dog and the other trying to get to the car. They obviously didn't make it. Plenty of weird stuff happens in national parks, but these people clearly died of heat stroke. It happens. My dumb ex almost died of heat stroke because he was bike riding in FL with only 1 bottle of Gatorade

As an 8 year old I was almost lost in Yosemite. I had my first asthma attack and got sepperated from the adults. Thank God they noticed quickly found me carried me as far down as they had to, to get me airlifted out. I'll never forget that day and night.

As a public facing retail worker, I have no trouble believing that people who should be competent and should know better will sometimes ignore every posted warning. These are the same hikers and campers that make designing bear-safe dumpsters so difficult.

I find it very suspicious that the friends of the tall guy with the compromised ankle didn’t report/ look for him after he was gone for so long. I also find it suspicious that the old man was the last to see Stacey supposedly.

I thru hike and backpack often, I genuinely think almost all of these disappearances have logical explanations. Not saying paranormal things don't exist and I do actually sit on the fence about some cryptids, like bigfoot; but most of the time I do think it's sheer incompetence or overconfidence in the cases of "Experienced outdoors people." I can not tell you the amount of people I see on trail without any of the 10 essentials of hiking, and everytime I pass one of them I just pray they don't become a statistic. On the contrary, the amount of people I see bushwhacking through unmarked trails that they really have no business doing is just as high. I have actually been one of the latter, was way too overconfident, just walked into the woods and got completely lost. Luckily I have navigation training and got lucky, so I made it out in a few days, but even the more experienced outdoorsmen don't typically have that training. The most dangerous part of nature isn't the flora or the fauna. It's the elements. If you aren't prepared for something to go wrong, and it does, nature isn't going to show mercy. The other portion I think foul play comes into effect. It's not crazy to think that serial killers could still use national parks as hunting grounds. History shows it's not too farfetched. Honestly, the real Missing411 cases that catch my eye are people who were later found and have these insane stories of what happened to them. Those are the real stories that will have you questioning paranormal happenings in the backcountry.

Does anyone think it's VERY suspicious that the park people won't talk answer any questions keep records of missing people or allow anyone else to investigate? I sure do!

I know you said it's weird that timothy's friends didn't go look for him, but thinking about my own camping experiences, I have weird friends who go off on their own and might not come back til the next day. No one goes looking for them, we just wait. Maybe it's a cultural difference, I do live in Australia where walkabouts that last weeks, years even are common. But then again we might just be lacking in skill/awareness.

Love all the work you put in on these. Really appreciate that you guys do your own research and not just copy from Paulides. This cluster really feels like a serial killer potentially a ranger or someone official or pretending to be. Same era John Ackroyd was active in Oregon.

I am from a neighboring county in the Sierra Nevada’s. And let me tell you that SSSOOOO many people go missing up here! Most of these people are never found. It’s so sad 😞 Right now, my small county has over 70 open missing persons reports of just locals.

That lads mate not looking for him is sketchy af. Never leave a man behind

I am all in on the most exotic theories, HOWEVER: a large number of these deaths are of effete cosmopolitans from SF and LA. They think visiting Yosemite will be a fun, casual photo opportunity and they inevitably get proven wrong, in grim fashion.

Heat stroke with remaining water is not as uncommon as you might think, and it doesn’t have to be as hot as 100 degrees F. Exertion, attempts to conserve water (especially when lost and unsure when you will find your way out) is common, and a key element of heat stroke is confusion and disorientation. With a baby in tow as well, it’s very possible their instincts to conserve water were heightened. It still sounds like heat stroke to me.

I've heard a rumour that due do the drought this summer some lakes have receded enough to reveal a cold case body, remains, or evidence of a body. Now... I think I remember Spain mentioned. I haven't checked this information, not sure how to go about researching it. Maybe you could find something about that. If there's such a phenomena as remains being exposed whenever there's a major drought and a body of water reduces in volume than maybe it would be a plausible theory for some of these cases that the bodies might have ended up in the water.

As someone who worked in the park system for years (for the concessionaires, not nps, although i think they’re just criminally underfunded and not criminally conspiratorial) and has done a decent amount of hiking/camping; I think the vast majority of these cases are people who miscalculate and end up getting lost/injured. The amount of people I see doing hike without even any water is astounding. People just do not respect the danger that the American wilderness can present if you are not prepared, hell even if you are prepared and just have some bad luck. The whole NPS cover up thing in my opinion seems a bit ridiculous. The amount of park rangers there are at each park vs total visitors is a ridiculously small ratio. The government is going to put a very small number of underpayed employees who decade after decade get less and less funding in charge of covering up some conspiracy that covers millions of square miles?? Seems illogical to me. If the government wants to hide something from us they can do it. Look at Area 51. And I know I’ve heard Aiden talk about stories people have told about being stopped going up random roads in national forests/parks. They’re probably private logging roads in national forests hence why they’re told they can’t be on them. I think if I’m not mistaken logging is allowed in some national parks as well. Also in the area of the country I live in it is not uncommon for there to be very restricted access to some parts of the national/forests parks because of conservation reasons as there has been a local cave bat that has been decimated in recent decades because of cave explorers. Just saying there are other reasons beside conspiracy why they would restrict access to certain areas.

I would love to see either you guys, ballen and wendigoon go investigate some of these together or maybe see if some fans would be down to help fund and do this, if nothing is found at least it'd be a fun camping trip

"Extremely average height of 5'10''" Bro I'm 5'4 please don't do this 😭

As an avid outdoorsman, hiker, backpacker, packrafter, hunter and fisherman, i can confidently day 90% of the missing 411 cases are easily explainable, even if strange on first inspection. I spend quite a lot of time off trail exploring and in a lot of the cases i can see why the victims died in strange places. They were just adventurous people out exploring. That veing said there are 7% of the cases that are exceptionally weird, weird enough that i openly question the events that transpired. Finally there are 3% of the cases which are so incredibly bizarre that i cannot imaginehow the events transpired.

One of my worst decisions was trusting people I was living with (my employers) to know when to sound an alarm if I wasn’t back. It’s a really common practice here in Australia to tell someone where you’re going and what time to expect you back. I’d done this a million times without a worry. But the one time I do it in the UK? I was hiking a section of the South Downs Way - a very straightforward section and planning catching the bus back. The day went fine, the hike was lovely and I made it to my end point with half an hour before the scheduled bus. I then saw a movie being advertised that I thought would be good, but I didn’t buy a ticket because I wouldn’t have been back by the time I’d said I would be. I get back with a good 40 minutes to spare and announce I’m back. It was then that I was horrified. They said I didn’t need to say I was back like I was a kid. I remember staring at them, aghast, and explaining the reason why I’d told them in the first place. They just didn’t understand, even with the explanation. Now, I’m bloody careful to fully explain my plans and what people are to do if I’m not back…and I’m a lot more careful about the people I pick to have my back.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite series on youtube Keep up the great work.