Speaker 1: Thousands of people have mysteriously vanished in America's wilderness. Join
us as we dive into the deep end of the
unexplainable world and try.
Speaker 2: To piece together what happened.
Speaker 1: If you are listening to Locations Unknown, ooh, what's up everybody,
and welcome back to another episode of Locations Unknown.
Speaker 2: I'm your co host, Joe.
Speaker 1: You rott On with me as always is the type
of guy that refers to the hard coding of an
eminem as the skin Mike fanned Bogart. Thank you, Jill.
I've never heard that before. That is That's a good one.
It's so gross, it is gross this skin.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 1: I love the skin on my m and MS. Yeah,
I think just grosses me out here in that. But
that's a good one.
Speaker 2: I read that and I was like, ooh, that's well.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone who's tuned in for another episode
before we get going here, and just a couple quick announcements. First,
new Patreon shoutouts only got one this week, so thank
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you are not?
Speaker 2: You look tan. And for those watching, what looks different
about show? My mustache? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was just down on the keys spearfishing for hog Fast.
It was awesome. I didn't win this year. Yes, that's
boss hog two years in a row. This would have
been the third I lost to Kyle. He deserved it,
he got He beat me by an inch and a quarter.
Was that mustache of punishment for losing? No, it's probably
why I got second though, you know, as.
Speaker 2: A a dynamic. Yeah, it was I was too slow
in the waters catching.
Speaker 3: Yes, well that sounds fun. You look for Italian, you
looke tan.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I was just out on the water for eight hours
a day and the Gulf sounds nice.
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, let's gear up and get out to
explore locations unknown.
Speaker 2: We'll edit that out, Nope.
Speaker 1: March seventeenth, twenty twelve, a twenty four year old leaves
a hotel in Cherokee, North Carolina, before dawn and drives
into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hours later, his fourd
escape is found with his wallet, keys, cash, and survival
gear still inside. A short note says, don't follow me.
Search teams, helicopters, canine units, and volunteers scour the Appalachian
Trail Corridor, steep drainages and dense off trail terrain but
find nothing.
Speaker 2: No clothing, no gear, no trace. Join us this.
Speaker 1: Week as we investigate the baffling disappearance of Derek Joseph Luking.
Speaker 2: Going on. I know, we'll do a lie. We haven't
covered Great Smoky Mountains over a year.
Speaker 1: In a hot minute, yeah, we usually do. Seems like
one or two cases of ear in this park.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for how old it is, you think there'll
be more.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well it's such a mysterious place and I
love the stories out of there. My daughters are a
huge fan of the Smoky's lore. Okay, there's just tons
like we're not supposed to whistle there, you know, like
all the rules, and we we did a Urban Legends
thing on it episode on some from there. Yeah, so
they love they love that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't believe we just don't have more maybe
bottom really, Yeah, it is beautiful. Have you been there?
Speaker 1: I have, Yes, I took my family there and we
did all the things you're not supposed to and we
were just fine. So the Great Smoking Mountain National Park
is five hundred and twenty two thousand acres. Some of
the locations we're going to be talking about in this
story are the Newfound Gap High Mountain Pass, which is
at about five thy forty six feet and it's on
US four forty one at the Tennessee North Carolina state line,
and a major overlook and parking area. The park seas
roughly twelve million visitors per year twelve point one or
twelve point two almost million visitors per year SI Park.
It's a very busy park. It's also the most biodiverse
park in the entire National Park system. So scientists have
documented more than twenty two thousand species in the Smokies
and estimate as many as sixty thousand to eighty thousand
may live there.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. That is a ton of species living there. Bugs.
I've met a lot of.
Speaker 1: It's known as the salamander capital of the world, so
some of them at least are salamanders.
Speaker 2: About thirty of them yep.
Speaker 1: The thirty different species of salamanders across five families, including
endemics like Jordan's red cheeked salamander. On any given day,
salamanders likely outnumber all other vertebrae in the park.
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: The quote unquote smoke is actually plant vapor that turns
the air blue. Trees and plants emit volatile organic compounds
that create a blue tinged haze when they scatter light.
It's informally called Wildflower National Park. So the Smokies has
fifteen hundred species of flowering plants, one of the highest
counts of any temperate region on Earth, which is why
spring wildflower pilgrimages.
Speaker 2: Are a big deal here.
Speaker 1: You're also when you're there walking through one of the
oldest mountain ranges on the planet. Geologists estimate the Smokies
are roughly two hundred to three hundred million years old,
far older than the Rockies based on the rock weathering
and soil evidence. So that's why it's like not such
an aggressive.
Speaker 2: Seep and weather down. It was probably just like the
Rockies and the wind blew it down. Yeah, that's how long.
How old it is? It's old. Did you know the
park never closes. I did not.
Speaker 1: So while individual roads, trails, or facilities can shut down
for weather or maintenance, the park as a whole doesn't
have a closing time. You can legally enter twenty four
to seven year round if conditions allow. It quietly preserves
one of the largest collections of historic structures in any
national park. So there are more than ninety historic buildings, cabins, churches, barns, schools,
and mills that have been preserved or rehabilitated, especially in
Cade's Cove and a long Roaring Fork. The Smokies is
one of the few major national parks with no entrance fee.
Thanks to historic agreements over US four forty one Newfound
Gap Road right of way when the land was transferred
to the federal government. So that's also why it's open
twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: And probably why twelve million people visited there. You go, Yeah,
just people drive through there just because it's part of
the road. They're like, visitor, visitor, visit.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk a little bit about the features. Starting
with climate. So in mid March, the Smokies are in
that uneasy transition between winter and spring.
Speaker 2: What do we call that, bookends? Did you call it
a shoulder season? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Was it shoulder season? Yeah, that's what it's normally called.
But I forgot what you called it. Oh man, now
I can't remember. Yeah, or you didn't hear about it ever. Yeah,
I think that was it too. You're like, I'd never
heard it called that shoulder season. Yeah, but I called
it something different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: Call us and tell us. So down in the valleys
around Cherokee and Gatlinburg, a day can feel almost comfortable,
with the afternoon temperatures often climbing into the sixties and
even low seventies, especially by late March. Nights there usually
fall into the forties or fifties, cool but manageable if
you're prepared. Up on the ridgeline, where the Newfound Gap sits,
it's a different world. The passes around five thousand feet
and temperatures drop several degrees for every thousand feet of elevation.
A day that feels mild in town can be ten
to fifteen degrees colder on the crest, with raw wind
cutting across the parking lots and trailheads. A spring afternoon
might hover around in the forties or low fifties there,
and once the sun goes down, it's easy for the
mercury to sink towards the mid thirties or lower. Spring
in the Smokies is all so infamous for volatile weather.
Clear skies can give way to low cloud, fog, and
rain in a matter of hours. Storms roll up the valleys,
and the higher elevations often see more precipitation than the
town's below, even when it's truly freezing. A combination of
cold air, wind, and damp clothing can drive a hiker
toward hypothermia surprisingly fast. So that's the backdrop to Derek's
disappearance at straddle.
Speaker 2: That's what you call its. Sorry for interrupting you.
Speaker 1: No, that's worth the interruption because I forgot it's hilarious seasons.
Speaker 2: I knew I would remember. That's wrong and embarrassing.
Speaker 1: So basically, when Derek was there, a huge, wet, heavily
forested mountain range where on the same day a visitor
can be strolling in short sleeves in the Cherokee while
just a short drive a few thousand feet higher, someone
without proper shelter is fighting to stay warm through a long, windy,
wet night. A little bit about the terrain around Newfound Gap.
Derek stepped into some of the roughest and most deceptive
terrain in the Smokies. At a broad scale, Newfound Gap
is a high mountain pass on a main crest of
the Great Smoky Mountains, Sitting at about five forty six
to five forty eight feet on the Tennessee North Carolina
state line. The parking area feels civilized. You have paved lots,
stone walls, big views, but it's perch on a ridge
lines surrounded by steep mountain slopes dropping away on both sides.
Once you step off the asphalt, the terrain changes fast.
The slopes around the gap are steep to very steep,
with a mix of rocky outcrops, ledges, and deeply insized
drainages that funnel water and people downhill in unpredictable ways.
The forest is also dense. On the climb up from Cherokee,
you pass through cove hardwoods and mixed oak pine, then
into northern hardwood and spruce fir forest at the gap itself,
the kind of dark coniferous woodlands more like New England
or eastern Canada than the rest of the South underfoot,
which means thick leaf litter, moss covered rock, and tangled roots,
with laurel and rhododendron thickets closing in along many of
the drainages and off trail slopes. Visibility can drop quickly
once you leave the road or main trails. The corridor
descriptions for Newfound Gap roads specifically note steeply sloping, sometimes
rocky outcroppings on one side and forests where the floor
is only intermittently open on the other. It's very easy
to lose line of sight or a bearing within a
short distance off the pavement, so several strenuous trails radiate
from this hub The Appalachian Trail runs right across this gap,
heading along a rolling but often narrow ridge with side
hills that fall away sharply into heavily wooded valleys.
Speaker 2: Nearby.
Speaker 1: Routes like Chimney Tops are known for steep, rocky ascents,
slick rock slabs, and exposure in places. Even though they're
popular day hikes. The general character of the country derrek
walking into big elevation changes, lots of vertical relief and
short horizontal distances, and very few truly gentle off trail options.
So in practice, for someone who leaves a parking lot
without a clear route and goes off trail, this area
quickly becomes amazed deep draws, blind ridges, and thick vegetation
that hide you from both other hikers and searchers, with
enough rock and relief to make a simple misstep or
a slide turn into a serious fall. That's the train
search teams we're basically trying to grid when they went
looking for any signs of him. So how can you
safely hike this area? As we always say, tell someone
your exact plan, what trail had, intended routes, turn around time,
and when you'll check back in make sure they know
who to call if you miss that window. It's very
important because searchers need to know where to start if
you do go missing. Absolutely, and obviously if you give
people that plan, you want to stick to it. So
stay on the established and sign trails. Don't just explore
off the side of Newfound Gap road or cut down drainages.
It's very easy to get cliffed out, injured, or lost
in that terrain.
Speaker 3: We've talked about getting cliffed out in other episodes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately someone passed away. Yeah, and Grand Canyon happened.
You can get down some of these cliffs, and if
you don't have climbing gear, you'll just get stuck and
you won't be able to go any further and you
can't climb back up. So you want to wear real
hiking footwear, not sneakers. Use boots or shoes with ankle
support and good tread. Wet leaves, roots and mossy rock
around the New Found Gap are major source of slips
and broken ankles. I would say, out of any gear,
your footwear is the most important. Absolutely not because I
mean best case in here if you wear bad footwear
is you're going to have just a giant blister on
each foot. Yeah, it's gonna be miserable the rest of
the troupe. Yeah, and for several days after and have
them broken in. Don't buy new shoes and go hiking
for the first time. Wear them for like a month.
I remember our first hiking trip in Candy Lens Shay.
Our friend that went with us were his army boots.
Bad idea. He had full foot blisters. It's just the worst. Yes,
you want to carry a paper map and knows how
to use it, so don't rely on your phone services
spotty and batteries die fast and cold white conditions. Have
a park map or topo and nowhere new pound gap,
trail junctions and bailout points are You want to pack
even the basics for a short hike at minimum extra
layer rainshell, hat and gloves and Coolermont's headlamp, water, snacks
and small first aid kit. Check the weather and be
right for the changes. Storms, fog and temperatures drop hit
the ridge line much harder than in the valleys. If
the forecast looks bad or is deteriorating, turn around early
and you want to avoid hiking after dark unless you're
truly prepared darkness plus deep side hills and roots is
a recipe for falls and getting turned around. Plan so
you're back at the Newfound Gap before dusk. You want
to treat water and respect high fast streams, so you
don't try to ford swollen creeks after heavy rain. Wait
till it waited out or turned back. Any stream water
you drink should be filtered, boiled, or treated. And you
want to dress in layers and carry rain protection to
prevent hypothermia.
Speaker 2: Even in mild seasons, wind and rain at five thousand
feet can drop your core temperature quickly. A dry base
layer and simple rain jacket or punch will make a
huge difference. And lastly, be realistic about your limits and
turn back early even if something feels off. Most serious
incidents in the Smokies come down to overconfidence and bad decisions,
pushing on when you're tired, injured, disoriented, or racing daylight.
So Mike tell us a little bit about Derek.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the subject of tonight's case is Derek Aluking.
He was born May thirteenth, nineteen eighty seven, went missing
March seventeenth, twenty twelve. He was a male aged twenty
four he was five foot ten to six feet. He
was about two fifteen to two hundred and twenty five pounds.
He had brown hair and a half inch beard. He
had hazel eyes, though some sources say they were green.
He also was some kind sometimes went by the nickname DJ,
and he did have a couple of tattoos of Japanese
characters meaning to live or life on his upper chest.
Clothing or gear last scene and so he had a
gray hooded sweatshirt, dark colored track pants with a white
stripe down the side of each leg. He had dark
colored sneakers, white tennis shoes. The descriptions do very slightly
across some of the news sources on what footwear, what
his footwear looked like, so these are just kind of general.
He possibly had a waterproof watch, and he was possibly
carrying a real tree camouflage raingear, any black or dark
blue day pack style backpack. And when I get in
the timeline, he also he went on a major buying
spree before he went into the Smokies, so we'll cover
that in the timeline. Personality, he was described by family
and friends as a very avid camper and an outdoor enthusiast,
but not really known as an extreme backcountry survivalist, so not.
I mean most people aren't known like Joe and I
aren't known as backcountry extreme survivalists.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we would do well to survive, but
not thrive. Yeah. Yeah, probably just gotta be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd probably make it for many days, potentially weeks,
but we'd probably be eating each other in like foot.
Speaker 2: I would be really holding out for a rescue. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean there's a difference between knowing what you should
do and then actually doing everything correctly when you're in
that situation. Yes, So yeah, it's easy to say that
you would be prepared for that. But as many people
as we talked about in this show, I hear many
more stories of people getting saved. And when I hear
about how they got saved and what they were doing,
so it gives it gives me a lot of confidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just because I know what I should be doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean just like thinking about how Brian
Sklinsky survived his first disappearance in Great Sand Dunes, just
sleeping on sand in freezing temperatures with no like no gear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just like, well, I guess I'll lay
here now. Yeah, and he survived.
Speaker 3: So part of it is luck, part of it is
location you get lost in, and some of it is
you know.
Speaker 2: Following all the rules we tell everyone to follow up. Yes,
he was known.
Speaker 3: He was a known fan of bear grills, man vers
wild and was fascinated by survival scenarios, which may have
influences planning in mindset. And I will say something about
bear girls. I used to be a big fan. He's fake, but.
Speaker 2: He he's so fake. Yeah. His show is he goes
to hotels every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the guy you, I think he knows
the stuff, but for the shit and he did do that,
so he was like British Special Forces. So like right
now he's not He's doing this stuff and he's demonstrating
it and then going to a hotel and then coming
back out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all dirty again the.
Speaker 3: Guy who I think the show it's not on there anymore.
Survivor man. Yeah, that was legit rate his own camera
less stroud I think was is that the one where
he had his like the camera shots were like he
hit at the camera, brought a camera with him, set
it up and he lived out in the woods or
wherever he was by himself. Yeah, that is more realistic.
And Bear Girls, I mean his shows are very interesting
and informative, but don't have any impression that he's roughing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that one scene where he he took a snake
skin and then pete in it in drink it to
like he was.
Speaker 1: Just so unnecessary, so unnecessary, and he's like, oh it's
so salty. I was like, oh, why are you doing this? Yeah,
for all we know, it probably was gatorade. Yeah. Yeah,
but so I don't know. That's my Bear Girls tangent.
I love how. I hope this turns into some weird
beef you end up and Bill you and Bear Girls.
Speaker 2: I mean he probably killed me special Forces. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just helped this beef starts, and I want to
remain neutral and just keep egging it from both sides.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm yeah, I'm stacking up enemies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you think so you think Bear Girls is
fake and he probably wasn't even special Forces? HW Mike,
you I can say that. Yeah, it sounds kind of
like you're saying that. It kind of sounds like you
think you're better than Bear Girls. Yeah, no, I think
that's what you said. Tell everyone tell that's what if
you know bear girls, Mike says he's better than him.
Speaker 2: There we go, all right, go on, all right, got
that out of the way.
Speaker 1: Family and friends, back to the character profile here, suggested
he was generally responsible. He had a stable job in education,
but may have been quietly struggling with adult pressures and
grief following his grandfather's death. So that's going to be
a theme throughout this case that we'll go back to
in theories. Medical issues, nothing publicly documented of anything, No
injuries before his hike. He didn't have any chronic medical conditions.
Occupation hobby.
Speaker 3: He worked as an aid at Peninsula Behavioral Health Center
often referred to as Peninsula Hospital, near his home in Louisville, Tennessee.
He was a college graduate of Johnson University, so experiencing
the wilderness. Like I said earlier, He's described as an
avid camper and hiker by his friends, with enough experience
to take day hikes and short trips, but not regarded
by family or park officials as a deeply seasoned wilderness expert.
Appalachian trail hikers who spoke with his family believed he
could survive for some time with the gear he had
at least theory, and I'll cover all the gear he bought.
He easily should have been able to survive the conditions
he would have experienced so experiencing that location. So he
did appear to have researched the Smokies before this trip.
He purchased maps in a book about the Smokies and
its trails shortly beforehand, but there is no real clear
evidence he had a deep prior on the ground experience
at Newfound Gap. So jumping right into timeline, we'll start
on Wednesday, March fourteenth of twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: So essentially, Derek was.
Speaker 3: Just living his normal life in Louisville, Tennessee, and at
this time, for whatever reason, he ended up going on
a spending binge for hiking gear, and he bought over
one thousand dollars worth of camping in survival supplies from
a Bass Pro shop, Knife Works, and Coleman's. I'll say
that may sound like a lot of money, but for
hiking gear, like if.
Speaker 1: You're in the right stuff, that could be like a
tent in a sleeping bag. Yeah, backpacks could be a
few hundred dollars. I remember buying an ultra light sleeping
bag in that was super expensive. And yeah, I think
my really nice light cold bag that it took to
Africa was like five hundred dollars. Yeah, so hiking gear
can add up quickly. Nice pair of boots will run
you a few hundred bucks. I mean it adds up fast.
But he did buy a lot of gears. So some
of the gear included maps of the Smokies, a tent,
sleeping bag, a pack, axe, a knife sharpener, a compass, thermometer,
one hundred feet of black parachute, cord head lamp, pocket knife,
granola bars, an iPod pouch, a waterproof watch, and a
bear grilled survival tool pack containing a multitool, small flashlight,
and fire starter. So he's already got more gear than
most of the people that have gone missing that we've covered,
And with all that gear and the clothing he had,
he should have been able to survive a few nights
in this environment. He also had searched the Great Smoking
Mountains on his computer and booked a room at a
hotel in Cherokee, North Carolina, which is a gateway town
to the park, roughly two hours southeast of his home,
and he is believed to have stayed at the at
A Motel six on the night of March fourteenth. It's
now Thursday, March fifteenth of twenty twelve, so Derek is
believed to have stayed overnight at the a Smokemont campground
inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and that same day
he failed to show up for his shift at Peninsula Hospital.
Calls to his cell phone went unanswered. His roommate, Ryan Molden,
had noticed Derek's alarm going off continuously that morning and
initially assumed he had just left early for work and
forgotten to turn it off. And I think I forgot
to tell everyone how old he was. He's twenty four.
So that was like in the back of your head,
that's why you keep thinking, yeah, you're missing something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so twenty four years old.
Speaker 3: So, like I said, his roommate heard his alarm going off,
wondered what was going on.
Speaker 2: Something's weird.
Speaker 3: When a mutual friend alerted Ryan, his roommate, that Derek
had never arrived at work, concern quickly set in, so
Ryan contacted Derek's parents in Virginia, and obviously they were alarmed.
They drove to his their son's home in Knoxville. Slash Louisville, Tennessee.
To begin piecing together what might have happened to him,
they examined his computer. They discovered searches for the Great
Smoky Mountains hotel reservations in Cherokee, and the trail of
survival gear purchases. So Friday March sixteenth, twenty twelve, Derek
checked into the Microtel Inn and Switees in Cherokee, North Carolina.
A Bible and some alcohol were later found among his
belongings at the hotel. His father would go on later
to note that drinking was not typical for Derek, and
he suspected his son might have been struggling with depression
as he tried to navigate adulthood. So that is a
theme that kind of comes up in this case.
Speaker 1: That outwardly Derek appeared to be pretty normal and having
a good time, but that he was kind of suffering
in silence at this point with some type of depression. Yeah,
and obviously we know that his grandfather had recently died,
so that might have played something into it.
Speaker 2: And well, I wonder if the Bible I found was
just the Bible at.
Speaker 1: The hotel, especially in the South, like every hotel has
a Bible in there. Although the drinking thing, if he
wasn't normally drinking and he's by himself, then that could
be yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's not unusual for young adults once they're out
in the wild to kind of from time to time
suffer from a little depression because the world is not
a nice place sometimes. Yep, it can get you down. Absolutely,
so I did mention this earlier. The timing of his
disappearance coincided closely with the first anniversary of the death
of his grandfather, who he was very very close with,
so probably played some kind of role in this, would
be my guess. Saturday, March seventeenth to twenty twelve, at
approximately four am in the morning, hotel surveillance cameras captured
Derek leaving the Microtel in in Cherokee. He was alone
and he was carrying what appeared to be a day pack.
He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark colored track
pants like I mentioned, white striped down each side of
the leg, and dark colored sneakers, and he may have
also been carrying some rain gear that they couldn't really
tell with the video. By eight thirty am that morning,
his white Ford escape was found in the lower lot
at Newfound Gap, which Joe had mentioned earlier, is at
about five thy forty eight feet and it's mountain pass
where the main road through the park acrosses the Appalachian
Trail straddling the Tennessee North Carolina state line. And the
family was they were actually the people that discovered his vehicle,
so it looks like after arriving at Microtelt too late
to find Eric, they were driving back towards Tennessee when
they spotted his car in the parking lot and immediately
contacted park rangers. Inside the vehicle, searchers found his wallet, cash,
credit cards, and car key. They also found many of
the survival supplies he had recently purchased, including critically the
tent and sleeping bag, and they also found kind of
this strange handwritten note that some sources say it simply
said don't follow me, while some other sources in the
news said don't try to follow me. So kind of
odd he would leave his car keys and that note
with his stuff with his stuff, so park officials expressed
uncertainty about whether Derek had actually written the note, despite
it being a despite it being a sunny Saturday, with
heavy visitor traffic at one of the park's most popular overlooks.
Not a single person reported having seen Derek in the
park when they were interviewed by law enforcement, so that's
also very interesting. It's now March seventeenth to the twenty third.
Park rangers launched an immediate search and rescue operation radiating
outward from the Newfound Gap. Over the several days, these
searchers hiked a lot of miles, so some estimates of
upwards of fifty five to seventy miles of trail were
searched in just the first few days, including sections of
the Appalachian Trail and connecting side trails. They had multiple
scent tracking dog teams in the area. They were giving
samples of Derek's clothing to lock onto ascent. Helicopter sweeps
were conducted over three separate days, with additional nighttime helicopter operations.
The North Carolina and Tennessee Highway Patrols provided helicopter services
at no cost to the Park Service, so that was nice.
So they really have, I mean, within a few days
they have a massive search operation going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's thick. That is thick. What time of year
is that picture?
Speaker 1: Uh, November, okay, twenty twenty two, so probably not as
thick even as it would be in may or, I
guess March, yeah, maybe, but yeah, it's some thick and
pretty steep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's there's some it's yeah. You go down there,
no one's finding you. Just slow October twenty one. Yeah,
slow searching. Yeah, holy cow. So yeah.
Speaker 3: Searchers were instructed to check all natural and mad made shelters.
They spoke with everyone they encountered, and they were keeping
their eyes peeled for camel crush cigarette butts.
Speaker 2: So that was so he was.
Speaker 3: He smoked cigarettes, and that would have been the brand
he smoked. And despite the warm, unseasonable weather that should
have improved his chances of survival. The massive effort turned
up nothing. Not a single footprint, discarded item a cigarette
butt could be conclusively linked to Derek. It's now Thursday,
March twenty second of twenty twelve. By the sixth day,
the search was at a critical juncture. They had approximately
sixty searchers split into fourteen teams for another push. Supervisory
park ranger Joe Pons said, let's try to make another
hard push for this guy today. The search had now
moved significantly off trail. Rangers looked for places where it
would be appealing to get off trail and hiked those
routes until the terrain came impassable, making every area surveyed
on GIS paced maps. During one sweep, a helicopter spotted
a tarp near Deep Creek and a team was quickly dispatched,
but the equipment appeared to have been in place for
a long time and had no connection to Derek. Bob Miller,
a park spokesman, noted the most disturbing aspect of the case.
He said, there was a ton of people in the
park that day. It was a nice day. Mean he
got off trail right away, maybe so. About forty five
National Park Service employees and roughly fifteen civilian volunteers participated
in the search effort. Personnel from Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherokee
Tribal Ems, and search and rescue dog associations from North
in South Carolina also assisted. It's now Friday, March twenty
third of twenty twelve. After a full week of heavy
searching with nothing found beyond the vehicle, park officials made
the difficult decision to scale back the operation. Park spokeswoman
Molly Schroer acknowledged the frustration. She was quoted without clues,
you are just kind of searching in the woods. Park
Superintendent dale A. Ditmissen added, it's very disheartening for the
searchers to work so hard for so long to find
a missing individual without success. I can't imagine the effort
that's expended and then they turn up empty handed. Though
they found the car, yeah, and a lot of his stuff,
so that's more than some cases.
Speaker 1: And I do want to note that for people who
are watching, this is a map Mike create it that
will start coming along with all these episodes. So it
has also I'm following along on the map and it
kind of shows the different areas where this stuff is happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you can click on if you x out
of that, you can click on the different points of
interest and they will pop up with information.
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been following along with you real time. There
you go.
Speaker 1: I just got to make it now to move when
I talk, yes, and then you don't need me.
Speaker 2: Then I don't need you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, this is exactly what I've been working towards. So,
like I said, the search is wrapping up. They really
haven't found anything other than the vehicle. So it's weekend
March twenty fourth to twenty fifth of twenty twelve. So
after the official search was skilled back, Derek's family, along
with more than twenty five civilian volunteers, continued searching for
two additional days. His parents set up a blue minivan
decorated with fine Derek signs photos of their son and
his Teddy Bear sporting a plaid and red bow tie
at the Newfound Gap overlook. They pressed flyers into the
hands of every single person they found. They pleaded with
hikers heading out on the trails to keep an eye out.
The father was quoted as saying, we tried to talk
with every hiker. Some were coming from the trailheads. They
were sitting there looking for him, and they would see
hikers coming out of the woods and they would do
like a double tick like his said Derek, and unfortunately
none of them were.
Speaker 3: They set up a Facebook page titled to Find Derek
Luking and it was kind of the coordinate awareness efforts,
and one of the family members wrote on the page,
we will never stop looking for Derek, although we still
think he is in the park. An off trail there
is possibility that he is out in the world somewhere,
So we will put the word out in the world
as much as we can while still making sure people
know who he is in the Smoky Mountains. Now, real
crazy thing. So there was a very weird coincidence that
happened during the search for Derek. So just one day
after the search for Derek, a second man vanished in
the same area of the park. Michael Giovanni a Cochini.
He was twenty three from Nashville, Tennessee, and he was
last seen by friends at the Walmart in a nearby
town on March eighteenth. His car was noticed by rangers
at a parking area near the park visitor center outside
Gatlinburg that same day, and this guy was not known
to be a hiker and had no gear for hiking
or overnight camping. When his car remained in the same
spot two days later, rangers launched a second simultaneous search,
but obviously both searches were eventually called off without resolution.
Now fast forward to August seventeenth of twenty twelve, a
park employee stumbled upon a backpack in the woods that
was confirmed to belong to Michael. In the subsequent search
rangers located clothing consistent with what he was last seen wearing,
along with his cell phone. Then, on August twentieth, searchers
discovered skull fragments just three tenths of a mile from
where his car had been found, and the reins were
eventually positively identified as Michael's. Very interesting. Another gentleman went missing,
like right in the same area.
Speaker 2: They seemed to wrap that one up relatively quickly too.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean they found somehow found his remains quickly,
but sadly. Through this time, there were no new developments
made in Derek's case, so twenty thirteen case still open.
By June of twenty thirteen, Park spokeswoman Molly Shore confirmed
that his case remained open and active. She was quoted like,
what the Derek Luke case. They've never located him and
it is still considered an open case. She said, if
a lead comes up, we will look into it.
Speaker 1: And I searched for the Facebook page and it doesn't
seem to exist anymore. I saw a couple individual posts
that weren't lolated, but I don't think the page is live,
so I can't get anything from there.
Speaker 2: Okay, I thought I was on it.
Speaker 1: I searched it exactly how it was labeled. So okay,
I'll keep digging. I'll keep taking.
Speaker 3: Twenty fifteen and beyond. So by twenty fifteen, which we're
now approaching, the third anniversary of Derek's disappearance, his case
remain listed in the National Missing an Unidentified Person system
known as name US. And during this time, the Facebook
page that Joe is trying to find remained active trying
to spread the word. And I may have read that
information from a news article now that I'm thinking now
that I think.
Speaker 2: About it, that was just on Facebook.
Speaker 3: No, that it referenced their Facebook page, So NETT page
would be over ten years old now.
Speaker 1: Something I'm wondering if somebody actually closed it, because sometimes
people just let it kind of hang out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'll keep looking, Okay.
Speaker 3: Appalachian Trail through hikers who had spoken with the family
over the years expressed the view that given the supplies
Derek likely had on him the survival a pack axe,
parachute cord, firestarter, compass, headlamp, pocket knife, and granola bars,
that he could have theoretically survived in the woods for
an extended period. It's now twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, we're
getting more updates the Charlie Project, which is a great
website to look up missing person cases. They updated their
case on Derek with some photographs and updated clothing and
jewelry descriptions. By twenty eighteen, it's been six years now
since he went missing. His family still searching for answers
and hoping to find out what happened to him, but
nothing has come of it, and from twenty nineteen to
the present day, the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch
continues to list Derek on its official cold case page,
and his direction of travel from Newfound Gap to this
day remains unknown. As of May twenty sixth, the month
we're recording this, no it remains clothing, gear, or any
physical trace of Derek has ever been recovered from the
Smokies or anywhere else, and his case remains open and unsolved.
So that's why we're asking everyone listening. If you happen
to know any information on this case, you can call
the National Park Service number at eight two eight four
nine seven nine four zero. It's never too late to
send in a tip. Maybe you were hiking and came
across a gear that's at the time just seemed like
somebody dropped something. But now that you heard this episode,
you're thinking, you know what, that looks like something he
might have carried. So even a tip like that, if
you remember where you were and when it was, you
can put that hip in there. And to this day,
if its case is open, they'll go out there and search.
You know, maybe they'd find his remains. Who knows. Okay, theories,
got four of them here. I'll read him out and
then I want to hear what you think. Okay, So
theory number one probably the most likely wilderness misadventure.
Speaker 2: That's like every one of these cases.
Speaker 3: So Derek enters the Smokey's intending to test survival skills
or spend time off grid. He's been watching a lot
of Bear Girls. He's got a Bear Girls survival kit,
he's been watching survival shows. He's probably like, I'm gonna
go try this out, and but he becomes lost, injured,
and succumbs to the train. Why this fits well, He
bought extensive survival gear and studied the park beforehand. He
was a fan of survival shows like The Man Versus
Wild Show. The terrain around Newfound Gap is like it's brutal.
Joe described it steep drop offs, dense vegetation, hard to
search ranges. Rangers even suggested he may have gotten in
over his head when he went out there. Why it
doesn't fit if he's really into survival and everything. He
left critical gear like tents, a tent and sleeping bag
in his car, so that's gear you would take with you.
You wouldn't leave that behind. And there was no trace
ever found despite a massive search. So even off trail
cases usually produced something. Gear remains are central, and we
mentioned another guy went missing in March and they found
his remains by August, so that is unusual. Second theory,
this is always tough one to talk about, but suicide
or mental health crisis. This one is basically you can
probably guess that he intentionally went into the park to
end his own life. Now we don't throw this theory
around lightly, but there's a few things in this case
that would lend to maybe something was going on with
Derek that people weren't aware of, that he was kind
of suffering, like I said in silence. So the first
big one is the note that was left in the car.
Now we don't know who wrote that note because he
left his keys in the car, so anyone could have
gotten in his car. It'd be kind of a weird thing,
that random being a break in their car and say
don't follow me, and then leave wallet and cash and
everything behind me. So, but we don't know who, but
he left a note that says don't follow me, which
strongly suggests intent to disappear. The timing of his disappearance
aligns with the anniversary of his grandfather's death. He was
very close with him.
Speaker 1: I imagine his grandfather was probably like a father figure
to him. Yeah, and his passing probably devastated him. I
know from personal life experience.
Speaker 3: You two, Joe, probably at twenty four, you haven't experienced
a lot of death in the family yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a new type of pain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like a time of your life where some
of your older relatives are starting to pass away, and
up until that point everyone alive memory as a kid,
like all your relatives are alive, and like family gatherings,
like all the grandparents, they're a great uncle's aunts.
Speaker 2: And you get older and you got to start dealing
with start dwindling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone handles that differently. And if he was really close.
It probably hit him hard. Yeah, reports of possible depression
and unusual behavior. So the Bible alcohol though, like Joe said,
the Bible in a southern hotel.
Speaker 2: Now they're common all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but alcohol, if he's not a big drinker, that
is a little out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2: And leaving behind.
Speaker 3: While his wallet, money, and gear does fit someone planning
to not return, but he didn't leave any kind of
notes like other than to don't follow me. He didn't
leave like a letter to someone or why this doesn't
fit No body or evidence was ever found the level,
so the level of preparation, all the gear, purchases, planning
feels pretty excessive. If your goal was to go out
there and not come back. Yeah, how would you buy
all that stuff, read all those books.
Speaker 2: And then leave in the car? Yeah, So that doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, most suicides in national parks are eventually located,
especially after larger search and rescue operations, so the fact
that nothing was ever found is a little odd. A
third theory voluntary disappearance, so he basically staged his own disappearance.
This basically is he staged it at Newfound Gap to
make it look like he vanished into the wilderness, but
actually left the starting life. The note in a banded
vehicle could be intentional misdirection, early morning departure and secretive
planning behavior. Cash purchases leave gaps in a paper trail,
and zero evidence in the park could mean he never
went deep into it. Now, why this doesn't work? He
left behind his wallet, cash and credit cards, car keys.
Not having all that stuff makes starting a new life
a little harder. Yeah, no confirmed sightings, financial activity, or
identity use since twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: And I'll just.
Speaker 1: Say, in modern times, especially twenty twenty six, it's pretty
darn hard to go anywhere and not be filmed or.
Speaker 2: Photographed or yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3: You would imagine at some point he would thought maybe
not turn up, turn up maybe yeah, who knows. In
one of my points here was disappearing completely in the
modern area is very hard to pull off long term.
You'd probably do it for a couple of years, but
at some point, I mean, you'd have to get a job,
make money, yeah, get an apartment, a lot of things.
You're gonna have to share your identity with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, unless you're somehow connected to some CD underground where Yeah,
fake documents and stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the least supported theory is foul play. So
this goes Derek encountered another person who caused his disappearance,
either before or after reaching the park. Why it could
work again, lack of evvidence can sometimes point to a
third party involvement, and the coincidence of another disappearance in
the same area at the same time does raise a
few suspicions something weird was going on. But why this
doesn't fit is no signs of a struggle at the
vehicle or a hotel, no witnesses, suspects, or investigative leads
pointing to another person. And like I mentioned earlier in
the timeline, this was a sunny day, very that overlook
is very populated, busy place, and people don't even remember
seeing him there, so that's a little strange. And the
timeline strongly suggests he traveled alone and voluntarily entered the area.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, what do you think? This one's
so weird. It is a little weird. I feel like
you can be three of them. I feel like, unfortunately
suicide is one of them potential. I feel like it
could be he was testing his skill and didn't make it, Yeah,
and they just haven't found him because it's fair very thick,
and there's a part of me that thinks it could
be connected to the same other guy who went missing. Okay,
like did those two coincidentally be in the same the
wrong place at the wrong time. Interesting, And that's like
your Hollywood theory, it kind of is, But I mean
it's I mean, coincidences can happen, but not it's not
like an I don't know. That just seems like two
very coincidental things that are very similar happening at around
the very same time. So I don't know, it's a
matter of like when they reported the other guy missing, well,
he was at the store. So have you lined up,
like how much time has passed from when Derek was
missing to the other guy, So.
Speaker 3: The other guy went missing one second?
Speaker 2: Here, I have the map pulled up. I can go here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if I put that in the map,
March seventh, No, it's in there. I saw March seventeenth,
Derek left. Here you go March eighteenth, So it's like
the last scene the next day after Derek was seen leaving,
So it could have theoretically gone missing on the same day. Yeah,
like actually so yeah, like they're going to the same
area on potentially the same day and one one was found.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the note is weird.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the note is weird in your car keys, and
while in the car, it's like a contradiction. He left,
he went and spent all that money on hiking gear,
was like a big nut about survival, and then leaves
half of it in his car.
Speaker 1: What if Okay, here's my Hollywood. Okay, let's say it's
a killer and he is following Derek and that guy
leaves the note in there, like like have they did
an analysis on it? Is it Derek's handwriting on the
note and the guy who's going to attack him throws
it in there or something or after maybe he saw.
Speaker 2: That that's his car. Yeah, and oh how about this? Okay,
how about this? Okay, what if this? This is the Hollywood.
Speaker 1: The killer is on the trail, murders Derek and the
other guy okay, takes Derek's stuff, has his keys, can
go to the parking lot and click the button, find
out which card is, throw all the stuff in there
and leave a note and make it look like that. Okay,
maybe he was interacting with addiction. Yes, exactly interesting. That's
this is why it's Hollywood. I mean, you have to
be very fairly smart and to do something like that.
But I don't know that it's that one's the Hollywood one.
I think more likely it's he chose to go out
there and not come back, or he was attempting to
survive on purpose, so he said, hey, put the note like, hey,
don't look for me.
Speaker 2: I'm doing this on purpose.
Speaker 1: Like that could have been him leaving the note saying
I'm going out there to do a survival thing like
don't look for me, I'll be fine. Okay, that seems
you know, Okham's razor.
Speaker 2: That one's most likely.
Speaker 1: But other than that, I think it's very coincidental that
two people potentially on the same day went missing and
one that turned up they found his remains. Yeah, and
they just have it on the other one yet.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I think my most likely theory and
I have a theory on why the tent and sleeping
bag were in the car. So he gets to that
campground area early in the morning, he probably doesn't want it.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not even light and dark.
Speaker 3: It's still dark out, so he's like, you know, what,
I'm going to go on a day hike this morning
and just hike around a bit. I'll come back to
my car, set my camp up at the campground when
it's light out. That would make sense. Then why he
left the tent and sleeping bag in the car. If
you're planning to just hike for a few hours and
then come back to a campground and set up camp,
why would you hike with your tent and sleeping bag
in your backpack? So like, yeah, I'm picturing he probably
was planning to come back to his car at some
point the set up camp, and maybe he just accidentally
forgot his keys in the car.
Speaker 2: I've done that.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not People forget their car keys in
their car all the time.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: I once went to the grocery store after work and
forgot to turn my car off, got out, went in
and shop for twenty minutes, came back out, got in.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, that's weird. It's on. I'm like, oh,
I left it on while I was in the store.
You're in the thick of it with children right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have like fog brand, So leaving your keys
in the car, I can totally buy that, and I
think having when I was younger, I used to watch
the shows it's on History Channel called Alone, where they
would drop people off in the wilderness and whoever survived
the longest win like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Yeah,
and that would get me like jazzed up to go hiking. Yeah,
so like you might want to go try something like yeah. Yeah,
So I can picture young guy.
Speaker 3: He's in the hiking he's been watching all these bear
Girls shows and the guy in those shows it's cool,
he's doing cool.
Speaker 1: He was talking like this is so intense and he's
doing crazy stuff. And at times like these, when the
stone waters, sometimes you have to drink your own piss. Yes,
So I can picture that Derek probably after months or
years of watching these shows, he finally gets to the
Smokey's he's out on the trail. He's probably a little
overconfident in his abilities because he's been watching so many
of those shows. Sure, and something happened where he either
went off trail and got injured or whatever like you said,
and he fell, or he's in an area that is
hard to search, and that that would be why his
tent and sleeping bag were still in the car because
he was planning to go back maybe to get that
and then set up camp, but he never did. Does
still doesn't explain the note. That's weird.
Speaker 2: Yep. So that's why.
Speaker 1: I mean, it could explain the note. It's don't hate
I left all my stuff in here, don't look for me.
Speaker 2: I'm fine.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you think he would write out an explanation.
I mean instead of being like a cryptic.
Speaker 3: That's two guys have done a show on missing people
for nine years, would do like write out a detailed
note like, hey, I'm okay, I will be back.
Speaker 2: I'm practicing my survival skills.
Speaker 3: But out here a young guy who's just going out
hiking probably like he don't follow me. Okay, I don't know. Yeah,
you're right, could be just mixed communications. He in his
head he thought that note would be more x you know,
explanatory to whoever found it. Yeah, when in the end
it really just opened a whole can of worms. Yeah,
I guess twenty four year old and he would leave
a dumb note too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that doesn't I would say.
Speaker 3: I think if I was given percentage weights to the theories,
I would say overconfidence from watching beer Girls and then
getting lost. Probably seventy eighty percent. Okay, I would say
foul play is like one percent. I don't think it
was foul play. I think it's like two percent because
the other guy, the other guy. Yeah, it doubles. I
think suicide ten percent, just because of the note and
the grandfather passing away and the family maybe suggesting he
might have been suffering from depression. But at the same time,
I have a hard time with that theory, just because
he went and bought all that stuff and he was
planning it, and he was researching it, and he like
really loved these survival shows. That to me doesn't seem
like a guy who's the other guy who went missing,
who went out there with nothing that now I don't
know anything about him, so this but that if someone
said suicide to me, would make more sense.
Speaker 1: You didn't have any gear, walked out there. He just
went out there, Yeah, and didn't recently purchase a time. Yeah,
this guy was like ready to go, like ready to
survive out in the wilderness. So it wouldn't make sense
to me then then he would go and do that.
So totally, but I still can't rule it out just
because of all the stuff the family said, so yes,
and then all the other theories, the rest of the percentages, yeah,
zero point five percent, whatever, whenever I have left whatever,
Eagles one hundred and three.
Speaker 3: Though I do like your Hollywood theory. I feel like
there is there's more than a zero percent chance something
weird happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's high percent, but something could have
that is just a little too coincidental. It's same time,
same age kind of guy, Like, I'm not a coincidence guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do happen. But people also win the lottery.
You know who doesn't most people? Yeah, so somebody has
to win it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, another another baffling case, another bathly case. As usual.
Speaker 1: Let us know what you think, and thanks again for
tuning into our show. We appreciate you all for listening
and sharing locations and known with your friends and family.
Be sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
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whether backpacking, camping, or simply taking a walk, always remember
to leave no trace.
Speaker 2: Thanks and we will see you all next time.