Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks in this video. We're going to
Speaker 1: be talking about a disappearance in Yosemite National Park. I
Speaker 1: always find it a bit difficult to talk about Yosemite
Speaker 1: cases because that park in particular is very tight lipped.
Speaker 1: So while there may be a lot of cases there,
Speaker 1: there's usually too little information, or the information we do
Speaker 1: have is very vague. In fact, you might see exactly
Speaker 1: what I mean as we go through this incident. Yosemite
Speaker 1: is a very large park, but it's also a park
Speaker 1: where a lot of people go to do some serious hiking.
Speaker 1: You can spend days in the wilderness without a cell
Speaker 1: phone signal to be had. It's not too surprising that
Speaker 1: people go missing there. When I travel to Yosemite in
Speaker 1: the summer of twenty twenty five, it was to cover
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Stacy Airis, which is probably the most
Speaker 1: well known as it relates to this particular park. I
Speaker 1: spent a few days in the park, and as it happened,
Speaker 1: I did have a little bit of time to spare well.
Speaker 1: I was also aware of a disappearance of a man
Speaker 1: named Peter Jackson, who had been camping at the White
Speaker 1: Wolf Campground in twenty sixteen. He vanished back then and
Speaker 1: hasn't been seen since. As it happened, I was camping
Speaker 1: very near to White Wolf, so I thought it might
Speaker 1: be an interesting idea to go and check this area
Speaker 1: out now. I wasn't sure that I would ever show
Speaker 1: this footage because frankly, I didn't think I would ever
Speaker 1: have enough information to make a solid video on this case.
Speaker 1: When I was in Yosemite. Essentially the only information I
Speaker 1: had about this case was the info that was on
Speaker 1: the National Park web page for Missing People in cold cases.
Speaker 1: So basically I was working with very little, and the
Speaker 1: information that was out there really kind of had me
Speaker 1: thinking that this was your run of the mill case,
Speaker 1: nothing particularly mysterious, just a tragic story of someone putting
Speaker 1: themselves in a bad position that leads to death. It
Speaker 1: happens all the time. The only thing I knew when
Speaker 1: I visited Yosemite was that in twenty sixteen, Peter Jackson
Speaker 1: was camping at the White Wolf campground in Campsite fifty eight.
Speaker 1: He must have left at some point and gone hiking
Speaker 1: when something happened and he disappeared. The only clue available
Speaker 1: to the public is that in twenty nineteen His backpack
Speaker 1: was found between Aspen Valley and Smith Peak, or in
Speaker 1: the Aspen Valley Akerson Meadow area. If you are someone
Speaker 1: like me and you plot these points out on a map,
Speaker 1: you might deduce that Peter Jackson had gone hiking on
Speaker 1: the trail that takes you west of the White Wolf campground.
Speaker 1: Well that's what I figured, too, So when I visited
Speaker 1: this area, I figured the best way to get a
Speaker 1: feel for how someone could disappear here would be to
Speaker 1: follow in their footsteps. As it happens, there is only
Speaker 1: one trail that heads west, so it was readily apparent
Speaker 1: what I need to do. Now, I'll take you through
Speaker 1: the timeline I experienced investigating this case and show you
Speaker 1: why things just stopped adding up. Peter Jackson was seventy
Speaker 1: four years old in September of twenty sixteen. His main
Speaker 1: interests included nature, hiking, and wildlife. He practiced some degree
Speaker 1: of Buddhism in his spiritual life and was known to
Speaker 1: people as a somewhat distant and nomadic individual. Friends and
Speaker 1: family described him as an experienced hiker who can sometimes
Speaker 1: go off the grid by himself. He spent most of
Speaker 1: his day to day life living in Mexico amongst a small,
Speaker 1: close knit group of retired, wealthy and intellectual friends. He
Speaker 1: was visiting California in September of twenty sixteen in order
Speaker 1: to see some family and sell property he had in California.
Speaker 1: He was due back in Mexico by the end of October.
Speaker 1: Part of this trip included a stop in Yosemite National
Speaker 1: Park for a little camping and hiking. Peter was not
Speaker 1: familiar with the area he was planning to camp in
Speaker 1: and had not spent much time in Yosemite already. You
Speaker 1: have more information than I did when I was in
Speaker 1: the park and hoping to investigate this case a little bit.
Speaker 1: So let me show you the footage I shot while
Speaker 1: I was there, and you can get an idea of
Speaker 1: the terrain and what it looks like in the granite
Speaker 1: filled forests of Yosemite. When I finally arrived at the
Speaker 1: White Wolf campground, I found it closed for the season.
Speaker 1: This actually turned out to be quite convenient because I
Speaker 1: had the entire campground to myself. I could go and
Speaker 1: visit the spot where Peter camped and not have to
Speaker 1: worry about people getting weirded out by a creepy dude.
Speaker 1: With a camera. I figured I could start from his
Speaker 1: campsite and try to retrace his steps a bit to
Speaker 1: better understand the ground was covering. All right, So I'm
Speaker 1: here at the White Wolf campground. I am just leaving
Speaker 1: Site fifty eight, which is behind me. That is the
Speaker 1: site that Peter Jackson was camped at. He left most
Speaker 1: of his gear there, but he did take a backpack
Speaker 1: as he went on one of these trails, most likely
Speaker 1: the trail towards Hardened Lake I think is that takes
Speaker 1: you towards Smith Peak. And all I know at this moment,
Speaker 1: because I haven't got records because you know, Semity is
Speaker 1: kind of hoarding them a little bit, is that his
Speaker 1: backpack was found somewhere between essentially here and Smith Peak,
Speaker 1: which is quite a bit of terrain. But there is
Speaker 1: a trail heading in that exact direction, so it would
Speaker 1: stand to reason that he took that trail. There's only
Speaker 1: really two trails out of this area, one towards Luken's Lake.
Speaker 1: Almost positive he didn't take that one. Seems like he
Speaker 1: was just going for a day hike, wasn't anything too serious,
Speaker 1: but that's how these things usually end in tragedy. But
Speaker 1: he was heading out this way undoubtedly left his campsite.
Speaker 1: His campsite was unattended for multiple days, and that's when
Speaker 1: rangers started getting the idea that maybe something was a
Speaker 1: miss because he should have checked out. Looks like he
Speaker 1: must have gone down this trail towards Harden's or Smith
Speaker 1: Peak go in the same kind of direction, it looks like,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna start heading down that way just to
Speaker 1: check it out, to see if I can make any
Speaker 1: sense of how someone could have gotten lost out here
Speaker 1: and never be found. And again, his backpack was found
Speaker 1: three years after he disappeared roughly, so he must have
Speaker 1: gotten off trail pretty good. And I wish I knew
Speaker 1: exactly where his backpack was found, but again, really I
Speaker 1: just got the most general information on this case right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of hoping by the time I actually
Speaker 1: released this video I have a lot more details, but
Speaker 1: right now I'm really limited on what I know. So,
Speaker 1: his backpack was found somewhere between here and Smith Peak.
Speaker 1: It's a large area, but there is a trail in
Speaker 1: that direction, so let's go check it out. So at
Speaker 1: least the first part of this trail is pretty much
Speaker 1: just a gravel road, to get to it, you have
Speaker 1: to go through a ranger station and residence area that
Speaker 1: clearly no one is at right now. And this whole
Speaker 1: area seems to be closed down right now. And the
Speaker 1: rangers area and residential area over there is just completely destroyed.
Speaker 1: Everything is looking really run down. It's clear no one's
Speaker 1: been there for a minute. So I understand why this
Speaker 1: place isn't open right now, even though it's mid July.
Speaker 1: So I'm just heading down the gravel road here, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to see what or when it turns into
Speaker 1: a trail, because I gotta imagine it does. Now. First
Speaker 1: I should hit Harden's Lake and past that would be
Speaker 1: Smith Peak, but that's quite a bit further, probably not
Speaker 1: going out that far. But I'm just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out someone came out here, what would drive them off trail?
Speaker 1: And if you were off trail, how hard would it
Speaker 1: be to find your way back? And again, as always,
Speaker 1: I don't just do this willy nilly. I got a
Speaker 1: GPS and I always carry a personal locator beacon, so
Speaker 1: I'm prepared for this little endeavor. So let's keep doing
Speaker 1: one thing I'm already noticing, just a short while into
Speaker 1: this hike is that it's a very beautiful place and
Speaker 1: it's very secluded. You know, Yosemite is always packed with people,
Speaker 1: it seems like no matter where you go, and I
Speaker 1: haven't seen anyone heading down this trail or on the trail,
Speaker 1: and it's a really beautiful place. Kind of interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so used to running into people all over the
Speaker 1: place here, But I'm also considering that since it's so
Speaker 1: beautiful out here, you know, you always get the temptation
Speaker 1: to kind of go off trail a bit, because you
Speaker 1: see a lot of a lot of places that looks
Speaker 1: like they would be fun to go climbing up a
Speaker 1: rock here to get a better view of the creek,
Speaker 1: this kind of thing. So the temptation to go off
Speaker 1: trail is real, and it happens to people. And I'm
Speaker 1: already wondering if that got the better of Peter in
Speaker 1: this situation, and maybe he's strayed a little too far,
Speaker 1: but we'll see. One thing to always keep in mind
Speaker 1: about Yosemite is that there are a lot of bears here,
Speaker 1: and so when you start walking around out on secluded trails,
Speaker 1: there is always a chance you're going to run into one. Now,
Speaker 1: if that happened to Peter, you know, or some people,
Speaker 1: they might just start running away. They might get off
Speaker 1: trail and head out into the forest to try and
Speaker 1: get away. That's a good way to get lost. Understandable
Speaker 1: as well in some sense, because obviously no one wants
Speaker 1: to really encounter a bear up close. But it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that's always worth considering. It can especially
Speaker 1: happen at Yosemite, but pretty much any place where there
Speaker 1: are bears, you know, did wildlife force someone off a
Speaker 1: trail and then they got lost and then they haven't
Speaker 1: been found again. It would be really helpful to know
Speaker 1: exactly where his backpack was found, but I don't have
Speaker 1: that info right now. It would give me a much
Speaker 1: better idea of where he could have gone. But it's
Speaker 1: interesting to note that they found his backpack and apparently
Speaker 1: no remains. Now. Of course, it's three years later, so
Speaker 1: scavengers probably got to the body and probably bears in fact,
Speaker 1: and they probably scattered his remains took it off somewhere
Speaker 1: who knows. So finding the body was probably much less
Speaker 1: likely than finding the backpack. But obviously there should still
Speaker 1: be some bones and boots and stuff out here at
Speaker 1: this point, but where they would be and where he
Speaker 1: would have gone off trail, that's kind of the mystery.
Speaker 1: A lot of people go missing in Yosemite, a lot
Speaker 1: of them are never found. It's a gigantic park, lots
Speaker 1: of granite in this area, lots of boulder fields. I
Speaker 1: think we all know what that means. People are going
Speaker 1: to go missing. You know, I gotta say, there is
Speaker 1: nothing in this area that I can see that would
Speaker 1: you know, makes sense, Like, you know, the trail being
Speaker 1: I don't know, not obvious in some areas, or the
Speaker 1: trail is very obvious. So then it just comes down
Speaker 1: to the two questions of did something force him off
Speaker 1: trail or did he intentionally go off trail because he
Speaker 1: wanted to check out some of the cool things around here,
Speaker 1: Because he could have gone off trail intentionally and got
Speaker 1: himself lost. And then, of course, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: the possibility that he was pushed off the trail by
Speaker 1: an animal, more than likely a bear, but you know
Speaker 1: the bears here. Bear attacks aren't that common, especially because
Speaker 1: they're black bears, which far less dangerous than brown but
Speaker 1: still some people's reaction to them, you know, obviously it's
Speaker 1: fear because you know, bears are a predator though you know,
Speaker 1: black bears like beerries and things, you know, But still
Speaker 1: so it's always possible. You know, you're walking along and
Speaker 1: you see a black bear and you just decide to
Speaker 1: start moving the other way, which is not bad advice,
Speaker 1: so I might suggest me and some noise. Still, it's
Speaker 1: something to think about when it comes to his disappearance,
Speaker 1: because I think something had to have pushed him off trail,
Speaker 1: whether it was his own accord or something else pushed
Speaker 1: him off a bit of a high altitude here, I
Speaker 1: think we're near eight thousand feet, though I've been spending
Speaker 1: a lot of time at this altitude lately, so I'm
Speaker 1: not as winded as I usually would be going uphill.
Speaker 1: You know, one other thought has occurred to me while
Speaker 1: I was walking and thinking here, and that is he
Speaker 1: was a bit of an older fella, and of course
Speaker 1: there is always the possibility that he had some sort
Speaker 1: of you know, health issue. I mean, obviously he was
Speaker 1: supposed to be in good health, and everyone knew him
Speaker 1: to be a pretty good camp or hiker and all that.
Speaker 1: But sometimes, you know, especially at higher altitude, sometimes things happen,
Speaker 1: you know, you never know heart attack whatever can occur
Speaker 1: to even young people, so that's always another factor. But
Speaker 1: then you would assume his backpack would be near the trail,
Speaker 1: his body would might have been taken by scavengers, especially
Speaker 1: if people weren't really going through this area too much.
Speaker 1: But I guess, more than anything else, it seems like
Speaker 1: something drove him off trail at this point, because usually
Speaker 1: if the body is close to a trail and you
Speaker 1: have some sort of health ailment, they'll find you pretty
Speaker 1: quick during the search and rescue, you would hope. So
Speaker 1: it seems like he must have wandered off or been
Speaker 1: forced off. I think I'm going to be a I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna have to land on one of those
Speaker 1: two theories as it comes to this case. So well,
Speaker 1: in conclusion on this case, I would say, given that
Speaker 1: we know his backpack was found somewhere between the start
Speaker 1: of the trail and Smith's Peak, which everything about this
Speaker 1: case seems to assume that he was just going for
Speaker 1: a short day hike, because he left all of his
Speaker 1: camp and equipment set up at the White Wolf campground
Speaker 1: obviously intended to come back. I don't think he ever
Speaker 1: intended to go out to Smith Peak. And then come back.
Speaker 1: That would be a very long hike. He probably just
Speaker 1: intended to go out to Harden Lake and come back,
Speaker 1: which would be I don't know, probably something around four
Speaker 1: or five miles, much more doable. Yeah, so just a
Speaker 1: simple day hike, presumably, And you never know. He could
Speaker 1: have gone off trail to eat his lunch. Maybe he
Speaker 1: saw a good overlook point somewhere and thought he wanted
Speaker 1: to go to it. Any number of things could happen
Speaker 1: that could cause you to get lost out here. That's
Speaker 1: why it's great to bring a GPS, and that's why
Speaker 1: it's great to have a personal locator beacon as well.
Speaker 1: Obviously he probably was a little ill equipped. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I'm at with this. After filming on
Speaker 1: location near White Wolf, I pretty much forgot about this
Speaker 1: case altogether. I did request the records for his disappearance
Speaker 1: from the NPS, but I was confident that nothing would
Speaker 1: come of it. Peter's case is still open, as he's
Speaker 1: still missing, and Yosemite is notoriously difficult when it comes
Speaker 1: to transparency. Basically, all indications were that I'd never end
Speaker 1: up talking about this case or showing the footage that
Speaker 1: I just did. Based on the limited info I had,
Speaker 1: it seemed like any number of things could have happened
Speaker 1: to Peter. He could have gone off grid and gotten
Speaker 1: lost or had a medical event. He could have encountered
Speaker 1: a mountain lion or bear and gone off trail to
Speaker 1: get out of its way and then become lost. Who
Speaker 1: knows really, And then the unthinkable happened. Yosemite decided to
Speaker 1: give me Peter's case file. So, Yosemite, I will never
Speaker 1: speak quite so harshly about you ever again, I promise. Obviously,
Speaker 1: when this kind of thing happens, we start to learn
Speaker 1: a lot more. So I will waste no time in
Speaker 1: presenting you with the most interesting bits of information turned
Speaker 1: up by investigators. But I will also encourage you to
Speaker 1: pay close attention. Keep what you already know about this
Speaker 1: case in mind. Sure we don't know much, but still
Speaker 1: keep it in mind as I cover this information. Let's
Speaker 1: begin with the timeline. Peter Jackson left Mexico and drove
Speaker 1: to Sacramento to camp near Fort Bragg on September tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. After camping there, he planned a camp at
Speaker 1: Yosemite National Park and then drive to San Diego to
Speaker 1: visit his son. On September twenty third, Peter drove to
Speaker 1: Sacramento with an unnamed male friend who was dropped off.
Speaker 1: Around thirteenth or fourteenth, Peter spoke with someone via telephone.
Speaker 1: He was said to be in good spirits and was
Speaker 1: enjoying his camping trip. During this time, he was presumably alone.
Speaker 1: On September seventeenth, Peter sent a text message saying that
Speaker 1: he had left the campsite at Fort Bragg and was
Speaker 1: on his way to Yosemite National Park. In the text,
Speaker 1: he mentioned using the back roads to get to the campsite.
Speaker 1: This was the last contact he had with anyone. On
Speaker 1: September twenty seventh, twenty sixteen, at around eight am, a
Speaker 1: ranger was assigned to investigate the whereabouts of Peter Jackson.
Speaker 1: He learned that the day prior, September twenty sixth, a
Speaker 1: ranger was preparing to close the White Wolf Campground for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. A park visitor who was
Speaker 1: camping at Site fifty nine reported to a ranger and
Speaker 1: a campground host that they had not seen anybody at
Speaker 1: their neighboring campsite, which was Site fifty eight. This visitor
Speaker 1: had arrived several days earlier, and since that time nobody
Speaker 1: had been at Site fifty eight, despite a car, tent
Speaker 1: and gear being there. The campground host had checked and
Speaker 1: discovered that Site fifty eight had been unpaid for the
Speaker 1: night of September twenty second, despite the fact that Peter
Speaker 1: was supposed to check out on the twentieth. The host
Speaker 1: put a warning slip on Peter's vehicle on September twenty second.
Speaker 1: The campground host then took a day off on the
Speaker 1: twenty third, and when they returned on the twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: they discovered that nothing had changed at Site fifty eight.
Speaker 1: They wrote out another warning slip and left it at
Speaker 1: the site. When a ranger went to check Site fifty
Speaker 1: eight on September twenty seventh, they found a twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: Silver Subaru outback with California plates. They found two warning
Speaker 1: flyers attached to the vehicle. One was written on the
Speaker 1: twenty second and the other on the twenty fourth. There
Speaker 1: was also an orange, white and red RII half domed
Speaker 1: tent with sleeping gears still inside. The campground bare box
Speaker 1: was opened and there was a fair amount of food
Speaker 1: in there, some of it was spoiled. There was no
Speaker 1: evidence of the campsite occupant anywhere in the area now
Speaker 1: as it happens. On the day prior September twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: Peter Jackson's son made a missing person's report with the
Speaker 1: Roseville Police Department after Peter failed to meet up with
Speaker 1: him on September twenty three. This was a plan they
Speaker 1: had previously agreed upon. Roseville PD added Peter as a
Speaker 1: missing person through their NCIC and later contacted Yosemite to
Speaker 1: inform them that Peter was missing. It appears that rangers
Speaker 1: briefly interviewed Peter's son, but he had limited information. He
Speaker 1: received a text from him on September seventeenth indicating that
Speaker 1: he was going to Yosemite National Park and that was
Speaker 1: pretty much it. He had no information on Peter's gear, itinerary, clothing,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Rangers did a check for any campground
Speaker 1: reservations or wilderness permits under Peter's name, but they found none.
Speaker 1: Searching for additional clues, rangers entered Peter's vehicle and found
Speaker 1: a fe a few items of interest, including an iPhone,
Speaker 1: an iPad, and a receipt from the Yosemite Village store
Speaker 1: for the purchase of a royal blue Outdoor Products Traverse
Speaker 1: eight point zero day pack. This backpack was not found
Speaker 1: amongst Peter's things. The cell phone and iPad were briefly searched,
Speaker 1: but nothing of evidentiary value was found. Later, they learned
Speaker 1: that the phone found in the vehicle was not Peter's
Speaker 1: current cell phone, which was different color. That phone was
Speaker 1: not found amongst the items at the camp site. One
Speaker 1: of Peter's friends contacted rangers about the situation, and he
Speaker 1: said that he lives near Peter, just north of Puerto Vireta, Mexico,
Speaker 1: and that they entered the US on September seventh and
Speaker 1: traveled to Roseville, California together. The friend said that he
Speaker 1: last saw Peter on September seventeenth, and Peter planned to
Speaker 1: enter Yosemite via the East Entrance and then camp away
Speaker 1: from the busy Yosemite Valley. Peter wanted to avoid a
Speaker 1: lot of people. He told his friend that he wanted
Speaker 1: to go someplace where his cell phone wouldn't work. Peter's
Speaker 1: friend thought that Peter was a poor navigator who could
Speaker 1: get easily lost, but that he was also in pretty
Speaker 1: good health. During the ground search, many items were found,
Speaker 1: but with little knowledge of the gear that Peter had,
Speaker 1: it was impossible to know if the finds held any relevance.
Speaker 1: One larger find came on September twenty ninth, when searchers
Speaker 1: found a pair of hiking poles in half Moon Meadow.
Speaker 1: It appeared that the poles could have been abandoned long
Speaker 1: before September nineteenth due to the amount of grass around them.
Speaker 1: Rangers contacted two witnesses to see if they could get
Speaker 1: a description of the poles, and they were given conflicting
Speaker 1: descriptions as it relates to the color, but the two
Speaker 1: both stated that the poles were newer looking. They were
Speaker 1: logged in as evidence regardless. On October first, twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: the field search for Peter Jackson was suspended after finding
Speaker 1: no leads or information that could potentially drive the ground search.
Speaker 1: During the search period, bad weather like snow and rain
Speaker 1: continually hampered efforts. I know I didn't cover many details
Speaker 1: of the search efforts, but they didn't really supply me
Speaker 1: with many The search was relatively short and there weren't
Speaker 1: a lot of people on the ground either. By the
Speaker 1: looks of it, it was a pretty limited search effort.
Speaker 1: It didn't make big headlines and Peter Jackson just became
Speaker 1: another name on a list. A number of interviews were
Speaker 1: conducted throughout the investigation into Peter's disappearance. Rangers made a
Speaker 1: good effort to contact everybody who stayed at the White
Speaker 1: Wolf Campground and everyone who had a wilderness permit during
Speaker 1: the time Peter was within the park. The goal was
Speaker 1: to find anyone who had seen him and at the
Speaker 1: very least supply a description of what he was wearing
Speaker 1: and what gear he was carrying. In a second, I'm
Speaker 1: going to go over three interviews that have relevance or
Speaker 1: at least potential relevance. The first two interviews are from
Speaker 1: two men who were part of a group that was
Speaker 1: hiking in the region where Peter Jackson disappeared. The third
Speaker 1: interview is with a staff member at the White Wolf Lodge.
Speaker 1: On September twenty seventh, a telephone interview was conducted with
Speaker 1: a potential witness. Their name has been redacted. They stated
Speaker 1: that they were staying with others at the White Wolf
Speaker 1: Campground between September nineteenth and the twenty first. They also
Speaker 1: had a wilderness permit because their goal was to do
Speaker 1: a three day, two night hike from the White Wolf
Speaker 1: Campground to Ten Lakes and then returned to the campground.
Speaker 1: The witness remembered meeting a group of three people on
Speaker 1: the Ten Lakes Trail on September nineteenth. This meeting occurred
Speaker 1: north of the White Wolf Ten Lakes junction, but south
Speaker 1: of half Moon Meadow. The party of three consisted of
Speaker 1: three white males with ages ranging between forty and fifty.
Speaker 1: The group stated that they had camped at Ten Lakes
Speaker 1: for three nights, and they were all carrying large packs
Speaker 1: and hiking poles. Their stated destination was Tioga Road. The
Speaker 1: witness felt that the three men had California accents and
Speaker 1: seemed to be familiar with the Yosemite area. Asked, the
Speaker 1: witness did not recall that this three person party mentioned
Speaker 1: seeing anyone else on the trail. After being pressed a
Speaker 1: little by the interviewing ranger, the witness said he vaguely
Speaker 1: recalled them saying they had seen a lone hiker, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't sure. As the witness continued on with their story,
Speaker 1: they recounted how they eventually ran into a single hiker
Speaker 1: near the top of the switchbacks between half Moon Meadow
Speaker 1: and Grant Lakes. The lone man was wearing a hat
Speaker 1: and carrying a blue day pack. The witness did not
Speaker 1: recall this man saying where he was going or where
Speaker 1: he was coming from, and he was not sure if
Speaker 1: he resembled the photo of Peter Jackson from the missing
Speaker 1: Person's flyer. The ranger then ended that interview and called
Speaker 1: up another member of the same group to get his
Speaker 1: side of the story and his descriptions. His version matched
Speaker 1: up with that of his companion. He said it was
Speaker 1: a three day, two night hiking trip. He said they
Speaker 1: first encountered the group of three white males on their
Speaker 1: way to Ten Lakes. This witness did I recall this party,
Speaker 1: mentioning a lone day hiker who had entered at White
Speaker 1: Wolf and said that they would probably see him later
Speaker 1: on the trail. This witness said that he and his
Speaker 1: group had lunch at half Moon Meadow and then started
Speaker 1: up the switchbacks to the north. While on the switchbacks,
Speaker 1: they encountered the lone hiker. This witness said that the
Speaker 1: lone hiker was heading south as though he were coming
Speaker 1: from Ten Lakes. This witness also said that the lone
Speaker 1: man resembled Peter Jackson, describing him as the same age
Speaker 1: with a short beard. He said that the man had
Speaker 1: a sun hat, hiking poles, and a bright blue day
Speaker 1: pack the same color as Peter's. The witness didn't recall
Speaker 1: what the lone hiker's clothing looked like, but stated that
Speaker 1: he knew the man came from White Wolf. This witness
Speaker 1: was able to identify the spot where they encountered the
Speaker 1: lone man, and he pointed to a location approximately halfway
Speaker 1: up the switchbacks leaving Half Moon Meadow. On September twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: A witness who worked at the White Wolf Lodge was
Speaker 1: interviewed by This individual said that on September twenty first,
Speaker 1: he saw a person whom he believed to be Peter
Speaker 1: Jackson just before noon. He remembers the man wearing a
Speaker 1: dark blue windbreaker and a possibly green backpack, along with
Speaker 1: tan shorts, a floppy hiker's hat, boots, and high socks.
Speaker 1: He said the man was standing near the lodge and
Speaker 1: looking at a bus schedule. This was the only information
Speaker 1: that the witness was able to provide. Rangers compiled a
Speaker 1: list of items that were the best evidence in the
Speaker 1: disappearance of Peter Jackson. Some on this list are more
Speaker 1: relevant than others. The first, and obviously most valuable, was
Speaker 1: the sighting by the Ten Lakes backpackers. They encountered a
Speaker 1: man who matched Peter's description heading back towards the White
Speaker 1: Wolf Campground after visiting the Ten Lakes area. This sighting
Speaker 1: occurred at roughly three pm on September nineteenth, the day
Speaker 1: before Peter Jackson was due to leave the park. There
Speaker 1: was also the campground host who stated that Peter looked
Speaker 1: familar to her, but there was nothing outstanding regarding his stay.
Speaker 1: According to her notes, Campsite fifty eight was vacant on
Speaker 1: the evening of September eighteenth, when she did her rounds,
Speaker 1: she noticed that Peter's stuff was there. On the evening
Speaker 1: of September nineteenth, the same day she believed she saw him,
Speaker 1: though she doesn't specify a time. She took two days
Speaker 1: off after that, and when she came back on the
Speaker 1: twenty second, Peter's stuff was still there. It was at
Speaker 1: this point that she started writing warning slips. There was
Speaker 1: also a gas station cashier who claimed to see Peter
Speaker 1: at her store, though she doesn't give a day to
Speaker 1: or a time, She didn't know if he was in
Speaker 1: a vehicle or not. And saw him wearing a floppy hat.
Speaker 1: She had heard him talking about hiking a certain trail,
Speaker 1: but she didn't know where. Lastly, there was the staff
Speaker 1: member from the White Wolf Lodge who was ninety five
Speaker 1: percent sure they saw Peter Jackson wandering around at eight
Speaker 1: thirty am on September twentieth or the twenty first. They
Speaker 1: describe him as having a green back with some miles
Speaker 1: on it. This would contradict known information about Peter, who
Speaker 1: had just purchased a blue backpack from Yosemite Village. This
Speaker 1: is the end of relevant information within the NPS report
Speaker 1: on the disappearance of Peter Jackson. He is still missing
Speaker 1: and his case is still open to this day. If
Speaker 1: you've been paying close attention, you might have noticed that
Speaker 1: some things don't add up about this. You have Peter Jackson,
Speaker 1: he's camping and hiking out of the White Wolf Campground,
Speaker 1: and he's scheduled to leave on the morning of September twentieth.
Speaker 1: The last time he has seen is on September nineteenth,
Speaker 1: while hiking back from Ten Lakes and heading to the
Speaker 1: White Wolf Campground, when he was encountered on the trail.
Speaker 1: Witnesses said he appeared to be in good condition, and
Speaker 1: he spoke to them for only a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: before moving on. That alone is not the odd part.
Speaker 1: The strange thing is the park report never mentions that
Speaker 1: Peter Jackson's backpack was ever found. But if you go
Speaker 1: on the NPS website, right there on the page describing
Speaker 1: cold cases, they state that his backpack was found in
Speaker 1: August of twenty nineteen, and they are very vague about
Speaker 1: the location. I mean, they could give the coordinates if
Speaker 1: they really wanted to, but instead they basically just target
Speaker 1: a rather large area of land. But this region is
Speaker 1: not where Peter was last seen. If you're Peter Jackson
Speaker 1: and it's three PM and you've been hiking all day,
Speaker 1: by the time you get back to the White Wolf campground,
Speaker 1: your day hike would be over. It would be too
Speaker 1: late to tackle anything else. The Ten Lakes Trail would
Speaker 1: have taken him right back to the campground, and there
Speaker 1: would be no reason for him to start doing a
Speaker 1: rather long journey out to Harden Lake or the hetch
Speaker 1: Hetchy Reservoir. But let's take a pause for a second.
Speaker 1: The first question we need to ask is why wasn't
Speaker 1: there any mention of Peter's backpack being found in the
Speaker 1: NPS report. I thought that was rather odd, so I
Speaker 1: contacted the NPS about this. I told them that I
Speaker 1: had read the case file many times and there was
Speaker 1: no mention of the backpack, despite the fact that the
Speaker 1: backpack is mentioned on the NPS website. The initial response was,
Speaker 1: we should have given you everything in the case file,
Speaker 1: but we'll check on that. Then they sent me another
Speaker 1: email saying they did not redact any physical evidence that
Speaker 1: was collected. Well, that's really great news, but it also
Speaker 1: looks really bad. Shouldn't they have information on this critically
Speaker 1: important find in the case. Then they got back to
Speaker 1: me a third time and said they spoke with an
Speaker 1: investigator about my follow up questions and that this was
Speaker 1: still an open case and any other records they may
Speaker 1: hold are exempt under seven A, which is the classic
Speaker 1: we won't give you these records because therefore possible law
Speaker 1: enforcement proceedings. I did have to ask a final question,
Speaker 1: because it didn't make much sense that they would make
Speaker 1: the discovery of the backpack public but exempt it from
Speaker 1: the case file. The final response they gave me simply
Speaker 1: said that if the NPS website said the backpack was found,
Speaker 1: then they are sure that it is accurate, and any
Speaker 1: records they may have about it are not, for my eyes,
Speaker 1: fair enough. But that certainly raises more questions. Suddenly. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking a story that could have originally just been a
Speaker 1: tale of misadventure might now be something like foul play.
Speaker 1: Because the NPS is basically saying everything about this story
Speaker 1: is just normal missing person stuff up to a point.
Speaker 1: Something about the discovery of the backpack must have changed
Speaker 1: their outlook on the case. And we don't know much
Speaker 1: of anything about the backpack other than that it was
Speaker 1: found and a general location of where it was found.
Speaker 1: Something does seem a little off about all of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, Peter Jackson spent all day of the nineteenth
Speaker 1: hiking in areas east of the White Wolf campground. Witnesses
Speaker 1: saw him there in the afternoon. We know that something
Speaker 1: must have happened to him on this day because he
Speaker 1: was supposed to leave the next morning. But why would
Speaker 1: his gear, his whole backpack be found in a remote
Speaker 1: location deep to the west of White Wolf. I mean,
Speaker 1: that area really has no trails, so how did his
Speaker 1: backpack get there? This is why it's a shame that
Speaker 1: they won't release any information or photos about it. They
Speaker 1: gave me a whole plethora of photographs, and none were
Speaker 1: of that backpack. If the backpack was mauled and chewed,
Speaker 1: we could at least deduce that an animal might have
Speaker 1: brought it out there. Either way, these kinds of fines
Speaker 1: always impressed me. The assumption I'm having with the limited
Speaker 1: information that we do is that someone must have been
Speaker 1: hiking well off the beaten path to stumble on this
Speaker 1: backpack in the first place. Even if Peter Jackson's backpack
Speaker 1: was chewed up, it wouldn't be enough to deduce that
Speaker 1: he died from an animal attack. As far as I
Speaker 1: can tell, nobody has ever been killed or seriously mauled
Speaker 1: by a bear in that park. You also have mountain
Speaker 1: lions and coyotes, some pretty reclusive animals. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised at all if they find and drag off gear
Speaker 1: in the park. Photo attached to this case there is
Speaker 1: an image of a Nalgene water bottle that was found
Speaker 1: during the search. You can clearly see that something with
Speaker 1: jaws got to it and was chewing on it. There's
Speaker 1: some clear punctures in the plastic. There again, The problem
Speaker 1: with all the items found during the search is that
Speaker 1: we don't know what Peter had with him aside from
Speaker 1: that new blue backpack he bought, So we don't know
Speaker 1: if anything on this list holds any relevance to Peter,
Speaker 1: although we can probably be sure that the women's underwear
Speaker 1: wasn't his. So I have no idea what's going on
Speaker 1: in this case, But the more I've looked into it,
Speaker 1: the more my theories have changed. Is it possible that
Speaker 1: Peter got back to the White Wolf campground in the
Speaker 1: late afternoon or early evening on September nineteenth and then
Speaker 1: decided to do another long hike out to the west. Sure,
Speaker 1: I can't rule it out completely, but he was only
Speaker 1: prepared for a day hike, and he had already been
Speaker 1: hiking all day, and he was due to leave the
Speaker 1: next morning. So everything is pointing in the direction of
Speaker 1: him not trying to do another hike to the west
Speaker 1: of White Wolf, and yet his backpack was found in
Speaker 1: a remote location to the west of White Wolf. It
Speaker 1: also seems like the NPS is keeping this evidence rather
Speaker 1: close to their chest, and if they're willing to give
Speaker 1: me everything else, I can only think that there must
Speaker 1: be something about the backpack that made the NPS start
Speaker 1: thinking there was foul play. Again, I could be wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm making assumptions. The NPS did use the classic exemption
Speaker 1: seven A, So in essence, they're saying, we can't give
Speaker 1: you the backpack information because it could be used for
Speaker 1: law enforcement proceedings. Normally, I would say that the use
Speaker 1: of exemption seven A doesn't necessarily indicate foul play. I've
Speaker 1: met this exemption many times before, and sometimes it's used
Speaker 1: to simply stifle transparency. Authorities don't really have to justify
Speaker 1: their reasoning behind the use of exemptions unless you really
Speaker 1: decide to fight them on it, which tends to cost money.
Speaker 1: But the unique thing about this case is that they
Speaker 1: gave me the gist of the case file and they're
Speaker 1: keeping some supplemental part of it because they believe making
Speaker 1: that information public could interfere with law enforcement proceedings. If
Speaker 1: they were just being lazy or felt like blocking me
Speaker 1: for no reason, they could have seven aided the whole thing. Basically,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is this might be a legit use
Speaker 1: of that exemption. Maybe there really is something more to
Speaker 1: this disappearance, and that something is foul play. How exactly
Speaker 1: that would play out in this situation and why I
Speaker 1: have no idea. Peter Jackson was an older fellow at
Speaker 1: a seasonal campground in Yosemite. It's not really the typical
Speaker 1: target for a human predator. I suppose you could say
Speaker 1: that the location is ideal for committing a crime and
Speaker 1: hiding a body, but moving a body around the mountains
Speaker 1: would be tough in any situation. Ultimately, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's happening here. Initially the case really appeared to be
Speaker 1: a classic case of misadventure in Yosemite, but the more
Speaker 1: you learn, the less that makes sense. They found a
Speaker 1: backpack in an odd location, there was no body, and
Speaker 1: I'm assuming no hiking poles. So how did Peter Jackson
Speaker 1: get out to this region or why was he out there?
Speaker 1: Something about this doesn't add up, and when that happens,
Speaker 1: foul play could certainly be the answer. If Peter Jackson
Speaker 1: is still in Yosemite, he's probably somewhere in this area,
Speaker 1: although I'd be surprised if there's much left at this
Speaker 1: point given the number of scavenging animals in the park. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I'm more surprised that foul play could be a likely
Speaker 1: explanation for this disappearance. Murder and national parks, especially those
Speaker 1: that occur at random, is pretty uncommon, but it seems
Speaker 1: like this is the direction the NPS might be going
Speaker 1: with this, So who knows what may come of this case.
Speaker 1: Things are discovered all the time, people wandering around in
Speaker 1: the back country stumble across items and remains. It already
Speaker 1: happened once in this case, maybe it'll happen again, and
Speaker 1: maybe then we'll get some answers. Let me know what
Speaker 1: you think about all this and the comments below. Am
Speaker 1: I overthinking this one? Is it really a lot more
Speaker 1: simple than it all appears. Share your thoughts and until
Speaker 1: next time, thanks for watching.