Speaker 1: We've told stories about people who vanish deep in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: off trail and miles from anywhere.
Speaker 2: This isn't one of those stories.
Speaker 1: This is a teenager who went for a jog along
Speaker 1: a road, headed to a busy, all inclusive vacation spot
Speaker 1: and simply never returned. I'm Danielle, I'm Megan, and this
Speaker 1: is off the trails. So before you get into what
Speaker 1: sounds like it's going to be a very sad story
Speaker 1: I have, I'm so excited because while it was unintentional,
Speaker 1: the outcome was actually.
Speaker 2: A good one for me.
Speaker 3: So if you are familiar with Florida weather, and especially
Speaker 3: summertime Florida weather, you would know that we just get
Speaker 3: these insane and afternoon thunderstorms right around the same time.
Speaker 3: I mean they the sky turns black, lightning and thunder
Speaker 3: all around you, and it happens very quickly and then
Speaker 3: they end just as quickly. And you would think I
Speaker 3: would know this by now, right, like I should be
Speaker 3: used to this. I should just build this into my
Speaker 3: day right as one does. Well, I'm still getting off
Speaker 3: work around four o'clock and taking Luna for our walk
Speaker 3: on one of the trails in town, and I definitely
Speaker 3: did not plan well on what's today Wednesday? So yes, yeah, Monday.
Speaker 3: So Monday we went on this one trail and unfortunately
Speaker 3: this one was an out and back trail. So it's
Speaker 3: about one and one point one point six miles.
Speaker 1: Okay, so like perfect, perfect for like after work, before dinner,
Speaker 1: like nice afternoon walk.
Speaker 3: And it's nice because it's paved, there's a little ups
Speaker 3: and downs in it. There's some tree coverage, which is
Speaker 3: nice so that you're not just like standing in the
Speaker 3: sun the whole time or walking in the sun. Well
Speaker 3: on our way, like as we were at like the
Speaker 3: furthest point out, this sky just turns absolutely black, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh shit. And then I've got my mom
Speaker 3: texting me. She's like, I don't love where you are.
Speaker 3: And then summer my friend she's like, dude, you better
Speaker 3: get home.
Speaker 2: But I'll go to everyone.
Speaker 3: With our locations, right We've talked about location sharing, and
Speaker 3: so I was looking at Luna.
Speaker 2: I'm my girl, I'm really sorry. We got a hustle
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: And because the lightning was like at that point kind
Speaker 3: of over us, and lightning is terrifying. So for the
Speaker 3: first time since February, I was finally witched to refresh
Speaker 3: everyone's memories when I got my surgery and I used
Speaker 3: to run every day and I have not run since
Speaker 3: before my surgery in February. Well, your girl ran, and
Speaker 3: she ran hard on Monday, because there is no motivation
Speaker 3: to get back.
Speaker 2: Into running, like trying to outrun a storm. Yep, and
Speaker 2: did you did you make it back to your car?
Speaker 2: My goodness, just in time? Like it was.
Speaker 3: It was a little too dicey on, but we did
Speaker 3: make it back just in time. And my mom was
Speaker 3: definitely tracking me because she's like, oh, good you're home,
Speaker 3: you know, because I I'd be panicing if I knew
Speaker 3: someone was somewhere in some very concerning weather. But yeah, so,
Speaker 3: uh my foot was a little sore after, but that's
Speaker 3: to be expected, to be expected.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, wait a second.
Speaker 3: Was that the universe's way of letting me know that, like, hey, girl,
Speaker 3: you can slowly start running again if you want. Maybe
Speaker 3: don't do it under such like concerning circumstances.
Speaker 1: You don't need to add mental stress to your physical exertion.
Speaker 1: But maybe just you know, on a nice sunny afternoon exactly.
Speaker 3: So I'm pretty stoked about that. Sorry for the not
Speaker 3: so short story. But when you mentioned jogging, I was like, ooh.
Speaker 3: I was like, that's been such a positive for my week.
Speaker 3: Because when you have a hobby that.
Speaker 2: You can't do.
Speaker 3: And then you're not sure when you're going to be
Speaker 3: able to enjoy it again, it's very disheartening. And so
Speaker 3: when I was able to, when I realized, I was like, wait,
Speaker 3: my foot is not killing me.
Speaker 2: I'm actually able to properly run on it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's hard to know when you've had even a
Speaker 1: minor injury or a muscle pull. It's hard to know
Speaker 1: sometimes when it's going to be okay to get back
Speaker 1: into just regular routine and physical activity. You have that
Speaker 1: apprehension you're like, oh, if I do whatever this.
Speaker 2: Is, am I going to be in terrible pain.
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of times people like especially
Speaker 1: once like people are done physical therapy, you're very tentative
Speaker 1: about doing everything. So this was like, I don't have
Speaker 1: a choice to be tentative and think about it.
Speaker 2: I just gotta do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been scared that I'm going to reinjur it,
Speaker 3: that I'm going to tear or rupture the tendon or
Speaker 3: just hurt myself and because it's still you know, I
Speaker 3: still limp around sometimes because it's super tight. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so I was like, oh my gosh, I think I'm
Speaker 3: going to like slowly start trying to run again.
Speaker 2: Not overdo it, of course, but yay, yay.
Speaker 3: Everyone's like, shut up, get to the story.
Speaker 2: Sorry, all right, I don't think of anything else. They're like,
Speaker 2: dear god, you do not have anything else.
Speaker 1: Adrian will have an episode out for you guys later
Speaker 1: this week. And we had our meetup last week, which
Speaker 1: was really fun. I think we decided our next meetup
Speaker 1: is going to be Nashville Park Trivia, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Are the thrift store find of that that board game
Speaker 3: or that that I found of National Park Trivia. So
Speaker 3: we're gonna do that and it's gonna.
Speaker 2: Be so much fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we'll have to do that in August. Get that
Speaker 1: on the get it on the calendar. Oh my god, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's this next month.
Speaker 2: Holy moly. She'd have seen Megan's face.
Speaker 1: I could tell she was looking at a calendar and
Speaker 1: it was just like the shock of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm like, that's we are in seven.
Speaker 1: That is eight, correct, That's how it works all right,
Speaker 1: So jel Jell, that's not a name. Uh, Joe Keller,
Speaker 1: I was trying to like make a combo name. I
Speaker 1: guess was eighteen and from Cleveland, Tennessee. On July twenty
Speaker 1: third of twenty fifteen, he and two of his longtime
Speaker 1: friends were on a road trip and on this particular day,
Speaker 1: they had just arrived at Rainbow Trout Ranch outside of Antonito,
Speaker 1: which is in Conejos County, Colorado. I believe that this
Speaker 1: was part of their return trip home. I think they
Speaker 1: had gone to California and then we're now working their
Speaker 1: way back. Conejos County is situated in south central Colorado
Speaker 1: along the New Mexico border. It's one of the least
Speaker 1: densely populated counties in the state, so it's pretty quiet.
Speaker 1: The Rio Grande National Forest covers about one point eight
Speaker 1: million acres, and this county does fall within much of that,
Speaker 1: and much of that forest is high elevation. I think
Speaker 1: we have been to this forest before. Possibly, possibly, It's
Speaker 1: so hard to remember. I'm sure I've said this before,
Speaker 1: but one of my biggest paranoia things when doing these
Speaker 1: episodes is even though I check to make sure we
Speaker 1: haven't covered whatever particular person or situation. I'm still afraid that,
Speaker 1: even though I looked for it in the drive and
Speaker 1: in our catalog, that somehow I'm and I'm just going
Speaker 1: to cover something we've already done.
Speaker 2: Yep, what's the name of the forest again?
Speaker 1: The Rio Grande Forest sound familiar, So whether we've been
Speaker 1: there or not, we're here now. So the Rainbow Trout
Speaker 1: Ranch is a popular working guest ranch, and she's like
Speaker 1: tough trade into the forest here.
Speaker 2: And this place has all kinds of activities. Of course,
Speaker 2: they went to their website.
Speaker 1: They do horseback riding, fly fishing, all kinds of cool activities.
Speaker 1: They've got activities for kids, specifically, teens specifically, obviously adults.
Speaker 2: It's all inclusive. It's an all inclusive ranch.
Speaker 1: And every person on their website was wearing a cowboy
Speaker 1: hat or cowboy boots. Most of them were doing both,
Speaker 1: so a very classic dude ranch experience.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's a dream.
Speaker 1: Joe's aunt and uncle actually worked and lived on the ranch,
Speaker 1: so this is partly why the friends made it here.
Speaker 1: And the twenty fourth was Joe's birthday, so it was
Speaker 1: kind of a multi purpose visit. It was just another
Speaker 1: stop on their road trip. They're also visiting Joe's family,
Speaker 1: going to celebrate his birthday.
Speaker 2: Joe was pretty athletic.
Speaker 1: He was a swim coach and an avid runner, so
Speaker 1: it was no surprise when later in that day he
Speaker 1: planned to head.
Speaker 2: Out for a run.
Speaker 1: Around four point thirty, he and his friend Colin set
Speaker 1: out for a run. The friends ran at different paces.
Speaker 1: Colin was a faster runner, so about after a quarter
Speaker 1: of a mile they did split up, with Colin running ahead.
Speaker 1: Sources varied about this running route, which is always annoying,
Speaker 1: you know, some routes said or some sources sorry said
Speaker 1: that they took different roads, but based on the map
Speaker 1: of the area, there aren't.
Speaker 2: Any other roads.
Speaker 1: So I think Colin ran ahead and Joe just kept
Speaker 1: at his own pace, is what from all the information
Speaker 1: I've gathered, which makes sense. So they were going to
Speaker 1: run this route no more than four miles on about
Speaker 1: an hour and meet back.
Speaker 2: Up at the ranch. It was not unusual for them
Speaker 2: to split up.
Speaker 1: They each wanted to enjoy running at their own pace,
Speaker 1: and they were both avid runners, so typically they did
Speaker 1: run alone. So it wasn't strange by any means that
Speaker 1: they would not run together, Like if you and I
Speaker 1: went running together, I would be in the parking lot
Speaker 1: within three minutes, you know, hyperventilating, and you could keep going.
Speaker 3: So we would not be running together. We would not
Speaker 3: be ideal running partners.
Speaker 2: Correct, And you know what, not all friends are, So
Speaker 2: that's okay.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of things. If we did, you would
Speaker 3: be doing laps around me, and I'd be like, I
Speaker 3: don't know. Like we could be like gardening, and you'd
Speaker 3: have a garden setup and I'd be like, what is soil?
Speaker 2: I do have a sweet guard in pace. You're right,
Speaker 2: so you do.
Speaker 3: And I love a garden and I've done light work
Speaker 3: of it. But I you know, i'd be no match
Speaker 3: for you. But is that the right? Is that the
Speaker 3: or would you be no match for me? I don't
Speaker 3: know what which one who has the disadvantage?
Speaker 2: That's me? Whichever one? I mean?
Speaker 1: I guess it works either way though, because if you're
Speaker 1: not paired, you're not paired.
Speaker 2: One of those has.
Speaker 1: A disadvantage, uh indication, yes, And I don't know which one,
Speaker 1: so right, anybody, if anybody knows the proper terminology, let
Speaker 1: us know. So Colin finished his run and made his
Speaker 1: way back to the ranch. He wasn't really expecting Joe
Speaker 1: to be back, but he and the third friend, Christian,
Speaker 1: figured he wasn't too far behind. And this is the
Speaker 1: piece that made me question the running route, because, like
Speaker 1: I said, some sources said that it was out and back,
Speaker 1: and if that's the case, I wandered why Colin didn't
Speaker 1: find it strange or it wasn't noted that he saw
Speaker 1: Joe on his way back. So that's when I started looking,
Speaker 1: like specifically looking at the running route, and there were
Speaker 1: sources that said different things. It would make sense if
Speaker 1: there was a different route to take, but based on.
Speaker 2: The maps, there's not other roads.
Speaker 1: There's one road in and out. It's a forest service road.
Speaker 1: It's not like they were in a neighborhood. So that's
Speaker 1: the only piece of this that I kind of had
Speaker 1: questions on and wasn't able to get clarification for myself
Speaker 1: or you guys.
Speaker 3: So sorry, that's so strange, because, like you said, if
Speaker 3: it's just one road and it's out and back.
Speaker 2: Right, he would have passed him on its way right back.
Speaker 1: But regardless, they plan to have dinner after the run,
Speaker 1: so the friends were certainly aware of the time passing.
Speaker 1: As they waited for Joe to return after two hours,
Speaker 1: they knew he wasn't just being slow. Something obviously must
Speaker 1: be wrong. They'd known Joe since they were all in kindergarten,
Speaker 1: so lifelong friends at this point, so they knew him
Speaker 1: well enough that they didn't think he would have gone
Speaker 1: off to do something else without first heading back and
Speaker 1: letting them know. Joe didn't take his phone with him,
Speaker 1: which I can definitely see not wanting to take it
Speaker 1: if you're running, because it's a pain to put that
Speaker 1: in your pocket or have like one of those armstraps
Speaker 1: or whatever. And if you're if you're not a person
Speaker 1: that has to have music and you want to just run,
Speaker 1: I can totally see wanting to leave it at home.
Speaker 2: One thousand percent. Especially guys they're running.
Speaker 3: Shorts are typically like your you're kind your gym shorts, right,
Speaker 3: and so when they have stuff in their pockets, like
Speaker 3: the up and down of the running motion, it's just
Speaker 3: like pulling down that momentum, and like a heavy phone
Speaker 3: is annoying when it's doing that, so right, unless you
Speaker 3: ye can secure it to where it's not really impacting
Speaker 3: your run rhythm, then it's way easier to just leave it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even on Monday, my brother and I took
Speaker 1: all of the kids to the lake and I was
Speaker 1: wearing what I think are technically running shorts. They will
Speaker 1: never be run in, but I did wear them to
Speaker 1: the lake, but didn't.
Speaker 2: Have side pockets that had.
Speaker 1: A TENA tiny little back pocket with a little zipper
Speaker 1: for a key, A key or chapstick are the only
Speaker 1: things that would fit. And of course all day I
Speaker 1: kept trying to put things in my pockets because I
Speaker 1: always wear things with pockets.
Speaker 2: Those very stressful.
Speaker 1: It's almost like athletic apparel designers are like, you are
Speaker 1: not carrying anything because we're not giving you pockets.
Speaker 3: My favorite shorts and pants that I have are essentially
Speaker 3: leggings or bike shorts that have the pockets on both sides.
Speaker 2: Those just are so convenient. Yeah, I got out of
Speaker 2: the pockets. Yeah, always need pockets.
Speaker 1: So since we have confirmed he did not have a
Speaker 1: phone on him, the only option was for the friends
Speaker 1: to just head out and look for him. Unfortunately, they
Speaker 1: were unable to find him, so a call to authorities
Speaker 1: was made. I don't know exactly what time or when
Speaker 1: someone actually made it out to the scene, But compared
Speaker 1: to other searches we've covered, this search wasn't described as
Speaker 1: kicking off very intensely or moving with much urgency. You know,
Speaker 1: I think the last couple searches we've covered were pretty significant,
Speaker 1: and all of the source material indicated that authorities showed
Speaker 1: up and things got kicked off pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like that was the case in this situation.
Speaker 2: A guests who had.
Speaker 1: Been staying at the and later said that she fancy
Speaker 1: search efforts really get underway until sometime after lunch on
Speaker 1: that first day. They went running about four thirty the
Speaker 1: day before, after lunchtime. We're looking at twenty hours already,
Speaker 1: and this guest said that she only saw a small
Speaker 1: number of people out searching, which I think initially that
Speaker 1: usually makes sense because the majority of missing people are
Speaker 1: found within a couple hours, So I think it makes
Speaker 1: sense a few people go out see what they can find.
Speaker 1: I think in the majority of situations this person is.
Speaker 2: Found, they don't need to bring more people. But this woman.
Speaker 1: Noted the low number of people who were out searching,
Speaker 1: And I think the most disappointing part of this woman's
Speaker 1: account is she recalled a local officer kind of brushing
Speaker 1: off her concern, telling this guest basically to the effects,
Speaker 1: something to the effect of like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: He's young, he's strong, or we'll find him. Which, yes,
Speaker 1: he was probably peak health. But if you've had an injury,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how.
Speaker 2: Physically fit you are.
Speaker 1: If you've had a serious injury, you could have great
Speaker 1: muscle tone, but if you've ripped your muscle, you know
Speaker 1: you're as in bad a situation as somebody who sits
Speaker 1: on the couch all day and has torn a muscle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Or if he gets turned around just because he's
Speaker 3: in peak physical shape, if you're lost, you're lost, right.
Speaker 1: I do understand the expectation that he was gonna make
Speaker 1: it through the night probably okay. It's a reasonable expectation
Speaker 1: for somebody of his age and fitness level and for
Speaker 1: the weather, that at least through the night he was
Speaker 1: probably gonna be okay, depending on what type of injury
Speaker 1: he could have sustained. You know, obviously there's so many
Speaker 1: unknowns in these cases, and what happened is obviously the
Speaker 1: biggest one. Joe's father, Neil Keller, arrived in Colorado the
Speaker 1: next day and his frustration echoed what that guest had
Speaker 1: said as well, just knowing how important those first early
Speaker 1: hours of a search are, in the first couple of
Speaker 1: days are Neil didn't feel that the Sheriff's department was
Speaker 1: throwing everything they had into this search. I think there's
Speaker 1: probably a fine balance between sending out a small number
Speaker 1: of resources to start and hoping that however many people
Speaker 1: that's enough that person's gonna beound in a couple hours,
Speaker 1: and then knowing when you need to ramp up because
Speaker 1: the first twenty four forty eight hours are are critical. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I'm not the one that has to
Speaker 1: make any of these decisions, because these can be life
Speaker 1: and death situations and it's never a straight forward situation,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and they have to consider so many factors
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: They have to consider their resources and when other people
Speaker 3: might look at it like why aren't you sending more people?
Speaker 3: But they only have so many people they can send.
Speaker 3: But they're still the face of that decision, so a
Speaker 3: lot of criticism will fall on them.
Speaker 1: Right and for any family in this kind of situation, obviously,
Speaker 1: emotions are going to be running extremely high, and I
Speaker 1: think no matter how appropriate the response is. I think
Speaker 1: it's easy to be overly critical of search operations because
Speaker 1: when it's your loved one, there's never going to be
Speaker 1: enough searchers and no one is moving fast enough.
Speaker 2: I'm sure, definitely, it's just.
Speaker 1: One of the situations where you can't help but be
Speaker 1: overly critical and.
Speaker 2: Viewing people as not doing enough.
Speaker 1: I agree, And to your point about resources, this was
Speaker 1: a small department with very limited resources, and well that
Speaker 1: definitely shouldn't impact any sense of urgency felt by this department.
Speaker 1: It certainly limits a number of people and what kind
Speaker 1: of tools they had access to. A lot of times
Speaker 1: we hear dogs being brought in right away. We have
Speaker 1: helicopters and flear equipment coming in and ATVs and all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff being brought in planes. Not every location
Speaker 1: has access to these things, yeah, or quickly, So a
Speaker 1: go funding page was set up quickly and raise more
Speaker 1: than sixteen thousand dollars in donations, which was enough for
Speaker 1: the family to pay for a private helicopter charter that
Speaker 1: was equipped with infrared heat sensing technology. So at some
Speaker 1: point the family was able to get that brought out
Speaker 1: out and they did do several flyovers.
Speaker 2: The Forest Road area.
Speaker 1: Search dogs didn't arrive until Saturday, so by that point
Speaker 1: several days had already passed, and kind of unsurprisingly, the
Speaker 1: dogs weren't able to pick up a cent at that point. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: while these preliminary searches are getting underway, investigators were working
Speaker 1: to obviously interview the friends and guests and things of
Speaker 1: that nature, kind of doing the more investigative investigation part
Speaker 1: of the search. They were able to clear both the friends.
Speaker 1: Both Christian and Colin volunteered to take polygraphs and they
Speaker 1: both passed cleanly. So in addition to authorities looking through
Speaker 1: their texts and voicemails, there were no red flags anything
Speaker 1: to suggest that there's any animosity or anything going on
Speaker 1: between the friend group or there's nothing indicating that after
Speaker 1: Joe's disappearance, any like weird activity or exchanges. So everything
Speaker 1: seemed very normal and they were able to clear the friends.
Speaker 1: I think it's good that you clear these people up
Speaker 1: off your list, but I'm sure it always feels horrible
Speaker 1: when you know that you didn't have anything to do
Speaker 1: with this missing person and you just want to probably
Speaker 1: yourself be looking for them and having authorities look for them,
Speaker 1: but it's something that they have to cross off the list.
Speaker 1: So again, Neil was pretty critical of the search operations,
Speaker 1: and he went on record more than once obviously frustrated,
Speaker 1: saying he didn't think that Colorado authorities were taking this
Speaker 1: as seriously as they should have been. So the family
Speaker 1: was really starting to push to have Colorado bring in
Speaker 1: outside help. They had already paid for a helicopter, but
Speaker 1: they felt like they needed more. On August fourth, the
Speaker 1: sheriff officially suspended the search. At that point, Bradley County, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: where the family was from, that department offered to send
Speaker 1: their own investigators out at their own expense, and the
Speaker 1: initial answer from Colorado was now what Yeah. So the
Speaker 1: family was also had been pushing like to bring in
Speaker 1: the FBI bring in Well, there's like a a process
Speaker 1: for getting additional resources, and I think in this situation,
Speaker 1: the sheriff would have needed to request from the I
Speaker 1: don't know if they're the Colorado your Bureau of Investigation
Speaker 1: or if they're state police, like what they're you know,
Speaker 1: terminology is, but I bet they wear a cool hat.
Speaker 2: I don't know what makes you say that, Well, because.
Speaker 1: State police wear cool hats, So I don't think it
Speaker 1: like or Zeros Investigation or the b I wear cool hats.
Speaker 3: I think that's I think that's just really specific to
Speaker 3: state troopers.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'll have to google head apparel for
Speaker 1: law enforcement of a variety of types.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I'm pretty sure, like state bureaus and federal bureaus,
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure they don't even have uniforms. They just
Speaker 3: all they just always look sharp. They just look nice
Speaker 3: in their cool suits.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: They must not have pets because they're never covered in
Speaker 2: pet fur.
Speaker 1: Or maybe I have just never seen anybody up close
Speaker 1: and they just like the rest of us, they have
Speaker 1: pet fur on them.
Speaker 2: I don't really ever have petfur on me.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Well that's nice.
Speaker 1: I get to my desk at work and I have
Speaker 1: a lint rollers because even if I look clean when
Speaker 1: I leave, somehow this pet fur on me.
Speaker 3: I think their job limits what they can enjoy in
Speaker 3: their free time, which would include pets, which typically require
Speaker 3: a lot of time into ten and people in that
Speaker 3: field throw themselves into that field, especially dogs. You need
Speaker 3: a regular schedule.
Speaker 1: Your dog is looking out the window for you at
Speaker 1: five o'clock because they want dinner and they want to
Speaker 1: go out. So if you don't have a job that
Speaker 1: can accommodate that, that's hard. Yeah, what a weird derailment there,
Speaker 1: Sorry but sorry about that. So basically, the first answer
Speaker 1: was no, and the county would not ask the state
Speaker 1: to request the FBI brought in. Typically, the FBI does
Speaker 1: not just like come into any type of investigation. They
Speaker 1: have to be requested, and the state didn't want to
Speaker 1: do that or the county didn't want to go through
Speaker 1: the process to start that.
Speaker 2: However, a few days after that.
Speaker 1: Initial no, later Bradley County was allowed to send their
Speaker 1: own invest stigators to assist, and at some point the
Speaker 1: FBI did also get involved in the investigation. More resources
Speaker 1: were being brought in. But I think it's fair to
Speaker 1: say in situations like this sometimes it's a little too late.
Speaker 1: Based on the FBI's preliminary investigation, they weren't able to
Speaker 1: roll out foul play. There wasn't any evidence to indicate it.
Speaker 1: But it was one of those situations where there was
Speaker 1: nothing to go on and there wasn't an easy way
Speaker 1: to kind of rule out foul play. Weeks turned into
Speaker 1: a month. Investigators from both Colorado and Tennessee had retraced
Speaker 1: that exact running route, probably many many times, and came
Speaker 1: up with nothing.
Speaker 2: There was not a shred of clothing, not a shoe,
Speaker 2: There was no like.
Speaker 1: Imprints on the side of the road indicating some sort
Speaker 1: of struggle or scuffle or that something had happened. There
Speaker 1: was nothing. And throughout this time the family was putting
Speaker 1: up rewards for information. I think it started out maybe
Speaker 1: like ten thousand, but eventually the reward went up to
Speaker 1: fifty thousand. And for all of the families work trying
Speaker 1: to get information and get leads, they got exactly one lead.
Speaker 1: And I hesitate to even call it that because it
Speaker 1: wasn't a tip called into the police. It was a
Speaker 1: Facebook comment on page that the family had set up.
Speaker 2: So is that a tip? Is it a weird comments?
Speaker 1: It's hard to say, but basically the comment was that
Speaker 1: someone has spotted a suspicious black van in the area
Speaker 1: around the time Joe had disappeared, So not a lot
Speaker 1: of information to go off of, and authorities weren't able to.
Speaker 2: Well. I don't know if authorities even.
Speaker 1: Attempted to verify this claim. The road on which they
Speaker 1: were running was a forest service road, but a regularly
Speaker 1: traveled one. I think we've covered other cases where something
Speaker 1: has happened along a forest service road, and they can
Speaker 1: be very remote with no traffic, but this one was
Speaker 1: regularly traveled. It's the only way in and out of
Speaker 1: the ranch, so during the summer months, it seems like
Speaker 1: this ranch is always booked up. I don't know how
Speaker 1: many guests it can accommodate, but there are plenty of
Speaker 1: people at this location, so there is you know, maybe
Speaker 1: not steady traffic, but there is definitely people going in
Speaker 1: and out on this road. No one reported seeing anything
Speaker 1: strange or even seeing Joe. Investigators and the family were
Speaker 1: really at a loss. Eventually, the family hired several private investigators,
Speaker 1: but the lack of leads and evidence, you know, didn't
Speaker 1: give them anything to go off of either. So really
Speaker 1: they weren't able to pick up the case in any
Speaker 1: way that local or state authorities had been able to do.
Speaker 1: So months passed, and then on July sixth, twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: approaching a year after Joe went missing, a hiker in
Speaker 1: the area found human remains. DNA testing later confirmed what
Speaker 1: everyone following the case in the family suspected that it
Speaker 1: was Joe. The coroner later determined he died of a
Speaker 1: skull fracture after falling from a cliff, and his death was.
Speaker 2: Ruled an accident. That's so sad.
Speaker 1: His remains were found near for Service Road two fifty,
Speaker 1: which was roughly four miles west of Highway seventeen in
Speaker 1: this National Forest area, so still very much in the
Speaker 1: general vicinity of that original run route. But I couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out how close to the original run route or
Speaker 1: the road the remains were found, which is not uncommon
Speaker 1: in these cases that there's not specifics for a variety
Speaker 1: of reasons, but it always I wish we could get
Speaker 1: more information on these situations because.
Speaker 2: Being found fifteen.
Speaker 1: Feet off the road and deep in the woods are
Speaker 1: very different situations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is where I'd want to see, like an
Speaker 3: overhead map of that original road versus the road that
Speaker 3: he was found off of, Like did he run farther?
Speaker 3: Did he modify his route because he wanted to run
Speaker 3: further than he originally planned? Do those roads connect somehow?
Speaker 3: And then maybe once he got that far he was like,
Speaker 3: oh man, I'm actually a little tired. And then did
Speaker 3: he maybe try to find a shortcut back to the
Speaker 3: starting point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I hope.
Speaker 1: The family is able in these situations, is able to
Speaker 1: get a little more information, but I understand why it's
Speaker 1: not released publicly. A lot of the times, right where
Speaker 1: he was found was at the base of a cliff
Speaker 1: that was estimated to be between eight hundred and one
Speaker 1: thousand feet, so pretty good drop. And I think here's
Speaker 1: one of the eerie details in cases like this. Sources
Speaker 1: indicate that this exact area had already been searched the
Speaker 1: year before, with obviously finding nothing, and even in November
Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen, just a couple of months after he
Speaker 1: went missing, this was still when people were doing weekend
Speaker 1: searches and the official search was suspended, but there were
Speaker 1: still people actively going out, including Joe's own father, And
Speaker 1: on one of these instances in November, Joe's own father
Speaker 1: reportedly came within a few hundred yards of where ultimately
Speaker 1: the body was found. So it's not that he was
Speaker 1: found somewhere deep and remote and unreachable. He was found
Speaker 1: pretty close, and we know that searchers had walked near it,
Speaker 1: and even his own dad had searched in the area.
Speaker 1: People still question why it took a full year just
Speaker 1: about with multiple searches and with dogs being brought in
Speaker 1: and aircraft. But we've covered a lot of cases where,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, we cover so much ground with all
Speaker 1: kinds of equipment and different types of search teams, and
Speaker 1: something is still not found at the time and somebody
Speaker 1: stumbles upon it later, which is always it's kind of
Speaker 1: mind boggling to think, you know, X amount of hours
Speaker 1: are spent searching this area, and we searched this area
Speaker 1: and several years later somebody's just walking by and they
Speaker 1: spot something. There definitely was a lot of criticism for
Speaker 1: how the investigation was handled in those first few days.
Speaker 1: Was it screwed up? Should they have brought in more
Speaker 1: people quickly? Should there have been more urgency? You know,
Speaker 1: it's really it's hard to make that call. I think
Speaker 1: it's very easy to be critical, whether you're family or
Speaker 1: just looking at from the outside. But I didn't see
Speaker 1: if there was any type of internal investigation or anything
Speaker 1: of that nature to determine if things should be different
Speaker 1: in the future. You know, sometimes when there is criticism
Speaker 1: of an investigation or some type of case or search,
Speaker 1: there is an investigation just basically.
Speaker 2: Like what could we have done differently?
Speaker 1: What can we do differently in the future, But I
Speaker 1: don't see that anything like that was done or at
Speaker 1: least shared publicly in this case. So there are two
Speaker 1: primary theories about why he might have left the road
Speaker 1: that day. The first one came from his own mother, Zoe.
Speaker 1: She remembered that Joe had mentioned he wanted to go
Speaker 1: see a set of rock formations which is near the ranch.
Speaker 1: Locals call them Faith, Hope, and.
Speaker 4: Charity, and where his remains were found does kind of
Speaker 4: line up with the type of location he would have
Speaker 4: been looking for to find these rock formations, you know,
Speaker 4: at the bottom of the cliff.
Speaker 1: So potentially leaving the road was intentional. He was going
Speaker 1: to take a little side quest to try and find
Speaker 1: these rocks and just befell an accident. The second theory
Speaker 1: is that possibly the outage had an impact. This area
Speaker 1: sits well above eight thousand feet, and we know that
Speaker 1: altitude can do very strange things to people, whether you're
Speaker 1: young or healthy, or you know, it kind of seems
Speaker 1: like it's kind of hit or miss, Like there's not
Speaker 1: any indication that, oh, because you're older, you're going to
Speaker 1: be more impacted by the altitude or your sedentary and lazy,
Speaker 1: and you would die if you had a run to
Speaker 1: your car. It doesn't seem like any of those factors really.
Speaker 2: Influence its impact on you. There we go.
Speaker 1: Yes, So it's possible that he had felt fine during
Speaker 1: the day and his body was okay with the pace
Speaker 1: that he was working with and the altitude, but then
Speaker 1: possibly when he went for the run, it started exerting
Speaker 1: himself and his brain wasn't getting the amount of oxygen
Speaker 1: that he typically does when he goes for a run.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's when issues kicked in. And disorientation and impaired
Speaker 1: judgment are both very common high altitude effects, So it's
Speaker 1: very possible that before he realized that he was having
Speaker 1: an issue, he stepped off the road, got disoriented something
Speaker 1: of that nature, and ultimately ended up getting lost and
Speaker 1: having that fall. So unfortunately we'll never really know why
Speaker 1: he left the road, but a very sad.
Speaker 2: Ending to.
Speaker 1: A road trip that should have been something that these
Speaker 1: friends could look back at in their fifties and talk
Speaker 1: about that great road trip they took when they were teenagers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is just one of those ones that
Speaker 3: falls into that extra sad category of just going and
Speaker 3: doing something pretty normal you're not being some daredevil. You're
Speaker 3: not chasing an adrenaline rush or anything like that. We
Speaker 3: don't know what happened out there to lead him to
Speaker 3: his final resting place or those circumstances involved, but just
Speaker 3: you're going for a run with your friend and then
Speaker 3: this happens, and it's just awful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just one of those Things's gonna go for
Speaker 1: a run, we'll come back, we'll have dinner, a very normal,
Speaker 1: mundane kind of afternoon, and it's just a reminder of
Speaker 1: how quickly things can change in any situation. You don't
Speaker 1: have to putting yourself out there in a risky or
Speaker 1: dangerous situation. Things happen out of nowhere in our every day,
Speaker 1: which is a big bummer. Yes, oh, all right, well
Speaker 1: until next time, everybody, stay safe and we'll catch you
Speaker 1: next week at s anything, anything,