David Paulides & Missing 411

[Mikefule]

Link to a 2017 article on the subject of disappearances in US National Parks.

https://theculturetrip.com/north-am...so-many-people-disappear-from-national-parks/

Highlights:

• "Over 1,000" Americans have disappeared since the National Park Service was set up in 1916. (No mention of non-Americans visitors disappearing!)

My comment: The expression "over a thousand" in sensational journalism implies not many more than 1,000, otherwise they would write "Nearly 1,100." Of course I would not expect uniform distribution, but 1,000 over 100 years is 10 a year, or less than 1 a month.

Wikipedia says there are currently 62 national parks in the US, distributed over 29 states as well as some US territories. The combined area of all the national parks is around 211,000 square kilometres. In 2017, there were 84 million visitors.

For comparison, the United Kingdom has an area of 242,495 sq km, a population of 68 million. UK police estimate there are around 16,000 people at any one time who have "disappeared" and have been missing for a year or more.

The figures speak for themselves.

• "Many of the disappearances were near berry patches or boulders."

My comment: Berry patches and boulders are things that you find in the wilderness. Berry patches and distinctive large boulders or groups of boulders are likely places for people to choose to rest, picnic, camp or play. "Many disappearances being near berry patches or boulders" is about as surprising as many road accidents happening near to junctions.

• "What does Paulides think happened? He is a believer in Bigfoot, a hybrid between a human and a black bear..."

My comment: "Hybrid"?! Does the writer even know what a hybrid is? Is it the off spring of a male bear and a female human, or vice versa? Even Catherine the Great was never accused of that!

 

[Austin Popper]

Paulides has a website that deals with his Bigfoot, erm, research. Among other things. Here is the page called Director's Message. I see he is still touting the Dr. Melba Ketchum shitshow. He was canned (or allowed to resign) from his job as a cop for some serious breaches of ethics, if not fiduciary responsibility. Why is anyone still paying attention to the loon?

 

[stu neville]

I see he is still touting the Dr. Melba Ketchum shitshow. He was canned (or allowed to resign) from his job

As said above, he will desperately incorporate any 'evidence' which could vaguely endorse his ideas. Though if he's citing Ketchum (gribble though it may be), how does he square her 'novel hominid' conclusion with his..erm.. human / bear hybrid idea?

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Paulides has a website that deals with his Bigfoot, erm, research. Among other things. Here is the page called Director's Message. I see he is still touting the Dr. Melba Ketchum shitshow. He was canned (or allowed to resign) from his job as a cop for some serious breaches of ethics, if not fiduciary responsibility. Why is anyone still paying attention to the loon?

He's highlighted many strange disappearances and if anything people will be more cautious and better prepared going into the wilds after reading his books.

I get he is misguided, but I wonder why the kicking he's currently getting on here? I don't see the difference between him and people looking for the lock ness monster or using ghost boxes to communicate with the dead.

 

[stu neville]

I get he is misguided, but I wonder why the kicking he's currently getting on here?

I'm not kicking him per se - if you have a theory it's easy to get carried away, and I don't doubt his motives are sound - however I think as with many investigators he's now seeing the patterns he expects to see. As I've said on this thread, the episodes themselves, particularly the early ones are compelling and strange and highly worthy of analysis, but as he's gone on Paulides has started grasping at any incident as being within the scope even if they're not all that inexplicable. As has been pointed out many forest and mountain trails are treacherous and once you're more than ten feet from the trail you're effectively invisible. Slip off a ledge whilst hiking alone into thick brush 20 feet below and you're lost, with no need to invoke human/bear hybrids.

That's what I'm criticising.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...As has been pointed out many forest and mountain trails are treacherous and once you're more than ten feet from the trail you're effectively invisible. Slip off a ledge whilst hiking alone into thick brush 20 feet below and you're lost, with no need to invoke human/bear hybrids...

I suspect that we would all question anyone who tried to tie deaths in car crashes, or from alcoholism - or, for that matter anything from mountaineering accidents to meth lab explosions - to some sort of external paranormal interference; certainly if the individual involved seemed to be using the majority of the sample to back up their claim.

But, to my mind, this is precisely what Paulides is doing: taking a particular type of environment, completely sidelining the fundamental and omnipresent hazards involved, and applying an external cause. (Example: This person died, not because they weren't wearing a seatbelt and they were thrown through the vehicle window after hitting a wall at 70 mph - but because aliens used a big hoover to suck them out of the car. In some cases - many in fact - it's as utterly dense as that.)

Absolutely without question there certainly are some very mysterious incidents - you don't need to have even seen any of the 411 stuff to know that - but, in Paulides case, he seems determined to bury the mystery under mountains and mountains of chaff.

 

[Kondoru]

And presumably this is not good for serious investigation?

 

[Spookdaddy]

In a situation like this, a good investigator will examine as many individual examples from a statistical population as they can. But, if they use the fact that an individual example is part of a statistical population as evidence in and of itself, then they've stopped being an investigator.

 

[Austin Popper]

He's highlighted many strange disappearances and if anything people will be more cautious and better prepared going into the wilds after reading his books.

I get he is misguided, but I wonder why the kicking he's currently getting on here? I don't see the difference between him and people looking for the lock ness monster or using ghost boxes to communicate with the dead.

Short answer: He misrepresents the data, misrepresents his background, and attempts to sensationalize his gross misrepresentation of individual "cases". He's a flake peddling lies.

Here is a much longer answer:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R17M0...ad=Tx25GXIYGHL42A9&store=books#wasThisHelpful

 

[escargot]

We saw the fillum but didn’t really engage with it as the victims seemed to be mainly hunters who deserve all they get.

 

[Yithian]

I was just reading this revisit of the sad missing person case of Nóra Quoirin in Malaysia; I noted how some of Paulides' traits were present:

• Subject had mental handicap.
• Subject was found naked and clothes never discovered.
• Subject was found in a previously searched area.
• Subject's family believe foul play; authorities are more inclined to misadventure.

Article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-53919837

Edit: Paulides has now uploaded a video on the case:

 

[Spookdaddy]

...Subject was found in a previously searched area...

It's not outside the realms of possibility that she may have been hiding from her rescuers. Apparently, in cases where mental health or learning difficulties are involved, or where head injury has affected the thought processes of the victim, it is not uncommon for victims to believe that they are in a lot of trouble - and their rescuers, rather than representing salvation, can actually appear to them as an expression of that trouble. (That doesn't of course explain away any of the other alleged anomalies - and, if it were true, would only add to the tragedy of the case.)

On a general note the 'previously searched area' motif is too often automatically used as a red flag indicator of something mysterious, when in fact it's simply another expression of a process which is not in the least infallible.

It's not an uncommon expectation, certainly in the earlier stages of a search, that a live subject will be mobile. Search patterns tend to be structured along geometrical lines - whereas the lost and disoriented often travel, sometimes quite literally, in circles. Although the grid type search is designed to maximise the potential to intersect with a meandering line, it's not an infallible means of doing so - and there's not really any guarantee that the person being searched for cannot wander back into an area already covered, or even circle back around behind a group of searchers.

It's often implied that an area that has been searched has undergone some sort of permanent process, akin to being painted pink or covered in cement. In the case of live subjects, this is quite clearly a fallacy.

 

[Austin Popper]

Some excellent points, Spookdaddy. There are many variables at play in a typical search and rescue operation. Often those searches are conducted in areas that are difficult to operate in at best. The level of competence of the searchers varies a great deal. Resources are allocated with the safety of the participants in mind. It's not unusual for a person (usually a person's remains) to eventually turn up in places no one expected them to be, which may have been searched but not very thoroughly.

I ended up going down a rabbit hole the other day, after re-reading that scathing review of Paulides' books I posted a link to above. The author of that piece (which is not without its own flaws) quoted Paulides thus: Michelle Vanek disappeared in Colorado and according to Paulides "something catastrophic happened to Michelle Vanek that no one could have probably survived"!

That piqued my interest. The name of the victim did not ring any bells, but being a Coloradan, I thought it would be interesting to see what I thought about Paulides' assessment. What I found was yet another sad story, the result of a series of bad decisions and garden variety blunders. The sort of thing that kills many people every year. The only thing that's mysterious is where Michelle Vanek ended up. She has never been found, but her last known location is in very rugged country that could probably never be searched with any completeness unless you put a good number of troops there for months. We don't need Bigfoot carrying her off in order to make sense of her disappearance.

One of the interesting things about the search for Michelle Vanek is that after a few days, friends, acquaintences and volunteers of all sorts showed up in surprising numbers. It became the biggest search in Colorado history, according to some news outlets. Soon the local sheriff found himself having to spend most of his time and resources ensuring the safety of the searchers. The last thing anyone wanted was for a member of the search party to go missing. That's a very real possibility in that kind of terrain. To give an idea of what the terrain in the area is like, a few years later a man from Chicago disappeared near there. Twenty-one months later, his remains were found near his tent. At his campsite. Searchers had passed within yards of him, though he was probably already dead by that time.

Another interesting thing I found is that Google has really got the 3D thing working amazingly well in some places. Here's a link to the image of the 14,005 foot peak Vanek was climbing when she disappeared. Her last known position was on the ridge just to the south of the marker. If you zoom in on the rocky field to the left, the area that looks like gravel is actually a field of boulders the size of cars. It gets really interesting if you go into 3D mode and have a look around.
Mount of the Holy Cross

 

[hunck]

Some excellent points, Spookdaddy. There are many variables at play in a typical search and rescue operation. Often those searches are conducted in areas that are difficult to operate in at best. The level of competence of the searchers varies a great deal. Resources are allocated with the safety of the participants in mind. It's not unusual for a person (usually a person's remains) to eventually turn up in places no one expected them to be, which may have been searched but not very thoroughly.

I ended up going down a rabbit hole the other day, after re-reading that scathing review of Paulides' books I posted a link to above. The author of that piece (which is not without its own flaws) quoted Paulides thus: Michelle Vanek disappeared in Colorado and according to Paulides "something catastrophic happened to Michelle Vanek that no one could have probably survived"!

That piqued my interest. The name of the victim did not ring any bells, but being a Coloradan, I thought it would be interesting to see what I thought about Paulides' assessment. What I found was yet another sad story, the result of a series of bad decisions and garden variety blunders. The sort of thing that kills many people every year. The only thing that's mysterious is where Michelle Vanek ended up. She has never been found, but her last known location is in very rugged country that could probably never be searched with any completeness unless you put a good number of troops there for months. We don't need Bigfoot carrying her off in order to make sense of her disappearance.

One of the interesting things about the search for Michelle Vanek is that after a few days, friends, acquaintences and volunteers of all sorts showed up in surprising numbers. It became the biggest search in Colorado history, according to some news outlets. Soon the local sheriff found himself having to spend most of his time and resources ensuring the safety of the searchers. The last thing anyone wanted was for a member of the search party to go missing. That's a very real possibility in that kind of terrain. To give an idea of what the terrain in the area is like, a few years later a man from Chicago disappeared near there. Twenty-one months later, his remains were found near his tent. At his campsite. Searchers had passed within yards of him, though he was probably already dead by that time.

Another interesting thing I found is that Google has really got the 3D thing working amazingly well in some places. Here's a link to the image of the 14,005 foot peak Vanek was climbing when she disappeared. Her last known position was on the ridge just to the south of the marker. If you zoom in on the rocky field to the left, the area that looks like gravel is actually a field of boulders the size of cars. It gets really interesting if you go into 3D mode and have a look around.
Mount of the Holy Cross

I like the nearby Bowl of Tears.

 

[Spookdaddy]

With reference to my last post - last night I watched the latest episode of the BBC documentary series Reported Missing. Oddly, and completely by coincidence, this last episode covers a scenario not dissimilar to the one I suggested - in this case of a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia who goes missing (three times, in fact). The complications and frustrations involved in searching for a man who has run away because he feels he is being persecuted by the very authorities tasked with searching for him him can be imagined. Talk about a self fulfilling mindset.

 

[Yithian]

I have a folder of interviews and radio spots done across 2012-13 by David Paulides.

Obviously, there's an awful lot of repetition but also much of interest.

Drop me a message if you'd like to hear them.

I haven't heard them all, but guess from the titles which one I listened to first...

Edit: another here.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I have a folder of interviews and radio spots done across 2012-13 by David Paulides.

Obviously, there's an awful lot of repetition but also much of interest.

Drop me a message if you'd like to hear them.

View attachment 29267

I haven't heard them all, but guess from the titles which one I listened to first...

Yeah, the one about people going missing.

 

[Yithian]

This case has just come up in the first Coast to Coast interview. Paulides seemed to be using it as an argument for the parks service to compile/release statistics, so it can be ascertained whether it is part of any pattern. Frankly, whatever the hell went on, it seems to be a one off.



Hideous details that may upset:

Spoiler

EVELYN CONSUELA ROSEMANN, DIED OCTOBER 19, 1968, NEVADA FALL, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA.

The body of Evelyn Consuela Rosemann, 24, was found by three hikers on the 19th October 1968, 200 feet from the base of the 594 foot high Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park. Evelyn, whose hometown was San Francisco, worked as a masseuse in the park and had set out on a solo hike three days earlier.

According to investigators, she had somehow "been launched" from the fall or cliff and hadn't jumped and had been found partially undressed. In October, the creek leading to the fall is at a very low water level and would not have been swept away. She had a pair of badly torn, corduroy pants that were pulled down near her ankles and her sweater had been pulled up over her head. Another of Evelyn’s sweaters was lying on a rock near her feet.

The autopsy found the cause of death appeared to be a massive head injury sustained in the fall. Parts of her brain were found on a rock fifty feet from her body. The pathologist discovered she had been sexually assaulted either pre or postmortem with indications of bloodless vaginal lacerations.

A Little More Here:
https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mys...semann-disturbing-deaths-in-us-national-parks

 

[Eponastill]

Yithian, don't tell me... "Is sasquatch eating our kids". That would have been my own choice

 

[Yithian]

Yithian, don't tell me... "Is sasquatch eating our kids". That would have been my own choice

Of course!

 

[Cloudbusting]

This case has just come up in the first Coast to Coast interview. Paulides seemed to be using it as an argument for the parks service to compile/release statistics, so it can be ascertained whether it is part of any pattern. Frankly, whatever the hell went on, it seems to be a one off.



Hideous details that may upset:

Spoiler

EVELYN CONSUELA ROSEMANN, DIED OCTOBER 19, 1968, NEVADA FALL, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA.

The body of Evelyn Consuela Rosemann, 24, was found by three hikers on the 19th October 1968, 200 feet from the base of the 594 foot high Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park. Evelyn, whose hometown was San Francisco, worked as a masseuse in the park and had set out on a solo hike three days earlier.

According to investigators, she had somehow "been launched" from the fall or cliff and hadn't jumped and had been found partially undressed. In October, the creek leading to the fall is at a very low water level and would not have been swept away. She had a pair of badly torn, corduroy pants that were pulled down near her ankles and her sweater had been pulled up over her head. Another of Evelyn’s sweaters was lying on a rock near her feet.

The autopsy found the cause of death appeared to be a massive head injury sustained in the fall. Parts of her brain were found on a rock fifty feet from her body. The pathologist discovered she had been sexually assaulted either pre or postmortem with indications of bloodless vaginal lacerations.

A Little More Here:
https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mys...semann-disturbing-deaths-in-us-national-parks

Pretty awful that one.
But he's actually insinuating this is a mysterious/paranormal case? Sounds like a pretty typical sexual assault and murder to me...

 

[Spookdaddy]

I came across the Strange Outdoors site (the one Yith links to at #48) a few weeks ago when looking into another subject.

There is one particular case of a guy found dead in his tent which will always stay with me - not so much for any mystery involved (his death possibly caused by trail related illness combined with inexperience/unpreparedness), but for the fact that no-one knows who he is, even with very clear photographs of him alive.

Often in cases like this the only image we have of a person is post-mortem, or an impression drawn up by an artist - but this guy is there, up and dressed, large as life; a young, modestly attractive man with friendly eyes and an easy smile. You would think that somebody would miss him - but it makes you realise how many people may have no-one to notice their absence. (There are a couple of images within the article - but several more online.)

I find this case more haunting, more telling about the fragility of existence, the isolation of the individual within a society which by its very definition suggests connection to others, and our individual relationship to the awesome power of nature, than any woo enhanced pseudo-mystery could possibly achieve.

Link to the story here - be aware that there is one pretty unnecessary post-mortem image, although it is not full body and does not show any facial features or obvious decomposition; there are very clear signs of malnutrition - but otherwise it is not at the most horrible end of the too much information spectrum.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I came across the Strange Outdoors site (the one Yith links to at #48) a few weeks ago when looking into another subject.

There is one particular case of a guy found dead in his tent which will always stay with me - not so much for any mystery involved (his death possibly caused by trail related illness combined with inexperience/unpreparedness), but for the fact that no-one knows who he is, even with very clear photographs of him alive.

Often in cases like this the only image we have of a person is post-mortem, or an impression drawn up by an artist - but this guy is there, up and dressed, large as life; a young, modestly attractive man with friendly eyes and an easy smile. You would think that somebody would miss him - but it makes you realise how many people may have no-one to notice their absence. (There are a couple of images within the article - but several more online.)

I find this case more haunting, more telling about the fragility of existence, the isolation of the individual within a society which by its very definition suggests connection to others, and our individual relationship to the awesome power of nature, than any woo enhanced pseudo-mystery could possibly achieve.

Link to the story here - be aware that there is one pretty unnecessary post-mortem image, although it is not full body and does not show any facial features or obvious decomposition; there are very clear signs of malnutrition - but otherwise it is not at the most horrible end of the too much information spectrum.

It's very sad that nobody came forward to identify him. Even a former work colleague should have been able to identify him.
I'm guessing he got ill and couldn't move, so he died of starvation. With all the money he was carrying, it's odd that he didn't lay in some supplies or bring a mobile phone with him.

 

[dr wu]

So...to get down to brass tacks..as they say...what exactly is Paulides postulating? That aliens, bigfoot, and dimensional portals are taking all of these people in his 'strange cases'..? If not then we are left with just unfortunate disappearancess and he is just milking all of this for money.

 

[Yithian]

So...to get down to brass tacks..as they say...what exactly is Paulides postulating? That aliens, bigfoot, and dimensional portals are taking all of these people in his 'strange cases'..? If not then we are left with just unfortunate disappearancess and he is just milking all of this for money.

Despite also being a Bigfoot investigator, he's deliberately pulled back from positing that as a likely cause (from all I've seen), claiming that he doesn't yet have enough evidence to conclude what might constitute one--and that the Parks Service is obstructing his effort to gather more facts.

We just have this 'cluster of factors' that he believes to be present in a disproportionate number of these cases.

Whether one takes that as indicative of either prudence or cunning on Paulides's behalf is largely subjective.

 

[dr wu]

Despite also being a Bigfoot investigator, he's deliberately pulled back from positing that as a likely cause (from all I've seen), claiming that he doesn't yet have enough evidence to conclude what might constitute one--and that the Parks Service is obstructing his effort to gather more facts.

We just have this 'cluster of factors' that he believes to be present in a disproportionate number of these cases.

Whether one takes that as indicative of either prudence or cunning on Paulides's behalf is largely subjective.

Well...this 'cluster of factors' doesn't seem to point to bigfoot and aliens imho....but I suppsoe one can interpret these things as they like.
How exactly are the park services 'obstructing' him? I would assume that these disappaearances area matter of public record so what could they do to prevent him from investigating? Since he is not an offcial law enforcement officer they might have a problem with him nosing around but that's not obstruction imho...that's typical bureaucracy.

 

[Austin Popper]

Well...this 'cluster of factors' doesn't seem to point to bigfoot and aliens imho....but I suppsoe one can interpret these things as they like.
How exactly are the park services 'obstructing' him? I would assume that these disappaearances area matter of public record so what could they do to prevent him from investigating? Since he is not an offcial law enforcement officer they might have a problem with him nosing around but that's not obstruction imho...that's typical bureaucracy.

 

[dr wu]

View attachment 31069

 

[marhawkman]

Well...this 'cluster of factors' doesn't seem to point to bigfoot and aliens imho....but I suppsoe one can interpret these things as they like.
How exactly are the park services 'obstructing' him? I would assume that these disappaearances area matter of public record so what could they do to prevent him from investigating? Since he is not an offcial law enforcement officer they might have a problem with him nosing around but that's not obstruction imho...that's typical bureaucracy.

One specific claim of "obstruction" was also rather absurd for him to make.

Paulides claims that the NPS refused to release Stacey Arras's casefile....

Except that, at some point, the NPS published the casefile on their website.
https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/Released-files-for-Stacy-Arras-case.pdf

hmm... seems suspicious, though I'm not sure when the file was uploaded.

As for the case itself. people literally never found a trace of her. https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mys...strange-disappearances-from-us-national-parks
Nothing actually all that odd about the information we have. Best guess is that she was kidnapped, but never found. She's almost a poster girl for the "vanished without a trace" trope. There's no log of physical evidence collected.. because they never found anything.

The specific wording of the "obstruction" claim I read could be construed as Paulides asking them to basically give him the ORIGINAL copies of all of the casefile documents... which is not going to happen. Most likely scenario you get a PDF like they uploaded to the website. Maybe if you're nice and ask the right office in person a freshly photocopied file.... still not the original.

I don't have time to fact-check every claim Paulides has made, but every one I have checked has been wrong in some way.

At any rate the general gist of the "obstruction" claim seems to be him asking the NPS to give him stuff and they don't... either because he's asking for original master copies, or for information they simply don't have.... or some other reason... I don't have an exhaustive list. At any rate he seems to be making unreasonable requests of them, then accusing them of obstruction when they can't or won't comply.

It's not outside the realms of possibility that she may have been hiding from her rescuers. Apparently, in cases where mental health or learning difficulties are involved, or where head injury has affected the thought processes of the victim, it is not uncommon for victims to believe that they are in a lot of trouble - and their rescuers, rather than representing salvation, can actually appear to them as an expression of that trouble. (That doesn't of course explain away any of the other alleged anomalies - and, if it were true, would only add to the tragedy of the case.)

On a general note the 'previously searched area' motif is too often automatically used as a red flag indicator of something mysterious, when in fact it's simply another expression of a process which is not in the least infallible.

It's not an uncommon expectation, certainly in the earlier stages of a search, that a live subject will be mobile. Search patterns tend to be structured along geometrical lines - whereas the lost and disoriented often travel, sometimes quite literally, in circles. Although the grid type search is designed to maximise the potential to intersect with a meandering line, it's not an infallible means of doing so - and there's not really any guarantee that the person being searched for cannot wander back into an area already covered, or even circle back around behind a group of searchers.

It's often implied that an area that has been searched has undergone some sort of permanent process, akin to being painted pink or covered in cement. In the case of live subjects, this is quite clearly a fallacy.

More so when you consider manpower vs coverage. Initial searches for presumed living victims tend to be focused on checking as wide an area as possible... and are in no way thorough. It's the old trick of walking through the woods yelling the name of the person you're searching for. You're looking around, but can't look behind every tree or under every rock. the goal is to look in a lot of places as fast as possible. I guess an analogy is looking around in your brother's house for him. you're not going to expect him to be hiding in a cupboard. So you'll do a once over of each room until you find him or look in them all. Trying to find people who are hurt is very time sensitive. finding them this hour and not next hour might be the difference between life and death, or between being healthy and getting frostbite.

Another thing Paulides like to harp about is cases where dog searches failed. Dog searches don't work well in a contaminated search area. having 20 human scent trails crisscrossing taxes their ability to follow the victim's trail.

 

[Yithian]

At any rate the general gist of the "obstruction" claim seems to be him asking the NPS to give him stuff and they don't... either because he's asking for original master copies, or for information they simply don't have.... or some other reason... I don't have an exhaustive list. At any rate he seems to be making unreasonable requests of them, then accusing them of obstruction when they can't or won't comply.

This is one aspect on which I can speak accurately (I think). These are what I recall of his positions, I make no personal comment on their validity:

Paulides believes that the NPS do have records, records that would amount in toto to a near exhaustive list, but that they claim they do not, possibly, he speculates, because they are embarrassed by the slapdash nature of the investigations and searches that they conducted 'back in the day' (and he expresses some sympathy with them on this--the past being a different country and all that).

He further believes that the cost projected by the NPS to write-up and assemble their supposedly disparate files has been deliberately inflated to $1.4 million to prevent their having to release them.

More recently, he claims that his requests to film a documentary in (I think) Yellowstone have been mendaciously refused: that the NPS has been exploiting the Covid-19 lockdown and is being unreasonably meticulous with the process in order to to string-out the process so that the advance planning for his project becomes impracticable. One example of this he gives is that after paying the application fee (a few thousand dollars, I think) and completing a raft of paperwork, he was advised that the areas had asked to use were out of bounds. Rather than allowing him to 'transfer' the request to cover another area of the same park, they required that all the paperwork be resubmitted with another administrative fee and months more waiting. Specifically on this subject, he states that they are refusing to allow him to film in the non-public areas in which the disappearances actually took place (on the grounds that the terrain, flora and fauna look much the same elsewhere and he doesn't need to be there), which while it obviates the costly need to visit Yellowstone at all, also stifles the attempt at authenticity for his film. He believes, I paraphrase, that their motivation here is to 'kill the story' as the public attention he has drawn to these cases (considerable, I think we'd agree) is bad for their institutional reputation.

I was going to supply links to the documents he has posted in support of these claims, but his website appears to be down at present.

There was also something about a conversation he or an associate had with somebody high-up in government (a former member of the administration, I think) that he believes supports his belief that such files as he wishes to view have already been assembled, but I'd have to check the details.