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I used to be a skinwalker but I was forced to stop as her Majesty's Constabulary took a dim view of it.
 
Originally, readers leaned into the “Bigfoot” theme of answering an unknown with an unknown. These days, thanks to Reddit and TikTok, the Paulides cases have been linked to skinwalkers and wendigos. Take about a slippery slope!

A very appropriate observation, I think - given there's a distinct possibility that slippery slopes are responsible for easily as many of the relevant mishaps as are large hairy bipeds and malevolent forest spirits.
 
The way Paulides has gone about publishing his work is at least as annoying to me as any of the other "sins" I think he has committed. If the books were more accessible, then they would be much more valuable as a starting point for more thorough and less skewed research. I don't see why he had to self publish, since that kind of book sells well in the normal channels. He might even have made more money off them. A digital version would be most welcome to people like me. Those tend to cannibalize physical book sales, though, and when you are charging $100 for a paperback, or whatever, then it seems obvious why he doesn't make that available.
 
Yes but no but maybe.

I actually do approve of drawing up lists of similarities and apparent coincidences, but I'd argue that he hasn't gone nearly far enough.

I think that an agglomeration of facts, both objective and subjective (and anywhere between) can allow evidence of higher-order causes to emerge.

Scientists are naturally drawn to those variables that are easily measured, quantified, compared and repeated—and these can be vital—but this approach leaves a lot of avenues unexplored; it can prejudice the search for explanations by deciding in advance which set of facts will lead to the territory in which a common cause resides.

I was taken, for instance, with Paulides's belief that the colour red may carry some significance—specifically that many of the vanished were clad in red. This is interesting as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. I'd like to see an exhaustive list of the predominant colours worn by all those who went missing—sortable by date of disappearance alongside data on the age, height, weight, sex, sexuality, eye/hair colour, sexuality, occupation and personality type of the victim—with accompanying notes on the colour of the landscape and foliage during the season concerned, and figures showing the distribution of different colours among garments produced by the outdoor clothing industry, plus a discussion of the colouration of the various prey of all predators indigenous to the region.

Supply all that and crowdsource it to see what, if any, patterns emerge. Repeat the process with data for the entire range of seemingly unexplained disappearances to see what, if any, metapatterns emerge.

And this is before we even enter the realms of the subjective and/or apparently trivial: diet, marital status, religion, blood type, physical attractiveness, intelligence, name, hometown, previous addresses, travel history, date on which the researcher became aware of the case, level of interest the researcher has etc.: it's spreadsheet heaven!
Well, collecting data is a natural starting point for doing an investigation.... but... if you don't process the data.... welll what are you even doing? You mentioned looking for patterns, it'd be nice if people were actually doing that. :/
The way Paulides has gone about publishing his work is at least as annoying to me as any of the other "sins" I think he has committed. If the books were more accessible, then they would be much more valuable as a starting point for more thorough and less skewed research. I don't see why he had to self publish, since that kind of book sells well in the normal channels. He might even have made more money off them. A digital version would be most welcome to people like me. Those tend to cannibalize physical book sales, though, and when you are charging $100 for a paperback, or whatever, then it seems obvious why he doesn't make that available.
Oh I think I know why. He started publishing via Amazon. People who think he's a hack posted In-depth explanations of why they think he's a hack as product feedback reviews on Amazon. Some of them are long enough to be published as books.
 
An interesting 2-part take on Missing 411:

https://theobservermagazine.substack.com/p/where-the-wild-things-are-the-missing

and…

https://theobservermagazine.substack.com/p/where-the-wild-things-are-the-missing-03d

“The return hike to Cades Cove took place in early afternoon, the sun barely making its presence known through the thick canopy overhead. Walking downhill gives the illusion of an easy return trip, but loose stones and unsure footing makes it deceivingly difficult. A pair of hikers heading the opposite direction paused to hear about the bear cub sighting and eagerly reciprocated a “weird experience” that befell them moments prior at a previous point on the trail. They described hearing a “loud thud” far off in the woods while simultaneously feeling an unexpected burst of air nearby. At the same instant, they both described feeling the pressure change around them. When asked if they’d observed what might have caused these events, they replied that they hadn’t seen anything, but they’d “felt it.” Whatever sensation had them spooked was intangible but visceral.

The same power is inherent in the Missing 411 mythos. Instead of stocking the the impenetrable forest with wild men, witches, or worse, David Paulides reminds us that it’s more disturbing when we don’t know what lurks in the darkness.”
 
An interesting 2-part take on Missing 411:

https://theobservermagazine.substack.com/p/where-the-wild-things-are-the-missing

and…

https://theobservermagazine.substack.com/p/where-the-wild-things-are-the-missing-03d

“The return hike to Cades Cove took place in early afternoon, the sun barely making its presence known through the thick canopy overhead. Walking downhill gives the illusion of an easy return trip, but loose stones and unsure footing makes it deceivingly difficult. A pair of hikers heading the opposite direction paused to hear about the bear cub sighting and eagerly reciprocated a “weird experience” that befell them moments prior at a previous point on the trail. They described hearing a “loud thud” far off in the woods while simultaneously feeling an unexpected burst of air nearby. At the same instant, they both described feeling the pressure change around them. When asked if they’d observed what might have caused these events, they replied that they hadn’t seen anything, but they’d “felt it.” Whatever sensation had them spooked was intangible but visceral.

The same power is inherent in the Missing 411 mythos. Instead of stocking the the impenetrable forest with wild men, witches, or worse, David Paulides reminds us that it’s more disturbing when we don’t know what lurks in the darkness.”
the first one was ok.. the second.... um.... what? No ideas. The guy spends a lot of time talking about fairy tales and pretty directly says he believes some of the cases discussed are magical for no apparent reason(other than a few arbitrary circumstances). He decides to do a sort of rebuttal to Paulides's critics... but... he barely even mentions what the criticisms are. But the number one thing he ignores, and which I personally think is telling... is that he thinks Paulides is 100% accurate in his portrayals of events. Paulides is not credible to me simply based on the factual errors in his work. I don't need people to tell me how he scammed people as a cop to think he's a con man.

I do have to admit I learned something:
"A different reputation plagued him during his early days on the force. According to an article published on April 28, 1983 in the Bay Area Reporter, “Officer Paulides of the San Jose Police Department’s Street Crime Unit” was involved in policing practices that were condemned as unfair by a local civil rights activist. Calling him “king of the bookstore detail,” the article essentially charges Officer Paulides and his unit with targeting specific communities in order to lure them into illegal activity. The full BAR piece contains additional details, and it’s important to bear in mind that their portrayal comes from a subjective source and doesn’t necessarily constitute an accurate representation of what actually occurred."

Uh what? hadn't heard of that before.
 
the first one was ok.. the second.... um.... what? No ideas. The guy spends a lot of time talking about fairy tales and pretty directly says he believes some of the cases discussed are magical for no apparent reason(other than a few arbitrary circumstances). He decides to do a sort of rebuttal to Paulides's critics... but... he barely even mentions what the criticisms are. But the number one thing he ignores, and which I personally think is telling... is that he thinks Paulides is 100% accurate in his portrayals of events. Paulides is not credible to me simply based on the factual errors in his work. I don't need people to tell me how he scammed people as a cop to think he's a con man.

I do have to admit I learned something:
"A different reputation plagued him during his early days on the force. According to an article published on April 28, 1983 in the Bay Area Reporter, “Officer Paulides of the San Jose Police Department’s Street Crime Unit” was involved in policing practices that were condemned as unfair by a local civil rights activist. Calling him “king of the bookstore detail,” the article essentially charges Officer Paulides and his unit with targeting specific communities in order to lure them into illegal activity. The full BAR piece contains additional details, and it’s important to bear in mind that their portrayal comes from a subjective source and doesn’t necessarily constitute an accurate representation of what actually occurred."

Uh what? hadn't heard of that before.

What illegal activity was this? Solicitation? Obscene publications?

Being homosexual or even engaging in homosexual acts wasn't illegal when he was a police officer.

I'm more interested in the claim that he 'was joining the FBI'; to the best of my recollection he hasn't said that publicly before.

Elsewhere your update from the man that plays his content in the background (forgive misrememberings):

Paulides has had a strike (of three possible) against his YouTube channel for 'disinformation' about Covid. He says he's planning to move to a different platform—one that guarantees free-speech and allows him to operate on a paid subscription model. He did address the plan I endorsed: of splitting his political and Missing content, but he rejected this on the grounds that it would compromise his right to speak his mind and further aid YouTube in making money from him. I fear, given his last video, that he overestimates the size of his personal community and their appetite to contribute financially.

Subsequent to this he has uploaded videos that explicitly feature no missing persons content: they say as much in the opening few minutes. They cover mental health, the threat of China and Chinese-infiltrated tech, and the deleterious affects of Liberalism (of the U.S. flavour) in a desultory fashion. I will say that he seems curiously out of touch with media and technology despite citing his experience in Silicone Valley on a weekly basis. It's hard to put my finger on, but he speaks of comparatively old advances, sites and technology as if he just discovered them, and tends to use the most non-technical descriptions possible when speaking of them.

Elsewhere, he has taken to reading letters from his viewership, which he has named 'The Village'. To my surprise, although a number sound like the products of cranks and fantasists, others are rather good—the only difficulty is finding them among the political content and the fabulist dross in which they nestle. Of late a common topic has been eerie and unnatural atmospheres in nature: moments when either time or nature seems to has suspended activity briefly or when human and animal senses evidence awareness of the presence of the paranormal.

He has also had an intermittent but unpleasant-sounding cough for weeks. I think he's had Covid once already and I shouldn't be surprised if he's now getting over a second bout—though he isn't interested in a test.
 
Sounds like Paulides is very similar to Alex Jones.
It would appear so. I can't figure out why anyone with multiple synapses pays any attention to either, but whatever. The world is full of things I can't figure out. People try to tease out nuggets of truth from the mountain of BS produced by known disinformation agents too. I prefer to consult tea leaves. That way, I don't have to read about anyone's bad behavior and rotten character.
 
Odd little turn.

As the video below details, David Paulides claims he has recently received a written warning (supposedly from law enforcement in an informal capacity) that his safety (and that of his partner) may be at risk if he attends, as planned, the forthcoming sQuatch Fest 2021 event.

My 'do not accept at face-value' radar is going off.

[Error left for posterity--see correction in subsequent post].

squatch_flyer.jpgsquatch_schedule_1.jpg

 
Why would his safety be at risk? Has he made some people really angry?
 
hmmm interesting, Paulides and Barackman are the only two presenters at both events.
 
Why would his safety be at risk? Has he made some people really angry?
He thinks he's a very important person. Sounds like paranoia. Or, he really is into unrelated shady criminal stuff.
Maybe he's suffering from potential personality/mental disorders. All in all, he's such a dubious character, it's ridiculous he gets any credence at all. Yet, here we are in the upside down 21st century where people get paid well for blatantly lying.
 
Delusions of grandeur, or something. Reminds me of Carl Allen, aka Carlos Allende, telling someone like Jacques Vallee that he wouldn't be alive in six months, presumably for spilling the beans on the Philadelphia Phantasy.

Or maybe the Sasquatch are not happy with being exposed as the tourist eating scourge they really are. Either way, he's a Very Dangerous Man in the eyes of some imaginary adversary.
 
Delusions of grandeur, or something. Reminds me of Carl Allen, aka Carlos Allende, telling someone like Jacques Vallee that he wouldn't be alive in six months, presumably for spilling the beans on the Philadelphia Phantasy.

Or maybe the Sasquatch are not happy with being exposed as the tourist eating scourge they really are. Either way, he's a Very Dangerous Man in the eyes of some imaginary adversary.
well, Paulides seems to have alienated himself from the law enforcement community since... well... he likes talking up how good a cop he was and... apparently exaggerates a lot.
 
A recent comment beneath a post on the Missing 411 Subreddit led me to this story, which matches a number of the tropes David Paulides identfies.


The poster returns to answer a number of inquiries in the comments that follow.
Okay, the beginning of that tale is rather too similar to the 2016 Missing 411 documentary case of the disappearance of the little boy who went missing from the camping ground by the river whilst Grandad kept an eye on him. Therefore, I reserve the right to call 'shenanigans' on this one unless they can provide some evidence of the search or whatever.
 
Okay, the beginning of that tale is rather too similar to the 2016 Missing 411 documentary case of the disappearance of the little boy who went missing from the camping ground by the river whilst Grandad kept an eye on him. Therefore, I reserve the right to call 'shenanigans' on this one unless they can provide some evidence of the search or whatever.
also thebit about the child being found with no clothes way up on the ridge line? yeah, reminds me of the Jaryd Atadero case.
 
Okay, the beginning of that tale is rather too similar to the 2016 Missing 411 documentary case of the disappearance of the little boy who went missing from the camping ground by the river whilst Grandad kept an eye on him. Therefore, I reserve the right to call 'shenanigans' on this one unless they can provide some evidence of the search or whatever.
also thebit about the child being found with no clothes way up on the ridge line? yeah, reminds me of the Jaryd Atadero case.

As is often the case, we should take reports at face value until presented with something unbelievable without proof.

As to the two similarities you both point out, that's the very reason the cases is being presented; it meets the template.

Neither of these facts means I'm convinced the account is 100% accurate, but I enjoyed reading it.
 
As is often the case, we should take reports at face value until presented with something unbelievable without proof.

As to the two similarities you both point out, that's the very reason the cases is being presented; it meets the template.

Neither of these facts means I'm convinced the account is 100% accurate, but I enjoyed reading it.
Enh makes me want to find corroboration though. :D
 
Surley there would be police and MR records if they were involved?
 
David Paulides has just announced a new book.

He's also appearing on Coast To Coast A.M. with George Noory tonight (in the U.S.):
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2022-02-03-show/

Missing 411: Idaho.

287 Pages 58 Photos More than 70 cases.

This is the second Book in the Missing 411- State Series of books,
Missing 411- Montana was the first.
This is the 11th book about missing people written by David Paulides


Link (not working for me):
Bigfootstore.html

More about the launch here:
 
He's also appearing on Coast To Coast A.M. with George Noory tonight (in the U.S.):
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2022-02-03-show/

Missing 411: Idaho.

287 Pages 58 Photos More than 70 cases.

This is the second Book in the Missing 411- State Series of books,
Missing 411- Montana was the first.
This is the 11th book about missing people written by David Paulides


Link (not working for me):
Bigfootstore.html

More about the launch here:

Just uploaded by Coast2Coast.

Gets into time-slips and portals around the half-way mark before moving onto listeners' calls.

It's a bit frustrating as there are few specifics about the Idaho cases he has assembled for his new book. One feels as if he's given this interview—or a very similar one—to C2C A.M. before. That said, we do get a few detailed discussions towards the end.

 
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Missing 411.

I understand the 411 is the number for telephone directory inquiries in the U.S., but that seems a bit of a lose connection with the missing persons theme: a vague reference to 'needing information'.

Could pager-text be where the name originated?

Paulides was a cop and almost certainly used one back in the day.

411 = I have a question.

FbLtL0baAAc-Ytc.jpeg
 
why does the person in the picture have bloody fingers? O-o'

I think it IS the phone directory thing actually.

He's trying to pass his work off as an authoritative index of missing persons cases. So the idea of his work being a 411 line for missing persons info seems like the most probable explanation.

Also the 411 thing has two forms.. the person asking, and the person answering.
 
Missing 411.

I understand the 411 is the number for telephone directory inquiries in the U.S., but that seems a bit of a lose connection with the missing persons theme: a vague reference to 'needing information'.
Could pager-text be where the name originated?
Paulides was a cop and almost certainly used one back in the day.
411 = I have a question.

American cops didn't universally / consistently use pagers, and their numerical incident / status coding system is entirely different from the casual pager codes.

I've always presumed Paulides was using "411" in the slang sense of "information", which dates back to the early days of hip-hop / urban R&B jargon and derives from the popular label for directory assistance:
In the United States, only phone company personnel have ever called the service 'directory assistance'; it is universally known as 'information.' As a result, 4-1-1 is commonly used in Canada and the United States as a slang word for "information". In the 1982 song "Jump to It" by American singer Aretha Franklin, for example, the lyric is "We have a lot of fun, don't we, girl, dishin' out The dirt on everybody and givin' each other the 411".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-1-1
 
I mentioned one of Paulides' books " A sobering coincidence " in a previous post. To quote myself :roll:

"One of the books that I found interesting deals with people found drowned, often in urban environments, something that happens in the UK and often gets on local and national news. The reason given is that they’ve gone out, got bladdered and fallen in the river. However some of the circumstances are odd and as Paulides points out, these cities often have a pretty high population of drug addicts and alcoholics who aren’t being fished out of the rivers. Given the spiked drinks and needle panics it does make one wonder about serial killers who have not been traced or even suspected."

These aren't wilderness cases and happen in the UK. These are often picked up by local or national press but rarely is there much detail other than when they go missing or when or if a body is recovered. IIRC the last one I read about before lockdown involved a fireman somewhere in the West Country on a night out, went missing and was assumed to have fallen in a river (Not sure why) the only follow up I saw was that a body had been recovered; and a later report saying that the body wasn't his!

How common is it for young, physically fit, men to go on a bender - often in Winter - leave their friends, wander off alone and end up falling or jumping into a river or body of water?

I know there is a culture of drinking/drugging oneself into oblivion and maybe doing something stupid for a dare but most of these guys had left their friends and have sometimes had to make an effort to get to the water.

There may be some good reason why this happens, some strange mental state, but it does seem odd and I wondered what others thought about this.
 
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