He searched with the blessings of her son, despite the county sheriffs office asking him not to. Rebellious and combative, he was in solitary numerous times, contemplated suicide but then converted to Buddhism (even publishing three short books on the topic). The easy banter of men and women who work together often. Now shes gone. When Kevin returned from the search, real life was waiting. A paramount code in the search and rescue world, he said, is to not squawk about victories or defeats. They called it Operation Relentless Pursuit. Vesper Peak comes to a triangular point, like a childs drawing of a mountain. They covered a tremendous amount of ground. Polite. The Sunrise Mine Trail lot was dark, and Kevin could see Sams blue Ford Fiesta still in the gravel lot. Instead, families looking for closure often turn to individuals or foundations to keep the search for their loved ones going. :-) grinchmas34 4 yr. ago I would love to be added to that group! One night in July 1997, Carr and six other guys dressed in all black smashed their way into the store and stole between 80 and 100 guns. An estimated 1,600 people are missing in the wildlands of the United States. The wrong side of the mountain, he later told a sheriffs office sergeant. None of these things were irrefutably Lakoduks, but Tripp who everyone calls Brad Dad had a feeling. The staff checks on him every 10 minutes, more motherly than waiterly. They gave the bags to Snohomish County Search and Rescue, asking them to place them around the mountain. I was a member of that group, but found them to be really gossipy, and petty. So forgive Kevin for being a bit anti-social. You owe me 99.999 percent of those royalties, hed tell her. A self-described mountain man, Carr is an enthusiastic storyteller, one who uses every inch of his 5-foot-11 frame to elucidate and elaborate, his gestures those of a college theater major, albeit a tattooed and felonious one. Samantha Sayers was last seen Aug. 1, 2018, while on a solo day-hike up Vesper Peak in the North Cascades. Sayers' disappearance sparked a major, exhaustive search on the 6,200-foot peak off the Mountain Loop Highway, as well as a frenzy on social media. The U.S. Forest Service denied access for their helicopter, and Kevin rallied Sams Army to make phone calls to USFS offices, politicians, anyone who could make noise. That number 1,600 comes from the journalist Jon Billmans research. But Dares and Carr kept going. She and Jamie became good friends, Jamie Lakoduk said, and then started dating. Steve Monchak, an area drone photographer, reported that hed been at the Big Four ice caves the day Sam went missing, just a few miles away; he told deputies he spotted two suspicious men there. The duo spent 126 days on the mountain. For $1,700. Someone sent Kevin a kind of fan fiction story they found online, casting Sam, Buck Carp, and Kelvin Daires as characters in a rambling tale with a menacing undertone. Alopecia, an autoimmune disease, caused Sam to lose much of her hair; she shaved the rest daily. It even had an iron box stove inside. When asked if he was a racist, she said in a text Ive seen/heard/have no data point to support such accusations. They havent met up but they plan to, for which she is so grateful., Still, Carr remains a villain in many circles. Its just a really shitty club to be a part of.. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. This is known. He began a Facebook group called The Truth of the Sam Sayers Case where followers could swap theories; one made a timeline that runs more than 180 pages. Prospectors found gold and silver in the area in the late 1800s, and the Sunrise Mine popped up around Wirtz Basin. She planned to meet a friend in Bellingham the next day. I'm a member of the truth group and the missing Seattle hikers group ( they discuss Sam's case and others and it's also my favorite because there's no stupid drama.) The sheriffs office fielded sightings of bald women across the state, several at various Walmarts. There are the obvious theories including wild animal attacks, getting lost or falling. Date of Birth: August 13, 1990 Erie, Pennsylvania. That was nine months ago. Its more than three miles from the trailhead to the shores of Lake Elan and Kevins base camp, where snow had mostly melted. At the request of Kriegers son, he stayed on the mountain for a month and half. There is a pause, ever so slight, and the radio squawks back to life. He drove 20 miles back down the Mountain Loop Highway to the Verlot Public Service Center, a visitor center staffed by U.S. Forest Service rangers during the dayclosed, but home to a pay phone out front. The drama continued. David Francis, the man who lost his son in the Idaho Sawtooths, told a reporter that hed never seen anything like it and that they are the most dedicated West Coast County sheriffs Ive ever seen.. The color of her lipstick debated, what does it mean? By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Updated Mon., Aug. 30, 2021 at 9:16 a.m. Carlton Bud Carr Jr. poses for a photo on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, in the backyard of his home in Concrete, Wash Carr is holding the file containing his search notes on Rachel Lakoduk, a 28-year-old Moses Lake hiker who went missing on Oct. 17, 2019, while attempting to reach Hidden Lake Lookout - a remote fire lookout in the Mt. Other day trippers would recall seeing the solo hiker stripped down to her bra and hiking pants. Hes proud of what the volunteers do. 1 Be Kind and Courteous We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. I dont think there is a malicious bone in that guys body, he said. Not in our experience, states the post. Theyd had nothing since midafternoon on August 1, when Sams phone pinged near the summit, one of the only areas with even spotty cell service. April 23, 2019 Carr, at the time 19, started dating a girl and became friends with her dad, a crazy backwoods hillbilly who was convinced society would collapse in 2000. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Rachel Lakoduk was petite, freckled and redheaded, too. Impressed by Carrs careful hand-drawn maps and search experience, Francis recommended he be put in charge of the familys search operations. It really is. The note warned the woman, whom Carr passed while searching for Rachel Lakoduk, about hiking alone. Last summer, Tripp found remnants of a small campfire while searching with Carr, with whom hes become friends. Carrs ceaseless self-promotion. He couldn't accompany Sam because he was working. Reasonable. After she passed the two hikers, Lakoduk continued up. After climbing more than 4,000 feet, up switchbacks and across boulder fields and finally across the patchy snow that marbles the stone pyramid of Vespers very top, Sam reached the summit. No one exactly knows. Vieira said Sayers wore a wig in high school, but one . On the phone he is well-spoken. Brad Tripp, her father, believes she missed the turn. Next to that a green backpack and a purple sleeping bag. Sam Sayers [Handout] The Theories With nearly 1,600 people missing in national forests and on public land, it is difficult to speculate about the causes of all these missing people. The weight he lost up on the mountain hasnt returned to his frame and he wears his weariness like a coat. Why? Seriously they are on a power trip now. By early March, just after Mardi Gras 2019 and three years after he met Sam, Kevin has regained some of the weight he shed on Vesper, a mustard button-up brings color back to his face. The day was hot, the faint haze from far-off wildfires hanging in the air. The official search was suspended on Aug. 23 after a Herculean effort. PM me and Ill add yall. It lasted 22 days. Nobody took her up on it and on Aug. 1, Sayers drove alone to the trailhead about two hours northeast of Seattle. Search-and-rescue teams, assisted by dog teams and drones, searchedthe area for three weeks before suspending operations. Idk, I am not there. The duo hatched a plot to steal guns from a Bass Pro shop. Thank you! Toppled trees covered in moss. She was super smart, cool, funny. I was amazed. Monchak would head up the amateur drone searches, but later broke from Kevins search to run his own. For 20 years, Ron Goins has worked with county search and rescue in Western Washington in one form or another. Carlton Bud Carr, a journeyman carpenter from Concrete, had taken part in searches before, like a failed attempt to find Skagit Countys Patti Krieger on Sauk Mountain in 2010. Still, its hot and hes tired when his radio crackles to life. This happens all the time. Yet, when after 10 days, the Skagit County Sheriffs Office suspended the search for Rachel Lakoduk, the only person who kept searching, and never stopped, was Carr. Kevin Dares. All the things you want in a partner, he says. She disappeared on August 1, 2018 after a day of solo hiking at Vesper Peak near Seattle, Washington. Spiders rappelling into your hair. He was honest.. Regardless, Rachel left Moses Lake alone that morning. And it was in Seattle. Kevin was still at the Verlot station when Sergeant John Q. Adams arrived around 1:30am. Not sure about the pad., Carr interjects, Orange, orange Therm-a-Rest.. We are just clearing ground, he said. Eventually, even that produced a splinter group, The Truth of the Sam Sayers Case UNCENSORED. Samantha Sayers left at 8 a.m. on August 1, 2018, for a solo hike in the North Cascades mountains in Washington. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office led the. Why? The longest search in state history turned up nothing. Off the mountain, Kevin had become the tragic fiance who refused to give upor maybe the subject of wild speculation. Sam Sayers Consulting. Kevin, Carr, and the others made occasional trips down to visit their children and gather gear, but their lives had become ruled by the command tent maps, the bearings and grid lines plotted around PLS: Sams place last seen. This was Sam Sayers in her element: fired up by the theatricality, by a tight-knit community. He pauses and warns another search party member to watch his step. In a snowstorm, this would be easy to miss. Amateur sleuths followed the case like the podcast Serial or a season of True Detective. In July, he posted a photo of a note hed placed on the car of a solo female hiker on Facebook. My diets bad. It made sense, in a way, this impossible newsif Sam wandered out on her own, she could have hitchhiked back home. Because at the end of the day, hes the only person out there helping you.. Roccos is basically his Cheers; everybody knows his name. He cant. Carr belayed him down ropes into steep ravines. Do you know how its going to look if you die out here with an ice ax to your head and its just me and you? Kevin asked him, grasping at dark humor. Seven years of Dateline's Missing in America: 156 still missing. A brand-new BMX bike for Bud. The meeting never happened. Her scrawl is the last concrete sign of the 27-year-old day hiker whose disappearance launched one of the biggest search and rescue operations in the states history. Snow fell and Carr and Dares stopped searching, although they went back in 2019. The trail gains elevation through switchbacks cut in a brushy hillside. But even he doesnt think Carr is a grief profiteer or a charlatan. discussion about Sam that won't be silenced, Press J to jump to the feed. Kevin asked his father, the command chief warrant officer in the Louisiana National Guard, to run the mountain camp. Everyone had a theory. He continued up despite the plan to meet. I actually got kicked out of the group for calling the admins drama queens . Early on he told deputy Peter Teske, who would also play a huge role in the search, he had a feeling we better throw everything weve got at this one, at least for a couple of days.. His girlfriend, Samantha Sayers, also disappeared while hiking. He looks drained. Near 2 p.m. she was hiking. Snohomish County Sheriffs Office searchers at Spada Lake, and a SAR unit briefing during the search. After the discovery they changed strategies and started following the terrain downhill from the fire. The most paranoid among us believe that every person is shadowed by satellitesand thats probably not so far-fetched. Then he began to rally Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue through his radio. Sams trace. I've been getting a lot messages the past few days. A hiker remembers seeing Sam veer down toward the peaks southwest side around 3pm. Dares drops his pack. Are we going to have to do a rescue on the rescuers? Goins asked. Like Kevin she was a self-employed entrepreneur, owner of a cleaning service for Airbnbs. It's a sad shame. See Photos. Once the proper trail peters out in the dirt and heather, its common for every comer to pick their own way. Samantha "Sam" Claire Sayers. But, if youre not crazy youre not quitting your job, packing up all your (stuff) and then going in the woods for somebody youve never met. He gave up two things for Lent: social media and alcohol. And for how long? Thanks if anyone can do that! As of Monday, more than $35,000 has been raised. The woman had borrowed his vehicle once and even though it was very clean, it smelled of semen and dead bodies, relayed the deputy who took the report. Of course shed go straight to Belltown.Seattle PD was dispatched to the coordinates. When Carr calls, Dares packs his bag and heads out as a way of paying it back to him and everyone else who helped. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. She and Kevin, a single dad of three, moved in together. The AFRCC, or Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, was actively monitoring Sams phone for pings, a sign of brief connectivity to cellular sites. He also once owned an exotic snake breeding company. Shortly after her brief encounter, the trail takes a hard turn to the hikers left. The 28-year-old left at eight in the morning, according to ABC News,. A Christian. Its Dennys. I said, 'I know you may not like this but I think shes dead. In addition to the swastika tattoo, Carr posted a video since deleted of himself wearing a hat with an Iron Cross. Hes proud of his German heritage, he said, although he believes the Nazis are disgusting. A background check revealed the burglary charges in Missouri, a warrant for arrest, stemming from that burglary charge, a failure to pay child support allegation and a marijuana possession charge. Editor's Note: This article was updated April 30 to correct cellular satellites to cellular sites. Over a week ago, Samantha "Sam" Sayers, whose 28th birthday is on Aug.. Flyers wrapped trees and signposts on the Mountain Loop and telephone poles in Seattle. She was last seen wearing dark gray pants and a maroon hoodie. He liked camping. Lots of interesting characters. Rose Simonseth, whose husband Tom disappeared and died hiking alone this year and was later found by a friend, said Carr gave her a list of supplies he needed to search for Tom. In the Belltown apartment, they hung maps and scrawled Sharpie notes directly on the wall. It went viral. Carr continues talking about his tattoos, all of which (except for the ones on his back) he did himself, Yes sir, Im ambidextrous, he says. The sergeant fielded endless rumors and accusations, about whether FLIR was really operationalit wasor why he wasnt using bloodhounds (wrong terrain, he says). I'm especially interested in the account of the witness who saw Sam Sayers heading west. Seattle hiker Samantha Sayers has been missing since Aug. 1 at Vesper Peak. What color was Rachels pad, backpack and sleeping bag?. Late on that August day, a few hours after Sam wandered down Vesper, Kevin Dares sat inside Roccos, an upscale pizza restaurant in Belltown with Victorian wallpaper and novelty banh mi slices. Using his cell phone for illumination under a moon just past full, he retreated three-and-a-half miles back to his car. We can get statistics on auto accidents but theyre not collected for people missing in the wilderness., The search for Jon lasted only two days before the county sheriff pulled out and, as David remembers, told him he should give his son up to the mountain. His biggest complaint? I do think, though, that there might be some 'splainin' to do regarding the distribution of the GoFundMe cash. But for Dares these searches are painful. I'm sure you've met them, the kind who are super into crystal healing but also love them some jesus? In addition to the swastika, he has Tibetan mantras. By the weekend, SAR teamsall volunteersfrom King, Skagit, Kitsap, Kittitas, and Pierce counties had deployed, along with four other mountain rescue squads. The 28-year-old woman was last seen on a day hike at Vesper Peak in the North Cascades on August 1. The post called out search-for-money operators who peddle lottery-odds fantasies to vulnerable, grieving families.. And everything tilted at an absurd angle 35 to 40 degrees making progress a thing measured in hundreds of feet, not miles. He posted regularly to Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. SM is an admin but does not act like the other admins.Basically what I saw was half of the people think SS fell from the mountain and the other half think she was killed off the mountain. Were going to have to make some changes.. One witness claimed she saw Sam playing a TV show on her phone while hiking that day, an episode of The Bachelorette. Ellinor hike in the Olympics about a month before she went missing. In a crowded restaurant you must lean in to hear him speak. Washingtons a weird state, he says, because its possible to drive your car into the middle of nowhere, park, step off the road and suddenly be in dangerous terrain.. The longest in state history. Dares insisted on paying Carr $500 a week during the heat of the Sayers search. His dad sold his shares in the business and the family moved to Port Townsend, Washington, poured the gold money into a salvage diving company, sold that and moved to Missouri. She preferred if more people thought she was punk than had cancer.Sam exuded vitality. Now, the son believes his mom was killed by her boyfriend, a man currently in prison on other charges. Sayers received court permission to change her last name from Steinbaugh to Sayers in May 2009, after her stepfather adopted her and her brother in February 2009, according to a name-change petition on file at the Erie County Courthouse. That means how long and how hard a county looks for a vanished person varies. 8:02 PM. Can I possibly get added to the group ? He drove to the trailhead. When she graduated from Collegiate, Sayers went by the last name of Steinbaugh, according to the Erie School District, who confirmed her enrollment in 2018. I cannot even imagine how her poor family feels. Seattle Met :-), I would love to be added to that group! Carr Sr. bought the mine for a song in the early 80s and turned it into a profitable business within a decade. Please PM me if you've got access to the goods! This week I've caught up on the NW Hikers page dedicated to her, the forum was unfortunately closed back in September, but many of those people brought up valid points. Everyones gonna say, a boyfriend, whatever, fly-by-night, who cares, he says. Society persisted and Carr spent five years in a Missouri prison although he was sentenced to seven. Tripp, Dares and Simonseth feel differently. Dares is 500 feet up the hill, obscured by the thick vegetation. Overall, were down on recruiting and new members, Bill Gillespie, president of the Washington State Search and Rescue Volunteer Advisory Council told a reporter in early August. From Kevins first post, Facebooks role in the search metastasized. Nine months later, the mystery has consumed the lives of thousands. Hed read about it on Facebook and decided to help. He lost weight, smoked and drank too much. Well come up to you, the rogue search and rescue employee says. At a Unicorn bar drag brunch in 2017, Turner remembers Sams cheers at the flamboyant performance, the loudest person there, giving the biggest tips. The couple descended. All rights reserved. In every community across Washington, families are facing the challenge of accessing and affording long-term care. They flag evidence, pink tape hanging limply from branches. Adams dispatched the county-owned SNOHAWK1 helicopter on what was turning into a cloudy Thursday. He points to the moats off the north side of the peak, where the steep bottom of the cliff meets the glacier. Theyve found no trace of Sayers. Sam was raised in the Erie, Pennsylvania area where her parents Ron and Lisa still live. Better late than never, amiright?? They parsed Kevins 911 callcould you hear someone in the background?and claimed to have hacked his email. Those moats haunt Kevin too; he knows theyll never really be able to search the bands between ice and rock that fill up with snow every winter. Someone, somewhere, saw something that may help authorities. Though Snohomish County had officially suspended its operation, Sergeant Adams came back up to snorkel Lake Elan in a thick dry suit. Approvals quickly followed. LYS suddenly dismissing her vehement faith that SS was/is on the mountain. The 33-year-old lives just across Second Avenue and the eatery is more or less his office, where he runs a company that does real estate deals, renovations, and property management. He lowered himself into an abandoned mine shaft and tromped through thick underbrush. Im a militant, he says, his voice softer than his camo wardrobe suggests. She asked about conditions ahead. One day stands out: August 4, three days in. The best they could do, the carrier said, was load the SIM signature onto Dawns mobile, effectively cloning Sams iPhone. Sams phone pinged, a sign it was on and working. It was around day 50 of the search; Kevin would ultimately spend over 100 on this mountain. And three or four sandwiches, plus snacks; she never skimped on snacks. Seattle Met. They call the sheriff. Thanks to GPS watches and cell phones, facial-recognition cameras and credit card chips, the world observes and records. On August 23, Deputy Teske was sitting with Kevin when word came that the county was officially suspending its search. At Seattle Met, Allison Williams reports on the conspiracy and true-crime enthusiasts, the social media frenzy, and the desperate search for a woman who hasn't been seen since.. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. (GoFundMe) Search operations for a Seattle hiker missing since Aug. 1 have been suspended,. Privacy Policy. Psychic Jerry Morris describes the murders in two unsolved cases, Samantha Sayers and Missy Bevers. Kevin shut down the Facebook group and others sprung up in its wake. Thats a squishy number, though, because the two largest land managers the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service dont keep track. Police are continuing to search for a woman who went missing after going out on a solo hike in Washington State on Aug. 1. Adams, a lawman with a chiseled face that eschews theatrics, advised the frantic boyfriend not to go back out alone in the predawn hoursbut he also wouldnt stop him. News organizations picked up the story. Thanks to their flexible schedules, they cruised Cascade trails midweekSam in her sports bra and Kevin in jeans, a Southerners rebuke of Northwest tech-gear chic. The day was hot, the faint haze from far-off wildfires hanging in the air. After a $20,000 reward was announced, the trail swelled further. I consider that theft. An accomplished smoker, American Spirits blue. It starts at 3,600 feet in the thick and sometimes vicious vegetation typical of the rain-soaked North Cascades and winds into alpine meadows of wildflowers before reaching a rocky granite saddle and then, at 6,700 feet, the lookout itself. Think what you will of Carr, Dares said, but the fact is hes offering hope and a service that no one else is. Let's treat everyone with respect. Some posters there report having read the public records on the FB Truth Group before it was made private. 70-year-old, Karen Sykes, headed for the wilderness around Owyhigh Lakes in Mount Rainier National Park in June 2014. Another saw her descending the south side of summit. Through all this drama, Carr, Dares and others continued searching. But since moving to Seattle in 2012, and spending months of his life living on Vesper Peak, hes accustomed himself to the Pacific Northwest lifestyle. I want to understand that she had to "put up a front" in order to properly follow other leads, but like how dare you rally and petition and raise money for volunteers to go searching if you never really felt she was there in the first place. Web. Samantha Jane Sayers (sammiieeiilikeeiitsayerss) See Photos. If you have information about Sayers, call the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office at (425) 388-3393. Show more Show more From Terra to Terabytes: Popular Cartography, Military Cartography. Before she left on her solo hike on the Vesper Peak trail hed texted Be safesos me if anything goes haywire. Her replyThanks baby I love you.was classic Sam, straightforward and confident. Later, her husband Jamie, will receive a bag of her gear from the coroner and place the items on the floor of an empty room in the house they used to share. The two compromised. See Photos. They spotted a tree on fire, but no Sam. A big open space where it looks like you can see everything. Kevin recognized Sam from across the room before they even metthis was the girl hed matched with on Tinder; theyd chatted through the app. For her 28th birthday in 2019, they planned to hike to the Hidden Lake Lookout. The Cascades retain pockets of remote wilderness, enclaves that feel as raw as when Western civilization first mowed a passage to the Pacific, yet are a casual drive from Seattle. A search ensued unlike anything the state of Washington has ever seen. By and large, the United States depends on a patchwork of volunteer search and rescue teams organized and run by county sheriffs offices. The aircrafts FLIR, an infrared camera, scanned for heat signatures, but the pilots also stuck their heads out windows. Kevin and Sam on a Mt. Ill owe Bud for the rest of my life, he said. I'm not sure how this type of stuff is going to play out, there seem to be a lot of fingers in the pot. Sam's mother, Lisa Yax Sayers, declined to be interviewed for this story. If your loved one is missing the odds are low that public sector law enforcement is going to find them, said David Francis, the founder of the Jon Francis Foundation named in honor of his son who went missing in the Idaho Sawtooths in 2006. But thats cold comfort for the families left behind. Too much vegetation. That can lead to profiteering and exploitation, with some bad operators capitalizing on grief to make a buck. Go to the creek. Could it be you or one of your friends?" An area is scoured by hundreds of trained searchers, dogs and helicopters, and then weeks, months or years later, a random hiker stumbles onto something everyone missed. She spoke her mind. All told, Carr and various configurations of volunteers have spent more than 70 days on this mountain in the North Cascades searching for her. In his book The Cold Vanish he acknowledges that its a rounded guesstimation although he believes 1,600 is wildly conservative.. Kevin, status report, Carr says into the radio, which each searcher carries per his rigorous protocol. The desperate family paid, nonetheless. It was moving at first, but now I just see it as a sociological experiment. It was there, in his rising panic, that Kevin tripped and broke his flashlight, forcing him to turn back. I have better things to do. This unofficial search began as soon as SAR pulled out. With his dark pointed goatee and survivalist rhetoric, Carr rubbed many the wrong way. How to travel in the mountains. By 6 p.m., her boyfriend Kevin Dares was worried. Super driven. Online criticism reached a fever pitch. His girlfriend, Samantha Sayers, also disappeared while hiking. The internet hordes accused Carr of being a grief profiteer. Dont touch anything, he says. That was what had pinged. He took off up the trail toward Vesper, leading Cheryl Phillips, a dog handler from South Carolina, and her search dog Raven. Samantha Sayers is a 5-foot-8-inch white woman weighing 125 pounds. Rainier. But when they knocked on the door to Kevin and Sams apartment, the truth quickly shattered the fantasy.