10 Most Mysterious Disappearances in National Parks

Some people are born for the outdoors, and Michael Ficery was one of them. This man pushed aside a “conventional” lifestyle to live one of adventure and exploration, and in 2005, he decided to hike solo through Yosemite National Park. And not just the touristy areas of Yosemite, either, but the parts reserved for the hardcore adventurers. Ficery was very independent and liked to live off the grid, so it wasn’t until his wilderness permit expired that people realized something was wrong. A massive search was instigated and even involved the Marines. They quickly found Ficery’s backpack, which spelled very bad news and greatly concerned his family. Unfortunately, no other trace of Ficery has ever been found.

Yosemite is so enormous that it’s home to countless disappearances. Finding missing people here is like finding a needle in a haystack. Ruthanne Ruppert planned to hike from Yosemite Falls to an unincorporated community called Foresta, which is about a six-hour walk southwest. She never made it to Foresta. It’s believed that Ruppert’s limited eyesight played a substantial role in her disappearance. One of her eyes was a prosthetic, and the other had been treated for an infection the very same day that she embarked on her fifteen-mile hike. Ruppert’s backpack was found eight years after she disappeared in the region of Fireplace Creek, which is about halfway between Yosemite Falls and Foresta.

Morgan Heimer Grand Canyon National Park

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At the time of his disappearance, Morgan Heimer was working for a rafting company called Tour West, which provided guided tours through the Grand Canyon. On day six of an eight-day trip, Heimer vanished in the Pumpkin Springs area of the park. The lead guide was speaking to Heimer when he was distracted by a client. When he went to speak to Heimer again, the young man was gone. The guide didn’t think much of it at first, believing Heimer had simply wandered off. But when three hours had gone by without a word, Heimer was officially declared missing. An extensive search lasting six days was carried out, but to no avail.

In March 2012, a young orderly named Derek Lueking visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which resides in both Tennessee and North Carolina. Only, it was under some bizarre circumstances. When Lueking failed to arrive at work, a mutual friend called his roommate, who in turn notified Lueking’s family. They looked through Lueking’s computer and found searches for the national park. Lueking was also spotted on surveillance at a motel near the park. Lueking’s car was later found outside a trail containing roughly $1,000 of survival equipment and his wallet. They also found an ambiguous and unsettling note that read simply, “Don’t try to follow me.” Tragically, there was no trace of Lueking himself.

The Vermont State Police exists because of Paula Jean Welden. Welden was an eighteen-year-old college student who decided to walk the Long Trail in Vermont. Welden hitchhiked from school to the trail, and when she failed to return for her studies, her roommate notified the administrators. They in turn contacted the authorities, and a massive search for Welden was undertaken. It involved the National Guard, firefighters, and even students from the school, which had closed to help in the search. But despite the extensiveness, nothing came of it, and the resulting investigation was fiercely criticized for being shoddy. Just seven months later, the Vermont State Police was created to prevent such poorly-run investigations in the future.

Unfortunately, it’s not just adults that go missing in national parks. In July of 1938, young Alfred Beilhartz was vacationing with his family in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Beilhartz was either three or four years old when he went missing. Beilhartz was hiking with his family when he made his way to the back of the line. At some point, the boy went off the trail and disappeared from his family’s lives forever. A wide search on both land and water was conducted but came to nothing. Some eyewitnesses reported seeing Beilhartz with an unknown person some time after his disappearance, and Beilhartz’s father also believed that his child had been abducted.

This young couple married on April 10, 1928. For their honeymoon, they wanted to traverse the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and run its world-famous rapids. In the process, Bessie Hyde was to become the first woman to successfully run the Grand Canyon. Glen built his own wooden boat and the newly-married couple set off. They were last seen on November 18, and Glen’s father reported them missing some time after. On December 19, their empty boat was found floating in the water with all of their supplies still on board. Numerous theories have been put forth regarding the disappearance, but it’s more than likely that the Hydes simply fell out of the boat while running the rapids and drowned.

58-year-old Thelma Pauline Melton was spending time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the fall of 1981 with some friends. They decided to go hiking on the Deep Creek Trail while Melton’s husband stayed behind with the camper. While on the hike, Melton suddenly picked up her pace and walked ahead of her friends before disappearing beyond a hill. They believed that she was racing back to the camper for some reason, but when they got there, Melton’s husband reported that she’d never arrived. A huge search was quickly undertaken, but nothing was ever found of Melton, and even more mysteriously, there was no evidence that a hiker had wandered off the trail.

The Grand Canyon claimed another victim in fifty-two-year-old Floyd Roberts III. On June 17, 2016, Roberts was walking through the canyon with his friend and his friend’s daughter. Some time along the way, Roberts decided to split from the group and take an alternate route up a hill. Why he did this remains a mystery. When he failed to meet up with the others, Roberts was quickly declared missing. The resulting search found no conclusive evidence as to what happened, and Roberts simply disappeared into thin air. Where did he go? Most curiously, why did he decide to split from the group? These questions may never be answered.

We return one last time to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the story of young Dennis Martin. The six-year-old was on a big camping trip involving multiple families. To have some fun, the children planned to surprise the adults by popping out of some bushes, and Martin’s father watched him run behind a nearby shrub. However, he failed to return with the other children and was never seen again. An enormous search for the boy was conducted, with well over 1,000 people combing through fifty six square miles of forest. To this day, it is the largest search in the park’s long history.