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Yeah, I can't figure it out. His remains were found several yards off one of the two possible trails he could have used to access his cabin. Troopers supposedly sent working dogs up both trails. Eventually, a neighbor homesteader found him. There was nothing left but bones, clothing, and his daypack. For me, it was yet another lesson that one can literally lay down near a well used trail and disappear, whether you're a sniper, sasquatch, Siberian tiger, or dead old man.

I agree. But you cannot throw the baby out with the bath water.   I definitely think there are strange disappearances on national forests.   Dennis Martin and Travis Walton come to mind.   And despite my misgivings of Matilda and Ketchum DNA studies? I am thankful Paulides has brought this to our attention.

That was an interesting case, thank you for posting it.  Sounds like a prepared camper with an accident that could not be handled alone.       Never apologize for bumping an old thread - that's far better than having six threads on the same topic IM(not so)HO.      I think both of these comments on grid searches are congruent, not contradictory.  While repeated grid searches of the same area should turn up something, an initial search may have a lower degree of confidence as to thoroughness.  Several of the much more experienced members of my team often told me that you never got above 75% confidence in a search and even 50% was rare because when you are searching a large area with dense underbrush/growth/rockfields/downed trees/etc., it's harder than most people realize to spot a relatively small object (like a human body) in those circumstances.  For example, on one search that had at least 100 searchers in a NY state park, the body was missed during the first search because (most likely) the subject had jumped off a cliff to commit suicide and ended up deep in a crevice between boulders.  The searchers at the section had used drones and were on foot, but I understand it particularly hazardous and probably half of the time they were concentrating on not becoming someone who needed rescued themselves.  Also, there had been some snowfall after the subject's disappearance.  Remains were found in the spring.     In my experience in New York, the DEC-ran searches focused on expanding the search area if initial searches were unsuccessful rather than going back over the same ground.   

This is one of the puzzling issues Paulides has illuminated over the years regarding his Missing 411 reports. An area will be methodically grid-seached several times yet the missing person will ultimately be found in that grid.  I was a SAR member for years and when you grid-search an area several times, you can take it to the bank there is nothing there. How the missing person ended up in that location no one knows which makes those cases particularly perplexing.

I am friends with Nathanfooter too! I didn't put the channel on the poll simply because it’s a smaller channel and wasn't sure if people would know it.   We made a channel for them in the researcher section! Love those guys!👍