Explorer Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 This is an update to a missing man story originally discussed on the BFF post below (which has been closed for further comments). http://bigfootforums.com/topic/51796-eerie-story-of-missing-man/?page=2 The missing man's body was found. Outside magazine had a great article last year (March 13, 2017) on missing persons titled "How 1,600 People Went Missing from Our Public Lands Without a Trace". In this article the author covers the disappearance of Joe Keller on July 23, 2015 while jogging in Rio Grande National Forest in southwestern Colorado and the eventual discovery of his body on July 6, 2016. https://www.outsideonline.com/2164446/leave-no-trace The article goes in depth on the Search and Rescue efforts that were conducted and the lack of success in finding his body. In reading the older BFF comments from 2015, it looks like one of Airdale's hypotheses for the missing man demise was correct - he fell off the cliffs north of the Rainbow Trout Ranch. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKBFFan Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Thanks for the link. Nice to have resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdale Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Thanks Explorer. I well remember that incident and researching the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatFoot Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Apparently his mother doesn't think it was a simple case of him just falling off a cliff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwakwe Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Doesn't seem to be any news on the op of the op's link, Eric Hardman. A post mortem was supposedly being done but no cause of death that I could find.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 On 1/22/2018 at 2:32 PM, NatFoot said: Apparently his mother doesn't think it was a simple case of him just falling off a cliff... He was pushed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatFoot Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 She doesn't say in the article...just that he was afraid of heights and there's no way he would've climbed the cliff that he apparently fell off of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incorrigible1 Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Don't let's read into the story the grieving mother's input. She is grasping at most anything, I rather imagine. My heart goes out to her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatFoot Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 I'm not grasping. As someone who is also extremely afraid of heights, I would hope my own mother would say the same thing if my body was found at the bottom of a cliff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explorer Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 The county coroner, Richard Martin, seemed pretty convinced that the cause of death was a skull fracture resulting from falling from a cliff and called it an accident (see link below). https://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/08/joe-keller-remains-confirmed/ On the other hand, the family had doubts and posted those doubts on their Facebook page "Find Joe Keller" which is not longer up but David Paulides copied the Keller family statements and posted them on his webpage back in August 12, 2016. The comments below are from the Keller Family Facebook page per David Paulides (extracted from link below). http://www.canammissing.com/current_events.html --------------------------------------------------- Yes, the DNA tests confirmed that Joe was found in the Conejos Canyon, Colorado on July 6th 2016, but that and where he was found is all we KNOW. We do not know for certain WHAT happened. The place Joe was found is not a place where someone would go running. Everything else about how and why he got there is just speculation and theories. All the "reconstructions" are guesses at best. Some make us feel better than others. The truth is we really do not know what happened to Joe. We DO know where he was found and that he was not alive. He was found at the base of a cliff, not on a ledge, 2.5 miles as the crow flies from the start of his run from RainbowTrout Ranch. Everything else is just a guess. We have discussed it with investigators, detectives, searchers and others and still there is nothing more than speculation. We do not know why the tracking dogs never tracked Joe's scent on the second day after he went missing having sniffed scent articles which were Joe's. If Joe ran to the top of the canyon, his scent should have been easy to track. We do not know why the infrared heat seeking plane (which could spot anything including clothing apparently) did not spot Joe's red shorts. We also do not know why nothing was seen by the helicopter we hired or by the small plane which volunteered and searched the area and the cliffs day after day in the beginning. A big "Thank You" to that pilot for doing that. Our own searchers could not find him, though not through lack of trying. None of this means that we are not grateful to everyone who helped search for Joe. We are very grateful for any help we received. Now we are left with a Great loss and a void which will never be filled this side of heaven and questions which may never by answered this side of heaven. We DO know that Joe is with The Lord because he was saved. This is a great comfort to know and we know because of God's promise of eternal life to All who believe in Him and His son, Jesus Christ and put their faith in Him, that we will see Joe again one day and what a Grand Day that will be! ------------------------------------------------------------ Occam's razor will suggest that the kid took a fall when attempting to climb the cliff. Simplest explanation. I understand the grieving parents not being fully satisfied and looking for an explanation for why Joe was attempting to climb a cliff at the end of a long day (before supper) and after being tired from a long drive instead of just jogging the road like his friend did. I agree, that is a mystery. Nonetheless, 18 year olds sometimes do odd things that don't make sense to adults. There is plenty of speculation in the internet on what led him to fall from the cliff. Some folks write that he could have been chased by a bear and that he ran away from it on top of the mesa and accidentally fell down the cliff. Or that he got bitten by a snake, got dizzy and fell off the cliff. (see link below for some speculations). https://sentinel63.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/joe-keller-the-runner-who-never-returned/ These explanations, however, don't make sense because I don't think he was jogging on top of mesa. Reports say he started jogging on the canyon road and then went off-trail - presumably towards the cliffs. In the end, the parents are correct, all these are speculations and we will never know with certainty why or how he ended where he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogluddite Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 One of the benefits (for me) of finding the Forums is that I joined our local S&R group after reading an article here about a missing child out west. It is far more difficult to find a human in the woods than most would imagine. We were recently out, knowing that we were most likely doing a recovery search, and well over 120 searchers failed to find our missing hunter despite being out all day. He was found the next day, much further out than anticipated. Tracks from an earlier search went within 10 feet of the body, which was snow-covered but for one hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdale Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 I have a hard time finding my wife when we get separated in Walmart. Seriously Trog, it can be hard finding someone even in a small patch of woods. About 10 years ago, my son stopped by because he wanted to test out a new set of Multi-cam ACU's and we have a creek in a small ravine that runs along the back property line that's thick with underbrush. I gave him a couple of minutes to conceal himself, then went looking. I knew he had to be withing a 50' radius, and was about to give up and call him out after several minutes. I happened to look down at the base of a pine and spotted one non-camo boot about six feet from me. He was lying in plain sight with his hands tucked under his body and boonie hat covering his neck and head. I'd already walked by him once, then returned and had been standing in the same spot for two or three minutes before seeing the boot. Had that been an actual search over a large area, you likely would have had to trip over him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 On 1/25/2018 at 7:01 AM, NatFoot said: I'm not grasping. As someone who is also extremely afraid of heights, I would hope my own mother would say the same thing if my body was found at the bottom of a cliff. You don’t have any gambling debts do you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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