[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Bill Ewasko Found in 2022 - No wonder it took so long. (new map page 2) (Page 2 of 2)
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Quoted: Not every map looks like the Tenino map with towers, church steeples and railway cuts. Quoted: Quoted: The hills are deceptively similar due to the terrain. At least from all the pictures I've seen. Terrain association is harder than a lot of people think in highly varied terrain. Not every map looks like the Tenino map with towers, church steeples and railway cuts. Both of these. Even with prominent natural features/landmarks, it is amazingly easy to drop into the wrong draw from a good vantage point. And then there are all the less than good vantage points. |
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Quoted: He's got more after those two videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_0icvj-ooHis theory makes a lot of logical sense, in that a minor error in getting onto the wrong trail ends up with him, well, where he ended up. Puts the cell phone ping in the right place at the right time and explains how he got there. A comment from another hiker on an earlier video that made a similar error on that exact location offers an even easier explanation for how he could have gone down the wrong trail. The issues with the maps of the correct vintage makes a lot of sense and is reminiscent of the Germans as well, in that their old map showed a road that had been closed. The theory advanced in the videos has Ewasko staying overnight at a trailhead on friday night, and departing probably midday on saturday. Looking at the maps that they believed Ewasko had makes it easy to see why someone would have chosen the route that put him in the location where his remains were ultimately found. Quoted: Quoted: It turns out that incorrect map info played a part in this. Two part video with analysis and conclusions. Part 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvrRytPRrIE Part 2: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2J9wsJb8P1Y Here is a Reddit thread that has conclusions: https://www.reddit.com/r/nonmurdermysteries/comments/110hfgd/how_did_bill_ewasko_get_lost_despite_a/ Many people go missing in national parks every year, but hiker Bill Ewasko's case was different. He had only planned on a day hike in Joshua Tree National Park, the topography between his goal and his car would barely allow him to get lost, and the only clue - a brief cell ping from his phone three days later - indicated he was still alive but inexplicably far from his car, in an area with little to no cell reception but fairly close to roads, trails and trailheads. Tom Mahood of Death Valley Germans fame, who was involved in the original search and rescue effort, was so puzzled that the original search did not find him that he set out to locate Ewasko's remains. Over the course of the next eight years he and others made 80 trips to Joshua Tree to search, with Mahood logging the search blogs on his website, along with FOIA documents, maps, and every possible resource that could be brought to bear. Despite that when the search was called off in 2018, the same year The New York Times profiled the case, the mystery was no closer to being solved. By accident, a group of hikers found Ewasko's remains in February 2022...not far from the area indicated by the cell phone ping, miles away from his car, but that had not been covered by the search because it was literally in sight of the main road. In April 2022, one of the searchers who helped Mahood visited the site and with Mahood's help recently made a two part video (part one and part two here), the length of a feature-length documentary, to try to resolve Ewasko's movements and the various theories about what happened in light of where he was eventually located. After covering what was found at the site and how it impacts the thinking about Ewasko's movements, it advances a new theory that suggests, among other things, that Ewasko was never injured as was previously thought but instead became lost because of incomplete maps of the area and then navigated for three days in the back country to various trailheads without finding help, before expiring just one mile from rescue. Though it never was a huge internet phenomenon, many people went down the rabbit hole of this case because of Mahood's extensive and well-written blogs on his website. Though Ewasko's remains were found, putting to rest some of the wilder theories of his disappearance, the basic oddities of the case and its timeline that caused those theories remained. Though the new video and theory attempt to answer them, without the discovery of more evidence, in the vastness of Joshua Tree National Park it will be difficult to ever know for certain. He's got more after those two videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_0icvj-ooHis theory makes a lot of logical sense, in that a minor error in getting onto the wrong trail ends up with him, well, where he ended up. Puts the cell phone ping in the right place at the right time and explains how he got there. A comment from another hiker on an earlier video that made a similar error on that exact location offers an even easier explanation for how he could have gone down the wrong trail. The issues with the maps of the correct vintage makes a lot of sense and is reminiscent of the Germans as well, in that their old map showed a road that had been closed. Quoted: Why would you navigate to a trailhead and, because no one was physically present at that moment, go back into the woods and keep hiking rather than remain at the trailhead. That makes no sense at all. The theory advanced in the videos has Ewasko staying overnight at a trailhead on friday night, and departing probably midday on saturday. Looking at the maps that they believed Ewasko had makes it easy to see why someone would have chosen the route that put him in the location where his remains were ultimately found. Many thanks for your post!! Are you my brother??? I'm happy to know that I am not the only one to get obsessed with this investigation. And thanks for your fact based comments regarding the evidence from the videos. You did that better than I could have. And yes, somehow YouTube "Knew" that I needed to see the two addendum videos and automatically played them after I finished the first two. It is amazing how YouTube now knows what I want and need to see better than I do. Somehow, I think Facebook could do a better job of picking my next GF than I could do on my own, based on my past results. But that's a different thread....:-). Thanks again for your comments. |
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Quoted: Damn, one of the GPS search tracks on another site had someone within a very close distance of his final spot. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/124206/IMG_7986-3287907.jpg Wow!!! Many thanks for your post. I found the blog. Absolutely amazing!! Eukaryote is a brilliant writer. I have been writing for 50 years and was paid a lot of money for technical writing as part of my career, and his writing blows me away!!! Thanks again!! |
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This investigations always grip me. I used to get inside info being in LE on some of these local ones. I have a couple of lost person finds, all alive thankfully. Worked more than a few that were not. Years ago I studied SAR for civil air patrol and again later in LE. It is always interesting to see how these things developed. Like one guy that got lost in an area I used to hunt and camp. He died with a GPS. A big fluffy blinding snow storm came in and made everything look direr to and filled tracks. I talked to the rangers that worked that case. The guy really didn’t know how to use his GPS. He got it stuck on Man Over Board and couldn’t clear it. It was clear he made a fire and sat it a while but then he walked away from it again. If he stayed out he likely would have been found in the morning or could see to find his own way. Instead he moved in the dark and falling snow and walked right over the top of the forest road his truck was on but kept going. He did not recognize that he hit the road.  Instead of straight missing person searches, these days the majority are nut cakes angry and suicidal on the local scanner. Good to be retired. There are a couple local ones that really have everyone scratching their heads. Old half blind hunter supposed to walk fifty yards and sit and the youngsters were to drive deer to the old guys on line along a forest road. Never seen again, the search started that night and kept going for weeks until it was called off. They went back after winter and looked some more for every year since. Nothing. This is bounded by roads, forested, the weather was cool to old fall weather, survivable until a cold snap a day or two later. It was so weird it was looked at as a crime as well. but that wasn’t supported after time. |
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On the trail area he was found there is a natural spring listed. Perhaps it was a goal of his to make it to the spring, but found it dry or not accurately listed as an active spring. It’s possible, as in desert backpacking hikes I’ve done in winter, to travel longer distances and find water from small natural springs or puddles of rain water. June in JT would have been a challenge unless going to known springs. Attached File |
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Quoted: <clipped> I respect how easy it is to get lost. |
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Quoted: Damn, one of the GPS search tracks on another site had someone within a very close distance of his final spot. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/124206/IMG_7986-3287907.jpg Mahoods "JT43" path looks like he went to the top of the hill that Ewasko was attempting to surmount from a different direction. A few hundred yards away. If you read Mahoods write-up of that hike, he describes going to that peak and looking around trying to imagine routes. With the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge we have now of what maps he had we can deduce how Ewasko was likely misled into taking the later routes that he did. There doesn't seem like any reason to attempt that route other than what was on the map. I'd thought he might have been trying to reach the campgrounds or residences just outside the park, and he may have been, but there's no reason to take the route he did other than what was on those maps that he apparently had. I agree with the video maker in that I think it seems likely that he succumbed to heat stroke or a cardiac event or something for him to have just stopped at that point. |
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Quoted: I've been up there for him to get turned around at the top of quail mountain he would have to be blind From what I've seen they don't believe he made it to the summit of Quail mountain... he didn't sign the register. I don't think anyone knows exactly what route he took that day (or the day after). |
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Quoted: From what I've seen they don't believe he made it to the summit of Quail mountain... he didn't sign the register. I don't think anyone knows exactly what route he took that day (or the day after). Quoted: Quoted: I've been up there for him to get turned around at the top of quail mountain he would have to be blind From what I've seen they don't believe he made it to the summit of Quail mountain... he didn't sign the register. I don't think anyone knows exactly what route he took that day (or the day after). The videos make a compelling case that trying to summit Quail Mountain from the route he took in is bad as you hit very difficult terrain obstacles. If you go to those terrain obstacles and then start backtracking, and stop at an obvious overlook to look around and get your bearings that's exactly where the bandana was found, so that's a strong clue that is just what happened. As reported by the person in the comments on one of the videos, when trying to egress from that point, they said there is an obvious wash that leads you past the Juniper jeep trail and meets up with the Stubbe Springs trail which looks almost identical to the Juniper jeep trail. Adam's theory in the video is that one way or another, Bill ended up on the Stuebbe Springs trail instead of the Juniper trail which took him to where he ended up. |
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Quoted: The videos make a compelling case that trying to summit Quail Mountain from the route he took in is bad as you hit very difficult terrain obstacles. If you go to those terrain obstacles and then start backtracking, and stop at an obvious overlook to look around and get your bearings that's exactly where the bandana was found, so that's a strong clue that is just what happened. As reported by the person in the comments on one of the videos, when trying to egress from that point, they said there is an obvious wash that leads you past the jeep trail and meets up with the Stuebbe Springs trail which looks almost identical to the Juniper jeep trail. Adam's theory in the video is that one way or another, Bill ended up on the Stuebbe Springs trail instead of the Juniper trail which took him to where he ended up. |
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Quoted: On the trail area he was found there is a natural spring listed. Perhaps it was a goal of his to make it to the spring, but found it dry or not accurately listed as an active spring. It's possible, as in desert backpacking hikes I've done in winter, to travel longer distances and find water from small natural springs or puddles of rain water. June in JT would have been a challenge unless going to known springs. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/2893/IMG_3043_jpeg-3288213.JPG |
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I apologize. My earlier maps were wrong. I was basing it on his body being found on the "Panorama Trail" but I was looking at the "Panorama Loop Trail" which is different. I've also found at least 3 different maps of the area and they are all a little different. Here's a much more accurate map. I highlighted where his remains were found, Quail Mt, and where his car was. Attached File |
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Quoted: I apologize. My earlier maps were wrong. I was basing it on his body being found on the "Panorama Trail" but I was looking at the "Panorama Loop Trail" which is different. I've also found at least 3 different maps of the area and they are all a little different. Here's a much more accurate map. I highlighted where his remains were found, Quail Mt, and where his car was. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/144375/map_shot_png-3288330.JPG |
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I'm still trying to figure out the route he took to cross the band of mountains that quail mountain is in. There's no obvious trail. We don't know if he went up quail mountain. I wonder where the bandana was found? We don't even know for sure if it was his bandana, do we? |
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Quoted: only place there id consider reliable to get water is a pump house from an old homestead that is abandoned but functional. It would be just under the H on Johnny Lang canyon on that map Seeing some of the old home sites in these areas always strikes me as odd. There’s jack shit out there but sand, and it’s hit as hell. I guess I don’t get why someone would want to live out there like that. |
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Quoted: I'm still trying to figure out the route he took to cross the band of mountains that quail mountain is in. There's no obvious trail. We don't know if he went up quail mountain. I wonder where the bandana was found? We don't even know for sure if it was his bandana, do we? The speculation is that he went from Juniper Flats directly towards Quail Mountain. It was marked as a trail on one of the old maps. His bandanna was found at the base of the mountain where he likely turned around. I would say it is highly likely that it was his. Then he turned around to head back towards Juniper Flats. He was confused at the trail junctions and ended up on Stubby Springs Loop Trail. Possibly in the dark, he then headed Northwest kinda parallel to the green dotted line. At times very close to that trail. Then cut over to Smith Water Canyon. Then directly towards the paved road. If he had a accurate map, like you posted, he likely would have lived. The Park Service producing map that omitted the Jeep Trail and including trails that actually were not there caused much of the confusion and gives them some culpability. That is why the maps were updated/Clarified/Corrected and the actual trails in the vicinity of where he was found developed and marked after he went missing. |
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Quoted: Seeing some of the old home sites in these areas always strikes me as odd. There's jack shit out there but sand, and it's hit as hell. I guess I don't get why someone would want to live out there like that. |
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Quoted: makes you wonder how long he lived. even with only 2 water bottles he should have still lived for 2-3 days unless there was some trauma. possibly more I would think. how far can an experienced hiker hike in 3 days? Quoted: makes you wonder how long he lived. even with only 2 water bottles he should have still lived for 2-3 days unless there was some trauma. possibly more I would think. how far can an experienced hiker hike in 3 days? He had a 3 liter camelback in addition to the water bottles. He lived at least until sometime Sunday morning, since he'd moved some distance from the cell phone ping distance. If the cell phone ping was at the mouth of Smith Water Canyon as has been theorized he made it all the way through SWC which is quite rough as well as the distance from there to where his remains were ultimately found. Quoted: I wonder where the bandana was found? We don't even know for sure if it was his bandana, do we? The bandana was found basically on a route between the end of the Juniper trail and the Quail Mtn summit. Where it was found was a nice flat spot which would have been an ideal spot to rest and survey the route back. There is rough terrain that blocks the route to the summit from that direction. I'm still trying to figure out the route he took to cross the band of mountains that quail mountain is in. There's no obvious trail. Many have spent a lot of time theorizing about just that question and there isn't any real answer. One piece of evidence that he didn't do that, is that there is cell phone coverage on the north slope of Quail Mnt - and he was supposed to be checking in at the time he'd have been there. If you watch the videos though there is a very rational explanation about how he got to where he got by NOT crossing Quail mountain. As already mentioned, if he mistakenly took the Stubbe Springs trail instead of the Juniper trail when he started back from his attempt at Quail Mountain, at about dusk he'd have encountered a wash that intersects with the Stubbe Springs trail. The actual trail is hard to see where it exists the wash. If he'd have simply followed the wash, thinking it was the trail, he ends up turned north, funneled up to... Covington? Something like that. If he walked all night, by the next day he may have figured out where he was, miles away from his car and trying to come up with the best option for self-rescue at that point. It's all covered in the videos. We don't know if he went up quail mountain. The bandana is a notable piece of evidence that he attempted to. Other than footprints on the Juniper trail, it's the only piece of evidence that was ever found. If that was his bandana, it's unlikely he made the summit or crossed over the mountain on that route due to terrain. |