Recovered/Located NV - Ronnie (found deceased) & Beverly Barker (taken for med care), RV trip, Stagecoach, 27 Mar 2022

[Herat]

Flightradar24

Has been no apparent aerial / copter search action in the region for days.

N5106L Piper PA-28-180
I'm watching a small private plane out of Las Vegas that is going along at a snail's pace 83kts heading toward the Silver Peak area. Altitude only 8500 ft so that could be low enough to identify bright white vehicles in the desert.

Edited: The speed and alititude have dropped and it flew directly over the hamlet of Silver Peak, Coaldale, and is now directly over Mina.

 

[Really?]

This case, and those that are similar, make me rethink my retirement plans...

I’m not gonna lie…this has been my plan as well……now I’m having second thoughts.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Have we talked about WalMarts along the way? I live right off a major interstate and the local WalMart has tons of overnight motorcoach campers. They allow it and it is considered a safe option. Have Walmart parking lots been checked?

 

[MommyDoll2]

On FB it said all RV parks in a certain range (pretty large) had been contacted.

 

[sassyblue]

Are the Nevada State Police even looking for them?

I'm worried enough to make me want to jump in the car and go look for them myself. I can't even begin to imagine how their family members must feel.

 

[Herat]

Have we talked about WalMarts along the way? I live right off a major interstate and the local WalMart has tons of overnight motorcoach campers. They allow it and it is considered a safe option. Have Walmart parking lots been checked?

There are two Walmarts in the entire region:

The infamous Walmart in Fernley, NV 134 miles north

A Walmart in Pahrump, NV 236 south.

It's a remote area, folks

 

[MommyDoll2]

Are the Nevada State Police even looking for them?

I'm worried enough to make me want to jump in the car and go look for them myself. I can't even begin to imagine how their family members must feel.

Agreed but only 1 nephew that lives in Vegas is in the area. Is there a reason other family has not headed west to help look? Not judging at all, just not how our family operates.

 

[CTPDMom]

Oh gosh, this is so sad. It makes me recall the Jim and Michelle Butler case, which didn't end well. But also another case, I'm struggling to recall the names, similar circumstances where they ended up lost in a very remote area in their RV. They were from Canada, and were the in-laws of a friend in an online group. The mother was eventually found alive, the father had died. I believe the father had walked away to try and find help. It was such an amazing miracle when she was found! So, there is hope. And I'll be praying for this couple.

ETA: Chetrien! That was the couples name. The wife survived 49 days!
B.C. woman blames GPS for getting couple lost | CBC News

 

[Satchie]

I’m not gonna lie…this has been my plan as well……now I’m having second thoughts.

Please don't, the cases I know about are so rare, compared with the number of people RVing. Much higher risk from an ordinary car crash.

I would consider bringing a dog, driving long distances in tandem with another RV (can be organized online), and having someone you keep in touch with every day - or even just using fb to post your whereabouts/plans for your friends and family.

It seems to me this couple were flexible about changing their plans at the last minute according to how they felt, which isn't a problem but it would have been good if they'd been in touch with people about that.

It also seems to me, with Beverly in a wheelchair, that puts all the responsibility onto Ronnie. If he was having trouble or confused, there's that old chestnut about men never wanting to stop and ask directions...

JMO

 

[Satchie]

Flightradar24

Has been no apparent aerial / copter search action in the region for days.

N5106L Piper PA-28-180
I'm watching a small private plane out of Las Vegas that is going along at a snail's pace 83kts heading toward the Silver Peak area. Altitude only 8500 ft so that could be low enough to identify bright white vehicles in the desert.

Edited: Not quite sure what it's doing. It may be on the ground in the area between Highway 774 and 266, just SE of Lida, NV. Kinda in a search area south of Silver Peak.

I recall reading that Esmeralda and neighbouring counties had done aerial searches a few days ago. So perhaps now they are searching hilly areas that can't be searched so high, using drones...

JMO

 

[IceIce9]

This case, and those that are similar, make me rethink my retirement plans...

I think RV travel can be a safe option, as safe or safer than the airport/rental car/hotel option. You just need to be aware of your surroundings, carry a PLB (which works even without cell service or Wi-Fi) travel during daylight hours, have a planned route and make others aware of your route and plans.

There have been abductions, robberies, murders, etc. from hotels and rental cars too. No form of travel is completely safe but there are steps you can take to make it as safe as possible.

 

[Satchie]

Agreed but only 1 nephew that lives in Vegas is in the area. Is there a reason other family has not headed west to help look? Not judging at all, just not how our family operates.

Jobs, kids...?

 

[roguelady]

I am guessing that after they fueled up and got some food around 2:30 pm in Stagecoach, they decided to try to make it to their destination, which was the RV Park at Nellis AFB. According to google maps, that is roughly a 6-1/2 hr. drive from Stagecoach to Nellis AFB. It would have put them arriving at the RV park around 9 pm, which is just a little after dark. It is my understanding they were not meeting up with friends until Tuesday (in Tucson.) I would love to know if their plan was to definitely stay at Nellis on Sunday night or were they going to split up the Nevada portion into two nights? It's pretty obvious that something happened to them a few hours after they left Stagecoach. Where could they be?

 

[Herat]

I think RV travel can be a safe option, as safe or safer than the airport/rental car/hotel option. You just need to be aware of your surroundings, carry a PLB (which works even without cell service or Wi-Fi) travel during daylight hours, have a planned route and make others aware of your route and plans.

There have been abductions, robberies, murders, etc. from hotels and rental cars too. No form of travel is completely safe but there are steps you can take to make it as safe as possible.

This has me convinced to get a satellite-based personal tracker, like a Spot system.

 

[Herat]

I am guessing that after they fueled up and got some food around 2:30 pm in Stagecoach, they decided to try to make it to their destination, which was the RV Park at Nellis AFB. According to google maps, that is roughly a 6-1/2 hr. drive from Stagecoach to Nellis AFB. It would have put them arriving at the RV park around 9 pm, which is just a little after dark. It is my understanding they were not meeting up with friends until Tuesday (in Tucson.) I would love to know if their plan was to definitely stay at Nellis on Sunday night or were they going to split up the Nevada portion into two nights? It's pretty obvious that something happened to them a few hours after they left Stagecoach. Where could they be?

This is the updated timeline according to the family:

Note they left Mt. Shasta at about noon and then were seen in Stagecoach at 3:48pm, not 2:30.

Mt Shasta to the Nellis AFB area in Las Vegas is an 11 hour drive, without stopping. I assume this is where they wanted to stop:

Desert Eagle RV Park - Nellis Life

There is also a huge off-limits Nellis Air Target and Target Practice area that is just outside of Tonopah. It's not an Air Base, but there is a chance that was the location they had entered and thought they were driving to. That could have been estimated at an 8 hour drive. That really does alight better with their trip progress, until they disappeared.

Were either Ronnie or Beverly ex-military?

 

[IceIce9]

This has me convinced to get a satellite-based personal tracker, like a Spot system.

Having personally participated in several rescue operations in remote areas, I highly recommend carrying a PLB of some sort.
What is a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)? | MRT

 

[Creepshow]

Two Civil Air Patrol planes near Hawthorne. I’m not sure what they do as I’m not a US resident, but I read they carry out emergency services etc? Could they be searching?

 

[Herat]

Two Civil Air Patrol planes near Hawthorne. I’m not sure what they do as I’m not a US resident, but I read they carry out emergency services etc? Could they be searching?

GREAT!

That is exactly what they are doing. Searching for the Barkers.

One is at 9450 ft, the other is higher at 11,300. A bit high for search grids. Both moving along a pretty fast clip: 141 kts, 151 tks

They're flying over those Garfield Hills just south of Highway 95 near Luning.

It will be interesting to see where they go after Mina.

 

[Satchie]

ETA: Chetrien! That was the couples name. The wife survived 49 days!
B.C. woman blames GPS for getting couple lost | CBC News

Yes, I recall that the circumstances were, the driver missed the correct highway turnoff in the dark, and didn't want to backtrack. Used the GPS to find an alternate route that lead them far off the beaten track.

ETA: this was before on board GPS.

JMO

 

[logical]

With the final location coming from an apple device through "find my" device app, those are based on GPS, so it is much more accurate than a cell tower ping.

If the location was Nivloc Rd (HWY 265) / Silver Peak, I'm confident the device was there. If the timing is correct (initially reported in Indiana time), then it seems they essentially drove straight to the Silver Lake area after stopping in Stagecoach.

They either did this following Apple maps that seem to use that route as the fastest, or at the behest of an unknown 3rd party.

With the number of cameras out there, I would think they would have been spotted if they made it back to 95 and continued South...

Chances are that the RV is in the Silver Peak area.

We need some dash cam videos from that evening....