CA CA - Barbara Thomas, 69, Bullhead City, hiking wearing bikini in Mojave desert, 12 July 2019

[PaulR]

Whether or when RT has or hasn't made phone calls to relatives is not that telling IMO.
What I think is hinky, hinky, hinky is the whole situation, and the timing and lone witness to her disappearance.
BT vanishes into thin air during a walk in the desert with her husband.... just days before making a trip overseas to visit her ill brother in Hong Kong that she was apparently really looking forward to and was important to her. No one but her husband has anything to say about their comings or goings or planning for the trip to the desert or when she was last seen and how she was doing. JMO.

They were on a trail. If I went hiking in a rural area - which is generally where people go on hikes - with a friend, and got lost, guess what, there are not going to be a few dozen people stepping forward saying they saw me on some trail.

<modsnip - bickering>

 

[LietKynes]

Mmmhmmm, all according to him, not her. So whenever someone says "they" here, it is caveated that 'according to her husband / RT.... they ____."

No one has any idea when BT was last seen or heard from, except a family member who posted here that 2 days before she went missing (Wednesday) she called relatives overseas who she was supposedly going to go visit this week, and said she was looking forward to seeing them, and was going to go on a trip where there may not be a way for them to reach each other for a few days. Then she disappeared while on a trip in the desert with her husband, and he called these same relatives to tell them how sorry he was to report that she wasn't going to be able to visit them after all because she was missing. Hinky, hinky, hinky, JMO.

Emph. mine

Agreed.
That is somewhat puzzling.

RT apparently can't do anything right? Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. I'm still squarely on the fence. The only reason I might suspect his involvement is unless she was abducted, she should have been found by now per his account of what happened.

Emph. Mine

Good point.

 

[GordianKnot]

RT apparently can't do anything right? Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. I'm still squarely on the fence. The only reason I might suspect his involvement is unless she was abducted, she should have been found by now per his account of what happened.

I'm wondering where LE will take this case if /when they complete an exhaustive search of the area and can find absolutely no sign of her having been there.

An update from LE on the search progress would sure be great right about now.

JMO.

 

[PommyMommy]

According to Google Traffic there is a delay right now on Kelbaker Road just south of Granite Pass. Coordinates 34.8035664, -115.6121433. See the orange/red areas below. I assume this is the search area.

View attachment 193924

That's my bend in the road!

 

[AzPistonsGirl]

Not to derail Barbara's thread, but I believe that the work we do on some cases certainly can help in other cases. What we learn and observe... So, there is another hiker missing (there are LOTS, yes). Paul Miller has been missing one year from Joshua Tree. Also has not been found but a lot of folks assume he is out there they just can not find him. Circumstances are somewhat similar in that it was hot, California desert, set out for a quick hike while his wife stayed behind, no trace found, even with dogs and drones. CA - CA - Paul Miller, 51, Canadian missing in Joshua Tree Natl Park, San Bernardino Co., 13 Jul 2018 #2 Maybe something discussed or some insight shared in Paul's case might help here.

 

[ClaireNC]

Another image showing the road closure.

 

[PaulR]

I'm wondering where LE will take this case if /when they complete an exhaustive search of the area and can find absolutely no sign of her having been there.

An update from LE on the search progress would sure be great right about now.

JMO.

I think there is evidence that she was there, and SAR still bring active indicates this. An obvious example is a footprint.

 

[PommyMommy]

BBM - just to note that the 2:30 time does not match what was told to @dbdb11

JUL 18, 2019
https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article232832967.html
[...]

Thomas says he fears someone abducted Barbara Thomas, 69, as she crossed a road back to their vehicle after he stopped to take a photo, according to the station. He says he’s “absolutely not” involved in her disappearance.

“Someone picked her up because she was wearing a bikini,” Thomas said, KCAL reported. “She had a beer in her hand and she had to cross that road.”

[...]

Barbara Thomas was last seen about 2:30 p.m. Friday wearing a black bikini, a red baseball cap and tan hiking boots with black socks, sheriff’s officials say.

[...]

 

[Snoopster]

Unless they are SAR trained, all your sons would do on the trail is need to get rescued themselves when they get lost, get heat stroke, etc. Then SAR has even more work to do when they should be looking for you.

SAR requires training, serious training, even if you want to do just comms.

We don't have a firm timeline but if the cops arrive at the trailhead after he called police and the family he did contact, and they put him in a police car and took his phone to look at evidence such as photos. GPS data, etc. then yes they may have been able to contact the son before he had a chance too. Unless you think he should have been calling everyone instead of continuing to look around the trailhead.

This boils down to that all reliable "hinky meter." Someone brought up Molly Tibbets, did anyone ever apologize for sleuthing that innocent man?

I totally understand that. And if LE and SAR told them that they would respect it. It doesn't mean that they wouldn't find other ways to help. Buy water/food for the volunteers; put up missing posters, etc. And, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't have the desire to be nearby in case I was found.

<modsnip - bickering>

 

[slashkiss]

He says he lost sight of her when she went around a corner ... exactly what corner did she go around? Isn't it kind of wide open there?

 

[PommyMommy]

SBCSD Colorado River Station on Twitter
July 18th - The search for Barbara Thomas, age 69, is continuing in the area of Kelbaker/ Hidden Hills near the I-40 https://local.nixle.com/alert/7417152/

10:16 AM - 18 Jul 2019

July 18th - The search for Barbara Thomas, age 69, is continuing in the area of Kelbaker/ Hidden ... from SBSD - Colorado River Sheriffs Department : Nixle
UPDATE #6
Thursday, July 18th, the search continues for Barbara Thomas. Search and Rescue volunteers, a K9 unit, Sheriff's Aviation and personnel from the River Station are continuing to search the Mohave Desert in the are of Kelbaker/Hidden Hills near the 1-40. Search teams were deployed into the field at 5:00 am.

Temperatures are expected to reach over 100 degrees today.

 

[ClaireNC]

Reminder, Websleuths has a great feature - It’s called Ignore.

 

[oviedo]

BBM - just to note that the 2:30 time does not match what was told to @dbdb11

JUL 18, 2019
https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article232832967.html
[...]

Thomas says he fears someone abducted Barbara Thomas, 69, as she crossed a road back to their vehicle after he stopped to take a photo, according to the station. He says he’s “absolutely not” involved in her disappearance.

“Someone picked her up because she was wearing a bikini,” Thomas said, KCAL reported. “She had a beer in her hand and she had to cross that road.”

[...]

Barbara Thomas was last seen about 2:30 p.m. Friday wearing a black bikini, a red baseball cap and tan hiking boots with black socks, sheriff’s officials say.

[...]

I noticed that too. Is it a time difference issue possibly? RT also said it took 2 hours for LE to arrive on scene - is it that she went missing at Noon and he searched for her then called 911 and they got there at 2:30pm? IDK

 

[GordianKnot]

I think there is evidence that she was there, and SAR still bring active indicates this. An obvious example is a footprint.

Yep, I don't think LE would still be devoting all these resources to this search if they didn't have some type of evidence of her having been there.

Timestamped photos of her taken there that day would also do it.

A great question for a reporter to pose to LE would be, "What evidence of BT's presence have you found and where was it located in relation to her vehicle?"

Not saying LE would provide answers, but it would still be good to ask questions just to see how much, if any, of what they know they're willing to divulge at this stage.

JMO.

 

[PaulR]

As a complete aside, I have never been to Hong Kong but I have been to mainland China a few times. The crowds there are almost unbearable, and I live around a decent sized city. The place I went had six million people and that was considered small. Even places you'd normally think of as quiet would have a lot of people.

Going for a quiet hike before the trip makes sense to me.

 

[Betty P]

Why would a distraught husband even remember to call her relations and cancel a trip in the middle an active search?

IIRC, from a relative who posted here, it was a big trip overseas to visit a family member. Relatives were making arrangements for them there. Contacting them would have been the right thing to do.

ETA: They were traveling to Hong Kong to visit her brother who was in poor health.

Link to post:

CA - CA - Barbara Thomas, 69, Bullhead City, hiking wearing bikini in Mojave desert, 12 July 2019

 

[ClaireNC]

I noticed that too. Is it a time difference issue possibly? RT also said it took 2 hours for LE to arrive on scene - is it that she went missing at Noon and he searched for her then called 911 and they got there at 2:30pm? IDK

It’s one of the things that’s bugging me, too. It makes more sense if they were walking in the morning before it got too hot. Is the story changing? Or are we just not getting enough info from LE?

Another point I’d like clarified, did they go on a 2 mile ‘hike’, 2 miles there and 2 miles back - meaning 4 miles total? Did they walk for a mile and turn around, for a total of 2 miles? Or was it a 2 mile loop?

 

[kay74]

I still hope they are looking at the other side of the camper going the opposite way.

 

[wary]

Ok. If they hiked out together, why didn't they have the key with them, in a pocket or the pack? Why leave it under a rock?

My first thought is—because they’ve gotten separated before. He wanders off to take some pictures—she spots some interesting ‘desert driftwood’... and then another piece... So, after the first time that one had to wait for the other, back at the camper, they decided to just hide the key.

This is entirely speculation on my part, but it fits what we’ve heard of them.

 

[wary]

If she had taken “a 360 picture that morning from on top of a hill” (per dbdb11’s post) what device did the police find this photo on?

It’s reported she is without a cell phone on her person. She must have snapped the photo, then put the cell phone or camera in the pack her husband was carrying, then?

I’m not savvy on photography, but RT wouldn’t necessarily be in such a photo, is that correct? (Another poster was asking this, so just wondering.) If taken on top of a hill, it was probably to capture the view seen afar and below the hill, I’d imagine.

I thought that standard procedure was for your companion to keep moving and stay out of your picture. It’s what I’ve always done. Of course, other people’s habits may vary.