Deceased/Not Found CA - Hunter Lewis, 21, last seen while hiding treasure hunt part, Humboldt Co, 30 Dec 2021

[MsMiniSleuth]

A 21-year-old California student has disappeared while hiding the final part of a treasure hunt he spent two years preparing.

Hunter Lewis vanished from Humboldt County on December 30, and tragically, his family believes they know what happened to him by following his ill-fated clues.

That day, his father Corey Lewis believes his son set off in a canoe from Trinidad Beach in an attempt to reach Flatiron Rock, a tiny island a few hundred yards off the Pacific coastline, in order to hide the treasure ... but he never came back.

The final clue left by Hunter, an aerospace engineering student at Cal State Long Beach, was a 3-D printed heart-shaped key, with a note indicating the treasure would be found "where his heart is"; when held against the horizon from the correct location, the teeth of the key align with the rocks surrounding Flatiron, while the heart on the head of the key encircles the island itself.

"We were out searching through the different clues that day [Dec. 30] and we knew he was hiding the treasure," his father told the Los Angeles Times. "And he never returned."

Lewis contacted the Coast Guard and thus began a search along the shoreline and surrounding waters.

While Lewis said Hunter was a skilled outdoorsman with both pilot and scuba diving licenses, he believes his son was unaware of the dangerous reef hidden around Flatiron Rock; indeed even as the Coast Guard rescuers took to the waters, they advised the family they could not get to close to the island because of the treacherous rocks just beneath the waterline.

"We know he was going there," his dad said. "We also know he doesn't know that reef exists."

Belongings of Hunter's began washing up on the shore. A Facebook group set up to aid the search, which now has almost 3k members, have been posting items they have found on the beach, along with prayers and words of encouragement.

But Hunter's dad now accepts the worst.

"We have just been hiking and searching ever since," he said. "We're trying to keep moving because once we sit still, we miss our son. At this point, it's a recovery operation, not a rescue operation. I am just hoping to find my son to return to his mother to bury."

Student Vanishes Hiding Final Clue of Treasure Hunt He Spent Two Years Making

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Search For Hunter Lewis group

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[MsMiniSleuth]

On Dec. 30, 21-year-old Hunter Lewis launched his canoe into the Pacific from a picturesque beach in Humboldt County.

He might have been heading to Flatiron Rock, a tiny island a few hundred yards offshore, to place the final “treasure” of an elaborate treasure hunt he had been planning for nearly two years for his family and friends.

Hunter was a skilled outdoorsman with pilot’s and scuba licenses, but he was not an expert in navigating the waters off Trinidad Beach. He might have approached the rock from the east, not knowing of the rocky, treacherous reef in his path.

He has not returned from his voyage, and his father now believes the weeklong search for his son is no longer a rescue mission.

A Long Beach college student canoed out to set up a treasure hunt for family. He never returned

 

[BelMarduk]

This reads like an elaborately-staged suicide. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that.

 

[mrz]

This reads like an elaborately-staged suicide. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that.

Im not reading into it like that at all. Just seems to me a case of an intelligent, adventurous young man who was living his life to the fullest and made a tragic mistake. I hope they recover the body for his mother!

 

[?!?]

"skilled outdoorsman with pilot’s and scuba licenses, but he was not an expert in navigating the waters"

Sounds from the above like he never checked the waters...makes me wonder if he had hardhat and lifevest....and don't they teach 'the buddy system' anymore?

 

[modesty blaise]

Omg poor kid. That treasure hunt sounded like such fun. What a tragedy.

 

[I wonder]

This is desperately sad. He’d put so much effort into this. I hope they find him soon.

 

[Knox]

What a sad, tragic story. I hope Hunter's body is recovered for his parent's sake
Humboldt County is my favorite spot to vacation, the beauty there takes my breath away.

 

[bykerladi]

I don't see suicide at all. I see death by misadventure. He had an accident while setting up the treasure hunt. I hope he is recovered for his family.

 

[paris_paris]

I read this like a suicide too. Who holds the key to his heart?

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

This reads like an elaborately-staged suicide. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that.

I read this like a suicide too. Who holds the key to his heart?

I don't see the suicide aspect.

Can you explain why you feel likely? I mean, if his father had said he had been worried/depressed/anxious in the period preceding, I could maybe see it, but as it stands...

 

[Knox]

I read this like a suicide too. Who holds the key to his heart?

His girlfriend was with him in Humboldt, they both came to visit on Christmas break.
I see this as a tragic accident, no matter the skill level one might have - accidents still happen on the ocean.

Wow the outpouring of love and support from the community is beyond words. Trinidad, CA. Search for Hunter Lewis

 

[LadyL]

very sad
I hope they can recover him for burial
RIP Hunter

 

[TTF14]

How sad! I wonder if he was going to have the girlfriend go through the hunt as an engagement?

 

[Tee7077]

This reads like an elaborately-staged suicide. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that.

You are. It's a tragic accident

 

[BelMarduk]

You are. It's a tragic accident

Perhaps I am. We don't know what happened to Hunter yet. Looking at a map of the area, there is a chain of islands. Hopefully he is still alive and will be found on one of them. According to the Facebook group, they will be doing a helicopter search for him today.

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

On 30 December, Lewis is believed to have launched a 15ft green canoe into the frigid Pacific waters to hide the treasure that would complete the journey.

He never returned home.

Lewis’s adventure had been years in the making. An experienced outdoorsman who was scuba certified and had a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, Lewis had always been fearless, his father, Corey Lewis, said. The boy grew up outdoors, strapped to his father’s back as a one-year-old while the elder Lewis went snowshoeing in the Sierra Nevada.

The Lewises loved movies involving lost treasure, such as National Treasure and the Goonies. And, over the course of the pandemic, while studying aerospace engineering and earning his pilot’s license, Lewis designed his own epic treasure hunt: the search for the “lost Lewis treasure”.

Whenever he was back home visiting from California State University, Long Beach, he sketched maps and created riddles.

The days before his disappearance had been joyful. Lewis spent the holidays with family, and then the treasure hunt commenced.

The searches took participants all over Humboldt county, rappelling down a cliff, climbing a railroad trestle and hiking secret trails. Dozens of people participated in the adventure, which had elaborate clues, involving code and, in one case, Braille.

“I’ve seen more secret beaches and coastlines and trails in the last few days than in the last decade,” Corey Lewis said of the hunt. “He was just wanting to give us all an adventure and an experience. He wanted everyone to experience those adventures.”

‘Epically heroic and tragic’: how a family treasure hunt ended with a son lost at sea | California | The Guardian

 

[I wonder]

I don’t understand this suicide stuff. He’d been preparing this for 2 years.

Hunter Lewis vanishes in ocean while planning treasure hunt


What sort of person would get loads of people in a treasure hunt and as they searched, commit suicide, presumably knowing, their body may never be found?

He comes across as a really likeable person. I don’t know him, but nothing about him suggests he would cause so much pain to all the people involved in the treasure hunt, as well as his family and friends. It would be so twisted and I just don’t think this happened at all.

The poor boy was incredibly excited with the treasure hunt and appears to have either over estimated his abilities, or simply a freak wave or something overwhelmed him.

 

[Kristin Esq.]

I agree in that I don't think this was suicide. I too believe it was a tragic mistake/accident.