Found Deceased CA - Paul Miller, 51, Canadian missing in Joshua Tree Natl Park, San Bernardino Co., 13 Jul 2018 #2

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MntnHiker said:
I didn't state it as fact--I asked if I was correct or if I was misremembering this. Thanks to zecats for helping refresh my memory.

I don't personally find it all that odd it was left even at the hotel room--I feel as though I have read his wife stating he often left his phone behind. A couple thoughts on this: 1) Though not what I would personally do, there are people who just don't use their cell phones that much; or 2) It's possible it was left behind on accident if he was in a rush to get out the door to this hike. If he was someone who didn't always have a phone on him, I would lean towards option 1 IMO. My mom is like this--she has a cell phone but often leaves the house without it. I obviously wouldn't recommend this when setting off on a solo hike, but if this was a pretty straight-forward one for Paul, he may have never thought a second thing about leaving the phone behind.

ETA: From the article zecats linked "He also left his cell phone at the hotel – not unusual, Otten said.

“He is not a glued-to-his-cell” person, she said.
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I haven't gone back to reread the early thread to check, but IIRC it wasn't completely clear whether his phone was in the car or in the hotel. Only that it wasn't with Paul, and per his wife, that wasn't unusual, that he didn't always carry it.

I think the article said something like "his wife has his phone". I remember thinking she could have gotten it from the car when LE looked at the car -- it didn't necessarily mean she had had it all along. Not an assessment on what is more/less likely, only what has/hasn't been stated with certainty.
 
neesaki said:
I thought that’s what I remembered. It’s a baffling case isn’t it? Thanks again, zecats.
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Left Both Phone and Watch at the Hotel. Did he leave his wallet too?
It almost seems like he drove to the parking area for his fast hike to take photos but he didnt hike (no trace of his scent from search dogs) and one person said they possibly seen him at the beginning of the trail. Maybe that one person (or someone else) kidnapped him (for who knows what reason?)
 
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rosesfromangels said:
I’ve been surprised many times by WS outcomes, but he certainly doesn’t fit the runaway hubby profile.
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JMO
I agree about that. I think I have eliminated the possibility of him choosing to leave on his own.

I have narrowed down my theories to either

A-him being a victim by someone else OR

B-he simply got heat exhaustion and either fell between some boulders OR crawled off to hide in what little shade he could find near some boulders and is still there.

If A, I would focus in the boulder area near the parking lot. What better place for someone to have dumped his body and try to make it look like he climbed those boulders near the parking lot and fell.

If B, I would again want to focus my searching at the boulders right near the parking lot because I dont think SAR would have concentrated there much. For example lets say he made it back to the car and is exhausted and decided to climb those large boulders near the parking lot for one last look for the sheep. Those boulders in the parking lot looked huge to me and I have to wonder how well they were searched.

If B, the other spot is the Oasis area like others have mentioned. If he made it there then I think it was likely he was already in heat exhaustion and maybe panicked trying to get back and maybe headed off in wrong direction from there being somewhat delerious from the heat.
 
I am choosing to keep my mind open to any possibility at this point and just wish those who know and love him had the answers they want, or - best case scenario: him. If he is there, it is only a matter of time before someone exploring out there makes a discovery... but time is infinite, so that's not much salve.

I will say though, the longer he is not found, the more likely in my mind that he is out there, in the JT area. Whether he got lost, had too much heat and not enough water and shade, ran into someone who did him harm, or chose to make a trek he wouldn't return from, who knows.

...Neither of these are my theories (because I don't have one)... but maybe he met someone online and decided to run off with that person. Maybe he decided to end his life. In either of these situations, had I decided to take one of those paths, I'd make sure no one had any inkling of what might be about to happen. I'd make sure everyone thought I was happy and wonderful and that life was fine and dandy.

But again, who knows?! Take 5 missing persons cases here and we'll find 5 different outcomes.
 
Hatfield said:
JMO
I agree about that. I think I have eliminated the possibility of him choosing to leave on his own.

I have narrowed down my theories to either

A-him being a victim by someone else OR

B-he simply got heat exhaustion and either fell between some boulders OR crawled off to hide in what little shade he could find near some boulders and is still there.

If A, I would focus in the boulder area near the parking lot. What better place for someone to have dumped his body and try to make it look like he climbed those boulders near the parking lot and fell.

If B, I would again want to focus my searching at the boulders right near the parking lot because I dont think SAR would have concentrated there much. For example lets say he made it back to the car and is exhausted and decided to climb those large boulders near the parking lot for one last look for the sheep. Those boulders in the parking lot looked huge to me and I have to wonder how well they were searched.

If B, the other spot is the Oasis area like others have mentioned. If he made it there then I think it was likely he was already in heat exhaustion and maybe panicked trying to get back and maybe headed off in wrong direction from there being somewhat delerious from the heat.
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Great post Hatfield - agree!
 
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Reading multiple times now in multiple places (including the website above about Laura) that the area around Joshua Tree attracts "odd" people (however "odd" is being defined--odd as in criminal??), I personally am keeping foul play on the table. It also seems to be a fairly isolated area (desert, middle of the hot summer), so an opportunity to do something to another person with no witnesses.

I am probably leaning more strongly toward something with natural causes leading to his demise out there, but IMO I'm not ruling out foul play, especially the more I hear about the area.
 
MntnHiker said:
Reading multiple times now in multiple places (including the website above about Laura) that the area around Joshua Tree attracts "odd" people (however "odd" is being defined--odd as in criminal??), I personally am keeping foul play on the table. It also seems to be a fairly isolated area (desert, middle of the hot summer), so an opportunity to do something to another person with no witnesses.

I am probably leaning more strongly toward something with natural causes leading to his demise out there, but IMO I'm not ruling out foul play, especially the more I hear about the area.
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I could be absolutely wrong, but given the blistering heat that day, I would think nefarious types would wait for the cool of evening for their sinister deeds?
 
rosesfromangels said:
I could be absolutely wrong, but given the blistering heat that day, I would think nefarious types would wait for the cool of evening for their sinister deeds?
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That could be. I am curious how much foot and car traffic the park sees on a hot summer day vs. evening. While most parks slow down at night, I wonder if the opposite is true for places like Joshua Tree or Death Valley in the summer because early morning and evening are probably the only times of day at all pleasant to hike in. I guess if you were just driving around to do something nefarious and could stay in your car most of the time, the heat may not play as big of a role (like if something happened to him in the parking lot). And all of this is just MOO.

Has anyone here been to Joshua Tree in July (or summer in general) both during the day and in the evening, and is there an uptick in traffic at night or not really? I am also wondering if there are any ranger-led stargazing programs or night hikes in the summer. I will see if I can find that info for summer 2018 on the Joshua Tree NPS site and report back! Something like that could bring in more visitors in the evening, too. Or just people wanting to stargaze in a really dark night sky.
 
Okay, so I must be a bit slow on the uptake here, but I just realized that JTNP is part of the Pacific Crest Trail, or very close to it. A son of one of my good friends just did the Pacific Crest Trail last year, and kept an extremely interesting blog about his adventures.

His overwhelming take was that his human encounters were extremely positive. It seems that kindred spirits hike the trail, and are extremely supportive and generous with each other. (What's mine is yours mentality).

He did, however, blog about a couple encounters with lost souls who were living along the trail. He said they were obviously mentally ill, and it was extremely sad. However, they were surviving, and mostly because of the charity of the PCT hikers.

The point of sharing this, is to reinforce that there are people living along the trail, and no doubt in/around Joshua Tree who may prefer what the desert has to offer; and others who are mentally ill and potentially unpredictable due to their illness.

Amateur opinion and speculation
 
I did not find specific programs listed for July 2018, but here is the stargazing page from the NPS website. It mentioned that rangers do host night sky programs "regularly," so that may be in the summer, too. And I noticed for the next week, they have evening programs listed starting at 7 PM.

Stargazing - Joshua Tree National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
 
A guy I went to school with lives out there somewhere in that general area. He has a "claim" which he "works" just enough to keep it valid, but mainly lives off disability (Vietnam vet.) I presume he's suffering from PTSD or something along those lines.
 
Like I said before, I am not ruling out that he very possibly succumbed to his environment or had a medical emergency, etc. on his hike. But just out of curiosity, I did go searching for crime in this area and came upon this article. A few of the crimes mentioned were in Joshua Tree and others were in this general vicinity.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...cides-and-body-dumps-in-the-california-desert

ETA: And apparently there is a book called Twentynine Palms (mentioned in above article) about murder in the Mojave. Huh never heard of it before.
 
FWIW...

https://www.nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/upload/49sitemap.pdf

Snipped from the bottom of the first page of the above brochure...

A Note Of Caution Last year there were five helicopter rescues and eight carryouts from the 49 Palms Oasis Trail. Only one was because of injury. The remainder were due to medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or heart trouble. Please assess your fitness for this hike and if you have doubts, choose a less strenuous hike. If you have health issues, be certain to have proper medications with you and do not hike alone. While the oasis offers shade, this 1.5-mile trail does not, and you will need to travel it twice, climbing 300 feet each way! Be sure that you are carrying adequate water and wear sunscreen and a hat.
 
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