CA CA - Stacy Arras, 14, Yosemite National Park, 17 Jul 1981

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Bumping for Stacey. Next month will mark 38 years since she vanished, leaving behind only her camera lens.

This case really baffles me. There is such little information available and from what I understand, her family + friends have never spoken out over the years.
 
Piknik said:
Could have stood on a granite outcrop and slipped off into the lake. But that lens.....it's the key to all of this.
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It was only the lens cap, not the lens itself that was found. I don't put too much importance on the find. I had once a camera with a lens cap that fell off all the time. Might have been the same with her camera. The family might know if that particular cap came off easily/frequently. At most the location of where it was found confirms that Stacy was at that spot at one point. The question is where did she go from there? jmo
 
kemo said:
This case shouldn’t baffle anyone. She got lost in the wilderness and succumbed to the elements. A very sad situation but it shouldn’t be a mystery.
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<modsnip - rude>

Well it does baffle me as well as thousands of others. Several people witnessed her walk into the tree line. Within minutes, they were searching for her when she didn't return. I find that extremely baffling that someone vanished within view of their family + campsite. A huge search was done ASAP and all they ever found was her camera lens cap <modsnip>

I also find it BAFFLING <modsnip> that the park refuses to hand over any information on her case. <modsnip>

I find it troubling that you assume that if a person goes missing, just because they happen to be in the wilderness/national park at the time of their disappearance, then there is no need to question what happened to them. <modsnip>
 
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Piknik said:
Could have stood on a granite outcrop and slipped off into the lake. But that lens.....it's the key to all of this.
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I agree. I mean, just too big of a coincidence for me that her lens cap happened to fall off as soon as she crossed the treeline and was out of sight from the other campers. To me, the lens cap is a sign of some struggle.
 
The skeletal remains of the Jane Doe linked below were found in Yosemite National Park in California in 1983. They estimate that she died between 1980-1983. Stacy did have braces at one point and wore retainers, so the slight overbite that the unidentified Jane Doe is mentioned to have doesn’t fit that well, but it sounds like they never found Jane Doe’s lower jaw. I’m no dentist but I would think it would be hard to determine with 100% accuracy that someone had an overbite without a lower jaw, but maybe I’m wrong. Not everything with Stacy and this Jane Doe fit exactly, but she’s not far off in the age range, she right in the height range, and the hair description is similar to Stacy.

CA - CA - Yosemite Summit Meadow, WhtFem, 20-23, HLLucas Victim, 1983
 
waunakeegan said:
The skeletal remains of the Jane Doe linked below were found in Yosemite National Park in California in 1983. They estimate that she died between 1980-1983. Stacy did have braces at one point and wore retainers, so the slight overbite that the unidentified Jane Doe is mentioned to have doesn’t fit that well, but it sounds like they never found Jane Doe’s lower jaw. I’m no dentist but I would think it would be hard to determine with 100% accuracy that someone had an overbite without a lower jaw, but maybe I’m wrong. Not everything with Stacy and this Jane Doe fit exactly, but she’s not far off in the age range, she right in the height range, and the hair description is similar to Stacy.

CA - CA - Yosemite Summit Meadow, WhtFem, 20-23, HLLucas Victim, 1983
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The thing that doesn’t match up for this Jane Doe IMO is the the known killer of her said he picked her up along the HWY. Of course you can’t believe what a killer says, but still:

Case Info: The partial remains of a homicide victim were found in Yosemite National Park's Summit Meadow along Glacier Point Road in 1983.
NPS investigators determined that Henry Lee Lucas had information about the murder that had not been made public and could only be known by the person who committed the crime. Lucas died in prison in 2001. Special Agents with the NPS Investigative Services Branch continue to investigate this case in hopes of identifying the victim.
Lucas had told investigators that he picked up the woman between Fresno, California and Yosemite National Park along California Highway 41 in the fall of 1981.
 
I am personally very skeptical that Henry Lee Lucas had anything to do with killing that Jane Doe. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Lucas killed way more people than he’s been charged for. But at one point Henry Lee Lucas confessed to killing nearly 600 people and then took it all back. So I take any of those confessions with a big grain of salt.
I’m dealing with looking into a California homicide case of a girl named Rashell Ward (CA - CA - Rashell Ward, 14, Red Bluff, 14 March 1983) that Lucas confessed to in the 80’s, but it turns out he was actually in prison in Texas at the time it was committed. It’s really derailed and clouded the already murky investigation for decades.

Henry Lee Lucas loved playing games and thinking he was the smartest person in the room, and I think many investigators accidentally played right into that complex by giving him info about specific cases without realizing it. I think Lucas utilized the same techniques that fake psychics use to scam grieving loved ones, but in Lucas’ case it was Detectives eager to get some closure and answers on their unsolved homicides. MOO
 
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Yea, I'm skeptical of whatever HLL said. I'm sure it's a mixture of truth and delusion.
As for the Jane Doe found on Yosemite in 1983, I would hope they would have compared the remains to known females who went missing in Yosemite. I wonder if she was ruled out when the UP was first found, we would have no way of knowing unless it was in the paper and someone found an old article, or if it were noted somewhere in a case file.
 
Alleykins said:
It's so easy to get lost in the wilderness. One misstep is all it takes. It happened to Geraldine Largay, who stepped off the Appalachian trail to use a bush, and got lost.
Hiker who went missing on Appalachian trail survived 26 days before dying

Her thread:
Found Deceased - ME - Gerry Largay, 66, Appalachian Trail, 21 July 2013
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I agree that the most probable explanation is that Stacy just wandered off, got lost, and died of exposure. If it happened to an experienced hiker like Geraldine, it could definitely happen to an inexperienced young girl like Stacy.

What if she got lost because she accidentally dropped the recovered camera lens in the grass, bush, etc., and tried looking for it?

I am a little suspicious that the gov't won't release the info it has, but at the same time, the odds that a predator took her at that spot are negligible to me. No one could know when or whether Stacy would be alone, or that the older man she was with wouldn't accompany her to take pictures, etc.
 
Wish we had pics of the area. So hard to believe she vanished and could’ve gotten lost that fast. I haven’t read in one of these cases where the disappeared could be heard crying for help. Blows my mind. Stacey could not have gotten far, they started searching right away? MOO
EBM
 
Suglo said:
Here are a few pictures of Sunrise Meadows area in Yosemite.

Sunrise Meadow - Picture of Yosemite High Sierra Camps, Yosemite National Park - TripAdvisor
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Ty! What a beautiful area...the lens is key IMO whether she dropped and wandered too far looking for it or dropped bc she was grabbed. If she wasn’t far wouldn’t she just stand there and yell for someone? Can anyone with experience in hiking/camping in national parks enlighten me on what you would do? Not to be repetitious but it’s mind boggling to me so I need input. Ty in advance! MOO
 
SAMS said:
Ty! What a beautiful area...the lens is key IMO whether she dropped and wandered too far looking for it or dropped bc she was grabbed. If she wasn’t far wouldn’t she just stand there and yell for someone? Can anyone with experience in hiking/camping in national parks enlighten me on what you would do? Not to be repetitious but it’s mind boggling to me so I need input. Ty in advance! MOO
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I haven’t been in this area per se but my brother and sister have. They both have said they could see how someone could get lost and not be found. Hiking the back country has become super popular in the last 10-15 years so there are many more people up there in the summers than when she went missing in 1981. My brother used to go up there with friends for 1-2 weeks in the early 80s and wouldn’t come across another person the whole time.

There’s a good article about a ranger who went missing in a national park just south of where she went missing. They didn’t find his remains for almost five years.

https://www.backpacker.com/survival...y-ranger-with-28-years-experience-disappeared
 
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