Every time I get hooked on a case I tell myself, "OK, now that is the last time. I've got cooking and cleaning to do, I should exercise more, I need to read that book I downloaded from amazon.com, I was going to meditate, I was going to sew those clothes I've had hanging there for a year."
But NOOooooooo. Then, there is a case like this and when I read the initial details I start thinking about it even when I'm not online. The constant questions that come up in my mind!!! All the, "But what about???"
I've read many statements by his poor parents. Unless I've completely lost my radar they sound like wonderful, thoughtful and loving parents and their statements sound very true. They legitimately were out there looking for their son.
The tracking information is just amazing. I trust the dogs, they are never caught up in the politics or the game playing. They are just reacting to what they are encountering in the environment. So then we have to go to Occam's razor.
All things being equal what is the MOST logical explanation? What would MOST likely cause death on a seemingly quiet evening on a country black top in farming country in Minnesota?
1). Human.
2). Environmental.
3). Animal.
If he had encountered trouble at the party and been followed or was worried about human intervention, I believe he would have mentioned that to his parents when he called them. "Oh dad here they come down the road." Something like that.
That leaves the completely random killer out there and what are the odds. Well, after being on this forum and reading about the unbelievable and jaw dropping cases that are on here, I never will again assign odds to any missing person case. The aberrant, mentallly deranged killer out there who happens to stumble upon a person in a vulnerable position like this will usually act upon it. So for that reason alone I think the odds don't apply.
I put human interaction above environment simply because of the preponderance of humans to kill one another. It's a sad fact but it is what it is.
Environmental actually seems the most logical explanation. Any person that was disoriented enough to call their parents and claim that they were THAT far away from their actual location is capable of stumbling along in the brush right into the river. For whatever reason, autistic and dementia people head for the river. I've been unable to explain this phenomenon but it's well known.
To that end you add in the only existing evidence after the fact, the dogs tracking scent to the river and the cadaver dogs scenting in that area and I believe in my most humble opinion we have an explanation for what happened. He fell in, drowned in his complete state of disorientation and when the river rose over the years, his remains have washed up and are in that field.
Animal: There is the completely and not really outlandish idea that he was attacked and killed by a bear or wolf. This is not unheard of. It's exceedingly rare, but not unheard of. This happened in May, the river provides everything for many animals, bear are frequent inhabitants of the river. Might explain why he said, "Oh $#1t!"
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Out of all of that, what really bothers me is the reluctance to search fields with crops in them and the hesitance to allow searchers and law enforcement on those lands. Why?? Why indeed. I've read several articles where LE states they were met with resistance from a land owner to search the property. I find that deeply troubling. Who lives there and why are they being so resistant?
Some farmers are very protective of their land. They get a weird mentality about protecting what is theirs and they are more than willing to shoot and kill animals or people that come on that land. We were walking our dog on a country road one time while we were traveling and a farmer pulled up and threatened us to get off his land! We told him this is a county road, not your land. He became ENRAGED!!! We were very afraid and called the local sheriff. Absolutely nothing was done and we were treated like we were stupid and foolish.
My very strong opinion in a lot of these cases is that the mind set of the local LE actually hinders the investigation to a maximum extent.
Those are my thoughts. Now, I'm heading over to those links.
