OR OR - Steven Douglas Reed, 24, ZigZag, June 23, 1999

[victoriarobinson642]

NAMUS:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

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Missing Age - 24 Years
Current Age - 48 Years
First Name - Steven
Middle Name - Douglas
Last Name - Reed
Sex - Male
Height - 5' 9" (69 Inches)
Weight - 145 lbs
Hair Color - Brown
Eye Color - Brown
Race / Ethnicity - White / Caucasian
Date of Last Contact - June 23, 1999
Location - Zig Zag, Oregon
Circumstances of Disappearance - Steven Douglas Reed was last seen on 06/23/1999 at the Zig Zag Ranger Station in the Mt. Hood National Forest purchasing a parking permit for trailhead parking in the national forest. Steven Reed's vehicle was located at the Salmon Butte Trailhead on 06/25/1999. A five-day search was coordinated by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office and no sign of Steven Reed was ever found. Steven Reed was a vacationing medical student from Madison Heights, Michigan.

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[Pennysmom1]

July 25, 2020

Twenty-One Years Ago, Steven Reed Said He Was Going for a Hike Near Mount Hood. He Hasn’t Been Seen Since, and That May Be Just What He Wanted.

“I don’t think he’s lost,” says Emileigh Rohn, a close friend. “I don’t think this was an accident.”

www.wweek.com

Steven Douglas Reed (1975-1999) - Find a Grave...

(Wednesday, July 7, 1999 - Oregonian) A helicopter joined the effort to locate Steven Douglas Reed , 24, a medical student from Michigan. Searchers spent a fourth day Tuesday slogging through some of the most rugged terrain in Oregon in search of a missing medical student they believe vanished...

www.findagrave.com

<<A helicopter joined the effort to locate Steven Douglas Reed , 24, a medical student from Michigan. Searchers spent a fourth day Tuesday slogging through some of the most rugged terrain in Oregon in search of a missing medical student they believe vanished into the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness nearly two weeks ago.

More than 40 searchers from as far away as Corvallis and Yacolt, Wash., clambered over huge, old-growth windfalls looking for Steven Douglas Reed , 24, in the 46,400-acre wilderness area southwest of Mount Hood. The search was joined by a helicopter crew from the 304th Rescue Wing of the 939th U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Reed , a second-year medical student at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, was last seen June 20, by relatives in Michigan.

A few days later, he flew to Oregon, got a hotel room and rented a car. His parents told searchers the trip was to explore job opportunities in medicine in Portland, and to go hiking and meet some people. Sheriff spokesperson said it didn't appear likely that he ever met with anyone in Portland, but instead decided to go hiking alone, most likely on June 23.

Police did not suspect foul play, but they said Reed apparently suffered from hypoglycemia, which could have caused him to pass out or become disoriented if he didn't eat regularly. So far, no one has reported seeing Reed on the trail. Reed was described as an inexperienced hiker and a solitary individual.

His rental car was reported by another hiker at the Salmon Butte trailhead on June 26. The car was legally parked with a trailhead sticker attached. A week later, Reed 's father, Larry Reed , called the Mount Hood National Forest and officials there located a copy of the trailhead sticker that Reed purchased June 23.>>

 

[JSolt1210]

What a baffling case!

The impression I got from the Willamette Week article quoted above is that Steven was a very conflicted young man.

• He devoured Gray's Anatomy at age 13, and yet was crying over a cadaver during his first week of medical school.
• He alternately ignored his classmates and sought their attention.
• He questioned the faith he was brought up in, and yet he bought a book titled God is a Verb.
• He seemed more scientifically-minded, and yet he was using candles instead of electricity, was into medieval and goth culture, etc.

(This is not to say that a person can't have contradictory interests, but when you put them all together, and you add family and friends describing him as "eccentric," "despondent," "very lonely," and "an outcast," I think it paints a picture of someone who's desperate to find where he fits in life.)

And then there are the surrounding circumstances:

• the e-mail he wrote to his friend where he closes with a quote that sounds like he wants to disappear and start a new life;
• the life insurance policy his parents had just gotten him, and which makes them look incredibly suspicious because they're the beneficiaries;
• his hypoglycemia which could easily have resulted in disorientation and death by exposure;
• his apparent obsession with Miranda July, which suggests to me some sort of emerging mental imbalance;
• he told his parents he was meeting people on the hiking trip—even bought eight bottles of wine—and yet the article does not mention anyone he met on this trip;
• the possibility that he could've left to hike alone, despite reassuring his parents that he wouldn't.

There are just so many ways this could've played out—intentional, self-inflicted, foul play from strangers or even parents, accidental, a medical emergency—and each one of them I feel could be supported from the known evidence.