CO CO - Jaryd Atadero, 3, Comanche Peak, 2 Oct 1999

[Thunder Street Ministry]

If anyone wants to ask questions about the Jaryd Atadero case today, or just be a part of a great group of true crimers, the Websleuths Guardians zoom meeting is happening now and I am there until about 2:30 central time today. If you choose to become a member, we discuss many different cases and the cases that matter to you. Hope to see you there.

Websleuths Guardians

websleuths.com

 

[Thunder Street Ministry]

Guardians video meeting is on. I will be present throughout the day if you want to talk about the Atadero case and others with @Tricia and the gang. Only $3 a month.

Websleuths Guardians

websleuths.com

 

[Thunder Street Ministry]

Some of the most puzzling unanswered incidents in the Atadero case:

1. Young female reports father as possible suspect. Before Jaryd went missing, a man by the name of LP wound up at Allyn Atadero's resort claiming he was looking for work in the canyon. Allyn had a policy of letting people in need (such as stranded motorists) stay for free. Over the course of his stay, "LP" wouldn't allow anyone to take his picture, nor did he ever go by his real name. When it became clear LP was just freeloading off of Allyn, he was kicked out. He relocated himself to Indian Hills Resort a few miles east on Highway 14. Allyn got a phone call not long after telling him that LP was saying some malicious things about Allyn. Allyn went to Indian Hills where tempers got out of hand and they had to be separated. After Jaryd went missing, his daughter filed a report saying he had been talking about Jaryd obsessively. A news segment was aired about this, with one of Larimer County's deputies saying they were in the process of doing background work on him. Nothing ever came of it. Two of Allyn's regulars at the resort had been fishing along the Poudre River when they came across LP's dark blue minivan out in the woods. They went through the glovebox to find anything on him, and it turned out the van wasn't registered to him. Not a peep about any of this in the Sheriff's report.

2. Friend of Allyn has threatening encounter at remote cabin. A few days after the official search had ended, a close friend of Allyn's he identifies in his book as 'Cindy' claims she was driving through an area of the canyon where she thought Jaryd might have ended up. She lived in the area where Jaryd disappeared, and conducted her own search in the backroads of Poudre Canyon. On this occasion she saw a family who was staying at a cabin 'back in the sticks' painting a Volkswagen van a different color. A man who spotted her jumped in a truck and sped toward her location. He demanded to know why she was there and demanded her to leave. She left in a hurry. A couple days later she told her friend Jane what had happened, who then reported this to the sheriff. Jane also alerted Allyn, who was unable to get any answers about the situation. This goes back to a statement from a former LCSO deputy, who said that they turned a blind eye to a lot of things in order maintain a working relationship with the people of the canyon as informants. Either the lady was making things up, or the sheriff looked the other way. I am inclined to believe the latter regarding Jim Alderden's office. Once again, this incident did not turn up in the sheriff's report. They did, however, make mention they were fielding calls from psychics.

3. The Mesa Verde sighting. This has been talked about so often, so I will not go into much detail. A park ranger encounters a child who kept trying to hold his hand while he walked with a tour group, but the man he was with kept calling him back by a name that "sounded something like Gerald." The Atadero family knew this was a trait of Jaryd's, who apparently liked holding hands with adults he trusted. This is the incident that led to Sheriff Jim Alderden exclaiming on camera that he had never heard of anyone taking a child and then parading them around, ending his rant with the famous line,"Are you as tired of this story as we are?" Although this did end up in the sheriff's report, it was given no further credence.

4. DNA Lab Does A 180 on Jaryd's remains. After the Colorado Bureau of Investigation released inconclusive and unprofessional results on the remains recovered from above the trail, Allyn sought answers from the University of North Texas thanks to an introduction made by NCMEC. He submitted Jaryd's remains to them, only for Hurricane Katrina to hit several months later. There had already been a large volume of cases in front of theirs, but Katrina destroyed their hopes. Allyn called month by month, and after three years he was no closer to an answer, eventually being told to stop calling. The next day, he received a call from the lab stating it was Jaryd's skull, Allyn asked what changed overnight. The man on the phone said he was just as confused as he was, but that's what he was told. In 2014, Allyn was finally told by a third lab that it was Jaryd beyond a reasonable doubt, but the earlier two incidents remained a confusing and frustrating situation that was never answered.

 

[Thunder Street Ministry]

Josallyn Atadero, Jaryd's older sister, has been criminally underrepresented over the tumultuous years of this case. Now a wife and mother of two girls of her own, she grew up under the heavy shadow of Jaryd's disapperance. She watched her dad grapple the magnitude of losing his only son. Her dad gave her space in his book to express her thoughts on Jaryd's disappearance and the DNA results that changed their hopes forever.

A Sister’s Perspective By Josallyn Atadero​

"I never truly believed Jaryd died on that mountain when he disappeared on October 2, 1999, at least not at the hands of an animal or natural occurring circumstance. Growing up without my younger brother, I always had faith he was still out in the world somewhere. The little evidence we had didn’t seem to support the fact he lost his life on the trail. I never considered the possibility Jaryd was attacked by a mountain lion, or that he fell and hit his head; maybe he drowned in the river or died of hypothermia. These situations didn’t seem probable, and because of that, I never entertained the idea one of these circumstances truly could have stolen my brother’s short-lived life. Awaiting the results of the final DNA test didn’t steer my opinions in any different direction. I was almost positive the results would come back, and we would hear that the remains found on the mountain were not Jaryd’s at all; that these results would cause some celebration in me; a new search for brighter answers; Jaryd was alive in the world somewhere and I would find out where he was and bring him home to all he had missed in the fifteen years he had been gone.

That January day when the results finally came was no different. As I heard my dad’s side of the conversation, I suddenly understood the look on his face and the shakiness in his voice. As he hung up the phone, I had that falling sensation people often have in dreams and I felt my insides rush into my chest. Spinning and twisting through a dark void that seemed to be infinite, I physically felt the blow of the news impact me. I didn’t want to cry. I had so strongly believed this would not be the answer we would hear, I failed to remember the other possibility: Jaryd was indeed gone. He wasn’t out there waiting to be found anymore; it was like the ending of a search that had lasted my entire life, although it had already finished years ago. I had lost all chances Jaryd was still somewhere out in the world. Was this actually the end? Jaryd may not physically be here anymore, but I know he left clues for our family to find, in hopes we will eventually understand the last day of his life. While the search for answers is not as optimistic as the search for Jaryd himself, it is one that will bring Jaryd home in ways that no one else would understand. Closure doesn’t come from knowing Jaryd is gone. In fact, I don’t believe closure will ever be a part of my life.

While Jaryd is absent from the world now, my belief remains strong Jaryd was not stolen from us by mere chance: by the animals or terrain on the rugged mountain where he disappeared. The assurance of his death only sparks a new fire; a longing to find the remains of Jaryd left behind in his final moments.

Through the years I have witnessed the revealing of many secrets by Jaryd. The puzzle is complex and I am confident my brother has more to share and the telling of his story is far from complete."

(Missing: When the Son Sets, Pg. 320-321. Posted with permission)

 

[Catmommy]

Jaryd's sister writes from her heart. Even if the truth of what happened to Jaryd is discovered and proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, there will never be peace for the family. How can there be? As Josallyn says, there is no "closure." That's a word used by those who have never experienced a life changing tragedy. An innocent child that they loved was taken away from them by circumstances, whatever they might be, beyond their control. There's no way to pack that away tightly and call it closed. Ever.

 

[Bryan2880]

A lot of activity here over the past few days. Thank you everyone for powering this up. I'll start by addressing everyone's concerns about Shelley Lynn Goff:

Goff was a charlatan looking for attention. Allyn initially trusted her because she did two key things for him: One was joining the fake "bird watching group" searchers formed to fool the sheriff so they could gain some access to the area. The second was after Allyn found out that the Sheriff had never followed up on the Mesa Verde sighting, claiming they couldn't find the park ranger who reported it. Goff actually called the park, got his contact info, and gave it to Allyn (turned out that the ranger called the sheriff's office and directly reported the sighting). She was seemingly sincere in her desire to help. But then a switch flipped and she became a different person. Her story about finding information on Jaryd's whereabouts changed three times: 1. Said he was sold into a Mexican labor camp and was attempting to get pictures from an informant. 2. She then claimed later that two women were holding him for ransom. 3. The family friend was then accused of taking him.

Allyn caught on pretty quickly to what was happening, and reported her to the sheriff. Though he didn't trust Alderden and his inner circle, he did trust the then undersheriff Ern Hudson as well as several deputies. Because of Alderden's willingness to get the case sewn up as quickly as possible, she was stung after her second story was a blatant contradiction but was suspected much earlier. It was an odd phenomenon. How did she go from honesty to a con? Allyn basically puts it as she simply was after attention. Seemed to be a lot of those folk out there were.
________________

Regarding the hikers who found the clothing, it is indeed a conundrum as to how they made a bullseye right to the site of the clothing, which of course just happened to be where Seaux had pinpointed. At the time, only Allyn, Seaux, and Alderden knew that location was a potential hit. That leaves only the perpetrator(s) as a fourth option. The hikers' stories in their written statements are full of holes, not to mention their 24 hour wait before they reported it. This does not mean they are guilty of taking Jaryd, but I suspect them of knowing more than what they let on. If you watch their interviews in the Missing 411 movie, their story changes again from what's written in the sheriff's report. Were they just scared they'd become suspects?

We have our suspicions on who's the culprit, but because of potential litigation issues, we can't reveal that here. Rest assured we have some direction and a little more traction going forward.
________________

I do want to refresh the group on how Jaryd got onto the trail in the first place:

1. Josallyn asked if she could go with the lady in question to see the fish at the hatchery. Allyn made sure that this was ok with the family friend, and he knew the hatchery was a good place for kids. I've been there and can definitely say I'd bring my own kids there if I had any.

2. Ten minutes later Jaryd caught wind of her going and wanted to come as well. Allyn refused outrightly, but was talked into it by a couple group members he knew. At this point, there were no plans to go anywhere else but the hatchery.

3. After they arrived at the hatchery, they decided it wasn't very interesting and went further down the road.

At no point was Allyn ignorant of their plans, as they never told him. They were supposed to be helping him ready the resort for winter anyway in exchange for a free weekend.

Sorry if this has already been asked but I was after some clarification on two different small details.....

1. undersheriff Ern Hudson? Or Bill Hudson? and Is this the same guy? https://www.myersmortuary.com/obituaries/Ern-Hudson/#!/Obituary

2. was the info from Goff, regarding the Mesa Sighting confirmed to be an actual Ranger? i.e It wasn't someone she knew who pretended so as to gain trust of Allyn?

 

[Thunder Street Ministry]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I was after some clarification on two different small details.....

1. undersheriff Ern Hudson? Or Bill Hudson? and Is this the same guy? https://www.myersmortuary.com/obituaries/Ern-Hudson/#!/Obituary

2. was the info from Goff, regarding the Mesa Sighting confirmed to be an actual Ranger? i.e It wasn't someone she knew who pretended so as to gain trust of Allyn?

1. Ern Hudson was the Undersheriff in Jim Alderden's office. The obituary you linked is the same Ern Hudson mentioned in the case.

2. Goff actually obtained authentic information for the Atadero's where the sheriff was unwilling to look. The ranger was interviewed on the news talking about the incident, and he had also spoken to the Atadero family directly. He was interviewed for the first Missing 411 documentary but his segments were cut from the film.