Recovered/Located NV - Ronnie (found deceased) & Beverly Barker (taken for med care), RV trip, Stagecoach, 27 Mar 2022

[otto]

As an active older RVer, I can tell you the older crowd does not leave to go anywhere past 5ish. Sadly, I think someone entered their rig at Stagecoach (or before) and overtook them. By the way, this is all over all the Facebook RV lists. Very sad.

That's what I thought - odd for a 73 year old man and 69 year old woman to set off for an hours long drive near sunset. The timeline suggests an irregularity between Luning at 6 PM and Dyer at 10 PM, a trip that should take them 1 hour and 40 minutes was 4 hours and 10 minutes.

That's why I thought Luning was where something went wrong, but maybe it was Stagecoach, and the couple might be somewhere between Luning and Dyer - probably closer to Dyer if that's the last ping and the extra two hours.

 

[zecats]

Last ping on recent flyer 7:16pm. It would have been getting dark with a long way still to go. Sunset 3/27/22 Coaldale:

 

[Herat]

There are no shortcuts on this trip. After deciding on Highway 95, their only other choice is whether to go east on Highway 6 from Tonopath to Highway 93 for some extended solitude on desert highways.

I should correct myself.

There is Highway 360 that is called The Bypass that goes from Highway 95 just south of Mina to Highway 6 close to Dyer.

This bypass seems to be geared towards semi-truck traffic going from southern California north to Reno-Tahoe, Idaho, Washington, and east to Utah, Colorado, Montana.

It bypasses that old intersection of 95 and 6 where Coaldale is. It is really geared towards the northbound trucks so they don't have to risk the dangerous 95/6 intersection and likewise from southbound traffic into the southern California are via Highway 395.

I keep looking at that and thinking they might have taken a wrong turn there.

 

[Look4theHelpers]

Most recent flyer (timeline) posted on FB date 4/4/22. Some times seem to have changed

I just saw this. Last contact was 7:16pm near Silver Peak/Nivloc Road. I guess the 10pm ping was an error.
Someone posted earlier today on FB that they accidentally ended up on Nivloc Road during their travels due to GPS taking them in that direction. They said the area seemed sketchy and there's no way to get an RV through. In fact, the road actually ends for a bit then reappears.

 

[Satchie]

Usually pumping your own gas, it's easier to slip in a card rather than have to go inside to pay cash. JMO though I live in NJ, which the only state left (I believe) where we don't pump our own gas.

Agree, and it just seems so pointless, traveling in a rig like that, to find an ATM to withdraw large amounts of cash, when you can so easily pay by card at the gas station.

JMO

 

[otto]

Most recent flyer (timeline) posted on FB date 4/4/22. Some times seem to have changed

That says last ping was at 7:15 PM, last sighting was 6:05 PM Luning.

Does that mean the 10:16 PM time is incorrect?

 

[zecats]

That says last ping was at 7:15 PM, last sighting was 6:05 PM Luning.

Does that mean the 10:16 PM time is incorrect?

View attachment 339038

View attachment 339037

Who knows. My head is spinning with all the conflicting reports of pings and sightings and times. I would guess updated versions would be more correct. Jmo

 

[otto]

They weren't sight seeing, they were going somewhere. It's an odd place for a last ping.

 

[otto]

Who knows. My head is spinning with all the conflicting reports of pings and sightings and times. I would guess updated versions would be more correct. Jmo

I think it's safe to go with 6:05 PM at Luning, 7:15 PM at Nivloc Road and Silver Peak. That looks more like abandoning a vehicle, or a couple, than going somewhere.

 

[Planet 9]

I joined this group just to follow this thread. I know Ron and Bev very well and they're extremely nice people. I worked with Ron for a number of years in the mid 2000s and he is literally one of the nicest, most laidback people you could ever meet. Nothing phased the guy and I learned a lot from him. He was a network engineer for our company and is very technically savvy, which is why the lack of cell phone signals concerns me so much.

Is there any way you can find out if their KIA had the satellite system that could locate them. There was a case of another missing RV couple from Oklahoma who went missing in New Mexico a number of years back. Their vehicle had Onstar on it which is how they were able to locate it. Funny thing was is law enforcement wasn’t aware of it, but a co-worker did and he called Onstar! Hearing how tec savvy Ron was, this might have been an option he would want in his vehicle?

 

[Herat]

I appreciate this update, immensely ( * tears up papers diagramming road maps, earthquake faults, sunspot charts, alien landing sightings*)

I finally found Nivlock Road. It emanates from the mining hamlet of Silver Peak, where there is a Silver Peak Road.

The access to the Silver Peak mine area is about 25m miles east of Highway 95, south of Tonopah.

The other access is Highway 265 south from Highway 95.

This seem very ominous to me.

I think someone has dumped their phones here. Maybe more than that.

 

[ReadySet]

The Esmerelda RV Park is on highway 773, which is within 50 miles of ping at Silver Peak, and is about an hour or so drive from Luning. Maybe they thought better of trying to make their longer drive and decided to stay there rather than continue on 95. But if they did something like that, they should know they're being looked for, I would think.

I keep thinking of their ages. A medical event, perhaps, one incapacitated and the other not skilled with their electronics, and a wrong turn, wrong route from GPS, stuck out in the boonies.

 

[Planet 9]

They were seen on video there getting gas and snacks. Doubtful anyone could take over their RV at that point. More likely, if so, in a more remote area, perhaps if they became lost or stuck.

Can you confirm they were actually seen, not just their vehicles? I just can’t find it anywhere! Thank you!

 

[Herat]

The Esmerelda RV Park is on highway 773, which is within 50 miles of ping at Silver Peak, and is about an hour or so drive from Luning. Maybe they thought better of trying to make their longer drive and decided to stay there rather than continue on 95. But if they did something like that, they should know they're being looked for, I would think.

I keep thinking of their ages. A medical event, perhaps, one incapacitated and the other not skilled with their electronics, and a wrong turn, wrong route from GPS, stuck out in the boonies.

Ronnie's family and friends have posted that he was very proficient in electronic communications and very methodical. It was his job.

I think the Dyer or Esmerelda RV parks are red herrings.

The other side of Dyer and Esmerelda RV park is the Silver Peak mine and the Niclock Road which I couldn't find.

This couple has no reason to deviate from their intended interstate highway trip and certainly did not communicate at all that they were planning to drive off 50 miles to some dusty RV park really in the middle of nowhere. That seems very uncharacteristic.

 

[abanddb123]

Search goes on for Indianapolis couple missing in Nevada | wthr.com

 

[Herat]

It would behoove Governor Sandoval to get his Washoe County investigators down there to Silver Peak mine and get Highway 265 and environs surveyed very closely.

 

[logical]

If they were seen getting snacks in Stagecoach, someone could have entered and hid in the RV while they were purchasing the snacks.

 

[otto]

The Esmerelda RV Park is on highway 773, which is within 50 miles of ping at Silver Peak, and is about an hour or so drive from Luning. Maybe they thought better of trying to make their longer drive and decided to stay there rather than continue on 95. But if they did something like that, they should know they're being looked for, I would think.

I keep thinking of their ages. A medical event, perhaps, one incapacitated and the other not skilled with their electronics, and a wrong turn, wrong route from GPS, stuck out in the boonies.

If the RV community typically tucks in around 5:30 PM, then the 6:05 PM Luning sighting might be after something went wrong. That might make the start of the problem Stagecoach, where they got gas.

 

[WingsOverTX]

Ronnie's family and friends have posted that he was very proficient in electronic communications and very methodical.

I think the Dyer or Esmerelda RV parks are red herrings.

The other side of Dyer and Esmerelda RV park is the Silver Peak mine and the Niclock Road which I couldn't find.

This couple has no reason to deviate from their intended interstate highway trip and certainly did not communicate at all that they were planning to drive off 50 miles to some dusty RV park really in the middle of nowhere. That seems very uncharacteristic.

Right? BBM

Has Nivloc Rd has been thoroughly checked for any sign of their stranded rig?

They did not teleport so when Nivloc Rd is cleared, what's next?

moo

ETA: They we're already chasing daylight to get to Las Vegas when they left Mt. Shasta KOA at Sunday noon. Was that really their intended destination on the last day of any sightings or pings?

 

[zecats]

Can you confirm they were actually seen, not just their vehicles? I just can’t find it anywhere! Thank you!

Look on the Facebook page run by family. They speak of it. And the updated flyer they just put out and that I just posted upthread has confirmed sighting there in Stagecoach.