Interesting find, Satch. Where is St. Mary's on the map, where he was allegedly seen? Is it the upper left white block that is 47 minutes away? If that is St. Mary's, and Reed was indeed there, he had to have known it was more than a half hour away on foot, the time in which his sister said he needed to return, as she said dinner would be ready. Him being so far away, knowing he only had a short amount of time to care for the dogs, sounds out of character for him, as he was considered responsible.
Thanks!
I just found this! (The map) but have terrible map reading skills, so I am hoping another user can vouch for the distances on it. If those times are accurate, that is a long, long walk even for an athletic teen Eagle Scout with two dogs. It was October. I also found and added some weather history to get the temperatures for Salt Lake City on that day, October 11, 1964.
As little as one single environmental condition or interaction could change everything about this case. That is one of the things that makes it so mysterious. Some researchers claim that abduction would be difficult with two dogs. I mean if Reed had been walking down the street, or roaming the countryside with two dogs that were known by breed to be owner-protective, say two Pit Bulls or Dobermans, I don't think anybody is going to take the risk of hurting him. OK, they were German Short Hair Pointers. And lets say that somehow Reed is lured into a house of someone that he knows on his paper route. I can't see those dogs doing nothing if Reed was attached or molested. If some pedophile wanted to hurt someone, we have to consider that they would consider an easier target. Yes, false trust is still out there, but the dogs it would seem would really be a deterrent for an abductor.
Many families and friends of the missing will blame abduction because they know that in that instance, it is out of control of the family member or loved one to come home on their own. (Held against their will.) And it also provides that hope that they will one day escape their captor(s) and be free. And than work to get an indictment to prosecute the abductor. If the element is suicide (no way in Reed's case), or homicide, that hope is lost. Their is hope for runaways to return, but there is no way that Reed ran away or voluntarily disappeared.
Look at the weather for Salt Lake City Utah on October 11, 1964! What shocked me is the temperature rage disparity of being in the low 70's for a high to dropping to the 30's at night. Did Reed take the same routes every day when walking his dogs? Being the outdoor lover that he was, and his pursuit of adventure as an Eagle Scout, I would say no. These distances and times if accurate provide more and more opportunities leaning me towards a tragic accident more than foul play. Plus taking the weather and distances into consideration with the time element involved.
If his sister's statement of "Be Back soon because we are going to have dinner in a half hour" is as she claims to remember, there is no way, no way possible that Reed could be back in half an hour, or even an hour. Now consider the directions and paths that an athletic teen with two-spirited hunting dogs can move quickly at the same time and all of Utah's hazards considering the wilderness areas of the photos behind the school, or even traffic. Fatigue at that time, animal excitement, Reed adventurous. Yes he was dependable we know this. But something could have happened along the way to make him lose track of time. Even one of his dogs catching his first rabbit, bird, or duck, would be exciting to Reed. It could make him forget time.
I am now starting to lean more towards accident than foul play, mainly because of those map distances and the possibility of rapid environmental changes. In this case, I always thought it was a hop skip and a jump between Reed's house and the old school were he was last seen. There is far more walking territory here than I ever realized!
Satch
