The cases covered under the Missing 411 phenomenon are truly strange with missing people being
found in impossible areas, experiencing severe memory loss or being found with articles of
clothing missing in freezing conditions, to name but a few.
There are some cases, however, that have frustrated investigators for years, where people have
gone missing and are never found again.
5.
James J. Arthur
James “Jim” Arthur, aged 67, was a retired Air National Guard Lieutenant and decorated
Veteran from California.
He also served as the spokesman for the 144th Fighter Wing for some time.
On Monday, the 28th of July, 2008, James travelled to the Star Lakes area where he was planning
to do some fishing and take pictures of the area.
He informed his family of his plans and told them that he would also stop in at the Big
Sandy for lunch before returning home by nightfall.
James was known as an experienced hiker whose only medical condition was periodic knee pain
and so, his family had no concerns over him spending the day in the wild.
Before he set off, he packed his camera, backpack and walking cane along with a pistol loaded
with snake shot in case he came across any rattlesnakes.
Upon arriving at the Iron Lakes Reservoir, he parked his blue, four-door Dodge Ram truck
on Beasore Road and headed into the woods.
At some point during his hike, James met two people on a trail where he had stopped to
take a rest.
He told them that he was heading for Iron Lakes, about 14.5 miles from Star Lakes where
he told his family he would be fishing.
This would be the last time that Jim was ever seen.
A search and rescue team of over 100 people set out to look for him but, despite his truck
being found the next day, no trace of Jim or any of his equipment, clothing or remains
have ever been located.
The search was focused on the various lakes in the area but, 12 years after mysteriously
vanishing into thin air; there are still no answers as to his whereabouts.
4.
Christopher Thompkins
In 2002, Christopher Thompkins was a 20-year-old man living with his mother in Ellerslie, Georgia.
At the time, he was working for a surveying company, the owner of which was good friends
with Christopher’s mother, as she babysat his children from time to time.
On January 25th, he left home and headed to work where his shift would start at 8am.
After arriving at the office, he left his vehicle and travelled with a co-worker to
the site at County Line Road where they would be working for the day.
With them were two other surveyors and the four men were working in a line formation,
each of the crew being roughly 50 feet from the next, Christopher being the last in the
line.
After a few hours of work, they took a break to have lunch before continuing with their
task.
Christopher was having a conversation with the man closest to him who, at one point looked
away from him to complete a task.
When he spoke to Christopher again, he got no response, causing him to look in his direction
only to find that he was no longer there.
At first he assumed that Christopher had stepped into the tree line to relieve himself, but
when he did not emerge as expected, he called to the other workers and they walked to the
spot where they had last seen him only a minute ago.
They called out to him, but got no response and upon investigating further, they found
one of his work boots hanging from a barbed wire fence only a short distance away, along
with all of his work tools.
This caused them great concern and they phoned 911 but they were told that Christopher would
not be considered a missing person until at least 24 hours had passed.
Following the 24-hour waiting period, police entered the area and started searching.
They found a blue piece of fabric similar to that of Christopher’s work pants and
12 cents in loose change directly below the work boot on the barbed wire fence.
Police questioned his co-workers and quickly surmised that there was no foul play involved.
5 months later, a local farmer reported finding a boot on a stretch of swampland located on
his farm, less than a mile from where the crew had been working.
It was identified as belonging to Christopher but, despite finding these clues after his
disappearance, police are no closer to figuring out what may have happened to him.
3.
George Penca
30 year old George Penca from Hawthorne, California travelled with a group from his church to
the Yosemite National Park on June 17, 2011.
The group consisted of 80 people in total that would be spending the day in the area.
20 out of the group of 80 people would be hiking to the Upper Yosemite Falls area and
George was part of the smaller group.
He was not in great physical shape and had some medical issues that would prevent him
from hiking for too long but he assured his fellow hikers that he would be more than capable
of traversing the terrain that they were planning to cover.
He was wearing running shoes and carried a blue cloth bag in which he had packed a small
amount of food and water for the hike.
It should be noted that hikers are warned to stay on the main trail at all times, as
the areas adjacent to the trail are known for very steep and dangerous drops.
Once the group reached the top of the trail, they took a few moments to take in the scenery
at the lookout point before heading back at their own leisure.
Some members of the group would later report that they noticed George had, at one point,
fallen behind and was trailing the others.
They continued on to the Yosemite Valley floor and assumed that he would arrive shortly after,
but when there was still no sign of him by 9pm, they reported him as missing to park
officials.
An initial search was launched that same evening but George was still missing.
The following morning, a full-scale search was started in favorable weather conditions.
Helicopters, search dogs and 105 search and rescue personnel from around the state combed
the area where George was last seen, but no trace of him was found.
After searching for 6 days without any result and covering 70 square miles of rugged terrain,
the search was scaled down to a limited continuous search on the 23rd of June.
Despite the best efforts of over 100 people, the use of search dogs and aerial assistance,
George Penca’s disappearance remains a mystery.
2.
Gerren Kirk
Gerren Kirk, aged 31, from Milwaukie, was an avid outdoorsman who would often go on
solo hikes in the woods.
In 2014, he had just finished his first term of online study with National University after
transferring his credits from Portland Community College where he had been studying business.
He had planned to gain his bachelor’s degree, after which he was looking to study for his
masters.
On the 3rd of December, 2014, he travelled to the Mount Hood National Forest where he
would be spending a few days hiking, planning to return home on the 6th.
When hiking, he was in the habit of always informing his family of his plans but on this
occasion, he had neglected to do so.
When he had not returned home as planned on the 7th, his sister, Whitney Kirk Altman,
reported him missing but since searchers had no clue where he had been hiking, they did
not have a starting point to start the search.
When his gold Pontiac Grand Am was located in the parking lot of Frog Lake Campground
by a family member on the 8th, the search could finally be started in the heavily wooded
areas near to his vehicle.
Police pinged his cell phone and found that he had been in an area east of Frog Lake,
heading in a southwesterly direction.
This led them to believe that he might have travelled from Clackamas County to Wasco County
and jurisdiction of the search was switched to Wasco County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 170 search and rescue personnel from across Oregon were dispatched to the areas
around Frog Lake and Twin Lakes, coordinated by the Wasco Sheriff’s Office.
Surveillance aircraft were brought in to aid in the search, using infrared technology which
is able to detect body heat.
Sniffer dogs were also used and the search continued for 9 days in damp and cold weather.
7 years after disappearing, no sign of Gerren has ever been found.
1.
Emerson Carbaugh
Emerson Edward Carbaugh, also known as “Red”, was a 64 year old man from St. Thomas, Pennsylvania.
He suffered from a rare skin condition called pemphigus vulgaris that causes blistering,
which ultimately, caused scarring to his face.
He also suffered from high blood pressure and he needed to take medication at regular
intervals to regulate his condition.
On the 11th of November, 1985, Carbaugh and his brother-in-law, Ralph Isset from Saxton,
took a trip to the Robertsdale Mountains where they would hunt for turkeys.
They headed to a field adjacent to an old logging road and at around 2pm, decided to
split up, each man taking a different path into the woods.
Before going their separate ways, they agreed to meet back up at Carbaugh’s truck at an
agreed-upon time.
Due to light rainfall, Carbaugh was wearing a camouflage coat and a wool sweater, along
with brown duck hunting pants and black rubber-soled boots.
He was also carrying a Remington pump action shotgun.
After hunting for some time, Isset returned to the truck in the late afternoon.
He waited for Carbaugh for a while, but as it was starting to get dark, he became concerned
when Carbaugh did not emerge from the woods.
He thought that Carbaugh must have gotten lost while hunting and he fired six shots
from into the air, hoping that he would hear the gunfire and follow the sound back to the
truck.
After waiting for a while longer, Carbaugh had still not arrived and Isset proceeded
on foot to find help.
By the time that he reported his hunting partner missing, it had gotten too dark to start a
search but, the following morning, a search party was organized at a volunteer fire company
close by.
12 square miles of the woods was searched by more than 1.800 people over the following
two weeks.
Searchers walked arm-in-arm through rugged terrain, hoping to spot Carbaugh somewhere
in the woods.
Two types of search dogs were used, scuba divers searched the waters nearby and helicopters
with FLIR technology searched from the air, but no sign of Carbaugh was ever found.
In 2004, Carbaugh’s wife, Ida, was contacted by someone who said they knew what happened
to her husband.
They claimed that Carbaugh had been killed and buried on a farm in the area of Robertsdale.
They told her that they had dug up a piece of bone which they believed belonged to Carbaugh
and it was taken to Huntington State Police.
State Police then sent the bone to the Pennsylvania DNA lab which is located in Greensburg but,
due to the small size of the bone fragment and considering that it was 19 years after
the fact, it had degraded to the point where no DNA was present anymore.
Ida would later state that there were other hunters in the area and that Carbaugh had
told her that there were 5 men loading turkeys into a truck in the area where the two men
had planned to go hunting.
This was never proven, however, and Carbaugh was never found.