The Strange Disappearance of Eric Sears
On July 14th, 2004 friends and recent graduates of Carlsbad High School in California, 17
year olds Eric Sears and Ben Fogelstrom decided to go on a camping trip together in Joshua Tree National Park.
The two of them showed up to their campsite in Jumbo Rocks and were just having a good time.
They were turned away from San Jacinto due to wildfires.
Around noon is when investigators believed the two boys became separated.
Teams of searchers were told that Eric became dehydrated and Ben went to go and find some water.
Eric stayed behind and curled up underneath a picnic bench to try and rest in the shade until Ben returned.
When Ben came back he couldn’t find Eric anywhere and became panicked.
Some other campers came across him, how is still unclear, and brought him into the park
office to report the disappearance of Eric at around 4:40 the next afternoon.
The search of a 20-square-mile area of the park began at 6pm that evening and has continued
since then in the daylight hours.
He was distraught and most times speaking unintelligibly.
There was an intensive search and rescue operation.
The park’s search and rescue team scoured the area the area with help from various law enforcement agency teams.
There were 170 searchers as of that Sunday, but by Monday the number of searchers had
dropped to about 40 because many or the volunteers had to return to work.
The search included tracking dogs, horses, a helicopter, plane and climbers who looked
in rock crevices where he could have fallen.
Robert Fonda, one of the park’s lead trackers, said the search was difficult because it had
taken place in 100-plus degree temperatures every day and because the terrain varied from
really flat to boulder outcroppings where the footing is perilous.
He stated:
“We’ve been working a lot in the back areas and making sure that some teams didn’t miss something...
You can’t speculate You just have to search.”
Searchers did find some of Eric’s shoe prints and the dogs were able to pick up his scent,
but none of it enabled them to determine where he was going.
Eric was described as in top physical condition.
He ran cross-country for four years and even traveled to Australia two years earlier with other state runners
He also participated as an adult in a 24-hour relay race between Carlsbad and El Camino
high schools at Carlsbad July 10-11 to promote the sport and help raise money.
Unfortunately all would not end well as Eric’s body was found on July 23rd.
The cause of death could not be determined upon autopsy because by that time it was too badly decomposed.
There was no obvious trauma found anywhere on the body.
This is when the investigators turned to the only person who was with him that night for answers.
The rest of the story, as told by Ben to authorities, is strange to say the least.
Here is what Ben said had happened leading up to the disappearance though he admitted
to authorities during this statement that he was having trouble distinguishing what
actually happened from hallucinations he was certain he was having due to his and Eric’s
partaking in a wildly grown illicit but not illegal in the illegal in the state of California, drug the night before.
His report was oftentimes conflicting and all over the place.
He told authorities both he and Eric had drunk a tea made from Jimsonweed.
He claimed he remembered speaking to a bush, an Indian, and possibly to Eric.
He said he was pretty sure his friend was deceased because he thought he remembered disposing of his body.
He also couldn’t tell authorities exactly how Eric had gone missing, or ended up deceased,
depending which story Ben was recounting at the time.
However, two chemicals, atropine and scopolamine, toxins found in Jimsonweed, were found in Eric’s brain tissue.
One way or the other, the use of Jimsonweed by Ben and Eric, was a major contributing factor in Eric's death.
Jimsonweed, locoweed, stinkweed, mad apple and thorn apple are street names for the foul-smelling
Datura stramonium plant.
It is one of a group of plants known as belladonnas.
Datura stramonium is a common weed found along roadsides, in cornfields, pastures, and waste areas.
It has been reported to grow wildly in all but two states, Wyoming and Alaska.
Although not a popular street drug, it is usually used by teenagers curious about the
plant's hallucinogenic and euphoric effects.
Adolescents most typically use Jimsonweed with peers.
All parts of the plant are toxic and usage can result in serious illness or death.
Recreational users may ingest seeds or prepare Jimson-based tea or cigarettes.
It can take up to hours for someone to feel the plant's effects, so people often consume
excessive amounts believing the seeds were not working.
Potency is impossible to predict.
The toxicity of Jimsonweed varies by year, between plants, parts of the plant, and even
among different leaves on the same plant.
As few as a dozen Jimsonweed seeds taken orally or one leaf brewed into a tea or smoked can
produce nausea, headache, severe agitation, hallucinations, behavioral changes or delirium.
Approximately 1,000 cases of poisoning by anticholinergic plants (including Jimsonweed)
are reported annually to poison control centers.
Usage increases between May and September when Jimsonweed plants are mature.
The overwhelming majority of users of Jimsonweed report that their experiences were very unpleasant,
physically dangerous, and sometimes terrifying.
Few people use it twice.
Even a one time usage can have tragic effects.
With all of this being said, one may ask, “what is the lure to experiment with a plant
which seems to have no pleasant effects whatsoever?”
The effects of the drug have been described as being in a living dream and can last for days.
Jimsonweed has extremely powerful psychoactive effects including hallucinations, delusions,
disorientation, confusion, and panic.
Jimsonweed is an extremely potent and unusual hallucinogen.
Unlike psilocybin or LSD, jimsonweed causes true hallucinations which cannot be distinguished from reality.
Users have no concept that anything they are talking to, seeing, or running from isn't actually there.
These hallucinations are real, intense and frequently frightening.
Hallucinations are reported to have several recurrent themes in users including insects,
cigarettes, people or objects appearing and disappearing, demons and monsters.
Smoking a phantom cigarette is one of the most common hallucinations, even if the individual has never smoked before.
Talking to inanimate objects, animals and friends who are not present is also frequently reported.
Individuals lose their ability to identify their friends, and may not even recognize their reflection in a mirror.
The individual may also try to interact with the hallucinations.
Most users didn't realize that they were hallucinating until the drug wore off.
Users feel completely disconnected with their environment, reporting feelings of sleepwalking or being in a trance.
Feelings of free-falling or flying are oftenreported.
Individuals go on desperate searches for items they feel compelled to find, they become lost,
confused, disoriented, and dehydrated.
Amnesia is frequently reported, users have no memory of what they were doing for several
hours, or they may unconsciously replace fact with fantasy in their memory.
They can fall in and out of consciousness.
They can slip into delirium.
Is this what happened with Eric and Ben while they were out being typical teenagers that night in Joshua Tree?
Did they get in over their heads and one thing led to another?
Did Eric die of overdose from taking too much thinking the initial doses weren’t effective or working for him?
Was it something else altogether?
Jimsonweed's most dangerous effect is on behavior.
In fact, most Jimsonweed related deaths are a result of impaired judgment that leads to risk taking activities.
They can believe they can fly and jump off a cliff; believe they are chasing a mermaid
in a lake but they cannot swim.
They can also become violent in reaction to terrifying hallucinations and hurt themselves or others.
The above listed are nowhere near all of the dangerous effects this particular belladonna
could have on the human brain and psyche.
They could very well be the most relevant though in trying to figure out exactly what
happened to Eric Sears that fateful night in 2004 when he had his whole life ahead of
him and was just looking to have some fun with his friend in a beautiful place in celebration
of the huge life milestone of graduating high school.
Eric was described by his peers as popular and friendly and was on the cross country team.
He had been accepted into the engineering program of San Diego State University, and
was to begin classes that fall.
His death affected the whole community.
According to an affidavit filed at Superior Court in Indio, “He provided several stories
of hallucinating during the night," with “he” meaning Ben Fogelstrom.
The community was heartbroken with the discovery of Eric’s body and with the seeming so senseless on top of it all.
On the porch of the Sears' home, signs with messages of hope, flowers, and red, white
and blue candles formed what was to be a welcome for the family when they returned.
Parents Tom and Wendy Sears have remained at the desert campground since shortly after
their son was reported missing.
Officials said the Sears family was in seclusion Friday night in nearby Twenty-Nine Palms and
that their daughter, Stephanie, 19, was en route to join them.
Many were expected to return later in the evening to share prayers and light candles
against the darkness at the Sears' home, something they have done night after night this week.
Neighbors and friends said the mutual support provided by the small, close community has
at times been the only thing that carried them through more than a week of waiting.
Groups of neighbors have traveled daily to Joshua Tree to help support the family.
There was a search warrant issued for Ben's home in the hopes of uncovering more information.
According to this affidavit, investigators gave him a lie detector test.
This while searchers were still looking for Eric in the Joshua Tree National Park.
According to the affidavit, Ben tearfully admitted during an interview with detectives
that he found Eric dead inside his tent.
He said that happened the day he reported his friend as missing.
This is also where he admitted to disposing of Eric’s body by putting it inside an outhouse
toilet at their campsite.
But according to the affidavit that's when he wanted to stop talking to investigators
and then changed his story again.
Investigators say he later denied dumping Eric’s body in an outhouse and said,
“that's not where I put him."
Investigators checked several park toilets, but searchers eventually found his body lying
in the middle of the desert, about 3 miles from the Jumbo Rocks campground.
Sheriff's investigators tried hard to corroborate what Ben told them about what happened while
they were at the campsite.
Before, during and after they had consumed the jimsonweed.
“Whatever information was given to us in the affidavit, investigators are looking into
it and looking at every scenario in the affidavit.”
But despite statements Ben apparently made in this affidavit, the sheriff's department
said he was not a suspect in the death.
They did say that he is still a focus of their investigation as investigators try to figure
out exactly how the 17 year old ended up dead in the Joshua Tree desert.
Nobody was ever charged with anything in relation to the death of Eric Sears and so much of
what happened still remains a mystery.
To make matters worse and even more sad, two San Bernardino County Sheriff's search and
rescue volunteers on their way to help search for Eric.
A 35 year old man named Joseph Tidwell from Wonder Valley who was allegedly under the
influence of several different narcotic substances, lost consciousness due to his drug intoxication,
causing his truck to drift across the roadway directly into the path of the Sheriff's van.
Scot Johnston, 30, of Redlands, died at the scene.
Philip Calvert, 58, of Mentone, was transported to Desert Regional Medical Center with major
injuries and died early the next morning.
Although Jimsonweed isn’t scheduled under the controlled substances act, three states
(Connecticut, New Jersey and Tennessee) have passed legislation to control it.
In addition, the Food and Drug Administration has asserted that the belladonna alkaloids
in jimsonweed are neither safe nor effective in over the counter or other cough and cold inhalants.
So be careful of what you put into your body!
Well friends, there you have it... Sad, strange tale indeed!
Our condolences to the family and friends of Eric Sears.
I look forward to your comments but please keep it friendly and respectful.
Till we meet again, be safe out there! Don't take chances!!!
As for me I'll see you a little farther on down the trail...
I'm Steve Stockton and I'll talk to you next time!