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Speaker 1: The plan was simple a week of elk hunting in

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Speaker 1: Montana's backcountry, but somewhere between the trailhead into the Crazy

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Speaker 1: Mountains and the first snowfall, Aaron Hedges vanished. His friend

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Speaker 1: said he'd gone off on his own, and searchers later

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Speaker 1: found his boots neatly placed beside a firing. What happened

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Speaker 1: next would baffle investigators and fuel a decade of theories

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Speaker 1: about how and why Aaron died within a quarter mile

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Speaker 1: of being rescued. That's next on Blood Trails. There are

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Speaker 1: many strange things about the disappearance of Aaron Hedges, but

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Speaker 1: one of the strangest is why he took off his boots.

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Speaker 1: Hedges and two of his friends went elk hunting in

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Speaker 1: the Crazy Mountains of western Montana in September of twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 1: Those two friends came back, Aaron did not. A search

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Speaker 1: and rescue team was dispatched to try to find the

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Speaker 1: missing hunter. About a week into those efforts, the team

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Speaker 1: found what they hoped would lead them to Aerin.

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Speaker 2: We go back and.

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Speaker 3: We researched that area on the bench and find two

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Speaker 3: points where he tries to make fire. He was actually

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Speaker 3: successful on one. I don't think he was as successful

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Speaker 3: at another one. And then that's when we found the booths.

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Speaker 1: That Sweetgrass County Sheriff Alan Roneberg, he helped lead the

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Speaker 1: search efforts, and he told me that even a week

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Speaker 1: after Aaron had gone missing, they were still hopeful they

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Speaker 1: might find him alive, and those size ten wolverine hunting

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Speaker 1: boots told them he was close. After all, what kind

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Speaker 1: of hunter takes off his boots beside a fire and

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Speaker 1: then keeps walking. But the rescue team, along with two

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Speaker 1: deputies from the Park County Sheriff's office, searched the area

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Speaker 1: for over three hours and didn't turn up anything else

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Speaker 1: besides a camelback water bladder, a water filter and some trash.

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Speaker 1: Aaron had vanished. It was like he'd been sucked out

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Speaker 1: of his boots and into the ether. Here's Park County

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Speaker 1: Detective Brian Green speaking in twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 4: What was found and where it was found and the

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Speaker 4: condition that was found in is very odd, and what

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Speaker 4: wasn't found is very odd.

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Speaker 5: There's just something about it that's very unsettling.

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Speaker 1: After two weeks, the search team gave up. They'd done

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Speaker 1: everything they could think of, but Aaron Hedges was nowhere

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Speaker 1: to be found. In the years that followed, the internet

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Speaker 1: had a field day.

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Speaker 3: All theories you're out there, you know, everything from murder

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Speaker 3: to UFOs to Bigfoot. A lot of us thought he

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Speaker 3: walked out and he caught himself a ride, and he

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Speaker 3: just left the country. He's out sipping mintizing the Bahamas,

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Speaker 3: you know, all that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: Others thought maybe Aaron had been raptured, you know, taken

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Speaker 1: by God into heaven where he wouldn't need hunting boots.

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Speaker 1: This was the subject of a self published book on

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Speaker 1: Amazon titled Aaron Hedges, A Case Study in the Rapture

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Speaker 1: and the End of Life as we know it. Believe

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Speaker 1: it or not, it's on the first page of Google

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Speaker 1: when you search for Aaron's name. Internet sleuse and true

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Speaker 1: crime podcasters got some answers when in August of twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: almost two years after he went missing, Erin's remains were found,

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Speaker 1: but the questions didn't stop. Why did Aaron leave his

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Speaker 1: friends and travel so far from their base camp. Why

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Speaker 1: did those friends not look for him even with a

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Speaker 1: snowstorm bearing down? What killed Erin in those mountains? Why

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Speaker 1: did he die within a quarter mile of a road?

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Speaker 1: And what made him take off his boots and walk

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Speaker 1: six more miles in the freezing cold. These and other

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Speaker 1: questions have perplexed professional and amateur detectives for nearly a decade.

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Speaker 1: Some of them may never be answered, but for anyone

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Speaker 1: who hunted elk in the Rocky Mountain West, Aaron's story

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Speaker 1: is a warning. You never know what might happen up

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Speaker 1: in those mountains, and you'd better be prepared. I'm Jordan Sillers,

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Speaker 1: and this is Blood Trails, What Happened to Aaron Hedges,

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Speaker 1: Part one? A series of unfortunate events. Almost everything we

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Speaker 1: know about Aaron's story comes from the two men who

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Speaker 1: hunted with him, Joe Depew and Greg Latner. Joe and

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Speaker 1: Greg both declined to be interviewed for this episode, and

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about why in a few minutes, but I

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Speaker 1: was able to obtain a recorded interview between Greg and

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Speaker 1: two Park County detectives. As far as I'm aware, this

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Speaker 1: is the first time this interview has ever been made public.

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Speaker 1: I also have the complete incident report from the Park

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Speaker 1: County Attorney's Office, which includes descriptions of interviews between Joe

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Speaker 1: and detectives. Between those interviews and documents. We have a

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Speaker 1: pretty good idea what the pair of hunters told law

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Speaker 1: enforcement in the days after Aaron went missing. Here's a

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Speaker 1: portion of that incident report that describes what the three

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Speaker 1: hunters planned to do during the six days they were

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Speaker 1: in the Crazy Mountains.

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Speaker 6: Stated that they had arrived in this vehicle and that

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Speaker 6: all three parties had done a hunting pack trip the

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Speaker 6: year prior in the same area. Depew stated that the

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Speaker 6: hunting group then started in the direction of Trespass Creek,

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Speaker 6: with a destination of going to Campfire Lake, then to

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Speaker 6: Moose Lake, and then up Middle Fork Creek trail to

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Speaker 6: go up North Fork Creek, with a final destination being

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Speaker 6: at the lower Lakes in the area of Sunlight Lake.

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Speaker 1: Their plan was to pack a horse and a mule

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Speaker 1: into the Custer Gallatin National Forest just north of Livingston, Montana.

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Speaker 1: They went in at the Ibex trailhead on September fifth,

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Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, and as you heard, they hoped to arrow

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Speaker 1: an elk in the area around Campfire Lake, Moose Lake,

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Speaker 1: and Sunlight Lake. If you've never been there, this is

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Speaker 1: a gorgeous patch of country and the weather was perfect

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Speaker 1: with highs in the fifties and sixties and lows just

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Speaker 1: below freezing.

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Speaker 7: Beautiful mountain range. First of all, right, very visible from

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Speaker 7: I ninety corridor as you drive in east and west,

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Speaker 7: kind of stand out almost like an island mountain chain.

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Speaker 1: That's me eaters Giannis Prutellis. Yanni has backpacked with his

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Speaker 1: wife and kids in the Crazy Mountains on three separate occasions,

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Speaker 1: and he recently finished a one hundred mile trail race

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Speaker 1: on some of the same paths that Greg, Joe, and

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Speaker 1: Aaron traveled on their hunt. Yanni explained that the Crazies

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Speaker 1: are a popular place for Bozeman residents to take a

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Speaker 1: weekend hike because they're accessible and not too intimidating.

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Speaker 7: The Crazies actually aren't a huge mountain range. When you're

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Speaker 7: on a lot of the bigger peaks or passes, you

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Speaker 7: can see the flats or the val the major valleys

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Speaker 7: to the east and west right, you're not like deep

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Speaker 7: in and you can't see out like you can always

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Speaker 7: see one way or the other.

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Speaker 1: It's not a huge mountain range, but there are still

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Speaker 1: plenty of opportunities for hunters. Joe, Greg and Aaron wanted

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Speaker 1: to make it up to Campfire Lake on their first day,

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Speaker 1: a seven mile hike up Trespass Creek trail. But the

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Speaker 1: trip got off to a rocky start. Here's Greg speaking

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Speaker 1: to detectives.

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Speaker 5: We got all loaded up and from the old Bucks

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Speaker 5: to pack south off once and right of the trailhead,

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Speaker 5: just because she was scared of Aaron, you know, and

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Speaker 5: we got that all. We got that all situated, and

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Speaker 5: now we're running way behind. It's already like afternoon, and

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Speaker 5: so we decided we're we'll make it a couple of

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Speaker 5: miles up the trail and make camp. And so we

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Speaker 5: get a couple of miles up the trail, Aaron tries

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Speaker 5: to walk up ahead of us, and the mule sees

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Speaker 5: Aaron coming through her perfield vision and flips out again

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Speaker 5: and fucks everything off of her back again. And you know,

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Speaker 5: Aaron gets gets pissed and starts trying to hit the

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Speaker 5: mule and this and that. Joe and I just stop

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Speaker 5: to it, hey man, knock it off, like she's scared

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Speaker 5: of you for a reason, like get away from her,

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Speaker 5: you know, like and we're getting really irritated, but you know,

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Speaker 5: we've kind of kind of already started on the trip now,

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Speaker 5: and I kind of had a bad feeling at that

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Speaker 5: point that you know, Aaron just should not be there.

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Speaker 5: But it's almost past the point of I mean, I

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Speaker 5: get it. Or maybe it wasn't, but it felt like

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Speaker 5: it was at the time.

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Speaker 1: This wasn't the only time they had trouble with the mule.

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Speaker 1: As they tried to summit the pass the next day,

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Speaker 1: the mule took off again, but this time the consequences

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Speaker 1: were much worse.

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Speaker 5: Again, Aaron walked up and stooped to the mule, and

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Speaker 5: the mule took off, bucking and that if you're familiar

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Speaker 5: with that valley on the west side of Camps Campfire Pass,

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Speaker 5: that basin. The mule took off, just running all over

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Speaker 5: that valley, bucking our gear all over the place. So

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Speaker 5: we spent all afternoon picking up that stuff that the

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Speaker 5: mule lost, Aaron's sleeping bag. We eventually found every single

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Speaker 5: thing that the mule had bucked off, except Aaron's sleeping bag.

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Speaker 5: Never ever did find it.

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Speaker 1: They admitted that none of them knew much about dealing

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Speaker 1: with pack animals, and later in the trip, Joe and

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Speaker 1: Greg spent three hours trying to catch the mule that

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Speaker 1: had escaped overnight, but they couldn't corral it. They eventually

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Speaker 1: get up and went back to camp, and the mule followed.

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Speaker 1: This detail is actually more important than it sounds. That

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Speaker 1: mule accident when Aaron lost his gear, was the catalyst

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Speaker 1: that sparked the series of events that eventually led to

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Speaker 1: his disappearance. Joe, Greg and Aaron had hunted together for

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Speaker 1: the past five or six years, and Joe had known

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Speaker 1: Aarin even longer. We'll hear more about Aaron's personal history soon,

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Speaker 1: but for now, let's get back to the hunt. Joe

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Speaker 1: told law enforcement that they looked for a couple hours

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Speaker 1: for the sleeping bag, and then went back to the

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Speaker 1: truck and retrieved some additional items, including blankets and a tarp, which, strangely,

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Speaker 1: Joe claims that Aaron refused to use. And while Greg

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Speaker 1: says they found all of Erin's gear except his sleeping bag,

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Speaker 1: Sheriff Roni Berg says the search and rescue team recovered

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Speaker 1: more than just a sleeping bag.

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Speaker 3: It would have spent some time, but they could have

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Speaker 3: got it because it was recovered by the search and

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Speaker 3: rescue people. When they first got up the trail, they

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Speaker 3: noticed all this stuff scattered all over the trail and

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Speaker 3: they started picking up they picked it up. Why they didn't,

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Speaker 3: I don't know. They wanted to get into camp. I

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Speaker 3: guess I'm not really sure.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the status of Aaron's gear, the delay forced them

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Speaker 1: to camp on the trail that night, which didn't do

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Speaker 1: much to improve company morale.

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Speaker 5: Aaron had nothing, even though we told him that he

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Speaker 5: needed a bivvy sack and he needed this and that.

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Speaker 5: We got up there and realized that once he lost

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Speaker 5: his sleeping bag, he literally had no gear at all. Nothing.

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Speaker 1: Greg and Joe tried to help Aaron stay warm that night,

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Speaker 1: but he refused and he'd.

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Speaker 5: Being real hard headed. I'm just and I knew it

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Speaker 5: was going to get down to you know, fifteen twenty

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Speaker 5: degrees that night, and just look at Aaron. You can't just

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Speaker 5: sleep on the ground's let's figure this out. There's a

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Speaker 5: lot of options. A resourceful guy would have gotten the

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Speaker 5: pads off of the horses, would have built a big fire,

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Speaker 5: stocked up on firewood. Any person in the right mind,

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Speaker 5: I mean halfway survivalists would have gotten all the gear

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Speaker 5: that they could to stay warm. He's so hard ahead

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Speaker 5: and I don't need any of that shit, which is

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Speaker 5: like you do need it, you know. We eventually just

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Speaker 5: gets so mad, fine, you know whatever, Like I can't

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Speaker 5: make you put all this stuff on.

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Speaker 1: They proceeded the next day, Saturday, September sixth, to what

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Speaker 1: would become their base camp, but Aaron's mood had deteriorated

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Speaker 1: after a night without his sleeping bag. In fact, Joe

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Speaker 1: told investigators that Aaron was acting agitated and confrontational almost

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Speaker 1: from the moment they arrived at the trailhead. According to

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Speaker 1: the incident report.

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Speaker 6: Depeugh said Hedges was pissed off of the mule and

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Speaker 6: the whole situation, and was generally uncooperative that first night.

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Speaker 6: Depeugh said Hedges remained pissed off the entire next day.

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Speaker 6: After arriving at Campfire Lake on the second.

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Speaker 1: Afternoon, things didn't get much better.

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Speaker 8: When they set up camp.

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Speaker 3: Greg gut really irritated with you and actually almost into

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Speaker 3: a fifth flight at one night, to the point, you know,

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Speaker 3: Erin and Greg were going to have at it. It

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Speaker 3: was a heck of an argument.

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Speaker 1: I should point out here that none of the incident

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Speaker 1: reports I received from Park County mentioned anything about a fight.

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Speaker 1: There was obviously tension in camp, but in these reports.

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Speaker 1: Neither Greg nor Joe reported any kind of physical altercation,

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Speaker 1: and they didn't respond to the question when I emailed

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Speaker 1: it to them, and they're telling of it, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to blame the pair of hunters for being exasperated. They

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Speaker 1: say Aarin was acting listless and uninterested, almost like he

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Speaker 1: didn't want to be there. Greg said that Aaron had

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Speaker 1: put a new site on his bow, but didn't bother

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Speaker 1: to site it in before the trip. According to Greg,

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Speaker 1: Aaron spent part of the time at camp blowing up

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Speaker 1: his arrows by firing them into rocks, and he never

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Speaker 1: actually got it sited in. Greg said Aaron wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: been able to hit a hay bale from ten yards away.

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Speaker 5: I take it very seriously. I my whole year is

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Speaker 5: devoted to bow hunting. I had to shoot my bow

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Speaker 5: every day I run. It's very serious. And so I

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Speaker 5: showed up to the parking lot at Joe's out back

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Speaker 5: and Aaron pulled in and he just looked like shit.

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Speaker 5: His face was pickled, he hadn't had a haircut and forever.

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Speaker 1: Greg claims that Aaron had been drinking, and that suspicion

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Speaker 1: appeared to be confirmed When Greg and Joe took a

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Speaker 1: walk up the mountain and looked back at camp through

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Speaker 1: their binoculars.

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Speaker 5: Right by where our camp was, there was a big

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Speaker 5: black bear walking in that big open bw right by

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Speaker 5: where the camp was. Aaron's sitting there and just kind

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Speaker 5: of looking at it. We're watching thro our binoculars and

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Speaker 5: we're just thinking like, oh, is he gonna get his

254
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Speaker 5: bow go try and shoot that thing? Is he do drunk?

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Speaker 5: What's what's he doing? And so we're watching and he

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Speaker 5: grabs his he grabs his bow, and he's like stumbling.

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Speaker 5: We were trying to figure out what he's doing. Oh,

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Speaker 5: he's looking for his slippers. So he goes and he

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Speaker 5: puts his slippers on, and he gets his bow and

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Speaker 5: he starts stumbling across the meadow right towards the bear,

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Speaker 5: and that, you know, not like how he would put

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Speaker 5: a stock on an animal. He just starts walking right

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Speaker 5: towards it. I was surprised he got as close as

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Speaker 5: he did. He probably got forty or fifty yards away,

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Speaker 5: which could have been theoretically in shooting distance, but he

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00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,480
Speaker 5: never even attempted to draw his bow. He just kept

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Speaker 5: walking at it, and the bear eventually turn around and ran.

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Speaker 5: But that gave us an idea right there that he

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Speaker 5: was gonna stay at camp or he get on out

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Speaker 5: by himself, Like I'm not, you know, we put too

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Speaker 5: much work into this. Like that was the most pathetic

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Speaker 5: excuse for a stock on an animal I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: When Greg and Joe walked back into camp, they could

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Speaker 1: tell the horse and mule were nervous about something lurking

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Speaker 1: in the darkness beyond the firelight. Aaron wasn't concerned, but

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Speaker 1: Greg said he knew something was wrong. He walked where

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Speaker 1: the animals were looking and found another bear standing just

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Speaker 1: about twenty yards away. If I were two shots from

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Speaker 1: his pistol to scare the bear away and return to camp.

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Speaker 5: But then after that, I was just I rate with

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Speaker 5: Aaron's so mad. I'm just like, what are you doing?

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Speaker 5: Are you kidding me? So this bear right there in

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Speaker 5: camp harassing the horses? You're laying here drunk, you know,

284
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Speaker 5: like what, It's just like, how good are you?

285
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Speaker 3: You know?

286
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,640
Speaker 5: Just just stay in camp? Like I was so angry

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00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:28,000
Speaker 5: at him, and just it was just so pathetic because

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00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:32,080
Speaker 5: we take it so seriously, and he just wasn't.

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Speaker 1: With that kind of resentment in the air. It probably

290
00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,040
Speaker 1: came as a relief when Aaron told them he planned

291
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Speaker 1: to leave.

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Speaker 5: After that second night at the base of Campfire Pass,

293
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Speaker 5: after he stayed up all night cussing and building the fire,

294
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Speaker 5: He said he was going to walk to the cash

295
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Speaker 5: at Sunlight Camp.

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Speaker 1: The previous fall, the group had stashed some gear near

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Speaker 1: Sunlight Lake, including a wal tent, stove, sleeping bags, and

298
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Speaker 1: freeze dried food. Rather than spend another in the cold

299
00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:03,320
Speaker 1: without his sleeping bag, Aaron said he wanted to make

300
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:06,360
Speaker 1: the nine mile hike up to Sunlight Lake and retrieve

301
00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,840
Speaker 1: what they'd stashed. The group agreed to use their Garmin

302
00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:13,320
Speaker 1: Rhino Won twenty GPS radios to contact each other at

303
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,800
Speaker 1: noon and at four pm every day until they reunited.

304
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:19,520
Speaker 1: Aaron said that if they didn't walk up to where

305
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,760
Speaker 1: he was, he'd walk back to them on Monday or Tuesday.

306
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,040
Speaker 1: Since they planned to leave on Wednesday, Greg and Joe

307
00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:30,120
Speaker 1: got up early to look for Elk on Sunday, September seventh.

308
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:32,520
Speaker 1: They said that when they looked back at camp, they

309
00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,760
Speaker 1: could still see Aaron milling around, and as far as

310
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Speaker 1: we know, that's the last time anyone saw Aaron Alive

311
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Speaker 1: Part two Aerin. Like so many things about this story,

312
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,320
Speaker 1: Aaron Hedges himself is a bit of a mystery. We

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00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:55,600
Speaker 1: know he was married and had one young son at

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00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,280
Speaker 1: the time of his disappearance. We know he was thirty

315
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:00,920
Speaker 1: eight years old. He was six one, one hundred and

316
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 1: ninety pounds and had blonde hair and blue eyes. We

317
00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:06,000
Speaker 1: know he liked to hunt elk and he lived in

318
00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:10,200
Speaker 1: the Livingston Bozeman area, but we don't know much else.

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00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 1: The friends and family we contacted about this episode, including

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00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,160
Speaker 1: his wife Christine, either didn't get back to us or

321
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,639
Speaker 1: refused to speak to us. We do know, as you

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00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,359
Speaker 1: may have already guessed, that Aaron was an alcoholic. Greg

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00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,320
Speaker 1: told investigators that Aaron would regularly drink a bottle of

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Speaker 1: Jack Daniels a day, and he brought several with him

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Speaker 1: on that trip.

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Speaker 8: Both Joe and.

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Speaker 1: Greg implied that this may have explained Aaron's strange behavior.

328
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Speaker 5: We get off the main road and we're driving up

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00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:43,600
Speaker 5: the up the dirt road to the trailhead and Aaron

330
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 5: pulls out like this bottle of twisted tea or something

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Speaker 5: and starts drinking it just fucking you know.

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Speaker 9: We're getting ready to you know, penetrate ten miles deep

333
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Speaker 9: into the crazy mountains, and he's busting out a twisted

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Speaker 9: tea and he's already just loopy is hell from whatever

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Speaker 9: the medication he was taking is.

336
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Speaker 5: And I'm just like, what are you doing them? Like?

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00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,800
Speaker 5: He's like, Oh, it's just these twisted teas. It's not

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Speaker 5: a big deal. It's not Jack Daniels. I'll be fine.

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Speaker 1: Greg said that Aaron seemed drunk on that ride to

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Speaker 1: the trailhead, but he wasn't sure whether that was from

341
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:21,040
Speaker 1: the alcohol or the medication Aaron had been prescribed to

342
00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:24,399
Speaker 1: help him curb his alcohol addiction. He didn't know what

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00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 1: the medication was called, but investigators later confirmed with Aaron's

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00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:33,199
Speaker 1: doctor that he'd been prescribed a drug called chlor diaz epoxide.

345
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:34,920
Speaker 8: The brand name of this drug.

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00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,680
Speaker 1: Is Librium, and it's prescribed to patients to treat anxiety

347
00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:41,840
Speaker 1: disorders and symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Aaron's doctor confirmed that

348
00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:44,439
Speaker 1: he'd been given a prescription of this medication in the

349
00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,679
Speaker 1: weeks prior to the hunt. Christine told investigators that she

350
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Speaker 1: believed this medication had made Aaron quote agitated and unstable

351
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Speaker 1: on his feet.

352
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Speaker 6: Kstine stated that because of the negative side effects she

353
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Speaker 6: had seen in her husband, Aaron, which included short temper

354
00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:02,800
Speaker 6: and physical unbalanced, she didn't want him to go on

355
00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,000
Speaker 6: the hunting trip. The trip was a spur of the

356
00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:07,760
Speaker 6: moment trip for Erin. She also stated that if it

357
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:10,399
Speaker 6: wasn't for the medication side effects, she would not be

358
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:11,479
Speaker 6: worried about her husband.

359
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,080
Speaker 1: It's true that the side effects of librium include dizziness,

360
00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,640
Speaker 1: changes in mood or behavior, and confusion, but the medication

361
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,639
Speaker 1: is also prescribed as a treatment for anxiety, so the

362
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,800
Speaker 1: doctor told investigators that Aaron should have had quote a

363
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 1: very stable mindset while taking the medication. She also said

364
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,920
Speaker 1: that if Aaron had been taking the pills per the instructions,

365
00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:34,159
Speaker 1: he should have been done with them well before the

366
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:38,680
Speaker 1: trip began. In other words, while both alcohol and librium

367
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:42,600
Speaker 1: may have explained Aaron's strange behavior, we don't know exactly

368
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,639
Speaker 1: what or how much was in his system on the

369
00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:49,720
Speaker 1: day he disappeared. It's also worth noting again that we

370
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,600
Speaker 1: have to rely on Greg and Joe's word that Aarin

371
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,840
Speaker 1: was acting strangely at all. Whatever the truth is, Aaron's

372
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:58,960
Speaker 1: drinking wasn't just messing with his archery.

373
00:19:59,040 --> 00:19:59,440
Speaker 8: Skills.

374
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,080
Speaker 1: His his initial interview with investigators, Joe said he'd known

375
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:04,640
Speaker 1: Erin for ten years.

376
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,439
Speaker 6: But he was under the impression that Hedges had a

377
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,160
Speaker 6: wonderful wife and was screwing up by drinking so much.

378
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 1: Aaron's drinking was clearly a problem, and Greg mentioned that

379
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 1: he switched from hard tea to whiskey after that first night.

380
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,920
Speaker 5: He would drink it and secret because we were giving

381
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:23,840
Speaker 5: him a hard time about it, because you know, he

382
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 5: knew if he was taking those pills and we didn't

383
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,719
Speaker 5: want him drinking anyways. I mean, if you're, you know,

384
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:31,560
Speaker 5: getting done hunting at the end of the day and

385
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,640
Speaker 5: you want you want to have a couple pulls off

386
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:35,959
Speaker 5: the bottle by the fire, that's one thing. You know,

387
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 5: Drinking a whole leader of whiskey over the course of

388
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 5: the day while you're on an Elkhana is another sink

389
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:43,880
Speaker 5: like which just weren't okay with it.

390
00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,199
Speaker 1: Getting drunk in the back country might not be wise.

391
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,440
Speaker 1: But the question remains is that what killed Erin. Did

392
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:54,399
Speaker 1: the side effects of the medication or another bottle of

393
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:58,520
Speaker 1: Jack Daniels or not having another bottle of Jack Daniels

394
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:03,120
Speaker 1: cause him to lose his way? And eventually his life.

395
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 1: It's possible, but that's not where this story ends.

396
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:12,000
Speaker 8: Part three.

397
00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: Lost Aaron's behavior didn't stop Greg and Joe from their

398
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:20,879
Speaker 1: primary mission on that trip. After they looked back and

399
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,560
Speaker 1: saw Erin still in camp, they forged ahead into the

400
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,480
Speaker 1: hills and valleys around Campfire Lake in search of elk.

401
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:31,440
Speaker 1: They were successful. In the afternoon of Sunday, September seventh,

402
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 1: the first day they went hunting, Greg arrowed a nice

403
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,960
Speaker 1: six by six bowl. They told investigators that they shot

404
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,800
Speaker 1: the animal near dead Horse Lake, which is about two

405
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:42,720
Speaker 1: miles northeast of Campfire Lake.

406
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 8: As the crow flies, We're working.

407
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,440
Speaker 5: Our way east toward sunlight drainage right at the top

408
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,919
Speaker 5: of the timber, and I'm just letting out cow calls.

409
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:53,600
Speaker 5: Turn to see if I can give those two other

410
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 5: bulls we saw, and sure enough, both of them came

411
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,240
Speaker 5: just came running right out of me on a string,

412
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,200
Speaker 5: and one of them hung up at about eighty yards

413
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 5: and the other one just walked right up on top

414
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,960
Speaker 5: of me. I was able to draw my bow back,

415
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,440
Speaker 5: and he walked up to about ten fifteen yards and

416
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 5: drilled them right between the chest.

417
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 1: If you've ever been hunting, with a group. You know

418
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,480
Speaker 1: that when someone shoots an animal, the rest of the

419
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,440
Speaker 1: group tries to come help with the packout. Dead Horse

420
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 1: Lake is actually pretty close to Sunlight Lake, and so

421
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: the pair of hunters radioed Aaron to come back and

422
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,080
Speaker 1: help them break down the bull.

423
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,040
Speaker 5: We get out the radio because Aaron had that radio,

424
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 5: and we're thinking, like, Aaron's gotta be on the trail

425
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 5: right below us, Like, let's get him on the radio

426
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,960
Speaker 5: and let's tell him not to go to the camp.

427
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 5: You know, we need his help.

428
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 1: Aaron answered their radio call, but he didn't seem excited

429
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,040
Speaker 1: to hear about their success on the mountain.

430
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:54,719
Speaker 5: He immediately answered, He's like yeah, just sort of drunk,

431
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 5: angry voice, and I'm just like, dude, we had a

432
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 5: bull down, where are you? And he's just like not

433
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,800
Speaker 5: excited at all. He's just like, I.

434
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,160
Speaker 3: Find now you don't know, excuseuld you walk the same

435
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:08,960
Speaker 3: trail we did?

436
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,560
Speaker 5: Like have you gotten to the turnoff the Sunlight Trilia?

437
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 5: I don't know. I'd don't hike it for seven miles.

438
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: Greg thinks Aarin was exaggerating about how far he walked,

439
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: but if he was even close to correct, he would

440
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,199
Speaker 1: have missed the turnoff he was supposed to take up

441
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:27,160
Speaker 1: to Sunlight Lake.

442
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 3: He went right past the fork to go to Sunlight

443
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 3: and went straight down to the sweet Grass. So he

444
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 3: was headed for sweet Grass counting the last time they.

445
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 2: Heard from me.

446
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,199
Speaker 1: To understand what's happening here, it helps to look at

447
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 1: a map I used on X to map Erin's last

448
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,359
Speaker 1: known locations and to get a sense of who was

449
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,360
Speaker 1: where and when. We posted a version of that map

450
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 1: on the case file for this episode, which you can

451
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: check out over at the meaeater.

452
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 8: Dot com slash Blood Trails.

453
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 1: To walk from Campfire Lake to Sunlight Lake, Aaron would

454
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: have had to walk northwest about five and a half

455
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 1: miles along a well defined trail. At that point, he

456
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 1: would have had to hang a left and go north

457
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: along another trail up to Sunlight That's where, according to

458
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 1: Greg and Joe, Aaron started to lose his way. This

459
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: is an important part of the story because it explains

460
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: why Aarin never found the gear cash and why he

461
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,160
Speaker 1: was so ill prepared to survive a drop in temperature.

462
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 1: I haven't seen this trail or the turnoff myself, but

463
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:31,400
Speaker 1: Yanni has.

464
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 7: I've been on that trail both daylight hours and nighttime hours,

465
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 7: it was not hard to find that turnoff.

466
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: Yanni explained that the trail in that area is in

467
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 1: thick timber and gets a lot of human and horse traffic,

468
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 1: So if you're on the trail, you probably wouldn't miss

469
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,119
Speaker 1: the turn, especially in daylight and even if you were

470
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: slightly intoxicated. But there's also a crete crossing prior to

471
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 1: the turnoff, So if Aaron had moved off the trail

472
00:24:57,160 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 1: to get across the water or because he was hunting

473
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,920
Speaker 1: el it's possible he could have missed it easily.

474
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 7: Easily because if you're on the trail, yeah, it's like

475
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 7: right there, you could probably walk it with your eyes

476
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 7: closed because you could feel when you go off the trail.

477
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 7: But being he was elk hunting, maybe he was walking

478
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 7: the trail at first. But I would imagine that he

479
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 7: didn't elk hunt an entire day and stay on a

480
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:23,959
Speaker 7: trail the entire day.

481
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 8: That would be hard to do.

482
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 1: Of course, even if Aaron had missed the trail, he

483
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: could have just turned around and retraced his steps. That's

484
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: what Greg and Joe told him to do. But for

485
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 1: reasons that remain a mystery, he refused.

486
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 5: Which just like, Aaron, turn around and walk back the

487
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 5: way you came. If you haven't switched trails.

488
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 8: All you have to do is turn around and start

489
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 8: walking back.

490
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 5: We'll meet you on the trail.

491
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 2: Joe here, talk to Aaron.

492
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 5: Joe's just like, what the fuck, man, you don't know

493
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 5: where you are? And He's like, I don't know.

494
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 3: We'll turn around.

495
00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 5: I'm coming right back up here. And at that point

496
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,919
Speaker 5: only the signal was kind of fading out a little bit,

497
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 5: like getting a little bit scratchy, and we're just like,

498
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 5: turn around and come back up. Okay, we're gonna come

499
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 5: down to the trail and meet you. Just turn around,

500
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 5: don't go any further. Well, I that's not sure where

501
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 5: I am. And Joe's like just getting pissed, like what

502
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 5: do you mean, dude? Just turn around, and Aaron says,

503
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 5: I don't think I'm gonna make it back tonight. Last

504
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 5: words he ever spoke. Couldn't get him on the radio

505
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 5: after that. It was almost like maybe he got maybe

506
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,720
Speaker 5: mad or turning off the radio. I don't think that

507
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 5: we lost the signal that abruptly, but he just said

508
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 5: I don't think I'm gonna make it back tonight, and

509
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 5: that was the last thing he said.

510
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,400
Speaker 3: And they made more attempts to contact him, but then

511
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 3: at that time Aaron wouldn't respond or didn't respond.

512
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: The group had planned to leave on Wednesday, and they

513
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: shot the elk on Sunday, so they had three full

514
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 1: days to quarter the elk and pack it out. In

515
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,199
Speaker 1: the reports, Joe and Greg don't mention whether Joe had

516
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,680
Speaker 1: an elk tag, but it doesn't sound like they hunted

517
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 1: anymore after that. Instead, they spent about two hours breaking

518
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: down the animal and hanging the meat. Then they walked

519
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 1: back down to their base camp on Campfire Lake. The

520
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: next morning, they broke camp and headed up to Moose

521
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 1: Lake to retrieve the elk and make another camp up there.

522
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 1: Then on Tuesday, they hiked back down to Campfire Lake

523
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: in the hope that they'd run into Erin as he

524
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: made his way back to the trucks, but he didn't

525
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: show and on Wednesday, September tenth, twenty fourteen, they hiked

526
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: down to the trailhead and drove away. And all that

527
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: time they never heard from or saw Erin again.

528
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 3: No contact from him. He's nowhere to be found. They

529
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 3: looked for him and they knew or were aware that

530
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 3: there was weather coming in, and they decided to take off.

531
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: They called Erin's wife when they returned cell service, and

532
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: Christine called the Park County sheriff to report that her

533
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,479
Speaker 1: husband was missing. That call launched what would become one

534
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 1: of the largest search and rescue efforts Park and Sweetgrass

535
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: Counties had ever seen. After the break, we dig deeper

536
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: into the search for Aaron and the investigation into Greg

537
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: and Joe. Why didn't they call search and rescue earlier?

538
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: Why did they defy law enforcement and return to the

539
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: gear cash, and how does Greg try to explain their

540
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: actions to detectives? Wondering whether something isn't quite right about

541
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 1: their story? All that and more as next Right after

542
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 1: this part four, the search Sheriff Alan Roneberg told me

543
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: his career has been fined by the search for Aaron Hedges.

544
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: No one wants to be remembered for a single tragic circumstance,

545
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: but the search for Aarin was enormous. Those search efforts

546
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 1: were frustrated almost from the first moment that night.

547
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 3: I mean, it flip and snowed, the temp dropped, I

548
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 3: don't know, probably forty degrees. I would imagine it went

549
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 3: from fifty to like ten in eight to ten hours,

550
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 3: and it in the crazies.

551
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 2: It snowed eighteen to twenty four inches of snow in

552
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 2: one storm.

553
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 1: Janni says, this kind of sudden snowstorm isn't unusual and

554
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: the three Hunters should have been prepared for something like

555
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: this to happen.

556
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 7: Nope, not out of the ordinary. I would even say

557
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 7: it's closer to normal than not normal. Even when I

558
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:50,920
Speaker 7: did that raise at the end of July, Like, you

559
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 7: have a kit that you have to carry with you

560
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 7: that will basically save your butt if that happens at

561
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 7: the end of July, Like you could see temperatures well

562
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 7: into the eighties maybe higher. You know, if you saw snowflakes,

563
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 7: you wouldn't go, oh my god, I died and went

564
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 7: to Hell or something like. It's known to have some

565
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 7: crazy weather, and I think a storm can come in

566
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 7: and just hit those high mountain peaks, Thames drop moisture drops,

567
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 7: and the next thing you know, Yeah, it can be September, August,

568
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 7: July and it's snowing on you. Not out of the ordinary.

569
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: The trio of Hunters had gone into the mountains in

570
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: Park County. So in those first few days, the Park

571
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office took the lead on the search efforts

572
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: and the subsequent investigation. But they knew from what Joe

573
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: and Greg told them that Aaron was headed east into

574
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: sweet Grass County when they lost contact with him. So

575
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: Sheriff Ronenberg figured they should send a team on four

576
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: wheelers to a place called Eagle Park, which is where

577
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: Aaron may have emerged if he had kept walking.

578
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 3: It was like ten o'clock at night, tin to midnight.

579
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:51,680
Speaker 2: They stayed there.

580
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,240
Speaker 3: They honked their horns, yelled, form, whistle form everything they

581
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:56,440
Speaker 3: could to attract him.

582
00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 2: Were there for two hours.

583
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 3: Nothing was there. It was just flat dump and snow,

584
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 3: and so they took off out of there.

585
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: The snowstorm kept searchers indoors until the next morning, when

586
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 1: Park County launched their efforts at seven am.

587
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 3: Park County launched a really good search between their search

588
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 3: for rescue team, the abtro search dogs, National Guard, Rocky

589
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 3: Mountain roaders all kind of got into the area.

590
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: But even though the storm had stopped, conditions were still

591
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous. Two horse teams were deployed to search Campfire

592
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: Lake and Sunlight lake. They stayed out all day, but

593
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: one to two feet of snow and sub zero temperatures

594
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: kept them from searching the entirety of the trails to

595
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 1: either lake. They found no sign of air and on

596
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 1: the portions of the trail they were able to search.

597
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 1: They also sent in two military helicopters to fly over

598
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 1: the entire area. Low clouds and poor visibility hampered their

599
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: efforts at first, but conditions improved as a day wore on.

600
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 1: They kept searching until nearly midnight using night vision technology,

601
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: but they still found no sign of it. But something

602
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: else happened that day that to this day has yet

603
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: to be explained. Two search and rescue crew members went

604
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: up in a separate helicopter to the gear cash, following

605
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: GPS coordinates provided by Joe, but either Joe made a

606
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: mistake or the crew went to the wrong place because

607
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: they weren't able to find the stash of gear.

608
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 6: In fact, on arrival to the area, we were advised

609
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 6: by team members that the GPS coordinates provided were as

610
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 6: much as ten miles away from the Sunlight Lake area.

611
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 6: Pilot Mark Taylor landed in an area similar to that

612
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 6: described by Joe Depew and Todd and Picklow commenced a

613
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 6: short search for the cash, but were unable to locate it.

614
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: The next day, Friday, September twelfth, two dog teams were

615
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: dispatched to be a helicopter, one of which scoured the

616
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: area around Sunlight Lake. The team found the cash, along

617
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: with a bunch of boot prints in the snow. These

618
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: boot prints, investigators learned, were made by Greg and Joe

619
00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: the evening before. Greg and Joe had gone back to

620
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: the Light Lake trailhead and spoken with the two deputies

621
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: station there.

622
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 6: They told deputies that they were going to Sunlight Lake,

623
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 6: where they had a cash that they left the previous

624
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 6: year while they were hunting the area. Deputy Nelson told

625
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 6: me that he tried to discourage Depew and Enlightener from going,

626
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 6: as he did not want them to complicate the search

627
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 6: effort and also due to inclement weather. I would like

628
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 6: to note that Corporal Todd had spoken to Depew earlier

629
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 6: in the day and requested they stay out of the

630
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 6: search area, but.

631
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 8: Greg and Joe went anyway.

632
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 5: So we made it up there, and it was it

633
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 5: was the hell making it over that pass. We did it.

634
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 5: We got down, we walked right to where our cash was.

635
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 5: It had not been touched. Aaron never made it there

636
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 5: without a doubt.

637
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: They set up camp and spent the night, and Greg

638
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: reports he didn't get much sleep thanks to the army

639
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 1: helicopter hovering overhead. He also said Joe was sick with

640
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 1: pneumonia to the point where he was coughing up blood.

641
00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 5: It's probably the most eerie experience I've ever had in

642
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 5: my life. I mean, I'm sitting there, you know, looking

643
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,239
Speaker 5: for my buddy's that's missing, my other buddies, laying here

644
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 5: coughing up blood, just sick as hell. It's just this

645
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 5: like Arctic tundra at this point, and I've got this

646
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 5: chopper all night long, just ton to to do, just

647
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 5: right over the ten.

648
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: Greg looked for tracks that evening, and he found some,

649
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,879
Speaker 1: but he said they were smaller than Aaron's footprint would

650
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 1: have been. He followed them for an unstated distance, but

651
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: he was worried about Joe's health, so he went back

652
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: to camp and the pair hiked out the next morning.

653
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,320
Speaker 1: Deputies confirmed that they got back to the trailhead about

654
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: eleven forty five am. This is how the dog team

655
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: was able to locate the cash. The next day, they

656
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 1: found Greg and Joe's tracks and just followed them to

657
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 1: the gear. The reports don't mention that Greg and Joe

658
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 1: took anything, but they couldn't help disturbing the scene. The

659
00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 1: search teams also didn't find any sign of Aaron, so

660
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,320
Speaker 1: they photographed the contents of the cash and kept looking.

661
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,239
Speaker 1: A few days later, on Sunday, September fourteenth, another dog

662
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: team found the first clue as to Aaron's real whereabouts.

663
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 1: The report says they located an arrow that matched the

664
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: description of the arrows Aaron was using, but they found

665
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:16,760
Speaker 1: it in an unlikely place along the trail to Sunlight Lake. Remember,

666
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 1: according to Greg and Joe, Aaron said he'd missed the

667
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: turn to Sunlight Lake and had kept walking. But if

668
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,439
Speaker 1: this arrow was actually Erin's, it would mean he didn't

669
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 1: miss the turn and was at one point headed toward

670
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,719
Speaker 1: the cash of gear. But that clue didn't lead to

671
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: anything further, and it wasn't until the search turned east

672
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,240
Speaker 1: into Sweetgrass County that the searchers began to piece together

673
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 1: what had happened.

674
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 3: Third or fourth day, we kind of figured, well, he's

675
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 3: not in Park County, He's in sweet Grass County. By

676
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 3: that time, there was still a little bit of snow

677
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 3: on the ground, so we went ahead up from our

678
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 3: side up to Eagle Park and beyond Well, right against

679
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 3: the trail is a pretty good fire pit that has

680
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 3: been used by the local dude range, a great, big,

681
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 3: nice place to camp out, and that's next to the falls.

682
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 2: Well.

683
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 3: We found a hip belt that had been cut off

684
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 3: of a pack inside the fire pit, kind of partially

685
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,320
Speaker 3: burned maybe, but still in really good shape.

686
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: Ronneberg and his team didn't know why Aaron had cut

687
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,279
Speaker 1: off his hip belt and burned it, but they thought

688
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,760
Speaker 1: it might be his. That hunch was confirmed when on Wednesday,

689
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: September seventeenth, they found the boots and the water bladder,

690
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 1: along with two places Aaron had made a fire. I

691
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,919
Speaker 1: asked the sheriff whether at this point they're just looking

692
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,399
Speaker 1: for a body, or if they thought Aaron might still

693
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: be alive.

694
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 3: No, at that time, we're still looking for him. I

695
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:43,360
Speaker 3: don't really think he has to come to anything or

696
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 3: as we go along, you know, we're doing tight circles

697
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 3: around that area trying to pick up any kind of

698
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,360
Speaker 3: trace that he was there, and we didn't come up

699
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 3: with anything.

700
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 1: They found the water bladder near a waterfall, and so

701
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: they thought maybe he'd gone down to re fill it

702
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: and had slipped in and drowned. That would also explain

703
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: why he disappeared without his boots.

704
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 3: We spent a day trying to dredge the falls, so

705
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 3: we kind of wonder if he didn't slip and go

706
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 3: into the water and drowned and has not come out.

707
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:19,840
Speaker 3: You know. We kind of got fixated on that for

708
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:20,760
Speaker 3: a little while.

709
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 1: But the water didn't give them the answers they were

710
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: looking for either. The boots and campfires were about two

711
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: miles beyond the turnoff to Sunlight Lake and about seven

712
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: miles from the base camp at Campfire Lake. During one

713
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 1: of those last radio conversations, Joe said, Aaron reported having

714
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 1: hiked about seven miles, which means he could have been

715
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,799
Speaker 1: in this area during that radio call. But that call

716
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,800
Speaker 1: happened on Sunday evening, a full three days before the

717
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 1: snow hit. Was Aaron hanging out in this area that

718
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 1: entire time or did he move on? The search teams

719
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,239
Speaker 1: were confident that they'd found Aaron's camp, and so they

720
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,839
Speaker 1: focused their efforts on the surrounding area In the days

721
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,760
Speaker 1: that followed. The mission lasted an other five days until Monday,

722
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: September twenty second.

723
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 3: I gathered up all my guys that were there, and

724
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,399
Speaker 3: they'd been there most of the two weeks, and I said,

725
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 3: all right, is there anything else we can do? Do

726
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,240
Speaker 3: you guys have any ideas of where we can search,

727
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 3: what we can do to try and find this guy?

728
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 3: Is there anything else we could do? And everybody said,

729
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 3: I can't think of a damn thing.

730
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 1: It's hard to fault Sheriff Ronenberg and the other search

731
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,280
Speaker 1: and rescue leaders from making this call. They'd been scouring

732
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 1: the mountains every day for twelve days straight. They deployed

733
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:38,880
Speaker 1: horse teams, dog teams, helicopters, and ATVs. They'd done hasty

734
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: searches to cover lots of ground and slow, grueling grid

735
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 1: searches to find even the smallest clue. They'd gotten help

736
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: from search and rescue personnel and law enforcement agents, many

737
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: of whom were pulling double duty, and they hadn't come

738
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 1: up with anything. The case was still open, but the

739
00:38:55,840 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 1: concentrated search efforts were over. Hindsight is twenty twenty. But

740
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: as the sheriff looks back on that decision, he can't help.

741
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 1: But wonder if he made the right call.

742
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 3: If I had been listening to my training, which I

743
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 3: should have been, I would have said, you know what,

744
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 3: let's start searching further east. Let's keep going, you know,

745
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,320
Speaker 3: because he's hunting. I didn't put two and two together,

746
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,800
Speaker 3: and he's off chasing something or you know, he just

747
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 3: decided this was the way better way out. You know,

748
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 3: he didn't want to go back, He didn't want to

749
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 3: stay in place. He just wanted to keep going. Like

750
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 3: the last person, behavior says, they'll do.

751
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: Part five the investigation. While the search and rescue teams

752
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 1: were looking for Aaron in the mountains, the Park County

753
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,000
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office was working to piece together why Aaron disappeared

754
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: in the first place. Their efforts were hampered initially because,

755
00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 1: for reasons that have only been partially explained, Joe and

756
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: Greg didn't to report their friend missing.

757
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 6: On nine ten, fourteen, at approximately eighteen twenty three hours,

758
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 6: Dispatch received a complaint of a missing person in the

759
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:13,320
Speaker 6: Crazy Mountains area in Park County. The complainant, Christine Hedges,

760
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:16,479
Speaker 6: stated that her husband never came home from a hunting trip,

761
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 6: and his friends had called to tell her that her

762
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:19,960
Speaker 6: husband was missing.

763
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,480
Speaker 1: Christine first called Sweetgrass County, but the dispatcher's there referred

764
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:27,800
Speaker 1: her to Park County. When Sheriff Roneberg heard about what happened,

765
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:30,160
Speaker 1: he found a number for Joe and Greg and called

766
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: them himself.

767
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 3: But I said, well, where are you now? He said,

768
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 3: We're on the Bozeman Hill. I said, what the hell

769
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 3: are you doing on the Bolzman Hill? You need to

770
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,359
Speaker 3: turn around and you need to go to the Park

771
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:45,360
Speaker 3: County Sharris's office right now. They tried to put it

772
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 3: off and do this. We've got to take care of

773
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 3: our animals, that stuff like that. I told him I

774
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 3: don't really give her at You better get your ass

775
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:56,760
Speaker 3: down to the sharsofice a report your friend missing.

776
00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: Greg might dispute this characterization. In his interview with law enforcement.

777
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 1: He said that Joe contacted the Park County sheriff as

778
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: soon as they got off the mountain. But the reports

779
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: I received from the county attorney clearly state that Christine,

780
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 1: not Greg or Joe, was the person who called to

781
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:17,160
Speaker 1: report Aaron missing. I don't know if Joe's call wasn't recorded,

782
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: or if something else can explain that discrepancy, but whatever

783
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 1: the truth is, the pairaf hunters did eventually make it

784
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: to the Park County Sheriff's office at seven point fifteen

785
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 1: that evening. Deputies took their initial statements, and detectives interviewed

786
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: both of them multiple times over the next few weeks.

787
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 1: They wanted to know what happened in those mountains where

788
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: Aaron may have gone, and most importantly, why they'd left

789
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,480
Speaker 1: him up there. What they heard from the two elk

790
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:44,239
Speaker 1: hunters was not reassuring.

791
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 3: Almost everything they talked was a line they were trying

792
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 3: to hide what they were doing up there. Joe and

793
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 3: Greg were interviewed extensively, I believe three times because there

794
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 3: was a pretty good thing theory that they had done

795
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 3: Aaron in and probably had buried him in a rock

796
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 3: slide up by the lake where their base camp was.

797
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:12,320
Speaker 3: That was a very prominent theory.

798
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,399
Speaker 1: Early on, Joe and Greg would be suspected no matter

799
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:17,840
Speaker 1: what they said. Three men went up into the mountains

800
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 1: and only two of them came back. Investigators had to

801
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 1: wonder whether anything the farious had happened. But according to

802
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: Sheriff Ronneberg, Joe and Greg said and did things that

803
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:32,000
Speaker 1: made investigators extremely suspicious. The first is what you already heard.

804
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,600
Speaker 1: Rather than calling search and rescue. As soon as they

805
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:36,920
Speaker 1: got back to service, they called Christine.

806
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 3: If it was one of my friends that was out

807
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 3: there missing, I'd be right out front, going, Hey, we

808
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 3: need to find this guy. I want to help every

809
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 3: way we can. I want to be out there with you.

810
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 2: We had to go find Joe and Greg.

811
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 3: We had to go find them guys to get more

812
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 3: information out of them. They didn't want to have anything

813
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,359
Speaker 3: to do with this, and that just through all kinds

814
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 3: of red flags all the way through the front end

815
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 3: of this.

816
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: They did eventually give statements, but those statements also raised

817
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 1: troubling questions.

818
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:14,239
Speaker 6: It should be noted that neither Depew nor Lightner indicated

819
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,440
Speaker 6: they looked for hedges at all while they were in

820
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 6: the area. Depew stated that they attempted to make contact

821
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 6: with hedges every hour, and even attempted to go places

822
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 6: where the radio reception might be better. He said he

823
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,240
Speaker 6: thought they would bump into him sometime on Monday.

824
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 1: Greg reiterated this timeline in his interview with law enforcement.

825
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 5: I'm just like, when are you going to be back?

826
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,880
Speaker 5: I mean, you don't We didn't know where we need

827
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 5: to at least to know the day you're going to

828
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 5: be back, so we can you come and look for you.

829
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 5: And he was like, wow, I don't know. That doesn't

830
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 5: work for me. Tell me when you're going to be back.

831
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,960
Speaker 5: And I think he said he was going to be

832
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:57,839
Speaker 5: back either Monday or Tuesday, like he was just going

833
00:43:57,920 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 5: to go up there and spend the night and check

834
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:00,800
Speaker 5: on things.

835
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 1: But they didn't bump into him on Monday or Tuesday

836
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: or Wednesday. In fact, over seventy two hours passed between

837
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 1: the time they lost contact with their friend and when

838
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: they finally called Christine to ask whether Aaron had come home.

839
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 6: He asked why they did not go to sunlight, and

840
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,919
Speaker 6: Depew stated he was second guessing himself and thought maybe

841
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 6: he should have gone to sunlight, but also thought Hedges

842
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:25,719
Speaker 6: may have already gone back out the way they came

843
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 6: and be out ahead of them. Depew became teary eyed

844
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 6: and emotional while we talked about this, and stated he

845
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:32,240
Speaker 6: felt he made a mistake.

846
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: Yanni agrees. Yani's been hunting all over North America in

847
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,319
Speaker 1: groups both large and small. He told me he would

848
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:44,400
Speaker 1: have called the authorities if a member of his party

849
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,359
Speaker 1: had been missing for twelve hours let alone seventy two,

850
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,440
Speaker 1: and that would be especially true if, as was the

851
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:53,960
Speaker 1: case with Aaron, he'd missed a pre established check in time.

852
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:58,479
Speaker 1: It's honestly, it's unfathomable, it really is that you would

853
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: go into the mountain as a group and that you

854
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,320
Speaker 1: would have a member of your party not check in

855
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: even at like because they had set check times, and

856
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:13,279
Speaker 1: so once they had missed the check time by even

857
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: just a few hours, someone should be getting worried. Once

858
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: it's been twelve hours, It's like the worry should have

859
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 1: changed to real concern and been thinking about what the

860
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: plan is to alleviate that problem, that situation. But then

861
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 1: the fact that they would have literally just left him

862
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 1: behind and came out and then told his wife that

863
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: to me, where I really start to wonder, Like, what

864
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 1: don't we know about the story?

865
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:41,440
Speaker 2: I don't know.

866
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 7: I think you could survey one thousand people that spend

867
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 7: time in the outdoors, hunters or not, and they would

868
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 7: tell you the same thing I'm saying, Like they would

869
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:51,080
Speaker 7: not do that.

870
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 1: Greg no doubt anticipated this criticism, and he tried to

871
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 1: explain their reasoning. When Aaron still hadn't made it back

872
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,920
Speaker 1: to Campfirelake, by Tuesday night, they decided it would be

873
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:02,800
Speaker 1: better to leave their friend.

874
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 8: On the mountain.

875
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:08,920
Speaker 5: And so at this point, we don't know if something's wrong.

876
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:14,479
Speaker 5: We don't know if he's just thinking, like a fuck

877
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 5: those guys, this is more comfortable. I'm gonna stay up

878
00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 5: here because he thinks we're gonna be there for a

879
00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:21,680
Speaker 5: few more days. I mean, you know, we told him

880
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,760
Speaker 5: we had an help down, like, it didn't really register

881
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 5: with him that you're looking to get it out. So

882
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:33,120
Speaker 5: we don't know what's going through his mind. And at

883
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:39,840
Speaker 5: this point, we're also physically drained. We did not you know,

884
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 5: we didn't have the physical ability to go hiking every

885
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 5: trail system in the Crazy Mountains looking for Aaron. We

886
00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 5: could have hiked up to the some like camp. It

887
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,000
Speaker 5: would have been tough, but if he was at the

888
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 5: Sunlight camp, he had been okay. The only way he

889
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:01,359
Speaker 5: would not have been okay is if he didn't make

890
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 5: it to the Sunlight camp. And if he didn't make

891
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 5: it to the Sunlight camp, the two of us that

892
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 5: are just you know, skin and bones and you know,

893
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:11,040
Speaker 5: feet bleeding, we're not going to be able to hike

894
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 5: every trail system. And we're thinking like, well, if he's

895
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:18,239
Speaker 5: either up there somenlight and he's okay, or he just

896
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 5: kept hiking a trail until he came out one of

897
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 5: the many exits. If anywhere in the crazies, if you

898
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:25,319
Speaker 5: just hike a trail, hike and hike and hike, you'll

899
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 5: come out into a trailhead somewhere. And so we thought, well,

900
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 5: before we go breaking our backs, you know, hiking all

901
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,719
Speaker 5: over these mountains, let's haul ass back to town and

902
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,799
Speaker 5: get a hold of Christine, his wife, and see if

903
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,319
Speaker 5: he's made a phone call, Like maybe he popped out

904
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 5: one of these other trailheads and hitched a ride or

905
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 5: called his wife, Like the last thing we wanted to

906
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:54,959
Speaker 5: do was spend days in there looking for Aaron while

907
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:58,120
Speaker 5: the elk meat rotted. If Aaron was already out and

908
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 5: sitting at his home drinking whiskey this.

909
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:03,960
Speaker 1: Couch still, they could have used their radios to call

910
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:06,359
Speaker 1: for help, or even just walk back down and use

911
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:08,440
Speaker 1: their cell phones. It would have put a damper on

912
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 1: their hunt. But since they shot the elk on the

913
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,479
Speaker 1: same day they lost contact with Aaron, you might also

914
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 1: argue that they should have packed up and left to

915
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,800
Speaker 1: call help as soon as they could. It's easy to

916
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 1: armchair quarterback decisions other people make, but that's what the

917
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:24,840
Speaker 1: detectives with the Park County Sheriff's Office were paid to do,

918
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:29,479
Speaker 1: and the circumstances were suspicious. There was even a rumor

919
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 1: that Joe and Christine may have been in some kind

920
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,360
Speaker 1: of romantic relationship. I heard this from a former official

921
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: who wanted to remain anonymous, but the rumor was prevalent

922
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 1: enough that Sheriff Roni Berg included it in a PowerPoint

923
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: presentation he made about this incident. He presents it as

924
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:47,560
Speaker 1: a case study for search and rescue training, but on

925
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 1: the slides about possible ways Aaron died, he lists this

926
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 1: little tidbit about Joe and Christine as a possible motive

927
00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: for homicide. To be clear, there isn't anything about this

928
00:48:57,640 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 1: in the official incident reports, and it's the kind of

929
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 1: nasty rumor that almost always circulates around an incident like this.

930
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 1: I don't put much stock in it, but Joe didn't

931
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 1: respond to my questions about it, so I can't say

932
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 1: for sure. Along with leaving Aaron in the wilderness and

933
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:16,760
Speaker 1: trying to avoid investigators, Joe and Greg also lied about

934
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 1: their whereabouts on the mountain. At least at first, one

935
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:22,719
Speaker 1: deputy spoke to a witness who claimed to have seen

936
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,600
Speaker 1: the hunting party on the trail. We don't know exactly

937
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:28,360
Speaker 1: what they said, but Sergeant Clay Herps wrote that the

938
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: witness refuted the hunter's claims about where they camped the

939
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 1: first night.

940
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:36,240
Speaker 6: He said in his report, ja Peer's Depew and Lightener

941
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:41,040
Speaker 6: are actively withholding information or giving misinformation regarding their exact

942
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 6: whereabouts during the hunting trip.

943
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: Herps goes on to say that the evidence found in

944
00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:48,480
Speaker 1: the mountains, including two arrows that matched the description of

945
00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: the kind Greg was using, indicate that Greg and Joe

946
00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:53,279
Speaker 1: lied about their campsites.

947
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 6: Herbs writes, we have been unable to locate any of

948
00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 6: these arrows at the other alleged camps. We have also

949
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 6: not been able to locate either of the other two

950
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:04,760
Speaker 6: camps where they stated they stayed with hedges.

951
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,799
Speaker 1: If this is true, why did investigators allow the pair

952
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 1: to walk free? The answer goes back to the elk.

953
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 6: That is.

954
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 3: One reason why they were being deceptive was because they

955
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 3: were hunting on private ground without permission.

956
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,200
Speaker 1: Meet Eater contributor Pat Durkin has famously said that big

957
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:27,320
Speaker 1: bucks make people stupid. I think the same could be

958
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: said of big bulls. The area Greg and Joe were

959
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 1: hunting as a patchwork of public and private ground. When

960
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: investigators finally found the carcass of the elk Greg shot,

961
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 1: they realized it was squarely.

962
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 8: In one of those private parcels.

963
00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:43,200
Speaker 1: I reached out to Drew Scott, the game warden who

964
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 1: handled this case from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He

965
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,600
Speaker 1: confirmed that Greg shot his elk on private ground, but

966
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 1: citations were never issued. The landowner didn't want to press charges,

967
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:57,560
Speaker 1: and so the case was basically dropped. But Greg and

968
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,320
Speaker 1: Joe couldn't have known that would happen. Feared getting in trouble,

969
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:04,640
Speaker 1: and that could explain in part why they were so

970
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 1: hesitant to approach law enforcement.

971
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 3: They had the rhinals, they had the maps, They knew

972
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 3: where they were hunting, they knew where it was for

973
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 3: service in private crown. They didn't want people to know

974
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,520
Speaker 3: where they were at anyway, And when Aaron took off

975
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,800
Speaker 3: because they didn't want to get found out, it was

976
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 3: almost kind of an afterthought that they ever wanted to

977
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 3: call him in as messy.

978
00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, they knew the elk. They had was illegal.

979
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 3: That's why they wanted to take care of the creators first.

980
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 1: The illegally harvested ELK helped explain why Greg and Joe

981
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:40,440
Speaker 1: had been deceptive, but by itself it wasn't enough to

982
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 1: exonerate them. They were never arrested, But since the search

983
00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 1: and rescue teams still hadn't found Aaron's remains, investigators continue

984
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 1: to wonder whether the pair of hunters had more than

985
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 1: one reason to lie about what happened in the Crazy Mountains.

986
00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:10,399
Speaker 1: That's next on Blood Trails, Part six, The Body without

987
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,600
Speaker 1: a Body, It was impossible to draw firm conclusions or

988
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:18,160
Speaker 1: even formulate any reasonable theories about what happened. As Greg

989
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,880
Speaker 1: told detectives a few months after Aaron went missing, the

990
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 1: fact that they still hadn't found Aaron's remains weighed especially

991
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:26,240
Speaker 1: heavy on his family.

992
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 5: I won't closure for me and Joe and you guys,

993
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:34,400
Speaker 5: and his wife Christine, and his boy Caleb, and you know,

994
00:52:34,560 --> 00:52:37,319
Speaker 5: like I was just telling him, I mean, it's so sad.

995
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 5: There hasn't been a funeral or memorial. It's you know,

996
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:44,359
Speaker 5: and little boy still thinks that his dad might come

997
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:47,320
Speaker 5: home Riley right, because he's missing.

998
00:52:48,239 --> 00:52:50,879
Speaker 1: The status quo began to change in twenty fifteen when

999
00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 1: Sheriff Ronenberg was told that a rancher in the area

1000
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:57,120
Speaker 1: had discovered a backpack the same make and model of

1001
00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:58,439
Speaker 1: the one Aaron was using.

1002
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 3: And when we went back, we found more evidence that

1003
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,960
Speaker 3: he had been there. It was under shelter, it was

1004
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,839
Speaker 3: under some sapling conifers. There was a lot of bear

1005
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:10,000
Speaker 3: activity in the area.

1006
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,320
Speaker 1: The backpack was found six miles to the east of

1007
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:15,719
Speaker 1: where the boots had been found, well beyond the search

1008
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:18,600
Speaker 1: area from the year before. The team searched the area

1009
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 1: in concentric circles, but still weren't able to find Aaron's body.

1010
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 1: But Sheriff Ronneberg did find one other thing. You know,

1011
00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:30,279
Speaker 1: I found the cup off of a thermos on a rock.

1012
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,440
Speaker 1: And the crazy part of it is is, you know,

1013
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:38,000
Speaker 1: you could see the buildings of a residence two miles

1014
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 1: in front of him from that rock. I mean it

1015
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 1: was right down the hill, just with two miles.

1016
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:44,720
Speaker 5: Of the place.

1017
00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:49,600
Speaker 3: So it's a little little bit confusing. You think, is

1018
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:53,480
Speaker 3: somebody that hypothermic that they'll stop and take a drink

1019
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 3: of something, or is he so scared of that person

1020
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 3: down there that he does not want to have anything

1021
00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:05,520
Speaker 3: to do with him. Where is that in relationship with

1022
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:07,680
Speaker 3: his physical condition?

1023
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:09,880
Speaker 2: You know, what's his mental condition.

1024
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:13,440
Speaker 1: Aaron had walked six miles without boots and had come

1025
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: within two miles of a house he would have been

1026
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,560
Speaker 1: able to see from the hill. It's possible he wasn't

1027
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:20,839
Speaker 1: able to see it due to the snowstorm, or, as

1028
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:24,680
Speaker 1: Sheriff Ronenberg suggests, was afraid to approach the landowner.

1029
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:27,320
Speaker 2: Joe and Greg have filled erring with stories.

1030
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 3: You know, if you get caught trespassing up here, the

1031
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 3: landowners just going to string you up from a tree,

1032
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,960
Speaker 3: You'll never be seen again. And just I think just

1033
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:38,879
Speaker 3: scared the snot out of you. He had been over

1034
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 3: that trail before with his kids the previous summer, we

1035
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 3: ended up finding out, so he was a little bit

1036
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 3: familiar with the area. That's why we kind of think

1037
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 3: he was avoiding people as well, because he did not

1038
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:56,080
Speaker 3: want to get caught in case he was on private ground.

1039
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 1: The reports don't mention anything about Greg and Joe talking

1040
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 1: to about landowners, and Yanni told me he's never heard

1041
00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:06,640
Speaker 1: any rumors about violence. But this area is a patchwork

1042
00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:09,239
Speaker 1: of public and private. So the sheriff might be right.

1043
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:12,520
Speaker 1: It's also possible Aaron was afraid on his own without

1044
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,320
Speaker 1: the prompting of his friends, but we don't really know

1045
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 1: for sure. Whatever the reason for Aaron's hesitation, the mountains

1046
00:55:19,719 --> 00:55:23,880
Speaker 1: still refused to give up his body. Conspiracy theories continued

1047
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 1: to flourish until.

1048
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:26,359
Speaker 2: The next year.

1049
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:32,239
Speaker 3: In August twenty sixteen, is the Dewdranch was given a

1050
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:35,719
Speaker 3: ride and they went by a dead tree, and there

1051
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 3: was a skull lay in there right on the surface,

1052
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:45,120
Speaker 3: and we found his lower mandible, probably thirty yards away.

1053
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 2: And then up above, just up above.

1054
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:52,160
Speaker 3: There was a cowtrail, and just off the side of

1055
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:55,719
Speaker 3: the cowtrail you could see some dirt had been pushed over,

1056
00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 3: and that's where we found the hip And basically the

1057
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:03,759
Speaker 3: rest of the balls that we found, the.

1058
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,560
Speaker 1: Bones that hadn't been carried away by scavengers, were all

1059
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:10,280
Speaker 1: in more or less the same place. But Aaron's clothes

1060
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 1: weren't in that pile.

1061
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 3: So at that point where we found this hip bone

1062
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:20,480
Speaker 3: and the clothing was kind of on the trail, I

1063
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:25,320
Speaker 3: went ahead and went back up and found some more clothing.

1064
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 3: I found his underwear actually, and about midway went up

1065
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:34,840
Speaker 3: a little higher kind of trail, found his coat and

1066
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:35,680
Speaker 3: a cell phone.

1067
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:38,480
Speaker 2: It was a straight shot up the hill from where

1068
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:39,360
Speaker 2: the backpack was.

1069
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:42,520
Speaker 1: Aaron's body had been buried under a pile of dirt,

1070
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:46,360
Speaker 1: and his clothes had been strewn around his body. Scavengers

1071
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 1: were likely responsible for some of that, but vultures and

1072
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:53,279
Speaker 1: coyotes can't explain all of it. Jariff Roniberg thinks he

1073
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:54,160
Speaker 1: knows what happened.

1074
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 3: You've heard of the shedding of clothes during hypothermia. That's

1075
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 3: what he's doing as he's going down, coming down the hill.

1076
00:57:01,800 --> 00:57:05,799
Speaker 3: He's shedding his clothes, shedding all his stuff. And I think,

1077
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:09,359
Speaker 3: you know, something might have happened to him to where

1078
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 3: he just can't go no more. Maybe his energy is

1079
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:16,920
Speaker 3: totally exhausted. He just is on the ground, can't get up,

1080
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 3: can't recover, and passes away. After he passes away.

1081
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:24,440
Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of bear out there.

1082
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:29,400
Speaker 3: Either a bear comes in and buries him, pushes the

1083
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 3: bank over to the top of him, or maybe predates

1084
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:36,560
Speaker 3: him a little bit. And kyle'ser there. You know, there's

1085
00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:41,040
Speaker 3: all kinds of stuff that'll noa on you. That probably happened.

1086
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:43,520
Speaker 3: I think a bear probably covered him for a while,

1087
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:46,240
Speaker 3: and that's where he sat for two years.

1088
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:49,800
Speaker 1: The medical examiner looked at what remained of Aaron's body

1089
00:57:49,840 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 1: and used dental records to confirm his identity. Park County

1090
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 1: detectives used that information, along with their previous investigation, to

1091
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:00,840
Speaker 1: officially rule out foul play, and Aaron's were released to

1092
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:05,720
Speaker 1: his family on September fifteenth, twenty sixteen. Of course, even

1093
00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:08,720
Speaker 1: with Aaron's body in front of them, investigators were limited

1094
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:12,160
Speaker 1: in what they could conclude. They couldn't do a toxicology report,

1095
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,560
Speaker 1: so we don't know what was in the Hunter's system

1096
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,440
Speaker 1: at the time he died. We also don't know when

1097
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:20,320
Speaker 1: he died. Sheriff Roniberg thinks, based on Aaron's gear and

1098
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:23,440
Speaker 1: the weather, he likely passed away within seventy two hours

1099
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 1: of Christine reporting him missing, but it's possible he survived

1100
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:31,240
Speaker 1: longer than that. We don't even really know what killed him.

1101
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:34,400
Speaker 1: It could have been hypothermia or some kind of accident

1102
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:36,120
Speaker 1: or something else.

1103
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:40,000
Speaker 3: You know, we thought maybe he killed himself. There's a

1104
00:58:40,080 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 3: possibility of suicide in there too. The skull didn't show

1105
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:48,600
Speaker 3: any defect you known men will probably take a firearm

1106
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:53,400
Speaker 3: to commit suicide. He actually did have a pistol with

1107
00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:58,360
Speaker 3: him that had not been discharged, and the skull was

1108
00:58:59,080 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 3: fully intact.

1109
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 1: However, Aaron died. He was frustratingly tragically close to finding help.

1110
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 2: When he died.

1111
00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:12,600
Speaker 3: He was actually probably within a quarter mile of the road.

1112
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:15,320
Speaker 3: As you go downhill at the bottom of the hill,

1113
00:59:15,720 --> 00:59:19,080
Speaker 3: there's a road going up to the du Dranch that

1114
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:22,080
Speaker 3: connects you with the due Dranch and the ranch house

1115
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:25,080
Speaker 3: down below, and he would have hit that within a

1116
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:25,720
Speaker 3: quarter mile.

1117
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:36,440
Speaker 1: Part Seven Unanswered Questions. I reached out to quite a

1118
00:59:36,480 --> 00:59:39,240
Speaker 1: few people to report this story, including all the detectives

1119
00:59:39,240 --> 00:59:41,640
Speaker 1: who worked on the case for Park County. All of

1120
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 1: them either didn't respond to multiple calls and messages.

1121
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:47,000
Speaker 8: Or declined to be interviewed on the record.

1122
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 1: This is an old case that's been officially closed, so

1123
00:59:50,960 --> 00:59:53,000
Speaker 1: I get it they don't have much to gain from

1124
00:59:53,040 --> 00:59:55,919
Speaker 1: talking to me, and some told me explicitly that they're

1125
00:59:56,080 --> 00:59:59,960
Speaker 1: tired of rehashing questions that just don't have good answers.

1126
01:00:00,920 --> 01:00:03,440
Speaker 1: We still don't know, for instance, why Aaron took off

1127
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:06,880
Speaker 1: his boots and kept walking. Greg proposed one theory before

1128
01:00:06,920 --> 01:00:09,919
Speaker 1: they discovered Aaron's remains, and it's an idea I've heard

1129
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:10,960
Speaker 1: from others as well.

1130
01:00:11,640 --> 01:00:15,480
Speaker 5: I wonder if maybe he got to that spot and

1131
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:19,280
Speaker 5: maybe his socks were wet, because he told me that

1132
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:21,840
Speaker 5: he had fallen in the creek or gotten his feet wet.

1133
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:24,479
Speaker 5: So maybe he got to that spot it was getting dark,

1134
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:28,160
Speaker 5: and he decided that he wanted to maybe just make

1135
01:00:28,240 --> 01:00:30,760
Speaker 5: camp there for the night and build a fire, and

1136
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 5: then you know, maybe he was had a little fire

1137
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 5: going and took off his shoes to dry off his

1138
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:40,000
Speaker 5: shoes and socks, and then started getting you know, all

1139
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:42,680
Speaker 5: drunk on those pills or who knows what, and stumbled

1140
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:44,280
Speaker 5: off the canyon and the dark.

1141
01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:47,320
Speaker 1: We now know Aaron didn't stumble into a canyon, and

1142
01:00:47,720 --> 01:00:49,840
Speaker 1: it would be strange to leave his boots to dry

1143
01:00:50,040 --> 01:00:53,800
Speaker 1: and then never return to them. Triff Roneberg has another theory.

1144
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:56,680
Speaker 1: He thinks Aaron was more interested in hunting elk than

1145
01:00:56,760 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 1: Greg and Joe are letting on, and that might explain

1146
01:00:59,720 --> 01:01:02,360
Speaker 1: why he'd walk so many miles without his boots.

1147
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:05,919
Speaker 3: The ant theory when when I take a look back

1148
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:09,360
Speaker 3: and kind of hypothesize on what might have went on,

1149
01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:13,120
Speaker 3: I just bet you he was sitting there and some

1150
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 3: elk ran by him and he decided to go start

1151
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:20,360
Speaker 3: stalking elk. So he changes out of his boots, which

1152
01:01:20,400 --> 01:01:23,400
Speaker 3: are for you know, trail boots are good solid, stiff

1153
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:26,360
Speaker 3: soled boots and put on a pair of tennis shoes

1154
01:01:26,600 --> 01:01:28,439
Speaker 3: to go make a stock on some elk.

1155
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 2: And I think that's why he left the boots.

1156
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 1: If he left camp to chase elk on Wednesday, he

1157
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:36,560
Speaker 1: would have gotten caught in the storm.

1158
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:38,280
Speaker 2: When he took off after the elk.

1159
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:41,160
Speaker 3: I think that's when the snow storm started, or maybe

1160
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:43,760
Speaker 3: you know, it was at dusk when the elk came by,

1161
01:01:44,480 --> 01:01:47,720
Speaker 3: and he just took off after the elk, and that's

1162
01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:51,120
Speaker 3: when the snow storm started, and he was hot after

1163
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:54,800
Speaker 3: them elk. And I think by the time he quit,

1164
01:01:55,440 --> 01:02:00,840
Speaker 3: the temperature dumps, and he doesn't have his normal.

1165
01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:03,520
Speaker 2: Gear that he carries. He's in like clothes.

1166
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:06,880
Speaker 3: He hasn't prepared for a change of weather. He's getting

1167
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 3: more hypothermic, more hypothermic. He find shelter is unable to

1168
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:15,840
Speaker 3: light a fire. Whether he goes out from shelter that

1169
01:02:16,200 --> 01:02:20,200
Speaker 3: night or out the very next morning, he either sees

1170
01:02:20,280 --> 01:02:22,720
Speaker 3: the yard light or he sees the red roofs of

1171
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:25,840
Speaker 3: the house. He says, I gotta get my ass out

1172
01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:29,680
Speaker 3: of here. I'm probably in trouble. And he starts running

1173
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:34,880
Speaker 3: downhill and it's just past the point of no return.

1174
01:02:35,160 --> 01:02:35,320
Speaker 5: Now.

1175
01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:38,520
Speaker 1: He shuts his clothes as he runs and is soon

1176
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:42,000
Speaker 1: too exhausted to keep going. Maybe he trips and falls

1177
01:02:42,160 --> 01:02:47,240
Speaker 1: and just doesn't get back up. Giannis thinks the sheriff's

1178
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:50,560
Speaker 1: theory is plausible, though he has some questions about the timeline.

1179
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 7: It seems like there's like there's more to this story,

1180
01:02:54,240 --> 01:02:56,440
Speaker 7: and I think we can all agree to that, right,

1181
01:02:56,600 --> 01:03:01,040
Speaker 7: Like that maybe is how that started. But like six

1182
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:03,760
Speaker 7: miles to chase Elk in one direction and one day,

1183
01:03:04,400 --> 01:03:06,920
Speaker 7: I think it's a little bit long. He got those

1184
01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:10,760
Speaker 7: boots wet and was like, ah, heavy leather boots. I

1185
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:12,640
Speaker 7: don't want to pack these around. You know, I've got

1186
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:15,280
Speaker 7: these tennis shoes, frounning shoes that have worked as fine.

1187
01:03:15,720 --> 01:03:18,760
Speaker 7: It certainly is a tactic that people do. You're very

1188
01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,480
Speaker 7: fast and light on your feet in running shoes. They're

1189
01:03:22,640 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 7: quieter than boots for sneaking up on game. So that's

1190
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:29,960
Speaker 7: not implausible that he would have like purposely done that

1191
01:03:30,440 --> 01:03:33,640
Speaker 7: to get closer to Elk. And yeah, maybe like he

1192
01:03:33,760 --> 01:03:37,160
Speaker 7: could have chased them one day for a couple three miles,

1193
01:03:37,720 --> 01:03:40,360
Speaker 7: and then he camped there and then continued on the

1194
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:41,919
Speaker 7: next day, like I said, and he was just sort

1195
01:03:41,920 --> 01:03:42,919
Speaker 7: of following to herd.

1196
01:03:43,560 --> 01:03:46,680
Speaker 1: The other unanswered question is what role Joe and Greg

1197
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 1: played in this story. When I reached Greg via email,

1198
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:52,120
Speaker 1: he at first said he was willing to be interviewed.

1199
01:03:52,400 --> 01:03:54,200
Speaker 1: He told me that no one from the media had

1200
01:03:54,240 --> 01:03:56,480
Speaker 1: ever reached out to him, but he said he didn't

1201
01:03:56,480 --> 01:03:59,840
Speaker 1: feel comfortable speaking on the record until he talked to Christine,

1202
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:02,760
Speaker 1: who he said had become close friends with both him

1203
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:05,800
Speaker 1: and Joe. Four days later, Greg got back to me

1204
01:04:05,920 --> 01:04:08,960
Speaker 1: with Joe c seed. He said that after talking with Christine,

1205
01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:10,720
Speaker 1: they felt it would be too painful to.

1206
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 8: Rehash what happened.

1207
01:04:12,280 --> 01:04:15,240
Speaker 1: He said that people would believe false conspiracy theories no

1208
01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 1: matter what they said, and he encouraged me to follow

1209
01:04:17,960 --> 01:04:21,960
Speaker 1: my quote journalism ethics and not include any quote false

1210
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:26,200
Speaker 1: or misleading information or statements about this tragedy or which

1211
01:04:26,280 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: placed Joe and me in a false light. Joe and

1212
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:32,960
Speaker 1: Greg were cleared of suspicion by investigators, and that decision

1213
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:36,240
Speaker 1: appears to have been confirmed by the location of Aaron's remains.

1214
01:04:36,800 --> 01:04:40,280
Speaker 1: Sheriff Roneberg wasn't involved in that investigation directly, but he

1215
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:43,680
Speaker 1: thinks it's unlikely that Parro did anything nefarious to Erin.

1216
01:04:44,040 --> 01:04:46,920
Speaker 3: Why would they take him nine miles away from their

1217
01:04:47,000 --> 01:04:51,520
Speaker 3: base camp when there are perfectly good shale slides right

1218
01:04:51,600 --> 01:04:52,600
Speaker 3: above their base camp.

1219
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:54,520
Speaker 2: You know, that's what the Indians used to.

1220
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:57,240
Speaker 3: Do, how they buried their dead was they would lay

1221
01:04:57,320 --> 01:04:59,720
Speaker 3: them out on the shale field and push the bank

1222
01:04:59,800 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 3: over room. And you know there's still skeletons that have

1223
01:05:03,480 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 3: never been found for two hundred years. If they would

1224
01:05:07,160 --> 01:05:08,840
Speaker 3: have done him in, I think they would have done

1225
01:05:08,920 --> 01:05:11,680
Speaker 3: him in at the base camp when they had motive

1226
01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:17,840
Speaker 3: and opportunity, and would have buried him within reasonable distance

1227
01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:22,440
Speaker 3: from their base camp, not dragging his dead body nine miles.

1228
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:25,720
Speaker 1: The sheriff says nine miles, but it was actually more

1229
01:05:25,800 --> 01:05:29,360
Speaker 1: like fourteen. And we're not talking about a smooth level path.

1230
01:05:29,720 --> 01:05:31,560
Speaker 8: That's a long way to drag a body.

1231
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:34,720
Speaker 1: What's more, once Greg and Joe finally agreed to share

1232
01:05:34,760 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 1: the photos they'd taken on the hunt, investigators were able

1233
01:05:37,560 --> 01:05:40,080
Speaker 1: to determine that they had remained in the mountains for

1234
01:05:40,200 --> 01:05:43,920
Speaker 1: all six days after Greg's final interview with law enforcement

1235
01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:45,880
Speaker 1: detective Brian Green wrote.

1236
01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:49,360
Speaker 6: History and timeline were consistent with the available time slash

1237
01:05:49,440 --> 01:05:52,880
Speaker 6: date stamped photographs. Based on that consistency, it would have

1238
01:05:52,960 --> 01:05:55,800
Speaker 6: been almost impossible for them to have left the mountains

1239
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:58,520
Speaker 6: at any time prior to their documented departure.

1240
01:05:59,160 --> 01:06:01,520
Speaker 1: In other words, the photos proved that the pair were

1241
01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:05,360
Speaker 1: in the locations where they eventually admitted to being. The

1242
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:07,920
Speaker 1: Elk carcass proved they were in Park County near dead

1243
01:06:07,960 --> 01:06:11,800
Speaker 1: Horse Lake, and subsequent photographs proved they didn't kill Aaron

1244
01:06:11,880 --> 01:06:15,000
Speaker 1: and dump his body in the next county. When asked

1245
01:06:15,040 --> 01:06:18,080
Speaker 1: point blank by Detective Brian Green whether Greg had anything

1246
01:06:18,160 --> 01:06:20,400
Speaker 1: to do with Aaron's death, he denied it.

1247
01:06:21,120 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 4: Did you have anything to do with Aaron's death?

1248
01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:27,600
Speaker 5: No other than being on the hunting trip with him.

1249
01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:29,800
Speaker 5: I didn't know anything to do with his death. I

1250
01:06:29,920 --> 01:06:32,440
Speaker 5: feel like I could have done more to to go

1251
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:34,880
Speaker 5: look for him afterwards, but not sure it didn't have

1252
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:36,000
Speaker 5: anything to do with his death.

1253
01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:39,400
Speaker 4: One of the theories is is you know, you guys

1254
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:43,360
Speaker 4: were out hunting and for whatever reason, neglected your friend,

1255
01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:45,840
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden he's dead, and you know,

1256
01:06:45,960 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 4: maybe you realize that he had an accident or whatever,

1257
01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:51,080
Speaker 4: and you don't want to go home and tell his

1258
01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:53,440
Speaker 4: wife that you know your husband died on our watch.

1259
01:06:54,520 --> 01:06:57,720
Speaker 4: Did you guys do anything to cover up his death,

1260
01:06:57,840 --> 01:07:01,760
Speaker 4: to hide him, to try to you know, hy the

1261
01:07:01,840 --> 01:07:03,440
Speaker 4: fact that you know where he is and you're not

1262
01:07:03,640 --> 01:07:05,120
Speaker 4: telling us or anything like that.

1263
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:06,240
Speaker 5: Negatives. No.

1264
01:07:07,360 --> 01:07:09,880
Speaker 1: Greg and Joe might not have been directly or even

1265
01:07:09,960 --> 01:07:13,320
Speaker 1: indirectly responsible for Aaron's death, but it's clear they were

1266
01:07:13,400 --> 01:07:17,120
Speaker 1: still struggling with a huge amount of guilt. Joe had

1267
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:19,439
Speaker 1: known Erin for a long time, He knew about aaron

1268
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:23,360
Speaker 1: struggles with alcohol, and he, like Christine, second guests his

1269
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:27,000
Speaker 1: decision to let Erin accompany them on the trip. In

1270
01:07:27,080 --> 01:07:29,760
Speaker 1: one of their initial interviews, Sergeant Herp says Joe began

1271
01:07:29,840 --> 01:07:32,600
Speaker 1: to cry as he thought of his friend possibly dead,

1272
01:07:33,040 --> 01:07:36,320
Speaker 1: lost and alone in the mountains. He told the sergeant

1273
01:07:36,400 --> 01:07:39,640
Speaker 1: he felt responsible for Hedges, as he knew he should

1274
01:07:39,720 --> 01:07:43,040
Speaker 1: not have taken him on the trip. In Greg's final

1275
01:07:43,120 --> 01:07:46,320
Speaker 1: interview with law enforcement, he reiterated Joe's sentiment.

1276
01:07:46,680 --> 01:07:49,959
Speaker 5: You know, we had been planning this trip all year long,

1277
01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:55,280
Speaker 5: physically training for it. Joe and I Aaron his heart

1278
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,680
Speaker 5: never really seemed to be in it that he kept

1279
01:07:58,720 --> 01:08:01,400
Speaker 5: saying he wanted to go. And we've we've been hunt

1280
01:08:01,440 --> 01:08:04,560
Speaker 5: together for years and years, as was our seventh or

1281
01:08:04,600 --> 01:08:09,120
Speaker 5: eighth year hunting together, and you yeah, okay. And so

1282
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:12,240
Speaker 5: I wasn't just gonna tell him that, you know, if

1283
01:08:12,280 --> 01:08:14,160
Speaker 5: you're not gonna get in shape, you're not gonna go.

1284
01:08:14,960 --> 01:08:18,080
Speaker 5: I wanted to I didn't do that. I knew that

1285
01:08:18,160 --> 01:08:20,280
Speaker 5: he had been drinking a lot. Joe told me that

1286
01:08:20,360 --> 01:08:23,240
Speaker 5: he'd been drinking a lot, and he showed up and

1287
01:08:23,360 --> 01:08:26,720
Speaker 5: he clearly just did not look that well. And right

1288
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:29,320
Speaker 5: then and there, I wanted to be like, dude, you're

1289
01:08:30,240 --> 01:08:33,560
Speaker 5: not coming with us, but I just I didn't have

1290
01:08:33,760 --> 01:08:36,320
Speaker 5: the I didn't have the heart to do it. And

1291
01:08:36,439 --> 01:08:38,800
Speaker 5: I'd give anything to go back and tell him that

1292
01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:42,439
Speaker 5: you're not going. But we didn't do that. And I figured,

1293
01:08:42,720 --> 01:08:45,160
Speaker 5: you know, well he'll learn his lesson. You know, we're

1294
01:08:45,200 --> 01:08:48,160
Speaker 5: gonna run his ass into the ground and he's gonna

1295
01:08:48,160 --> 01:08:51,200
Speaker 5: be dragging ass, and next time maybe he'll take it

1296
01:08:51,320 --> 01:08:53,840
Speaker 5: more seriously. I figured that he'd make it to camp

1297
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:56,400
Speaker 5: and he'd be so beat that he'd just lay in

1298
01:08:56,520 --> 01:09:00,559
Speaker 5: camp and wouldn't actually hunt. And I'm also thinking, well, good.

1299
01:09:00,680 --> 01:09:02,719
Speaker 5: You can just stay in camp and be a drunk

1300
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:05,120
Speaker 5: and watch after the horse and the mule, and we'll

1301
01:09:05,160 --> 01:09:07,840
Speaker 5: go on elk and maybe that works out better.

1302
01:09:07,920 --> 01:09:11,840
Speaker 1: Anyways, this I think is enough to explain Greg and

1303
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:15,559
Speaker 1: Joe's behavior, even putting the elk aside. They knew Aaron

1304
01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:18,320
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been allowed within ten miles of the back country.

1305
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:21,120
Speaker 1: When they had their disagreement and Aaron left. They knew

1306
01:09:21,160 --> 01:09:23,400
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have allowed him to strike out on his own.

1307
01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:25,479
Speaker 1: They knew they should have done more to look for

1308
01:09:25,600 --> 01:09:28,520
Speaker 1: him in the subsequent days, and they admitted to investigators

1309
01:09:28,560 --> 01:09:32,559
Speaker 1: that Aaron wasn't prepared, either mentally or physically to survive

1310
01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:33,320
Speaker 1: the snowstorm.

1311
01:09:33,920 --> 01:09:37,000
Speaker 5: Although he wasn't in good condition, I felt like he

1312
01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:39,920
Speaker 5: could walk a trail system to where he knew the

1313
01:09:40,040 --> 01:09:44,520
Speaker 5: cash was. And you think doable, even somebody possibly incapacitated

1314
01:09:44,640 --> 01:09:52,719
Speaker 5: with alcohol, trail doable, doable only day at the time,

1315
01:09:52,800 --> 01:09:58,320
Speaker 5: I thought that, I mean, and retrospect, I think it

1316
01:09:58,439 --> 01:09:59,479
Speaker 5: was obviously too much.

1317
01:10:01,400 --> 01:10:04,000
Speaker 1: With this regret and guilt nagging at their hearts, it

1318
01:10:04,120 --> 01:10:06,839
Speaker 1: was easier for them to let Christine call law enforcement.

1319
01:10:07,400 --> 01:10:09,360
Speaker 1: They didn't want to be blamed for their friend's death

1320
01:10:09,400 --> 01:10:12,120
Speaker 1: and it was heartbreaking to look at their actions full

1321
01:10:12,240 --> 01:10:15,600
Speaker 1: in the face. That's my theory anyway. I don't know

1322
01:10:15,640 --> 01:10:17,599
Speaker 1: if it's true, and it doesn't make this story any

1323
01:10:17,680 --> 01:10:20,840
Speaker 1: less tragic. In fact, Greg said something in that last

1324
01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:25,080
Speaker 1: interview that makes the story, if possible, even more devastating.

1325
01:10:25,800 --> 01:10:28,400
Speaker 1: Greg said he noticed that the amount of alcohol Aaron

1326
01:10:28,439 --> 01:10:31,120
Speaker 1: brought with him was less than he would normally consume

1327
01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:34,639
Speaker 1: in five to seven days. He theorized that Aarin intended

1328
01:10:34,680 --> 01:10:37,920
Speaker 1: to use that trip to quote dry out and attempt

1329
01:10:37,960 --> 01:10:40,639
Speaker 1: to get his life together. He believed it was Aaron's

1330
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:43,120
Speaker 1: intention all along to go to the gear Cash on

1331
01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:43,719
Speaker 1: his own.

1332
01:10:43,840 --> 01:10:46,479
Speaker 8: And work through the withdrawal process alone.

1333
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:53,720
Speaker 5: Now, my theory is that I think that Aaron was

1334
01:10:53,800 --> 01:10:57,560
Speaker 5: about to go through severe withdrawals. I know for a

1335
01:10:57,680 --> 01:11:01,080
Speaker 5: fact that he was running out of alcohol, and I

1336
01:11:01,240 --> 01:11:04,840
Speaker 5: feel like he was abusing those pills and taking way

1337
01:11:04,960 --> 01:11:08,760
Speaker 5: more than he should have. I can't prove that, but

1338
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:13,720
Speaker 5: that's what I feel like, and I think that he

1339
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:16,400
Speaker 5: probably didn't want us to see it. I think he

1340
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:18,920
Speaker 5: was probably going to be real sick for a few days,

1341
01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:21,400
Speaker 5: and we thought maybe that was best.

1342
01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:23,840
Speaker 9: Like he told his.

1343
01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:26,920
Speaker 5: Wife that he was coming up here to clear his

1344
01:11:27,040 --> 01:11:31,120
Speaker 5: head and get healthy, and in my mind, that would

1345
01:11:31,200 --> 01:11:35,720
Speaker 5: mean go through detox, come out off the alcohol, and

1346
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:37,720
Speaker 5: hopefully try and stay off of it. I think that

1347
01:11:38,240 --> 01:11:40,000
Speaker 5: in his mind, I think he was going to go

1348
01:11:40,200 --> 01:11:42,120
Speaker 5: up there and he was going to spend a week

1349
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,320
Speaker 5: in that canvas tent with the fire, and he was

1350
01:11:45,479 --> 01:11:48,120
Speaker 5: just gonna drink the rest of the alcohol that he

1351
01:11:48,240 --> 01:11:50,400
Speaker 5: had and then just let it get out of the

1352
01:11:50,520 --> 01:11:53,920
Speaker 5: system and hopefully, you know, he wouldn't have to go

1353
01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:57,439
Speaker 5: through an embarrassing detox because he had employees and he

1354
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:00,600
Speaker 5: you know, he wouldn't want anybody to to see that.

1355
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:02,880
Speaker 5: And I don't think he ever thought he was going

1356
01:12:02,960 --> 01:12:05,200
Speaker 5: to shoot an elk. I think he wanted to kind

1357
01:12:05,240 --> 01:12:08,400
Speaker 5: of go camping and clear his body of all that stuff.

1358
01:12:08,920 --> 01:12:11,320
Speaker 1: This is the first time this theory has been mentioned,

1359
01:12:11,439 --> 01:12:14,599
Speaker 1: but it does help explain why Greg and Joe didn't

1360
01:12:14,640 --> 01:12:17,800
Speaker 1: do more to look for Erin. If they thought he

1361
01:12:18,040 --> 01:12:20,439
Speaker 1: wanted to be alone, they may have decided it would

1362
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:23,120
Speaker 1: be better to give him space. And if Aarin was

1363
01:12:23,160 --> 01:12:26,400
Speaker 1: going through alcohol withdrawal, it would also explain why he

1364
01:12:26,600 --> 01:12:29,559
Speaker 1: didn't do more to get help or get out.

1365
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:30,000
Speaker 5: On his own.

1366
01:12:31,080 --> 01:12:35,480
Speaker 1: But While that helps explain the strange and confounding circumstances

1367
01:12:35,600 --> 01:12:40,080
Speaker 1: that surround this story, it also casts yet another shadow

1368
01:12:40,240 --> 01:12:44,160
Speaker 1: on Aaron's death. If Greg is right, Aarin's attempt to

1369
01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:48,479
Speaker 1: recover himself, to restore his relationships with his family and friends,

1370
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:52,160
Speaker 1: and get his life and his marriage back on track, is,

1371
01:12:52,800 --> 01:12:56,879
Speaker 1: in a weird way what killed him. Rather than emerge

1372
01:12:56,920 --> 01:13:00,719
Speaker 1: from the mountains a new and better man, he didn't

1373
01:13:00,760 --> 01:13:06,160
Speaker 1: emerge at all. Christine knew this trip was the wrong

1374
01:13:06,280 --> 01:13:09,360
Speaker 1: way for her husband to kick his alcohol addiction, but

1375
01:13:09,640 --> 01:13:11,439
Speaker 1: she couldn't convince him to stay home.

1376
01:13:12,240 --> 01:13:15,639
Speaker 5: She probably, if she was to be honest with herself,

1377
01:13:15,960 --> 01:13:20,680
Speaker 5: would not be shocked that this happened. She begged him

1378
01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:23,800
Speaker 5: not to go. She even bought him in a gift

1379
01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:27,080
Speaker 5: card to the spot website so that he could go

1380
01:13:27,240 --> 01:13:29,840
Speaker 5: and get a spot to bring with him. That he

1381
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:33,080
Speaker 5: wouldn't do it just because he's so hardheaded. She probably

1382
01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:35,600
Speaker 5: knew that it was coming at some point. If it

1383
01:13:35,680 --> 01:13:38,240
Speaker 5: wasn't this, it was going to be a motorcycle wrapped

1384
01:13:38,280 --> 01:13:40,800
Speaker 5: the next day or the next week, or it was

1385
01:13:41,040 --> 01:13:42,200
Speaker 5: it was going to be something.

1386
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:45,479
Speaker 1: Of course, Christine wasn't out in the mountains with erin.

1387
01:13:46,040 --> 01:13:49,000
Speaker 1: Greg and Joe were and Greg can't help but wonder

1388
01:13:49,080 --> 01:13:51,559
Speaker 1: if this story would have had a different ending if

1389
01:13:51,600 --> 01:13:54,000
Speaker 1: he'd left his elk to look for his friend.

1390
01:13:54,800 --> 01:14:00,679
Speaker 5: You know, looking back that you know that that really

1391
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:06,599
Speaker 5: really haunts me a lot, you know, right then, should

1392
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:10,080
Speaker 5: have left that elk and gone down there and looked

1393
01:14:10,160 --> 01:14:14,280
Speaker 5: for his ass. You know, we just we thought he

1394
01:14:14,360 --> 01:14:20,720
Speaker 5: was gonna make it to that Sunlight camp. So in

1395
01:14:20,800 --> 01:14:23,160
Speaker 5: our minds, we thought that he was probably having a

1396
01:14:23,240 --> 01:14:25,840
Speaker 5: hard time. But it was early in the day, so

1397
01:14:26,080 --> 01:14:29,400
Speaker 5: we thought that I thought he was gonna make it

1398
01:14:29,479 --> 01:14:33,960
Speaker 5: up there. And it was only Sunday, and he said

1399
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:37,720
Speaker 5: he'd be back Monday or Tuesday, and so we're in,

1400
01:14:37,880 --> 01:14:40,760
Speaker 5: we're you know, we got this this elk and now

1401
01:14:41,160 --> 01:14:45,120
Speaker 5: you know, not that that Aaron's not a priority, but

1402
01:14:45,240 --> 01:14:47,960
Speaker 5: my priority is, Okay, I got I got meat down.

1403
01:14:48,160 --> 01:14:49,680
Speaker 5: I need to take care of it right now.

1404
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:53,040
Speaker 1: In the months and years that followed, Aaron's family and

1405
01:14:53,160 --> 01:14:55,360
Speaker 1: friends were left to pick up the pieces.

1406
01:14:56,160 --> 01:15:01,599
Speaker 5: How's the boy doing? Uh, he's I haven't actually spoken

1407
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:05,360
Speaker 5: to him. I've just spoken to Joe, who talks to him. Basically,

1408
01:15:05,800 --> 01:15:12,800
Speaker 5: he's just confused because you know, Dad, he's not dead.

1409
01:15:12,960 --> 01:15:16,800
Speaker 5: Daddy's missing, but we don't know if he's coming back.

1410
01:15:16,960 --> 01:15:18,559
Speaker 5: Type of a thing, all right.

1411
01:15:19,560 --> 01:15:22,479
Speaker 10: At this point, she may have told him, she may

1412
01:15:22,520 --> 01:15:25,720
Speaker 10: have just told him he's dead. I don't know what

1413
01:15:25,880 --> 01:15:30,519
Speaker 10: she's told him, but he's just like any young boy

1414
01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:33,439
Speaker 10: would be. That's dad just disappeared off the face of

1415
01:15:33,520 --> 01:15:33,880
Speaker 10: the earth.

1416
01:15:38,400 --> 01:15:41,280
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of Blood Trails. If

1417
01:15:41,280 --> 01:15:43,439
Speaker 1: you'd like to see images from this case, head over

1418
01:15:43,520 --> 01:15:46,360
Speaker 1: to the meeater dot com slash blood Trails and click

1419
01:15:46,439 --> 01:15:49,439
Speaker 1: on the case file. For this episode, we've posted photos

1420
01:15:49,479 --> 01:15:52,360
Speaker 1: of Greg, Aaron, and Joe, along with a map of

1421
01:15:52,439 --> 01:15:56,080
Speaker 1: Aaron's route and some other official documents. A big thanks

1422
01:15:56,120 --> 01:16:00,679
Speaker 1: to Sheriff Ronneberg, Jannis Boutellis, Park County under Sheriff Dykstra,

1423
01:16:01,080 --> 01:16:03,960
Speaker 1: and Paul Hoyt, who was the voice of the police reports.

1424
01:16:04,720 --> 01:16:07,080
Speaker 1: If you have a tip about this case or another

1425
01:16:07,200 --> 01:16:09,519
Speaker 1: case you think we should cover, send us an email

1426
01:16:09,840 --> 01:16:13,240
Speaker 1: at blood Trails at themeeater dot com. That's a B

1427
01:16:13,439 --> 01:16:15,800
Speaker 1: l O O D T R A I L S

1428
01:16:16,280 --> 01:16:20,120
Speaker 1: at the meeater dot com. See you next time, and

1429
01:16:20,200 --> 01:16:21,040
Speaker 1: stay safe out there.