Missing 411

This is David Paulides, he served more than 30 years as a police officer in San Jose and retired in 2011.



When Paulides retired he decided to start researching Big Foot and began visiting National Parks. His focus quickly shifted when he discovered a massive epidemic of unexplained disappearances of visitors in various parks. He has since devoted his life to studying the phenomenon.

Paulides has produced a movie and published six books of collections of disappearance case files. Movie Trailer



Trends he has noticed:

- Tens of thousands of Americans have disappeared mysteriously from "open spaces" across the country and these disappearances tend to cluster around certain areas, sometimes they are National Parks, sometimes they are not

- Disappearences are most likely to occur between 1430-1830/afternoon to early evening.

- Bodies are usually never found but sometimes they are found in very odd ways...Toddlers found five miles up hill. Men found to paradoxically undress and neatly fold clothes, walk for miles barefoot, found dead two weeks later but autopsies show they've only been dead for days..etc.

- Usually White Men of German or English descent (no surprise there, more likely to be outdoorsmen). Also high incidence of happening to people wearing bright colors, the old, and children.

- Most likely to happen to people who go out alone or are separated from their group (straggle behind hiking group, stay in camp, etc)

- Equipment like firearms, phones, gps locators, don't seem to help prevent being disappaered.

Paulides has removed any case where the person was suicidal, was the victim of a crime, or was subjected to animal predation.

Cluster areas identified by Paulides:



Paulides has given many talks on the disappearances and has appeared on numerous podcasts and Coast-to-Coast several times. He believes that the Park Service is somehow behind, or at least covering up, the phenomenon.

If you want to know more I suggest you simply search "Missing 411" on youtube and one of his many interviews will pop up. The stories are quite spooky and you can listen while doing something else.

Theories behind the disapparences:

- Big Foot
- Aliens
- Reptilians
- Indian spirits
- Serial Killers
- Reptilians
- Predators from another dimension
- Fairies

Paulides never says what he thinks it is.

Criticisms:

- I don't buy Paulides criticisms of the National Park Service which are rooted in their quoting him high prices for compiling data in response to his FOIA requests. He seems to expect the NPS to behave like or have similar practices to a conventional Law Enforcement agency which is sort of ridiculous. I think it's reasonable that it would cost a lot to compile such data and I can understand why the NPS wouldn't necessarily have it on hand.

- Many people who have read Paulides' books have claimed he's sensationalizing things. I wouldn't know, I haven't read them.

This can be a fun story if you suspend disbelief and want to be spooked. Is anybody familiar with Paulides and his project? What do you think?