I HAVEN'T SLEPT Since I Heard This Tape Recording. You Won’t Either.

Today, I'm going to be telling you the story of what happened when searchers exposed a missing hikers horrifying secrets, and I don't use that word lightly. And then I'm going to be telling you the story of how a woman's van life dream turned into a living and deadly nightmare. This is going to be a gnarly one, folks. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a 5 star review because I have a goal of reaching 1,000 5 star reviews and we're not even halfway there yet, but the show has been growing like crazy and I know that we can do it, but only if you leave that 5 star review right now and hit the follow button while you're at it. This real tape recording has been fueling my nightmares for weeks now. And this related photo has definitely not been helping. In July 1989, a rescue helicopter in Japan was desperately searching for two lost hikers when all of a sudden, they saw something stunning. It was a giant SOS built out of tree logs impossible to miss from the air. The rescuers were impressed. When they landed, they jumped out from the helicopter and they embraced the lost hikers. And as these hikers chugged a bunch of water for the first time in a long time, one of the rescuers told them that "it's a good thing you two made that SOS sign nearby or we might have never known where to look" and in response to this, the lost hikers chugged on their water and pretty much in unison, they responded, quote, "what SOS sign?" You see, the reason this image has been fueling my nightmares is because to this day, people are still searching for answers about who built this giant SOS and when. And why? Now, even if you've heard this story before, you're going to want to stick around to the end because I have some brand new questions that nobody is really asking and let's just say the answers to those questions shocked me. And just when you think you know everything about this story, there's one final twist that you need to see or I guess here to believe. But for all the stuff that we don't know about this mysterious image, we do at least know one thing, the setting. That is Asahi Dake, the tallest peak in Hokkaido in northern Japan. The name translates to, quote, "mountain dyed by the morning sun." And while that very literal meaning is technically true, it is kind of an ironic name. Basically, Asahi Dake looks friendly in the morning and then tries to kill you by noon. Trailshift, markers vanish into thick fog, and shoulder-high bamboo known as Sasa swallows hiker's hole. There are no shelters, no patrols, and when thunderstorms roll in out of nowhere, it can mean trouble for anyone stuck on the mountain unprepared. But still, every single year people do summit this mountain. And in July of 1989, two adult men from Tokyo, who were going to identify as the Tokyo hikers throughout this story, were up next to give the mountain a try. Now this is a pretty popular route that they were taking. They would hike up from the Kuro Dake area to the peak of Asahi Dake, spend the night in a designated camping area, and then return the next day. So on this summer day, the Tokyo hikers were greeted by the blue skies and the clearest ridge lines that northern Japan had to offer. The warmth of the sun was just perfect. They could even see the snow-capped peak of the mountain from the trailhead. And even though they had never climbed this mountain before, it just seemed like it was opening the door for them, just to enter right in. But as they hiked higher and higher, the mood of the mountain changed on them. That warm sun, well that would cool off. All the colors of the mountain, green, blue, yellow, all of those started to dull. It was as if they had walked right into a mirage because by midday, thick gray fog surrounded them. The two men struggled to find trail markers. They felt like they were going crazy because markers that should have been right in front of them just weren't. They couldn't see them. Like the path forward was hiding them almost. All they could do was hike higher and higher and pray that they would eventually find a landmark. And finally, they came to the end of what they thought was the trail and they did in fact come to a landmark that they recognized from their research and this was a giant boulder. But instead of celebrating or sighing in relief, the sight of this boulder caused the two hikers to panic. And the reason for that is because they knew that it meant one of two things. Apparently this boulder was very famous to those hiking the mountain because it actually had a twin. One boulder, known as safe rock, signaled that you were on the right path and that the peak was only a few minutes away, just off the trail. But it's twin rock meant that if you departed from the trail at this location, you would end up along a dangerous untamed ridge line with giant cliffs that fall out of nowhere. That particular boulder is known as not safe rock. And in 1989, there were zero markers that indicated the difference between the two of them. With the fog surrounding them and the afternoon slipping away, the men hesitantly identified the boulder as safe rock and they left the trail hoping that they'd find the peak just a few minutes away. But folks, that didn't happen and over the next couple of hours it became clear that they had made a huge mistake. They soon found themselves in a bamboo covered valley, you know, in Japan's infamous Sasa. And I've never hiked in this kind of environment, but for my research, I imagine it kind of like trying to move through wet paper knives that can grow up to 10 feet tall. You can't see where you're stepping at all. You can't hear anything except for, you know, high wind speeds that cut through the grass. And as the sun started to go down on the mountain, the Tokyo hikers knew that they were going to be spending the night out there. They were stuck. It was summertime, but even in the summer, the nights on Asahi Dake can still get to around freezing. And so, the Tokyo hikers ducked into a shallow cave and they built a makeshift shelter. They rationed their food and they even boiled some snow to create a reserve of drinking water. They fell asleep and they hoped that the next day would provide them a clear window to climb back to the trail and ultimately back to safety. But it didn't. Thunderstorm started rolling through the area and every time they would venture out from that little cave, they were met with chaotic weather that seemed to pretty much just change on a dime. All they could do was keep rationing their food and melting snow and praying for rescue. By July 24th, 1989, the Tokyo hikers had run dangerously low on rations and on fresh water. And they just were not doing very well. It was nightfall again and their spirits were incredibly low. They basically had no chance of rescue at night because they were just two tiny specks on a giant mountain. But despite this incredibly bleak situation, all the sudden, one of the men looked to the other and he smiled. And of course, this confused the hell out of the other man. I mean, how could he be smiling when they were right on the verge of death? And the reason he was smiling was because he heard something off in the distance. The sound of a rescue helicopter, the men jumped up and they ran to a nearby clearing, waving their hands like maniacs and shouting at the top of their lungs. And after a few minutes, the helicopter stopped circling and started descending towards a flat part of the mountain. The men bolted towards the landing zone, crying tears of joy. They had clung on to life just barely long enough to be spared. When they finally met the helicopter, one of the rescuers jumped out and embraced the lost hikers. And that's when the rescuers said to the men, quote, "It's a good thing you two made that SOS sign nearby, or we might have never known where to look." But this confused the lost hikers and they responded, quote, "What SOS sign?" Like what are you talking about? As the two men climbed into the helicopter, they continued to deny over and over that they knew anything about this mysterious SOS that had apparently caught the attention of the pilots. Very next day, the helicopter and search teams set back out to find what they swore was this giant SOS. I mean, they had to make sure they weren't just seeing things the night before, like they were going crazy or something. And sure enough, just two miles away from the peak of the mountain, and only one mile south from where the hikers were rescued, the helicopter crew saw it again. A perfectly constructed giant SOS built from 19 fallen birch trees. Each letter was about 16 feet long and 10 feet wide. Each log weighed at least 150 pounds, some of them closer to even 300 pounds, meaning the entire sign would have weighed well over a ton. It was an absolutely gigantic sign that was easily visible from the rescue helicopter, and looked like the work of an entire team, not just two stranded and weak hikers. The helicopter landed, and rescuers started to examine the sign more closely. And as they did this, they realized something right away that was a cause for concern. The sign wasn't the only thing there, there was also an abandoned campsite. Partially buried in soil and roots were the remnants of a small dugout shelter, which only the smallest crew member could even fit inside of. Once he went into it, this crew member found a few items that suggest someone was making a temporary home here. And in addition to all that, they found a wallet which contained an ID card. Now you might assume that finding this ID card would put an end to the mystery. But, whatever one would soon realize is that this mystery was only just getting started. And since this is such a crazy story, we have to do something a bit unusual and actually travel even further back in time from where we first started. 1984, to be exact. And we also need to travel to a new part of Japan so we can pick up another character. A 25 year old man named Kenji Iwamura. Kenji lived in an area known as Aichi, which is sort of between Tokyo and Kyoto. It's a manufacturing town, and he himself was a manufacturer. Kenji worked at a printing company. And by all accounts, he lived a pretty normal life. He lived in a small apartment, rode his bike to and from work. He was a regular 25 year old guy, a little bit shy, but truly an earnest person. Kenji was also, by all accounts, pretty mysterious. His work friends didn't really know much about him, but they did know that he was often unavailable on weekends. And that's because Kenji loved hiking, unlike me, though these were not the kind of expeditions you read about in mountaineering journals per se. He often did easy to medium difficulty day climbs in the Japanese Alps, and rarely camped out overnight. After all, he had to work on Mondays, and Kenji was not the kind of guy to miss a day of work. He lacked some rations, but he never expected to find himself in a truly difficult situation or a dangerous situation out on trail. In July of 1984, five whole years before our Tokyo hikers got lost, Kenji told his family that he was going to treat himself. Work had been wearing him out for the last several months, and he desperately needed a vacation. I think we can all relate to that sometimes. He was planning to take a week off of work to hike in Hokkaido. By all accounts, this was his dream trip. He would stay in small ins during his nights, and maybe he would camp out for a night or two along the way as well. But really, again, he was primarily a day hiker, and there's no shame in that. But, as we just heard, it may be smart to at least plan for a night or two outside just in case. In the middle of his trip, Kenji mailed a postcard back home to his family, telling them how great it's been, and that he'd be climbing Masahidake the following day. The weather was beautiful, and Kenji anticipated it would be an easy day in and out from the peak. Is it just me or is this starting to sound kind of familiar? And the similarities between these two trips I'm telling you about don't stop there. It's alarming just how much of a mirror of these two hikes were. Even in terms of the kind of preparation the hikers had, and didn't have, also the route they took, the time of year they went, all of this stuff. Hell, even the same exact weather pattern. Clear skies turning to dense fog, snow and thunderstorms disappearing trail markers. And yes, eventually the dreaded safe rock versus not safe rock debate. The only key difference was that Kenji was all alone. He didn't have anyone to share this experience with or anyone else to help him. And so when he made the exact same wrong decision that the two Tokyo hikers made at the landmark boulder, he did so alone traversing into the thick sasa bamboo. Kenji didn't show up for work on Monday, and that was a cause for immediate concern. He would never miss a shift, right? He was after all a responsible normal young man. And so the police organized a formal search for him on the mountain, using planes, helicopters, local rangers, and even volunteers. Everyone teamed up to scour the mountain together. They even broke into Kenji's car, which was left at the trailhead, to find any clues that could possibly lead to him. But after ten whole days of finding nothing, and I mean zero trace of Kenji, the search was called off. They of course would have kept the search going if they had found any kind of evidence that he was still out there. But they found nothing. It was as if he had simply just vanished off the mountain. Five years went by. Thousands of people climbed the very same route that Kenji took to the peak of Asahidake. There were zero reports of any sightings even related to Kenji. And all of this was true all the way up until the day that our two Tokyo hikers were rescued because of that giant mysterious SOS built out of tree logs. So now we're back with the rescue team, as one of the crew members held the ID card belonging to who, but Kenji Iwamura. Missing Sense July 10th 1984. Along with the ID, they found two cameras, a notebook, basketball shoes, and four cassette tapes. They thought that this was everything at the scene, right? But just as this crew member was starting to bag up these items, all of a sudden everyone heard a scream. Looking out from the little homemade bunker, they were relieved that it was just another member of their party doing the screaming. But what that crew member was staring at sent a shiver down everyone's spine because just a few feet away from the second S in SOS, they found a scattering of bones, specifically human bones, which they could recognize from the size of them, even though they had been stripped of any flesh. These bones were also covered with bite marks. The rescue team bagged up everything, including the bones, and carried this evidence down the mountain to a police station, testing on the bones would take weeks, but the police needed to learn more about this story. The film of the cameras had been ruined, and so the only other hope that the police had for getting more information was in the cassette tapes. At first, the tapes proved to be not so exciting, we'll say. In fact, the police kind of assumed that they'd be duds, especially because of how long the tapes had been exposed to the elements on the mountain. The first tape was just the sound of wind, and then the second tape was static, probably damaged like the police assumed they would be, but when they played the third tape, what they heard was pre-recorded music from anime TV shows. And so, this was encouraging, but still not really a lead, right? And so now, the police were down to the final tape, which started off again with just the sound of wind. But after most of the tape had played out, it transformed into another sound, breathing, and then a voice, which is very crazy. I mean, at first it was just this sort of mindless breathing and moaning, but then it morphed into something far more disturbing, which was a message. And this is audio that we actually have. Now, of course, it's in Japanese, but I'm going to play a part of it for you so you can kind of get a sense of the vibe. And I also want you to brace yourselves here because the audio from this tape, even though you can't really understand what's being said, is definitely very distressing. But your hearing is a man's voice, yelling, but speaking coherently and slowly in stunted words. And folks, from the best of my understanding, which this might not be 100%, but the voice is saying, quote, "S-O-S. Help me. I'm on the cliff. Can't move. Sasa is deep. You can't go up. Lift me up from here. The place is where the helicopter was first encountered. Now at the moment, it couldn't be 100% confirmed that this was Kenji's voice. But I mean, it's definitely the voice of somebody lost on the mountain of Asahi Dake. And if this was Kenji's voice, which the police initially believed that it was, it definitely added some details to the story they were beginning to build. But I don't know, because at least for me, this tape raises more questions than answers. The voice, which we will for now assume was, in fact, Kenji's, does say S-O-S. And while that is a huge clue for the mystery of the sign, that doesn't just mean that he was for sure the one responsible for building the S-O-S sign. Naturally, people wanted to make that connection at the time. But S-O-S is a super common help message to put out. And I want to just take that a little bit further because, again, I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around the S-O-S. The next thing that Kenji says on the tape, assuming it's him, is, "I'm on the cliff. Can't move." This suggests that he was injured or exhausted, or, I don't know, hiding. Regardless, it's just weird to me that he's saying he's unable to move. And yet people just want to believe that he was somehow able to lug those giant tree logs, which weighed over one ton total into perfect position for this giant S-O-S. We know that Kenji was already withering away on the mountains since he didn't have any rations to last longer than a couple days, and so I don't know. It just feels like a stretch to believe that he could have made the sign alone, especially given his deteriorating state. But I guess it's possible, you know, maybe if it was done in the early days of his disappearance, and maybe he had enough adrenaline still at that point. Who knows, man? But one thing I do know is that the message found on this tape recording is still bringing up more questions. He then says, quote, "Sasa is deep. You can't go up." And look, I know that the bamboo must have been very rough to put it mildly, but the SOS sign was found only two miles away from the peak of Asahi Dake. And on a clear day, I just feel like he could have gotten there. And sure, it wasn't easy to reign, but if he had all of the energy and adrenaline to build this giant SOS sign, then why wouldn't he have tried to, you know, move up the mountain? But folks, all of that is nothing compared to the last line of the tape. This is the one that really gets me because he says, quote, "the place where the helicopter was first encountered." This means he saw a helicopter while he was on the mountain. And folks, I just want to paint this picture for a second. You're lost in the wilderness. Every day, you're getting weaker and weaker and seeing no signs of other human life. And then one day, you see a giant helicopter heading in your direction and your hope shoots right back up. This sounds exactly like what happened to the person on this tape. And that just brings up a brutal possibility. Did the rescue chopper fly over him and not notice him or worse, not notice the giant SOS sign? It's possible. But again, it was a huge SOS. And man, I don't know, that's where I just have a weird feeling. Because if in 1989, a rescue team was able to clearly spot the SOS, then how did no one see it during the five years prior? Maybe it was just a big institutional miss by the police or maybe it was something else. I don't know. Regardless, the police were starting to get uncomfortable with the story that the tapes were telling. But just when everyone thought this mystery was finally about to get solved, some truly freaky stuff came out with two new pieces of evidence that tell a completely new story. The first piece of evidence is a photo from September of 1987, two years before the 1989 rescue. Now, we tried so hard to find this photo and we just could not find it. So I can't show it to you, but we did read about it in our research. What happened was a Japanese survey team photographed that same area of the mountain from a satellite plane. And in one of the photos, clear as day, you can see the SOS. So this means that Kenji or someone else did build it sometime before 1987. And it sat on a dress for years. And I say on a dress because to me, there's no way that this went unseen. I mean, it's just clear as day. And this raises some questions. If it was Kenji who built the SOS, then how did it survive five harsh winters of snow, storms, and erosion without collapsing? The birch logs were perfectly intact when they were eventually found. And if the SOS was newer, then how did Kenji's stuff end up in a campsite right next to it? Did someone build it right next to Kenji's dead body after the fact? And that takes us to the second new piece of evidence, the bones. There was hope that DNA would help to confirm the original story, you know, the one that Kenji somehow mustered up the power to build the SOS by himself and died somewhere nearby while making camp. If this was true, then not finding his SOS would essentially be chalked up to an institutional mistake. But when the bones did come back from a DNA lab analysis, the report stunned everybody. The bones weren't identified as Kenji's. In fact, they didn't even belong to a male at all. They belonged to a woman aged 20 to 40 with blood type O. Kenji was male, obviously, and he was blood type A. I've read that like 10 times and it still spooks me, I don't know. And I guess I'm not alone because the hiking community and the media were starting to ask a lot of questions at this point. Was it possible that there were two people on the mountain? I mean, that would help to explain how the SOS came together because it didn't seem like it was just a one-man job. But Kenji told his family that he was hiking alone and there was no evidence of a second person in camp. I guess it was possible that Kenji met a woman during his travels and didn't tell his family about it in the postcard. He wrote them before he left on this hike, but remember, by all reports, Kenji was a super shy person who kept to himself, especially on his hiking trips. And so new, even crazier ideas started to emerge from conspiracy theorists. Like for instance, the idea that maybe Kenji ate a female hiker, after all, there were plenty of non-marks on these bones, who says the bites belonged to a wild animal and not a desperate hiker trying to survive on any meat that they could. I mean, to be fair, that's probably a stretch, but it goes to show the kinds of questions that come out when shocking evidence is revealed. All of these questions circled in on the mystery. And yet, the police chose not to answer any of them. Instead, they simply announced a re-examination of the bones. And a few months later, well, the report changed. Now, all the sudden, the bones were listed as male, blood type A, and the identity was confirmed as Kenji Iwamura. You heard that right. Confirmed. No further DNA tests were released. No public explanation of the mishap was given whatsoever. Just a statement that the earlier results were erroneous case closed. If that sounds convenient, you're not alone in thinking so. And let's just say that there were still a few other loose ends. You might assume that finding a giant SOS in the mountains and finding a missing person's bones would make front page news across Japan. But that didn't happen, at least not to my understanding. It kind of seems like things were sort of downplayed. And no doubt, part of this is cultural. My loose understanding is that in Japan, missing person cases aren't usually turned into media spectacles unless there's like clear evidence of foul play or a major tragedy of some sort. And it seems that the police did everything they could to tell the story of an unfortunate accident. But that doesn't mean that the story went away. People still whispered about the SOS, the tapes, and the changing identification of the bones, like what is that? And this is where the Japanese hiking community got involved. From the end of 1989 to the beginning of 1990, local hiker started visiting the SOS site. Many of them even tried moving the tree logs that made up the SOS. And a lot of people said that the logs were just too heavy for one man to drag all by himself. And in addition, there were no visible signs of cutting or tool markings, no axes in sight either. A few of these unofficial investigators even reported finding faint boot prints in the area that didn't match standard Japanese hiking boots of the 1980s. This kind of citizen journalism, I guess you could call it, is especially meaningful in Japan, because in most cases like this, where a hiker disappears or dies mysteriously out on the trail, there's kind of a culture of not talking about it. At least that's my understanding. I've never been to Japan, so I could be wrong about this, but it's almost like it's too horrible to even speak out loud. I don't know, but clearly this story was too difficult for local hikers to just let rest. My best guess at what happened is kind of in line with what was published in February of 1990. Kenji Iwamura descended off the trail in 1984, mistaking false safe rock for safe rock, and he became trapped in a bamboo filled valley. He then built the SOS from fallen trees, dragging them into place and using every last bit of his energy, and at some point he sustained an injury or multiple injuries while he was still alive obviously, and then eventually he died of exposure. After that, he was picked at by animals, which explained the bite marks on the bones, and then flash forward to July of 1989 and the two hikers that were rescued nearby the SOS were completely unrelated, probably the biggest coincidence in history. I mean, that's insane. The bone and DNA analysis was a clerical mistake, and the multiple helicopters and search planes who saw the SOS from the sky before the two hikers were rescued. Well, they must have seen it and then never thought to investigate it any further. This is the story that's now accepted, but there's one final twist that I need to tell you about. I haven't mentioned Kenji's parents up until this point, and for my understanding, they weren't anything out of the ordinary, you know, they'd been grieving for years, and they were shocked by all of the news coming out. They probably wanted this case to be closed more than anyone else, even the police. But even though they could confirm that the items found at the campsite did belong to their son, they could not confirm that the voice of the tape recorder was Kenji's. A friend of Kenji's did confirm that sometimes he would record anime TV theme songs so that he could listen back to them when he was hiking, which meant that the recorder most likely did belong to Kenji, but the voice on the tape, well that is still unconfirmed, which means that we can't 100% say that the message about the helicopter or the crazy screaming was Kenji, and I personally can't be 100% certain that the SOS was built by him either. If you want my opinion, which you probably don't, who am I? I just feel like this story could have used a dedicated journalist who was reporting in real time as all of this stuff was developing. And as I said, you know, for my loose understanding of Japanese culture, it seems like they're a little less interested in these kinds of mystery stories, you know, of hikers disappearing than certainly us Americans are. But I don't know, man, there's definitely enough inconsistencies and fill in the blanks you could say that just make me question what the hell really happened here. What happened to Kenji? What happened in that bone analysis lab? How did the SOS stay so intact yet so hidden to authorities for so freaking long? And of course, whose voice is on those tapes? But folks, unfortunately, because this case is officially closed, these are just questions we're left with. All we can do now is keep asking them and maybe try our way down a few more rabbit holes and pray that one of them takes us down the right path and not down the path of the not safe rock, by the way. Alright, so that story left us with a lot of unanswered questions and for a while, that was actually true in our next story as well. However, these unanswered questions would eventually be answered and when they were, it shocked everyone. On November 21st, 2020, the BBC published an article about an adventurous couple who had spent six years traveling around Europe in a campervan. And then the very next day, the woman highlighted in this article vanished off the face of the earth. Esther Dingley had set off on a solo backpacking trip in the Pyrenees Mountains, which was a feat that was well within her abilities. She was an extremely experienced hiker, which made it all the more suspicious when she didn't return home from her trek. As the search for Esther ramped up, theories began bouncing around on the internet. Did she have an accident on the mountain or did she simply run away to start a new life? Was it possible that maybe foul play was involved? All of these theories were looked into and investigators even used her last photo, which was taken just moments before she disappeared to try and search for clues in the reflection of her sunglasses. They searched and searched, but eventually winter set in and the search had to be called off. No sign of Esther had been found. And at this point, it seemed like everyone, the media and those closest to Esther included, believed that foul play was the culprit behind her disappearance. Some CD journalists even speculated that her partner Dan Colgate himself may have been involved months went by. And as the case received more and more attention, the theories continued to stack up. But then Dan Colgate made a discovery that would go on to serve as a case study for why wild speculation theories and internet guesswork should always be taken with a massive grain of salt. This is the wild story of Esther Dingley, her disappearance and death, and the media storm that surrounded it. Folks, this is an incredibly fascinating and of course an incredibly sad story. There's no happy ending in this one. I'm just going to tell you that right up front. But there is some closure. However, back to the fascinating thing actually, what makes this story so fascinating to me is that multiple theories were put forth by the authorities, the media, and even Esther's partner himself. Yet when the case was actually solved, it turned out that none of these theories were actually true and rather the most obvious for a lack of a better word. Reason for Esther's disappearance was, in fact, true. I think it's a good lesson in human nature. Sometimes, well, we seek out the most dramatic and story worthy explanations and in the process, well, we overlook the most realistic explanations. So with that said, let's go on a virtual trip to the Pyrenees Mountains of France in Spain. I've heard it's absolutely beautiful there. I have a friend who traveled there recently. In 2002, Esther Dingley and Dan Colgate met each other while they were attending Oxford University. They bonded over their shared interests in fitness, in outdoor pursuits, and in traveling, and this bond quickly turned into a relationship, a very long one at that. Flash forward to the beginning of 2014, and the couple was set to get married. Everything about their lives looked pretty perfect on the surface, but little did anybody know everything in Dan and Esther's world was about to get turned upside down. In February of 2014, only three weeks before the scheduled wedding for Esther Dingley and Dan Colgate, well, Dan Colgate came within inches of losing his life in a very awful fashion, by the way. Dan contracted an extremely rare and life-threatening infection, and I don't even know how to pronounce this. Levi will put it on the screen right now, but I've seen it described as a flesh-eating disease, so, uh, yeah, not very good to put it mildly. Dan's condition was so serious that doctors even told Esther to, like, say her final goodbyes to Dan just in case he didn't make it, which is just insane, and I can't imagine being put in that situation. Thankfully, though, Dan did make it. He survived. And once he started recovering, the couple reportedly transformed their relationship. Esther was quoted saying, "We really love to travel, and we kept saying one day we would do it, but there was always another project, another job." We were always just chasing the next objective. Then, all of a sudden, someone turned around and says the person I love and was planning to do it all with could be gone by the morning. And so, within the first few weeks of Dan's recovery, the couple made a very bold move, one that countless other couples and individuals for that matter dream about but don't actually do. The couple sold their car, they rented out their apartment, and they moved into a camper van. The plan was to spend the next year living on the road, exploring the beauty that Europe has to offer. And the icing on the cake was that once Dan was fully recovered, the couple hoped that the flexibility and the freedom of this new lifestyle would allow them to spend as much time as they wanted, doing their two favorite things, which were cycling and hiking mountains. This hope would actually end up turning into their reality, and it seemed as though the couple was having so much fun in their adventures that their one-year travel plans turned into two years, which then turned into three years. And before they knew it, well, folks, it turned into six full years. Esther and Dan started a blog to share their experiences with the world. They worked odd jobs here and there to avoid completely draining their savings, and they gradually got rid of all of their possessions that didn't fit inside the camper van. In 2017, they adopted a stray dog, and then they quickly found out that that dog was pregnant, and so just like that, boom, now they have five dogs living with them in the camper van, which was an unexpected turn of events that would actually go on to serve as the inspiration behind their children's book. The book was titled Puppy Pack Adventures, which was published in October of 2020, and I know that Dan Colgate also published a number of other books, and they were just doing it all, folks. Oh, and by the way, speaking of the year 2020, I think we all remember the craziness that ensued that year. I mean, lives were lost, livelihoods were lost, and the entire world was basically just thrown into chaos. And of course, this chaos ended or at the very least challenged many personal relationships for all of us. And of course, Esther and Dan, well, they weren't immune to this. Now to be clear, the couple did not break up during the COVID pandemic, but they did take it as an opportunity to spend some time apart, still in a relationship just in different physical locations. Esther was quoted saying, we realized during the coronavirus, we had not been apart from each other for a year, so we decided to each just do our own thing for a bit. This whole thing has been really good for us individually and our relationship. We are genuinely happy now. Esther and Dan spent at least 80 days hiking together from July 17th through October 4th, completing a 1000 plus mile hike through the Alps. This is a side note, but I think this should illustrate just how experienced and skilled Esther was in the outdoors. And it should also come as no surprise that she felt comfortable hiking in the mountains by herself as well. So back to their relationship, Esther and Dan made that decision to spend some time apart shortly after finishing this long hike. And thus, Esther set out in the camper van by herself and she spent the next few weeks exploring the Pyrenees Mountains along the French and Spanish border heading out into the wilderness for like a few days at a time and then returning back to the van. When France introduced some very strict stay at home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic again, well, Esther decided to head across the border into Spain, eventually arriving in the town of Benosque. By the way folks, this is the point in the story where we start to get to a lot of Spanish and French words of places and mountains and stuff, and as my regular viewers know, I am terrible at pronouncing even English words, and so please pair with me while I try to pronounce these French and Spanish words, it's not going to be pretty, but I apologize. After spending a few days trail running and backpacking near Benosque, Esther set out on one last hike before she plans to return to France. The date was November 21st, 2020, and she took supplies for a four to five day backpacking trip, planning to summit a mountain called "Peak Day Sauvigarde". This also just so happened to be the day that the BBC published their article highlighting Dan and Esther's nomadic lifestyle. Esther plans to return from her hike on November 25th, but unfortunately she never made it back to town. However, unlike many missing hiker cases where someone has never heard from again after they start their hike, Esther had communicated quite frequently with Dan during the first two days of her adventure. So the same day that she hiked out, that is November 21st, once again, Esther sent numerous texts to Dan throughout the day, including when she reached the summit of the mountain. And while she was on top of this mountain, she wrote a message to Dan that said, "Love you so much, XXXX, thank you for encouraging me and giving me this confidence, really appreciated all the messages to get me on my way this morning". It then appears that Esther descended the mountain and, well, she lost cell phone service. However, Dan heard from her again the next day when she actually climbed back up to the summit. It was here that the couple exchanged a series of texts, they had a quick video chat, and Esther confirmed that she had spent the night at a remote mountain hut called "Kabana De La Bessertas". This is also the point in our story where Esther sent Dan this selfie. It shows her smiling wide in the midst of doing what she loved the most, which was climbing mountains and spending time immersed in remote nature. There's absolutely nothing unusual let alone disturbing about this photo, except for the fact that it would go on to be the last photo ever taken of Esther Dingley. After sending Dan the selfie, they exchanged a few more text messages with Esther's last message indicating that she would be heading down the mountain on the French side of the border. She wrote, quote, "Tomorrow heading for Port de la Gleire" or something spelt like that. Might dip into France, hoping refuge Vanossque has a winter room. Keep you posted when Ken loved you XX. November 23rd and November 24th, both these days went by and nobody, including Dan, received any messages from Esther. But this wasn't exactly cause for concern, because while she was very good about communicating her status while on solo adventures, Dan and Esther's family knew that cell service was very unreliable in the mountains. However, nobody heard from Esther on November 25th either. Again, this was supposed to be the day that she returned from her hike, and so by the end of the day, Dan Colgate made the very difficult decision to report her missing. Now because Esther was hiking on and around the French Spanish border, agencies from both countries set out searching for her literally first thing in the morning on November 26th. And I imagine that many of the searchers figured they would find her pretty quickly, and I say that because A, she was an incredibly experienced hiker, and she knew how to handle herself in an unexpected emergency, and B, because, well, the searchers were about to go, pardon my language here, the searchers were about to go, hard as f*ck, I really mean that folks. They were on the ground at sunrise, the morning after Esther was reported missing, and they threw everything they had at this search. They used dogs, they used helicopters, they used a magnitude of professional, highly trained searchers that knew those specific mountains like the back of their hand. The Spanish teams even used high-powered telescopes to like scan the area around where she was last known to have been searchers spared zero effort, even spending time looking underneath rocks and like climbing down into curvasses in case Esther had become trapped in one. I know that they used drones as well, and in addition to this massive effort, the search for Esther Dingley had another asset working for it, and that was Dan Colgate himself. Nobody knew Esther and her habits in the outdoors as well as Dan did, and so while the search for Esther commenced, Dan began hiking around the terrain near her last known location by himself, searching for her even continuing into the night on many occasions outside of the normal search and rescue hours. This massive effort to locate Esther lasted for six entire days, but then on December 2, winter finally reared its ugly head, and the area around the mountain that she was missing from received a massive dumping of snow. And because of this, the search unfortunately stalled, and soon after, well, it was halted indefinitely. And folks, by this point, many, many questions were being asked about what the hell had happened to Esther. These questions were largely due to the fact that she had not been found despite such a massive and thorough search, and these questions only increased as the story began to make international headlines. I really hate to say this, but Esther's disappearance really made for catchy articles and headlines. You've got this attractive, outdoorsy couple living this dreamy, nomadic lifestyle, and then all of a sudden, something goes horribly wrong, and, well, mystery ensues. I think you can probably understand what I mean here. That particular storyline was certain to capture the public's attention, and, well, that's exactly what happened. Throw in some public speculation from the police, and also from Dan himself, and, well, you've got yourself a viral story. The first theory that the media seemed to, like, really grab onto was the theory that Esther disappeared willingly in order to start a new life, or to possibly flee her relationship with Dan. Here's what I mean. I think this headline from the Daily Mail sums this speculation up pretty well. One of the leaders of the French part of the investigation into the disappearance is quoted numerous times throughout this article, and in these quotes, he suggests that there may have been trouble in Esther and Dan's relationship. This investigator said, quote, "It does not seem probable that Esther suffered an accident, and it is not credible that she was eaten by a bear or that she has fallen into a lake." We believe that her disappearance is either the result of a voluntary act or as a result of someone else's actions. We went to see Mr. Colgate so that we could go through social media with him, messages, etc. And then, the investigator dropped the bombshell line that journalists all over the world took advantage of. He said, quote, "It appears that their lives together were not as happy as the image is posted on social media suggests." Now, this investigator did stress that Dan Colgate was not a suspect in Esther's disappearance, but this didn't stop the media from painting a less than ideal picture of the couple's relationship. I read a lot of speculation about how the couple might have been kind of budding heads over their nomadic lifestyle that I've mentioned a few times here about how Esther wanted to keep traveling in the van and Dan maybe was ready to settle down a little bit more. The media even got their hands on some CCTV footage of Esther in a supermarket just a few days before her disappearance. And of course, the media used this footage to further the narrative that Esther was in a bad mental state at the time. The footage shows Esther being confused about the price of some chia seeds she was in Spain after all, and she was not fluent in Spanish. That's my understanding, then another customer in the store helped translate for her and this customer was later interviewed and described Esther as looking sad and thoughtful. And let's be honest, this really isn't that much evidence of anything, right? I mean, it's just some low-resolution footage of Esther shopping and one quote from a random lady who talked to her for literally just a few seconds. But unfortunately, that's all it took to further fuel the media speculation that Esther and Dan were in trouble in their relationship. And this theory was being speculated over so much that eventually Dan Colgate felt the need to respond personally. On February 2nd, 2021, he wrote on the couple's Facebook page quote, "regarding suggestions that Esther's disappearance was in some way voluntary, my response remains that she She had neither the motive or the means to do so. She hasn't accessed any funds or been seen anywhere despite widespread press coverage. I am, of course, aware of the speculation in the media regarding our relationship, stoked by quotations from both police sources and people that met Esther during her time away. So far, I have been loathed to even engage with such salacious nonsense, believing that it was nobody else's business. All I will say here is that the police officers actually investigating her disappearance have full access to our communications, which reflect the truth that our relationship is solid. Any comments to the contrary reflect a misunderstanding of that reality. But if Dan was outright dismissing speculation that the state of their relationship may have caused Esther to run away, well then, what was his explanation for her disappearance? And to be clear, he certainly didn't owe anyone an explanation for this, but this question is the question that many people were asking him. And it was a question that eventually he felt enough pressure to answer. In that very same Facebook post, Dan concluded that quote, "Somebody else has been involved in Esther's disappearance and against her will." And I got to admit, his reasoning for this bold claim was pretty solid. Dan explained that the weather during Esther's disappearance was excellent. That was the exact word that he used actually. And he also explained that Esther was very good about communicating her routes, her plans, and the type of terrain that she was hiking on. He also explained that cell phone signal in the area that she disappeared from was actually pretty solid, at least for mountain standards. It was much better than people had previously thought when she first disappeared. He also mentioned just how determined Esther was, and that he believed that if she had suffered an injury out there, she still would have made it out of the backcountry or at least put herself in a position to be found by searchers. He wrote quote, "Even if she had a broken leg, I have no doubt she would have still gotten down the mountain somehow. Never mind take action to make shelter and become visible." In reference to Esther running off intentionally, Dan noted that despite all of the widespread media coverage that her story was getting, nobody had spotted or recognized her in public anywhere, and he also mentioned that she hadn't accessed her bank account. And of course, he also stressed that she was experienced enough to know that if she intentionally disappeared, it would launch a massive search for her. He wrote quote, "The idea that she would trigger that, again referring to the search effort, and put others at risk to get some time alone, rather than simply say I need some time alone, is ridiculous to me." Dan then sum things up pretty well with this paragraph. Quote, "The core fact is this. A happy experienced well-equipped and fit young woman went missing in an area with clear paths and mostly open terrain. An intensive search found no sign of her or of any of her equipment, it is as though she vanished into thin air." All of the factors mentioned in this Facebook post are what led Dan to conclude that Esther may have been the victim of foul play. And of course, going back to the media, as eager as they were to keep this story in the headlines, they jumped on this statement from Dan and they plastered it everywhere. Dan also made a statement to the Daily Mirror that he had run into some hunters while he was out searching for Esther, and he speculated that maybe she had been killed by somebody who was armed in the mountains. Now, one thing that I think is important to note here is that despite his statements, Dan never dismissed the possibility that an accident could have happened. He did say that he felt it was highly unlikely, but he never said that he was like 100% sure that Esther had disappeared due to foul play. And his actions backed up this sentiment because he continued to search the mountain by himself on foot. And during the summer of 2021, additional organized searches were carried out as well. And then, on July 23rd, 2021, a trail runner discovered human bones right along the French Spanish border in an area known as Port Day La Glare. Glare, glare, I can't say that word, folks, I'm sorry, but you'll recall that Esther had actually texted Dan about heading into this exact area right before she disappeared. DNA testing quickly commenced and a week later, it was announced to the public that the bone that had been found, which was a skull bone, did in fact belong to Esther Dingley. So this was obviously a bombshell break in the case, but of course, the rest of Esther's remains were still missing as was her gear and her clothing. The case was definitely now broken wide open, but it hadn't yet been solved. Dan Colgate, for his part, still determined to find his partner continued his solo search efforts, and a few weeks later, they paid off, you could say, although in a very, very sad way. On August 9th, 2021, Dan Colgate himself found the rest of Esther Dingley's remains as well as the equipment that she had been carrying when she disappeared. Let's just sit in that for a second. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me that the disappearance of Esther was solved by her own partner. I don't think I've ever covered a story where that's happened before. It's a testament to how hard Dan Colgate worked to get the closure that he and Esther's family so badly deserved. I even read in one article that he walked over 700 miles in one month just searching for Esther. The day after Dan made this discovery, it was announced to the media that Esther had been found. Police investigations quickly determined that her death was not due to foul play, and it was definitely not due to relationship issues, by the way. It was rather due to the one thing that everyone thought was impossible after such a thorough search had taken place. She had died because of a fall, aka an accident in the backcountry. Despite this, albeit tragic end, but still an end, to the story of Esther Dingley's disappearance, the media was still determined to melt it for all that they could. Following his discovery of Esther's body, Dan Colgate met with the police to give a statement about what he had found. This seems like pretty standard procedure to me. Wouldn't you agree if you find a dead body, obviously the police are going to want to talk to you about what you found, for some journalists, not all of them, but some of them, well, they tried to reframe Dan's post-discovery interview with the police like this. Hiker Esther Dingley's boyfriend quizzed at length by cops after finding her body. I mean, that's just pretty scummy, isn't it? I mean, I feel so bad for Dan Colgate, in addition to the stress and the heartbreak of losing his life partner, also having to deal with the spotlight from the media like this and have to deal with journalists looking to take advantage of his situation and pain him in a bad light. Well, I can't even imagine how tough that must have been. And so for that reason, I encourage all of you to go show Dan Colgate some love in the comment section. So we're never going to know exactly what caused Esther Dingley to fall while she was hiking, but from all of the research I've done, it seems as though an accidental death is pretty much all but indisputable. The location of her body and the way that her gear was like scattered clearly indicated this fall and her autopsy results supported it as well. And that actually brings me to an important point that I want to make, a point that I mentioned at the beginning of this video. When somebody goes missing, there's always going to be speculation. And I'm not even saying that there's anything wrong with speculation. I mean, it's important to discuss all different possible theories so that you can eventually get to the truth of what happened. However, this story is a pretty prime example of how even those closest to the case, those that are the most informed about what may have happened, those that are closest to the person that disappeared themselves, well, even these folks can sometimes be wrong. I don't say this to blame Dan Colgate for sharing his opinion that foul play was possible in Esther's disappearance. I don't blame him at all for coming to that conclusion. And honestly, based on the facts that he had available at the time, I think it was a very reasonable conclusion. And if I was in his shoes, I think I would have thought the same thing. Ultimately, though, the one theory that pretty much everyone had dismissed after the search was concluded, not just Dan, but the police as well. Well, this is the theory that ended up being the true reason for Esther's disappearance. I hope that you keep that in mind. Next time, you weigh the validity of speculation over missing person's cases. Speculation can definitely be useful sometimes. Again, don't get me wrong. I do plenty of it on this channel, but at the end of the day, it is just that. It's speculation and it's not fact. My heart goes out to both of them. as well as their families, and I encourage you once again to show some love for Dan and Esther in the comments. In folks, I'll see all of you next week.