The Party

Hi Park enthusiasts, I'm your host, Dilia DeAmbra, and in the case I'm going to share with you today, takes place in Amquan National Forest in Oregon. It's the story of a young man who, like many people in their 20s, decided to attend the social gathering in the great outdoors. But he never returned. And the mystery that surrounded his puzzling disappearance has all but consumed his family for more than six agonizing years. The vastness of Amquan National Forest may be part of the problem. You see, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this forest is nearly a million acres in size, and sits on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains. The area is home to bodies of water, thick woods, apex predators, and many areas where cell phone reception just doesn't exist. The particular area pertinent to this case is Hobo Camp Campground, which is a roadside camping area that houses four designated campsites, a few fire pits and picnic tables, and a vaulted restroom facility. It's located directly off a main forest service road called Bryce Creek Road. The Department of Agriculture states on its website that Hobo Camp Campground is supposed to be a place where people can enjoy nature and relax, especially between the hours of 10pm and 6am. But one night during the first week of August 2020, things were anything but quiet at this recreation space. A large rave was going on, and when the sun rose the next morning, one participant was unaccounted for. To this day, no one can answer the question that looms large about that fateful night. What happened to 27-year-old Michael Bryson? This is Park Predators. [Music] Shortly before 5pm on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, a woman named Tina Bryson was at work preparing to leave for the day, when a text message popped up on her phone that she wasn't expecting. A young woman named Natalie, who happened to be an ex-girlfriend of Tina's adult son, Michael, had messaged her and asked if she'd heard from Michael recently. Tina told Natalie that it had been a few days since she'd spoken with her son, and then she asked what was going on. Natalie then called Tina and told her that she'd been told Michael had gone camping in Umpqua National Forest and had been unaccounted for for about 13 hours. Right away, Tina was confused and concerned about this news. She told me that in that moment her heart dropped and she got this terrible, horrible feeling something wasn't right. So she quickly left work and went home to speak with her husband, Parish Bryson. She told him, "Look, we have to get some supplies together, grab some water, pack warm clothing, and get going because apparently our son is missing." Now, the last time Parish and Tina had seen Michael was two days earlier, on Monday, August 3rd. Parish told me that he'd come by their house that morning to spend a few hours helping them out in the yard and exchange for some gas money. Between 11 a.m. and noon, Michael, Tina, Parish, and Michael's older sister Krista hung out and ate a late breakfast together. Then Michael gathered his stuff and headed out to leave. He told his parents that he was going to go camping overnight for a few days at Hobo Camp Campground, but he promised he would be back in touch with them by the end of the week. He specifically wanted his mom to know that where he was going didn't have cell phone service, so he didn't want them to freak out if they couldn't get a hold of him. What's interesting is that normally Tina and Krista worked on Mondays, but for some reason that particular day everyone in the Bryson family happened to be home. Which in hindsight for Parish and Tina is comforting because you see when Michael hugged each of them before leaving that day, he told them he loved them and then he walked out the door. That was the last time any of them would ever see him again. A glimmer of insight into what Michael's last known movements had been came from one of his good friends named Ben. On Monday afternoon, Ben had picked Michael up in Eugene, Oregon, where he lived at the time. And he said that originally Michael's plan was to DJ two music sets at the campground on Monday night and then come home the following morning, Tuesday, August 4. Ben said Michael expressed he had plans to attend a completely different music festival that upcoming Friday, so he wanted to get home to prepare for that. But sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, Ben said people at Hobo Campground had convinced Michael to stay another night. So he did. However, extending their stay required Ben to drive to a nearby town on Tuesday to get some more food and supplies. When he returned, he said he and Michael partied for several more hours, but eventually called it quits early Wednesday morning. According to Michael's dad Parish, Ben said Michael never got around to setting up his tent, so the two guys just fell asleep in the back of a small school bus that was used to transport sound equipment. At some point though, after they crashed, Ben said Michael left their bus to join some people who wanted him to party in a larger bus. That vehicle had been converted into a camper of sorts with side tables and hammocks where people could hang out. Now, folks who'd been on that bus told Ben that the last time they'd seen Michael was between 4 and 4.30 a.m. All they could remember was that at some point Michael had gotten upset and said something to the effect of, "What? You don't want me here?" And then he just walked away from the bus and disappeared into the darkness. That was reportedly the last known siding of him. The only other person who remembered interacting with Michael early Wednesday morning was a young woman who'd arrived around 2 or 2.30 a.m. She said that right after she pulled into the campground, Michael had run over to her car and offered to help run pack. She said that when she interacted with him, he seemed like he might have been under the influence of a substance, but overall he was acting fine. Parish and Tina said that Ben later told them he'd woken up between 11 and 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday and realized that Michael wasn't at the campground. He asked around to see if anyone had seen him, but no one had. That's when he learned for the first time that Michael had last been accounted for sometime between 4 and 4.30 a.m. Which was alarming because Ben knew that meant about 7 hours had gone by before anyone really knew Michael was missing. It was at that point that Ben realized he needed to do something more than just canvas people at the campground. So he got into his car and drove to the nearby city of Cottage Grove, where there was cell phone reception. There, he began calling more friends to see if they'd heard from Michael. In fact, it was actually Ben who'd first contacted Michael's ex-girlfriend Natalie, who in turn got a hold of Michael's mom Tina. But throughout this process of Ben making calls and words spreading around, hours went by. And according to Tina and Parish, Ben had returned to the campground at least once after making those initial calls, which of course meant there were stretches of time after 11.30 a.m. where his cell phone was off grid. So that, plus Michael's friends not wanting to panic Tina and Parish, is why his parents didn't find out until closer to 5 p.m. that their son was missing. Anyway, after receiving the news, Tina and Parish sprung into action and headed straight to Hobo Camp campground. They arrived around 6.45 p.m. on Wednesday. And on the way, Tina had called the Eugene Police Department and filed a formal missing persons report for Michael. That agency didn't have jurisdiction in the National Forest, but because Eugene was where Michael resided at the time, the Bryson's figured it was best to start with that police department. And actually, Tina's brother worked for that agency, so there was familiarity in terms of having a loved one on the forest. When the Bryson's got to the campground, search and rescue resources from the Lane County Sheriff's Office were already there and had assembled a rudimentary search for Michael. Parish described the recreation space to me as "primitive." Searchers saw the stage area that had been set up for the event, two buses, some campsites, and between 40 and 50 people just milling around. Based on the relaxed nature of those who were hanging out, Parish and Tina didn't get the sense that anyone was super concerned that Michael was missing. They didn't see any of the partyers actively looking for him and everyone just seemed way too calm, considering the fact that a missing persons investigation was underway. I mean, they're the Bryson's work, and full panic mode about their missing son, and everyone else up there just seemed to be totally chill. Parish told me that even some of the first responders who'd accompanied them didn't initially think the worst had happened. He said that one of them suggested Michael had probably just gotten too drunk or high the previous night and would likely show up soon. That official informed the family that nothing at the campground suggested his disappearance was suspicious in any way, or that foul play was involved. But Parish and Tina couldn't accept such a quick dismissal. They felt it was imperative that a full-scale search get underway for their son. Now, Michael had attended at least one rave event like this the year before, and according to Tina, he'd gone camping numerous times in his life. In all those instances, he'd returned home safe and sound. She knew that this situation was different. By the following day, Thursday, August 6, Tina and Parish, as well as their extended family members and law enforcement, had assembled between 70 and 100 people to help search the campground and the surrounding woods for any sign of Michael. That day, and the next day, they set up a command post of sorts with supplies they'd purchased from a local Walmart and hardware store. Searchers had journals to log information in, ribbons and flags to mark areas of interest, and a system for checking in and checking out so that authorities could keep track of who was still alive. searching where. The description law enforcement put out for Michael was that he was approximately 180 pounds, stood six feet two inches tall, and had short brown hair and hazel eyes. He last been seen wearing shorts, a white T-shirt, white crock-style shoes with rainbows on them, and possibly a brown corduroy ball cap. He also had several distinctive tattoos on his arm, legs, and ribcage. One was of a geometric-shaped bear, another was an elephant's head, and others included a lion's face, tree and a diamond shape, and a pair of handshaking in the shape of a heart. To help search efforts, one of Michael's former bosses created the Let's Find Michael Bryson Public Facebook group, which still exists today. The page aimed to get the word out about the case, and according to Parish, after just one week of being live, it had more than 5,000 members. The first weekend of searching, a detective with a sheriff's office came out to the scene, and in the following days, more and more volunteers showed up. At one point, there were between 200 and 250 people looking for Michael. Local businesses donated supplies, and Parish and Tina were even provided an RV so they could remain on site day and night. In total, they lived in that RV in the National Forest for 19 days. During that time, nothing surfaced as far as where Michael was, but Tina and Parish did discover that some of their son's belongings had been left behind in Ben's car. Michael's tent was there, along with a thumb drive he'd brought that had music files on it. He'd also left behind his backpack, a change of clothing, his keys, a comforter, and his cell phone. The only things missing were him, the clothing he had on at the time of his disappearance, and his wallet. Initially, the Bryson's had been told that his cell phone was gone, but they later learned from Ben that after leaving the search area, he'd found it underneath one of the seats in his car. Tina went through that device, but she didn't find anything useful. After two weeks or so of searching, law enforcement officially caught off the day-to-day search for Michael. And on August 19th, volunteers and community members held a vigil in Harrisburg as a show of support for the Bryson family. In our interview, Michael's mom Tina described the initial weeks and months after her son's disappearance as a blur. She and her husband suspect Michael was likely using substances while he was at the rave and probably wasn't in the clearest state of mind, but finding no trace of him just seemed bizarre. Parish told me that Michael had struggled with diagnosed and undiagnosed mental health conditions, some of which he'd been prescribed medications for, but he wouldn't always consistently take. Since the age of 18, he'd used substances, including ketamine, and he'd been to rehab a few times for substance use. But at the beginning of August 2020, his life had been on an upswing. His dad told me that a few months before he vanished, Michael had become determined to get his life together and pursue an electrician apprenticeship. He'd also said he wanted to go back to school and attend a community college. Parish said that something about turning 27 had prompted Michael to want more out of his life. Up to this point, he'd had a few different jobs and spent a lot of time making music or getting gigs as a DJ. As he approached the end of his 20s, he'd told his parents he eventually wanted to have a family settle down and not spend as much time going to music festivals. Prior to his disappearance, he'd been a bartender and cook at a local establishment in Harrisburg, but, like I mentioned earlier, he actually lived about 30 minutes south of that city in Eugene. His roommate at the time owned a house and allowed him to run a room. Back I didn't join Michael at Hobo Campground, but Parish told me he actually tried to talk Michael out of going. You see, most of the people Michael was planning to meet up with were not friends from his normal friend group. They were folks he'd only known for about six months or so. According to his dad, Parish, Michael had met most of these people at different events or gatherings in the music industry. They all hung out at a music hall Michael sometimes DJed at and over time had stayed in one another's orbit. This group of new friends were who'd invited Michael to attend the party at Hobo Campground. It seems the event was a combination of someone's birthday celebrations, slash week long camping trips, slash multi-night electronic dance music rave in the woods. Personally, this sort of thing isn't my cup of tea, at least not these days, but I can totally see the appeal, especially if I was in my 20s again. Now, because of the nature of this gathering and illicit substances that were being consumed, that could explain why there were so few witnesses to Michael's disappearance. I mean, if a majority of the people who went to this gathering were under the influence of substances, their recollections likely weren't super credible. But still, it's kind of wild to me that of the reported 40 or 50 people who were there. No one claimed to have seen him after 430 in the morning on August 5th. But even with few eyewitnesses and months of no updates, the Bryson's weren't willing to give up hope. They plastered the trails in the area with flyers about Michael and spoke with local and national media outlets to try and keep his story in the limelight. About four months into the investigation, though, the biggest update yet came. A bombshell clue that would introduce a brand new twist in this case. In January 2021, months after searching for Michael, the Bryson's received a phone call from a detective with the Lane County Sheriff's Office who was working the case. He informed them that the previous month, which would have been December 2020, some of Michael's clothing had been located behind a patch of vegetation on an embankment near a creek about a mile and a half away from Hobo Campground. Parish told me that he and Tina were called into identify the items and positively confirm they belonged to their son. In fact, Parish said he knew the clothing was Michael's, like before authorities even brought it up to him. He said he could tell from a distance without even having to be close to the items that they were without a doubt his sons. What was strange, though, was that Parish and his brother-in-law, who worked for the Eugene Police Department and had participated in previous searches, knew that the area the clothing was found in, had already been searched. And yet, that's where Michael's clothing was. Completely visible and not in an advanced state of disrepair. In Parish's opinion, he suspected that Michael's clothing was likely placed where it was found, meaning someone put it there after the initial searches in August 2020. To him, there's just no other explanation for the stuff ending up there, but Michael remaining missing. A few months later, in October 2021, when a reporter for the spokesman review asked Elaine County Sheriff's Sergeant straight up, "If the agency's suspected foul play was involved," the sergeant said, "We're certainly open to the possibility that there was criminal action, and we haven't had anything that has led us one way or the other at this point." Even more puzzling, at least to Michael's family, was what they learned after even more time had passed. According to Parish, he and Tina were informed by law enforcement that during a subsequent search of the creek around the time Michael's clothing was initially found. Their son's driver's license had been discovered downstream from where the clothing was. Apparently, the part of the creek where the license was discovered was about two-and-a-half miles away from where Michael disappeared, but closer to the spot where his clothing had been located. Parish told me that investigators have since showed him a video of his son's driver's license in the state it was in when it was found, but in his opinion, it didn't look like it was damaged or extremely weathered. So his theory is that someone likely had Michael's wallet after he vanished and discarded anything in it that wasn't a value. It's important to note that a bridge crossed over the creek close to where the ID had been found, so in Parish's opinion it's possible, at least to him, that if someone had the wallet they could have stood on that bridge, rifled through its contents, and then tossed items like the driver's license into the water as they decided what to keep and what not to keep. It's one scenario that could explain why the ID ended up where it ended up in relation to everything else. However, that scenario is just Parish's personal opinion. I can totally picture what he's describing because it makes sense just given what we know about Michael's stuff. But something that doesn't align with that theory is that Michael's parents told me he would have had a debit card and an eBT card in his wallet when he vanished. And it's safe to assume that if someone had his wallet and wanted to take stuff from it, they would have taken those cards. However, not once since August 5, 2020, have Michael's parents noted any financial activity on his accounts, meaning if someone stole his bank and government assistance cards, they never tried to use them. Cash on the other hand? Well, that's a different story. Because you see, on the night Michael vanished, he apparently had several hundred dollars on his person. And he'd let a lot of people at the campground know that. According to Michael's parents, in the hours before he left to go to Hobo Camp Campground, Michael had cashed an unemployment check that he'd received as part of a government assistance initiative related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those funds totaled $600, and Michael took all of that money with him on his camping trip. His dad Parish told me that he and Tina later learned that a guy at the party had previously loaned Michael $400, and so a good chunk of his cash went to repay that guy. The family later spoke with the man who loaned Michael money, who assured them that he did receive $400 cash from Michael. So that would have left Michael with $200 when he vanished. But what's interesting is that according to people that family members spoke with, Michael had apparently been telling folks at the party that he had $600 cash in his wallet. Now, some people have wondered if perhaps Michael bragging about having so much cash could have made him a target. And the answer is, no one knows for sure. But theoretically, it's possible What's more interesting to me though, is what surfaced in this case in the fall of 2024. A message, seemingly meant for law enforcement, and it did not meant words. According to coverage by that Oregon Life and my interview with Michael's parents, on November 3rd, 2024, more than four years after Michael disappeared, people in Lane County woke up to a mysterious message scrawled in chalk on the outside wall of the Lane County jail. The chalk graffiti, red quote, "Blaze powers knows what happened to Mike Bryson," end quote. Interestingly, the L in the name Michael wasn't there, meaning the author had either accidentally misspelled it or had intentionally left the letter L out. I don't know, but in parentheses next to the sentence were the first two names of two young women who were twin sisters. A few hours after the graffiti was found, Tina and Parrish heard about it, and obviously the message's cryptic reference to their son's case was interesting, but they weren't really sure what to make of it. You see, they'd already personally spoken with Blaze powers prior to this, and so had the detective who was assigned to the case. According to what Parrish told me in his interview, Hannah's wife had already learned that Blaze was someone who'd been at Hobo Campground when Michael vanished. Through connections the family had made online and via the Let's Find Michael Bryson Facebook group, Tina said they learned that the pair of twin sisters whose first names were written in chalk had also been at the campground when Michael vanished. For the sake of fairness, I'm going to refer to these women from here on out as simply the twins or the sisters. Parrish and Tina told me that law enforcement's conversations with Blaze didn't produce any new information, and unfortunately by the time he was spoken with again, one of the twins that was named in the graffiti had already died. But the Bryson's vested interest in all of these folks, especially the sisters, stemmed from screenshots of text messages that one of Michael's good friends had sent them. The messages had reportedly come from one of the twins' phones. The content of the text suggested that while at the campground, one or both of them had allegedly dosed Michael with a substance, and then as a result of being under the influence of that substance, he'd run into the woods. At the end of the day, Tina and Parrish aren't sure if the chalk graffiti's message is a red herring, or perhaps just someone with a vendetta against Blaze and the sisters trying to get them in trouble. Michael's parents don't think the information was credible, but said investigators did take it seriously, at least enough to follow back up with Blaze. But beyond that, nothing ever happened. What I really wanted to know, though, was who put the chalk graffiti there? I mean, it was on the outside of the county jail for crying out loud. In a photo posted by that Oregon Life, which I've linked to in the listed source material, you can clearly see a security camera directly above the exterior wall that the chalk was written on. My questions are, was that camera on? Did it show who wrote the message? For some answers, I reached out to the detective with the Lane County Sheriff's Office, who's currently assigned to Michael's case. But today, I've not heard back. Since 2020, the Bryson's have actually had three different detectives assigned to their son's case. The first one handled things for about 16 months. The second one was in charge of the investigation for another year or so, and the current detective is who's been on the case the longest. He's the one that I emailed as part of my reporting. In August 2025, he told the Eugene Register Guard that if a criminal component is established in this case, his office will see it through to the very end. He also remarked, "Michael Bryson was a person. He was Tina and Parrish's son. He was a friend to many." The fact that it's been five years, and they don't have any answers regarding their son, is heartbreaking. And it's my case now, and I'll speak for the Sheriff's Office when I say, "We will not stop looking for him until he's located and brought back home to them." End quote. Parrish told me that so far they have a good relationship with this detective, and the case is still very active. He said that tips continue to come in, and every few weeks he and Tina meet with their detective to discuss what's going on and how to move forward. Parrish said ground searches for Michael still happen from time to time, but those are mostly tip-driven. Unfortunately, as far as Parrish is aware, the FBI has never been brought in on this case, because the Lane County Sheriff's Office allegedly hasn't formally requested federal assistance, even though the area where Michael vanished is on federal land. Now that it's been several years, Michael's parents told me that they've come to terms with the fact that their son is likely no longer alive. Parrish actually told me he had this realization the very first time he and Tina arrived at Hobo Camp Campground. He said that when he stepped out of their car, he was struck with a sense of peace about his son, that he hadn't felt in a long time. Almost like Michael wasn't there anymore. He was finally free of his demons, and in heaven is what they believe. Parrish said that their daughter, Michael's older sister, Krista, expressed something similar during the searches. Parrish said he and Krista were walking together at one point when she turned to him and said that she could no longer feel her brother. As far as possible scenarios that could explain what happened to him, there are several theories that the Bryce and Family feels make a lot of sense. The first is that Michael died as a result of an accidental overdose, then whoever was around him got scared, and instead of seeking help, they covered up his death. But even Parrish has had his doubts about that theory, because it means several people would have known that's what happened, and keeping that many people quiet for so long would be really difficult to do. The second scenario is that Michael could have decided to leave the campground and walk away along Bryce Creek Road, which is a narrow paved winding road that Parrish personally says he witnessed a lot of motorists speeding on. Now, it would have been a 20-mile or so walk for Michael to have made it to the nearest town, so Parrish wonders if maybe someone struck him on the roadway, and again, instead of getting him help, covered up his death. Parrish saw during the physical searches and later learned from tips that came in that the landscape surrounding Hobo camp campground was home to several methamphetamine production operations. Officially, no correlation between those discoveries and Michael's disappearance has been established, but for Parrish, it remains a possibility. When I asked him and Tina if they are law enforcement ever found indications that Michael may have died by suicide or chosen to walk away from his life, they responded almost in unison, "No, absolutely not." Parrish said that even when his son had extreme low points in his life, Michael always reached out. He'd call his sister or one of his parents. He wouldn't just disappear without a trace. At this point, Michael's parents told me that they don't even really care anymore about what exactly led to their son's disappearance and presumed death. They just want to be able to bring him home. Parrish said that if someone who knows what happened to him would just point them in the direction of Michael's remains, he wouldn't even ask any questions. He just goes with authorities to locate his son and bring him home where he belongs. For as long as they're able, the Bryson's tell me they'll continue to talk about Michael's case. In recent years, they established the Michael Bryson Foundation, which aims to help families of other missing people. They also host a 5K race in Michael's Honor every year in Eugene, which raises funds for a Harrisburg High School student scholarship in Michael's name. If you would like to donate to the Michael Bryson Foundation or learn more information about the annual 5K race, visit the website, MichaelBrysonFoundation.com. And if you're listening to this episode and believe you may have important information for investigators, please contact the Lane County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 541-682-4150. Or send a confidential email to [email protected]. Links to those resources can be found in the show notes and blog post for this episode. Park Predators is an audio check production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram @ParkPredators. I think Chuck would approve.