She had given up wigs in high school, when in typical dramatic fashion she ripped one off her head during a class presentation. His girlfriend, Samantha Sayers, also disappeared while hiking. Raised in Pennsylvania, Sam took to theater in high school, passionate about vocals on stage and set construction behind it, then earned a BFA in western New York. The day was hot, the faint haze from far-off wildfires hanging in the air. If you have information about Sayers, call the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office at (425) 388-3393. He tackled the elevation gain like it was a stroll down Second Avenue; his weeks of searching Vesper had whittled his already slim frame down whippet-thin. I'm happy to PM you with my FB name so you can invite me. And its unfair. He was accused of being a chauvinist. I said, 'I know you may not like this but I think shes dead. The first missing person Carr searched for was Patti Krieger in 2010 after the 65-year-old woman disappeared on Sauk Mountain, also in the North Cascades, just miles from Carrs home. Carlton Bud Carr Jr. was born in 1978 in Californias San Bernardino Valley. Sayers' family has started a GoFundMe campaignto purchase food and survival gear that rescuers have been dropping in 20 one-pound bags in various locations so Sayers might stumble across them. Supply bags meant to be left on Vesper for Sam. Overall, were down on recruiting and new members, Bill Gillespie, president of the Washington State Search and Rescue Volunteer Advisory Council told a reporter in early August. And the military stuff, thats part of his Buddhist-warrior ethos and hes never claimed to have served. This unofficial search began as soon as SAR pulled out. Youve got to be a little crazy to do that.. But for Dares these searches are painful. He gave up two things for Lent: social media and alcohol. Life had narrowed to a singular purpose, to comb a few square miles of earth for a trace. Samantha Sayers is a 5-foot-8-inch white woman weighing 125 pounds. Prospectors found gold and silver in the area in the late 1800s, and the Sunrise Mine popped up around Wirtz Basin. That was what had pinged. Eventually, Kriegers son asked him to stop. You know. For some reason I was having a hard time finding this on my own, Yep as above the truth group is still rolling on.. just the main group shut down. Its hot, humid and even he a Louisiana native is sweating. At a Unicorn bar drag brunch in 2017, Turner remembers Sams cheers at the flamboyant performance, the loudest person there, giving the biggest tips. Off the mountain, Kevin had become the tragic fiance who refused to give upor maybe the subject of wild speculation. The longest in state history. Seattle Met. You owe me 99.999 percent of those royalties, hed tell her. Up at camp, just below the stone summit pyramid, the buzz of Facebook was distant. Mohawked. Brad Dad will sleep much better tonight, he says. Better late than never, amiright?? Three years, and thousands of hours and dollars later, she remains missing. Sam had hiked Vesper Peak before, but its a rigorous trail. A drone operator, who also started a GoFundMe campaign, accused Carr of pretending he served in the military because of all the military camouflage he wore. A white supremacist? After summiting Washington state's Vesper Peak on a day hike in August 2018, Sam Sayers disappeared. He watches crime shows, so he tells me, Theres always a dungeon where they lock them up. Samantha Sayers left at 8 a.m. on August 1, 2018, for a solo hike in the North Cascades mountains in Washington. Someone told Kevin 3 percent. The drama continued. Karen hiked ahead of her partner when the two reached snow level at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, on the east side of Mt. 509 Olive Way, Suite 305, Seattle, WA 98101 Phone: 206-957-2234 Fax: 206-447-3388, By Go to the creek. He grabs his radio. I know many of you have reached this point already, but there are some serious problems with what's going on now, and with how it's being presented. All she had on her was "three sandwiches, some chips and water" and no cold weather gear for nighttime. His advice? That was nine months ago. Citing the campsites delicate heather, posters online howled at a plan that flaunted the prevailing leave no trace ethos. The color of her lipstick debated, what does it mean? Crucially, searchers looked every place a hiker could have conceivably fallen, but some couldnt be completely ruled out. That means how long and how hard a county looks for a vanished person varies. Society persisted and Carr spent five years in a Missouri prison although he was sentenced to seven. When she graduated from Collegiate, Sayers went by the last name of Steinbaugh, according to the Erie School District, who confirmed her enrollment in 2018. A man that dresses in military camo but, being a felon, cant legally own a gun. For her 28th birthday in 2019, they planned to hike to the Hidden Lake Lookout. It's a dangerous hobby for someone not really experienced, or competent, or truly prepared. It was a total shit show from what I've read from people who live out there or have experience with this type of hiking. Snow fell and Carr and Dares stopped searching, although they went back in 2019. There are the obvious theories including wild animal attacks, getting lost or falling. If Sam was distinctive for the head she shaved bald, Kevins signature trait is the thick New Orleans accent that betrays his Louisiana upbringing. Those were boom years for the family. Were looking for a green backpack and a purple sleeping bag, a member of the search party says without consulting notes, the details vivid after two years of futility. He lowered himself into an abandoned mine shaft and tromped through thick underbrush. Since that awful autumn of 2018, Dares has returned the favor. LYS suddenly dismissing her vehement faith that SS was/is on the mountain. Three years, and thousands of hours and dollars later, she remains missing. His policy is to be as honest as he can. Three years, and thousands of hours and dollars later, she remains missing. Rachel moved back into her dads home in Moses Lake. Too much vegetation. People made YouTube videos. Hes proud of what the volunteers do. For more information, please see our Thank you! Samantha "Sam" Claire Sayers. Kevin was keyed up, eager to replace his broken flashlight and get back on the trail. Im a militant, he says, his voice softer than his camo wardrobe suggests. Theyve found no trace of Sayers. So forgive Kevin for being a bit antisocial. Her scrawl is the last concrete sign of the 27-year-old day hiker whose disappearance launched one of the biggest search and rescue operations in the state's history. Of course shed go straight to Belltown.Seattle PD was dispatched to the coordinates. Of that first week, Kevin mostly remembers climbing and crying. They spotted a tree on fire, but no Sam. By 4 p.m. Oct. 17, Lakoduk had made it about 2.5 miles up the trail and was at 5,500 feet. Missing: Samantha SayersPlease hurry. Back in Pennsylvania, that was how Sams mother heard the news. Here she was in the flesh at a Mardi Gras party in February 2016, thrown by the owners of Belltowns Biscuit Bitch. No ones seen a single trace of Sam Sayers since. 509 Olive Way, Suite 305, Seattle, WA 98101, Kevin recognized Sam from across the room. Toppled trees covered in moss. Its hard to say how many deep mine shafts and ventilation corridors, called adits, are dug into the mountainoften hidden in the underbrush. Why? The Find Sam Sayers Facebook group had grown to five figures, with posters trading conflicting theories and rumors. For $1,700. Now shes gone. When Kevin returned from the search, real life was waiting. Samantha Sayers is healthy but is bald because she has alopecia, an autoimmune disease that leads to hair loss, her mother said on Facebook. And for how long? Theyve been picking their way uphill, high stepping over logs and brushing away bugs for four hours, methodically searching for any sign of Lakoduk. Sams phone pinged, a sign it was on and working. See Photos. A Seattle hotelier and real estate developer. Someone texts Tripp. The AFRCC, or Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, was actively monitoring Sams phone for pings, a sign of brief connectivity to cellular sites. They covered a tremendous amount of ground. Jun 2004 - Mar 20138 years 10 months. That person wouldve walked out by now, I would think.. Prior to Tripps discovery, theyd been searching uphill from the place she was last seen. One saw her eating a sandwich. Sam and Kevins friends waded into the fray, trying to correct misinformation; one of his sisters got into arguments in comment sections. Below the steep north face of Vesper Peak, the edge of a glacier formed a moat at the base of the cliff, its bottom impossible to reach beneath the ice. After climbing more than 4,000 feet, up switchbacks and across boulder fields and finally across the patchy snow that marbles the stone pyramid of Vespers very top, Sam reached the summit. The sheriffs office fielded sightings of bald women across the state, several at various Walmarts. All told, Carr and various configurations of volunteers have spent more than 70 days on this mountain in the North Cascades searching for her. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. There is a woman from Spokane who met Lakoduks husband in community college and felt compelled to help. Kevin Dares with Sam at a New Orleans wedding in 2017. Dares looks closer, careful not to disturb anything. He learned how to hunt, to build shelters, to insulate himself with leaves. Kevin recognized Sam from across the room before they even metthis was the girl hed matched with on Tinder; theyd chatted through the app. No definitive signs ever surfaced; some footsteps on the southeast side could have been Sams, but they revealed nothing. Another hiker told police he saw her the same day at the 6,220-foot summit and . Literally nowhere else in the long history of missing persons cases do you see someone rallying up an "army" in this way. Sam is up on that mountain somewhere. Theories were batted back and forth online. That first night he wandered Vesper Peak with only the gear Sergeant Adams had on hand; by this point, his personal base had a canvas tent with a peaked roof, like a homesteaders cabin made of fabric. Even though in the decade hes done this work, hes never found a single person. Adams got hundreds of phone calls, including one from the general in charge of the Washington National Guard, who offered his own helicopters. Amateur sleuths followed the case like the podcast Serial or a season of True Detective. Still, its hot and hes tired when his radio crackles to life. Approvals quickly followed. Then the radio crackles, interrupting Carrs monologue. The Cascades retain pockets of remote wilderness, enclaves that feel as raw as when Western civilization first mowed a passage to the Pacific, yet are a casual drive from Seattle. Friends created a group page called Find Sam Sayers#findsamsayers, to be specificthat would grow to more than 30,000 followers. Hed read about it on Facebook and decided to help. On the phone he is well-spoken. Sayers' family and friends vow to keep searching for her until she is found. Im sure theyll be surprised [sic] twist weve never thought of., Its the murder mystery crowd, the I-love-watching-HBO-serial-killer-documentaries crowd, says Kevin, who tries, sometimes in vain, to temper his cynicism. Also, if you check out her IG she appeared to enjoy taking a lot of cliffside selfies soit's feasible she may have fallen. Point of Disappearance. Kevin was still at the Verlot station when Sergeant John Q. Adams arrived around 1:30am. Where did she go? But even he doesnt think Carr is a grief profiteer or a charlatan. He was honest.. He posted regularly to Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. (Courtesy of Julie Newberry) . ' Lisa cried, he says, and gave him a hug. Well come up to you, the rogue search and rescue employee says. Vieira said Sayers wore a wig in high school, but one . Dont touch anything, he says. THE TRAIL REGISTER may be the last tangible piece of Sam on Vesper Peak, the last one you can physically touch . (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review). On August 23, Deputy Teske was sitting with Kevin when word came that the county was officially suspending its search. A Cup of Noodles, six hand warmers, some glow sticks. I say it again: in my opinion what the boyfriend of Samantha Sayers, Kevin Dares, did the night she went missing, going into that trail alone, the way he contacted Rangers and 911 that night, his delay to inform Samantha's mother that her daughter was missing - she learned about her disappearance next day approx. I dont understand why I cant find Sam, he says, stifling a sob. Need help ASAP, he wrote. Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Not sure about the pad., Carr interjects, Orange, orange Therm-a-Rest.. It even had an iron box stove inside. In Belltown. Many took issue with the supply bags full of energy bars, not a common SAR technique. They parsed Kevins 911 callcould you hear someone in the background?and claimed to have hacked his email. A man with a dog showed up in the early days of the Idaho search in 2006 and offered his services. Follow the creek to the river. The official search was suspended on Aug. 23 after a Herculean effort. 2 No Hate Speech or Bullying Make sure everyone feels safe. Thats how you want to move, Carr recalls his dad telling him. Where did she go? Rainier. By early March, just after Mardi Gras 2019 and three years after he met Sam, Kevin has regained some of the weight he shed on Vesper, a mustard button-up brings color back to his face. Dares was grateful that Carr was searching. Around 10 a.m., Sayers signed her name in the logbook at the trailhead and then disappeared. When volunteers arrived around 6am, they took off in teams to comb the trail and call out Sams name. Sayers received court permission to change her last name from Steinbaugh to Sayers in May 2009, after her stepfather adopted her and her brother in February 2009, according to a name-change petition on file at the Erie County Courthouse. (GoFundMe) Search operations for a Seattle hiker missing since Aug. 1 have been suspended,. How to travel in the mountains. Francis was a victim of that. The U.S. Forest Service denied access for their helicopter, and Kevin rallied Sams Army to make phone calls to USFS offices, politicians, anyone who could make noise. Some posters there report having read the public records on the FB Truth Group before it was made private. Imagining Sam bushwhacking her way through the forest around Vesper, family members filled Ziploc bags with snacks and instructions for Sam. Instead, families looking for closure often turn to individuals or foundations to keep the search for their loved ones going. He didnt think it was likely Sam had ended up there, but it was worth a look. Hes prone to long rants, but is also a good listener, happy to suspend a story, although he almost always picks it up later. WA hiker Samantha Sayers went missing on 8/1 a solo day hike to Vesper's Peak. That self-promotion is an intentional choice, Carr said. I have better things to do. Two years later as Kevin Dares hikes uphill searching for Lakoduk, snow is a distant memory. A jet boat. Amid conifers and half-frozen lakes, we can feel free from our modern tangle of surveillance, even as tenuous threads still leash us to the world below: ever-pinging cell phones, footsteps on an established trail. Washington is not his natural environment, growing up as he did in the swamps of Louisiana, trapping alligators and selling their hides. Despite her healthy pallor, strangers assumed shed just undergone chemotherapy, and the sympathetic clucks wore on her. They dont touch anything. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Sayers' disappearance sparked a major, exhaustive search on the 6,200-foot peak off the Mountain Loop Highway, as well as a frenzy on social media. NBC News this past week pointed out that in the seven years its Dateline NBC "Missing in America" online series has been in existence, around 57% of the series'subjects have been found. Trash. As we near closer to the end (I hope, for everyone's sake), her followers expect (and are owed IMO) an explanation, but will she really be prepared to do that once the time comes? An estimated 1,600 people are missing in the wildlands of the United States. Eventually, even that produced a splinter group, The Truth of the Sam Sayers Case UNCENSORED. Dares is 500 feet up the hill, obscured by the thick vegetation. There are giant Reddit threads. What a complete waste of resources, and all for what? They found boot prints but that's it. Originally from New Orleans, his leisurely drawl belying a sharp wit and quick tongue. After the discovery they changed strategies and started following the terrain downhill from the fire. See how those goats move? But one day in August, one womans tethers disintegrated in a moment. Regardless, Rachel left Moses Lake alone that morning. Missing people usually leave a signature, family members filled Ziploc bags with snacks and instructions for Sam, Cheryl Phillips, a dog handler from South Carolina, and her search dog Raven, In October the occasional snow flurries turned to regular snowfall, Ski Areas Shift to Mountain Bike Parks in Summer, The Insider's Guide to Visiting North Cascades National Park. Her online videos imply that the family is currently pursuing their own investigation into her daughter's disappearance. News organizations picked up the story. The longest search in state history turned up nothing. He took off up the trail toward Vesper, leading Cheryl Phillips, a dog handler from South Carolina, and her search dog Raven. As a child, strangers in the store would comment on how beautiful her red hair was, to which she would only growl. They remembered her distinctive bald head, crowned with a star tattoo like a Roman laurel wreath. Lean as a whip. See Photos. Nine months later, the mystery has consumed the lives of thousands. The Hidden Lake trek is 8 miles round trip and steep, gaining 3,300 feet in 4 miles. Then he began to rally Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue through his radio. Tripp, Dares and Simonseth feel differently. She was super smart, cool, funny. Could his media approach be worlds different? August 1 had long since rolled into August 2, the first day of the search for Sam Sayers. Squirrels are going to be stuffed, one poster wrote. I guess the most pressing thing for me now tho is what everyone is saying since LYS has changed her tone and wtf happened to KD. The conversation covers more ground than the searchers have. One woman said her brother-in-law couldve abducted Sam, given a coincidentally timed vacation. Kevin asked his father, the command chief warrant officer in the Louisiana National Guard, to run the mountain camp. A search organized. (Rescue calls) are running a little bit ahead of where weve been traditionally, and the severity of injuries has gone up. Some accuse Bud Carr of these same tactics. Snohomish County Sheriffs Office. Shortly after her brief encounter, the trail takes a hard turn to the hikers left. Alopecia, an autoimmune disease, caused Sam to lose much of her hair; she shaved the rest daily. In a recording of Kevins 911 call, the operator asks what Sam had with her. I think shes hurt.. Published in the May 2019 issue of The staff checks on him every 10 minutes, more motherly than waiterly. Kevin agrees to wait. Dares found Lakoduk at 4,500 feet, 1,000 vertical feet below where the two hikers chatted with her. They both cried. Another saw her descending the south side of summit. Online criticism reached a fever pitch. Carr took this intuition seriously. An Eagle Scout whod earned almost every merit badge, Carr was raised by a father who introduced him to both search and rescue and a defiant, self-sufficient ethos. Through all this drama, Carr, Dares and others continued searching. In his Facebook videos, hes intense and combative. What color was Rachels pad, backpack and sleeping bag?. I'm not sure how this type of stuff is going to play out, there seem to be a lot of fingers in the pot. Being proficient in anything is militant.. The first winter storm of the year was rushing in, and snow was falling. Kevin, Carr, and the others made occasional trips down to visit their children and gather gear, but their lives had become ruled by the command tent maps, the bearings and grid lines plotted around PLS: Sams place last seen. 2023 www.goerie.com. As the August day melted into late evening, Kevin grew concerned. The paper is there to log the hikers on Sunrise Mine Trail #707, a route that winds to the top of Vesper Peak. Early on he told deputy Peter Teske, who would also play a huge role in the search, he had a feeling we better throw everything weve got at this one, at least for a couple of days.. This is the stance of someone who doesnt give up. Psychics and shamans relayed visions. He remembers Sams mother Lisa asking him what he really thought, around day four. Raven the search dog and her handler spent 39 days on the mountain, 17 of them in a row. It was Adamss first year as a search and rescue sergeant, taking over from a predecessor who oversaw SAR response for 22 years at the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office. It made sense, in a way, this impossible newsif Sam wandered out on her own, she could have hitchhiked back home. :-), I would love to be added to that group! The tattoos on her scalp, Kevin says, were armor. He called 911 early in the morning of Aug. 2. Carr knew of Krieger, she was the cashier at his grocery store. Late on that August day, a few hours after Sam wandered down Vesper, Kevin Dares sat inside Roccos, an upscale pizza restaurant in Belltown with Victorian wallpaper and novelty banh mi slices. Finally, in mid-October, Kevin and Bud Carr made the decision to pack up their camp and come down the mountain. Someone claimed she was on an episode of The Bachelorette. Her mother posted daily updates that were parsed for clues. The next evening, she was reported missing, her Jeep located that night by a sheriffs deputy. Jamie hoped theyd repair the marriage. I never once even peeped at it before because I was under LYS's cult spell and I thought if I deflected there I'd get blocked from her page. Its as if the ties that bound Sam to him, to her life, to reality, are fluttering in the Cascade gusts, and after months of grasping at them he still cant seem to catch one between his fingers. Dares insisted on paying Carr $500 a week during the heat of the Sayers search. Hed recently graduated. Every year, in the United States, roughly 600,000 people go missing. But in August, they separated. It looks like a dead endrock climbers need ropes to scale the steep walls that rise in every directionbut theres one other way out, a trail that rises through an ankle-twisting boulder field, leading hikers to Headlee Pass. The last few hundred feet of Vesper is more of a scramble route than it is a defined path. Sam Sayers [Handout] The Theories With nearly 1,600 people missing in national forests and on public land, it is difficult to speculate about the causes of all these missing people. Members of the Find Sam Sayers group began referring to themselves as Sams Army, calling elected officials en masse to demand more resources. Once back in the States, they started backpacking. His girlfriend, Samantha Sayers, also disappeared while hiking. Samantha Sayers Business & Communications Graduate | Operations, Documentation, & Customer Success | Bilingual Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States. Its Aug. 14. One count estimates 1,600 people are currently missing on public lands. SOS, SOS. Is it possible or o.k. When Carr calls, Dares packs his bag and heads out as a way of paying it back to him and everyone else who helped. Soon after meeting Kevin, she left a gig at Seattle Repertory Theatre to work entrepreneurial hustles, pursuing a real estate license and marketing intriguing products shed found online, like an inflatable lounger. Beside him sits a county search and rescue volunteer who goes rogue occasionally, spending time outside the bounds of the county system, trying to bring closure to a family left wondering what happened to their daughter. In videos posted to his own YouTube channel, he is combative and confident about his mountain experience. I submitted a request to join but it hasn't been approved yet. Police are continuing to search for a woman who went missing after going out on a solo hike in Washington State on Aug. 1. She built that fire. They called it Operation Relentless Pursuit. Its been an uphill battle. Her goal was to spend the night at the Hidden Lake Lookout for her 28th birthday. And then there is Carlton Bud Carr Jr., the man who brought them together. She preferred if more people thought she was punk than had cancer.Sam exuded vitality. Yall come up here.. Her family is exploring all avenues of inquiry to find and bring her home. I want to understand that she had to "put up a front" in order to properly follow other leads, but like how dare you rally and petition and raise money for volunteers to go searching if you never really felt she was there in the first place. The desperate family paid, nonetheless. It had never happened before. Time will tell. They were among the outside experts Kevin hired using money from the GoFundMe. I think were looking for a body. His girlfriend, Samantha Sayers, also disappeared while hiking. She spoke her mind. Dares moves quickly up the hill using an ice axe to bite into moss, scrambling over rocks and ducking trees. A search ensued unlike anything the state of Washington has ever seen. Missing people usually leave a signature, whether physical, electronic, or even a smudge of heat to be traced. She and Kevin, a single dad of three, moved in together. It was easy for fellow hikers to remember the young woman with the bald, tattooed head and the wide, easy smile. I would love to know the theory of the truth group please! Washington has a robust search and rescue system, according to experts, yet counties can only search for so long. In addition to the swastika tattoo, Carr posted a video since deleted of himself wearing a hat with an Iron Cross. Seven years of Dateline's Missing in America: 156 still missing. The happiest situation I can think of is shes on that mountain and it was something quick and she didnt suffer for too long., Only a fraction of missing persons cases are truly without a trace, truly unsolved. Im a member of the truth group and the missing Seattle hikers group ( they discuss Sams case and others and its also my favorite because theres no stupid drama.) Ive always been of a warrior mindset. His father, Carlton Carr Sr. was an entrepreneur, jumping from hustle to hustle, but by far his most successful, and formative enterprise, was a gold mine in Colorado. Rachel Lakoduk woke early on Oct. 17, 2019, stuffed her purple sleeping bag into her green backpack, dumped her clean laundry on her bed, picked out the clothes she needed for the upcoming adventure, jumped into her white Jeep Cherokee and was westbound out of Moses Lake shortly after 7 a.m. She passed through Washingtons hot and dry middle, registered for her hike at a ranger station and then parked at the Hidden Lake Lookout trailhead. A carpenter by trade, who converted to Buddhism while in a Missouri prison, Carr spends months in the woods looking for missing people as a way of repaying his karmic debt to society. They flag evidence, pink tape hanging limply from branches. She's into that Arbonne pyramid scheme as well. Not drinking makes nights harder.I dream, he says, the bayou drawl heavy even as his voice gets quiet. All rights reserved. Vesper Peak comes to a triangular point, like a childs drawing of a mountain. So forgive Kevin for being a bit anti-social. Hi. After a $20,000 reward was announced, the trail swelled further. A brand-new BMX bike for Bud. We can get statistics on auto accidents but theyre not collected for people missing in the wilderness., The search for Jon lasted only two days before the county sheriff pulled out and, as David remembers, told him he should give his son up to the mountain.