WEBVTT
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Meanwhile, news of Derek's disappearance spread through Klamath County, heightening
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concern amongst locals. Rumors bubbled up in grocery store aisles
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and school hallways, anything.
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From mountain lions to hidden mines.
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To strangers lurking in the trees. Their original kind of working,
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very early on in the disappearance was sort of that,
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you know, he just maybe had kind of wandered off,
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he got a little disoriented. At this point, you're almost
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hoping that one of the other theories is what's taken place,
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because maybe there's still a chance he's alive.
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Hi, Cassie, Hi, Caitlin. Hi. Creepy people. Hello, pepe people,
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Peep pee peep people in the Pacific Northwest.
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This is PNW hans and homicides, where we chat about
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true crime, the paranormal and all things related to trees.
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Oh yeah, yeah, because we're in the tree.
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Hugging Pacific North Wales. Yep, lots of trees with a PNW.
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If you're nasty, if you're there, nasty. I tried to
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sneak it in there real quick.
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And yeah, she tried to word vomit that out and
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it did not work out for her.
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I'm drinking beer. Okay, no, you guys can't see me
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if you're not watching the video. But I'm drinking a
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Laurel Laurel Hurst or Laurel Wood, Laurel Wood, not Laurel Hurst,
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but clothes. And it's called tree Hugger Porter and it's
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got our license plate on it, so cute. I kind
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of like want this license plate, but I assume it's taken. Probably.
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I mean, I have this license plate. I want one
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that says you want hug tr e H g R.
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You should look into that. Okay, so I'm going to
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jump in to it. Oh hey, wait what? We also
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do a tarot reading at the end of every episode
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for a little deeper insight into our tree topics. We
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forget intriguing topics treguing.
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You know what, I said that in my last episode,
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and I don't I don't think I hit it quite
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quite right, because neither one of us said anything about it.
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You didn't giggle. I didn't giggle at my own joke,
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and I just like.
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Which I usually do, I was gonna say, you probably
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like you didn't hit the salabbles well, I said.
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I listened back to it, and I was like this
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article was intriguing. Like I said, intriguing, it didn't land
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for either of us.
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Could have could have just been that day. I hope
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it landed for all of you out there because it
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was hilarious. She's like, I'm not above recycling my own material.
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Right, and I will if I miss telling you that
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I made a joke, I will come back on another episode.
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Make sure you know that I made a joke. It's
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important to us, not the first time. I love that.
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Okay, well, there's not that many jokes about this one.
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My working title includes The Nightmare before Christmas, and I'm
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not reading you a review of the Tim Burton film.
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I was hoping for that. I know that's a different podcast. Well,
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you said your Christmas themed episode, so I thought it
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would be happy.
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Yeah, true crime around the holidays is it can be
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a theme. I don't know that happy is the word
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I would use. I think you misunderstood the assignment, did I? No,
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we can't always be happy and fun on Christmas. We
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have we have serious true crime topics to talk about.
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It's true.
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It's true. Apologies all right now, I'm going to get
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into it. Ok Okay, I'm gonna hug my tree beer. Yeah,
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she needs a kozy cover up the art. That's true.
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That's true. Also, your hands get cold. I do have
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koozies though. I use that koozi you got me all
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the time, Like I keep it at Britney's because that's
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where I drink my beer and I use it every
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single time I'm there.
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What can I say? Search and rescue teams will tell
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you the same thing. Fresh snow is honest. Everything is recorded,
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every step, every pause, every wrong turn. On December fifth,
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nineteen ninety eight, eight year old Derek Inga Bretson walked
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into the Oregon Woods in rural Klamath County with his
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family to cut a Christmas tree and vanished.
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No, during the happiest time of the year. Yeah, happiest
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activity you cut tree farms? You know, Wait, were they
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I was gonna say, were they cutting out a U
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cut place or was it like one where you like
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in the woods? Were you actually like you pay like
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five dollars for a license or something and you go
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and get a tree from the woods.
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It's not like I don't know that people are paying
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for license. I thought you had to get like a
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license to go cut a tree from the woods. Yeah, no,
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you're supposed to do, Okay.
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I don't know if they did or didn't.
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I'm just saying I feel like in a lot of
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rural arts of Oregon and a lot of other states
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for that matter, people.
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Are just like, I'm cutting down a tree. I'm paying
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for no license. I didn't know that. Yeah, I just
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assumed everyone followed the law.
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I would just be out there cutting down trees all
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willing nilly, unlicensed.
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So they were like looking for those wild looking trees
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like the unkempt. Uh. Yeah, maybe because like they're not
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going to be trimmed in the forest, you know, Yeah,
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they're definally not going to be trimmed.
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I don't know if that was like an aesthetic that
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they were seeking or I feel like, if you if
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that's where you live, they just needed a tree, You're like,
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I'm getting a Christmas tree.
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Yeah.
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That day was icy, even by Klamath County standards. Temperatures
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hovered around twenty degrees fahrenheit, with snowpack along the banks
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and slopes of Pelican Butte already creeping several inches deep
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from earlier storms.
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So it doesn't sound like a great time to go
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get a Christmas tree.
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I mean, I think in some places we're just like
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that up in the gets yep, Okay, yeah. I remember
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driving down to uh Klamath Lake at one point, and
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I think it was early November, maybe late October, and
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it started snowing when I was about forty five minutes
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out from my destination, and I was like, Okay.
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I guess that makes sense. Are they at like a
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higher They're at a high elevation.
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It's a high elevation in certain parts, in certain parts
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in this part.
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Yes, this is yeah. They're up in the mountains.
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Snow muffled, sound, blanketed, the high desert, evergreens uncoded, the
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rugged terrain along Pelican Butte, the landscape beautiful and brutal
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in equal measure. Derek's footprints led through the snow and
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then stopped, not scattered, not disturbed, just gone.
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Like Bigfoot took him or something. It's a fair question.
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Snow doesn't forget, but on that mountain it kept a secret.
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I've done something really cruel.
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Two kid cases in a row previous to this, and
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this is a third, which is I listen, gone to
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my head. I could not have guessed that at the
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happiest time of the year. I would have picked to
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do three motherfucking cases.
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That are kids, back to back to back to back
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to back. It feels like it's actually been more than three.
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What's going on with you?
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The outing to fetch their Christmas tree was a tradition
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for this family. Derek had accompanied his father, Robert Bob
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inga Breton, and his grandfather Robert Sr.
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On similar outings before. Is Bob what he goes by? Her?
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Is his name Robert Bob? No? I think he goes
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by Bob? Okay? Yeah, just checking, Yeah, Robert Bob. Just
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to be sure. You never know.
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Yeah, Year after year, families partake in countless holiday traditions.
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They're supposed to be safe, familiar. Which should have been
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a memory, turned into a nightmare one that has never ended.
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Derek lived with his family in Bonanza.
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Bonanza, Bananza. I know, it sounds so fun. I didn't
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even know that was a place.
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It is in a rural, working class community, about twenty
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five miles east of Klamath Falls.
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That's probably why I've never heard of it. Yeah, I
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was gonna say, is there east of cold? If you're
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that far down south? Most of us are like, isn't
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that California?
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This high desert area, characterized by vast stretches of open
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land and frigid winters, could either feel peaceful or foreboding.
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Depending on the day.
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Derek loved the outdoors and was used to being outside
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in the elements. His father took him hunting regularly, fishing,
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and just exploring the woods. His level of comfort in
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Organ's wilderness at such a young age is something many
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have pointed to as part of what makes this case
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so baffling.
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That is really interesting because that's I don't know if
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you listen to my tree episode yet, to the part
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with my dad and ground not the editor, No, I
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haven't yet. It's very interesting because I talked about how
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I used to wander around in the forest and find
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my way back all on my own, and like me
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who doesn't know directions, like has no sense of but
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just your comfortability, I think, and I feel like if
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you're even experienced like that, that's even more yeah proof,
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like you could just find your way back right right
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or just like a sense.
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I feel like some of those things, like those activities outdoors,
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it's in so many different ways it helps you preserve,
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Like the self preservation instinct and like the right things
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to do.
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They're sort of imparted on you. Yeah.
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That being said, he's a very young child. So after
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spending much of the late morning driving forest roads and
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stopping periodically in the snow, the group parked along a
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US forest road to continue scouting for a tree. Derek
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wandered slightly ahead while his father placed several freshly cut
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branches into their pickup.
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Okay, I thought you were saying, placed them on the ground,
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like so they could find their way back, like a
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little breadcrumb.
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Right, Yeah, very handsome and gretel. No, why was he
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taking branches? I'm sure they were planning to do some
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sort of like garland or something like that.
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Yeah, reads some things.
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It was during one of these seemingly ordinary and fleeting moments,
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just the slightest lapse of attention, the kind that happens
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in a heartbeat, that Derek slipped out of sight. Bob
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later told investigators he had turned away briefly, his attention
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turned to the task at hand, and when he looked back,
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Derek was gone.
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So strange.
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Yes, it's such an isolated place at that time of year.
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He called out, expecting to hear the boy answer from
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behind a tree or over a short ridge, But there
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was nothing, no voice, no movement, no crackling footsteps on snow,
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just cold, heavy quiet.
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So like if someone had taken him and ran away, right,
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you would hear if he was running.
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Earth would feel as though that might be audible.
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Yeah.
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Within minutes, Derek's father and grandfather began scouring the immediate area.
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Tracks were visible, small prints and the snow leading away
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from the road toward dense trees. They followed them and
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soon encountered what would become one of the most haunting
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images in the case, a final, clearly defined footprint that
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abruptly ended near a wooded drainage area. There were no
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signs of a struggle, no disturbance, and the snow just
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a sudden stop, as if the boy had vanished mid stride.
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What did he like fall into another dimension? I mean, honestly,
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anything feels possible in this case. It's so weird, it's
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very strange, And there are a number of theories.
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We'll definitely get to them, but I'm sure there are Yeah,
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I'm sure there's wild ones. Yeah, like they're worse than
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my bigfoot theory.
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Yeah, that oddly did not make the more popular theory list.
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The reason I said that really quickly before I forget,
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I heard a story about Bigfoot and it was like,
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you know Bigfoot episode. I think it was a podcast,
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and they talked about someone just disappearing from the woods.
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Yes, no, I mean I've I've definitely heard stories like that,
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and for whatever reason, you know, the individual circumstances of
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the story, people thought, Okay, this, this feels like squatch.
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Right, Like what other explanation would there be?
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And with each of the more popular theories, there are
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things that like fit, and then none of them feels
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quite adequate, which I think is probably the most frustrating part.
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I think I know where I land in terms of
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the popular theories, but I'm definitely gonna be curious what
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you think she's like. I'm squatch through and through squatch watch.
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By late afternoon, the Klamath County Sheriff's Office launched a response,
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and search and rescue teams began mobilizing. Darkness approached quickly,
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with temperatures dipping into the teams as more snow fell
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00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:51.960
over the shadowed woods, the combination of conditions creating a