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Just Creepy: Scary Stories

6 Eerie Mount Rainier Disappearances That Still Can’t Be Explained

Fri, 18 Apr 2025

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Linktree: https://linktr.ee/its_just_creepyMount Rainier National Park is a place of breathtaking beauty—but beneath the towering evergreens and glacier-capped peaks lies a hidden darkness. In this special 1-hour deep dive, we explore six verified missing person cases that remain unsolved to this day. From a camper who vanished from a rain-soaked tent in 1979 to a seasoned hiker who disappeared on a routine trek in 2020, each story reveals unsettling details and leaves behind haunting questions. Join me on a journey into the strange, the tragic, and the unexplained—where every trail seems to lead to more mystery.Cases Covered in This Video:Elaine Robertson (1979)Ramona Fey (1995)Sheila Kearns (1996)Joe Wood Jr. (1999)Eric Lewis (2010)Sam Dubal (2020)Music by:►'Decoherence' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.auhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM_AjpJL5I4&t=0s► Myuu's channelhttp://bit.ly/1k1g4ey ►CO.AG Musichttp://bit.ly/2f9WQpeBusiness inquiries: ►[email protected]#scarystories #horrorstories #mountrainiernationalpark #missingperson #deepwoods #nationalpark #parkrangerstories 💀As always, thanks for watching! 💀

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Chapter 1: What eerie disappearances are discussed in Mount Rainier?

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On a cold, rain-soaked night in May 1979, campers at Mount Rainier National Park's Sunshine Point Campground witnessed a puzzling scene. A young woman stumbled out of the darkness with her dog, rain dripping from her clothes. She seemed dazed and incoherent, muttering words no one could piece together.

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Concerned campers offered help, but the woman wandered off into the wet blackness with her faithful canine at her side. By dawn, her campsite was eerily quiet. Her tent and belongings were still there, but she and her dog had vanished. It was as if the mountain itself had swallowed them whole. That was just the beginning.

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Over the years, Mount Rainier's breathtaking wilderness has played host to a number of chilling disappearances. Hikers, climbers, park employees, and visitors have walked into the forests and foothills of this majestic volcano, never to return. Each case is a story with no ending, timelines that simply stop, leaving rescuers and loved ones grasping for answers.

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Today, we will journey into six of these true mysteries from Mount Rainier National Park, spanning decades and circumstances. Each story unfolds in the shadow of the same towering peak, yet each is uniquely baffling. These accounts are told in a storytelling style with suspense, twists, and vivid detail. sticking only to known facts and credible reports.

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We won't indulge legends or folklore, no Bigfoot or supernatural lore here, just real events documented by park rangers, law enforcement and family members. As we delve into each disappearance, consider the dual nature of Mount Rainier, a place of serene natural beauty and unforgiving danger. By the end you may find yourself eyeing even the most peaceful woodlands with a new sense of caution,

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Now let's step back in time to that rainy Memorial Day weekend in 1979 and uncover what little we know about the first vanishing, the story of a young woman and her dog who walked into the mist and never returned. Case 1, The Rainy Night Vanishing, Elaine Robertson, 1979.

Chapter 2: Who was Elaine Robertson and what happened to her?

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On Memorial Day weekend in 1979, 24-year-old Elaine Marie Robertson set out on a road trip from her home in San Luis Obispo, California to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. Elaine was an adventurous spirit and had decided to spend the holiday camping amidst Rainier's towering evergreens.

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She drove her 1968 Volkswagen van north, likely eager to trade the bustle of California for the crisp alpine air of the Pacific Northwest. By the evening of Sunday, May 27th, Elaine had made it to the outskirts of the park, but something was clearly wrong. That night, under a relentless downpour, Elaine wandered into the Sunshine Point Campground near the park's Nisqually River entrance.

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Other campers observed that Elaine appeared disoriented, even incoherent, as she moved through the campground with her dog at her side. She was drenched from the rain and perhaps shivering from cold. Concerned by her condition, a few people tried to talk with her, but Elaine's words didn't make sense. She seemed confused and possibly in distress.

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Some later described her behavior as if she were not fully aware of her surroundings. Eventually, Elaine and her dog retreated to her campsite in the rainy darkness. Campers could only hope she would be okay through the night. When the morning of May 28th arrived, the storm had eased, but an unsettling discovery emerged. Elaine was gone. Her campsite was found abandoned.

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All her belongings were left behind in her tent, yet neither she nor her dog were anywhere to be found. Park rangers were alerted that a camper had seemingly disappeared overnight. Given Elaine's confused state the night before, this immediately raised alarms. A search was quickly organized in the lush, dripping woods around Sunshine Point. What rangers found only deepened the mystery.

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Not far from the campground, they located Elaine's Volkswagen van, parked about a mile away from her sight. The van was intact, suggesting Elaine hadn't driven off. It appeared as if she had left the van, walked to the campground with her dog, and then somehow vanished from the area on foot.

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But how far could a person go in the dark, rain-soaked night, while disoriented and without any of her gear? Searchers combed the vicinity, calling out her name and scanning the riverbanks and trails. They found no sign of Elaine or her dog. It was as if they had evaporated with the night rain. For days, Pierce County Sheriff's deputies and park rangers conducted an extensive search.

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They scoured the densely forested campground area and the raging Nisqually River nearby, fearing that perhaps Elaine might have wandered into the river in the darkness. If she had been suffering from hypothermia or a mental health crisis, she might not have realized the peril. Sadly, no trace was ever found. Not a piece of clothing, not footprints, and not her dog.

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It was as though the rainy woods had swallowed them whole. Elaine's disappearance baffled authorities in both Washington and her home state. In fact, both Washington and Oregon police opened investigations into her case. Elaine had family ties in the Pacific Northwest, which might explain Oregon's involvement. They looked into her background for any clues.

Chapter 3: What led to the mysterious disappearance of Ramona Fay?

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Coworkers checked her cabin, only to find it empty. Her belongings were there, but Sheila herself was nowhere to be found. Park rangers were alerted that one of their own had possibly gone missing on park grounds. A search was launched almost at once. At first, people hoped Sheila had just taken an early walk or drive and lost track of time.

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But as hours passed with no sign of her, that hope faded. Searchers combed the Longmire area, calling out for Sheila in the evergreen groves around the housing area. This wasn't deep wilderness. Longmire is a developed district with roads, buildings, and short trails.

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if she had gotten lost or injured nearby surely she would be found quickly or she could call out for help but the search turned up nothing that day or the next or the next it was as if sheila had stepped out of her cabin and simply evaporated into the crisp autumn air of mount rainier Friends and co-workers were distraught and perplexed.

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Sheila's disappearance hit the tight-knit park community hard. They trusted the mountain and each other, and now one of their own was gone under mysterious circumstances. Rumors and theories swirled like the fall leaves. Could Sheila have been in an accident? Perhaps she went on a short hike or down to the Nisqually River and fell. But Sheila wasn't known for taking unnecessary risks.

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Remember, she was incredibly careful. the more chilling possibility was that something or someone had harmed her. As days turned to weeks with no trace of Sheila, foul play became a lurking suspicion. The fact that she vanished from within a residential area of the park was alarming. If this were a crime, who could the perpetrator be? A stranger wandering the park, another employee.

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It was unthinkable, yet nothing was off the table. The case was especially complex because it happened on federal land, giving jurisdiction to the FBI. The Seattle FBI field office joined forces with park rangers to investigate Sheila's disappearance. The winter of 1996 and 97 was a tense and sorrowful one at Mount Rainier.

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Snow buried the meadows of Paradise and the cabins of Longmire, covering any clues that might have been left behind. Seven long months passed with no answers. Then, as spring arrived and the snowbanks began to recede, the mountain revealed a grim secret. In late May 1997, Near the Longmere Community Building, a park maintenance worker stumbled on something on the forest floor, human remains.

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They were scattered, as if disturbed by animals, and had clearly been there for some time. The location was not far from the employee housing where Sheila had lived, essentially in the same general area. Rangers rushed to the scene and soon the remains were tentatively identified. It was Sheila Kearns.

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The woman who had vanished in October was finally found, tragically still within the park's embrace. This discovery answered one question, where Sheila ended up, but it raised a hundred more. Because of the condition of the remains, the cause of Sheila's death could not be determined. Animal activity had disturbed the site. scattering bones over a patch of ground.

Chapter 4: How did Sheila Kearns vanish from Mount Rainier?

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How did he simply disappear on a day hike in good weather? Some friends could not shake the idea of foul play. What if Wood had been abducted? Could it have been murder? They wondered in hushed conversations. Perhaps a stranger encountered Joe on the trail. The park is generally safe, and there were no reports of suspicious individuals.

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Rangers responded to these theories by noting that a struggle on the mountain would have left signs, footprints, broken foliage, or scents for the search dogs. They found none. All evidence, or lack thereof, pointed toward an accident of nature.

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indeed as rangers sombrely pointed out mount rainier is perilous even for day hikers in fact two other men had gone missing on rainier in the two months before joe's disappearance those cases were separate incidents mountain misadventures that also ended tragically

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joe's story fit a pattern the park sadly knew too well one misstep near a roaring waterfall one slide on a snowbank into a concealed canyon and you can vanish beyond reach the plan was to resume some searching after snowmelt Rangers will send a helicopter and dog teams back up when the snow melts, promised park officials.

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Joe's mother said, We're going to wait to see, clinging to a thread of hope. But summer came and went, and no trace ever surfaced. Not that year, not in the decades since. Joe Wood's disappearance resonated far beyond the park. National media covered the story because he was a well-known journalist. The timing coincided with another headline-grabbing event, the disappearance of John F. Kennedy Jr.

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's plane in the Atlantic, just a day after Joe went missing. The nation was captivated by JFK Jr. 's search, which perhaps overshadowed Joe's a bit. But among black intellectual circles and Joe's communities, his story was front and center. There was an outpouring of concern. How could such a bright light be snuffed out so mysteriously?

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Friends from New York hired a private investigator, a former NYPD detective, to double-check everything. not fully trusting that an accident was all there was to it this detective retraced joe's steps interviewed locals and examined possible foul play angles but apparently found nothing inconsistent with the official account over time joe wood's case has become almost legend

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Writers penned articles and even poems in his memory, grappling with the sudden void he left. A friend, the poet Cornelius Eide, wrote of Joe and the mountain, underscoring how unbelievable it felt that someone so full of life could just be gone. Another friend, Adolph Reed, articulated the emotional riddle,

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I find myself both straining to accept that Joe is gone and feeling that to accept that is an act of betrayal, he said. It's a sentiment anyone who's lost someone to an unresolved disappearance can understand, that unwillingness to give up, as if hope were a tether keeping your loved one's memory alive. The mountain hasn't given up Joe.

Chapter 5: What happened to journalist Joe Wood during his hike?

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We delved into Sheila Kearns in 1996, a dedicated park employee whose fate remains a riddle of bones scattered near her home. Her coworkers still wonder if it was a tragic animal attack or something more sinister. We traced Joe Wood's 1999 hike into the pristine forest that somehow devoured him whole, leaving a void in the literary world and a mountain of grief for those left behind.

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We scaled the heights with Eric Lewis in 2010, glimpsing how quickly a mountaineer's confidence can turn to catastrophe in a blizzard.

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one moment tied to friends the next vanished into the storm and we walked alongside sam du ball in twenty twenty marveling at how a man so prepared and so loved could go missing on a simple loop proving that even today with all our gear and know-how nature can still humble us completely

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These stories span different eras, different ages, different backgrounds, yet they are united by the terrain of Mount Rainier and the enduring mystery of not knowing. Families and friends of each missing person have had to live with that gnawing uncertainty.

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Decades later, some still lay tokens on the mountain, like Sengupta burying an earring for Joe Wood so he would not be alone, gestures to cope with an absence that cannot be filled.

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what do we take away from all this first a profound respect for mount rainier's dual nature this mountain also known by the indigenous name tahoma is breathtaking beyond measure snow-capped peaks wildflower meadows cascading falls But it is also, in the words of one writer, perhaps the most dangerous mountain in America. It lures us with beauty and then tests us with peril.

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One misstep, one turn of weather, or one moment of bad luck can change everything. The mysterious disappearances at Mount Rainier National Park serve as a haunting reminder of the park's dual nature, a place of striking beauty and potentially deadly dangers. Second, these cases remind us of the importance of preparedness and caution. Many of our Sikhs did everything right and still met trouble.

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For hikers and adventurers listening, the lesson is not that you should never go, but rather always tell someone your plan in detail, carry the ten essentials, and then some, respect your limits, and heed the mountain signals. As one experienced Northwest traveler put it, outsiders sometimes don't understand that, When you go up there, you're meeting nature. You're going to meet its forces.

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The forces of nature are powerful and indifferent. They don't bend to our schedules or skill levels. Third, we're reminded how agonizing and enduring the pain of uncertainty is for those left behind. Each of these missing persons had family and friends who spent weeks, months, even years, searching, speculating, hoping against hope.

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