8 Mysterious Disappearances in Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

The locals know Mount Rainier isn’t just another pretty peak.

Beyond the wildflowers and scenic trails, it’s a place where people sometimes walk into the mist and never return.

From skilled climbers to casual hikers, over 400 souls have vanished within this corner of Washington.

Here are some of their stories, including four that happened in a single summer.

The Expert Hiker Who Disappeared without a Trace

Dr. Sam Dubal, a 33-year-old University of Washington anthropology professor who had just started his “dream job” in June 2020, vanished on October 9, 2020, while hiking alone on the 17-mile Mother Mountain Loop trail from Mowich Lake Trailhead.

Despite carrying full survival gear—tent, sleeping bag, snow equipment, rain gear, cellphone with charger—and being an experienced hiker who had trekked in the Himalayas, Dubal never returned from his overnight trip.

A major weather problem happened on October 10, when a storm washed out the Carbon River crossing that Dubal would have needed to cross to finish his loop.

On October 13, search teams found a distinctive water bottle belonging to Dubal along the trail, but this clue led to no other signs of him.

The search effort used amazing resources: 50 people on October 17, helicopter crews with Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) cameras, multiple dog teams, aerial drones specially sent to check hard-to-reach sections of old trail along the Carbon River, and specialized 4×4 teams searching private forest lands outside park boundaries.

The Writer Who Left a Conference and Vanished

Joe Wood Jr., a 34-year-old respected journalist and author from New York, vanished without a trace in Mount Rainier National Park on July 7, 1999.

Wood had traveled to Seattle to attend the Unity ’99 journalism conference, which brought together exactly 6,983 media professionals from across the nation.

After attending only the registration and opening session, Wood unexpectedly left the professional gathering where he was scheduled to speak on a panel about diversity in journalism.

Rental car records show Wood rented a blue Dodge Neon at 10:37 AM from SeaTac Airport on July 7, driving the 87 miles to Mount Rainier instead of returning to the conference.

Park entrance logs confirm he entered through the Nisqually entrance at 1:22 PM. Three separate hikers later identified Wood from photographs as the man they saw on the 1.8-mile Comet Falls Trail, with the last sighting placing him about 400 yards from the 320-foot waterfall at 4:15 PM.

Despite using 121 searchers, 8 dog teams, and 3 helicopters with thermal imaging technology over a 17-day search operation covering 28 square miles, no physical evidence of Wood was ever found—not his backpack, camera, clothing, or any human remains.

Park rangers noted that the weather was clear that day with temperatures of 68°F and no rain.

Especially confusing was that Wood had left his hotel room at the Seattle Sheraton fully prepared for the journalism conference, with his presentation materials neatly arranged and professional clothes laid out.

The Father Found Miles from His Destination

On July 12, 2014, Edwin Birch, a 64-year-old Tacoma resident with over 30 years of hiking experience in the Cascades, disappeared during a carefully planned hiking trip with his son in Mount Rainier National Park.

Rather than hiking together, the father-son pair created an unusual plan to walk a challenging 14-mile route from opposite directions, planning to exchange car keys when they met halfway at Indian Bar, exactly 7 miles from each starting point.

Birch started at Owyhigh Lakes trailhead (elevation 5,100 feet) at 7:30 AM, carrying minimal equipment suitable only for a day hike—no overnight gear, emergency supplies, or navigation devices.

His son started from Box Canyon, with both hiking at about the same pace based on their known hiking speeds. When Birch didn’t arrive at Indian Bar by the agreed 2:00 PM meeting time, search operations started right away.

Park rangers sent four specialized search teams focusing on different parts of the trail network, including high-altitude specialists checking the rugged terrain near Cowlitz Divide (elevation 6,800 feet).

After 14 days of intensive searching totaling over 2,500 person-hours, rangers found Birch’s remains on July 26 near the upper reaches of Fryingpan Glacier, about 2.7 miles away from his intended route and at an elevation of 7,200 feet.

Most puzzling was that Birch’s body was found in an area with no established trails, on the opposite side of a major ridgeline from his planned route, facing southwest rather than northeast toward his destination.

The official investigation found no signs of animal attack, injury, or equipment failure, and medical examiners couldn’t determine a clear cause of death.

The Disappearance of a Mount Rainier Expert

Karen Sykes, a 70-year-old veteran outdoor writer who had written three definitive guidebooks on Mount Rainier trails and completed over 600 documented hikes in the park since 1979, vanished on June 18, 2014.

When she disappeared, Sykes was researching trail conditions for an upcoming edition of her guidebook “Hidden Hikes of Mount Rainier,” focusing specifically on the Owyhigh Lakes Trail, which she had personally hiked 37 times before.

Sykes was hiking with her companion Bob Morthorst, an experienced mountaineer, but the pair split up at the 4,500-foot elevation mark when they encountered snow.

Sykes, wearing bright red hiking pants and a blue jacket, continued upward to photograph alpine wildflowers while Morthorst waited at their predetermined meeting spot.

After exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes, Morthorst reported her missing at 4:35 PM.

The search involved 115 personnel, including technical mountain rescue teams and dog units that specifically tracked her scent to a snowfield at 5,200 feet before the trail suddenly ended.

Most puzzling were the tracks found in the snow. They showed a straight-line path up the snow field before making a sharp 90-degree turn eastward toward more difficult terrain, behavior completely unlike Sykes’ well-documented careful hiking habits.

Three days later, searchers found Sykes’ body in an off-trail area near Boundary Creek, in steep, thickly forested terrain about 1.8 miles from where she was last seen.

The medical examiner determined hypothermia as the cause of death.

But they couldn’t explain why someone with Sykes’ extraordinary knowledge of the park would have strayed so dramatically from both the trail and safety rules she herself had taught in wilderness courses for over 25 years.

The Summer of 2020

This period had a serious spike in missing cases at Mount Rainier.

Vincent Djie, a 25-year-old Indonesian student studying in Seattle, vanished on June 19, 2020, while hiking the Van Trump Trail near Longmire.

Security footage from the Longmire Museum captured Djie entering the trail at 11:23 AM wearing a specific outfit: black pants, blue and white shirt with a tie, and carrying a small drawstring bag.

Despite this very detailed description and 221 people joining the search effort, no trace of Djie was ever found.

Talal Sabbahu, a 27-year-old GIS mapping specialist from Seattle, disappeared on June 22, 2020, just three days after Djie.

Sabbahu’s silver Toyota Camry was found parked at the Paradise lot with his wallet, phone, and hiking plan visible on the passenger seat. His body was found 12 days later in Stevens Canyon, 3.8 miles from his planned route and in the opposite direction of his hiking plan.

Matthew Bunker, a 28-year-old Army West Point graduate and experienced mountaineer, vanished on June 26, 2020, while coming down from a ski trip at 10,400 feet on Liberty Ridge, marking the third disappearance in just eight days.

Helicopter search teams spotted Bunker’s body in a crevasse at the base of a steep cliff, but dangerous conditions made recovery impossible until September 2020.

Over 400 People Have Disappeared within the Park

One of the most disturbing aspects of Mount Rainier’s history is the documented record of exactly 412 individuals who have vanished within its 236,381 acres of wilderness between 1926 and 2024.

National Park Service internal records show that Mount Rainier’s disappearance rate is 3.7 times higher per visitor than Yellowstone National Park, despite Yellowstone being 3.6 times larger in area.

Statistical analysis reveals troubling patterns. 68% of disappearances happened during clear weather with temperatures between 60-75°F.

73% happened on well-established trails rather than backcountry areas, and remarkably, 57% of vanished hikers had extensive wilderness experience averaging 7+ years of regular hiking activity.

Most puzzling is that 41% of disappearances happened within 3 miles of trailheads or developed areas, not in remote backcountry zones.

Records from the Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue consortium show that Mount Rainier has a recovery rate of only 32% for missing persons, compared to the national average of 71% for other major national parks.

Even more unusual is the fact that for 27% of recovered remains, the cause of death could not be clearly determined by medical examiners despite modern forensic techniques.