The Disappearance of Jared Negrete

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Each year, hundreds of thousands of people go missing across the United States.

Most are eventually found, sometimes safe, sometimes not.

But then there are the anomalies, the people who, for whatever reason, seem to completely disappear without a trace.

These cases often linger for decades, fueled by rumor, strange clues, and unanswered questions.

This is one such story: a disappearance so bizarre that it left people around the world asking, what happened to Jared Negretti?

The United States is home to some of the most dramatic and diverse landscapes on Earth.

Because citizens and outsiders alike tend to focus on the sprawling coastal cities like New York York and Los Angeles, they forget that most Americans are never more than a few hours away from very wild, very dangerous country.

It's an oversight that can sometimes turn deadly.

Some might assume that only the vastness of these landscapes is to blame.

But the truth is that many of the most unsettling cases don't happen in some primal forest or uncharted canyon.

Rather, people disappear just off the beaten path, surrounded by signs, maps and infrastructure that would otherwise suggest relative safety.

For witnesses, that's a big part of what makes the vanishings so chilling.

The people were right there, until they weren't.

In 1988, 24-year-old Timothy Barnes went hiking at the Murphy Creek Trailhead.

An experienced outdoorsman, he was hoping to reach the Polydome Lakes in Yosemite National Park, which was only just a few miles away.

The area's terrain is challenging but well worn due to its abundant natural beauty.

Barnes was also 6'4 and extremely fit.

But after he failed to reach his destination, his friend reported him missing.

Despite an extensive search, no sign of his body or his belongings was ever found.

But Barnes is by no means the only experienced hiker to go missing in the American West.

Over the past 60 years, there have been hundreds of such cases and they're still occurring to this day.

In 2015, Morgan Hymer, a tour guide for a Colorado River rafting company, told his partner he was going to take a quick rest break.

He had just finished tying the rafts for the night and was still wearing his life jacket and helmet.

Hymer disappeared behind a tree and that was the last time anyone ever saw him.

Despite a six days search and the fact that there were dozens of people in the immediate vicinity when he was last seen, nobody managed to find a shred of evidence as to what happened to him.

These cases are clearly tragic, but there's a reason why the Jared Negretti disappearance is much more poignant.

He was just 12 years old.

Jared Michael Negretti was born on September the 11th, 1978.

1978.

The son of a working class family from Al Monte, California, Jared was an ordinary, cheerful young man.

Many of the people who knew him say he had a deep curiosity about the world and had decided to join the Boy Scouts to satisfy that sense of inquisitiveness and enjoy the occasional break from city life.

His troop was based in Big Bear Mountain and was known as Camp Tarquitz.

By all accounts it was just like any other other Boy Scout outpost, the only primary difference being that it was affiliated with the Mormon Church, of which Jared and his family were members.

Everything seemed to be above board, yet when Jared went missing, questions about him, his troop leader and even the camp itself would quickly start to mount.

In July of 1991, Jared joined his scout troop for an overnight expedition in the San Bernardino Mountains which are located in southern California east of LA.

The goal of the hike was to summit Mount San Gorgonio, the highest peak in the region, with an impressive elevation of 11,500 feet.

Back then, as today, the area was dotted by trails and featured a number of rest stops and viewpoints.

Whilst the terrain can be quite challenging, there are dozens of criss-crossing trails that even an inexperienced outdoorsman could easily follow.

Jared's parents reported that they set him off that morning with a small camera, some snacks and his scout uniform.

He also had a full canteen of water which all the scouts were required to carry.

The only thing he didn't have was proper footwear.

Instead, he wore a set of high-top trainers or sneakers.

Many have since pointed out that whilst these would have provided some ankle support, they would have lacked the same amount of traction as proper hiking boots.

In order to understand what might have happened to him and how, it's essential to know as much about Jared as possible.

For starters, he was not a seasoned hiker.

As a city boy, most of his outdoor experience would have been centered around Camp Tarkitz, which sits at an elevation of about 6,500 feet.

This is significantly lower than the elevations he would be exposed to at Mount Sangorgonio, which increases the possibility that he might have become ill or winded during his expedition.

At 5'2 and £150,

Jared was also slightly heavier than the average 12-year-old.

From a BMI standpoint, he would have been considered overweight by today's standards.

Still, he was a very active child, and there were no reports of him having health or weight-related issues in the past.

Finally, Jared was prescribed glasses, but none of the photos from the day of his disappearance indicate that he was wearing them or that he had even brought them along.

Nevertheless, Jared Negretti arrived at the base of Mount San Gorgonio on the 19th of July 1991 with his troop, which consisted of four other boys and a single troop leader, Dennis Knight.

Everyone was excited, as this would be the first time that many of them would spend camping in the woods.

Most accounts say that the group took the Vivian Creek Trail, a 17 mile out and back route that is generally considered rather difficult due to the terrain.

Things went well on the first day of the hike, but on the second day, as the group made its way towards the summit, Jared began struggling to keep pace with his more experienced companions.

By around 6pm,

he was significantly lagging behind the others.

At this point, one of two things happened.

Some observers report that the troop leader saw the boy struggling to keep pace and made a conscious choice to leave him behind at a rest stop saying they'd come back for him later.

Others say the troop leader was informed by other hikers that one scout had fallen behind and he resolved to press on to the summit intending to retrieve Jared during the return trip after reaching the top of the trail.

Whatever the case, it wasn't long before Jared Negretti found himself completely alone.

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As one of the most popular hikes in the region, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of people on Mount San San Gorgonio that day.

This factor has resulted in a cascade of half-remembered encounters and sightings of the short, portly young man who seemed to be hiking by himself.

At one point, a group of hikers that included a Santa Ana firefighter noticed Jared walking alone and off trail at an elevation of about 10,000 feet.

Concerned, they advised him to stay on the marked path, because shortcutting can be extremely dangerous.

Several other hikers recalled seeing Jared after this point and claimed he clearly did not follow this advice.

They noted that the young man was running between the winding switchback trails, likely in his haste to try and catch up to his troop.

Then, at some point, the sighting stopped.

When his troop started their way back down the mountain, They didn't see him.

With sunlight fading fast, the troop leader reportedly conducted a brief search and then decided to lead the rest of the troop on a 12-mile hike to safety before calling for help.

By this time, it was already dark.

The hunt for Jared began at 7am on the 20th of July 1991.

Search and rescue teams mobilized swiftly.

By mid-morning, Helicopters with night vision and infrared technology had joined forces with ground teams, tracking dogs, horseback riders and dozens of volunteers to scour a rugged, 130 square mile stretch of terrain.

Yet the area proved extremely challenging from both the air and the ground.

Mount Sangorgonio is basically a sea of jagged rocks, steep drop-offs and dense vegetation, especially around ravines and creek beds.

In the end, they had to call off the first day of the search without so much as a single clue.

At this point, Jared's family and fellow scouts were beside themselves.

They knew he lacked any real outdoor experience and doubted he would know how to seek shelter, build a fire or protect himself from the elements.

The only thing that was on Jared's side was the temperature.

Those first nights had been extremely mild, meaning it would have been doubtful that Jared could have succumbed to exposure or hypothermia.

Provided he remained dry and avoided injuring himself, he should have been able to survive survive for several days with the provisions he had.

Then, on the second day, the search and rescue teams had a breakthrough.

At approximately 10,000 feet on Vivian Creek Trail, they discovered a single footprint matching Jared's tennis shoes.

The problem was that it was found well off the trail.

near rocky slope so treacherous that even a single misstep could send a person tumbling off a cliff or down into a ravine.

They searched the immediate area, but were unable to find any other prints or any sign of Jared himself.

On the 24th of July, the Santa Ana firefighter was invited to guide searchers back to the exact spot where he'd spoken to the missing youngster.

With the broader search going nowhere, The team decided to tighten the focus area to just six square miles.

This garnered some success.

Three days later they found a critical clue at the bottom of a slope, Jared's backpack.

Inside they discovered some candy wrappers, beef jerky and most importantly, his camera, which contained 12 undeveloped shots.

Immediately they rushed to have the film processed, hoping that there might be some clue as to what had befallen him.

The first 11 photos were all landscape shots taken earlier in the hike, but the final one was far more eerie.

A dramatic close-up shot of Jared's face, showing only his eyes and nose.

From the lighting, it was clearly taken at night using the flash.

Was it an accident, or was he using the flash to help him see as he navigated the pitch black wilderness?

Or perhaps he was sick or injured and attempting to communicate something.

There were other questions too.

Why would the young man abandon his pack, his camera, and his only source of food?

If he had been in such dire straits as to have simply dropped the items, one would think he or his remains would have been located nearby.

Yet there was nothing, and for the next week and beyond, the search intensified, peeking at over 3,000 people and logging 45,000 man-hours.

But they never found anything else.

No body, no personal items, and no clothing.

Officials were quick to rule out animal attacks, as the materials they discovered had no drag marks, punctures, or blood.

It was as if he'd simply put his pack down and walked away, only to vanish into thin air.

On the 4th of August, after 16 days, the search was officially called off.

Devastated by the outcome, his family and community held a memorial service on the 7th of September in Hacienda Heights, which was attended by more than 500 mourners.

For roughly a decade, the world forgot about the strange disappearance of Jared Negretti, until it happened again.

In August of 2001, A 17-year-old hiker named William Parvin was on Mount Sangorgonio with his father and sister.

At some point as they neared the summit, William's sister became ill with altitude sickness.

His father decided it would be best for him to stay back with the young girl, but told William that he should go ahead and try to reach the top.

They would regroup later on his way back down and then continue to the base of the mountain.

Only William didn't return.

Again, search and rescue was called in and volunteers spent four days combing the surrounding area, frantically searching for any sign of the 17-year-old.

In a strange twist of fate, Jared's parents Felipe and Linda Negretti showed up to aid in the search.

The similarities between what had happened to their son and William Parvin were undeniable, especially with the latter's disappearance occurring so close to the anniversary of that fateful scouting trip.

But there was one significant difference.

William Parvin eventually came back.

Several days after he went missing from the hiking trail, he reappeared in the town of Whitewater.

After contacting authorities, he claimed he had made a wrong turn whilst on the trails and had travelled more than 30 miles in the wrong direction with no water or food.

As a result, he'd been forced to drink from rivers, which made him ill.

He'd also fallen off a cliff, bruising his ribs and causing him to suffer a concussion.

By the time he walked into the small town where he'd been found, he claimed he'd been hallucinating for days.

The happy ending to William's story has obviously not erased the tragedy or mystery surrounding Jared Negretti's disappearance.

Thousands of people still hike the wilds of San Gorgonio, and no remains of the missing 12-year-old have ever been found.

Meanwhile, his final photograph still haunts those who see it, a frightened gaze caught in darkness, his face a mixture of confusion, fear, and abandonment.

More than thirty years later, we are no closer to discovering what exactly happened to him.

But there are theories.

A lot of things had to go wrong for Jared Negretti to go missing that day, and much of the blame lies squarely on the troop leader, Dennis Knight.

Boy Scouts have been quick to point out that there should never be a lone scout master in a hiking group, even if the number of actual scouts is low, as was the case here.

Ideally, one adult would walk in front of the line whilst another would walk behind.

This way, if a trooper was to lag behind or fall ill, an adult would be there to see it and render aid.

They also failed to make sure their scouts were wearing proper footwear.

A hike rated as difficult should not be undertaken in trainers, as it dramatically increases the chances of injury.

Minus these facts, there is nothing to suggest that Knight and other Camp Tar Kits leaders were guilty of anything other than negligence.

More importantly, their disregard for the safety of the scouts does not indicate what happened to Jared after he went missing.

The most straightforward explanation is that Jared fell.

It's no secret that the terrain around Mount San Gorgonio is unforgiving, with steep drop-offs, hidden ravines and jagged cliff faces.

If he had wandered even slightly off trail, as numerous witnesses claim he did, it's entirely possible that he might have lost lost his footing and plummeted into an area too dangerous or too overgrown for searchers to access.

Dense vegetation blankets many of the lower slopes, and it's not hard to imagine a small body becoming concealed in such terrain.

Over time, natural processes and scavenging animals could have removed any trace of him, allowing his clothing and other items to be scattered and eventually lost.

Still, this outcome necessitates a body, and none of the searchers searchers reported seeing buzzards or other scavengers circling the area.

Grizzly as it might sound, a £150 corpse would no doubt attract the attention of many animals, and that activity would be hard to miss.

Most important of all, it doesn't explain how Jared's pack, camera and food came to be abandoned yet untouched, roughly 45 feet off trail.

Responding to this, some suggest that Jared was not just struggling due to lack of fitness, but was actually suffering from altitude sickness.

This is exactly the same condition that befell William Parvin's sister, forcing her and her father to stay behind on the day he disappeared.

This condition generally starts to affect people at elevations above 8,000 feet.

more than 1500 feet above where Jared was used to hiking and 2,000 feet below the elevation where he was last seen.

If he was suffering from altitude sickness, he could have been dealing with headaches, confusion and even hallucinations on top of the shortness of breath.

With his decision-making skills impaired, he could have abandoned his pack and food for any number of illogical reasons.

But whilst this suggests how he could have become lost, it doesn't explain the lack of remains.

Others have suggested animal attacks, and it's true that there are a number of snakes, bears and even mountain lions in the region.

But this theory runs into the exact same problems.

There would still be something.

Clothes, bones, and especially a pair of shoes.

For this reason, some now suggest that he might have fallen into a creek or river.

There are several waterways on Sangorgonio, including the Santa Ana and Whitewater rivers, as well as half a dozen smaller streams.

Disorientated from altitude sickness and without his pack, he might have tried to cross or drink from a water source, fallen in and been swept away downstream.

If so, this could have taken his body miles from the search area.

Additionally, the process of decomposition changes significantly in water.

Flesh and other tissues become tenderised, and fish and other aquatic animals may gradually scavenge bodies, whilst bones can remain submerged for decades.

Those who believe that something more nefarious happened to Jared point out that the search and rescue teams had dogs with them.

In favourable conditions, trained animals like these boast success rates as high as 85-90%,

yet they never led investigators to a water source which might have otherwise suggested the young man had fallen in.

In fact, they never found any trace of Jared or his body on Mount Sangorgonio whatsoever.

To many people, the reason for this is simple.

He isn't there.

Some point to the fact that California, especially throughout the 80s and 90s, was often referred to as the kidnapping capital of the United States.

There were lots of other people on the mountain that day, and it's not beyond the realm of possibility to imagine a predator seeing a lost and frightened young boy and offering to help him.

They could even have left his backpack on the mountain as a red herring before taking him away to any number of locations.

Most experts agree that whilst this possibility cannot be ruled out entirely, it is less likely than the environmental hazards of the mountain itself.

Even so, it does offer an explanation as to why no remains were ever found.

For some, Jared Negretti's disappearance has a more haunting, almost supernatural tinge to it.

and we would be remiss not to explore at least some of these outlandish possibilities.

Of course there is the ever-present theory of alien abduction as the mountains of southern California have long been associated with UFO sightings.

The area of Big Bear Lake which sits around 7 miles north of San Gorgonio is still considered a UFO hotspot.

But that's not all.

According to ufologists, hikers and campus seem to be a prime target for such interactions.

In fact, in 2006, several hikers near Sangorgonio Mountain reported seeing a large silent triangular craft hovering above the treetops.

Could Jared have been taken against his will by non-human entities?

If he was, it would explain why search dogs were unable to pick up a trail leading away from his pack and why there has been no other trace of him since that day.

The final theory proposes that Jared Negretti is not missing at all.

As fantastic as it sounds, he may have passed into another reality by way of a portal.

Over the past hundred years, there have been numerous accounts of people who suddenly realize they have passed into another era, dimension or version of reality.

In many cases these events are brief and they eventually return to their own time.

But some argue that reality slips can be permanent.

and that these explanations are inexorably tied to disappearances just like that of Jared Negretti, where the evidence seems to preclude a more logical conclusion.

Unsurprisingly, believers in this theory argue that many of the electromagnetic anomalies that result in time slips occur in the wilderness, especially near boulder fields or mountains.

Incredibly, this seems to be supported by information from an unlikely source.

The ancient Chumash people of Southern California often describe certain mountain peaks as doorways to the sky people.

As the tallest peak in the region, it would be strange if Mount Sangorgonio wasn't one of them.

To walk in the wilderness is to court the unknown.

From simple dangers like falls and animal attacks to foul play and even paranormal encounters, There is no shortage of events that can result in a person's permanent disappearance.

But when the evidence for the mundane simply doesn't add up, it's difficult to blame people for considering theories that extend beyond our current understanding.

Despite one of the most extensive search efforts in California history, no trace of Jared Negretti's body was ever found.

To this day, people still argue over what might have happened to him and how this seemingly normal hiking trip could have possibly gone so wrong.

As everyone in the Bedtime Stories team is a father themselves, this case is both deeply distressing and heartbreaking all at the same time.

We can't begin to imagine the pain his family must have gone through in what was a clear case of complete and utter negligence.

Unfortunately, none of the proposed theories provides a complete picture and hence any closure to his loved ones.

The only takeaway from Jared's disappearance is the way in which it illustrates the unpredictable and unforgiving nature of the wilderness, even when it lies just a few miles from one's doorstep.

Bedtime is glorious.