Horror in the High Desert (2021)

1. Never in my wildest dreams

2. did I think when I told Gary something bad is gonna happen,

3. did I think it was gonna be this.

4. I can't imagine

5. what Gary must have been going through

6. and how he must have felt

7. being so alone and so far out there.

8. He said that the longer he stood

9. and looked at it,

10. the more spooked that he got the feeling of dread,

11. the sixth sense that he needed to get out of there.

12. I first knew something was wrong

13. when I was on the phone with my publisher,

14. and Simon kept trying to call in.

15. And so once I was off the phone with my publisher,

16. I called Simon who's Gary's roommate.

17. And he told me that Gary was two days late.

18. That's not Gary,

19. you know, Gary,

20. would never leave Tuca that long,

21. especially knowing that Simon had to go out of town.

22. That's when I knew that there was something wrong,

23. and I needed to get there.

24. So I packed up and left Panaca and headed straight to Ruth.

25. I needed to see what was going on

26. and make sure that my brother was okay.

27. And to take care of Tuca until he could get back.

28. I really thought he would be back.

29. I first met Gary when they were having an event

30. at the Nevada Northern Railway.

31. And we both just kind of, wandered in each other's paths,

32. and started talking about trains,

33. and, we were both looking for a place to stay.

34. I was trying to find a place for work,

35. he was in between places,

36. and we kind of just happened upon this place.

37. The first time I heard the name, Gary Hinge,

38. I believe was when I was working for the radio station NNN,

39. It was um..

40. I was an investigative reporter,

41. it was my first job right out of the gate,

42. and my producer came to me and he was like,

43. we have to cover this,

44. I think it's a good idea for us to do this,

45. because the TV stations, the news,

46. had stopped recording on it.

47. And so this was a way for us to get exclusives

48. and to keep the story going.

49. Because according to everyone else that was hearing about it

50. and reporting about it, it had just gone cold.

51. If you want me to describe my brother Gary,

52. the best way to describe him is,

53. if there was a little lady that said,

54. can you please watch my purse,

55. no matter where they were at,

56. Gary would sit there and he would watch her purse

57. and make sure that it was safe until she came back.

58. That was just the type of person that he was,

59. he was trustworthy and amazing.

60. Amazing.

61. So Gary loved the outdoors,

62. I mean, he was the king of outdoors.

63. Let's just say that.

64. And I think a lot of people were really envious of him.

65. Like he lived this beautiful adventurous life,

66. that I think, those who have the nine to five job,

67. stuck behind a desk,

68. I think, really admired that about him.

69. Super smart, but definitely private,

70. he kind of just kept to himself.

71. If he wasn't in his room on his computer,

72. then he was working on his model railroad.

73. But other than that,

74. yeah, just really kept to himself in his room

75. making his videos.

76. Super funny, though

77. definitely could make you laugh

78. with a couple of his one liners.

79. I started to learn more about who Gary was.

80. And I found out

81. that he was an extremely highly intelligent man.

82. He's one of those people that was so smart

83. that kind of had a hard time connecting with other people.

84. So he mostly just kind of was more, solitude,

85. and yeah, fascinating.

86. The more I found out about him,

87. the more I wanted to keep finding out about, who is Gary?

88. Gary had found his dream job,

89. being such an avid outdoors man,

90. he started to work for a startup company called Map Nevada.

91. Now what they do is,

92. they map out really remote locations for hunters.

93. So they track wildlife, weather, terrain,

94. and I mean, Gary was in heaven doing this.

95. He loved to be by himself out in the wilderness,

96. he loved hiking,

97. and being adventurous,

98. any train, he was drawn to, he loved trains.

99. Hey guys filming another little YouTube video,

100. at one of my favorite places.

101. If I had more time I would become one of the volunteers,

102. but this is the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, here in Ely.

103. And it's kind of an old little copper mine

104. just preserved and left.

105. They do some cool stuff, though,

106. like you can sleep in this old caboose from Kennecott,

107. the big copper mine in the area,

108. right outside my home in Ruth.

109. It's kind of a neat little railroad museum,

110. they just kind of let you walk around.

111. And you know how much I love trains on top of hiking,

112. gotta do something in the winter time

113. and you can't be outside as much.

114. So I was really excited to take on this story,

115. seeing that it was my first story.

116. And it also took place

117. in this tiny little town called Ruth.

118. And so I grabbed the phone book, and I just started calling.

119. And I wanted to talk to anybody and everybody

120. that would talk to me.

121. I first knew something was off

122. when he asked me to watch his dog Tuca

123. before he went out on one of his trips.

124. And he never leaves Tuca.

125. He always takes the dog with him,

126. so I thought that was kind of weird.

127. And he was acting super stressed out

128. even keeping to himself even more.

129. When he didn't come back after two days,

130. I thought that was really strange.

131. I had a flight to catch,

132. so I just called Beverly to get the dog.

133. After I got off the phone with Simon,

134. I tried Gary, and there was no answer,

135. so I hurried and left and I went to Ruth from Panaca.

136. And it's only a couple hours away,

137. so when I got there,

138. Simon and Tuca were waiting on the front steps.

139. Simon really needed to get to the airport in Las Vegas,

140. so I asked him where Gary had gone to,

141. and Simon didn't know, his roommate didn't even know,

142. he just knew that he was on an expedition.

143. To me that wasn't right,

144. so I tried Gary a couple of more times,

145. and all it did was go to voicemail

146. and something was definitely wrong.

147. And so I called the police and waited.

148. So I got Beverley's phone number,

149. and this is the only time that I ever talked to her.

150. And she was pretty angry with me,

151. once I told her that I was a reporter.

152. And she did not want to have anything to do with me

153. or our show, which I thought was really unfortunate,

154. because, the news stations,

155. they had stopped recording on this,

156. and we were the only ones doing anything,

157. and I thought this is a way to help find your brother,

158. I don't understand why

159. you don't want to give me the time or day,

160. but she didn't, and she quickly hung up.

161. And that was the only time that I spoke to Beverly.

162. Gary became so obsessed with survivalism,

163. he would watch the Discovery Channel,

164. he would watch YouTube,

165. he would study it and find the most remote places,

166. no cell service, no provisions of any kind

167. other than what he took.

168. And it used to scare the heavens out of me.

169. I mean, I was petrified for him,

170. and I would worry so much.

171. But after a while,

172. it was Gary.

173. So guys, I'm here hiking around,

174. and this is one of the cool secrets

175. I have in the wilds in Nevada

176. is this cemetery from the late 1800s old mining camp,

177. but I won't disclose the name for safety reasons.

178. Don't want anyone getting lost out here,

179. but you can see all these old graves, wood stones,

180. unmarked graves with no names now.

181. Give you an idea of where I had to hike from

182. is that mountain way over there

183. is my truck's on the other side of it.

184. So hiked over that mountain

185. and I'm way out this way now, hiking around.

186. I wouldn't say what Gary was doing was hiking.

187. These were multiple day, like survival excursions.

188. In the beginning, what gave me hope

189. was the fact that when Gary was much younger,

190. much, much younger, like second grade,

191. we all went camping, and Gary disappeared from the campsite.

192. And we searched for him and searched for him,

193. and we were all so worried, mom and dad were just terrified,

194. I was terrified.

195. We didn't wanna leave the mountain

196. to go and get cell service or anything,

197. we just went looking for him.

198. And we looked for him all night.

199. And the next morning we came up to a sheep herders camp,

200. thinking, we're gonna tell them look,

201. keep an eye out for this second grader,

202. this second grader that was missing

203. and we walk up and there is my little brother Gary,

204. playing with the animals.

205. He'd known that if he got to the sheep herders camp,

206. he would be okay,

207. that mom and dad would come and look for him.

208. And he was so resilient, it was in him, second nature.

209. So after speaking to a bunch of people in Ruth,

210. I started to learn a little bit more about Beverly

211. and Beverly's relationship with Gary in the past.

212. So she had a lot of anger towards Gary.

213. She really blamed him for their parents' death.

214. And then when their parents did pass away,

215. she was stuck, still raising Gary

216. and so she held quite a lot of resentment against him.

217. Well, I was mad at Gary when mom dad died,

218. they were out on a fishing trip

219. and mom and dad liked to do some night fishing.

220. And so they went out and did hang the lantern

221. where they could see it,

222. so they could get back to shore safely,

223. back to camp without hitting any rocks.

224. Old Gary decided

225. that he was gonna go hunting frogs and everything

226. and so, and he went exploring.

227. And while he's out there he hung the lantern up,

228. so that he could see what he was doing.

229. Meanwhile, mom and dad

230. decided that they were gonna come back in

231. and call it a night.

232. So they headed for the lantern.

233. Not knowing that Gary had moved it while he was exploring

234. and so they followed the light.

235. And, it was the wrong spot.

236. They didn't make it back because they hit the rocks,

237. and had Gary not hang the lantern up where he was at

238. and left it where it needed to be,

239. there wouldn't have been any problems.

240. I just felt super bad for Beverly.

241. You know, I could just hear her

242. inside Gary's room, sobbing.

243. You know, you're really making me miss my brother, Gary.

244. Kept hearing people refer to Gary as a hiker.

245. And in my opinion, I don't really think that's correct.

246. Because, to me, Gary's more of a survivalist,

247. he would go out into the wilderness for a week or two on end

248. with just a backpack.

249. He's kind of like the MacGyver of the wilderness,

250. just to survive and live off of the land,

251. and filter his on water.

252. So, to hear them just be like,

253. oh, he's just a hiker gone missing.

254. He's not.

255. When Gary and I first started living together,

256. I actually went out with him on one of these things.

257. And I just kept telling myself the entire time, never again.

258. Gary wouldn't let us bring enough food or water,

259. and it was the most miserable experience.

260. The one thing I did like about it

261. was we kept on finding these 1800's

262. abandoned mining kind of structures,

263. which was super cool.

264. This wasn't a normal search and rescue.

265. Because, Gary didn't tell anybody where he was going

266. on his excursion.

267. And he would go really deep into the wilderness,

268. and he'd be gone for a week or so,

269. so no one had any idea where to even start looking.

270. And so police decided the best way,

271. or the only thing they could think of

272. was to maybe check his cell phone,

273. and his cell phone pings in which tower.

274. And it looked to be as he had turned his cell phone off

275. shortly after leaving his home.

276. When Beverly showed up to get the dog.

277. Yeah, I regret that now, I kind of lashed out at her.

278. I was so put off when I got to town,

279. and he was so antsy to get out of there.

280. And, being my brother's roommate,

281. not even asking where he was gonna be,

282. or, if there was gonna,

283. you know any issue that might set up a red flag

284. if he didn't come home.

285. He had his dog and everything,

286. and he knew he needed to be out of town.

287. I just didn't,

288. I didn't feel right about it,

289. it just didn't feel right.

290. And, a week or so before that, Gary had confided in me

291. that him and Simon weren't getting along very well,

292. and so he wanted to move out.

293. And so I just,

294. it just didn't feel right, so I let the cops know.

295. You know, I just don't trust him,

296. there's just something to not be concerned at all,

297. where your roommate's gonna be.

298. And more worried about getting on a plane,

299. than somebody missing that's supposed to be your friend,

300. close to you?

301. No.

302. We never talked about that,

303. he never told me where he went hiking, ever,

304. he never mentioned it.

305. And even if we did talk about it,

306. I'm pretty sure he probably wouldn't have told me, so.

307. But at the beginning, I understood

308. she needed someone to point the finger at

309. and she was super upset, understandably.

310. But after some time, it just kind of got old,

311. so I called her and I now told her that,

312. there's no way I would have known and just by the way,

313. you're his sister, so why didn't you know?

314. When I first reported Gary missing,

315. the police were wonderful,

316. they were really on top of it, they did an APB,

317. be on the lookout for his truck, himself,

318. Park Rangers, Fish and Game, everything.

319. You know, we live in a small town,

320. people don't go missing all the time.

321. And so this was a big deal,

322. and they really took it seriously,

323. they had it everywhere.

324. I was embarrassed that I didn't know

325. exactly where he was at, you know, I'm his sister,

326. I should have known.

327. I should have known.

328. My first thought when I heard he was missing was,

329. oh, it'd be near impossible to find him.

330. Either, he finally just injured himself,

331. or maybe he had eaten something

332. that he didn't know was gonna make him so sick.

333. It'd been two days since I'd reported the missing

334. and I hadn't slept more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

335. I had people calling and were so concerned

336. and wanted to know where to start looking for him.

337. But not knowing where he was at,

338. where would I have them look?

339. And then the phone call came, they'd found Gary's truck.

340. And I got such a sinking feeling,

341. such a sick to my stomach feeling

342. that this was now very real.

343. After the cops called in,

344. and let me know that they'd found this truck,

345. they came and picked me up and took me to it.

346. It was about 55 miles out of town,

347. and we got there and seeing his truck,

348. I was so hopeful, you know, thinking,

349. he probably fell,

350. maybe broke an ankle, stuck in a ravine,

351. can't get himself out.

352. But I had hope.

353. I really had hope that we were gonna find him okay.

354. It just wasn't in a place where Gary would have left it.

355. Like it wasn't in a spot where he wanted,

356. which he would wanna go to explore.

357. While I was sitting there,

358. watching them process Gary's truck, I was looking around,

359. this wasn't Gary,

360. he loved to explore vast forests, rocky hills,

361. beauty, not just a rolling hill of dirt.

362. It just, something wasn't right.

363. I'm a private investigator.

364. I was hired by Beverly shortly after Gary's truck was found.

365. The High Desert as you can see,

366. it's very beautiful,

367. it's very majestic, has mountains, valleys, plains, forests,

368. it has it all.

369. But it's also quite dangerous and very unforgiving.

370. So after Gary's truck was found,

371. a search began and people really rallied.

372. Gary went missing

373. in the hottest part of the summer.

374. And what we see most of the time in disappearance like his

375. is people suffering from heatstroke,

376. dehydration, sometimes even injury.

377. People started showing up

378. and then more people started showing up,

379. and next thing I know, it's a whole whirlwind,

380. there were people there that I didn't know,

381. that Gary didn't know,

382. there were people bringing drones,

383. all kinds of search and rescue.

384. It was the most humbling experience

385. to know that these strangers were out there helping

386. to try to find my brother and bring him home.

387. So once Gary's truck was found, Beverly was,

388. let's just say she was very vocal

389. about how the truck seemed to be parked

390. in a suspicious location,

391. like she was just convinced

392. that her brother had not parked it there,

393. her brother wouldn't park it there,

394. and she would not stop talking about it.

395. So the cops eventually looked into this.

396. The clock was ticking.

397. They very much needed to find Gary as soon as possible.

398. Beverly, on the other hand, was very much in their way.

399. She was in the way, and she was really messing things up.

400. Searching the high desert isn't easy,

401. I mean, it's not an easy task.

402. People think it is,

403. people think you can just get up in the air in a helicopter

404. and fly around and look at the ground and see someone,

405. but once you're on the ground, there's abandoned mines,

406. there's bushes and tree cover.

407. And it's super difficult.

408. So finding someone, it's not easy as people think it is.

409. Oh my god, sheep.

410. Hi sheep.

411. Look at all the sheep.

412. Sheep are a lot nicer than people.

413. Hey little sheep,

414. look at all you guys.

415. Roaming the land, doing what you need to do.

416. Jeez, they all ran away from me.

417. Can't even make friends with sheep.

418. The officers didn't want me to participate in the search.

419. They thought it was best that I stay home at Gary's place

420. in case he tried to contact me, call or show up.

421. I was very much familiar with the lead investigator.

422. We had worked together before,

423. and we were definitely familiar with each other.

424. I called him to kind of check up on things

425. and see where the investigation was headed,

426. and if they had any new information.

427. He told me that they had made a discovery in the truck.

428. But since I was not formally hired by Beverley,

429. I had to contact her first

430. before they would discuss the matter with me.

431. I was hopeful that they had good news,

432. that the officer asked me if Gary had any enemies,

433. or if I knew anybody that may wanna hurt him.

434. I asked the officer why,

435. why would he,

436. why would he ask that.

437. And in confidence, they told me that they had evidence

438. that Gary did not drive his truck out there.

439. So I waited a couple of hours

440. and went over to Gary's house where Beverly was staying,

441. and she was absolutely hysterical.

442. She told me that the police had informed her

443. that in Gary's truck they had discovered prints

444. on top of Gary's all over, on top of the steering wheel,

445. the dashboard, the gear

446. and what was most surprising or alarming

447. was that they discovered footprints, bare footprints,

448. and they were scarred and unidentifiable,

449. which even added more to the mystery.

450. The footprint was,

451. he said that it was barefoot.

452. So someone drove Gary's truck barefoot.

453. And it just doesn't sit well with me,

454. because it's like, what happened?

455. Why was this person not wearing shoes?

456. What was going on?

457. Like, it's just odd,

458. and it's very,

459. I don't know, it's just,

460. it made my skin crawl.

461. Oh, look at the little baby deer.

462. That's kind of cool to see, you don't see that too often.

463. You know, I hadn't been sleeping and everything,

464. and my mind was just reeling,

465. I had a lot of things going through my head,

466. different scenarios.

467. Maybe he picked up a friend?

468. Maybe somebody stole his truck while he was out hiking?

469. Or maybe he picked up a hitchhiker,

470. and the hitchhiker had done something to him.

471. I don't know, at this point,

472. so many things were just going through my head,

473. just over and over again,

474. which didn't help me try to get any sleep.

475. So Beverly, still wanted me to vet out Simon

476. because she still thought he was very suspicious.

477. And I did too.

478. I looked into him again,

479. and lo and behold, he was ruled out as a suspect.

480. But through that process,

481. I actually learned that Gary had been talking

482. to someone that he met on a Facebook Messenger group.

483. They had been corresponding with each other

484. through a local sellers group,

485. and I guess they had been commenting on each other's posts

486. and one thing led to another

487. and they became more than friends.

488. When I confronted this person, he was very much terrified,

489. didn't wanna talk to me,

490. didn't wanna have anything to do with me

491. or the investigation.

492. And I told him, if you don't talk to me,

493. you're gonna have to talk to the cops,

494. and they're gonna really bust your ass.

495. And I think he was terrified

496. of being outed in this community,

497. because it's such a small town, not a lot of gay people.

498. And so he did talk to me, he told me that,

499. he didn't have anything to do with Gary's disappearance.

500. He was sad and upset that Gary had disappeared,

501. he didn't know what happened to him.

502. I guess I did believe him.

503. He really didn't wanna discuss it,

504. but ultimately, when I did check out his alibi,

505. he was cleared as a suspect.

506. Hey guys, now that I'm done chasing sheep around

507. like a crazy person in the mountains.

508. I've seen a lot out here, mining camps,

509. mines, abandoned towns, buildings, remnants of the past,

510. but the coolest and my favorite personally,

511. is all the Native American remnants,

512. I love finding arrowheads

513. and seeing petroglyphs on mountain sides.

514. Just old writing from the native people

515. who lived here long before any settlers moved in.

516. To me, that's the coolest stuff to see.

517. But it's getting dark now, the sun's setting

518. I think I'm gonna call it a night and get settled in,

519. in my camp.

520. They were still processing the crime scene and everything

521. and they came across an envelope in his center console,

522. it had a money in it.

523. To me that said that whoever he was with,

524. wasn't there to take his money

525. or anything that he might have had.

526. I woke to the police officers knocking on my door.

527. And they were informing me that they called off the search.

528. And while they're explaining things to me,

529. I'm seeing them talking,

530. I'm not comprehending any of the it,

531. everything was just kind of flashing.

532. And, I'm seeing their faces, and I'm seeing their lips move,

533. and then they're looking at me like I'm crazy.

534. And next thing I know, I'm on a stretcher.

535. And taken to the ER where they had to give me hydration

536. and IV with fluids and medicine that helped me sleep,

537. and for the first time since all of this started,

538. I got 10 hours of sleep.

539. This was the largest search and rescue

540. that Nevada had ever seen.

541. And when they finally called it off,

542. everyone was just so shocked.

543. But, you mean, you can't search the entire state of Nevada,

544. it's just too vast, it's too broad,

545. and it had been so long that the chances of finding him

546. and finding him alive were slim to none.

547. The investigation was dead in the water,

548. we didn't have any leads,

549. the fingerprints in the truck didn't match any database,

550. so we didn't know what to do.

551. But then.

552. Gary's followers started calling.

553. And this whole thing was turned on its head.

554. So I'm at my desk,

555. and I'm going through the show notes,

556. I'm getting ready to go on air

557. and my producer comes through my door, and he's like,

558. you have a phone call, you have to take this phone call.

559. And I get on the phone, and it's one of our listeners.

560. And he's telling me that I have to look into Gary's blog.

561. He's going on and on about this crazy story about Gary,

562. and he's telling me that he thinks he knows where he is,

563. he thinks he knows what happened to him.

564. And that I have to go and look at this blog right now.

565. My friend Monica calls me

566. and tells me that it's all over the news

567. that all these people are calling into the radio station.

568. And she tells me that they're talking about Gary's blog

569. and the fact that it needs to be read

570. and that there's comments and everything.

571. And so once I got discharged,

572. I went straight to Gary's house,

573. so I could read the blog and see what all this was

574. that they were talking about.

575. Unfortunately, Beverly found out about Gary's blog

576. hours before we did, and she went right over there,

577. and really messed things up.

578. Hey guys, it's me again.

579. A lot of people have been following the blog

580. and new to the blog and been saying,

581. I'm just trying to copy "Naked and Afraid".

582. And as you can tell, I'm not naked or afraid out here,

583. so I'm not trying to copy the show and,

584. also my ex loved that show, so I'm sick of it,

585. there's a reason why people are called exes.

586. So while I'm trying to navigate through everything

587. on his blog,

588. going through the operator stuff and everything

589. and I finally get in there and I realize he has 50,000,

590. 50,000 viewers.

591. I was shocked.

592. Not a single person in Gary's life knew about his blog,

593. which was really shocking

594. considering the fact that he had 50,000 followers.

595. That really says something, if you think about it.

596. Of course, I immediately jump on my computer

597. and I go to his blog, and I'll never forget the title,

598. because I actually thought it was really clever.

599. It was called "Don't Hike With Headphones".

600. Hey guys up here at the top of the mountain,

601. as you can see, there's the great view behind me.

602. One of the questions I've got asked on the blog a lot was,

603. what dangers,

604. are there any threatening animals

605. like rattlesnakes and mountain lions?

606. And, yeah, there're rattlesnakes at the lower elevations,

607. you might have noticed I don't hike with headphones

608. or anything on so I can listen for them.

609. And it's your basic, survivalist type blog,

610. you know, how to build a fire, how to filter water,

611. and I just start scrolling through

612. and I scroll and scroll all the way to the,

613. like the latest videos that he had posted.

614. I'm trying to navigate

615. to find out where these notifications are coming from

616. because he is getting notification after notification,

617. I mean, it's ding, ding, ding, ding.

618. So I was driving when I found out Gary had a blog,

619. I pulled over and looked for it on my phone.

620. And the first thing that I noticed

621. was that he didn't go by his real name,

622. he went by Scorpion Sam.

623. My biggest thing I've ever ran into

624. was I got stung by a scorpion,

625. kicking over a rock once,

626. had to go to the hospital once I got back to my truck,

627. that was the day I hiked with a swelling up hand.

628. I'm finally able to get to the notifications

629. and this notification pops up

630. and they're saying, I bet he found it,

631. and that something bad happened,

632. and I'm thinking, they're saying he found it?

633. And something bad happened?

634. Found what?

635. And then came Gary's now infamous video post.

636. I have worked a lot of strange cases in my career,

637. and Gary's by far was the most unusual,

638. just the way that he described what he was looking at,

639. what he saw, how terrified he was,

640. it just really scares me.

641. So I started watching the second to last video

642. on Gary's blog.

643. And he's at his home and he's sitting there

644. and he's telling his viewers

645. basically what he came across on his last expedition.

646. I saw his last three videos

647. and,

648. what I saw,

649. changed everything.

650. He's pretty worked up in this video,

651. you can tell he's nervous, he's scared.

652. As soon as his video started,

653. I could tell he was troubled by something,

654. something had him so unnerved.

655. He was three days into his expedition,

656. and he started to smell smoke and that,

657. and he was out in the middle of nowhere.

658. So he got curious and started to look around.

659. He comes across this cabin,

660. and it's not like a nice cabin, it's like a makeshift cabin,

661. almost kind of like a homeless type of structure,

662. sticks and twigs,

663. and there's smoke coming out of the chimney.

664. And Gary's not someone to be scared of someone else,

665. out in the wilderness,

666. but he said he was just like frozen in his tracks,

667. and he just felt this like sixth sense

668. of basically impending doom.

669. It was the look on his face, that really got to me,

670. when he described this cabin out in Nevada.

671. He said that the longer he stood and looked at it

672. the more spooked that he got the feeling of dread,

673. the sixth sense that he needed to get out of there.

674. And he wanted nothing to do with that place.

675. And so, he hightails it out of there

676. and he goes to sleep in his tent,

677. I remember this because he talks about how he was so scared,

678. he slept with his shoes on all night.

679. You know, he didn't bring his firearms,

680. so he was totally just vulnerable out there and terrified.

681. And he wakes up the next morning, and there's footprints,

682. and they're barefoot footprints.

683. These two things are now connected,

684. we had something to go on.

685. The hike back to his track,

686. which took three days,

687. he felt like somebody was following him.

688. So this was a really sad story to me,

689. to see Gary's followers turn on him,

690. that blog was everything to him.

691. He really admired them, and their comments,

692. it was something really special to him.

693. And to see them go from loving him to bullying him,

694. calling him a loser, a liar,

695. and putting him down, it was really sad to see.

696. And the comments are like,

697. everyone's kind of just like, well, go back,

698. take video, show us this place,

699. does this place even exist, is this even real?

700. And he's getting like really hit by his followers,

701. basically, they're kind of bullying him,

702. they don't believe that he came across this,

703. they go to his blog for a reason,

704. and now they feel like he's just

705. getting into ghost stories or something.

706. And so they,

707. I really feel like he fell into a bit of cyber bullying

708. and the fact that they were not gonna be

709. his faithful followers anymore,

710. unless he goes back and proves that he saw this,

711. he experienced this.

712. You know, it broke my heart to read the comments

713. that said that he was nothing but a lonely loser,

714. and that all he was doing

715. was trying to get attention by making shit up

716. and that they didn't believe him.

717. I actually didn't know about the blog,

718. but I knew he was doing something

719. because he was always in the backyard making videos,

720. telling the camera how to make a campfire,

721. or I always heard him in his room

722. like giving survival tips and things.

723. Hey, guys, just walking through the woods here.

724. It's a beautiful day in the backwoods in Nevada.

725. But a lot of people asked what I would do

726. if I got lost back here,

727. I had to spends several more days than I planned on,

728. I guess first thing I would do

729. would be find a nice nutritious cow patty,

730. because there're so yummy.

731. I'm just kidding, you don't wanna eat cow shit.

732. That will be bad.

733. But there are ways you can scavenger for food out here.

734. I'm so upset by everything and,

735. I wanted to download this

736. and do what I could so that I could take it to the cops,

737. and during all the frustration and the upset and everything,

738. I accidentally deleted it.

739. Beverly really beat herself up about deleting the video,

740. and I felt bad for her.

741. I didn't wanna press it because I knew she felt terrible,

742. her brother was missing.

743. But it was a missed opportunity definitely,

744. and a definite disappointment.

745. The last video of Gary on that blog,

746. is him basically telling his followers,

747. okay, here I go, I'll go back.

748. And he doesn't look okay about it.

749. Gary's final video is truly haunting.

750. And it is really the beginning of a bigger mystery.

751. Gary's last video that he posted to his blog

752. said that he was gonna go back out

753. and record everything and prove to everyone

754. that this was real, that this really existed.

755. It's the last time that he ever posted anything

756. or anybody heard from him.

757. Hey guys, I'm back.

758. Wanted to make a video

759. about the different comments people left on my last video.

760. A lot of you were coming up with some crazy theories,

761. what was out there, what I saw in the woods.

762. Some of you don't believe it,

763. some of you are asking for the location

764. and wanna find it yourself.

765. I'm really against people going out

766. in the backwoods in Nevada without experience,

767. there's a lot dangers out there,

768. from old mines to just random people

769. and you can get lost easily,

770. the scenery looks a lot the same,

771. and if there's no trails,

772. you can get lost and turn around and be out there for days.

773. And if you don't bring enough food or water,

774. you're in real danger.

775. So I don't wanna give out the location

776. and just be the one that causes a whole bunch of people

777. to go out in the backwoods in Nevada.

778. I'll go out there, find the shelter again.

779. This time, I'll bring my camera and firearm,

780. I have to do some work first,

781. but I plan on leaving on the 22nd,

782. and I'll need a good six days to be out there again.

783. It's a good three days in, and three days back,

784. but we're gonna find out what this is,

785. and look forward to another video,

786. once we finally get out there,

787. I'll have something for you guys posted.

788. He goes and that's it.

789. And that's the last,

790. that's the last video of Gary.

791. And no one knows where he was going.

792. So the search is so vast and Nevada is huge,

793. and he could be anywhere.

794. This place that he talks about could be anywhere.

795. This became a perfect storm

796. because now we knew what Gary was doing,

797. we just had no idea where.

798. I had no idea that he had this whole other life,

799. this blog, all these followers and everything

800. had I known that,

801. I would have never, ever, let him go back out there.

802. This whole case turned from a missing persons

803. to a huge mystery.

804. Whose cabin was this?

805. I mean, who lives out there?

806. Where is this cabin?

807. I mean, if it's in the middle of nowhere,

808. what type of person lives in the middle of nowhere?

809. And if you're about to go find that person,

810. I don't know if they're gonna be too happy to be found.

811. I mean, if they're out there that far,

812. they're out there that far for a reason.

813. Once the radio station broadcasts about it,

814. his blog and everything,

815. everybody just went crazy

816. before the cops could even take it down.

817. The conspiracy theories were just everywhere,

818. from witches to aliens, area 51, you name it.

819. People started coming out of the woodwork

820. and everyone had a theory

821. as to who the cabin belonged to, what was in the cabin.

822. There were some comments about Gary had discovered a witch,

823. and she was making secret potions

824. and somehow he had gotten involved,

825. and I mean it was crazy.

826. Other people thought it was just a hermit,

827. you know someone who just wanted to be left alone.

828. People thought that maybe it was a government,

829. secret government operation, aliens.

830. I mean it's,

831. I could go on and on

832. about the many theories that people thought.

833. The only reasonable explanation I could come up with

834. was maybe, Gary had stumbled upon

835. an illegal marijuana growing operation

836. out there in the middle of nowhere in Nevada

837. and they killed him for it, it has happened before.

838. But,

839. I was wrong.

840. I just couldn't shake this sickening feeling.

841. Before I knew it, the cops showed up

842. and they had known all about his blog

843. and I was actually on the computer when they got there.

844. And they gathered everything up, seized everything,

845. including his hard drives.

846. Guys,

847. another model train video here,

848. I just got back from a flea market,

849. and look what I picked up today.

850. Got a nice little HO diesel locomotive,

851. lettered for one of my favorite railroads,

852. it's called the California Western,

853. out of Northern California.

854. Set that down.

855. Then got this brand new steam engine for the Santa Fe.

856. My private investigator called and said that,

857. the detectives on the case wanted to meet with me.

858. So I ended up going down to the precinct and,

859. they kept asking me, is there anything you need?

860. Have you eaten today?

861. Just beating around the bush

862. and I finally asked them, what is going on?

863. It's back on.

864. We are back with a break in the case

865. of missing hiker, Gary Hinge.

866. Was made yesterday when his backpack

867. was discovered by a couple camping in White Pine County.

868. When they woke up in the morning,

869. they found the backpack

870. had been intentionally placed in their campsite.

871. What they found inside

872. has sent a shockwave through the state of Nevada.

873. Hinge's truck was found parked in Eureka earlier this month.

874. But police now say they have evidence

875. that it was parked there,

876. to throw off investigators searching for him.

877. They woke up to find Gary's backpack

878. draped on a shovel that they had there.

879. And when they opened it,

880. Gary's belongings were in there,

881. as well as a severed hand,

882. Gary's hand.

883. The way that his hand was severed

884. was incredibly violent.

885. The way that it was chopped off, was just gruesome.

886. It was deliberately placed there,

887. because someone wanted it to be found.

888. The forensic showed,

889. that his hand had been severed,

890. for more than five weeks.

891. And it was still clutching a video camera.

892. And what's even more crazy was,

893. the hand wasn't like torn off from a body,

894. it was a clean cut.

895. I was gutted,

896. by the fact that he had suffered.

897. Once the camera was discovered,

898. everybody wanted to know, is there a tape?

899. And does the tape work?

900. And what's on the tape?

901. We were very anxious for the crime lab

902. to process the evidence.

903. And sure enough, when they did,

904. the memory chip was still in the camera.

905. It was truly terrifying to watch

906. and I can't even imagine the true horror

907. that he faced out there.

908. Bill calls me and the forensic investigators

909. have video of Gary's final moments

910. and so they take us into a room.

911. The team thought it would be best

912. if I sat down with Beverly and watched the videos with her,

913. because I had a relationship with her

914. and I had a kind of a special rapport.

915. So they thought it would probably be best

916. if maybe I sat down with her first.

917. Bill started the first video

918. and there was Gary shining his light around, saying hello.

919. And the innocence in his voice,

920. I just,

921. I couldn't do it.

922. I

923. I had to stop.

924. And then Bill finished watching.

925. The clips begin like all the other clips,

926. Gary's even smiling,

927. but he has no idea what's about to happen.

928. Hey guys, a little video update.

929. I am.

930. Oh, there's thunder.

931. Storm's coming in, I gotta make this quick.

932. Got a whole nother ridge line to climb

933. before I get to the spot where I saw that shelter

934. but I'm about halfway there, a day and a half in.

935. We'll see what we find.

936. Climbed over one mountain range already, got one more to go.

937. And, better make it quick,

938. because that storm's coming in fast.

939. We'll see what's on the other side.

940. I got ways to go,

941. but, weird thing is,

942. I'm already distinctly smelling the smoke,

943. like I smelled last time.

944. There's no fires around, there shouldn't be anyone out here,

945. but it's very faint but very distinct smell of smoke.

946. Kind of getting creeped out

947. but not as much as I was last time yet.

948. We'll see what happens.

949. Look for another video update soon.

950. All right, here's the final marker.

951. From what you do see from the person in the video,

952. you can tell that they have a lot of physical deformities.

953. And it's probably one of the main reasons

954. why they chose to live where they lived,

955. they felt shunned by society.

956. When we found out what actually happened,

957. it was like this weight

958. had been taken off of Beverly and I's relationship.

959. And now we're actually really close.

960. And I actually consider her kind of a big sister.

961. I'm just hiking along, almost to the top.

962. Over that mountain side.

963. Still some thunder in the distance.

964. Amazing how far you can hike

965. and only seeing a couple of deer,

966. how much wildlife that I've seen,

967. I'm sure they see me, stay hidden.

968. But just a lot of sagebrush and trees and peaceful desert,

969. to walk.

970. The great thing about Nevada, wide open spaces.

971. Everybody immediately wants to go and search

972. for the one thing

973. that they've been told not to go search for.

974. And so now there's this whole band of influencers

975. who are out there wanting to find this person

976. and post about it and blog about it

977. and make a video about it.

978. And,

979. to me that's,

980. I mean, that's terrifying.