Missing hiker (Monica Reza)

[SideQuestHiker]

Does anyone here know when heat sensitive/FLIR equipment was first used in the search? Were they able to use it the day she went missing, or not until the next day? If not until the next day, and Monica died soon after going missing, then the next day would probably be too late to find a body's remaining heat signature after laying out in the cool mountain air all night. Especially someone her size.

[SideQuestHiker]

Does anyone here know when heat sensitive/FLIR equipment was first used in the search?

Hmm. I found one clue here https://rmru.org/2025-024/ that says night vision goggles were used on the day she disappeared.

"Sunday, 6/22 – Operational Period 1

...Teams from Montrose, LA Sheriffs and LA Fire worked tirelessly that night searching on the ground and via helicopter equipped with night vision goggles until 2am, but unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in finding Monica."

And another clue in a post by RH dated Nov 30, 2025 that mentions FLIR helicopters the morning after she disappeared.

There were FLIR helicopters the first morning after she disappeared and they only located a bear and other searchers with their thermal radar.

Not sure how "night vision goggles" compare to FLIR. Probably not as good.

[SideQuestHiker]

New article from LA Magazine has some more details that reportedly come from family members.

https://lamag.com/news/exclusive-for-mo ... ake-sense/

[HikeUp]

In these cases I'm a firm believer in Squatchy's Law: when in doubt, blame Squatch!

The least celebrated member of the UAP stable.

[Tob]

From the context I'm gathering here in this thread, referencing Barbara Bolick, I'm assuming with the goofy missing411 attention and y'all being hiking purists, maybe discussion of her case is not welcome, perhaps.

You're welcome to discuss any case you want. The longtime members here are local to the mountains around Los Angeles, but our interests and adventures sometimes branch out across America, and sometimes even into other nations.

Based on this archived article about Barbara Bolick, there are some similarities to the Monica Reza case. For example, they were both older ladies who disappeared in the summertime on a mountain trail, with their hiking partner nearby. But I note some important differences too. Barbara hiked her trail regularly, Monica did not. Apparently Barbara's hike was considered easy, while Monica's was more advanced. Also, Barbara was apparently leading her partner on the hike, while Monica was the follower. As for the terrain, Barbara's was said to be more open with lots of shale rock around, while Mt. Waterman has lots of big trees and sets of big boulders.

There are many factors to consider, but I'll focus on just one, the proximity and interaction between leader and follower. I've led many hikes over the years, both on and off trails. But I've also been a follower, especially in the beginning of my hiking career. It is critical that there be clear and reasonable communication between the leaders and the followers. I quickly learned to avoid bad leaders, and I quickly determined to be a good one when I started taking on followers.

I advocate that leaders take a reasonable amount of responsibility for their followers. It's fashionable these days to allow anyone on a MeetUp hike and then the Organizer takes zero responsibility for the newbies. This practice has sometimes led to disaster. Sometimes it's the leader's fault, sometimes it's the follower's fault. But this idea of taking zero responsibility for your followers is insane. It creates hikes with bad leaders--and unprepared followers who don't know or care to avoid bad leaders. A bad situation all around.

I can easily envision a MeetUp hike with bad leadership going terribly wrong, especially on an advanced hike like Waterman's west ridge. YOU DON'T RUN AHEAD OF AN INEXPERIENCED FOLLOWER ON AN ADVANCED TRAIL AT A CRITICAL TURN. Jesus Christ!

This whole confusion over how far Monica was behind the leader, it doesn't surprise me. It sounds like a bad leader being a bad leader. Of course shit happens, and maybe the leader's only mistake was not remaining within a few feet of his follower at a critical turn, and making sure she made the turn. But how much of a bad leader's narrative can we really accept at face value?

The Bolick case is different in that it was the leader who disappeared. So if we believe the follower, then something very strange happened to Bolick to cause her to disappear from the familiar trail. Maybe she had a stroke, got confused and wandered off into the unknown.

That is an excellent point, that Barb was the hike leader and Monica was not. I mean Jim was an expert hiker but he was not familiar with the specific trail they were on in Montana, no. I assume Subject A is the more experienced hiker or at least in this instance. I do recognize that there are key differences but I admittedly never considered the "structure" of the hike as far as who lead to effort, but you're right it undoubtedly plays into the overall dynamic between the two hikers to consider.

Okay see I wasn't aware of Monica's lack of familiarity with Mt. Waterman, I guess I thought she was. But if not, yes absolutely another great point.

As far as Barbara having a stroke and wandering off, I could certainly see that but if it was something like that, then Jim's claims about his timing is off. According to him, his head was turned for less than a minute and as he turned back towards Barb who was only 30 feet away from him, she vanished. That isn't enough time in my opinion for someone to be completely out of sight if they were not literally trying to be imo, but maybe I am wrong. I guess another important distinction to consider is according to their recounting of events Jim was stationary when Barb disappeared and Subject A was not when he lost track of Monica (although they were both moving in the same direction reportedly.)

I could certainly fathom that scenario where Monica gets lost as a result of Subject A pulling too far ahead and now after the fact he doesn't want to be completely honest about the specific details from that day because he doesn't want to admit it out of fear of looking like he abandoned her potentially.

I guess the part I just struggle with (admittedly as someone with very little hiking experience myself) is how none of the searchers were able to hear her or see Monica in the hours after she went missing. Of course beyond that, the sheer absence after all this time of Monica a body or blood or clothing remnants (aside from her hat) or ground disturbance is likewise puzzling.

So with that let me ask you guys this:

If the key to fully understanding a missing person's case like Monica's and perhaps Barb before her is a question of hiking experience in terms of making sense of where their bodies are, or could be, assuming they both met their respective demises on those respective mountains, is there like a top five list or three or whatever regarding their fates that the untrained eye wouldn't consider as far as the explanation for what happened or at least where their remains are?

I know are differences in terrain to consider (and I hope I'm not being too graphic here) but for Monica some have mentioned looking under rocks and under dirt and things like that. For Barb people have suggested she may have fell off the steep cliff and as opposed to falling to the base of the mountain she somehow became lodged inside a crevice on the way down.

What other suggestions might make sense?

[Tob]

I've scrambled through Devil's Canyon. It's no picnic, especially without a picnic basket full of food and critical supplies. I did it on purpose, prepared, within a day. Unprepared, it took Eugene Jo a week to escape the canyon's clutches. If that's where Monica ultimately landed, any number of bad things could have stopped her in her tracks.

I agree on Devils Canyon, years ago I fished the native trout in the lower end of that natter steep and rocky slot.

To the point of hike leadership, there is one additional factor I have yet to find using internet searches. Monica Reza was 60 years old. Older women are very susceptible to Urinary Tract Infections (UTS). UTIs can also induce a form of delirium. I have seen it and heard it more than once*, it's no joke. I'm not a Doc, but it makes sense that the stress of hiking and less than optimal hydration may have set the conditions for an infection.

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/u ... -delirium/

“Up to one-third of elderly patients hospitalized with UTIs can experience some degree of confusion and reduced awareness of their surroundings,” Shouri Lahiri, MD

* Including speaking in gibberish and completely irrational thinking.

Never thought of this but its interesting.

The only thing I would say is that with something like urosepsis, the onset of confusion is typically gradual in retrospect but it might seem to others as sudden in real time, so it's a certainly a fair point to consider. I guess I would want to know from the people closest to the individual in question if they noticed any odd behavior leading up to the disappearances because looking back there should be signs of slight confusion like illogical flow of ideas or just strange behavior in general.

[Tob]

Speaking of which, didn't a girl get left behind on Iron Mountain a couple years ago? Similar story; I don't remember hearing about them ever finding her.

Yes, Maria Tice. The MeetUp group abandoned her near the top of Iron Mountain, probably because she was slow. Then they never reported her missing. Not one person in the whole group assumed any responsibility for her, knowing that she was struggling to keep up on one of the most difficult hikes in the Gabes. A responsible group would have assigned a sweeper to care for the slowpokes. Instead it took concerned coworkers to report her missing four days after the hike. In the link I provided, SMSR even notes how this wasn't the first incident involving MeetUp, and they provide good tips for surviving a MeetUp group hike.

Interesting. Never heard of this case. Thank you.