EISPIRATEN

Matthew wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 1:17 pm Just got a gpx from someone in the volunteer crew saying that there’s speculation she went into bear creek, which is definitely plausible. Attached is the file

What is the reasoning to think she went into that drainage? That would require her to miss the Three Points trail, continue down the drainage to Devil's Canyon and then decide for some reason to go upstream. Hit the Twin Peaks trail, ignore it and drop into Bear Canyon. It sounds more like they are running out of areas to look.

David R wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 3:59 pm

Matthew wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 1:17 pm Just got a gpx from someone in the volunteer crew saying that there’s speculation she went into bear creek, which is definitely plausible. Attached is the file

What is the reasoning to think she went into that drainage? That would require her to miss the Three Points trail, continue down the drainage to Devil's Canyon and then decide for some reason to go upstream. Hit the Twin Peaks trail, ignore it and drop into Bear Canyon. It sounds more like they are running out of areas to look.

It's confusing to try and reason with it but I think the team is optimistic that she's next to a body of water. If you look at the whole situation as a whole, it doesn't make sense that she would even bother dropping off the ridge to the devil's canyon side when you can see the 6000ft lot the whole time on the ridge. With that in mind and with the information that has been shared, most of the ridge on both sides have been extensively searched so it's almost unlikely that she's actually on it. Taco is going out to search next week and i'm going to search a bit on monday and tuesday in some other areas and maybe might camp.

Here is RMRU's report. No luck. Sad case.

https://rmru.org/2025/07/01/2025-024/

David R wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 3:59 pm

Matthew wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 1:17 pm Just got a gpx from someone in the volunteer crew saying that there’s speculation she went into bear creek, which is definitely plausible. Attached is the file

What is the reasoning to think she went into that drainage? That would require her to miss the Three Points trail, continue down the drainage to Devil's Canyon and then decide for some reason to go upstream. Hit the Twin Peaks trail, ignore it and drop into Bear Canyon. It sounds more like they are running out of areas to look.

I saw Matthew yesterday and discussed this with him.
I agree that it doesn't make sense that she'd pass thru the Twin Peaks Trail and continue down a drainage. However it seems possible that she hit the Twin Peaks Trail, and instead of going to Three Points, went east towards Twin Peaks and then got lost. I also wonder if she climbed one of the many boulder piles on Double Delight / West Waterman ridge hoping to be seen by a chopper and fell into a crevasse during the process.

Hey everyone,
Taco and I have both joined the Monica Reza search effort and they are very organized but need more volunteers. Personally, I have found immense enjoyment scanning the slopes of waterman since it's not the typical type of hiking I normally do. They also have regular zoom meetings about the efforts and its all super informative.

They have their own Yurt in Camp Eaton which is stocked with potable water, walkies, sleeping arrangements, food, and showers. The general organization of the search is super good and I just highly recommend helping out if you have a free day.

The form is here https://www.bit.ly/findmonica432

Alright guys, they updated their flyer to include some perks of you join. Most notably, a mylar balloon competition

That Facebook group is a hot mess. You guys ok?
(I'd be there, but reasons)

Slowest_Hiker wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:57 pm That Facebook group is a hot mess. You guys ok?
(I'd be there, but reasons)

Just be happy that you aren't on the What's App chat, I'm torn between leaving and staying as I did spend one day a little over a week ago searching and may do it again but the rest is kind of out of control with well-meaning clueless comments.

David R wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 10:06 am

Slowest_Hiker wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:57 pm That Facebook group is a hot mess. You guys ok?
(I'd be there, but reasons)

Just be happy that you aren't on the What's App chat, I'm torn between leaving and staying as I did spend one day a little over a week ago searching and may do it again but the rest is kind of out of control with well-meaning clueless comments.

Yoooo I'm in the group too! It's kinda toxic

Good morning everyone!

I told the whatsapp group that I am leaving due to a lack of transparency on their part, also because of that flyer with prize incentives if you join. There are 10-80 different reasons why as well but I think that more progress can be achieved if the search was open to the public and not privatized like in that group.

Below, there's a caltopo map that has a mix of data from about a month ago and from yesterday. Note that the volunteer group organizers removed the volunteer's ability to see all the previous tracks on the new map for some reason so that is why I have a gap of time.

Also, note that I did not take the drone images below and all credit of that goes to Laura Kerber.

Links
MAP: https://caltopo.com/m/P0GPMBL/9U7PKL82TDB54ABR
DRONE IMAGERY: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link

I left once they started gatekeeping and all the absurd posts were giving me a headache. I am starting to think she may not even be out there and that there was foul play involved but who knows.

David R wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 1:48 pm I left once they started gatekeeping and all the absurd posts were giving me a headache. I am starting to think she may not even be out there and that there was foul play involved but who knows.

Dude this is by far the deepest lore the Gabes have seen in a while. The volenteer group has both kicked out members as well as multiple members have left because of the way it has been run. It's insane to think that they went this deep on a search effort for a missing person

How deep have they gone? Some of us are out of the loop!

Is the hat the only hard evidence we have from her? If you're wearing a hat, you'd immediately notice if it fell off your head. Is the theory that it was in the pack, and fell out?

dima wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 9:46 pm How deep have they gone? Some of us are out of the loop!

Is the hat the only hard evidence we have from her? If you're wearing a hat, you'd immediately notice if it fell off your head. Is the theory that it was in the pack, and fell out?

We gotta make a separate section of this forum that's private as hell in order to talk lore

Sounds like a real shit fest. I hate people as a species because of this kind of crap.

Assuming she has perished, I fear a mountain lion got her...her being of such wee stature and lagging behind the "herd"...easy pickings for a mountain lion. And very difficult to find if dragged into a den. Is that what lions do?

Again, assuming she has perished, very sad. Very sad. Sincere condolences to her family, friends, etc. RIP.

She was carrying the hat tucked in her belt in the photos .

HikeUp wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 10:37 pm Sounds like a real shit fest. I hate people as a species because of this kind of crap.

Assuming she has perished, I fear a mountain lion got her...her being of such wee stature and lagging behind the "herd"...easy pickings for a mountain lion. And very difficult to find if dragged into a den. Is that what lions do?

Again, assuming she has perished, very sad. Very sad. Sincere condolences to her family, friends, etc. RIP.

from what i have read and remember, mountain lions do not typically eat the entire kill. they will eat, and come back and eat some more. and they usually won't consumer the entire kill. Also, SAR was out there really fast. There was also no blood reported.

Matthew wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:38 pm Alright guys, they updated their flyer to include some perks of you join. Most notably, a mylar balloon competitionIMG_0560.jpeg

Is it too late to collect on the mylar balloon contest?
I've been up there searching multiple times and collected at least six balloons.

Is that a winner-worthy number? What's the prize to be collected?

dima wrote: Wed Aug 20, 2025 11:34 pm Is that a winner-worthy number? What's the prize to be collected?

Who knows? I think they discontinued the contest after the public uproar. It is amazing the things they did (mostly positive) trying to entice hikers to search but also amazing the things they didn't do and still haven't done to get proper volunteer hikers.

So she still has not been located despite 140+ volunteers searching for 8 weeks. It is a mystery. Logic tells us she would likely have turned north either before the trail turn or after the trail turn. Either way she'd end up on the north slopes. SARs checked there heavily first couple days.

But then on day #2, SARs finds her beanie on a south slope which implies she never turned north before or after the missed turn. The natural landscape can pull you south in the direction of the beanie if you miss the turn but after 200'-300' it seems obvious that this is not the correct way (no trail, heavy bushes, tons of boulders, loose DG scree, etc. But the beanie was found 500'-700' below the ridge trail.

So then how did the beanie get there. It was tucked in the waist strap of her day pack so could have fallen out hiking down tough terrain; could have taken off pack to rest and it falls making no sound so unnoticed by Monica; or it could have gotten snagged by a branch/bush there. The leaders of the volunteer hikers erected a memorial out of rocks with 50' of where the beanie was found so if you go there, you'll see it pretty easily.

The memorial near where beanie was found.

The beanie location just puzzles me to the fullest extent, especially since it's below the ridge by quite a ways and the entire drainage south of that location was thuroughly searched

Yes, but I've spoken to SAR members as well as read various reports of other missing hikers and often searchers will pass by the body within 20' multiple times without ever seeing it. Because it's tucked under a boulder cavity, a bush, and/or partially covered up by debris like from a mt lion covering their cache. But I'm not feeling like she's in the beanie ravine nor west of it at this point because it has been searched by so many people including professional SARs.

Here is the timeline I tried to create based on statements from people involved. It's probably not 100% accurate but it's the closest we'll get other than the 4-minute video the "leaders" posted.

Just updated the map with tons of newly imported tracks! Thank you everyone for submitting your search efforts.
https://caltopo.com/m/P0GPMBL

That is a silly number of tracks. We're all assuming she's not there; right? Is anybody still searching?

I'm thinking of going out after the next major rainstorm and checking the north facing slopes. There's still tons of people joining their silly group and leaving after suspicious events so the lore just keeps building and building!

The tracks are super interesting to look at all together in one color. Just from the visuals, you can see that tons of people have searched in the same areas but have ignored tons of land. Even on the southern facing slopes there are patches that are untouched after 1.5 months of searching

As for if she's there or not there, I want to say that she is but deep deep down, I think she's elsewhere. Maybe on the mountain...