MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Blue Haired Woman

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

This story is about a baffling disappearance that happened in 2020 in a forest in California. The most unique aspect of this case is not the disappearance itself, but rather the incredibly spooky development that happened in 2021. A development that the Madera County sheriff's office, who is in charge of investigating this disappearance, is still trying to wrap their heads around.The audio from this story has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story name, preview & link to original YouTube videos:#1 -- "Blue Haired Woman Terrifies Authorities" -- Baffling disappearance from 2020, takes a spooky turn in 2021 (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrbKAiNcrYI)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This story is about a baffling disappearance that happened in 2020 in a forest in California. But the most unique part of this disappearance is the incredibly spooky twist that happened very recently. This twist is something that the Madera County Sheriff's Office, who is in charge of investigating this disappearance, they're still trying to wrap their head around what even happened. Today's story is the remastered audio from Blue-Haired Woman Terrifies Authorities, which is a very popular video on our main YouTube channel. The link to the original YouTube video is in the description. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,

and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please sign the five-star review button up for your very casual, very friendly, slow machine pitch baseball league. But when it's their turn at bat, switch the machine out for a grenade launcher. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy,

covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time. Somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No?

Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet,

join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak was so bad that it had become a global pandemic, which meant this new highly infectious disease had spread virtually everywhere on the planet. And so around the time this global pandemic announcement was made, governments around the world began instructing their citizens to stay home and avoid all physical contact with other people outside of the people that you lived with. The idea being these quarantine measures would help stop the spread of the virus. Initially, world leaders and citizens believed these quarantine measures would have a dramatic impact and it would stop the spread and before long COVID would be under control and life would just kind of magically go back to normal. But unfortunately, that is not what happened. By June, so three months into the

global pandemic, positive COVID cases were only going up, not down. And so it was around that point in June that people all over the world were starting to come to terms with the reality that COVID was not this simple problem with a simple solution. It was a complex health issue that likely was going to be around for a long time, which also meant these strict quarantine measures also would likely be around for some time. Now, the efficacy of these quarantine measures were quickly called into question, and it was all over the news and politicians, all they wanted to talk about was, do these measures work? Is it having an effect on the spread of the virus? But for everyday people, the real concern was not politics, it was practicality. How do you live a full and happy life in quarantine? In June of that

year, 54-year-old Sondra Hughes was pondering that question. To that point, her life had really not gone the way she had planned it. She had been married twice actually, but both relationships had ended in divorce, and she had never had children. She lived in beautiful Maui, Hawaii, but she hadn't really lived there long enough to consider it her home, and prior to that, for the bulk of her adult life, she'd kind of lived this nomad lifestyle bouncing around all over the country. And so really, she had never developed a home of sorts. She was an accountant by trade, but in college, she had studied not just accounting, but also

wilderness survival, which she happened to be incredible at and was very passionate about. Growing up, she had always been a big outdoor enthusiast and so she had always thought one day she would become a park ranger and so that's why she was studying wilderness survival in college. But as these things go, after she graduated college she did not become a park ranger, she became an accountant and now 30 years later here she was. However, in June of that year with covid quarantine restrictions putting her and everyone else's life basically on pause sandra suddenly saw an opportunity and that was to embrace this break from reality and spend this strange time in

history back out in nature getting back in touch with her roots as an outdoor survivalist. And so at the end of that June, Sandra would sell her place in Maui and she would move to Madera County, California, which is located smack dab in the center of California, situated just south of Yosemite National Park and just north of the Sierra National Forest. Then on June 26th, after Sandra had gotten settled in her new place in California, she would contact her family and tell them that she planned on going on this extended solo camping trip in the Sierra National Forest and that she would be in touch with them in the coming weeks when she was back out. To Sandra, this trip was going to bring her lots of happiness

and fulfillment, and it was going to allow her to continue to adhere to quarantine guidelines because she'd be all alone. Shortly after speaking with her family on the 26th, Sandra loaded up all of her camping equipment into her silver Saab sedan, and then she would drive from her place south and then east a little over an hour until she was deep inside of the Sierra National Forest. At some point, she would leave the main road and she would hop onto a bumpy dirt road that kind of wound through the forest, and that road would bring her out to an area called the Johnson Meadows. The Johnson Meadows are absolutely gorgeous. It looks straight out of a postcard. It's basically

a stretch of beautiful green meadows, and then around the perimeter of those meadows are the thick trees of the Sierra National Forest, and then beyond those trees are the snow-capped Sierra Mountains. But despite its beauty, the Johnson Meadows are actually fairly dangerous. It's a very isolated part of the Sierra National Forest, and there are lots of cougars and bears and other natural hazards in the area, so it's not really a place you go unless you're prepared to be there. And Sandra was certainly that, both in terms of her survival experience and the gear she brought with her. So when Sandra drove her car right up to the edge of the Johnson Meadows, she parked her car

off to the side of the road so as not to block the road, and then she got out, she collected her things from the trunk, and then she threw it over her shoulder and began hiking into the middle of the Johnson Meadows to look for a place to set up her campsite. Six days later, on July 2nd, some hikers came out of the tree line into Johnson Meadows and began walking across the center of it. And as they're walking along, they notice up ahead what looks like a tent and a campsite. They don't see anybody near it, but they clearly see someone is camping in the middle of Johnson Meadows. And so this is totally not unusual. Lots of people go hiking and camping in this area. And so these hikers just began kind

of creating a wide berth around this person's campsite because they didn't want to cut right through the middle of it as they went across the meadow. But as they're making this kind of wide berth around this campsite, they looked over at it. And as they passed by it, they noticed that the campsite was definitely abandoned and it looked totally destroyed, like a tornado had crossed right across it. And so when they were parallel with this campsite, the hikers decided to actually go over and look at it and see what was going on. So they walked over to this campsite and they're looking around and they see there's a backpack that's clearly been dumped out and all of its contents are strewn around all over the ground. There's unopened cans of food, there's papers and documents, the tent is in ruins. I mean, the place is just a total mess.

And so the hikers didn't really know what to make of this. They couldn't tell if a person had kind of intentionally ransacked the site or if maybe an animal had come through. But as a precaution, they marked down on their map where this destroyed campsite was, and then they hiked out of the forest, and when they were back in cell phone range, they called the Madera County Sheriff's office, and they reported the site. And so later that day, some Madera County Sheriffs made their way out to Johnson Meadows, and sure enough, the campsite is still there, it's still in ruins, and it's still abandoned. And so they would search the campsite and they would find some ID cards and the name on those ID cards was Sandra Hughes. The sheriffs would leave the forest and get in touch with Sandra's family to find out if they knew why Sandra had left her

campsite the way she had. But when Sandra's family heard about the state of Sandra's campsite, they had an immediate and definitive reaction to it. They told the sheriffs that Sandra was incredibly environmentally conscious and was very cleanly. And so she would never, ever leave her campsite looking that way on purpose. Something else had to have happened. The family would also tell the sheriffs that they had not spoken with Sandra since the 26th when she started her trip, and so they had no idea where she could be now. And so naturally, the family was concerned, the sheriffs were concerned, and so that day they filed an official missing person report. Over the next two days, a massive search was launched in Johnson Meadows and the surrounding area to look for Sandra. And so hundreds of people were out on foot.

They had sniffer dogs out. There were helicopters in the air. And during the search, the Madera County Sheriff's Office was interviewing anybody who was out there, hikers, campers, and asking them if they had had any contact with Sandra because Sandra was actually quite distinctive looking. Before she left for this trip, she had dyed her hair blue. But unfortunately, no one had seen Sandra and despite this massive search effort over these first two days, nothing new was discovered that could lead authorities to where she had gone.

But then on July 4th, so two days into her disappearance, Sandra Hughes was spotted. Hello, I am Alice Levine, and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there

always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab

her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Some hikers were cutting through the Johnson Meadows area and they saw this woman who was

just standing off to the side of the meadow. She was by herself. She had no gear with her. She was barefoot. She had a black shirt on. She had blue jeans on. She had a bruise on her face, and she was just kind of standing there as if she was waiting for something, and as these hikers walked past her, they definitely noticed her, but she didn't wave them down. She didn't act distressed, she didn't look like she needed any help. They just kind of saw this person minding their own business, and they walked right on past her. It wasn't until those hikers got to the parking lot that they saw all these missing person flyers out for Sandra Hughes, and they would see the picture

of Sandra, and they would see her distinctive blue hair, that they would say, oh my goodness, the barefoot woman we just saw standing in the forest is Sandra Hughes. And so the hikers called the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office got really jazzed up. They headed out to where they had claimed to have seen her, but there was no sign of her and there was nothing left behind that would indicate where she might have gone. The following day on July 5th, Sandra's vehicle was located, but Sandra was not with it. It was found five miles north of where her destroyed campsite was in Johnson Meadows, and the vehicle was actually at the bottom of a ravine, and this ravine was right next to a winding forest road. And so after looking at the damage on the front of the car, authorities

believed Sandra was driving the car on that road and then hit a tree, and then she rolled off the embankment down to the bottom of the ravine. There was no blood inside the vehicle, so it wasn't immediately clear if this accident had actually done any physical harm to Sandra. But the most significant thing about the discovery of this vehicle was the state of Sandra's personal effects that had been in the vehicle. Clearly, after the vehicle had come to a stop at the bottom of the ravine, someone had pulled out all of the things inside of the car, all of Sandra's personal things, and kind of thrown them carelessly all over the forest floor as if they were kind of rummaging through her car looking for something, throwing things as they went. And the Madera County sheriffs couldn't help but think that this was eerily similar to how her campsite looked in Johnson Meadows, where all

of her personal effects had just kind of been chucked all over the place. At this point, authorities did not believe Sandra was actively trying to evade them. Instead, they thought, you know, maybe Sandra got hurt, maybe back at the campsite or even during this car accident, and the injury has impaired her cognitive abilities. And so now, you know, maybe she's lost in the woods and doesn't know what's going on. There was some discussion about foul play maybe being involved, but that was largely discounted. And so a decision was made to just leave her vehicle where it was, at the bottom of the ravine, thinking, you know, maybe Sandra is going to come back to this vehicle, and maybe that's why all these things have been strewn

around, because she's coming back and looking for something. And so authorities left a note in the window of her vehicle that said, you know, hey, Sandra, we're looking for you. Please call this number if you see this. And then at the bottom of this note, it said, your family really misses you. The search for Sandra would continue over the next several days with a new focus around the area where the car had been found, but nothing new was discovered. Then on the evening of July 12th, so one week after the vehicle was discovered, a team of searchers had made their way two and a half miles north of the vehicle and they were actually inside of Yosemite National Park.

They were barely inside and they were right up along this lake called the Spotted Lake. Now this is an area that's very difficult to get to. There are no main roads that get there. There are no main trails that get there. And so the searchers, they're up in this very rugged part of Yosemite. And as they're walking along with their flashlights out, they see a sleeping bag and it's laying out right in the middle of the ground, in the middle of nowhere. And it looks like it's been used recently. And it would turn out that sleeping bag was Sandra's. But again, when they brought all the searchers out to that area and they searched all around the spotted lake and all over this area, there was no sign of Sandra.

At this point, authorities were totally baffled. On a map, Johnson Meadows, where her first campsite was, then her vehicle, and then this sleeping bag, were all more or less in a straight line going south to north. or less in a straight line going south to north. It was almost like Sandra, from the day she went missing, had just begun slowly working her way to the north, but she was doing it without any equipment and most likely barefoot in an area that was steep and rugged and dangerous and full of cougars and bears. And so authorities knew if they didn't find her soon, even if she was doing this on purpose, she was likely going to succumb to the elements. The search for Sandra would continue for another week after the discovery of her sleeping bag, but by that time, by July 20th, there hadn't been any new developments. No one had seen Sandra, there were no new leads, and so unfortunately, the authorities

had to scale back their search. About three weeks later, on August 9th, two hunters were driving down this very desolate forest road located several miles to the east of where Sandra's car had been found. And as they're driving along, they turn this corner. And as soon as they do, they look up ahead and they see there's this woman. Now, she's not standing on the road or even right next to the road. She's kind of tucked up a ways on this hillside in the trees, and she's leaning up against a tree. And so the hunters are looking at her, and they're seeing that she's got no equipment with her. There's no backpack, there's nothing, no tent, and there's no other people anywhere. I mean, they're in a very

isolated part of this forest, and it's odd to see people here to begin with, let alone this woman who's just kind of casually standing up against a tree. And so the hunters, they're like, OK, let's drive up and see if she needs something. And so they pull up right up alongside her. She's still, you know, 10, 15 feet away from them, tucked up in the trees. And so they roll their windows down and they're looking up at her, trying to kind of flag her and get her attention. But the woman is not paying attention to them at all. She just continues to prop herself up against this tree and just kind of stares off into the distance.

And so the hunters, they're looking up at her thinking, what's going on with this woman? And they kind of called out to her. They tried to wave her down, but there was nothing. There was no interactions with them. And so ultimately the hunters thought, okay, well, we don't know what this woman's doing, but it seems like she's here on purpose

and she doesn't seem like she's in distress. She doesn't look hurt. And so they just decided to carry on. And drove off and then later that day they would see one of the missing person flyers for sandra hughes and they saw the blue hair in the picture and they were like oh my goodness the woman we saw standing up against the tree in the middle of the forest was that woman sandra hughes the hunters would contact the Madera County Sheriff's Office and report the sighting, and they would describe Sandra as looking slightly thinner than the picture of her on her missing person flyer, and they would also say she was wearing overalls and

a floral t-shirt, which was interesting to sheriffs because the last time Sandra was sighted, which was on July 4th, when those hikers had seen her barefoot with a bruise on her face near Johnson Meadows, she had been wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. And so clearly she had changed her outfit, but that didn't really make any sense because she had left all of her things at the campsite and her car. And so the whole situation was just totally weird to the sheriffs. But regardless, they headed out to that road where the hunters had seen Sandra, but like always, Sandra was not there, and there was no sign she had ever been there. After this, Sandra's case went cold, and so authorities and her family began to brace for

the reality that they likely would never see her again. But there was one more terrifying twist coming. A year later, on Wednesday, July 21st, 2021, Jake Gorba, his wife Victoria, and their three young children were driving in Jake's off-roading vehicle up the steep forest road in the middle of Sierra National Forest on their way to the top of Shuteye Peak. of Shuteye Peak. Shuteye Peak is a mountain in the Sierra National Forest with stunning panoramic views from the top and it's located about five miles to the south of Johnson Meadows where Sandra's first campsite was discovered. So Jake and his family they're driving their way up this long bumpy winding forest road making their way towards the top of Shuteye Peak and when they get about halfway the kids in the back start complaining that they're hungry. And so Jake and Victoria, they decide, you know what, let's just pull over at the next natural stopping point, and we'll have a quick lunch, and then we'll continue on the rest of the way. And as luck would have it, the road they were on would actually level off and lead them to this kind of short, flat section of the mountain, and in this flat section was this

beautiful little meadow that butted up against some trees. And so Jake and his wife thought, this is a great place to stop and have a little picnic. And so he pulled his truck over on the side of the road, he parked it, he turned the engine off, and then as Jake and his wife are kind of gathering up their things before they get out of the vehicle to go prepare this picnic lunch, they hear their three-year-old son named Caden, who's in the back seat right near a window, start talking. And so Jake and Victoria instinctively turned around to see who Caden was talking to,

and they saw Caden was not talking to himself. He was not talking to his siblings. He was turned and looking out his open window, looking across this small meadow into the forest, engaged in some sort of intense conversation with somebody outside. And so Jake and Victoria, they see their son and they look out the window in the direction he's looking and talking and they don't see anyone. And so Victoria, she looks at her son and goes, Caden, who are you talking to? And what he would say to her

would send goosebumps all over her body. And in fact, what would happen over the next several minutes from that point onward was so unsettling that Jake and Victoria decided, you know what? We're not going to the top of Shuteye Peak. We're turning around and we're leaving. And so they would speed out of the forest and they would get back home. And that night, Victoria would make a Facebook post about what her son said, and this terrifying ordeal they experienced on Shuteye Peak, and she would post it. And that night, the Madera County Sheriff's Office would reach out to Victoria via a Facebook message, and they would tell her, hey, we saw your post. Can we please speak to you and your son? And so

the next day, the sheriffs met up with the Gorba family and after speaking with Caden and hearing what he had to say, they would leave that exchange just as unsettled as Caden's parents. The day before, when Victoria turned around and looked at Caden and said,

who are you talking to? Caden would turn away from the window and look at his mom and he would say, there's a woman out there and she needs our help. And he turn away from the window and look at his mom. And he would say, there's a woman out there and she needs our help. And he starts pointing out the window. And so again, Jake and Victoria, they look from their son back out the window into the tree line, which is where Caden is pointing and they don't see anyone. And so they turn back to Caden and they say, honey,

we don't see anyone out there. And Caden at this point, he becomes emphatic. And he says, Mom, you gotta trust me. She's right there. She needs our help. She's lying face down. Her legs are straight up and she's dead. And so at this point, Victoria and Jake are looking at their son thinking, what's going on here? Jake promptly hops out of the car and just starts running into the woods to see what's going on. Is there a person out here? But he's out there looking around and there's no one. And while he's out there, his son is pointing in the direction of where he is, claiming there's this woman right near him. And so Jake's looking around thinking, there's no one out here. I have no idea what my son's on about. And so he's spooked. He runs back to the car. And when he gets inside, Caden is still looking out

the window. He's pointing and he's talking to this dead woman that needs their help. And so Jake and Victoria, they were horrified. They turned around, they left. And then that night when Victoria made that Facebook post, she included in the post what this woman apparently looked like based on what Caden said. And what Caden said was she had a black t-shirt on, blue jeans on, and blue hair. And so when the Madera County Sheriff's Office saw this post that described seeing a person in a black shirt, blue jeans, and blue hair, they knew that description matched Sandra Hughes. And so when the sheriffs met up with the Gorba family, they brought with them a lineup of several women. And they went right up to Caden. And without giving him any

extra information, they just showed him all these pictures of all these women. And they said, Caden, can you identify in any of these pictures the woman you saw in the woods? And Caden looks at these pictures and he picks out three pictures. All three are Sandra Hughes. The sheriffs, along with Caden and his father, they would return to that section of Shuteye Peak to search the tree line near the meadow to see if there was any sign of Sandra or any indication that she had been there, but like always, there was nothing. As of today, we still have no idea where Sandra is or what happened to her, and nobody has any idea what to make of the very strange sightings of her that occurred after she went missing. It's all just one big mystery.

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