MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Vacations From Hell

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

Today’s podcast features two separate, unique stories that share a theme: vacation horror stories. The audio from these stories has been pulled from our YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:Story 1 -- “Girl's Trip" -- A mother and her daughters take a trip to Florida (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9qKjIUsCWY)Story 2 -- "Bear Camp Road" -- A family takes a wrong turn onto an off limits road (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8f-AMx9-w)For 100s more stories like these, check out our 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.

Today's podcast features two separate, unique stories that share a theme, vacation horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Girls Trip, and it's about a mother and her two young daughters who take a trip to Florida. The second story you'll hear is called Bear Camp Road, and it's about a mother and her two young daughters who take a trip to Florida. The second story you'll hear is called Bear Camp Road,

and it's about a family who accidentally ventures down an off-limits road. These stories are both extremely upsetting, not because they are full of gore or graphic violence, but from an emotional standpoint, these are the types of stories that just really get to you and leave a mark on you. So truly, listener discretion is advised. But before we get into today's stories, 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 log on to the 5 Star Review Button's various streaming accounts and slightly fast forward every show that is in their continue watching docket. 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 our first story called Girls Trip. Hello, I'm Emily, and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. 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 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 Wanderie app. I'm Peter Frank-O'Pern 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. 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. On the far west side of Ohio lies a small town called Wilshire. In 1989, there were less than 600 people that called this place their home, and virtually all of them were middle-class Americans. Most of them were farmers or factory workers, or they worked in one of the very few small businesses in town. While Wilshire was certainly not the most exciting place to live, it did have

a reputation for being a nice place to raise a family. It was a tight community of people that looked out for one another. One family that was part of the Wilshire community in 1989 was the Rogers family. They consisted of the parents Hal and Joan. Joan went by Joe, and they were both 36 years old, and they had two daughters, Michelle, who was 17, and Christy, who was 14. Hal and Joe had met in high school. Joe was very outgoing and popular, and Hal was reserved and quiet. But despite their extreme differences, they actually complemented each other very nicely, and they seemed to bring out the best in the other. By their senior year, Joe had become pregnant with Michelle, and so after graduation, the teen couple got married and they moved into a dairy farm to start their life together. And a few years after that, Christy was born and their family was complete.

Over the years, Hal and Joe worked extremely hard on their farm, but it just wasn't enough to pay the bills. So to make ends meet, Joe had to get a second job working nights at a factory where she drove a forklift and worked the assembly line. While life was certainly not very easy for the Rogers family, they always found a way to stay positive and upbeat. The girls were very popular in school and made friends easily, and when they were home they were always goofing around with the farm animals that they loved. As for the parents, they always carved out time every week where just the two of them could sneak off and get breakfast or dinner together. But their simple, happy way of life would be shattered later that year when it was discovered

that Hal's brother, John, who actually lived with them in a trailer on their farm property, had secretly been assaulting Michelle for the past three years. Michelle hadn't told anyone because John had threatened to kill her, but when inappropriate pictures of her turned up inside of his trailer, his horrible secret was out. John went to jail for a very long time, but the damage he left behind was unbelievable. Michelle couldn't even talk about what happened to her. Meanwhile, Hal, her father, was just beside himself. He could not believe that right under his nose, someone was harming his daughter, and that it was his own brother doing it. He wanted to kill his brother, but his brother was in custody, so he couldn't. And making this situation even more

painful, Hal and John's mother wound up siding with John. She believed Michelle was lying, and it set John up, and she began saying this publicly and it spread all throughout town. It was just an absolute tragedy through and through and Hal and Joe had no idea how they were going to recover from it. That's when the idea of a vacation came up. Take the kids away from this farm, away from this drama, let them be kids again, let them be stress free, even for a couple of days. It will do them an enormous amount of good. And so Hal decided he would actually stay back at the farm and just Joe and the girls would go. It would be a girls trip. When Joe told her daughters, they were ecstatic. They had never been on a vacation before. And in fact, neither had Joe.

Joe told the girls that they needed to plan out this trip, pick the place they wanted to go, plan out the itinerary. But keep in mind, they had to drive wherever this trip, pick the place they wanted to go, plan out the itinerary, but keep in mind they had to drive wherever this vacation was going to be and their budget was going to be fairly tight. The girls decided on Florida and for weeks they meticulously planned their itinerary trying to maximize sightseeing opportunities both on the road trip and also at their destination. Finally on May 26, 1989, the day had come for the girls to head out on their journey. They said bye to Hal, and then they loaded up into the light blue family sedan, and they were on their way. The trio drove south for about eight hours on I-75 through Ohio,

Kentucky, Tennessee, all the way to Georgia, which was their halfway point. They found a motel that crashed there for the night, and then the next morning they got up early and they finished their trip all the way into Florida. And for the next couple of days, they followed their itinerary and went to amusement parks and zoos and other attractions all over the Sunshine State. They were really having a great time. In fact, on May 29th, Jo sent a postcard to Hal that she kind of jokingly said, the girls are dragging me all over the state. All I want to do is relax. But the tone of the message was really that she and her kids were having a wonderful time. On June 1st, the girls left Orlando, Florida and made their

way to Tampa, Florida, where they planned to go to one more amusement park before they had to turn around and head back to Ohio. Hal had been told they would be back on June 3rd, but when June 3rd came and went and the girls did not show up in Ohio, Hal was not immediately concerned. Hal was very restrained and composed. He almost never showed any emotion, so when things didn't go to plan, he didn't panic. He just assumed that Joe and the girls had decided to stay a little bit longer. They had each other, and they would be fine, and he would see them in a couple of days. But over the next couple of days, the girls did not show up, and they never communicated with Hal, and so on June 6th, Hal went to the police,

and he reported his family missing. The police investigation was slow at first, because there was a general belief that these women had decided to just stay out longer because they didn't want to come back to this dairy farm that now was home to a lot of terrible memories after this revelation about their uncle. But two days after Hal went to police, everything changed. That morning, a motel maid in Tampa, Florida noticed something odd about room 251.

She had cleaned it earlier in the week and had made the beds and put the towels up and moved the occupants' luggage onto chairs and tables so it was nice and neat. And now she was coming back to clean it about a week later and the room still looked exactly the way it did when she had cleaned it. The beds were still made, the towels hadn't been touched, and the luggage was positioned around the room just as she had set it up. So she tells her manager, who thought it was strange enough that he called the police and told them about it. The police in Tampa went out to this motel and they discovered that room 251 was registered to missing people, Joan Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle and Christy.

The motel manager told police that the trio had checked in on June 1st, but after that, no one had seen them. The police searched their room, and they found their camera, and the final two pictures that had been taken were taken inside this motel room. One was of Michelle crouching down, rummaging through her suitcase, looking like she's getting ready to go out somewhere, and the other was taken from inside their room, looking out over their balcony out towards Tampa Bay as the sun was beginning to set. The rest of the search of their room did not turn up any significant evidence.

All they knew was the women were not there. And so using the motel as a center point, they began searching the area and pretty quickly they found Joe's car parked a mile away from the motel near a public boat ramp. Joe and her daughters were nowhere to be found and initially there was nothing inside or outside the car to indicate where they might have gone. But upon closer inspection, they found two brochures sitting on the floor of the car, and on each of them was some handwriting. The first brochure had a note that was clearly written by Joe, and it was directions to the boat ramp where the car was parked. On the other brochure, the other note the handwriting was not Joe's or her daughter's. It was some other person's handwriting and that one was directions to

the motel where Joe and her daughters were staying. The police had no idea who wrote the second note so they started by focusing on Joe's note, the directions to this boat ramp. Specifically they were looking at the last couple of words in her note where she wrote blue with white. And investigators assumed what this meant was when she got to this boat ramp using these directions, she needed to look out for something that was blue and white. And what would be blue and white at a boat ramp? Boats. And that's when the police made a terrible connection.

Four days earlier, the Coast Guard had made a discovery out in the bay, about 25 miles away from where Joe's car had been found. At the time, no one was connecting this discovery to the three missing women from Ohio, because no one in Tampa knew about the three missing women from Ohio. But now that they did know about them, the connection was obvious. While it would take three years to finally put all the pieces together, the police would eventually figure out what happened to Joe, Michelle, and Christy. On the morning of June 1st, they got in their car and they left Orlando and made their way to Tampa. When they got to Tampa, they couldn't find their motel. So Joe pulled over on the side of the road and she got out her brochure that had a map of the area. And as she's studying her map, trying to figure out where she

is, a man approaches the car. He was white. He was in his 30s. He was average height, average build. He had blonde hair and a mustache and was just overall kind of unremarkable and unthreatening. And so he went up to the driver's side window and Joe rolled her window down and he said to her, you know, are you guys lost? I your ohio license plates and you're pulled over here i'm from the area can i point you in the right direction and joe would say actually yeah we're lost we can't find our motel do you know where this motel is and this guy would say oh yeah i know where that is here give me that brochure and i'll write the directions down for you so joe hands the brochure up to him in a pen and he writes down directions to the motel they're staying in. And then after he gives it back to her, Joe thanks him and he says, hey,

you know, would you guys want to come out on my boat tonight and watch the sunset out on the water? You know, it's beautiful. And Joe and her daughters thought, you know what? This guy's friendly. He's helpful. He seems pretty nice. Sure. We'd love to go with you. And so this guy says, great. I can't wait to see you. And he proceeds to give Joe directions of how to get to this public boat ramp where his boat is. And so she takes notes on the other brochure as he's talking. And then he tells her also, you know, when you get there tonight, look out for my boat. It's blue and white. And so she makes the note blue with white.

And after that, she thanked the man not only for giving them directions, but for his generosity to allow them to come out on his boat with him that night. And as he walked back towards his car, Joe and her girls followed his directions to their motel. They got there around 12.30 p.m. They checked in. And then after that, it's not really clear how they spent their afternoon, whether they went to the beach or a park or something like that.

We don't know. But at 7.30 p.m., they were spotted leaving the motel restaurant. And then after that, they went up to their room for a little while to get ready for their trip out on this boat with their new friend. And as they were getting ready, putting their bathing suits on and shorts and jackets, Joe or Christy got out the camera and they took a picture of Michelle as she was crouched down getting ready. And they also took a picture of their view from the balcony out over the bay as the sun was starting to go down. After they were all finally ready, they put everything away in their room, they headed down to their car, and Joe drove them the mile over to the boat ramp where

they parked. They saw the blue and white boat and their friend was on it waving to them. And then sometime between 8 30 and 9 p.m. that night, the women boarded the boat and the man took them out into the middle of the bay. Exactly what happened out on that boat out on the water is not entirely clear. But what we do know for sure is that at some point, their new acquaintance turned on them. And he almost definitely assaulted all three of them. And then after he was done, he tied them all up. He tied their ankles together and he tied their arms together behind their back. And then he put a strip of duct tape over all of their mouths, but he kept their eyes open.

He wanted them to see what he was going to do. And then he went into his boat and he pulled out three 30-pound cinder blocks and he sat them on the deck in front of the three women so they could see what he had. And then he got three long stretches of rope and he tied one end of each of these pieces of rope to each of the cinder blocks. And after each cinder block was securely fastened on the end of these long lines of rope, he would tie a noose on the other end of each of the cinder blocks. And after each cinder block was securely fastened on the end of these long lines of rope, he would tie a noose on the other end of each of these lines. So there were three nooses and three cinder blocks. Then he grabbed one of the women, he stood them up, he put a noose over her neck, he tightened it down, he walked her over to the edge, and he pushed her

off along with her cinder block. And so as she is struggling to stay above the water, her loved ones are in full view of her. They're watching this happen. And then at some point she sunk below the water and didn't come up again. At that point, the man grabbed another woman, stood her up, put a noose on her neck, tightened it, and then brought her to the edge, pushed her in the water along with her cinder block. And just like before, the last woman on board the ship had to watch as her loved one struggled and eventually sunk below the surface. And then at that point, the man grabbed the last woman, he stood her up, put a noose on her neck, tightened it, and then pushed her off the edge along with the cinder block. And at some point, she too sunk below the surface and did not

come up again. And at this point, the man just turned around and drove back to shore like nothing had ever happened. On June 4th, so three days after the three women were killed, because of decomposition, their bodies had bloated and they floated to the surface. The Coast Guard was alerted to their position. They pulled them out of the water, but because of their extreme decomposition at this point, because of the warm water, they weren't able to ID them. During their autopsy, they found water in each of their lungs, which confirmed they were alive when they were thrown in the water. A few days later, when Joe's car and those notes inside of the car were located near the boat ramp, and the police began to speculate that she, along with her daughters, must have boarded a boat before they disappeared, speculate that she, along with her daughters, must have boarded a boat before they disappeared,

that was when they made the connection that, unfortunately, these three missing women are probably the three unidentified bodies that had been found in the bay a few days earlier. So on the day they make this connection, the police call Howe back in Ohio, and they request the dental records of his wife and his daughters. and those records would confirm his worst nightmare. His entire family was gone. The man who killed his family was a guy named Oba Chandler, who was a suspected serial killer who liked to brag about his date with three women. In 1994, he was found guilty of murdering all three of the Rogers women, but he never took responsibility, nor did he show any remorse. For nearly two decades, Oba sat on death row, and not once did he get a visit from a friend or a family member. Nobody wanted to see

this guy. And then finally, a little after 4 p.m. on November 17, 2011, so roughly 22 years after Oba had murdered the Rogers women, he was led into the execution chamber inside of Florida State Prison. After he was strapped down to the gurney, a curtain was slid aside so the witnesses of the execution could see him. And then at 4.08 p.m., Hal Rogers watched calmly from the front row as the man who ruined his life, Oba Chandler, was put to death by lethal injection. injection. 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, 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. The next and final story of today's episode is called Bear Camp Road. In 1996, 21-year-old Katie Fleming was studying French at the University of Oregon. That summer, she was invited to go on a camping trip with some very close friends and some people she had not met before. Their destination was this beautiful spot along the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, but as soon as they got there, Katie did not take in any of the beautiful scenery. Instead, she fixated solely on 25-year-old James Kim, who was one of those people

she had not met before that was going on this trip. And for the people that were on this trip, they would say James and Katie immediately just fell in love with each other. And for the duration of this trip, they were inseparable. And then when they got back from this trip, James would actually move from Seattle to Oregon to be with Katie. And then after Katie graduated from college, the two got married in Las Vegas and then settled in San Francisco. James, who loved technology and always had, was quickly hired by a tech company to try out new technology and then write a review for the average consumer. Basically, James got paid to play with toys, and so he loved his job. The couple also opened two boutique stores in San Francisco. One was an apothecary and the other sold eccentric clothing, and those two shops were managed by Katie full-time. By 2006, the Kim family had become very successful

financially, and they had grown in size. They had a four-year-old daughter named Penelope and a seven-month-old daughter named Sabine. Katie and James both adored their kids, but James especially was known for blowing off virtually everything and anyone to be with his daughters. with his daughters. In fact, his friends and family would say you couldn't even have a conversation with James if his daughters were in the room because James would get distracted and just stare at his daughters and then would eventually just leave mid-conversation to go play with them. James was also known to bring his daughters to work virtually every chance he got, even if it really wasn't allowed at this company. On Friday, November 17th, James, Katie, and their two daughters loaded up into their station wagon and then drove north to Seattle. They planned on

spending Thanksgiving with James's aunt and uncle who lived in the city. And also, James and Katie were considering leaving San Francisco and moving elsewhere, and Seattle seemed like a natural landing spot for them, so this trip served nicely as a chance to see family and to explore the area. And so late on Friday night after a very long trip, they finally arrive in Seattle, and for the next couple of days they have a wonderful time visiting with family and having Thanksgiving dinner. On Friday, November 24th, so a day after Thanksgiving, James, Katie, and their daughters loaded back up into the station wagon early in the morning. They said bye to James's aunt and uncle, and then they hit the road. But instead of just driving straight all the way to San Francisco, which would have taken the entire day and then some, they decided to make a stop in Portland, Oregon, where one of Katie's very close

friends from college was going to meet them for lunch. And so after about three and a half, four hours, they arrive in Portland, they meet Katie's friend, and they have this nice lunch. And then afterwards, the family retired to a hotel where they crashed for the night. The next morning, the plan was originally to just get in the car and then drive all the way back to San Francisco. But Katie suggested to James that instead of just driving all day, why don't we just stay here for part of the day, leave in the afternoon, and we'll stop somewhere between here and home. We'll break up the drive one more time. James thought it was a great idea. They pulled out the map and Katie found a nice family-friendly vacation spot that was almost exactly halfway between where they were and home. It was called

the Two Two Ton Lodge and it was located on the coast of oregon in a town called gold beach and so james and katie think perfect this is exactly what we needed katie calls the lodge and she makes reservations for that night and so that afternoon after the family spent their nice day in portland they hopped in the car and they began traveling south towards the two two ton lodge at about 8 30 pm the family was still on the road making their way when James got really hungry and said, let's pull over and get a bite to eat. So the family pulls over at a Denny's restaurant in central Oregon. They go inside and then after a quick bite to eat, they get back out and they're on the road at 9 p.m. From the Denny's to the lodge was about a two and a half hour drive.

But after driving for two more hours, James realized they had missed a turn. But after driving for two more hours, James realized they had missed a turn. So he told Katie about it. They looked at the map and they realized if they were to backtrack all the way to that turn, it would add several more hours onto their trip. And so they began looking for an alternative path. And they found one. Instead of going all the way west to the coast and then all the way south to this lodge, which was the original plan,

they could just go south from where they were all the way until they were parallel with this lodge, and then from there they could just cut west along this road called Bear Camp Road. It would basically go straight to their destination. But what this map did not do a good job of explaining was just how dangerous Bear Camp Road was. It started at 900 feet of elevation, but very quickly went all the way up to 4,000 feet of elevation before it went over the backside of this mountain down to Gold Beach and where this lodge was. While the road is paved, it's incredibly narrow and it's basically cut into a mountainside, and so there's very steep drop-offs throughout most of this ride, and there are no guardrails protecting people from falling off.

The summer is really the only time people should be on Bear Camp Road, because that's when the road is maintained. In the winter, the road is not plowed, it's not maintained, and so even a light snowstorm could make the road totally impassable. And the road cuts through a very remote section of Oregon, where there's just not many people around. So if you get in trouble out there, you're probably on your own. But the Kims were not aware of the dangers this road possessed.

And so after going south for a while, they did turn on to Bear Camp Road and began slowly driving up the mountain. So as James is driving, Katie falls asleep in the passenger seat. The girls fall asleep in back and outside it begins to snow. An hour later, Katie wakes up from her sleep, and the first thing she notices is outside it is snowing so hard that James now has the windshield wipers on full blast, and still you could barely see out the front windshield. She looked at her husband, and he was hunched over, white-knuckling the steering wheel, looking intently out the window, and she says to him you know what's going on should we stop should we turn around and James without even looking at her says yeah honey I do want to turn around but the road is so narrow we can't and then he would tell his wife that earlier they had actually driven through a fork in the road where

there was enough space to turn around and so now he was just hopeful that there'd be another fork somewhere that would allow them to turn around and And so Katie was not excited about the idea, but she trusted James and said, okay, let's keep going. And so James just continues driving up this mountain pass. And you got to understand they are driving on basically a cliff. On the left side, left of James is just a sheer drop off. And the road is totally slick from the snow. And so periodically, as James is driving, even though he's only going about five miles an hour, he would begin to slip and slide. And he's right on the edge of this cliff. And so it was a very, very stressful ride.

And after several more miles of this, they were not reaching any turnaround. In fact, they would have to periodically stop on inclines, put up the emergency brake, and one of them would have to get out and clear branches and rocks out of this tiny little road to continue onward. And so finally, Katie says to James, you've got to stop. You've got to back out of here. That's our only choice right now. And so James put the car in reverse and he opens his car door so he can look down at the edge of this cliff to make sure he doesn't accidentally veer off of it. And so very slowly, without even applying the gas, he began going in reverse, making sure he didn't go off the cliff.

And for hours and hours they did this. This must have been so stressful. But finally they make it to this fork in the road that James had seen much earlier and they're able to make a decision. They had two paths they could take. They could turn around completely and drive nose out along the path they came in on all the way to the highway but that was a very far drive and they knew that road was treacherous and there was a cliff drop off and it was really just as dangerous as what they had been on and they really were not keen to be on that road considering the weather. they had been on and they really were not keen to be on that road considering the weather. Or they could turn left and go down the mountain on this path that was way wider than the paths they were

on. It was like this huge road and it looked like it went straight to the bottom of the mountain. And they're thinking, we don't know where this goes, the signage is not clear where this goes, but you gotta figure if you're going lower in elevation the weather will not be as bad. And maybe if you go down this road, there'll be houses or there'll be a gas station or there'll be something. But whatever it is, it's probably better than going that way or that way. And so James turned the car and began driving down this new road. Unfortunately, this was the worst choice they could have made. This road they were now on was this long, winding dead end that was used by loggers in the summer.

Now, normally, this mistake by the Kim family would have been caught, because there was supposed to be a big yellow gate that sat across this road just a little ways past this fork, blocking all traffic from proceeding any further. But vandals had recently come up and cut the lock on this gate, swung it open, and then locked it open. So the gate is completely off the road. And so as the Kims drove past where they normally would have been stopped, they didn't even see a gate. There was no gate anywhere, and so they just kept on driving. And from where this gate should have been, the road went from paved to dirt and full of potholes, and it narrowed considerably.

paved to dirt and full of potholes, and it narrowed considerably. The couple drove for 15 miles on this very tight winding road that once again was on a cliffside, until finally they reached another fork in the road where they could either go right or they could go straight, but there was no sign telling them which way led to what. And so James stopped the car right in the middle of this intersection, and he and Katie look at each other, and they know they're in trouble. So they get their phones out, and they try try calling for help but they have no service. And so as they're struggling to place calls one of them realizes it's no longer snowing. It's actually raining and a lot of the snow on the ground seems to be getting washed away. And so after not being able to place calls for several minutes they decide you know what it's two in the

morning we're tired let's sleep here we'll leave the car running, it'll be nice and warm. And when we wake up in the morning, this rain will most likely have washed away the snow and we can just drive out of here. And so the two are kind of relieved as they're saying this out loud that this situation is not nearly as bad as it seems, we'll be just fine. And so Katie, James, their two daughters, they fall asleep with the car running, it's nice and warm. And when they wake up, Katie and James realize it's gotten much, much worse. At some point in the night after they fell asleep, the temperature must have dropped again and that rain became very heavy snow. And so all the water on the ground froze and then almost a foot of snow fell on top of it. They were stuck. But Katie and James, they didn't panic,

because they remembered when they first turned onto Bear Camp Road, they had seen a plow truck parked off of the side of the road. And so to them, that meant if it snowed along Bear Camp Road, it would get plowed. And so that day, the Kims just stayed inside of their car, and they ate snacks, and they read books, and they kept the heater on, and they waited to be rescued. But over the course of that entire day, nobody came down that road. No plows, no anybody.

And Katie and James continuously tried their cell phones to try to punch out and get some help, but they never had any service. Also, Katie and James continuously honked the horn in case someone was in the area that might hear them, but no one ever came to their rescue. And so by the end of that Sunday night, Katie and James were really starting to get worried because they have a four-year-old and a seven-month-old. They cannot be out here for very much longer. But they began to tell each other that, you know what, it's Sunday. Maybe the plows don't come through on Sundays. Maybe they just don't work out here on Sundays. And so tomorrow, through on Sundays. Maybe they just don't work out here on Sundays. And so tomorrow, Monday, the plows will be out here. They'll come by and they will save us. Also, Katie and James began telling each other to reassure each other that, hey, tomorrow, Monday, that's the day we were supposed to be back in San Francisco. And so people are bound to notice our absence and they

will report it to police and they will come out here and they will save us. So tomorrow we are going to get found. And so Katie and James, they put their two daughters in their car seats and James read them some bedtime stories and then the family fell asleep. The next day, Monday, the family did a lot of the same things they did the day before. They sat in their car, they kept spirits high, they tried to use their cell phones, which didn't work. They honked their horns to get people's attention. That didn't work. They tried to ration their cell phones, which didn't work. They honked their horns to get people's attention. That didn't work. They tried to ration their food. And the whole time, they're keeping their eyes up each side of this road they're on in hopes a plow comes through.

But all day long, no trucks, no plows, nothing comes down this road. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, the family's absence was noticed by a family friend, but they didn't report it to police because they figured the Kim family had just decided to stay out a little bit longer and they would be back soon. By Monday night, Katie and James were officially terrified. They were almost out of fuel in their car. They were almost out of food. In fact, to compensate for their low amount of food, Katie had begun not only breastfeeding her seven-month-old, but also began breastfeeding her four-year-old. Also, outside of their car, bears began kind of assembling and checking them out. And at first, Katie and James would scream and yell and try to scare them off,

but the bears ultimately were not that phased by them. They were not aggressive, but it meant the family did not feel comfortable getting out of their car. And so they're in this very claustrophobic situation where they are literally trapped inside of this small car where all the windows are covered with snow and they can't go anywhere. They can't call anyone. They're running out of their supplies. I mean, this is a terrifying situation to be in. Katie and James had been really strong to this point, but around this time they began to act scared and their kids picked up on it and they started acting scared and fearful. And so the parents were trying their best to calm them down and tell them everything's going to be fine and they're going to get out of here soon. But in reality, Katie and James knew that if they didn't get found soon, they were probably going to

die. The next day when they woke up, which was Tuesday tuesday again no cars or trucks came down either road there was no plows the snow just continued to pile up and the food was running unbelievably low to the point where james actually left the car and went out looking for bear droppings because there's bears all over the place now and he would pull the berries out of their droppings and he and katie began eating those. But after a while, they decided that was not a good idea because they might poison themselves. Their daughters, who the day before had been acting out out of fear and anxiety, were now lethargic and quiet. And the parents' response to this was to start fighting with each other about whose fault this

was, when in reality, they were just totally scared about what might happen to them. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, the family had still not been reported to police. And so that night, Tuesday night, the Kim family once again huddled up inside of their car, James read the kids books, and then they all fell asleep. The next morning, Wednesday, they ran out of gas for their car. And so they had no way to heat themselves. And so James got the spare tire out of the back of the car and he rounded up some magazines inside of the car and he lit a fire for the family to stand around and try to warm up by. And it worked, but the fire very quickly died

out and they couldn't find any wood that wasn't soaking wet to put on it. And so before long, they did not have a fire. And so all day that day, James and Katie were desperately looking up the road in hopes that a car or truck would come through. They never did. James and Katie tried their cell phones repeatedly, but they never got service. They honked their horns and they screamed out for help, but nobody heard them. And so before long, it was dark again and the family was huddled up inside of their now freezing car, and all they could hear outside was the sounds of bears marching around

the area. And so I'm sure James and Katie thought to themselves, I wonder if we'll survive the night. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, that family friend who had noticed the Kims were gone on Monday, she did go to the police on Wednesday afternoon and reported them missing. And so a search party was being organized that night, but of course the Kim family would have no way of knowing that.

The next morning, Thursday, the Kim family woke up, they survived the night, but of course the Kim family would have no way of knowing that. The next morning, Thursday, the Kim family woke up, they survived the night, but at this point, James and Katie are speaking openly about the real possibility that they all might die. In fact, Katie says to James, you have to promise me if our two kids die out here, you have to kill me too. And James said he would. At this point, Katie and James do not believe a truck or car or anything is going to drive down this road and save them. They believe their only hope of being rescued is by sending a smoke signal up into the air that a pilot might see. So they pull off all four tires of their car, and then they pull everything out of the car that might burn, and they stack that on the tires. And that included Penelope's prized stuffed lamb.

And then once they had their big pile, they lit it on fire. And fairly quickly, a large black billowing cloud of smoke was going straight up to the sky. And for a minute, the Kim family was very optimistic that they were about to be found. That certainly someone was going to see the smoke and come find them. But unfortunately, the fire burned up very quickly, they couldn't light it again, and nobody flew overhead. And so before long, the family is once again huddled inside of their freezing cold car that night. There's bears walking around outside. They're basically out of food. Their kids aren't even crying anymore. They're just silent

and cold and miserable. And as they're all shivering and trying to stay warm, James realizes he needs to do something drastic or his family's going to die. And so the next morning, Friday, when they get up, James tells Katie that he had been studying the map and there is a town about four miles east called Galice that he believes he can get to in about two hours. Katie immediately said, no, you cannot leave us. We need you here. There's probably a search party out there looking for us right now. We need to stay together so we can all be found. But James's instincts were telling him that no one was coming for them or no one was going to actually find them in time. And so their only hope was if he ventured off and found help. And so Katie finally reluctantly agrees to let him go because he seemed really confident.

And so at 7.45 a.m. that morning, James gave his two daughters a big hug and a kiss, told them he loved them and he would see them soon. And then he hugged his wife and said he loved her. And then he turned around and walked up the road out of sight. At the same time, unbeknownst to the Kim family, hundreds of searchers and helicopters are all over Bear Camp Road looking for them. Two days later, on Sunday, December 3rd, so a week after the family had originally gotten stuck, a helicopter pilot that was part of the

search effort was flying around Bear Camp Road when he noticed footprints in the snow below. He started following these footprints and eventually the footprints kind of disappeared under some trees and then he couldn't pick them up again. And so without that much fuel left, he decided he would just backtrack and follow the footprints back to their origin. And so he retraced these footprints for quite a while

until he came to a clearing and in the middle of the clearing was a car and next to the car was Katie waving an umbrella back and forth. The pilot immediately knew who he was looking at but he didn't have enough fuel to actually land and pick her and her family up and so instead he just hovered down as low as he could and he made good eye contact with her to reassure her that I see you and we're coming for you. Then he marked on the map where they were, he flew off to the search headquarters and just minutes later another

helicopter was spun up, they flew to that same location and they were able to land in that clearing. And as soon as the pilot got out he saw Katie running up to him carrying her two daughters who looked like they were in pretty good shape. And she's crying tears of joy and she's thanking him profusely. And then when she's right up in front of him she says, you know, are you here because of my husband? Did James tell you where we were? And the pilot looked visibly confused. Katie picked up on it and she explained how just two days earlier, James had left to go to the town of Galice to get help. And he still hadn't come back yet.

And so at this point, the pilot understood what was happening. And so he looked down and he said, no, ma'am, we still have not found James. Katie was devastated and she cried as she and her daughters were loaded into the helicopter and airlifted out of the forest and brought to a hospital. There they would make full recoveries. Meanwhile, the search effort, which had been all over Bear Camp Road, was suddenly focused exclusively on the area around where their car was. And professional trackers were brought in to look for James's tracks, and they found them fairly quickly and began following them.

James, after departing his family to go look for help, which must have been the most difficult decision he had ever made in his entire life, he loved his family more than anything, and he had to abandon them in the middle of the wilderness with no food, with no power, and he has no idea if he'll ever see them again. And so after leaving them behind, he walked three miles up the road they came in on, and then instead of just continuing on that road in the direction of Galice, he deviated and walked off the road. He actually went straight down one of the cliffs until he hit a river.

And it's believed that maybe he saw the river from up on the road and thought that would be a faster way to get to Galiz. But either way, he got down to the river. And as he walked, he would leave behind him little bits of torn clothing and torn paper to create a trail of where he was going, presumably so if he needed to, he could backtrack to his family. And so he gets down to this river and for several miles he walks downstream. And then after being gone for at least two hours and not reaching the town of Galice, he must have realized he had either gone the wrong way and that's why he had not hit the town, or he had miscalculated the distance and that's why he had not hit the town. But either way, he did not turn around and go back to his family. Instead, he pressed on, believing he was their

only hope. And so on he went, crossing over rivers, getting totally soaked in frigid water. He went up and down mountains, all over these totally rugged areas, in nothing but street clothes. He had sneakers, pants, and a jacket on. He had no food, he had no water, and he just kept on going until it was nightfall, and he had covered about 10 miles at this point, and he just kept on going until it was nightfall and he had covered about 10 miles at this point and he laid down and he went to sleep. And that night must have been absolutely horrible as he thought about his family that was alone in the woods somewhere. He probably wondered if they were still alive. And the temperature was in the 30s and again he's just in street clothes. But he survives the night and so the next morning that Saturday he gets up and he's right back at it

despite the fact that he was physically wrecked at this point but for him he didn't care he was doing it for his family and so all day he hiked in and out of freezing cold streams up and down mountains until finally he found himself at the bottom of this deep ravine next to a river where he just fell to his knees fell forward and, and died. He had literally just kept on going, looking for help for his family, until he eventually succumbed to hypothermia. James' body was located two days after his wife and his daughters were successfully rescued. It would turn out the town of Galice was not four miles away from the family's car. It was about 15 miles away.

But that's from point A to point B on a map, like a straight line. But when you actually are hiking in the wilderness, you don't go in straight lines because there's mountains and there's rivers and there's things that get in the way. And so in order to get to Galiz from where their car was, James would have had to travel 30 or 40 miles zigging and zagging up over four different mountains. And so this was a suicide mission from the start. James ultimately covered 16 miles through some of the most treacherous terrain in the country, wearing nothing but his street clothes. The professional trackers that followed this 16-mile trail to his body, they called his journey superhuman. The helicopter pilot would

later say he never would have found Katie and the girls had he not spotted those footprints first and then traced them all the way back to that clearing. And it would turn out those footprints were made by James after he left his family and walked off to get help. And so even though it cost him his life, James did ultimately save his family. cost him his life, James did ultimately save his family. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please log on to the 5 Star Review Button's various streaming accounts and slightly fast forward every show that is on their continue watching docket. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Google,

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