Park Predators - The Creek

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

When a devoted family man and avid hunter disappears while tracking deer in the Sierra National Forest, there are few clues as to what happened to him. Then, when his vehicle surfaces, investigators are faced with even more frustrating questions. If you have any information about the disappearance of Robert Willis IV, please contact the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office at 559-600–3111.View source material and photos for this episode at: parkpredators.com/the-creek Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @parkpredators | @audiochuckTwitter: @ParkPredators | @audiochuckFacebook: /ParkPredators  | /audiochuckllcTikTok:  @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the story I'm going to share with you today is a missing person's case so strange no matter how many different ways I look at it, I still can't figure it out. It happened in the fall of 2008 and to this day remains a complete and total mystery, even to law enforcement investigators still assigned to it. Recently, the subject's daughter-in-law and one of his adult sons have renewed

their search for answers. They reached out to me through the show's case submission form, and I agreed to feature the case with the hopes of getting as many eyes and ears on it as possible. After a lot of digging and interviewing family members, friends, and law enforcement officials, I'm finally able to share everything I've learned about the disappearance of Robert Willis IV.

The first thing you need to know about his case is that it takes place in a mountainous, densely wooded section of the Sierra National Forest in California, known as Dinky Creek. One of the closest communities to this area is Shaver Lake, and even that is roughly 40 minutes or so from where Robert disappeared. So we're talking about a very vast geographical area.

The more I dug into this story and really studied the landscape where it took place, the more overwhelmed I became. This terrain is not for the faint of heart. You really need to be a local or know it well, which is exactly what Robert was. He'd spent a good portion of his life in the very woods he vanished in, which is why his disappearance is so confounding. At the core of his case, one crucial question remains. What happened to him?

Did the Sierra Nevadas cause him to disappear into thin air? Or did something or someone else? This is Park Predators. I'm going to go to the beach. On Saturday night, November 1st, 2008, a man named Robert Willis III and his wife Catherine got a phone call from their daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen Willis, who had some unexpected news. Mary Ellen told her in-laws that her husband, Robert Willis IV, was a day overdue from a hunting trip that he'd gone on a few days earlier in the Sierra National Forest. The last time Mary Ellen and the couple's sons, 12-year-old Robbie and 8-year-old Colton, had seen Robert was on Thursday, October 30th around 5 p.m.

He'd packed up most of his hunting equipment and camping gear the previous day and then left their house on that Thursday evening to head into the mountains. He told his wife and sons that he'd be home by Saturday evening. After departing on Thursday, he'd driven up into the mountains and called home to let his family know he'd made it to the Shaver Lake area, which, for context, is about an hour and a half northeast from the city of Carruthers, where the family lived. So not super far, but far enough that even accounting for travel time, traffic, and potential stops, Robert should have been home when he was expected to be. You see, he'd planned to be back for his oldest son, Robbie's football game around noon on Saturday.

But that game had come and gone and Robert was a no show. Him missing his son's sporting event was out of character for the 37 year old. But it wasn't super concerning or anything to panic about because right before Robert had left, he'd sat Robbie down and told him that if he missed the game, that just meant he'd gotten a deer and he needed to stay in the woods a little longer than expected. So on Saturday afternoon and into the evening, no one in the Willis family was particularly

concerned about Robert. At least not to the point where alarm bells were going off. I think everyone just assumed he'd most likely tracked a deer and was overdue because of that. However, as evening turned in tonight, Mary Ellen just wasn't able to brush off the feeling that something wasn't right. So she called her in-laws to see if maybe

they'd heard from him, but they hadn't. Robert missing the football game was one thing, but after Mary Ellen and Robert's dad had both tried repeatedly to get a hold of him on his cell phone and got no response, that was when their fears really started to grow. The family let the rest of Saturday night pass and then Sunday, but when Robert was still not home by Monday morning, November 3rd, they reached their breaking point.

Around 5 50 a.m. that day, Robert's mom contacted the Fresno County Sheriff's Office and officially reported him missing. That triggered an immediate response from law enforcement to start searching for him. The only problem was, the terrain Robert was believed to be in wasn't the kind of landscape that the average searcher could navigate easily. It was a roughly 10 square mile area that in some parts reached 7 to 8,000 feet in elevation. The only real signs of civilization were a few rural residences, gas and electric company operation stations, a kids' camp called Camp Fresno, and another camp for the Girl Scouts. Other than that, it was God's country, so to speak. The Sheriff's Office sent out its own search and rescue team

anyway, which was composed of 12 to 15 deputies, as well as a volunteer mountaineer team and several aircrafts from both the Sheriff's Office and private pilots. The description that went out about Robert was that he was a white male with brown eyes, a goatee, and a shaved head. He stood about 5 foot 10 inches tall

and weighed between 170 and 180 pounds. He also had a tattoo of an eagle on his right shoulder and a tattoo of a devil on his left shoulder. Another unique detail about him was that he had a noticeable surgical scar on his right side which had come from a previous surgery to remove his right kidney. The vehicle he'd been driving was a gray 2000 Nissan Frontier four-door pickup truck with a California license plate. And finally, the apparel he was believed to be wearing

were size eight boots, blue jeans, a camouflage jacket, gloves, and a camo baseball cap with the logo for his employer, Harris Construction, on the front. Now, there were only a handful of main roads that led to the geographic area where he told his family he was going hunting. There were far more trails and off-road four-wheeling paths that investigators knew they had to go down to ensure they left no stone unturned.

Covering as much ground as possible in an efficient way was paramount. Alongside law enforcement's efforts, Robert's family and friends also formed their own search teams. But that wasn't something investigators were super excited about. According to a lieutenant with the sheriff's office named Matt Hamilton, who did an interview with me for this episode and was part of the initial search for Robert, friction quickly emerged between the Willis family, Robert's friends and law

enforcement because authorities basically felt like these volunteers were getting in the professional's way. The discussion quickly emerged between the Willis family, Robert's friends, and law enforcement, because authorities basically felt like these volunteers were getting in the professional's way. Lieutenant Hamilton told me that all of the trained personnel assigned to the case were equipped with proper safety gear and knew how to communicate on designated radio channels. Robert's family and friends, on the other hand, were less organized, which made it challenging

for the official teams to do proper grid searches and distinguish relatives' foot tracks from impressions Robert might have made or delineate unrelated voices from Robert's. But I mean, I don't think anybody could blame the family for wanting to get out there and look for him. It's just that in the grand scheme of things, the sheriff's office viewed loved one's enthusiasm as more harmful than helpful. This misunderstanding, friction, whatever you want to call it, between law enforcement and Robert's friends and family didn't deter some of his closest friends from hitting the

ground running when it came to searching for him. A good buddy of his named Chris Borden told me that when he got the call about what was going on with Robert, he and another man quickly stopped what they were doing and drove into the mountains to help look for him. Another guy I interviewed named Vince Vieira, who was actually related to Robert by marriage at the time, told me he learned that Robert was missing a few hours before Robert's wife and parents filed the missing persons report for him with the sheriff's office. Vince said that he'd been on his way to the Bay Area from Fresno County when he

immediately turned around and drove back in the direction of Dinky Creek to join the search. The weekend this all happened Vince had actually been hunting in an area near where Robert had gone but had returned home on Sunday. Unfortunately he and the person he was with had never crossed paths with Robert. Vince, Chris, and so many other folks who were part of the family search teams knew the geography where Robert vanished almost as well as he did. Many of them had spent a lot of time in that area hunting and

fishing, so it could be argued that they were as equally equipped as law enforcement to be boots on the ground. Now, I mentioned earlier that Robert had a cell phone with him when he left to go hunting. He called his wife and sons on it Thursday night when he made it to Shaver Lake. And that's an important detail because according to his son, Robbie, Shaver Lake was the last area where you could get good

cell phone reception. But according to police reports, that wasn't the last time Robert's device received a phone call. His phone reportedly had enough service on Friday, October 31st to receive a call from his father's device around 2 p.m., which would have been while he was hunting. And that's interesting to me because it could indicate maybe Robert wasn't as far off the grid as initially believed, or at least his cell phone wasn't.

The fact that it received that call from his dad means it had been moved into an area with better reception at some point. I don't think when Robert's dad called him though that he actually spoke to him. I believe it was one of those things where the phone just registered an incoming call. Unfortunately though, in 2008,

cell phone technology wasn't nearly as good as it is today, and the Fresno County Sheriff's Office wasn't really using cell tower ping analysis back then. Plus, Robert's device was a Nextel flip phone, not a smartphone. Lieutenant Matt Hamilton told me that trying to locate Robert or his truck via his cell phone's data just wasn't a thing at the time. To make matters even worse, bad weather was expected to come into the area Tuesday morning. So literally as searchers were just beginning to organize and starting to do their best to find any sign of Robert, they were bracing themselves to battle cold, snowy conditions, which were going to make searching for him even more difficult and dangerous.

For several hours, Monday morning and afternoon, dozens of people scoured the Dinky Creek area, but nothing surfaced. At one point, they did think about using scent tracking dogs and even got some of Robert's clothing from his home, but the weather didn't cooperate and authorities weren't able to ever use the dogs. Meanwhile, back in Carothers, Robert's young sons, Robbie and Colton, learned what was going on after a relative came to their school and took them out of class early. Robbie told me that he and his brother immediately went home and the scene waiting for them was

kind of surreal. He said investigators who'd peeled away from the search were there interviewing his mom and grandparents. Deputies were asking Mary Ellen questions about her marriage, how things were at home, I imagine their finances, you know, probing to determine if Robert would have had any reason to just up and leave her and the boys. Her response to all of those questions, according to Robbie, was that their marriage was good and Robert would have never willingly abandon her and their sons.

It just wasn't in his character to do something like that. During his interview with me for this episode, Robbie told me that his dad was a super family focused guy. He was always hanging out with him, Colton, and their mom. Like from the moment he'd get off work, Robert would be home with his family or they'd all be out together as a unit. He'd often take the boys fishing or hunting, too, and I was able to include a few pictures of those outings in the blog post for this episode, so take a look if you get the chance."

Robert's daughter-in-law Madison, whom he never got to meet and who's married to his son, Robbie, told me that Robert was also the leader of his extended family. He was the person that a lot of other family members would come to for advice, and he sort of kept everyone in line." At the time of his disappearance, Robert had a good job as a superintendent for a construction company in Carruthers that he worked for for over a decade. His father, Robert Willis III, was actually the vice president of that business, and from everything I gathered, it doesn't appear Robert was unhappy with his job or

had any kind of issues that would have prompted him to walk away from his employer or his life for that matter. In fact, a lot of people who worked with Robert willingly gave up their time to go out and search for him. The owner of Harris Construction Company asked several people who worked on job sites to go out and look for Robert. The owner assured his employees that they would be paid their normal wages and everything, he just wanted them to go help find Robert. Which I think says so much about the man that Robert worked for, and the impression he'd made on his co-workers,

who desperately wanted to see him located safe and sound. Robert had grown up in and around the cities of Carothers and Atwater, and he went to Sierra High School. One of his good friends, Chris Borden, who I mentioned earlier, and was someone who took part in the initial search, described Robert as a good dad, good husband, and good friend. He didn't have any enemies or people who didn't like him. Chris and Robert first met in high school, but became closer

after they graduated. They were still as tight as ever when Robert disappeared, which is why Chris didn't think twice about dropping what he was doing when he learned that Robert was missing. Something Chris and so many other people told me about Robert was that he was extremely familiar with the Dinky Creek area. He'd hunted there countless times and

taken his sons to swimming holes he knew about. Robbie described his father's familiarity with the landscape as knowing it like the back of his hand. He not only knew how to get to certain areas, but he also had a good sense of where he was oriented in those areas. For example, Robert had a good sense of where the nearest roads were, specific mile markers, and hunting spots he'd been to before. And Robert's knowledge of the area went beyond just expertise of the terrain. According to his son Robbie, he also knew that there were people in that part of the Sierra National Forest who were doing things that perhaps weren't exactly legal. For example, Robbie said that whenever his dad would take him and Colton up to Shaver Lake or Dinky Creek, Robert was wary of potentially crossing paths with someone who was acting

irresponsibly with a firearm. You know, a person who didn't necessarily follow proper hunting etiquette and would just shoot haphazardly into the landscape thinking it was safe to do so. Robert had actually had a few friends who'd had close calls with careless gun owners in the past in that area, so his fear that a potential hunting accident could jeopardize his kids' lives was completely understandable. There were also rumors of illegal doe hunters and cannabis growers operating in that part of California, and I think the implication there is that those kinds of

people most likely would have become violent if an unassuming person stumbled upon their activities. According to Robbie, if his dad had encountered that kind of scenario, he wouldn't have just turned a blind eye. Robbie told me that his father would have likely said something to a person who was doing something illegal if he saw it happening. The only time Robbie thinks his dad wouldn't have gotten into a confrontation was if he'd encountered a group of people. In that situation, Robbie believes Robert would have likely realized he was outmatched and just moved along.

Chris Borden told me that Robert was a man of great conviction, and he saw the world very black and white. He described him as opinionated and said that if Robert didn't agree with someone's words or actions, he'd let them know it. I imagine investigators with the Sheriff's Office couldn't ignore any of these theories as possibilities. But whether or not they were actually looking into each and every one of them with clues in this case was seemingly overlooked in the first few hours that investigators claimed they were diligently searching for him. Sometime on Monday afternoon, November 3, the same day Robert was reported missing,

one of his uncles and another member of the search group stumbled upon his gray Nissan pickup truck parked along an unpaved forest road east of Dinky Creek. It was close to a road known as McKinley Grove Road, which Fresno County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Matt Hamilton told me had an entrance gate to it. During deer hunting season, that gate would often be left open to allow hunters access to areas that typically weren't very well traveled by anything other than wildlife. Vince Fiera, one of Robert's loved ones, told me that after Robert's uncle found the truck, authorities were alerted to the discovery, but deputies didn't respond right away.

Instead, Vince said he and another relative drove to meet Robert's uncle, and for several hours they watched over the truck, hoping that Robert would just emerge from the woods and return to the vehicle. Vince said he and the other men walked around it and looked for human or animal tracks leading away from it, but didn't find any. At that time, Vince said there was no snow on the ground, but poor weather was expected to move in, so even if there were tracks nearby, the likelihood they'd stick around for long was slim.

The men waited and waited, but Robert never showed up, and eventually search and rescue teams from the Sheriff's Office arrived and told Vince and the others they could go. When investigators examined the pickup, they found it was locked and the keys were tucked behind a toolbox on the back in the truck bed. Inside were Robert's cell phone, food supplies, hunting license, wallet, and ammunition. Madison, his daughter-in-law, told me that a half-eaten sandwich was still sitting on the passenger seat, which sort of indicated to the family at the time that Robert had left his truck in a hurry.

The vehicle's location also stuck out to relatives because where it was found was about 45 minutes away from where they knew Robert would normally go deer hunting. In the bed of the pickup was a tarp that had camping equipment, wood, and a sleeping bag that all appeared to be packed up as if Robert had gotten those items ready to take home. Investigators finding all this stuff wasn't a huge surprise because Robert's normal practice while hunting was to go out during the day to look for deer and then return to his vehicle at night to sleep. He'd usually pack extra clothing, additional firearms, ammo, and knives for dressing deer. For this particular trip, he'd made sure to pack enough food and water to last him a few

days. Investigative reports state he brought bread with him, a few Coors Light and Heineken beers, ribs, chips, eight 16-ounce water bottles, bologna, and other snacks. He also made sure to take binoculars and fire-making equipment. What was surprising about the truck though, is that only Robert, his rifle, and four rounds of ammunition were missing. And a quick detail about his rifle.

It was a Winchester left-handed bolt action rifle. So to give you some context, Robbie, Robert's son, told me that typically hunting rifles normally come fitted for right-handed shooters. If you want a left-handed rifle, you usually have to special order it if a manufacturer doesn't have one in stock. This particular hunting trip was the first time Robert had ever packed his Winchester because it was a gun he literally just bought. While searchers on the ground and in the air continued

to look for him to no avail, authorities decided to keep his pickup parked where he presumably left it, I think just in case he found his way back to it. So for the time being, it just sat there where it had initially been found. On Tuesday, November 4th, several gunshots were heard in an area known as Exchequer Creek,

which is less than a mile from where Robert's truck was located. The helicopter from the sheriff's office flew search and rescue teams over the spot where the gunshots had been heard, but the source of the shots was never found. Robbie Robert-Sun told me during his interview for this episode that the cadence of the gunshots that were heard was three in succession with noticeable pauses in between. So sort of similar to someone trying to signal an SOS. The sequence of three shots occurred,

according to Robbie, several times in a row, which only reinforced some people's suspicions that the sounds could have been Robert trying to call for help. I mean, it was believed that he'd taken his loaded rifle and a few rounds of ammo with him. So it's entirely possible he was the source of the shots. But then again, it was deer hunting season.

So the shots could have very easily come from someone else. On November 6th, three days into the investigation, deputies interviewed one of Robert's friends named Will Thompson. He told them that he was actually supposed to go hunting with Robert on this trip, but at the last minute had to bail because his wife had given birth. When authorities asked Will about Robert's normal hunting routine, he told them that Robert would normally drive to a specific area he believed deer were in, park his truck, and then take whatever supplies he needed with him before hiking to higher ground. Will said Robert would normally seek elevation so that if he did harvest a deer, he could

easily dress it and drag the carcass downhill toward his truck, as opposed to trying to drag it uphill. When investigators asked Will what he thought about Robert seemingly only taking his rifle and four rounds of ammo with him when he left his truck, Will told them that could mean Robert had spotted a deer running in front of him, and he'd acted quickly to chase after it. Will said in that scenario, Robert would have likely just grabbed his gun and a few rounds of ammo and taken off into the woods in order to catch the deer. Will said one possible reason why Robert took those few rounds of extra ammo was precautionary, you know, in case he hit the deer but it didn't

go down right away. Will was adamant though that he and Robert followed the same rules when it came to how long they'd let themselves track a wounded deer if they were hunting alone. The rule was that they'd never go more than a mile from their vehicle no matter what. On November 7th, a day after speaking with Will, investigators talked to another man who claimed he'd seen Robert on Sunday, November 2nd, the day after he was supposed to be home,

but one day before he was reported missing. This witness's name was Steven Vasquez, and Steven told authorities that around 6.30 in the morning on Sunday, he and one of his relatives went deer hunting. They drove on a forest road in the mountains, and about an hour later, around 7.30 a.m., they passed by a man and a woman walking along the side of the road. Stephen was pretty sure the guy he saw was Robert, because at one point Stephen had worked for Robert's employer, Harris Construction, and Robert had been his supervisor on a job site. So there was a personal familiarity between the men. At the time of Stephen's sighting, he said the guy who looked like Robert was carrying

a rifle and wearing a green or olive-colored parka. The woman next to him, though, was not someone Stephen recognized. He described her as white, a little shorter than the guy who looked like Robert, and between 25 and 35 years old. Stephen said she'd also been carrying a rifle and dressed in a coat and hood of some kind. The only distinguishable details he'd noticed about her was that she had medium length brown hair and was average weight.

While driving, Steven said he'd slowed down to stop and talk to the man he believed was Robert. But when he got the guy's attention, the man just turned toward him and gave him an awkward look. and so Stephen decided to just keep driving. The woman who was with Robert's doppelganger waved at Stephen as he pulled away. About 200 yards up the road from where he'd seen the pair walking, Stephen said he spotted what he recognized as Robert's gray Nissan. As he passed by the vehicle, he saw that there was a tarp covering several items in the bed. A few hours later, he said he passed back by the truck, headed home, and noticed it hadn't moved.

On the same day authorities got this information from Stephen, deputies returned to where they'd previously left Robert's truck and removed it from the National Forest. They took it to a command post they'd set up at Dinky Creek Ranger Station and searched it more thoroughly. Lieutenant Matt Hamilton told me that he believes the sheriff's office's decision on November 7th to finally remove Robert's pickup from the Forest Service Road where it had been parked was because they realized Robert probably wasn't going to come back for it and was time to get it to a more secure area for further examination. Robert's son Robbie told me that after law enforcement concluded their search of his

dad's truck, they told the family that not a single fingerprint had been found in it. The family thought that was kind of strange. They couldn't understand how not even Robert's prints were inside, since it was his vehicle. The whole fingerprint thing made loved ones suspect that maybe someone else had been in Robert's truck, possibly moved it, and then intentionally wiped it down. And if that was the case, then that could mean something far worse had happened to him. But no further testing was ever done on the truck, at least not according to Lieutenant Matt Hamilton. Because after a little while, the sheriff's office just gave it back to Marielle and Robert's

wife. She actually still has it. It's parked at her home and is still in working condition. It's basically in the exact same state it was back in 2008. Robbie told me his mom just couldn't bear to part with it because it was one of the last things Robert drove. But something else about the truck after it was first found that bothered Robert's family was that they later discovered one of his handguns and a bag that had been inside the truck when law enforcement searched it. Robbie described where this bag was located in the truck as apparently very easy to find, which only made the Willis family suspect even more that perhaps investigators weren't being as careful or thorough as they should have been.

What Robert's family didn't know, though, was that investigators had found some important items in the truck during their second search. Items that I think could be some of the most important clues in this case. According to police reports, when deputies with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office went through Robert's pickup a second time, they found a small bag of a white crystalline substance, a metal pipe, and a small amount of green leafy substance they suspected was cannabis. Now, how in the world they didn't spot these things before that second search? I have no clue. Maybe the substances in pipe were tucked in a space that wasn't easily accessible. Who knows?

What I can tell you is that when the items were found, authorities seized them as evidence. Before digging into the story and obtaining the incident reports from the sheriff's office, Robert's family told me they didn't know anything about this part of the investigation. They gave me some information though that I think will help put this into context. According to them, Robert would sometimes smoke marijuana to ease pain, but they told me he never used anything other than marijuana and was definitely not

partial to hard drugs. The only explanation they could think of that might explain why the other substance that was found in the baggie was in Robert's truck was that he had an uncle who had a substance use disorder and it was possible that stuff could have belonged to him. Police reports show that when Robert's wife and parents initially filed his missing persons report, they wrote down that he'd struggled some with drug use about 15 years prior to his disappearance. But he hadn't had any problems recently.

He also didn't have a criminal history, any documented mental health conditions or been diagnosed with depression. Until I interviewed them for this episode, Chris Borden and Vince Vieira, two of Robert's good friends, were also seemingly unaware that suspected drugs and paraphernalia were found in his truck. Chris told me he didn't really want to comment on this part of the story out of respect for his friend. And Vince also said he didn't want to speculate.

But he did remark that he was truly puzzled and surprised by the information because suspected drug use just wasn't something he associated with Robert. I asked Fresno County Sheriff's Lieutenant Matt Hamilton specifically about the drug evidence that was found, and he told me that the quantity of drugs deputies seized from Robert's truck were what someone would use for personal use, so not a large amount. When I pressed him on whether investigators ever determined if the drugs in paraphernalia were for sure Roberts or not, he said he didn't know. The folks who would

have handled that part of the investigation were in a different division than Lieutenant Hamilton was at the time. But this is where I got sort of obsessed because if the drugs weren't Roberts, then who the heck were they? I mean, could that indicate someone else got into his truck and drove it or engaged in drug use in it at some point? In my mind, I think it's worth testing the pipe and drug evidence to see if someone else's DNA is on it.

Like, if it all comes back to Robert, then so be it. I'll be quiet. But if someone else's DNA is on any of that stuff, to me, that's a lead worth pursuing further. And according to police reports, investigators should still have that evidence in their possession because a deputy back on November 13, 2008, wrote in his report that he admitted it into the Sheriff's Office storage. Unless it's been lost or destroyed between now and then, it should still be accessible. So this is my PSA to the Sheriff's Office. Let's go."

In addition to the drug evidence found in the truck and the statements from Will Thompson and Steven Vasquez, investigators also learned about other reported sightings of Robert. According to Lieutenant Matt Hamilton, a forestry worker who happened to be hunting in the same area as Robert came forward and said they'd bumped into someone matching his description during the time frame he was believed to be hunting. The details of this witness's sighting are not super clear from the available source material, but the point is they were fairly sure they'd seen someone who might be Robert. There was also a hunter who said they'd seen a guy who looked like Robert walking on a

trail on the morning of Saturday, November 1st. This witness told authorities they'd even talked for a few minutes with the man who they said resembled Robert. Unfortunately though, none of these accounts got investigators any closer to finding him. However, towards the end of the first week of searching, authorities did catch a bit of a break in terms of weather. The skies cleared up and they were able to expand their air search operations, but despite searching high and low, no sign of Robert turned up.

During the ground searches, they'd found several food wrappers and rounds of ammunition in the woods, but they later determined those weren't linked to Robert. They also investigated several bones that were discovered, but those two ended up being unrelated and later confirmed to have come from animals. Remnants of makeshift shelters and hunting blinds that had been abandoned in the woods were also looked into, but eventually deemed to have nothing to do

with his disappearance. Friends of Robert's like Chris Borden told me they became despondent the longer the search for him dragged on without so much as a scrap of clothing being found. Eventually, Chris said he realized the search area was just too vast and at some point he had to go home and manage his own life. Investigators officially called off the search for Robert by Friday, November 14th, a little over 10 days after he was reported missing. Lieutenant Matt Hamilton explained that it had gotten to the point where the Sheriff's Office had to accept the possibility that Robert was dead.

And if that was the case, his body had most likely been covered up with snow, which was going to make it much harder to find him. Because Robert was someone with outdoors experience, authorities hoped he'd managed to survive somehow. But all things considered, the odds weren't in his favor. Officials calling off the search devastated Robert's parents, wife, and sons. Robbie told me that several of his family members were angry because they believed the

sheriff's office seemed more concerned about wasting resources than actually finding Robert. In response to what they felt was a premature retreat of law enforcement personnel, the family decided to keep pushing ahead on their own, and volunteers continued to go out and search. Eventually, though, less and less relatives could take part in those trips. In 2015, after waiting seven whole years, Robert's wife had him legally declared deceased for insurance reasons. Chris Borden told me that in his opinion, considering how well Robert knew the area, it's unlikely that he simply got lost in the woods.

He believes that his friend either fell into a ravine or he came across the wrong people at the wrong time who took his life and disposed of his body and belongings in a location no one can find. Robbie shares that same belief. Vince Vieira told me that in the years since Robert's disappearance, he's continued to hunt in the Dinky Creek area of Sierra National Forest. He returned to search for his friend a few times, specifically trying to follow game trails that he believed predatory animals had traveled, hoping that if one of them had killed his friend,

he'd find human remains or clothing at the end of their tracks, but he never did. Something he's always kept an eye out for in the woods is Robert's missing Winchester left-handed bolt-action rifle. Because Robert's firearm was so distinct, it's the type of gun that would likely stick out to someone familiar with guns. In the years since he vanished, the Sheriff's Office and other search and rescue teams have

gone back out to the area he disappeared in more than half a dozen times. But each and every time, the results are negative. Nothing. The one theory Vince, Chris, and so many other people who were close to Robert are absolutely certain of is that he didn't just walk away from his life and family. Chris told me that Robert loved his wife Mary Ellen and sons too much to abandon them. Robbie talked a lot during his interview about how over the moon his dad was for him and his brother Colton. Leaving them or dying by suicide was just out of the question. After Robert vanished, his wife never

remarried or got into a serious relationship. Robbie said his mom had found her person, and after he was gone, she had no interest in moving on or dating someone else. To date, the sheriff's office has not identified the woman who Steven Vazquez said he saw walking with a man he believed was Robert. But you want to know something wild? Robert's son and daughter-in-law told me they don't put a lot of stock in the details of Steven's account because the family eventually did a bit of digging of their own and discovered there was a man who lived kind of close to where Robert's truck was left who looked remarkably similar to him. And that guy had a wife who he said he'd been walking with on the side of the road on Sunday,

November 2nd, 2008. Which I think could totally explain why the guy Stephen says he saw gave him an awkward look. It's possible that man was this local resident who would have been confused as to why Stephen was stopping to talk to him. Robbie and Madison also explained to me that when the family went back and double-checked details Stephen initially provided investigators about seeing Robert, they realized some of the info he'd mentioned had come from other reported sightings that predated his account.

So I think the implication there is that the family suspected perhaps Stephen had learned information about other publicized sightings of Robert and incorporated those details into his story. Madison told me that Stephen also became a noticeable presence in the search, like a little too noticeable, and he would go on to make false claims, repeatedly call Robert's parents at their house, and be a pest. At one point, she said he was told to stop contacting the family entirely or they would seek further recourse. Robert's family informed authorities about all this regarding Steven, but nothing was

ever really done about it or came from it. Today, Robbie, Robert's eldest son, has taken a renewed interest in finding out what happened to his dad. His wife Madison is who initially wrote to me through our case submission form, and after speaking with both of them on the phone, in text messages, and over email, it's clear that they're doing everything they can to find answers." Robbie said the entire ordeal has been difficult, but for so many years he and his younger brother felt powerless because, at the time their father vanished, they were just kids.

Now he's taking back some of that power and continuing to push for information. Lieutenant Matt Hamilton with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office told me he believes Robert's remains are still in the Sierra National Forest somewhere. He hopes that one day he will be found and returned home to his family. He implores anyone who might hunt regularly in the Dinkie Creek or Exchequer Creek area who's listening to this episode to keep an eye out for anything that may look out of the ordinary. If you have any information about the disappearance of Robert Willis IV, please contact the Fresno County Sheriff's Office at 559-600-3111. Park Predators is an AudioChuck production.

You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, at ParkPredators. So what do you think Chuck, do you approve?