The forest primeval has been a source of nightmares since the first humans walked the Earth. There's a reason why so many fairy tales take place in the deep, dark woods: because those trees hide all manner of terrifying dangers, of which animals are just the most obvious. And those dangers aren't just in fairy tales. The real life woods are more deadly than any Brothers Grimm story, especially these days, when many people don't have the survival skills to brave the woods — or the understanding that they even need those skills. Here are some creepy stories of people who were taken alive by the forest.
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00:00It's easy to get lost in the woods, but most people make it out eventually.
00:04But then there are those unfortunate souls who are seemingly swallowed alive by the forest.
00:08Their stories are plenty creepy, so let's head into the woods and find out more about
00:12them.
00:13On July 8, 2014, 28-year-old German tourist Lars Mittank disappeared after getting into
00:18a fistfight over football teams.
00:20He'd been vacationing with friends at Bulgaria's Garden Sands, and owing to a ruptured eardrum
00:24sustained during the fight, he couldn't fly.
00:27So he stayed the night in a cheap hotel close to the airport.
00:29He texted his mother that he didn't feel safe, while noting that he was hiding from
00:33four men.
00:34Mittank returned to the doctor's office the following day, but he ran out, climbing over
00:38an eight-foot barbed wire fence to escape into the forest.
00:42His last known moments were caught on security footage from the hotel, which showed him pacing
00:45in the foyer and hiding in the elevator.
00:48The medication that Mittank was prescribed may have escalated his paranoia.
00:52It's possible that the blow to the head he sustained or the antibiotic may have caused
00:56him to fall into psychosis, although that is not listed as one of the medication's side
01:00effects.
01:01As the Berlin Speculator reported in 2020, a truck driver may have given Mittank a ride
01:05in 2019, only to realize who he was after the fact.
01:09His mother, Sandra, believes he somehow lost his memory while in the forest and might still
01:13be alive.
01:15On June 9, 2013, 19-year-old Maureen Kelly left her camp at Canyon Creek Campground near
01:20Vancouver, Washington.
01:22She told her friends that she was going on a spiritual quest into Gifford Pinchot National
01:26Forest.
01:27She removed her shoes and all her clothing, aside from a fanny pack containing a pocket
01:31knife, matches, and a compass.
01:33Kelly's friends expected that she would return in a few hours.
01:36The terrain that she was traversing was very steep, so she couldn't have gone too far.
01:40As Undersheriff Dave Cox told ABC News,
01:42"...it's a rough, remote area with a lot of timber and brush.
01:45It's going to be a tough go for her, especially with no shoes."
01:49The search crew combed the area for any trace of Kelly, but all they could find were footprints
01:53going to a paved road, and those footprints weren't necessarily hers.
01:57Temperatures were in the mid-70s when she disappeared, but they plummeted to 40 degrees
02:01soon after.
02:02Authorities assume that she died, though no trace of her has ever been found.
02:06"...Please just keep searching.
02:08Don't give up on her."
02:10TV production assistant Terrence Woods Jr. disappeared on October 5, 2018, while filming
02:14in Penman Mine, an abandoned gold mine in Idaho, for Discovery's Gold Rush, Dave Ternan's
02:20Lost Mine.
02:21On that morning, he texted his father that he would be cutting his time on the shoot
02:24short by several weeks.
02:26He emailed his production company, Raw TV, that he needed to be with his mother owing
02:30to a health condition, even though his mom said that wasn't necessary.
02:34Woods had reportedly been having mental health issues.
02:37On the evening of his disappearance, he said that he needed to use the bathroom and then
02:40dropped his radio before running down a cliff into the forest.
02:44People ran after him, but they returned torn and bloodied from the rough terrain.
02:47The formal search did not begin until the next morning, and ended unsuccessfully six
02:51days later.
02:52Woods' parents suspect that Raw TV may not be telling the whole truth.
02:56As his father told Deadline,
02:58"...You say my 97-pound son ran down the cliff without tripping, falling, hurting himself?
03:02You don't have a trace of his blood or a piece of his clothing?"
03:05"...There was something going wrong, and he felt he couldn't deal with it, and he wanted
03:09to leave."
03:10Raw denied the accusation, insisting they did all they could during the search and rescue.
03:14As a spokesperson put it,
03:16In such a tragic case, there will inevitably be speculation about his disappearance, which
03:20is neither helpful or fair to Terrence, his family, or the crew who helped so hard to
03:24try and help.
03:26When Paula Jean Weldon went missing on December 1, 1946, the 18-year-old Bennington College
03:31sophomore wouldn't be hard to recognize.
03:33She wore a vivid red coat with fur collar, along with jeans and sneakers that suggest
03:37she didn't intend to hike for very long.
03:39A gas station owner reported a thin woman running through a gravel pit near the college,
03:43and a man reported that he picked up a young woman hitchhiking and dropped her off near
03:46the mouth of the long trail.
03:48The last sighting of Weldon was by a watchman, who warned her against hiking in such light
03:52clothing.
03:53After her disappearance, classes at Bennington were suspended so that students could help
03:57with the search.
03:59Weldon's father called in police from New York and Connecticut, as Vermont lacked their
04:02own force.
04:04Suspicion fell on both her father, with whom she'd had a falling out, as well as supposed
04:08boyfriends.
04:09It doesn't appear that Weldon was running away, though, as she reportedly left behind
04:12money and an uncashed check from her parents.
04:15In 1955, a lumberjack said that he'd followed Weldon into the woods and knew where she was
04:20buried.
04:21But when he was questioned, he admitted that he was lying.
04:23Then, in 1968, a skeleton was discovered that offered investigators hope, but it turned
04:28out to be too old to be Weldon's.
04:30Since then, no sign of her has been reported.
04:33For almost 20 years, Thelma Pauline Melton regularly hiked the Deep Creek Trail in the
04:37Smoky Mountains, which is where she went missing on September 25, 1981.
04:42On that fateful day, she was with two friends and her husband Bob, who was 20 years older
04:45than his wife and was not up for hiking.
04:48Melton was overweight, had high blood pressure, and needed medication, so it was unlikely
04:52that she would stray far.
04:54Deep Creek is listed as an easy trail, so the terrain shouldn't have been challenging
04:57for the 58-year-old Melton.
04:59During the hike, she began walking faster, leaving her two friends behind.
05:03When they finished the same path and returned to the trailer 30 minutes later, Melton wasn't
05:07there.
05:08She was reported missing within an hour and a half.
05:11More than 150 people and nine dogs searched the trail that week, but nothing turned up.
05:15In the aftermath, Melton's pastor implied that she might have been having an affair,
05:19though no evidence was provided.
05:21There was also a suggestion that she might have harmed herself, but there wasn't much
05:24evidence for that, either.
05:26Some theorize she planned her disappearance as a way to escape to a new life, but before
05:30heading out for the hike, she'd prepared spaghetti sauce for dinner that night, suggesting she
05:34most likely intended to return.
05:37Only she never did.
05:39On January 13, 1980, park ranger Paul Fugate vanished from his job at Chiricahua National
05:44Monument in Arizona.
05:45He told a co-worker that he expected to be back by 4.30 p.m., but to start closing if
05:50he wasn't.
05:51He also left his radio and keys behind while he checked out the trails.
05:54Fugate was declared missing that night, and a full search commenced two days later.
05:58The only lead was from an acquaintance and Fugate's wife, who claimed to have seen him
06:02in his uniform unconscious between two men in a pickup truck.
06:05Other workers found signs of a fight and spin-out tracks in a dirt road.
06:09In 1983, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office claimed that the arrest of, quote, more than
06:13one person for Fugate's murder was soon to occur.
06:16However, no one was ever charged.
06:19The National Park Service initially began making partial salary payments to Fugate's
06:22wife but later fired him in absentia and demanded the salary payments back with 11 percent interest,
06:28claiming that he abandoned his post.
06:30But he left behind cash, valuable guns and camera equipment, and a truck he'd been restoring.
06:36After 40 years, without disclosing why, the Park Service's Investigative Services Branch
06:40reopened their inquest into Fugate's disappearance.
06:42To this day, there is a $60,000 reward available.
06:46Sean Higgins knew the Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon quite well.
06:50On October 14, 2016, he and his 21-year-old son Trevor went out hunting.
06:55They separated while they were out, with a plan to meet up at the truck later to pick
06:58up Trevor's uncle, who was hunting in a different part of the woods.
07:01Trevor waited by the road with a freshly killed buck, but his father never arrived.
07:05He and his uncle looked for his dad, but to no avail.
07:08Trevor then built a shelter once night fell so that he wouldn't get lost himself.
07:13Sean hadn't brought his backpack with him, as he expected he wouldn't be in the woods
07:16long.
07:17It was a tragic omission, because in the bag was a GPS device which would have allowed
07:21his family to find him.
07:22Four days later, Trevor was found alive a few miles from where he'd begun his search.
07:27His mom, Stephanie, had hoped until then that Trevor was with his father.
07:31When medics airlifted Trevor, he was suffering from severe hypothermia.
07:34Hundreds of people took up the search for Sean, but nothing was found.
07:38As Stephanie told her local NBC station,
07:40"...I have a really hard time believing that he would get lost.
07:43I mean, that is the one thing that really bothers me, and the fact that we have found
07:48nothing."
07:50On August 1, 2018, Samantha Sayers left at 8 a.m. for a solo hike on the Vesper Peak
07:55Trail in the North Cascade Mountains in Washington state.
07:58Her boyfriend had work and couldn't join her, but she expected to check in with him
08:02by 6 p.m.
08:03But by 8 p.m., he was at the trail trying to track her down.
08:07At 1 a.m., her family reported her missing.
08:09The Vesper Peak Trail is not meant for novices, but Sayers was far from a newbie, and she'd
08:14hiked there before.
08:15The search for Sayers involved 14 dog teams, helicopters with thermal imaging cameras,
08:19and drones canvassing the area.
08:22Volunteers left bags containing supplies, along with notes reading,
08:25"...stay strong.
08:26We're looking for you.
08:27Everyone is thinking of you."
08:28"...out of our entire group of friends, she would definitely be the one to fight off a
08:31bear if she needed to."
08:32Police interviewed witnesses who saw her ascend, but no one admitted to seeing her return.
08:37She had lunch near the peak with an unidentified man around 3 p.m., but they went their separate
08:41ways afterward.
08:43After three weeks, the official search was called off.
08:46Chet Hansen was a fan of nature photography, which may have contributed to his disappearance
08:50on November 11, 1997, in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state.
08:55He brought 35 pounds of camera equipment with him when he left around 6.30 a.m. on his hike,
09:00and told his mother that he would be home for dinner.
09:02When he didn't show up on time, she wasn't too concerned and assumed that he was just
09:05staying with friends.
09:07Hansen was reported missing only after he failed to come into work the next day.
09:11His car was found at the Deer Creek Trailhead.
09:14It was opened and contained photo negatives, a key ring, and papers, none of which provided
09:18much of a clue as to his whereabouts.
09:21Hansen reportedly hadn't dressed to be gone for very long, as he wore only light clothing
09:25and left no itinerary.
09:26He was a strong hiker, but he also preferred to do his own hiking cross-country, ignoring
09:30the trails to get shots of waterfalls and lakes.
09:33Despite the search team bringing in sniffer and cadaver dogs, no trace of Hansen or his
09:37camera equipment has ever been found.
09:40Stefan Bissert was a German exchange student and Fulbright scholar at Oregon State University.
09:45On January 20, 1992, he went hiking in Washington State's Olympic National Park along with a
09:50buddy, Garrett Forstmann.
09:52They had intended to hike to Deer Lake, which would have been about four miles away.
09:55But alas, Bissert made the mistake of leaving Forstmann behind so that he could hike 23
10:00miles to the Haute River Trailhead.
10:02Such a hike through the snow in one day would have been nearly impossible.
10:06Few experienced mountain climbers would even attempt it.
10:08Bissert may have been a healthy young man, but he was in no condition for this challenge.
10:13Forstmann reported Bissert missing the next day.
10:15The path he must have taken would have sent him through the Olympic high country and an
10:19unforgiving winter storm that lasted for a week, which impeded rescue efforts.
10:24Bissert unfortunately hadn't dressed for an ambitious hike or to camp overnight in the
10:28snow.
10:29He had little more with him than a daypack containing only a few pieces of fruit.