00;00;02;28 - 00;00;28;10
Speaker 1
You're listening to Where the Trail Ends podcast, chronicling my ongoing journey to find the truth about my missing friend and an explanation for the apparent evidence of UFO left behind. After years spent traveling the country, researching the UFO phenomenon, and interviewing experts and eyewitnesses. I was left with even more questions and decided to share my story and research with the public in the hopes that someone, somewhere, can provide the answers.

00;00;28;10 - 00;00;41;00
Speaker 1
I've been so desperately looking for.

00;00;41;02 - 00;00;52;18
Speaker 1
A few people thought that my friend Owen had had some sort of a psychotic episode or a mental breakdown, and ended up dying somewhere in the Green Mountains region of southern Vermont.

00;00;52;20 - 00;01;05;12
Speaker 1
He'd been a wilderness guide. So when his car was discovered abandoned two weeks after he went missing, it made sense to think that maybe he'd somehow snapped and ended up there.

00;01;05;14 - 00;01;40;24
Speaker 1
But most people just accepted the explanation of police their own was the unfortunate victim of a drug related crime in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he lived, and I was one of. At the time, it just seemed like the most plausible explanation for his disappearance. You know, knowing Owen, like I thought I had. And although we'd only gotten the chance to hang out a couple of times over the seven, eight years that we'd known each other, we exchanged hundreds of emails about hiking and camping, and he'd been such a positive and encouraging influence in my life and kind of a mentor to me.

00;01;40;26 - 00;02;03;27
Speaker 1
But we'd fallen out of touch in the 8 or 9 months prior to his disappearance, and I felt incredibly guilty after finding out, you know, for not having reached out sooner. I also just wasn't prepared to believe that someone is calm and rational. Only he could just break down and disappear like that.

00;02;03;29 - 00;02;15;24
Speaker 1
And then I discovered an unpaid voicemail that he left the week before he was last seen. And it changed everything.

00;02;15;26 - 00;02;38;15
Speaker 1
And it's me. You know, it's been a while. Sorry to be out of touch. Thinking about that trip to like Angel. Conversation of buried treasure. Pretty funny. Right? Anyway, I was.

00;02;38;17 - 00;02;47;06
Unknown
I don't know.

00;02;47;09 - 00;03;04;11
Speaker 1
I remember it took me a few seconds to register what he was saying at first, because just the sound of his voice hit me with this wave of sadness, you know, particularly because of how I come to believe he died.

00;03;04;13 - 00;03;24;26
Speaker 1
But immediately I could tell something was a bit off. He just. He just sounded very withdrawn and subdued and and just scattered. You know, still, Owen, he didn't really sound like he was crazy or on drugs or anything, but, like, he that a lot on his mind.

00;03;24;28 - 00;03;48;21
Speaker 1
And and at first, I couldn't really tell why he called, you know? What? Was he just checking it after we'd been out of touch? Or did he want to see if my leg had finally healed or. Or what? And it sounded that there was something else, you know, but but he couldn't or didn't want to say more. For whatever reason.

00;03;48;24 - 00;04;18;05
Speaker 1
But the buried treasure reference immediately stood out as weird. It had taken place the night before our trip to black Angel the previous year. when I was staying with Owen just so we could get an early start in our trip the next morning, and we were just hanging out in his living room, packing. And I remember I was telling him these crazy family stories from my childhood, and one in particular, about my grandfather hiding his poker winnings from my grandmother and a box of cereal.

00;04;18;08 - 00;04;38;02
Speaker 1
I'd see my grandfather go into the kitchen and reach into the box and pull out the bag of cereal inside, and then either, you know, take out or put in money, and you know that he'd always catch me looking at him and slip me a one or a five and whisper. Don't tell grandma where my treasures buried.

00;04;38;04 - 00;04;50;27
Speaker 1
And then I remember that there'd been this weird moment afterwards. He he made this small joke like, well, now you know where I'll be hiding my will.

00;04;51;00 - 00;05;10;20
Speaker 1
And then he just gave me this weird stare. Just like he wanted me to think he was being serious. Obviously, at the time, there was no reason to think he was serious. I thought he was just messing with me. So we just kind of laughed things off and went about our night.

00;05;10;22 - 00;05;36;08
Speaker 1
But a year removed from that night, and knowing that he'd only left that message two weeks before disappearing forever. that awkward moment just came flooding back and, you know, just shook me. And I couldn't help but wonder if I was just trying to leave me some sort of a clue.

00;05;36;10 - 00;05;53;04
Speaker 1
At this point, I'd all but forgotten about the UFO encounter someone had told me about after our black Angel hike. It had been over a year and a lot had happened, and I dismissed them at the time and they were just the furthest thing from my mind.

00;05;53;06 - 00;06;06;23
Speaker 1
So as I sat there on my living room floor listening to Owen's voicemail over and over again, I was just wondering what, if anything, it meant.

00;06;06;26 - 00;06;28;26
Speaker 1
You know, at first I tried to tell myself I was overreacting and that the voicemail had nothing to do with his disappearance. You know, maybe he just called to reconnect and happened to be tired when he left. The message. Or maybe he was sick. Or maybe he was just this random call. He really had no clue at the time what was about to happen to him.

00;06;28;28 - 00;06;48;14
Speaker 1
But why bring up the buried treasure conversation? I mean, was it something that just popped into his head, or did he want me to remember that conversation for a reason? You know, it seemed like there was just more he wanted to say, but couldn't or wouldn't.

00;06;48;16 - 00;07;09;12
Speaker 1
And the way the voicemail ended, you know, it just sounded like like so final and resolved. Like he knew that this was would be his final goodbye to me.

00;07;09;14 - 00;07;40;15
Speaker 1
I know the police had thought that Owen's mental health was a factor in his disappearance, but each time I replayed the voicemail and listened to the sound of his voice and thought about the circumstances, I became more and more convinced that Owen had been experiencing some sort of a depression or mental health issue, that he'd somehow managed to keep hidden from friends and family, and that maybe he'd been planning on taking his own life for a while.

00;07;40;17 - 00;07;48;19
Speaker 1
At least as far back as the night, I told him about my grandfather's buried treasure.

00;07;48;21 - 00;08;26;06
Speaker 1
Of course, the only way for me to prove any of this was to see if he'd left as well. Or some sort of a note or letter in a box of cereal in his kitchen. And I knew how ridiculous that sounded, so I thought I couldn't go to his family, or at least so after struggling with what to do for a couple of days and realizing that he could bring some much needed closure, I decided to find my own way into his house.

00;08;26;09 - 00;09;11;27
Speaker 1
I remember driving on the highway with my windows down, not even caring that it was done seasonally, cold and windy for night, just really looking for the distraction that the cold and wind provided. And I remember that that one hour drive felt like three, four hours. You know, I just wanted to get there. And so I pulled up to Owen's house, and it must have been after 10 p.m. and I parked across the street, and then I shut off the engine and just kind of sat there for a few minutes just listening to the wind howl.

00;09;11;29 - 00;09;23;08
Speaker 1
And I was looking down at my lap and preparing myself, you know, just not ready to look up at his house.

00;09;23;11 - 00;09;40;24
Speaker 1
And when I finally did, it was it was like a gut punch. You know, there was police tape on the door, which I was not expecting to see. So I was just caught completely off guard.

00;09;40;27 - 00;10;06;06
Speaker 1
I remember staring at the pattern that it made and feeling my heart start racing, because at that moment, just everything became very real for me. You know, up until that point, Owens disappearance had been largely hearsay articles and news reports. But seeing the police tape, it just made me realize that he was really gone and I would probably never see him again.

00;10;06;08 - 00;10;14;19
Speaker 1
And I just felt really sad.

00;10;14;22 - 00;10;35;21
Speaker 1
When I finally did get out of the car. I remember standing and looking at the house, just thinking how dark it was on that side of the street without any lights coming from Owens. And then I turned and I looked at the light coming from behind me at Owens neighbor's house, and then I went up and knocked on the door.

00;10;35;23 - 00;10;52;17
Speaker 1
I'd met Owens neighbor the year prior when I went to stay with Owen. The night before we hiked black Angel. Owen was coming home late and texted me his neighbor's number so I could go grab a spare key, and his neighbor turned out to be a good guy, and we ended up hanging out for a bit, waiting for Owen to come home.

00;10;52;19 - 00;11;11;08
Speaker 1
And then months later, when Owen hadn't responded to my emails, calls or texts for several weeks, I ended up calling his neighbor to see if he was okay, which is how I found out that Owen had gone missing.

00;11;11;10 - 00;11;22;17
Speaker 1
So after discovering Owen's voicemail and struggling with what to do, I realized that Owen's neighbor probably still had a spare key and I reached out.

00;11;22;19 - 00;11;50;05
Speaker 1
Now, as it turns out, he'd also been left with a lot of questions about Owen's disappearance and agreed to hear me out. So when I got there, we sat in the kitchen just having a few beers, and I played Owen's voicemail and explained what I thought had happened. Owen's neighbor hadn't noticed any unusual behavior from Owen, but did confide that he'd seen less and less of Owen in the weeks and months prior to his disappearance.

00;11;50;08 - 00;12;16;00
Speaker 1
Of course, at the time, he just thought I would have been traveling a lot. And his neighbor also agreed that Owen sounded weird in the voicemail, and when I told him about the whole buried treasure conversation, he'd also found it strange. Most importantly, Owen's neighbor agreed that if I found a whistle or a message or some sort of an explanation, it would offer a lot of much needed closure to friends and family.

00;12;16;03 - 00;12;27;12
Speaker 1
And he gave me Owen spare key.

00;12;27;14 - 00;12;48;14
Speaker 1
You know, I could still go back to that moment as if it were yesterday. You know, the wind died down, and there I am, just standing in front of Owen's house, listening to the distant traffic and looking up at the police tape on the door.

00;12;48;16 - 00;12;58;28
Speaker 1
And Owen's neighbor hadn't seen the police there in weeks and thought they'd just likely forgotten to take it down. But that really wasn't helping my nerves.

00;12;59;00 - 00;13;09;24
Speaker 1
So I turned on the little flip camera I had with me to record myself going into Owens house, because I knew that if I did find something, I didn't want anyone to question where it came from.

00;13;09;27 - 00;13;25;00
Speaker 1
And so, with the flashlight in hand, I slowly walked up the stairs and could finally read the police tape, which said police line, do not cross.

00;13;25;03 - 00;13;31;23
Speaker 1
And I carefully took it down and went in.

00;13;31;26 - 00;13;59;06
Speaker 1
And I remember being so nervous with every sound I made just the slightest noise. Inside, it took me a moment to get my bearings. I just remember this eerie stillness as I looked around. You know, for whatever reason, I'd expected it to be ransacked, but everything just seemed to be where Owen had left it, you know, as if he'd still been living there was just added to the creepiness.

00;13;59;06 - 00;14;09;01
Speaker 1
As I made my way back to the kitchen. And I remember just freaking out at the sound of the kitchen door.

00;14;09;04 - 00;14;18;25
Speaker 1
You know, in the kitchen. I looked around and I was trying to remember which cover phone kept the cereal in.

00;14;18;28 - 00;14;31;23
Speaker 1
You know, and I could I could feel my heart racing with every creak of the floorboards. And I feel myself getting more and more on edge.

00;14;31;25 - 00;14;47;07
Speaker 1
Finally, I opened the right one, and sure enough, there's this one box of kid's cereal just sitting there. I take out the bag of cereal, you know, fully prepared to be disappointed.

00;14;47;09 - 00;15;04;01
Speaker 1
But instead, I'm just shocked and I don't even know what to think. There are these little mini DV cassettes with handwriting on them.

00;15;04;04 - 00;15;09;28
Speaker 1
And I'm just puzzled.

00;15;10;00 - 00;15;42;25
Speaker 1
So I take out the cassettes and I put them on the counter and just stare at them for a few moments. Just still unsure of of what they are and what they're doing here and what they mean in the grand scheme of things. And I read the labels, and it looks like there are the names of state and national parks written on them, as well as dates that range from about a month before his disappearance to about two years prior.

00;15;42;28 - 00;16;05;08
Speaker 1
And I'm just confused. And that's really the first time I started to think to myself, you know why? Why me? Oh, and why did you leave me these to find? And what could they possibly have to do with your disappearance?

00;16;05;11 - 00;16;30;02
Speaker 1
Thank you for listening to episode two of the Where the Trail Ends podcast. Hopefully now you can understand that this is a journey that I never intended to go on, but circumstances left me with no other choice. On the next episode, my story really begins as I try to make sense of the recordings that Owen left behind and start my search to determine if they're real and what role they may have played in his disappearance.

00;16;30;04 - 00;16;41;01
Speaker 1
Please, if you have any information or experiences related to any of the phenomenon mentioned in this podcast, email where the Trail Ends podcast at gmail.com. Thank you.