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For the 2 year old who covered 12 miles- theres a good case that a mountain lion (what he interpreted as a kitty cat) had mistaken him as a cub or kitten and delivered him to a safe zone. Sometimes with cats what you find is when a mother loses her own kittens in a state of sadness and motherhood hormones, she adopts the next closest thing as a replacement. In this case it was the child

It's such a shame that Wendigoon went missing after his trip to the ocean. Leaving only his button down 50 miles off the shore, and his goatee sitting perfectly shaven 20 feet from his car.
EDIT: Aight Mr. Goon, where you at, it's been 12 days ;-;

WAIT WENDIGOON’S NAME IS ISAIAH?

Germanic? Forests? Limestone? Memory loss and time skips? It's the bloody fae, and we need to start carrying iron and holly.

People who have never been in the woods don't understand how easy it is to get lost in the woods. One hunting season I was walking to my deer stand (about a quarter mile walk from the tree line). I usually walk there right as the sun comes up, but decided to get an early start and left while it was still dark. I thought it was strange when I ended up at a creek because it was about 1 mile from the tree line. I decided to sit and wait for the sun to come up before I walked back. I had walked 4 times the distance I needed and walked right past my stand.

I’m glad this is going to be a series. Because, to me, the most fascinating story of all of the Missing 411 is the boy who was found. And talked about being in a cave with his robot grandma. I can’t think of anything more Wendigoon than a boy held captive by a robot grandma in a cave.

One of the most disturbing theories about this I’ve heard is that in a lot of cases the parents are purposely abandoning their children as way of legally killing them, since going missing in a forest is so easy and happens so frequently. The number of missing children who also have disabilities is depressingly high.

I have a theory. The guy died sitting up, was covered in several feet of snow, the snow preserved the legs and body in a sitting position, the snow eventually melts, the upper torso is exposed and gets eaten by animals, the legs stay covered in snow longer and so aren't eaten and scattered like the rest of the body, eventually all the snow melts and the bones and clothes are left behind. Couldn't say why he went off trail like that, but I think that's a decent explanation as to how the remains could have ended up how they were.

22:00 dude was fighting for survival and put his trash in his backpack instead of littering

what a G

Fun fact, when you enter a state of panic, especially out in a wooded area/secluded area, it really does feel like you're somewhere else. You vision gets narrower, things seem more defined and darker almost, you're hearing and actively paying attention to the noises around you meaning even small rustles in leaves sound much louder than they did before. You pay attention to the shadows that move around and it gets harder to breathe. You lose track of time, since your brain is only focused on the goal of staying alive. You no longer feel winded ort tired of running, you feel like you could run miles if it meant escaping whatever it is that startled you so bad. It's a surreal experience, and I've only had it happen once in an area I was familiar with, so I knew how to get home from my location, but I could have very easily gotten lost if I was somewhere unfamiliar.

For the Aarron one, it actually makes a lot of sense. As an experienced hiker, when you are hiking by yourself, especially at night you begin to doubt yourself. A lot. From personal experience, I went hiking with a friend deep in the Washington forest and got lost. Intellectually I could have told you that the parking lot was less than a mile away. However, I was emotional and began to panic and almost climbed a cliff. But for me, I was able to snap back to my senses after skillfully tripping over a log. I then found my way back. But I will tell you while I was panicking, the idea of leaving my back and boots was so tempting because of how tired I was and how hot they were. I believe a similar thing could have happened.

when i was a teenager, i went camping in South Dakota with family. when everyone went into their tents for the night, i sat outside to stargaze. it was very populated, lots of other campers around us. but it was pitch black, the only lights i could see was the massive sky of stars above me and the full moon. after awhile, your eyes adjust to the lighting around you, and i could make out more of my surroundings.
across our campsite was a very thick forest that climbed up to the mountains and towered above us. a small creek was the only thing separating us from it. i started hearing splashing. i thought it was quite peaceful, until it started getting heavier and closer. i’m thinking an animal, obviously, or maybe some fish. i held my breath and listened, and the splashing slowly turned into the sound of something reaching land. the creek is directly next to our camp. being a teenager, i was hoping to see a deer or something, but when i walked to the edge of the creek, squinting my eyes in the dark, my stomach dropped and i froze.
SOMEONE was there. it wasn’t an animal, it was standing upright and looked like a person. i couldn’t see their face but they were very tall. someone is night fishing obviously, i’m rationalizing. i said, “oh my gosh! you totally scared me, i thought you were a bear or something!” silence. i waited for them to say something but all i heard was the crunching of grass. whatever or whoever was there, was climbing up out of the water. i started to back away slowly towards my tent, still not sure if it was a person or if it was an animal. i called out for my uncle and told him to get the gun, i think there’s a bear out here. i heard him fumbling around in his tent, but i also heard a big splash. i ran back to the edge of the creek.
it’s dark, but the moonlight illuminated the opposite side of the campgrounds, where i saw the UNMISTAKABLE figure of a tall human standing in the darkness, facing our direction. when my uncle got out of his tent, i frantically tried to get him to see the man who was now RUNNING into the forest but because his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark, he didn’t see anything and told me to go to bed. i told my family in the morning but because i was a teenager, no one believed me, but i still vividly remember that event to this day and still wonder what would have happened if i didn’t get my uncle to come outside.

A Note on the Bobby Bissop Case: It was later found that the Catholic camp he was at had major sexual abuse issues, and the man who claimed to have last seen him as well as one of the men who found him were both among the accused abusers. It is very possible he was killed by counselors at the camp, who tried to destroy/hide his body, hence why so little of him was ever found.

As someone who was lost in the forest as a very young child and found much further away that the search and rescue said I "should" be. I very firmly believe that many people significantly underestimate how fast and far a small child can make it in a few hours. For example, many adults need breaks while hiking, a child used to running around and playing outside a lot can go all day with no breaks, and often times, their curiosity also motivates them to keep moving. Also, due to their small size, they can easily fit through obstacles that adults can't.

The last story was heartbreaking. Watching your own child walk for, unbeknownst to you, possibly his last moments, disappear behind a tree line and to never return, has to be the most gut wrenching feeling imaginable.

there's a case in my hometown of a 2 year old little boy who went missing and was found miles away in a swamp area saying that a friendly talking bear kept him warm.

An interesting angle to missing children that I've heard is that parents underexaggerate when their child went missing. They may not have been paying attention to their child for longer than they say and don't notice their child's absence before a long time passes so they give the ol' "I looked away for one second and he was gone" excuse because they don't want to sound like a bad parent. So then the timeframe and search area/radius can be so incorrect that it's the reason why the child was farther away than they thought or in a different direction than expected.

People say it's always odd that missing 411 cases are found further up in elevation, but I think that may have a rather logical explanation. Imagine you are lost and see a mountain or cliff. There would be the case for the logic that getting to a higher position relative to the land would guarantee a greater range of visibility and a potential solution to their disorientation. That would explain why they would have gone through the effort of climbing up several thousand feet or so. But that causes exhaustion, and their body may be operating on adrenaline. The result is that they put themselves in a worse position because they can't get out of the area and are now severely weakened and exposed. This may not explain every case but this is certainly a hypothesis worth investigating. Every human is capable of overestimating their abilities in a survival scenario.

Decomposition specialist here with some tidbits for reference:
Finding socks with bones in them and no other remains is very common.
Body scatter/breakdown happens very easily. It is a natural part of the decomposition process and is part of the Decomposition Scoring System (DSS) when determining how far along a body has decomposed.
Looking over your own body, you can actually see/predict which parts of you will fall off first.
On average, major sliding joints (wrists/ankles, atlas/skull) break down fastest and pop off very easily. These are the pieces we see removed first and tend to have the longest time to travel from the body. Second come the hinge joints (knees/elbows) and third are the ball/socket joints (Shoulders/hips). BUT, if the body has old injuries, new injuries, or other damage, the most damaged section will separate first (a dislocated shoulder will fall off before the elbow unhinges, etc). Delicate bones (finger/toes, individual skull bones/unfused bone plates) are more likely to scatter and fall apart than sturdy bone (femurs, humeri, etc).
If you're wearing clothes, this also effects how things break off/how they will stay together. In forensics, foot coverings create their own preservation bias. Shoes, socks, and gloves keep smaller bones together and prevent them from traveling as far. If that clothing item is found, it will likely still contain the bones/tissues inside and in articulation even after the ankle has broken down and the foot fallen off the body (look into the feet in shoes washing up on Vancouver Island, B.C. in 2016 if you want an example).

So, in all honesty, someone's foot showing up still inside its sock? Not unheard of and not very strange at all.