Author: Jon Billman
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: July 7, 2020
Genre(s): Non-Fiction
Page Count: 368
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
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Jon Billman has written an exceptional book about people who simply vanish in the wild, often without a trace (a "cold vanish"), from around the world, from Olympic National Park in Washington state to Israel. Pauline Boss, researcher and family therapist claims that "a family member missing to the unknown is the hardest thing a human being ever has to face" - she has coined the term "frozen grief." I just cannot imagine the sheer terror of never knowing what happened, or wondering if the missing person is off living their life somewhere else in TROTW (the rest of the world).
Billman introduces us to Randy Gray as he searches for his son Jacob who simply disappeared near the Sol Duc River in the Olympic National Park, leaving his bike behind. Bilman befriends Randy and travels with him as Randy searches for his son, and along the way Billman shares other stories of the missing including Amy Bechtel, who disappeared while running through the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. Dale Stehling missing from Colorado's Petroglyph Point Trail about 1 mile away from the gift shop, 19-year-old Joe Keller who took a run one afternoon and never returned to his aunt's dude ranch in the San Juan Mountains in SW Colorado, as well as cold vanishes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.