Tourist Disappears in Sierra Nevada — Found Sealed Inside a Drainage Pipe…
November 2013. Road maintenance workers arrived to check the drainage pipes under the mountain road in Sierra Nevada. The routine work before the winter season. They had to make sure the water flowed freely, that there were no obstructions.
One of the workers approached a pipe about 1 meter in diameter and shone a flashlight inside. Something was blocking it. He crouched down to get a better look. A concrete plug. Someone had sealed the opening with cement. It was strange because pipes are never blocked intentionally. The workers called the foreman.
He arrived half an hour later and took a look. They decided to open it. When they broke the concrete, they found human remains inside. But it had all started very differently, a year before this discovery. September 21, 2012, a Friday. Linda Forbes finished work earlier than usual.
She was a photographer, doing weddings and family portraits in a small studio in Fresno. That day she had a morning session that ended around lunchtime. The rest of the day was free, so Linda decided to go to the mountains. She did this often. She’d grab her backpack and tent and head off for a day or two. The mountains were her place, a respite from people, assignments, and the constant smiling in front of the camera. At 3 p.m., she called her friend Emily.
She told her she was going to Shaver Lake on the Range Trail. She planned to hike to the overlook, spend the night there, and return the next afternoon. Emily asked if she wanted company. Linda replied that she didn’t, that she needed to be alone, just hike and take photos. Emily was used to her getaways.
Linda always came back, always got in touch. There was no reason to worry. Linda packed her things. Tent, sleeping bag, stove, food for two days, camera with two lenses, spare batteries, flashlight, first-aid kit, water—everything as usual. She got into her Cord Gris and left town around 4:30.
It was about an hour’s drive to the trailhead. She arrived at the trailhead parking lot around 4:00 p.m. There were already three cars there. Tourists usually arrived at that time so they could start hiking before dark. Linda got out of the car, took out her backpack, and put on her hiking boots. The temperature was pleasant, around 15 degrees Celsius.
The weather forecast promised to be good, with no rain. The temperature would drop to 5 degrees Celsius at night, but that was normal for September. At the trailhead, there was an information panel with a map of the route and registration cards. Linda took a pencil and filled out the card. She wrote her name, her phone number, the planned route, and her return date.
On the afternoon of September 22nd, she posted the missing person card on the bulletin board. It was standard procedure. If someone didn’t return on time, the rangers would check these cards and begin a search. A park ranger was driving by in his official truck. He stopped and got out. He asked Linda if everything was alright and if she knew the trail.
Linda smiled and said yes, she came there often. The ranger noticed she was alone. It wasn’t very common on this trail at that time of year. Usually, tourists hiked in pairs or groups, but Linda seemed confident and had all the necessary equipment.
The ranger nodded, wished her a good hike, got back in his truck, and drove off. He was the last person to see her. Linda followed the trail. The first few kilometers were easy, through the woods, almost flat. The trail was well-marked, with signs every few hundred meters. The sun shone through the treetops. The air was fresh and clean.
Linda walked at her own pace, stopping now and then to take photos. Branches, light, stones—she wasn’t in a hurry. At kilometer 5, the trail began to climb more steeply. The trees became sparser, and the views of the valley opened up. From there, she could see the road below, which ran parallel to the trail for 1 kilometer and then veered off to the side.
Cars traveled along the road, but not many. It was a typical mountain road, narrow and used by locals as a bypass, but tourists almost never used it. The last time Linda’s phone connected to the network was at 8:17 p.m. The signal was weak.
The cell tower was 7 kilometers from the start of the trail. After that, communication ceased. There were no calls or messages. The phone simply disappeared from the network. In the mountains, coverage is unreliable. But that particular time, 8:17 p.m., would later become a crucial point.
Leave a Reply