GUILTY CO - Michael Rust, 56, Saguache County, 31 March 2009

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http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10124414

3 April 09

There's still no sign of a missing Saguache man. 56-year old Michael Rust hasn't been seen since Tuesday.

Rust is a Colorado Springs native. His brother says he may have been looking for burglars when he went missing. "He came back home at around 7 o'clock and someone had broken into his place and evidently he decided to go try and track them down cuz I guess there were motorcycle tracks that he could see in the snow and dirt" says Carl Rust.

Two other brothers have joined Saguache County authorities in the search off Highway 285 North of Saguache. Carl says his brother Mike is an avid mountain biker who once owned a bike shop in Salida and helped start the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.

Mike Rust is 5-foot 9-inches tall, 140-pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. He was riding a red and white Honda trail bike. Call the Saguache County Sheriff's Office at (719) 655-2544 if you have any information.

pic


video at link
 
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10146966

7 April 09

The Sheriff's office reports Rust's family and friends have hired investigator Jerry Mosier. Mosier has offered a $10,000 reward for credible information regarding Rust's disappearance.

Michael Rust is an avid mountain biker and Colorado Springs native. His brother, Carl, tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 searchers found evidence of possible foul play on Sunday. A vest was found with human blood on it. It's been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab in Pueblo for testing.

more at link
 
Missing man investigation continues
Saguache County investigators working the disappearance of Michael Rust collected evidence from a motorcycle found May 4 and are awaiting results of tests.

A family camping in the Cotton Creek area south of Villa Grove found the motorcycle at the bottom of a steep, rocky embankment and reported it to authorities.

Werts denied rumors circulating through Salida that investigators found Rust's body when they found the motorcycle.

"The rumors are not true," Werts told The Mountain Mail Tuesday.

"The case file on this is 2 inches thick," he said.

Mechanical tests on the motorcycle are scheduled to be conducted by a Colorado State Patrol technician, Werts said.

http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=16381&TM=43006.64
 
5/5/2009 10:00:00 AM

Missing man's motorcycle found in ravine


The mysterious disappearance of Michael Rust of Saguache deepened Monday when his motorcycle was recovered from a rocky ravine south of Villa Grove, still without trace of its owner.

Also Monday Saguache County investigator Mark Werts confirmed investigators found a vest with Rust's blood on it April 4 south of his residence

http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=16324
 
Body Found Not Missing Saquache Man

Posted: Sep 10, 2009 01:31 PM MDT

Updated: Sep 15, 2009 04:05 PM MDT


COLORADO SPRINGS - Human remains found in Pueblo County are not the missing brother of missing Saquache man.

Paul and Carl Rust had believed the skeletal remains found in a shallow grave were those of their 56-year-old brother Michael Rust. He disappeared March 31st of 2009. "There are some coincidences that are just very similar, some unusual circumstances," said Paul Rust

http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=11108799
 
Updated: 11:01 PM Sep 10, 2009

Family of Missing Man Still Looking for Answers


A Colorado Springs family tells 11 News human remains found in Pueblo over the weekend are not those of their loved one.

Paul and Carl Rust spoke with an 11 News reporter Thursday morning. They told us they've accepted the fact that their brother is dead and are just looking for an answer.

They were hoping the remains were that of their missing brother, 56-year-old Mike Rust. But around 1 p.m. Thursday, they received a call from the family's private investigator saying the coroner had identified the human remains and they weren't Mike Rust

http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/58577797.html
 
http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=18425

Posted: Saturday, Oct 23rd, 2010
By RUTH HEIDE Courier editor

SAGUACHE — Investigator Jerry Mosier refuses to give up the search for his friend Mike Rust’s killers.

Mosier has been on the trail of Rust’s assailants and presumed killers since Rust’s disappearance more than a year and a half ago. Although evidence has been found that suggests Rust, 56, died at the hands of attackers near his Saguache County home, his body has never been recovered.
 
Valley cold cases haunt law enforcement

“Their voices may now be silent...those who may know the truth are not.”

The motto of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Cold Case Unit is the only hope for families and friends looking for closure when a murder remains unsolved or a missing person is not found.

[snip]

One of the missing persons, Michael Damian Rust, 55, is suspected to be a murder victim, Norris said.

Rust was last heard from on March 31, 2009, at about 7 p.m., when he called his girlfriend and told her his home had been burglarized. He took off on his motorcycle to see if he could find the culprit and was never heard from again.

A blood-stained vest was found near his house. The blood was tested and DNA results came back a positive match to Rust. His motorcycle was found several weeks later about 20 miles from his home.

More: http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=20036
 
The Rider & The Wolf
This is the story of Mike Rust, the Hall of Fame mountain biker who disappeared without a trace.
a film by Nathan Ward & Sam Bricker
trailer - The Rider & The Wolf on Vimeo

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/missing-man?page=0,0
Lots of information at this link. The following info about the film is from the end of the article.
RUST ON THE BIG SCREEN
By David Howard
Want to know more about Rust? Filmmakers Nathan Ward and Sam Bricker recently completed an hour-long documentary, "The Rider and the Wolf," delving deeper into Rust's life and disappearance. Ward says the movie, shot on a Red Epic 4K, combines elements of traditional documentary filmmaking with more creative components such as reenacted scenes. The bike scenes were shot on trails Rust helped create, on bikes he was involved in designing.The filmmakers plan to premier "The Rider and the Wolf" in January at a site they had not yet determined as of press time. They plan to build an audience through traditional channels like mountain- and bike-oriented film festivals, plus embark on grassroots efforts such as a barnstorming tour of Rocky Mountain bike towns. To learn more about the movie, find showtimes, and watch the trailer, go to riderandwolfmovie.com.

Mike will have been missing for five years on Monday.
 
Investigators are trying to determine the identity of human remains discovered in rural Saguache County last week. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials confirm with CBS4 their team assisted in the recovery of human remains located between Highways 17 and 285 located in Saguache County...

But many people in the part of rural Southwest Colorado believe the remains could belong to Mike Rust, a mountain biking pioneer who disappeared in 2009. Rust’s family hopes the discovery will bring them some closure. Rust vanished after a burglary at his home. “Mike caught up to whoever these guys were and there was some kind of an altercation and he took the bad end of it,” a friend of Rust’s told CBS4 last April.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/01/13/human-remains-found-could-be-missing-mountain-bike-pioneer/
 
Colorado Cold Cases: Belt buckle found with body suggests mountain biking pioneer is victim

The discovery of a bicycle-sprocket belt buckle amidst human bones told family members of a mountain biking pioneer all they needed to know.

“We believe the remains of our brother have been found. The belt buckle was very unique. I’ve never seen another one like it,” said Fountain Hills resident Karl Rust of bones he believes are those of his brother Michael Damian Rust.

Investigators from the Saguache County Sheriff’s Department sent him a photograph of the belt buckle, he said. He said he knew immediately that it was his brother’s.

Rust said law enforcement officers will ultimately confirm the identity of the bones, but as far as he is concerned his brother is no longer lost.

“Now it’s up to the sheriff’s office to investigate what happened,” he said.

The question on the minds of family and friends is whether the discovery of those bones is the last piece of evidence needed before murder charges can be filed.

“That’s our long-range hope that people who did this should pay the price. It would be a great way to start the new year,” Rust said.

Michael-Rust-495x466.jpg
 
Michael Rust vanished from his isolated home in the Rio Grande National Forest. According to the Valley Courier newspaper, the Saguache County sheriff immediately asked the CBI for assistance.

That first weekend, "hundreds of acres [were] crisscrossed by searchers on foot, on horseback and on motorcycles, looking for Rust or the bright red and white motorcycle [he rode]," the Valley Courier reported. "Private helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were used, including two military Blackhawk choppers and a C-130 multi-engine USAF aircraft."

The human remains found this year were buried between Highways 17 and 285 in Saguache County, near the northern side of the national forest. That's about 100 miles away from where Keller was last seen — much closer to where Rust disappeared.

The Denver Post recently quoted a Rust family member as saying a belt buckle found with the bones probably belonged to Rust.

If that is true, an agonizing mystery will be solved for one missing man's family.

The Kellers will be left to grieve and wonder.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...ould-bones-found-colorado-be-kellers/346394/#
 
Answers sought in disappearance of Colorado Springs mountain biking pioneer

http://gazette.com/answers-sought-in-disappearance-of-colorado-springs-mountain-biking-pioneer/article/1573138

When a distinctive belt buckle was discovered, along with human remains, in January at a spot about 5 miles from Rust's cabin, those fears were all but confirmed for people who knew the amiable 56-year-old, a 1991 inductee to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.

Authorities haven't made an official identification, but "there's little doubt that it was his body," said Brian Gravestock, of Colorado Springs, who counted himself "really, really close friends" with Rust and often built bike frames with him in the early days.

The grim discovery lends new context to a documentary about Rust's life and disappearance, "The Rider and the Wolf," released last year by Salida-based Grit & Thistle Film Company and filmmaker Nathan Ward.
 
http://gazette.com/colorado-springs...ed-after-years-of-frustration/article/1575691

A Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said the investigation into Rust's death is ongoing. No suspects have been named. The cause of death is unknown, pending completion of an autopsy report.

Family and friends accepted his death long ago. Last month's confirmation "ends seven years of frustration, of anger, of turmoil, of anxiousness, of not knowing," said his brother, Carl Rust. "To be honest, we're glad we've gotten to this point."

The family will not a hold a memorial service in Mike's honor. Instead, they plan to cremate his remains and scatter his ashes across a place he quietly called home for several years.
 

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