Found Deceased CA - Paul Miller, 51, Canadian missing in Joshua Tree National Park, San Bernardino Co., 13 Jul 2018

[Satchie]

I have just begun reading about this case and would it not seem that if dogs could not pick up his scent on an easy trail. then he never was on THAT trail.
The dogs are make it confusing for me too.

So for me it is also much more complicated than "Paul going on a hike, getting lost ,and dying....I think they would have found SOME evidence of him being there, don't you?

Personally, I don't believe either dogs or searchers are infallible. It doesn't surprise me if dogs can't catch the scent of a solo hiker who passed along a desert/rocky trail hours earlier, especially as there were likely other humans in the area afterwords. Searchers look around as best they can, but a wilderness environment is a haystack which can reduce a human to the proportions of a needle. On the other hand, I don't underestimate the ability of humans in a strange environment, possibly under stress or ill from heat, to do completely unexpected things. I also believe in bad luck.

 

[Tim Callahan]

The downside is holding them. Either your arms cramp, or you can't use trekking poles.

I’ve never had a problem with mine. I usually only use one trekking pole, but if I needed two for a certain technical part of a hike, I’d at least carry an umbrella in my pack. Especially if day hiking, where an extra 12 ounces isn’t really a weight consideration.

 

[RickshawFan]

Never mind.

 

[jash]

A question for any & all,

Does hearing they were suppose to go back to JT together (again) but she changed her mind and let Jeff go alone shed different light on what might have happened here???

Just curious...

When I read that, my first thought was maybe they had an argument after breakfast and she stormed off. That could explain why she doesn't know what shirt he was wearing (if she never saw him leave the hotel).

I'm not casting aspersions... I've gotten into huge fights over the stupidest things while travelling. There's something about spending literally every waking moment with someone (even a spouse) for days at a time in close quarters that can really amplify mild annoyances.

 

[Hraefn]

For any who curious about the surrounding terrain and want to appreciate what they are up against, go to google maps and put in “fortynine palms oasis” and view it in satellite mode. If Paul made it to the oasis and picked a false trail by accident, it is easy to see how quickly you would be in trouble.

You can actually enter "street mode" and walk the trail with a group who took regular photographs. I have this link set up at the beginning of the trail. Keep double clicking on the trail to follow along, sometimes you will need go to the box in the bottom left corner and skip ahead by clicking the blue dots on the trail path.
Google Maps

ETA: It looks like these photos are from a Dec. 2016 hike FWIW

 

[jash]

I don't think this short article has been posted before. Wife of missing Joshua Tree hiker speaks out

"We had breakfast and I decided I wasn't feeling up for a hike. So he said, 'see ya,'" [SM] said. "I figured I would see him in an hour and a half to two hours and that was it."

 

[Eevee Pie]

I don't think this short article has been posted before. Wife of missing Joshua Tree hiker speaks out

"We had breakfast and I decided I wasn't feeling up for a hike. So he said, 'see ya,'" [SM] said. "I figured I would see him in an hour and a half to two hours and that was it."

I wonder if that is coming off differently in writing, but that cavalier “see ya” response to her seems really uncaring and crossing into meanness territory.

 

[jash]

News clip from this afternoon: Find Paul Miller: calls to continue searching for missing Guelph man

Nothing new was reported. They make it sound like officials aren't doing anything, which we know isn't true (6,000 hours and counting).

 

[rosesfromangels]

News clip from this afternoon: Find Paul Miller: calls to continue searching for missing Guelph man

Nothing new was reported. They make it sound like officials aren't doing anything, which we know isn't true (6,000 hours and counting).

Why isn’t the wife and family members/friends not there searching? Very strange.

 

[Satchie]

I wonder if that is coming off differently in writing, but that cavalier “see ya” response to her seems really uncaring and crossing into meanness territory.

Seems so, but that's also possibly the anger stage of her grief coming out. I can imagine feeling that way too "Why did he have to go off on his stupid hike and get himself killed. How utterly pointless, when he had a wife and children to take care of."

Her grief must be agonizing, I have every sympathy for her.

 

[FlossyMay]

Why isn’t the wife and family members/friends not there searching? Very strange.

They live in another country. It might not be financially feasible. They probably have jobs and responsibilities. I'm sure they realize that he is probably deceased at this point. What kind of trauma would it cause if they did find him in such a condition? Plus they were already told to leave it to the professionals because they could end up in the same situation.

 

[Satchie]

Why isn’t the wife and family members/friends not there searching? Very strange.

Likely because it's hot as hades out there (98F), and because they aren't familiar with search and rescue in the desert, and search officials don't want untrained volunteers going out there and having to be themselves rescued when they get heatstroke/lost.

 

[jash]

Why isn’t the wife and family members/friends not there searching? Very strange.

The wife addressed this in the below article.
Wife of missing Joshua Tree hiker speaks out

"The park has been fairly insistent that because of the weather and the conditions in the park, it wouldn't be helpful for us to be there. That we would likely we unable to enter the park because of the heat," [SM] said. "We obviously don't want to be creating a secondary search and rescue for the park."

 

[rosesfromangels]

They live in another country. It might not be financially feasible. They probably have jobs and responsibilities. I'm sure they realize that he is probably deceased at this point. What kind of trauma would it cause if they did find him in such a condition? Plus they were already told to leave it to the professionals because they could end up in the same situation.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away if my loved one were lost in there.

 

[FlossyMay]

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away if my loved one were lost in there.

But this is not your loved one we are discussing. You don't know what this family is going through.

 

[PaulR]

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away if my loved one were lost in there.

We are not going to risk the lives of more SAR crew because someone who has no experience and no business searching the desert backcountry in the summer heat also gets lost or hurt or dehydrated.

 

[Ava_TO]

As a Canadian, I have found it somewhat frustrating to see posters criticizing Paul's wife for returning to Canada. I would have to think the cost of staying in the U.S. would become financially crippling in a very short time. Consider the exchange rate between U.S. and Canadian money: we pay about a 30% premium for every dollar we spend in the U.S. So, a $100 hotel room costs us $130. (I should mention that I recently read a report that stated Canadians are the lowest-paid first world workers so that's a serious premium to pay!) If they had already budgeted any "extra" funds for the actual vacation, well, it gets a whole lot easier to understand why perhaps it was not possible for her to stay (among all the other legitimate reasons). I hope so much that Paul's family has some kind of closure sooner rather than later...

 

[ElementalLaura]

My speculation only: I have the impression that JTNP wasn't really her cup of tea to begin with. Didn't they arrive the day before he went missing, which was the day they were flying out?

It's 100 degrees, the end of a long vacation loop, she already hiked with him the day before, and she was focused on packing and getting back home. Her husband going missing didn't help matters. I have no idea where they were staying, but it must have been hellish to be waiting for his return, realizing he was running late, realizing he was running too late, and then setting searches in motion by reporting him missing. Not to mention you suddenly need to extend your trip for an unknown amount of time and deal with all the logistics of that while they're searching. She must have felt incredibly isolated. No wonder she feels that there wasn't enough being done to find him -- no one could share the urgency and growing panic that she felt (obviously much has been done, but rangers and SAR people need to approach rescues/recoveries professionally, and she wasn't where they were in terms of finding him). I get the sense that she needed emotional and psychological support from her family.

There's always a lot of talk about how terrible the trauma of having a missing family member is, and so many people go missing from home. My heart goes out to her and to other families who have loved ones go missing while they're away from home.

 

[Satchie]

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away if my loved one were lost in there.

I don’t know where my husband is, but I know that my children are here and they need me, so I need to be here for my children,” Miller said, ready at moment’s notice to return to California when her husband is found.
Wife of missing hiker from Canada describes 'hell' each day brings since Paul Miller disappeared at Joshua Tree

 

[rosesfromangels]

We are not going to risk the lives of more SAR crew because someone who has no experience and no business searching the desert backcountry in the summer heat also gets lost or hurt or dehydrated.

Good point. Let me amend my statement to say Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from the waiting area of the operation. I would want to be close at hand, if only to escort the remains of my loved one.