CA CA - Vernon 'Cody' Matthews, 23, Pollock Pines, 6 June 2014

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or else he staged it (it = dinner ready, fork out) to throw everyone off... I am so hesitant to post here with the thoughts I have, so am just holding out hope. Like I say, it never hurts to hope. Might not help, but it sure doesn't hurt.
 
belfastgirl73 said:
I wonder what cell reception is like in that area? I know, questions, questions...
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I don't live there but live not far away in the valley, and I've had friends up there, driven through, etc. Cell service can be really hit and miss. I've even had situations where my phone got nothing while someone else with me had full service so I borrowed their phone. That's on or near the freeway/main part of town - I can only imagine it's even more hit and miss further into the forest, near the river, etc. I think it's pretty possible he wouldn't have have service, or got service if he stood in exactly the right spot and faced the right direction kind of thing.
 
zwiebel said:
Thanks for the video link. Cody's disappearance perhaps makes a little more sense to me, from that. They mentioned temps of 100 degrees so I'm wondering if he decided to climb down to the river to cool off, before dinner?
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I wondered about that too. It's been HOT HOT HOT here in the valley, well over 100 degrees the past few days - 106 a couple of days ago. I thought it had been cooler in Pollock Pines since it usually is due to the higher elevation (roughly 5000 feet), but maybe not... then again I guess 100 is cooler than 106. Usually when someone's missing outside I worry about cold but in his case I've definitely been more worried about heat.

I could see him going to cool off before dinner but wouldn't you (general you) usually go cool off, then come back and make dinner? As opposed to laying it out on the table, going to the river, then coming back to eat? Minor detail I guess but it seems strange to me.

I hope he's ok. The news of the foot/shoe prints earlier had me pretty worried, but for now I'm holding out hope that he's still out there and will be found. It's a much milder day today with highs in the mid-80. I was trying to picture someone who is maybe injured or lost and the past few days I could see someone just doing their very best to not move and avoid the heat. Maybe it's just because I don't do well with heat but I was picturing someone laid out under whatever shade they could find trying not to move and hoping for any kind of breeze. Today given the weather conditions I could see someone being able to recover a bit and maybe venture out to find food, water, look for help if they wanted it, etc. I could be completely off on this weather angle, but I hope I'm not, and I hope it helps lead to finding him.
 
nikb said:
I could see him going to cool off before dinner but wouldn't you (general you) usually go cool off, then come back and make dinner? As opposed to laying it out on the table, going to the river, then coming back to eat? Minor detail I guess but it seems strange to me.
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It seems a little strange to me, too. I re-watched the news10 video and also notice his parents mentioned he left the cabin unsecured, which I take to mean unlocked, which also seems a little strange considering the place had been ransacked when Cody first got there.
 
http://www.kcra.com/news/water-concern-growing-in-missing-hiker-search/26444752#!XEncz

"Statistically speaking, we are confident he is not in the immediate search area. We have covered nearly 90 percent of the immediate area," said Jim Byers, an El Dorado County sheriff's spokesman...

As the days pass, Byers said the issue of water becomes an increasingly bigger concern.

"If he's out there and he's injured and separated from a water source, that's definitely going to come into play, and he's going to dehydrate quick," Byers said. "You're probably looking at five to six days before you start having severe issues."
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Me too I was puzzled about the dinner on the table. I have never heard anyone doing that and then go for a hike, especially in hot weather. Food gets spoiled fast, flies and ants will be attracted. And the cabin being left unlocked ... now all this seems to point to the possibility that something or someone outside called his attention and he went out and something unplanned unfolded.

Yet he was supposedly seen walking somewhere alone? Do I remember this correctly?
 
Elainera said:
Five to six days before having severe issues? More like 1 or 2 days I'd say in this weather!
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No kidding... again I know I'm more sensitive to heat than many but give me about 1/2 day in this heat outdoors without water and my thinking starts getting really impaired. I'm sure it would be longer before I was physically impacted so maybe that's what they mean. I suppose it depends on your definition of 'severe' too. ETA: I still think 2 days tops before some pretty major issues would kick in.

If those were in fact his footprints by the American river, that's some reasonably safe water to drink so I was hoping maybe he went there for water, either to cool off or to actually drink it. I wonder how recent those prints were, if they could tell.

The cabin being left unlocked didn't surprise me much since IMO people leave them unlocked fairly often, but if it was ransacked first that's odd. Leaving the dinner on the table still seems even odder to me.

This is kind of an out there thought, but I'll throw it out there... was a critter involved? There's been a lot of talk of animals being at different elevations than usual and being bolder than usual this year due to the drought. I'm sure the heat the past week or so has made that even worse. I can't seem to find the stories again about the cabin being ransacked but is it possible an animal did that, and if so is it further possible that he went outside to chase off an animal and something happened? I know, it's a stretch, I'm just trying to think of what might've happened and how it might help lead to finding him.
 
I definitely think there is a possibility of a wildlife encounter. You're right, nikb, it's been really dry. I live up in the area, and there have been many recent sightings of bears and mountain lions in the area.

At first I thought a ransacking may have been critter related too, but then I read that the cabin's security camera had been stolen.

Vern and his wife, Cindi, say their son came to stay at their vacation cabin off Peavine Road for the summer. When he arrived, he called his parents and said it looked like the cabin had been ransacked. Vern told FOX40 News whoever broke into their home stole their security camera.

The UC Berkeley student went to the cabin a week ahead of his family, but they only found his camping gear there.

“If he were going somewhere, hitch-hiking somewhere, camping somewhere he would have taken that with him,” Cody’s mother, Cindy Mattews, told FOX40.
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http://fox40.com/local-news/stories/hiker-missing-in-el-dorado-national-forest/#ixzz34OAtIZ2u
 
It was said that he knows the area well. So he's been there many times before I assume. Does he have friends in the area? Could one have stopped by and he decided to go with him somewhere, a party, a get together, a secluded spot in the woods somewhere to hang out?
 
Elainera said:
Me too I was puzzled about the dinner on the table. I have never heard anyone doing that and then go for a hike, especially in hot weather. Food gets spoiled fast, flies and ants will be attracted. And the cabin being left unlocked ... now all this seems to point to the possibility that something or someone outside called his attention and he went out and something unplanned unfolded.

Yet he was supposedly seen walking somewhere alone? Do I remember this correctly?
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Maybe the dinner belonged to the ran sacker? :(
 
bizaleth said:
I definitely think there is a possibility of a wildlife encounter. You're right, nikb, it's been really dry. I live up in the area, and there have been many recent sightings of bears and mountain lions in the area.

At first I thought a ransacking may have been critter related too, but then I read that the cabin's security camera had been stolen.

http://fox40.com/local-news/stories/hiker-missing-in-el-dorado-national-forest/#ixzz34OAtIZ2u
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Oh thank you! Both for the recap and the link to the story. Yeah, I guess a bear (or whatever) probably didn't take off with the camera and it's not exactly something that would double as food.

I wonder, do they save and/or back up the security camera footage somehow? We've got cameras at our house and found that it was pretty useless until we had a decent system for recording. It's nothing fancy, but we can look back for a week or so and see what happened. Do they have footage of anything that happened at the cabin? Is getting rid of the footage on say a DVR what led to the cabin being ransacked?
 
Elainera said:
It was said that he knows the area well. So he's been there many times before I assume. Does he have friends in the area? Could one have stopped by and he decided to go with him somewhere, a party, a get together, a secluded spot in the woods somewhere to hang out?
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I thought about this too. So many people go camping in the Ice House area, I was wondering if he might've joined up with some friends who went camping. If so it's not completely unheard of that they could be gone a week or more without anyone even knowing they were looking for them. I can't see him not telling anyone if that was the plan, but maybe...
 
nikb said:
This is kind of an out there thought, but I'll throw it out there... was a critter involved? There's been a lot of talk of animals being at different elevations than usual and being bolder than usual this year due to the drought. I'm sure the heat the past week or so has made that even worse. I can't seem to find the stories again about the cabin being ransacked but is it possible an animal did that, and if so is it further possible that he went outside to chase off an animal and something happened? I know, it's a stretch, I'm just trying to think of what might've happened and how it might help lead to finding him.
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But wouldn't an attack by a critter leave... you know... some evidence? I don't think there's anything in the area that's big enough to swallow a man whole.
 
OkieGranny said:
But wouldn't an attack by a critter leave... you know... some evidence? I don't think there's anything in the area that's big enough to swallow a man whole.
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I get what you're saying and you're right, I don't think there is any critter like that around here either (I hope not!). I was thinking more that maybe that's what startled him away from the dinner he was about to eat and then the 'something happened' could be slipping, falling, or otherwise getting hurt. I have been amazed at how many cases I've followed where someone was found in brush, under trees, etc. in an area that has supposedly been thoroughly searched or 'cleared,' so I was picturing something like Cody chasing off some kind of critter, he got hurt and fell or maybe the critter chased him back for awhile, and he's now injured and/or hidden in some difficult to get to area.
 
Maybe the person(s) responsible for the ransack returned, not realizing someone was home because there was no car. Perhaps Cody chased after them? The other odd thing is the idea of ransack vs. robbery. Why would someone tear up the place but take nothing?
 
LittleMissContrary said:
The other odd thing is the idea of ransack vs. robbery. Why would someone tear up the place but take nothing?
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I've read in a couple of places that his parents say that there actually were things missing, at least according to Cody, one being a security camera and also some clothes.

It's just so strange. I wish I knew the exact time that witnesses say that they saw him walking. Was it before or after most people eat dinner since his parents say his dinner was prepared and waiting for him? If he prepared dinner, but hadn't eaten it, it seems to me that any walk he would have taken would be a relatively short one. Is it possible he came back and made dinner, and then disappeared?

I've seen the reports of footprints down by the river, too, and am wondering if he did maybe want to cool off like nickb mentioned and something happened.

Another thing is that he had a compass with him according to the conversation his mom reported having with him before his walk, and apparently knew the area well.

I'm just hoping that search and rescue will find him soon - his friends and family must be so incredibly worried and heartbroken over this.
 
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