UT UT - Everett Ruess, 20, Escalante Canyons, Nov 1934

[BostonSu]

yw Cambria, I am glad to see that Everett Ruess has most likely been found/identified. He had several people here on Websleuths who were interested in helping find & identify him. RIP Everett.

The DNA has now been confirmed.

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/everett-ruess/david-roberts-text

 

[Marie]

Denver Post article
Cult-icon Everett Ruess's remains identified

... in 2008, human remains that had been hastily buried in crevice in a remote canyon were discovered, sparking an extensive effort to determine whether they were those of Ruess.

... announced that facial reconstruction work and modern DNA technology had led them to conclude that the remains were, indeed, those of Ruess.

Ruess was apparently killed by Ute Indians as he rode through a canyon, according to Daisy Johnson, a Navajo woman whose grandfather first told her stories of seeing the slaying more than 35 years ago.

 

[PFF]

http://64.38.12.138/News/2009/014345.asp

 

[badhorsie]

I think there is a thread on this in "cold cases" but it's amazing isn't it?
Just shows that it's never too late...
I'm glad his loved ones now know where he is

 

[Richard]

This is proof that there are answers out there even after so many years.

 

[kevmob77]

Glad to see the mystery is finally solved. There is an Everett Ruess webpage where one can order some of his books and art prints, etc. at http://everettruess.net/

I recommended reading the books sure, as they portray a picture of the West that has somewhat disappeared.

-On Desert Trails With Everett Ruess
-Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty

 

[Earthbound Misfit I]

DNA comparison proves bones are those of artist Everett Ruess who disappeared 75 years ago in Utah

Remains found near Bluff belong to legendary figure.

By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 06/23/2009 09:57:01 AM MDT



Brian Ruess, nephew of Everett Ruess, left, W.L "Bud" Rusho, editor of Everett Ruess' journals and letters, and Denny Bellson, who made the initial discovery Ruess' remains at a U. forum Monday. (Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune)

A team of geneticists at the University of Colorado in Boulder this year compared 600,000 genetic markers to prove that a pile of bones found in a small crevice near Comb Ridge in southeast Utah belonged to artist and romantic vagabond Everett Ruess.

The first public forum gathered since that find, however, showed that the mystery and allure behind the legendary figure has not cooled at all.

Almost every seat in the University of Utah's Orson Spencer Hall Auditorium was filled Monday night to hear experts narrate their firsthand accounts of the astounding find. The forum also included a niece and nephew of Ruesswho disappeared into the southern Utah wilderness more than 75 years ago: Michele and Brian Ruess.

More here: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_12669084

 

[MaryLiz]

DNA comparison proves bones are those of artist Everett Ruess who disappeared 75 years ago in Utah

Remains found near Bluff belong to legendary figure.

By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 06/23/2009 09:57:01 AM MDT



Brian Ruess, nephew of Everett Ruess, left, W.L "Bud" Rusho, editor of Everett Ruess' journals and letters, and Denny Bellson, who made the initial discovery Ruess' remains at a U. forum Monday. (Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune)

A team of geneticists at the University of Colorado in Boulder this year compared 600,000 genetic markers to prove that a pile of bones found in a small crevice near Comb Ridge in southeast Utah belonged to artist and romantic vagabond Everett Ruess.

The first public forum gathered since that find, however, showed that the mystery and allure behind the legendary figure has not cooled at all.

Almost every seat in the University of Utah's Orson Spencer Hall Auditorium was filled Monday night to hear experts narrate their firsthand accounts of the astounding find. The forum also included a niece and nephew of Ruesswho disappeared into the southern Utah wilderness more than 75 years ago: Michele and Brian Ruess.

More here: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_12669084

Thanks for the update, RKnowley. I still can't get over the fact that they found him. His disappearance was so baffling, and then finding him 75 years later is just unbelievable.

 

[Cymro]

Really sad, too, that Ruess's older brother only died just last year, aged 98.

 

[maggieo]

According to the latest DNA tests:

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13613067

snip:

But Utah's state archaeologist and others soon raised questions about the findings. The archaeologist said Ruess' surviving dental records don't match the condition or characteristics of the teeth on a lower jaw bone that was found among the remains. The worn teeth also suggest a strictly American Indian diet.

"It was important that we be certain. It was always the family's desire not to dispose of the wrong remains," said Brian Ruess, 44, a nephew of Everett Ruess.

The family contacted the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, and the lab performed an additional round of DNA analysis.

The lab determined that the remains were not related to Ruess' closest living relatives. The CU researchers were unable to duplicate their original results, CU's Krauter said.

 

[Angie4b1g]

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Ruess

They now say it ISN'T him?

 

[not_my_kids]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13611950
I found this, as well. Most of the other articles are already archived.
It is a piece on how his family has stated that the body is not his.

 

[CarlK90245]

Call me cynical, but I wonder if political correctness had any role in this. Note the part in the story about the "surprising backlash and even threats after writing the story last spring." Apparently, the Navajo groups were upset that the nature of the person's death cast their group in a bad light.

How is it that the University of Colorado comes out and says that it's a positive match, and then after the uproar, a governmental team comes out and says that the first team got it all wrong, and it is a positive no-match?

Is it possible that the Armed Forces DNA ID Lab would cave in to appease a politically sensitive issue?

 

[not_my_kids]

Would the Armed Forces cave to political pressure, especially on an issue that seems to directly affect only a small group of people?

Does a bear wipe with a leaf?

MOO.
DISCLAIMER: This is aimed at the higher-ups, not the men and women in service to our country that do their jobs and follow their orders. It is more geared toward those that give those orders.

 

[carbuff]

Sounds like National Geographic rushed the story out before confirming the data...

 

[broadpath]

Everett stayed in Escalante just before he went into the canyons for (maybe) the last time. I've read many theories to explain his death and disappearance. Along the "murdered" line are suggestions that cattle rustlers did it, that "renegade" Indians killed him and took his gear. But not one person has considered that the Mormons may have killed him.

Everett says that during his stay in Escalante he met a Mormon girl that he could have fallen in love with. Everett was young, but he was adventurous and loved taking risks. Consider the result of the girl's father learning that Everett had done something inappropriate with his daughter.

He goes into the canyon where he knows Everett to be, kills him or takes him back to Escalante where he is killed and disposed of and the close nit Mormons cover it all up.

 

[Claudette]

As a fellow nature and adventure lover, I don't think he would leave his donkeys to starve to death, so I don't think he disappeared on purpose. It would be against his nature. Plus, it would be suicidal in that little corner of the world. That really takes some cajones to travel alone in the last mapped territory lol...seriously though, traveling alone is REALLY STUPID and I don't understand why people do it. So many young people disappear forever because they think "it" won't happen to them and then they leave their families behind forever wondering what happened.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this old case up. It has now been 80 years since Everett Ruess went missing.

If the remains found are not those of Ruess, then there are two unsolved cases here.

 

[broadpath]

As a fellow nature and adventure lover, I don't think he would leave his donkeys to starve to death, so I don't think he disappeared on purpose. It would be against his nature. Plus, it would be suicidal in that little corner of the world. That really takes some cajones to travel alone in the last mapped territory lol...seriously though, traveling alone is REALLY STUPID and I don't understand why people do it. So many young people disappear forever because they think "it" won't happen to them and then they leave their families behind forever wondering what happened.

Everett was a complicated young man. There are a couple incidents involving animals that are thought provoking. When his horse died Everett's response was fairly emotionless and when his dog Curly ran away to almost certain death Everett's response was cold. I remember reading it and thinking that Curly probably left because of Everett's cruelty.

That said, I do not believe he died by accident. I still suspect he was killed by the Mormans in Escalante - an aspect of his disappearance that was never, to my knowledge, investigated.

 

[Mysteries1974]

I submitted him to namus with a complete DNA profile