Found Deceased CA - Philip Kreycik, 37, Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, 10 Jul 2021

[dtowndetective411]

I am still holding out hope that he will be found. It’s not impossible for him to be found alive, either. There are cases where injured hikers were found alive after 3weeks. Regardless, I am rooting for this search and am touched by how loved PK was and is, and how many people are dedicated to finding him and bringing him home to his family and getting answers for them and for PK. Sending up lots of true hope.

 

[Beekarina]

I want you guys to understand something: by speculating/entertaining things I feel *may* have happened, I mean no disrespect. I feel terrible for his family especially his wife. And his mom. I'm a mom. I can't imagine if it was my child missing. I would want every angle explored, I think. On the off chance his family is reading here, I hope they wouldn't take anything I wrote as a personal/character type of thing. It 100% is not. Someone is missing and as time passes, it really does not make sense why.

With this said, a life can look perfect and a person could still be struggling with something. I think it can be a lot more common than we may realize or want to admit. There is not any negative reflection on PK or JY or their family IMO to consider IF he could have left voluntarily. Things happen.

 

[10ofRods]

"If having some cards to use was important? Prepaid cards."

Agreed, if you believe he disappeared of his own will. However, the absence of cards (and maybe cash) in his wallet might suggest an encounter with a bad guy.

So much is NOT being said by LE. And the fact that they responded so fast to PK's wife's call when he was just about an hour late is really odd to me. That might happen if a person had a documented history of suicide attempts or erratic behavior, but PK sounds like a stable person. We just don't know.

I suspect his wife was very specific about why it would be unusual for PK to be late. LE responds immediately to missing persons calls in my county (not the same county, but in California) because too much press and some lawsuits about slower responses. With COVID, some types of police calls have gone down, others have gone up. I don't find it strange at all that LE responded quickly. He was a man who was known to be precise and, apparently, on time.

Where I live, no one needs a history of suicide attempts or erratic behavior for LE to investigate a missing person call. If I went for a walk in my neighborhood (my husband knows I can't do more than about 20 minutes) and didn't come back on time, he'd call police and I bet they'd be at the door within 5 minutes. They wouldn't send an investigator or a SAR team, of course - but they'd send one of the many patrol trainees. If someone so much as parks their RV overnight on our street, LE is there early in the morning. I have a neighbor who calls the police at least once a week...fast response every time.

I don't carry cash. I use my phone to pay for most things (including gas). Every single theory about him buying gift cards or prepaid cards requires him to use some form of money to do that. He either routinely took cash out and stashed some of it somewhere just in case he needed to go underground (!) or he did what most of us do and used some form of electronic payment for everything (I vote for the latter).

 

[EmmieA]

I agree with @Beekarina re: speculation. And thinking outside the box is only natural at this point with nothing concrete putting him on that trail and very little info from LE.

My gut response is this isn’t as simple as an emergency health situation or a heat related incident.

I hope his family gets answers soon.

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

. . .with this said, a life can look perfect and a person could still be struggling with something. I think it can be a lot more common than we may realize or want to admit. There is not any negative reflection on PK or JY or their family IMO to consider IF he could have left voluntarily. Things happen.

I absolutely agree. Knowing too many people who aren't what they seem, I'm more than aware of public vs private image. I too wondered of other scenarios. The Sheriff Sergeant made me feel more certain that a trailrunning event was most likely. But before that, I had wondered if PK met someone at the trailhead and left in their car. Not running away but for other reasons. A talk, lunch, a run elsewhere, a rendevous ie. He planned to return and maybe even run, but foul play ensued. If LE has any suspicions, they are playing very close to the vest. Good on them.

 

[TheFool]

EBRPD - Pleasanton Ridge
Google Maps
7.4 mi Road Running Route on Strava
Despite the frustration of not finding PK after 3 weeks of searching, based on all the public information the most simplest explanation for his disappearance is he remains unfound in the orange oval area. The Ridge Loop green dashed-line loop trail area is mostly open area and can be searched with high confidence, but the area in the orange oval area is wooded, rugged, and filled with poison oak. The orange oval area where he might be is so large because between Moller Ranch Staging Area (Parking Lot) and Pleasanton Ridge there are many different trails that he could have taken. While heading up to PR he may have gone right on trails and entered at one of the north gates not realizing he was off course, run the loop, and then decided he had to descend the same way he ascended to the north which is not in the red oval area.

 

[Beekarina]

I feel kind of dirty explaining this....

This is what you do. Every time you go to a store that offers cash back and use a card? You get an extra $20 here an extra $40 there. Maybe you buy something on your credit card and return it for cash. Maybe you use rebate sites (plenty out there) or have some kind of minor side hustle. These are amounts os petty cash people in what I would guess to be their income bracket would not miss or question. You can hide the cash and whatever else you might need in multiple places, and/or buy a bunch of gift cards. (Been there, when leaving a bad relationship.)

If PK was out on a trail/in nature somewhere, he wouldn't even need that much money.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

It's my understanding he didn't have a smartphone.

Whaaaat?! Surely he must have?! It would be very unusual, if not difficult in his executive job, to not have a smart phone.

A phone was found in the car, so it was an older flip-style phone, or what?

The phone found in the car had the Strava app installed and a route on it. I doubt Strava even functions on older smartphones given the app's OS and memory requirements, and almost certainly not on older flip phones.

It's possible his employer, PG&E, provides some types of phones to its employees who require one. Corporations also spend a lot of effort on making sure such phones don't pose security risks, so by the time they're vetted for these risks, they're probably not the latest greatest model.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Here's the Strava iOS compatibility.
Supported iOS versions and iPhones
Devices with iOS 12 as the last compatible operating system (iPhone 6 and earlier) can continue to use the Strava app if it was downloaded prior to our recent changes. However, no Strava app updates will be available and you may lose access to certain features or functionality. For example:

• Some features that use technologies introduced in iOS 13.0 may no longer work.
• You may not be able to receive new features that require an app update.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Regarding the wallet being in the car, I would never take a wallet on a run. I rarely leave it in the car either due to potential break ins. Bulky items like that are a nuisance and throw off your balance even if you're a slower runner like me. I do however always run or hike with a lightweight clip with an old DL, an insurance card, and $20, for emergencies.

 

[j_¥]

Has it been confirmed the car was locked? I have seen it mentioned both locked and unlocked, just trying to confirm.

 

[aim4thestars]

I've been following this case since the first week since a few people in my network worked/went to school with him in Boston. I think speculation is inevitable when there has been no trace for so long, but I feel that PK is an ethical person who wouldn't let family/LE search to no end if he simply left his life.

My heart goes out to his family and kids - it must be such a confusing time. My opinion is that he found an obscure part in the park and is still there. I listen to a lot of the cases on The Vanished podcast, and more often than not the person will turn up years later in a spot that was just outside of the search perimeter :/ Really hoping for a positive ending, but I feel like the chances at this point are dwindling.

 

[hooziewhutz]

I want you guys to understand something: by speculating/entertaining things I feel *may* have happened, I mean no disrespect. I feel terrible for his family especially his wife. And his mom. I'm a mom. I can't imagine if it was my child missing. I would want every angle explored, I think. On the off chance his family is reading here, I hope they wouldn't take anything I wrote as a personal/character type of thing. It 100% is not. Someone is missing and as time passes, it really does not make sense why.

Ditto on not intending to be disrespectful. It would be undoubtedly painful to read any discourse, or news, for that matter. I can't imagine his family would WANT to hear anything other than information providing relief or closure.

Now here goes the risk of sounding callous: it is still a decision for the reader on whether or not to seek out this kind of chatter. ::cowering back into my shell::

 

[annpats]

....you buy something on your credit card and return it for cash.

Oh, wow, is that even allowed in the US? I know in the UK it's not allowed and a refund has to be made the same way you paid for it. If you didn't pay with cash, then it has to be refunded to exactly the same card. It's part of the money laundering regulations.

 

[Normancita]

How many square miles is this park that PK allegedly ran on July 10?

 

[annpats]

Here's the Strava iOS compatibility.
Supported iOS versions and iPhones
Devices with iOS 12 as the last compatible operating system (iPhone 6 and earlier) can continue to use the Strava app if it was downloaded prior to our recent changes. However, no Strava app updates will be available and you may lose access to certain features or functionality. For example:

• Some features that use technologies introduced in iOS 13.0 may no longer work.
• You may not be able to receive new features that require an app update.

Do you think his phone was an Apple? I don't. Here's why:
he had a Suunto watch. That makes me think he's not an 'Apple kinda guy'. If he had an Apple phone, I'm sure he'd have had an Apple watch for running too.

Perhaps his phone was a Samsung or something else.....?

MOO.

 

[Beekarina]

Oh, wow, is that even allowed in the US? I know in the UK it's not allowed and a refund has to be made the same way you paid for it. If you didn't pay with cash, then it has to be refunded to exactly the same card. It's part of the money laundering regulations.

I'm not sure, but I have had it happen. I didn't question it or ask for it. You can get a cash advance on credit cards, so that never crossed my mind to think about it being wrong. Now I'm curious~

Edited to explain: what happened in the scenario I was thinking of was I bought some groceries with a card, got home and realized an item was way out of date, brought it back and then we realized I was also overcharged. the service person gave me cash. It was around $30. I have no idea if they did something wrong, but when thinking about a voluntary missing getting cash back, it occured to me as an option.

 

[annpats]

I'm not sure, but I have had it happen. I didn't question it or ask for it. You can get a cash advance on credit cards, so that never crossed my mind to think about it being wrong. Now I'm curious~

Oh sure, the British can get cash advances on credit cards too, I think that's internationally accepted.

It's just refunds for purchases must be made the same way they were paid for.

 

[Beekarina]

You can also sell things you own. If a "voluntary missing" person owned something of value, say something obscure/weird their spouse may not know about, care about that could always be an option too. People collect all kinds of weird things.

 

[Periwinkl3]

A man was heard crying for help near Sunol Canyon (it's certainly within his running rage - he runs ultramarathons), but the area is vast.

Can you supply a source for this? I've only seen mentions of "a person" (not specifically "a man") and that the cries may have in fact been searchers shouting "Philip," which could be mistaken for "Help!"