Found Deceased CA - Philip Kreycik, 37, Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, 10 Jul 2021 #2

[runspired]

Same. It would take much longer, not shorter. Unless of course he didn't expect that, that might be exactly why he ran into a problem.

Depends on a lot of factors: perceived distance being shaved off is a big one, whether the decision had more to do with taking a shady route vs exposed route is another.

But also assuming he knew the exact distances and terrain and didn’t need to seek shade it still might make sense: people like Philip (and me) sans any incapacitating factors can go down through one of those ravines quite quickly (when not trying to diligently look around and search). I’d be happy to have you come along for a run through one to experience this. A whole sport exists around this (orienteering) though it’s not a sport I participate in the skill sets of mountain-trail-running and orienteering overlap quite a bit.

 

[runspired]

There are roads that lead to the top of Pleasanton Ridge as well as emergency access vehicle roads that lead there. It is fairly easy for someone to figure out where they are by looking at land use documents published by the EBRPD on Pleasanton Ridge and available on the internet.

Easy to figure out but not easy to get up unless you have multiple gate codes and keys. Only truly feasible one is Santos Ranch Road and even there the gate code was non functional most of the search cause the call box was broken. Also Fwiw at this point he’d have to run most his route through the same hot conditions… and that area is outside of SAR’s primary search zone that we’ve covered more densely so if he did make it over there for any reason there’s still a lot of gaps.

There’s so many gaps still to fill in our search of the park. People, even *ahem* sometimes overly ambitious police, that want to think we’ve covered this place so densely we couldn’t have missed something simply aren’t talking with SAR or us or studying the data. The amount of places he could still be, even within very heavily searched areas, is still very high.

 

[runspired]

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If I state something there’s always at least one if not a team of volunteers that can back it up as original sources. I also won’t post a detail such as this where I wouldn’t (and didn’t) have first hand knowledge without having first confirmed it with folks that do have first hand knowledge. If it ever mattered (which it doesn’t, since PPD knows full well they had to break into the car) I’d happily point to the original source.

 

[cbdoc]

Now hang on a second, has anyone (LE) confirmed the prints match Phil's shoes? They haven't, to my knowledge. We also haven't seen the clip in the UPS store of Philip, and haven't heard the 911 call.

The prints matching the shoes comes from Chris' AMA and pictures. I have not heard LE confirm this.

 

[Vacajoe]

Runspired: THANK YOU for addressing these questions/concerns on here. Your insight and time are very valuable and we appreciate your participation

 

[runspired]

Bumping this post of unanswered questions compiled for VI @runspired

Thanks for the bump.

 

[annpats]

Now hang on a second, has anyone (LE) confirmed the prints match Phil's shoes? They haven't, to my knowledge. We also haven't seen the clip in the UPS store of Philip, and haven't heard the 911 call.

Agree. And these things need to happen.
LE must confirm the footprint, and they must release the parcel store footage. I can't understand the reason it hasn't already happened.

 

[runspired]

Hi @runspired I’m sure these are not all the questions various members have asked you concerning Philip’s disappearance, but as you suggested it may be easier for you to address some of them if they’re in a compiled form.
(Note: these questions are from other members’ posts & may have already been answered) Hope this helps a lil!
Thanks for all your input and the hard work you’ve put in towards finding Philip.

Compiled Questions from Members
Are cameras at the exit/entrance points to the Emergency Vehicle Access points to Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park and were they checked?

Was the property around 9104 Longview searched where the Augustin Bernal Park entrance is at the top of the cul de sac (Augustin Bernal is the city park that accesses the EBRPD Pleasanton Ridge Park)?

Any subsequent thoughts to whether you think Philip was seen near the Arroyo Mocho trail near Santa Rita Rd across from the Walmart Neighborhood Market store that evening on Saturday July 10th?

Was there any validity to the report I read that a woman saw a man running under a bridge in/near the park, seemingly in distress? (maybe this ties in with the Walmart sighting)

Where did the dogs lose Philip's scent? I've read it was near a water tank off of Moller Ranch Dr. Is that accurate?

Have the water tanks been searched?

If the sighting near a Walmart where the individual appeared ready to cross a multi-lane highway was PK, what else is in that immediate area?

Are there trains heading out? Could he have crawled inside a freight car?

Was the shirt that was found in PK's car the same one he wore on Friday night? And why is it assumed that PK was "probably" shirtless when he ran?

Do you know what the temperature was in the park at the time of Philip's run? I tried to find this info on some weather sites but wasn't able to. I'm asking because I live about 30 miles from Pleasanton Ridge Park, so I experience basically the same climate. When I see references to running in 107 degree heat or some such, I know that can't be true. 107 degrees was reportedly the highest temperature for that location on 7/10.

Do you think offering a reward for information will help find him?

One thing I'm really puzzled by probably cannot be answered, but I will put it back out there: with all of the general surveillance out there, the only place PK was captured was when sending the package?

But the thing is, why NOT release them (surveillance of Philip dropping off package)?
It just seems strange not to, and in most missing persons cases the last known footage is released to the public.

Are cameras at the exit/entrance points to the Emergency Vehicle Access points to Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park and were they checked?

Any cameras we can find have been checked, that includes anything close to these access points. There's still a few areas we're trying to track down cameras but overwhelmingly either cameras 1) don't point anywhere useful or (2) don't function at all or (3) only activate on motion which may not pick up most passersby or (4) signs exist but no cameras actually exist. The volunteers in charge of footage have maps of what houses etc. we've visited and asked and which have footage etc. RE(3) sometimes camera owners insist their camera still records 24/7 and can't possibly miss a thing and yet we've gone back and shown neither of these statements to be true.

Was the property around 9104 Longview searched where the Augustin Bernal Park entrance is at the top of the cul de sac (Augustin Bernal is the city park that accesses the EBRPD Pleasanton Ridge Park)?

Not sure why this specific house would matter (other than the community trail that passes through it) but yes we sent searchers through there. IIRC that's also close to where multiple people spotted a light-blue balloon and kept sending us back insisting they'd seen running shorts. As far as locations go though this one is outside of both the primary and secondary search radiuses.

Any subsequent thoughts to whether you think Philip was seen near the Arroyo Mocho trail near Santa Rita Rd across from the Walmart Neighborhood Market store that evening on Saturday July 10th?

I've seen a lot of fast-looking shirtless runners around Pleasanton the past few weeks crossing streets. Still surprised we only got one of these reports (though we've started getting reports more recently literally along the lines of "I saw this dude running today, think it's him?" which isn't useful.)

Was there any validity to the report I read that a woman saw a man running under a bridge in/near the park, seemingly in distress? (maybe this ties in with the Walmart sighting)

This is just a confused version of the sighting near the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Where did the dogs lose Philip's scent? I've read it was near a water tank off of Moller Ranch Dr. Is that accurate?

There's a trailhead where three paths split off from the access road to the water-tower. This is the location the scent was lost. There's at least 6 good explanations for why the scent was lost there, most of which include (importantly) the very-likely (and not-unexpected) possibility that it simply wasn't his scent at all.

Have the water tanks been searched?

I can't say whether the ones near Moller Ranch were. He'd have needed to have scaled a high fence with razor-wire to access it and then the top hatch would have needed to have been unlocked...

The smaller tanks we've found around the area have been poked and prodded and looked into if open-able (generally not able to be opened).

If the sighting near a Walmart where the individual appeared ready to cross a multi-lane highway was PK, what else is in that immediate area?

Several long trails including the Iron Horse and Arroyo. The Iron Horse trail is something Philip would have known and could have used to navigate home in theory, though it disappears often in that section and winds a good bit. We checked for trail footage but got nothing useful, property owners generally seem to respect the privacy of folks on trails and that's a good thing.

Are there trains heading out? Could he have crawled inside a freight car?

No.

Was the shirt that was found in PK's car the same one he wore on Friday night? And why is it assumed that PK was "probably" shirtless when he ran?

Same shirt, which is also the same shirt he's seen on camera in earlier that morning, which is why the "probably shirtless" assumption is there and so strong. Personally, I've never run with Phil when he was shirtless, even on Diablo when it was hot and others did take their shirts off, so early on when I did not have the info that it was the same shirt I felt he'd have had a shirt. His wife, another close running friend (from an earlier era of his life) and his dad have all seen him run shirtless (his dad felt it was more typical when he ran alone). Given it was the same shirt as the night before I too now assume he was very likely shirtless.

Do you know what the temperature was in the park at the time of Philip's run? I tried to find this info on some weather sites but wasn't able to. I'm asking because I live about 30 miles from Pleasanton Ridge Park, so I experience basically the same climate. When I see references to running in 107 degree heat or some such, I know that can't be true. 107 degrees was reportedly the highest temperature for that location on 7/10.

I answered this elsewhere on this forum in more depth, but TL;DR regardless of what it actually was when he started running it was enough to get him in trouble, and the longer he was out there the more trouble it would have been. It was definitely a minimum of 25-30 degrees hotter than he was used to running in at the start and potentially 45-55 degrees hotter as the day progressed.

Do you think offering a reward for information will help find him?

No idea. Generally from what I've heard in the past rewards for info don't help much if any.

One thing I'm really puzzled by probably cannot be answered, but I will put it back out there: with all of the general surveillance out there, the only place PK was captured was when sending the package?

Seems to be, yes. But this isn't super surprising, he went straight from drop-off to trailhead and if he started his run from the trail at the trailhead as we think he did then there isn't a single camera that would have seen him unless he exited the park.

But the thing is, why NOT release them (surveillance of Philip dropping off package)?
It just seems strange not to, and in most missing persons cases the last known footage is released to the public.

I can't answer why neither Alameda Sheriff's office nor PPD has released this. But as I mentioned before, I don't think it's useful considering the photos from the night before are the same outfit and much higher quality than that video would be: that is, other than for armchair sleuths who want every bit of info first-hand for themselves regardless of whether they'll come put boots on the ground

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Easy to figure out but not easy to get up unless you have multiple gate codes and keys. Only truly feasible one is Santos Ranch Road and even there the gate code was non functional most of the search cause the call box was broken. Also Fwiw at this point he’d have to run most his route through the same hot conditions… and that area is outside of SAR’s primary search zone that we’ve covered more densely so if he did make it over there for any reason there’s still a lot of gaps.

There’s so many gaps still to fill in our search of the park. People, even *ahem* sometimes overly ambitious police, that want to think we’ve covered this place so densely we couldn’t have missed something simply aren’t talking with SAR or us or studying the data. The amount of places he could still be, even within very heavily searched areas, is still very high.

I agree the Santos Ranch Rd way to bail out of there would have been the way out via a paved road. Plus there are a few houses there at the top next to the monster sized transmission towers.

What I was referring to about easy to figure out is their Fire and Public Safety access diagram to Pleasanton Ridge park where it looks like they even have the Gate Codes listed https://www.ebparks.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=29796

It is hard to read unless you zoom into it so it is at 125 percent.

There are so many potential exit points through that I wonder if the newspapers were correct when they said all exit points were checked. The diagram above has quite a few that I did not even know about.

 

[runspired]

Agree. And these things need to happen.
LE must confirm the footprint, and they must release the parcel store footage. I can't understand the reason it hasn't already happened.

There's nothing for them to confirm. The prints are a clear match to the shoe's he's believed to be wearing (fwiw PPD sent SAR back out because of that match), but being a clear match does not prove they are his. There's lots of evidence to strongly suggest they are his, but as with all footprints you simply can't prove a specific print goes to a specific person unless you have video evidence of that person standing on that spot leaving that print.

I'm happy to go into all the reasons why I believe those prints are Philip's:

- PPD, EBRPPD, EBRP Maintenance, and SAR do not wear shoes that would match.
- only five volunteer searchers were there that night on the trails, two of whom were biking and not wearing trail shoes, 1 runner whom never ascended the ridge and wasn't wearing that shoe, and the last two of whom were myself and Scott. Neither of us was wearing a shoe that would match that print even a little.
- the conditions up there tend to destroy prints in a few days, but these were clear and fresh. This was especially true prior to this search massively increasing the amount of foot/bike/vehicle this section of the park sees (generally it's a not-much used portion of the park). Areas that were baked solid and wouldn't retain prints back on July 10th have now loosened up a layer of dustier soil from all the trodding.
- the prints are roughly the right size (close to my own foot size was my recollection, I didn't know this then but we only differ by a half to a single full-size depending on pair)
- the prints are in an expected location and direction
- the prints are in an expected placement on the trail for his style (an inside corner of a turn)
- as mentioned before, this part of the park sees little traffic even on non-hot days. From what we can tell even the typically-busy sections of the park saw hardly anyone in them that day. We know this from reconstructed strava data as well as from eye-witness accounts from the southern and middle portions of the park between 7am and 2pm. I suspect the total volume of non-search traffic for 7/10 for the entire park for the full duration of the day was less than 40 people biker/hiker/runner combined, and overwhelmingly most of those were much further south. We've confirmed 7 people either through all-trails/strava data or their having come forward, only one of whom saw a single other person.
- his shoe isn't super common, especially for more serious trail runners, and given the conditions and location I'd be very surprised if anyone but a serious trail runner was going to be over there that day.

Basically, it seems to me like it'd be a crazy long-shot for not-one but two people to have been wearing that shoe in that park with the same intended trail and direction that day.

 

[runspired]

I agree the Santos Ranch Rd way to bail out of there would have been the way out via a paved road. Plus there are a few houses there at the top next to the monster sized transmission towers.

What I was referring to about easy to figure out is their Fire and Public Safety access diagram to Pleasanton Ridge park where it looks like they even have the Gate Codes listed https://www.ebparks.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=29796

It is hard to read unless you zoom into it so it is at 125 percent.

There are so many potential exit points through that I wonder if the newspapers were correct when they said all exit points were checked.

That's an interesting map, but it only lists gate codes for Santos and Tehan, and those are for the private-residence gates not the park's gates (which are key'd). The Santos code is also no-longer correct (plus that callbox was broken).

 

[runspired]

That's an interesting map, but it only lists gate codes for Santos and Tehan, and those are for the private-residence gates not the park's gates (which are key'd). The Santos code is also no-longer correct (plus that callbox was broken).

I'll also note that for Tehan there are 3 park gates after that residence gate you'd need keys for, where for Santos you can get to where it meets North Ridge Trail before needing a park gate key.

I'd discourage anyone from trying to go up Santos Ranch Road without letting the park know (which we've been doing), you may find yourself confronted with yet-another testy neighbor-rifle situation.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

That's an interesting map, but it only lists gate codes for Santos and Tehan, and those are for the private-residence gates not the park's gates (which are key'd). The Santos code is also no-longer correct (plus that callbox was broken).

Also the map shows a Morgan Dr in "The Preserve" as an access point and I don't think Morgan Dr exists. Their map may not be 100% correct.

 

[annpats]

Same shirt, which is also the same shirt he's seen on camera in earlier that morning

Well, that's cleared up what he was wearing to the parcel store. He was wearing his running gear to drop off his package in Oakland. There were initial reports he wasn't.

 

[runspired]

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To answer the witness question, simply put there isn't a reliable one. There is an individual who has made claims that were checked into about there potentially being additional cars in the lot, and who failed to notice the Prius. But this individual also wandered over to try to chat us up nightly for a week before starting to say these things, and also clearly confuses or invents things while talking to us on a daily basis. We've got evidence there was at least one other car in that lot around the time Philip arrived, that car has been tracked down by PPD and the person interviewed, it was a dead-end.

 

[runspired]

Also the map shows a Morgan Dr in "The Preserve" as an access point and I don't think Morgan Dr exists. Their map may not be 100% correct.

That would be blessing drive. It is an access but requires PG&E key + Park gate keys for 2 park gates.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

That would be blessing drive. It is an access but requires PG&E key + Park gate keys for 2 park gates.

You are right. I think that EBRPD made a mistake labeling it for some reason.

If Philip made it through the Mariposa trail, when he got to the North Ridge trail, do you think he would have turned north to try to get back to his car and try to complete the loop or do you think he would have turned south on the North Ridge trail to try to make it to the Water listed on the Pleasanton Ridge park map? Do you think he would have tried to reach Santos Ranch Rd by going south? Do you know if an EBRPD map of Pleasanton Ridge was found in his car?

 

[MichelleAntonia]

To answer the witness question, simply put there isn't a reliable one. There is an individual who has made claims that were checked into about there potentially being additional cars in the lot, and who failed to notice the Prius. But this individual also wandered over to try to chat us up nightly for a week before starting to say these things, and also clearly confuses or invents things while talking to us on a daily basis. We've got evidence there was at least one other car in that lot around the time Philip arrived, that car has been tracked down by PPD and the person interviewed, it was a dead-end.

That kind of behavior is certainly cause to believe the witness is unreliable.

Have LE checked the traffic cams on Foothill/Laurel Creek intersection?

Has there been any reason to check the cams or parking lots further south on Foothill, where there's another staging area and trailhead, past the high school? (I forget the name of it, it's been a while since I've been there).

 

[runspired]

You are right. I think that EBRPD made a mistake labeling it for some reason.

If Philip made it through the Mariposa trail, when he got to the North Ridge trail, do you think he would have turned north to try to get back to his car and try to complete the loop or do you think he would have turned south on the North Ridge trail to try to make it to the Water listed on the Pleasanton Ridge park map? Do you think he would have tried to reach Santos Ranch Rd by going south? Do you know if an EBRPD map of Pleasanton Ridge was found in his car?

It's unlikely he had a paper map: that trailhead doesn't offer them. If he knew about the spigot it would have been from looking at maps the night before/morning of on his phone. We don't have his phone and thus as volunteers don't have his phone browsing history (though PPD would), his desktop browsing history while it has a number of things of interest for how his morning developed (like determining where to drop off a return and how to return the item he was returning) doesn't show any searches for things about the park.

We're looking at search radiuses that start from both car and the footprints. The radius from the car is well searched by both volunteers and SAR, that's not to say something wasn't missed (still plenty of miscibility in there), but the radius from the footprint locations has not been as thoroughly combed yet and we're working on that now. Part of the reason for the search not having turned more south/southwest/west is the existence of that fountain: if he turned south and stays on trails there's a decent chance he comes across that fountain.

 

[Sillybilly]

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