Found Deceased CO - Kevin Rudnicki, 20, hiker, Mount Herman, Pike National Forest, 3 Sep 2018

PalmerLakeAnon, my sincere condolences to you and your family right now. I'm relieved you were able to find your brother. That had to be extremely tough as well.

I agree with Trackergd, perhaps SAR might be your calling. Many SAR folks got started in that line of work because they lost a family member themselves. There are of course many missions where the missing person is located, then of course others where the outcome is heartbreaking.

Take care
 
My sincere condolences to you and your family. I just can't even express my admiration and respect for your strength and determination, Andrew and KevinsMom. All the best - peace and love to you.
 
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I found Kevin on the forest floor laying on the ground under a tree. Just by what the scene looked like, there is no way he fell, inflicted injury on himself, or was attacked by an animal or human. It looked like he stuck his backpack under a tree nearby, then probably took something, then laid down on the ground. None of the bones were broken, according to the coroner upon first examination at the scene. Of course, the coroner must do their official work on his remains, but we are near certain he committed suicide. We just don't know how.
did he seem suicidal prior to going missing? maybe he just got a bad batch of something, or something he took interacted with something else he took. csi should be able to test his backpack for traces of anything that could have caused him to lose consciousness. Only a short distance from the trail, I'm surprised he wasn't found earlier, but glad he was found.
 
did he seem suicidal prior to going missing? maybe he just got a bad batch of something, or something he took interacted with something else he took. csi should be able to test his backpack for traces of anything that could have caused him to lose consciousness. Only a short distance from the trail, I'm surprised he wasn't found earlier, but glad he was found.
He did have a lot of suicidal thoughts and ideas leading up to this. Hopefully, someday, we will know the results of toxicology on his remains, but I'm not even sure it tests for the drug he was known to be experimenting or that one can overdose on it (It is like a derivative of Psylocin or psychadelic mushrooms) - he certainly could have laid down to trip out, fell asleep and passed away due to exposure.
It is indeed maddening that he was not found sooner as the search dog alerted the way, but I think Kevin's brother went looking as soon as he really could, bless his heart.
I think about Kevin and his mom all the time. He touched a lot of hearts - I hope he knows that now.
 
I had been following Kevin's case in the early days, but just now am finding out that he has been located.

While this is such sad news, what a profound testament of a brother's love. He brought his Mother's son home to her.

As we all grieve with you, I will always remember your pure love for Kevin and wish you much love and peace. We welcome you both to remain a part of our Websleuth's community. Emma
 
I had been following Kevin's case in the early days, but just now am finding out that he has been located.

While this is such sad news, what a profound testament of a brother's love. He brought his Mother's son home to her.

As we all grieve with you, I will always remember your pure love for Kevin and wish you much love and peace. We welcome you both to remain a part of our Websleuth's community. Emma

This beautifully expresses my feelings. Wish I could LIKE it a thousand times.
 
I had been following Kevin's case in the early days, but just now am finding out that he has been located.

While this is such sad news, what a profound testament of a brother's love. He brought his Mother's son home to her.

As we all grieve with you, I will always remember your pure love for Kevin and wish you much love and peace. We welcome you both to remain a part of our Websleuth's community. Emma

This^^^^

bigstock-Pink-love-key-25699595.jpg
 
I found Kevin on the forest floor laying on the ground under a tree. Just by what the scene looked like, there is no way he fell, inflicted injury on himself, or was attacked by an animal or human. It looked like he stuck his backpack under a tree nearby, then probably took something, then laid down on the ground. None of the bones were broken, according to the coroner upon first examination at the scene. Of course, the coroner must do their official work on his remains, but we are near certain he committed suicide. We just don't know how.
Man i just now heard of this case from a YT video on the missing in our national parks/lands and seeing this info just breaks my heart, I was so hoping he would be found alive. I cannot imagine seeing something like that let alone a friend or family member. I am truly so sorry...
 
Man i just now heard of this case from a YT video on the missing in our national parks/lands and seeing this info just breaks my heart, I was so hoping he would be found alive. I cannot imagine seeing something like that let alone a friend or family member. I am truly so sorry...
What is the link to the video?
 
What is the link to the video?
You cross my mind often! I hope you understand just how amazing and rare what you accomplished was. But the flip side of that is I hope you are doing ok. I can imagine the weight of all this is very heavy. I dont have info about the video (hopefully they respond), but I just wanted to tell you that you have been on my mind.
 
What is the link to the video?

Here is the link:

In case this video is deleted, it is labeled, "Ten More Strangest National Park Disappearances", on Youtube.

You need to go to 18:35 to see Kevin's segment of this video. He is listed as #1 of the 10 missing people.

ETA: Mods, I hope this is okay to post.
 
The fact that this is the same area of TW's murder is giving me a really bad feeling about this. I am following a couple other missing hiker cases, and those seem (IMO) to be most likely that the person was hurt or turned around or fell, etc. and that is why they have not been found. But I worry there is something more nefarious going on here. Again just MOO but it seems odd to have a murder occur and then in the very same area almost exactly a year later another outdoorsperson goes missing.

Very interested in the other hikers you are looking into. I'm a C Springs local that's been diving into this rabbit hole and if you have any information, I would really like to sit down and compare notes. If you are, can I DM you and exchange numbers?
 
Very interested in the other hikers you are looking into. I'm a C Springs local that's been diving into this rabbit hole and if you have any information, I would really like to sit down and compare notes. If you are, can I DM you and exchange numbers?
Maurice Dametz. Missing since April 1981 near Devil's Head. Look him up, I found the case interesting... He is the only other person who has gone missing in the same general area that I know of (and has never been found). I have been pursuing this and searched the area a bit over the summer. I have been out of state for months now, but when I return to CO in November, I will continue this. Yes, its been about 40 years, but the search area is far smaller that that of for Kevin. Maybe we could start a thread on this guy...
 
I'm back. I've been looking into the Dametz case trying to make some progress on that one, with the hopes that my fresh eyes could see some details I had missed previously. So I decided to do the same with Kevin's case; the month of September brings back that "nostalgia," so I occasionally come back and read through this board. Your messages since we found him are very kind, we really do appreciate them. But low and behold, some details now stand out to me that I think we previously took for granted.

The main thing is where the SAR dogs picked up Kevin's scent: remember that one scent trail led searchers up Limbaugh Canyon, over to Mt. Herman road, then down the road into the Monument Preserve before ending. The other big one led us from the PLS up to Balanced Rock road, then up the road for some distance before turning down into a gully. These two paths led in opposite directions to different parts of the forest, plus on each path, there were other "hits" nearby. Remember, the Limbaugh Canyon path was so convincing that almost all of our searching was directed in the Mt Herman-Limbaugh Canyon area. After finding Kevin along the Balanced Rock path, in a totally different part of the forest, I then wrote off the Limbaugh Canyon scent trail as a false positive; the dogs were just wrong, or that maybe they were following an old scent trail left by Kevin from previous times he hiked or ran that particular route. However, looking back on it, he hadn't been in town for months prior to his disappearance, and given the terrain of this scent trail, there would be no way it lingered around for months with all of the wind, rain and snow the area receives. In other words, the dogs legitimately believed they were following a path Kevin took on 2 September 2018.

I understand dogs being unable to detect scents that are there, but do they really give false positives? Let alone multiple false positives in the same vicinity? Looking back on it, this detail bothers me.
 

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