CO CO - Jaryd Atadero, 3, Comanche Peak, 2 Oct 1999

I was reading through some Reddit threads and came across this case. The first post of that thread has all the relevant links and thorough information if you're interested.

This case was closed back in 2003 but Jaryd's father (Allyn) maintains that foul play was involved in his son's death. He doesn't believe he was attacked by an animal (assumed to be a mountain lion).

Allyn's two children were accompanied by ten adults on a hike to a nearby lake. They departed from the lodge that Allyn owned and he knew the adults. He didn't go with them but gave the group permission to go to a nearby lake. For some reason, they decided to hike towards a lake that was farther away. During the hike, they broke down into two groups and Jaryd was most likely running between them. At some point, he broke off and the rest of the adults lost him.

Two fishermen reported that they came across Jaryd and he asked them if they were in bear country. They told him yes and he continued on, this was the last verified sighting of him. This encounter sounds odd since seeing a three-year old alone on the trails would probably raise some alarms for the witnesses but I guess they assumed that his group was nearby.

A five day search yielded no results and it wasn't until June of 2003, when something was discovered. They found some clothing that was identified as his. A week later, they found parts of a skull cap and a tooth. Allyn is heavily critical of the investigation that took place and he has some disputes with the conclusions made.

I haven't read his book but going off of the information available online, I think this was a tragic accident. I don't think foul play was involved but if there was, hopefully Allyn can uncover the truth behind his son's death.

The podcast with Allyn is available for free on iTunes, part of the True Murder series.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/true-murder-most-shocking/id393525078?mt=2

Partial Remains Of Missing Littleton Boy Found

Shredded Clothes Tell Sad Story
 
Jaryd's father has been interviewed for the upcoming Missing 411 movie/ documentary, by David Paulides. He maintains that there was foul play involved in his son's death. He said that Jaryd's shoes were too clean to have been outside for 3.5 years, his trousers were found inside out, his tooth was found placed on a log, no blood was found on any of the clothes and authorities never told him what kind of animal the light coloured hairs found on Jaryd's jacket were from.
 
Jaryd's father has been interviewed for the upcoming Missing 411 movie/ documentary, by David Paulides. He maintains that there was foul play involved in his son's death. He said that Jaryd's shoes were too clean to have been outside for 3.5 years, his trousers were found inside out, his tooth was found placed on a log, no blood was found on any of the clothes and authorities never told him what kind of animal the light coloured hairs found on Jaryd's jacket were from.
I have read somewhere ;-) that the official explanation for Jaryd's disappearance is mountain lion attack, and yet there was no blood found on poor Jaryd's chewed up clothing or anywhere else, for that matter. Has there ever been an explanation for the lack of blood evidence?
 
I have read somewhere ;-) that the official explanation for Jaryd's disappearance is mountain lion attack, and yet there was no blood found on poor Jaryd's chewed up clothing or anywhere else, for that matter. Has there ever been an explanation for the lack of blood evidence?

Wouldn't four years of rain wash out any blood? I would think so anyhow.
 
Wouldn't four years of rain wash out any blood? I would think so anyhow.

Nope it's so dry out there that organic matter doesn't deteriorate. Even in a washing machine, you'd be hard pressed to remove all traces of blood.
 
Do we know for sure that no blood was ever detected on the clothing? From a source other than Jaryd's father or Paulides supporters, I mean. A father who has been eaten up by grief and guilt for years may not have the best understanding or recollection of such details. Would we be able to get hold of a copy of the report from the Colorado Beauteau of Investigation, or would it be confidential?

Would bacteria, molds and insects be able to consume the blood? The sweater looks like it is make of artificial fleece material IMO so it wouldn't rot away, but perhaps and blood on the material would? And what about the affect of sunshine on the blood...

I think that to actually come to an *informed* decision on this case, we will have to do some research :) Is it possible for clothing to be shredded by a Mountain Lion but not have any blood on them? And is it unusual for test on clothes sitting in a forest for several years to fail to find any blood, when in fact they did originally have blood on them.

Body farms research this type of thing, I'll have quick look and see if they've published any papers about whether blood can be detected on clothes after several years out in the elements.

Also, is it possible that Jaryd took his sweater off before he was attacked? How about his other clothes? I know that people suffering from hypothermia often paradoxically remove all their clothes, but would a toddler of Jaryd's age even have been able to undress by himself?
 
Do we know for sure that no blood was ever detected on the clothing? From a source other than Jaryd's father or Paulides supporters, I mean. A father who has been eaten up by grief and guilt for years may not have the best understanding or recollection of such details. Would we be able to get hold of a copy of the report from the Colorado Beauteau of Investigation, or would it be confidential?

Would bacteria, molds and insects be able to consume the blood? The sweater looks like it is make of artificial fleece material IMO so it wouldn't rot away, but perhaps and blood on the material would? And what about the affect of sunshine on the blood...

I think that to actually come to an *informed* decision on this case, we will have to do some research :) Is it possible for clothing to be shredded by a Mountain Lion but not have any blood on them? And is it unusual for test on clothes sitting in a forest for several years to fail to find any blood, when in fact they did originally have blood on them.

Body farms research this type of thing, I'll have quick look and see if they've published any papers about whether blood can be detected on clothes after several years out in the elements.

Also, is it possible that Jaryd took his sweater off before he was attacked? How about his other clothes? I know that people suffering from hypothermia often paradoxically remove all their clothes, but would a toddler of Jaryd's age even have been able to undress by himself?

Would a toddler of this age have 1) approached strangers and then 2) asked if this was bear country (I assume he might have rather said "are there bears here?".

I completely remember this case and cannot believe it happened in 1999! It feels like only a few years ago. I've seen the Missing 411 idea mentioned here a few times but haven't really looked into it. What is the idea behind it? What does he suggest is happening in the wilderness? I'm off to search but I'm going to assume it is that there are people preying on unsuspecting visitors to the wilderness?
 
Would a toddler of this age have 1) approached strangers and then 2) asked if this was bear country (I assume he might have rather said "are there bears here?".

I completely remember this case and cannot believe it happened in 1999! It feels like only a few years ago. I've seen the Missing 411 idea mentioned here a few times but haven't really looked into it. What is the idea behind it? What does he suggest is happening in the wilderness? I'm off to search but I'm going to assume it is that there are people preying on unsuspecting visitors to the wilderness?

He won't say what he thinks is causing the disappearances but he implies that it must be some kind of supernatural phenomenon. He is a big Bigfoot believer (he founded the North American Bigfoot Search organisation), and also a believer in extraterrestrials. And he thinks there is a government cover-up. I don't want to get too off-topic in Jaryd's thread, but we have a thread to discuss Paulides and the Missing 411 Books here:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...issing-411-People-Vanishing-in-National-Parks
 
He won't say what he thinks is causing the disappearances but he implies that it must be some kind of supernatural phenomenon. He is a big Bigfoot believer (he founded the North American Bigfoot Search organisation), and also a believer in extraterrestrials. And he thinks there is a government cover-up. I don't want to get too off-topic in Jaryd's thread, but we have a thread to discuss Paulides and the Missing 411 Books here:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...issing-411-People-Vanishing-in-National-Parks

Ohhhh. This explains the question regarding the unidentified hairs.

And what i think happened? A terrible person took him, did XYZ, and then returned his things to the area years later when they were done marveling their work. Obviously the tooth and shoes should have been covered and damaged from weather. The sweatshirt seems to have been chewed by a dog. And I don't like thinking about the pants. A person removed the clothing though. Not an animal. I could maybe get on board with the Big Foot theory if I'm in a dreamland kind of mood, but I really think it's more viable that a really bad person living in the area saw something they wanted and took him. :(
 
What do you find puzzling, in particular? :)

The cleanliness of the shoes, the inside out pants, the fact that he was alone didn't see troubling to those fisherman (if that even happened) - basically everything that's been brought up in this thread so far. I don't buy Paulides bigfoot theories, but I do think LE dropped the ball on this one. The mountain lion attack theory makes no sense to me.
 
June 11th, 2003:
Testing on the clothes, which do not have visual signs of blood, could take weeks. Forensic experts said that the clothing has been exposed to the elements for more than three years, which will make their job much more difficult.

"Where you have an outside garment, you've got the weather, you've got wind, you've got moisture, humidity, heat, the sun. They're working to degrade or to break down any DNA that may be found on a garment," said Ron Arndt with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation...
[Sheriff Jim] Alderden said the condition of the clothes made it appear that some sort of a predator, like a bear or mountain lion, killed Atadero. He also pointed to dark and light hairs on the pullover that the Colorado Bureau of Investigtion will analyze. Jaryd's hair was dark, so investigators want to know if the hairs can be identified.
Archived at http://www.unforgottenchildren.com/jarydatadero.html

October 25th, 2003

DNA tests revealed Friday that there is an 88.6 percent probability that part of a skull fragment found June 4 west of Fort Collins matched that of the 3-year-old boy who was lost during a hike in 1999.

``I'm sure that all concerned would have liked a more definitive answer,'' said Jim Alderden, Larimer County sheriff.

``We recognize that the DNA was significantly degraded, having been exposed to the elements as long as it was,'' he said. ``However, considering the results from the DNA tests, and the positive identification of the clothing, we are convinced that the remains are those of Jaryd Atadero.
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109455502.html
 
The cleanliness of the shoes, the inside out pants, the fact that he was alone didn't see troubling to those fisherman (if that even happened) - basically everything that's been brought up in this thread so far. I don't buy Paulides bigfoot theories, but I do think LE dropped the ball on this one. The mountain lion attack theory makes no sense to me.

I agree. As a mother of 3 kids who "forget" their shoes outside regularly, there is no way that shoe has been outside for 3.5 years much less 3.5 weeks.
 
I don't know... The shoes could have been all synthetic material, which wouldn't rot or grow mould. They might have been in a sheltered spot, or they might have been washed by the rain and bleached by the sun.

What's the alternative? Someone abducted and killed Jaryd, kept his clothes and shoes clean indoors for 3.5 years, and then went and put then in a fairly difficult to reach spot in the forest? The searchers said they had to scramble up on their hands and knees to get to the spot.

And they also placed one tooth and part of Jaryd's skull fairly nearby... So what did they do with the rest of the body? Maybe they disposed of the rest, but broke upnthe skull so they could keep the skull cap as a sort of trophy, but then decided to go and put it in the forest instead.
 

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