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

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zecats said:
Again, his mom’s Facebook page states he’s still missing. No other info except she perhaps just married a man named Bill. Her profile photo has changed to a wedding and she expresses mixed feelings at having that instead of Kevin.

ETA others posting prayers for his return recently as 5 days ago.
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Well that is interesting.
 
I am Andrew Rudnicki, Kevin's younger brother. I just found this board and was amazed with how this conversation has continued for this long, thus inspiring me to join and share ALL I know:

I, like Kevin, became extremely familiar with the area west of Palmer Lake, in the Pike National Forest over the last several years. For the first week of the search, I recommended places for the SAR to prioritize as well as led some smaller search parties to specific areas. After that week, I returned to school in Golden, but still remained active, making maps of areas searched and recommending other priorities based on known clues. If you have seen these maps on Facebook or on other social media, they were probably made by me.

I will thus begin posting here what I have learned over the last two months and what I have already known about Kevin, with hope that our collaborations can lead us to new insights.
Please ask questions, I am very happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
 
PalmerLakeAnon said:
I am Andrew Rudnicki, Kevin's younger brother. I just found this board and was amazed with how this conversation has continued for this long, thus inspiring me to join and share ALL I know:

I, like Kevin, became extremely familiar with the area west of Palmer Lake, in the Pike National Forest over the last several years. For the first week of the search, I recommended places for the SAR to prioritize as well as led some smaller search parties to specific areas. After that week, I returned to school in Golden, but still remained active, making maps of areas searched and recommending other priorities based on known clues. If you have seen these maps on Facebook or on other social media, they were probably made by me.

I will thus begin posting here what I have learned over the last two months and what I have already known about Kevin, with hope that our collaborations can lead us to new insights.
Please ask questions, I am very happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
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Welcome to WS and I’m sorry that you and your family find yourself in this unknown world
 
PalmerLakeAnon said:
I am Andrew Rudnicki, Kevin's younger brother. I just found this board and was amazed with how this conversation has continued for this long, thus inspiring me to join and share ALL I know:

I, like Kevin, became extremely familiar with the area west of Palmer Lake, in the Pike National Forest over the last several years. For the first week of the search, I recommended places for the SAR to prioritize as well as led some smaller search parties to specific areas. After that week, I returned to school in Golden, but still remained active, making maps of areas searched and recommending other priorities based on known clues. If you have seen these maps on Facebook or on other social media, they were probably made by me.

I will thus begin posting here what I have learned over the last two months and what I have already known about Kevin, with hope that our collaborations can lead us to new insights.
Please ask questions, I am very happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
Click to expand...
Welcome to Websleuths Andrew. I, for one, am happy to see someone speaking about Kevin again and what has been done to find him. It's difficult when a case such as this goes cold for lack of info. I'm sorry for the situation you and your family find yourselves in. I'd be happy to hear your insights and what (if any) new info you have to add.

And, you probably should consider getting yourself verified as an insider. At least check into it so that any of your posts can be taken as fact due to your inside relationship and not end up potentially getting deleted. Here is a link to help you with that:

Verification Process for Professional or Insider Posters
 
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zecats said:
Welcome to Websleuths Andrew. I, for one, am happy to see someone speaking about Kevin again and what has been done to find him. It's difficult when a case such as this goes cold for lack of info. I'm sorry for the situation you and your family find yourselves in. I'd be happy to hear your insights and what (if any) new info you have to add.

And, you probably should consider getting yourself verified as an insider. At least check into it so that any of your posts can be taken as fact due to your inside relationship and not end up potentially getting deleted. Here is a link to help you with that:

Verification Process for Professional or Insider Posters
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. I will certainly follow this process.
 
Kevin is a danger to himself, and thus the family was in extra distress upon learning of his disappearance. Of course, any family member of a missing person would be saddened, but from the beginning, we were extremely concerned with Kevin's motive. From day 1 of the search, the main issue has been determining the motive: whether he ran away, was attacked by someone or an animal, or took his own life. Understanding why he disappeared would have provided some direction as to where to search.

I will post more relating to this once I have been completely verified. This information has not been mentioned in the MSM.
 
PalmerLakeAnon said:
Kevin is a danger to himself, and thus the family was in extra distress upon learning of his disappearance. Of course, any family member of a missing person would be saddened, but from the beginning, we were extremely concerned with Kevin's motive. From day 1 of the search, the main issue has been determining the motive: whether he ran away, was attacked by someone or an animal, or took his own life. Understanding why he disappeared would have provided some direction as to where to search.

I will post more relating to this once I have been completely verified. This information has not been mentioned in the MSM.
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Welcome to WS and thank you for sharing your point of view. I wish you and your family alot of strength in this difficult time and will be looking forward to your posts.
ETA I was always wondering if there could be more to this than Kevin 'just ' getting lost on a trail.
 
Attached is a map of the clues we found in the search. Although this information has not been posted by the MSM, it is known by locals who participated in the search, many others know second-hand.

The thin red lines are trails and the thick lines are forest roads. The cyan line is where we know Kevin hiked, based on where he was last seen. The two other blue lines are paths that search dogs led SAR along. I must note that I don't exactly know where the light blue path on the bottom right actually begins, though I know it went through Limbaugh Canyon, up to Mt Herman Rd, and abruptly ended near the Monument Hotshot Center. At a point several yards off the trail across the creek in the canyon, a pair of sunglasses that looked like Kevin's were found. Also, an empty vial with a syrup-like residue inside was also found. A local also noticed a boot print in the mud headed off the trail, near where the sunglasses and vial were found. I marked spots where dogs picked up a scent with "hit." There may be more hits that I didn't hear about, but the ones I know about for sure are marked.
 

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Was the vial tested and do you know what was in it? Is that something he would normally take with him on a hike? Does the probable path (based off of last seen and scent trails) seem like a usual hike he would do? Or is there any significance to it?

Thank you for joining. I hope your family can get answers and find your brother.
 
MFH said:
Was the vial tested and do you know what was in it? Is that something he would normally take with him on a hike? Does the probable path (based off of last seen and scent trails) seem like a usual hike he would do? Or is there any significance to it?

Thank you for joining. I hope your family can get answers and find your brother.
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To my knowledge, the vial was not tested. I will give more detail on that later.

The path we know Kevin took is the standard route into Limbaugh Canyon from Palmer Lake. Plus, based on the time he was last seen and the time he left home, we know this was likely his path.

It is my understanding that Kevin would usually stay on the trail, but he would occasionally bushwhack (I don't really know since I never actually hiked with him). In fact, the map I have been using of all the trails was made by him. If he was in fact trying to run away and elude SAR, then he would certainly not stay on the trails. Knowing this, I cannot really determine if these paths would be unusual; he would pretty much go everywhere on his hikes. The odd part to me is how the dogs followed a scent down the road before suddenly losing it. We wonder if he got in a car. In addition, we find it strange how the places the dogs found scent were so wide-spread. If he was hiking Limbaugh Canyon, why did a dog get a scent by the reservoirs? I've been looking at this map for a long time, and I still cannot really piece together a usual path based on the evidence.

We do believe that Kevin's disappearance was intentional. He may have tried to hike in a fashion that would mislead searchers. Kevin usually wore bright colors when hiking. This time, he was wearing a dark green shirt and khaki shorts. He had a jacket, but to my knowledge, it was black and had no reflectors. It seems as though he was trying to blend in with the forest to make it harder to find him. To us, the main question is whether or not he is back in the forest at all.
 
PalmerLakeAnon said:
To my knowledge, the vial was not tested. I will give more detail on that later.

The path we know Kevin took is the standard route into Limbaugh Canyon from Palmer Lake. Plus, based on the time he was last seen and the time he left home, we know this was likely his path.

It is my understanding that Kevin would usually stay on the trail, but he would occasionally bushwhack (I don't really know since I never actually hiked with him). In fact, the map I have been using of all the trails was made by him. If he was in fact trying to run away and elude SAR, then he would certainly not stay on the trails. Knowing this, I cannot really determine if these paths would be unusual; he would pretty much go everywhere on his hikes. The odd part to me is how the dogs followed a scent down the road before suddenly losing it. We wonder if he got in a car. In addition, we find it strange how the places the dogs found scent were so wide-spread. If he was hiking Limbaugh Canyon, why did a dog get a scent by the reservoirs? I've been looking at this map for a long time, and I still cannot really piece together a usual path based on the evidence.

We do believe that Kevin's disappearance was intentional. He may have tried to hike in a fashion that would mislead searchers. Kevin usually wore bright colors when hiking. This time, he was wearing a dark green shirt and khaki shorts. He had a jacket, but to my knowledge, it was black and had no reflectors. It seems as though he was trying to blend in with the forest to make it harder to find him. To us, the main question is whether or not he is back in the forest at all.
Click to expand...
I agree that the scent suddenly stopping along the road is odd. Would he have had anyone in his life that would have helped him disappear? That could have given him a ride away from there? This may be too personal, but was he trying to get away from someone/something or was he just more depressed seeming? I am wondering if the family is leaning more to the possibility that he went out there to end his life or the possibility that he went out there to hide out/get away/intentionally go missing.
 
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