WA WA - Samantha Sayers, 28, Vesper Peak, North Cascades, 1 August 2018 #2

I was following your efforts to help and have so much respect for you and what you do, great to see you adding your firsthand wisdom here.

This is exactly why I was trying to stress how strange it is that they are discouraging any discussion as to how the donations are being used, absolutely nothing outlined here leaves me feeling that all of the funds are being used in an honest and helpful manner. This is not to accuse everyone involved of being part of something fishy, but at the very least the small group spending their time sitting around on the mountain with 30k worth of equipment (that every single expert seems to agree is an absolute overkill) should have to answer a few questions, namely:
1. Why multiple reports (and photographs/videos) show them sitting around on their butts as well as drinking, especially in the few clear days they will likely be getting before the weather goes south.
2. Why they absolutely needed to camp there (when people who know the area well say they could have easily camped elsewhere and not had any issue with the park services). From what I read they could have avoided the setback they had with originally being denied and just hiked a bit further in. Also judging by their posts on Facebook they seem to have taken multiple days to set up camp, which again seems like a total overkill.
- These two points alone are showing a complete lack of urgency on their part, and to me speak more of their wish to fufil some kind of survivalist fantasy than any actual desire to find her. They keep stressing she is alive, if they truly believe this wouldn't they be rushing against the clock here?
3. Why they are focusing on an area SAR spent literally 1000s of hours on rather than some other areas they would be much more likely to discover something?
4. Why they have a felon with no experience in this field running the show, and are supporting him after the multiple threats he has made.

All this is just so strange to me and counterintuitive. If I really wanted a family member to be found this is absolutely not how I'd go about it. To me it seems they are wasting time, money, and resources as well as alientating everyone with the actual skill required to help.

Allow me to stress I am not accusing her mom or anyone else of acting with malice, but I do think at this point more than one person might be taking advantage of the situation.

 

Welcome to Websleuths,, Steve. Thank you so much for sharing what you experienced on Vesper,your search contributions, and your service to our country.

Edited out a post that mistakenly got included. Sorry, everyone.

 

Glad it not just me... But seriously... besides WS I learned more in a couple of days from some seriously knowledgeable folks about human behavior, crowd followers, science and biology on our mountains here in WA.

Grateful

 

It's so unfortunate that they did you this way, Steve. I've been following this story for a while now and it wasn't until you brought to light the info about BC that I started realizing there is a lot of b.s. going on! Especially when right after your post about him, they said they were putting him in charge of their "mission." I have spent a large amount of time scouring drone footage and yours is top notch. I feel like you are the key to locating her. But they want to keep living in their fantasy world and refuse to think realistically about this situation. That's not going to find her! Thank you for everything you have done and I hope you are successful in finding the missing snowboarders!

 

Here's the WS thread for the missing snowboarders: WA - WA - Drew Lenz, 20, & Jacob Amancio, 22, Mt Baker Ski Area, 12 Nov 2017

 

According to the mom, the reports of findings will not be made available until Oct or Nov. Quite a long time for an ongoing missing person case, but I've heard of LE sitting on evidence for 10+ years.

 

Thank you for posting Steve. I am still catching up on this forum but very glad to see you are here and posting your experiences. I joined your Wings of Mercy FB page. I am highly impressed with what you are doing and will be following your work, supporting as I can. As a just now retired SAR woman I am hoping I can participate and learn to read your photography so perhaps I might be able to support. Something I can still do.

I thank you for what you are trying to do to find Sam. I can see you have a heart for the lost and missing. Truly I believe if Sam knew she would be grateful.

JMO

 

he's a good guy with brutally honest intentions and i think that may be why he was outcasted - no one seems to want to confront reality in this situation . when my fiance and i helped search for Sam a few weeks ago , we spent a good time conversating with Steve on the mountain . he is a good man and was willing to sacrifice many hours of his time to the search . to me , speaking with him , it sounded like anything realistic that they did not want to hear resulted in alienating him eventually . it really is a shame . i mean , i feel for her mother and family . i get that in that situation you simply do not want to hear of any potential negative outcome , but you can't continue to run away from what is likely to have transpired and to form a wedge between everyone who speaks realistically is not helping the mission . in my opinion it is like living in a bubble . Sam's mother gets nothing but hope from comments on her updates and maybe it is temporarily helping her cope and perhaps it is like a means of theapy to her to speak to the public and receive nothing but the repititious "she's coming home" ..
but at some point you just have to consider that what is feared may have befallen . at some point you have to begin preparing yourself for the not so fairy tale ending . i'm a mother of 3 and i couldn't imagine going through what she is forced to wake up to every morning , but life does not always turn out as it's imagined . despite the chaos of this search , where donations are itemized to , whether or not someone has a past criminal record , etc etc . i just hope one day soon the odds are taken into consideration and some kind of healing can begin for the family by accepting what is most likely to have transpired that day on the mountain .

 

Thank you for your post Steve. Very disturbing. Thank you also for all your efforts. I have a question about the smell a couple of people noticed on the mountain, including you. Do you feel it was thoroughly checked out?

My second question is whether Jon Francis Foundation really recommended Bud Carr as the manager of the effort? That was claimed by KD. They seem like the real deal so I am puzzled as to why they would have made such a recommendation.

 

Thank you for all that you have done and all that you do!
Since I wish to keep the focus of this thread on Sam, I am not going to hammer you with a million questions about the points you have brought to light, although I am curious.
I do have one question for you...do you think that there is any chance she will be found?

 

Don't know if this has been responded to but in my experience most of our K9's teams here in WA are cross trained live find/HRD meaning live or dead, they can find you.

The K9 team's with Snohomish County are come of the top notch, most highly trained, experienced K9's teams in the State if not the Country. JMO

 

Steve - Thank you for all that you did, you went above & beyond, I follow you on your other FB page too so I know how many hours you spent filming with your drones in the search for Sam. I have stepped away from the FSS FB page, their stategy, thinking & behavior is beyond my comprehension......

 

Awesome post!!!
All great questions!

 

I appreciate all of the kind comments. We all really wanted to find Sam. To answer a few of you... Yes, We have turned in Bud, The police were made aware of the threats and we sent messages written by him directly to LE. Stolen Valor has also been reported because as a few of you know.. we old vets do not appreciate our uniforms being treated like a toy. The most important thing they are failing to do... FIND SAM SAYERS. They spend more time sitting around planning where to set up tents and where to have dinner that evening... Why all the tents if they are leaving the mountain at night? I keep track of their progress or lack of and today at 2pm they decided they had enough and left the mountain again... It again makes me question the need to spend all of the donations on equipment that is just sitting up there. The low down is this.. We had plenty of people involved in the case right after LE left the mountain along with the SAR teams. I watched as each team was booted and not to mention the 100's of others booted by Kevin.. Because they chose to question his story and how and why he needs so much money compared to other families... Like the family on Mt. Baker who may have 300-400 followers and very little resources. I live very near Vesper and it was the perfect opportunity for us to use software provided by Shane Michaels over at Wings Of Mercy (Facebook). He has developed an amazing contrast detection program that can locate a tennis ball at 150' above ground level. We offer it at no cost to the family...Yet were denied. I am also working with another software engineer that designs imagery programs for the US Military... He also offered to provide his software at no cost... The software can even trace ground that has been disturbed (buried people)... Denied. Last Saturday after doing our homework we offered to head back up again and all we asked was the use of the chopper for 2 hours. We had triangulated her cell pings and last known locations. We were told that Bud Carr did not approve of these actions so again.. Denied. In the end.. We still offer our services.. NO COST to the family so that the donations received could be put to better use such as burial or if we had found her alive for medical expenses. At this point you will continue to see pushes for more money as they claim no amount is never going to be enough. I say warn your friends and family not to donate to Bud Carr...Or any account associated with this case until proper authorities have taken control again.

 

There was one instance of a dog catching a scent, in a very tricky area, they needed the dog to be flown in & lowered via the heli....... not sure what the result was with this scent.....

 

Said to be a false report by the teams. Though that area is very tricky a drone can search much better than a human without risking more lives.

 

Thank you, Steve for all that you've done. I knew about the falling out, but I'm glad you've shared your side here. I have nothing but respect for you. I wish her family had listened to you. You clearly have good intentions and are an honorable man.

 

JMO - This is disturbing to hear! If you have a variety of methods & assistance offered to help with the search of a missing person, you don’t turn that down...... JMO! Drinking alcohol & getting stoned then leaving the mountain every afternoon?! It’s a complete cluster ......jolly jaunt. I wonder if the mother even knows about this!

 

Perhaps someone in LE or the FS will catch wind of this open and factual conversation . Unlike the 30k we here on WS won't be pushing this at anyone or asking anyone to share or to contact the media etc. It will all come to light in due time. Oh, and Karma? she's a b**** and does her work, also in due time. Nuff said.

 

also: anyone get annoyed with moms plugs about her business? undoubtedly has picked up substantial customers....so wrong. There was NEVER any need for her business to be mentioned.