Bridger-Teton National Forest

August 31, 1997, David left his home for what would be the last time.

David, along with three friends, were hiking through the Bridger-Teton National Forest thanks to the help of a guide.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, over 2,000 miles away from his home in Maryland, and it's unlikely that any of the group would have been familiar with the forest.

During the hike on August 31st of 1997, David became separated from the group, and according to reports, it appears as though he headed off on a solo hike to Island Lake.

The Doe Network states that David was last seen at the lake, although this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.

As night fell, the group were forced to retreat to their base camp at Lost Lake and wait out the night.

The next morning, the four peered out of their tent to find that David was still missing and that's when they contacted the Sublette County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office, along with search and rescue teams, flooded into the Bridger-Teton National Forest looking for any sign of the man.

If you drew a line from any road or airstrip, it is the farthest away from any of them that you can get.

And it's in the northwest corner of Wyoming, so right, um, at the confluence of the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone National Forests and Yellowstone National Park.

So there's a chunk of the Thoroughfare that's in Yellowstone, and then there's a whole bunch of it that's in national forest slash, you know, wilderness areas.

And largely the Yellowstone River kind of flows, cuts through it, and then flows into Yellowstone, into Yellowstone Lake.

August 31st, 1997, David left his home for what would be the last time.

David, along with three friends, were hiking through the Bridger-Teton National Forest thanks to the help of a guide.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, over 2,000 miles away from his home in Maryland, and it's unlikely that any of the group would have been familiar with the forest.

During the hike on August 31st of '97, David became separated from the group and according to reports, it appears as though he headed off on a solo hike to Island Lake.

The Doe Network states that David was last seen at the lake, although this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.

As night fell, the group were forced to retreat to their base camp at Lost Lake and wait out the night.

The next morning, the four peered out of their tent to find that David was still missing, and that's when they contacted the Sublette County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office, along with search and rescue teams, flooded into the Bridger-Teton National Forest looking for any sign of the man.

August 31, 1997, David left his home for what would be the last time.

David, along with three friends, were hiking through the Bridger-Teton National Forest thanks to the help of a guide.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, over 2,000 miles away from his home in Maryland, and it's unlikely that any of the group would have been familiar with the forest.

During the hike on August 31st of 1997, David became separated from the group, and according to reports, it appears as though he headed off on a solo hike to Island Lake.

The Doe Network states that David was last seen at the lake, although this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.

As night fell, the group were forced to retreat to their base camp at Lost Lake and wait out the night.

The next morning, the four peered out of their tent to find that David was still missing and that's when they contacted the Sublette County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office, along with search and rescue teams, flooded into the Bridger-Teton National Forest looking for any sign of the man.

It gets really complex when you're calling in assets on fires.

Is it a state asset? Is it, is it, uh, you know, a forest, is the forest service gonna put this one out? You know, Bridger-Teton, is it a federal...

Uh, the forestry division is able to navigate, um, different...

If it's forest, it's forest, and r- and wildfire respects no boundaries, so I, I li- I like the, I like this, uh, heli base and I like, uh, it, that it's part of the forestry division.

And Kelly, I mean, we could talk about, uh, Ke- Kelly's other responsibilities with shared stewardship and making sure we have good forestry.

I think you've probably talked a little bit about that.

But in this case, the billing structure alone, as you say, you know, we got Bridger-Teton-

Yeah

She says repealing the rule won't, quote, "Result in roads magically appearing throughout the Forest Service system." At the Mary Ranch, the author of the Wilderness Act drafted the bill specifically to withstand the whims of who's in office.

Linda Mergliano recently retired as the programs director for the Bridger-Teton National Forest, which manages nearby wilderness areas.

It's a forever protection by the law of Congress.

Um, and obviously Congress could repeal it.

Then on July 12th, almost a full month after the killings, well, the Focus, it turned up.

It had been abandoned and was sitting at a remote campground deep inside Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, out near a little place called Moran, not far from Grand Teton.

Now that's roughly 400 miles away from where he left those bodies.

And the thing about where he left it is that it's about as far as a car can physically take you before the road stops and you're on foot from there.

The first is that Mike is dead.

The Canyon County Sheriff has said publicly more than once that he believes this is almost certainly what happened.

And I share that, that possibility that he is deceased and that he's out in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on the Wyoming side.

I, it's possible.

August 31, 1997, David left his home for what would be the last time.

David, along with three friends, were hiking through the Bridger-Teton National Forest thanks to the help of a guide.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, over 2,000 miles away from his home in Maryland, and it's unlikely that any of the group would have been familiar with the forest.

During the hike on August 31st of 1997, David became separated from the group, and according to reports, it appears as though he headed off on a solo hike to Island Lake.

The Doe Network states that David was last seen at the lake, although this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.

As night fell, the group were forced to retreat to their base camp at Lost Lake and wait out the night.

The next morning, the four peered out of their tent to find that David was still missing and that's when they contacted the Sublette County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office, along with search and rescue teams, flooded into the Bridger-Teton National Forest looking for any sign of the man.