Garrett Bardsley
8:00 AM on August 20, 2004, at the Uinta Mountains in Summit County, Utah.
Garrett Bardsley and his father, Kevin, got up early on their father-son Boy Scout camping trip and went fishing on the edge of a nearby lake.
Garrett got his shoes and socks soaked.
He decided to walk back to the campsite to change.
The Scout troop tents were a mere 450 ft away.
Garrett’s father allowed his 12-year-old son to go back alone.
They had walked that trail several times before.
Garrett had also completed wilderness survival training.
Kevin kept his eyes on Garrett as he walked around the lake and even shouted directions, reminding Garrett which path would lead him straight back to camp.
After 20 minutes, Kevin wondered what was taking his son so long.
He returned to the camp, and Garrett was nowhere to be seen.
The only evidence that searchers found was the Garrett’s Nike sock 0.5 mi away from the spot where he disappeared.
Authorities believe the boy may have become disoriented on his way back to camp.
It would be in line with the assumption that he sought shelter in the cold weather, maybe by going into the boulder field for a crevasse or outcropping.
Temperatures plummeted to near 18 degrees at night.
The local police decided that there was not enough evidence pointing to a kidnapping.
They believe that he got lost and died of exposure.
In 2006, Kevin Bardsley was interviewed and gave vivid details about the day his son disappeared.
He says that he will never give up hope of finding his son.
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ReplyDeleteTrue. He could've been killed by someone he knew on accident or on purpose. He could've been killed by a animal. He could've been abducted. Hopefully one day his fate will be discovered. Hopefully it will be less gruesome of scenarios.
DeleteI need to research this more but very interesting
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ReplyDeleteTo my understanding, the area is very large and it's conceivable that the boy became lost and got further and further away from the camp. He would have eventually laid down under something for warmth and rest. The dad recognizes that the child is deceased because of the impossibility of surviving in the elements for any length of time. I don't think it could possibly be true that the father is guilty. Other scouts have substantiated that both the boy and the father were present on that camp out.
ReplyDeleteProblem with boy lost. He was a scout. He was 12 year old and not mentally handicapped. Odd his sock, a single was found, but no DNA to establish if it was the boy's. Father says they went fishing early morning. How early was that, before sunrise. Surely the child knew he was way out if he alone wandered. Yet is was an adolescent male of 5 feet and over 100 pounds. Wow hard man to abduct without a fight. Something fishy. SAR was started early on and still nothing. Even FBI came in. Did Garrett slip into a time warp? Well, doubtful. Funny other boys and scout adults were asleep at the time. Uh.. strange... the camp was 200 yards on a trail marked. The child was not blind.
ReplyDeleteWas the father ever given a polygraph? No evidence he ever was.
I don't think the father had anything to do with it.
ReplyDeleteDid the kid already remove his socks and shoes on his way back .or did he keep them on did the father say ?
ReplyDeleteStory has lots of odd things. For example Garret and Dad rise and go fishing BEFORE anyone else sees them go. Boys and leaders are asleep or getting up afterwards. Story says its August, dew on ground. Still was it before dawn or pre-dawn. Father waits 20 minutes and then decided to go see what's up. Father says he MAY have heard his son say " dad"?? Camp has a path to it and Garrett is not a special needs kid. He is smart and a scout. 200 years = 600 feet. There was some trees between lake and camp. Later there is a very extensive search SAR and lots of folks search. Nothing. Weeks later a mysterious "sock" appears and its said to be Garrets's ( like duhhh) this sounds like planting evidence????? Father tells media he KNOWS his son is dead. Dead from lost and exposure as temps went below freezing. Kid was not wet except for feet and very bottoms of pants. Hypothermal from that.. NO!
ReplyDeleteLater Dad gets money to start a memorial school for kids in Peru?? Dad goes to SA next year ! Media does say it looks like you are last person who says they saw Garrett.
Question police have NO body.. bad news.. nothing can be charged even though they may have suspicions.
Impossible to get an almost man sized boy, because he weighed 110 lbs. My thoughts father knows something. Boy never went missing after an alleged fishing junt. Boy went missing before that. Where was the boy sleeping? Near buddies or in a father-son tent?
FISHY FISHY I don't believe in alien abduction. Sorry
Very bizarre to say the least. I have to add that it’s common although to wake up before sunrise when fishing. Myself & my dad use to rise early to fish just like this father & son. Very sad.
DeleteI was personally on that camp out. Garrett and his father woke me up that morning as they conversed back and forth getting there fishing gear as I was in the near by tent. It wasn’t 30 min later that his father came back up to the camp wondering where Garrett was. We all immediately started searching at that point. The search and rescue was called after about 2 hours of searching. I was with his father the entire time. There was no physical possible way that He would have had time to do something like you mentioned. I am a personal witness of his father’s character. It hurts to see your comments suggesting such things.
DeleteIs the parents still married?
ReplyDeleteYes. There really can’t be blame on the father the way this happened. This was truly a freak accident. I would not of hesitated sending Garrett back at that moment but Because of this experience, I would never send my son back alone now. I was 15 on this camp out and I went back and forth by myself multiple times.
DeleteI think what happened was he decided to follow the river back and not the path The river curved around the camp out of site and Since we were all asleep/just waking up, he would not of heard anything.
In a couple of Pallides really strange missing kids, some of the clothing is said found, sometimes year later. But Wait , a killer often returns to scene of crime and drops clues. Garrets sock was said found long time after and many searches. Clearly the killer came back and dropped the sock. Same said for the other boy who had his skull found and his little toddler shoes miles away. What the killer did was take the shoes as a trophy. Later, returned a shoe and the skull. Its the way sick psychopaths behave. It stimulates them. The boy's other shoe, and under ware kept as a trophy.
ReplyDeletei'm not sure if they are still married or not. if i find out i will let you know. i know the dad set up a foundation in his son's honor.
ReplyDeletei just saw the comment about the shoes and socks, sorry. Garrett was with his dad and brother fishing. Garrett got his socks wet and his father told him to go change back at camp, which wasn't far away. i'm assuming he still had them on as he trudged off.
ReplyDeletei agree with you Gulf. i believe he was kidnapped and met with foulplay.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/findgarrett/
ReplyDeleteIts so sad and impossible, we know something is missing here, but what. So this adolescent 12, weights > 100 lbs, just goes down a rabbit hole? No way. 12 years old and a scout, mentally OK, no-way .. he could even get abducted by chance and for what reason? Sex slave? Well, the world is nuts. If dad and Garret b4 dawn go there b4 scouts awake, the boy could have disappeared way before that. So something fishy. Why would his sock be discovered weeks later, not it was contested it was the boy's. Psychopaths are are so sick you a normal person cannot imagine what they fancy. The sock IMHO was a plant to make people believe the boy got lost. No way..he got lost friends. So what other theories do you have. At age 12 he doesn't make a good sex slave and even if that was the case, how did the pervert get him out of there?
ReplyDeleteThe sock was claimed by one of the searchers who had changed out of wet socks while searching, and had already told others he had lost it.
DeleteIn my opinion i think that he went with someone he knew or someone surprised him and smacked him in the head. i'm leaning on more of he went with someone he knew. He is the perfect age actually for perverts to sell into the sex trade. That doesn't mean that is what he was taken for. Someone could have wanted a kid or they could have taken him because they are sadistic and wanted to do things to him and kill him.
ReplyDeleteOne of the searchers claimed the sock that was found was his sock. Just fyi. The uintah mountains are huge and freezing cold. A few years after garrett went missing another boy scout brennan hawkins (i believe thats his name) went missing in the uintahs and wasnt found for a few days. Garretts dad helped in that search. Brennan ended up being fine but it goes to show how fast one can get lost
ReplyDeleteTrue. I live in Northern Utah and been up there many times. He could have gotten lost, killed by an animal or kidnapped or killed by someone. I personally don't think the dad had anything to do with his disappearance.
DeleteThe problem with these scenarios is that the facts given by people involved are just taken as fact and repeated over and over. If you start from the beginning, why would the boy walk all the way back to camp just to change his socks? They're out in the wilderness, why not just take them off to dry? I can see if he fell in the water and got soaked, but socks? Was there a conflict between him and his dad that caused him t walk back to camp? We don't really know, except what the father is saying. As someone else mentioned, the last person to see the victim and especially close family members are always looked at carefully first (in a proper investigation). This reminds me of the Etan Patz investigation, where the word of the parents has been taken as gospel and repeated all of these years, although no one has ever reported seeing the child leaving his house alone or seen walking on the street, supposedly to the waitin school bus. Police incompetence and naivete is nothing new, unfortunately.
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ReplyDeleteI have camped in the Unitas where Garrett went missing. You can walk a few feet into the trees, turn around and everything looks the same. Garrett could have walked off the path to pee and got turned around. If you panic and move in the wrong direction you could get even more lost very quickly. My brothers camped there as scouts more than one summer and very backcountry proficient leaders had close calls and my brothers nearly had SAR called in to look for them as well. It was a first campout for Garrett and he took one basic survival class. It's even suspected the class may have contributed to him not being found. They believe he covered himself for shelter as taught in class and froze to death overnight. He would have been difficult to fit after that. As a mom of a 13 yr old scout who has a few backpacking trips under his belt, I'm telling you it's not unreasonable to believe this happened. Unless you've been there, you can't understand how rugged and unforgiving that country is. Garrett's dad sent him back to camp around 8am for a change of shoes and socks... even in August it was probably only 40 degrees at 8 am. It was as low as 18 degrees the first night Garrett was missing. He likely didn't survive one night. He had nothing on him for survival, no compass, map, whistle, food/water etc. and he was already wet. His shoes and socks wouldn't have dried out by nightfall with those temperatures. There are wolves, bear, mountain lions in the area and mountain lions often attack the face/neck and drag and hide their kill. Garrett may not have had a chance to scream. People go missing in the Unitas year after year. Luckily, many are found. Just this past year a man went missing and died in the Unitas. I was a new mom when Garrett went missing, my husband's company used GIS to determine a path of least resistance Garrett may have walked to help with finding him. No closure for the family. I'll never forget it, so sad.
ReplyDeleteThe problem here, the boys disappeared during what we assume was daylight. He was only 600 feet from the camp site? Wow. How do you do that? If he was lost he would just stop and wait, not continue. But the most strange thing, lots of dogs and people came in right away to look and could not find him. Even copters that make NOISE and the boy would have heard them and come out to wave his location. I still do-not think he fell into black hole and he surely wasn't taken by an animal.
ReplyDeleteUnknown, I am so sorry for your loss. I personally don't think the father had anything to do with his disappearance and i know there are many people that think the father is innocent. I think that someone nabbed him or something like that. i hope one day the answers are found and the people that paint his father in a negative light can eat crow.
ReplyDeleteYes, many people can't imagine a 12 year old just snapped out and I am one who doesn't believe in another dimension opening up. Why would the kid need change his soxs? What a dumb reason to ask him to move out and go back to the tent. Come on people, maybe if he fell in and was totally wet and the weather cold. The kid was fine with his sox. I smell a rat. How could an abductor get a kicking 12 year old out? If he were assaulted he would make a very big noise.
ReplyDeleteWeather was very cold and foot soaked. Def need to go back and change into something dry. It wasn't far from the pond.
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