https://localnews8.com/news/id...ent-missing-in-1968/


Idaho
By News Team
September 21, 2021 10:40 AM
Published September 21, 2021 10:50 AM

Remains recovered of bow hunter who went missing in 1968


LEMHI COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - The Lemhi County Sheriff's Office recovered the remains of a bow hunter who went missing in 1968.

39-year-old Raymond Jones of Salmon was bow hunting for a mountain goat in the east fork of Hayden Creek when he was last seen on Sept. 7, 1968. The next afternoon, Lemhi County Sheriff Bill Baker was called to the camp as Jones had not returned.

On Sept. 9, 1968, an official search was initiated and lasted for several days. The search was hampered by foul weather, and Jones was never located.

On Sept. 17, 2021 at about 4 p.m., the Lemhi County Sheriff's Office received a call from a bow hunter who was hunting in the east fork of Hayden Creek. The hunter was seeking a shortcut from one hunting area to another when he found human remains and contacted the sheriff's office.

Due to the lack of remaining daylight and ruggedness of the terrain, recovery efforts began on the morning of Sept. 18.

During the recovery effort, sheriff deputies found the remains and wallet which contained identification indicating this was indeed Jones.


Officials say next of kin has been notified.

Wow. We talk about closure, and I hope Mr. Jones's survivors get some measure of relief from this even after 53 years have passed.

A bitter sweet recovery. At least it's closure for those relatives still alive today. Pretty sad for those who have passed and never knew what happened to him.

A lot of missing are recovered during hunting season.

We had a plane crash some years back. heavily wooded. 5 Minutes into the flight. A large reward was posted by the family.

A extensive search for weeks nothing. Went almost straight in very small crash profile. If I remember right only one tree was clipped off.

Was found that fall by a deer hunter. The hunter did not take the reward money.

A human body not being found in a remote area is not surprising or maybe very surprising it was found at all.

A lot of suicides are found by hunters. I sure have stories.

At least now his family knows he didn't run out on them.

That's been LONG time for the family to wonder what happened.

I'm sure it's been so long that there will be very little grief but a measure of relief.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
A lot of suicides are found by hunters. I sure have stories.

Yep...been there, done that!

I remember that time. Idaho back then you could buy a mt goat tag over the counter for bow hunting in selected units. I was hunting in # 39 for goats too.His area was around Challis area and there was rumors of all sorts.Great there was closure for a missing hunter.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
A lot of missing are recovered during hunting season.

We had a plane crash some years back. heavily wooded. 5 Minutes into the flight. A large reward was posted by the family.

A extensive search for weeks nothing. Went almost straight in very small crash profile. If I remember right only one tree was clipped off.

Was found that fall by a deer hunter. The hunter did not take the reward money.

A human body not being found in a remote area is not surprising or maybe very surprising it was found at all.

A friend who didn't hunt, but was into aviation, had read a book about long unsolved plane crashes. He mentioned to me that he was shocked at the number of missing planes crashes that are found by hunters. We discussed it a bit and came to the conclusion that, unless a plane crashes within view of a trail or is found by the search crew, it is likely that the person who finds it will be a hunter. -After all, in remote areas, hunters are just about the only people who spend time off trail.

And I agree that it is amazing that he was found. It's hard to believe that much would be left after all these years.

I hope it brings some peace to those who knew him.

I just read a follow up story said his hunting buddy.

Stopped bow hunting afterwards.

Put is bow in a closet and never touched it again.

I found that is kind of strange.

Finding a body isn't fun, especially when it hasn't been there too long.

Although it wasn't a span of many years, I had the unfortunate experience of finding someone dead a while after they went missing. It happened when I was living at Vallecito Lake near Durango & guiding hunters & anglers in the Weminuche Wilderness.

It involved a young male backpacker who went missing in 1977. After his dog returned alone to the trailhead to Granite Lake on the Pagosa side, they conducted an extensive search that included bringing in the National Guard and divers. They found his pack and stuff in the lake but never found him.

Several weeks after, I had a family of five at the lake to fish. Around noon, I went to gather some wood to cook lunch. There was a pile of dry stuff wedged between a small spruce tree and large boulder. I picked up several pieces and then saw the tip of a boot sticking out. A few more pieces revealed a dark blue tarp that was covering the backpacker's body.

I pulled the tarp part way off the head end. What was left of him wasn't a pretty sight. I could clearly see a bullet hole in the skull, and his jaw was agape & filled with maggots. I nearly tossed my cookies.

After explaining the situation to the husband, I took a bunch of photos of the site. We them rode back to our base camp, which was about 1/2 hr. away on horseback & immediately sent our wrangler back down the mountain to Vallecito to inform the authorities.

The victim was the son of some VIP back east who had friends in Congress. That's how they got permission to bring in the NG via helicopter, which is normally a no-no in a designated wilderness.

What amazed me was how they could have missed finding the body. It was less than 50 yards from the lake in a fairly open area with few trees and almost no brush. It would be a good spot to set up a camp. I was also surprised other backpackers hadn't found it because of that.

I later provided 8x10 B&W prints done in my darkroom to the Pagosa Springs sheriff's office. As far as I know, the case has never been closed. A few weeks after he went missing, someone used one of his credit cards one time in Las Vegas, but I don't think anything ever came of it. I never followed up on it after that.

quote:

Finding a body isn't fun, especially when it hasn't been there too long

If one isn't with emergency services I am sure.

Those of us that have been EMS, firefighters, LEO's it becomes routine.

Still smells.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

Finding a body isn't fun, especially when it hasn't been there too long

If one isn't with emergency services I am sure.

Those of us that have been EMS, firefighters, LEO's it becomes routine.

Still smells.

After a career dealing with it one never forgets the smell, taste and even -at times- sounds of a deceased human body (some of them are quite vocal, just trust me on that). The smell always struck me as much different (and worse) than the odor of a rotting dead animal. Even a big one.

Vick's Vapo Rub was a component for our 'scene' kits for a reason.

If you do find a deceased person during your hunting excursions please don't touch or disturb anything. Some of them are going to be homicides. People who need to investigate these things will appreciate your lack of 'curiosity'.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I just read a follow up story said his hunting buddy.

Stopped bow hunting afterwards.

Put is bow in a closet and never touched it again.

I found that is kind of strange.

p dog shooter,
I'm sure that it's just a different perspective, but it doesn't really seem all that strange to me. I would imaging that not knowing what happened to a friend who walked into the woods, and never returned could really mess a person up. This would be especially true if the person went missing while doing something that the two of you had bonded over.

I guess I am just imagining that practicing or preparing for a hunt knowing that your friend was still out there, would put a real damper on things.

quote:

After a career dealing with it one never forgets the smell, taste and even -at times- sounds of a deceased human body (some of them are quite vocal, just trust me on that). The smell always struck me as much different (and worse) than the odor of a rotting dead animal. Even a big one.

Vick's Vapo Rub was a component for our 'scene' kits for a reason

My first job in law enforcement was with a very small rural department.

We had 6 full time employees.

One day a mail man stopped me and said hey John hasn't got his mail in a few days.

You should check on him.

I drove up the drive way and when I was about to the door.

I knew John was dead one could smell him even from the out side.

Vicks hardly helped on that one.

AS far as the smell being different I agree.

quote:

p dog shooter,
I'm sure that it's just a different perspective, but it doesn't really seem all that strange to me. I would imaging that not knowing what happened to a friend who walked into the woods, and never returned could really mess a person up. This would be especially true if the person went missing while doing something that the two of you had bonded over.

I guess I am just imagining that practicing or preparing for a hunt knowing that your friend was still out there, would put a real damper on things.

Having investigated a lot of deaths I am suspicious of a lot of behavior.

In the incident I mentioned, there was very little odor left but the maggots were still everywhere. That was enough to turn me green.

I don't recall the exact time line between the time he went missing and when the main search party was looking. I'm thinking it was less than a week, tho. So it's kinda strange they didn't get a whiff of him. Likewise for the many other hikers that frequented the area where the body was cached.

The one time I was unfortunate to be close to a dead person that smelled was when we had to haul two dead guys in body bags off the mountain by horseback. They had been struck & killed by lightning. That wasn't pleasant either. Although they were somewhat 'fresh,' the smell of burnt flesh was nauseating.

I'd imagine that this guy who died in '68 was just tattered cloth and bleached bones.
It wouldn't be traumatic for me to find someone in that condition but a fresh(er) one would blow my mind and scar me for life. I'll leave that to the professionals!

Zeke

quote:

I'd imagine that this guy who died in '68 was just tattered cloth and bleached bones

I would like to see the pictures of the scene.

Out of professional curiosity.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

I'd imagine that this guy who died in '68 was just tattered cloth and bleached bones

I would like to see the pictures of the scene.

Out of professional curiosity.

I'm having trouble imagining what would be left after 53 years. I would think that most clothing would have rotted away and the bones would be scattered if the body was in an open area. And I would think that most everything would be covered over with plant material if the body was in an area where it was sheltered from the elements by brush and trees.

Weird deal anyway.

I did some reading on this. It sounds like his wife and at least one of his children, a son, are still alive. The dead hunter and his son share the same birthday, September 7th. And he went missing on September 7th.

The son was relieved to finally learn what had happened to his father. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have your father go missing when you are 13, then to hear that he had run off and been seen in Arizona, but never really know. Then he learns the truth 53 years later....

Anyway, from what the hunter who found him said, it sounds like he was killed by a fall while climbing, or by falling rock.


Luck to know what happened to his father

quote:

The hunter, whose name has not been released, told Jeffrey there were cliffs with layers of slab rock above Raymond’s remains. Before he left camp, Raymond told other hunters he was going to look for mountain goats. The bowhunter believes Raymond may have seen some at the top of the cliffs and tried to climb them.

“He could have been tempted to climb it, and the hunter thinks rock came off that cliff and landed on him,” Jeffrey says. “There was a stone covering most of his lower body, and it matched the rock above him. If the fall didn’t kill him, that rock for sure did. That was the opinion of the hunter.”

Jeffrey plans to travel from his home in Billings to Salmon this weekend to collect his father’s remains. He will take them to Miles City, Montana, and have them buried next to Raymond’s parents.

“The past week and a half have been surreal, but I’m very lucky to know what happened to my dad after all these years,” Jeffrey says. “I could have gone my whole life without knowing. But now I know, and it brings some peace.”

There are a lot of ways to die when one is out and about.

Even at home a family friend fell down 4 steps and it killed him.

BACK IN THE NINTEEN FIFTIES while the Korean war was being maned out of Fort Bliss Texas in the city of El Paso, Texas. two GIs were climbing Mount Franklin when one of the two fell off a bluff and was very badly injured. His friend went back down to call for help.
The search began but was not able to find the body. They searched for several days to no avail. The army declared the GI as a deserter, Thinking he went AWOL to avoid going to Korea. That was 1952, and his body was found by some rock climbers in the mid sixties while climbing the bluff that the other GI had told the military about. The bones badly broken were still wrapped in his GI greens.
I climbed that mountain many times during the years after this GI was killed, and had walked on top of the bluff many times but never saw the remains, probably because of the fact the body was wearing camouflaged clothing, the same reason the search crew couldn't find him in the first place!
I often wondered if the Army cleared that GI's record to his family.
.................................... MacD37

Outdoor Writer
77 . . . seems like it was about that time they started having "Armed Robberies" in the Pecos.

One year during muzzle loading season I was on the canyon side above FS 250 and traffic picked up like a Friday before t a big holiday, then noticed the flashing blues even on a couple of gray and green PUPs and several POlice cars.
Story was there had been a double murder out in the valley and a third person had left the country not to be found,
Well he was hard to find til some poor elk hunter stumbled across the remains out in the forest.
So much for looking for that "person of interest".
Never did hear if the person had committed suicide or if there was a 4th person involved that the authorities did not know about.
Was long enough ago that I have forgotten some details and did not know others.


Bet all of that activity sent a lot of elk packing out of the whole Platoro area.

Never

This year marked the 20th anniversary for the disappearance of Robert Fisher. Hopefully someday a hunter will come upon the bones, proving the SOB is dead.

Police believe he killed his family and burned down the house. The exact sequence of events, though, remains the subject of some mystery.

A neighbor told police she heard Robert and Mary arguing around 10 p.m. April 9, 2001.

The next morning, the family's ranch-style house in south Scottsdale exploded in flames. Firefighters found Fisher's 38-year-old wife, Mary, and his two children, 12-year-old Brittney and 10-year-old Bobby, dead in their beds. Their throats had been slashed. Mary had a bullet in her head. Robert was missing.

Police allege he killed his wife and kids and disconnected the gas line on the heater to cause the explosion.

Fisher had also taken out cash at a nearby ATM, and later reports would suggest places he might have been spotted soon afterward, but investigators aren't sure exactly when the family died, and when he left the house for the last time.

Where was Robert Fisher last seen?

The last picture of Fisher is the night before the fire, at 10:45 p.m., at an ATM a half-mile from his house.

Police believe Fisher may have been on his way out of town after killing his family, though it's possible he returned to commit the murders after visiting the ATM. The video shows the family's Toyota 4Runner in the background, and Fisher appears to be alone.

Ten days later, the vehicle was found abandoned in the forest east of Payson.

The black baseball cap Fisher was seen wearing in the ATM footage was inside the car. The family dog, Blue, was underneath the vehicle, agitated and hungry. There was no sign of Fisher.