MISSING: WHEN THE SON SETS-Allyn Atadero

The second edition includes new theories and thoughts provided by experts in the field of criminal investigation. Missing When the sun Sets, The Jared Adadero story is the personal account of a father's painful search to discover the truth. The book that we're featuring this evening is Missing When the Sun Sets with my special guest journalist and author Alan Adadero. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for a Greenness interview. Alan Adadero, Thank you, Anna.

We we're talking about nineteen ninety nine, So tell us about your background and where you were in life, and before we talk about the Christian singles and the retreat and also the hike itself.

know it, my son was missing. And that's where the story began.

that background and about your daughter. And again you have a twin brother named Marlon, and explain also this this faith that obviously is going to be instrumental in helping you cope with this in any way, So tell us about that fellowship as well.

they could have peace up there. For instance, like the Christian Singles Network, they came up to use the resort. We actually at one time even built across and we let the cross and we set it on the mountain right there in front of our resort. Because we wanted people to know that if they came to that area and if they were having any problems, they could stop there and we would be more than willing to help them.

For instance, we would have people run out of gas or break down, and we always offered a cabin free for the night because we just didn't want to take advantage of people who were experiencing a bad situation in their life. So it was nice because I have my kids there. I've worked there during the day at night, and I was a lucky father because I got to spend every moment with my kids while I was actually working.

And what happened is I had left California. My brother and I were both teachers there so this was a new experience for me, but it was one of the neatest things, being able to come to Colorado and enjoy God's beauty and be with my kids at the same time.

trails you can hike up there. The recreational activities and opportunities are immense, and people actually traveled to the Pudha River throughout the world. We had visitors staying at our resort from all over the place, and it was just a place people would go to appreciate that the beauty of the mountains have to offer and it was just an excellent place to get to and just relax.

that I was with Jared. We actually we want to put the resort we're living down in the Denver area, and we went to the resort to spend the weekend there and we put a little bit of football, some catch back and forth, having fun, and then I slowly fell asleep, but Jared woke me up because we were watching, or he was watching at the time, the movie Godzilla. And it was funny because I'll tell this part of the story. It was funny because Jared looked at me

and said, Daddy, you got to watch this part. You have to watch. And I'm like, Jared, why don't need to watch this? He says, Daddy, just watch. And as god Zilla ran through the city, he turned and went down one street and as he turned, Jared said to me, Daddy, you can see as we wei and I just started laughing. I'm like, Jared, I can't believe he just said that to me. But that's the way Jared was. He was so innocent, so full of joy, happy, can instantly had

a smile on his face. And he was a type of kid that he gave more love than he ever received. So it's just been incredible or indifficult being without him.

that was kind of a strange behavior for him. But what I did was. I actually picked him up and put him under the blanket with me and snuggled him and warmed him up, and just kind of held on to him, not knowing that that was the last chance I was going to have to hold onto my son. We got up that morning and I just put some simple things on him. I put some sweatpants on him and a T shirt, and he put his tennis shoes on. He he didn't like to wear socks. He just liked

to wear shoes. Didn't like to tie his shoes. But later on that morning, we were actually at the resort because this organization had come up. They wanted to help us prepare the resort for the winter. They were going to do some cleaning and stuff. Well, while they were doing that that morning, a group of the individuals that were it was called the Christian Singles. It was a Christian singles group out of the Denver area, and they a couple of them wanted to go on a hike.

And I was thinking, originally why they want to go on a hike. I thought they were coming up here to try to help get things situated. But at the same time I didn't want to stop them from going on a hike. And as they were preparing to go on a hike, they were actually going to go on a hike to a trout farm which was about a mile away from us, and my daughter had come up to me, Jocelyn and said, Daddy, he said, all right, if I go look at the fish and I'm like, well,

you know, sure. You know a lot of these people are my friends. So I gave permission for her to go, not knowing that Jared was going to be, you know, ten seconds behind her saying, Dad, I want to go to the trout farm too. More or less, he came up asking, and I'm like, there's no way in the world, Jared, I'm letting you go to this fish farm. It's only a mile away, but you're staying with me. But I was reassured that, hey, you know what, it's going to

be safe. We're just going to take him over there. We're just going to walk around the lake and by this little fish farm and we'll be back. And that's what I thought, and they took off on their own, sixteen adults. I stayed back at the resort. I was still doing some cleaning and stuff, sat down actually to take a nap about I'm going to guess it may

have been a little bit after one. And while I was just closed my eyes and just started to fall asleep, somebody walked into our store, because we had a store that was attached to our apartment, and there was a lot of commotion in the store, just you know, people just very animated, and I didn't know what was going on. And finally they came into the back room and there were two ladies standing there with a friend of mine named Butch, who was our store manager. And I just

asked him know what's wrong? And they looked at me and they said, he's okay, we just can't find him. And I'm like, what do you mean he's what are you guys talking about? He's okay, we just can't find him, Jared, He's okay, we just can't find him. Something happened to him. And I'm like, what do you mean something happened? I mean, originally I'm thinking, he's okay, what do you do fall? Did he you know, break his arm? Did he you know,

turn an ankle or something like that. But when they said he's okay, we just can't find him, I'm like, oh my gosh, what are you talking about? He's okay, you just can't find him. And not only can you not find him, how do you know he's okay? And so from that moment on, of course, my entire body just started shaking. And again I'm thinking, they're a mile up the road, and you know, let's get in our cars and let's drive up the road here and let's find him. And I soon found out that after that hike,

there were several of the adults. They were not happy with what they had just accomplished, and they wanted to go find another trail. So they got together and they drove another I believe it was like sixteen seventeen miles up the up the mountain to a place called the Big South Trail. And when I found out that they had taken Jared elsewhere, I was totally confused. And so we proceeded to drive up the trail and I followed these people, and it was just a crazy drive because

I drove extremely fast. I yelled and screamed in my car. I pounded my chest. I felt like someone had stuck the knife in my chest, because you know, I never want to live a day without my son. And I drove up to that trail, knowing at the time that I would find my son and I would bring my son home with me, But at the same time I was experiencing the most the deepest pain I'd ever experienced in my life.

I'll find my son. So when I got to the trailhead, there were several cars in the parking lot and there was a some people coming down the trail And the first thing I asked was you know they were telling me, of course Jared was missing. But my big concern now was where's my daughter? And I'd actually asked them, you know, where's Joson? Do you guys know where my daughter is? I want, I want, I want to hold my daughter

right now. And they had told me that Janet had taken Jocelyn back to the resort, and so when I originally got on that trail head, she wasn't there, and so I was I was kind of frustrated how she got aways, you know, from us, without me even knowing what was going on. But when she finally showed up, she the Sheriff's department had brought her back up to the trailhead and when she saw me, she came up

to me. She was running, I mean, she was crying, and she reached out her arms and we both gave each other a hug, and she's saying I'm sorry, and I was telling her, you know, don't worry about it. You know, we're going to find him. I tried to keep my mind in a positive frame and I constantly told her, you know, we're going to find it. We're

gonna be all right, We're going to find him. And not long after that, the sheriff, one of the deputies had taken her and put her into another car to interview her to find out what she knew about Jared. But it was just one of those things where she

was extremely sorry. I had found out later on a couple of weeks later, somebody was talking to me and they were talking about different things that happened on the mountain, and they told me one story something about, well, you know what we heard, she fell sleep on the trail and she had the kids and they both lay down on a rock and they fell asleep next to her. And it was the first time I'd heard that story, because there's so many different stories going on, but I'd

asked my daughter. Right after that, I hung up the phone and I asked Josh. I said, hey, jos and I said, do you know anything about you know, Janet falling asleep and on a rock? And she said, yes, Daddy, She said, we went to sleep on a rock and when we woke up, Jared wasn't there. And so that was the first thing, or the first time I had heard about that situation. Even though this story that was out there was being told that this group of sixteen adults was going back and forth and down the trail

and Jared got lost in between him. I think it was I'm sorry, I think it was eleven adults and Jared got lost in between the first group and the last group, and then next thing you know, he passed the upper group and then nobody saw him again.

did exactly that story, no exactly, So go ahead. I wasn't say, yeah, he was running in between the two groups, and that's where I originally thought maybe something happened. But again, like you said, he had actually got past that first group, and they were actually saying to each other, you know, someone needs to watch more closely, And even though they were verbalizing that, nobody watched him, and he continued to

walk past that first group. The last teup I should say, Now there was a bunch of witnesses Kim, Anthony, Nancy, the Bruce, Margaret, Sandra. Now there were some people that had stories and bits and pieces were confirmed the other person's story, for example, the fisherman and his wife, and

then there was two fishermen. So tell us what through through the accounts formed with all these witnesses, what exactly was the story that was pieced together in the official story of who was there and who observed what?

are there any bear up here? So Jared was a little concerned about what was going on, and they talked to him about bear and stuff. But as they would continue to walk, from what I understand, they got to a point where they were going to head to the river and Jared was all by himself, and they let

Jared continue to walk up the trail. And the reason they let Jared continue up the trail because in their own minds, he was with the people behind him, and they figured, hey, he's not that far ahead of him, and don't catch him eventually, So these two fishermen literally had a chance to stay with him and save him, but they just let him walk on by after they had a conversation with him.

and start from the lake and come back down. Now, from what I understand, you know, some people were not totally seen, but people were hurt on the trail too.

For instance, at one time people were actually making the comment that they heard a playful school what they thought was a playful scream up above on the trail in the direction where Jared was and then he disappeared, so they weren't sure if someone had actually grabbed Jared and then walked back up the trail and left out through the Chambers Lake area.

And I know in the report now some people talk about hearing something, but my daughter was in the other room and you got to remember she was six years old at the time, and she was extremely innocent, and at the same time, she was trying to figure out what could have happened to her brother. But as while I'm conversing with this person talking about the scream, It's like, you're kidding. How come no one told me this? Jossy walked into the bedroom and said, Daddy, are they talking

about the scream? And I'm like, yeah, honey, did you hear a scream? And she's the one who actually came out and told me, yeah, Daddy, we heard this scream and it came from above the trail, and we thought somebody was playing with Jared, and then we thought maybe somebody may have taken Jared. So that's, you know, the

first time I actually got hurt anything like that. No one had told me that in the first couple of weeks, and it was from a friend on the phone, and then it was Jocelyn confirming it.

department do and what could you do? And what was your reaction? What did you first do this incredible news.

Sheriff's department. But when I got down to the base of the trail, I witnessed one of the sheriffs already at the trail. I had in the parking lot, and they had told me that originally that the search and rescue team was coming up, and at the same time too. It wasn't long after our conversation with the search and rescue team did show up. I observed them getting their groups together and taken off looking for Jared. Now that's the first thing that happened. It wasn't at that time.

It was one of those situations where everybody thought this was going to be over in a matter of hours. They were going to find Jared that night. But as time went on, things began to happen different frustrations and works. For instance, I desperately myself after they had set everything up their search camp and the works, they kind of closed the trail off where no one can go back up on the trail themselves, and I desperately wanted to

go up and look for my son. As a matter of fact, my family had flown in from California the very next day, and we all wanted to go up the trail looking for Jared. And finally, on that Sunday, I believe it was, we tried to get up the trail and the sheriffs the deputies had their radios and they were talking back and forth, and there were several

situations that happened that were really frustrating. For instance, I was in our resort at one time and I was with one of the deputies and somebody called our resort and they asked for me, and I spoke to them and I said, listen, we have trained search dogs and we would like to bring them up to help search for your son. And I'm excited about them. I'm like, oh gosh, this is great. I said, you're not going to believe this. The deputy in charge of the search

is standing right next to me. You can talk to them. So I gave the phone to the deputy, and before I know what, I hear the deputy saying, you know what, if we need your help, we'll call you. Thank you very much, and hung up. And in my mind I'm like, wait a second, if we need you, we'll call you. How are you going to call them medi even ask that person for their name, and he just shut them out. And so that was frustrating, and I had that happen

many times. I had that happen even years later, where people would come up to me and say, you will never understand how hard are we trying to get on that trail And we had the best dogs in the state, and we were told no constantly. It was getting kind of frustrating. That was the first frustrating thing that happened.

But as my family got there, Like I said, my mom, my aunt, and my sister in law were on the trailhead and I hear this over the radio saying, if the atta Arro family doesn't calm down, we're going to arrest them, and I'm like, what the heck. And my brother was sending next to them in the resort, and I said to my brother, I said, oh my gosh, what's going on up at the trailhead. They're gonna arrest

mom and your wife. And so we got in the car and started driving up up the mountain to the trailhead and had about halfway up, the car full of the ladies passes us coming back down to the trailhead. So I'm thinking, oh, man, they must be really upset, because you know, they must have been doing something. When we get to the trailhead and it's all calm, So finally all my ladies get back up there, and we

asked them, we know what's going on. You know, we were told we hurt over the radio, they were gonna arrest you guys, and like what, you know, we went back to get some jackets. That's getting cold up here. And I later find out that my sister in law told me she said we were just requesting to get up the trail and they were telling us, no, you

can't help search, and we got frustrated. And after that frustration, that's when one of the deputies radio and everyone else saying, if they try to get up on the trail, we're arresting them. And it was it was. It was a sad situation because when we finally got the opportunity to go up and look for Jared ourselves, it was a day later. We had fought for hours to get up that trail, and on the way back down the trail,

we'd finished looking for Jared ourselves. On the way back down the trail, the deputy stopped me right before we got back from the parking lot and said, listen, I just want you to know one thing that you've been causing a lot of problems for us. And I'm like, what do you mean? And this is my son, you know, how can we be causing problems for you guys? And in the meantime, you know, a lot of other things

had happened the day before that. You know, there was a there was a helicopter actually looking for Jared, and that helicopter crashed on the trail. So there was a lot of frustration and everything up there. But at the same time, not to the point to where you turn people away or look at my family and tell them they're going to be arrested because they want to find this little boy.

It's a distinctive sound. And so when we heard it coming up the canyon, I went outside with Jossy. I had her in my arms, and we watched this helicopter fly right up and over our resort, up the mountain, and jos and I both kind of hug each other and we did kind of a victory dance. It's like, Okay, cool, there's a helicopter going up there, and it's gonna This

helicopter's gonna find Jared. So we were excited. And about maybe two hours after the helicopter had flown by us, I started receiving phone calls from people up and down the canyon. From the base of the canyon coming up toward the resort, and people were calling me and I'd answered the phone and they'd say did they find They'd asked me, did they find Jared. I'm like, what do

you mean? Did they find Jared? And I know it was news to me, and then I told him I know nothing about that, and into the conversation and maybe five or ten minute flitters, somebody else in the canyon would call, Hey, Alan, did they did they find Jared. It's like, why do you guys keep asking me if they found Jared? And they said, because there are all these emergency vehicles and an ambulance. It's flying up the mountain. I'm like, wow, no kidding. So here I'm thinking, oh

my gosh, I found my son. You know, I was excited. I mean it was like, you know, to the point where I had many tears in my eyes, and I'm thinking, gee, these guys are flying up the mountain. They've got my son. How come they haven't called me yet? Why haven't they called and informed that they've found my son? And again

phone call after a phone call. Well, in the meantime, Jocelyn's mom drives down to another resort right below us to get some things for Jocelyn, and she come flying back into the parking lot, sliding all over the place, putting her brakes on, and she comes jumping out of the car and she goes, You're never going to believe what happened, And I said, what do you mean? She said, the helicopter search for Jared. It crashed, and I'm like,

what what do you mean it crashed? I said, no one's even keeping us in the loop, letting us know what's going on. So I tried to get a hold of the deputies up on top of the mountain, and nobody would talk to me. I finally called the Sheriff's department itself and I got ahold of someone and I said, listen, I need to find out. I need to know if that if that helicopter crash looking for a little boy up in the canyon. And the lady said, I can't give you that information, and I said, listen, I need

to know. I mean, I finally said, they're looking for my son, and this is ridiculous. Nobody's relating anything to me, and I need to know if they found my son or if the helicopter crashed, And finally she confirmed, yes, the helicopter crashed, And like I said, at the same time, it went from oh my gosh, they found him to

you're serious, something else happened on that trail. So the helicopter crashed the very next day, and what was a search and rescue situation turned into a situation where people they were trying to save people's lives at that time, so they had to take their attention away from Jared, which is totally understandable, but at the same time extremely frustrating because again, like I said, the information wasn't being shared and forth.

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The media was becoming highly interested in this story, and you have to issue press releases and be introduced to some media and decide whether you'd want to on what level you'd want to deal with the media. So tell us a little bit about Susan for a Victim Response Team, and then, because this is very important to this story and to this entire book about your interaction with the media throughout this ordeal.

nothing to do with the media at all. As a matter of fact, the very first press conference they had, it was on the outside of one of our windows of our store. I didn't even show my face. I had one of my friends go out there and speak for me, and I snuck up from the window, had the window open, and I listened to the entire thing, because again I didn't want anything to do with the media.

I'm concerned about my son and they're concerned about his story. Well, it was kind of strange because as one day turned into two, which turned into three, so and so forth, I realized, oh my gosh, they're not finding Jared, and so I all of a sudden told myself you know what, you need these guys and they're coming to you for the story, but you need to go to them so that they can plaster your son's picture all over the place.

So that's when, all of a sudden, my mindset changed and I started to cooperate with anyone and everyone in the media because I wanted my son's picture out there just in case somebody had him, just in case he was out there and he was traveling around and somebody could see him, and and that was just important because

they were my external voice helping me. For instance, well, there was a newscast I believe it was on that Monday, and one of the channels was talking about Jared and they were showing his picture, and there was a arranger at in Mason Very National Park and he was eating dinner with his wife and Jared's face came on the screen. And when Jared's face was on the screen, the guy dropped his fork, look at his wife and said, oh my gosh, that's the little boy I saw today. I'm

pretty sure it's the same kid. And so he kept watching the story and he heard it Jared and he goes, I think the man was calling him Gerald or something, and he explained to his wife. He said, this little boy was a man, and he kept breaking away from the man and running up and grabbing my hand, and I thought that was kind of strange. But I took a little boy back to the man. I thought it was his father, and a few minutes later, the little kid would break away and run back up and grab

my hand again and again. He kept calling him Gerald, and he said, but this was one of the first frustrating things that happened in Jared's case, because I reported this incident to the sheriff's department, and the sheriff's department stated that they would talk to this guy. And then they came out and stated, we interviewed this guy. There's nothing to his story. It's not valid. Jared wasn't there.

They're just not a whole out to his story. And every time I tried to talk about that, I was always told, you know what, the sheriff told us that he interviewed this guy. Well, when I talked to the ranger, the ranger told me that he said Alan, he said, I'm glad you called me. And this was weeks later. He said, Everyone keeps saying that the Sheriff's department called me and interviewed me. He said, no one has ever talked to me. You're the first person to ever called me.

As a matter of fact, Jared disappeared October second, nineteen nine, and on September eleventh, two thousand, this arranger sent me a letter that said, even to this day that the Sheriff's Department keeps claiming they interviewed me, and to this day still no one has talked to me about your son's case.

they would let me know the next morning. When they called me back the next morning and said nope, we decided that that helicopter flew over that area. That was good enough for us. Well, three and a half years later when things were found, it was found in that exact area. Other frustrating things I've found out during the search too. I was sitting in the search and rescue trailer and two deputies were sitting next to me and they grabbed this bag and they're like, we've been searching

for your son with what's in this bag? And they start passing him back and forth because they want to look at it, and they'd never unzipped the bag. They kept their clothing in the bag because of course they wouldn't. They didn't want to contamulate anything. And so I finally said, can I see that bag? And they're like, well sure, and I unzipped it and I reached in the bag and pulled the shorts out that they were looking for

my son with, and I held them up. I said, you guys have been looking for my son with these shorts and they said yes, we've been waving this under the dog's nose, going hey, go find this person. I said, I really can't believe you've been doing this, because if you hold these shorts up, you'll realize they don't belong to a child. They were my shorts. And I said, no wonder, I said, every time I come up this mountain, a dog six his nose up my butt because they're

looking for me. They're not looking for my child. And just took a lot of frustrating things.

Jared disappeared. I had a wonderful lady come up to me and she told me that again, her dogs were the best dogs in the state. They had found many people. Her and her husband had tried many, many different times, and they were told no, we don't need your help. If we need you, we'll call you. And just that type of thing happened over and over and over. As a matter of fact, there's a search and rescue team in a Rapahole County here called the rapa Hale Rescue Patrol.

They tried to get up the trail and they were told no. That summer, about six months after Jared disappeared, Congress Montank Cradle got in touch with him and organized a search for Jared that summer. The night before we were to go on this search, the director of the search and rescue team got a phone call from the sheriff's department and told them, if you show up on

the mountain, we'll have you arrested. They called me, the sheriff of the search and rescue team, and said we were just threatened that they were going to arrest us. And I asked them, what are you going to do, and they said, we're going to go anyway, and we're going to go up in our civilian clothes, and we're going to go up as a bird watching group, and we're going to search for your son. Anyway, there was a US congressman that I ran into on the trail

that day. He even said the same thing, what's going on with the Sheriff's department. Somebody called me and told me, if I knew what was right for my career, I better not show up on that trail. So there were a lot of people that were willing to get involved, but at the same time they were turned away. And I was frustrated because again I asked one of the guys in the trailer that week Jared disappeared. I said, I don't understand why you're using three dogs when you

could have had ten dogs up here. And his response to me was, well, three dogs are better than ten dogs. And I said back to him, are you serious? I said, let's both walk out of this trailer and let's ask all these people around here if they would rather have ten dogs or three dogs looking for them, and let's get their answer, and if any of them says three dogs, I'll shut up on I'll leave alone. I said. It was frustrating. We had a group of the local Indian

tribe show up. They knew the mountain really well. Again, they were told if you step over this rope, and they had the actual parking lot roped off, if you step over the rope and try to make an effort to get on the trail, you'll be arrested. So it's just one of those things where's it was like, come on, guys, you know this little kid's missing. Who cares right now? Put as many people up on that mountain as you can. But it never happened.

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the national Guard. Then you were told by the sheriff, no, that would cost six, you know, two to five thousand, and then publicly he said it would cost five or six thousand dollars a day. I think it's fairly demonstrated in your book that he had some problem with anybody coming in and commandeering his search or usurping him in terms of the investigation. So he had that ego, that's

my investigation. I'm smart enough, my people are good enough, we can search, we can conclude we didn't find him, and that's.

weeks after Jared disappeared. The Learning Channel was doing a documentary on Jared's case, and the sheriff didn't realize there there were two cameras there. There was a camera from Channel four News and the Learning Channel guy had a little bit of camera. Well, Chris Shawl was interviewing the sheriff,

and when the interview was over, they turned the camera off. Well, the sheriff thought the camera was off, and the guy with the Learning Channel is still walking around, and the sheriff stands up and he says to Chris, are you as tired of this story as we are? And then this is like two weeks after my son's disappeared. He's just admitted and confessed on camera that he's tired of this story already. He had no idea that someone was

filming him. And when that actual story aired on TV, I had several phone calls that night, a lot of frustrated people and them it was just hard thinking, you know, is that the problem is that way, The effort isn't there anymore because you guys are tired of the story so very confusing.

that failure to him and his department. Now with this as well, and again you really don't isn't demonstrated in the book that these media appearances did anything other than put this story of your son's your missing son, in the national spotlight. And we're talking about today, we're talking about Good Morning America in the beginning. So tell us

about these appearances. You fell into this reluctantly, but tell us how you evolved in terms of dealing with the media and your overall experience with the media and what you thought it was its effect in this story.

I wanted anytime someone wanted to call me or wanted to talk to me, it was yes, it will, no doubt, I will talk to you, because again again, because I said, I wanted Jared to know I was looking for him, and I wanted everybody out there to see Jared's picture constantly. That way, if somebody had him somewhere, the Sheriff's department could receive a phone call and I'd find my son. So a lot of the people in the media became

really good friends of mine. They would they would call me, I mean a year later and say, hey, you know, let's go back up the trail, let's talk. Let's uh, let's keep your son's picture out there. And so they started seeing it the same way I was seeing it. If Jared's out there, let's let's let's take advantage of this,

let's post this picture again. So many many times, in many different situations, the media to me became my friend and they became someone that I could utilize to the point, like I said, where a lot of them became first name, very close friends, to where if something came up, they would call me and say, Alan, I know you're going to go down and this is going to happen today. Can I be there with you? I just want to be there with you. I won't have my camera and

I just want to be there with you. And I was in several situations too where you know, someone would be interviewing me and the person behind the camera doing the filming has tears running down their face. So it was almost like they became my extended family and they were actually trying to help me achieve something I want to do. Achieve and I will find my son.

you know, missing people here. Well, the thing about Sue was he originally went up the mountain and at one time he had thought he had found Jared's tracks, and he had thought that they intersected tracks of a mountain lion. So he was kind of confused. He wanted to go back up there and check it out again. Well again it hit the media a you know, tracker finds boys tracks and they intersect with the mountain lion, so the

big the mountain lion theory comes out again. Well, the next day they brought in a Department of Wildlife expert, and this Department of Wildlife expert went and observed the same tracks, and they came with conclusion that the tracks that they thought were Jared's were actually the tracks of a bear and a mountain lion in the same area, but they weren't Jared's. But Sue was instrumental from the perspective that, like I said, even though he thought one thing.

One day, he's the one who actually ended up. He showed up at my resort, came in and I was trying to avoid everyone. Again. He came up. He was buying some food, some drinks, and I was behind the counter, and Sue had said to me, he said, oh, man, I just got off the mountain went up there looking for a little boy. And I told him, I said, I really want to thank you. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping. And he looked at me and said, why do you need

to thank me? And I said, well, because Jared's my son. And that's when Sue kind of broke down and shared everything with me. He took out a piece of paper, took out a pen, drew this trail, drew the trail perfectly the campsites, and put an X. He's right here. So Sue was really instrumental, I believe in the beginning. He actually, I think, really had a good idea where we could find Jared. But again, like I said, they refused to send anybody up in that area.

in a certain area that it would disappear. So the longer they went without using the proper scent, the harder it was for the dogs to pick up the Jared scent.

I believe he fell in the river. The river is very, very cold, and it's going to take at least five years for his body to come back up. That's his actual theory that he told me. He didn't believe anything about a mountainline. He thought Jared actually drowned the river.

sure he's taken care of him. And again I really believed they would find him the very next day too. But after several nights had gone by, the weather being cold, I didn't think that Jared could survive the weather. But at the same time, one of the searchers that very first moment I met him, said to me, if he's up here, we'll find him. So as time went by, even though the weather was cold and they were having a hard time finding anything, I started thinking the opposite.

He said, if he's up here, we'll find him. Well, then maybe the reason they're not finding him is because he's not up there. So again the weather was getting bad, but at the same time, my mind was already going in a different direction.

Do you believe he's in the river? Do you believe he's just dead out there? And to me, it's like, you know what, as long as there's nothing to support any theory, I believe them all. Anything could have happened to him. So I put the scenarios in the book to explain more or less what I was being told constantly. Hare I'm a father sitting here and all this stuff was being thrown at me daily and I was trying

to digest at all. So I put the scenarios in the book so the reader could read each one and say, you know what, here's what I had to go through. What do you think happened?

him back and forth constantly. I asked him, I said, Okay, if you're at my house and my child is in my backyard and a guy jumps the fence, grabs my child, jumps back over the fence and runs, where's the evidence. I said, there is no evidence. He's just gone. And for you to claim that just because there's no evidence he wasn't abducted, it was very confusing. So I tried to constddenly pushed that. I talked to several people and I just let him know, you know, there's there's something

that's strange here. I mean, with the fact that there was a scream and someone could have come down from from the other side of the trail, that should that

should indicate something. I mean, people were actually when when cars would would pull under our resort, sheriff deputies are actually going into these trucks and cars, and they were they were actually looking for Jared because at one time someone had offered a ten thousand dollars reward, and I was told that they told this guy to take the reward off the table because if somebody had kidnapped Jared, they could kill him, take his body put him back up there and then yell and scream we found him,

just to get the reward. But there were a lot of things that that they looked at in that direction. But at the same time when they rolled it out, I just really wasn't sure, you know what evidence they had to rule something out. Is really confused over that.

try to make some kind of positive change worked. Tell us about the initiatives that were done before we get into before we talk about the discovery of the clothing.

can help with the search. We testified to have the Amber Alert law put here in Colorado, and it was kind of nice because at the time, of course, we didn't have it, and I just thought that was important because what if Jared were abducted, you know, could something have been done, could an announcement have been out there where they could have been looking for him a lot sooner. And so we pushed for the Amber Alert and actually

got a chance to set with them. Governor Owens on April first, two thousand and eight to sign the actual Amber Alert law into law here in Colorado. Representative Sarah Galardi here in the state of Colorado also pushed through a proclamation called Recreational Safety Awareness Week to honor all the search and rescue teams here in Colorado in Jared's name,

promote recreational safety throughout Colorado. So we helped push that through and we've done a lot of things here in Colorado till like I said, honor those who those people who helped us and at the same time tried to bring safety and understanding to everyone that uses the womerness here in Colorado. And like you said, too, we have the opportunity to speak to to get to know Governor

Owens quite well. And then all of a sudden, Governor Owens is gone, and then the next governor comes in, and I'm thinking, okay, gosh, you know, I no longer have a connection, you know, here at the capitol here in Colorado. And we'll find out that where I'm from Central California, our actual lieutenant governor, her sister, well, the lieutenant governor was born in the same place I'm raised in And so all of a sudden we have this connection.

Just out of the blue. This lady says, my sister is the lieutenant governor and he'd like to talk to her let me know. And before I knew it, I was back into the Governor's office. I'm working to do one of the things actually film the commercial with the governor talking about treill safety and stuff. So it was quite interesting.

got a phone call. And the phone call was from the sheriff and he said, Alan, He said, I'm we think we found Jared's clothing. And I just about passed out right then I'm like, wow, it's been over three and a half years. You think you found my son's clothing. And he said, I need you to come to four Collins to look at the clothing and verify its Jared's. Well, I asked him, I said, do you have pictures of the clothing, and he said yes. I said, can you

email them to me. Let me run home and look at the pictures and I will tell you if they belonged to Jared. So I got home, I raised home, got my computer on opened up this email and a picture of this little jacket shows up, and my body starts to shake me because it's my son's jacket. And then another picture starts to show up, and it's my it's my son's my son's shoes. Then another one it's my son's pants, and I'm like, oh my god, those

are my son's clothing. And it was really, really, really difficult to look at those pictures and know that they actually found something that belonged to Jared. And at the time, I took the email and I emailed those pictures to my family, to my brother, to my father and stuff. And my father calls me within minutes after I sent him then email, and he said, don't you think that's strange? And I said, what's strange?

missing and their sweat pants are. And the reason why the the lake was missing was when you get up on the on the mountain side, right there, that blue blure material was all over the mountain side. And the reason why it was all over the place there were birds and rodents and different little animals pulling the blure off the pants and they were using it as nesting. So when you see that one lake missing, originally, oh

my gosh, why is it lake missing? But after you know a year or so, you know I mean different that I said, different animals were using Jared's clothing to make their nest. But it was really heartbreaking to find out that not only did we find his clothes, but again all of a sudden that big question whire his pants inside out? And it was a question that haunted

me so much that I did contact several people. I contacted several mountain lion experts and they all reassured me that mountain lions do not attack people and take their pants off and leave them inside out on the mountain. Something else happened there. So again it was just very disheartening when that happened.

how did she cope with this? And who were some of the people that helped her be able to handle this while you were off and doing what you had to do and focusing on some of the things that you had to do.

just her normal behavior or was she being frustrated. The thing is that she just she knew there was something different, But I don't really know if she really understood, you know, what had happened, because I know when she first went back to school, a lot of her friends were coming up and hugging her and telling her that, you know, they were sorry and all that. And to her, Jocelyn always believed Jared was alive out there and always believed he would walk in the door in one of these days.

So I think with that little that hope and that innocence, she never took herself to the worst case scenario. I mean, she believed wholeheartedly that we would find Jared up till about a year and a half ago, and she just turned twenty two, so you know, from she was six until twenty one, she honestly believed that my brother's alive, dad, And you know, you, whatever it takes, you keep looking for him because I want to see him again.

She had a really nice positive response that made me feel good because she was trying to make me feel better, like, Daddy, it's okay. You're going to see Jerry again one of these days anyway. So don't worry about it.

now and they talk about the mountain lion constantly. But in my heart, it was like, okay, wait a second. Number one, his pants again, we're inside out. Number two, when they found his clothing, they sent his clothing to the CBI and they tested his clothing for blood and for mountain lion hares. No mountain lion hairs were found, and no blood was found on Jared's clothing. So in my thought process, it's like, Okay, wait a second. You know, a mountain lion would have created a lot of blood.

Number One, again, they a mountain lion will attack the stomach area, the stomach region and ripped something apart and try to consume it with Jared had a jacket on and the front of that jacket has not been ripped or torn. And again I was told that jacket would have been ripped to pieces. And it would have been stained. So I continuously looked for other things, you know, I wanted to I wanted to believe my son was still alive.

And again too the doctor Baden out of New York, who's just a famous doctor, we talked on the phone and he told me, he said, Alan, he said, if you look at Jared's shoes and you look at his clothing, I promise you, and I guarantee you out of all the years of my experience, that stuff's been thrown back up on the mountain on a later date, just to throw you off the trail. Do not let anybody talk you into a mountain lion theory because it didn't happen.

So again, it was just that that battle going back and forth, you know, one side saying this is what it is, and me trying to talk to people saying, but there's evidence that it didn't happen.

when they first originally found Jared's clothing, that's all they found. Now, he said, I can't promise you he's not alive, because if somebody took him, they could have killed him somewhere else, or they could have killed him and maybe put something else back up on the mountain, he said, but I will promise you that's the clothing hasn't been up there

for three and a half years. And he actually came out and said, you're gonna they had, Like I said, all they found was clothing, And a week later they were they'd searched the mountain for the week trying to find anything else besides the clothing. And a week after they had found the clothing, I myself went up the trail to help them search for, you know, anything else they could find. But doctor Baden in the media would he kept saying, I'm not sure why they're not finding anything.

If the boy is up there, they're going to find at least a tooth. And he kept saying that over and over and over. So which leaves up to the next part of the story.

up the cliff right there. And as soon as I got there, over the radio they said, hey, is mister added Darrow here yet? And somebody says, yeah, I just got here. Oh good, can you let him know we found a tooth. And like I said, they've been arguing back and forth in the media and the sheriff and doctor Baiden. You'd find a tooth and one person would say, you know, the doctor would say you'd find a tooth. The sheriff would say, no, you want, We're not gonna

find anything. And mysteriously this tooth shows up along later on along with the top skull cap of a cranium and they find that, well, a tooth. The interesting thing about the tooth is the tooth looked to be too big to be to belong to a three and a half year old, and so that in itself was kind of strange. And so we had a DNA test done on both the tooth and the cranium, and the original DNA test came back. It wasn't conclusive that it was Jared' where they couldn't roll it out. But the weird

thing was when the tooth came back. I wasn't told this until I sent the evidence. They gave me a report of what they call electoral pharograms that are created during a DNA test. I sent this report to an expert in Ohio. He gets back with me and says, did you know that the DNA performed on the tooth? It was contaminated And I'm like, what do you mean it's contaminated? He said, well, the DNA belonged that the DNA.

There are two people's DNA in this tooth. He said, I don't know how this happens, because we as experts never do anything. We would never let anything get contaminated. So with that in mind, again, like I said, the tooth looked to be too big to be to belong to a three and a half year old child. So with that in mind, it created more questions. Why was this tooth, what was the DNA examinated? Why was it totally destroyed? How come I can't have part of it

to since somewhere else again? And then through that entire mess, somebody else gets involved. You know a guy by a guy by the name of John Cameron, who is a retired cold case investigator, and he came up with a theory that he believed that Jared's body someone kidnaps Jared and his body was literally with another person that he had kidnapped, and both bodies that they were, they were deceased, and so when he went to place the cranium back up on the on the mountain to throw people off,

he grabbed a tooth and grabbed the wrong tooth. And the reason why he was contaminating with two different DNAs was because both these diseased bodies were laying side by side. And therefore now this tooth is contaminated. And that's because the wrong toothless will back up on the trail.

degree they did to plant these clothes back up? Was there any any exploration of why this person in terms of motivation, would want to bring the clothes back up to the trail after all those all that time, What would be the purpose of that other than the psycho path,

you know, just a psychopathic serial killer kind of trait. Well, the information I was given was he liked a person that would do this is a person that liked to more or less mess with families, more or less show families that you know, he's smarter than than they are, and he can do these things and you know, kill these people. And and he had he had a strange motivation.

still here. So it was more of a way that this person would kind of had an antagonistic behavior to where he knew he could get away with things, and at the same time, he would wait till when you least expected it to throw another clue out there. But he was also he was always trying to show that I don't know. There was just a strange behavior where

he wanted people to know he was in charge. And that's you know what some people believe about, you know, a killer that may have put Jared back up There.

So it's a testament that your faith has done something for you spiritually, helping you through this and to continue on and I can't even imagine. So tell us about that faith. Tell us how initially you reconcile this, because you know you hear the story of well, you know, God works in mysterious ways. There must be some purpose. Really, how did how we were able to reconcile this? And what did your faith do and how did you get to that?

handle handle the truth yet. But on the other side of the going too, I've come to the conclusion at peace because you know what, when you lose a child, it's hard to get up every day, and it's hard to walk again, and you need to be able to stand upon something that allows you to get up in and take another breath.

again one of these days. And when that happened to me, I was okay. I was like, okay, you know what, I'm going to see my son again one of these days. I mean, my goodness, it's you know, time is gone by and it's been many years ago, and I think of Jared every single day. But at the same time, you know, I have my daughter, and I have my wife, and I have a wonderful life and I'm just thankful that God has giving me the courage and the drink to get up every day, and He's provided peace to me.

And that peace is also peace knowing that my son is smiling at me still, and I know that.

called Missing Christophervigil dot com. It's Christopher and Vigil v I G I L. And he has a Facebook page as well, a Missing Christopher Vigil And so if people could go to that, he explains the story and his involvement and his call for people to get involved if they know anything at all. And it's an admirable mission. And he was good enough to introduce me to you and your incredible story. So I want to thank Keith Clark for that and tell people that they should go

visit the blog and get the information. It's an incredible story and Keith has done a real good job in moving that story ahead and learning people to the story in the first place. I want to mention that I also wanted to before we wrap up. We've only got a couple of minutes. I wanted to talk about just the involvement of your brother Arlin, and he is a co writer of this book, so he's very important to

this story. And after that we want to talk about how if people want to get involved or want to hear more about this, or want to purchase a book from Tate Publishing, how they can might be able to contact you personally or again for the book and wherever they might get all that information. So tell us a little bit about Arlind, your brother, his involvement, and then tell us about how people might get involved or contact to or find out more information about this incredible tale.

have a connection that's just totally incredible. And so when I originally started writing the book, I wanted to write it to give to Joscelyn so that she could read and understand what happened for the rest of her life. And I also wanted to just document everything that that happened to me. My brother got involved because I would write things and I would send him to my brother and say, hey, you know, take a look at this.

What do you think that I'm And he would get back with me and say yeah, I remember that and remember when this happened too, And so he had that insight of the person kind of like on the outside looking in at me, and where I had that insight where how it happened to me.

thinking the same thing. So it's just it's just been a great feeling and honor to do something with my brother and I just I'll always appreciate it. The book itself, if if you want to stay in contact with the easiest way is the name of the book is missing. When the sun sets, and it's a play on words.

It's not s un it's s o n And it means my son me finally finding out what possibly may have happened to my son, and my son is starting to his life kind of set off on the horizon, and so it's missing when the sun sets, s O in. The best way again is to go to Facebook and search Missing when the sun Sets. You can email me there. There's a link also on the top to Tape Publishing where you can purchase the book. And I have several different email addresses, and one of them is Jared's father

at yahoo dot com. And that's and Jared's name is spelled j A y d S. I mean j j a r y d, and so it's j A r y d s father, Jared's father at yahoo dot com. Or you can even email me at my name Alan at todero. It's all one word, a l l y n A t A d E r O at yaho dot com. But you can go to Facebook. That's the easiest way to contact me. You can email me through Facebook Missing when the sun Sets, and you can purchase the book there. And you can also follow what's going

on if I find out anything new right now. For instance, I'm going back up the trail next Wednesday, and I'll be posting some pictures and talking about some things that may have happened on our new theories. It might be coming up, so you can follow the story on my Facebook page.