Mountain man continues to elude capture

[high peaks man]

In Utah:

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/M...h-cabins-.html

[Robot]

Wonder if he is one of our members, LOL

[Dunedain]

"They've found abandoned camps, dozens of guns, high-end outdoor gear stolen from the homes and trash strewn around the forest floor.

I hope he's not one of our members--if he is, he's doing it wrong

[Mtnman Mike]

I don't like that they call him a mountain man but at least they don't call him a survivalist or prepper.
Many could be called mountain men or women if they live most of their lives in the mountains and it should not be a derogatory term.
Sounds like this guy is most probably an outcast from one of the religious groups in southern Utah?

Many are afraid of him as told about in that article. But after 5 years he has not hurt anyone, just done property damage and burglary. Which I do not like and would never recommend anyone doing. There might be many doing similar things someday post - SHTF and society had collapsed.

This guy also sounds quite a bit like Wild Bill Moreland who was a guy who wandered around the Idaho wilderness for over ten years in the 1930's breaking into cabins and forest service buildings for food. He also knew how to live off the land hunting only with a .22 rifle.
I read about Moreland in Ragnar Benson's book "Living off the Land in the City or Country"

As more and more people run out of unemployment and even just get sick of society there might be more going around breaking into cabins etc. There are an awful lot of cabins and buildings that have been built over the past 30 or so years all over, even in remote areas.

[SamuelC]

Interesting story. A lot of it just seems like fear mongering to me.

"He could stand in the trees and pop you off and no one would know who killed you," Stucki said.

They quote this, after pointing out that there have been no violent confrontations. Just have to make sure that people know he could kill them. Of course, if a man wanted to kill someone he could do so with a pencil.

"He's anti-religious, waiting for the mothership to come in," Stucki speculated.

So, if you aren't religious you must believe alien theories.

Its a good thing hes not violent. But, I do wonder why he steals so much. I wonder if its just for the ease of it, or if he has a problem with people that can afford to own a vacation home, or something else.

Fun story, thanks!

[BAR BAR 2]

Wow. Cool story.

Tex

[catmando]

mtn man mike, wow.. i thought i was the only one who read that book.. i read it long ago in my youth...wild bill was Da Man...

[m47dragon]

Mountain man? More like "raider" or "opportunist." I doubt he'd be so elusive if he didn't have a string of high-end, well stocked ski/hunting/vacation cabin "caches" to live off.

[high peaks man]

"the shadowy survivalist remains an enigma".

Nope, not one of ours, LOL

[Deadstream]

Interesting story but makes me wonder who would leave all that high end stuff in a cabin unprotected for such a long time? Eventually some one is going to find and take it either by accident or design.

[RazorCityDen]

I've lived in the mountain west most of my life and can tell you there are many, many folks like him that come and go. Most don't cause so much drama with the vandalism and hence don't bring so much attention to themselves.

Dan and Don Nichols in MT were well known by folks in the Big Sky area for years before they decided to kidnap a wife. Folks would joke that anyone that would ruin their long hunting trip by bringing the wife HAD to be crazy! LOL

The guy is getting bold now, probably just loney and will likely keep getting worst till authorities roll him up. Who knows though the kind of search it takes to gather a guy like him up is very, very expensive and the county won't get Fed help till he does some kind of bodily harm. The search for the Nichols about broke Madison County.

PS: If he's going to leave dirty 'blue tarp' camps decaying in the woods he needs to be rolled up. We find these camps all the time when were hanging out for the summer, what an eye sore.

Take care,

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I don't agree one bit w/his disrepectful destruction of the cabins he's got into. however 'liberating' supplys that are'nt in immediate need by someone is'nt any concern of mine. 'dozens of guns'? that was'nt proved to me, the foto displayed only 3 and an air pistol near as I could see. what's he intend to do with 'dozens of guns'??
opsec could be much improved at the tarp shelter area too - that's in fact somewhat amatuerish IMO

[Prospero]

Seems he leaves quite a mess where he goes. Kind of hard to believe they can't catch him after five years.

[biathlon]

Claude Dallas lived outside society for a long time without robbing anybody or burglarizing private property. His only crime till he shot and killed a game warden was hunting beyond season and some trapping without a license.
I wonder how much the local Utah sheriffs office would pay me to catch this guy?

[hayes31]

Originally Posted by SamuelC

A lot of it just seems like fear mongering to me.

According to this article, the guy "has been leaving the cabins in disarray and riddled with bullets after defacing religious icons, and a recent note left behind in one cabin warned, 'Get off my mountain'":

http://news.yahoo.com/mountain-man-s...090722480.html

Doesn't sound like fear mongering to me.

[twyggy]

Interesting read, thanks man!

[Mountain]

While the article does not directly mention survivalists or preppers this is close enough..

"Investigators say they have found several of the man's unattended summer camps, what they initially thought were left behind by "doomsday" believers preparing for some sort of apocalypse because of the remote locations and supplies like weapons, radios, batteries, dehydrated food and camping gear"

Does anyone realise we have two threads on this topic going?...

[Dougzilla]

Originally Posted by Mountain

While the article does not directly mention survivalists or preppers this is close enough..

"Investigators say they have found several of the man's unattended summer camps, what they initially thought were left behind by "doomsday" believers preparing for some sort of apocalypse because of the remote locations and supplies like weapons, radios, batteries, dehydrated food and camping gear"

Does anyone realise we have two threads on this topic going?...

Actually, it does mention survivalists. In the paragraph to the left of the picture of his gear and guns (figures).

"So while detectives believe they are getting close, buoyed by the recent photos, the shadowy survivalist remains an enigma. No missing person report appears to fit, and fingerprints lifted from cabins have yielded no match."

[Mr.]

Just an armed psychopath in the mountains. No more or less.

[armysniper]

http://news.yahoo.com/mountain-man-s...090722480.html

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — He's eluded authorities for more than five years, a mountain man who roams the wilderness of southern Utah, breaking into remote cabins in winter, living in luxury off hot food, alcohol and coffee before stealing provisions and vanishing into the woods.

Investigators have clawed for clues, scouring cabins for fingerprints that match no one and chasing reports of brief encounters only to come up short, always a step behind the mysterious recluse.

They've found abandoned camps, dozens of guns, high-end outdoor gear stolen from the homes and trash strewn around the forest floor.

But the man authorities say is armed and dangerous and responsible for more than two dozen burglaries has continued to outrun the law across a swath of mountains not far from Zion National Park. He's roamed across 1,000 square miles of rugged wilderness where snow can pile 10 feet deep in winter.

And while there have been no violent confrontations, detectives say he's a time bomb. Lately he has been leaving the cabins in disarray and riddled with bullets after defacing religious icons, and a recent note left behind in one cabin warned, "Get off my mountain."

"You wouldn't want to come across that guy," said Iron County Det. Jody Edwards, who has been working the case since 2007.

Theories about his identity have ranged from a 42-year-old man on the FBI's Most Wanted List sought for the 2004 killing of an armored-truck guard in Phoenix to a castaway from the nearby compounds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamous sect run by jailed leader Warren Jeffs.

The FBI recently discounted the theory that the man was their fugitive after authorities got the first pictures of him from a motion-triggered surveillance camera outside a cabin showing a sandy-haired man in camouflage on snowshoes, a rifle slung over his shoulder. The photos were captured sometime in December.

"We believe that is not Jason Derek Brown," FBI special agent Manuel Johnson told The Associated Press.

However, Edwards isn't so quick to rule out the possibility, given the close resemblance to Brown, who was raised Mormon and is a highly educated, well-traveled avid outdoorsman.

So while detectives believe they are getting close, buoyed by the recent photos, the shadowy survivalist remains an enigma. No missing person report appears to fit, and fingerprints lifted from cabins have yielded no match.

Meanwhile, cabin owners are growing more frightened by the day and are left wondering who might be sleeping in their beds this winter.

"He's scaring the daylights out of cabin owners. Now everyone's packing guns," said Jud Hendrickson, a 62-year-old mortgage advisor from nearby St. George who keeps a trailer in the area.

In November 2010, Bruce Stucki, another cabin owner, said a burglar broke into his cabin through a narrow window, pried open a gun case with a crowbar and laid out the weapons but took none. At a nearby cabin, the man reportedly took only the grips from gun handles.

"He could stand in the trees and pop you off and no one would know who killed you," Stucki said.

Some cabins he has left tidy and clean, while others he has practically destroyed, even defecating in one in a pan on the floor.

"He should know he's being followed, but I don't think this guy is normal in any way," said Stucki, who, like many cabin owners, has a lot of his own theories.

"He's anti-religious, waiting for the mothership to come in," Stucki speculated.

Investigators say they have found several of the man's unattended summer camps, what they initially thought were left behind by "doomsday" believers preparing for some sort of apocalypse because of the remote locations and supplies like weapons, radios, batteries, dehydrated food and camping gear.

Edwards said two camps found a few years ago were stocked with 19 guns. One of the camps also had a copy of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," a book about a young man who died after wandering into the Alaskan wilderness to live alone off the land.

The cabin burglar has managed to avoid being seen all but twice over the years, each time retreating into the forest.

The coffee and alcohol the survivalist favors plays into some cabin owners' assessment that he could be a castaway from the nearby twin towns of Hildale or Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border. The so-called lost boys are said to be regularly booted from the polygamous sect there by elders looking to increase their marriage opportunities with young women.

Unlike members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which discourages consumption of alcohol and coffee, many of the Mormon fundamentalists imbibe.

Detectives aren't sharing their latest assessments but "we've got a lot of leads" from the surveillance photos, Edwards said. "I would say we're very close to making a positive ID on him. We just got to catch this guy."

To cabin owners in southern Utah, he remains a spooky and menacing figure.

"We feel like we're being subject to terrorism by this guy," Hendrickson said. "My wife says flat-out she's not going back to our trailer until they catch him."