Burning at Dawn: The Vanished Hiker and the Impossible Fire

Burning at Dawn: The Vanished Hiker and the Impossible Fire

The sight of a knee-high fire burning on bare mineral soil at 6:40 a.m. with a packed tent and boots left outside hooked an impossible scene: no ash beneath the flames, a precise log-cabin stack, and a missing solo hiker who never built campfires. What happened in that clearing between nightfall on June 8 and sunrise on June 9, 2011, and why was a fresh fire still burning with no one to tend it?

In this episode, you will hear the timeline of the morning discovery, the details of the abandoned camp, and the search that found the missing person a short distance away - and the unanswered question that keeps the case open.

Person: Gloria Brooks Date: June 8-9, 2011 Location: Dellwood backcountry clearing Status: Found conscious and mildly hypothermic three-quarters of a mile north Injury: Bruise on left temple consistent with a lateral temporal impact

- Fire observed burning at 6:40 a.m. with knee-high flames and no ash beneath the logs - Boots placed neatly outside the zipped tent flap and a mug on a flat rock inside the empty camp - Wood stacked in a log-cabin formation and a cache of four or five pieces of split hardwood found under a flat rock - Gloria signed her permit at 7:50 a.m. on June 7 and had hiked 1.3 miles to the clearing to camp the same day - Gloria was found at 11:20 a.m., three-quarters of a mile north, conscious with wet socks and a silver-dollar-sized bruise on her left temple

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