Up and Vanished - Status: Untraced - E10: The Hero Project

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Listen to the final episode of Justin Alexander's story in "Status: Untraced". From the team that brought you Up and Vanished, this is Episode 10 - 'The Hero Project'. Binge the full season ad-free, plus get access exclusive content by subscribing to Tenderfoot Plus. Learn more at Tenderfootplus.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It started with a backpack at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. A backpack that contained a bomb. While the authorities focused on the wrong suspect, a serial bomber planned his next attacks. Two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar. But this isn't his story. It's a human story. One that I've become entangled with. I saw as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out. The victims of these brutal attacks were left to pick up the pieces,

forced to explore the gray areas between right and wrong, life and death. Their once ordinary lives, and mine, changed forever. It kind of gave me a feeling of pending doom. And all the while, our country found itself facing down a long and ugly reckoning with a growing threat. Far right, homegrown, religious terrorism. Listen to Flashpoint starting July 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The season finale of Status Untraced starts right now. Thanks for going on this journey with us and stay tuned for more of Unvanished coming very soon. You're listening to Status Untraced, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. This podcast also contains subject matter, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Alright, I hit it. About time, huh? Morning guys. Yeah guys, ready? Ready?

Four to six hours I think is what it's going to take, right? To get to the spot. The morning after reaching Kyrgyzstan, we head deeper into the mountains. It says we're at 10,400 some feet, but not positive. My fellowship consists of Alex, Kabir, Jagdish who carries rappelling gear, two porters, and a man who wields a loaded rifle. We pass no one. Snow is imminent this time of year, so many do not continue on this far. This is the path where Dustin Alexander was last seen.

It's been a long time since I set out into the wilderness alone, but this time is special. I want to do these ancient practices under an influence that may allow me to see the magic, if it exists at all. Marching on for hours, we finally reach a clearing. Perched atop a grassy knoll, rests a rock hut. We have reached Tundabuj. Tundabuj is the rest stop where the porter was sent ahead to prepare food, where the mysterious couple passed by and did not stop,

and where Baba arrived without Justin. The old route for the trek was from the bridge. You had to from the bridge. You had to cross the bridge. An old bridge sits across the river here, crumbled and decaying. It once connected to grassy fields on the other side. That's where some shepherds could be up there. Not now.

They've already left by now. We rest, but not for long. You okay? The altitude's caught Alex. We rest, but not for long. You okay? The altitude's caught Alex. He's suffering because of the altitude. The elevated altitude strains our breaths, muddles our thoughts. To add to that, the trail itself has started to disappear.

What once was a hike, now feels more like a rock climb. Fuck. Have fewer things in the hand? No, I need to film this. As we ascend, glacial runoff trickles under our feet. And the higher we climb, the more we encounter frozen patches of it, slickening the trail. You mean Justin walked down to the river?

Could've. I don't know. That's not the theory. But I'm wondering, why would he go down to the river? Yeah, probably just a photo. There are better spots for photos. Jagdish, is this it? Jagdish points to a steep slope about 100 yards away.

You can't get any further. Impossible to cross this ice. How close are we? Just the corner there. Just around that corner, right? Just the corner, yeah. If one guy slips down there, then the whole team's gone. Yeah. That's the spot, you know? That ledge right there, then the whole team's gone.

That's the spot, you know. That ledge right there, that one right out there. You can assume so, yeah. Nobody saw him. Before us lies the site where Dustin Alexander's belongings were found. Far below, what has to be five stories down, the river cascades with violent force through massive rocks. If you fell in, it would crush you. What do you think Alex? The steepness of this cliff makes me uneasy.

I can't believe this is a hiking trail. Yeah this is definitely a lot steeper than I was anticipating. I look at the ledge just a hundred yards away, in a valley swallowed by immense beauty. For such an epic life, it's such a strange place to be murdered, to die, or to leave it all behind. In his final journal entry, Justin included a photo of what he packed. A metal pot, a plastic cup, utensils, a leather journal, dry food and plastic wrap, and assorted camping essentials. Yet it was only a red butane lighter, an umbrella, a backpack rain cover stuffed with a scarf

and head wrap, and a flute staff standing upright in the ground that were found. What does the story these pieces tell? In the moment, the chances of answering that question felt impossible. What I didn't know then was the things I was about to be told. The testimonies we were about to hear would start to bring this journey to an end. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm lost Just hiding it is never enough Now I find that in every mirror, I'll ghost Only once I saw the killer Once I saw the killer, I'll close I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced

Episode 10 The Hero Project. He said he remembers Justin, he remembers the Baba. He's down to interview. Interview here? Mm-hmm. We're guided to a smoky tent when we're back in Kyrgyzstan. A burning wood stove crackles at the center, and cloth mats cover the floor. Cross-legged in the corner sits a thin man with a scruffy gray beard.

Shaking hands proper? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's wonderful to meet you, Shogiri Baba. A Shogiri is called by many as the Tundabhuj Baba. For the past eight summers, he's lived at the stony hut at Tundabhuj. There, on the day Justin disappeared, he remembers Baba Rawat and Anil Kumar passing through and speaking with them. I'm trying to wrap up loose ends and get definite answers.

Given that Ashok Giri was with Baba Rawat moments after Justin disappeared, I want some clarity on the holy man's character. What was his demeanor like that day? Did he seem like someone who had just committed murder? He asked the Baba and Anil to stop here and wait for the foreigner guy. But the Baba said, oh no, he'll come himself and we're going to go and... That Justin knew that where they're going to be staying, so he'll head up to the same place straight away. He even shouted at the other Baba, why didn't you leave him over there? The place where he left him is a dangerous point for people to cross over.

He was seen yesterday. He actually sent Anil back to the place to go and look for him. The place where he left him is a dangerous point for people to cross over. You've seen yesterday. Yeah. He actually sent Anil back to the place to go and look for him. Anil, he went there, he took almost three hours searching from there, and he came back without any clue. Anil Kumar went back to look for Justin that day, which aligns with what he said in the interrogation. Does he know of anybody falling off, like those rocks around there? He hasn't heard any tourists fallen from there,

but lots of porters have fallen from that place and went down straight to the river. But not the tourists. They never heard about the tourists being fallen from there. Because they probably aren't carrying their bags. Yeah, they're more empty handed. I've heard about fake babas that are only in it to try to get money.

Do we think that this Baba was a fake? There are many Babas who want to get money from others. They don't remember, they have to run away. Why would they remember? According to him, that Baba wasn't like that, because then he would have ran away from here. But the only mistake that he did, according to him, was leaving Justin behind, and he shouldn't have done that. Since we have Jagdish here as well, can you tell the Baba what Anil told you with the couple?

Jagdish tells Ashok Giri about the mysterious couple, the one Anil said was with Justin and would have passed by the hut. Ashok Giri doesn't recall seeing them, however, gives the name of someone we should speak to, a girl who possibly might know more about Babar-i-Wad, Justin and this couple. He said there was one girl from Bangalore, Sapna. Sapna. Sapna.

Sapna knew everything about Justin. That he used to take pictures from very dicey places. He used to climb somewhere and then take the pictures from there. He was doing all this stuff a lot. Sapna knew all this. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day?

How about a 4pm late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, terms apply. But I know he was like, I need more time in this place. That's what I remember, that he wanted to stay there for a longer time.

That is what I get from that conversation. We hiked back to town, and I found and connected with Swapna. She says in the summer of 2016, she and her brother, Roy, were traveling and sought refuge at a cave in Kyrgyzstan. They met Justin at an intimate gathering, and she says he was memorable, but not just for his kindness. Was it weird? How did you feel about him pulling out that much hash?

Didn't like it. For me, it was not very okay because I felt intimidated. Like, why is this guy showing this stuff so openly? So for safety, I didn't indulge too much hanging out with Justin. Justin settled into one of the caves, and Swapna says he started to change. She disconnected from all of us,

and after some point I didn't even see him because he was only with the Baba. She recalls her only true encounter with Baba Ruwat was acting as Justin's translator. She later left Kyrgyzstan about a week before Justin's trek, unaware of his subsequent disappearance. After hearing the news, she returned to confront Baba Rawat, likely the first to do so, and obtained what is probably the most reliable version of the Baba's initial testimony. taking photos and stuff like that. The whole trip I was annoyed with him

and I got angry so I left him and I and the Nepali porter started to walk in the front and he was behind. And I came to my place and I'm waiting for him, thinking he will come. But he didn't come. And I have a feeling he's dead. That's how he said it.

Babarwad's actions are tough to read, but if we compare what he told Swapna and the police, it's pretty similar. The only contradiction lies in the order of who came down the mountain. Swapna remembers hearing Justin was the last to leave, while Baba said, So Porter went ahead,

behind was Justin and after that me. So what does this mean? And can we trust Swapna's memory of this detail? With Baba Rawat gone, we may never know. But think about it. Would a guilty man openly air his annoyances? So openly the Baba is telling me. I was so angry with him.

Like I told him he is a foreigner, you know, if anything happens to people who come from outside our country, you are in big trouble. And then he also started to feel panic because after that many people started to come there and question him. Everyday he was there in his skootia, in his house. He sat there without fear. He didn't run away. He just sat there.

He said, I must be waiting for Justin. What do you think I'm doing? Of course I was angry. But for some reason I never felt he was involved in anything. When I volunteered to delve into Justin's case, I imagined the investigation would unfold like a scene straight out of a movie, each clue seamlessly leading to the next, a chain of discoveries culminating in a grand reveal. The reality has been far from it.

Our days have been a relentless pursuit of leads that fizzled into dead ends, sifting through a mix of rumors and accusations, only to unearth a sliver of the truth. And the constant barrage of well-meaning suggestions, talk to this person, visit that place, often let us down paths lined with more questions than answers. Is there a killer? Who is this couple? Do they exist? Who can we trust?

What happened to Justin? Other than tracking down the porter, I followed up on every lead we had. Except one. You see, I made a phone call months ago to a guy named Ashish Chauhan. A local who participated in the searches for Justin. Our conversation was brief, just 10 minutes or so. But what he said, now gnaws at me. Did you text Ashish?

Yeah. No response? Not yet. Since that initial call, Ashish has become something of a ghost. Or can you call him on your Facebook? On Facebook? Yeah.

I mean, he knows it's me. Fine. That's fine. Responding here or there, he's been elusive and difficult to pin down. This is not a difficult call, Kareo. Let's go try Arshdeep's phone. Yeah. I get the feeling he's dodging my calls.

So I try calling from Arshdeep's phone. Hey, get back out here. Totally there, but... Well, it's kind of weird. It means he's not ignoring me specifically, it just means he's not answering anything. I don't know what else to do other than pray he shows. Because as I replay what Ashish said, I have some deep shit that you may call it rumour, you know, but the source where I got some of the information about Justin's case, that I had never shared

with anyone else. I won't share it with you even right now. So, I'm still doing this, to be honest, Liam. Give me some more days. I'll update you on this. Let's talk later on. It was never revealed to me what the deep shit was. And it seems his habit to vanish hasn't changed. Or so I thought. Because finally, when my phone rings, it's a sheesh. And he's on his way. We had to know. We had to know.

That was our... I bet you we're gonna go to Manali tomorrow. Do we know he's gonna be there? Nope. No, we do not. Surprised, I watch a taxi drop off at the front lobby, and shortly after, there's a knock on our door. I just have a couple of questions. What kind of questions I'll be facing.

So I can prepare myself with the proper answer because it's around six years now. So everything is not very fresh for me. Ashish is visibly drained, like he hasn't slept in days. He apologizes for the erratic scheduling, confessing that his life is at the moment in a bit of disarray. Every so often, his phone interrupts our conversation.

Most calls tied to a tourism company he manages, Himalayan Drifters. It's an outfit that offers a variety of services, including search and rescue. Generally, we find people. It's mostly they are coming down and we are going up. I have a picture, oh, you are the guy. Your parents are looking for you.

If Indians go missing, trust me, no one cares. Just a couple of days back, ten days back, there was this guy who went missing in Khirgaanga. No one went anywhere. No one went anywhere. Not even the local search and rescue companies came forward. Still missing. Still missing, there is not a single poster around. Go to Manikkan Police Station, just find out the board.

They can't remove anything unless that guy either declared dead or hasn't been fined. If he's been missing, that board has to be with his name. And just check out how many names are there. To my knowledge, in this one past decade, more than 100 people have gone missing here. But around five, six names, that's all. I've seen this board.

Faces of missing persons and flyers from the past pinned to it. And there's a list. Justin's on it. His status marked, untraced. Have you ever had anyone show back up? The first search and rescue happened for a guy. He went missing for 14 years and suddenly he was here, alive. French guy.

Lived here for a while, went in the jungle and then never came back. 14 years and suddenly one day he showed up here in Kuswala and people recognized him. So you'll find such cases, lots of them. Have you ever met them personally? Yeah. What do they act like? They, I would call them calm, free, aware what they are doing here,

why they come and why they are doing it. Indians or foreigners? Foreigners, all foreigners. Now I think about it, more than 10 I think I know. Easily. Mostly Germans, Russians, some Israelis.

Most of these though, have they completely cut off ties with their family, do you know? Most of them? Yes And in terms of Justin When we talked on the phone you had alluded to knowing some deep shit Something you said you wouldn't share with me until we met in person Can you tell me what that is now? to be honest, there are so many things that I haven't disclosed to anyone. And there were lots of weird things that just I kept to myself. So I'll give you the brief storyline, right?

Just I'll try to put a time frame on it. So I was like on a climb. I got back, got to hear that this Justin guy is missing. So I volunteered with the family, said I'll be happy to go for the search and rescue, but you'll need to cover basic charges because search and rescue is quite expensive. But I asked them to just pay the basic and I'll happily search for him. So we took around 12 people in my team and around 8 cops. So I was leading a total number of 20 people and for 14 days we stayed up in the mountains. So there were 3 search and rescue teams involved. I was hired by the family.

And in total around there were 50 people in the mountains searching for him. Wow, yeah. This till date is the biggest search and rescue operations in the history of Himachal. I knew Justin's case ruffled feathers, but I didn't realize it was the biggest the valley's seen. It puts into perspective the immense pressure law enforcement was under. So never, never people went in that number to find someone. Never such kind of amount was spent. And we finally found out lots of belongings and it was at the river bank, very close to

the river. We found out the stuff, we called up the cops, we gathered up all the evidence and got back. But there were lots of things that no one was discussing. Like, like what? My impression about this Baba, I don't think. He was even physically capable of doing any harm to Justin. I think Baba was okay. What was your impression when you heard

that the Baba had killed himself? I was shocked. Felt sad, really bad. Because no one believed, including cops, that he was involved with anything with Justin. When I was on the search and rescue, we were in the Tundabuj place, right? So not every cop will stay for 14 days.

They will switch like seven days, if someone will go and some new guy will come. So every time new guy will come and he will tell us the story about like hitting the Baba. They would say like, this is bad karma, what we are doing is sin, right? So hitting a Baba with whom we have nothing. In fact, there is no case against him. He told that to the cops that it hurts, let me smoke. Give me my joint. But they never gave it to him and it was beatings and pain only. It's one thing to suspect,

another to hear it from an insider. Babarwad suffered from beatings, the tumors and withdrawal. Imagine the torment that does to the mind of a frail man. Perhaps he saw only one way out. Police hit Bala for information? Yeah. Yeah, that's a normal procedure. It's India.

People will confess to a crime they have never done. So is that everything or do you have more you found? I heard rumors but those are rumors. There is no evidence, no fact to it. But I heard that he... Not recently, around one and a half years back, I was on the trail of Kheer Ganga. I met a guy who is from Naktan. He told me, do you know that there was an update on that guy's death?

Which guy? That American guy for whom you were searching. So I told him what he heard about him. So he told me there was one Gaddi. You know, which guy? That American guy for whom you were searching. So I told him what he heard about him. So he told me there was one Gaddi. Gaddi is a shepherd, right? So these shepherds are migrants who stay up there in the mountains for like entire summer. So one of them saw him tumbling down the mountain with the bag and all. with the bag and all.

So he never told that to cops, but he told that to locals. And then I was a bit curious because he was suggesting a very particular point from where he could see this. And I asked him, where did he see him? He gave me an exact location

where he fell. You know the story, right? Where he went missing at the same spot, that's called Patrigarh. So from that certain point, when they were coming back to Tundabodh, there's a stretch, right? Very dangerous stretch, in fact. So that's the place we really searched for and We found his belongings there. And if you believe me, and the person who told that story of him falling down, quite matches the location. How would he know where was the location?

So I think, yeah, this might have been the case. It's very hard to wrap your mind around this thought that a guy like Justin could do at such a point. But even I have because like I was not careful enough. So that's accidents. It happens and it happens quite often in mountains. Our final days in India meld together, much of it spent in solemnity. In pursuit of the porter's address, we found ourselves once more at the Manikaran police station, only to be met with an unexpected discovery. Four boys confined in the cell. Those are the guys?

Well, take that off the table. These were the culprits behind the knife point robbery. No interrogation yet. Unaware of Dhruv Agarwal or the web of disappearances, these boys were merely outsiders who attempted the theft on a whim, an act of teenage stupidity. 10 AM. This is?

Yeah, it was November. Eventually, we part ways with the heart of the Parvati Valley and returned to the capital, Kulu, continuing our quest for Anil Kumar's whereabouts. All right, are you able to text him? Yeah, I'll text him right now. What's, uh? Not busy in the full file.

We reconnect with the superintendent of police, albeit it too was useless. If he had a number, would they have written it down? Anil Kumar? Yeah. Anil, we don't have his phone number. No. But if he had one, they would have.

We were ready to give up until a moment of pure luck came from our guide Kabir. Kabir figured out the address of Anil. He sent it on the WhatsApp to Liam. Oh, shit. It's not Anil Kumar's exact address, but a district in another Indian state, far from our current location where his family might live.

But the exact village name has to be there. I need to figure out Anil Kumar's exact village. We don't make the trip. With 1.6 million people spanning over a thousand square miles, it's just too immense of an area for us to hit to find a man with a common name. It's all the vegetables. It is the vegetables.

Wrapped in the warmth of a home-cooked meal, we spend our last night among the mountains, with Arshdeep and Kabir. Being with you guys, I feel like a murderer. The wine flows, the laughter flies. We recount the adventures and misadventures, and we flick through photos, captured moments of our journey, the memories that we'll keep forever.

That night, Archdeep vows to continue to search for the porter during his motorcycle trips. As we prepare to leave, I entrust him with one of our recorders. And I can feel that if there's a small beacon of hope to solve this case, it's this. In a flash, we're back on the plane. The engine roars. The propellers whirl. And once again we rise above the clouds. The mountain peaks now don a growing white cloak, hinting at the approach of a cold winter.

I should feel tired, maybe even relieved. But I don't. Instead, there's that pull, a yearning to stay, to explore the untrodden paths, the foods not yet tasted, the beauty not yet seen. Entangled with that desire is a heaviness. I walk a path that Justin Alexander will never see to the end. I get to go home. Four months from now, on April 6th, 2022, Dhruv Agarwal's body will be found off the Kyrgyz-Kyrgyz trekking route. The skull of the head is about 50 meters away from the lower abdomen. The rest of the body parts are totally missing.

We think it was murdered, but I don't have any proof that someone murdered him. His brother will tell me that his family is frankly tired of the media attention. We had a great loss. We pray to God. We are not able to save our brother, but we want to make a safety point to try to save other families. While they hope for change, their ultimate wish they can't have. They want Dhruv back.

Bioter Musalik and I will stay in touch, talking about Bruno and sharing updates on the podcast. Now we're waiting for the next hearing in Zimla. When is that? Bioter will file a lawsuit against the state of Himachal Pradesh, demanding for more transparency and professional efforts of law enforcement. And maybe in the future we'll have more help and more support from police and prosecutors. Should his son's disappearance remain unsolved,

he's determined to see justice served in the Parvati. With a year following our investigation, 227 tourists will go missing. I'll brief Justin Alexander's mother on our trip. When he'd visit, he'd leave me little notes around the house. I'd find them a week or two later. She'll tell me about her efforts to retrieve a death certificate for her son, so that she can access his safe deposit box.

I know he had a couple things in there, but I really am hoping that he has a note or a letter or something in there. And through the podcast rollout, I'll keep up with Justin's father. You don't have to prove yourself. I recognized who you were right off the bat. Just so happy with everything that you're doing. We'll talk about Justin, the investigation, and just life in general.

We've talked about it a lot. Most people are so afraid of dying that it actually keeps them from living. They think if they don't live, then they won't die. That's not true. You'll still die, but without having lived. But sitting on that plane, heading home, unaware of those fates, there's one thing I do know.

I know that the items found tell a story about Justin's final moments. A butane lighter for fires and hashish. An umbrella to shield the rain. A scarf and head wrap cocooned within a rain cover, protected from becoming damp. And a flute staff lodged into soft mud. The trail was treacherous that day, and most likely, slickened by sporadic showers. Forecast data from 2016 confirms so.

I've heard Justin was murdered. I've heard he disappeared on his own will. I've heard he fell off that cliff and is gone. What happened to him? The answer? The truth? It's simply the version of the story you wish to believe. I have a theory, something I'll reveal at a later time. Because no matter how it ends, it's not the most important chapter of his life. It's not the most important chapter of his life. I think about, you know, I don't want to be a self-absorbed narcissist and I feel weird

posting a selfie of me riding a motorcycle. Like, I don't know, I think about this a lot and, you know, like maybe I should just live my life and just keep it to myself. But there's something nice to share who you are with the world and I feel like what I'm doing is I'm living out the life of my heroes and I'm sharing my heroic self. In his 36 years, Justin lived more lives than I've ever dreamt of. He strived to be his most authentic self. He walked the razor's edge, and he pushed the limits of human endurance. But that type of life requires balance. It requires

recognizing the line between adventuring boldly and adventuring blindly. Both come at a risk. The latter widens it. Survival, and ultimately truly living, calls for wellness of the body and mind. There is no doubt, Justin Alexander struggled with that. He was human, and he was flawed. But even in all his failures, there are lessons to be learned. I definitely became a social outsider, the quiet loner kid, and I found my solace in nature. And so I basically decided that I didn't really fit in socially, so fuck everybody and fuck society.

I'm going to, be a hero. Recently, Terry Shetler dug up some of his son's old diaries and journals. What heroes are there? You know, I mean, this is a real person who was fearless. He sent me a photo of a tattered page, dated December 2nd, 2010, long before Justin retired and set out on his motorcycle. It's titled, The Hero Project. If I could do anything in life, what would it be?

If I were infinitely wealthy, what would I do? What is it that just thinking about it makes me excited to be alive? These have all the same answer. I would make myself into my own hero, meaning I would create an imaginary hero, someone I wish I could be, and then become him. I need to do this while I'm young. Perhaps in the meantime, I should start a journal called The Hero Project to document my transformations between now and then. I asked Terry if he believes that the day one journals we recovered from Justin's

iCloud were the foundation to this project. He says, yes. Justin Alexander changed my life. I never met him, and he changed my life. And I know I'm not the only one. That's the impact of his legacy. All of it. The good, the bad, his wisdoms, his musings, his shortcomings, his benevolence, his quest for meaning in the face of the unknown. His kindness to strangers.

His unwavering courage to follow his heart. He wanted so dearly to become a hero. I wish I could have gotten the chance to tell him he already was one. What he accomplished propels me to challenge my doubts and think about my purpose. I've held onto a bucket list of cities I want to travel to and things I wish to experience in this life. But now it's different. I don't want to pursue it for the thrill, but for growth, to find ways to give back

and inspire. And more and more, I've been dreaming about it, talking about it, contemplating when to devise a plan for it. But on a random Wednesday morning, I act on it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna book it right now. I book a flight for three o'clock that afternoon. The destination? San Jose, Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica. I don't have a place to stay. I don't know anyone there.

I don't know what adventures await me, but I surrender. I just go. And it's everything. please email us at statusuntraced at gmail.com or leave us a message at 507 407 2833. Make sure you're following the podcast to stay updated on all our latest episodes, because there's something special you won't want to miss. A roundtable discussion featuring myself, Payne Lindsay, along with Jonathan Skeiles and Alex Vespestad. We'll dive deep into the mystery of what happened to Justin, sharing our thoughts and insights.

You'll get to hear various theories, including my own, as we explore the case in detail. This is a project that took us countless hours to weave together. We set out to accomplish a lot, but at the end of the day, there was one goal I constantly thought about. Is this the way Justin would want his legacy told? To answer that, I would go back to his words, and one particular journal entry from 2014 spoke to me. It reads, Become the adventurer through YouTube, blog, and Facebook. Eventually, a network will pick me up and fund my lifestyle. Not hardcore survivor man, but more rugged going tribal type with style.

Be authentic. A bit of both worlds. Sex, drugs, and adventure. Never sell out. I am who I want to be. I am awesome. To do something dangerous with style. I am humbled to have been able to share Justin's story, and none of it could have been possible

without this incredible team. Status Untraced is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Our executive producers are Alex Vespestad, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Producers are Meredith Stedman and myself. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Consulting producer is Jonathan Skiells. Associated editors are David Basch and Charles Rosner of Get Up Productions. With additional editing by Sydney Evans.

Voice acting provided by Johnny Lavallee. Artwork by Trevor Eiler. Original music by Makeup and Vanityset. Our theme song is Colder Heavens by Blanco White. Mix by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media & Marketing, and the Nord Group. We are forever grateful for Archdeep Sharma and Kabir Sharman.

We hope to see you again soon. A big shout out to Kirk Vespestad, our accounting wizard, for keeping all our numbers in check throughout the series. And also a special shout out to Susie Dunner, for putting up with our late nights and ramblings for the past four years. Lastly, I can't express enough of my gratitude to each and every person who took the time to interview with us. It's your stories that keep Justin's legacy alive.

I hope to be able to share my next adventure with you soon, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with Justin's motto. Be kind and do epic shit.