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Geocaching Duo Find Dead Body In S.carolina

travisl

By travisl
in General geocaching topics

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weRlostNDwoods

weRlostNDwoods

Posted
Posted

Heres an update from our local paper..Aiken authorities say remains may close 12-year-old case

 

The Associated Press

 

Authorities hope the human remains found by two college students Saturday could end a 1992 disappearance case.

 

Aiken County Deputy Coroner Tim Carlton says evidence at the scene and information from a county investigator suggested the remains could be connected to the 12-year-old case.

 

"It's all presumptive at this point, but we're hoping to make a positive identification," Carlton said.

 

Hitchcock Woods is a 2,000-acre southern forest located in the middle of the city of Aiken.

 

Carlton would not discuss the case or the person involved in that disappearance until next of kin were notified.

 

However, in May 1992, a former pressman, Paul Gregory, 32, was reported missing by his parents, Bill and Betty Gregory of Queens, N.Y., The (Aiken) Standard reported.

 

The younger man had failed to meet his parents at his Aiken home after they arrived in the city two days earlier.

 

The newspaper report from May 16, 1992, said Gregory's wallet, money and credit cards were found in the residence, as were his clothes and luggage.

 

Carlton said two University of South Carolina-Aiken students were using a global-positioning device to track a box as part of Internet game called "Geocaching" in Hitchcock Woods on Saturday morning.

 

The two students reached an open area, knocked down some brush and found what turned out to be a human skull. They called 9-1-1 soon after and authorities arrived.

 

Carlton said several bones and "a semi-complete skeleton" were found.

 

Results from forensic tests are "probably going to take a little time," Carlton said.

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4x4luv

4x4luv

Posted
Posted
How long, do you think, will it take for this particular mystery end up on one of the CSI shows?

How about this,

 

Murderer kills show extra

Cuts up body into smaller chunks

Puts each chunk into a plastic tupperware (not glass so that nobody gets hurt)

Hides the containers

Makes a puzzle multi-cache out of the hides

Lists it on the geocaching site and sends link to cops

Martman makes a gruesome 2am FTF discovery

 

© 2004 by Criminal

you :ph34r: missed put numbers on each piece and call them t.b.'s

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woodsters

+woodsters

Posted
Posted
Aiken itself does have rich houses. But also the areas nearby Hitchcock Woods like Warrenville, Bath, Langley are very POOR areas of the county where plenty of trailers and section 8 apartments are located.

Depends on the area that you are accessing Hitchcock Woods. From Whiskey Road and Hitchcok Parkway, those areas are not poor income areas by any means. The only area that I would be aware to have a lower income area might be closer over to the South Boundary and Kamilia area, but highly unlikely. I do agree that areas like Bath and Langley have poorer income type of lifestyle, but that is generally due to the fact that they are mill towns. Most of Aikens poorest income area is to the north and east of downtown. You can read more on hitchcock Woods at www.hitchcockwoods.com . Interesting thing on their webstie in the "guidelines". It says no littering and to carry out, what you carry in. So does that make it against the guidelines for caches to be there? Because the person who placed the cache, left something and those who trade leave something....hmmmm...

 

A statement of littering is one thing, because we could say it's not really littering, but when they say take out, what you take in or things to that effect, does that make it against the guidelines or rules and not allowed?

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Sparky-Watts

+Sparky-Watts

Posted
Posted

Several years ago, I found a body at a local lake. Apparently it was the body of a convicted felon that had been sentenced back to jail, and he had "one last party" the night before he was to report to jail (don't remember the circumstances as to why he was still free), and died of a drug overdose....his friends took his body to the lake and dumped it. I was quite surprised to find that they weren't charged with any crime, since it wasn't illegal at the time to dump a body in Reno County, KS...... :ph34r:

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gpsblake

+gpsblake

Posted
Posted

Thinking about, this can be a positive for the sport of geocaching in a way. The body appears to be from a missing person in 1992 and the finding of the body will bring closure for that person's family. So I view it has a positive. I was the last person to find that cache before the two college students found the body. They had to be going through some really rough overgrowth to reach the point where the body was. I thought about entering the heavy overgrowth when I first couldn't find the cache, but then decided to climb to the top of the cliffs which showed the trail of where the stash was located. What is amazing, this part of Hitchcock Woods is quite popular (lots of foottracks when I was there last week and lots of initials carved into the cliffs) and I am shocked that it took 12 years to find this body.

 

Cheers,

Blake

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Confucius' Cat

+Confucius' Cat

Posted
Posted (edited)

QUOTE (ChurchCampDave @ Feb 29 2004, 03:53 PM)

How come I never have any luck like this! 

 

As the finder, or the victim?

 

I suppose either answer is a bit morbid.

 

 

Yeah, you're right.

 

I used to search for dead bodies for water rescue. There is something fascinating about it that I can't describe. Maybe it's morbid. Maybe it's just "the thrill of the hunt". I don't know.

 

But I miss "the old days".

 

If I ever do "get lucky" in this way, I hope I'm in a place where I am well known- the finder tends to be greatly inconvenienced- especially if the body is "fresh".

 

Closest I have come so far is a shallow depression in the ground near a cache in IL. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to cause unnecessary alarm and I was on my way home and didn't want the potential hassle.

 

Had I been sure that it was "a shallow grave" (e.g. seeing body parts or smelling dead), I would have reported it no matter what.

 

My eyes are always open due to my background. But since I left WR, I haven't had much "luck".

Edited by ChurchCampDave
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suncrazy64

suncrazy64

Posted
Posted (edited)

Good evening all. I came across this board and thought I would share. I am suncrazy64 and the part owner of the "cliffs of cache" the cache that the boys were looking for when they discoverd the bones. After reading the morning paper Aiken Standard we decided to archive the cache. We did go this evening and the crime scene was no more and the cache was intact and fine. So we opened it back up. WE also saw how bigbassdrummer (the boys who found it) came back today and signed the log. They said they found it with the local news crew. I'm not sure why they haven't logged it yet. I am waiting now to watch the local news and see if they do a piece on geocaching. I will be glad to let you guys no. Thank you. Paul...suncrazy64 "the cliffs of cache"

Edited by suncrazy64
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suncrazy64

suncrazy64

Posted
Posted (edited)

Local news just aired. Just followed the college guys around the cache. They just said they were playing a game looking for a box. It lasted all of a minute. I just hope they have identified so the family gets closure. suncrazy64

Edited by suncrazy64
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TimUSCA

TimUSCA

Posted
Posted

Hey all,

 

Tim here... the "bone collector".

 

I'm the one that found the body... I have never experienced any caching trip quite like this one. :)

 

Anyway, the body is a skeleton that has been there for 12 years. We only found the skull and a couple bones with some old tennis shoes, but it turns out the police dug up 99.9% of the person. It was all down there except for the jaw.

 

All I know is that they are pretty sure they know who it is... and my sources (reputable) tell me that the guy left a suicide note the day before he killed himself saying that he was going somewhere that NOBODY would find the body. And let me tell you... the brush was so thick, I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me... total 1/1,000,000 shot.

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woodsters

+woodsters

Posted
Posted

What's sad is that if the victim stayed around for another 10 yrs ro so and found the hobby of Geocaching that they wouldn't of committed suiced...wel then again....lol

 

Hey BigBassDrummer, I see that you I have both found the LEgend of Sleepy Hollow cache. If the cliffs cache is as thick as that areas was, I can imagine no one finding him. That place freaked me out.

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TimUSCA

TimUSCA

Posted
Posted
What's sad is that if the victim stayed around for another 10 yrs ro so and found the hobby of Geocaching that they wouldn't of committed suiced...wel then again....lol

 

Hey BigBassDrummer, I see that you I have both found the LEgend of Sleepy Hollow cache. If the cliffs cache is as thick as that areas was, I can imagine no one finding him. That place freaked me out.

Oh its MUCH worse... the cache isn't actually in the brush, but that's where we were looking :)

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TimUSCA

TimUSCA

Posted
Posted
I wouldn't admit that...lmao...

Well, what happened was we thought we took the wrong path (later to find we were right the first time). Instead of going back and taking the the path we thought was right, we cut through the brush to get back on track. So that's when we came across this skull... ugh...

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woodsters

+woodsters

Posted
Posted

BigBass, what were the cops reactions when you told them you were geocaching? Wish I was still in Augusta, would love to have seen a piece on WRDW about it. You know the funny thing was that back in July when we were visiting home there in Augusta (lived in MAssachusetts for a year), I highly considered doing those caches one day, but didn't want to drive out from Lake Thurmond (where we were staying). Kind of glad we didn't. But now since we are only a couple hours away (Charlotte NC), I will have to make plans to hit them when I'm home one weekend. I need to run over and do the "Land of Cotton" one too. We were going to do it after the Sleepy Hollow one but ran out of time. There seems to be a good bit to have popped up in the area since we were there this past summer. Can't wait to get to them.

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TimUSCA

TimUSCA

Posted
Posted
BigBass, what were the cops reactions when you told them you were geocaching? Wish I was still in Augusta, would love to have seen a piece on WRDW about it. You know the funny thing was that back in July when we were visiting home there in Augusta (lived in MAssachusetts for a year), I highly considered doing those caches one day, but didn't want to drive out from Lake Thurmond (where we were staying). Kind of glad we didn't. But now since we are only a couple hours away (Charlotte NC), I will have to make plans to hit them when I'm home one weekend. I need to run over and do the "Land of Cotton" one too. We were going to do it after the Sleepy Hollow one but ran out of time. There seems to be a good bit to have popped up in the area since we were there this past summer. Can't wait to get to them.

You're in luck! I uploaded the entire CBS interview with us... you can get it here:

 

http://www.creed-fanatic.com/bbd

 

This particular cache has only been here since December... so you wouldn't have been able to get it back in July anyway :)

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suncrazy64

suncrazy64

Posted
Posted

Thanks Tim for posting. Suncrazy here owner of the cache. Yep the cache has only been there since December. As soon as everything is done. I will be adding the virtual cache of the spot as a bonus for those who dare to venture. I would not encourage bushwacking, but the police did make a trail to the spot now. Unless Tim you would prefer something else? I don't want to step on any toes. I just thought with all the publicity it would be better to just point out the spot, instead of people going down there and tearing up all the bushes. That is why I thought of a virtual in the cache. I could be wrong. Paul

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TimUSCA

TimUSCA

Posted
Posted
Thanks Tim for posting. Suncrazy here owner of the cache. Yep the cache has only been there since December. As soon as everything is done. I will be adding the virtual cache of the spot as a bonus for those who dare to venture. I would not encourage bushwacking, but the police did make a trail to the spot now. Unless Tim you would prefer something else? I don't want to step on any toes. I just thought with all the publicity it would be better to just point out the spot, instead of people going down there and tearing up all the bushes. That is why I thought of a virtual in the cache. I could be wrong. Paul

Yeah that'd be cool... really, all that's there now is a pile of loose dirt, but it'd be neat for people to check out where the body was. I know I shouldn't have been bushwhacking in the first place, but to be honest, there really was no logical reason for me to go through brush that was so thick. If you believe in such a thing, I almost feel like it was meant to happen like divine intervention... the scary thing is that the newspaper Paul Gregory was originally posted as missing in was issued on May 16, 1992. My BIRTHDAY. Kinda freaky, huh?

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OneOfEm

+OneOfEm

Posted
Posted

We've had one local instance where a body was discovered very near a cache, but it wasn't found by cachers and Geocaching was never mentioned. It was a decapitation in a wooded area. The body was less than .1 mile away from the cache.

 

Several weeks later, I was visiting a county park/boat ramp to try to find a good location for a cache, and although I didn't find a good hiding place, I did notice some oddly trampled high grass right next to the water. As I was getting into my car, I noticed people watching me from their porches at three different houses (it was at the end of a residential street). On the way home, I heard on the radio that they'd discovered a body right there earlier that same day. No wonder the locals were staring at me. They were probably trying to get my tag number. :lol:

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Planet

+Planet

Posted
Posted (edited)

Dear Cachers,

About 12 years ago my brother-in-law's brother disappeared, leaving his home with nothing but the clothes on his back. The body found in the woods was this man. We have been praying for him and thinking about him for 12 years. My sister told me today when I called her that geocaching answered the prayers, with at least an answer to the puzzle. He had a problem with depression, they thought the worst might have happened, but there was always a glimmer of hope in the back of our minds. I was thinking of him just two days ago, and now this. At least his family has some closure, although his father already grieved years ago, it is a fresh grief. His remains will be flown north, they will have him cremated, and his ashes will be spread in the Catskill Mountains. His name was Paul Gregory. He has been sadly missed but the mystery is now over. Please, BigBassDrummer, do not post the pictures. I, and his family, would greatly appreciate not seeing them. I hope those of you that made jokes about this will think twice in the future about who's reading your posts. God will get you for that. Small world isn't it?

Sincerely,

Planet

Edited by Planet
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