He was acting strangely. Then he vanished into the Virginia wilderness.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

He was acting strangely. Then he vanished into the Virginia wilderness.

The disappearance of 18-year-old Ty Sauer set off a frantic search in a densely wooded area of Shenandoah National Park

By Lizzie Johnson
June 30, 2022

SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The 911 call reached a dispatcher just after 10:45 p.m. ... Chandra Maxwell couldn’t contain her panic. ... “My son just crashed his car on Skyline Drive,” she wailed. “Please! He ran out of the car, and now he’s in the woods. Please, you’ve gotta help me.”

The dispatcher at the Page County Sheriff’s Office offered to transfer her to the headquarters for Shenandoah National Park. As the call beeped, Chandra peered into the darkness. Her 18-year-old son Ty was out there somewhere, lost in the Virginia wilderness. ... Ty’s father, John Sauer swept the flashlight of his cellphone along the forest’s edge, looking for him.

It was Thursday, April 22, 2021, and the couple had chased their son more than 300 miles from their home in Union Beach, N.J., to a scenic overlook in Shenandoah, a place none of them had ever been before. Somehow Ty, an honor roll student just two months from his high school graduation, had become one of the hundreds of people who go missing in a national park each year — a number that has risen as visitors flooded national parks during the pandemic.

It was springtime in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the buds of the red oaks about to burst into bloom, though the nighttime temperature still hovered four degrees below freezing. John stuffed his hands into the pockets of his thin sweatshirt, the cold knifing his skin. ... How long could his boy survive out there?

{snip}



After disappearing on April 22, 2021, Ty Sauer was found by his parents
in his mom’s car at Jewell Hollow Overlook in Shenandoah National Park.
He sped away, crashed into a stone wall at Pinnacles Overlook
and sprinted into the woods, triggering a massive search.

{snip}

By Lizzie Johnson
Lizzie Johnson is an enterprise reporter at The Washington Post and the author of "Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire." Twitter https://twitter.com/lizziejohnsonnn

[Srkdqltr]

1. I don't understand the last paragraph.

They found him (when) in his mothers car? Did they find him in mothers car. Was he found then got in his mothers car and took off? The way it's written is confusing.

[mahina]

2. Since that is just an excerpt my guess is that the entire article will provide the context

I also puzzled through it a little bit. I sure hope things work out for him and his family and not the way it sounds like it was going though I’m glad he had a forest to go to.

[markie]

3. damn

as a hiker I was interested in article... hit paywall

[Brenda]

4. Exactly. Why do people post paywalls here?

Do they work for The Washington Post?

[markie]

5. no ill intent by original poster

I understand... just disappointed when I am interested and hit one

[Brenda]

7. Okay, if you say so

Yeah, I was interested in what the story was about. I've been there in the Shenandoah.

[markie]

8. searched other sources

sadly, found kid dead, although I am sure the WP article was a good human interest piece... I have hiked large swaths of the Appalachian Trail and am always interested in goings on near the trail

[Brenda]

9. Damn, sorry to hear he died.

What was it all about?

Good for you hiking so much of the Trail. I have hiked some of it but I've been more of a motorcycle/car rider of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I like the roadways because commercial vehicles are banned, so not much traffic, ever.

The roads less traveled.

[wnylib]

10. So have I, on the Skyline Drive.

Hard to imagine anyone "speeding" on that route. Winding roads would put a speeding car over the edge, and into the valley via the air.

[shrike3]

13. Free link to story via Press Herald

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/01/a-teens-behavior-alarmed-his-parents-then-he-vanished-into-the-virginia-wilderness/

[Brenda]

14. Thanks shrike3

I appreciate the free link. What an infuriating story. Drug companies should not have blanket immunity. Another thing that is disturbing is that the mother is 48 I think and her son said she still had student loan debt! And she's got what sounds like a good job in the TV industry in NYC.

[shrike3]

15. Excellent points.

Also, the young man was unfortunately at the age where trouble occurs. Mental illness often expresses itself in young adulthood. Late teens, early twenties. It may have been organic, what was going on with him. Still, it's unconscionable he was simply discharged. Our mental health system failed him.

I caught that too, regarding Mom's student loans. Yikes.

[shrike3]

12. Free link to the story, via Press Herald

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/01/a-teens-behavior-alarmed-his-parents-then-he-vanished-into-the-virginia-wilderness/

[3Hotdogs]

6. I drove Skyline Drive last Saturday. It is beautiful. Too bad, it a source of pain for these people

[shrike3]

11. Here is a free link to the above Washington Post story. Very sad.

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/01/a-teens-behavior-alarmed-his-parents-then-he-vanished-into-the-virginia-wilderness/