So I found a dead body today...
This is may be a little TLDR/LJ for some tastes, so read at your own warning, just a little bit of a messed up situation I thought Id share with TNL tonight since its still on my mind.
So, yeah, me and my pal Jer went up north of Kernville/Lake Isabella up in the southern Sierras to do some fly fishing,be one with nature, get away from scummy civilization.That whole deal. This spot we were at, on Kern River under this bridge,me,him and his wife had gone up to the weekend before Thanksgiving to hike, scope it out,etc. When we were up there back then we noticed at least two or three big signs that read NO CAMPING, and in plain view of the parking area were two tents just chilling on the banks.It looked like somebody was recently there pants,boots,cooler were laid out around the vicinity. Didnt think anything of it. Hiked around it and furthur up the river, came back, and left.
Well, me and Jer minus his wife go up there today park,look around, I get all of my shit together and walk over to him, and he's like "Hey does anything look odd about this situation?" same two fucking tents just chillin there, pants hung up on same tree, same cooler with a rock on top of it,and Jer says he thinks this same black Ford F-150 in the parking lot was here before.
Well, we think, weird, wonder if anything went wrong with these people, but grab our gear, and head downstream and fish for a few hours.
We come back as the fish werent biting at all downstream, and decide to try our luck upstream past the tents, and also decide to check this camp out to see if anything looks wrong on our way up.
I led the way down to the camp, we looked around for footprints and saw none (there've been a few rain storms since Thanksgiving so if there were any there I suppose they could've washed away). We smelled what I thought was dead fish at first so I go and look in the first smaller tent, and see a bunch of hiking/fishing gear, books, etc. but I yell " OH SHIT MAN OH SHIT" and jump back, just to fuck with Jer. I laughed, but I dont think he was impressed. And while he takes a peek in that tent I go to look into the larger one.
Well, I pull up the flap, look in, its still zipped but you can see through the "clear plastic window" on it, and, yeah, dead guy.And I mean, fucked up zombie dead, like his whole body is blackened, bloated,rotting, and his face looked like it was blown away or eaten away or something. So I stepped back and said, "Yep, somebody in there. And he's pretty fucking dead". Thanks to that bullshit I pulled on the first tent he didnt believe me,looked in there, saw it, almost vommed and started shaking (he said with excitement - pssh).I was honestly calm and alright, not sure why (thanks George Romero?<shrugs>).But, Im backing up thinking, "Oh great, what'd I touch? some CSI Kernville prick may try to pin this on us".But me and Jer, walked back up, got the licence,tags, and everything of the truck (really nice truck - the guy definitely wasnt a hobo or anything), and he even had an I.D. with his picture and where he worked dangling from the rear-view mirror in his truck which we assumed was his. (I think It best to keep who he is and where he worked incognito for now as this happened only a few hours ago)
We get no cell signal anywhere in that area. So we have to drive almost ten miles down the mountain to a payphone and call the police. Meanwhile park rangers drive leisurely by us (this place is national forest area, Sequoia's)and ignore us trying to flag them down or me honking my horn, and flashing my lights. 45 minutes after calling 911 a sheriff finally shows up( Jer says, " I would hate to be bleeding to death out here" and I kind of agree), and we take him back and lead him down to the spot.
Some other stuff happened, but Ill stop the story here as I think there is a criminal investigation going on as they arent ruling out foul play. But I think its really messed up that rangers out here, who are paid to enforce safety regs, and look out for the land and people on it at the time didnt notice a camp site in an area fully marked NO CAMPING, and in view of the road. Its like the guy wanted to be found (which makes me think probable suicide)
But, yeah, pretty messed up day. I feel bad for this guy, and especially his family, as Im sure they were wondering where he was over the holiday, but at least he's "going home" and his family can have a little closure so to speak.
Oh, cops tell us before they let us leave that at least 2 bodies a month (wtf!) are found up there in the area,and at least one is guy is still missing as of last week. They tell us most of the bodies they find are "suicides" or "older people who cant handle the altitude and just have heart attacks and die". And I cant help but wonder if they are full of shit and/or covering something up. Crystal Lake ?
