A Trail of Questions

Summary

A Trail of Questions: Episode Summary

Podcast Information:

• Title: MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
• Host/Author: Ballen Studios
• Episode: A Trail of Questions
• Release Date: July 24, 2025
• Description: Delivers strange, dark, and mysterious stories in engaging podcast format, with new episodes released twice a week.

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Introduction

In the episode titled "A Trail of Questions," Ballen Studios presents three chilling hiking-related mysteries: "The Overlook," "One Sock," and "I'm Looking for You." These stories delve into unexplained disappearances and eerie encounters in remote wilderness areas, leaving both characters and authorities searching for answers without success.

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Story 1: The Overlook

Overview: In 2007, Barbara Bullock, a fit and happy 55-year-old woman from Montana, embarked on what was supposed to be a routine hiking trip with Jim Rawmaker, her husband's cousin’s boyfriend. Despite hiking frequently in the area, Barbara vanished without a trace during this hike.

Key Points:

• Barbara and Jim reached the Bear Creek Overlook, enjoying a picnic with a stunning view.
• As Barbara descended the well-marked trail alone, Jim turned around briefly to admire the scenery.
• Upon returning, Barbara was nowhere to be found, and no sounds of struggle or distress were heard.
• An extensive 48-hour search involving helicopters, search teams, and trained dogs failed to locate Barbara or any clues about her disappearance.

Notable Quotes:

• Co-host (03:41): "It was just complete eerie silence."

Insights: Barbara's disappearance remains baffling due to the absence of any physical evidence or indications of foul play. The well-trafficked trail and the sudden vanishing act suggest an inexplicable phenomenon, leaving her family without closure.

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Story 2: One Sock

Overview: In August 2004, Kevin Bardsley and his 12-year-old son, Garrett, went on a Boy Scout camping trip in the remote Uinta Mountains, Utah. Garrett mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only a single sock.

Key Points:

• The campsite was isolated, about an hour's hike from the nearest civilization, accessed via a cumbersome trail bypassing seven lakes.
• On August 20, Garrett fell into the lake but assured his father he would fish with wet feet and pants, intending to change later.
• After Garrett left to change, he never returned, and no signs of his wet clothes were found in his tent.
• A massive search effort uncovered only Garrett’s single sock stuck in a boulder field, with no further evidence of his whereabouts.

Notable Quotes:

• Co-host (12:00): "It screams abduction case."

Insights: The disappearance of Garrett on a well-defined and frequently used trail raises suspicions beyond a simple accident. The lack of his wet clothes and the isolated location suggest that Garrett may have been abducted, although no evidence has surfaced to confirm this theory.

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Story 3: I'm Looking for You

Overview: On September 30, 2008, Xi'an (referred to as Xian Tie in the transcript), a 61-year-old retired geography teacher from Beijing, disappeared during a day hike on Mount Miaofeng. His disappearance is intertwined with mysterious findings and unexplained phenomena on the mountain.

Key Points:

• Preparation and Departure:

  • Xi'an was an avid hiker with a passion for nature, often marking his trails with newspaper pages.
  • He informed his cousin of his plans and set out early in the morning for his hike.

• Disappearance:

  • Despite assurances of returning by midnight, Xi'an failed to return, prompting a search.
  • His phone went off at 4 PM, indicating he was near the mountain base, but it later turned on again a week later at Beijing West Railway Station without his presence there.

• Strange Encounter and Findings:

  • A villager reported seeing a man resembling Xi'an buying walnuts and requesting directions to another mountain, Tiatois Mountain, which did not align with Xi'an’s known interests or plans.
  • A note found at an abandoned campsite suggested Xi'an was lost and planning to descend the ridgeline to safety. However, inconsistencies in the note’s language and timing contradicted other evidence.
  • The search revealed ten sets of unidentified human remains tied to trees around the mountain, none belonging to Xi'an.

• Witness Accounts:

  • Hikers reported encounters with an axe-wielding man repeatedly asking, "Are you alone?" disrupting their hikes and prompting fear.

Notable Quotes:

• Co-host (38:48): "Are you alone?" repeatedly by an axe-wielding man.

Insights: Xi'an's disappearance is enveloped in mystery, compounded by the discovery of multiple unidentified remains and eyewitness reports of strange, menacing figures on Mount Miaofeng. The evidence suggests the presence of a possible abductor or unknown entity on the mountain, but no conclusive explanations have been found.

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Conclusion

"A Trail of Questions" presents three unresolved hiking mysteries that highlight the eerie and inexplicable nature of disappearances in remote areas. From sudden vanishings without trace to the discovery of multiple unidentified remains, each story leaves listeners pondering the unknown forces that may lurk in the wilderness.

Final Thoughts: The episode emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting the untamed aspects of nature, while also questioning what might lie beyond our current comprehension. The lack of closure in these cases serves as a haunting reminder of the mysteries that remain unsolved in the world.

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Note: The podcast occasionally uses pseudonyms and fictionalized details to protect those involved, ensuring that the essence of these true events is preserved while maintaining privacy.

Transcript

[Mr. Ballin]

Hey prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

[Narrator]

Today's podcast will feature three hiking horror.

[Mr. Ballin]

Stories that are still shrouded in mystery.

[Narrator]

The audio from all three of these.

[Co-host]

Stories has been pulled from our main.

[Mr. Ballin]

YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the Description.

[Co-host]

The first story you'll hear is called.

[Narrator]

The Overlook and it's about a hiking.

[Mr. Ballin]

Trip that turns into a nightmare.

[Narrator]

The second story you'll hear is called.

[Mr. Ballin]

One Sock and it's about a boy Scout who disappears down a well marked and populated trail. And the third and final story you'll.

[Co-host]

Hear is called I'm Looking for your.

[Mr. Ballin]

And it's about a bizarre mystery on a mountain in China that leaves authorities clueless.

[Co-host]

But before we get into today's stories.

[Mr. Ballin]

If you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast.

[Narrator]

Because that's all we do.

[Co-host]

And we upload twice a week, once.

[Mr. Ballin]

On Monday and once on Thursday.

[Co-host]

So if that's of interest to you.

[Mr. Ballin]

Please move into the apartment directly above the Amazon Music Follow Buttons apartment and then make it a habit to sprint on your treadmill every morning at 3:00am okay, let's get into our first story called the Overlook.

[Narrator]

In 2007, Barbara Bullock was a 55 year old, fit, happy, healthy woman living in Montana with her husband of 14 years. In July of that year, her husband's cousin named Donna and Donna's boyfriend named Jim Rawmaker came to stay with them for a couple of days. On the Evening of the 17th, Barbara offered to take the couple hiking with her the following morning at her favorite hiking spot, which was this totally unspoiled wilderness area on the border of Idaho. Barbara liked to hike a particular trail that brought her up to the Bear Creek Overlook that had this incredible view down to the valley below. The couple happily agreed, but the following morning Donna was not feeling so good so she couldn't go on the hike. But her boyfriend Jim was still feeling up for it and said, I'd still like to go. And so he and Barbara wound up doing the hike on their own. At 1:30 that afternoon, Barbara's husband got a phone call from a police officer.

[Co-host]

Saying his wife was missing and her.

[Narrator]

Husband just couldn't understand that. Barbara hiked in that area all the time and she had been with Jim, so where could she have gone? But the Police officer didn't have a great answer. And he just told him, you should come down here and hear Jim's explanation about what happened. When Barbara's husband arrived at the park, he rolled right up next to the officer and Jim, he got out. And Jim, who was in total shock, began to explain what happened.

[Co-host]

He and Barbara had made it up.

[Narrator]

The trail successfully to the Bear Creek overlook. They'd stayed up there for about 30 minutes. They had a picnic and they were enjoying the scenery. And then at the end of it, they packed up and Barbara began walking down the very well marked trail. And she was about 20ft ahead, ahead of him, when he decided to turn around and take one more look at the beautiful view. And he said he was looking at the view for about 40 seconds before he turned back around and Barbara was gone. And he hadn't heard her call out for help. He hadn't heard her fall. There was no sound of other people, there was no sound of other animals. There was no sound of any struggle whatsoever.

[Co-host]

It was just complete eerie silence.

[Narrator]

And as he took a few steps down the trail, he said he started looking around expecting to just see her behind a tree or something, but she was nowhere. And as he walked, he noticed that the ground underneath every step made a lot of noise because there was lots of loose rocks and shale all over the ground. And so he stopped and he's listening really intently to see if he can hear where Barbara's gone, but he doesn't hear anything. And he's thinking, how could she have gotten away from me without me hearing the sound of her footsteps? And then he also began looking around and realized the area they were in, this trail, it was well trafficked and so it was not very densely forested. You could actually see a pretty good distance in all directions because there was enough space between the trees. And so he's looking around thinking, there's almost nowhere to hide. And so Jim started to feel scared and just began walking down the trail expecting to run into her at any moment, but he didn't. And he kept turning around and looking.

[Co-host]

Behind trees and rocks and he's thinking.

[Narrator]

You know, this is impossible. I should have seen her.

[Co-host]

I should see her now.

[Narrator]

Where could she have possibly gone? And so he made his way all.

[Co-host]

The way down the trail, the whole.

[Narrator]

Time turning around and looking for her and yelling for her, but never getting any feedback from her. And he got all the way to the parking lot and he saw her.

[Co-host]

Car was still parked in the parking lot.

[Narrator]

And he's looking around the parking lot she's not out there. And he noticed a crew was working in the road and he went up to them and he asked if they had seen her or anybody come out of that trail. And they said no. So Jim's starting to panic. He ran right back up the trail, all the way back up to the Bear Creek overlook, hoping that along the way he would see some indication of where she went. But again, there was nothing on the trail. He gets up to the overlook, he's looking around, he's yelling for her, nothing. And so he ran right back down again and he contacted authorities. Over the next 48 hours, a huge.

[Co-host]

Search was launched all around this area for Barbara.

[Narrator]

It included helicopters and huge search teams and highly trained sniffing dogs.

[Co-host]

But nothing was found.

[Narrator]

There was no signs of foul play. There was no signs of an animal attack or some sort of abduction.

[Co-host]

There was nothing. Not even her scent was found, despite.

[Narrator]

The fact that the dog's handlers knew exactly where her last position was. But none of the dogs picked it up, which is highly unusual. It really was like she had vanished into thin air.

[Co-host]

At first, Jim was obviously a suspect.

[Narrator]

Because he was the last person to see Barbara alive. But he never changed his story, despite how far fetched it seemed. And he was very cooperative and was very quick to offer to take a polygraph test. And so the police ruled him out as a suspect. And shortly after the search started, they shut it down because there was no.

[Co-host]

Sign of this woman anywhere.

[Narrator]

And so unfortunately, her family had to face the awful reality of getting zero closure. She was just gone and nobody knew what happened. And unfortunately, to this day, we still don't know what happened because no trace.

[Co-host]

Of Barbara has ever been found.

[Mr. Ballin]

Our next story is called One Sock.

[Narrator]

In late August of 2004, Kevin Bardsley and his 12 year old son Garrett went on a father son Boy Scout camping trip in the Uinta Mountains in northern Utah. Their campsite was situated next to Lake Cubarant inside of the Wasatch National Forest. The lake was actually pretty remote and difficult to access because it was almost completely surrounded by huge mountains. The only side you could get to the lake on was its western side. But the western trail leading to it was very cumbersome because you had to bypass seven different lakes. And so by the time Kevin Garrett and the rest of the Boy Scouts and their fathers were at the lake, they were at least an hour's hike away from the nearest civilization. Early in the morning on August 20, Kevin and Garrett woke up. They hopped out of their tents. None of the other campers had woken up yet, and so they decided they would head down to the lake to.

[Co-host]

Get some early fishing in.

[Narrator]

And so they got their gear and they began walking down the very well defined 150 meter long trail down to the lake. As they get there, the sun's coming up over the mountains and they're really excited about their day of fishing. And so as Kevin is preparing a fishing rod for Garrett, Garrett was jumping around on different stones that were poking.

[Co-host]

Out of the water.

[Narrator]

And at some point he tripped and he fell into the water, soaking his shoes in his pants. And so he hopped out of the water and he's kind of laughing at himself. And he told his dad that he didn't care. He'd fish with wet feet and wet pants and he would change them later. And so Kevin laughed and handed his.

[Co-host]

Son his fishing rod.

[Narrator]

And then the two of them began to fish. After a while, when they hadn't caught anything, Garrett said to his dad that, you know what, dad, this is actually pretty uncomfortable. I'm going to go change my pants and my socks. And so Kevin said, no problem, I'll be here with our gear. I'll see you when you get back. And so Garrett stands up and he starts walking back up the well defined 150 meter trail back up towards the campsite. And Kevin actually turned around and watched his son disappear into the trees. But he heard the sound of other campers at the campsite and so knew his son wouldn't be alone. For the next couple of minutes, Kevin kept fishing, but periodically would look over his shoulder, expecting to see Garrett come out of the woods again.

[Co-host]

But he didn't.

[Narrator]

And after about 20 minutes, Kevin was a little bit concerned. So he picked up his fishing gear and began walking back up the trail towards the camp. When he got there, he saw other Boy Scouts and their fathers just getting up and having a bite to eat. And he's scanning around the campsite and he doesn't see Garrett. And so he goes over to Garrett's tent and he opens it up and Garrett's not in there.

[Co-host]

And there's no sign that he's removed.

[Narrator]

Any of his wet clothing in there. And so Kevin turns around and he asks one of the fathers, hey, have you seen Garrett? He was supposed to be up here a minute ago. And the father said, no, I haven't seen him. And so Kevin's starting to panic and he yells out to the group, hey, has anyone seen my son?

[Co-host]

Do you guys know where Garrett went?

[Narrator]

He was supposed to be up here and no One knew where he was. They said, no, we haven't seen him. And so horrified, Kevin drops all of his gear and starts running back towards the lake, screaming for his son. And the other campers instinctively know what's going on, and so they chase after him, yelling for Garrett. Almost immediately, the sheriff's department was notified and they launched this huge search that included the FBI. And so hundreds of people have descended into the area around the lake and they're looking for Garrett. They can't find him. But later that afternoon, searchers were about a half mile away from where Garrett was last seen. And they found a single Nike sock that appeared to have been removed from a wet foot wedged into one of the boulders in this huge boulder field. Garrett's mother would confirm that was Garrett's sock. And so the search effort was shifted to this big boulder field. And for days they looked all over the place for him, but there was no sign of Garrett anywhere.

[Co-host]

And so eventually the search was terminated.

[Narrator]

The authorities determined this was an accident, that Garrett's father and the other campers had nothing to do with Garrett's disappearance. What their theory was is Garrett must have gotten lost on the walk back to the camp and then ultimately died of exposure. But the idea that a boy of Garrett's age would get lost along a well defined, 150 meter long trail that he was familiar with, that he had been on that day, that seems a little far fetched. Also, as Garrett was walking down that trail, he would have heard the sounds.

[Co-host]

Of the other campers in the campsite.

[Narrator]

So that would have helped him figure out exactly where he needed to go. He's on a well marked trail, he's walking towards the sound of the voices.

[Co-host]

But he never made it to the.

[Narrator]

Campsite because no one at the camp saw him and there was no sign that he had put his wet clothes in his tent. So something happened to Garrett almost immediately when he left his father that caused him to wind up a half mile away in a boulder field with one sock missing.

[Co-host]

It screams abduction case.

[Narrator]

But remember, this campsite was over an hour's hike away from the nearest civilization. And they know this group of Boy Scouts and their fathers were the only ones in the area that day. It is possible that an animal could have taken Garrett like a mountain lion, but there would have been signs of a struggle and they didn't find any on the trail or anywhere nearby. And you would figure if he was getting dragged off by a big predator, he would have yelled out for help, but he didn't. He just left his dad. It was total silence and then he vanished.

[Co-host]

And all we have is his one sock.

[Mr. Ballin]

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[Mr. Ballin]

The next and final story of today's episode is called I'm looking for you.

[Co-host]

At 5am on September 30, 2008, a.

[Narrator]

61 year old man named Xian Tie.

[Co-host]

Xiong finished getting dressed inside of the bedroom that he shared with his wife in the city of Beijing, China. After he finished getting dressed, Hsien reached down and scooped up his backpack off the floor that was already packed. And then he carefully walked around his bed trying to be as quiet as possible. And then, as quietly as he could, he kind of tiptoed around the bed to his wife's side to give her a kiss goodbye. Hsien was going to be heading out to a local mountain that day for a day hike. And so Xien, he gets next to his wife, and he bends down to kiss her. And right as he does that, he accidentally wakes her up. And so his wife opens her eyes, and she looks up at him, and Hsien just says, you know, I love you. He gives her a kiss, and he tells her, hey, I'll be back tonight before midnight. And so his wife, she kind of groggily said, okay, and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and she told him that she loved him. And then she fell back asleep. And moments later, Shien had left the.

[Narrator]

Bedroom and walked out the front door.

[Co-host]

Xien's home was only a couple of blocks away from the train station. And since he needed to ride a train and then also a bus to get to this local mountain, that was about an hour and a half journey away. The train station was his first stop. And so Xien, as he walked towards the station, he was all smiles. I mean, he was really excited about this day. So Zheng was retired, but he had spent his whole life teaching geography at Beijing Number five Middle School. And he was a very passionate teacher. But the thing he was most passionate about, that he routinely really pushed on his students in some ways more than geography, was his love of nature. In fact, Hsien loved nature so much that when he was not teaching, he basically spent all of his off time out in nature going for hikes. I mean, that was his thing. And today, Jian was especially excited about his hike because he was hiking one of his favorite trails. It was located on Mount Miaofeng, which is a mountain located 30 miles to the northwest of where Xi' an lived. And this mountain was quite famous because of all the sacred and ancient temples that kind of dotted the mountain all over the place. And then also there were all these beautiful roses, like the flower that would bloom all over the mountain in the summer. And so it's just this totally strikingly beautiful place. And normally, Jian would actually hike up this trail and then actually camp out on Mount Miaofeng, mostly because on the summit there was this incredible view of downtown Beijing. And at night, the view is, like, spectacular with the city all lit up. But on this particular day, Jian knew an overnight stay was not possible because he had to be back home by the next day because it was his mother's 90th birthday, and he was very close with his mother, and he was not going to miss that. And so Zhen eventually made it to the train station. He bought his ticket he boarded his train, and then he sat down in a seat. And as soon as he did, he opened up his bag and pulled out a stack of papers. For this hike, Zhen had packed himself some food and water inside of his backpack. He also packed a newspaper called the Beijing Youth Daily, and he brought along his diary. But his diary was a little bit unique, Zhen, because he loved nature so much and didn't like the idea of wasting anything. What he would do when he was a teacher at Beijing Number five Middle School, he would just take scrap paper and start writing on that, and he would compile all his scrap paper into these sort of diaries that he would keep. And so Jian passed the time on the train by writing in his diary, AKA his stack of scrap paper, and also reading this newspaper. And Zhen knew he really needed to read the entire newspaper pretty quickly, because by the time he got to the mountain, he was going to do what he always did, which is he would bring a newspaper with him on a hike. And as he walked, he would take out a page periodically and tie it to a tree, kind of marking his way. That way, when he turned around and came back down, he would have his path marked, because Jeann did not always walk on a clearly marked trail. And so this was his way of not getting lost. And so Jeanne would ride the train car, and then he would get off, and he would board a bus. And then finally, right around 7am that bus would come to a stop in the tiny village of Chanfeng, which is located right at the base of Mount Miaofeng. And so Jian grabbed his backpack, he hopped off the bus, and then began walking through the village towards the mountain. And Then by about 7:20am so not long after Jian had left the bus, he was almost up to Mount Miaofeng when he pulled out his cell phone and he called his cousin. It was a brief conversation, and all Jien really wanted to do was just to make sure his cousin was going to be around the next day for Jeanne's mother's birthday. And the cousin said he would. And so Jeanne told him, okay, I'm going hiking today, and I will see you tomorrow. And then he hung up. And then, only a couple minutes later, Jeanne disappeared into the beautiful forests of Mount Miaofeng. So Jian's wife did not expect to hear from Jian at any point that day because she knew he would have terrible cell phone service up on the mountain. But she did expect her husband to be home on time. He had told her that morning before he left that he would be home that night before midnight. And if you knew Jen, you knew this guy was never late.

[Narrator]

He said, I'm going to be someplace.

[Co-host]

At a certain time, he would be there. So when 10pm rolled around that night and still Jeanne was not back yet, and he had not called, Jeanne's wife was actually not worried because she was thinking, okay, well, it's 10, he'll be home in the next couple of hours, because he said he'd be here by midnight tonight, and he will be here tonight. And so she went to bed expecting to wake up and see Jeanne in bed with her in the morning. But the next morning when she woke up, Jeanne was not in bed. So he did not come home. And so his wife immediately was very concerned and began calling Jian family, and nobody knew where he was. And so that day, the family went to the police and they reported J' an missing. The local police immediately organized a search for Xi'. An. However, they knew this was going to be a very challenging search. Mount Miaofeng is not some enormous mountain by any means. It's a decent sized mountain, but, you know, it's really known for having these paths that twist and turn all over the place, so it's pretty easy to get lost. And then also there's a whole bunch of sheer cliff faces kind of all over the place. So if you're not paying attention, you could literally just walk off a ledge. So in short, this is a dangerous and confusing place. And at the same time that the search was happening out on the mountain.

[Narrator]

The police were also in contact with.

[Co-host]

Jian's cell phone service provider to see if they could track down Jian's cell phone. Because obviously, if they could find that, they might find Jian too. But the only way a cell phone can be tracked is if the cell phone is on, because when it's on, it connects to the nearest cell phone tower. And that's how these service providers are able to tell where these phones are. They look to see which tower it's connected to. But when Xi' An's cell phone service provider looked for his phone, they quickly determined his phone was off. So unless the phone came back on again, they would not be able to locate the phone. However, they were able to pull all of Jian's cell phone signal history up until his phone was turned off. And what they found in the signal history is the day before. So the day Jian went missing, his cell phone was on at 4pm that evening, and he received a phone call at 4pm and the service provider was able to see that when this Phone call came in. Jian's cell phone was not where they thought it would be. It was not high up Mount Miaofeng. It actually was near the base of the mountain. And when police reached out to the person who had called Jian at 4pm they discovered it was just a friend of Jian's. And this friend said that Jian said he was coming down the mountain now and he'd be home soon. So this new information did basically line up with what Jian had told his family he'd be doing that day. You know, just a quick day hike. Although, again, they kind of expected it to be a little bit longer. It seemed a little odd he'd be down the mountain by 4pm but still, this basically lined up with what they thought he was doing. However, this new information did not help explain what happened to Jian. Like, why was he missing? The expectation was he must have gotten lost or hurt or something up on this mountain. You know, maybe he's stranded somewhere and can't go anywhere. But now, based on this phone call, it sounded an awful lot like Jeann was not even on the mountain when he disappeared. So where was he? Police had already checked all the bus stations and train stations in the area, you know, to see if maybe Jeanne took a different way home or something. But when they went to all these different stations, there was no evidence that Jeanne had been to any of them. And there was another problem. Members of Jeanne's family told the police about Jeanne's habit of tying newspapers to trees to mark his trail as he hiked. And the family told the police that Jeanne did this every single time he hiked. And his wife told the police that for sure, she knew her husband had brought along a copy of that newspaper. So by all expectations, there should be markers up on that mountain, literally leading searchers to wherever Jian went. But after an entire day of searching Mount Miaofeng, they didn't find a single newspaper anywhere. For the next several days, this big search for Jian continued. But nothing was found, that is, until October 7th. So one week after Jian had vanished. On that day, Jian's cell phone service provider noticed that Jian's cell phone had suddenly turned back on. And the phone was not on or near Mount Miaofeng. Instead, it was located 36 miles away from the mountain at a train station called Beijing West Railway Station. Now, the cell phone was only on for a couple of seconds, but it was on long enough for the provider to confirm that it really was in that location. And so the police immediately dispatched a team to go to Beijing West Railway station and see if they could find Jian. But when they got there, Jian was not there. His phone was not there. You know, they looked at all the security footage. There was no sign of Xi'. An. They searched the surrounding areas. Nothing. And on this day, at basically the same time that police are at this railway station trying to make sense of, you know, what's going on with the cell phone, a villager from Chanfeng Village, which is that little village that sits at the base of Mount Miaofeng, came forward with a very strange story. He said, on the day that Jian disappeared, this villager was at his little shop. He sold walnuts to hikers that were making their way towards Mount Miaofeng. It was basically like snacks for the hike. And he sees this guy walking up through the village towards the mountain, and he looked exactly like Jian, because now Jian's face was on the news, and this villager had seen it, and so he felt like he had seen Jian. And so this villager said, you know, this guy who looked exactly like Jian, he walked up and actually stopped at this villager shop to buy some walnuts.

[Narrator]

And.

[Co-host]

And this villager and this man who looked like Jian, they just chatted for a few minutes. And at some point, this guy, this guy who looked like Jian, asked the villager, you know, hey, these are great, but where else can I buy walnuts? I want to buy other types of walnuts and bring them back to my family. And so this villager was like, oh, yeah, well, the best walnuts in all of Beijing are actually located about 30 miles away at the base of another mountain. It's called Tiatois Mountain. And there are vendors over there who sell the best walnuts. So that's your answer right over there. And then after the villager said this. This guy who looked just like Jian, it's like everything changed for him. It's like his expression changed, his tone changed. It's like he's been given this information that's changed his life, you know, about these walnuts. And he says to the villager, okay, I'm gonna go there right now. And without saying anything else, this man just turned and began quickly walking away from the walnuts, back through town, back towards the bus stop. So away from Mount Miaofeng, in theory, this guy is going to the bus to what, commute 30 miles to this other mountain, Teatua Mountain, to get these walnuts. I mean, the villager does not know this guy, but even he felt like, this is bizarre. This guy comes up, he's buying snacks to go Hike Mount Meowfung. He seems really excited about it. And I offhandedly mention these walnuts, and he's like, boom, I'm out of here. I'm gonna go 30 miles to this other mountain to get these walnuts. It just seemed weird. And then when police spoke to Jian's family about this new information, they would learn that Jian did not have a special interest in walnuts, and neither did his family. And even if there was a reason why Jian just really wanted these walnuts, he would not have had time in that day to take the bus through 30 miles to Tiatoa Mountain, get these walnuts, go 30 miles back, and hike up Mount Meow Fung, because he can't stay the night. He needs to come back tonight in order to go to his mother's birthday party the next day. So it just made no sense. But this walnut thing was basically the only lead police really had, because everything else was a dead end. And so they decided to shift their search area from Mount Miaofeng to Teotois Mountain. And pretty much right away, they saw something that gave them hope that Jin could be here. They found pages from the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper tied to trees on the mountain. And when they looked more closely at the newspapers, they found the publication date of this newspaper lined up with the copy that Jian would have had with him on the day he vanished. And so, of course, the searchers just began following this trail of newspapers, hoping Jian would be at the other end.

[Mr. Ballin]

Hey, guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like, there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung. Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town. Everybody started laughing uncontrollably. That lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled, sometimes for years. And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad free? Well, join Wondery or listen on Amazon Music with Prime.

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[Co-host]

For two days, searchers very diligently followed this trail up the mountain. It kind of wound around and they went pretty slowly because as they're moving, you know, they're constantly checking everything around. They don't want to miss any clues. But finally, after two days of following this trail, they eventually found something. The newspapers led them to a campsite. Now, the campsite was abandoned, but there was a bed of hay. There were some used water bottles and some toilet paper. And so, just from the looks of it, this campsite looked relatively active, like somebody had been staying here recently for at least a day or two. And so it seemed pretty likely, based on everything else, that this was Xi' An's campsite. And pretty quickly after searching the campsite, they found something that virtually guaranteed that this was his campsite. Authorities found this plastic bag that was sitting next to the bed. And inside of the bag was a piece of scrap paper from Beijing Number five Middle School. And on this scrap paper was a note. And the note said, Jian had indeed hiked up teatuan Mountain on September 30th. This would have been the day that he left. So the day he disappeared. And then on his way down, he said he got lost and was forced to spend the night out here. And so that explained the campsite. And then on October 1st, so that would have been the day after he spent the night out here. He said he was going to attempt to follow the ridgeline down the mountain to a nearby village to safety. And this note ended with the phrase, leaving this note here just in case. Love to everyone who passes by. Now, at first glance, this note was like, amazing news, because suddenly it seemed totally possible that Jeanne was just fine. I mean, the way the note was written. It sounded like he was at least healthy and safe, albeit, I'm sure he was not happy to be stuck up on a mountain. But, you know, he loved being in nature, and so he seemed okay. And then he had a reasonable plan for how he was going to get out of there. You know, follow the ridgeline, go down to a village, go to safety. But as the police analyzed this note, they noticed that some things were off about it. First of all, this note basically directly contradicts other facts of this case. Remember, cell phone records prove Jian got a phone call at 4pm on the day he went missing from his friend. And his friend would report that Jian told him that he was coming down Mount Miufeng and he'd be home soon. But according to the note, they found that was not possible because the note said xi', an, at 4pm on September 30, the day he went missing, he would have been on Teatuo Mountain, either hiking up or being in the process of getting lost and, you know, ultimately making that campsite where he camped out for at least one night. And so, in addition to this factual discrepancy with this note, another issue with the note was just the way it was written. Now, Jeanne's wife had a chance to look at the note, and she would say, that is my husband's handwriting. But the note contained a bunch of very strange language choices that just didn't make sense for Jeanne to be using. For example, this note, which really should have been a first person point of view. You know, Jien has gotten lost. He's by himself, he's writing to the world, kind of letting somebody know what's going on with him. And so it really should have been written in the first person. My name is Jeanne. I am lost. Here's what I'm doing. But the note was written in the third person. Jien got lost on the mountain, and so he is going to camp out for the night, and tomorrow he's going to make his way out to safety. But despite being written in the third person, it did sound like somebody was talking about themselves. It did not feel like somebody else was attempting to document what Jeanne was doing. But by far the weirdest part of this note was the tone shift that happened about halfway through. So the first half of this letter was written, albeit in the third person, but it was grammatically correct and sort of formal, like you would expect from a very well educated retired teacher. But once you get to that second half of the note, the grammar started being really awkward. And then the very final line, which says, love to everyone who passes by that actually sounds totally awkward in Chinese. So love to everyone who passes by is the translation into English. And that basically makes sense to us. Like, that's not an awkward phrase, but if you put it back in Chinese, it's so awkward. It would be like if I tried to say to you, I take the bus to work, but instead I said, to work, take bus.

[Narrator]

Right.

[Co-host]

Like, I wouldn't say it that way. And it would immediately seem very awkward for anybody who knows me if I wrote or said something like that. And so this last line stood out so much that actually, police and friends and family of Jin assumed he must have left that in there as, like, a secret message or a code, like a distress signal, especially when you consider the other weird factors around this note. But nobody could figure out what it meant. The day after this note was discovered, a searcher was up in the vicinity of Jien's campsite on Teatois Mountain. And they were walking around, kind of retracing their footsteps, looking for new places to search. And when they turned a corner and up ahead, they noticed there was this tree kind of hanging out over this rocky cliff. And dangling from the tree was something gray that looks sort of out of place. And so the searcher, you know, sensing this could be a clue of Jian's whereabouts, he yelled out for other searchers in the area that he had found something. And then he took off running towards this thing to see what it was. And when he got up to the tree, he looked up and he saw it was a pair of sweatpants that had clearly been intentionally tied to this branch in the tree. And so the searcher, he reached up and grabbed one of the pant legs and kind of tugged on it. And when he did, all these white things began falling out of the pants and landing on the ground. And when the searcher stopped and looked down to see what they were, he couldn't believe it. It was a whole pile of human bones. However, they were not j. In fact, nobody ever figured out who these bones belonged to or why they were stuffed inside of pants and tied to a tree on this mountain. But the discovery of these bones would open up a whole new mystery, because after these bones were found, all the searchers came over and basically just began combing the area near these bones. And the police began uncovering body after body after body. They found two more sets of human bones stuffed into pants and tied to trees. And they found the other bodies at the foot of a Cliff and also inside of this well and inside of this cave. And so, in total, authorities found 10 sets of human remains in the vicinity near Jeanne's campsite. But none of the human remains belonged to Jeanne. Officials were only able to identify a few of the bodies, and they were not able to figure out how they died or whether or not foul play was involved. But the discovery of those bodies did mean one thing for Jin's case. It meant, you know, all these people had previously gone up Thietoi Mountain before Jin went up and vanished. And when these other people went up the mountain, clearly something horrible happened to them, and we don't know what it is. Is there a killer on the loose? Is there some animal or creature out there that's taken people out? I mean, we don't know. But what started to happen since Xien went missing and his story was all over the news in China is that all these other hikers who've been on Teatua Mountain before have begun sharing their experiences when they hiked up Teatua Mountain. And some of their stories about what they've seen on that mountain are horrifying. One person said they were walking up the mountain. They had their partner with them who was a little bit farther back the trail. And so they're kind of walking up on this their own.

[Narrator]

And the first person, as they're walking.

[Co-host]

Up the trail, suddenly sees this guy just kind of come out of nowhere wielding an axe. And he walks up to this person, and all he says is, are you alone? And the hiker's like, no, my partner's back there. They're coming up here. What's going on?

[Narrator]

But the axeman, he basically acted like.

[Co-host]

He didn't even hear their answer. And he just asked it again, are you alone? And the hiker was like, no, my.

[Narrator]

My partner's back there.

[Co-host]

And the axeman, again, just said, are you alone? Are you alone? Are you alone? And this axe person kept doing that until the hiker and their partner just turned and ran. And then another hiker shared a story about how they were walking up a trail on Teotois Mountain, and at some point, they lifted their head up, and he saw a little ways up the trail, kind of off the trail. So in the tree line were all these people, like, this group of strangers just standing there motionless, kind of half behind trees, like they were kind of trying to hide themselves, but also not. And they were just staring at this hiker, unmoving, not speaking, just staring. And so the hiker, you know, they look up, and they see this and they were so unnerved so quickly that they just turned and left and they have no idea who those people were. And so obviously we have no way of verifying these other hikers stories about what they saw on Teotois Mountain. But when you combine their testimony with Jian's story, it really makes you wonder what's going on up there. The official search for Xi' an was called off at the end of October, so roughly one month after he vanished. But unofficially the search for Xi' an continues to this day. However, they still have not found his body and basically no real progress has been made.

[Mr. Ballin]

A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[Narrator]

If you enjoyed today's story and you're.

[Mr. Ballin]

Looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Ballin podcast, as well as Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool Redacted, Late Nights With Nexpo, and A Twist of History.

[Co-host]

All you have to do is search.

[Mr. Ballin]

For Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See you. Hey prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today and before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey hey listeners.

[Narrator]

Big news for true crime lovers.

[Mr. Ballin]

You can now enjoy this podcast ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts. Completely ad free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads. Because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve wracking part of true crime. To start your ad free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to Amazon.com ballin that's Amazon.com.

[Narrator]

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[Mr. Ballin]

Into uninterrupted true crime stories today.