Something is in the Woods

Summary

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories – Episode: Something is in the Woods

Release Date: February 20, 2025

Host: Ballen Studios (MrBallen)

In the gripping episode titled "Something is in the Woods," the MrBallen Podcast presents three spine-chilling narratives that delve into the unknown and the eerie occurrences hidden within dense forests. Each story is meticulously detailed, blending real-life experiences with elements of mystery and terror, ensuring listeners are both captivated and unsettled.

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Story 1: "Pound Cake"

Duration: [02:44] – [13:58]

Overview:

"Pound Cake" recounts the unsettling journey of Eloise Lindsay, a 22-year-old recent college graduate, who embarks on a solitary 43.3-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail in November 1989. Seeking solitude and self-discovery, Eloise's adventure takes a dark turn as she senses a menacing presence stalking her through the woods.

Key Events:

• Setting Out ([02:44]): Eloise begins her solo hike with confidence, assuring her parents of her safety based on her prior backpacking experiences.

• Sense of Dread ([05:45]): On the third day, Eloise wakes up feeling an "intense sense of dread" ([05:45]). While packing up her campsite, she believes she spots a man about 30-40 feet away behind a tree.

  “I’m just going to pack up my campsite here and get hiking.” – Eloise Lindsay ([06:00])

• Heightened Paranoia ([07:15]): Convinced she’s being watched, Eloise starts fleeing the trail, abandoning her backpack and essential supplies to escape what she perceives as a threat.

  “I need to get off this trail. I need to get to a road.” – Eloise Lindsay ([08:30])

• Desperate Flight ([09:50]): As Eloise runs, she hears grunts and yells but sees no one, increasing her fear. She chooses to abandon the trail entirely in a bid for safety.

• Night Alone ([11:30]): Unable to reach civilization, Eloise camps alone, plagued by sounds surrounding her tent throughout the night but remains unharmed.

• Rescue ([13:00]): Twenty-three days after setting out, a hunter discovers Eloise near the trail, severely dehydrated but alive. Her survival is attributed to scavenging found food and finding a stream.

Notable Quotes:

• Eloise reflecting on her fear:

  “I have no way of knowing if that's actually true, I'm alone in the middle of the woods.” ([06:30])

• Park ranger on potential threats:

  “They could have been stalked by wild men, which are basically people that live out in the mountains, that are effectively feral.” ([12:00])

• Law enforcement's bafflement:

  “There's no official explanation for what happened to her other than she got lost and was found again.” ([13:00])

Conclusion:

Eloise Lindsay's ordeal remains an open mystery, with theories ranging from psychological breakdowns to encounters with legendary wild men. Her survival against the odds adds a haunting layer to the lore of the Appalachian Trail, leaving listeners to ponder the true nature of her experiences.

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Story 2: "The Dream"

Duration: [16:19] – [26:27]

Overview:

"The Dream" narrates the mysterious disappearance of Mark Hanson during a spring break hike on the Appalachian Trail in March 1975. Accompanied by his friends Ben Fish and John Chidester, Mark's journey takes a supernatural twist as unexplained events lead to his tragic end.

Key Events:

• Initiating the Hike ([16:19]): Mark, Ben, and John embark on a challenging hike despite severe weather forecasts, driven by a desire to test their limits.

• Group Dynamics ([17:45]): As conditions worsen, John opts to turn back, leaving Mark and Ben to push forward amidst increasing hardships.

• Struggle and Compromise ([19:00]): Mark struggles physically, contemplating removing his pack to ease the burden, prompting Ben to emphasize the necessity of continuing for survival.

  “If we don't get to the shelter... without your sleeping bag, without your tent, without your food, without your water.” – Ben Fish ([20:15])

• Darkness and Snowstorm ([22:30]): As night falls amidst a snowstorm, Mark can no longer continue and collapses on the trail, prompting Ben to seek shelter, believing Mark is still nearby.

• Nightmare and Vanishing ([23:00]): Ben experiences a terrifying nightmare of Mark being dragged away, which eerily coincides with Mark’s mysterious disappearance the next morning.

  “I heard Mark screaming for help, yelling for Ben to come save him as he's being dragged off the trail into the forest.” – Ben Fish ([24:10])

• Search and Discovery ([25:30]): Extensive search efforts uncover a cave with animal remains, and eventually, Mark's body is found three miles away, lacking a definitive cause of death, fueling speculative theories about animal predation or other unexplained phenomena.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben's realization after finding Mark's backpack:

  “I have this sinking feeling that something horrible has happened to Mark and that I didn't save him.” ([25:00])

• Investigators' theories:

  “It's a good chance what Ben was hearing and seeing was actually playing out just several feet away from him down the trail.” – Narrator ([26:00])

Conclusion:

Mark Hanson's disappearance and subsequent death are enveloped in mystery, with events suggesting a blend of natural dangers and possible supernatural elements. The story leaves listeners grappling with the unanswered questions surrounding Mark's fate, highlighting the thin line between reality and the unexplained.

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Story 3: "Big Footprint"

Duration: [26:46] – [35:43]

Overview:

"Big Footprint" explores the tragic disappearance of Geraldine Huggin, a five-year-old girl, during her family's summer vacation in the remote swamps of Wade, Ontario, Canada, in July 1953. The subsequent search unearths baffling evidence, including enormous footprints, leaving Geraldine's fate unresolved and shrouded in mystery.

Key Events:

• Family Vacation ([26:46]): The Huggin family settles into their summer cabin near Fox Lake, preparing for a six-week stay in an isolated part of Ontario.

• Geraldine's Disappearance ([28:10]): During a planned trip to Fox Lake, Geraldine vanishes without a trace, sparking a frantic search as calls yield no response.

  “She was afraid of the dark, and that once it got dark out in the woods, she's just going to sit down and cry.” – Geraldine's Father ([30:30])

• Intensified Search Efforts ([30:00]): Police enlist professional trackers and military assistance, but relentless rain washes away potential evidence, complicating the search.

• Unusual Footprints ([33:00]): Searchers discover large footprints in the swamp, suggesting either an exceptionally large person or a massive animal, though such explanations seem implausible.

• Discovery of Geraldine's Remains ([35:15]): Nine days into the search, Geraldine's remains are found near a meadow, showing signs of being dragged and scavenged by animals, but with no clear cause of death, leaving her case unresolved.

Notable Quotes:

• Geraldine's father's plea to searchers:

  “She was afraid of the dark, and that once it got dark out in the woods, she's just going to sit down and cry.” ([30:30])

• Investigators on the mysterious prints:

  “An enormous person lumbering through the forest seems really unlikely.” – Narrator ([34:45])

• On the unclear cause of death:

  “We don't know what did this.” – Narrator ([35:25])

Conclusion:

Geraldine Huggin's disappearance and death remain enveloped in mystery, with conflicting evidence and unexplained phenomena leaving the case open to interpretation. The story underscores the profound uncertainties and potential dangers lurking within remote natural environments, making it a haunting tale of loss and the unknown.

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Final Thoughts

The "Something is in the Woods" episode masterfully intertwines true stories with elements of legend and unexplained phenomena, creating an atmosphere thick with suspense and fear. MrBallen's detailed storytelling, complemented by poignant quotes and precise timestamps, not only engages listeners but also leaves them contemplating the unseen and the mysterious forces that might dwell in the world's most secluded natural landscapes. Each narrative serves as a compelling reminder of the thin line between reality and the unknown, making this episode a standout for enthusiasts of strange, dark, and mysterious tales.

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 horrifying stories that will make you wonder who or what may be lurking in the forest. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Pound Cake, and it's about a girl who takes a shortcut on the Appalachian Trail. The second story you'll hear is called the Dream, and it's about three hikers who attempt a rugged hike in terrible weather. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Big Footprint, and it's about a mysterious set of footprints that are found in a marsh. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast. Because that's all we do. And we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please befriend the Amazon Music Follow button. And when they hand you their phone for you to input your own number, Venmo yourself $1,000 and then hand their phone back. Okay, let's get into our first story called pound ca.

[Amazon Advertiser]

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[Luke Lamanna]

Declassified Mysteries is a new podcast hosted by me, Luke Lamanna. Each week I dive into the hidden truths behind the world's most powerful institutions. From COVID government experiments to bizarre assassination attempts. Follow redacted on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Storyteller]

In 1989, 22 year old Eloise Lindsay was a fresh college graduate and she was at a crossroads in her life because even though she just earned her degree, she she really didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. And because she was an experienced backpacker, she thought a good way to, you know, kind of get her life together would be to go on a sort of retreat, go out into the woods, go out into nature, and kind of find herself. So she had planned this very detailed 43.3 mile hike along the Appalachian Trail starting in South Carolina, where the first seven days of the hike, she would be totally on her own. And then at the seven day mark, she would meet up with a friend at a particular rendezvous point. Her friend would give her resupplies and would be her companion for the rest of the hike. When Eloise told her parents what her plans were, they were not concerned for her safety because she was an experienced backpacker. She had made trips like this before. And so they said, great, we'll see you when you get back. So on November 4, Eloise sets out to begin her journey down the Appalachian Trail. And the first couple of days of her hike were great. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was amazing. And she had all this time to just kind of be by herself and look internal and think hard about what she wanted to do with her life. But on the third day, when she woke up, she was sleeping inside of a tent. She had camped just off the trail. She woke up and she had this intense sense of dread. She couldn't really place where it was coming from, but she knew something was wrong. And she's kind of doing inventory of her life. Like, what did I forget? Is there something that I'm just not thinking about right now? But she kind of pushes it aside mentally and thinks, okay, you know what? I'm just going to pack up my campsite here and get hiking. And I'm bound to, you know, come up with what it is that's making me feel this way. So she gets out of her tent and she begins packing up her campsite. And she's looking out, kind of scanning the tree line, not because she was looking for anything, but just because she happened to be looking out. And she could have sworn that she saw a man standing, you know, 30, 40ft away behind a tree. And she kind of did a double take and was staring at him and see how it's broad daylight, it's the morning, and they're near a trail. So what is it, like, unbelievable that there might be someone near her at that very moment, but she kind of did a double take and she looked at them again and this person was gone. And she stood there for a minute, just kind of looking in the direction of where she had seen this guy wondering, you know, is my mind playing tricks on me? Did I really see someone there? You know, why aren't they showing themselves again? If there was someone there, they clearly must have just been looking at me. Why aren't they, you know, poking their heads out again to communicate with me in some way? We're out in the middle of nowhere. We should be talking to each other, but the guy never shows himself again. And so as she's standing there wondering what she should do, she isn't ready to yell out to this person because there's part of her that's a little bit nervous about yelling out to some stranger in the middle of the woods. But she starts to get this really intense feeling that she's being watched. And it feels an awful lot like the sense of dread she had while she was in the tent. And she's starting to wonder, you know, are my instincts or is my sixth sense picking up that I'm being watched, like there's some predator out there looking at me right now? And even though she has no way of knowing if that's actually true, she's alone in the middle of the woods, and even though she's experienced, she can't help but feel really vulnerable. And because this guy is just not showing himself again, she feels a little bit threatened. And so she begins to panic, and she starts packing up all of her stuff as quickly as she can. And as soon as she can, she takes off down the trail away from that guy she saw in the woods. As she was walking down this trail, she couldn't help but think someone was right behind her. And she kept turning around to see if this person or whoever it was, was behind her, and no one was ever there. But this visceral feeling that she was being watched, that that sense of dread she had, it just was not going away. And so she started walking faster and faster. Before long, she was running, and she's realizing that she's in a section of the Appalachian Trail that's very remote. She's not near civilization. She's not near her next rendezvous point. And so she's thinking to herself, I need to get off this trail. I need to get to a road. I need to get away from here as soon as I possibly can. And so her options were to continue on this trail for several miles, and it would probably take her until well into the night before she was going to reach civilization. Or she could take a shortcut because she believed there was a road that was running parallel to her trail. But it was way down the mountain. It would require leaving the trail and basically cutting through the wilderness to get down to this road. But she was pretty confident it was right down there. And because this threat of this person or thing following her was so intense for her, she decided to leave the trail. She couldn't stand the idea of having to spend another night out in the middle of the woods with this person stalking her. And so she walks up the trail and starts running down the mountain. It wasn't long before she started to hear audible sounds coming from what she believed to be this person that was following her. And she would turn around, and there'd be no one there. And then she started to walk, you know, trying to listen as she's walking, and she would hear footsteps far away from her, and she'd turn and there'd be nobody there. But she was certain that someone was following her, someone was stalking her. And the sounds that were coming out of this person, this animal, whatever it was, they sounded like, you know, a deep male voice. But she couldn't recognize if it was a language of some kind. It just sounded more like a grunt or a yell of some kind. And so her heart rate's elevated, she's panicking, and she's walking as fast as she can just through the middle of the wilderness, hoping she's walking towards this road. But after walking and running for miles into the middle of nowhere, she has not come to a road. It's now completely dark out, and she knows she's lost. And so she has to set up camp in the middle of nowhere. And she knows somewhere out in the middle of the woods is some person or something that is stalking me. And she's all alone. She has no way to contact anyone. She doesn't have a cell phone. It's 1989. And so she sets up her campsite, and she gets in her tent, she zips it up, and she lays there hoping she doesn't hear any sounds. And sure enough, within minutes of being inside of that tent, she starts hearing those audible sounds coming from somewhere in the forest. And she hears what sounds like heavy footsteps walking around the perimeter of her campsite. All night long, she hears this, but luckily, they don't come up right to her tent. So there's some separation between her and whatever is making these sounds. And then finally, you know, the sun comes up, she is out of that tent, packs it up, and continues running in the direction she hopes is the road. And of course, all day long, she has that sense that someone is watching her. She's hearing footsteps coming from behind her. She would turn, she doesn't see anything. She would hear that audible grunting sound, that low voice coming from somewhere behind her. But again, she would never see whoever it was or whatever it was that was making the sound. And then again, the sun is starting to set and she has not found the road, she hasn't found a trail. And she's thinking to herself, I can't even backtrack because if I turn around and start walking backwards, I'm bound to run into this very thing. I'm trying to escape. And so once again, she sets up her campsite in the middle of nowhere. She gets inside and as soon as she's laying in her tent, she starts hearing those heavy footsteps somewhere out in the woods, kind of walking around the perimeter of her campsite. She's hearing that low audible sound that she can't quite place. And at some point she falls asleep. She gets up the next morning, she jumps out of her tent, packs it up and starts running, hopefully in the direction that will bring her to civilization. A couple days later, when Eloise was supposed to meet her friend on the trail at the seven day mark and they were going to finish the hike together, well, Eloise doesn't show up. But after several hours, when Eloise did not show up, her friend left the trail and contacted authorities and filed a missing person report. And the police would launch this massive search for Eloise along the stretch of the Appalachian Trail where she had said she would be. And for the next 14 days, hundreds of police and volunteers and helicopters are scouring this area and there's no sign of Eloise. And so after 14 days, from the time her friend filed the missing person report, the police had to turn the search off. And they say, look, we can't find her. Two days after the search was terminated. So 23 days after Eloise had initially set off for her trek through the Appalachian Trail, a hunter that was out in the middle of nowhere near the Appalachian Trail, discovers Eloise perched up against a tree. She's totally emaciated, she's dehydrated, she's delirious, but she's alive. At first, she was terrified of the hunter because she believed the hunter was this person that had been following her. But when she realized he was there to help, she went with them. She was brought back and brought to a hospital and she was checked out. And besides being dehydrated and, you know, emaciated, she was okay. And she would detail in multiple interviews and in her official Statement that she had been chased for the past almost three weeks in the middle of the woods, and she doesn't know who it was or why they were chasing her. And then, interestingly, she said right before she was found, so a couple of days before this hunter finds her, this person, this thing, whatever it was that was following her, got so close to her a couple different times that she was so scared, she ditched her backpack that contained all of her life saving equipment, like her sleeping bag and her tent, and it had some food and water in there. She ditched that so she could be lighter and so she could run faster away from this thing that is chasing her in the woods. So you gotta figure you gotta be at such a high level of fear that you're prepared to ditch the one thing you really require to survive out in the wilderness, which was her pack full of supplies. And then after she's ditched her pack and she's run for some distance, she's got no supplies, no food, no water, she stumbles across this tree in the middle of nowhere. That wedged inside the trunk is a cachet of donuts and pound cake. And so she takes the donuts and pound cake and between that and the stream water she had found, that's what kept her alive for the last few days before she was found. Eloise says she has no idea what to make of her experience, and law enforcement were baffled by it as well. Some people think Eloise had a mental break and she effectively made this whole situation up, that she really was lost in the woods, but no one was chasing her and she was just kind of paranoid and running around the wilderness for a couple of weeks. Other people, including park rangers that work that stretch of the Appalachian Trail, believe it's possible she could have been stalked by wild men, which are basically people that live out in the mountains, that are effectively feral, that live off the land, and they've been known, according to local legend, they've been known to attack park rangers. And people that live out in that area have claimed to have seen these wild men. And they kind of match the description of what she was describing. But as of right now, there's no official explanation for what happened to her other than she got lost and was found again.

[Mr. Ballin]

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[Narrator]

Our next story is called the Dream.

[Storyteller]

On March 7, 1975, 21 year old Mark Hanson, along with two of his friends from college, Ben Fish and John Chidester, arrived at a parking lot on the eastern side of the Appalachian Trail. All three of the young men were in incredible physical shape and Were excited to spend their spring break challenging themselves on some of the trail's most rigorous hikes. The day before they were supposed to go, they almost canceled the trip because there was this terrible weather system that was coming over the trail, and they were thinking, you know, it's going to be dangerous. It's not such a good idea. And then they started talking some more, and they were like, well, we're already going to, you know, challenge ourselves. It would be even more challenging to hike these really difficult trails with the inclusion of bad weather. So this is another way to, you know, test our abilities. And so they kind of got pumped up at the idea of hiking the appalachian trail in terrible weather. So the guys arrive in the parking lot. You know, the windshield wipers are furiously working to keep the pouring rain off. They hop out, and they're getting soaked by the rain. They put on their ponchos, they grab their heavy packs, and they make their way over to the trail. Their plan was to move west along the trail until they hit the tri corner shelter, where they would spend their first night. The tri corner shelter is one of the many shelters along the appalachian trail. They are open to the public. There's no heating or electricity, but it provides shelter from the storm. You can go in there and, you know, get in a sleeping bag, and you'll be fine. But to get to the tricorner shelter, they would need to hike 16 miles, almost completely uphill, Walking right into the wind, and it's raining on them, and it's supposed to snow later on, so it's just a treacherous, treacherous first day. But they take off. They start walking up this trail, and after a couple of miles, John says, you know what, guys? This is awful. I think we should probably turn around. I think we've underestimated how bad this is going to be. Let's go back to the car, and we'll do this another time. But mark and ben were like, oh, no, we are committed. We are doing this. We are not turning around. And John's like, you know what? Suit yourself. I'm not gonna do that. And he turned around, and he left, and he went back to the car, and he would pick them up when they were done. After john turned around, Mark and ben, you, know, they felt good. They felt tough. They're gonna stick this hike out. And so they take off again, and ben's in the lead. And ben seems to be handling the poor weather and difficult hike and heavy pack a lot better than mark is. In fact, over the next several hours, Mark would Drift farther and farther back, and Ben would need to wait for him. And Mark would be hunched over, you know, really just struggling with this hike. And then at some point, Mark yells to him and says, I got to take my pack off. I can't carry this much weight up this hill until we get to the shelter. I'm not going to make it to the shelter. Then Ben would say to him, you know, if we don't get to the shelter for some reason, you're going to be stranded out here in this storm without any warm clothes, without your sleeping bag, without your tent, without your food, without your water. It's way too dangerous. You have to keep your pack on. And so finally Mark is convinced, and he's like, oh, all right. Puts his pack back on and they continue moving. About an hour later, at 7pm they had reached the section of the trail where they knew they were getting closer, close ish to the tricorner shelter. They were certainly well beyond the halfway point. But it was dark out. The temperature had dropped significantly. At this point, Ben is basically Mark's cheerleader, kind of egging him on to keep moving. And Mark's kind of staggering along this trail, and Ben and Mark are just hoping that shelter just appears at some point here because they don't know how much farther they can go. Another hour and a half goes by. They still haven't made it to the shelter. Mark is groaning. He can barely move. It's pitch black. The rain has now completely shifted over to snow, and it is just dumping snow on them. And Ben is concerned that, you know, somehow did we take a wrong turn? Even though they were on a really well marked trail and he knew they hadn't, he figured they must be so close at this point. And it was around this time that Mark yells out to Ben, I'm done. I can't go any farther. And he sits down right in the middle of the trail. He's sitting down with his pack and he's just laying there. And Ben is like, come on, we're so close. You can't sit down now. And Mark's like, I'm not moving. I can't do anymore. I'm gonna sleep right here. Ben knows this is a bad idea. I mean, they did have warm clothes and sleeping bags, and they probably would be just fine sleeping out in the middle of the trail. But it just seemed so unnecessarily risky when there's probably a shelter maybe a couple hundred meters away and he would turn out to be right. And so he decides he's going to walk ahead on the trail, and he's going to see if the shelter's there. But he only went about 100 meters. He was within maybe 100 meters of the actual shelter, but he never saw it. And so after going ahead and feeling like, man, I don't want to drag mark any farther, you know, if there's no shelter ahead, for all we know, we took a wrong turn. And so he turns back around, and he goes back near mark, not next to him, but close enough to him that he can see him. And he sits down on the trail, too. He gets his sleeping bag out, he crawls inside, and he falls asleep. That night, Ben would have this vivid, horrible nightmare where he heard mark screaming for help, yelling for Ben to come save him as he's being dragged off the trail into the forest. And it scared him so much that Ben woke up. And he looks down the trail to where mark is, and he can see Mark's backpack is sitting right on the trail. And so he thinks, oh, mark's still there. And he's so tired, he's not about to get up and go check. He's like, that was just a dream. And he goes back to sleep. The next morning, when the sun comes up, Ben gets up again. And the first thing he does is he looks over at mark and he sees the pack. But he realizes that mark is not there. It's just the backpack. And so Ben jumps up and he yells for mark. He doesn't get a response. He's looking around, thinking, he's got to be around here, but he's not. It snowed that night, so any tracks mark would have left to show where he went to were now covered up. And that's when it dawns on Ben that that dream he had the night before that might have been real. And he has this sinking feeling that something horrible has happened to mark and that he didn't save him. And so he thinks, I gotta get authorities. He grabs his bag, he leaves marks there because he's thinking maybe he'll come back and he'll grab it. And Ben turns and runs down the trail in the direction he hopes is towards this tri corner shelter. And he can't believe it when, literally 200 meters away, he finds the tri corner shelter. They were that close. And inside are other hikers. He was able to get one of them to run down and get park services to know that they have a missing hiker on the trail. Searchers were dispatched to the area where mark and Ben had been sleeping on the trail. The first thing they did is they went to his bag, and inside were all the things he would need to survive out in the wild. His tent, his warm clothes, his sleeping bag, his food, his water, everything. It was all left there. Over the next few days, hundreds of searchers combed the area. They had helicopters overhead, and they made no significant discovery. However, one park ranger discovered this huge cave that was not that far away from where they had been sleeping. And inside of this cave, this ranger said a large mammal had been staying recently. It was not there now, and there was all these animal bones inside the cave. So it was obviously a predator of some kind. And so there was speculation that between this cave that probably held, you know, a bear or something like that, and Ben's dream that probably was reality, of Mark being pulled off the trail, screaming for help, that maybe Mark was attacked by some animal that dragged him away. On the ninth day of the search, Mark's body was found. It was located three miles down the hill from where he and Ben had been sleeping. Up on that trail, Mark was positioned up against a tree. His jacket was open, his gloves were off, and his boots were off, and they were placed right next to him. An autopsy concluded he must have died within 24 to 36 hours of leaving that trail. So there's lots of questions with this one. Namely, why did Mark, in the middle of the night, get up, not tell Ben where he was going, and then leave the trail and walk three miles away? The trail they were on was very well warned that even at night, in a snowstorm, Mark, it would be very obvious if you were on the trail or if you were off the trail. So Mark had to have known he was leaving the trail. But even if Mark had a great reason for wanting to leave the trail just hours earlier, he couldn't even stand. That's why they were even laying on the trail to begin with, because he couldn't go any farther. So the idea that he can just jump up in the middle of the night and navigate this really difficult terrain for three miles in total darkness in the snow, that doesn't make sense either. And then you have Ben's dream where he hears Mark screaming for help, and he's yelling for Ben to come save him as he's getting dragged off the trail. There's a good chance what Ben was hearing and seeing in his dream was actually playing out just several feet away from him down the trail.

[Narrator]

The next and final story of today's episode is called Big footprint.

[Storyteller]

In early July of 1953, Mr. And Mrs. Huggin, along with their three young daughters, left their home in Winnipeg, Canada for a six week summer vacation. They were headed to the girls grandparents summer cabin in Wade, Ontario, which is one of the more remote and wild sections of Ontario. Their cabin was right in the middle of this huge swampy forest and they were not too far from one of the biggest lakes in Ontario called Fox Lake. The family arrived late on July 4th, so they didn't do anything when they arrived, they just hung out at the cabin. And then early the next day all the adults decided they wanted to take the girls to Fox Lake for the day. So they began gathering all the supplies they would need while the three girls played outside the cabin. Now there's no neighbors or anybody else anywhere near this cabin and so it was totally normal to have the girls just play outside. They were not concerned about, you know, them getting taken or something. And so the two older girls played in the front yard of the cabin and Geraldine, the five year old, was playing on the side of the cabin. So the two girls in front couldn't see Geraldine. And the adults, they were keeping their eye on all three girls, but they were mostly just kind of going in and out of the cabin, getting their stuff together, periodically poking their head out. But the girls were fine. At 10am that morning the parents had finally packed up the car and they were ready to collect the girls to head over to the lake. And so they went outside, they got the two girls that were out front and they went to the side of the house and they couldn't find Geraldine. Now they weren't worried because where could she have gone? And so they walked around the house, they're yelling for Geraldine and they asked the two girls, you know, have you seen Geraldine, Where'd she go? And they're like, oh, we don't know, she was just over on the side of the house a minute ago. And so they can't find her outside. And so they go in the cabin thinking she must have gone in there because that's the only place she could be. But after thoroughly looking through the cabin and not finding her, they started to get a little bit more worried. At this point the adults start talking to each other and they're saying, did anybody see Geraldine in the past couple of minutes? Has anybody seen her? And they all said, yeah, I poked my head out the window and I saw her within the past 10 minutes right on the side of the cabin. And so they all agreed within the past 10 minutes they had seen her right outside the cabin. So they're alarmed, they can't find her, but they're thinking, we're gonna find her. They go back outside and they're looking around and they're yelling for her. Now, this is such a remote section of Ontario that there's really no noise pollution and sound travels really, really well. And so when they were yelling her name, it was booming through the woods. And even if Geraldine had, you know, sprinted for 10 minutes away from the cabin, she still easily would have been within earshot. And all she had to do was just, you know, yell back and they would see her, but she didn't yell back, and there was no sign of her anywhere. And so at this point, the family is panicking, and so they call the police. The police show up and they're looking around thinking, we're not going to be able to search this very effectively on our own. This is a huge, wild, remote section of Canada. And so they called in some professional trackers that were familiar with this area to come in and help them with their search. They also called the army in Winnipeg to send over some people to assist as well. But as soon as the search started, the skies opened up and dumped rain all over the entire area, basically washing away any footprints that they could have used to potentially find her. As the day wore on and the sun was starting to set and there was still no sign of Geraldine, her father said something to the searchers that was intended to help them find his daughter. But it was just this incredibly heartbreaking comment. And what he told them was his daughter was afraid of the dark, and that once it got dark out in the woods here, she's just going to sit down and cry. And so that will stop her from moving farther away from us, hopefully, and we should be able to find her. But they didn't. And for three days they looked everywhere for her, and there was no trace of her. And to make matters even worse is the weather had been really rainy and cold, not below freezing temperatures, but close, like in the 40 degree Fahrenheit range. And she just had a light shirt and shorts on. She was not prepared for the weather. On the evening of the third day, they found footprints that they believed to be Geraldine's, high up on this ledge in some moss overlooking Fox Lake. And the footprints indicated that this child, which was probably Geraldine, was looking out over the lake and then turned around and walked away from the ledge down into the swamp where her footprints dissipate. And so the search effort was pushed to the swamp. And they have thousands of people that are Combing through this mosquito infested bush to look for this girl. And once again, there's nothing. Then, on the seventh day of the search, they find another set of footprints in the swamp around the area where they were looking for Geraldine. But it wasn't Geraldine's footprints because they were these huge prints that if it was a human print, they would need to be an enormous human being, or these prints belong to some enormous animal. But they were unable to determine what animal it was at this point, Although there's not really any real evidence connecting that print to geraldine, People are starting to suspect that whoever left this print or whatever left this print has something to do with whatever happened to Geraldine two days later. So nine days after Geraldine has gone missing, Some of the professional trackers were two and a half miles away from where that large print was found in that swamp, and where geraldine's footprints were found up on that ledge, they found a piece of her plaid shirt 2 1/2 miles away on the eastern shore of another lake called long lake. And so they pushed the search effort over to that section of long lake, and within 24 hours, they would find Geraldine's remains. The scene where geraldine was found was bizarre. There was very little left of geraldine, and from what was left, it was clear there had been significant animal predation. And so initial thoughts were, you know, she must have been attacked by wolves, you know, that that's what killed her. But upon closer inspection, they saw that her clothing had not been torn and there was no blood on her clothes. So the animal predation had most likely occurred after she was deceased, because they would have been able to pick around the clothing. Whereas if it had been a wolf attack, they would have cut right through the clothes, and there would be marks that obviously, you know, she was attacked by animals. But geraldine's remains appeared to have been dragged out of a nearby meadow to where she was ultimately located. And so they followed the drag line into this meadow, and it led them to this opening where all the grass had been matted down. And investigators said it looked like something big had been laying there. And they speculated that that might have been the area where geraldine had been killed. And then afterwards, animals had dragged her over to where she was found. And so investigators are like, well, we found that large footprint in the swamp on the seventh day in the same area where we had found Geraldine's footprints. And we thought they might be connected. And now we're finding a large, what appears to be body print in this meadow that's right near where Geraldine's remains have been found. And so probably whoever or whatever left that print in the swamp is the same one that left this print here in the meadow and therefore is probably Geraldine's killer. But this left investigators with two theories that didn't really make any sense. The first one was, okay, these prints, the swamp print and this body print belong to an enormous person, like a giant who ran up to the cabin and abducted Geraldine and ran off and no one saw them or heard them. And for weeks they've managed to totally evade capture despite being, again, an enormous person lumbering through the forest. So that seemed really unlikely. One, that this giant person even existed, and two, that if this giant person existed, how could they not get caught? They're so big, running through the forest, they would be easy to spot. But if you rule out the enormous person theory, you're left with the enormous predator theory, which does make more sense on the surface because there are enormous predators that have attacked humans, so that does happen. But when they looked at her remains, they ruled out a wolf attack and really, they ruled out animal attacks. But if this is an enormous predator, how did it kill Geraldine? The family was told that unfortunately, because there wasn't enough left of her, they weren't able to determine a cause of death. And so their best guess is she was probably mauled by wild animals. But they would even level with the family insight. Honestly, we don't know what did this. A quick note about our stories.

[Mr. Ballin]

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.

[Narrator]

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts, this podcast, the Mr. Ballin podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime stories. Run fool and redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See you.

[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. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail].

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