Narrator (12:37)

At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a house. It's your home. The place that's filled with memories. The early days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring.

Delia D'Ambra (12:54)

It out.

Narrator (12:58)

For the place you've put down roots. Trust Amica Home Insurance Amika Empathy is our best policy.

Delia D'Ambra (13:08)

If you ever worry about the safety of your home and family, there's no better time to act than now. You guys have probably heard me talk about Simplisafe before on this podcast, and truly, it's because I've been using it now for the last five years. Right now my listeners can get that same feeling and get 60% off today just by visiting simplisafe.com parks SimpliSafe is a new way to protect your home. Old school systems only take action once someone is already inside your home, which is when it's too late. SimpliSafe's Active Guard outdoor Protection changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens. So if someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights and all the things, and even call the police before they've had a chance to break in. Simplisafe is offering my listeners exclusive early access to their Black Friday sale this week only. You can get 60% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is their Best offer of the year. Head to simplisafe.com parks that's simplisafe.com parks there's no safe like Simplisafe. The Daily Alaska Empire reported that Hosea and other wardens would go on patrols, sometimes for weeks, to try and catch illegal hunters operating on islands adjacent to the cities of Wrangel and Petersburg. During these trips, they would arrest and fine poachers for killing animals out of season or having too many of a species than they were supposed to have. In some instances, violators would have to forfeit their firearms. As part of their punishment. Hosea had arrested several hunters suspected of violating wildlife laws. The Alaska Daily Empire reported that in a time span of just four months between 1935 and 1936, for example, Hosea had caught the same guy twice for poisoning foxes in order to harvest their pelts. Yeah, super cruel stuff, essentially. Hosea had discovered that this man was using strychnine to taint foxbait, and once the animals died in agony, he would scalp them of their fur coats. At one time, this hunter was in possession of 23 illegally obtained FoxPelts. And the way Hosea exposed him was kind of simple. The article I just mentioned explains that one day Hosea just went to this guy's cabin in the woods and found a decent supply of strychnine in the house. When he came back a few months later and investigated a little more, he discovered a few fox carcasses laying outside, none of which had any injuries that indicated they'd been snared in a steel trap. So for that offense, Hosea fined the hunter $150 for possessing the poison. And when his investigation concluded a few months later, he arrested the guy on an additional charge of possessing and placing poisoned baits. This particular trapper was sentenced to just over four and a half months in jail and fined $300, a fairly hefty penalty when you think of what that money could equate to in today's dollars. I plugged that figure into an inflation calculator, and it told me that 300 bucks back in 1936 would be something like $6,700 today. The Wrangell Sentinel reported that on another occasion, Hosea confiscated 500 illegally trapped beaver skins from hunters in Dillingham. Other noteworthy arrests included catching two young men hunting ducks, one of whom didn't have a hunting license, duck stamp, or properly stored firearm. Additional violators Hosea was documented as having nabbed were caught hunting out of season and refusing to hand over their illegally killed Animals. There was even one instance where Hosea stopped a boat full of salmon fishermen and found illegal deer meat on board instead of fish. Usually, offenders like this were fined, but not all of them served jail time. A few got lawyers and contested their charges and were free to go back out and potentially reoffend. Of all the violations Hosea seemed to be vigilant about, though, there was one that I found discussed a lot in the source material, and it had to do with game wardens arresting people for illegally killing deer that had been specifically relocated for the purpose of repopulation. Now, I know some of you listening are probably tilting your heads wondering why that's important. Well, back in Hosea's day, there were many instances where certain animals like deer or rabbits were relocated for the purpose of stocking an area for hunters. The Daily Alaska Empire reported that it was common practice for game wardens to humanely trap deer in order to stock a neighboring island. In fact, Hosea had been doing this kind of thing for the Game commission since the mid-1930s. But state regulators would only declare open season after the relocated species had been given time to reproduce naturally and build up their numbers. From what I gathered from reading the source material, it appears poachers back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s were not following the proper rules and seemed to be killing relocated deer well before any of them had the chance to mate and reproduce. And for those of you who are curious about how in the world you go about trying to wrangle deer and relocate them, the practice goes something like this. Hosea and usually a group of a dozen men would use dogs to chase and corral the deer to the shoreline of a nearby body of water. And once the deer got in the water, they would eventually get tired from treading the current right before they'd give up. Men and boats would scoop them up and load them into crates and transport them to whatever island the Game Commission wanted to repopulate the particular species. According to the source material I found that talked about this, the practice was widely praised as being really successful. Well, that is, until poachers got in the way in 1939. A few years into his role as game warden, Hosea was still arresting trappers for killing relocated deer. According to an article by the Wrangell Sentinel, Hosea expressed that because of ongoing issues like this, he felt the people living in and around Dillingham were not as respectful or appreciative of the land they lived on as much as he thought they should have been. For example, he said that despite There often being decent conditions for hunting and fishing, the people living in and around the area struggled with liquor consumption and were not properly utilizing the natural resources around them. He noted that he felt residents needed government mechanisms and law enforcement officers like himself in order to keep things in check. Less than two years into his role as game warden, Hosea's bosses had transferred him to Petersburg. The entire Sarber family made the move, and overall, it was something everyone seemed pretty happy about. And Hosea's tough on crime attitude continued to precede him even after the move. His skills as an outdoorsman seemed to have sharpened, too. But there was one notorious predator many people feared might be responsible for his sudden vanishing, and that was the Alaskan brown bear, which some source material refers to as a subspecies of the grizzly. You see, run ins with wild bears in the part of Alaska where Hosea disappeared weren't uncommon. In fact, many people knew the animals were out there. So it wasn't that far of a stretch to think that maybe Hosea had just stumbled across the wrong one at the wrong time. An article for the Dayton Daily News reported that there had been documented incidents where wildlife officers or hunters had been attacked, maimed, or even killed by bears. For example, the Wrangell Sentinel in Fairbanks News minor reported that Years earlier in 1936, a trapper named Ivan Peterson had been hunting for sheep in an area of Alaska known as Mascot Creek when he'd come face to face with a grizzly bear on a trail. The animal had charged at Ivan and he had to fire eight shots from his rifle to finally kill the animal. According to what he told the newspapers at the time. He said he'd come around the bend of a trail and run right into the bear. He said as soon as he saw the animal, he immediately dropped his bag, ran off the trail and took cover in some rocks. Within seconds, the bear was about 30ft away from him and sniffing around the pack he'd abandoned on the trail. Ivan told reporters that he felt extremely lucky to have had time to load so many shots in his gun before the bear made it to him. And earlier on in Hosea's career, he'd personally gone to Kodiak island to investigate. Investigate reports of brown bears coming a little too close to town and attacking and killing herds of cattle. His investigation into that matter spanned for five months. And though the initial reports of concerning numbers of cattle being killed had seemed at least to Hosea, to be a bit embellished, he found that the number of cattle on the island totaled around 300 which he believed was still plentiful. According to an article by the Petersburg Press, he surmised that the reason residents had become so frightened by the presence of bears was because around 60 of those 300 cows usually stayed so close to town. Still, he knew how dangerous the powerful predators could be to humans. He'd personally come face to face with a bear. A few years before his disappearance. The Dayton Daily News reported that while investigating reports of hunters illegally killing moose, Hosea had stumbled across a bear feeding on a moose carcass. He and the massive animal had passed within 20ft of one another, and for his own protection, Hosea ended up shooting and killing the bear. He told the newspaper, quote, when you go in after a big brown bear, you're asking for it. No big game animal is more uncertain or more dangerous. At times. They will attack unprovoked. End quote. Another apex predator that roamed the landscape Hosea ventured into was wolves in the winter of 1950. So just two years before he vanished, the fish and Wildlife service was having a difficult time curbing the wolf population in the district Hosea oversaw. Deer numbers on many islands and the mainland were plummeting because of the wolves ravenous appetites. And it was up to predator control agents like Hosea, alongside biologists, to figure out how to remedy the issue. One of the biologists came up with a plan to lace slabs of seal meat with pellets of strychnine poisoning and drop the hunks of meat onto the shorelines of islands in an attempt to lure the overpopulated wolves. Local marten were smart enough not to go near the tainted bait, but the wolves, not so much. From what I read in the source material, it seems by the fall of 1951, the Wolf issue was becoming more manageable. But it wasn't totally under control. The Daily Alaska Empire reported that about nine months before Hosea disappeared, he and two other predator control agents went on an expedition to hunt wolves in the Ketchikan region. During their travels, they set deadly traps for the wolves in hopes of dwindling the species population. So if anything, these documented issues with wolves and bears prove that Hosea definitely knew there were mortal threats out there to both native wildlife and humans like himself. But the one thing that never supported the Hosea got killed or eaten by a bear wolf theory was the fact that his body or remains were never found. I mean, I've talked about this before on this show, but most wildlife experts I've spoken to have told me that even in a situation where a person is mauled to death. There's usually some evidence of an attack, clothing, blood, bones, areas of disturbed ground, something. And in this case, no source material states that anything like that was ever found. Around the same time the wolf eradication experiment was going on, which would have been in 1950, 1951, Hosea attended an annual hearing for the Fish and Wildlife service. During that 10 day meeting in Anchorage, he and dozens of other officers, commission members and game officials drafted and voted on the 1950-1951 regulations, aka the laws and policies on how to enforce wildlife restrictions. Now, none of the source material explicitly says this, but I think it's reasonable to wonder if perhaps a disgruntled hunter that Hosea had busted in the past might have become upset when they learned he was one of the people tasked with annually crafting and voting on the game regulations. I mean, it's pretty clear from researching Hosea's track record that he'd made a significant number of arrests in his career leading up to his disappearance. Referring to Hosea's reputation for strictly enforcing the law, a reporter for the Dayton Daily News wrote, quote, sarber, as a law enforcement officer of the wildlife service, made many arrests. It was said he always brought in his man. He had had many dangerous escapes and close calls before his disappearance, end quote. And it just so happened that one of those arrests, not long before he vanished, had been particularly tense.

Narrator (26:06)

At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a car or a house. It's the four wheels that get you where you're going and the four walls that welcome you home. When you combine auto and home insurance with Amica, we'll help protect it all. And the more you cover, the more you can save. Amica. Empathy is our best policy.

BetterHelp Ad (26:38)

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What comes to mind when you hear the word gratitude? Maybe it's a daily practice or maybe it feels hard to be grateful right now. Don't forget to give yourself some thanks by investing in your well being. BetterHelp is the largest online therapy provider in the world, connecting you to qualified professionals via phone, video or message chat. Let the gratitude flow. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more and save 10% off your first month.

Delia D'Ambra (27:09)

That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com according to reporting by the Daily Alaska Empire in February 1950. So just two years before Hosea disappeared, he and two of his colleagues arrested three men for illegally killing deer out of season. The poachers were a father and two sons who'd butchered deer and stashed the contraband pieces of meat in their cabin. When Hosea and his co workers paid the trio a visit to investigate them for the suspected crime, the men became combative and pulled guns on the Predator agents. Somehow, a shootout was avoided and Jose and his colleagues ended up arresting the poachers. The father, a man named Dan Willis, was fined $100 and given a six month jail sentence. One of his sons, John, pled guilty and got a suspended prison sentence, and the other son, Jerry, was jailed for 30 days. The items of evidence seized in the case were a.22 caliber rifle and all the illegally harvested deer meat. Now, the reason I think this story is significant is because what if, for example, Hosea had been alone when he confronted Dan and his boys? Is it possible, likely even, that he could have been overpowered? Who knows? He might have even been killed and no one would have known about it. I mean, the fact that Hosea had two other game officers with him during this incident might be the only reason why Dan and his sons backed down. And look, I know I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure, but that seems like one plausible explanation. And we know based on what's been documented in this case, that Hosea traveled out on his own the day he disappeared in July 1952. He didn't have any backup with him. Something else that might have stirred up dissent leading up to his disappearance was the fact that rumors had been swirling that the 1952 salmon season might open early. But Hosea had put a damper on that rumor real quick. According to an article by the Petersburg Press, in mid July of that year, so literally days before Hosea vanished, fish canneries in Petersburg were chomping at the bit to get their operations going. But they couldn't do that until fishermen were permitted to go out and legally catch salmon. Now, like I just said, many folks believed the salmon season would open a week early, which would have been the last week of July. But technically, the open season for salmon didn't start until early August. And you better believe Hosea was going to hold to the letter of the law. And look, whenever you're the person standing between people making their livelihood or big companies raking in lots of money that can put a target on your back, it's understandable to think that because Hosea was a stickler for the rules, he might have frustrated a lot of people who were trying to make as much money as they possibly could. Especially when you think about the fact that Hosea was last seen riding in his small boat in the direction of Pillar Bay Cannery, a business right there in Petersburg that at the time of his disappearance was not able to process or can salmon. Yet Smokey Merkley reported for the Idaho State Journal that one prevailing theory about what happened to Hosea is that a group of fishermen illegally operating in the bay most likely ambushed him because they were afraid of getting busted for violating fishing laws. But unfortunately, there was never any evidence produced that confirmed that. And still to this day, no one knows for sure what really happened to Hosea. Did he die of a heart attack and sink to the bottom of a body of water somewhere, never to be seen again? Was he mauled by a ferocious bear or ravenous wolf pack? Was he murdered because he stood in the way of someone's bottom line? Answers to those questions have eluded everyone for more than 70 years. In February 1953, a few months after Hosea vanished, the Fish and Wildlife Service honored him with a posthumous award for his many contributions to wildlife conservation and dedicated service to the protection of natural resources in Alaska. His wife, Virginia accepted the honor and was given free lifetime access to all national parks in the country. Around the first anniversary of her husband's disappearance, Virginia and her two sons took a cross country road trip to visit some of his relatives in Illinois and Indiana. A few months after they returned to Alaska, she remarried and lived out the rest of her days raising her sons and enjoying the beautiful landscape she and Hosea had both loved so much. She eventually died in 1998, never knowing what happened to her first husband and if it was the wild frontier of Alaska that took his life. Or perhaps a deadly human predator who has never faced justice for their crime. Park Predators is an Audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website parkpredators.com and you can also follow park predators on Instagram arcpredators. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?

Narrator (32:31)

At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a car or a house. It's the four wheels that get you where you're going and the four walls that welcome you home. When you combine auto and home insurance with Amica, we'll help protect it all. And the more you cover, the more you can save Amica. Empathy is our best policy.

Delia D'Ambra (33:03)

Hey park enthusiasts, if there's anything we know from the cases we explore here on Park Predators, it's that even some of the most beautiful place can hide some very dark secrets. But have you ever asked yourself who are the people that investigate that darkness and try and bring some light into the world? In my show, Dark Arenas, I'm exploring that question. Each episode of Dark Arenas features firsthand accounts from people who pursue some of the most diabolical criminals and who choose to take on some of the most disturbing jobs, like body recovery, crime scene reconstruction, bombing investigations, and so much more. Some of the things people who work these jobs have to face are so wild that you have to hear it for yourself. Listen to Dark Arenas now, wherever you're listening.