I’m a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

I wasn't sure where else to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I’ve been an SAR officer for a few years now, and along the way I’ve seen some things that I think you guys will be interested in. <br><br>* I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time they just wander off the path, or slip down a small cliff, and they can’t find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old ‘stay where you are’ thing, and they don’t wander far. But I’ve had two cases where that didn’t happen. Both bother me a lot, and I use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on. <br>The first was a little boy who was out berry-picking with his parents. He and his sister were together, and both of them went missing around the same time. Their parents lost sight of them for a few seconds, and in that time both the kids apparently wandered off. When their parents couldn’t find them, they called us, and we came out to search the area. We found the daughter pretty quickly, and when we asked where her brother was, she told us that he’d been taken away by a man. She didn’t see where he had been taken, but she said the man was wearing a ‘park ranger’ uniform. Of course, there was no one in the area matching that description, and the only ranger who had been nearby was me. This was all about four years ago, and the boy was never found. <br>The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandpa. According to the mom, her daughter had climbed up a tree to take in the view from up high, but when her mom came back to look at her, she was gone. There was no one else around, and the mom was insistent that she hadn’t gotten down and wandered off. I have to say, though, the mom wasn’t the most reliable person, so it’s very possible that her daughter had gotten down and wandered off, and her mom just didn’t notice. Either way, we never found her. <br>Now, I don’t think that many of you are in the area, but if you happen to be where I am, and some guy in a park ranger uniform comes up and talks to you or your kids, be wary. Especially if you’re out berry-picking, or climbing a tree. <br><br>* A few times, I’ve been out on my own, either before the rest of the Search and Rescue team gets there, or after they’ve gone home, and I’ve heard very loud, very intense whispers. It always happens at the same time of day, around four AM, and no matter where I am, the sound is loud and clear. It’s always saying the same thing: my name, followed by ‘come find me’. It doesn’t sound like a human voice, and I can’t tell the gender of whoever is speaking. I’m sure it’s just atmospheric distortion or something, but it always gives me goosebumps. <br><br>* I was out on a search and rescue, and one of the guys on the team was my friend, M. He’s a veteran, and he went out ahead of me to look around. We were all spread out pretty far, because we were searching a pretty large area, and I lost sight of him after a while. I thought he’d just gone on, or maybe gone back to the car, but when we’d all reconvened at the vehicle, he wasn’t there. We called his phone, but it went straight to voicemail, so we went out looking for him. He’d told me beforehand which direction he was going to go, so that’s where we looked. After a while, we found his bag on the ground. It was empty, and there was no sign of blood or anything like that. We called out for him, but he didn’t respond. We searched the area for hours, and finally had to give up. We called his parents and told them what had happened, and they said they’d never heard of him. I was positive that he was my friend, and I’d talked to his parents before, but they said they’d never met me, and they certainly didn’t have a son. <br><br>* Sometimes, I get ‘missing persons’ reports from people who I can’t identify. They call the station and give just a little bit of information: ‘my niece is missing. She was last seen on Oak Street, walking towards the forest.’ ‘My son is missing. I don’t know where he was, but he didn’t come home last night. He might have gone out into the woods.’ And so on. When I ask for more information, they hang up. When I try to call back, the calls go straight to voicemail. These calls have gotten worse lately; usually I only get one or two a month, but it’s been about four a day lately. But whenever I go out to the areas they’ve mentioned, I can’t find any sign of the people they’ve talked about. <br><br>* I was out on a search, and it was getting late, so I decided to set up camp and keep looking in the morning. I was alone, because the rest of the SAR team had given up and gone on with their lives. As I was setting up camp, I heard a rustling in the bushes behind me. I turned to look, and I saw a woman come out of the forest. She was dirty and dressed in rags, and she looked like she hadn’t showered in a while. She looked like she was probably homeless, and was maybe looking for food or something. I had some extra water and food, so I was going to give it to her, but when she saw me, she started running in my direction. She was running at full sprint, and when she got closer, I saw that she was holding a knife. I drew my gun and pointed it at her, and she stopped. I called 911, and while I was waiting for someone to come, I asked her who she was and where she came from. She didn’t seem to understand me; she kept repeating ‘I’m so sorry’ and crying. I didn’t get anything out of her, and after a while, some sheriffs showed up. They said they’d take her to the station, and they asked me if I wanted to press charges. I said no, and they took her away. I never heard anything about the incident again, until a few months later, when I got a call from the sheriff's department. They asked me if I remembered the woman who had attacked me, and I said I did. They told me that she had been in jail for a few months, but she’d escaped. They didn’t think she was in the area, but they wanted me to be on the lookout for her. I asked for a description, and they told me that she was about 5’6, slender, with long brown hair and green eyes. She was white, and had what looked like a burn on her cheek. I know it’s a pretty common description, but I’ve been keeping an eye out for her. <br><br>* I was out searching for a missing person, and I saw someone in the distance. They were wearing a red sweater, and they looked like a woman with long black hair. I called out, asking if she needed any help, and she started running towards me. I walked towards her, happy that the search had been successful, but the closer she got, the more I realized that something was off. She didn’t look like she was really moving; her legs were barely bending, and it looked like she was just being propelled forward. I could see that she was the missing person I was looking for, and when she got closer, I saw why the description had sounded so familiar. It was because I knew her. She was my fiancée, who had disappeared from a parking lot a few years ago. When I realized who she was, I froze, and she stopped in front of me. She looked like she was in bad shape; her eyes had rotted, and the skin on her face was cracked and decaying. She didn’t smell like a dead body, though. In fact, I couldn’t smell her at all. I called out to her, and she didn’t respond. I reached out to touch her, and as soon as I did, she fell to the ground. When she hit the ground, she exploded into dust, and after a while, that dust blew away. I went back to the car and gave my report; I told them I had found a body, but it had been too decomposed to salvage anything. They never found out that I’d lied. <br><br>* I was out on a search, and I saw a light in the distance. It was periodic: on, off, on, off, with the lights going at about a second interval. It was green, and it was small, and I could tell it was somebody with a flashlight, flashing the light towards me. The light was so constant that I could see a clear path towards it, and when I got closer, I realized that the path was almost...directed towards it. The trees stopped where the light was, and the undergrowth had been cut away. Marbles were leading me right to the light. I didn’t think about it at the time, but now I realize that it was probably evidence of some cult or something. When I got to where the light was, there was no one there. But there was a flashlight, and it was still flicking on and off. After a while, the light started to strobe faster and faster, and I started to feel