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 'the bear man.' She said he gave her berries and told her to stay quiet, that he wanted to play with her brother for a while. The last she saw of her brother, he was riding on the shoulders of 'the bear man' and seemed calm. Of course, our first thought was abduction, but we never found a trace of another human being in that area. The little girl was also insistent that he wasn't a normal man, but that he was tall and covered in hair, 'like a bear', and that he had a 'weird face.' We searched that area for *weeks*, it was one of the longest calls I've ever been on, but we never found a single trace of that kid. <br>The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandpa. According to the mother, her daughter had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the forest, and she'd never come back down. They waited at the base of the tree for hours, calling her name, before they called for help. Again, we searched everywhere, and we never found a trace of her. I have no idea where she could possibly have gone, because neither her mother or grandpa saw her come down.<br><br>* A few times, I've been out on my own searching with a canine, and they've tried to lead me straight up cliffs. Not hills, not even rock faces. Straight, sheer cliffs with no possible handholds. It's always baffling, and in those cases we usually find the person on the other side of the cliff, or miles away from where the canine has led us. I'm sure there's an explanation, but it's sort of strange.<br><br>* One particularly sad case involved the recovery of a body. A nine-year-old girl fell off a bridge, into a fast-moving river. She was with a group of people, and they lost sight of her for a few seconds, and when they found her she was dead. We were called in to get her out of the river, and I was the one who had to go in and get her. I've recovered bodies before, but this one stuck with me. She was so small, I could hold her comfortably in my arms, and I never realized how small a nine-year-old was until I was holding a dead one. I couldn't stop thinking about how she was just a little girl who wanted to go on a hike with her family, and now she was dead. It was a bad news all around, and that case stuck with me for a while.<br><br>* I was on a call with another SAR officer, and we were searching a pretty small area. We'd both been searching for a couple of hours, and we'd seen each other a few times throughout the search. We were both following the same canine, and we'd made our way through a bad patch of brambles, and were headed into a more forested area. The canine was pretty insistent that the missing person was where we were, and we'd started to call out for them. About a minute after we entered the forested area, we heard a man's voice telling us to stop. We were both armed, and we drew our guns, yelling back to the voice to identify themselves. The voice didn't seem very threatening, it was actually almost apologetic, but we're always wary when we're in a situation like this. Suddenly, a man stepped out from behind a tree. He was tall, at least 6'5, and he was skinny. He had a long face with a small nose, and no teeth. He told us that we needed to stop where we were, or something bad would happen. We didn't really know what to do. We of course knew that we couldn't shoot him, but the canine was still pulling at her leash and whining, and we were getting worried that the missing person was being held against their will. We tried to call for backup, but we had no cell service. The man was getting more and more agitated, and we could see that he was starting to shake. We decided that we should try and apprehend him, and we moved forward. He started to make this... I don't even know how to describe it. It was a low, moaning sound that sounded like it was coming from every direction. The canine was whining, and we could hear other animals making noise. The man started to run from us, and we took off after him. He dodged and weaved through the trees so easily, it was like he knew exactly where he was going and could see the forest from a perspective that we couldn't. I kept getting hit in the face by branches, and I stumbled a few times and almost fell. My partner was ahead of me, but I heard him yelp in pain and I heard the sound of rushing water. I didn't see him fall, but I can only assume that the guy led him to a river and pushed him in. I couldn't see him anywhere, and I didn't want to leave him behind, but I also didn't want to be taken captive. I'd had a few experiences with that before, and I wasn't eager to repeat them. I called for him, and when I didn't hear an answer, I turned and made my way back out of the forest. I tried to call for backup again, but I still didn't have any cell service. I ended up going back to our vehicle and driving down the road until I had a good enough signal to call for help. I had to wait at the scene for what felt like hours until someone got there, and I was terrified that the man was going to come back and get me. When someone finally did show up, we went back to the forest and looked for my partner and the missing person. We never found my partner, but we did find an ID card deep in the forest. It was miles away from where we'd been, and it was for a guy who had gone missing about 5 years ago. The canine had been lost as well, but we found her a few days later. When we brought her in for examination, we found that she was pregnant, and we figured out that she'd given birth while she was out there. We never found the puppies. <br><br>That's pretty much it. I don't know if you guys have any questions, but I'm happy to answer anything you might have.