David Paulides: Former law enforcement officer turned investigator and author behind the 'Missing 411' book and documentary series, which chronicles unexplained disappearances of people in national parks and wilderness areas. He also runs DNA and Bigfoot research.
What this episode covers
Paulides describes how two off-duty park rangers first drew him into investigating the unusual number of people who vanish in national parks without a trace. He lays out recurring patterns across his 1,200-2,500 cases: disappearances at the 'point of separation' when someone is alone, search dogs that refuse or fail to track, bodies found in places already searched, and missing clothing in warm weather. The conversation expands into alien abduction accounts (including a hunter named Carl taken aboard a craft), Bigfoot as a possible interdimensional human hybrid, the Melba Ketchum DNA study, Skinwalker Ranch phenomena, and psychedelics that produce shared 'little people' visions. It closes on cases like Gilbert Gilman, whose FBI involvement suggests possible government-staged disappearances of people with sensitive knowledge.
Recommended on this episode
Age of Disclosure
Dan Farah
“that's Dan Farah from Age of Disclosure, which if you haven't seen it, folks, amazing documentary, very interesting.”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
Missing 411: The Hunted
David Paulides
“in my I made a movie called Missing 411: The Hunted. And in that movie, there was a case of 12 guys are planting trees”— David Paulides
American Sasquatch: Man, Myth or Monster
David Paulides
“if you go to Amazon to the movie American Sasquatch Man or Legend. It's my movie. We have it there.”— David Paulides
Missing 411: National Parks Washington State
David Paulides
“The most recent thing I've done, Missing 411 National Parks, Washington State. There's a case where a guy in 2006 disappeared”— David Paulides
Missing 411 (documentary)
David Paulides
“you can watch my three movies for free on Tuby, and that is Missing 411, that's the number one”— David Paulides
Missing 411: The UFO Connection
David Paulides
“Missing 411, that's the number one, Missing 411, The Hunted, and Missing 411: The UFO Connection.”— David Paulides
Missing 411 (book series)
David Paulides
“In my books, I've laid out facts and I let the viewer decide.”— David Paulides
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Dante's Inferno
Dante Alighieri
“he asked her to get two books and put on the counter and she thought that that was a clue... Dante's Inferno might have been one of them.”— David Paulides
Coast to Coast AM
Art Bell
“We come home at like 1:00 in the morning and coast to coast with Art Bell from the Kingdom of Nigh. It was awesome.”— Joe Rogan
Tesla Optimus
Tesla
“they're using it to make these Optimus robots instead that factory and then these robots are going to fly to the moon.”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- A park service special agent flatly told Paulides 'You're never going to get' the 47-year-old Stacy Eris case file, which he says no one has worked in 40 years.
- Paulides claims the Dept. of Interior quoted $1.4 million to compile a full missing-persons list, then released a Yosemite list after he pressured them.
- A Wyoming hunter named Carl describes being taken aboard a craft, having his tuberculosis scars and ailments cured, and being returned because he'd had a vasectomy.
- Paulides says Bigfoot DNA traced the maternal line to the Middle East 12-15,000 years ago while the paternal nuclear DNA 'does not exist' in GenBank.
- A BFRO benefactor (Wally Hersam) allegedly pulled all his funding after seeing Paulides' DNA results, saying 'You guys did what nobody else could do.'
- Paulides cites a front-page Oregonian story of three Pacific Northwest tribes holding a press conference describing Bigfoot as a people they traded with.
- In the Gilbert Gilman case, FBI agents allegedly entered the missing man's mother's condo without a warrant and removed an Arabic note and books.
- Paulides links the original 1947 Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting to Arnold searching for a crashed Marine transport on Mount Rainier.
Worth remembering
- Paulides claims roughly 1,200-2,500 cases where multiple K9 teams could not track a missing person at all.
- He coined 'point of separation' - missing-hunter incidents almost always happen the moment someone is alone, never in a group.
- He found German hunters disappear at unusually high rates, which first signaled to him that something odd was happening.
- More hunters disappear hunting elk than any other animal, even though deer are far more commonly hunted in the US.
- The Bigfoot DNA work reportedly cost about $400,000 and produced 125 valid hair samples that weren't deer, antelope, or bear.
- A mushroom in China's Yunan province (Lanmaoa asiatica) causes hundreds of patients yearly to see tiny elf-like 'little people.'
- Old turn-of-the-century Christmas art repeatedly pairs Santa, elves, and the red-and-white Amanita muscaria mushroom.
- DMT is produced by the human brain yet is the most potent known psychedelic, prompting Terence McKenna's line 'everyone's holding.'
- Yosemite investigators described a woman's body found so far from a cliff that their report said she had to have been 'launched.'
- Paulides has made five documentaries; three Missing 411 films stream free on Tubi while his two newest are on Amazon.