Daniel Maleska
The Vanished Podcast
Wondery
4.5 • 15K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2023
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Friday, May 15, 1987, 32-year-old Daniel Maleska left his home in Princeton, Minnesota, to travel about three hours north to Gunn Lake in Itasca County, Minnesota. That weekend, Dan, his brother Mike, and several other longtime friends planned a camping trip for the opening of fishing season. Dan and Mike were raised as avid outdoorsmen, and opening weekend was a big deal. While this was their first time visiting Gunn Lake, this annual trip was something they looked forward to all year. The area where the men were camping was very rural and densely wooded. It wasn't a campground with amenities; they were roughing it, but that was how Dan and his buddies liked it. The men set up camp, spent many hours fishing on the lake, drank some beers, and seemed to be having a great time. However, by Sunday morning, Dan had vanished. They found a canoe in the water with some of his fishing supplies still inside. It looked like he had been plucked from that boat, leaving his items undisturbed. Despite extensive searches of the lake and surrounding wilderness, no trace of Dan Maleska has ever surfaced. The circumstances have left his loved ones to wonder if the scene was staged and Dan planned to disappear.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Dan Maleska, please call the Itasca County Sheriff's Office at (218) 326-3477.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey Prime members you can listen to the vanished ad-free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:04.1 | Download the app today. It was probably the strangest thing I ever been involved in and going through something like that. |
| 0:25.2 | There is a million dollar question, you know, is he leading another life or with all the rumors and stuff that's blown around through the years. |
| 0:37.0 | Just in those strange happening. |
| 0:40.0 | How do you explain it, you know? |
| 0:42.0 | When I first start looking into it, mostly I just wanted to know if he was dead or alive. |
| 0:48.0 | I mean at this point without having anything to say either way, there's just as much of a chance of he's alive as he's dead I guess. |
| 0:54.8 | I don't know if it's people don't remember but just like lack of information that I feel |
| 0:59.6 | there should be so much information somehow from somebody and it's just |
| 1:04.0 | nothing. There's so many questions. It just seems so odd and with so many people. |
| 1:08.6 | Just nothing. Nobody has any clue whatsoever. Nothing I have a hard time leaving it. |
| 1:16.2 | On Friday, May 15th, 1987, 32-year-old Daniel Malesca left his home in Princeton, Minnesota to |
| 1:23.8 | travel about three hours north to Gunn Lake in Itasca County. That weekend, Dan, |
| 1:29.4 | his brother Mike, and several other longtime friends had planned a camping trip for the opening of fishing season. |
| 1:36.0 | Dan and Mike were raised as avid outdoorsman, an opening weekend was a big deal for them. |
| 1:42.0 | While this was their first time visiting Gunn Lake, |
| 1:45.0 | this annual trip was something that they looked forward to all year. |
| 1:48.0 | The area where the men were camping was very rural, densely wooded, |
| 1:52.0 | with many lakes in the region |
| 1:54.0 | this wasn't a campground with amenities they were roughing it |
| 1:58.0 | but that was how Dan and his buddies liked it |
| 2:00.0 | the men set up camp |
... |
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