Navajo County Deputy Sheriff Chuck Ellison was sitting down to eat dinner with his wife

when the telephone rang. The voice on the other end was hard to read, both frantic and

oddly hesitant at the same time. Ellison asked the caller to calm down and start again

by telling him who he was. It was Kenny Peterson came the speedy reply and they needed the

police right away. As Peterson went on to explain, he and his forestry service co-workers

had been clearing a section of Arizona's Apache sit grieves forest earlier that night when

something inexplicable had occurred and now one of their crew was missing. But when Ellison

pushed for more details, Peterson paused for a moment before replying that perhaps it

would be better if they could explain it to him in person. Ten minutes later, after apologising

to his wife for having to leave so suddenly, Ellison pulled into the parking lot of Wilbur's

market shopping centre in Haber, a small junction town about 150 miles northeast of Phoenix,

Arizona, where he'd agreed to meet Kenny. It didn't take long for the deputy to spot the man

at his colleagues, Mike Rogers, John Goulet, Alan Dallas, Duane Smith and Steve Pierce all gathered

together in an anxious huddle by the entrance, still covered in dust and debris from the day's

shift. At least two of the group were struggling to hold back tears. In no mood to mess around,

Ellison asked the man to explain exactly what was going on. They all looked sheepishly toward

each other, as if they didn't quite know what they were going to say to him until finally, Mike

began to speak. The 28-year-old Mike was an independent contractor and the crew were his

responsibility, so too ultimately was the man who was missing. His name was Travis Walton,

who also happened to be Mike's best friend. Ordinarily, they would never have left him behind

up there in the forest, but as Mike tried to explain to Ellison, these were far from ordinary

circumstances. You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McClain Smith.

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