David Poliders, a former police officer turned researcher, has spent years investigating

unexplained deaths and disappearances in North America's national parks.

His work has catalogued thousands of cases that defy simple explanation.

In this episode, we follow his findings and ask the question,

is there something in the woods, something that stalks and hunts human beings?

Music I'm The National Parks of North America are some of the most haunting and beautiful places on earth.

From Yosemite and Yellowstone in the US to Yoho and Jasper in Canada, all offers something

stunning and unique, whether that be snow-tip mountain ranges, serene lakes,

endless grasslands which stretch as far as the eye can see, or forests that seemingly never end.

These parks attract millions upon millions of tourists from all over the world.

Their landscapes are truly a sight to behold behold and it's no wonder that so many

visitors flock to these areas of outstanding natural beauty year after year. But it should also come

as no surprise that many people get lost whilst hiking or hunting in these regions. And although

most of them are located by dedicated search and rescue

efforts within 48 hours, some vanish, often in mysterious and inexplicable circumstances,

never to be seen again. Magnificent and unforgettable these places may be, but in amongst all that splendour, there appears to be a dark and sinister truth that authorities seem reluctant to address.

Oftentimes described in the US as the nation's silent mass disaster, people have been disappearing from national parks in their thousands over the last few

centuries. The exact number is not known because, astonishingly, the US National Park Service

has only recently begun to compile a database on these missing persons. This was a fact stumbled

upon by David Poliders, a former police officer turned author

investigating the high strangeness in which these people seem to vanish.

Polidus has cataloged over a thousand of these bizarre disappearances in a series of books

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