Ranger William Hayes had patrolled Forest Glenn Preserve long enough to sense when something was wrong. On a rainy morning in 2011, he spotted a scrap of faded blue fabric sticking out of the eroded creek bank along Trail 7. Synthetic, modern, and completely out of place. He called it in immediately.
Detective Lisa Chen arrived, kneeling beside the object: an old external-frame backpack from the late ’80s. Inside, wrapped in decayed plastic, was a wallet. The name barely legible: Michael Thompson, issued 1988.
Chen pulled the old missing persons files. In July 1989, nine Boy Scouts from Troop 347 vanished during a weekend campout at Forest Glenn. Among them was Michael. The case had gone cold within months.
Sarah Thompson, now 35, Michael’s sister, rushed to the station. She had spent decades chasing any clue, unable to let go. Retired Detective Frank Morrison, once on the case, shook as he reopened the files. “Biggest failure of my career,” he admitted.
One name kept appearing: Scoutmaster Thomas Blackwood. He claimed to have left the boys alone due to food poisoning—but records didn’t support his story. Chen’s investigation unraveled his alibi. Hospital archives showed no ER visit. His carefully polished life was cracking.
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