The disturbing death of Three year old Jaryd Atadero on the Big South Trail

Jaryd Atadero disappeared October 2, 1999, Big South TraiL, Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado. Remains found may 6, 2003.

Revised December 2023

On October 2nd, 1999, 3-year-old Jaryd Atadero, his 6-year-old sister Jocelyn, and 11 other adults were hiking The Big South Trail near Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. While walking, Jaryd ran no more than 100 feet ahead and stopped to talk with some fisherman. Following this, Jaryd continued down the trail ahead of the group. This would be the last time anyone saw Jaryd. In the following days, a massive Search and Rescue operation failed to turn up any evidence of Jaryd.

In May 2003, hikers Rob Osbourne & Gareth Watts were in the Poudre Canyon area near the Big South Trail and came across remains arranged strangely, high above the trail. This discovery remains puzzling and controversial to this day - an animal attack, foul play or something else?

Big South Trail - Comanche Peak Wilderness (Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest.)

The Big South Trail is an 11-mile trail located at 8,440 feet in the rugged Comanche Peak Wilderness (Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest.), eventually crossing into Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a 723,000 acreage or 1,131 square mile forest, established by Theodore Roosevelt on July 1, 1908. It was initially part of the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve. It was first named the Colorado National Forest in 1910 and was renamed by President Herbert Hoover to honor President Theodore Roosevelt in 1932. The Pawnee National Grassland was transferred to the Forest Service from the Soil Conservation Service in 1954. It was designated a national grassland in 1960.

The highest point in the park is Greys Peak (14,278 ft), with three other 14k peaks. There are also twelve other peaks over 13k feet in the forest.

The average temperature range in the forest ranges from highs in the upper 60s (F) in July to lows in the teens during the winter months. The park has a reputation for extreme weather events due to the complex interactions of elevation, slopes, and exposure to different air masses converging in the park - with cold arctic air coming down from the north meeting with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico at the Front Range. This can lead to snow events measured in feet of snow at times. Rainfall is consistently between 2 inches in winter, peaking at about 4.5 inches in Spring. The terrain is similar to Rocky Mountain National Park.

There are prairie dogs, antelope, deer, elk, bobcats, moose, squirrels, big horn sheep, mountain goats, black bears, mountain lions, and pika, to name a few, in the area. The Pawnee National Grassland is well-known for its birding, and you can spot mountain plovers, burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, lark buntings, and others. The Forests are also full of birds such as Stellar Jay, raven, western bluebird, ptarmigan, mountain chickadee, etc.

Jaryd Atadero was three when he disappeared, had brown hair and was last seen in a long-sleeved green and beige fleece coat, royal blue pants, and white/grey tennis shoes. He had no known medical issues at the time.

Timeline of events in the Atadero case

October 2, 1999

Allyn Atadero (Father) & his two kids, 3-year-old Jaryd & 6-year Josallyn (Sister), were staying at the Poudre River Resort owned by Allyn and his brother Arlyn.

Allyn - I was attracted to Poudre Canyon because, you know, the trees were beautiful. And you know there’s stuff out there, but it’s just interesting because you become part of the Poudre Canyon right there.

Allyn - It was all about just being there. It was one of those situations where when you actually own a little store there… We got up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and we closed at 11 o’clock at night. Not only did it take care of us, but how many people get the opportunity to be next to their kids 24/7? And that’s what I really enjoyed about the canyon. There were only three of us. I mean, even though I had a family at the resort, we had people that worked for us, it was Jocelyn, Jared, and I. We knew that we were the family.

In the fall of 1999, a Christian Singles group was staying at the lodge, helping Allyn prepare for winter in exchange for lodging.

Allyn - The group decided they wanted to go to the trout farm, the fishery right around the corner. Maybe about a mile and a half or two miles from the resort itself.

10/2/1999

10 AM: Three-year-old Jaryd Atadero, his 6-year-old sister, Josallyn Atadero, and 11 members of the Christian Singles Network leave the Poudre River Resort, owned by the children’s father, Allyn Atadero, for a hike on the Big South Trail, 15 miles west of the resort and 60 miles west of Fort Collins.

Allyn - Several of the people I knew quite well. So I gave permission for Jocelyn to go. Not knowing that Jaryd would be saying, “Gee Dad. If she can go, why can’t I go too?”

Allyn - He had his shoes on. He hated tying his shoes. So I didn't make him tie his shoes. And he had like a beige color jacket. I let Jaryd go and I assumed that’s where they were going.

Bill Nelson ( Larimer County Undersheriff) - The church group went up to the Big South Trail. They parked at the trailhead, and they started walking on the trail. They began to separate or spread out as they walked. Some people are faster, and some are slower. One adult, with Jaryd’s sister and Jaryd, seemed to be out ahead of everybody else.

Butch Shoning (Friend of Allyn) - Description of The Big South Trailhead - Moderate. Ups, downs. You could take a kid on it as long as you kept the kid in line and hung onto him. Cause there were some areas where the ledges were only 24 inches wide. And you had loose shale all the way down to the river, so… and then there were rock fields. Being a moderate trail, it was pretty tough. If you’re not in shape, it will take a lot out of you.

11:30 AM: About 1.5 miles up the trail from the main group, two fishermen talk to Jaryd near the Camp 2 site and see hikers from a group 50 to 80 feet away. It was reported that Jaryd asked the fisherman if there were any bears around. They return to fishing, believing the group will soon meet Jaryd. They are the last known people to see Jaryd alive. It is unclear if Jaryd was between the two groups or ahead of the faster group when he met the fishermen

Approx 12:15 PM: The hiking group realizes Jaryd is missing and searches for him for about an hour. Some members returned to the Poudre River Lodge to alert Allyn, who drove to the trail and searched for another hour. According to the investigation report, some members of the 11-person hiking party reported hearing a scream. Josallyn told Allyn she did, too. "I asked her, 'What kind of scream was it?'; like somebody getting attacked or somebody playing with someone," he said. "She said it sounded like a playful scream like someone was going up to tag him."

Allyn recalls - Allyn ran to his car and said where are we going - they told him 15 or 16 miles up the road. Allyn was like “Are you serious.” “How did you guys get that far up the road?”

Allyn - And I’m not sure exactly how far we got up the trail, but I stopped and realized, “Oh my god. This is gonna be… This is not what I thought it was.” I just can’t get up here and find him.”

Bill Nelson - As Jaryd, as a three-year-old, is running and playing and having a good time. And I believe there was something ten to twenty minutes worth of time that she lost track of… The adult realized, “I haven’t seen him for a while.” And when they went up to try and find him, they kept going thinking they would catch up, and they didn’t catch u

4 PM: Allyn returns to the lodge to call 911, which his resort manager has already called.

4:26 PM: An emergency pager alert is sent to Larimer County Emergency Services Specialist Bill Nelson.

5:07 PM: Page sent to Larimer County Search and Rescue manager George Janson. (Lag time here is standard procedure to allow the mountain deputy to verify if a search is needed).

6:30 PM: Search personnel reach the lower Big South Trailhead. Around 65 SAR members were deployed at this point to find Jaryd.

8:00 PM: Searchers from the lower and upper trailhead meet between Campsites 7 and 8 without finding a sign of Jaryd. Search plans are expanded, and more resources are ordered, including a helicopter planned to arrive at first light.

10/3/1999

7 AM: Overnight search team members are told to be extremely vigilant at dawn as family members tell searchers Jaryd wakes at dawn. Dive team employed for Big South River.

7 a.m.: Air Force helicopter (Huey UH-1N ) from F.E. Warren Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, makes its first flight and then heads to Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport to refuel.

3:30 p.m.: When the helicopter returned, it struggled with the fuel load and mountain conditions and stalled out, falling 100 feet and crashing up the Big South Trail. Aboard were four members of the Air Force and Mark Sheets, a Loveland resident and Larimer County Search and Rescue member.

Sheets was the only crew member not in a seat — he was on the floor with the door open. He saw the rotors hit the tops of trees and pieces of helicopter spray into the forest. He tried to shut the door, but a severed tree limb came through and struck the Air Force doctor on board, fracturing the doctor's eye socket.

The Air Force crew was able to get out of the helicopter, Sheets said, but he was trapped. Nearby search and rescue members ran to the downed helicopter, kicked in a window, and managed to pull the unconscious Sheets out.

Sheets, who skipped wearing a helmet so he could wear a headset to communicate with the pilot, suffered a severe concussion and a 13-inch, L-shaped gash that left his femur exposed. He also suffered three broken vertebrae in his lower back and a broken shoulder, which he presumes from being pulled from the wreckage.

6 p.m: All five aboard are transported from the crash site, three via air ambulance and two via ground ambulance. All survive, but two have significant injuries.

10/4/1999

As the search stretched into the third day, searchers combed river banks and up steep slopes. Dive teams peered into small pools left in the narrow, slow-moving river. A plane made passes overhead.

A Lama helicopter from GeoSeis Helicopters in Fort Collins joins searchers and encounters swirling winds that require full power to prevent crashing. Shortly thereafter, the helicopter returns to Fort Collins.

Well-meaning but ill-equipped people were increasingly hounding the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and Larimer County Search and Rescue to allow them to help.

10/5/1999 to 10/7/1999

More than 200 trained searchers, a dozen dog teams, professional trackers, a dive team, and a plane search for Jaryd without finding any solid clues.

10/8/1999

7 pm: The search for Jaryd is suspended due to insufficient clues. The family is notified.

Bill Nelson- We worked for eight solid days to begin with. And that was 24 hours a day for eight days. We did some night searching - it was limited to a certain extent, but we did always have people out in the field to make noise, so if somebody was out there now, Jaryd would have heard it, he would have maybe responded or gone to.

Jayne Zmijewski (Larimer County Search & Rescue - CO K9 Unit)- It was very intense. Very media-friendly. I mean there was media, CNN… So, it became a real nationwide episode that put a lot of stress on us and the dogs.

Other accounts from the media:

Current Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith was a sergeant with the department during the search, for which he was the public information officer. He said the crash added to the stress of a search that only grew more frustrating as the national media took notice.

TV trucks and newspaper reporters began to swarm the remote site after the grand jury in another chilling child case — the death of JonBenet Ramsay in Boulder — postponed its announcement of whether it would hand down indictments.

TV satellite trucks — 17 at one time — lined up along Colorado Highway 14 with "anchors in fur coats walking around and anybody and everybody calling us for information,'' Smith said.

Psychics professed to know where searchers could find Jaryd. A bare-footed man with a mule showed up at the search site, ready to track him down. An American Indian came to perform a ritual, asking the mountain to give up the boy.

6/5/2003

Rob (Rob Osbourne & Gareth Watts)- Basically, what we would do is pick an area (Poudre Canyon) we would like to hike and explore.

Rob -And so when we went along Big South Trail for the first time, gorgeous hike, beautiful, beautiful river.

Rob - This is really a wild area.

Rob - And the reason why Gary and I so much enjoy hiking together.

Rob - And then it was just coincidental that we wound up in a rock field and said you know, let’s hike up the ridge. And I think it’s about 2,000-foot hike up elevation to get to the top of it.

Rob - But really remarkable country.

Gareth - Yeah, okay… Pretty much was like almost a scramble. So you’re watching your feet, and basically, you’re just focused a few feet in front of you, your own feet, so you don’t twist an ankle or something.

Rob - We had hiked the area a couple of times before and we had talked about the mystery of Jaryd Atadero. Whether he had been swept downstream, abducted by a mountain lion, or if there had been something more sinister than that. This time we decided to go off trail. And we just walked right into it. And we knew right away that it was probably Jaryd Atadero’s clothes. (550ft higher than the last seen point.) And that’s when I saw the shoe.

Gareth - It was pretty pristine. It was like somebody had just took their foot right out of it, you know. It was fresh, I thought like I would see a kid standing in front of me.

Then they found the other shoe, a brown fleece jacket and blue sweatpants turned inside out. One pant leg was mostly scattered by birds using the material in their nests.

Watts and Osborne take photos and some of the articles of clothing they found to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. Photos are emailed to Allyn Atadero in Littleton and he confirms the clothing and shoes are Jaryd's.

6/6/2003

The next day, it took searchers about an hour to reach the site near Campsite 2, where they found the remaining clothing scattered across a 25-foot area. Some of the items were sheltered from the elements, and some were exposed.

While the cloth jacket had what appeared to be puncture marks and the pants were tattered, the nylon shoes had little weathering.

6/14/2003

8:30 am: A team of Larimer County Sheriff’s Office members, Larimer County Search and Rescue, Colorado Division of Wildlife, and NecroSearch meet at Big South Trailhead to start the search for Jaryd's remains. Later, Allyn Atadero and local Child Protection Network personnel joined the group.

9:30 am: Searchers hike approximately 1.5 miles and make the 500 vertical climb up to the site where hikers found the clothing.

11:30 am: Searchers find a skull fragment in a crevice and a tooth on a log spanning the crevice above the skull fragment. The positioning of the skull fragment is such that it is visible from only a narrow-angle and is lit by a shaft of light from the sun. The site is about 180 feet north and about 20 feet higher than the clothing site.

5 pm: Allyn, searchers, and others meet with the media at the trailhead to announce what they have found.

Bill - There were K-9 alerts that would go that direction. Now, whether they were right at the scree field, or before it, but they were at least alerting up that hill. That’s why I’m reasonably certain we searched it, because we… When a dog alerts like that, we’re thinking ok, something must be up there. Let’s get up there and search for it. But we never found anything.

According to Larimer County Search and Rescue's report, searchers on foot had never made it up to the 9,120-foot elevation at Jaryd's skull and tooth were found. The Air Force helicopter would have likely searched the area had it not crashed.

Survival expert Les Stroud - I think whatever’s happening is beyond our understanding. In a lot of these cases, Search & Rescue, or the volunteer searching people, have already gone over certain areas, not once, not twice, but even dozens of times. And then the child is found there maybe a year, maybe a few years later.

Rob - When we had discovered the clothes and went back up there, with some of the people involved in the search, you know they were all scratching their heads. Like, you know, they had all been around the area.

Is there any way Jaryd could have climbed up to that spot on his own?

Rob / Butch- No way. Boy, that’s a hard one. Not all the way. I couldn’t see him going… He lived in a cabin-- He’s a 3-year-old - there’s no way that would happen. I mean it was a struggle for Gary and I to get there. Very rough terrain.

What does law enforcement think happened in the Jaryd Atadero case?

Jayne Zmijewski - My conclusion was an animal encounter right at the beginning. An so, I’m not sure officially what has really been released as a finality, but it pretty much points to an animal encounter.

Bill Nelson - If a cat actually took him, which is what I believe happened. The cat would have taken him some place and buried him, and… with all the activity that was going on. It probably would have left, because we would have scared it away, and it would have came back later.

What do family and friends think happened?

Allyn - I hear constantly about a mountain lion. Yes, when they tested Jaryd’s clothing, there was no mountain lion hairs, no DNA, no blood, nothing on his clothing. The clothing was sent to the CBI. The clothing was tested by the CBI. No mountain lion hairs, no blood, nothing on any of the articles of clothing.

If a mountain lion would have attacked him they would have gone for the stomach area - his jacket would have been in threads - but his jacket was fine. (This was told to him by several mountain lion experts) His jacket would not have survived a mountain lion attack. His shoes that were found up on the mountain - as told by investigators, do not look like they were in the wilderness 3 & ½ years.

The other thing interesting about the shoes is you would think they would be scuffed up if he had been dragged up the side of the mountain. His pants were found in good condition with only rodent and bird marks from the animals using it for nesting material.

Allyn - In one of the reports, a person says, the reason why we didn’t find any DNA or blood or anything on Jaryd’s clothing, is because either he or something removed his clothing before he was attacked.

And they go on to say that because there are so many hikers coming up, that the mountain lion took Jaryd’s body 500 feet up the side of the cliff.

Question is - if something took his clothing off before he was attacked - why was it found 500 feet up the mountain. His pants were found inside out - I was told by many mountain lion experts mountain lions don’t pull clothing off of you, especially your pants and leave them there on the mountain inside out. Myself and my family feel strongly that there is someone out there who knows a little bit more than we know.

Jaryd’s disappearance has yielded no official conclusion from Law enforcement. Since 1915, there have only been 14 reported fatal mountain lion attacks in the US and Canada.

Media Opinions

Theories as to what happened to Jaryd were expanding from rational possibilities — killed by a predator, fell behind boulders and died, drowned in the river — to the less plausible, but still possible, theory of abduction, to strange conspiracy theories.

Abduction

Investigators questioned everyone from Allyn to members of the Christian singles group to the fishermen who were presumably the last to see Jaryd. They talked to Allyn’s ex-wife, who lived in San Diego and came to Colorado after hearing Jaryd was lost. No red flags

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Sources

Thanks for the show notes from Locations Unknown. EP. #19: Jaryd Atadero - Poudre Canyon Colorado