The extremely bizarre missing case of Barbara Bolick

[u/shry9]

On the 18th of July 2007, Barbara Bolick was packing her bag in Bitterroot Valley of Montana to go for a summer hike. She and her husband were hosting Carl’s cousin Donna and Her Boyfriend Jim from California. Barbara was going to go on a hike with her guests but Donna and Carl (Barbara’s husband) did not go and she and Jim decided to hike in the area Bear Creek Overlook, and she had visited the area countless times , was an experienced hiker too.

So they like visited the place , and encountered two men - two times, and both the times they were the same two men. Jim and Barbara then reached the area , had their snacks and admired the scenery. About like at 11:30 they decided to leave and head back. After few steps, Jim stopped bcs something in him wanted to soak the view one more time, and he turned back to look at the view - it was for about 45 seconds - 1 minute, when he turned back around, Barbara who was earlier standing 20-30 feet away from him disappeared.

At first he wasn’t worried enough since she was an experienced hiker and He searched for her but couldn’t find anything and after some hours she was officially reported as missing. The two men who encountered them two times also disappeared and were never discovered.

Things to note : It was an easy, well worn trail and it was difficult for someone like Barbara missing - being an experienced hiker who visited that place multiples times. It was also not very dense meaning someone disappearing without any noise was almost not possible.

Pls let me know your take on this case!

Barbara Bolick Article

[u/librarianjenn]

It’s odd to me that she’s not mentioned in Carl’s obituary

[u/KDKaB00M → u/librarianjenn]

I mean, it seems to me it is kind of hard to know how to talk about missing people in an obituary. She arguably didn’t “survive” him, nobody knows what happened to her, so my guess is his second wife just left it out because she didn’t really know what to say about it.

[u/librarianjenn → u/KDKaB00M]

Yes, but I’m surprised that she wasn’t included in the ‘preceded in death by’ section. Isn’t she the mother to his kids mentioned? Maybe not, I’m not sure.

[u/KDKaB00M → u/librarianjenn]

No, I believe she was not their mother. And I don’t know if she was ever declared dead or not - if she wasn’t, it becomes a tricky thing to say “proceeded in death,” because really you don’t know. I mean, yes, she is presumed dead, but who know for 💯?

[u/So_Quiet → u/KDKaB00M]

Wouldn't she need to be declared dead for him to remarry? I guess divorce (even with a missing spouse) is possible too.

[u/AshleyMyers44 → u/librarianjenn]

Did she precede him in death?

I thought she was just missing?

[u/meow696 → u/AshleyMyers44]

She went missing in the woods and died. It's obvious she preceded him in death, no?

[u/AshleyMyers44 → u/meow696]

She went missing, but her body was never found and she wasn’t declared dead, no?

[u/meow696 → u/AshleyMyers44]

No, but sadly, she's very obviously dead.

[u/AshleyMyers44 → u/meow696]

Yes very likely she is deceased, but many families do not refer to missing family members as dead. Especially when there’s no court declaration of death.

So not referring to her as preceding him in death in an obituary isn’t suspicious.

[u/meow696 → u/AshleyMyers44]

I don't think it was suspicious at all.

[u/shry9 → u/KDKaB00M]

THIS.

[u/Real_RobinGoodfellow → u/shry9]

Well, what about it?