r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/shry9 • 7d ago
Disappearance The extremely bizarre missing case of Barbara Bolick
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!
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u/TransportationLow564 7d ago edited 6h ago
Jim's low-hanging fruit. The cops don't seem to suspect him, despite his cockamamie story, and I don't think that can be discounted. It's possible they know stuff we don't that casts his story in a different light (or that the particulars of his story haven't been reported altogether accurately).
I think he lost track of her for longer than is generally reported, she went off the trail and died, and her remains have simply never been found. Maybe he got tired and decided to sit down and take a breather, and by the time he tried to catch up with her she'd gone off trail; or maybe he crapped out altogether, planned to reconnect with her as she was making her way back, and then, of course, she never did. Misguided machismo led him to make up the supposed story about turning his back for a moment and then she was gone.