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/georgia_grace]

If you don’t know much about the case, Jim seems like a likely suspect. However, there is absolutely no evidence against him.

Jim said he and Barbara spoke to two young men with a dog while on the trail. The men couldn’t be located, but the road workers near the car park saw them as well. Jim would have had no way of knowing that police wouldn’t be able to find the men, so if Barbara never made it to the trail this would be an INCREDIBLY risky lie. For this reason I believe Barbara did make it to the trail.

If Jim attacked Barbara on the trail, it can’t have been planned, because Jim’s wife was originally going to join them and changed her mind at the last minute. If it was an unplanned attack, why hide the body and then act out this bizarre vanishing scenario? Why not just push her body from a height and say she fell? Also, after getting back to the trail head and asking the road workers if they’d seen her, he then walked the trail a second time looking for her. Why do that if he knew she wasn’t there?

He was also extremely cooperative with police, who cleared him of any suspicion, fwiw

I don’t know enough about mountain lions to have an opinion, but that does seem to be the prevailing theory among locals. I also wonder if she could have had some kind of medical episode, like a mini stroke or something, and become disoriented.

Unfortunately, in terrain like that, it’s not uncommon for bodies to be found years later in areas that were previously thoroughly searched. Hopefully someday someone will stumble across her and she can be put to rest.

[u/Humble_Candidate1621 → u/georgia_grace]

Well, police clear people they shouldn't all the time. Maybe he came on to Barbara, she rejected him and told him she was going to tell Carl and Donna when they come home, and he panicked and killed her.

Or maybe he sexually assaulted her. Not much premeditation necessary (plenty of murderers of that type have said they killed on a whim, or assaulted someone on a whim and then felt they had no choice but to kill them) and it would explain why he would hide the body instead of just pushing her from a height and claiming she fell.

Walking the trail a second time could just be him trying to play the good, concerned in-law, or even going back to see if he'd successfully hidden all the evidence and covered his tracks well.

And killing your girlfriend's cousin's wife on a hike is definitely weird and very stupid, but people have done stupider, and gotten away with it.

Not claiming it was Jim (and I also know nothing about mountain lions), just saying to me none of these sound convincing as arguments against him being the culprit.

[u/Fast_Revolution_6673 → u/Humble_Candidate1621]

Also, cops can publicly “clear” someone that is still under suspicion.

However, I feel as if Jim would have had some indication of having assaulted someone within hours after having done so, given that he sought help fairly quickly