Then there are the psychics who offer their services, and myriad wild theories explaining why someone vanished – “Hell’s Angels. Aliens from space. Russian mafia. Portals to other dimensions. Aliens from the hollow earth. String theory. Satanic cults.” Now, I could handle the author mentioning these Bigfoot researchers and conspiracy theorists once or twice— but when the author begins to entertain these ideas a something that he believes in and could be an explanation for the ‘vanishings’ of these missing persons, that was when I had enough and felt like I was wasting my time.

THE COLD VANISH | Kirkus Reviews

A compassionate, sympathetic, and haunting book sure to make you think twice before stepping out into the wilderness alone. This is just one of the many lies he made up. Even making up quotes and situations that family members never told him (because they aren’t true). The way he portray those who were in Jacob’s life is also inaccurate. At least characterize them correctly at the very least. First Annual Threatened And Endangered Parks Toggle submenu for First Annual Threatened And Endangered Parks It was also nice to see people willing to give of their time and lend their expertise- or specialized- talents to help find missing persons- especially when the family has opted to continue searching on their own.The Cold Vanish is a false depiction of who Jacob Gray was as a person. Jon Billman completely defamed who Jacob was as a person and member of my family. I'd like to enlighten you to who Jacob Gray truly was. I happen to have the facts since I am related. His portrayal of Jacob was not at all how he was. Jacob was bright and friendly, a light in many people’s lives including mine. Billman claims Jacob was already showing signs when he moved up to Washington which is completely wrong. When Jacob moved up here, he was close with his cousins and made many friends who all loved him. Jacob moved up here not due to mental illness or “his parents not being able to handle him,” but because he didn’t like his options in California. He was healthy and went on hikes and camped all the time, even taking his little cousin on them.

Goodreads Loading interface - Goodreads

There's other cases mentioned throughout the book, but Jacob's - arguably more his family's - is where the focus lies. It's harrowing. It's clear the author's closeness to the family wasn't manufactured for the purpose of securing the story, because he's managed to write into this book the exhaustion, despair, and, yes, the hope of those left behind. One elderly woman, who had become a dear friend to Jacob, told him that she was happy she had the chance to meet him before she died. He was a compassionate, loving person with a heart of gold and Billman portrayed him as an unstable mess. Jon Billman has managed to write a pretty remarkable book here - one that's extensively researched and very well-written, one that's both informative and deeply affecting. These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot ... This book was brilliant reading. Incredibly interesting and so well researched. I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I might.

But, when search parties, helicopters, and endless attempts to locate the missing fail to find the person- one way or the other- the mystery is not so cut and dried. I eagerly dipped into the book because I thought this was going to be about the various serial killers who seem to emanate from the Land of Rain. Not that I thrill off reports of murder but because there always seems to be a new report of another vanishing. However, the book is mostly about the search for Jacob Gray, who vanished while on a bicycle trip in 2017 within Olympic National Park. The star of the book is Jacob’s father, Randy Gray, who refuses to give up in the search for his missing son. He travels all over several states in the hope his son travelled incognito and just wanted to be by himself. That’s another of the many reasons people vanish…the denial of civilization. It isn’t necessarily that a missing person is dead as it is so much that a missing person wants to go missing on purpose.

The Cold Vanish on Apple Books ‎The Cold Vanish on Apple Books

Jon Billman is a former wildland firefighter and high school teacher. He holds an MFA in Fiction from Eastern Washington University. He's the author of the story collection When We Were Wolves (Random House, 1999). Billman is a regular contributor to Outside and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. He t... Unlike those books, each of which focuses on a single disappearance, The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands presents the stories of multiple individuals who vanished without a trace in wild areas across North America and a few other places on the globe, including Australia, Israel and Hawaii. It is nicely structured, with a narrative that weaves around the efforts of Randy Gray to locate his son Jacob, who disappeared in Olympic National Park in April 2017. Alternating chapters relate the stories of other missing persons and of the individuals who are committed to finding them. Rational professionals I've met in my research—law enforcement and search-and-rescue personnel—tend to believe that our world is still a big, wild, and remote place, and logic and reason are at the core of missing persons cases. A very difficult puzzle laid out on a massive table, but there are rules and clues, and the puzzle can be solved. I agree with them most of the time.The Cold Vanish is part mystery, part glance into a world of heroes and charlatans, death, and loss that most of us, fortunately, do not know, and don't want to know, but perhaps should. The Cold Vanish is informative, and in a sad way, captivating and well worth a read."―National Parks Traveler I personally didn't enjoy the book when I was reading due to the frequent mentions of Big Foot, aliens, and alternate dimensions as explanations for these 'cold vanishes'. I thought it to be really quite ridiculous and disrespectful to include these as legitimate explanations. If this was my loved one featured in a book, I too would be very upset. Rangers perform what's called a "hasty search." Some search-and-rescue personnel hate the term hasty search, preferring to call it the Reflex Phase of a search. "Hasty" implies half-assed, a lazy afterthought. At any rate, rangers don't find anything other than the bike, trailer, and gear; they don't know anything more than anyone else about where the cyclist could be. This is becoming a head-scratcher even to trained rangers. But overall, this is a harrowing, heart wrenching journey for all involved. The terrain is magnificent, brutal, and unforgiving- but beautiful- despite the circumstances.

The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman | Waterstones

It’s a haunting, unsettling book, but at least some families were able to find those elusive answers and are now able to move forward, and hopefully find peace.Jon Billman is a former wildland firefighter and high school teacher. He holds an MFA in Fiction from Eastern Washington University. He's the author of the story collection When We Were Wolves (Random House, 1999). Billman is a regular contributor to Outside and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, the Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. He teaches fiction and journalism at Northern Michigan University in the Upper Peninsula, where he lives with his family in a log cabin along the Chocolay River. For readers of Jon Krakauer and Douglas Preston, the critically acclaimed author and journalist Jon Billman's fascinating, in-depth look at people who vanish in the wilderness without a trace and those eccentric, determined characters who try to find them.