Bill Ewasko found?

Southern California and far-away places. Hiking, wildlife, cycling etc.

Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Pitownpi » Fri Feb 11, 2022 11:41 am

Well, after 12 years, I'm happy his family has closure. Many of us have looked for him, wondered, and it's great to have found him. I can't imagine the agony his family must have felt.
RIP Brother!
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:11 pm

OtherHand wrote:...the flight path was lower, like they were logically checking the canyon itself, not the high ground to the north, and so far from his vehicle.

He went to Smith Water and saw no water. He realized that he was in a desperate situation. He climbed up to a nearby high point in order to get cell signal... and it dang near almost worked. Crap. The poor b@st@rd.

LOCATION: Panorama and Blackrock, Joshua Tree National Park
I wonder if they meant Panorama and Bigfoot?

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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby OtherHand » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:10 pm

Z107, the first outlet to report it and mention the wallet, reported near Panorama and "Burrow" trails. They later changed their post to "Burro".
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby OtherHand » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:24 pm

I did a trip once from Park Road down to Quail Wash via Panorama trail. I seem to recall seeing trail signage adjacent to the wash when we reached it.

One possibility I'm considering is he was travelling downhill in Quail Wash to hit civilization at the park boundaries (but he likely didn't know there were homes there). Then seeing a sign for the Panorama trail, turned right on it to head for Park Road and the entrance station. But Panorama is a loop, and if you don't stay left when it forks (and I don't know how distinct the junction is) you can end up going counterclockwise around Panorama Loop. That would put him where he was presumably found. It doesn't explain why he was off trail though.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:35 pm

It's unlikely to be the Burro Trail. The Burro Trail is NE of the West Entrance Station, across Park Blvd. I've drawn it in in a gold-orange color on this map: https://caltopo.com/m/V9BAL

I think it's either the Bigfoot Trail or they just don't know what they're talking about. If Pt. 4282 is the location that Bill was found, I can sort of see that as being described as near the junction of the Bigfoot and Panorama Trails although it's a good bit west of the junction, about 0.6 mi.

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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:38 pm

OtherHand wrote: It doesn't explain why he was off trail though.
My amazingly insightful (ahem) theory is that he wanted to hit a high point in order to try to get signal.

Of course it could just as well be that he knew that the end was nigh and wanted one last look at his beloved Joshua Tree.

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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby chandmer » Sat Feb 12, 2022 12:12 am

If you look at the Feb 2018 imagery in Google Earth, I believe you can see Bill's body at 34° 3'49.38"N 116°15'12.17"W.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby OtherHand » Sat Feb 12, 2022 7:21 am

I doubt the GE imagery has high enough resolution to pick out anything without knowing a precise location. I spent more...than a few hours...scouring the images within the 34 acre circle and saw nothing I'd put a high confidence on. If the exact position was known, it might be possible to pick out a few pixels, but only because you'd know what it is. I've looked for bodies with high resolution drone images, and even that's very hard in a desert environment with fields of rock and cacti.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby sk43 » Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:19 am

Back in August, 2018, Tom, Kim Rossmo, and Lorie Velarde put together a Bayesian probability model of where to search, eliminating all the area covered by searches up to that time. https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/searching-for-bill-ewasko/a-bayesian-approach-to-looking-for-bill-ewasko-august-2018/. Tom wrote: "... maybe Bill’s resting in one of the colored squares." The 2nd helo position above falls on a small cluster of the colored squares, presumably a local high point that barely has cell phone coverage. So if that position holds up, I guess you could say that the method worked.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby OtherHand » Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:59 am

Yeah....That thing. First, in my defense, I'll say the algorithm weighed the presence of cell coverage very heavily and thus that area was pegged as a high probability locale. But as a human, I am clearly so much smarter than a dumb algorithm and promptly dismissed the entire area since obviously there was no reason he'd climb up there from Quail Wash. Um,...Except apparently there was.

So if you're keeping score:
Bayesian 1, Stupid Human 0
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