Missing 411: Off the Grid by David Paulides

Missing 411: Off the Grid Reviews

• 
  Shelly

  This is another intriguing book in the fascinating "Missing 411" series. The author is again highlighting strange and unexplained disappearances in rural areas and national parks around during the globe. This book is not a catalog of all disappearances, but rather ones that fit his specific criteria. It is amazing to me that even in modern times (the book includes disappearances as recent as 2016) so many people vanish utterly and completely.
• 
  Joshua Late

  Only review of this is I can't wait to purchase the other volumes and have those to dive into. This series is an excellent example of the bizarre and scary stories and anomalies of missing person's around the world. Its not just a poof they went missing and that's it kind of telling, there's way more to these odd scenarios and phenomenon.
• 
  Gene

  If you haven't read the books in this series, you are probably still going out into the woods!
• 
  K.W. Bernard

  All right, I'm hooked. I've only read this book and HUNTERS of the MISSING 411 series, but I'll be picking up the rest.
  
  This is another book of intriguing disappearances matching Paulides's 'profile points' which include: canines' failure to track the victims, bad weather inhibiting the search, the victim later being found in a previously searched area and/or near a waterbody, granite, or boulders, the victims missing clothes/shoes, the disappearance occurring in late afternoon, and the victim having some disability or underlying medical problem. If these points don't seem weird, well, maybe they're not, but the cases sure as heck are. For example:
  
  Parents got a call 5 hrs after their kid went to bed that he's a hundred miles away. Supposedly, he hopped a train while sleep walking.
  
  A young man was found dead of hypothermia up on a hill in the woods, after he called his mom for a ride from a gas station. His shoes were missing, but his socks were clean and there were no tracks in the snow indicating how he'd gotten there.
  
  A young man with overnight supplies died from exposure a DAY after he went missing in NH, in July. And a fish and game Lt. walked by him 4x before he was found.
  
  A 3yo girl survived 11 days alone in the Russian taiga without so much as a coat.
  
  The author does a better job linking the cases and weaving an overall narrative in this book, compared to HUNTERS. I think the writing is better too.
  
  I like how each case has the 'profile points' pertaining to it listed before the account. This makes it easier to see how often they really show up. The author has also noted for each case if the victim was a physicist, medical professional, or athlete, and if they had German ancestry, high intellect, or a strong religious affiliation. In Paulides's research people with these traits seem to disappear at higher rates.
  
  The author also included tables at the end of the book displaying distances travelled and elevation gained by the victims, and disappearances by age, month, and year, among others. It's nice to see the data compiled like this.
  
  This book stressed that while search and rescue grids are sized based on 95% of lost individuals of a given age, on a given terrain, being found x miles from the point last seen, there remains the other 5%, off the grid. Paulides's cases encompass that 5%, detailing incidents where individuals, especially young children, travelled distances far beyond what searchers thought they could. This really resonates with me because I have a toddler who just runs and runs. If she ever got away from me in the woods I just know she'd be in that 5%. While there's undeniably logic in casting a smaller net with finer mesh, this book makes one wonder what, if anything, can be done to catch those outliers before it's too late for them.
• 
  Bookfan53

  I think this is one of the largest books that Mr Paulides has ever written. Two of the cases in this book really caught my eye.
  Carl Robert Disch, a missing physicist and a little boy named Stephen McKerron.
  
  The case of Mr Disch was really strange, as for the life of me I cannot think of where this man vanished to. Given it was in the middle of Antarctica, during a raging blizzard. Not the type of weather you would want to get lost in. On Youtube,there is an interesting documentary that someone made about the case.
  
  Stephen McKerron's disappearance happened in my own country. Sadly, he was only five and the reason his disappearance stuck in my mind was for a couple of reasons. I was a young mum of 26 myself at the time and I remember the little boy being discussed on radio and television, also the newspapers. From what I was reading I just could not understand what happened to Stephen at all. I really felt for the McKerron family, it was a truly distressing time.
  On another note, I'm glad Mr Paulides included Stephen in his book as I always thought the whole situation surrounding his disappearance strange. I just could not understand how the little boy ended up being found where he was. I do not think his family could understand it either.
  
  Mr Paulides is somewhat of a controversial figure at times, but, to my mind, he very much seems to care about missing people. Many of the people in his books would never get a mention on mainstream media, but Mr Paulides gives them a voice in his books. At least they are remembered with dignity.
• 
  Lisa Kleinert

  It started off a very easy read, but became very monotonous as every story is basically the same. However, I think this was the author's point, That this same story happens to many people and has happened for decades if not centuries.
  
  I would have liked to hear more of his analysis rather than a regurgitation of reports though. Why does he think that hikers go missing? What is his hypothesis and what can be done about this?
  
  He does need a better editor. There were a few misspellings/odd spacing etc. sprinkled throughout.
• 
  Camille

  These books offer so many interesting missing persons cases. I reviewed it on my blog:
  https://wineandhistory.wordpress.com/...