The Mountain Race that Erased a Man | Michael Lemaitre

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Every year in Alaska, there's a mountain race that takes place on the 4th of July.

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It's very popular and pretty dangerous.

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Some people say that if you're not bleeding from at least one spot, by the time you finish, you didn't try hard enough.

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For 65 year old, Michael Lemaitre, it's exactly what he wants to do because even after ignoring multiple instructions and warnings, he's more determined than ever to run up and down a literal mountain.

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Which even the most physically fit struggled to do.

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in the entire history of the race there have never been any fatalities.

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Only injuries.

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That is until 2012, because several people would end up seriously hurt.

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But Michael would start a race.

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And then by all appearances be erased off the face of the mountain.

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I'm Tatiana.

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And this is occurrence.

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The Mount marathon race is only three miles or 4.8

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kilometers long.

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But it starts at sea level and has a 3022 foot vertical gain and loss over the sketchiest terrain.

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You can also watch the entire brutal race.

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From right in downtown Seward, Alaska, where it starts.

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In the past bibs were limited to 350 men.

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350 women and 200 juniors.

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But in 2012, they expanded the race to 400 men and 400 women.

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90% of participants were returnees and there was a lottery system in place.

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This expansion and the lottery system included Michael Maitri.

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He had never participated in the mountain marathon race before.

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The month before Mount marathon, he finished a 12 K event and was a regular to the gym, but he received several warnings prior to starting a literal race up a mountain that he may not be suited to run.

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The first being in the letter that told him he won one of the 60 minutes lottery slots in the race.

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It very clearly said to not make race day, his first time up and down the mountain.

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The mountain was open to the public and racers could walk or run the route to practice as they pleased.

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Michael didn't do this.

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Michael was highly educated.

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He had a PhD in administration and was a grief counselor.

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He actually volunteered to counsel children orphaned by the nine 11 attacks.

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When he attended the university of Alaska Fairbank's he met his wife, Peggy, and they had three kids.

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They all lived in Anchorage, Alaska.

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Michael was known to take his family, camping, fishing, and hiking on outdoor adventures.

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But he was also known for his spontaneous decisions.

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One time he and a friend tried to boat 120 miles down a river and nearly sank.

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When the boat started falling apart.

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They made temporary repairs and kept going.

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The friend actually said he was pretty sure they only survived because they entertained God.

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Another time.

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Michael went swimming in big lake, which had freezing water because.

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Why not.

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And a couple of times for the sake of wanting to learn how to cross country ski.

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He entered into the Iditarod invitational.

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Which is a 350 mile race across the Alaskan wilderness.

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On foot, bicycle or skis.

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And he finished last twice.

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He didn't actually train or prepare for it.

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He just did it.

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So he's clearly the type to just wing it.

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But the mountain marathon race is not something to just wing the average incline in decline going up and down the marathon trail is about 38 degrees.

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And then there are spots on the trail that are nearly vertical and others that are flat, but are covered in loose beds of shale, which is rocks.

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Or dense brush.

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The average speed going up, the mountain is just two miles per hour.

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And going down is 12 miles per hour.

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On the morning of the marathon race.

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Peggy tried to convince him not to race.

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She asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this.

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And Michael said he would be fine because he was planning to take it slow.

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She told him to come back to her and he said, I will, don't worry.

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I'll be back.

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Leading up to that conversation, his wife and other family and friends tried to talk him out of it multiple times.

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Michael attended a training session the day before the race to it showed the route and what they might see, and it showed the types of injuries.

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People usually sustained while running.

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In the past there were dislocations fractures.

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Broken bones sticking out of people's skin.

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Impalements from tree branches and shale.

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Heat illness.

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And one time a woman was chased by a bear and hurt herself, trying to get away.

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In fact, the guy running the meeting flat out said, if you haven't been up the mountain, you need to go home.

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Do not race.

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One participant later said you need to run it at least 12 times before being prepared enough to join the actual race.

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All of this, that seems just spurred Michael on.

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Another activity to add to his adventure stories.

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On July 4th, 2012.

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At 3:15 PM.

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The second wave of the race that included Michael began.

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He was wearing all black, a black shirt.

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Shorts had band and shoes.

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It was about 52 degrees Fahrenheit, or 11 degrees Celsius.

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It actually rained the day before the race.

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And the conditions on the mountain were more dangerous than usual.

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There were snow falls with layers of ice beneath it.

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Obviously not ideal to run on for the average flat marathon on a city street.

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And especially not on a mountain.

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After completing the first half mile run that starts in Seward, Alaska, and making it to the base of the mountain.

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It's an immediate rock climb.

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It's almost vertical, literally climbing on your hands and feet.

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Followed by a 30 degree sloping, dirt trail.

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That's run on foot.

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That's right about where Michael started falling behind.

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After that dirt trail is a dense forest and coming right after the forest is shale.

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Some of it is loose enough that people have sunk into it up to their knees.

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After that you go up a bit further to reach the halfway point of the trail, the turnaround point.

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It's marked by a rock where you then take a different route back down the mountain to avoid the people still coming up.

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Going back down.

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According to participants is pretty much a barely controlled free fall down the mountain.

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Some people just slid down that day and dealt with the unique pains from doing that later.

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By the time Michael made it to the halfway point up the mountain at four 30.

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Many of the runners had completed their race.

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Let me be clear, not the halfway point of the race, not the turnaround point.

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He was halfway to the turnaround point.

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At the same time others were finishing their race.

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A picture was taken of him at that time and he didn't appear to be carrying any water on him.

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But there was a water station at the turnaround point.

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Tom Walsh was the lead midcourse, timekeeper and stationed at turnaround point.

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A little after five o'clock a runner reached the turnaround and mistakenly told Tom they were the last runner.

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Tom.

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And some of the other volunteers that were with him waited 45 minutes before packing up to leave.

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On his way down the mountain, he saw Michael on his way up.

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He was a little confused because the winner across the finish line.

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Two hours ago.

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But Michael called out to him and asked how far he was from the top and asked if he could still get a finish.

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Tom said he was about 200 feet from the turnaround point and to loop around it and then take the descending trail back down.

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He asked for Michael's bib number, which was 5, 4, 8.

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And then texted officials at the bottom to expect him home in about an hour and a half.

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Tom said he noticed Michael moving slowly and it was starting to get cold and foggy, but otherwise he wasn't struggling.

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So Tom and the other volunteers continued down the mountain.

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The rock marking Turn around point is not a huge Boulder.

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Like I thought it was apparently it's a relatively distinguished rock, but you would probably only recognize it.

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If you had seen it.

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Before.

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It's easy to miss.

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If you don't know what to look for and continue onto the true summit since where they were supposed to turn back was a false summit.

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Or maybe get lost, trying to find a more obvious Boulder.

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But time passed and there was no sign of Michael.

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By 8:00 PM.

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Peggy called for search and rescue.

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It started raining and was getting colder.

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By 2:00 AM helicopters from the Alaska state troopers were searching the Mount side with infrared technology.

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Everyone knew he was in light clothing and they were worried about if he was injured and suffering from hyperthermia.

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That same day two other runners suffered severe injuries.

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And the women's race, a runner slid over a ledge and broke several ribs and lacerated her liver.

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She would end up making a full recovery.

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But later in the men's race, a runner slid in that same spot and broke both of his legs and suffered brain damage and memory loss.

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The next morning, the search effort increased.

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There were 60 searchers on the mountain and a rescue squadron from the Alaska air national guard in the air.

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They specialized in finding crash pilots and missing hikers.

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Four days after Michael vanished, the official search was called off, but the volunteer fire department of Seward kept looking.

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Along with his family and cadaver dogs.

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Friends actually paid for high resolution photographs of the mountain, hoping to find any trace of Michael.

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But not a single trace would be found.

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By mid-July all of the official searches stopped, but people would still volunteer to look for him.

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It really shook the town that someone went missing on a race where you can see every runner going up from beginning to end.

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No one knew where he could have gone.

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Peggy ended up suing the sewer chamber of commerce, the organizers of the race.

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In July of 2013 for $5 million.

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They settled for 20,000 and the chamber of commerce said it was because of their insurance providers decision.

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Not because they thought responsible.

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After all Michael did sign a waiver saying he understood the dangerous of the race.

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It also came out that he had advanced glaucoma and experienced quote.

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Total obliteration of his lower field of vision.

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End quote.

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It was so bad.

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In fact, that in 2009, he filed a complaint against his employer where he claimed he was discriminated against.

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Due to his disability? Michael told the investigators that quote.

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What I see as far as peripheral vision is I see everybody from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.

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It was over a month before I realized my supervisor had to go T.

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End quote.

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Apparently he had a valid driver's license and surgery.

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So his vision without glasses was 20 30.

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But he still had to turn his head and look down to see things beside him.

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After Michael's disappearance, a number of changes were made to Mount marathon.

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There is now a time limit for racers to reach the turnaround.

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And they monitor racers on the course better.

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They're also kept away from the cliffs where the two runners slid off.

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Peggy filed to have Michael declared dead just two weeks after the disappearance and to this day, no traces of him have ever been found.

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But when she filed that motion, So close to when he initially disappeared.

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And then followed it up with a lawsuit.

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People actually speculated that this was the plan all along.

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That Michael was somewhere in hiding.

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Just waiting to gather money.

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It's been years since Michael went missing though.

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So.

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Even though the Alaska state troopers consider him missing and not dead.

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We can only speculate what happened.

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some of his family members think that maybe a bear got to him or he continued all the way up and got lost.

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But it's just crazy to me that in all of this time, No one has found anything related to Michael, not a shoe, not a shirt.

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No bones, nothing.

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What do you think happened to Michael? Leave your thoughts in the reviews or comments, and don't forget to follow or subscribe.

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All sources can be found.

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At occurrence, pod.com.

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Stay safe.

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And see you next week.