A Los Gatos man logged 7,000 hours over a three-year period investigating the disappearances of 411 people from national parks, some dating back to the 1800s. The result of David Paulides’ effort is a new book, Missing 411, reflecting the number of missing people and also what Paulides calls missing information about their disappearances.

It all started when Paulides was visiting a national park and a ranger approached him about the missing persons mystery. It set him on a trail that led to the story of 14-year-old Stacy Arrass of Saratoga, who disappeared from Yosemite National Park on July 17, 1981.

“Stacy is really what got me kick-started,” Paulides said. “She and her dad went on a backpacking horse trip and their group stopped at a rest stop. She went into a cabin to change clothes and then went off to take a photograph. A 71-year-old man went partway up the trail with her and sat down to rest, then she disappeared over a bluff and was never seen again. The picture on the cover of the book is the last photograph of her.”

The lens cap to Stacy’s camera was found on the trail near Sunrise High Sierra Camp, which is about three miles southeast of Tenaya Lake. “The park service hasn’t released her missing persons report,” Paulides said. “They haven’t looked at her case in 25 years. There are no suspects. It’s not a criminal case; it’s a missing persons case.” Although Paulides has received between 35 and 40 files from the park service, he hasn’t gotten any from Yosemite.

Through extensive research, Paulides has identified 28 “clusters” of missing persons at national parks across North America. “All of these clusters have disappearances going way, way back in time,” Paulides said. “The Yosemite cluster is the largest.”

He added, “The park service says they don’t have a list of missing people and they want $1.4 million to compile one–$34,000 for Yosemite alone.”

He thinks the park service is lying about the lack of a list. “One of the guys who worked with me on this project is the former head of the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation. He told me, ‘They’re not idiots. They have this information.’ They’re flat out lying about this,” Paulides said.

Paulides has traced so many disappearances that he had to divide the subject matter into two books. So this edition of Missing 411 covers the Western United States and Canada.

“The Yosemite disappearances go back to the 1800s,” Paulides said. “During the Eisenhower administration a UC-Berkeley grad student, Walter Gordon, disappeared. That was in July 1954. Four months later another student, Orvar Von Laass, disappeared. People wrote letters to Ike asking that troops be sent into Yosemite, that said something is unusual here.”

Paulides was able to track information on some of the Yosemite missing by spending long hours at the Mariposa County library. “I also talked to a lot of victims’ families,” he said.

As for the mystery surrounding so many missing people, Paulides said, “The book is just the stories of the missing, no hypothesis on cause is included out of respect for the families and victims.”

The companion book to Missing 411, which covers the Eastern U.S., is due out soon.

Paulides’ book can be purchased at www.CanAm Missing.com. It will also be sold on Amazon.com.