 It is estimated that each year nearly 22,000 people head off to run the Colorado River. This river is known for its rapids, which attracts thrill seekers and athletes alike. But still to this day, there is a mystery around the Colorado River that's nearly 100 years old. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. As always, a very, very special thank you to all of our patrons and our producers. Without your support, we could not do what we do. If you would like to join our Patreon community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce. And today on Mystery Monday, we're going to be talking about disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Now, yes, I know last week I said that we were going to be moving into more modern cases, modern disappearances. However, when I was researching some of these cases that we're going to cover later on, I ran across this case. And oh my word, I thought I cannot move forward into modern cases until we talk about Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Because this case, in my opinion, is a bit of a head scratcher. Now, as we get into the story, you'll see that there is a lot of speculation and potential motive with some of the characters within this story. However, the bodies of Glenn and Bessie Hyde have never been found. And so therefore, there's a huge question mark around what the hell happened to this couple. Within this mystery, we also open up into another mystery. There ends up being this like mystery body. So all in all, we're talking about a mystery surrounding really three people. So let's get into it. Bessie Hyde was born Bessie Haley on the 29th of December in 1905. She was born and raised in West Virginia. Bessie was described as being very bohemian and very artistic. In 1926, at just 21 years old, she married her high school sweetheart, a man named Earl Helmick. But this marriage did not last long. Because in 1927, Bessie decided that she needed more in her life. This bohemian artistic young woman decided that she was going to move to San Francisco to study art. While she was in San Francisco, she wrote an unpublished book of poetry called Wondering Leaves. And if you happen to read through her poetry, you do get the sense of Bessie's long four adventure. As fate would have it, one day Bessie decided to take a boat from San Francisco down to Los Angeles. This is where she met Glenn Hyde. Now Glenn Hyde was born on the 9th of December in 1898, seven years older than Bessie. He was born in Hanson, Idaho, and grew up a farm boy. He loved all things outdoors. And by the time he met Bessie, he was considered an expert rafter. This was because growing up in Idaho, Glenn Hyde had access to the Snake River. It is said that when Bessie met Glenn, it was love at first sight. But scandal when Bessie met Glenn, she was still technically married to Earl. Of course, back in those days, divorce was a little bit more taboo than it is for us in our modern era. And when Bessie decided that she wanted to marry Glenn Hyde, Earl made it pretty difficult. But nonetheless, finally on the 11th of April in 1928, Bessie was granted a divorce from Earl, and she proceeded to marry Glenn Hyde the very next day. For the young couple's honeymoon, they decided that they were going to run the Colorado River. Again, as I said, Glenn was an expert rafter. However, Bessie had never done this before. But that wouldn't stop Bessie because she too did long for adventure. And on top of that, Glenn decided that they were going to try to break a record. They were going to try to complete the whole run in about six weeks. Now, by this time, about 45 people had already completed the full run, all using a particular kind of row boat. Two days and a whopping $50 later, Glenn had his special boat. But not only would Glenn be breaking a record for this particular rafting run, but Bessie, if this was completed by them, Bessie herself would be the first woman documented to complete the run as well. For Glenn, he believed that this was going to be a good career move. If they were able to do this, if they were able to break these records, then Glenn suspected that the couple would be able to make a lot of money touring the world, talking about their experiences, writing books about their experiences, and all the hoopla that comes with extraordinary feats in humanity. I also want to point out that at this point in 1928, there were no commercial rafting trips. If you were to go to the Colorado River today to raft, which I've actually done long, long time ago. I rafted part of the Colorado River, you're going to get a guide. You're going to get necessary equipment. It's going to be very commercial. There's going to be insurance, all that kind of stuff. But again, back in 1928, that wasn't a thing. And so everybody who took the river took it at their own risk, and also took it with their own experience. In fact, by 1928, the history of river running, especially with the Colorado River, was still relatively new. The first recorded person to ever run the river was a man named John Wesley Powell. Now, John Wesley Powell was a geologist, as well as a Civil War vet. In fact, John Wesley Powell had lost his right arm during the Civil War and proceeded to then later, at 35 years old, run the Colorado River with one arm. But again, he was a geologist by trade, so I do understand his fascination with the Colorado River. Now, he started the river in May 24th of 1869. He led a small group down the river, and he only really went about 1,000 miles, starting in River Green, Wyoming. And again, as I said earlier, since then, only 45 other men had taken this run. Now, something that's important to remember is that it was customary to not carry life jackets. I would say that it seems kind of ridiculous nowadays, but honestly, when I was a little girl, my father had a lake house, and we had two jet skis. And I grew up riding jet skis. Now, I do believe that there is an age limit to drive the jet skis, and I do believe that you are required to wear a life vest when you, a life jacket when you ride the jet skis. But back in the dark ages, when I was a kid in this small lake town in Alabama, we were riding jet skis by ourselves, like what, eight years old? No life jacket. And so you kind of can think back and understand that maybe at this point they had more of a kind of live and let live view when it came to extreme sports and activities. But nonetheless, it literally was not the tradition for a river runner to have a life jacket even on the boat, just in case. So it really goes without say that these two people, Glenn and Bessie Hyde, started their adventure with no life jacket. Now again, the couple did get married in April, and they spent the whole summer preparing for this trip. In October of 1928, the couple started their trip in Green River, Utah. For the first month of the trip, everything was going as planned. And about a month in, they stopped at Grand Canyon Village, Arizona to restock. Their final destination was Needles, California, and they were so close to finishing this run. Literally, the couple only had about two weeks. Because of this amazing feat, reporters were there at Grand Canyon Village to speak to this young couple. In Grand City, Arizona, there was a business that was owned by the Colb Brothers. This business provided supplies for the rafters and also provided a unique souvenir of photography. Again, photography wasn't as easy to come by as it is now a days. And so the couple had Henry Colb take their photo. Now, Henry Colb kind of becomes a little suspect in this story. He seemed to take quite a liking to Bessie. This could have all been well and innocent, because according to Henry, Bessie was not happy. She did not want to complete the trip, she was exhausted, and she was ready to turn around and go back home. And it was more Glenn that was pushing them to complete this task. Knowing that the last couple of weeks of this trip would be rough for the couple, seeing that the rapids were going to intensify before they reached their destination, Henry claims that he tried to encourage both Glenn and Bessie to stay in Grand City, Arizona for the remainder of the winter. When they declined to stay behind, he insisted that they at least bring life jackets with them. However, once again, Glenn Hyde declined. Henry also later stated that he was concerned about the condition of their boat. I don't know if Henry knew that Glenn had made the boat or whatnot, but I would assume that because of their business and because of how many rafters they ran across in this area, Henry probably did know a thing or two about signs of danger when it came to boating. However, Glenn Hyde simply didn't care. He was a man on a mission, he wanted him and his new wife to complete this trip, whatever the cost may be. And honestly, coming at this case from a place of neutrality since it's been so, so, so long, I can definitely see both points of view. Henry was probably a person who was somewhat concerned because again, what he knew, his experience, and Glenn was also someone who was again a man on a mission. And he was so close to finishing, it was just like that final push, if they could just toughen it out for the next two weeks, then their life would be set. The couple was officially last seen on November 18th of 1928. They were due to end up in Needles, California at the beginning of December. Now, according to witnesses, the last person to actually see the couple alive was a man named Adolf Sutro. Apparently, eyewitnesses said that Adolf needed to be dropped off about eight miles down the river, so the couple offered to drop him off. He hopped in the boat when eight miles down with them and was actually seen getting off the boat in Hermit Creek. So there really is no motive for Adolf Sutro. It was just, it was the last person to literally see them alive, seeing that he didn't know the couple, they didn't know him, and like literally they saw him get off at his destination and depart from the hides. But it seems that Emery Cole had kept tabs on the couple as best he could in 1928. You know, there was no cell phones to text or anything, but he probably knew other people at other locations and you know, could, you know, what, old phones, you know, bring them up and be like, Hey, have you seen this couple? You know, I don't know. I wasn't alive in 1928, but you guys know what I'm saying. But anyway, by early December, he was alerted that the couple had not been seen. And so Cole immediately went to the authorities and started a search for Glenn and Bessie. They found the boat around River Mile 237. Everything was strapped into the boat. All the supplies were accounted for, all the food, nothing was missing. The only thing that was not there were Glenn and Bessie. It is believed that the couple had set up camp around Mile Marker 225. Because there were signs a camp had been made there. So somewhere in this 12 mile distance between the campsite and the boat, the couple had gone missing. One of the items that was left in the boat was Bessie's journal and her last entry was from November 30th of 1928. Now, there was nothing in the journal that would indicate what had happened to the couple. And many people first believed that the couple had hit some hard rapids and had been thrown off the boat. But if that had happened, if that was indeed what happened to Bessie and Glenn Hyde, why was their boat still upright with all the supplies still securely tied in? Anybody who's ever been whitewater rafting or river running knows that when you flip on a rapid, it's not just you that flips. Your whole freaking boat flips too. So this idea of them being taken by the nature of the river was just simply not plausible given the evidence left behind. Search crews spent a whole 41 days scouring the area around the boat and nothing was found. Glenn Hyde's on father offered a reward for anybody that knew what happened to his son and his daughter-in-law. But as the weeks, the months, and the years went by, Glenn and Bessie Hyde seemed to have just vanished. And as time went on, the legend and the story and the mystery around Bessie and Glenn Hyde's disappearance would just kind of seem to trickle away. That is until 1971. By this time, there were commercial rafting trips. And it was on one of these commercial rafting trips that something very peculiar happened. The group was taking the same run that Glenn and Bessie Hyde had attempted 43 years earlier. They made camp at an area that is now called Diamond Creek. This happens to be around the same location that it is assumed Glenn and Bessie Hyde camped at before their boat was discovered. Within this group of adventurers was a woman who was probably in her early 60s. And that night, as they were setting up the campfire, the leader of this group decided to tell ghost stories. And weird stories. As you do when you're camping, you tell these legends and these folk glories of the area that you are in. And so the person leading this group decided to tell his group about the vanishing of Glenn and Bessie Hyde, and how they were in fact very close to the area where it is assumed the couple had just up and vanished. Well, after he was done telling the story, this mysterious lady in her early 60s piped up and claimed that she herself was in fact Bessie Hyde. She went by the name of Liz. And as most people know, Liz is a nickname for Elizabeth. Another nickname for Elizabeth is in fact Bessie. The fateful day that Glenn and Bessie Hyde vanished, she claimed that she was exhausted and begged Glenn to haul the trip. They got into an argument and in his frustration, he struck her. Because of this, she claimed that she attacked him back and basically took his life. After that was over, she decided that she was going to dispose of the body. After this, she claims that she hiked to Arizona and got a bus back to the east coast where she proceeded to start a new life. Now, even though this woman who went by the name of Liz would have been around the same age as Bessie, if Bessie were still alive, there were a lot of holes in the story. For example, even though Bessie craved adventure, she wasn't familiar with the area. She wasn't a rafter and so the likelihood of her being able to hike back to a bus stop and then get on a bus and go all the way back to the east coast was not likely. Also come to find out after telling the story and the heat was on her a little bit, she took it back. People would later find out that she was actually a psychologist from the east coast who really had kind of a hobby of just kind of fucking with people and so this story did not pan out. However, five years later, another interesting thing happened. In 1976, a body was found buried on Emory Cole's property. Now, as I said earlier, Emory Cole appeared to have some affections for Bessie. Now, we don't really know what those affections were. Was he like infatuated with her or was he protective of her? He himself was the one that said that she didn't want to go forward on the trip, that she was concerned and exhausted and really, really wanted to stop. And of course, Emory himself, as I said, had also been concerned about the couple continuing their journey down the Colorado River. Many people speculated that Emory was so jealous of Glenn or mad at Glenn that he must have been the one to take Glenn out. But again, this doesn't explain Adolf Sutro, who rode with Bessie and Glenn eight miles down the river. But nonetheless, a forensic anthropologist was called in to examine the remains. This was a man by the name of Dr. Walter Burby. According to him, the remains were of a white male around six feet tall in his 20s with light brown hair. Dr. Burby found a hole in his skull, and he claimed that the was from a revolver that had been manufactured around 1902. Dr. Burby also concluded that this body had perished in the 1920s, matching the timeline of Glenn and Bessie's disappearance. But Dr. Burby wasn't totally happy with just assuming or speculating that these were the remains of Glenn hide. And so he decided to superimpose a photo of Glenn on top of the school. And much to his dismay, it was no dice. He determined that this was not the body of Glenn. None of the bone structures matched the bone structures of Glenn hide's face. So this leaves us with another mystery. Who the hell was this guy buried in Emery Colby's backyard? And then in 1992, a woman named Georgia White Clark passed away. Now Georgia White Clark was a famous river runner. And when her friends were going through her possessions after her passing, they found some evidence that made them speculate that she was in fact the missing Bessie hide. For example, they found Georgia's birth certificate that revealed her real name was actually Bessie. And they also found Glenn and Bessie hide marriage license within her possessions. However, once again, pictures of Georgia from all throughout her life superimposed over pictures of Bessie showed that these two people had very different bone structures, leading many to believe that these two women were two different women. Many people speculated that the possessions that Georgia had that had Bessie's name on it were probably souvenirs. Maybe she had found them on her river runs, or maybe had bought them at some sort of a flea market. Who knows. But the fact that she possessed these items wasn't strong evidence for forensic anthropologists to conclude that this woman was indeed Bessie hide. So as of now, nearly 100 years after the fact, nobody still has a clue what happened to Glenn and Bessie hide. If they had survived this river rafting adventure and just decided to disappear for whatever reason, we know that they probably would not be around anymore. It would be past their life expectancy anyway. But my guessing is that something very nefarious happened to them. I don't think that the couple would just go off and live an obscurity to start a new life, especially seeing that Glenn hide was going on this adventure in order to make a living for him and his young bride. Also, as of today, no mysterious body parts have shown up, no bones, nothing to give us any clue as to what happened to this couple. But as always, I would love to hear your thoughts and your opinions down in the comment section below. Have you heard any theories that maybe I missed regarding this mysterious vanishing? And yes, of course, if you guys caught the latest episode that I did with John Claude on Beyond Mystic, you know that we did discuss doing an episode together with Janine, where we can go over some of these national park vanishings very, very soon. And of course, along with all the disappearances from the Bennington Triangle, I will definitely be adding Bessie and Glenn hide to the list. All right, guys, I hope you're having a wonderful, wonderful start of a wonderful, wonderful week. This is the week of Thanksgiving here in the United States. And here in the United States, Thanksgiving is a fairly big holiday. And so I wish all of you very, very happy and safe travels as you go and meet your family and your friends so that you can be in fellowship with them. There will be some videos on my channel this week that are pre-recorded. So if you do get bored with your family, you can just, you know, hop in a room and click on YouTube and watch some more stories. I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead. Again, a very happy Thanksgiving to all of the Americans out there celebrating. Keep your head held high. Know that you are more powerful than you think you are and that the best is truly yet to come. I'll talk to you all soon. Bye.