A frantic phone call: ‘I’m being chased by a pack of coyotes; I’m behind the high school in a tree!’ This phone call was the last contact with Jesse Farber, a father of two children. His girlfriend, with whom he had been together for over eight years prior to this incident, hasn’t given up hope. He was a man who loved nature and enjoyed going on hikes in the forest that surrounded his hometown.
This phone call was made on August 11, 2015, the last time he was heard from and seen. Searches were conducted in the mountains, resulting in nothing being found. Some time after the searches were conducted, a bag that is believed to belong to him was found in a tree, along with sweatpants. These sweatpants had rocks tied onto one end. There’s a theory that he either threw them up there to knock his bag down, to throw off the coyotes that were chasing him, or they were planted. Now, this area deserves some detailed description. This area is the location of historic and active coal mines. The landscape is littered with marked and unmarked holes, some as deep as 140 feet! Waste Coal litters the area. On top of this, the location of this tree is apparently on a steep ridge. To the south of him is what is called the Sharp Mountains. When he had gone missing, he stated his phone was dying, at which point the conversation quickly ended. During this evening, when he went missing, his phone had pinged off of two towers. Initially, it pinged off a tower located north of town. His last phone call pinged off a tower located southwest of town, the location where his bag was found, settled equally 2.2 miles from both towers. Roughly an hour and half earlier, he had been spotted 2 miles from this location on what is known by the community as the S turns, also called Hunter Street.
How do we plan to break open this case and bring answers to the family? While multiple searches were conducted, resulting in no findings, there was never any detailed public mapping of the areas searched. Time after time, across the nation, this has been a huge problem. This problem is why the missing are not found sooner. In a forested area, as a combat veteran who lived and led entire company elements through areas like this, it’s very easy to miss anything. My greatest example would be in my early years, working to earn my Expert Infantryman badge. We had to find multiple points in the forest, using nothing more than a map and a compass. One of the greatest leaders of my life, my Platoon Leader, who held his Pathfinder badge (the highest standards of land navigation), ran into him in the forest. He was lost, unable to find the last point to complete the competition. We both knew the point was nearby. Shortly after he walked off, I found the point, yelling for him, but he was already long gone. We were only about 50 meters from the location.
This week, we’ll be live streaming an event you won’t want to miss! We’ll be going on location, using our technology to help find Jesse. We’ll start the morning off by renting a car (I own a truck with lots of miles); then, we’ll travel roughly 3 hours to Tamaqua, PA. While traveling there, we’ll place flyers up along the way. Currently, it’ll be two of us, former military, possibly more. From the time we get the rental car until the time we leave, we’ll be live streaming on Missing People in America. Following our live stream, you’ll see what we see and our actual location. Once we arrive, we’ll visit some important locations and meet with the family. Then, we’ll take to the ground, traveling miles into the forest, with you, the viewer, coming along the entire time!
Our technology allows us to place markers on Jesse’s map as we drive up and place flyers. During the actual search, we’ll activate a special feature that requires individual approval due to the high resource requirement from our server. This feature will color in Jesse’s map as the area is searched. Regardless of the results, we’ll provide the family access to this technology so that they can have the entire mountain area searched. This way, we’ll be able to determine: Is Jesse there?
Across the nation, there have been searches for numerous missing individuals, only for them to be found in areas that were already searched. The question always arises: Was it thoroughly searched? Were they there the entire time? Unfortunately, this question often goes unanswered because the necessary technology isn’t being utilized.
Join us this Wednesday! To support our efforts and MPIA, tune in to the live stream, show some love, and leaving it on will greatly assist us (Social Media provides additional resources to organizations that accumulate a certain amount of view minutes). Following the event, we will produce an actual documentary detailing our efforts. We also plan on bringing additional resources on the trip to help in finding answers.
In the future, with your support, we aim to travel even further and assist more people in need. However, the sad truth is that these efforts come at a cost. This event will be financed through credit. Our cameraman, who is an Army friend, has generously offered to help out on his day off. On Wednesday, you’ll witness firsthand how your support can truly make a difference, saving lives and uncovering answers. GoFundMe