Existing in harmony is a goal for many human beings. Some people strive to have a healthy lifestyle to enjoy their lives at the peak of physical fitness. Others find their balance living moderately and without an excess of any kind. Still, others find that their connection to nature is never as strong as spending time in the wilderness being at one with their surroundings.
A critical characteristic of anyone who seeks balance is avoiding something of excess. After all, no one wants to be balanced in one form or another if they do something excessive. If that does happen, it's because they become unhinged.
Someone taking an excess of vitamins, for example, incorrectly assumes that doing so only pumps up their body. They don't consider the self-harm that occurs as a result of their misunderstanding. I feel the worse part was that they never even questioned their actions before taking the plunge.
In 2013, 19-year-old Maureen Kelly, a free-spirit and graduate of Lewis and Clark High School in Washington dreamt and often spoke of taking a spiritual quest. An aspiring singer and songwriter, her friends would describe her as very spiritual. One day, long ago, she made a decision that impacted not just herself but also her friends, family, and community.
Free Spirit
Maureen was in a family of three raised by a single mother in Vancouver, Washington. She graduated from Louis and Clark High School. People remember her as a free-spirited individual who fancied herself as a blossoming singer-songwriter. Her YouTube page is filled with her music, where she writes her songs and covers those of other artists.
Her brother appears beside her in many non-music videos. The two appear close, and he seems to enjoy participating in them. If that's the case, then it's a tight-knit family. There's not much background to learn from aside from what the family presents.
You are Beautiful by Anu Kelly
The Plan and Promise
A group of friends planned a hiking trip in Skamania County at the Canyon Creek Campground. It's a remote part of the Pacific Northwest that you wouldn't want to travel alone, certainly not as a 19-year-old. Maureen decided to join the group as an opportunity to pursue her quest. Two other friends, Alex Scory and Kiana Haynes, agreed to join her.
The goal of this quest was to free themselves from their "ego and connect with nature." It would allow them to be more in contact with the world around them.
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Search and Rescue
Spiritual Quest
At 5 PM Sunday, June 9, 2013, Maureen Kelly began her spiritual quest.
She removed all her clothing, equipped herself with a fanny pack, and headed off into the woods naked. Instead of waiting for her friends to join her, she journeyed alone.
Now naked and armed with a fanny pack, Maureen ventured into the unknown. Her friends must have been up in arms. Maureen's inexplicable behavior surprised her friends, and they assumed that she must have needed to go on this quest by herself since she left by herself. So, they gave her the benefit of the doubt and waited for her return. My interpretation of the event is that her friends didn't give two sh*ts about her leaving until nightfall.
Midnight, June 10, 2013
The time was then midnight. Maureen hadn't returned from her quest. Temperatures plummeted from 70 deg F (21 deg C) to 40 deg F (4 deg C). Maureen was naked, barefoot, and had a fanny pack. The contents of the fanny pack included matches, a compass, and a knife. She didn't have a flashlight, and the fanny pack didn't include an emergency kit containing cold-weather gear. Maureen was nowhere to be found.
Around midnight, Maureen's friends decided to contact the Sheriff and report her as missing.
The Search
The Sheriff promptly organized a search that began later in the morning of June 10, 2013. Search and Rescue (SAR) teams combed through some of the most challenging and densest woods they'd encountered.
If professional SAR teams had trouble navigating the area, it was unlikely Maureen would make it through. Surprisingly, there was evidence to suggest she achieved that feat. Through tracking dogs, SAR was able to identify footprints that appeared to belong to Maureen. The teams followed her footprints and scent to an adjacent paved highway. Once teams reached the road, the smell disappeared.
The Aftermath
It seemed that all was lost in the attempt to rescue this woman. Police would continue the search for only two days before calling it quits. Her friends even organized another search via Facebook a couple of months after the initial attempt. Records aren't clear if those searches yielded any fruit. Given there's nothing new about Maureen's disappearance, it seems inevitable there are no further clues.
It's been nine years since Maureen stripped naked and ventured into the unknown. Her Facebook account is still active, as is the Facebook Page that documents a friend's attempts at organizing another search. Out of 787 "friends" listed on Facebook, barely anyone volunteered to search for her again. And speaking about friends, a lot more questions than answers about them remain.
Friends of Maureen
Spiritual Quest? Really?
I'll be brutally honest here. It seems dumb beyond belief to strip naked and venture off into the woods alone; spiritual quest be damned. We all know that it's likely to get cold when the sun goes down. In the wilderness that is Canyon Creek, the temperature got almost cold enough to freeze water. I cannot believe that locals of those areas didn't realize this fact. So, perhaps she was distracted because she didn't seem that dumb on any of her videos. Innocent? Yes. Stupid? No.
Possible Distractors
A couple of distractions can occur to help someone forget common sense. I've seen odd behaviors resulting from sleep deprivation or drinking in and out of the military. The literature I've read doesn't suggest she was a drinker even though she was below the legal age. And there's no discussion of her having sleep issues or working nights. Drugs, however, could have played a role in her lack of decision-making skills.
Crocodile Tears
Reports are also conflicting. On one side, you have her friends Alex Scory and Kiana Haynes. They stated they planned on leaving with Maureen for this spiritual quest, but she suddenly vanished on her own.
On the other hand, you have the Undersheriff's report on why her friends waited so long before reporting her disappearance. According to the Undersheriff, "The folks that she was with, they felt that this was something she needed to do." Additionally, according to her friends, Maureen talked about doing the spiritual quest for quite some time.
However, what concerned me was what appeared to be crocodile tears coming from one friend and no tears at all coming from another. These ladies supposedly agreed to journey with Maureen on that fateful night. The reports regarding Maureen's disappearance never mentioned two other people joining her on the spiritual quest. In front of cameras, however, another story emerges.
KOIN 6 News Report
Other Oddities
The Fanny Pack
According to Alex and Kiana, Maureen just vanished on this spiritual quest. According to the Undersheriff, her friends delayed contacting authorities because Maureen's spiritual quest was something she "needed" to do. Those would be crappy friends if they waited almost 7 hours to notify anyone upon realizing she left without them. What's odd is how everyone knew the contents of the fanny pack if Maureen just up and disappeared.
Drugs?
The Undersheriff reported that there wasn't any indication of drug use in the area. Does that mean the people there used no drugs? Of course, given that Maureen disappeared, I don't see any of the people she was with confessing to either using drugs or giving her any. I don't imagine the law would take kindly to finding out if that happened.
In Closing
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Thank you for reading and following on throughout my Hive journey.
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