Status: Untraced - E10: The Hero Project

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0:55But don't wait, these year-end savings won't last. Shop the entire Toyota lineup and find a great deal today on buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Welcome to Radio Rental. The scariest stories you've ever heard in your life. All told by real people. And off we go. This wasn't a human being that I saw. There's something here in this house. Something out of this world. There was a woman moving through the hall. I stepped back and I was completely alone. Radio Rental is available now. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The season finale of Status Untraced starts right now.

1:42Thanks for going on this journey with us. And stay tuned for more Up and Vanished coming very soon. You're listening to Status Untraced, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. This podcast also contains subject matter, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

2:21All right, I hit it. About done, huh?

2:32Morning guys. Yeah guys, you ready? Ready? Four to six hours I think is what it's going to take, right? To get to the spot? The morning after reaching Kirganga, we head deeper into the mountains. It says we're at 10 ,400 some feet, but not positive. My fellowship consists of Alex, Kabir, Jagdish who carries rappelling gear, two porters, and a man who wields a loaded rifle. We pass no one. Snow is imminent this time of year, so many do not continue on this far. This is the path where Justin Alexander was last seen. It's been a long time since I set out into the wilderness alone, but this time is special.

3:22I want to do these ancient practices under an influence that may allow me to see the magic, if it exists at all.

3:32Marching on for hours, we finally reach a clearing. Perched atop a grassy knoll, rests a rock hut. We have reached Tundebush. Tundebush is the rest stop where the porter was sent ahead to prepare food. where the mysterious couple passed by and did not stop, and where Baba arrived without Justin. The old route for the trek was from the bridge. You had to cross the bridge. An old bridge sits across the river here, crumbled and decaying. It once connected to grassy fields on the other side. That's where some shepherds could be up there. Not now. They've already left by now. We rest, but not for long.

4:21You okay? The altitude's caught Alex. He's suffering because of the altitude. The elevated altitude strains our breaths, muddles our thoughts. To add to that, the trail itself has started to disappear. What once was a hike, now feels more like a rock climb. Fuck.

4:47Have fewer things in the hand? No, I need to film this. As we ascend, glacial runoff trickles under our feet. And the higher we climb, the more we encounter frozen patches of it, slickening the trail. You mean Justin walked down to the river? Could've. I don't know. That's not the theory. But I'm wondering, why would he go down to the river? Yeah, probably just a photo. Better spots for photos. Jagdish, is this it? Jagdish points to a steep slope about 100 yards away. We can't get any further. Impossible to cross this ice. How close are we? Just the corner there. Just around that corner, right?

5:37Just the corner, yeah. If one guy slips down there, then the whole team's gone. Yeah. That's the spot, you know? That ledge right there, that one right out there? You can assume so, yeah. Nobody saw it. Before us lies the site where Justin Alexander's belongings were found. Far below, what has to be five stories down, the river cascades with violent force through massive rocks. If you fell in, it would crush you. What do you think, Alex? The steepness of this cliff. Makes me uneasy. Can't believe this is a hiking trail. Yeah, this is definitely a lot steeper than I was anticipating. I look at the ledge just 100 yards away, in a valley swallowed by immense beauty.

6:36For such an epic life, it's such a strange place to be murdered, to die, or to leave it all behind. In his final journal entry, Justin included a photo of what he packed, a metal pot, a plastic cup, utensils, a leather journal, dry food and plastic wrap, and assorted camping essentials. Yet, it was only a red butane lighter, an umbrella, a backpack rain cover stuffed with a scarf and head wrap, and a flute staff standing upright in the ground that were found. What is the story these pieces tell?

7:21In the moment, the chances of answering that question felt impossible. What I didn't know then was the things I was about to be told. The testimonies we were about to hear would start to bring this journey to an end.

7:47Sometimes I get the feeling I'm lost Just hiding in it is never enough Now I find that in every mirror a ghost Only once I saw the killer Once I saw the killer up close

8:13I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced. Episode 10, The Hero Project.

8:31He said he remembers Justin, he remembers the Baba. He's down to interview. Interview here? Mm-hmm. We're guided to a smoky tent when we're back in Kirganga. A burning wood stove crackles at the center, and cloth mats cover the floor. Cross-legged in the corner sits a thin man with a scruffy gray beard. Shaking hands proper? Yeah, yeah. Yeah? Well, it's wonderful to meet you, Ashok Giri Baba. Ashok Giri is called by many as the Tundabusch Baba. For the past eight summers, he's lived at the stony hut at Tundabusch. There, on the day Justin disappeared, he remembers Baba Rawat and Anil Kumar passing through and speaking with them.

9:19I'm trying to wrap up loose ends and get definite answers. Given that Ashok Giri was with Baba Rawat moments after Justin disappeared, I want some clarity on the holy man's character. What was his demeanor like that day? Did he seem like someone who had just committed murder? He asked the Baba and Anil to stop here and wait for the foreigner guy. But the Baba said, oh no, he'll come himself and we're going to go. Justin knew that where they're going to be staying, so he'll head up to the same place straight away. He even shouted at the other Baba, why did you leave him over there? The place where he left him is a dangerous point for people to cross over.

10:02He was seen yesterday. He actually sent Anil back to the place to go and look for him. Anil, he went there, he took almost three hours searching for him and he came back without any clue. Anil Kumar went back to look for Justin that day, which aligns with what he said in the interrogation. Does he know of anybody falling off like those rocks around there?

10:36No tourists are not coming from there He hasn't heard any tourists falling from there But lots of porters have fallen from that place When they went down straight to the river But not the tourists They never heard about the tourists being fallen from there Because they probably aren't carrying their bags Yeah, they're more empty handed I've heard about fake babas That are only in it to try to get money Do we think that this baba was a fake baba? There are many babies who want to enter the house. He doesn't remember him, he doesn't remember him. He doesn't remember him. According to him, that Baba wasn't like that, because then he would have ran away from it.

11:17But the only mistake that he did, according to him, was leaving Justin behind, and he shouldn't have done that. Since we have Jagdish here as well, can you tell the Baba what Anil told you with the couple? So, Baba Ji, when you were with Anil Mahdi last night. Jagdish tells Ashok Giri about the mysterious couple, the one Anil said was with Justin and would have passed by the hut. Ashok Giri doesn't recall seeing them. However, gives the name of someone we should speak to, a girl who possibly might know more about Babur Awad, Justin, and this couple. He said there was one girl from Bangalore, Sapna.

12:01Sapna. Sapna. Sapna knew everything about Justin. He used to take pictures from very dicey places. He used to climb somewhere and then take the pictures from there. He was doing all this stuff a lot. Sapna knew all this.

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13:06Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. But I know he was like, I need more time in this place. That's what I remember, that he wanted to stay there for a longer time. That's what I get from that conversation. We hiked back to town, and I found and connected with Swapna. She says in the summer of 2016, she and her brother, Roy, were traveling and sought refuge at a cave in Kirganga. They met Justin at an intimate gathering, and she says he was memorable, but not just for his kindness. Everyone, everyone knew him. And at one point, I remember him removing a big chunk of charras.

13:52And he told the guys, I have charras, and I want to share it with everyone. and he showed it to us like as if he didn't care. And he did the same with the bubble. Was it weird? How did you feel about him pulling out that much hash? Didn't like it. For me, it was not very okay because I felt intimidated. Like, why is this guy showing this stuff so openly? So for safety, I didn't indulge too much hanging out with Justin. Justin settled into one of the caves. And Swapna says, He started to change. She disconnected from all of us. And up to some point, I didn't even see him because he was only with the Baba.

14:36She recalls her only true encounter with Baba Rawat was acting as Justin's translator. She later left Kyrganga about a week before Justin's trek, unaware of his subsequent disappearance. After hearing the news, she returned to confront Baba Rawat, likely the first to do so. and obtained what is probably the most reliable version of the Baba's initial testimony.

15:26the Nepali portal started to walk in the front, and he was behind. And I came to my place, and I'm waiting for him, thinking he will come. But he didn't come. And I have a feeling he's dead. That's how he said it. Baba Rawat's actions are tough to read. But if we compare what he told Swapna and the police, it's pretty similar. The only contradiction lies in the order of who came down the mountain. Swapna remembers hearing Justin was the last to leave, while Baba said, So, Porter went ahead. Behind was Justin, and after that, me. So what does this mean? And can we trust Swapna's memory of this detail?

16:09With Baba Rawat gone, we may never know. But think about it. Would a guilty man openly air his annoyances? So openly that Baba is telling me, I was so angry with him. Like, I told him he's a foreigner, If anything happens to people who come from outside our country, you are in big trouble. And then he also started to feel panic. Because after that, many people started to come there and question him. Every day he was there in his kutia, in his house. He sat there without fear. He didn't run away. He just sat there. He said, I'm also waiting for Justin. What do you think I'm doing? Of course, I was angry.

16:52But for some reason, I never felt he was involved in anything.

17:05When I volunteered to delve into Justin's case, I imagined the investigation would unfold like a scene straight out of a movie, each clue seamlessly leading to the next, a chain of discoveries culminating in a grand reveal. The reality has been far from it. Our days have been a relentless pursuit of leads that fizzled into dead ends, sifting through a mix of rumors and accusations, only to unearth a sliver of the truth. And the constant barrage of well-meaning suggestions, talk to this person, visit that place, often let us down paths lined with more questions than answers. Is there a killer? Who is this couple?

17:49Do they exist? Who can we trust? What happened to Justin?

17:58Other than tracking down the porter, I followed up on every lead we had. Except one. You see, I made a phone call months ago to a guy named Ashish Chuhan, a local who participated in the searches for Justin. Our conversation was brief, Just 10 minutes or so. But what he said, now gnaws at me. Did you text Ashish? Yeah. Not yet. Since that initial call, Ashish has become something of a ghost. Can you call him on your Facebook? On Facebook? Yeah. I mean, he knows it's me. Fine. That's fine. Responding here or there, he's been elusive and difficult to pin down.

18:50Let's go try Archdeep's phone. Yeah. I get the feeling he's dodging my calls, so I try calling from Archdeep's phone.

19:02Well, that's kind of weird. It means he's not ignoring me specifically, it just means he's not answering anything. I don't know what else to do other than pray he shows, because as I replay what Ashish said, I'm convinced he found something.

19:49It was never revealed to me what the deep shit was. And it seems his habit to vanish hasn't changed. Or so I thought. Because finally, when my phone rings, it's Ashish. And he's on his way.

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21:44We had to know. We had to know. We didn't want to go to Manali tomorrow. Do we know he's going to be there? Nope. No, we do not.

21:58Surprised, I watch a taxi drop off at the front lobby. And shortly after, there's a knock on our door. I just have a couple of questions, what kind of questions I'll be facing. So I can prepare myself with the proper ones because it's around six years now. So everything is not very fresh for me. Ashish is visibly drained, like he hasn't slept in days. He apologizes for the erratic scheduling, confessing that his life is, at the moment, in a bit of disarray. Every so often, his phone interrupts our conversation. most calls tied to a tourism company he manages, Himalayan Drifters. It's an outfit that offers a variety of services, including search and rescue.

22:43Generally we find people, it's mostly, they are coming down and we are going up. I have a picture, oh, you are the guy, your parents are looking for you. If Indians go missing, trust me, no one cares. Just a couple of days back, ten days back, there was this guy who went missing in Kheer Ganga. No one went anywhere. No one went anywhere. Not even the local search and rescue companies came forward. Still missing. Still missing. There is not a single postal around. Go to Manikhan police station. Just find out the board. They can't remove anything unless that guy either declared dead or hasn't been fined.

23:20If he's been missing, that board has to be with his name. And just check out how many names are there. To my knowledge, in this one past decade, more than 100 people have gone missing here. But around five, six names, that's all. I've seen this board. Faces of missing persons and flyers from the past pinned to it. And there's a list. Justin's on it. His status marked? Untraced.