Into the Wilderness: The Mysterious Disappearances and Deaths of Three Dedicated Park Rangers!

Mysterious deaths in protected areas of the United States rarely make it into the mainstream press. However, over the past decade, incidents that defy logical explanation have occurred in parks where professional rangers are present. No witnesses, no traces, no apparent cause. This is the story of three park rangers whose unexplained deaths continue to haunt the National Park Service and raise unsettling questions about the wilderness they were sworn to protect.

The Death of James Kfield

In 2013, the body of James Kfield was found in the Pisgah National Forest. There were no scratches on the outside; inside, his skeleton was utterly shattered. Four years later, in Tennessee, Thomas Ames was found standing waist-deep in a mountain river, dead. His brain was destroyed as if by a pressure wave. No blood, no injuries—only a piece of tree bark in his hand. Two years later, in Carter Caves, Kentucky, Ranger Megan Dowel ventured into the woods to search for a tourist who had been reported missing. Six minutes later, she was found naked and mutilated, two kilometers from where she disappeared.

Three cases, different years, different states, but with frighteningly similar characteristics: unexplained trauma, no signs of a struggle, recorded times, and the absolute impossibility of what happened. Who or what could have acted with such precision, such speed, and such force? Mysticism, secret technology, or something no one was supposed to see? One thing is clear—these deaths cannot be dismissed as accidents.

James Kfield’s Disappearance

The Pisgah National Forest, located in southwestern North Carolina, is part of the Appalachian Mountain Range. In the spring of 2013, routine patrols were conducted in the southern part of the forest. One of the Forest Service employees, 52-year-old James Kfield, was assigned to the area adjacent to Lake Sagahi, a remote location with dense stands of oak, maple, and hickory trees.

According to the internal schedule, Kfield was supposed to leave his morning post for patrol on April 19th at around 8:30 a.m. He went alone, as he had done dozens of times before. The patrol area covered about nine miles of forest along the northern shore of the lake. He was supposed to maintain contact every two hours via a Motorola XTS portable radio.

Until 2:00 p.m., the signal was coming in without interruption. Then the connection was lost. When Kfield did not show up for his scheduled communication session at 5:00 p.m., the dispatcher tried to call him again. There was no response. The team on duty decided to wait until the next morning. At dawn on April 20th, a search party consisting of three Forest Service employees and a representative of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office left for the Sagahi area.

The search began in the northwestern part of the lake. About 10 km from the checkpoint, in a hollow between two hills, the team found the body of James Kfield. He was lying face down, with a backpack visible on his back, closed and undamaged. His weapon, a Ruger GP100 service revolver, was holstered. A metal whistle attached to a cord around his neck showed signs of melting, as if it had been exposed to high temperatures.

There were no visible wounds on the body. His clothes—a green shirt with service insignia, dark trousers, and a jacket—were dry with no traces of blood or dirt. There were also no signs of dragging or struggle around the body. The vegetation was not trampled, and the soil contained no footprints other than those of Kfield himself, which were recorded on the approach from the southwest.

The official autopsy was performed by Dr. Hubert Levery, the county medical examiner. The report noted multiple fractures of the chest, pelvis, limbs, and skull. The paradox was that no skin was torn. There were no bruises. All fractures were internal with no external impact. As the expert noted, this type of injury is characteristic of explosive decompression or internal pressure, but no signs of such conditions were found.

In addition to fractures, there were signs of massive internal bleeding in the lungs and the heart sack. Death occurred within two to three minutes after the critical destruction of internal structures. No poisons or traces of chemicals were found. The thermal burns on the neck where the whistle was hanging did not spread beyond the metal.

Over the next six days, a team of experts from the Forest Service and county police investigated the area where Kfield died. There were no signs of fallen trees, landslides, or debris. No high points nearby from which a person could have fallen were found. Traces leading to the site of death ended within a radius of five meters. The ground in this area was dry, covered with leaves, and showed no signs of trampled turf or dents.

According to senior ranger Paul Gregson, Kfield had no prior disciplinary or medical issues. He had worked for the department for over 20 years, had good references, and was in normal physical condition. Based on the analysis, the commission deemed Kfield’s death unexplained and without external interference. No criminal case was opened due to the absence of signs of violent death. However, the case was referred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Integrated Investigations as an anomaly on national forest land.

At the time the internal audit report was published in August 2013, there were no reported cases of similar injuries in the Pisgah area. Kfield’s death remains the only such incident in the modern history of the region’s forest service. The Forest Service’s Emergency Incident Commission, established on April 30th, requested a technical examination of Kfield’s radio and equipment. The radio showed no signs of overheating or discharge. It was not turned on when the body was found.

The maps found in the backpack contained no additional markings beyond the standard route, which was marked with a marker. The GPS device attached to his belt was turned off and did not record his last route. The data for the previous days corresponded to the planned patrol. The search and analysis team also enlisted the help of specialists from the U.S. Geological Survey to rule out possible natural factors, including landslides, soil fractures, and local seismic activity. No seismic activity was recorded in the area of Lake Sagahi 10 days before and 10 days after the incident. Radioactive background levels were within normal limits. No gas emissions that could have caused internal damage were detected. Military authorities did not confirm that any exercises, tests, or flights had taken place in the area.

Given the remoteness of the location—a forest area accessible only on foot—the theory of outside interference was considered unlikely. On May 29th, 2013, the case was officially closed. The cause of death was listed as traumatic multiple fractures of the skeletal system of unknown origin. Internal Forest Service documents were sent to Washington for archiving. No press release was issued, as the incident did not appear to pose a public threat. However, unofficial versions emerged in behind-the-scenes discussions among Henderson and Buncombe County Forest Service employees.

One ranger, who wished to remain anonymous, noted that during the spring, several employees heard strange low sounds in the area of the northern shore of the lake, like deep vibrations in the ground or a humming sound in the silence. None of these anomalies were officially documented. Another employee mentioned an incident that occurred two years earlier. According to him, in the same area where Kfield was found, two hunters disappeared in 2011. They went into the forest and never returned. A few days later, one of them was found disoriented and without equipment more than 20 km from the starting point. The second was never found. Official reports linked the incident to alcohol poisoning, but the details remain vague.

It is also known that in 1979, not far from the lake, an incident occurred involving the collapse of a tent belonging to a research group from East Carolina University. No one was injured, but the participants reported experiencing strong ground vibrations and a loud bang during the night with no apparent external influence. This information has not been officially confirmed. The death of James Kfield remains one of the strangest and most unexplained in the history of the U.S. Forest Service. He was not attacked by a wild animal, did not have an accident, and did not die of hypothermia. His body did not have a single scratch, but all his bones were broken. A forensic examination ruled out a fall, drowning, collapse, and explosion. His death did not receive much public attention, and no major newspaper covered the case. In the archives, it remained a routine case closed with the wording “multiple internal injuries of unknown origin.” His photo still hangs on a bulletin board in the Buncombe County Forest Service Administrative Building, showing him in uniform smiling with a caption, “James Kfield, 22 years of service.” There are no official causes of death, only many assumptions and no evidence.

The Death of Thomas Ames

An equally strange case occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, in 2017. On the morning of October 23rd, Ranger Thomas Ames arrived at the Great Smoky Mountain Station by his standard route. He was supposed to patrol along the north bank of Forny Creek, located between the Big Fork Ridge section and the Clansman Pass watershed. The weather was stable, with temperatures around 5°C. There was a light breeze, and no precipitation was expected.

Ames drove his service vehicle to the parking lot near the old logging road, parked, grabbed his backpack, and set out on the trail at 9:15 a.m. According to the GPS attached to his uniform, he followed the designated route until 11:19 a.m. He then made a brief stop in the area known as the Silencer, an old flooded ravine where landslides were common in the last century. At 11:27, his GPS transmitted its last correct location, pointing to the bed of the Forny Creek near a bend called Split Spruce. After that, the device stopped transmitting a signal.

When Ames did not report in at 4:00 p.m., the station duty officer tried to contact him by radio. There was no response. Eighteen minutes later, the standard check procedure was initiated. Two rangers, Jake Savage and Daryl Montgomery, set out along Ames’s route. At 6:30 p.m., they arrived at the parking lot and found Ames’s SUV parked there, locked, with no signs of forced entry. Inside were his thermos, spare flashlight, and dry rations. His backpack and communication tablet were with him.

The search continued at dawn the next day. Eight officers, including two K9 units, began combing the area along the riverbed. At 10:48 a.m. on October 24th, Ranger Savage discovered the body. It was in the Forny River, about a mile from the last GPS signal. Thomas Ames was standing waist-deep in icy water with his back to the current. He was wearing standard fall ranger gear—waterproof pants, a warm jacket, and a park service vest. He was not wearing a hat. His face was turned upward, his eyes open. At first glance, he could have appeared to be alive. Still, his body temperature was below 10°C. He had no pulse, and no breathing was detected.

Photographing the body and securing its position took about half an hour. Distinguishing features included no external signs of trauma. The icy water reached his stomach, and his clothes were wet to the thighs, but his chest remained dry. His right hand was clenched into a fist so tightly that his phalanges were crushed. Some of his nails were torn off, and his bones were bent. Inside the palm was a piece of tree bark about 5 cm in diameter with jagged edges. Biologists later determined that it was part of a black hazel tree, which is not found in this part of the forest.

When the body was pulled out of the water, it was placed in a transport container and taken to the Swain County morgue for an autopsy. The transport report noted that there was no muscle tension. The corpse had few signs of rigor mortis, and the signs of hypothermia were consistent with exposure to cold water for three to six hours. The autopsy performed by medical examiner Christopher Rose on October 25th revealed an abnormal picture.

The internal bones of the chest, pelvis, and limbs were shattered as if under pressure. However, the skin remained intact. No punctures, cuts, or signs of impact were found. Experts noted a complete absence of hemorrhages in the soft tissues. This indicates that the destruction of the bones occurred after cardiac arrest. However, the time between death and the discovery of the body was too short for such a change to occur postmortem.

The most alarming finding was the brain. According to the tomography results, it was partially destructured, characterized by compression, microcracks, and tissue edema. This pattern is characteristic of the action of a blast wave or powerful directed pressure. However, there were no cracks on the skull, and no damage to the eardrums was found.

At the same time, traces of microwave overheating were discovered on the inside of the skull. The official cause of death was determined to be cardiac arrest as a result of acute neurophysiological shock of unknown ideology. No traces of exposure to electricity, chemical reagents, or shock waves were found. The skin remained intact, and the hair was not singed. A further investigation of Ames’s route revealed that there were no traces of his movements in the area where his last GPS signal was recorded.

A service dog brought in on the third day lost the trail in an area of water breakage downstream. Hunters and tourists in the park during this period reported no unusual sounds or phenomena. Surveillance cameras installed at bridges and parking lots did not record any movement within a 3 km radius of the site of the accident.

The stories of Rangers James Kfield and Thomas Ames, which occurred four years apart in different parts of the Appalachians, invite comparison. In both cases, the men were professional foresters with extensive experience working in the wilderness. Both disappeared while on solo patrols in areas they knew well. Both were found in highly unusual circumstances, and the nature of their deaths defies logical explanation in terms of known natural or medical factors.

The primary similarity between the cases is the absence of external injuries despite the devastating internal damage. In Kfield’s case, forensic experts recorded multiple fractures of all the large bones in his body while his skin remained completely intact. Ames showed no signs of violence, but his brain tissue was utterly destroyed, as if by a directed high-energy pulse. Neither of them showed any signs of a fall, struggle, or contact with predators. Their positions at the time of discovery are also disturbing. Kfield was lying face down as if he had fallen and not gotten up. Ames was standing waist-deep in icy water with his eyes open, his clenched fist so tense that his knuckles were broken.

The condition of the objects at the scene adds to the strangeness. Kfield’s metal whistle around his neck appeared to have melted even though there was no fire nearby. Ames had a piece of tree bark of unknown origin clenched in his hand, and his GPS device recorded that he had been motionless in the water for more than two hours before his heart stopped. Such behavior cannot be explained by hypothermia. At low water temperatures, muscle activity ceases much earlier.

Among the unofficial theories being discussed are the effects of a rare atmospheric phenomenon such as infrasonic vibrations causing disorientation and internal organ damage and the intervention of an unidentified technical or biological factor. Some researchers point to geomagnetic anomalies characteristic of the Appalachian Mountain region. The impact of an unknown animal cannot be ruled out, especially given the closed water bodies and inaccessible areas of the forest.

What both episodes have in common is that the official reports do not contain explanations that satisfy independent experts. The cases were closed without clear conclusions about the cause of death. This makes the stories of Kfield and Ames rare and frightening examples of encounters with something unknown in places that many consider well-studied.

The Death of Megan Dowel

However, two years after the Thomas Ames incident, in another seemingly quiet and controlled area of the park system, another episode occurred that once again raised questions about the safety of even the most studied areas. This case shocked even those who had already encountered anomalies while on duty. We are talking about a ranger named Megan Dowel and what happened to her in October 2015 at Carter Caves State Park in Kentucky.

Megan Dowel, a 32-year-old ranger at Carter’s Cavern State Park in Kentucky, began her shift on Friday morning. She arrived at the northwest entrance at around 7:20 a.m., signed the visitor log, and drove her white Ford Ranger toward the Cascade Trail. Her goal was to conduct a routine patrol and visually inspect the markers and foot bridges after a heavy night of rain.

At 7:54 a.m., Megan recorded her GPS location at the turn onto Blue Creek Hollow. She made a radio report: “I see a set of tracks, possibly a hiker. Looks disoriented. I’m approaching.” The duty officer, Jason Marlo, replied that no one had reported anyone missing. That was the last contact she made on the radio.

The camera installed in her car was activated by a motion sensor when she exited the cab. The time was 7:55 a.m. The video shows her peering into the thicket, holding her radio to her ear, adjusting her cap, and strolling down the wet trail. Twelve seconds later, the camera turns off. Megan does not appear in the frame again. Six minutes later, her GPS signal is detected again, 2 km from the previous location. This place is not far from Salt Peacher Branch, between a rocky riverbed and the stumps of fallen trees.

Search team members find her body there at approximately 10:43 a.m. when an active search begins after Megan fails to make contact for half an hour. She is found completely naked. No clothing is found within sight or within 100 meters of the body. The forensic examination will record more than 90 lacerations on the torso, including injuries to the face, neck, inner thighs, and chest. The blows were inflicted with a blunt object. The nature of the injuries did not correspond to animal bites, cuts from branches, or claw marks. None of the wounds showed signs of healing, indicating that they were inflicted simultaneously within 30 to 40 seconds. Death occurred from massive blood loss within 5 to 6 minutes after the first blow.

The strangest conclusion of the pathologists was the absence of fractures or dislocations. All bones remained intact. At the same time, the muscles on her back were practically torn apart. There was not a single trace of a struggle. There were no particles of skin, hair, dust, or soil under Megan’s fingernails. There was no sand in her throat. No signs that she had been drowned or suffocated. No traces of ropes or scratches from rough clothing were found on the body. A small bruise was found on the parietal area of the head, but it could not have been fatal.

Toxicological analysis found no traces of alcohol or drugs. Electrolyte balance was normal. The lungs were clear. The stomach was almost empty, indicating that her last meal was apparently eaten 8 to 9 hours before death. No shoe prints were found at the site where the body was discovered. The ground was damp, but no footprints could be found. The rocks on which she was lying were partially covered with algae and forest moss. There were no signs of dragging. The body was in a natural position, as if the person had fallen to the ground on their own.

The official Carter County report for October 28th stated the cause of death as multiple unidentified injuries incompatible with life sustained under unknown circumstances. It emphasized that there are no signs of human or animal attack. No signs of dragging, the use of firearms, or stabbing weapons were found. It has not been established how the victim traveled more than 2 km in 6 minutes on foot without any means of transportation.

The latest data from the GPS device showed steady movement at a speed of about 21 km per hour during the first four minutes after Megan left the car. This rules out walking. However, there were no tire tracks near her car, nor any evidence that she could have used transportation. There were no witnesses on the trail. All routes registered that day were checked. No other tourists were in the sector within an 8 km radius.

According to experts, death occurred no earlier than 15 to 20 minutes before discovery. This led to speculation that the body had been moved later. However, this was refuted by the searchers themselves. The body was found precisely thanks to the GPS signal transmitted from the bracelet. It had not been turned off for a single minute since she left the car.

The police and forensic experts checked all possible versions: human attack, animal attack, sudden mental disorder, escape, and external attack. None of them were confirmed. One of the employees of the laboratory working with the Fleming County Medical Examiner’s Office later stated in an unofficial memo, “The Dowel case is the first case where the time of movement is physically impossible and the nature of the injuries does not fit any known pattern. It was not a predator, a fall, a weapon, psychosis, or a hoax.”

An internal investigation by the National Park Service yielded no new information. At the time the case was closed, all records, cameras, radio communications, and GPS confirmed that Megan Dowel left the car at 7:55 a.m. Eight hours and one minute later, the location of the body was recorded. The time gap was 6 minutes. In May 2016, the Kentucky Department of Parks sent an official notification to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As of October 25th, 2025, no new information has been received in the Megan Dowel case. The Blue Creek Hollow Forest area is closed to visitors. Access is restricted to authorized personnel. No further public comments have been released.

Conclusion

The stories of Rangers James Kfield, Thomas Ames, and Megan Dowel are chilling reminders of the dangers that lurk in the seemingly serene wilderness of America’s national parks. Each case shares eerie similarities—unexplained trauma, a lack of witnesses, and the absence of logical explanations for their deaths. As the investigations into their mysterious fates continue to gather dust in the archives, the question remains: what truly lies hidden in the depths of our national parks?

These unexplained deaths serve as a haunting testament to the wild, untamed nature of the forests, where the line between the known and the unknown blurs, leaving behind only questions and an enduring sense of unease.