REVISITED: The Boys
Park Predators
This episode revisits two chilling true crime cases of young boys who vanished in national parks: David Gonzales from San Bernardino Nationa
Key takeaways
- David Gonzales disappeared after being allowed to retrieve cookies from a nearby truck—only 50 yards away—raising questions about how he vanished without a trace.
- Samuel Boehlke vanished during a walk with his father in snowy Crater Lake National Park, where indigenous legends speak of spirits abducting people into the lake.
Main topics
- Unsolved child disappearances
- National park safety and risk
Notable quotes
'He was a fairly quiet and shy kid who enjoyed being with his own family, not wandering off.'
Conclusion
Despite years of investigation and public awareness efforts, both David
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Hi everyone, it's Delia D'Ambra here, and I want to tell you about a podcast that's one of my personal favorites that I know you're going to love too, Dark Down East. Hosted by my friend and fellow investigative journalist Kylie Lowe, Dark Down East dives into New England's most haunting true crime cases. From unsolved mysteries to stories where justice has been served, Kylie brings her meticulous research and heartfelt storytelling to uncover the truth behind these cases. If you love the way I take you deep into the details of a case, then I know you'll appreciate Kylie's dedication to honoring the victims and uncovering their stories. There are so many episodes of Dark Down East already waiting for you and new episodes every Thursday. Find Dark Down East now wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:45) Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And this fall, we want to try something new on the Park Predators feed. Every Thursday this month, we'll re-release an episode that features a crime that took place in the summer. And these cases happened all across the United States. They are some of the most compelling crimes that I've covered on the show. From mysterious missing persons to unsolved homicides, I cover it all. And don't worry, on Tuesdays, you'll still get your new episode. as always. Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and today I'm going to tell you two stories, both of which are bewildering mysteries that still haunt the families of two young boys and remain on the minds of police investigators. Speaker 1 (1:31) The disappearances of David Gonzalez and Samuel Bolke, sometimes pronounced Belke, are not formally connected, mostly because they happened two years apart in two very different places. But I think it's important you hear their stories together because, to be honest, they're chilling reminders of just how quickly a child can be in one place one moment and then seemingly gone the next. And there's no place that's truer than in a national park or national forest. David vanished from San Bernardino National Forest, which sits about an hour and a half east of Los Angeles, California. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the area has hundreds of miles of hiking trails, seven designated wilderness areas, and 42 campgrounds, many of which are praised as being family-friendly. Samuel disappeared in the blink of an eye while out walking with his father in Crater Lake National Park. Somewhere in the breathtaking snowy terrain surrounding America's deepest lake, the truth of where Samuel went, or maybe still is, has eluded Oregon law enforcement for 17 years. Both boys deserve more than the label of lost or missing. They deserve to have resolution to their cases or be brought home. This is Park Predators. Speaker 1 (3:37) Around 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, July 31, 2004, Jose and Rosenda Gonzalez woke up at their campsite inside Hanna Flatt Family Campground in San Bernardino National Forest. The temperature outside was cool, but the couple could tell the day was going to heat up fast. Resenda told her husband the family needed water and volunteered to go to a nearby spigot to fill a jug. Around that same time, the couple's nine-year-old son, David, asked his parents if he could go to their truck to get some cookies they'd left locked inside. Which, can we just pause for a second here and say how amazingly nine-year-old-ish this request was? Cookies for breakfast? Yes, please. Totally something I would have done as a kid. Anyway, David really wanted these cookies, and because he was nine years old and capable of handling himself, his mom felt totally comfortable letting him take the keys and go get the snack on his own. Their truck was less than 50 yards away from their campsite and was only a few yards away from where Resenda herself would be getting water, so she knew David would probably be okay on his own. She didn't expect him to be gone more than a minute or two. But that much time came and went, and Rosenda hadn't heard from David. She went over to the truck to look for him, but when she arrived, she realized he wasn't there. She called out his name and walked around nearby, but David never answered. She didn't panic right away, though. She figured her son had probably just gone back to the campsite with his treat and given the car keys back to his dad, or maybe his older brother, 11-year-old Eduardo. Speaker 1 (5:22) But after Rosenda hurried back and spoke with her husband, Jose, they both realized David hadn't returned. That's when a deeper fear took root for the couple. Wandering off was just so out of character for David. He was a fairly quiet and shy kid who enjoyed being with his own family, not wandering off and adventuring on his own. The family had been at the campground since the day before, Friday, with other families from their church. The trip was an end of the summer and birthday celebration for David before all the kids went back to school. When Rosenda and Jose asked around with these other families to find out if David might be with the other kids from the group, everyone told them no, they hadn't seen David that morning. The Hannaflat family campground where everyone was staying is in a section of the National Forest called Big Bear Lake Recreation Area. It's known as one of the best campsites for families or large groups, especially those with young children. It's somewhat isolated, but not like way out in the boonies kind of isolated. The U.S. Forest Service says it's only two miles from California Highway 38, which is the main road that goes around the top of Big Bear Lake. Speaker 1 (6:40) Shortly after the Gonzalez's realized David was missing, they flagged down a safety officer at the campsite, and that person radioed the information to San Bernardino Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Forest Service. By the time authorities arrived around 10 o'clock, the Gonzalez's were in a full panic. Deputies tried to calm them down and learn as much information as they could about why the family was there, when the last time David had been seen, and all of that kind of stuff. Authorities also wanted to know if anyone in the family had seen suspicious activity in the campground leading up to David vanishing. While some deputies began interviewing visitors, a few detectives and David's parents went over to the family's truck to take a look around. What they found was odd. The cookies David told his mom he wanted were still sitting inside the vehicle. The doors were locked, and the keys he'd taken with him weren't on the ground nearby, which meant only a few things could have happened. One, David had changed his mind about getting the snack and then just kept the keys and for some reason hadn't returned to his family right away. Or two, He'd never made it the short distance from his family's campsite to the vehicle. Somewhere in the 25 to 50 yards after talking with his mom and leaving to go to the truck, something had derailed David. But his parents couldn't wrap their heads around what that might have been. Because if he'd wandered off or maybe gotten lost heading back to the wrong row of campsites or something, surely they or one of the families they were with would have spotted him. ABC News reported that at the time David disappeared, Hannaflat Campground was full of visitors, so it just didn't make sense how he'd seem to just vanish into thin air. Investigators felt confident someone had to have seen something. Resenda told sheriff's deputies that she'd noticed a large beige truck speeding away from the campground around the time David would have been going to get the cookies. She told investigators that she felt in her heart this vehicle might be involved. Deputies took that tip and ran with it. The department told ABC News that they'd like to speak with the driver because they felt it was possible whoever it was might have some information about David's disappearance. The sheriff's office didn't go as far as to say, though, that they thought this driver had abducted David or anything like that. They just wanted to know if the driver saw anything. Speaker 1 (9:13) David's family told investigators and the media that David mostly spoke Spanish, so if someone he didn't know had found him, they should be aware that he probably wouldn't be able to understand them very well. They also said that he had a speech impediment, so that would also make communicating with him difficult. The missing person report that went out for the nine-year-old described him as three feet, ten inches tall, weighing 52 pounds with black hair, brown eyes, and a missing tooth. The last time his parents had seen him, he'd been wearing a blue t-shirt with motorcycle designs on it, gray sweatpants, and white Nike shoes. David was also said to have a scar on his right knee and a mole near his belly button, which for authorities was a helpful detail. If investigators found themselves in a situation where they needed to rule out other boys that tipsters sent their way, those unique details about David would come in handy. Speaker 1 (10:11) What's wild to me, though, is that according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times, an Amber Alert was not issued for David on Saturday or any day after he disappeared. His dad, Jose, told reporters he didn't want to ask San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office to put out that alert if it wasn't necessary. And the Sheriff's Office clearly agreed because according to a spokeswoman for the department, investigators never issued one because they, quote, saw no sign of an abduction, end quote. Now, I'm not sure why a young boy disappearing in the blink of an eye from a busy campground with a truck seen speeding off shortly afterwards isn't a qualifier for a sign of an abduction, but regardless of what I think, that's what happened. Some of you are probably wondering, well, maybe the department didn't issue an Amber Alert because they already suspected David's family might be involved. And you'd have a point. But the problem with that theory is that early on in the investigation, like from day one, San Bernardino detectives went on record with the media and stated they did not believe Rosenda or Jose or any of their church friends were involved. There's no source material that explains how exactly investigators came to this conclusion, but they did make it a point to say the family and friends had been cleared. My best guess is that all of those individuals