Do you think Daniel Wilson??

[hostedbyrobertstack]

I was watching this segment, and in the update when his body was found 5 miles from his car, intrigueing. I wonder if he really had stayed at that homeless shelter where a man w/ the name of daniel wilson signed the registry. The signature looked identical. Do you think he could have wandered to billings and stayed there, and tried to get back to his car and maybe thats when he died, its strange.

[DarkDante]

Anything is possible but its highly probable that this was a case of the police just not doing a broad enough grid search as it was and not finding his remains until years later. Did they ever note a cause of death?

I remember the update saying that he wandered from his car and possibly died of exposure. I'd say foul play in this case is an almost non-existant possibility but I wonder since the remains had been there for so long (I believe over 10 years), maybe they couldn't exactly tell how he died making suicide in my mind a distinct possibility.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Given that I know how cold it gets in that area, I'm going to assume that the fate of Daniel Wilson was either that he 1) wandered away from his car and froze to death in the cold Montana temperatures, or 2) wandered out there and committed suicide.

Since I don't think anything was found near Wilson's body that would suggest that he committed suicide, I tend to believe that he succombed to hypothermia in the cold Montana temperatures. This would explain why his body was found such a short distance from his car and why the body went undiscovered for so long. The sightings, however, are what trip me up a bit. Obviously, I do not think it was him in the Billings homeless shelter. However, it makes me wonder who it was...

[kadrmas15]

Well Daniel Wilson, I dont know that he would kill himself. His body being found does raise an interesting possibility of him being murdered although I think it is unlikely. However it is possible. I think the odds are better than not that Daniel Wilson wondered away from his car when he either stopped it for unknown reasons or ran out of gas. However it was obvious the sheriff did not do the extensive search he claimed to have done.

I b elieve the update said that Dan Wilson;s body was found about 3 miles from where his car was found. Wilson's body was found I believe 9 years after he disappeared. I think that there are two possibilities why Wilson's body was not found during the 1988 search. Either the sheriff did not do as extensieve of a search as he claimed or they did search that area but Dan Wilson's body was not there in 1988.

I know the sheriff to me seemed genuinely puzzled that Wilson's body was not in the immediate vicinity. He made it seemed like they searched a several mile radius and came across nothing. So it could be possible that Dan Wilson was alive for a while after he disappeared, for days or weeks, made it to the homeless shelter and then for bizarre reasons decided to go back to his car. Or he could have picked up someone and they could have killed him and stolen his identity. However wouldnt someone have been seen trying to hitch a ride out of the area? That area seems to be in the middle of no where so it seems like you would have to walk a long ways to hitch a ride or someone would remember picking up someone that wanted a ride.

By the way, Tony Harbaugh is still the sheriff in that area and was just re-elected last year I believe.

[fascination]

Just watched this one for the first time. It doesn't happen often, but my jaw dropped open at the update. I guess I really thought that was him at the homeless shelter. It saddens me so much when I think the remains were right under the noses of investigators, but missed for whatever reason, while hope lingered in the hearts of loved ones.

Things to consider:

- was the registry signature they showed on UM the actual one, or was it one recreated by UM and possibly looked more like Dan Wilson's for that reason?After all the other stories of first hand sightings of missing people who were actually deceased, I don't trust the staff accounts that they'd seen him as much as that signature.

- the carbon monoxide leak could very well have caught up with him. Perhaps he felt dizzy or ill, stopped to get some fresh air, was disoriented and succumbed to the elements and/or poisoning? If he was driving that car for as many months as stated, a long drive may have caused the level of carbon monoxide to be lethal. (Although I don't know that's how CM poisoning works- I think you'd have to get exposed to it in one shot. If his family didn't die driving the car back home, then this may be a fruitless avenue. Perhaps someone else can shed some light.)

At least his remains were found. Makes me think of similar UM cases (Rogest Cain, Devin Williams) and if their remains were also not far from where their car/truck was found. I imagine having that closure is so crucial for their families.

[justins5256]

Alright, let's not get too crazy into wild and outlandish theorizing. I always thought this case was a no brainer.

He wandered off in to the prairie and died.

I suppose it is questionable whether it was an accident or suicide, but either way, I don't think any foul play was involved.

As far as the sighting in Billings, I think the homeless shelter employees genuinely wanted to be helpful, but I don't think they saw this Daniel Wilson.

Also, the name is just so generic. I think the signatures look similar, but I'm not a handwriting expert and it doesn't mention if they had the signatures examined by such an expert. If they did not, then any suggestion of similarity is moot as it is a layman's opinion.

Further still, at least one version of the segment mentioned that the guy at the homeless shelter had a woman and some kids with him. This doesn't sound like Daniel Wilson at all.

In the end, I think this is yet another case of a family grasping at straws to cope with the unusual disappearance/death of a loved one.

[fascination]

[QUOTE=justins5256]Alright, let's not get too crazy into wild and outlandish theorizing.

Was just trying to find an explanation for why the signatures looked so alike on the show.

I think that's exactly where this mystery ended up: accidental death or suicide. Ultimately it's the family that most struggles with that type of question.

I agree on the grasping at straws to cope. The segment really leads you down one path when it was another simpler one altogether. Seems like this happens a lot with eyewitness 'sightings'.

[Arnold_OldSchool]

The Bigfoot who nabbed Don Kemp snagged Wilson too.

[Mike82]

I recently saw this segment and agree that he most likely died of exposure. However, playing Devil's advocate how on earth could the body go that long without being discovered? For Pete's sake I once dropped my cell phone in a very secluded, forested area of a local park and it only took four days for someone to find it and contact me. I know Montana is very sparsely populated but that still seems a stretch: no human wandered into that area in all that time? Seems hard to believe.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Mike82

I recently saw this segment and agree that he most likely died of exposure. However, playing Devil's advocate how on earth could the body go that long without being discovered? For Pete's sake I once dropped my cell phone in a very secluded, forested area of a local park and it only took four days for someone to find it and contact me. I know Montana is very sparsely populated but that still seems a stretch: no human wandered into that area in all that time? Seems hard to believe.

It has been awhile since I watched, but wasn't it a prairie situated somewhere along the highway? Probably not much reason for folks to go out there.

I really think this is one of those cases where the simple solution makes the most sense.

[Huskerz85]

The excess carbon monoxide that was leaking into his car, over time, really messed him up - enough so that he became irrational and disoriented enough to wander out into that desolate patch of prairie and die of exposure.

It took a few viewings of this segment before I figured the simplest explanation was the most likely.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by Mike82

I recently saw this segment and agree that he most likely died of exposure. However, playing Devil's advocate how on earth could the body go that long without being discovered? For Pete's sake I once dropped my cell phone in a very secluded, forested area of a local park and it only took four days for someone to find it and contact me. I know Montana is very sparsely populated but that still seems a stretch: no human wandered into that area in all that time? Seems hard to believe.

Those prairies are frickin huge. I've made the same argument in the Patricia Meehan case-- even though those prairies are along a stretch of highway, you can absolutely lose someone in them, especially if there was a fresh snow that may have covered footprints, etc.

[Guitar]

I remember this case well because when I was a kid it blew my mind and terrified me that someone could get brain damage from a malfunctioning car.

I believe that he just wandered away from the car in a dazed, suicidal panic as a result of the carbon monoxide exposure. I don't believe that he checked into a shelter.

I collect autographs. Assuming that his mom's copy of his signature and the signature that was on the logbook that we saw weren't staged for TV (and why would Unsolved just forge the things?) I don't see any "striking similarity" there whatsoever. They look like two completely different sets of handwriting.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by Guitar

I remember this case well because when I was a kid it blew my mind and terrified me that someone could get brain damage from a malfunctioning car.

I believe that he just wandered away from the car in a dazed, suicidal panic as a result of the carbon monoxide exposure. I don't believe that he checked into a shelter.

I collect autographs. Assuming that his mom's copy of his signature and the signature that was on the logbook that we saw weren't staged for TV (and why would Unsolved just forge the things?) I don't see any "striking similarity" there whatsoever. They look like two completely different sets of handwriting.

If I haven't welcomed you yet... welcome!

I appreciate your comments about the signatures. I thought there were differences, too, but I'm no expert...

[Cooker3]

Originally Posted by justins5256

I really think this is one of those cases where the simple solution makes the most sense.

Yeah this case is a perfect microcosm of all those missing person cases where the family desperately cling to hope they are still alive or alternatively didn't commit suicide when Occam's razor suggests a very obvious conclusion.
We had the classic eyewitness sighting which it turns out was unfortunately wrong like they are usually are.
At least we found out definitely what happened and the family got some resolution.