Paradoxical undressing and terminal burrowing
Two documented behaviours of people dying of hypothermia, removing clothing and crawling into small spaces, which account for 'missing clothes' and bodies found wedged in hollows.
1979 CE · 37.70, -119.62 · status: explained
The account
In moderate to severe hypothermia, confused victims often take off their clothes, apparently because failing blood-vessel control makes them feel suddenly hot; it is reported in roughly 20 to 50 percent of hypothermia deaths. In the last stage some crawl into tight, enclosed places, a behaviour called terminal burrowing or 'hide-and-die', thought to be an automatic protective reflex. Both are well described in forensic medicine. Together they explain two of the most striking Missing 411 details: people found without shoes or clothes, and bodies found in crevices, under logs or in places searchers had passed.
Connections in the atlas
- Charles McCullar, Crater Lake
- Skeptoid, 'Why You Needn't Worry About the Missing 411'
- The Missing 411 'profile points'
- Robert Koester, 'Lost Person Behavior'
- 'Missing 411' and Yosemite