David Paulides, author of 'Missing 411'
A former San Jose police officer and Bigfoot researcher who self-publishes the 'Missing 411' books and films on people who vanished in parks and forests.
2012 CE · 37.34, -121.89 · status: claim
The account
Paulides began a police career in 1977 and moved to the San Jose Police Department in 1980, working patrol, SWAT and as a detective; his police career ended after a 1996 misdemeanour charge. He founded North America Bigfoot Search and wrote two Bigfoot books (2008, 2009) before turning to wilderness disappearances. From 2012 he self-published the 'Missing 411' series, cataloguing well over a thousand cases he says share unusual features. He has said he has no theory of the cause and that he only presents patterns, while hinting that the 'field of suspects is narrowing'. Supporters credit him with collecting old and neglected cases; critics say he selects cases to fit and leaves out known explanations.
The sceptical view
Sceptical reviewers (Skeptoid, the data scientist Kyle Polich) find no unusual rate of disappearances, and note his ties to Bigfoot advocacy as a possible bias.
Connections in the atlas
- The 'Missing 411' book series
- 'Missing 411' documentary film
- The FOIA requests and the quoted fees
- Kyle Polich's data analysis of Missing 411
- The Missing 411 'profile points'
- Bigfoot (Sasquatch)
- 'Missing 411' and Yosemite