The Vanishing of Richard Bendele
Episode 206
Richard Bendele
On a cold, November afternoon in 1996, twenty-nine year old Richard Bendele left his mother's home to do a little hunting where his recently deceased father used to take him. Hours later, Richard called his mother in a panic. He couldn't get his truck started and due to the darkness, he couldn't give specific directions to where he was. Planning to mark the road, to make finding him easier, Richard said he would call back, but he never did.
The next morning, investigators discovered his truck abandoned miles north of where they'd thought he had been. The scene itself was bizarre; a window was smashed out, the battery was broken and tilted upside down and Richard had left everything behind: his phone, his gun and his coat.
As massive searches were launched over the course of the next week, the discovery of several items belonging to Richard began making investigators wonder if, perhaps, Richard wasn't lost at all but actually the victim of a sinister trap.
Sources: