Tom Messick, Disappeared November 15, 2015, Horicon, Warren County, Lake George Wild Forest, New York

Revised January 2024

On November 15, 2015, Thomas Messick Sr., aged 82, an ex-paratrooper, walked into the woods south of Brant Lake in New State to hunt for deer and was never seen again. No sign of him or his belongings ever turned up, including a rifle and walkie-talkie, despite an extensive search of the area; unusually, the FBI was even involved in the investigation.

This is a strange and puzzling hunting disappearance.

The hunting trip to Lake George Wild Forest

Tom lived in the city of Troy in New York state and was out that Sunday with six friends and family members who were hunting near Lily Pond in an area of state land that is part of the Lake George Wild Forest. The older members of the group, four of them, were watchers (in a static position sat on a log or similar comfortable spot) and were in a near-vertical line, whilst the younger hunters used the path around the lake to drive the deer to the watchers as part of the drive.

Since the mid-1880s, Brant Lake has been a popular fishing and hunting area among wealthy visitors, including Theodore Roosevelt. Brant Lake Camp was incorporated by R.B. Gerstenzang, J.E. Eberly, and John F. Malloy in 1917.

After 55 years of hunting with longtime friends, also senior men, at the Messick's hunting camp in Hague, they decided to try this area for the first time.

Tom was supposed to stay in one spot as group members walked through the woods to push deer toward him, but when they arrived at where he was supposed to be, he was gone, without a trace of him or his belongings. No sign of any deer was found that day.

He wore duck boots, camouflage pants and coat, gloves, and a red-and-black check hat he'd worn for many years. He carried a rifle and walkie-talkie.

Who was Tom Messick?

Tom served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed approximately 160 pounds. He was an experienced hunter and woodsman and taught hunter and survival training for many years.

He had a history of heart problems and lost an eye in an accident with an explosive device in his early 20s, so he had poor vision and limited hearing, as well as 159 stitches in his hand. He had also just gotten over a case of shingles and nearly decided not to go on the annual hunting trip.

The Tom Messick disappearance and the search

He was last seen at 10 am, and when Messick did not show up at the agreed-upon time, his friends called Forest Rangers, and they searched from 4.30 pm. It got dark around 7 pm, and at that point, half the group stayed, fired their rifles, and honked the car horns to attract Tom to the area. The remaining men left the scene and reported him missing to family and the authorities.

The day after Tom had disappeared on November 16, the search started with 13 trained SAR professionals from the park service. It was well organized from the start.

A huge search over several weeks involving more than 300 professionals and volunteers on some days, assisted by dogs, divers, and several helicopters, found no clues, including no sign of his rifle or walkie-talkie. More than four square miles were searched, with a larger area being searched by air with the aid of a helicopter from the State Police Aviation Unit.

More than 15 agencies were involved, including DEC forest rangers, DEC police K-9 unit, DEC police officers, the FBI Quick Response Team, a State Police Special Operations Response Team, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office tactical team and volunteers from the New York State Federation of Search and Rescue Teams.

The weather was poor, with heavy rain, but sniffer dogs were deployed before the worst of the rain arrived. Searchers walked through the woods, including swamps, no matter how thick they were, and checked nearby roads, but there was absolutely nothing. Areas were tied off with string to box off specific areas, allowing a detailed search of every grid zone. It was described as a spider’s web of string in the forest.

What happened to Tom Messick?

Lost in the woods

Given his age, searchers were baffled as he could not have gotten far from his original location, and some said it was weird that there were no sounds of wildlife whilst the SAR teams were in operation, almost like something had silenced the woods.

The search area had many caves, crevices, and other hazards. Could he have somehow fallen into one of these? For a man of his age, was he mobile enough? Why were there no clues on the ground despite the methodical grid search?

Foul Play

Surprisingly, the FBI arrived on the fourth day, November 19th. This was unusual as the FBI never usually gets involved in these types of missing person cases unless they fall under federal jurisdiction, e.g., they happened on federal land, or it was believed a kidnapping was involved.

Tom’s wife Beverly said, "The FBI told me something isn't right with his case, but they don't know what. They won't share any theories if they have them. The FBI said until they make a discovery, they're never going to know."

But subsequently, investigators said there have been no indications of foul play. David Winchell, a spokesman for the DEC, said rangers continued to search the area on a “limited continuous” basis since a wide-scale ground search ended in January 2016. That means rangers check the area periodically for evidence or clues.

Abduction

Beverley said, "He'd been in the woods since he was a boy and if he got lost, he would have cut a piece of his jacket and tied it to a tree and done the other things he learned. His wife said her greatest fear was that he was the victim of foul play.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe someone came by in a quad, hurt him, got scared and drove him out of there. I keep praying they'll find him so we have some closure. I keep worrying that I didn't tell him I loved him the last day I saw him alive."

Events after the disappearance

In the summer of 2018, State Police used sniffer dogs trained to detect cadavers to go through portions of the woods and fields near where Messick disappeared. State Police Investigator Jon Deyette said no clues were found, but the police investigation was ongoing.

In the 2019 movie Missing 411 Hunted, featuring David Paulides, one of the participants in the hunting group was interviewed:

“I heard a strange noise in the woods, but I don't know what it was..Just a different noise from what I usually hear, you know?

“Like what?”

“It'd be hard to explain because...But it was different. Something different that I never heard before in the woods. I just can't say what it was, you know?”

“How long in duration was it? Was it two or three seconds?”

“No, it's just... Whatever it is, you know?”

“How far away was it?”

“I'd say it was probably 150 yards, something like that.”

“Was it toward Tom, or away from Tom?”

“This was up towards the hill. The top of the hill. Yeah.”

“Did you tell the cops this?”

“Yeah, I told them that. But they just passed it off, you know?”

Tom’s disappearance is yet another bizarre case. Tom just vanished off the face of the planet. He was elderly, but an experienced backwoodsman. A tough guy, an ex-paratrooper, and not one to wander off into the woods when on a hunt. He had a rifle and walkie-talkie, and no sign of them had been found despite a massive search of the area, including all the inaccessible parts, including water and caves. It was so big a search that locals thought someone high profile or famous, like a politician, was involved. Sniffer dogs nor FLIR-equipped helicopters were able to find any trace. Was he snatched from Lake George Wild Forest by a serial killer or something else? Or did he just choose to disappear suffering from dementia or a terminal disease?

The investigation into Messick's disappearance is still classified as an active missing person case by the authorities.

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