On July 1st, around noon, while patrolling his beat, he encountered Pierce, Rose, and Philillip at one of the trail junctions.

They looked like ordinary, experienced hikers, Thompson says.

Good equipment, proper footwear, water, maps.

They had everything.

We talked a little about the route.

I warned them that some of the trails they plan to take might be washed out due to recent rains and advised them to stay away from the edge of the canyon, especially in the little Dolores area.

The rocks there are very fragile and could collapse.

I also mentioned that a thunderstorm was forecast, but at the time it looked like it would pass the plateau by.

The ranger recalls that the teenagers listened carefully to his advice and thanked him for the information.

Nothing in their behavior caused him concern.

They seemed cheerful, energetic, and wellprepared for the hike.

“If I had known what was going to happen, I would never have let them go,” Thompson adds sadly.

“But that day, they were just three ordinary teenagers setting off on an adventure like hundreds of others I’ve seen on these trails.

” When the children didn’t call on July 2nd or 3, their parents began to worry, but they didn’t panic yet.

After all, PICE had warned that communication might be poor.

In addition, a severe thunderstorm could have forced them to change their route or stay in a safe place.

“We thought they would just wait for the weather to calm down and then continue on their way,” says James Clark, Philip’s father.

Philillip was very responsible.

he would never take unnecessary risks.

We knew that if the weather was bad, they would find shelter and just wait it out.

However, when the evening of July 3rd arrived, the day the teenagers were supposed to return home, and they did not show up, their parents could no longer ignore their concern.

At 8:00 p.m.

, Richard Murphy called the National Park Rangers office.

I remember that call well, says Steve Johnson.

Mr. Murphy was very restrained, but I could hear the fear in his voice.

He asked if the teenagers had returned via the main trail, if they had left any information about their change of plans.

Unfortunately, we had no information about them since they registered on July 1st.

The rangers advised waiting until morning.

Perhaps the teenagers had been delayed on the trail by bad weather or had decided to spend an extra day in the mountains.

But Richard and the other parents sensed that something was wrong.

They knew their children.

They knew they wouldn’t cause such a commotion without reason.

“I hardly slept that night,” Richard recalls.

“I kept trying to call Pierce, but his phone was out of range.

I checked the weather forecast, looked at maps, tried to figure out where they might be.

” In the morning, when it became clear that they weren’t coming back, we filed an official missing person’s report.

On July 4th, 2020, at 7:00 a.m.

, rangers from the Colorado National Reserve officially launched a search operation.

No one could have imagined then that the search would last for weeks, months, and that the answers to the main questions would not appear even after 5 years.

On July 4th, 2020, at 7:00 a.m.

, one of the largest search operations in the history of Mesa County, Colorado began.

A team of 12 national park rangers led by Steve Johnson were the first to set out on the trails that the missing teenagers were supposed to have taken.

They were joined by eight Mesa County police officers led by Sheriff Robert Anderson.

We immediately realized that the situation was serious.

Sheriff Anderson said, “Usually when hikers are delayed for a day or two, they still get in touch or are spotted by other park visitors.

But in this case, more than 48 hours had passed without any word from the children.

By the evening of that day, dozens of volunteers had joined the search.

Friends of the families, teachers from the teenager school, and local residents familiar with the plateau.

Dog handlers from neighboring counties arrived with four search and rescue dogs specially trained to find people in the wilderness.

Dogs are our main hope in cases like this, explains Marcus Reed, an experienced dog handler with the Colorado Search and Rescue Service.

They can pick up a human scent even several days after the person has passed by, especially if they have a scent sample, an item that belonged to the missing person.

To this end, the parents provided the teenager’s personal belongings.

Pierce’s t-shirt, Rose’s scarf, and Philip’s baseball cap.

The dogs were given these items to sniff before being released onto the trail.

Weather conditions did not favor the search operation.

Although the storm had passed, the ground was soggy from rain, making it difficult to find traces.

Some sections of the trails had been washed away and small landslides had formed.

It was as if nature was deliberately confusing the trail, recalls Ranger Johnson.

But we were determined.

We had a clear plan to split into groups and methodically search the entire route marked on the map and the surrounding areas.

The next day, July 5th, aircraft joined the search.

Two Colorado National Guard helicopters equipped with thermal imaging cameras circled the plateau from morning to night, looking for any signs of human presence.

We covered an area of about 50 square miles, says pilot James Williams.

It wasn’t easy because of the terrain.

Numerous gorges, canyons, and cliffs created many shadows and obstacles for the thermal imaging camera, but we did everything we could.

The breakthrough in the search came on the sixth day, July 9th.

A group of rangers led by Michael Thompson found the camp of the missing teenagers.

It was located exactly where Pierce had described it during his last phone call on a small plateau overlooking the canyon about 7 mi from the trail head.

It was a strange feeling, Thompson recalls.

The camp looked as if the teenagers had just stepped away for a few minutes and were about to return.

The tent was neatly pitched, undamaged.

Inside were three sleeping bags spread out as if ready for use.

Three pairs of hiking boots stood neatly arranged by the entrance.

Next to the tent was a makeshift table, a flat rock covered with a waterproof cloth.

On it stood a gas burner for cooking, several containers of food and dishes.

A little further away, a bag of food supplies hung on a rope between two trees, a traditional way to protect provisions from wild animals.

Everything was in its place, Thompson continues.

water supplies, canned food, energy bars, flashlights, a first aid kit.

Even the teenager’s personal belongings were left in the tent.

Philip’s wallet with his driver’s license, Rose’s notebook with notes about the plants she found along the way, and most intriguingly, Pice’s camera.

The camera was found to be in working order with the battery almost fully charged.

When investigators reviewed the photos, they found many pictures of the trip.

Panoramas of canyons, photos of rocks, selfies of the three friends against picturesque backdrops.

All of these photos were dated July 1st, corresponding to the first day of the trip.

But the most interesting were the last six photos taken on the morning of July 2nd.

They showed the entrance to the cave, a dark hole in a red rock, partially hidden by bushes.

In the next three photos, Pierce was apparently going deeper into the cave.

The frames became darker, showing only the walls of the cave, illuminated presumably by a flashlight.

The last two photos were the most mysterious.

The penultimate photo showed a strange blurry figure against the darkness of the cave.

Something that resembled a human figure, but too blurry to say for sure.

The last frame showed nothing but complete darkness, as if something had covered the lens or the camera had turned off.

These photos gave us the first clue as to what might have happened, said Detective Robert Garcia of the Colorado State Police, who joined the investigation.

“It seems that the teenagers found a cave near their camp and went to explore it.

Perhaps there they encountered something or someone that led to their disappearance.

Based on the photos, the search operation focused on finding the cave depicted in the photographs.

However, this proved to be a difficult task.

The Black Ridge Plateau is known for its numerous caves and grotto, many of which are not yet marked on maps.

“We searched all known caves within a 3m radius of the camp,” says speliologist David Rodriguez, who advised the search team, but none of them matched the one in the photos.

“This suggests that the teenagers may have found a previously unknown cave, which is entirely possible in this region.

” Over time, investigators developed several theories about what might have happened to the teenagers.

The first and most obvious was an accident in a cave.

The teenagers could have gotten lost, fallen into an internal well or crevice, or been caught in a cave in.

“Caves are very dangerous places for inexperienced cavers,” explains Rodriguez.

“Even professionals die in them.

One wrong step, one rock that shifts, and the way back may be cut off.

The second version is an attack by a wild animal.

Although large predators are rare in this region, a cougar or bear could still have wandered into the area.

That’s unlikely, comments John Baker, a zoologologist at the University of Colorado.

First, large predators usually avoid humans.

Second, if an attack had occurred, we would have found traces of a struggle, blood, damaged items.

Nothing like that was found at the camp.

The third version, considered by investigators, is a criminal trace.

Someone could have encountered the teenagers in this remote area and for unknown reasons harmed them.

We are not ruling out any possibilities, Sheriff Anderson comments cautiously.

But again, if it was an attack or kidnapping, it would be logical to expect signs of a struggle.

Furthermore, in such a case, the perpetrator would hardly have left the camp untouched, including such valuable items as a camera.

The last and least likely version was voluntary escape.

Theoretically, the teenagers could have staged their disappearance to start a new life somewhere else.

We had to consider this possibility, explains Detective Garcia.

But everything we know about these young people contradicts this scenario.

All three were happy, had plans for the future, and good relationships with their families.

They had no reason to run away.

Besides, they left all their documents, money, and phones behind.

The search operation continued at full intensity for 2 weeks.

Then, due to a lack of new leads, and limited resources, it was gradually scaled back.

The number of rangers and police officers involved decreased.

Helicopters returned to their bases and volunteers began to return to their normal activities.

That’s the hardest part of any search operation, admits Ranger Johnson.

When you realize you’ve done everything you can, but it’s still not enough when you have to look the parents in the eye and tell them that the search is being called off even though their children have not been found.

By the end of July 2020, the official search operation had been suspended.

The case of the disappearance of Pierce Murphy, Rose Donovan, and Philip Clark was transferred to the Colorado State Police’s cold case unit.

It became another cold case in the law enforcement archives.

5 years have passed since Pierce Murphy, Rose Donovan, and Philip Clark disappeared on the Black Ridge Plateau.

According to the official classification of the Colorado State Police, this case has been given cold status, a term used for investigations where the active search for evidence has been suspended due to a lack of new leads.

The case remains open, but no one is actually working on it.

This is standard procedure, explains Captain Michael Henderson of the Colorado State Police’s cold case unit.

A year after the disappearance, if there is no significant progress, the case is transferred to our unit.

We review it once a year to see if there is any new evidence or information.

Unfortunately, in the Murphy Donovan Clark case, there has not been a single noteworthy lead in 5 years.

Over the past 5 years, the lives of the families of the missing teenagers have changed dramatically.

The tragedy that initially united them in shared grief has over time led them down different paths, each marked by pain and attempts to cope with uncertainty.

Richard and Martha Murphy, PICE’s parents, divorced 3 years after their son’s disappearance.

It wasn’t a sudden breakup, Martha says sadly.

It was more of a slow drifting apart.

Richard immersed himself in his work and was hardly ever home.

I on the other hand couldn’t bring myself to leave the house because I kept thinking that Pierce might come back and I wouldn’t be there.

We just became different people.

Richard moved to Denver where he works as an engineer for a large construction company.

Martha stayed in Grand Junction but moved to a new house because the memories associated with her former home were too painful.

She works as an elementary school teacher and leads a local support group for parents of missing children.

Emily Donovan, Rose’s mother, fell into a deep depression after her daughter’s disappearance.

During the first two years, she was admitted to a psychiatric clinic several times due to suicide attempts.

I just didn’t see the point in living anymore.

She admits, “Rose was my whole world.

She was so smart, so kind.

Sometimes I feel like a part of me died with her in those mountains.

” Gradually, thanks to therapy and the support of friends, Emily began to return to life.

She now works as a counselor at a support center for people who have experienced traumatic loss.

It helps me feel that Rose’s death, I call it death, even though her body was never found, wasn’t completely in vain, that I can use my experience to help others.

The most radical changes took place in the Clark family.

James and Sarah Clark, Philip’s parents, were unable to cope with their grief and guilt over letting their son go on that hike.

A year after his disappearance, they sold their home and business in Grand Junction and moved to Maine on the opposite end of the country.

“We just couldn’t stay where everything reminded us of Philillip,” Sarah explains in a rare phone interview.

“Every mountain on the horizon, every trail in the forest brought back painful memories.

We needed to get as far away from Colorado as possible from these mountains that took our son away.

Despite the official closure of the investigation, a small group of enthusiasts continues to search for the missing teenagers.

The Colorado Search team is the name given to a group of 15 people who conduct several expeditions a year to the Black Ridge Plateau area.

We can’t just forget about these kids, says Alan Peterson, founder of the group and former physics teacher at the school where the missing teenagers studied.

They were wonderful young people with bright futures.

Their families deserve answers, closure on this story.

So, several times a year, we go back there and continue searching.

Over the past 5 years, the group has explored dozens of caves and ravines in the area where the teenagers disappeared, but has found no trace of them.

However, they are not giving up.

As long as the bodies haven’t been found, there’s still hope, Peterson insists, although you can see in his eyes that he himself hardly believes it.

In the years since their disappearance, the Black Ridge Plateau has become overgrown with eerie legends.

Rumors of the Black Ridge Cave curse have spread among local residents.

Old Indian legends say that spirits live in these caves and they don’t like to be disturbed, says Ela Navaro, owner of a small motel in Grand Junction.

After what happened to those children, many locals avoid going to the plateau, especially its northwestern part.

They say you can hear strange sounds there, especially at night.

Of course, the authorities reject any mystical explanations.

It’s just a way for people to cope with a tragedy that has no rational explanation, comments psychologist Dr.

Lindseay Wong.

When something terrible happens for no apparent reason, the human psyche looks for any explanation, even supernatural ones.

Recently, a new aspect has emerged in the case, a technological one.

The FBI, using the latest image analysis equipment, decided to review the mysterious photos from PICE’s camera.

Technology is advancing very quickly, explains Alex Wong, the FBI special agent overseeing the case.

What was indistinguishable 5 years ago can now be seen.

Our new image enhancement algorithms allow us to extract much more detail from blurry or dark photos.

Of particular interest is the penultimate photo which shows a blurry figure in the depths of the cave.

Experts hope that after processing it will be possible to determine whether it was a person, an animal, or just a play of light and shadow.

We are not making any promises, Wong cautiously comments.

But if we manage to get more information from these photos, it could give the investigation a new boost.

Perhaps we will finally understand what happened to these children on that summer day 5 years ago.

5 years is a long time for an unsolved case.

Evidence becomes stale.

Witnesses forget details.

Investigators move on to new cases.

But for the Pierce, Rose, and Philip families, these 5 years have been just a moment in the eternity of their grief and uncertainty.

They are still waiting for answers.

And perhaps those answers will come soon, though not in the way they had hoped.

On August 7th, 2025, a group of six geology students from the University of Colorado, led by Professor David Hawkins, was conducting field research on the northwestern edge of the Black Ridge Plateau.

The expedition was part
of a summer practicum for senior students specializing in desert geology.

We were studying the sandstone formations in the area, says Professor Hawkins, a 52-year-old man with a weathered face and a gray beard.

This part of the plateau is less explored than the tourist routts and contains interesting geological features that we wanted to document.

The students set up base camp at the foot of the plateau and made daily radial trips in different directions to collect samples and photograph geological formations.

On August 7th, the group’s route took them through a small canyon located about 10 mi from the nearest tourist trail.

It was a hot day, 95° in the shade, recalls Jessica Palmer, a 21-year-old student and one of the expedition members.

We were walking along the bottom of a dry riverbed when Mike, one of the guys in our group, noticed a dark hole in the rock, partially hidden by bushes.

It looked like the entrance to a cave.

Michael Rodriguez, a 22-year-old student who was the first to notice the cave, confirms, “I’m into caving in my spare time, so I’m always on the lookout for caves.

This one was small with an entrance no more than 4 ft high, but it seemed to widen inside.

I called the professor and asked if we could take a look inside.

Professor Hawkins, satisfied that the entrance was relatively safe, allowed a small group of three students, Michael, Jessica, and Tyler Chen, to explore the cave while he and the others continued to collect samples outside.

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