Craig Ryan and Jacob Bennett Disappearance

The disappearance of Craig Ryan and Jacob Bennett begins as a search for two young hikers and becomes a warning that the attacks around Grundy may be deliberate. Their campsite is found devastated, with blood and large tracks but no bodies, leaving the searchers to confront the possibility that the men were taken from the site by wolves.

Background and Search

The two hikers, students from ASU, had come through town and tried to use fake identification to buy beer. They planned to head up the mountain and play Survivor Man before bad weather arrived. They were expected to check in with friends, but the last report of them was three days before their disappearance became known.

Buzz and several other Grundy residents joined the search, while Pete stayed behind at the Blue Glacier Saloon at Buzz’s request. The searchers located the hikers’ campsite on the far northwest edge of the Evanston Game Reserve, close to Mo’s house. The tent had been torn apart; sleeping bags, food, and the rest of the hikers’ gear lay scattered as though a tornado had passed through. Large tracks marked the site. Alan reported blood smeared across the campsite, but no bodies or body parts. The scene suggested that the men had fought and then been dragged away. They had rifles, and the searchers considered it unlikely that one wolf could surprise and kill two grown men; multiple wolves would have been needed.

The evidence also seemed to depart from ordinary wolf behavior. Alan observed that even packs usually avoided people when they could escape, and that human attacks were more commonly attributed to a single sick or frightened animal. Here, the damage looked organized: the attacker or attackers seemed to know how to get in and take what they wanted without being hurt. The ruined camp therefore offered no resolution—only a sharper, more disturbing question about the nature of the threat.

Escalation and Uncertainty

The disappearance unfolded amid other attacks that made the possibility of a wider threat harder to dismiss. Susie Q was found in her driveway with her throat nearly torn out and was taken to a hospital in Dearly in intensive care; tracks and fur at the scene pointed to an animal rather than a human assailant. The resemblance between that attack and the large tracks at the hikers’ campsite sharpened the fear that the danger was not confined to one isolated encounter.

The later death of Abner brought the threat still closer to the community. Found with deep claw wounds across his chest and an unused rifle beside him, he died while Mo tried to help him. Cooper wondered whether he might have attacked Abner while transformed, since Abner had seemed terrified of him, but Cooper could remember nothing from that night. This uncertainty reinforced the central unanswered question raised by the hikers’ disappearance: the evidence suggested coordinated violence by wolves, yet it did not identify the attackers or establish what had happened to Craig Ryan and Jacob Bennett.

Official Response and the Limits of the Search

The search moved beyond Grundy’s volunteer effort when the State Department of Wildlife arranged to send reinforcements at first light. Alan planned to return in the morning and search farther into the forest than he had felt comfortable taking the volunteers. The decision marks a change in scale: the damaged campsite had made the danger serious enough to require additional support, but the search still had no clear account of what had happened to the hikers.

Outsiders and Recognition

The disappearance also exposes how the search changes Mo’s sense of Grundy’s social boundaries. Amid the steady flow of tourists, she cannot remember the particular pair of hikers, and her failure to recognize them troubles her. She realizes that she has begun to see people as the town does: divided between those who belong to Grundy and those who do not. The hikers’ absence is therefore registered not only as a frightening mystery but as a test of attention and belonging—two young outsiders have vanished near Mo’s home, yet until the search begins they remain indistinguishable from the passing visitors.