On September 3, 2016, Justin Alexander Shetler was traveling through India’s Parvati Valley with only a walking stick that he had turned into a flute and a wool blanket.
The Oregon native was never seen again.
The case of the missing survivor is currently being covered by Tenderfoot TV’s podcast, Status: Untraced, hosted by Liam Luxon, which aims to find out what happened to the now 43-year-old survivor.
“The story itself is really interesting and strange,” Lacson told Fox News Digital.
“Justin’s a survival expert, so he’d be the one living off the grid. He’s got all the training for it. He knows how to speak the birds, which is amazing. He’s lived in a cave. He can make a fire from anywhere.”
“One of the last things he wrote on his blog and on social media was, ‘I should be back, but if I’m not back by then, don’t come looking for me,'” Lacson said. “It was weird. It was all really weird.”
For the podcast, Lacson got in touch with many of Shetler’s loved ones, including friends, family and wilderness survival trainers and mentors.
“I know a lot of people are mentally prepared to believe what they believe,” Lacson said. “Certainly, there have been a lot of different theories put forward. We’ve ruled some out during our investigation. I don’t know how other people feel. But I personally believe I know what happened, and I think most of his loved ones believed they knew what happened as well.”
according to Outside OnlineThere is only one road in and out of the Parvati Valley, and it is so narrow that it must make sharp turns to allow a bus to pass, with just inches to spare. In some places the cliffs drop hundreds of feet into the Parvati River.
Named after the Hindu goddess of fertility and faith, the lake’s waters can have “powerful and violent forces” despite its seemingly calm, blue surface.
“We have a lot of first-hand testimony from people who were with him,” Lacson said.
“For the last month that we know of his whereabouts, he was living in a cave in a camp in the Himalayas. It’s a very beautiful place – it’s like a medieval military town. He was staying just outside the camp but it was four hours from the nearest road – he had to walk there.”
“While he was there, he met an Indian holy man,” Lacson continued.
“This guy invited him on a trek to a mountain where the Hindu god Shiva is said to have meditated for about 3,000 years. It’s a very sacred place. I know he hiked up to this mountain, and he hiked with two other people… It’s common for people to get lost in the mountains. But that was a message he wrote beforehand: Don’t look for me.”
It wasn’t until mid-September that one of Schettler’s friends began contacting a mutual friend and asking Schettler what had happened. Something was wrong.
“Justin’s mother and a friend flew there to get more information,” Lacson said. “They arrived in October. Other people passed him along the way. They said Justin was going down a mountain and there was only one way up and down. I’ve walked that path now and it definitely seemed like he made it to the camp. Also, this guy is a survival expert. He didn’t spend days deep in the desert with no water and nothing around him. He should have made this journey. Nothing added up.”
Parvati Valley is a popular haven for travelers on a spiritual quest, many of whom come here to meditate, practice yoga, or simply enjoy solitude.
But the valley also hides a dark secret.
According to official and unofficial reports, at least 24 foreign tourists have died or gone missing in and around Parvati Valley in the last 25 years, Outside reported.
It was common for distraught family members to post stories of missing people on social media, online messaging forums and travel message boards in the hope of attracting someone with information, the outlet said. The destination has since been nicknamed “Death Valley”.
Since Shetler’s disappearance, numerous conspiracy theories have emerged attempting to explain what happened to him.
Some have suggested that Schetler was murdered, others that he was the victim of the local Mafia, many believe that he may have slipped and fallen into the river, and still others claim that some tourists simply did not want to be found, and Schetler may have been one of them.
“The area he is in is notorious for international travelers going missing,” Lacson said.
“The mafia and drug dealing are rampant there… But Justin had given up everything. He didn’t have a job anymore. He was trying to raise money for a school in Nepal that he was helping to build after the earthquake. He was travelling at his own expense… But that’s what made him such an inspirational character.”
“It’s very difficult to accept the fact that he is still missing,” Lacson admitted.
“He’s trained for this. He trained Marines how to survive in the wilderness. He knows what he’s doing. The question of what happened to him is one that I’ve been asking throughout the show, and I think anyone finding out about his disappearance for the first time has the same question: What happened to Justin? I don’t know if we’ll ever fully answer that question.”
Lacson said there’s no denying that Shetler had a deep passion for travel, but he also had a longing for escape.
“I am fleeing a life that is inauthentic… fleeing monotony for novelty, wonder, awe, and what makes me feel alive,” Shetler writes in his travel blog, Justin’s Adventures.
At one point, he jokingly told a friend: “If I die, please write something nice about me on Facebook.”
While Shetler’s iPhone, which he used to document his trip on social media, has yet to be found, his belongings were found scattered around Parvati Valley, Outside reported.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System said there was no indication Shetler had returned to the U.S. It said the Lake Oswego Police Department was handling the case.
Lacson hopes the podcast will shed new light on the case.
“One of the strangest things about this is grieving for someone I never met,” Lacson said, “but now I feel like I know him. I’ve spent hundreds of hours talking to loved ones. It’s heavy stuff, but Justin changed my life.”
“… One of the things I learned from his family and friends is that he wanted to inspire people to find themselves. That’s his legacy. He wanted people to find a sense of purpose. I hope that’s the one thing people take away from his life. Also, everyone is human. Even your heroes are human. Don’t be afraid to care about how they are.”
