Search Beyond Lies is a work of fiction, but it was inspired by true events. What follows is the tribute I wrote at the time to Brian Joseph Perri, J.C. Fischer, and Kimo McEwen.
An Inspiring Rare Friendship
An inspiring rare friendship is contagious. If you have two people you can call “friend” during your lifetime, you have a rare gift. Most of us have what amounts to as acquaintances. Yes, we may have a good time and periodically help each other professionally or personally, but what if your friend went missing? To what extent would you put your world on hold and jeopardize your safety, well-being, and your own life to find that friend? What I witnessed were two such friends when they discovered their friend went missing…
The Defense
My son, J.C., defended his master’s thesis on Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. Brian, a friend of his from the program, promised to attend, but he was absent. When it became clear that no one had seen him since the Friday before, a Missing Person’s Report was filed. It was the Fourth of July week and not unusual for someone to be gone … until he was expected.
Brian Joseph Perri, a former special operations-trained paratrooper, usually went hiking alone. A graduate of the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training program, he was trained, tortured, and dropped without any provision into unknown territory and passed with flying colors. He was an avid hiker and fell in love with the Colorado Rockies, successfully summiting several fourteeners. Mount Meeker, one of the most dangerous mountains in the Rocky Mountain National Park, beaconed him. At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 30, 2018, he reached the summit and sent a selfie to someone who asked to be picked up from the airport. M
Missing
Brian’s car was found at the trailhead of Mount Meeker that night, and on Friday, the search began. Kimo, Brian’s former army roommate from special operations flew in from Maine to help J.C. find their friend. Although neither were mountain hikers (this was Kimo’s first visit to the Colorado Rockies), they were bound and determined to find their friend and bring him down from the mountain. P
Park Rangers
The park rangers did their part and sent up the Alpine Team to repel down the cliff side of Mount Meeker along with others who searched the terrain. Twenty-two square miles of rough terrain is no easy task. Helicopters and canine units were used. At this time, there were fires in Colorado, and on Sunday, the helicopters had to be diverted from their search. Not to be deterred, the rangers got permission to use a drone—the first ever used in the Rocky Mountain National Park.V
volunteers
J.C. and Kimo never gave up, searching every day possible for their friend. Priscilla Jane Kurtz Williams, unable to hike because of ankle surgery, set up a social media presence and a GoFundMe account to help with the search. Jordie, Kimo’s wife, gave him the blessing to go to Colorado to aid the search while she held down the fort with their 3 children. She also helped with research, social media, and outreach. Brian was very close to his sister, Becky, who handled what she could from New York and was the family contact.
All of their efforts brought in many volunteers; some of the rangers even continued their search on their day off after searching for 5 straight days. One week turned into two. Still, there was hope—Brian was a survivor.
Fox 31 News followed J.C. and Kimo up (and the camera man took a vacation day to return the next day without his camera to help search). They quoted J.C. in the title of their story: “I will not let this mountain be my friend’s grave.” Friends continue search for the missing hiker.
found
Four weeks to the day that Brian summited Mount Meeker, the park rangers responded to a visitor’s GPS tracking device, which denoted a sign of distress. J.C. and Kimo saw them going up the mountain as they were coming down one last time—after hiking more than 200 miles within 3 weeks, their bodies were too broken to continue. Despite the approaching storm, the park rangers hiked up, and in their search for the injured hiker, they found Brian. Park officials believe he fell 25 to 40 feet and died instantly. It was the cliff side with very dangerous rocks and crevices.
“Why did so many who never knew Brian come?” my son asked a number of these volunteers, because he was so overwhelmed with the support of strangers. Over and over he was told that they were inspired by this rare friendship. It was J.C. and Kimo’s care, concern, persistence, loyalty, and dedication to finding their friend that exemplified true friendship—and that is a contagious type of friendship. So few people experience such a friendship; Brian was blessed with two such friends. Brian impacted the lives of many people both directly and indirectly, and his legacy and gifts will live on through these people—paying it forward throughout each life. Rest in peace, Brian—you were loved.
(c) 2018 Karen VDH Fischer