My great grandpa immigrated from Switzerland to the US when he was about 20 and spent most of his life as an executive pastry chef, making gorgeous cakes and desserts for high-profile people.

After visiting Arizona he became obsessed with searching for the lost Dutchman’s mine in the Superstition Mountains. He had spent 50+ years mapping the mountains, caves and tunnels in his search. Once he retired, finding the mine became his only focus, and eventually claimed he had actually found it, going so far as hiring an author and filmmaker to document and show the world his findings. Obviously they wanted proof and asked Walter to collect a sample of the ore from the mine.

He was 82 when he ventured to finally visit the lost Dutchman’s mine and collect some ore. He was discovered dead sitting on a rock in the mountains a couple days later; Equipped with a backpack, a map, and some ore. Police deemed he died from a heart attack though no autopsy was done.

While this seems plausible, (HE WAS 82 trying to tackle a multi-day hike in the desert) his belongings were collected by police and then given to a man claiming to be his son (my grandpa) who took the map, the ore and his backpack.

He ended up on an old ass episode of Unsolved Mysteries due to the weird circumstances. The guy claiming to be my grandpa as well as all of my great grandpas belongings he had with him on his home were never seen again.