Help us find Paul Fugate and bring him home
Where is Paul Fugate
- Help us bring Paul Home
On January 13th 1980. Paul Fugate walked out of his office in the Chiricahua Mountains. Paul was the Monument’s Ranger/ Naturalist and as luck would have it the only member of the staff on duty that day. It was a lovely day for January with a bright sunny sky above a snowy but spring like forest
It was 2:30 in the afternoon. Chiricahua National Monument; is a small unit of the National Park service in far south east Arizona. .
Paul has never been seen again. Nothing was missing from his cabin. He had access to three vehicles. His house and car keys were on his home desk. The only things missing were Paul, his uniform his monument keys and a new down coat. Paul Fugate was 41 years old.
There was an extensive search of the monument by Search-and-Rescue groups and a large number of Paul’s friends. Nothing was ever found. The Cochise County Sheriff’s detectives followed many leads to no avail. Paul had simply vanished into thin air. The National Park Service issued a reward of $ 10,000. for any information as to where he was and what happened to him A Group of his friends and Paul’s wife, Dody, formed an organization “The Friends of Paul Fugate” to deal with the continued search for Paul but time passed and no solid information came to light. In 1985 Paul was declared dead. Eventually the NPS found that ‘Yes, Paul was probably dead and he had probably been murdered that lovely day in January’.
Paul Fugate is still missing
. During this last year many people have experienced the shock of seeing their loved ones enter a hospital where they were never able to speak to them again, were never able to be near them as they died and not able to even really have a funeral. The grief and pain of this pandemic has affected thousands of families in profound ways. The pain and grief may become tolerable and they will learn to live with it. Paul’s friends and family have been living with that grief for forty years.
Paul was the eldest of six children in a very tight, blue collar family. His mother was a remarkable woman who died never knowing what happened to her eldest son, His family and wife still live in a sort-of limbo; never finding any relief for their grief. This last year, the National Park Service upped the reward for information to $ 60,000. and began to revisit the case.. Paul’s family and his widow have been in contact with the Cochise County Sherriff’s Department and the NPS investigator on the case but, information and investigations are not progressing much probably because a forty year old case is not on the front burner at this time. Some information has been discovered and some idea of who was involved in Paul’s death has come to light. Unfortunately, many people who knew what happened have died. Paul’s widow, Dody and Paul’s family have talked with detectives who are interested in doing a more thorough investigation but the Fugate family is not wealthy. The detectives are concerned why so little has been done about a federal employee who vanished from federal land , in uniform, on duty.. But they also are without funds to investigate a case and talk to people who might know something but are scattered over the country. Tools to search places where Paul may be buried are expensive. To rent a Ground Penetrating Radar is $13,000. even cadaver dogs are expensive. If the dogs are free housing them and their handlers as well as travel is still to be considered Dody and the Fugate’s have set up this ‘Go Fund Me’ Page to ask people to help us fund the investigator’s search for answers. Paul’s family has been left in this hellish situation for these many years. The pain of this situation never goes away. We appeal to people to help us not so much to punish the people who killed him but to find his body. If we can just find him and bring him home. That is all we ask.
PLEASE HELP US
We are hoping for $ 30,000. Any money left over will be donated to NAMUS National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and Missing People in America