What Is The FBI Hiding About Tom Messick? | Missing 411

Tom's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few...years.

Back in 2022, we traveled up to Brant Lake in the beautiful Adirondack region of New York to look into the disappearance of Tom Messick, an 82 year old hunter who vanished while on a hunting trip in the area of Lily Pond. Tom was half blind, half deaf, and not known to be a wanderer, and yet when he friends and son gathered to head back to camp, he was nowhere to be seen; and while a hunter getting lost in the woods isn't anything unusual, a hunter totally vanishing from an area boxed in by well marked trails and roads within a couple of miles is a little odd. The weirdest part? The FBI showed up, and that's just not something they do for missing adults. Welcome back to The Lore Lodge...

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0:00 - Cold Open
0:20 - Introduction
4:30 - FUM ad
7:20 - The History of the Iroquois Confederacy
16:11 - The Hunting Trip
22:10 - The Search Begins
30:16 - It Gets Weirder
33:45 - The Theories
44:23 - The Supernatural Options
47:59 - Conclusion

[hannahfoster]

The woods being silent is a massive red flag to me. I hike in my local forest a lot and if I notice it's too quiet I GTFO immediately, that's a sure sign something big is nearby

[haloman]

Generic comment for engagement purposes

[brandon_crow]

The forest being quiet at the time is creepy as hell. That usually isn't a good sign and often means there's something in the area that has spooked the wildlife.

[flashybeige]

9 years? Thats nothing. My dad went to the corner store and disappeared for my entire childhood.

[CarnivalCrow]

The dog sits by the window everyday waiting for him 😢😢😢😢 that part melted my heart.

[owenoliver]

Between this and yesterday’s Wendigoon video, FBI isn’t getting good publicity rn

[stewartryable]

If Tom did indeed intend to go out on his own terms, from my third-hand knowledge of him it doesn't sound like he would leave his family perpetually wondering what happened to him.

[joshuacullen]

One note, Deer drives are normally a afternoon activity. You're trying to push them out of their daytime bedding areas. So this details makes 100% sense.

[minty]

"Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days."

[crimsonnemesis]

As someone who has done search and rescue for 14 years… occasionally on large searches… you can get a lot of people that happen to show up. I’ve seen Coast Guard, National Guard, US Military and federal agencies… the nearest Coast Guard station is 2 hours away, nearest military base 5 hours away and feds are 2 hours away. So maybe a Bored Fed that is passing through and just has nose trouble.

[Ninjahalfbreed]

"Tom Messick went on a hunting trip with some friends, he was lastbseen at 10am, when they returned they found Tom was missing and searched for him. After a few hours, they called in park rangers at 7pm. Feel like going camping Scully?"

[skzcfkm]

82 years old, only one good eye and half deaf. How far could he have gone? No body, clothes, weapon or equipment found. Surrounded by six other fellow hunters with active communication devices. What the hell happened to this guy?

[peterjenkins]

As someone from NY. Your first mistake was to stay in Albany. No one likes that City.

[Tsyoka_wehkowa]

Nyaweh for giving a quick lesson on my people!! I'm Mohawk and Tuscarora and live in upstate NY.
I recently found your channel and rlly appreciate the history lessons you add to the beginning of your videos. Few people know much of our culture and it makes me smile to see someone so dedicated to spread our history.

Fun fact: The 6 nations aka the Haudenosaunee (most of us prefer to be referred to as the Haudenosaunee since 'Iroquois' is a French name given to us by colonizers) were joined by The Great Peace Maker. He joined each tribe to form the 6 nations and ended a long conflict. In Kanyen'kéha (the Mohawk language) we say "Skennen'kó:wa ken?" Which means 'Do you carry The Great Peace?' Referring back to how The Great Peace Maker brought peace and good to each tribe.
As I had been taught, only the Oneida had sided with the US which caused better treatment from the US gov while the Tuscarora people were forced from their homes in North Carolina area to western New York in our own form of the well known Trail of Tears.
My Mohawk ancestors come from Canada, so I can't speak on any US Mohawk lore since I'm not well familiarized with it.

[RedEyedMedia]

My theory on why so much Fed involvement, is that Tom served with one of the higher ups.

[josi]

I believe it's possible that Tom either wandered too far and/or went to relieve himself. Those old abandoned homesteads had wells. I even grew up drinking well water at my grandparents' house. Old wells are deathtraps.

[benpearson]

37:29
That's my old man's plan. He was to go back out to the woods, and "pick a fight with a Grizzly Bear".

[katmack]

Aw..😕 it made me so sad, hearing Tom's wife describe how Tom's dog would sit in the window, all day, everyday, waiting for him to come home.

[sapherno]

I am a trucker. I can confirm Albany is terrifying. I literally will bypass it when I deliver to New York and just go straight back to Pennsylvania

[heddadybvadskog-nebb]

Aiden's cold openings do not get the credit they deserve, they genuinely make me so hyped for the video every single time