Mystery of woman who disappeared without a trace after hiking partner turned their back for 45 seconds
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
The mysterious case of a Montana woman’s disappearance 17 years ago remains unsolved, and people are perplexed by her case.
On July 18, 2007, Barbara Bolick was out hiking in Montana near the Bear Creek Overlook outside Victor and disappeared after her hiking partner looked away for just 45 seconds.
Even now, officials have no leads as to what happened to her that day.
Last year, law enforcement sent out a new post asking for anything people may know about what transpired, to piece together the events the led up to her vanishing without a trace.
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Bolick’s hiking partner was Jim Ramaker, who claims that she was there one moment, and gone the next.
Jim was the last person to ever see her alive, and although that seems fishy to some, police believe he had no connection with her disappearance.
According to Ramaker, he would turn his back on her for just 45 seconds, and when he looked back, he realized that she had quietly vanished, never to be seen again.
News historian and former NBC Montana news director Jim Harmon retold the case, explaining: "They were only a short distance apart. Yet in a few seconds, he looks back and she's not there.
“It's just amazing to me. How in the world did that happen? How could she not just have been a short distance down the hill? It’s absolutely a mystery.”
As of now, Bolick would be 72 years old.
According to reports, she was last seen wearing a pastel-colored shirt, tan shorts and a black backpack.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, Jesse Laslovich told NBC Montana that the search was costly, but they are continuing their efforts to find the missing woman.
He said: “You can imagine the apparatus that is involved when someone disappears. It’s not only local and state authorities. We also have search and rescue involved with some of these volunteer organizations.
“We have federal authorities involved. It's hundreds and thousands of dollars, just in hours that are put into it, that we're paying people who are actually investigating the cases. Is it worth it? Of course.
“Do we track the money that is spent and say, ‘Okay, we've reached this point and we're not going to investigate anymore.’ No. Our job is to actually get to the truth, and to hold people accountable for any crime, but particularly when there's a missing person.”
Some conspiracists believe that Bolick faked her death, and ran away to start a new life, but Laslovich shared that trying to build a life after disappearing would be a wasted effort.
He said: "It'd be highly unlikely if someone were still alive, still able to function, especially when we have really extensive means at the federal level, especially if someone leaves the country, they're still going to need some kind of identification."
He added: “So it just would be really difficult for someone to just disappear; to start a new life with nothing.”
Just two weeks of searching and investigation, Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman said that Bolick's disappearance was ‘a mystery.’
"We are perplexed," Hoffman told the Bitterroot Star.
"We have combed the area in the vicinity of the disappearance very well. No trace at all has been found.
"We would like to verify, if we can, that Bolick was even on the mountain that day."