Mystery remains around the case of a woman who vanished while on a hike after the person she was with lost sight of her for just 45 seconds.
On July 18, 2007, Barbara Bolick was hiking with Jim Ramaker near Bear Creek Overlook outside Victor, Montana.
Ramaker reported that she was there one moment, and gone the next. In a matter of seconds, he says, Bolick vanished without a trace, per NBC Montana.
Bolick would now be 71 years old. Described as 5-feet tall and 115 pounds, with brown eyes, red or auburn hair, and pierced ears, she was last seen wearing a pastel-colored shirt, tan shorts, and a black backpack.
Despite exhaustive ground searches, including the use of police dogs, no sign of her has been found.
Bolick’s disappearance has prompted continued calls for information, with law enforcement agencies renewing efforts to understand what might have occurred.
Last year, authorities issued a fresh appeal for any information that might help reconstruct the events leading up to her sudden vanishing.
Ramaker, Bolick’s hiking partner and the last person known to have seen her, has cooperated fully with police, who do not suspect him of any wrongdoing in the case.
“They were only a short distance apart,” said Jim Harmon, a news historian and former NBC Montana news director.
“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.”
The search for Bolick has been costly, involving multiple agencies and substantial resources.
“You can imagine the apparatus that is involved when someone disappears,” said Jesse Laslovich, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, in an interview with NBC Montana.
“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.”
Laslovich also rejected theories suggesting Bolick may have chosen to disappear voluntarily, explaining that it would be nearly impossible to build a new life undetected.
“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,” he said.
“So it just would be really difficult for someone to just disappear; to start a new life with nothing.”
