Up until now, this blog has attempted to tell the story of Jack Gordon's mysterious disappearance on October 2, 2008 in broad strokes. There is a limited paper trail. A small handful of news reports and the original sheriff's incident report are the main reference sources. There are, however, other sources of information and we can try to fill in some of the gaps in the story from first-hand accounts and see if we can pick out any useful details.
I'd like to start with a timeline of that day, as well as we can reconstruct it.
October 2, 2008
8:00 a.m.- Between 8:00 and 8:30 that morning one of Jack's neighbors sees him leaving his residence in Fort Garland, coffee cup in hand bound for his home site on Luke Road for the morning.
8:30 a.m.- Jack leaves the apartment in Fort Garland in their white conversion van.
8:40 a.m.- One of the neighbors from Luke Road bumps into Jack at the Fort Garland post office and chats with him briefly. Nothing seems amiss.
8:50 a.m.- Jack stops in at the home of a local auto mechanic on Hwy 159 and speaks with him for a few minutes. He leaves at about 9:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.- No reported contact with or sightings of Jack by any of the neighbors
1:00 p.m.- Jack's wife starts to wonder why he is not back yet.
2:00 p.m.- Jack's wife calls the auto mechanic's home and speaks to his daughter asking if someone can drive out to the place on Luke Road and check on Jack.
4:00 p.m.- Jack's wife gets a ride with one of her Fort Garland neighbors the ~5 miles out to Luke Road. The van is parked in its usual spot in the driveway, but there is no sign of Jack on or near the premises.
4:30 p.m.- Jack's wife goes to one of the neighbor's nearby homes and calls the Sheriff's office. The dispatcher contacts Deputy Jacob Vigil to respond.
5:00 p.m.- Deputy Vigil talks with Jack's wife at the scene and conducts a brief search of the house and vicinity. He spots a single set of footprints that "went to the back of the house and around the other side and onto the road where I lost track." He is unable to identify any distinct tire tracks on the road. We think he tried to make contact with the neighbor John Busby during this time, but that is not specified in the incident report. He advises Jack's wife to contact him if she has not heard from Jack by 8:30 p.m. She returns to Fort Garland.
7:30 p.m.- Jack's wife contacts me (as well as other family members to inform us that he is missing.
8:30 p.m.- Jack's wife contacts Deputy Vigil, informing him she has not heard from Jack
9:00 p.m.- Deputy Vigil and a small group of neighbors search the area around the house on Luke Road on foot, with flashlights, find no trace of Jack.
10:00 p.m.- Deputy Vigil speaks with Jack's wife in Fort Garland and advises her to contact the sheriff's office at 8:00 a.m. the next day if Jack has not turned up, so that Search and Rescue can be mobilized to join the search. On his way back to the Sheriff's office Deputy Vigil returns to the house of the neighbor John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh) and attempts to contact him. There is a chain across the driveway and there are no lights on at the house.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS-
1. Who made the single set of footprints? Jack? One of the civilian searchers? Jack's wife? Jack's killer? Or perhaps Deputy Vigil (remember Winnie the Pooh and Piglet?)
2. What happened during the time gap from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.?
Showing posts with label John Robert Fureigh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Robert Fureigh. Show all posts
Saturday, October 2, 2021
INTRODUCING JACK'S NEIGHBOR JOHN
According to the Costilla County Sheriff's office, Jack's neighbor identified in the original incident report as John, was living under the name of John Busby. That turns out not to be his real name. The sheriff has identified him as John Robert Fureigh, born 3/03/1967.
Here's what he looked like in 1993, in Florida.
And he's up to #10 on a certain Colorado Bureau of Investigation's sex offender top 100 list.
Fureigh relocated to the San Luis Valley sometime around 2006 and began building a house on a five-acre property owned by his mother on Luke Road in the Forbes Sangre de Cristo Ranches, roughly 3/4 of a mile from Jack Gordon's homesite. Fureigh was never interviewed by the authorities following Jack's disappearance. He currently has multiple outstanding felony warrants from various jurisdictions. For all I know, he saw the hubbub of Sheriff's Department vehicles along Luke Road that day in 2008 and left the area in order to avoid being apprehended on a prior warrant.
I am interested to know if Fureigh, being a close neighbor, has any first-hand information about the events of October 2, 2008. Did he see Jack Gordon along Luke Road that morning? Did he have a conversation or argument with Jack? Can he comment on Jack's state of mind? Did he see anybody else with Jack? Does he know what happened to Jack that day? Does he have any idea where Jack's body might be? Did he hear gunshots? Would he be willing to talk to the sheriff by phone? Would he be willing to provide information that might clear him of any possible suspicion in this matter, allowing the sheriff to focus on more likely suspects? Unless he comes forward, these questions will remain unanswered.
Interestingly enough, Big Bear was not the only neighbor of Jack's on Luke Road who kept a blog. The neighbor Fureigh also was a blogger of sorts. More about that in a future post.
Here's what he looked like in 1993, in Florida.
And he's up to #10 on a certain Colorado Bureau of Investigation's sex offender top 100 list.
Fureigh relocated to the San Luis Valley sometime around 2006 and began building a house on a five-acre property owned by his mother on Luke Road in the Forbes Sangre de Cristo Ranches, roughly 3/4 of a mile from Jack Gordon's homesite. Fureigh was never interviewed by the authorities following Jack's disappearance. He currently has multiple outstanding felony warrants from various jurisdictions. For all I know, he saw the hubbub of Sheriff's Department vehicles along Luke Road that day in 2008 and left the area in order to avoid being apprehended on a prior warrant.
I am interested to know if Fureigh, being a close neighbor, has any first-hand information about the events of October 2, 2008. Did he see Jack Gordon along Luke Road that morning? Did he have a conversation or argument with Jack? Can he comment on Jack's state of mind? Did he see anybody else with Jack? Does he know what happened to Jack that day? Does he have any idea where Jack's body might be? Did he hear gunshots? Would he be willing to talk to the sheriff by phone? Would he be willing to provide information that might clear him of any possible suspicion in this matter, allowing the sheriff to focus on more likely suspects? Unless he comes forward, these questions will remain unanswered.
Interestingly enough, Big Bear was not the only neighbor of Jack's on Luke Road who kept a blog. The neighbor Fureigh also was a blogger of sorts. More about that in a future post.
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 1
This week we are going to get to know the neighbor John a little better. According to the 2010 Denver Post article, The Mystery of Two Men's Disappearance on the Same Day, John Robert Fureigh was living in the Fort Garland area under the assumed name of John Busby, taking the last name of his mother's current husband.
We'll get to that particular entry at a later date. Busby groused about a lot of things on his blog, entitled Alpine Acres (long since taken down or depublished). Let's go back in time a little and work our way up to the days surrounding Jack Gordon's disappearance. I will give you some sample excerpts over the next few posts, and let you draw your own conclusions.
Fureigh, using an alias, wrote a blog in which he often groused about trespassing neighbors disrupting his solitude, including an entry four days before Gordon's disappearance in which he complained that a neighbor woke him in the afternoon to ask for water after his well went down.
We'll get to that particular entry at a later date. Busby groused about a lot of things on his blog, entitled Alpine Acres (long since taken down or depublished). Let's go back in time a little and work our way up to the days surrounding Jack Gordon's disappearance. I will give you some sample excerpts over the next few posts, and let you draw your own conclusions.
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 2
We've been reading some excerpts from the blog of the neighbor John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh). See the previous post here, The "Alpine Acres" blog has been de-published.
On the afternoon of June 5, 2008, Jack Gordon's neighbor John tried to take a nap, but was interrupted, resulting in this reaction on his blog:
On the afternoon of June 5, 2008, Jack Gordon's neighbor John tried to take a nap, but was interrupted, resulting in this reaction on his blog:
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 3
To continue with our perusal of the blog written by Jack Gordon's neighbor John, let me offer another interesting selection. The middle of July 2008 was a sad time for John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh). His longtime four-legged companion Chief was hit and killed by a truck passing by his house on Luke Road.
I don't know whether this incident had anything to do with the events a scant two months later. Was Busby (aka Fureigh) angry at inconsiderate drivers along Luke Road? Jack Gordon drove by Busby's (aka Fureigh's) house every time he went out to his building site. Was he the driver who hit Chief? Only John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh) would be able to enlighten us in that regard. Perhaps someday he will be willing to talk with the Sheriff about that summer. We would sure like to hear his side of the story, but his blog went inactive the day Jack Gordon disappeared and the blogger known as John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh) never made another blog entry at that site. Not surprisingly, his blog was de-published a short time later, as you can see if you try the link. And he reportedly has not returned to the San Luis Valley since that day in October 2008.
PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE NEIGHBOR'S BLOG:
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 1
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 2
My Chief
July 13, 2008 6:27 PM
Today I was working on the fence out by the road and Chief was lounging around in the truck like he usually does when I leave the doors open. A truck came down the road so my Chief wanted to see what or who that was and the driver of the truck was too busy looking at my house to see my dog standing in the road and Chief got hit.
I don't know whether this incident had anything to do with the events a scant two months later. Was Busby (aka Fureigh) angry at inconsiderate drivers along Luke Road? Jack Gordon drove by Busby's (aka Fureigh's) house every time he went out to his building site. Was he the driver who hit Chief? Only John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh) would be able to enlighten us in that regard. Perhaps someday he will be willing to talk with the Sheriff about that summer. We would sure like to hear his side of the story, but his blog went inactive the day Jack Gordon disappeared and the blogger known as John Busby (aka John Robert Fureigh) never made another blog entry at that site. Not surprisingly, his blog was de-published a short time later, as you can see if you try the link. And he reportedly has not returned to the San Luis Valley since that day in October 2008.
PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE NEIGHBOR'S BLOG:
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 1
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 2
JOHN BUSBY'S BLOG- PART 4
To wrap up our week reviewing the neighbor's blog, I'd like to offer a sampling of commentary from the blog during the two months preceding Jack Gordon's disappearance. This might give some useful insight into the neighborhood and the people who lived near Jack in the late summer of 2008. Here are John Busby's thoughts on various topics, as expressed in his depublished blog, "Alpine Acres". [emphasis added]
THE MYSTERY OF TWO MEN'S DISAPPEARANCE ON THE SAME DAY- REVISITED
I am going to post some links expanding on the curious disappearance of Jack Gordon. Let's start with the 2010 Denver Post article entitled "The Mystery of Two Men's Disappearance on the Same Day"
When I originally posted the link to this Denver Post article back I did not excerpt very much content. As I re-read that original post I realize that it did not really give much of the story. Mr. Mitchell of the Denver Post summarized the Jack Gordon case very well. I am going to now provide a more extensive excerpt from that story in order to help round out my readers' understanding of the case.
(NOTE: Let me clarify one little detail. Jack had seven adult offspring from previous marriages. He "left behind" his most recent wife and two young children aged six and five at the time. )
READ ON:
MORE:
Since that day, (October 2, 2008) no trace of Jack Gordon has ever been found. John Fureigh left his home on Luke Road the same day, never to return. Why would he leave a home that he had spent 2 1/2 years building with his own two hands? There have been rumored sightings of Fureigh in the hills of the Forbes Trinchera Ranches since that day, but he is not living in the area openly. Did they leave together? Did their paths cross on that fateful day? Was there a confrontation of some sort between the elderly Jack Gordon and the much younger Fureigh? Did somebody else kill Jack and Fureigh was a witness, hiding in fear for his own life? It is a certainty that somebody knows what happened.
We have heard through the grapevine that Fureigh's mother still lives in the area. Perhaps she knows of a way to get a message to her son, asking him to come forward and clear his name. If either of them is reading this post, they can contact the blog administrator anonymously by e-mail at seamus_muldoon@yahoo.com and let us know their side of the story. Maybe there is a rational explanation for what happened.
My suspicion is that the only way we will ever know what happened to Jack Gordon that day is if the burden of knowledge weighs so heavily on the one who knows that he can no longer bear to look in the mirror day after day. Rather than taking that knowledge to his grave, perhaps he will feel the need to tell somebody what he knows. Until that day, the man who killed Jack Gordon will fester in the rot of his own corruption. Ultimately God will pass judgment, even if the local authorities do not.
When I originally posted the link to this Denver Post article back I did not excerpt very much content. As I re-read that original post I realize that it did not really give much of the story. Mr. Mitchell of the Denver Post summarized the Jack Gordon case very well. I am going to now provide a more extensive excerpt from that story in order to help round out my readers' understanding of the case.
Two men, retired preacher, sex offender — vanish on same day in '08
On Oct. 2, 2008, 77-year-old retired preacher Jack Nels Gordon disappeared from his land in Costilla County, leaving behind a wife and seven children. That same day, Gordon's neighbor, a convicted sex offender named John Fureigh, also disappeared from the area, leaving nothing behind but questions. Did they leave together? Did they both choose to coincidentally disappear on the same day? Or did one or both of them meet with foul play that night? The only evidence left behind was a dark stain found on the dirt driveway leading to Fureigh's home. But even that has a mystery attached — the sheriff, strapped for time in patrolling a 1,200-square-mile county — didn't test the spot to see whether it was blood, or, if so, whose.
(NOTE: Let me clarify one little detail. Jack had seven adult offspring from previous marriages. He "left behind" his most recent wife and two young children aged six and five at the time. )
READ ON:
What is known is this:
Fureigh was living in Costilla County under the alias John Busby. And he had a good reason for using it. He bought a 5-acre parcel in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains to escape an active warrant for his arrest out of El Paso County for failing to register as a sex offender.
MORE:
On the last day anyone saw him, Gordon announced he was headed to Luke Road and walked out to the driveway of their duplex apartment in Fort Garland, coffee cup in hand, and climbed up into his old white van. He waved good-bye to his family for the last time about 8:30 a.m. Gordon stopped by the post office, headed south on Colorado 159, then stopped at a local mechanic's house to discuss work on the van. It was the last confirmed sighting.
Gordon also had indicated he needed to speak with Fureigh, who was helping him design a website for people living in countries with no religious freedoms. Fureigh's house, which he also built himself, was about a half mile from Gordon's home. When Gordon didn't come home by his customary 2:30 p.m., his wife caught a ride to the house and searched for him. She found his van, but no sign of Gordon. She called the sheriff's office, but when an officer mistakenly thought she said Gordon normally came home by 2:30 a.m., a search was delayed.
Since that day, (October 2, 2008) no trace of Jack Gordon has ever been found. John Fureigh left his home on Luke Road the same day, never to return. Why would he leave a home that he had spent 2 1/2 years building with his own two hands? There have been rumored sightings of Fureigh in the hills of the Forbes Trinchera Ranches since that day, but he is not living in the area openly. Did they leave together? Did their paths cross on that fateful day? Was there a confrontation of some sort between the elderly Jack Gordon and the much younger Fureigh? Did somebody else kill Jack and Fureigh was a witness, hiding in fear for his own life? It is a certainty that somebody knows what happened.
We have heard through the grapevine that Fureigh's mother still lives in the area. Perhaps she knows of a way to get a message to her son, asking him to come forward and clear his name. If either of them is reading this post, they can contact the blog administrator anonymously by e-mail at seamus_muldoon@yahoo.com and let us know their side of the story. Maybe there is a rational explanation for what happened.
My suspicion is that the only way we will ever know what happened to Jack Gordon that day is if the burden of knowledge weighs so heavily on the one who knows that he can no longer bear to look in the mirror day after day. Rather than taking that knowledge to his grave, perhaps he will feel the need to tell somebody what he knows. Until that day, the man who killed Jack Gordon will fester in the rot of his own corruption. Ultimately God will pass judgment, even if the local authorities do not.
RECAP AND SUMMATION
So, let's have a brief recap of the mysterious case of Jack Gordon's disappearance. To restate the basic known facts:
1. Elderly gentleman disappears without a trace from a remote rural property in Southern Colorado in October 2008.
2. Mr. Gordon is reported missing by his wife, and subsequent search turns up no physical evidence on his property or the surrounding countryside.
3. In the years since then there has been no subsequent trace of activity on any of his financial accounts or any other indication that he is alive.
4. A second person disappears on the same day from his residence on the same remote road.
5. The second man is NOT reported missing by his relatives, who tell authorities he "left the state".
6. The second man (missing neighbor) is found to be a felony sex offender who absconded and failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to the San Luis Valley from El Paso County, in violation of the terms of his previous probation. He is living under an assumed name at the time.
7. The missing neighbor kept a blog that contained implied and explicit threats of physical violence against his neighbors.
8. The neighbor's blog ceased active posting on the same day the two men disappeared.
Two basic conclusions can be drawn:
1. Jack Gordon is dead
2. John Fureigh left his self-built home on Luke Road in rural Costilla County suddenly
SCENARIO ONE: Jack Gordon was killed by person or persons unknown, and the same person either threatened or scared off the sex-offender neighbor to the point that he left the area permanently. (i.e. the two disappearances are related and due to a third party perpretrator)
SCENARIO TWO: Jack Gordon was killed either accidentally or purposefully by the sex-offender neighbor who then hid or disposed of the body in unknown fashion and then voluntarily left the area to avoid apprehension and prosecution.
SCENARIO THREE: Jack Gordon was killed by person or persons unknown who hid or disposed of the body. The sex-offender neigbor left the area on the same day and quit making entries on his blog on the exact same day for purely coincidental reasons unrelated to the disappearance of Jack Gordon.
(PERSONAL INVITATION: If you are the neighbor John Fureigh I would be interested to hear your account of the events of October 2, 2008. You may be the only one who can show me where I may have gone wrong in my analysis.)
1. Elderly gentleman disappears without a trace from a remote rural property in Southern Colorado in October 2008.
2. Mr. Gordon is reported missing by his wife, and subsequent search turns up no physical evidence on his property or the surrounding countryside.
3. In the years since then there has been no subsequent trace of activity on any of his financial accounts or any other indication that he is alive.
4. A second person disappears on the same day from his residence on the same remote road.
5. The second man is NOT reported missing by his relatives, who tell authorities he "left the state".
6. The second man (missing neighbor) is found to be a felony sex offender who absconded and failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to the San Luis Valley from El Paso County, in violation of the terms of his previous probation. He is living under an assumed name at the time.
7. The missing neighbor kept a blog that contained implied and explicit threats of physical violence against his neighbors.
8. The neighbor's blog ceased active posting on the same day the two men disappeared.
Two basic conclusions can be drawn:
1. Jack Gordon is dead
2. John Fureigh left his self-built home on Luke Road in rural Costilla County suddenly
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Analysis of this set of facts points to three possible scenarios. SCENARIO ONE: Jack Gordon was killed by person or persons unknown, and the same person either threatened or scared off the sex-offender neighbor to the point that he left the area permanently. (i.e. the two disappearances are related and due to a third party perpretrator)
SCENARIO TWO: Jack Gordon was killed either accidentally or purposefully by the sex-offender neighbor who then hid or disposed of the body in unknown fashion and then voluntarily left the area to avoid apprehension and prosecution.
SCENARIO THREE: Jack Gordon was killed by person or persons unknown who hid or disposed of the body. The sex-offender neigbor left the area on the same day and quit making entries on his blog on the exact same day for purely coincidental reasons unrelated to the disappearance of Jack Gordon.
(PERSONAL INVITATION: If you are the neighbor John Fureigh I would be interested to hear your account of the events of October 2, 2008. You may be the only one who can show me where I may have gone wrong in my analysis.)
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