Go 2 Guy: Seeking truth on mystery jogger

Last updated May 28, 2007 9:54 p.m. PT
Which camp are you in -- the one that buys Michael Schreck's story, or the one that doesn't?

You know what happened -- Schreck, 47, goes for a run at Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, wife calls police when he doesn't return, search party looks for him all weekend but can't find him, search party is called off and Schreck suddenly shows up at home with no injuries.
Then the family releases a two-paragraph statement before shutting the door on reporters, saying that Schreck fell into a ravine on Squak Mountain, was knocked unconscious for three days, stayed under a log and covered himself with leaves for warmth, came to and worked his way back to the Renton-Issaquah Road, tried unsuccessfully to hitchhike home, then opted to walk through the heavily wooded Cougar Mountain park in the dark and arrived home around 11 p.m.

last Monday.

But another investigation began on Memorial Day. This one seeks answers and plans to get them. The Go 2 Pup and his fellow newshound file this report:
Plan for the day: Call Schreck; call Schreck's neighbor; call a Michael Schreck in Bellevue and see if he's sick of being confused for the under-the-log Schreck.

(Maybe so; his number's been disconnected.)
Then interview Cougar Mountain hikers and check out Squak Mountain trails for possible Schreck slippage spots.
I leave a message for Schreck and am still waiting for a callback.

The Schrecks were media-friendly when their brother/husband was missing and tight-lipped once he appeared.
That seems odd. When these kinds of happy-ending rescue stories happen elsewhere, there's always a news conference with happy people looking happy on CNN, thanking everyone and answering questions.

No such luck here, which only heightens the skepticism. But then it's lowered again after talking with John Warnick, Schreck's neighbor, casual friend and golf partner.
Here's one checkmark in the "I believe his story" column: The guy's a golfer, and a decent one, a 12-handicapper who plays with Warnick at Willows Run, Echo Falls and Newcastle.

Another check in the same column, and a big bold one, at that: Schreck owns a golden retriever, an older one with a white face. Golden retriever owners will not, would not, do not stretch the truth.
Then again, Schreck also owns a Corgi, and Corgi owners just might.

Warnick has no reason not to believe his neighbor, saying: "Why would you put yourself up to public ridicule? Why would you want to scare your wife and kids to death? What would be the benefit of doing something like that?

"
It seems more probable to Warnick that Schreck spent three nights in the woods than three nights somewhere else. He said Schreck is an avid outdoorsman who's in phenomenal shape.
Warnick said he might think differently if he could come up with a motive for Schreck to concoct a story like this.

But he can't think of one, dismissing rampant Internet speculation about another woman.
"If you're going to leave your spouse, why would you do it that way?" Warnick said.

"Why wouldn't you say you don't love her anymore and you want a divorce?
"I don't think his relationship is in that situation. Things seem to be pretty positive.

They're a happily married couple with two great kids."
Warnick's neighbor doesn't want the spotlight. Warnick and Schreck once won a two-man tournament at Newcastle, and Schreck didn't hang around for the awards ceremony.

"Let's say he wanted a TV movie, that he was trying to be famous," Warnick said. "The last thing he likes is notoriety. That's probably why he's not talking to anybody.

He doesn't want to be Michael Schreck, the guy who got lost; he wants to be Michael Schreck, the guy who's a dad and goes running and sea kayaking.
"If everyone left it alone, it would be just fine. Everyone wants to find an angle to it, to make the guy look crazy, and he's not a crazy guy.

"
But Warnick knows that people are still talking about it a week later. His Sunday dinner guests were, too. They wondered why Schreck didn't have any bug bites or bruises.

"He looked like he lost a few pounds and definitely looked worn out, like he had been through a small ordeal," Warnick said.
Warnick briefly talked with Schreck last week but didn't ask about the incident.
"Would I want to be in his shoes?

" Warnick asked. "Hell no."
At Cougar Mountain, the parking lot is packed with cars filled with skeptical holiday hikers.

"I wondered where he went and how nobody could have spotted him," said Brad Reardon, there for the first time with his wife and beagle.
"It is a little weird," said Allysha Eyler of North Seattle.
"It does seem unbelievable," said Vanessa Ruedebusch of Seattle.

"How can you get lost in a park? How can that be?"
Kurt and Cathy Springman of Newport Shores have a $5 bet on Schreck's story; the husband believes him, and the wife rolls her eyes.

"I think for whatever reason, he walked away and got second thoughts and came back," said Cathy Springman, theorizing a midlife crisis. "If that weekend hadn't been so cold and rainy, I might have believed it."
But Kurt Springman has read "Touching the Void," about a climber who survived a fall in the Andes and crawled to safety with a broken leg.

So he wants to believe.
How will the bet be settled?
"We're waiting for a clever investigative reporter to bring out the truth," Kurt Springman said.

Say no more.
At the end of the Seattle P-I's "Runner Found" story last week, readers posted their thoughts . Most thought that many things did not add up.

No scrapes, no hypothermia, no bump on the noggin, no need for medical attention, no way he could walk nine miles home.
"Yeah, right," said one.
"Musta taken some kind of smacking to the ol' brain-housing group to knock him unconscious for three days," said another.

"How could he have covered himself with leaves if he was unconscious?" asked another.
There were more questions.

Why was his Ford Explorer towed from the parking lot? Wouldn't he need it if he emerged from the forest?
"Where in the world did she think he was jogging to -- Spokane?

" asked one blogger.
The one-liners were flying. Schreck was in Hollywood promoting his latest animated movie.

"Maybe searchers overlooked a man unconscious in a ravine because they were looking for a green ogre traveling with a donkey," wrote one.
Another thought he was abducted by aliens. And someone else asked: "Was he really under a log or in a large plant-like pod?

"
The non-believers have their reasons. The newshounds also went to Squak Mountain to look at the trails, to see if there was a ravine to fall into. I talked with one couple at the trailhead that had seen the ravine.

They said it was in the Central Peaks area of the trail system.
The man said he thought of Schreck when he looked at the ravine but doubted he could have fallen into it. And if he did, he would not have been seriously hurt.

He said it would take us an hour to get there, so off we went in pursuit of the truth. Fifteen minutes later, truth took a back seat to reality -- no story was worth an hour of vertical climbing, and we reversed course, taking the man's word for it, there's a ravine up there somewhere.
But this brings up another point.

When Schreck said he came to, it was 2 p.m. Then when he started hitchhiking on the Renton-Issaquah Road at dusk, say 8 or 9 p.

m., how could it have taken him six hours to go from the ravine to the road?
Then why didn't he walk into Issaquah, only two miles away, and ask for help at the Burger King or somewhere else instead of traversing Cougar Mountain again?

And when he emerged from Cougar Mountain Park, he had to have gone by the Lakemont Fire Station on his way home. Why didn't he stop and ask for help there?
In his defense, the trails are muddy and covered in spots with tree roots that could trip anyone.

Walking his dog, Warnick severely sprained his ankle in Cougar Mountain Park and couldn't golf for four months.
Warnick asked if I could write "an article that supports the story instead of trying to break it apart."
But the details, as presented by the Schrecks, prevented that from happening.

(2 comments)
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Keywords: Cougar Mountain, Michael Schreck, Squak Mountain, Cougar Mountain Park, Mountain Park, Renton Issaquah, p i, Renton Issaquah Road, Kurt Springman, Issaquah Road