Man missing for eight nights mysteriously walks out of Croatan National Forest in NC
The 20-year-old man who vanished late May in Croatan National Forest just as mysteriously reappeared Sunday, according to the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office.
Details of how Joshua Clauson survived more than a week have not been released.
“On Sunday morning, a citizen called Carteret County Communications to report that a man walked out of a wooded area near the caller’s residence on Rams Horn Road in Newport,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
“The man was then transported to Carteret Health Care, where his condition is listed as stable. Detectives responded to the hospital and confirmed his identity as Joshua Clauson.”
Clauson was out for a walk May 29 with a family member when they got lost, and then separated, officials said.
“The relative eventually found his way out ... by listening to the sounds of passing vehicles,” officials said.
Croatan National Forest — 160,000 acres of “pine forests, saltwater estuaries, bogs and raised swamps” — is home to bears and venomous snakes. The coastal forest is about 135 miles southeast of Raleigh.
Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck referred to Clauson’s disappearance as “a bizarre case” last week after searchers failed to find any trace of the missing 20-year-old, WCTI reported.
He told WITN that Clauson was sunburned and had reportedly survived drinking rainwater.
“Anyone being exposed to the elements like that with very little, no shelter, very little in the way of clothing to deal with the cold weather and then it rained a few times as well, so that’s certainly very concerning for anyone to be out in the forest overnight, a few days, much less for eight days,” Buck told WITN.
An air and ground search to find Clauson was suspended June 3, when the crews became exhausted and conditions worsened, according to a release. The search included “more than 200 trained search and rescue professionals.”
“The search area proved to be challenging due to the extremely dense vegetation,” Buck said in the release. “A(e)rial searches were severely limited due to the thick canopy making it impossible to see the ground throughout most of the area.”
