Killed By A Sasquatch? The Disappearance & Death Of Jordan Grider

The Boundary Waters Enigma: Jordan Grier’s Last Stand

The air in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a vast, ancient sprawl of lakes and forest within Minnesota’s Superior National Forest, held the clean, biting chill of an approaching winter. This was a land of silent pines, mirrored waters, and solitude—the most visited wilderness area in the US, yet capable of swallowing a man whole. It was here, in 2018, that 29-year-old Jordan Grier sought his home.

Jordan was, by all accounts, a man fundamentally out of sync with the conventional world. Hailing from Moriarty, New Mexico, his dyslexia had complicated his early education, leading to a path less traveled. While his five brothers settled into typical lives, Jordan embraced the nomadic existence of the experienced outdoorsman. For a decade, he had traded four walls for the boundless sky, living off the grid in the woods of Kentucky and upper New York. “I’m not homeless,” he would tell people, a defiant pride in his voice. “I have a home. I just choose to have it outside.”

In 2018, the call of the north pulled him toward Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, drawn by the high density of ponds and lakes. After spending a few months with his family in New Mexico, Jordan set out in early October. He parked his truck, a Chevrolet 2500, and ventured deep into the woods, searching for the perfect, secluded spot to build his winter camp.

The Quiet Disappearance

Jordan was prepared, or so he believed. He knew the wilderness; he respected its dangers—the animals, the brutal weather. On October 8th, he sent his family a photograph of a beaver pond near his chosen spot. It was a mundane, reassuring sign of life. The next day, he briefly left the wilderness, a receipt later confirming a purchase of supplies from a nearby store, presumably stocking up on the grains and beans that formed his simple winter diet. After October 9th, the communication stopped.

The first ripple of disruption in Jordan’s solitude came not from a distress signal, but from bureaucracy. A Forest Service agent noticed Jordan’s truck parked in an inconvenient spot—in front of a gate leading to private cabins. Unable to locate the owner and seeing no immediate cause for alarm, the agent had the truck towed to the Sue Hustler Trail parking lot, a practical but ultimately tragic displacement of a key marker. The agent likely hoped Jordan would simply reappear and retrieve his vehicle, but the shifting of his “home base” added an unforeseen variable to his isolated existence.

By October 22nd, 2018, authorities were asked to perform a welfare check. Using the faint clue of the beaver pond photo, a small group of officers searched, but the Boundary Waters held its secrets well. Jordan was gone. The case was elevated, moving from a simple search to a missing person inquiry.

The Disturbing Discovery

The deep freeze of a Minnesota winter encased the mystery. It wasn’t until April 5th, 2019, months after the snow had fallen, that a joint patrol of Border Patrol agents, a Forest Service agent, and a Minnesota Conservation Officer stumbled upon Jordan’s camp. It was a remarkably remote location, a south-facing slope offering ideal protection from the brutal north wind—a spot truly chosen to avoid human contact.

The site was simple: a green tarp strung between two trees serving as a makeshift tent, and beneath it, a hammock. Inside the hammock, a sleeping bag, a pile of personal effects, and a Beretta 92 FS 9mm pistol.

But this was no peaceful retreat. The officers were met with a horrific scene. The hammock was soaked in a large amount of dried blood. Blood spatter marred the inside of the tarp. Shredded pieces of what appeared to be Jordan’s sleeping bag and jacket were scattered nearby. The conservation officer later noted that it was the blood, everywhere, that stood out.

The evidence painted a confused and desperate picture:

The Pistol: Found inside the bloodied hammock, loaded, but with the safety on. Corrosion made it difficult to cock the slide; crucially, it had not been fired.

Personal Items: A wallet containing $178 cash and Jordan’s driver’s license, a GoPro, a Sketchbook, and a cell phone—all untouched by theft.

Boots: Found neatly under the tarp, suggesting Jordan was in his sleeping gear or waking up when disaster struck.

The Tarp: Cut in half, potentially a frantic attempt to grab material for a bandage or to escape the confinement of the small shelter.

Clothing: A black stocking cap and a blue inflatable pillow were both heavily bloodstained, indicating a wound near the head or neck.

The snow made a thorough investigation impossible. The initial determination was that Jordan Grier was a missing person whose campsite had been violently disturbed.

The Search for Remains

As the snow receded in the ensuing weeks, a full-scale search commenced. On April 25th, investigators returned. What they found confirmed the worst: skeletal remains. The items recovered were sparse and fragmented: a possible humorous bone, a rib bone, pieces of femur, vertebrae, and numerous broken bone pieces, scattered amongst remnants of cloth, webbing, and a handgun magazine. The severity of the scene strongly suggested post-mortem scavenging.

Later analysis of Jordan’s Samsung cell phone revealed that the last messages were sent on October 9th, confirming his final contact with the world. He spoke of his ample supply of grain and beans, his preparation for a long winter—no indication of self-harm or distress. All evidence suggested normalcy right up until the point of catastrophe.

In May 2020, the DNA results came back, confirming the remains belonged to Jordan Grier. Despite the gruesome scene, the authorities officially closed the case, ruling out foul play due to the remote location and the intact valuables. The cause of death was left chillingly undetermined.

The Two Competing Theories

With the official conclusion providing no real answer, two dominant, deeply flawed theories emerged, fueled by the family and the strange details of the camp.

1. The Accidental Cut Theory

Jordan’s mother, Rebecca Grier, initially proposed that her son, known for his love of extremely sharp knives, might have accidentally severed a major artery. This was supported by two of his known habits: shaving with a military-style folding knife to maintain a clean-shaven appearance, or an injury sustained while whittling. A cut to the neck while shaving or to the femoral artery while whittling could certainly cause the massive bleeding found in the hammock.

The Fatal Flaw:

Rebecca Grier noted after visiting the site that there was no wood debris or shavings, suggesting Jordan had not been whittling recently.

Crucially, all of Jordan’s knives were found sheathed and clean—none had blood on the blades. If a man has cut himself so badly that he bleeds out, it is highly improbable that he would take the time to clean the blade and return it to its sheath before succumbing.

The theory requires Jordan to be shaving by his hammock, away from the water where one might normally perform such an act, and to nick himself in a precise, catastrophic way without a mirror.

2. The Wolf Attack Theory

The other theory, strongly advocated by Jordan’s mother, was that he was surprised and killed by an aggressive pack of Timberwolves. This idea was supported by the discovery of wolf scat and prints near the campsite, and the large gray wolf population in Minnesota—the highest in the US outside of Alaska, with over 2,700 wolves.

The Fatal Flaw:

The Unharmed Hammock: Wolf experts, like Thomas Gable, immediately pointed out that if a pack of wolves had attacked a man inside a hammock, the hammock would have been shredded to pieces. It was found in good condition, merely stained with blood.

The Pistol: Jordan had a loaded firearm within immediate reach. Even if attacked while asleep, the instinct to grab the weapon would have been high. The pistol was unfired and had the safety on, suggesting a silent, instantaneous incapacitation or a fatal event that allowed no time for defense.

Lack of Struggle: Experts noted that a wolf attack would have resulted in a far messier scene, with more signs of struggle and torn clothing. The clothing found was weathered, not torn apart.

The more likely scenario, according to experts, was that the wolves came along later and scavenged an already dead body, a common wilderness occurrence that would explain the scattered, broken bones and the lack of larger remains like the pelvis or skull. The wolf explanation primarily explains the post-mortem scene, not the initial violent event.

The Unknowable Truth

The final assessment of Jordan Grier’s death leaves behind a trail of perplexing contradictions.

He was an experienced woodsman, yet investigators noted his supplies were “insufficient” for a long Minnesota winter, lacking a stove and relying mostly on grains. This seemingly contradicts his decade of off-grid survival, and his own recent purchase of food. Was he overconfident? Or was he simply planning to resupply?

He clearly died in or immediately next to his hammock, boots off, bleeding profusely from a wound close to the head/neck area (indicated by the blood on the ski cap and pillow). This supports the accidental cut theory.

Yet, no bloody knife was found, and the knives were sheathed. This fact is the single biggest impediment to the self-inflicted wound hypothesis.

The only way to reconcile these points is to construct a scenario as unlikely as it is terrifying:

The Shaving Scenario: Jordan wakes up, takes off his boots, and decides to shave with his military knife. He is still in his sleeping area. He makes a single, catastrophic error, severing a major blood vessel. Bleeding immediately and heavily, he tries to cut strips of cloth from his tarp or clothing for a bandage, perhaps wiping the knife clean in the process before instinctively re-sheathing it out of habit. He realizes the wound is too severe, lays back in his hammock, and succumbs to blood loss.

The Silent Attack: Or, less likely but still possible, he was attacked by a single, desperate animal (not necessarily a wolf) or suffered a sudden, non-defensive event immediately upon settling in his hammock, perhaps a burst artery or a medical event, with the animals arriving only after his death.

Jordan Grier arrived at his final, solitary refuge in the Boundary Waters around October 8th, 2018. Within a few days, something happened—swiftly, violently, and with no witnesses. The scene suggests a fatal accident in a moment of vulnerability, rapidly followed by the merciless cleansing of the wilderness. The Boundary Waters kept the final, critical detail. It leaves us with a bloody campsite, scattered bones, and an enduring mystery: not just how Jordan Grier died, but why a decade of experience offered no protection from a sudden, unexplained end.