(mshort.substack.com)
In the early morning hours of June 4th, 1999, 15-year-old Michael “Mike” Palmer and three of his friends left a graduation party on their bikes.
As his friends would explain, they sped on as Mike lagged behind, not realizing until later that he was no longer with them. They waited for Mike in the parking lot of a local 7-Eleven but he never showed up, leading them to assume that he’d simply gone home.
However, he did not make it home and was never seen again. In the days following his disappearance, his bike would be located in the Little Susitna River and, bizarrely, his sneakers would turn up on a private airstrip hundreds of yards away from the river. These were the only clues that law enforcement had to work with.
The search for Mike turned up no other evidence. Dogs were unable to track his scent anywhere around the river, and neither Mike nor anything else belonging to him was discovered in the body of water. Further adding to the confusion, disturbing rumors about what occurred that night soon began to circulate in the area.
What happened to Michael Palmer?
One of four children, Michael “Mike” Timothy Palmer was born on January 8th, 1984, in Alaska, to parents Lisa and Charles. The Palmer family resided in Wasilla. Mike was close to his brothers and was an outdoorsy teenager who loved hiking, fishing and hunting.
Unfortunately, there are few details publicly available about Mike’s life and personality.
Mike was spending the night at a friend’s home on Friday, June 4th, 1999. At some point during the evening, Mike and three of his friends (two of whom were named Tommy and Dustin, according to some sources) snuck out of the house and rode their bikes to a graduation party that was taking place near the Meadow Lakes subdivision.
(Side note: It’s unclear why they chose this particular party, as there were others going on that night, or whether or not they really knew anyone there. There are few details available about many aspects of this case.)
Confirmed facts about what occurred at the party are very limited, but it has been said that Mike drank a few beers while there. However, according to the observations of others, he wasn’t noticeably intoxicated and appeared to be alert.
He and the other boys left in the early morning hours and were heading back to the friend’s home. Mike was last spotted riding his bike on Pittman Road at approximately 4 a.m.
He was reportedly riding more slowly than the other boys, lagging behind them. According to them, they continued on for a few miles before they realized that he was gone. They hadn’t seen or heard anything that would indicate Mike was in danger.
At this point, they stopped in the well-lit parking lot of a local 7-Eleven on Parks Highway and waited for their friend to catch up. He never did.
They remained in the parking lot for around 40 minutes (or as little as 15 minutes depending on the source) before giving up and assuming that Mike decided to go back to his own home, which was located roughly nine miles away from the party.
It wasn’t until hours later that his family would find out that he was missing. When Mike didn’t come home that day, Lisa called the home of the friend he’d been staying with and asked where her son was. This was when she learned that he wasn’t there and that no one knew where he might be.
She contacted the police and reported Mike missing at 3 p.m.
Search parties composed of police officers, local volunteers and search dogs were formed. Within a day of Mike’s disappearance, two pieces of evidence would be discovered. However, these clues would only introduce more questions.
Firstly, Mike’s bicycle, which he’d borrowed, turned up in the Little Susitna River. Though the river was located near the road Mike was last seen on, he would have had no reason to cross it, whether he was going home or back to his friend’s house, creating further confusion as to how the bicycle might have ended up there.
This finding initially led to speculation that perhaps Mike had accidentally fallen into the river and either drowned or succumbed to hypothermia, as temperatures had dropped to 43 degrees Fahrenheit on the night he went missing.
A thorough search of the river was carried out by divers, but ultimately nothing else relevant to Mike’s case was found. The Little Susitna River was described as being fairly shallow, with clear water that made it very easy to see to the bottom.
Furthermore, it had logjams which would have prevented anything large—such as a body—from traveling any further. Because of these facts, it was believed that if the missing teenager had ended up in the water, and remained there, he would have easily been found.
Additionally, tracking dogs were unable to pick up on his scent anywhere around the river.
But the strangest clue, one that would further suggest that Mike wasn’t in the water any longer (if he ever had been), soon turned up: His high-top Converse sneakers were located on a private airstrip 200 yards away from where his bike was discovered. The shoes, which were wet and muddy, had been neatly placed next to each other.
Law enforcement structured their search grid around the areas in which these items were found. Approximately four square miles, including the nearby woods, were combed in the effort to find Mike Palmer, but no other evidence materialized.
“We searched all the logical places in the (Little Susitna) river and came up empty-handed,” explained Alaska State Trooper Pat Davis. “We’ve refocused the search to land.”
The Palmer family didn’t believe that Mike ran away and suspected that foul play might be responsible for his disappearance.
Investigators questioned locals, focusing their attention primarily on those who had attended parties on June 4th.
One individual came forward, reporting that they’d witnessed Mike leave the party with two people in a blue sedan. However, it turned out that this eyewitness was mistaken and the people and vehicle in question had been at an entirely different party from the one Mike and his friends had attended.
Tips poured in, most of which suggested that foul play had befallen the teenager.
Someone stated that Mike had been badly beaten at a party. Three anonymous callers told a similar story. As a result, Chris Palmer came to believe that his brother had been the victim of a violent encounter at the graduation party.
Yet after investigating this lead, authorities said that the fight had actually occurred at a different party, one at which Mike hadn’t been in attendance, and concluded that it had nothing to do with the missing boy.
Months later, a teenage boy (whose identity wasn’t revealed to the public) began to spread a disturbing rumor to the effect that he’d witnessed Mike being beaten and then shot on a bridge that was said to be far from where the bicycle was located.
Investigators brought the teenager in for questioning and administered a polygraph exam as well. During the interrogation, he admitted that he’d made up the story to gain attention.
Little has been disclosed to the public about the investigation, but it has been said that authorities found every rumor relating to Mike’s disappearance to be baseless.
Multiple eyewitness sightings of a young man purported to be Mike came in—including one which placed him at a biker party in Talkeetna—but none could be substantiated.
Ultimately, investigators still favored the accidental death theory, while his family thought foul play was a more plausible explanation.
The loss of Mike left his family deeply shaken and heartbroken.
“My boy, I love him,” said Charles. “And if he’s dead, he’s with God, and that’s the only thing that’s keeping me together.”
Lisa:
“I’m just hanging on by a thread. We all are. It gets harder and harder every day. Somebody knows something. They’ve got to.”
Charles was skeptical about the story that Mike’s friends had told, though no one was certain why they might lie. Had an accident occurred? Or had a prank gone too far? If so, no one was talking and evidence to support foul play remained elusive.
It’s worth noting that the version of events told by his friends stayed consistent.
(Side note: It’s unclear if the discrepancy relating to how long they waited for him came from them or from a simple misreporting of the facts by the media. The latter seems more plausible here, as it has been specifically noted that his friends never deviated from their original story.)
The Palmers hired private investigators to aid in their quest for answers. One reportedly quit after receiving death threats. Another stated that, according to their findings, it’s possible that Mike actually left the party later than his friends, was grabbed while attempting to ride his bike home and then badly beaten.
Despite their efforts, no solid evidence was found to prove the veracity of these claims and the truth behind whatever happened to Mike was still frustratingly out of reach for his loved ones.
Sadly, this wouldn’t be the only mysterious tragedy suffered by the Palmers.
Almost 11 years later, Mike’s older brother, Charles (“Chuck”), would vanish under somewhat similar circumstances.
30-year-old Chuck was snowmobiling with friends and relatives near Talkeetna in April 2010 when he vanished. All that would be recovered during the extensive search was his snowmobile, which had gotten stuck in deep snow.
It also appeared that he’d gone in the wrong direction before getting stuck. Though it has been questioned why he didn’t follow the nearby river in an effort to find his way out, it is presumed that he simply got lost and succumbed to the elements. He has never been found.
There is no known connection between the disappearances of these two brothers, beyond some similarities in the circumstances. They were with different people when they went missing and, at least in Chuck’s case, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to suspect foul play.
Mike Palmer’s case remains open and active, though law enforcement hasn’t had any substantial leads in many years. Authorities have also stated that all of the persons of interest identified during the course of their investigation have been cleared of any suspicion.
If you have any information regarding Mike Palmer’s disappearance, you are encouraged to contact the Alaska State Troopers at (907) 745-2131.
“The Brothers Who Vanished Without A Trace” - The Lore Lodge, YouTube
The Charley Project - Michael Timothy Palmer