Mysterious case of Jordan Grider

Author Joe Fredericks was interviewed on the PBS show Almanac and talked about the mysterious case of Jordan Grider.

“I actually went to the site with a conservation officer for the DNR and Ely, Sean Williams. We didn’t go looking for his skull but we went to the campsite where he was eaten by wolves in the Ely area off the Echo Trail.

“He would likely would have been injured first and then was eaten by wolves there’s no dispute about that and all that was recovered were 13 bones of his not the skull.

“Jordan Grider’a story is really one that impacted me a lot writing this book. He was from New Mexico, 29 years old, and had kind of had a rough life. He vagabonded around the United States and ended up in the Boundary Waters trying to spend the winter there and lasted two nights from what they can figure. And then I guess he got injured and then eaten by wolves.

“His story is different from most of the others in the book. He wasn’t on a canoe trip he wasn’t at a designated campsite. He was trying to get away from society and so he’s not like many of the other stories.

“But it’s one that impacted me. I got to meet his parents in New Mexico. I went to his house where he grew up and just had I was just so curious about him and how he ended up there and how he died in this gruesome way.

“But it’s very different from the other stories that are in the book. There’s not a lot of education necessarily behind it, rather than if you’re gonna try to spend a winter in the Boundary Waters to be prepared and know what you’re doing. Have an emergency beacon. These were things that he didn’t have.”