Hiker went missing in Olympic National Park in same week he had court date in domestic violence case
Jun 14, 2023, 5:41 PM
Hiker was due in court on domestic violence charges the week he was missing. (KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
We’re now learning that a hiker who disappeared in Olympic National Park for days late last week was missing while he was due in California court for a domestic violence case.
Two teams with Clallam County Search and Rescue went looking for 44-year-old Stanford University Professor Hunter Fraser on Thursday, June 8. He had left his car at the trailhead on Monday of that week, and Fraser planned to hike 40 miles over two nights. Before he went missing, he had last texted his family on Tuesday morning and was due back in Seattle by midday Wednesday.
On Saturday, June 10, the National Park Service reported that he had “self-rescued” with the assistance of other hikers, more than 50 miles away from where he was last seen at Camp Slab days prior. Case information provided by Santa Clara County Superior Court indicates that Fraser was due in court in California on Friday, June 9, the day before he resurfaced from his hike in Washington state. That case stems from an incident in July 2022, where Fraser allegedly threw his girlfriend to the ground and slammed a door into her, according to court documents obtained by the Stanford Daily.
The county district attorney initially charged Fraser with a misdemeanor but then raised that to a felony after seeing results from scans that showed the woman had broken two ribs. In an email to his lab at Stanford, Fraser later contended that the allegations levied against him “are untrue.”
In a statement Fraser issued to KIRO 7, he asserted that he had “every intention” of appearing in court leading up to his hike.
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“I set out on a solo hike in Washington’s Olympic National Park on June 5th and planned to return to my family on June 7, with every intention of attending a court hearing in California on June 9,” he said, detailing how he had become “disoriented and lost” on the trail after hitting his head.
Fraser went on to say that before he went missing, “the June 9th court date was postponed by the judge at the request of the accuser.”
“As I have said before, I deny the allegations,” he continued. “I am eager for all the facts to come out in court.”
A campus group protesting Fraser’s continued employment with the university also published documents detailing a series of past trespassing incidents, including one where Fraser had gone into a closed area at the Foothills Nature Preserve and then ran away from a park ranger after vandalizing a sign and barrier.
