Have you seen Jonathan Spollen? Missing in Rishikesh since February 3rd, 2012

Naveen Prakash Saklani








Mod note: I have deleted Naveen's phone number to protect his privacy. I have sent it by PM to David and Lynda in case they wish to follow up on anything from Capt's conversation reported below.

Spoke to him just now. Hindi.

Gist:
He is 30 percent sure he saw J (I pushed him to put a number)

'Sighting' took place on May 4 (he checked date with a family member, I could hear him asking which date did so and so die, to fix the date he saw J)

'J' was sitting at Sewasharam, Parmarth Niketan, where lot of foreigners go (I presume this description makes sense, since I don't know that part of Rishikesh well).

Sitting on leaf under tree with expensive professional-looking camera

Jeans and kurta

Brown eyes

Tall

No beard (I am not 100% sure if he reconfirmed this, but his post on facebook quoted earlier here says so)

Without commenting on whether I think this is a likely sighting:
-Did J have an expensive, professional looking camera?

and here's what he says under the picture -

"भाई 100% श्योर तो नहीं कहा सकता .. पर एक नज़र देखा था पूर्णानंद घाट के आस-पास .. केमरा गले मे, हाफ बाजु कुर्ता , जींस टाईप कुछ पहना था.. इस लो देखे मुझे 10 -15 दिन लगभग हो गए है.. पर मै ज्यादा यकीन से नहीं कहा सकता.. की ये वही हो सकते है..
माँ गंगा का अश्रीवाद रहा तो ये अपने परिवार को मिल जायेगा."

"Brother am not hundred percent sure, it was just a glance. Near Poonanand Ghat. Camera around the neck, half sleeved tunic, 10-15 days ago. But I can't be too sure that it's the same person. With Mother Ganga's blessing he will be reunited with his family soon"

This sounds highly unlikely to me, Parmarth are actively involved in the search for J & Rishikesh is covered in posters & all locals must be aware of the search for J by now. If he saw him on 4th May why did he wait all this time to tell anyone? KK

J's eyes are blue, a very shiny blue...

Don't forget also what David & Lynda reported in their last update, post #1595:

Which doesn't mean of course that all such sightings may not be worthwhile, and need following up on. And great of you to call again, Capt., and so thanks to Rishikeshpage for reporting it here.

I have to apologize - there is indeed a metric height.
I was sure I saw posters with 6 feet tall.

I am not saying J is like James Bond, just that if he was looking to disappear voluntarily he would definitely didn't say a word to anyone and will try to make things look like something weird.

Honestly I will give a beer to anyone who can respond me to this question:

Why would someone abandon his papers and money/cards while taking the mobile phone with him????

Unless someone is playing with investigators (and I have to admit this is brilliant and sick play in the same time), in my opinion such thing will be made by someone who wants to voluntarily vanish or by someone with a mental disorder

I am not convinced that someone who abandons his passports/money/cards/health docs will make sure will want to go to a second medical check (sorry - this is really funny)

About witnesses - while a good point, I am afraid that there is so much time passed from February that no one will remember, in a helpful way, any good info (try yourself to remember what was wearing the metro tickets lady from your daily departing station on 3rd February;I know most of us wont even know how she looks like - even if we involuntarily see her daily)
BUT it might be helpful if J was behaving strange - suggesting a mental health issue. Such things might have been observed and remembered by some people.

Thanks for the follow up, Captain - very unlikely to be Jonathan - Jonathan has blue eyes and he didn't have his 'good' camera with him - he had posted it from Hong Kong .

Just in another attempt to keep everyone's placenames straight: When there is mention above of Kedrinath, I assume this is the place commonly rendered as Kedarnath? It is another of the four towns along the Char Dham yatra (pilgrimage), said to be the most remote of them. (Namely and all four: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.)

(And it really is never meant by way of pedantry, but you're just looking at transcriptions/transliterations of languages and their scripts that to my best knowledge have no universal system for being rendered into English, or into Roman script. Or if they do, they don't appear to be universally followed, far from it. It can always throw up confusion when discussing Indian placenames, or concepts. Then of course never mind how one may phonetically catch them, which may have little bearing on their common Romanized spellings, or not as a speaker of the latter would catch them. But it can be confusing within India, even, and so when and even to natives trying to communicate in English as a lingua franca, not just to outsiders. Though of course any understanding of the applicable languages and scripts would swiftly leave no room for doubt, at all. There is no ambiguity there, so long as one understands them.)

Witness our having been confused for quite a while over what turned out to be Neelkanth (or indeed again rendered as Nilkanth, then. Sigh), but phonetically rendered very differently for a while early on in this thread. (Namely, as Nyaneth. Plenty of room for confusion, indeed, no. And indeed, even Indian members here came up with quite a number of possible candidates for it.) How either might be pronounced I still don't know; I sadly don't speak nor read any Indian languages. But the confusion I easily recognize.

Anyways, again it's really not any sort of critique, and certainly family and friends must have more on their minds than these complicated intricacies: Just again trying to help all in knowing what placenames we're looking at.

Bump!!

Char dham (Yamotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath) yatra (pilgrimage) is fully on wherever you are.

Roads are very busy, they are not usually, with yatri's, queues for fuel, food and everything plus accommodation shortages at the actual dhams and base camps. Weather has been hot, i.e. no rain for a week, been touching 40C in Dehradun/Rishikesh with mosquito's don't forget... be a masochist to want to stay there.

But 25Km up the hill to Mussoorie and cool air, breezes and similarly deeper into the hills. The pilgrims tear up and down four main roads basically, so a kilometer away across the river you could be all au naturel or simply Al Fresco if you had assumed a new avatar. All those higher, quieter spots can be beautiful hang-outs for months now as summer, then monsoon in July and up to October, the weather is pleasant.

Hey guys! I havent read all pages of this thread but I just thought of something i think could be useful.

As stated before that he withdrew 10k and 5k from the ATM, why doesnt someone contact the ATM Bank for the CCTV footage of that timeframe.

We would get to know what he looks like at that time(weather beard and hair were cut), what he was wearing, and maybe some other clues or whatevr.

Every ATM has a CCTV plus a Camera INSIDE the ATM Machine.

If this has been done, then good else i think this could be an Important piece!

when? before he 'went missing'.. my theory is he was taken by a tiger or a leopard. my condolences. it's a wild place india. we have mt. lions here in california.. usually they don't eat people, but sometimes they do. after speaking with his aunt and uncle in nepal, it would seem unlikely that he went into the mountains and foraged on leaves and such. the Sadhus are a motley bunch, usually they depend upon some money.. so... his belongings included his wallet, id. etc.. money.. according to the aunt/uncle. you never know, especially in India .. i've been to that area a lot, i'm very strong, etc.. and scared to walk to that waterfall at night without a few armed guards. OM Shanti Namo Shivaya, V

Aunt & Uncle in Nepal? The Humla Children's Home founders?

Whose aunt and uncle? What are you talking about hapichai?

Peak, what is the Humla Children's Home?