PEARL

Pearl Siskin was a sixteen year old girl who disappeared during an outward bound weekend at the Tripsdale Outdoor Centre in May 1992. Despite extensive searches and a number of reported sightings, she has never been found.

Pearl/unpub

Siskin studied survivalist techniques from a young age, confounding acquaintances with her knowledge of local flora and fauna, and often fantasised to friends about living undetected in the wild.

Pearl/unpub

Suspicion fell upon Tanya Brayshaw, one of Siskin’s class teachers, whom Siskin had accused of conducting an affair with a fellow pupil.  Brayshaw resigned, but was absolved of any part in Siskin’s disappearance.  Brayshaw later posed nude in a top-shelf magazine, and published a book, The Tripsdale Incident, in which she claimed “incontrovertible proof” that Siskin had been abducted by aliens.

Pearl/unpub

One year after her disappearance, a group of pupils on a similar outward bound trip claimed to have encountered Siskin bathing in a small pond.  They produced a photograph that appeared to show a startled Siskin disappearing back into the forest; however, they subsequently admitted the whole incident had been faked.

Pearl/unpub

In 1994 a local geologist reported finding a camp in a crevice in a deep ravine, surrounded on all three sides by a barrier of thick gorse and bracken, comprising bedding, a bin-bag full of clothing, discarded food cans, and a short-wave radio.

Pearl/unpub

On Christmas Eve 1994, a local farmer startled a girl in one of his outbuildings. The farmer  encouraged the girl to enter his house whereupon she greedily ate the food she was offered.  She accepted an offer of shelter but had disappeared by the next morning, along with a number of blankets and food items.

Pearl/unpub

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