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Team 7 Investigation Unravels Secret Life Of Missing Man
May 15, 2008
SEATTLE -- The hunt for a missing state employee -- presumed dead after hiking off into the woods two years ago -- is still active, and there's good reason.
Both his family and law enforcement agents tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators that Gilbert Gilman might still be alive.
Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne has unraveled the secret life of Washington's former Deputy Director of the State Retirement Fund.
Gilman disappeared June 24, 2006, from a place called the Staircase near Lake Cushman in the Olympic National Park. Common sense tells us he's probably dead; his remains lying, undiscovered, along some trail.
That said, KIRO Team 7 Investigators have learned law enforcement agencies are still monitoring Gilman's bank accounts, saying it's possible he either "wanted to" or "needed to" disappear.
After 5,000 hours of searching, including sweeps with body heat-sensing helicopters, underwater dive teams and keen-nosed hunting dogs, Gil Gilman is nowhere to be found. After 10 days, emergency crews called off an intensive sweep.
Park Ranger Sanny Lustig headed up the search.
"The terrain is really rugged and the canopy cover where we were looking is really, really tight. We searched as long and as hard for him as we've ever done for anyone that I've ever been a part of and it still doesn't surprise me that we didn't find him -- given how hard it is for us to find someone who isn't directly communicating with us back."
Lustig also happens to be the last person known to have seen Gilman. He left his convertible near her ranger station, right in front of three main trailheads.
"I could actually hear the music playing in his car and went out to see what was going on and I had a brief conversation with him and asked him to turn down the music. I got the sense he was going for a hike," Lustig said.
Coworkers in Olympia knew Gil Gilman as a bespectacled government retirement fund manager who loved books and crunching numbers. What most didn't know was that Gilman spent years as a top-secret military PSYCOPS interrogator fluent in Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.
"He was well-educated and extraordinarily well-traveled," his mother, Doris Gilman, told Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne from her West Palm Beach, Florida, home.
She says Gilman, or "Gig" (her nickname for him) led a mysterious life, one that, at times, required their communications to at times be in code.
"The joke had always been, 'Where are you? (He'd say) I'm in Newark.' Then, he'd follow up with, 'No, no, I'm in Bagdad or Mogadishu or I'm in Brussels or so on.'"
After months of haggling with the Department of Defense, KIRO Team 7 Investigators were allowed to review Gilman's Army resume. It includes combat experience with the 82nd Airborne and two bronze stars.
Records also reveal that Gilman worked for the United Nations in Somalia, a shadow U.S. government in Afghanistan and for the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) on assignment in counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence relating weapons of mass destruction.
Doris Gilman told us her son was a true patriot, helping the United States in ways none of us could imagine.
"He's never had a 9 to 5 job in his whole life -- his whole life! So, him picking up to have to go or being forced to go someplace without letting family know is not usual to us, so we've been able to handle it for two years."
Doris Gilman says shortly before Gil disappeared hiking, our government asked her son to be real life spy -- something she thought he had turned down.
"Maybe it all fits together. I don't know. I have no idea. It is a mystery and the only point we're at is, yeah, it's a mystery, but Gilbert is someplace."
Perhaps these are just the desperate hopes of a mother; clinging to any chance her son is alive.
So, KIRO Team 7 Investigators asked Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball about the case. He was the lead detective, looking for Gilman two years ago and continues to offer assistance to park rangers regarding Gilman's disappearance.
Kimball admits he's not sure Gilman is dead.
"His background is very different than that of most people who go missing. That's one of the things that raises some concerns for us. One of the possibilities is that he met some tragic accident in the forest and that is what happened, but we haven't found him and that's concerning. So based on his background, from what we know about him, some of the stuff he's done in the past, it raises, other possibilities. We'd sure like to find out one way or another."
Both Kimball and a federal agent, who spoke with KIRO Team 7 Investigators on the condition his name not be used, confirm they still check Gilman's financial accounts, just in case he intentionally disappeared.
Ranger Sanny Lustig indicated to us the truth about Gilman's fate is probably a bit more down to earth.
"Even a plan that is just a day hike on a beautiful afternoon could lead to something that is personally disastrous to you if you are not prepared and aware of the dangers as you make your way along," Lustig said.
Doris Gilman had concerns that a public viewing of our investigation might blow her son's cover if, in fact, he was alive and working for a U.S. intelligence service.
At her request, our team contacted several agencies connected with the Department of Defense a month prior to the airing of this segment.
If you're heading to the Lake Cushman area this summer, rangers ask that you keep your eyes open and report anything unusual.
Gilman was last seen wearing a bright green Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, sandals and prescription sunglasses. His wallet and cell phone are also still missing.
