Hi Park enthusiasts, I'm your host Delia de Ambrose, and a story I'm going to tell you about today is a unique one.

It takes place just north of Palestine, Texas in a marshland previously referred to as the Catfish Creek State Game Preserve,

a state-owned wetland that was part of a wildlife management area which covered roughly

9,000 acres back in 1951.

A listener wrote to me and suggested I feature this case in an episode,

and once I read a few articles about it,

I knew I had to research it more. It's quintessential Park Predators content.

In our century, the geographic area I'm going to be talking about is called the Gus-ingling wildlife

management area, named after the biologist slash game. called the Gus-Ingling Wildlife Management Area,

named after the biologist slash Game Warden who vanished there 72 years ago.

Up until 1952, the management area was called the Durden Wildlife Management Area, but as a nod to Gus's sacrifice,

the state renamed it in his honor. Since the late 1980s, Texas Parks and Wildlife has slowly allowed the public to access more and more of this

beautiful landscape.

Though it remains a dedicated haven for biologists and researchers to study different animals

and plants.

Some parts of the habitat are now accessible to visitors

who want to explore on their own,

a privilege that was not around back in 1951.

One day, in December of that year, Gus Engling was doing what he always did, patrolling the swamp,

when suddenly he disappeared.

Rumors swirled that the marshland itself had swallowed him whole,

but after an exhaustive hunt for clues,

...