Hi Park enthusiasts, I'm your host, Dilya DeAmbra, and the story I'm going to tell you about

is a bizarre one that to this day is still unsolved.

It takes place in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in America

according to the National Park Service.

This park takes up more than 520,000 acres and is divided almost evenly between Tennessee

and my home state of North Carolina.

There are 850 miles of backcountry trails, many of which twist and turn on themselves or intersect

with private properties.

And it's on one of these trails in the summer of 2008 that 51-year-old Mike Heron disappeared,

leaving behind a mountain of mystery as big as the Great Smokies themselves.

To help me tell this story, I enlisted the help of one of Mike's sons, Matt Heron.

Matt and his brother Andy have been looking for their father who vanished in the woods along

the park's boundary 13 years ago and the men are certain he was murdered.

This is Park Predators.

Around 930 in the morning on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, 26-year-old Andy Heron picked

up his phone and heard the cheerful voice of his dad, Mike, on the other end.

Mike was calling Andy to let his son know that he was leaving his condo in the nearby town

of Maryville, Tennessee and was coming over to Andy's house to pick up a lawn mower and

a trailer.

Mike told Andy that he wanted to take the mower about 30 minutes away to the family's

100-acre farm in Happy Valley.

Right before calling Andy, Mike said he tried to reach his other son, 25-year-old Matt

...