Beth,

Thank you for posting this. Like many who knew or were passingly acquainted with Drew Speedie, and also as a fan of national parks, I was curious what would be found in the investigation. I knew Drew only casually from postings and attending a few of his talks at conferences and from standing around with him and others in a lobby once. I liked him, but unfortunately did not have the chance to know him personally, as some here have.

Unfortunately, these news articles (all of which seem to stem from one apparently brief public statement by a park official regarding the Park's investigation) contain little information about how the investigators reached their conclusion. Without seeing the original report(s) of the investigating agency(s), we can only speculate about the accuracy of the report. As a veteran of a three month stint on a county grand jury, I can attest that there is always a great deal of information, much of it pertinent, that never reaches the public through the news media.

I find it appropriate that people who really knew Drew Speedie and his family should express their feelings about the news report. Even though we are often blind to the deep problems of our close friends, such feelings are not without weight and importance, and sometimes are later revealed to be a better reflection of the situation than misinterpreted logical evidence.

Regarding denegraion of the people who carried out the investigation and reported the results without the benefit of having participated in the process, nor having read the official report(s), nor even having seen or met the investigators, well I find that, at the least, disrespectful. To speculate without any evidence whatsoever that there these people were engaged in some sort of conspiracy is absurd. True, they might be wrong, but if so we don't know anything about how they reached the wrong conclusion, inocently or not.

If I personally knew Drew's family and friends I would try to comfort them without resorting to wild speculation. If I truly believed an injustice had been done, I would pursue the evidence first through the official reports, rather than engage in random speculation from the comfort of my desk.

That is the last I have to say on this.

...Jim