How do you just vanish into thin air? Geoffrey Spangler has been missing under strange circumstances since November 8, 2021. His parents are frantically looking for him. It always perplexes me when someone vanishes without a trace in the vast, wind-scorched desolation of the New Mexico desert.
Spangler was 33 when he vanished in 2021. He was supposed to be driving his 2000 Dodge Avenger from the White Sands Missile Range base to Ruidoso, where he planned to visit friends and stay in a rented cabin. But he never made it to Ruidoso. His car was eventually found in Vinton, TX, near the Franklin Mountain State Park.
He was last seen at the White Sands Missile Range Base. He had obtained a visitor’s permit to go bowling on base. But this is odd because civilians were not allowed on the base at that time due to Afghan refugees being housed there. Nevertheless, he somehow got onto base, possibly through a guard he had befriended named Baker.
White Sands patrol saw him leave through the Las Cruces gate 3 separate times in less than an hour that day. The detective on his case says his movements that day were “erratic.” Baker said he drove by the bowling alley at 1:30 pm and didn’t see Spangler’s car there anymore. Nobody saw him after that. The dozens of cameras on the base were supposedly not working, so his movements were not recorded after he left the bowling alley for the final time that day.
The Ruidoso resort where Spangler had rented the cabin said he never showed up. His mother officially reported him missing on November 8, 2021. The search for him commenced, and there appeared to be no sign of him anywhere. His mother and the detective investigating his case could not figure out which gate he exited the missile range from.
A month later, on December 6, a hiker found Spangler’s car near the Franklin Mountain State Park, which is in the center of El Paso. The car was not in a commonly traveled area; it appeared to have been hidden off a rough road at the base of the Franklin Mountains. Due to the low clearance on his car, it makes no sense why Spangler would drive his car to that location. There was no blood or sings of foul play, but also no signs Spangler is still living. Spangler’s mother and the hiker don’t believe the car had been there an entire month because it appeared so clean.
His laptop, cell phone, Nintendo Switch, medications, and clothes were inside. There were also two receipts that put odd wrinkles in the timeline of his last known moments. The first receipt was for two beers at the bowling alley on the White Sands Missile Range at 6:30 pm. That is odd, since Baker reported his car wasn’t there from 1:30 pm on. Of course, given his erratic movements earlier in the day, it is entirely possible he left the bowling alley when Baker drove by and returned later to bowl and drink more. But then where did he go between 1:30 pm and 6:30 pm?
The route between White Sands and Vinton passed through a border patrol checkpoint on Hwy 54, between Alamogordo and Orogrande. While the checkpoint and truck weigh station are on the northbound lane, there is a bank of cameras standing on the southbound lane. Border Patrol claimed they reviewed footage from that night and Spangler did not pass through that checkpoint, meaning he had to have exited through the El Paso gate or South Gate.
After months of pushing for answers, Spangler’s mother eventually learned from guards that Spangler had been seen exiting through the South Gate around 7:30 pm that night. They saw his car but could not make out the driver. This gate exits onto Hwy 54 past the Border Patrol checkpoint, thus avoiding the camera bank there. This is really odd since civilians are not allowed to use that gate under any circumstances; they are only allowed exit and entry from the Las Cruces Gate. It is also odd because this gate is not the most practical way to get to Ruidoso. Cameras monitoring this gate were broken, so it is unknown if Spangler was driving alone or not.
Per another receipt found in the car, Spangler stopped at the Orogrande Pit Stop, a little gas station in the near ghost town of Orogrande between Alamogordo and El Paso. Military police reviewed camera footage and said he was alone in the gas station and he didn’t appear to be under duress. But this is the opposite direction of where he should have been driving. His mother wonders why she has never been shown this footage from the Pit Stop.
It is unclear what Spangler was doing on the base or when he left exactly. But Spangler needed to check into his cabin at 3 pm, so why did he stay bowling till 6:30? He didn’t see well at night, either. He shut off his phone at 5:20 pm that night when his grandfather called him, and never turned it back on again. He wasn’t one to turn his phone off like that according to his mother.
While his last moments are confusing, there is no evidence of foul play. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, though, considering he hasn’t been found dead or alive. I hold out hope that something bad did not happen to this young man. He appears to be a sweet person who loved animals.
Maybe Spangler wanted to disappear. While this is cruel to his family, it does leave hope that something awful did not happen to him. He may have had a mental break or simply decided he wanted to walk away from his life. Unless his body or some other evidence is found, hope can remain.
Another strong possibility is that he got lost in the state park and died of exposure. After his car was found, however, search parties and cadaver dogs combed the area. This park also gets a lot of hikers and rock climbers. You would think he would have been found by now. But the wilderness is strange like that. The mystery remains, though: Why was he there in the first place, very far from his intended destination?
One thing that stood out to me is that his mother mentions Spangler suffered from schizoaffective disorder. Schizoaffective is a sort of blend of bipolar mood swings and schizophrenic psychosis. This could explain his erratic behavior that day. I just hope that he did not commit suicide or otherwise do something to hurt himself.
A rather weird possibility occurred to me. Maybe Spangler saw something he should not have. This is probably my overactive imagination, but hear me out. Spangler had a lot of encryption on his laptop, suggesting he had something to hide. He told people that he worked for a secret agency. That sounds like a schizoaffective delusion, but then why was he on White Sands Missile Range?
White Sands Missile Range is a site for top-secret missile testing and weapons technology development. You cannot enter the base without a pass and even then your movements are monitored and restricted. The base is so protected that it is blacked out on satellite maps and cell phones do not work through most of it. The few people I know who did creep onto the base (usually while hunting in the far edge of the Sacramento mountains) were quickly met by armed guards on ATVs and ordered to leave. One friend told me a story of driving onto base and stealing gas from a generator in a little shack and then leaving without mishap, but he didn’t make it very far onto the base.
Whatever happened, he has loved ones who want him back home. Spangler’s parents live in Las Cruces and they are devastated. His mother is a teacher and she posted his picture and the Las Cruces Sun article about him on Reddit r/LasCruces. Redditors began criticizing the errors in the article, which are abundant. She responded that the family is heartbroken and she can’t believe grammar is what people choose to focus on in her son’s case. I can’t believe how cold and heartless some people can be, especially when they feel protected by the anonymity of the Internet. However, I find the incorrect dates in the article to be concerning and disrespectful to Geoffrey Spangler and his family, and a potential source of trouble in finding him.
His parents posted on Reddit again on his 34th birthday, stating that nothing and no one has materialized in this case. It’s as if Geoffrey Spangler simply vanished into thin air, leaving only his car behind. But he is out there, somewhere. I really hope he is one day found.
In 2023, his mother posted again about how there have been no leads for 2 years. She is puzzled by what he was doing on White Sands Missile Range that day and why the cameras on an active military base full of refugees were broken. She is right…things don’t add up!
Spangler is six foot one and 205 pounds. He has dark hair and brown eyes. Now he is 34.
If you have info on him, please contact:
Las Cruces Police Department at 575-526-0795
Detective Dustin J. Lockridge at 575-528-4164 or [email protected].
Sources
https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/las-cruces-police-seek-missing-person-from-2021/