The Disappearance of Fred Werm Comstock, Fall 1975

Fred Werm Comstock was 19 years old when he went missing in the fall of 1975. His date of disappearance varies across sources: NamUs states Monday, September 1st, WebSleuths states Tuesday, November 11th, and the National Park Service states Sunday, November 30th. According to WebSleuths, Fred was actually reported missing on November 30th; if this is true, this could explain why the NPS used that as his date of last contact, and would likely mean that he either went missing that day or on November 11th. NamUs, however, lists October 11, 1975 under "Date Reported"; it is possible that November 11, 1975 was intended instead.

Photo of Fred from NamUs.

All three of these dates do make sense given the time frames, i.e. as possible days to go for a hike: November 30th was a Sunday, and September 1st and November 11th, while weekdays — Monday and Tuesday, respectively — were both federal holidays (Labor Day and Veterans Day, respectively).

On the day of his disappearance, Fred was hiking in Yosemite National Park with a female companion and her son whom he had recently met. While at Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Fred and his companion agreed that he would hike back to Tuolumne Meadows, collect his companion's car, and then drive it to Yosemite Valley, where he would meet with her.

Fred was never seen or heard from again. His personal items, including his wallet, were left inside the companion's car. According to WebSleuths, he was reported missing on November 30th. Very few details are available in his case.

Fred is a white male with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time of his disappearance he was 19 years old, 5'11 to 6'1, and 150 to 165 lbs. His hair was in a shag hairstyle, and went to just below his ears. At the time he had no facial hair, though a photo of him with a mustache is available on NamUs. He did not wear glasses or contacts.

An earlier photo of Fred. From NamUs.

According to Fred's mother, he had suffered a broken leg when he was four years old, though she did not recall which leg. Fred often wore Levi's brand trousers, 31x33 with metal rivets on the front.

There are no UIDs listed on Fred's exclusion list. His NamUs case, #MP61579, was created on November 13, 2019 and last updated on March 10, 2022. He is listed among the Yosemite National Park Unsolved Missing Person Cases as of March 2017, but is not present in the CA DOJ's missing persons database. If alive today he would be 68 years old.

Fred was briefly mentioned in the 2007 book Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Charles R. "Butch" Farabee Jr, the latter of whom was able to access official Park records while researching all of the deaths and disappearances in the Park. Each chapter of the book highlights a few specific cases that fits the topic of the chapter — such as "Waterfalls," "Freak Accidents & Errors," "Falls while Hiking & Scrambling," and "Homicide" — and then ends with a full list of every case found by the authors that fits the topic, with a short summary of each.

In the list of cases featured in chapter twelve, "Lost," which concerns disappearances in Yosemite, the summary of the case is as follows:

Fred W. Comstock, [age:] teenager.

[Date of occurrence:] Before November 30, 1975. [Location:] Possibly Vogelsang area.

Information for Comstock is sketchy: No residence or age is listed other than his being a teenager. The brief Park SAR Report indicated several months later finding a third party who had last seen him in the Vogelsang area.  

Anyone with information regarding Fred's case should contact the National Park Service by calling 888-653-0009, emailing nps_isb@nps.gov, or submitting an online tip on the National Park Services Cold Case page (linked below). The agency case number is NP19189996. 

Sources

NamUs

WebSleuths

Yosemite National Park Unsolved Missing Persons Cases 

Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite, accessed through Internet Archive, pg. 479

Vanished site 

Vogelsang High Sierra Camp  

National Park Services Cold Cases 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on July 11, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, hyperlink new posts, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up. This post was last updated on October 11, 2025.