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The Missing | Hiatt and Thayer The overlook at Johnston Ridge Observatory, around this time of the year, is usually teeming with visitors. Well, it hasn't been like that for a few years — but if all goes according to plan this year, it will be again come next. Save for a passing visitor, two- or four-legged, the granite plaque listing the 57 names of the victims of the eruption stands amid emptiness, though that emptiness lessens with each year. Among that list of 57 are the 21 persons whose remains were never found by search and rescue crews, volunteers, private citizens, Army Corps contractors, or law enforcement. Of those 21, two may never have been on the mountain that day in 1980. First, Paul Hiatt. "Toutle area" is what the official record said, but no age, no hometown, no occupation, no reporting name attached. In 1982, former Cowlitz County sheriff's deputy Ben Bena, then the lead on emergency management for the county, believed the name came from a Red Cross, a scrap of paper in a file. The only "Paul Hiatt" who ever came forward was a Tukwila meat salesman who tried in vain to have his name removed from the list. Ultimately, the sheriff's office felt it was easier to leave it on there than to explain why it was being removed. "It's a real Catch-22," Hiatt told the Seattle Times in 1982. Dale Douglas Thayer, 36, was, in fact, a real person, though missing for months before May 18. Last known to be in the Olympia area, he'd left his wife Bonnie behind. Four days after the eruption, the Daily Olympian tracked down Doug Thayer alive and well at his parents' home in Olympia, baffled to find himself on such a list. But, wrong guy — his name was Charles Douglas Thayer. Dale Douglas first appeared on the list May 20 — reported missing alongside someone named Terry, last name unknown, by an unknown party. After seeing Thayer's name in the paper, Bonnie called the Red Cross, convinced it was her husband. She was so certain, she eventually filed for Social Security death benefits. Somehow, Bonnie wound up listed as the reporting party — though this wasn’t the case, but in the “vog” of war. Both Hiatt and Thayer are the only two of the 57 for whom no presumptive death certificate was ever filed. So both names remained on the list and are on the plaque at Johnston Ridge. Bena, looking back 25 years after the eruption to The Daily News, said of the two men: "Those two guys in particular, I really question whether they even existed." Sources: Longview Daily News (April 22, 2005); The Olympian (November 20, 1980); The News-Tribune (October 25, 1982); Seattle Times (March 25, 1981; October 22, 1982)