On October 8, 2020, Alexander Pisch, a 35-year-old male from Discovery Bay, California, was last known to be near Colonial Creek Campground in the Diablo Lake area of North Cascades National Park in Washington. Official National Park Service reporting described him as a white male, 6 feet 1 inch tall and approximately 160 pounds, and said he had been in the area where the rugged North Cascades rise around Highway 20 and Diablo Lake.
His white Toyota Corolla was found parked along Highway 20, near the place where he had set up an easel for painting, but his intended route or destination was not known.
The circumstances gave the case a particularly haunting quality because the scene suggested a quiet, ordinary stop in a beautiful landscape rather than a planned disappearance. Alexander had apparently come to the area to paint, and the easel left near his parked car became one of the central details in the early public reports. Two days after his last known contact, on Saturday, October 10, a National Park Service employee noticed that the vehicle and painting easel were still in the same location, with no indication that Alexander was nearby. Rangers began investigating the following day, and searchers were deployed into the field to examine the Colonial Creek Campground and Diablo Lake area.
By October 13, 2020, the National Park Service reported that the search was continuing with 20 personnel in the field. Search teams focused on the campground and Diablo Lake area, a setting that can be both strikingly beautiful and physically unforgiving, with forested terrain, cold water, steep slopes, and remote stretches around the North Cascades Highway. Local reporting repeated the National Park Service details: Alexander was last seen near Colonial Creek Campground, his Toyota Corolla was found two days later along Highway 20, and the easel he had set up for painting was found with it. Officials said at the time that it was unclear where he had been going.
As the search unfolded, authorities appealed to the public for help, emphasizing that information from other hikers and park visitors can be important in missing-person investigations. The National Park Service asked anyone with information to contact its tip line at 1-888-653-0009 or email noting that tips could be submitted anonymously. Missing NPF later summarized the case by stating that Alexander was last seen near Whatcom County in Washington and that field searchers had worked the area near Colonial Creek Campground and Diablo Lake after his car and easel were found with no sign that he was in the area.
Public case listings continue to preserve the essential facts of Alexander Pisch’s disappearance. NamUs lists him as Missing Person case MP79106, with a date of last contact of October 8, 2020, and the case was created in NamUs on April 12, 2021. Missing NPF lists him as still missing and connects the case to North Cascades National Park, describing him as a missing painter last known to be in the Whatcom County portion of the park near Colonial Creek Campground. In overview, Alexander Pisch’s case began with a 35-year-old man traveling through the Diablo Lake area to paint, continued with the troubling discovery of his parked car and abandoned easel along Highway 20, and remains defined by the unanswered question of what happened after he stepped away from that scenic roadside place in North Cascades National Park.Last Seen: Oct 8, 2020
