A mysterious ‘whodunit’ on popular Point Defiance trail piques curiosity
On Wednesday, March 4, a redditor named “quackedup17” was hiking with his dog, Lucy, in Point Defiance Park when he came across something he’d never seen before: a memorial plaque nailed into a tree with a darkly funny message:
“In memory of our brother Dave.
We would have
Got him a bench.
But he still owed us $300.”
Quackedup17’s real name is Donald. He asked The News Tribune not to use his last name in order to protect his online identity. Point Defiance hikes are something of a routine for Donald and Lucy – they go nearly every day after Donald gets off work.
“She got a bad diagnosis last April,” Donald told The News Tribune. “So I figure I owe it to her to get her out there every day I can.”
Donald’s a nature lover, and it sounds like Lucy, a puggle, is a Donald lover.
“Mainly, I like to go out there and hang out with the moss and enjoy the views,” he said.
Donald says that in the past 18 months, he and Lucy have hit every trail in the park. On Wednesday, they were hiking the larger outer loop trail when it started raining. The trail turned muddy, so Donald and Lucy took a shortcut path.
“It was the fastest way back to my car,” Donald recalled. “I was kind of walking, looking for monkeyshines, so my eyes were peeled, and I noticed the plaque.”
The plaque in question is a 4-by-8-inch plastic memorial that’s been nailed into a recently sawn tree. Stacia Glenn from Parks Tacoma told The News Tribune that the tree had fallen over the trail in a recent storm system before being cut back by staff.
Donald got a good laugh at the message on the plaque and went home and posted a photo of it on Reddit. People quickly replied, wondering exactly where the plaque was and who the heck Dave was.
The News Tribune reached out to Parks Tacoma to find out what happens with rogue memorials, serious or otherwise.
“We do have a policy for dealing with things like this,” Glenn wrote The News Tribune. “Parks Tacoma understands that creating a memorial can help grieve a loved one, but it also creates challenges to maintaining public parks. Our policy allows memorials to remain up to a month once we are aware of them, then we provide a removal notice on site 14 days in advance, so family and friends have time to collect the items left behind if they so choose.”
The official link for those who might be interested in setting up an authorized memorial at Point Defiance can be found on the Parks Tacoma website.
One redditor replied that they’d seen Dave’s plaque back in February. Parks Tacoma thinks the plaque might have been installed as far back as December of last year.
Whether the darkly humorous memorial is real, and how long it might stay, is anyone’s guess at this point. Parks Tacoma says whoever did install the plaque has nothing to fear. There’s no penalty or fine for rogue memorials. They just need to be removed 14 days after the official removal notice is posted (or the park will remove them).
So, without further ado, come forward, silent rogue, and receive thy prize. Okay, there’s no prize. But, Dave and fam, if this is real, we’d love the story. If not, thanks for the laugh.
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