A Figure Stands Where the Cliff Should Be: The Mirror Notch Photograph

A Figure Stands Where the Cliff Should Be: The Mirror Notch Photograph

Cold dread at a familiar overlook: a four-by-six photograph pinned to a cabin siding shows a man in orange at Mirror Notch-and a second orange-clad figure standing on the sheer north face where no person can stand. What could place a motionless figure on a cliff and why does the light in the image not match the sky?

In this episode, we present the sequence of events from the morning Kevin Whitfield took the photo to the discovery of the pinned print two weeks later, and the on-site investigation that followed. How did a dead, sawn spruce used as a prop and a mismatched light direction become part of the evidence?

Person: Kevin Whitfield
Date: October 26, 2019
Location: Mirror Notch overlook; cabin above Strath Mountain
Event: Photograph showing a second figure on the north face and anomalous lighting
Investigator: Terry Boyd, Carl Vance, Diane Ostroff

- Whitfield set his phone on a flat rock with a ten-second timer at the Mirror Notch overlook on October 26, 2019.
- Fourteen days later, on November 9, a 4x6 print of that photo was found pinned to the cabin siding with one brad nail.
- Whitfield lived alone in Renner, Colorado, and was 54 years old in fall 2019; he ran a 4.5-mile loop every morning at 6:15 for eleven years.
- The photograph shows a second orange-jacketed figure standing on the north face of Mirror Notch, a sheer cliff where standing unaided is impossible.
- Investigators found a dead spruce at the overlook whose root ball had been sawn clean and a 60-80-pound trunk jammed into a granite fissure, a placement requiring at least two people.

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