INTERVIEW: Investigators search for American in Costa Rican jungle on ‘Missing Dial’

Missing Dial, which premiered Sunday, May 22 on National Geographic, is a six-part TV series that looks into the real-life disappearance of Cody Roman Dial Jr., the son of legendary explorer Roman Dial Sr. The missing-persons series is a heart-wrenching investigation into what happened two years ago when a young man from the United States ventured into the remote jungles of Costa Rica.

On the premiere episode, Roman Dial heads with his wife, Peggy, and a team of investigators to Corcovado National Park, a beautiful but challenging rainforest where Cody was last seen. They trekked into the jungle for several hours to the last spot where Cody was seen, and it becomes obvious to the viewer that the environment is a daunting obstacle. When Cody visited that part of the jungle, he was apparently alone, without a guide and avoiding the main tourist trails.

What the investigators turn up is mysterious and difficult to figure out.

Carson Ulrich, a former Drug Enforcement Agency agent, was one of the investigators brought in by the Dial family and production companies involved with Missing Dial. His first details of the case came from the original National Geographic article, and he quickly ascertained that leads on what happened were hard to come by.

“You’re talking about a jungle area that is a very, very vast region,” he said recently in a phone interview. Ulrich called Corcovado one of the most biodiverse and remote areas of Costa Rica, a country that is a popular tourist destination for visitors looking to zipline, surf, view the wildlife and hike.

Around the park are small communities, and, according to Ulrich, there’s a small sub-culture of illegal gold mining. “These communities are very close-knit,” he said. “They’re isolated.”

Ulrich said the guides in the area know how dangerous the rainforest can be, and they take the special precautions needed. “So when you hear of a situation where an outsider, a westerner, goes into the jungle without a guide moving uptrail, it violates the law,” he said.

The investigator stayed focused on discovering answers for the Dial family; however, these answers were few and far between. There were so many challenges with the missing-persons case. For one, the wild terrain likely changed any evidence that was left behind. This is a rainforest, after all, and the rains fall heavily and frequently, including during the premiere episode where the torrential downpour almost stymies the trek into the national park.

The investigators needed to find camping gear and metal items, objects that may have stood the test of time. Because they were looking for Cody almost a year after he initially disappeared in July 2014, Ulrich wasn’t confident they would find him stranded and isolated. Many sad realities quickly sunk in, and the grim situation was evident on the faces of Cody’s family members.

“You have only questions, and you have no answers,” Ulrich said. “This is a real person, so I believe when Nat Geo was looking for people, they’re not looking for, let’s say, reality show personalities.”

Ulrich and the team were adamant that the investigation be filmed as it occurred. No one knew the outcome, and there was no playing to the camera. The team realized that Cody could have been a victim of a crime, and their scope wouldn’t only include the jungle habitat.

This investigation also had to deal with a production crew following it around Costa Rica. “The production aspects were an equal blessing as they were a curse,” he said. “I literally retired from the DEA on a Friday, and I flew to Costa Rica on Saturday. So I had no authority. … Now the cameras provided a tool in that when I would approach someone to talk to them, they would see the cameras in the background, and they would naturally talk to me because they were being filmed.”

For Ulrich, the lesson he hopes viewers learn is simple: “You and you alone are responsible for your own safety.”

The story of Cody continues. In recent days, there has been more news developing on the case. Click here for more information.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Click here for more information on the series.