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Midmorning With Aundrea - December 11, 2020 (Part 4)

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Midmorning With Aundrea - December 11, 2020 (Part 4)
Midmorning With Aundrea - December 11, 2020 (Part 4)

(Part 4 of 4) An eccentric New Mexico millionaire left clues ten years ago about where a treasure chest containing $1 million in valuables could be found.

Now we know who the lucky recipient is.

Mohe here's a story about a real- life treasure hunt that hooked people all over the world.

Ten years ago, an eccentric new mexico art dealer named forrest fenn created a poem with clues to the location of a hidden treasure.

His challenge created a frenzied hunt for the chest containing more than one million dollars worth of valuables.

Fenn announced six months ago that the treasure has been found, and now we know who found it.

With the clue "int the mountains north of santa fe," it's believed tens of thousands have searched the rockies for forrest fenn's treasure chest, filled with millions in gold and precious jewels& several lost their lives doing so.

In june, fenn said it had finally been discovered but that the finder wanted to remain anonymous..

A secret fenn took to his grave when he died in september at the age of 90.

Now, the mystery is over..

After the finder initially posted anonymously about his discovery.

Janet: how are you able to find out who he was?

Barbarisi: i figured out a way to flag a typo inside the story, which allows you to get a little bit of information to send to the author of the post // he's 32-year-old michigan medical student, jack stoof... who revealed himself to author and fellow treasure hunter daniel bar- bar-isi -- who's writing a book about the hunt --- chasing the thrill.

We had a good relationship for a few months in that way of going back and forth about all the stuff about the treasure until, you know, he was out of the blue one day, he just said, hey, i think it's going to come out.

You want to know who i am?

And i said, all right, let's talk.

Why stuef revealed himself..

A lot less epic than the adventure that led him to the treasure..

Fearing a lawsuit would eventually name him - he came forward.

In the suit, an illinois woman claims stuef found the treasure by hacking her computer and emails.

She believed fenn's chest was in new mexico.

Stuef told bar-bar-isi he found it in wyoming after a 2 year search... and says he's never met the woman.

In a statement to cbs news, fenn's family says: "we can confir that jack is the legitimate finder of the chest that my granddad hid, and we wish him the best."

For stuef, the allure wasn't the value..

But the chance, he says, to live out a teenage fantasy of treasure hunting.

That to be the one who cracks that code.

The code stoof said he cracked was written by fenn in 2010..,when he released a self- published memoir "the thrill of th chase," -- whic included a poem with clues to treasure's location.

Cbs sunday morning's barry peterson spoke to fenn about the hunt in 2015.

781038-002.mxf @1:28 i made it hard deliberately, if it was easy anyone could do it.

Barbarisi says stoof won't reveal exactly where in wyoming he found the treasure.

Even with the best of intentions, people tramping in and out of there is going to ruin the pristine nature of that place.

Who has a treasure hunt in 20?

It's an anachronism.

It's a fantasy.

It shouldn't exist.

Shamlian outcue: in a statement to cbs news, the plaintiff suing stuef called the fenn family's statement "mor nonsense," an continued to call into question the legitimacy of his discovery.

Janet shamlian, cbs news, houston.

We'll be right back to wrap

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