NPAD X Generation Why

In today’s exciting crossover episode we are joined by Aaron Habel from the Generation Why Podcast. We recap four of our most memorable NPAD true crime and mysterious disappearance cases, provide some updates and discuss what makes them so intriguing. Aaron also brings us a story we have never covered that remains one of the most puzzling cases to ever come out of Yosemite. Listen and follow Generation Why wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to Watch Her Cook on Apple and Spotify! Follow us on InstagramFor a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to the week’s partners! Graza: Add Graza Olive Oil to your summertime patio party arsenal. Visit https://graza.co/NPAD and use promo code NPAD today for 10% off of the TRIO! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:27Speaker 01

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• 1:17Danielle LaRock?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle.

• 1:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm Cassie.

• 1:22Danielle LaRock?

  And if you are a longtime listener, you're probably thinking, today's supposed to be Trail Tales. What is happening? Should I be afraid? Should I be concerned? And the answer is no.

• 1:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, you don't need to be afraid or concerned. We're just switching things up a little bit this week, and we thought that it would be really fun. One, we have a really special guest today that we will jump into, but we thought that it would be fun because we're over four years into this now to kind of do a backtrack of some of our favorite episodes that we've covered on the podcast and do like little recaps of some of our favorite mysteries and stories that have happened over the past few years. So, we're going to dive into some of those today.

• 2:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, so- Today, we are going, we chose two each and then our guest chose a story that took place in Yosemite. That is one of Yosemite's actually most infamous cases that we have yet to cover, haven't covered. So there's going to be a little something new, even if you've heard all of the four stories that we're going to recap, but we decided to stick with the mysterious disappearances and true crime elements. So we're going to do like a little flashback episode and have a little something new sprinkled in. And we just figured, you know, last week, we already kind of did a Trail Tales with our pod boyfriends Tooth and Claw. So if you're missing Trail Tales and missed last week's episode, it's right there for you.

• 2:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, go check that one out. But for this one, if you are a true crime fan, then you have probably heard of the Generation Wide Podcast and Erin and Justin. Well, today, we have Erin on the podcast.

• 2:56Danielle LaRock?

  The Generation Wide Podcast released its first episode way back in 2012, which truly makes it one of the pioneers in the true crime genre, but also podcasting in general. I mean, they're creeping up on their 700th episode.

• 3:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's a lot of episodes. We're not even half that yet. We're getting there. You better imagine because we got a lot more to go.

• 3:18Danielle LaRock?

  We've got work to do, honey. Well, in the Generation Wide Podcast, like Cassie said, Erin and Justin, they're two friends and they break down everything that we love as well. Everything from unsolved murders, controversies, mysteries, conspiracies. I mean, they cover it all.

• 3:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So today, Erin is here to tell us a story that surprisingly, we've never covered on the podcast before, and it takes place in Yosemite. So let's dive into this. We're really excited. Welcome to the show, Erin.

• 3:52Speaker 04

  All right. Joining me today is Cassie and Danielle from National Park After Dark Podcast. Hello.

• 4:01Danielle LaRock?

  Hello. Thank you so much for having us. We're excited to be here.

• 4:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm really excited too. Been listening to some of your content, checking out your website. And, you know, I've covered some stuff in the past on some of my shows about stuff that happens in parks, but not like you have. I mean, your whole show is focused on this. How did you get started and focused on national parks?

• 4:25Danielle LaRock?

  Well, Cassie and I have been friends for a number of years and we met at work when we were veterinary technicians at an animal hospital in New Hampshire. And we found ourselves spending a lot of time outside of work together in the outdoors, specifically in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, just because they were the closest by to us. And we kept having conversations that geared towards the darker events that had happened in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. And we just found ourselves more and more interested in going to more and more locations there because of those stories. We've always had a darker interest in the macabre and morbid and dark history. But in the outdoors, it just kind of was this perfect marriage of our interests. And so when we decided to do a cross-country move,

• 5:10Danielle LaRock?

  Cassie went to another state and I went across the country to Washington to live for a number of years. We just took the conversations we were already having and started a podcast. And I guess the reason that we decided to kind of specifically center the stories in national parks is because national parks are so universal. They're so beloved. So many people can relate to them. Not everyone has been to or have heard of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but everyone knows what Yellowstone is. And a number of people have been to Yosemite or the Everglades. And so we decided to kind of center our stories there, not only because of that, but because they have such a long history and so many stories within them.

• 5:52Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. So, um, one thing people may not realize is that the parks are not immune to murders, to disappearances. In fact, if you want to talk about disappearances, they're some of the most eerie because someone will be within eyesight. You can see them. You turn and then you look back and they're gone. You can call out to them. And this has happened many, many times. You'll never hear from them again. And despite days of searching, you won't find any evidence of them.

• 6:19Danielle LaRock?

  Mm hmm. Yeah. One of the most recent episodes that we did regarding a disappearance just like that was the disappearance of Treni Gibson.

• 6:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  In the Great Smoky Mountains and it's just, it's bewildering. She was in the middle of a school field trip. There were dozens of people with her and hundreds of people on the trails that day. And she literally just vanished off of the trail and hasn't been seen or heard from again. And it's stories like that that really capture people's attention because they happen a lot.

• 6:52Speaker 04

  And there were so many people around, you would think, how does someone go missing on a school field trip? It's bewildering.

• 6:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and I think with the national parks, of course, when you're seeing these mysterious disappearances and just things that can happen there. Sometimes there's a lot of people around, sometimes you're in these remote areas. But places like the Great Smoky Mountains, there might be a lot of people around and you're on a trail, but you're in the thick woods of this national park. And once you step off those trails, I mean, you can really get hidden very quickly.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  And that's not to say people should be worried. Visiting a national park can be a great experience for you, your friends and family. And there are so many things just to take in. A lot of people find that when they go there, they can just stand and breathe the fresh air and look around in awe at nature. And it's all preserved and protected.

• 7:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, yeah, it is. It's all preserved and protected. And I mean, they say that national parks are America's greatest idea because Yellowstone, of course, was the first one created. And now it's internationally, lots of countries around the world have followed suit. And what we found in our podcast and telling these stories, even though some of them are dark, they're not meant to deter people from national parks, actually exactly the opposite. Because you learn these stories and a lot of them, there's kind of these lessons that are in them of, okay, this happened, what can I do to be safer out here? How can I be a better steward in the outdoors? How can I make sure that I'm safe on these trails? So these mysterious disappearances that are happening or people who are overheating

• 8:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  on the trail, know to bring maps, know to take enough water, know resources to reach out if you need help, things like that. So they're really interesting stories and sometimes they get dark. But at the end of the day, they're more to bring knowledge to people and to let them know how to recreate outside responsibly, but also just to get outside and have this experience now that feels richer because you know the history of what has happened there.

• 8:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think it's so easy for people to get comfortable. A lot of people live in the city. They're not used to walking on a trail that if you get off the trail, just 15 feet off the trail, they may never find that trail again. I know that sounds insane, but that's the truth of it.

• 9:06Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and we see that often. I mean, we have, we haven't covered her case on the podcast, but we have a book club that we do every month with some of our listeners and we collectively read When You Find My Body. And that was about Geraldine Largay in, or Inchworm was her trail name. Off of the AT, she quite literally stepped off trail to use the bathroom, behind a tree, got turned around and she was eventually found, but it was, it was her body and years later. So people just, I think, really underestimate just how disorienting the wilderness can be, especially if you're not used to it. And even if you are, even if you're a seasoned outdoors person,

• 9:47Danielle LaRock?

  you spend hundreds of hours outdoors, just knowing where you are, what to do. And, you know, in these situations, it's just could be, could make all the difference. So we hope by sharing stories that are sad and depressing at times, that they can be used for good and to maybe change your experience in the future.

• 10:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, Geraldine Largay, I'm very familiar with that one. It was actually the first episode we ever had for Marooned with Jack Luna and I. And it's one of those cases where if you just know your tips, like know what you should do in certain circumstances. And there's this feeling that Geraldine, even though she was very experienced, she didn't want to mark where she was on the trail with her walking stick, because she didn't want anyone to know she was using the bathroom back there. And so if she had just left her walking stick right there, then people could have known where she went in at and that would have been helpful. They would have found her most likely. Or if you're lost, you want to bring a whistle, because if you have a whistle with you, your voice will give out very early on. But a whistle, you can blow that for, you know, as long as you can walk and talk.

• 10:52Danielle LaRock?

  And it's interesting, actually, a lot of backpacks come with on the strap, there's a whistle there. When you go and you're just looking for outdoor gear, a lot of them are fitted with a whistle for that same reason.

• 11:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's very convenient.

• 11:08Speaker 05

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• 11:37Speaker 04

  So, did you want to talk a bit about some cases that have happened in the national parks? I know I brought one, and I know you've brought several. So, where do we want to start? Do you want to start, Danielle?

• 11:49Danielle LaRock?

  Sure. So, I brought two true crime-based stories that we have covered in the past. One was actually a story that I covered, and one is a story that Cassie has covered. And I brought some condensed versions of them, and it's hard to choose, you know, quote-unquote "favorites", but these two really stuck with me throughout the last four years. So, I guess I'll begin, I'll share one to start off with. And in episode 98, I titled it "Unfinished Business", and we discussed one of Oregon's most perplexing and enduring unsolved homicide cases, and that is the Crater Lake Murders. In July of 1952, two General Motors executives, 56-year-old Albert Jones and 53-year-old Charles Colhane,

• 12:33Danielle LaRock?

  were traveling through southern Oregon on a business trip. When they failed to meet up with friends and business partners, concern mounted of where they were. Their dark-green 1951 Pontiac sedan was found parked at a scenic overlook right above Annie Creek Canyon, about 3 and 1/2 miles from the entrance of Crater Lake National Park. And the car had its front doors open, the keys were in the ignition. It looked like they just stepped out to take in the views, but they weren't there. And after calling for them and kind of searching around at a very base level, a formal search was dispatched. Two days later, their decomposing bodies were discovered about a quarter mile into the forest. They had obvious single gunshot wounds to their heads.

• 13:17Danielle LaRock?

  They were both shoeless, their hands were bound, and they were both gagged. Both men were wearing their business suits. However, Albert had removed his undershirt and then put his under- His overshirt back on and strips of that undershirt that he had removed were used as the gags that they were, that they had. Both men wore dentures and both of them had been removed and were placed in their front shirt pockets. Their shoes, or Albert's shoes, were eventually found nearby, but Charles' were never recovered. And the men's socks showed no signs of dirt, which led investigators to believe that they had been instructed to, you know, take out their dentures, put them in their pocket, remove their shoes directly before they were executed.

• 13:58Danielle LaRock?

  Autopsy reports indicate both men had been struck or kicked repeatedly in the groin and the area, as the area showed severe bruising and trauma. Burns and gunpowder residue surrounded the entry wounds, indicating the shots were made at a point-blank range, and Albert's skull was fractured. The time of death was estimated to be roughly 4:00 PM on July 19th, and investigators scoured the scene but found very little evidence to work with besides two shell casings from a .32 automatic pistol at the scene. The FBI launched an extensive investigation compiling over 2,000 pages worth of reports. They conducted over 1,000 different interviews and performed hundreds of ballistic tests.

• 14:39Danielle LaRock?

  There were multiple witnesses that were interviewed, in particular, an employee at a local lodge, and he reported seeing four men walking into the woods nearby this Annie Creek area, and later heard what he described as two bangs. And the four men, two of them were quote-unquote "scruffy" looking, and the other two men were in business attire, so kind of matched the description of Albert and Charles and maybe two others. Several suspects were considered, including a California gang called the Mountain Mob, but no one was ever conclusively linked to this crime. Despite investigative efforts, potential leads and suspects, the case went cold and to this day remains unsolved, despite captivating public interest for over seven decades.

• 15:24Danielle LaRock?

  And I covered this story in September of 2022, and that was kind of a very brief summary of the hour-plus episode on it, but I kind of, just refreshing my memory and looking into any updates since that has been published, and there has Spent a slight development. In 2011, a photojournalist named Monte Oric became really intrigued by this case during a family trip to this national park. He heard about it and just became really invested in it. And he began investigating the murders on his own. And in 2023, he published his findings in the book titled The Crater Lake Murders. And through his research, he reviewed the FBI's extensive case files. He conducted his own interviews and analyzed all the evidence that was available.

• 16:08Danielle LaRock?

  His investigation led him to a deathbed confession made in 1966 by a man named Oscar Orell. And Orell reportedly revealed to his wife, right before he died, that two men named Kenneth Moore and John Wesley Cole were the true killers of Albert and Cole Hane. After Orell claimed that Moore had confided in him about the murders. Oric believes Orell's story is credible and that the FBI suppressed this information to avoid some sort of embarrassment. Because those two men, Moore and Cole, had been in the initial mix of the investigation originally, you know, decades ago. But they died before they could be questioned further.

• 16:52Danielle LaRock?

  Oric's findings suggest that the murders were a botched robbery committed by Moore and Cole and believes that they were pretty much just opportunistic criminals who saw an opportunity in this isolated setting in this national park and took advantage of it. The FBI has not publicly acknowledged Oric's findings and no new arrests have been made. But there's clearly this renewed interest in the case. It seems like it's developing a little bit more. And maybe this will lead to some eventual new breakthrough in this case. But for now, it's one of the state's longest cold cases and it's just, it's so perplexing and it's. There's a lot of information there to have such little conclude, there's no conclusion yet.

• 17:35Danielle LaRock?

  So I'm really interested to see what comes of this, if anything, because it was quite the story.

• 17:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, I believe that the interest from the public really helps. It lets the authorities know this is worth your time. We want to see this brought to a conclusion if possible.

• 17:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, that feels like a huge break in the case too. That's so different from when you first originally told the story.

• 17:55Danielle LaRock?

  I know, and I looked up the book, I like, I'm, you know, wanting to order it, of course, we're, our library is extensive, but yeah, just because when I did originally research it, one of, I believe it was Albert's, either Albert's daughter or granddaughter, I'm, gosh, I mean, it's been two years since I've researched this, but she was really interested in solving this, this case because it was her family, right? So it's cool to see, and she only got so far with the information that she had available. So now with this like new set of eyes and this renewed interest and now this whole book being written about it, I'm really interested to see where this is going to go because it was such a violent crime. You know, two people lost their lives and it seemed like somebody knew something and it seems like that's true.

• 18:40Danielle LaRock?

  And hopefully it'll come together.

• 18:42Speaker 04

  And just to drive it home, that is one of the most violent crimes that's ever occurred in a national park, is it not?

• 18:47Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, it's up there.

• 18:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:49Danielle LaRock?

  We've seen some violent, violent stuff, so, um, but yeah, this two men being executed point blank range and physically assaulted beforehand is pretty bad.

• 19:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yep, yeah, but it feels like, it feels like a really promising lead there to have someone have a deathbed confession that is linked to someone who is already being questioned back when this case originally happened. It feels like, even if it doesn't come to be that that's exactly what happened, it feels like a smoking, it feels like where there's smoke, there's fire and it's going to lead to something.

• 19:24Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 19:24Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 19:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:30Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 20:15Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 20:52Speaker 04

  So, I can either go next, or unless you want to go, Cassie?

• 20:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cassie should go. Yeah, I'm happy to go. Yeah.

• 20:58Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 20:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, let me see. Well, my next story that I just want to talk about, and as Danielle had mentioned before, she picked two stories that have just stuck with her for the past four years that we've been doing National Park After Dark. And I picked, I kind of went on the mysterious side of mysterious disappearances, and I wanted to talk about a case that I covered really early on when we started National Park After Dark because it has... It has, to this day, remained one of my favorite mysterious disappearances, just because I think that there's a lot of questions and speculation that's around this case. So going into like how early I covered this, this was episode 22.

• 21:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  So this was back in 2021, some of the first cases that we ever really did. And in this one, I brought us back nearly a century to the dramatic cliffs and roaring waters of the Grand Canyon, because in 1928, this became the setting of one of America's most enduring mysteries, the disappearance of newlyweds Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Glenn Hyde had grown up in Idaho and was already an experienced river runner by the time he married Bessie, an aspiring rider from West Virginia. Rather than take a traditional honeymoon, the couple set out to raft the Colorado River through the heart of the Grand Canyon. If they succeeded, Bessie would have become the first woman in recorded history to navigate the full stretch of the canyon by boat.

• 22:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  They chose an unconventional vessel, a sweepscow. It was flat-bottomed and long and had historically been used to haul mining equipment, not brave whitewater rapids. Glenn had built himself one for this trip specifically. And although friends had warned them about the river's dangers, the inadequacies of the boat that he had specifically built for this, and encouraged them that they really needed to bring life jackets, Glenn refused all of the offers of safer equipment and of all of the advice that was offered to him. Undeterred from the warnings and without the life jackets, the couple launched on October 20th, 1928, from Green River, Utah. Along the way, they successfully passed through more than 200 miles of dangerous river.

• 23:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  In late November and on schedule, they arrived at Grand Canyon Village and hiked up to the south rim to stock up on supplies. There, they met Emery Kolb, a photographer who lived and worked on the canyon's edge. He took a portrait of them before they returned to the river, which he couldn't have known at the time would be one of the last known images of the couple ever taken. And this was also the last time that they were ever seen. When Glenn's father hadn't heard from them by early December, he raised the alarm. A plane was dispatched to search the river and on December 20th, the pilot spotted their boat near River Mile 232. It was upright and fully intact. Inside were clean clothes, Bessie's journal and an undeveloped camera. There were no signs of a struggle and no sign of either of them on the boat.

• 23:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  What they did find was Bessie's last diary entry, which was dated on November 30th, almost a month prior to them finding this boat. Search parties scoured the area. Glenn's father even hired dozens of indigenous men to help because of their expertise in navigating the terrain there. But they left behind no tracks. They found no sign of a campsite, nor did they find their remains. And what was really peculiar about this finding is how intact this boat was. If they had capsized, their things would have been thrown over. If they had gotten off the boat, there should be some sign of campsites. So with nothing to follow at all and nowhere to look, eventually the search ended and many assumed that they had just died in the rapids somehow.

• 24:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  However, over the years, other theories did emerge. Some people suspected foul play. There were rumors that Glenn had been abusive and Bessie may have killed him and then went on the run. Others speculated the reverse, that Glenn had killed Bessie, then disappeared into the wilderness himself. In 1971, while a guide told the story of the hides to a group of tourists on a rafting trip, an older woman stood up and claimed that she was Bessie Hyde. She said that she had stabbed her husband after he beat her during the trip. The group was stunned, but later under questioning, this woman recanted her story. There were almost no breaks in the case until almost 50 years later. In 1976, a discovery on Emery Colb's property,

• 25:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  the photographer, who was the last known person to see the couple alive, reignited the mystery. His grandson found a human skeleton tucked away in a storage area on his property. The remains matched Glenn's general description and there was a bullet hole in his skull. For a time, many believed that the mystery had been solved. But forensic tests later confirmed that the remains didn't belong to Glenn Hyde. In fact, they were eventually identified as a man who had died by suicide in the park in 1933. Then came one final strange twist. In 1992, after a woman who was a pioneering river guide in the Grand Canyon passed away, her friends found a pistol, a birth certificate under a different name,

• 25:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  and astonishingly Glenn and Bessie Hyde's original marriage certificate in her belongings. And I will leave you with that as a little mystery. If you, if you want to check out episode 22, I dive much deeper into this woman. But it was this very curious, this is still an unsolved mystery. We still don't know what's going on, but I mean, this woman kind of popped up out of nowhere and suddenly had the belongings. Her name was Bessie, she was a river guide. She was in the Grand Canyon and people have mixed feelings of whether or not she had a connection or not, which I do go into more in that. But it's just this enduring mystery that's, that has really captured the hearts of a lot of people. And if you're on a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, you're, there's no question

• 26:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  that you're going to learn about Glenn and Bessie Hyde.

• 26:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, I read up on that and that's a fascinating situation, just her having some of those items. And, and I know not everyone's convinced, but there's a lot of mystery there and it makes it very intriguing.

• 26:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Even if she wasn't Bessie, it adds a lot of question to who was she? And why did she have this stuff? And because people just have no idea her connection at all to them. So even if she is not Bessie, which some people say she is, some say she isn't, it just raises even more questions about this.

• 27:21Speaker 04

  So since we're talking about national parks, you know, I found this case, you could say, that's set in Yosemite and Yosemite National Park is obviously one of the most famous in the world. And I looked into how Yosemite came to be and. You know, as a federally protected land anyway, and it goes back to 1864 when Abraham Lincoln put that into law. It was the Yosemite Land Grant. And then there was a man put in charge of it named Galen Clark. And he has a quote that I think is a beautiful quote. He said, "I have seen persons of emotional temperament stand with tearful eyes, spellbound and dumb with awe, as they got their first view of the valley from inspiration point,

• 28:05Speaker 04

  overwhelmed in the sudden presence of the unspeakable stupendous grandeur."

• 28:10Danielle LaRock?

  I love that quote.

• 28:12Speaker 04

  That's quite a lot.

• 28:13Danielle LaRock?

  And you feel it, like for anyone who has been there, I mean, that really, that is everything I wish I knew how to say about it. You know, the first time you go to Yosemite, have you been there?

• 28:25Speaker 04

  I have not been there myself. My, I've had family members go there and they've shown me pictures. It's stunning.

• 28:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. It is. It's quite something.

• 28:33Speaker 04

  I will get there someday because it's just, when I had the chance to go before, I was a young man and I wanted to go hang out with friends and things like that. Now that I'm older, I want to go check out these national landmarks and be in awe myself.

• 28:47Danielle LaRock?

  I think we can all relate to that. Yeah, it's an incredible place to be.

• 28:51Speaker 04

  So thankfully, after Abraham Lincoln signed that into law, John Muir came along. He's also known as John of the Mountains and father of the national parks because he came along and said, "No, we need more protection for these parks." And so, one of the funny things I read about him was he got upset about the grazing livestock that was just chewing up the land. He called them "hooved locusts." So he said, "We need to protect these lands from loggers, from the locusts." And because of his passion and all the writings that he did and, and the magazines and everything, then in 1890, the land around Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia became part of Yosemite National Park. And the National

• 29:33Speaker 04

  Park Service was created in 1916. So it just snowballed from there. And I think the great thing is, is a lot of people would just say, "Well, there's land over there. There are trees there. There might be a waterfall." Now with these national parks, we have places We can go and there's a purpose because in our daily lives, we get caught up with, you know, doing our work and feeding our families, maybe watching a movie. But when you get out to these national parks, it's a chance to really just leave your normal life behind and take in that fresh air and get in those views. So my story actually concerns a young woman in 1981, she was 14 years old. Her name was Stacy Anne Eris. And for some reason, she was going to go on this trip with her dad. They lived in Saratoga, California, and they were going to travel to Yosemite

• 30:18Speaker 04

  National Park. I think it's about 170 miles. Her dad's name is George. He actually worked as a building inspector and they were going to do this four day trip on what's called the High Sierra Loop at Tuolumne Meadows. So there's a group of 10 people, they ride mules on the John Muir Trail, heading to the Sunrise Sierra Camp. And then when they get there, they rest. And at some point, she, meaning Stacy, takes a shower and she takes a rest. But then she's going to take a mile and a half hike along the trail to Sunrise Lake. She has a camera with her, she wants pictures, and she has someone to go with her. And this is a guy in his 70s named Gerald Stewart. Now, we don't really know how they met or anything, but he was part of the group.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  And for some reason, her dad didn't want to go with her. So Gerald agrees to go, so she's not alone. But then, as they're traveling there, he starts to get really tired. Now, he's in his 70s, we're talking about elevation here. So he decides, I'm going to sit and rest. And Stacy, who's wearing flip flops, not exactly hiking shoes, because she didn't want to wear the ones her dad told her to wear for some reason, she decides, I'm going to go ahead and get the pictures I want of the lakes. So she goes on ahead. Now, apparently, people had seen her walk away a bit. And the only person that we know for sure saw her last, apart from Gerald, was the group leader. He was known as a wrangler or the head guide, but his name was Chris Grimes. And he said he saw her kind of looking out on a rock towards probably the lakes, I'm guessing.

• 31:46Speaker 04

  And she had her camera with her. So next thing anybody knows, she's just gone. So Gerald, at some point, he's rested, he gets up and he heads down. To where he thinks she's going to be and even runs into a group of people. It's a small group. I think there are three people, a woman and two men, I think. And he says, hey, did you see a young lady on your way up this way? And they said, no, we didn't see anybody. So he continues down and as he's looking around, he thinks, well, I'm not seeing her on the trail. Maybe she left the trail because she does have a camera with her. She's trying to get good pictures. Maybe she left the trail to go take pictures of the lakes. But he can't find her, so he heads back and he has to tell her dad and everyone else. Well, Stacy's missing and they're like, what?

• 32:30Speaker 04

  So immediately there are staff from the Sunrise High Sierra Camp who head out. And what they do is they just head down that trail and they're just trying to think, okay, well, she headed down this trail. We should be able to find her because maybe she left the trail for a moment, but she'll be back. They walk all around, but they can't find her. So now they know it's serious, so they have to get a hold of park rangers, park personnel, volunteers. They get over 80 people. They get six dog teams, they get two helicopters and they start searching the entire area using grid searches. And this, this is what I, what I like about this is it shows the concern, you know? These people immediately put things together to help find this young lady. And, you know, this is understanding what kind of terrain they're dealing with. There are large boulders, the trees are strewn everywhere.

• 33:15Speaker 04

  There are crevasses, there are ravines. So, you know, you don't really know what could have happened to her. But at this point, they're thinking she's just lost, they'll find her. But by July 26th, this is more than eight days later. They call up the searches. I mean, the sad part is, is when someone gets lost in a national park, there's a lot of territory to cover because so much is protected. And there aren't people that live there. So they're having to search areas that people might not have been in for a while too. So they're looking all over from the air, from the land. But also this land is so dry because it's not had any rain in a while. That they said it hampers the search for the dog teams because the dog teams need a scent. And they're not getting a scent if everything's so dry. That's what they claim. So.

• 34:01Speaker 04

  They call up the search because of the money and the time that was spent and they're not getting anywhere. In fact, in that entire time, the only thing that they found that was any evidence of Stacy having been there was the lens cap for her camera and it was found very close to where she had been standing when Chris Grimes had seen her. So now we have to get into what could have happened to Stacy, you know, some people point at Gerald, the 70 some year old man who was supposed to go with her. Did he sit and rest? It seems like he did, you know, but could they have had an argument and he got angry and did something to her? We just don't know, you know, but no one at the time seemed to indicate they thought he was suspicious,

• 34:41Speaker 04

  or at least anybody that's spoken about this, because there is a report on this and I'll get to that in a minute. But another idea was she'd been missing her boyfriend. She'd also been reportedly having troubles at home and school. So maybe this trip was her and her dad getting away. It's almost like an intervention, like, hey, let's get you out of your situation. Let's go on a trip together. Let's bond. Like, maybe that's what she needed, but maybe she was still missing her boyfriend. So maybe she decided to leave. That seems unlikely because there are park rangers that, you know, will check with you going in or out. And as we know, Yosemite's quite popular. There's a trail of cars to get in. So the other idea, though, and we talked about this earlier, is if you're on a trail in a national park, then you can easily get lost.

• 35:26Speaker 04

  Because if you just head off the trail, it doesn't take long before you're looking around and everything looks the same. You don't see the trail. It's not like it's painted orange. So if you leave that trail, you could get injured. You could fall into a ravine. You could break your ankle. You could get a concussion. You could get knocked unconscious. And by the time anybody looks for you, you've already succumbed to the elements. I mean, it gets really cold at night, freezing temperatures. And that's even during the summer. So the other idea was, what if an animal got to her? We know there are cougars out there, there are bears, but the amount of people who've lost their lives to animals out there is quite low. So it's probably not even worth bringing up. It's just a very outside possibility. So you bring it up. But one of the things I found most

• 36:10Speaker 04

  Most interesting is there's a channel on YouTube. It's hosted by Nick Kyle. It's called The Missing Enigma. And what I liked about his take on this was he went into how Yosemite has a case file and it's 2,000 pages long or so. And he talked about David Politis wanted this case file. And he'd submitted FOIA requests. He's not the only one. But he actually took it pretty far and tried to get them to release it. And they keep denying him. And they are not going to release it, they say, because it's an active investigation. Now, that seems unlikely. I mean, have they done searches in the past 30 years? I mean, I don't know, but it's their right to hold on to that case file. But the major thing that we learned from this, because of the denial of the appeal, was that Yosemite lists this as a homicide case.

• 36:54Speaker 04

  And so there's this idea there that with this huge case file, they might know something more than we know. And there might be some indication that tells them that something bad happened to Stacy Eris that no one's mentioned yet. Or maybe is mentioned, but not to the detail that they have.

• 37:10Danielle LaRock?

  That's so interesting. I mean, of course, any mysterious disappearance is intriguing and makes you wonder and consider all of those options that you just outlined. But it's very telling, to me at least, that the National Park Service is listing this as a homicide. They don't do that for no reason, especially when it feels like the most probable thing that happened was she got lost or succumbed to the elements in some way or injured that led to her death. Or, you know, any of those things, which we see in the vast majority of cases, especially the mysterious disappearances that finally get a conclusion decades later. After all of these options are put on the table, it winds up being something like that.

• 37:54Danielle LaRock?

  They got lost and died either of an injury, the elements, or starvation.

• 38:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Dehydration, things like that. So for them to list this as a homicide, they would not do that unless they had some sort of evidence that they're withholding for probably very good reasons that is telling of that. So I'm just, I did not know that. I'm familiar with her case a little bit, but we've never covered it at length. So that's really interesting.

• 38:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, I hope the case file gets released. I mean, there, there is some hope because the Dennis Martin case file was released a few years ago.

• 38:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mm hmm.

• 38:30Speaker 04

  And that was quite a lengthy report. I don't know that we really learned a lot, but it was really cool to see all of the stuff that they had included. And so there's hope that maybe one day they release this other file, but with it being listed, at least their suspicion is homicide, there must be a good reason. So I know there's a lot of debate over that, but we just want answers. And even though her family is gone now, essentially, I think she has siblings left. Her father actually died. He was the last parent to pass. And let me look up the date here, but he passed April 12th, 2003. His wife had died some years earlier. They never found out what happened to their daughter. And that's, that's the tough part about these cases is we feel empathy

• 39:12Speaker 04

  for the families. We, we want them to have some kind of answers. And, you know, like the case you brought up, when there are breaks, maybe we get enough information. We feel like, okay, we finally have some understanding here and that's got to help.

• 39:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And I think, I think that it's pretty common for, like Danielle was saying, that sometimes things aren't released. But of course, as the public, we want to know, especially when you're looking at a homicide, is there a danger for the public or what happened here? You know, like, how could this have been prevented? And it's interesting that you chose this story because another story that I chose is very similar in this where the park service went on and, or I should say the investigation team, because it wasn't just the park service. They labeled this disappearance as a homicide that I was going to bring to this episode, but they never released why they thought it was a homicide. So there's a lot of questions around it. So I think that's

• 40:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  a good segue to go into my next story.

• 40:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  So in a bonus episode that is available on our Patreon and Apple subscriptions, I covered the story of Stephanie Stewart. She was a wildfire lookout who vanished without a trace in 2006 from a remote fire tower just outside of Jasper National Park in Canada. Despite her disappearance sparking a major investigation, no one has ever been charged and her case remains unsolved to this day. Stephanie Stewart was 70 years old when she disappeared, but don't let her age fool you because she was in great shape and she was incredibly active. She hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, she cycled across Canada, and for 13 summers she worked alone at the Athabasca Fire Lookout. The lookout tower offered sweeping views of the Rockies and sat along a remote hiking trail.

• 41:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Stephanie lived in a small cabin at the base and spent her days scanning the forest for smoke. She'd check in over the radio with her supervisors multiple times a day and she rarely missed a call. So on the morning of August 26, 2006, when Stephanie failed to check in, her coworker suspected something was wrong. Her supervisor tried to radio her but couldn't get through. At one point, he heard someone pick up on the other end, but there was silence and then the call dropped. He tried again, then the same thing happened, and then nothing. Now, very concerned, he drove out to the site. When he arrived, he saw that Stephanie's truck was still there, but when he went inside the cabin to find her, she was gone.

• 41:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Strangely, he noted that there was still a pot of boiling water on the stove. He then checked the fire tower, which was empty, and saw that the radio had been unplugged. Authorities were notified with the police arriving shortly after, and they found troubling signs at the scene. Blood on the door and stairs, missing items, including her bedding and a gold watch, but there were no signs of a struggle outside. Early theories included a possible accident. An animal attack, or even a voluntary disappearance, but none of those really made any sense. Stephanie knew the area well, so it was unlikely that she would get lost. She had no personal issues or debts that she needed to escape from, and she had just spoken to her daughter the night before, and everything seemed fine.

• 42:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Despite no other real evidence, police quickly shifted the case to a homicide investigation. Over 100 searchers combed the area by land and air but found nothing. No clues, no footprints, no signs of her at all. In the following weeks, when there were still no signs of Stephanie, her disappearance raised serious concerns about safety precautions that were being taken to protect fire lookouts. She'd been alone, she had no access to a portable radio to carry with her in case she needed help when she was away from the tower, and the location of the lookout wasn't exactly common knowledge, but it was very close to a popular hiking trail and would be easy for outsiders to access. Public pressure led to changes, new safety equipment, locked gates at tower sites, and

• 43:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  improved communication tools for workers. Despite the progress with the newly implemented safety protocols, the search for Stephanie ended and her case went cold. Then, in 2010, a separate case made headlines. Lyle and Marie McCann, an elderly couple, went missing while traveling in their RV. Their vehicle was found burned, and a man named Travis Vader was later convicted in their deaths, though their bodies were never recovered. Vader had a long criminal history and was known to be in the area near the Athabasca lookout around the time that Stephanie had vanished. Though never named as a suspect, some have speculated about a connection, especially since Stephanie's watch was missing, possibly taken in a robbery in which Vader had a history

• 43:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  of committing. The case remained cold, but in 2018, 12 years later, the police conducted a large-scale search in the region again. They never explained why publicly, even though people did ask, and once more, nothing turned up, or nothing was reported.

• 44:14Danielle LaRock?

  Today, Stephanie Stewart's case remains open. There is a $20,000 reward available for anyone with information that leads to solving her case, and her missing persons flyer is still pinned on the wall of the fire lookout tower where she once stood watch. Anyone who knows anything is encouraged to reach out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and let them know. But again, I cover this in more, more in depth on our Patreon and Outsiders subscription, but it just really reminded me of the story that you just told as well, just because it has, they've never released a lot of this information publicly, they've never released some of the stuff that they found at the scene, and they've never released why they did this extra search. So there's a lot of public question of, of what's going on here and a lot of missing answers.

• 44:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think one of the ongoing debates is why are these case files being held on to, guarded so closely if so much time has passed?

• 45:07Danielle LaRock?

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:08Speaker 04

  And a lot of these cases, whoever might have been involved is probably not even living anymore. At this point, we're just trying to fill in the story.

• 45:16Danielle LaRock?

  Right.

• 45:16Speaker 04

  And that's helpful to descendants, you know, the children of these people, or their cousins, or their other family members and friends that remember them. But it seems like there is this holding on of information, and I just hope they have good reason for it, because sometimes I wonder if they're doing it because they can.

• 45:34Danielle LaRock?

  Well, in my final story, we do have some answers. And even though those answers leave some more questions as to motive and, you know, lack of maybe justice that you would think, we do have at least some information. And this episode was covered by Cassie in episode 72, and she titled it "A Martyr and a Murder," and it took place in Everglades National Park. And again, this is one of my favorite stories ever told on National Park After Dark, especially because it has, it has big ties to conservation, and that is one of our big themes in the show. But it is true crime themed as well, and it is the murder of Guy Bradley.

• 46:16Danielle LaRock?

  Born in April of 1870 in Chicago, Illinois, Guy Bradley moved to Florida with his family at a very young age and grew up in the Everglades. He fell in love with the area. He became intimately familiar with its ecosystem and its wildlife. And he particularly loved its population of various species of beautiful birds. The Everglades was and remains a hotspot for wild birds. It plays a crucial role in supporting a diverse population of them that numbers around three hundred and fifty different species, many of which are rare or endangered. Back in Guy's day, the plume hunting industry was at an all time high, as demand for bird feathers used in women's fashion was all the rage, especially in big, beautiful hats.

• 47:01Danielle LaRock?

  Guy witnessed the devastating impact of overhunting on bird populations firsthand and became an advocate for bird conservation. In nineteen oh two, the Florida Audubon Society appointed him as one of the nation's first ever game wardens. His role was to patrol the vast and remote Everglades region, enforcing laws that prohibited the hunting of birds, particularly egretts and herons, whose feathers were highly sought after. His position was not a secret, and his stance on plume hunting wasn't either. He had several altercations with plume hunters over the years within the Everglades, and a target was pretty much put on his back for his advocacy and protection as a warden. On the morning of July eighth nineteen oh five, Bradley heard gunshots near his home in Flamingo, Florida.

• 47:46Danielle LaRock?

  Suspecting illegal hunting activity, he set out on his small boat to investigate where he encountered Walter Smith, a notorious poacher along with Walter's two sons. The Smith family had a history of poaching offenses, and Bradley had previously arrested Smith's eldest son, whose name was Tom, on several occasions. Bradley attempted to arrest one of the young men for illegal hunting, which they were doing, but an argument erupted, and Smith, who had previously threatened to kill Bradley if he ever arrested his family again, opened fire with a rifle, fatally wounding the game warden. Bradley's body was discovered the following day. Adrift in his boat approximately 10 miles from the scene of the shooting, he had bled to death from his injuries.

• 48:29Danielle LaRock?

  And Smith did eventually turn himself into authorities in Key West that following day. But despite evidence presented by the prosecution, including the fact that Bradley's weapon had not been fired during the incident, despite Smith claiming self-defense, the jury found Smith not guilty. He served only five months in jail, during which Bradley's brothers-in-law took matters into their own hands and burnt down Smith's home in Flamingo. The acquittal of Walter Smith and the circumstances surrounding Guy Bradley's death sparked a national outrage. The case received widespread media attention with detailed stories published in prominent newspapers. Conservationists and women's groups, particularly those involved in the suffrage movement, rallied against the use of bird feathers in fashion.

• 49:15Danielle LaRock?

  The Florida Audubon Society played a pivotal role in these efforts, organizing campaigns and raising funds to support Bradley's family. In the following years, after his murder, several significant legislative actions were taken to curb the plume trade. In 1910, the New York Legislature passed the Audubon Plumage Act, which prohibited the sale of bird feathers. And this law was followed by different measures in other states. And in 1913, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which provided federal protection for migratory bird species, which was just a huge leap when it comes to conservation. Guy Bradley's legacy as a martyr for environmental conservation is commemorated through various honors and memorials.

• 49:57Danielle LaRock?

  In 1988, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation established the Guy Bradley Award, which is presented annually to wildlife officers who demonstrate exceptional service and dedication to conservation law enforcement. There is a trail within Everglades National Park, leading from the Flamingo Visitor Center to the Flamingo Campground, named in Guy Bradley's honor. And the Flamingo Visitor Center itself was actually later renamed to the Guy Bradley Visitor Center, where his gravestone is on display, along with a plaque which reads, quote, "Audubon warden was shot and killed off this shore by outlaw feather hunters, July 8, 1905." His martyrdom created nationwide indignation, strengthened bird protection laws, and helped bring Everglades National Park into being.

• 50:43Danielle LaRock?

  So that is one of my favorite stories, not only because of the conservation aspects, but because it kind of tells this origin story for national parks. And a lot of times there are dark stories like this that do serve as the foundation for why national parks exist. And that is lost on a lot of visitors because sometimes it's, I mean, Everglades does a great job at commemorating Guy Bradley and named a lot of things after him. But sometimes you have to search extra hard for those stories, but they do exist. And when you know them, you just, there's just such a greater appreciation that you get for the places that you're in. So that's why that's definitely one of my favorite stories that we ever shared.

• 51:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's just the interesting aspects that we would cover if it's a missing person or a murder, but then there's that other story of this involved a person who was making a difference and continue to make a difference even after they're gone. So, uh, human interest stories is really what we're looking at.

• 51:42Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 51:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was one of my favorite stories to learn about because I actually first heard of that story while I was on a trip to the Everglades. And I took a boat trip into the waters and into all the marshes and stuff and the groves and saw the birds that he had been protecting. And the ranger there actually told the story while we were riding through these mangroves and seeing all these birds. And it was just really incredible. And after that, I bought a book that told the story in full. And it's also one of my favorite stories that I've researched.

• 52:15Speaker 04

  Well, excellent. Well, let's wrap this up. My website is genypod.com and we're on all of the podcast apps. I know, um, it's funny, Spotify has become the number one podcast app. Is this surprising to you?

• 52:27Danielle LaRock?

  Not to me, I'm a Spotify girl. I love Spotify.

• 52:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's something about the way they allow you to create these lists and things. Then at the end of the year, they tell you your top podcasts, your top bands, top songs and all this. And I hope this creates more of an interest in the parks for the listeners. I know my goal is to get to Yosemite and some of these other parks around the country, around the world, if I can get there. So, um, thanks for being on and, um, I look forward to hearing from you again.

• 52:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, thank you so much. This was really, it was fun to look back on all these stories and it was interesting to learn the one that you brought, so thank you.

• 53:04Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, thanks so much.

• 53:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, thank you, Arian, for joining us today. It's been great having you here. If you guys are interested in listening to the Generation Y Podcast, you can find them wherever you listen to your podcasts. And you can also follow them on Instagram at @generationy podcast.

• 53:19Danielle LaRock?

  And for everyone else, we will see you back here next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 53:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  But watch your back.

• 53:26Danielle LaRock?

  Bye, everyone.

• 53:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye.

• 53:27Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark.

• 54:11Speaker 05

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