Going West: True Crime - Amy Bechtel // 311

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

In July of 1997, a 24-year-old woman went missing during a solo jog in the Wyoming mountains. Last spotted at a local photo shop in her new town, employees remember her being in a hurry to get somewhere. But after that, she was never seen again. This is the story of Amy Bechtel. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-09-28-9709280174-story.html 2. Runner's World: https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20817705/long-gone-girl/ 3. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/sports/othersports/27skinner.html 4. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110865762/amy-joy-bechtel 5. Disappeared: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.1ea9f733-7a10-615b-b52e-fc5efc996f31?ref_=imdbref_tt_wbr_pvt_aiv&workflowType=Commerce-TVOD&tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_pvt_aiv-20& 6. Wyoming News: https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/opinion/columnists/uden-murder-mystery-solved-some-day-we-will-learn-about-amy-bechtel/article_ddf496f5-c86e-587c-94a7-4ed26400dac7.html 7. Stone Cold Project: https://stonecoldproject.com/cases/amy-wroe-bechtel/ 8. Cody Enterprise: https://www.codyenterprise.com/news/local/article_30080774-86aa-11e2-a987-0019bb2963f4.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Big thank you to April for recommending today's case. Yes, thank you so much April. And today's case takes place in Wyoming in the late 90s and it's actually believed by some to possibly be connected to another case that we have covered on this show. So thank you again to April and thank you everybody for tuning in today. Do you have anything for us, Keith? No, I don't have any further announcements. Well, then let's get to it. All right, guys, this is episode 311 of Going West, so let's get into it. In July of 1997, a 24-year-old woman went missing during a solo jog in the Wyoming mountains.

Last spotted at a local Photoshop in her town, employees remember her being in a hurry to get somewhere. But after that, she was never seen again. This is the story of Amy Bechtol. Amy Joy Roe was born on August 4, 1972 in beautiful Santa Barbara, California to parents Joanne and Dwayne. And she was the youngest of four kids, joining a brother named Nell's and sisters Kasey and Jenny. When she was young, the family relocated to Wyoming, which really seemed to suit Amy's love of the outdoors and adventure, and there she enjoyed a very close relationship with

each of her siblings. Like when her brother Nell's got married, he had his three sisters as his best man, which is so sweet, I mean, that's just how close they were. Amy's mom Joanne describes childhood Amy as quote, quiet and goal-oriented, and she was gifted and a hardworking student. In high school Amy found her passion for athletics, in addition to her academic endeavors when she joined the track team. She quickly became one of her school's best endurance runners and began fostering a passion that she would have for the rest of her life.

For college, Amy settled on the University of Wyoming at Laramie, which is in a lively college town, and it's the third largest city in the state. There, while studying exercise physiology, her running career soared and she quickly became the fastest runner in the history of her school when she was ranked first in the 3000-meter dash, clocking in at 9 minutes and 48 seconds. She also completed a marathon in just 3 hours and 1 minute. It was there that she met Steve Bechtel, another athlete, Protoje, whose passion was rock climbing. In 1994, 22-year-old Amy and her boyfriend, Steve, relocated from Laramie

to the smaller town of Lander, Wyoming, and Lander is where today's story takes place. Now, Lander was a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts's probably still is, as it boasted easy access to the mountains and dozens of hiking trails. It's a short drive to the Shashoni National Forest, and both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are just a few hours away. And Amy and Steve really just flourished in Landr. While it's, you know, like a relatively small city of just 7,500 people, it hosted a tight knit community of rock climbers, which the couple were quickly welcomed into thanks to

Steve's passion and skill for the sport. Amy and Steve were married in June of 1996 when Amy was 23, and then they rented a small home on a street that hosted many other avid climbers. So many in fact that it was nicknamed Climbers Row. And one publication even described their home as a quote, no need to knock doors never locked climbing bum shanty. The owners of the home that they rented, Amy and Todd Skinner were also in the local rock climbing community. And while Amy was always known to be more of like a runner,

she really fell in with the climbing crowd simply due to the proximity, and the couple really cherished the circle of friends that they had formed there. Both Amy and Steve were busy working at Wild Iris, which is a climbing shop that was also owned by the Skinners. In addition to her duties at the shop, Amy waited tables part-time at a restaurant called

Sweetwater Grill, and had also just been asked to lead a youth weightlifting class at a lander gym called the Wind River Fitness Center, which she gladly accepted. Their work was really paying off, and in the summer of 1997, Amy and Steve were preparing for an exciting change. They had just purchased a house in the heart of lander. That summer, Amy was focused on furthering her endurance running goals, and she was working on planning a 10k run for charity through the Shishoni National Forest, ending at Fry Lake.

She was also training and hoping to become eligible for the Olympic marathon trials, coming up in September of 2000. So she had a lot, she had a lot of goals coming up for her running. Yeah, and lots of fitness oriented goals. So on Thursday, July 24th, 1997, the couple had the day off and they planned on staying active as usual.

They had just closed on their new house three days prior and Amy had a full-to-do list before she headed out on her run that afternoon, and the run in particular that she was doing that day was basically her testing out the route for the 10K that was scheduled for two months later. So she was doing that on this day, right? And Steve had plans of his own that day too. He was meeting a friend named Sam in Du Bois Wyoming, which is an hour and 10 minutes away, and they were going to climb together.

Now Steve said goodbye to his wife Amy that morning, and headed out with their dog, John's, while Amy stayed back to tend to the first item on her list, having the phone service and electricity turned on at their new home. She then hopped in her car, dropped off the recycling from Win River Fitness at the local recycling center, and headed to a frame shop downtown. Because in addition to, you know, her other jobs and her fitness hobbies, Amy also dabbled in photography, and she even freelance for the local newspaper. And on this Thursday, July afternoon, Amy was preparing to enter a photo that she had

taken into a photography competition. This is a local one and it's called the SYNC's Canyon Photo Contest. According to the employee that she spoke with, whose name is Lonnie Slack, Amy came into camera connection between 1.30 and 2pm and stayed between 5 and 15 minutes. They went over her options for the framing and madding of her image and then Amy left. And this was the last confirmed sighting of 24-year-old Amy Bechtol. She had been dressed in running clothes but Lonnie remarked later that it didn't appear as if she had already been for a run.

He also claimed that she seemed like she was in a hurry to get out of there, but he didn't know why. Based on what authorities were later able to surmise about her day, it appears that Amy then drove around 30 minutes southwest of lander for a run, which is where she was plotting the route for her upcoming 10K. And this area which is located within the Shishoni National Forest is very rugged, and it's super popular amongst runners, hikers, fishers, and campers. Meanwhile, Steven and his friends Sam were having a less successful day.

Now Amy, Steven Sam had been on a climbing trip to Australia the year prior, but Steven Sam had gotten into such an explosive fight that Sam had flown home early, though they seemed to have like amended their relationship enough to climb together again, on that particular day they weren't getting along very well. The Rock and Du Bois Wyoming that they wanted to climb that day really just wasn't ideal for climbing. And the hike to their climbing route had been exhausting, not to mention a thunderstorm had rolled in shortly after they got started, so the two decided to call it a day and

Steve drove the 75 miles or 120 kilometers back home to land. When he reached the house around 4pm that afternoon, Amy and her car were still absent. Assuming that she was still out for a run, he went about his evening, expecting that she would be back soon. Then around 6pm, when he still hadn't heard from her, and she hadn't called, or she hadn't come home, Steve really began to worry. About an hour later, at 7pm, Todd and Amy Skinner, remember the owners of the previous house that they were renting, stopped by the house to see if the Bechtles wanted to accompany them to a movie.

But Steve was obviously preoccupied with what was going on with Amy, so he politely said no, and that he was going to wait at the house until she arrived. Then Steve began calling Amy's siblings and parents, asking if any of them had seen or heard from her which they had not. Around 11pm that night, the skinners returned from their movie and decided to swing by Amy and Steve's house just to check on them. But there was still no word from Amy, so Steve had launched into a full-on panic. With Steve spiraling, the couple decided to drive to the woods to look for her while Steve

stayed back to call the police. Todd and Amy drove toward the Shoshone National Forest, knowing that that was where Amy was planning her 10k. And after reaching an area called Burnt Gulch, which is about 30 minutes away from town, they came across a shocking discovery, Amy's car. Her white Toyota Tursell was still parked on a turnout on the side of a dirt road. So they notified Steve right away who raced to meet them armed with flashlights just ready to start the search.

Their initial assumption was that maybe she had fallen and gotten hurt somewhere along her route so they planned to comb the area looking for her. Their initial assumption was that maybe she had fallen and gotten hurt somewhere along her route so they planned to comb the area looking for her. And hoping to glean something about her movements before she disappeared, they looked around her car first. And when they found it, they noted that it was unlocked, which was not uncommon for hikers in this normally very safe and quiet area because a lot of people just don't want to have to carry their keys

so they leave their keys in their unlocked car and nobody messes with it. So on the front passenger seat were Amy's sunglasses, her car keys again totally normal, and her to-do list for that day, with everything checked off except for one final task. Run! It was now almost the middle of the night, but Steve notified Amy's family who were anxiously awaiting news, and they raced there to assist in the search. Steve later described the discovery by saying,

quote, it's one or so in the morning, find the car, get here. I brought sleeping bags in a cook stove and food, first aid kit, we got to find her. Todd Neymie had been driving and found the car they called. We raced up here. You get here. This was a big error. We're looking for a missing runner. Everybody was crawling through that car. Knowing what we know now, we should have

corned the thing off. Fingerprints. It's the classic cluster of stupid crap. So the detective who took over Amy's case in 2011, John Zurga, agreed saying, quote, we didn't close off any routes out here. We didn't close off any vehicles. All we had was a bunch of people up here looking for a missing runner. We actually ruined it with the vehicle

because we allowed the skimmers to drive at home. The investigation was not good for at least the first three days. There was a lot of stuff that was lost. So in addition to the potential lost evidence, the sheriff at the time Dave King was out of town, leaving the search to be helmed by less experienced members of law enforcement. Not that he had much experience, which we will get into. We are going to get into that, yes. So one search and rescue expert who aided in the search for Amy remembers quote,

King rolled in a week late. He was off in the mountains on a horse-packing trip, so this guy who had just been promoted to Detective from Jailer was in charge of the search. The promoted Jailer asked me quote, well, what do I do? The Detective asking the volunteer running the, well, what do I do? The detective asking the volunteer running the search teams, what do I do? So by sunrise, hundreds of members of local law enforcement

alongside Amy's friends, family and volunteers were walking the area from which she vanished, looking for any sign of her. The initial assumption again was that Amy had gotten lost, injured, or perhaps attacked by an animal, and that she was stuck on a trail somewhere, but the longer she remained missing, the more suspicions of foul play begin to creep up. In the early hours of the search, a footprint made in the dirt alongside the road that she was believed to have been running on was found, but it was destroyed by search parties before police could attempt to positively identify it as Amy's.

So within the course of the next few days, alone, more and more elements were brought into aid in the search, including cadaver dogs, scent dogs, and experts on horseback, ATVs, and even in helicopters with heat-seeking sensors. Local law enforcement even called in 25 members of the FBI from Casper, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado. But there was still no sign of her, or any of her belongings. Her family and friends who were at a loss at this point did what they could, hanging missing posters and tying yellow ribbons to poles and signs around town to raise awareness.

Police blocked off the access, wrote to the trail in which Amy was running that day, hoping to talk to someone else who may have been in the area, or who maybe had seen some sort of suspicious activity. The days were agonizing for Steve and Amy's family. Amy's mom Joanne remembers quote, even to Amy's family. Amy's mom, Joanne remembers quote, it was such an emotional time. It was an out-of-body experience. There's no way that unless someone has experienced something like this, they would be able to understand.

And Steve worried that it may have been the kindness that he cherished so much about his wife that got her into trouble, saying quote, she was so cool. Her greatest fault was that she was so friendly, she was always taking advantage of. I'll take your shift, I'll watch your dog, it just makes you so sad." Sadly after 10 days, Search and Rescue announced that they were pulling their search efforts

from the mountain. With no luck there, investigators turned to her closest family and friends, just hoping to reveal a path to her. The possibility of it being a local who was a stranger to Amy seemed pretty slim but not impossible. Because although it was a small town, Lander had experienced a rash of violent crimes against women the summer prior to Amy's disappearance. So Joanne found this unlikely but said, quote, This is the state of Wyoming.

Things like this don't happen here. And nobody that knows Amy could hurt her because she's such a good person. There's nothing about her that anybody would want to harm. And I completely understand what her mom is saying here, but those are typically the type of people that offenders are looking for. They're looking for people who are too kind, like Amy. So I get what she's saying, but I kind of feel like it's the opposite. And also, you know, things happen everywhere.

I know her mom is saying generally Wyoming is such a safe place and people are really nice here, like, and that's totally fair. But especially with weird things and, you know and crimes against women occurring the summer prior, and just these things happening all the time, it could have even been a passerby, maybe not somebody who lives in lander or somebody who lives in Wyoming even, you know. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, these things do happen. So as Amy's loved ones continue to spread awareness and law enforcement took in more and more tips, theories began to circulate the town of Lander, which remember at this point had a population of around 7,000 people. So one couple believe that they saw Amy running alongside the road as they passed by in their car on the afternoon she disappeared,

which would place her at Lewis Lake Road, locally known as Loop Road, which began and ended in lander and passed through Sinks Canyon State Park and near Fry Lake. A few more locals who had been in the forest that day came forward to say that they believed that they heard gunshots. So you know, all these people are now saying, oh, I was in the area at this time, I heard this. Is it related to Amy's case or is it totally unrelated?

Yeah, and we do know that she was kind of in that area, near Burnt Gulch, but- Or at least she was, or well, yes, of course, sorry, I was gonna say, or she was headed there, but yeah, her car was found over there, so absolutely. Right, so many people maintained, however, that she had simply been a victim of nature or accidental circumstances, which were out of her control.

Which happens a lot when people go hiking for sure. Absolutely, yeah, people fall off cliffs, you know, they get attacked by animals, things happen when you're out in the wild. So a commenter online spoke to the unforgiving landscape of the area saying, quote, I grew up in lander, we moved there right around this time that Amy went missing. I was a child but still remember the flyers everywhere, and yellow ribbons tied on every tree down Main Street.

People talk about the area, but no one really describes the actual sinks. The water rushes into the cave and comes out down the road. It's powerful and it's scary. If you were to fall in, there's no chance at a rescue. And if this was the case, especially at this point in the investigation, when there's no signs of anything, that could have happened, because there's no evidence of, oh, this was dropped here, this was dropped here, there's blood here.

It's like she just seemingly disappeared. Yeah, just vanished. So one tip suggested the rumor that she had been the victim of a hit-and-run from a drunk driver who lived on a nearby reservation, and that they had buried her in a shallow grave along the road somewhere. So obviously going with this tip, the police obtained permission from the tribal police system to search for the vehicle that reportedly struck her. It was processed by police, but there seemed to be no link to either Amy or a fatal accident.

Now others pose the theory that she may have been the victim of a hunting accident, or abducted by someone who lives off the grid in the mountains. But by August, when there was still no sign of Amy, or any indication as to what happened to her, Suspissions now narrowed to Steve. Though he seemed to have an airtight alibi being over an hour away from Amy into boys, statistically he was the most likely person to have been involved in her disappearance. So law enforcement set their sights on him. And on August 5th, 1997, over a week since Amy vanished, an FBI agent accused Steve of kidnapping and murdering his own wife. Before that short break, Heath was discussing that a new suspect had emerged in the form

of Amy's own husband, Steve. And after this, a local hiker came forward with a tip that corroborated this very theory. So a woman who had been out hiking that day recalled seeing a blue pickup truck matching the description of Steve's with a man driving and a blonde woman in the driver's seat. Now, Amy was a blonde woman. So they had sped past her in the late afternoon, maybe around 5 pm.

However, this sighting was later disproved because, confirmed by phone records, Steve had called Amy at 4.43 pm that day from their home phone. Both Steve and his friend Sam swore that they were out of town all day, but Steve only had his friend's account to support this claim, so some wondered if maybe his friend Sam was simply lying for him. Now Sam had a gas station receipt from Dubois placing him there that afternoon, but Steve had no explicit proof outside of his and Sam's account of what they had done that day. With reasonable doubt infecting the perception of Steve as the helpful, bereaved husband,

law enforcement began to tug at the strings of his relationship with Amy, beginning with his 9-1-1 call. This is really weird to me. So on the recording, when he called 911 to report his wife missing that night, Steve can be heard saying, hi, this is Steve Bechtel calling. I'm missing a person and I'm wondering

if you maybe had an extra. Seems a little strange to be cracking a joke like that. Why come on, why would you say that? Like, this is no time for jokes and maybe that's just like how these people in this area talk to each other like they're very friendly and because it's a small community and just like hey like and maybe he at that point it's possible that he didn't think it was all that serious yet but this is at the point in the late evening when he is

apparently panic you know in panic mode and according to the skinners right but i mean if you're panic to enough to call the police i just i just i am i don't know hindsight twenty twenty maybe he didn't know that this was that serious but to make a joke like that when you're in motion of reporting your wife missing like it's just unsavory no trust me i i completely agree i definitely like it's just unsavory. Oh trust me. I completely agree I definitely think it's very strange and maybe not the best time to be making a joke

But you know everybody reacts in different ways. So it's kind of hard to It's just so no I just don't know if we've seen this you know if we've seen anybody I don't know. I don't know I'd love to know what you guys think because I think this is fucking weird So anyway wanting to rule him in or out, the FBI brought Steven for questioning. So Steve continued to swear that he had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance as he had every time that he was questioned by police. However, this particular line of questioning took a turn when they asked if he would consent

to a polygraph test. Steve initially agreed but he seemed hesitant. And then, during the test, Steve walked out and told authorities that he would not continue, citing that the accuracy of polygraph tests rests somewhere in the range of 16 to 63%. Steve said later in an interview quote, I don't know about anybody else, but I wouldn't get on an airplane that only makes it to its destination 84% of the time. I still can't see why I'm a suspect. Now, I know that a lot of people are probably thinking

that this seems suspicious that he didn't want to take this polygraph test. But as we've mentioned many, many times before, a lot of defense attorneys will tell you not to take polygraph tests because they're not very accurate and they are admissible in court. So they can't even be used in an actual trial. So in his mind, he's thinking, this is stupid. Why am I even doing this? I completely agree with you, but the only weird thing to me about this is that he had agreed

and then in the middle of it, like while he's already doing it, he's like, no, I'm not doing this, I'm getting out of here. Maybe he had fully realized, you know, I know that I'm innocent and this maybe something I say is going to make me look guilty. No, yeah, something like this is maybe going to be incriminating in some sort of way. Right. And I know I'm innocent. Right, right. So I don't wanna do this because I don't know what kind of negative impact it's going to have on me.

So I do understand it in that light, but I think from our perspective, not knowing if he's guilty or not, it's kind of like, how should we perceive that information? Yeah, and I think it's a natural reaction to at least question it in some way. So after that interview, Steve Bechtel obtained legal counsel in the form of high-profile trial lawyer Kent Spence, the son of nationally renowned Wyoming attorney Jerry Spence, who

is famously never-lost to case. After this, Steve refused to speak with the FBI or police or consent to a polygraph test. I think to me, that is worse. Like, your wife is missing. You probably want to be involved in the investigation enough to know what's going on, to get updates, to have a good relationship with the people who are trying to locate your person, you know?

And so to completely shut them out, I understand maybe that was the advice of his lawyer, but they're trying to help you, aren't they? They're trying to help you by finding your wife. Well, I think the reason why this was done is because he was now being targeted as a suspect. So I think in his defense defense he's like, listen, you know, I want to help out, but also at the same time you guys are looking at me like

I may have done something wrong. Though their direct line of communication with Steve was seemingly closed, police continued to pursue the possibility that Steve had something to do with Amy's disappearance. Thus a divide began to form between Steve and Amy's family, and their friends, those who thought Steve was capable of murder, and those who thought that he wasn't. Steve's friend Sam, who remained his only alibi, recalled their tense trip to rock climbing Australia, saying, quote, I actually got along with Amy better than I did with Steve in Australia.

I'm not going to cover for somebody who might have murdered a friend of mine. And that I think is, that's a good quote to move forward with is that it kind of makes you feel confident that Sam is not just covering for Steve and that they were in Du Bois Wyoming that day, you know, because he has no reason to lie to somebody who he is getting into consistent arguments with. They're not even that, they're not good buddies. They kinda don't like each other. Yeah, it makes sense. When we were questioning whether or not Sam would do

something like that, it kind of seems clear that he would not. Right. Though Sam maintained that he was with Steve on the day that Amy went missing, again, in Du Bois over an hour away, he was with Steve on the day that Amy went missing again into boys over an hour away, he was not convinced that Steve didn't have anything to do with it. Amy's family were shocked that he wouldn't take a polygraph test if only to clear his

own name. Amy's father Dwayne told a news source years later, quote, I still feel angry because if he's not guilty of anything, the son of a bitch should take a lie detector test and give us some peace. Then Amy's brother Nell's came to detectives with some information that was new to them. He believed that Amy had been trapped in an abusive relationship. Nell's seemingly speaking on behalf of Amy's entire family, believed that Steve was very controlling over Amy. According to Nell, they moved when and where Steve wanted to move and spent their time

doing what Steve wanted to do. They even remembered Amy consulting her husband on what she ordered when they went out to dinner. Joanne agreed with this recollection saying, quote, Steve was very much in control and Amy was very compliant. The row family also remembered instances in which Steve would be jealous and possessive. So at one point while visiting Amy and Steve, Nell's wife noticed that she had some bruises on her arm that looked as if she had been grabbed. When Nell's wife asked her about it, she just brushed it off.

But Steve actually stood up and walked behind Amy and put his hands on her shoulders at this point, which could have been, you know, him trying to, say, watch what you say right now. Yeah, hint at like, hey, don't say anything that's going to incriminate me. Right. So according to Nels, Amy had kind of laughed it off and said, sorry, quote, Steve gets a little rough sometimes.

So they obviously found this very alarming, but they didn't press the issue because both Steve and Amy just seemed super uncomfortable at that point. Nell's remembered, quote, I have been suspicious for a long time about her being in a controlling relationship. There were signs of possible abuse, but I can't say if violent domestic abuse took place.

Steve's lawyer Kent continued to maintain that Steve had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance and refuted claims that he had ever heard his wife. Nell said sadly, quote, the fact that he won't take the test is a huge red flag. It's like cutting off another limb. Not only have we lost Amy, but now Steve is being cut off from our family. So Amy's family reeled from the sudden loss and the shock of Steve potentially being involved. But Steve's tight-knit climbing community rallied around him, seeming to divide the small town of lander which had already been rocked by the events of the

past few weeks. The day after Steve was interrogated, long-forcement obtained a search warrant for his truck and he and Amy's house, turning the house upside down looking for anything that would connect Steve to our disappearance. And while they didn't necessarily find anything that would implicate him, they did find meticulously kept journals of Steve's, whose contents proved to be shocking. According to Nellis, quote, these were detailed journals, these were chronologically ordered, these were his deepest thoughts around everything from how he views women to things he liked to do which were very violent To very clear controlling behavior directly targeted to my sister

Amy's mom Joanne remembered being quote blown away and quote couldn't believe what she was reading But Steve argued that his writings were purely hypothetical and fantastical scenarios that he was posing, and that they had nothing to do with Amy or whatever fate had befallen her. When asked for a defense, Steve said, quote, "'Those writings are songs that my band did in high school. They're stories that I wrote that I submitted to a short story magazine. It's sort of a trashy, but you know, way to get rid of feelings, you know, if I can write them, they're gone. I want to know what he said.

I really want to know what he said, because obviously the family thinks that they're really weird, but if he wrote them in high school, though, did he, though, I mean, who knows? This is just his claim. He's saying, oh, I wrote those in high school. It means nothing. Where's the proof of that? You know what I mean? It's, we don't know when they were written. We don't even know what they say. But apparently they're very disturbing and upsetting and nails things that what he is writing is directed at his sister, Amy.

But because this case is unsolved, sorry, the spoiler. This has not been released to the public. So aside from the county sheriff being absent when the search began, the investigation suffered setbacks from the beginning. Volunteers spent weeks stuffing envelopes with missing flyers to be sent to surrounding states only to discover that the tip-line phone number was only valid for calls coming from within Wyoming. Two months after Amy vanished, Sheriff Dave

King backed down from handling the case thank you and assigned it to someone else. But not for an actual good reason, it was just so he could handle his re-election campaign. And then three years later, he was caught stealing confiscated cocaine from a storage locker and was stripped of his title. So it seems like Dave King really wasn't the best person to be taking on this case anyway. Yeah, and maybe in his defense, you know, they don't see a whole lot of missing people or a whole lot of murders if this is even a murder case.

But yeah, it's very unfortunate that this case was so mishandled in the beginning and just for so many years really until 2011 when Detective John Zerga got involved and took over the case and Here is a quote from him saying quote everybody that investigated this was focused on Steve and they had good reason But there again there was information coming in pointing in different directions. So one lead that perhaps wasn't considered seriously enough is that of a man who used to call and follow Amy around when she lived in Laramie. And remember that is where she lived when she went to college and where she met Steve,

and Amy had even written in her journal about being afraid of this guy. Nell said quote, this man is an even greater concern than Steve is to us. But this lead just fell flat because either it wasn't investigated enough or police haven't released their findings so we don't know anything about this person or what ended up happening to them. So back to Steve. Now Steve and Amy did not possess life insurance policies and Steve claims that there was no motive for him to kill her.

Though of course if she was in an abusive relationship, which seems like she was, he could have easily found a motive that suited him just to have control over her or possibly it could have been an accident. So I think him saying, what would my motive even be? Like I agree from the outside looking in, what would his motive be? You know, they've only been married a couple years, they just bought a house together,

they don't have kids, why would he do this? But there's more than me to the eye. True, and you know, I understand typically it has to do with something financial or possibly like an affair or something, but in this case, there could be a multitude of different scenarios in which he could have killed her. Right.

But also then we have to think about if he was having an affair or something, he could have just gotten a divorce because I feel like for the most part when people kill their spouses, just generally, obviously not everybody. One motive would be their life insurance policy, the other one would be maybe they have a pre-nap or they're worried about losing money in some way or kids. So none of those really apply here. So I don't know, but I don't believe that he couldn't have had some motive. So as we said, the potential siding of Steve and Amy on loop

road was disproven due to the home phone records. Steve had been home making outgoing calls after about 4pm that we do know that she was last seen at the Photoshop around 2pm, so 2 hours earlier. Yet again, the climbing community of lander rallied around Steve, organizing their own search parties, fielding calls and tips, and sending out missing flyers and donations from friends made up a $10,000 reward to find Amy. Two months after Amy disappeared in September of 1997, the 10K race that she was mapping took place without her in the Shashonee National Forest. Over 150 people participated, including Steve, Amy's mom and Amy's sisters.

Sadly by that point, Steve had ceased communication with Amy's family, and things between them were tense and awkward. The climbing community remained very protective of Steve, and mostly kept him away from them. Tips continued to trickle in, including one from a woman in Florida, indicating a possible sighting of Amy all the way across the country in Sarasota, Florida. So after this woman had seen an article printed about Amy's disappearance in People magazine, she believed that she saw Amy walking the streets of Sarasota homeless and disoriented.

Wyoming police even went to the lengths of flying down the Florida to talk to this mysterious look alike, but sadly, it was not Amy. At the year mark in June of 1998, police renewed their search efforts and scuba divers scoured fry lake, which is about a half mile or eight tenths of a kilometer from where her car was found. But there was still no trace of her. A psychic in 2015 wrote that Amy had been murdered and remained in the area, predicting, quote, two men were involved in the disappearance of Bechtel. Bechtel was abducted from loop road and held at a campsite until she was murdered by a blow to the back of her head by a rock. Bechtel was buried within 50 feet of the campsite. Bechtel's wedding ring and watch were

not buried with her. She was buried wearing a small, gold-chained necklace with a small medallion. Bechtel was buried approximately 5 feet under the surface. But of course, you know, this claim has never been substantiated, but has also not been disproven. The only article recovered that's believed to be linked to Amy is a watch that was pulled from a nearby river in June of 2003. There were also bones recovered nearby, but they were determined to be animal remains, and the watch was never positively identified as Amy's.

And in case we covered back in episode 201 of Going West actually has a possible connection to Amy's disappearance as I kind of briefed in the intro. Now 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmel, nicknamed Lil Miss by her family, was abducted while driving from Denver, Colorado to Montana. She was missing for over a week before she was found floating in a Wyoming river, and her case went unsolved for 14 years until her car was found buried on the property of 43-year-old Dale Wayne Eaton. Oh, that guy is such a piece of shit. I know, so before Dale was even suspected for the murder of Lisa Kimmel, Dale's brother

Richard called in a tip about him to land her police. According to Richard, Dale was known to camp in the burnt Gulch area often, which again is where Amy's car was found, and he lived just an hour away. Six weeks after Amy disappeared, Dale was arrested for the armed kidnapping of a family. It was a young couple and their baby, and Dale had even threatened to kill them. When Lisa's car was discovered on his property, he was serving time in prison for that crime. And it was after this harrowing incident that Dale's brother began to suspect that he may be involved in the disappearance of Amy Bechtel.

Richard even said that he believed that Dale was in the land or area on the day that she went missing. Dale was eventually sentenced to death for the rape, torture and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmel, who he held captive for about 6 days before stabbing her, hitting her in the head with a rock, and throwing her into the North Platter River. I do think it's interesting this mention of hitting her in the head with a rock and what the psychic said about what she believes happened to Amy. Obviously, again, totally taking the psychic's information with a theory with a grain of salt or prediction. I don't even know what to call it.

Yeah, of course, you know, the psychic could have actually looked at the case of Lisa Kimmel and saw the details and said, Oh, well, that happens to Amy as well. Very true. No offense to any psychics out there. So his attorneys have since overturned his death sentence, but he remains in jail to this day at 78 years old. Now he has been questioned about his connection to Amy's disappearance a copious amount of times, but he has continuously shut down investigators insinuating his involvement. However, based on the life he led and his vast amount of criminal activity, authorities believe that he may have as many as 10 or more victims.

In 2004, so seven years after Amy disappeared, Steve had Amy officially declared dead. Into this day, over 25 years after she vanished, it seems that we're no closer to discovering what happened to her. Joanne's family was heartbroken at Steve's decision to declare Amy dead, saying, quote, in my view, unless we know she's dead, she's not dead. Deciding to make the best of the terrible circumstances in which they had found themselves, Amy's family transferred the reward fund which had amassed $100,000 into four athletic scholarships at the University of Wyoming in Amy's name.

Within a few years of Amy's disappearance, Steve started dating a new girlfriend and even moved with her to Salt Lake City, Utah. But homesick for lander, he wound up moving back. Now while that relationship didn't work out, he then started dating a woman named Ellen, and the same year that Amy was declared legally dead, the two married. They now have two children and still reside in lander. And while he is not yet consented to a polygraph test, the detective most recently assigned to his case has said that Steve has

continued to be cooperative and still wants answers in Amy's case. But her brother Nell said that he will never forgive Steve for shutting their family out and refusing to take a test that should easily exonerate him. Stating quote, I will not shy away from that. The one person who can help the most and possibly resolving what happened to Amy is the guy who, for whatever reason, cowardice, selfishness I don't know, refuses to engage.

But Steve disagrees, saying quote, the polygraph is like one of those monkey traps. Anybody who needs me to take that test, I don't need them in my life. Sadly, Amy's dad Dwayne passed away in 2001, so just four years after Amy went missing. Nell's recalled, quote, "...this stressed the family out. My father passed away a number of years ago.

The whole situation was Steve not being cooperative. That really caused frustration for the family." In 2006, Amy and Steve's good friend and world-renowned rock climber Todd Skinner died tragically in a fall while climbing in Yellowstone National Park. Steve and Todd stayed close friends and continued to climb together until Todd's sudden death, which came as a huge shock to the entire climbing community. According to Detective John Zerga, while they're limited, the police do still receive tips about Amy's disappearance. If you have any information about the disappearance of Amy Bechtel,

please call the Lander Wyoming Police Department at 307-332-2870. 07-332-2870. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This is such a tough one because there's really no evidence of anything. You know, all we know is that Amy was at the Photoshop at about 2pm. She left in a hurry.

We don't know why she was in a hurry or seemingly in a hurry. And then her car was found in the area where she was going to plan her run. And that's all we have. And I think, you know, just from the get-go, and even the fact that there was really no indication as to where she went, from the get-go, it was just completely botched. Like, they screwed up by letting Todd and Amy take the car home, the skimmers.

Absolutely. Take the car home, they screwed up with footprints, with everything else. So even if there was something pointing to the direction in which Amy had gone, they wouldn't be able to find it. It's so true. And obviously everybody had good intentions. Everybody that went out there, all the volunteers,

the family, the police, they all had good intentions. They wanted to find her. They wanted to figure this out and bring her home. But it just ended up hurting in a way. So really devastating case. Please make sure that you share. Thank you so much in advance for doing so and listening to this episode. And we will see you guys in a few days. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc

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1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc Thank you. you