Going West: True Crime - Hannah Rose Walker // 361

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

In October of 2022, a 31-year-old woman headed out for a swim in beautiful Trout Lake, Washington, with an older friend. But after getting separated that afternoon, the woman’s remains would be found floating in the water. Once police arrived at the scene, it was clear that the circumstances of her death were strange and confusing. But what really happened to her? And was the last man she was with responsible? This is the story of Hannah Rose Walker. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Hannah Rose Walker website: https://www.hannahrosewalker.com/stay-informed 2. KGW8: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/regional/southwest-washington/hannah-walker-portland-death-klickitat-county-sheriff/283-c71e91a8-9778-4edd-a93a-6417953ac835 3. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimePodcasts/comments/15i9y0c/anyone_know_of_a_small_podcast_that_might_be/ 4. OPB: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/08/02/klickitat-county-sheriff-portland-woman-found-dead-in-creek-hannah-walker/ 5. Hannah's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004063174244 6. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rqkke-help-hannahs-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Teef. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, big thank you to Cammy and Sam for recommending today's case. This case happened only about a year ago, so we definitely want to get as much attention to it as possible. So please make sure that you share this one after listening and thank you so much for tuning in. I think I already said that. Yes, he did. I wanted to also tell you guys that we have a new bonus episode

that just came out yesterday from when this episode's coming out. It is on Jack the Ripper. We decided to finally cover that case because maybe you guys are like us where you know the case, but not that well. Maybe you don't know the details or the deep details. Yeah, so we dove in as much as we could

in one single episode. I think we did a pretty decent job with that. I gotta say, I think in my opinion. Yeah, it was fun, it was really interesting. Yeah, super interesting. I think it ended up being like an hour and 13 minutes without ads. So it is a longer episode if you wanna check that out.

And I think that was actually our 100th bonus episode. So we have a hundred freaking ad free, full-length episodes that you guys can listen to. If you want more content, by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or in the link of the description of this episode on patreon.com slash going west podcast. Yeah, and the great thing about that is you spend five bucks and you get like 50 episodes, you spend 10 bucks, you get 100 ad free bonus episodes. Tell ya, so do it if you'd like.

Alright guys, well this is episode 361 of Going West, so let's get into it. The RBC student offer that turns a feel good moment into a feel great moment. Students, get $100 when you open a no-merfully fee RBC Advantage banking account and will give another $100 to a charity of your choice. RBC Vantage, this great perk and more, only at RBC. Visit rbc.com slash get 100, give 100. Conditions apply in January 31, 2024. Complete offer eligibility criteria by March 29, 2024. Choose one of eight eligible charities,

up to $500,000 in total contributions. This episode is brought to you by Intel. Intel V Pro is the business computing foundation making PC's professional grade equipping IT to secure and manage a hybrid workforce and boosting user productivity. Intel V Pro, bill for what IT heroes do. Bill for business. Results may vary. Learn more at intel.com-forutslash-it-old woman headed out for a swim in beautiful Trout Lake Washington with an older friend. But after getting separated that afternoon, the woman's remains would be found floating in the water. Once police arrived at the scene,

it was clear that the circumstances of her death were strange and confusing. But what really happened that day? And is the man she was with responsible? This is the story of Hannah Rose Walker was born on May 1, 1991. She grew up in Beautiful Hilo, which is on the big island of Hawaii, and growing up there, Hannah absolutely loved the water, which came to be a theme in her life, like swimming was always a passion of hers, which continued to be a passion, even when she eventually relocated to Portland, Oregon, though she also spent some time in southern Oregon.

After attending David Douglas High School in Southeast Portland, Hannah started working as a certified nursing assistant, specifically caring for elderly patients, and she loved doing so. Her mom, Ayah Walker, said that she was a gifted student and an intellectual. She described her daughter as perpetually compassionate, especially where animals or patients were concerned. And speaking of animals, she had a cat who she loved like a child. Ayah also remembers her daughter's biting sense of wit and sarcasm and that she could find levity in any situation. At the time of her death, Hannah had accepted a spot in Utah Tech University's Neurobiology

program, and she was very excited to start this. But aside from wanting to help people, Hannah was artistic and a free spirit. She sporteded multiple tattoos and loved art and music in every form. She was a reader, a painter, a songwriter, and according to her mother, Aya, had a beautiful singing voice. Hannah relished traveling and loved to experience other cultures as well, like for example, she had made trips to Turkey, Spain, and Ireland,

and was even learning Turkish in hopes of making a trip back. She said that her ultimate dream, though, was to live on a floating island of man-made waste that she called Trash Island. She wanted to produce a reality TV show about what it was like to live there in this community made up of similarly eco-conscious and intelligent residents. So that was something that she really wanted to deal. Interesting, trash island. Yeah, very cool. So however, despite Hannah's outward projection of security, I is realistic about her daughter's mental health struggles and says that she had grappled intermittently

with confidence issues, as well as an eating disorder. So she took prescription anti-anxiety medication to mitigate her symptoms. Alcohol was also a known issue for Hannah, and she would often indulge too much. Early in the fall of 2022, before she was set to head to St. George Utah to start classes for her neurobiology degree, she told her mom that she was gonna take a road trip to the beach in Oregon with some friends. Which is such a great idea, because Oregon has the most insanely beautiful coastline.

It's very, very cold. It is cold, but it's so great. I dare you to put your feet in that water for more than a minute. For a jid. Yes. So yeah, and she just kind of wanted to blow off some steam before getting settled into Utah

and entering into a demanding class schedule. Hannah also planned on getting closure with her ex-boyfriend, who lived in Oregon, before she left the Pacific Northwest for the foreseeable future. Hannah's ex, 33-year-old Richard Duro, who went by Ricky, worked as a server at Nico's Cantina in Portland. The two had a very tumultuous, on-again and off-again relationship, and Hannah seemed to know that continuing contact would be basically detrimental to her mental health. But she just couldn't resist the temptation to end on a positive note, so she agreed

to meet up with him again to close out that chapter of her life. Now the exact details of the altercation are unclear, but on Friday, October 7, 2022, Ricky was arrested on domestic violence charges after attempting to strangle Hannah. Ricky was held in jail on charges for three days, but was released on October 10 after Hannah declined to go to the District Attorney's office to give her statement and press charges. So the day after this Tuesday, October 11th, 2022, Hannah texted her mom telling her that she was obviously very disturbed about what had transpired between the two. So she told her mom that she was planning on spending a couple of days at her friend's cabin in Trout Lake, Washington, which is about two hours outside of Portland to recover from this incident.

Like she just wanted to get away for a second and clear her head, be in nature, and, you know, get over this very traumatic event that just happened to her. So Hannah and her mom, Ia briefly chatted about what Hannah was planning to do when she returned to Portland and then discussed their family's Thanksgiving plans for the following month. Then the next day, Aya noticed that Hannah had stopped sharing her location with her. And later that day, Hannah would turn up dead. Heath, will you remind me to bring up this location sharing point later? Because I might forget. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Okay. So Hannah headed out to Trout Lake to the vacation home of her friend Jeremy Gaylord. So Jeremy was

67 years old, so 36 years older than Hannah, who had just turned 31 in May. The exact nature of Hannah's relationship with Jeremy was unclear, but in his later statement to police, Jeremy claimed that he had been friends with Hannah for five to six years. Obviously, many people, including her mom, Aya, have speculated that perhaps the pair had a sexual relationship, and one report called it mutually beneficial, and that Hannah had been staying with him and quote, providing companionship. But before she died, Hannah maintained a friends and family that Jeremy was just a friend,

even though one source claimed that she mentioned that he was paying her for her company, so like a sugar daddy type relationship. But again, the actual origin of their relationship is unclear, like how they met and what exactly they did together and what they considered each other. So strangely, Jeremy was married, and he had been for a very long time. And according to his wife, Feline, she and Hannah were friends on Facebook and she met her in person two days before her death. And the three were apparently staying together at the vacation home. On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, Hannah and Jeremy left the cabin for a swim. And obviously this is October or so kind of weird, but maybe they just don't care about

the temperatures of the water. Which I wonder what they were that day. It's kind of hard because trout lake Washington is so small, there's only like 700 residents. So this is a small rural area. So that kind of temperature information for the water is like historically not super available. But I did find in one report that it was 83 degrees

on October 12, 2022 in trout lake Washington. And I actually cross referencedreferenced it with Portland Oregon's temperature since there are just a couple hours away. And it was 79 degrees in Portland that day. So it's very, I would say that's very warm for Oregon, October. Oh, absolutely. Definitely warm. And maybe the waters, you know, were still kind of warm from the summer of September and everything, but yeah, you definitely wouldn't catch me swimming in October, but yeah, well, as we know, it takes months for the waters to warm up, and that's why when we lived in Oregon, where he is from, we would prefer

to go swimming in like August or September because that's when the water is a little bit more bearable to swim in. Sure, yeah. So maybe it was decent. Yeah, it could have been that day, for sure. So the census designated place of trout lake includes an intricate web of waterways, stemming from the larger body of water.

And according to Jeremy's retelling of events, the two were at this lake until around 2.40 pm when they walked to a smaller creek to swim in instead. Now, Jeremy said that he laid a towel and a sheet down along the creek bed, and that he watched Hannah get into the water, who again was a big fan of swimming and had been doing it her entire life. When Jeremy was later asked about the last time that he saw Hannah, he said quote, �It�s difficult for me to recall exactly.

But I remember looking at my, uh, at the time because I wanted to make sure that I didn't stay in the sun too long. I remember, I come here, I check the time, but I think I was here for a little while before I checked the time and now I can't remember. I think that maybe she had just laughed, but it was somewhere around at the time I recall, it was somewhere around at the time I recall, it was 338. So somewhere between 338 and 4 o'clock, I guess, somewhere right around 330 or 4. And if he just sounded very unsure of himself, that's literally how the quote was.

It was just very jumbled and like, he just got saying it over and over. There is literally, the word um is literally in there. So yeah, he's kind of just trying to get this information out and sort it. But it does sound like very, uh... A little unclear. Unclear, maybe a little bit nervous, I would say. Yeah, the tone is nervous for sure. So the last time that he saw her, Jeremy said that she was waiting into the water,

planning on going, quote, around a bend in the creek in order to take her bathing suit off to swim naked for a while. Now, her mom later said that she was puzzled by this, and that it seemed at a character for Hannah as she was perfectly comfortable skinny dipping in front of anyone. As time passed, and Hannah didn't return to where she had set their things down,

Jeremy said that he started to get worried. At 6.47 pm, so 20 minutes after the sun had set, and after not seeing her for about 3 hours, Jeremy finally called 911 to report her missing. And I don't want to pick that apart too much, but it is interesting that she was like, oh, I'm just going to go around the bend for a second, and 3 whole hours pass, and then you don't call the police until 20 minutes after it already got dark.

Like, she's not gonna be swimming at night in the wilderness where there's no lights, and she's not gonna be gone for that long when you guys were hanging out together for the day. Yeah, y'all went there together, so it would make sense that maybe you'd check on her after half hour even. Like, if you went swimming with your friend, and they were gone for even like 30 minutes,

you'd probably be like, are they okay? Like, what's going on? Yeah. And maybe I do understand also this my last comment on this. I do understand maybe he didn't want to jump to conclusions and call the police if maybe she decided to swim off on her own for a while and spend some time by herself, but I don't know, it definitely makes you think. Absolutely, so the other thing about this was Hannah had nothing with her but her black swimsuit that she was wearing, so she didn't even have any like shoes to wear at this time.

Her clothes, shoes, towel, and cell phone were back on the banks of the water, and she had not come out of the water to retrieve them So also I want to play the 911 call from Jeremy because I think it's important to share this in this case It gives you a sense of his tone and I will say this operator is like very snappy with him He doesn't seem too nervous to me. I think anybody calling 911 would kind of, and with the circumstances involved, would have a little bit of anxiety, right? Sure. But I think overall he's pretty calm, but listen for yourselves. 911 with the address of near Clark Stale, kind of outside

cart lake. And that's the best I can tell you about where I am. There's a little entrance here. So what's going on, sir? I was a king over the friend of mine and she's a great summer and went down to, she wanted to go swimming, so I went down to, sir. What is going on right now that you've called 911? She's lost. She's not back. Okay now that you've called 911? She's lost.

She's not back. Okay, so you've got a missing person. Okay. Yeah, she's been gone. She's been gone for like well over an hour. And it's being done here. Okay. She's only got her swimsuit.

She's barefoot, just like freaking cold in the water. Okay, take a deep breath for me. Okay. And what water was she in? Uh, trout creek, everybody's called? Trout Creek. Okay. Feeds in the trout lake. Okay, everyone is called? Trout Creek. Okay. Feeds in the crowd lake.

Okay, you are there at Trout Creek Road. You are sitting down there by Clark Stale? Yeah, by Clark Stale. Just by Clark Stale, I think it is. And is that where she went in at? Yes. I actually was with her whipped out of the creek and I waited around for like two hours to show up back up.

I was going to show it up. Is she on an inner tube? No, she is just in it. six years ago that's that's what she got in the airport okay do you know what color bathing suit is black is black okay came back to the car just a way to go on for a while left the towel in the sheet we're sitting on in the cell phone there because i thought it if it's perhaps you did actually show up that she would be a call somebody

but i'm back at the car now, it's not there either. Okay, so where did you leave her towel and her cell phone at? There's like a little like beach down by the creek down there, and it's really hard for me to describe. I could show you. I've been there many, many times, I come here quite often. By the bridge, or? No, it's like it's a natural area preserved. There's actually a little forest service road,

at least as a forest or a market. I can walk up and look to see if I can read the marker. But nobody ever thinks that it is that. Using that road designation. So she went in and you have a tanner in a lot how long? What time is it now about 6'40? Something like that? Yep.

Probably since about four. She's a really strong summerist. I really expected that. I wasn't really worried about her for at least an hour or so. I think she just never showed up. And I started like, that damn it. She just left me here and stranded me. It's been freaking worried now.

Sir, what's your name? My name, first name is Jeremy. My last name is Gaylord. Do you live in this area, Jeremy? I have a vacation home in Trot Lake. Okay, but you don't live here, correct? No, I would just, I come up here frequently, but my home is actually in Portland. Yeah, all right.

Hey, I'm just a second, Jeremy, okay. I'm going to hang up. So I've got a deputy headed your way. Cool, that's great. So what kind of vehicle are you in, Jeremy? A Honda CRV. What color is it? Silver.

Oh, okay. Let's kind of park down this road. I can actually go stand by the road so it could be a little more obvious. Well, just stay right where you're are because we've got some cell phone cover Jenny to ask you about and check questions before you go back. Okay. My video's fine, just so. Great. Okay, did she have any medical problems? No, not really. She has some mild asthma and that's yeah. Did she have any mental health problems? Yes, she does.

What kind of mental health problems does she have? Oh, depression. She just got out of an abusive relationship with her real jerk guy. Yeah, it really like devastator sort of. I don't think she got out of it. She was very despondent, but I could sort of brighten up by the waters. I wasn't really too worried about her. But not coming back like this was so freaking me out.

Right, no, no. I've got to ask a bunch of questions, okay? worried about her. But not coming back like this was so freaking me out. Right, no, no. I've got to ask a bunch of questions, OK? Sure, her ask away. OK, she, OK, what's her name? Her first name is Hannah. Her last name is Walker. What's your do you order, Data Birth is by chance? Let's see, it's NAFE first, and she's 31.

So I guess that's in 92. Is there anyone? All right, not anyone. So when the officer arrived, it was already dark outside, obviously since he called about 20 minutes after sunset anyway, and Jeremy was waiting next to his car with the headlights on. Jeremy tried to lead the officer, Deputy Warren, to where Hannah's belongings were, saying that he left them there in case she were to come back. They got turned around in the dark, but eventually found their way to where he had last seen Hannah. Deputy Warren alerted search and rescue of the coordinates and began to search the vicinity

and nearby in the grass was Hannah's discarded swimsuit. In the body cam footage of the discovery, Jeremy stated, quote, I mean, today I was just here like in earlier today and I didn't see that, but of course I just couldn't miss it, but it's hard to see if it has been there, and it's really dark. It looks sort of like it though. So again, kind of strange the way he's wording things. Agreed. WD Waron then mused quote, I mean, it's clean, so it hasn't been here for a day and got covered

in dust. Let me look around for any footprints or anything. There in the sand surrounding Hannah's black swimsuit were boot prints, which were confirmed by photographs of the scene, but strangely, as we said, she had been barefoot and she certainly was not wearing boots in the water. Now obviously, a lot of people wear water shoes when they're swimming in nature because of rocks or anything natural under the water that could hurt your feet. I mean I always wear my t-vas when I'm swimming in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest but she wasn't

wearing anything yet. Somehow there's boot prints surrounding her swimsuit. I also want to add there was no indication that this was done by officers because these boot prints are pretty heavily discussed in this story. Right. So as the officer was going to kind of continue downstream to check the waters, Jeremy seemed flustered, saying, quote, I should have called earlier, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Why not? I wonder. Then, growing cold, he asked to be excused from the scene. A short while later, Deputy Warren spotted something floating in the creek, and upon further inspection, it was Hannah's naked body face down in the water. At 10.32pm that evening, so about 4 hours after Jeremy called police, and over 7 hours after Hannah was last spotted allegedly by Jeremy, 31-year-old Hannah Rose Walker was At Salesforce, we're all about asking more of AI.

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Until December 6th, get a free Jumble Point Seta when you spend $300 or more. Plus, PC-oplomant members can get select PC or no-name cheese at $3.99. Conditions apply, so you fly for details. One of the most tragic aspects of this case is how I have found out about the loss of her daughter. For reasons that have not been made public, the Click Attack County Sheriff's Department declined to notify the next of kin. It's also worth noting that Jeremy made no attempt to contact her family and let them know what had happened to her, and according to Aya, he still has not done so.

After no word from her daughter for three days, Aya grew really concerned and contacted the victim's advocate for Hannah's domestic violence case in Portland. The victim's advocate had not heard from Hannah and recommended that she reach out to authorities in her last known location, which was Click Attack County. So on Saturday, October 15, 2022, Hannah's mother, increasingly worried about her daughter's prolonged silence, took the initiative to call Click Attack County Dispatch, requesting a welfare check on Hannah. Explaining that she hadn't heard from her daughter in several days and expressing her concerns,

she disclosed the details of the recent domestic violence incident that Hannah had endured. Though unsure of Hannah's precise location, of course, she mentioned the possibility of her being at her friend Jeremy's cabin in Trout Lake. Now the Clikittet County Sheriff agreed to perform a wellness check on her, and just an hour later, Ayah's local police in St. George, Utah arrived at her doorstep to give her the terrible news. The circumstances surrounding Hannah's death were surprising to her family for many reasons. Hannah had been an avid and very strong swimmer for her entire life, and the creek in which

she drowned is believed to have had a maximum depth of 5 feet, and the water in which she was found was only about 2 feet deep. The officers noted that the water was not moving quickly either, so her being swept under and getting stuck under something was just not really feasible. And I know all too well about this because in the summertime a lot of Oregonians like to float the river, and I'm sure a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest in general, but I actually had a friend who drowned this way back when I was in high school. He had been drinking, was on a float, and had got sucked under the water and got caught in some snags, and they found him a couple days later.

But this just did not seem to be the case with Hannah, because again, the water wasn't moving very quickly. It was very shallow. She was a great swimmer, so it just didn't look like something like that could have happened. And people float the river because it's moving. It transports you to a different area where they're saying here that it wasn't really moving. And if you know what of the small amount that it was moving, it wasn't moving quickly enough to push somebody upstream even necessarily. We're also talking about a creek and not specifically a river. So that makes sense. Which absolutely clicks.

But yeah, I mean, just the fact that, I mean, the maximum was five feet. And obviously her being a good swimmer, accidents happen all the time. People who are very skilled at things can die doing them, obviously. So it's definitely possible in a sense that this could have happened. We were talking to Heath's dad about this as well, who has spent almost his entire life in Oregon.

And he thinks that the only way this could really happen is if somehow she fell unconscious while she was swimming or if he said if she got like a cramp and couldn't swim and then she fell under the water, but he said otherwise it's like a cramp and couldn't swim and then she fell under the water But he said otherwise. It's like this doesn't make any sense Yeah, and I have heard of like cramping, you know, like there's that age old saying like you don't eat or you don't go swimming after you eat Right because you could get a cramp or whatever or also also you don't you don't go swimming in cold water because you could get a cramp that way But it just doesn't seem like this is the case

because it seems like she was pretty used to doing this. Yeah, it's really with these circumstances, it's really bizarre that she died. And of course, we're gonna talk about more details that are gonna make you guys question this even more. Definitely, but another thing I wanna mention, I wanna go back to, because I just remembered the whole thing about how she stopped sharing her location with her

mom earlier that day. Remember, so that's weird to me, because why would she do that? Why would she stop sharing her location with her mom? She told her mom she was going here. It wasn't a secret. She wasn't hiding anything. And I think it makes it even more suspicious. The fact that this was the day that she died yeah that she stops sharing her location if it happened any other day i don't think anyone would really think into it that much but yeah and it's not like her phone died and her location services turned off her mom says that that day

she had a specifically stopped sharing her location with her and you know how on with iphone's in in particular and find my friends, when you do that, the person sees it in the text. It says they stop sharing their location with you. Right, you get a notification. Yeah, so it's kind of like why would she have done that? And was she the one to do that? Right, right.

So let's get back to the scene here. So Jeremy was allowed to leave the scene once police arrived, complaining of the cold. Ionotes later, that Jeremy had been wearing Hannah's sweatshirt at the time, which she thought was obviously very odd as well. Neither his car nor his home were searched for anything that might tie him to Hannah's shocking death, and he was never required to turn over the items of Hannah's that she had left at his house. And Aya claims that she's still trying to obtain the items that Hannah had taken with her to the water that day. When she listened back to the 911 call, Aya noticed that Jeremy gave the operator a different phone number for Hannah, one that she didn't have access to.

So she wondered if this had anything to do with her mysterious death, and what Hannah was hiding on that phone. Like, was it possible that there were more men like Jeremy that she had this, you know, mutually beneficial relationship with? And if so, could one of them be responsible for what happened to her. I also found it strange that this phone has not been turned over to her, and wonders if perhaps, Jeremy had been the one paying for it and didn't want anybody else to see what was on it. IA specifically requested to have this unknown phone forensically processed, but as far as she knows, detectives basically just declined to do so. She also requested any information that they could glean about the phone, such as who

was paying for it, but she was never able to obtain any information about that either. The next severe blow to the case came when the autopsy was performed because for unknown reasons, the state of Washington held off on performing the autopsy for nine days, which is nuts. So for more than a week, I had just waited in agony to find out what had happened to her daughter. Ultimately, her cause of death was listed as drowning, but when Aya conferred with experts, she began to have doubts. The autopsy reported that Hannah's lungs were enlarged, which is a common side effect

of drowning. Her initial cause of death is listed as, quote, �submerging in water complicated by ethanol, meaning that alcohol had been found in her system as well. Though Ia was the first to admit that her daughter did struggle with the dependency on alcohol, there had been no evidence that the scene that the two were drinking that day, nor had Jeremy made any mention that they were drinking before or during their time at the water.

The only substances found in Hannah's system were alcohol and benzo diasapines, which are often called benzos, and these were prescribed to her for her anxiety and the amount that was found in her system was consistent with the dosage on her medication. And I did look this up to mixing benzos and alcohol is said to, quote, reduce cognitive abilities. But regarding the alcohol, her mom argued that decomposing bodies produced their own alcohol levels, capable of skewing the blood alcohol content.

And since it took nine days for them to perform it, she doesn't feel like the results could have been accurate. On the family's website, they've written the explanation for this stating, quote, post-mortem blood alcohol concentration or BAC levels cannot be used to determine the level of intoxication at the time of death. High BAC levels may develop during future faction and levels up to 0.200% do not necessarily indicate that alcohol was imbibed before death.

In addition, BAC levels may be influenced by the body's own metabolism and other environmental factors. As such, the results of a post-mortem BAC test should not be used as a definitive indicator of whether or not alcohol was a factor in Hannah's death. Aya again also argues that too much time had laps to be able to determine an estimate of the blood alcohol content at her time of death. After nine days, the percentage would be falsely inflated, but after seeing that she had both alcohol and benzos in her system, the investigators seemed to have

made up their minds. In his report, the detective even wrote, quote, The medical examiner advised benzo diasapines and alcohol are a dangerous combination and should never be taken at the same time. So it's as if they're saying, I mean, he's literally writing, yes, I did mention that as well a minute ago, but he's writing it as if, oh, she drank and took benzos at the same time, and then it probably caused her to go into the surface and drown because of it. Yeah, and, but again, it's hard to determine, you know, because we don't really truly know

the BAC here. And there's more. So in addition to her toxicology, Hannah had sustained multiple cuts, bumps, and bruises. Rather than entertaining that they may have come from a struggle, the medical examiner reported that they were consistent with stumbling around in the water, but the most alarming detail of her autopsy was the foreign DNA they found on her person. Under her fingernails, the autopsy revealed unknown male DNA. Testing also revealed Seaman and her vaginal canal.

Jeremy was not required to offer a comparative DNA sample and he certainly didn't do it voluntarily. So, you know, we can't know whose DNA it is. And it's possible that they had a consensual sex and that could possibly explain it under her fingernail, the DNA, under her fingernails as well, but it's like he didn't have any explanation for this. So I think- He's not coming forward saying we did have sex. Yeah, so it's kind of, it just makes it so much more complicated. Like, was she assaulted?

Were the, was the DNA under her fingernails from trying to scratch at her salient? Like, yeah, maybe defensive. Yeah, exactly. So, and then maybe this is pure speculation, but something happened or they had an argument. And then he, he was the one to drown her. You know, it's like, that's where your mind kind of could tend to go.

But it's hard because he's not giving up his DNA and his story doesn't cover this part of the evidence. Sure. And then we have the other details, like the boots and the mud next to the swimsuit. So yeah, a lot of sketchy things going on here. So months later, it was revealed that a polygraph examination had been requested of Jeremy, but that he declined, writing, quote,

on the advice of counsel, I will not take a polygraph test at this time. If there's anything else that I can do to help, please let me know. Now beyond that statement, Jeremy has had little to do with the investigation. Sadly, Hannah's death seemed to be dismissed before a proper inquiry could be conducted. Until recent months, and only due to pressure imposed by Ayah Walker herself, no news outlets

were reporting on Hannah's death at all. The Click Attack County Sheriff's Office declined to even issue a statement that they recovered a body from the creek. They released almost no information to the public, and criminally little information is available online. Most of the information available to the public can be found solely on the family's own website. I was told that a detective was assigned to her daughter's case, but after the autopsy, the case seemed to be dropped and was not investigated further. In the midst of a bid for re-election, the Clikittat County Sheriff Bob Sanger seemed preoccupied

at the time. And many people who are familiar with the small county of 23,000 residents, with the Trout Lake area only hosting around 700 people, have criticized the belief that they don't want anything to do with a young woman's death that could have involved alcohol or prescription medication. Even if this wasn't the cause of death. For those wondering, Hannah's ex-boyfriend Ricky was cleared of involvement, because between the hours of 3 and 10 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2022,

Ricky was working a shift at his restaurant job back in Portland, which is 83 miles or 133 kilometers from Trout Lake. Again, it's around a two hour drive. However, that hasn't fully stopped the speculation about his involvement. But also consider it a big possibility is, of course, Jeremy Gaylord, who clearly had ample opportunity, though the motive would be unknown. Like it does seem to me like whatever exactly was going on between them is a mystery to the public, so any issues that could have arisen would be as well. Like I think it's easy for us to say, oh well, they were friends.

Maybe they had a mutually beneficial relationship. But since we don't know, it's hard to speculate what type of issues they could have had and what type of arguments they could have had that possibly led to her death. It's impossible to say. But while conducting her own investigation, Ayah Walker came across a police report

filed in 2018 by a young woman who claimed that she had been sexually abused by Jeremy. This woman met Jeremy on seekingarrangement.com, which is a website that connects men with women looking to be sugar babies. This woman claims that she had met with Jeremy multiple times over the course of a year to perform energy work and sexual healing. On August 19, 2018, to about four years before Hannah's death, Jeremy claimed that his

wife was out of town and asked this woman to come over to his house to perform her services, which she later said made her feel, quote, icky. She also mentioned in the report that she didn't enjoy working with him because he gave her a, quote, bad feeling. Jeremy took her out to dinner and then the two went back to his house to smoke marijuana and engage in what she said began as consensual sex. But after smoking the marijuana that Jeremy provided for them, the complainant said that she felt as if she was dipping in and out of consciousness, which is not common with

marijuana. She also described feeling as if she was convulsing and wondered if the marijuana had been laced with something. At this point, she said she felt trapped and said that Jeremy had begun to threaten her. As soon as she regained feeling in her extremities and felt that the drugs were wearing off, she ran from his house and swore not to work with him again. This woman claimed that she reported him because she was worried that he would do this to

other women, and when she filed the report, she also said that she reported him because she was worried that he would do this to other women. And when she filed the report, she also said that she thought that Jeremy may have been photographing her in the nude and posting doctored photos of her online without her permission because basically Photoshop was a hobby of his. And these charges against Jeremy were later dropped. And on that note, I kind of want to say that, you know, a lot of times people report things

and then they don't follow through because it is a very traumatic experience to follow through with charges and having to face this person that you are going up against, you know, that did something to you. So that's why we see that happen a lot here. So it's definitely understandable why the charges were dropped, but this report exists, this allegedly happened. I am used that the inaction in Hannah's case may be due to a police cover-up, or is just an inconvenience that served to get in the way of Sheriff Bob's songers upcoming re-election campaign.

She even met with him personally to urge that Hannah's case be pursued properly. Initially, she claims that he feigned interest in the case, but that he's supposedly even the one who urged detectives to ask Jeremy to complete a polygraph test. Though when he grew weary of Ia's relentless pursuit of justice, he declined to continue assisting her. Which is really sad because all they're trying to do is figure this out they're not necessary necessarily saying hey there's foul play this was a murder they're just saying we don't know what happened but this is really suspicious

and we want you to look at it because we think that something bad and nefarious could have happened here and you're not even doing your job which is investigating right like the the least that they could do, they have not done. Yeah, and it's again really hard because they waited those nine days and that could have affected a lot for her autopsy. Absolutely. So Hannah's family has gone on record to say that the investigation has lacked both urgency and transparency. In a statement that she provided to a local news outlet, I spoke of trying to get her

daughter's case taken seriously, even going before the sheriff and commissioner in a public forum. She said candidly, quote, �Today, I am thinking about yesterday's commissioners meeting and sheriff's song or statement. I feel dismissed. I'm noticing how they have rigorously enforced protocols for their public meetings. I was allowed one comment and no follow-up comment even at the end of the day's proceedings, and that they aren't so concerned with protocols of basic crime investigation. It seems interesting that local newspapers in that area have had the press release for some time without publishing a story. The Goldendale Sentinel has had it for a month or longer, and the others like Columbia

Gorge News, The Dallas Chronicle, and White Sam and Enterprise have had it a week or more. There seems to be a bigger problem than my daughter's case alone. Several community members have reached out to us with interesting comments about the share of acting with impunity as a general demeanor. While I'm very discouraged today, the dismissive attitude of the commissioner, Dan Christensen, has actually encouraged me to push for accountability in every possible way. Much to the dismay of Hannah's loved ones, the Clikittet County Sheriff's Office has moved the status of her investigation to inactive.

For now, her family and especially her mom, Aya, is keeping her daughter's story alive and is even taken in Hannah's beloved cat. The family has requested that the FBI investigate the case, but until then, they're hoping that increased media outreach sheds light on their loss, and encourages a proper exploration into what could have happened that day. The family has put together a very comprehensive website with timelines, quotes, and theories,

and because there's been very little media coverage, this was the source of most of our information for today's episode. Her family is also up-friend about not knowing what really happened that day and that they may never know, but they believe that it's suspicious enough to warrant an investigation. Hannah's website reads, quote, "'We don't know what happened to Hannah. We don't know if it was premeditated murder, an accidental killing, or even a simple accident. What we do know is that there are enough facts and questionable details to label it a suspicious

death that needs to be thoroughly investigated. If you have any information about the death of Hannah Rose Walker. Please contact the family at info at HannahRoseWalker.com or if you'd like to contact the Click Attack County Sheriff's Office directly, their number is 509-773-4455. 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 Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Our hearts really go out to Hannah's family and to Aya for all the work that she and they are putting in to try to figure out what happened to Hannah's family and to IA for all the work that she and they are putting in to try

to figure out what happened to Hannah. And this happened a year ago. It's not like this was 40 years ago. Like they can figure this out. They can renew the investigation and really dive deep and do things they didn't do back then, but they need to start. So please, please share this episode. Yeah, I was going to say the most important thing that you can do as a listener and an advocate

for victims like these is to please just share the episode because it's really going to put a lot of pressure on that Sheriff's Department to maybe reopen the case and just see what happens. Yeah, everybody's case deserves to be investigated. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. Again, thank you so much to Cammy and Sam for recommending today's story and we'll see you guys next week. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5%

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