Going West: True Crime - Murder at Otter Cliff // 137

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

In August of 1987, a 26-year-old New England woman responded to a personal ad in the local Dexter, Maine newspaper that would unknowingly lead to her demise just months later. In a story that has been described as something only Alfred Hitchcock could have written, two people were murdered and one person almost got away with it. This is the story of Kathy Frost, as well as Leslee Reynolds. Also known, as the Murder at Otter Cliff. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125398616/kathy-lynn-larson https://bangordailynews.com/2011/04/15/news/from-the-bdn-archives-bones-found-in-montana-may-have-link-to-87-maine-murder/ https://law.justia.com/cases/maine/supreme-court/1990/577-a-2d-767-0.html https://apnews.com/article/a2756cc24304e0ad9e9d864fa4a2b2c9 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68667197/relationship-began-romantically-ended/ ttps://www.newspapers.com/image/663722730/?terms=construction%20worker&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/663894904/?terms=Kathy%20larson%20cliff&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/663898059/?terms=Kathy%20larson%20classified&match=1 http://www.corrections.com/articles/7263-inmate-leaps-to-his-death-at-maine-state-prison 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 other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. I felt like we had to do a New England case, Heath and I have been watching the new season of American Horror Story Red Tide. So good and it made me really want to cover something that takes place on the coast of New England, so here it is. Yeah and if you know anything about us, we love spooky time and spooky time is coming up, so we had to cover this case. To me there is just no better location than like a coastal cliff, you know. Oh 100% especially during the fall.

Of course this case is very tragic and it's really interesting. I found it on the internet and I haven't really seen anybody else cover it so hopefully it's a new story to you but it has a lot of depth. I think you guys are going to be really interested. And before we get started we wanted to say thank you to everyone who has joined Patreon in the last week. You guys are awesome. If you want bonus episodes head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and make sure that if you are a patron, you listen for your name at the end of each episode because we give you guys shoutouts. Yes, if you join this week, we'll be giving you a

shout out in the end of this episode. So make sure to listen. Alright guys, this is episode 137 of Going West, so let's get into it. In August of 1987, a 26-year-old New England woman responded to a personal ad in the local Dexter main newspaper that would unknowingly lead to her demise just months later. In a story that has been described as something only Alfred Hitchcock could have written, two people were murdered and one almost got away with it. This is the story of Kathy Frost, as well as Leslie Reynolds, also known as the Murder at Otter Cliff. Kathy Frost was born on June 13, 1961 to Audrey Frost Pomeroy and Robert Pomeroy, along with her brother Robert Jr., in Dexter Maine, which is a very quaint and charming town about two hours from the eastern coast

of line, and it's had a population of just around 4,000 people for many, many years. It's where her mother grew up, it's where Kathy spent most of her life too, and she also attended Dexter schools before deciding to jump into nursing life after she turned 18. Kathy always seemed to do everything right. In her 20s, she was employed as a nurse's aide at the Dexter nursing home, which was a really great job for her considering how loving and caring she really was known to be. By age 26, she even owned her own house on Spooner's Mills Road in her hometown of Dexter. But one thing seemed to be missing from her life.

A companion. According to her mom Audrey, she was very lonely and she wanted someone to spend her life with. So sometimes she would peruse the local Dexter newspaper, the Bangor Daily News for personal ads. And many of these ads and these particular papers included needs for a babysitter, or even a baker at the local Dunkin' Donuts. One ad in the personal section of this paper said,

1-800-548-5646-TheMatchMaker, dating service in New England, 3 million population to choose from. But, in the classified section of the Bangor Daily News on Friday, August 7, 1987, there was a listing that caught her eye. And the listing was this, Construction Worker, 37, 5'7, 135 pounds,

Act of Outdoorsmen, Seeks Comp seeks compatible, childless lady, 20 to 35 years old, for lasting relationship. Reply to Advertiser Box L35 Bangor Daily News, Bangor Main, 04401. And this ad seemed to meet some of Kathy's own standards, so she decided to respond to the ad and hopefully plan a date with this man. And not long after, Kathy received a call from 37-year-old Dennis Larson. He had recently moved to the area from Montana and began working as a Union construction worker in East Millenaukett, which is about an hour and twenty minutes outside of Dexter.

Dennis Larson had posted several advertisements in two main newspapers, and he had even joined a computer dating service. So he was definitely looking for a woman to be with, and he seemed to find what he was looking for in 26-year-old Kathy Frost after having their first date. Just two weeks after meeting, Dennis proposed to Kathy, and although she felt it was very quick, she did want to be with him. She spoke with her mother about it and Audrey was worried about how quick it was. She thought it was a bit bizarre and that Dennis was being pushy, and even Kathy stated

that she wanted to get married about five months down the line. On Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 1988. But Dennis told Kathy that he didn't want to wait. And in fact, he wanted to get married on Sunday, September 20, 1987, just weeks after they met. So they did, and the wedding was hosted at Audrey's parents' house right there in Dexter. After their wedding, Dennis moved into Kathy's house in Dexter as well, but just one day after their wedding, he set up an appointment to meet with a local insurance agent. And we'll go a little bit more into Dennis' background here and a bit, but for now, all

you really need to know about him is that Kathy is his third wife, both of his other wives being from Montana. And it's unclear why he moved all the way to Maine, but after his divorce with his second wife, it's believed that he may have wanted a fresh start. He was very devastated from the divorce and wasn't over his second wife of 4 and a half years, Janine Larson, whom he had two kids with. And he even told her that he would return to Montana in a couple years, hoping that then she would be interested in being with him, maybe after he had a more secure job

and he could be a better provider for the family. After he arrived to Maine in June of 1987, he would call his ex-wife Janine weekly and tell her that he was building toward their future together and he even hinted that he wanted to get back together with her soon. However, just weeks after arriving, he placed his first newspaper ad, looking for his next wife. And after meeting Kathy, he told Jeanine that he was going to make a home in Maine now,

and then he stopped contacting her. The morning after Kathy and Dennis's wedding, on Monday, September 21, 1987, Dennis took them to see a man named Timothy Callahan, who was a sales representative for all-state insurance in the Bangor's Mall in Maine. There they purchased a universal life insurance policy, totaling to $300,000 worth of coverage for him and $200,000 worth of coverage for Kathy. But with a double indemnity, if one of them died accidentally, and double indemnity means that if the death is an accident, you know, I.e. a car accident, etc. Versus something health-related like a disease of sorts, then the life insurance policy is worth two times the face value.

So, for example, if Kathy died in an accidental death, Dennis would receive about $400,000, whereas if Dennis died in an accidental death, Kathy would receive about $600,000. The couple named each other as the primary beneficiaries and they even prepaid the policies for two months, meaning they both recovered until at least November, and then they would pay monthly.

But after about three weeks of marriage, Dennis decided that he wanted to reduce the face amount of both policies, and he scheduled a meeting to do so for Monday, October 12, 1987. But three days before that, on Friday, October 9, Dennis made a plan with his new wife to go on a hike the following day. And Kathy wasn't a big outdoors person at all, but she knew her husband was and she just wanted to make him happy. But she had a big fear of both heights and water, so she called her mom that day, which was Friday, explaining her hesitation to go on this hike.

It would be at Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine, which is about a two hour drive from their home in Dexter, so it was going to be a bit of a trip out there. But again, she wanted to make her husband happy, especially since he loved being outdoors. And that kind of give and take is just a part of marriage, so she agreed to go with him. So the following day, Kathy and Dennis headed out to the National Park, as well as beautiful otter cliff.

But it being Saturday, it was extremely busy and crowded, so they headed all the way back home and agreed to go the following day around sunset. That night after they returned, Kathy spoke with a friend and said that she was depressed about her marriage, and that it wasn't as great as she'd hoped it would be. However, she also mentioned that it was at least better than being by herself, which is pretty sad. You know, she was very much rushed into this marriage.

She barely knows this guy, and she just wanted a companion, so she kinda just went along with it and figured he was good enough. Right, and she's still so young as well. Yeah, that's true. And I don't know if maybe it has something to do with that time, and she did live in a pretty small town. So maybe she didn't meet very many men.

But it's sad that she's feeling this way. So soon into the marriage. Yeah. So she expressed to this friend as well, you know, her disinterest and going back to the National Park the following day. But she's still agreed to do this for Dennis. The next day, the couple headed out to the Acadia National Park once again and arrived at sunset. The sunset that day just before 6pm, and that's when they planned to do their stroll, when the crowds had completely calmed down, and the weather was cool and breezy. But it was also very wet and foggy, so it was a slightly dangerous time

to go so close to the cliffs, especially for those who are less experienced like Kathy was. Or someone who has a fear of heights. Exactly, and not long after they arrived, park rangers arrived to the Jordan Pond House in the Acadia National Park to report for duty at 7pm.

And when they got there, Dennis Larson was waiting to tell them that his wife had fallen off a cliff. The park rangers rushed over to the scene and called for backup where Dennis pointed out where his wife's body lay on the rocks about 80 feet below. The rangers first tried to descend the cliff with proper gear. pointed out where his wife's body lay on the rocks about 80 feet below. The Rangers first tried to descend the cliff with proper gear, also known as repelling, but they couldn't retrieve her that way, so they went over to her body by boat, and when they reached her, it was clear that 26-year-old Kathy Frost Larson was dead, and had likely died instantaneously.

So within just three weeks of marriage, Dennis Larson was already a widow. He explained that they were hiking and looking for otters in the sea when Dennis said he suddenly heard his wife scream, and when he went to look for her, he said he didn't see her anywhere. Until he decided to peer over the cliff's edge, where he spotted her laying on a rock down below. Panicked, he ran down to the road to flag down a car and explained what had happened. Then he headed to the Jordan Pond House to contact park rangers directly. And while officials took Kathy's body in for a proper examination, Dennis spent the

evening at the Eagles' lodge in Ellsworth, which is about 35 minutes from the park, so he would remain close by. Dennis was picked up the following morning by police at 9.45am after a report went out that he was seen walking in the woods by the water with no shoes on. And of course, they didn't say Dennis was, they just said a man was, and they found Dennis and they took him in and then he left. Then a couple hours later, the local sheriff's office received another report that there was a man carrying a bag

and walking without shoes in a town over called Sullivan. When police found him, he seemed disoriented, and he explained to them that his wife was the one who died at Ottercliffe the night before, and that he had taken a lot of sleeping pills and drank two beers to help him sleep. Four days after her death on Thursday, October 15, 1987, a memorial was held for her at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Dexter at 10am, where she was buried. Dennis attended, of course, and shortly afterwards, he was admitted to the Veterans Administration Center and Hospital, because once again, he wasn't doing well.

He seemed very devastated by his wife's death, and people worried about his health, so he was given another evaluation by a doctor and was then released. As the medical examiner reviewed Kathy's body along with the details of her death, they felt very suspicious of Dennis. It was strange that there were absolutely no witnesses to this fall, and having learned of Kathy's fear of heights, it didn't seem likely that she would be close enough to fall off on her own. An investigation began just one day after Kathy's death, and detectives interviewed Dennis many times, and some meetings were actually requested by Dennis himself. In an interview, Dennis insisted that he and Kathy had for whatever reason gone their

separate ways while searching for otters and that she must have slipped on the rocks and fallen over the edge. But that he had nothing to do with it. At this time, Dennis was renting a room in East Millenockeid where he worked when the owner of the house found something troubling. On the evening of November 3rd, so about three weeks after Kathy's death, at around 11 p.m.,

David McAddom was cleaning out his garage when he found six sticks of dynamite. He immediately took the dynamite to police and explained that the only person who could have put it there was Dennis Larson, the man he was renting a room to. And Dennis wasn't home at the time, and the following morning, Dennis left a note for David, saying that he was heading back to Montana, and he was sorry if the house wasn't the

way it should be. David McAdams described Dennis as a quiet fellow, and police worried that he was going to blow up the airplane that he was headed out on. So they stopped him at the airport before he could get on the 220pm Delta flight from Bangor, Maine back to Montana. Dennis offered to open the luggage he had and show them that he didn't have any bombs, but they worried that by doing that, the bombs he may have had would detonate right there at the airport. The Bangor Police Department's bomb squad used one of their own devices to destroy his luggage, believing that maybe a pipe bomb was inside.

And after a big boom and flash filled the area in the airport, they sifted through the remains to find mostly tools and clothes that were now in pieces and no bomb. Dennis carried on to Montana, and on November 12th, so one month and one day since Kathy's death, Dennis returned to Montana and called his sales rep at Allstate to begin the process of receiving Kathy's life insurance policy. Just under four months after Kathy's death, Detective Jeff Harmon, strapped with a wire, flew to Montana to talk to Dennis once again about that fateful night in October. Previously, Dennis had told investigators that, before Kathy died, he cancelled the life insurance policy. But as we know, he had a meeting the day after she died about lowering the life insurance policy. So him telling

investigators this was definitely a lie, and they found this out when they spoke with the All-State rep. So this only made Dennis look even more suspicious to investigators who wanted to get to the bottom of what really happened to Kathy. And during Detective Harmon's February of 1988 interview with Dennis, he pressured him on this and he even presented a piece of evidence that could point to Dennis' guilt. The Medical Examiner's report stating that Kathy had bruises on her arms that were not consistent with her other injuries. And with that, Dennis admitted that he hadn't been completely truthful in previous interviews.

And that during he and Kathy's hike at Otter Cliff, they had gotten into an argument about their marriage, and that Kathy had shoved him a bit with his back to the trail, not the cliff, and said, I don't love you anyway. Dennis went on to explain, quote, and it pissed me off enough to where I gave her a push. We weren't all that close to the cliff, but I pushed her hard enough to where she stumbled backwards and went off and scraped her belly and fell over the cliff. With that, Dennis Larson was immediately arrested for the murder of his wife Kathy. And I mean, Dennis had said some really sketchy things during this interview.

For example, the investigator asked him if he was telling the truth, and Dennis very non-chalantly said, Yeah, it fits. To which the detective said, I didn't ask if it fits, I want to know if it's the truth. And Dennis said, Now it's the truth. Wow, this guy is blatantly being an asshole.

It comes off very like condescending cookie. Yeah, very cocky, that's the word I was looking for. It's almost like he knows what he did and he's just playing with the investigator. Like to say, yeah, if it's, why would you say that say that yeah that's like not what you say so that's how he comes across and that's how he was coming across in this interview while he's saying oh yeah you know she said she didn't love me she pushed me so then I pushed her and then you know we weren't super close to the cliff but I pushed her hard enough to where she stumbled and still fell off said

cliff it just doesn't make a lot of sense. Right. He's trying to put this in the accident category and it's like, no dude. Exactly. And before we get into all the court details, let's talk more about Dennis, because there's some interesting backstory here. Dennis Larson, Hells for Montana, and by the time he was 24 years old in 1975, he married his first wife, a young woman about four years his junior, named Leslie Gail Reynolds. Leslie was born on September 25, 1954 in Montana to parents Lois and William Reynolds, and she had three other sisters, Shelley, Annette, and Susan. Leslie graduated from CM Russell High School in Great Falls, Montana in 1972, and she was

working towards becoming a dental assistant. Before she married Dennis, she started working for a dental office, and she was excited about her future in the business. On June 10th 1975, when Dennis was 24 and Leslie again was 20, they headed out to pick mushrooms at Little Prickly Pear Creek in Montana together. That day, Dennis sped over to a local gas station and noticed a Montana Highway Patrol officer who he gave a terrifying story to. That his wife had fallen into the creek and drowned. The officer sped back over to the area with Dennis in hopes of finding her, but she wasn't

there. Dennis explained how it all happened. That after she fell, he jumped into the creek to try and find her and save her, and that the water was up to his chest, so he was worried that the creek was going to take him under two, so he got out. But the weird thing that the officer noticed was that Dennis wasn't wet at all. And this is supposedly, like right after it happened and a sped over to the gas station for help, so not nearly enough time to dry off.

Yeah, so this officer calls for backup and they start going down the river looking for Leslie, hoping her body may have gotten caught on one of the many log jams in the creek, but she was nowhere to be found. And this didn't make sense to them at all because the creek wasn't very deep at all, and when the officer looked at the area in which Dennis said his wife had fallen in, he only noticed one set of footprints, and they belonged to Dennis. Leslie's parents were informed of the situation and were completely distraught by the news. They didn't live in the immediate area, so they came over the following day in hopes of getting more information on what had happened to their daughter.

Since her body wasn't found, it was chalked up to an accident, but Dan, the original patrol officer at the scene, just did not believe that she had died in the creek that day. So he teamed up with Leslie's parents in hopes of continuing the search for her. But despite their joint search of every aspect of that river, nothing was uncovered, not even after inspecting the wildlife. I just gotta say first how weird it is that they chucked, they essentially said, okay, so she died accidentally just because that's what Dennis is saying

But if there's no body then how can you even prove that she's dead? You know what I mean like at that point just mark her as missing. I don't know if I don't know why they would say she was dead Per an accident. Right. That doesn't make sense to me either. She should have been labeled a missing person especially because Right, that doesn't make sense to me either. She should have been labeled a missing person. Especially because there's no proof whatsoever that she was there that day. They didn't find her shoe. They didn't find like there was nothing. Yeah, her footprints were not there. Like it just doesn't make any sense. There's no evidence of anything happening to her. So I don't I don't know why they did this. Maybe small town situation. I'm not really sure.

And even Dan stated that if there was a body out there, the black bears probably would have found it and dug it out and taken it with them. And Dan, who again is the highway patrol officer, watched these black bears so well and inspected their areas and was never able to find a single trace of a body. So to him, that meant there was never one there, and he thought Dan knew much more than he was leading on. And it's really sad because Leslie's parents went out to that creek every weekend for years, looking for their daughter with metal detectors, shovels, cadaver dogs, all that stuff. And because of their lack of findings, Leslie's parents, Lois and Bill, believed that Dennis

had killed her. They just couldn't prove it. I mean, I feel so horrible for Leslie's parents. I mean, I can't even imagine spending each and every weekend looking for your daughter. But again that's why I'm like if even the highway patrol officer that came on to the scene doesn't think she's dead or think she's dead but doesn't think she died accidentally, who ruled this in accidental death? Yeah, that's my question.

Well, Lois remembered that Dennis' family owned mining land, and she started to wonder if he had put her daughter's body out there. Officials spent hundreds of days digging through three different mines on the property and looking for Leslie Reynolds-Larson, but still, they didn't find her anywhere. So her case went cold and Dennis collected on her life insurance policy, which just like Kathy's had a double indemnity clause on it, meaning Dennis collected over $20,000 in Leslie's supposed accidental death. Dennis remained in Montana and eight years later at the age of 32, he married a woman

named Janine, who we talked about earlier. Over the course of their four and a half year marriage, they had two children together and Dennis really struggled to hold down a job. Yeah, I mean, Janine stated that the decline of their relationship was directly correlated with his employment schedule and sometimes lack thereof. There would be long periods of time when he couldn't find work as an electrician, and she struggled a lot taking care of their kids and operating their rental property business. Dennis often traveled to Minnesota and Utah to find better electrician work, meaning

that he would be gone for a lot of amounts of time, leaving his wife alone with her children and the business once again. She stated that she just wished he would stay in Great Falls, Montana, and accept a steady and lower-paying job. But he refused to do this, and he would only accept jobs that paid him a certain amount, which should work extremely few and far between. So Janine had finally reached a point in the spring of 1987 where she wanted a divorce. And in May of 1987, it went through and she was awarded their home and residency for their two kids. That's when Dennis told her that he would be moving to Maine and that he'd be back in

two years to hopefully remarry her. But she was not interested. And I find this weird anyway, like, like this is just a weird plan. I'm gonna move away and hopefully better myself and then I'll be back in two years to like, meet up with you again. It's really, like just figure it out right now. Like, why do you have to go away?

Just go get a job. And clearly, she's not really interested. So she was not at all. She was like, I want nothing to do with you. I've had enough. And Jeanine actually explained all of this in court in May of 1989. Jeanine, who at this point was living in Minneapolis

with her new husband, also told the court that Dennis had a big insurance policy on her during their marriage. And she too had a double indemnity clause. And by the way, here's a small clip from before the court proceedings. Here's kind of what he said in an interview regarding Kathy's death. to see a wild otter that I'd never seen before. So we went to Otter Cliff's and the details of the death, I feel, should be brought out in court and shouldn't be brought out at this time, but there was no murder in the whole.

So he's really not taking the blame here. He's not admitting to murder. He just admitted to pushing her and then her kind of falling off on her own. Right, and that's why he pleaded not guilty to Kathy's murder. During court, a man named Richard Balazar, who was previously friends with Dennis, told the court that in the early 1980s, Dennis had told him during a hunting trip that he wanted to marry a foreign woman, purchase

life insurance for her, arrange an accidental death, and then collect the proceeds. Which is so crazy that his friend was able to come forward and give this information because as we know, I mean, he had these double indemnity clauses on life insurance for all three of his wives. And also, he said this earlier to me, but I mean, come on, when he was 24, he had a life insurance policy with his brand new wife, and then she accidentally died. So that was the first huge red flag.

I mean, who maybe people do that if you did that out there in a non suspicious way, no judgment, but to me, it's kind of odd that these kids essentially are putting their life insurance policies together right after getting married. I mean, do people do that? I mean, it seems a little strange to me. It seems a little rushed. I feel like a lot of people wait until there are a few years into their marriage to do anything

like this. But this also really reminds me of two different cases that we've covered, one on our Patreon and one regular episode. The first one was the Harold Henthorne episode. Yes, definitely a lot of parallels. But also the Bob Duke episode in Wyoming, where he actually pushed his wife off a cliff and had told a friend beforehand that he was going to do so.

Yes, totally. And obviously with his friend, Richard, he probably didn't think that Dennis Larson was actually going to follow through with that plan, but maybe it was just a silly thing he said while they were hunting. Right, and that was the same scenario that happened with Bob Duke. So anyway, back to the court proceedings. So between Dennis's somewhat confession to Detective Harmon, the medical examiner's reports, the testimonies from his friend, the strange and consistent life insurance policy motive,

and the suspicions involving his first wife, Leslie's supposed accidental death, 39-year-old Dennis Larson waived his right to a jury trial, and after eight days in court, a judge found Dennis Larson was guilty of the intentional murder of Kathy Frost Larson, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Although Kathy's mother Audrey wasn't happy that he didn't get life, she was glad that it was at least a high number of years. This would mean that if he lived long enough, Dennis would get out at the age of almost 90. And obviously there's a lot of details that make Dennis look guilty, but even just based on him making the, yeah, if it's

and now it's the truth statements that we discussed earlier and just him clearly being a killer, it's just annoying that Dennis didn't come forward and say what happened. And I don't really doubt that Kathy said that she didn't love him anyway because she had complained to her friend the night before on the phone that she didn't like her marriage. So I feel she probably did, at least kind of regret marrying him, and they did, possibly get into an argument. I think it's clear anyway though that Dennis was going to kill her on the hike because we have to remember that they did that entire two hour drive and 90 mile drive each way just one day earlier.

But Dennis didn't like how busy it was. Yeah, too many witnesses. Yeah, you can only assume that he didn't like how busy it was because he didn't want anybody to see him pushing Kathy off a cliff. So there's no way in my mind that he just shoved her because she shoved him first and angered him, you know, and she just happened to fall off the cliff. So I just wish we had the real story, even though it is pretty obvious what the real story

is. Yeah, to me, I think this guy's a pre-planter. I think he planned out the opportunity. He knew that the next day would be a lot better for him to push Kathy. It wasn't some in the moment thing. This guy did it with his first wife and he did it with his third wife. So even though Kathy's case was somewhat closed since Dennis never really admitted fault, Justice still needed to be served for Leslie Reynolds Larson.

When Lois Reynolds learned of Kathy's case, she felt even more confident that Dennis was behind their daughter's death, so she called the local police, hoping that they could look into Leslie's case again. New investigators looked into her case and agreed that Dennis had more than likely killed her, but after a continued search for her remains, they once again found nothing. Over 10 years later in September of 2000, one of the investigators sat down with Dennis Larson once again to see if they could get any answers from him.

Hoping to strike an emotional cord, the investigator explained to Dennis that Lois Reynolds was getting very old and she didn't wanna die before knowing what really happened to Leslie. And all Dennis said was that she had fallen in the creek and he was sure that she would surface one day. And by the way, sadly, Bill Reynolds died at the age of 62, actually about five months

before Kathy died, so he never learned about her, death, or anything regarding the trial or anything that's to come. But three hours later, Dennis called the detective saying he wanted to talk now. So they sat down together and Dennis explained that for his crime in Montana, he wanted no more than 30 years in prison and for that sentencing to run consecutively. He basically tried to make a deal and say that if he could get out of prison when he was around 80, he would tell everything. And investigators of course were very hesitant to make a deal with him, knowing how dangerous

he was, but Dennis kept talking. He said quote, I found a spot along the creek that there was a large tree that had fallen down into the creek and the water was rising up pretty bad. And I pushed her in at that point. And she got tangled up in the limbs and couldn't come up for air because the stream was rushing too quick. And she drowned right there.

Police and Leslie's family felt that this was justice for her in some way, because even though he didn't explain where the body was, they at least knew that he had killed her, and he was charged with her murder at this time as well. Just a few months after this confession, on Sunday, December 31, 2001, 50-year-old Dennis Larson jumped to his death from a third-floor craft room window in prison at 8.05 pm. He had duct tape across his mouth that said, Geronimo written across it, and a clothespin clipped to his nose. And there were two notes left from him, one asking for his personal belongings to be donated to an Auburn Church, and another letter complaining about prison staff. Dennis' body was found

at the bottom of the prison's rock quarry, and he was immediately pronounced dead. So, looks like you're not getting out of prison, buddy. I think it's really interesting that, well, first of all, I'm sure most people know this, but for the percentage of people who don't because I don't like to assume that everybody knows everything. Joronimo is a word that is very often associated with jumping so I mean I don't know why he wrote that on his mouth but he did and I think it's interesting that he jumped to his death. You know Kathy was pushed to her death and then supposedly so was Leslie, it's kind of creepy. Yeah, very, very weird. This guy has some obsession

with like falling from heights, I guess. I don't know. Yes, it's very bizarre. But I wonder what the the clothespin on his nose was for. I really don't understand that. I don't know. I don't know. Like there was a water beneath him. Right. And also the courtyard. Exactly. And also the courtyard. Exactly. And also the Geronimo thing. It's like, were you making a statement? Like, we're like a joke. Like, I don't know.

It's very, very bizarre. And in other news, over six years after Dennis took his life in 2007, bones were discovered on Dennis Larson's old, great falls Montana property. New owners were renovating when they found bones underneath the bathroom floor. So first the couple took photos of the bones and sent them to the police, and then the bones were sent to a Montana State Crime Lab to determine if they were human or, you know, animal bones, and to see if they possibly belong to Dennis' first wife, Leslie Reynolds.

If they were her remains, this would mean that Dennis lied to police back in 2000 about how he killed Leslie. Because it doesn't really make sense for her to have... him to have pushed her into the creek anyway because they never found her, so I don't even believe that to be true anyway. And weirdly enough, the owners and their children had apparently been seeing a female spirit ever since they had moved in and not too long before the bones were found. They described her as a translucent woman in a white dress with a rose print on it, who would often appear in the hallway

between the living room and the kitchen right near where the bathroom was. And they would also apparently sometimes see her outside. They also explained other bizarre happenings in the home, from a carbon monoxide poisoning to a mice problem to two miscarriages in one premature baby dying. So obviously this family felt that their house was cursed, so after finding the bones, they decided to move. They were just completely terrified. So Dorine, one of the homeowners, had said that she believed to have pulled up teeth in an arm bone, but that she didn't know what the other stuff she had pulled out was.

She and her husband believed the bones to be human, but it's up to the lab to determine that. They had decided to pull up the bathroom floor after smelling what they had thought was decaying wood. But weirdly enough, there are absolutely no updates on this, like not online, not in any newspapers I searched on newspapers.com with every little keyword, I was not able to find a single mention of this after 2011. And in 2011, the news had just reposted the 2007 article with no updates at all. So I can't imagine it would

take over 14 years to finally test the bones and figure this out, but I'm not an expert. And as we stated, Bill Reynolds died in 1987, but lowest didn't pass until 2015 at the age of 88. So if those bones were lesslies, she technically could have learned that before she died. It just doesn't seem like they even determined that even now. Like I don't think they know that or they haven't released it. I don't know why they wouldn't release that. Yeah, it's a little weird that they wouldn't at least give some sort of update. I don't know if maybe this was just so small of a situation or a case that they just didn't put it in the newspaper. I don't know. Well, that's what

I would think, but then why even put in the newspaper that bones were found in the house if you're not gonna like update at least the local community, you know, I don't know. True. But I mean, it's clear that somehow, 20-year-old Leslie Reynolds fell victim to Dennis Larson just as Kathy Frost had.

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 next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I think it's really strange that there were bones found underneath that bathroom floor. And I wonder if, you know, if in fact they weren't Leslie's

if this was another victim of Dennis Larson. That or I mean, obviously they could be animal bones, but just the fact that the homeowner had found teeth and said that they appeared human kind of says a lot to me, but I don't know. Yeah, and if we get any more information on this, we will definitely let you guys know. Yeah, and if you happen to live in that area in Montana and you heard word of what happened and it just wasn't reported, please let us know, because we would be very interested to learn if they were less leaves. And I'm sure you guys would too.

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