Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 127. Camping Horror Stories // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

A young girl vanishes without a trace in the Alaskan wilderness. A camper loses 10.5 hours on his camping trip with no memory of what occurred in that time. And a young couple goes to a secluded part of a camp site, only to run into someone they’re not expecting.  Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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are provided by Cash App's bank partners. Prepaid debit card issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC. There's a phrase that echoes in the minds of anyone who's spent time in the wilderness. Leave no trace. It's a gentle reminder to respect nature, to not leave behind any trash, gear, or any other marks of your passing. You enter quietly, you tread lightly, and then you disappear without disturbing a thing. But this simple advice can also be haunting, because sometimes people go into the forest and then vanish without any trace at all. No footprints in the mud, no gear left behind showing they were ever there. Just empty silence and a lingering question.

How does someone just disappear? In the summer of 1998, Johnny Renee White, who went by Renee, was at a crossroads. She was 16 years old, she had just dropped out of high school and she was looking for work. Renee had brown hair that she wore, short or buzzed, and she had a tattoo on her stomach. But despite her tough exterior, she was a genuinely optimistic person.

She kept these journals that spoke about how excited she was to start her future, especially with her boyfriend, how they were going to save money to buy a house one day. That summer, she was living with her mother on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Kodiak Island is a rugged place. It's lush and it's green, but it's very remote, dominated by mountains that plunge into the sea and endless stretches of dense spruce forests. On clear summer days,

the ocean surface sparkles brilliantly under the sun. But when fog rolls in, as it frequently does, it blankets everything in a deep, soft gray. By July, Renee had finally caught a small break in her search for work. She got a call from a 30 year old woman named Sharon Dawson Rake Coglow. Sharon had a four year old daughter

who Renee had watched before, and she wanted to know if she'd like to watch her again for a short camping trip. Sharon planned to attend the Kodiak Music Festival. Knowing that she would be drinking and unable to drive, Sharon asked Renee to watch her daughter and serve as a designated driver. The arrangement was pretty straightforward.

Renee would spend the evening with the child at Passag Shack Bay State Recreation Site, this beautiful area about 40 miles from her home while she enjoyed the music festival. And then they'd all travel home together. Renee jumped at this opportunity. It was easy money. One night of camping and driving around some tipsy adults,

sign me up, she thought. That evening, Sharon came and picked her up. But when Renee popped the door open, she was met with the face of a stranger. Sharon was sitting in the passenger seat and driving was a man that Renee hadn't seen before. His name was Roland Scott Tennyson, and he was Sharon's new boyfriend. He didn't say much as Renee loaded her things into the car and buckled herself into the backseat next to Sharon's daughter.

And then, on that July 18th, the four of them drove deeper into the Alaskan wilderness towards the campsite. But only three of them would return. Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding. As always, I'm your host, Kayla Moore, and it is officially dark summer here. That's right. For the next eight weeks, we are covering all things dark summer. I'm talking vacations gone wrong, legends about the creepiest abandoned amusement parks around the world, cruise ship murder mysteries, and even terrifying camping stories like we're going to get into today. So whether you're loading up your boat for a sunny weekend on the lake or packing your

camping gear into the car, you're gonna have something to fuel your nightmares this summer. And if it's not summer where you are just yet, aka my listeners south of the equator, do not worry. We actually have some summary stories from those locations that take place in like January and February. So you can pretend it's summer wherever you are. And before we dive in, just a reminder that we have all new merch in our store, which I'm going to add a link in the description of this episode. If you want to show off your new merch, make sure you tag HeartSarsPounding on Instagram,

TikTok, wherever you post, and I'm going to try to repost some of them because I cannot wait to see the merch that you guys ordered. All right, for now, let's dive back into it. We're going to pack up the rogue detecting society camper and head deeper into the forest. Let's go.

This episode is brought to you by Kachava. Imagine you're camping in the boreal forest when all of a sudden you see a dark, shadowy figure in the distance. At first you think it's your friend coming back from the car, but then you realize it's far too big. And as the moon comes from behind the clouds, you see it clearly. The thick, hairy body, the sharp fangs, the bulging eyes, half man, half beast, the nantinak is coming your way.

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So stay sharp and fuel yourself with kachava. Go to kachava.com and use code HSP for 15% off your next order. That's Kachava. K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com. Code HSP for 15% off. Hey I'm Ben Stiller. And I'm Adam Scott. And we host a podcast called the Severance Podcast where we used to break down every episode of the TV show Severance. Severance isn't back just yet, but the podcast is. Each week we'll discuss the movies, TV shows, and ideas that influence the making of Severance. We're going to talk to the incredible artists who inspire us to do what we do. The Severance podcast returns Thursday, June 26th. Follow and

listen everywhere you get your podcasts. June 26th, follow and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Riley who was heading through the woods to visit her little old grandma. She had her hoodie up, headphones in, phone in hand, very Gen Z Little Red Riding Hood vibes. And she was running through the woods because she had gotten a strange text from her grandmother. It read, hello dear please come help me urgently. Just as Riley approached her grandma's door her phone buzzed again. Hello dear kindly send me $200 urgently please. Um what? Riley let herself inside the cottage in the woods

where she saw her grandma lying in bed, wearing big oversized sunglasses, a wig that looked like it came from a party store and texting aggressively. "'Hi, sweetie,' the figure said. "'So good to see you. "'You have cash app, right? "'I just need a tiny little transfer.'

Riley squinted. "'Since when do you know how to transfer money "'using an app?' So good to see you. You have Cash App, right? I just need a tiny little transfer. Riley squinted. Since when do you know how to transfer money using an app? Nevermind that dear, it's for vitamins. Yes, vitamins, very expensive. Here, just send it to the account I texted you. Riley opened Cash App. Maybe her grandma really did need vitamins for her health.

So she listened to her grandma and pressed send when suddenly before the payment went through, a warning popped up on her screen with a message reading, this might be a scam and make sure you're sending money to someone you know and trust. Riley froze. She looked at grandma who is now sweating through the wig. Grandma, what big teeth you have, she said slowly. And Grandma let out a nervous chuckle. Riley slowly backed away. I think we're done here.

She walked right out the door, still holding her phone and her money. And just as she did, she saw her real grandmother coming up the walkway, a basket of fresh bread and toe. Moments later, whatever was inside pretending to be her grandma, let out a screech and burst into a puff of glittery smoke. Moral of the story? Not everyone is who they say they are. But cash apps, scam alerts help you spot the red flags before it's too late.

No scam, no stress, no drama. With smart security features built in and real-time scam warnings, you can send money with confidence. Download Cash App today. That's protection. That's peace of mind. That's Cash App. The next day, a 911 call got placed to the local police. A woman who ended up being identified as Sharon

explained that she was camping after attending the Kodiak Music Festival, but when she awoke, the other people she was camping with were nowhere to be found, and she started to get a bad feeling. According to Sharon, the morning after the festival, she woke at the campsite

and saw that she was completely alone. Well, not completely alone. Her four-year-old daughter was with her, but Renee and her boyfriend, Roland, were nowhere to be found, and also the truck was gone. She waited to see if they would return, but a few hours passed and they didn't. With growing anxiety,

she called authorities to report them missing. Could someone come out and help her look for them? Not long after she hung up the phone though, a figure emerged from the trees. It was Roland, but he was also alone. Where's Renee? Sharon asked. But Roland just had this serious look on his face. He told her that the night before, just after midnight when Sharon was already asleep, he and Renee had driven off to collect firewood along the beach. They traveled roughly three or four miles east toward Narrow Cape, which was close to Kodiak Cattle Ranch.

Roland said that his truck became stuck in the sand. They weren't prepared for a chilly Alaskan night. Renee only had sandals on, a mid-ribbed t-shirt with a picture of the earth on it, and stretch pants. So they decided they would sleep inside the vehicle. Roland claimed he fell asleep around 4 a.m. And when he awoke at 10 the next morning, Renee had vanished.

By this point in the story, investigators arrived at the scene and he relayed it to them. He told them that after he woke up, he assumed that she had walked back to camp. But when he got to the campsite around noon, Sharon had already alerted the authorities and Renee was nowhere to be found. But the details of his story didn't entirely add up.

When police examined the scene Renee supposedly disappeared from, the first thing they noticed was there was no firewood in the truck. If they had been collecting firewood the night before, there wasn't anything to show for it. There were, however, traces of fire marks in the sand, like a fire had been lit,

but they never found the remains of an actual campfire. Authorities also found no drugs anywhere, there was no evidence of foul play or blood inside of the truck, and yet, Roland's account raised many questions, like why had he waited two hours after waking up to return and seek help? Search teams combed the vast inhospitable terrain around Pasagchek Bay and Narrow Cape.

The rugged landscape of Kodiak Island is notoriously unforgiving. There's these thick clusters of alder bushes and tangled spruce forests. The terrain quickly becomes disorienting, especially in bad weather. Searchers, dogs, helicopters, and coast guard vessels painstakingly examined miles of the beaches.

They looked over the rocky cliffs, all of the ravines, the scrub land, but nothing turned up. Not even a single footprint. There were no articles of clothing, not a shred of evidence indicating where the teen girl may have gone. And people familiar with Kodiak know the reality of being unprepared outdoors.

The island's nights are really cold, even in the summertime. Renee's sandals and light clothing were totally inadequate for the climate and the terrain. And actually, as the search stretched on, the lack of evidence made investigators question whether Renee had even made it to the beach at all. The complete absence of physical evidence seemed impossible if she had indeed walked back to the camp.

There would be at least one footprint of hers. When Renee's mother heard the news, she was completely devastated. But her grief quickly turned into suspicion. She also didn't believe Roland's story for a moment. In fact, she suspected that whatever happened to her daughter must have occurred back at the campsite and that the couple, both of them,

knew more than they were letting on. Her suspicions deepened when Sharon tried to apologize to her, but the apology was really cryptic and weird. She ended up saying, quote, "'I didn't mean for this to happen.' Didn't mean for what to happen exactly. No one would ever find out.'

Because the only two witnesses to Renee's disappearance have maintained their story this entire time. That Renee walked out of the car and vanished without a trace into the Alaskan wilderness just like thousands of others have. In Alaska there are 176 missing persons per 100,000 people. For reference, the average in America is 7.4 missing persons per 100,000 people. That's at least according to the World Population Review. Renee's mother would go on to seek legal recourse in the matter.

By 2000, after exhaustive searching had yielded nothing, Renee was declared legally dead. Her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against both Roland and Sharon, alleging Roland had likely harmed Renee while possibly intoxicated. But by that point, Roland was residing far away in Arkansas and he stayed quiet. He never once gave investigators any answers.

Ultimately, a judge did award Renee's mother $1.5 million in damages and found Sharon liable. But from my research, it doesn't really seem like any of that money was ever paid. Renee's disappearance remains an enigma. Was she really at Narrow Cape with Roland or had something sinister occurred at the campsite itself? The timeline given by Roland doesn't make any sense

for no footprints to be found near his truck when he insists she was there and must have walked off. It just doesn't add up. The lack of struggle, the absence of any physical evidence, and Roland's persistent silence all deepen the mystery. Sharon's young daughter had been present. Is it possible she saw something she couldn't articulate because she was too young? Could she have remembered anything helpful, anything vital at all at just four years old? To this day, authorities have found no physical evidence

tying anyone conclusively to Renee's disappearance. No one has been charged, leaving only speculation. But investigators still believe there may be a trace of her out there. A single scrap of clothing they missed, a footprint they overlooked. If you have any information on Renee's disappearance, you can still call

the Alaska State Troopers at 907-225-5118. Renee disappeared just south of what's known as the Alaska Triangle, a mysterious section of the Alaskan wilderness where very strange things are said to happen. Planes vanish out of thin air and so do people. We have a whole episode dedicated to the mysteries of this part of the world, which I'm gonna link in the description for those who haven't listened. But to be honest, mystical parts of the forest

are not unique to just Alaska. People have shared stories of unexplainable things happening in the woods for, well, centuries, which brings me to our next camping tale. It's actually a type of story that I've come across a lot while researching odd things that people have experienced while camping. And that just makes it all the more chilling,

that this is something that's maybe going on that people have no explanation for. This story comes from reddit user HealthySouths2610 and was posted in the Backwoods creepy subreddit two years ago. This happened many years ago when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I wouldn't describe the area I was in as Backwoods necessarily, but it was a wooded 100 acre ranch. The land is in the southwest part of the United States. My family owns the property

and we have family reunions every year and all stay for about five days to camp. There's an area of the ranch where we all set up camp and we cook and we eat. Getting to that part of the ranch requires driving through a small village and several gates for around two miles. The first gate beyond the village is slightly past

a set of railroad tracks. That's a lot of description, but it is relevant later in the story. Because I had been camping at the ranch for as long as I could remember and the land was private, my parents would allow me to go off on my own during the day as long as I didn't go too far. I would spend time walking the property

out near our camp area, looking for arrowheads or trying to catch tadpoles in the ponds. On this day, I left the large camp area after lunch, which was around 1130, and I told my mom I was going to a nearby creek. I planned on catching some tadpoles to bring back to camp and be back on time for a swimming trip that my cousins were planning. They wanted to go to this nearby river and I really didn't wanna miss it. I made it down to the creek and I got several tadpoles. I probably spent a total of 15 minutes down there.

To get back to camp, I would have needed to either climb up a relatively steep embankment with a lot of loose rocks or circle around on a longer route with a flat trail. Now, I would usually go up the embankment, but I didn't have a top for the water bottle that I caught the tadpoles with, and I didn't wanna risk slipping

and spilling them out or killing them. I had never walked the longer trail by myself, but I had with my dad, and I felt confident that I could find my way back to camp on it. As I walked back to camp, I had my head down looking for arrowheads in the washed out areas of the trail. I started feeling a little creeped out as I continued walking.

We all know that feeling, right? It's like someone's watching. It was unsettling, but I chalked it up to just getting spooked being on the trail by myself. Now, this next part, I can't explain whatsoever. It's as if a light switch was turned on or someone snapped their fingers and I came back to reality. Except when I came to, I wasn't on the trail I had been on before. I was near the railroad tracks and it was completely dark.

My mom was standing in front of me, shaking my shoulders and yelling, "'Where were you?' Two things I remember really clearly about the moment I came to are, one, the look of fear, anger, relief in my mom's tearful eyes as she was yelling at me, and two, the confusion I felt about what the hell was going on.

The last thing I remembered was walking on the trail back to camp. And now suddenly it was dark and I was standing on the railroad tracks leading to the ranch, which was over two miles away, mind you. The best way I can describe it is to compare it to the movie The Butterfly Effect. The main character would be living in one moment and then suddenly he'd wake up somewhere entirely different. My parents drove me back to camp and I learned that it was 10.30 p.m.

This meant I had been gone for 11 hours. About 10 and a half of which I can't account for to this day. My parents and all my family had understandably freaked the hell out when I hadn't returned to camp. They had been looking for me the entire day. I was a really good kid growing up and almost never broke any rules. So my parents were baffled at my behavior.

I tried to explain to them that I had no memory of getting to the tracks, but they didn't believe me. They thought maybe I got lost and was embarrassed to admit it. This was the only time I've ever experienced something like this. I can't explain how unsettling it is to not be able to account for all of those hours I was gone.

Was it coincidence that I had that creeped out feeling on the trail and then lost 10 and a half hours of my life? I wish I had answers for what happened. Has anyone else had anything similar happen? That last sentence was a call into the void to see if anyone else had experienced something as strange as they had, as if to prove to themselves

that they weren't losing their minds. And someone did reply. They said, quote, 31 years ago, a friend of mine and I went camping. We took an ATV, four gallons of water, some food, and a shotgun. We rode as far away from any civilization as we could. Closest house was maybe 10 miles away. There was no roads for about seven miles.

We were near the Tennessee River. It was fall. We set up a camp and we started a fire. We ate our food and were just hanging out. It got dark and there was nothing to do, so we scattered the wood and poured water all over the hot embers. There was nothing hot remaining after we poured out the water. We all got into our tent, I was the last one in.

I zipped it up and as soon as I sat on my sleeping bag, it immediately got bright. Like a strange bright light shining straight down on us. Within a couple of seconds, there were footsteps around the tent. I grabbed my shotgun, my young friend started crying, and I told him to stay calm. I'll protect him. That's the last thing we both remember. We both snapped up the next day around 11 a.m. We looked at each other, kind of freaked out. We asked what each other remembered and we couldn't remember anything.

So we packed up and neither of us has ever camped there again. No one believed us when we told them the story. And I've thought about that night every day for the last 31 years. It's always on my mind. The rest of the comment section is full of people sharing similar experiences or their own theories

as to why this happens. One poster mentioned once he lost a day and a half. He assumes he was sleeping, but he's also not quite sure how he could have slept that long. Someone in the thread suggests that this is all caused by dissociative fugue states, and they say that maybe the poster touched a toxic frog in the pond and it triggered a fugue state.

Another person suggests that there's actually portals to different dimensions in some forests out there, and people happen upon them all the time without knowing. The poster could have accidentally stumbled into one and traveled through time. It's the fay, someone says, or you were drugged by another traveler and didn't realize it. There's not one single explanation that everyone can agree on,

but people do agree that they have heard stories like this before and that each time it completely chills them to their core. I wish I had an answer for you about why this happens. I wish I knew if it were toxic frogs or a medical condition, but I don't. I just know that I see this kind of story a lot. And maybe that's a sign that I need to warn you.

But the next time you're out camping and you get the feeling of eyes on your back, pay close attention to your watch. More after a short break. This episode is brought to you by Green Chef. Oh, how we all love summer. The longer days, the sunshine, that fresh start feeling. You just feel your best.

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Head to greenchef.com slash 50hsppod and use code 50hsppod to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months with free shipping. That's code 50hsppod at greenchef.com slash 50hsppod. It's me, your brain. And I, your mouth. I act on logic. I act on taste.

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It won't take long to tell you Neutrals' ingredients. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Vodka, soda, natural flavors. So, what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Our final story is about how sometimes we go into nature for isolation, to get away

from all people and just recharge. But just when you think you're alone, something might be waiting for you. In August of 2004, Kathy Cutshall was at home in Fresno, Ohio when her landline started ringing. She had just had an eventful day mailing out invitations for her daughter, Lindsay's upcoming wedding. Lindsay was currently working at an outdoor adventure camp

in California with her fiance, Jason. And Kathy thought maybe it was Lindsay giving her a call, so she eagerly answered the phone. But the voice on the other end was much older and much too serious to be Lindsay. They told Kathy that they were calling from Lindsay's summer camp. She and Jason hadn't turned up to work that day

and the camp was concerned. Did Cathy have any idea where her daughter might be? But Cathy didn't. It wasn't like Lindsay to not show up for work. She was an incredibly reliable person. When was the last time they saw her? Cathy asked. Well, the camp explained.

Last week, she and Jason packed up some camping gear and were heading out on a weekend camping trip. The last time anyone at the camp saw them was when they were leaving. Something wasn't right and Kathy got a really sinking feeling. She relayed all of the information to her husband, Chris, and that night they packed their bags

and flew out to California. And then, just three days later, they got an update. On August 18th, 2004, a local resident was taking their routine morning walk along a stretch of Jenner Beach, an isolated stretch of coastline along California's Sonoma Coast, and a few hours' drive from where Lindsay and Jason worked.

When all of a sudden, a short distance ahead, they saw two dark colored blobs in the sand. At first, they looked like long misshapen rocks, but as they got closer, the rocks started to look like fabric. And that's when they realized that these were actually sleeping bags. Two people must have camped out here overnight.

The person started walking around them as if not to disturb the campers, but as they passed, they saw something that made their heart drop. There was dark crimson blood in the sand. Actually, not just in the sand, it was soaking through the sleeping bags and blooming out all around them. Without a second thought, the person ran into town to call

the authorities. And it didn't take officers long to identify the bodies as Lindsay and Jason. They were laying side by side and they had both been shot in the head. And the first question that popped into everyone's mind was, who could have possibly done this to the young couple? Lindsay and Jason had met at a Bible college in West Virginia and the relationship blossomed over their shared love of scripture and nature. They spent their summer guiding youth on rafting

and rock climbing adventures in the Sierra foothills, diligently saving money and planning their upcoming wedding. Seeking a romantic escape before returning to the Midwest for their wedding, they went on a spontaneous weekend getaway to the Jenner Beach area. And from what we know about their final days, it seemed like they were joyful and carefree.

Photographs that were later found on their camera show the couple grinning in front of San Francisco landmarks, buying souvenirs at Fisherman's Wharf and soaking up the really beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After sightseeing in San Francisco, Lindsay and Jason drove north along winding roads past wineries and these beautiful coastal towns. And that night they arrived in Jenner and they actually hoped to stay at the Jenner Inn. But when they got there, they found it was fully booked.

A woman at the front desk remembered speaking to the couple. It was either Friday or Saturday night. She didn't quite remember, but she could recall, they said that they would just camp on the secluded beach nearby. Now that area of the beach was actually off limits to campers and the woman almost spoke up to say something. But the young couple was already out the door.

That was the last time anyone saw them alive. After that they were discovered on the beach. And as authorities were assessing the scene, they started to realize just how grim it was. Both Lindsay and Jason had been shot execution style with a 45 caliber Marlin rifle. Though there was no sign of robbery or a struggle, which was a detail that really disturbed the detectives. From what they could tell,

it didn't even seem like they were awake when this took place. They probably didn't even see the face of the person who did this to them. Officers also noticed how far off the beaten path they actually were. The couple had found a really secluded spot off of the already isolated area.

It was tucked underneath some cliffs. How would someone have even found them? And that was really the most perplexing part in all of this. Nothing on the empty sandy beach indicated that another person had been there at all and there was no murder weapon to be found. No, it was like someone had materialized out of nowhere and attacked them. Initially, Lindsay's father wondered if the couple had maybe come upon someone who didn't like Christians. The couple was very devout and they were prone to bringing up their faith to strangers. What if they had crossed paths with someone who was triggered by them?

And at the same time, police were also racking their brains to try and figure out who could have possibly done this. And they remembered a case from 30 years prior that was eerily similar to this one. See, on June 21st, 1971, the bodies of a young couple, Anne Durant and Leif Carlson, were found on Vancouver Island in Canada. They had both been shot execution style, just how Lindsay and Jason were.

But the perpetrator of that crime was known. A woman had seen a man cleaning a.22 caliber rifle, the one used in the shooting, nearby the scene. She approached him and actually spoke to him, and he told her that he had just killed a couple that was camping. He said he didn't approve of their relationship because they were unmarried. But then the man vanished before police arrived. However, he left a Bible with some passages circled

as well as his ID at the scene, and his name was Joseph Henry Burgess, a draft dodger that wound up in Canada escaping the Vietnam War. Even though they had his name, police weren't actually able to locate him again after his ID was found, and it was believed that he probably escaped back to America.

But think about it, how similar the scene sounded, and he didn't approve of unwed couples. Could this man have also been responsible for the slaying of Lindsay and Jason? Well, the answer to that question wouldn't be so easy to uncover because for the next five years, Joseph's location would be unknown.

That is until 2009, when it was confirmed that he had been killed by police in a shootout in New Mexico. At that point, Joseph was one of the most high profile wanted criminals in Canada, and he was also known locally in New Mexico as the Cookie Bandit for a series of burglaries he had committed.

When Lindsay's dad heard the news of Joseph's death, it was very bittersweet for him. It didn't really provide any closure to his daughter's death. There wasn't any physical evidence tying Joseph to the scene, but he had to believe in his heart that if Joseph died and was guilty for the 2004 killing of Lindsay and Jason, that he would pay for his sins. But as the police started putting together more pieces of Joseph's life, they started to realize

that Joseph was probably in New Mexico committing burglaries in 2004, not in Northern California, where the young engaged couple was murdered. And that added another complicated piece to this puzzle because if it wasn't Joseph, then who was it? Well, the police just didn't know. They didn't have many other leads

that they could follow at that point. And so the case started to go cold and it went cold for the next 10 years until there was a surprising update in 2017. So in 2017, Sonoma County police in Northern California were investigating the murder of a man named Seamus Gallin. Seamus had been shot in his family home point blank during a family argument. The perpetrator was sitting there in front of the officers with a wide-eyed blank stare

that honestly chilled them to the bone. It was the victim's brother, Sean Gallin. Now, Sean was already known by law enforcement because he had a pretty troubled past. There was the animal cruelty, the odd behavior that frightened neighbors, and when they asked him why he did it, why he killed his brother. His answer was as terrifying as his detached stare. Sean said that the shooting stemmed from a grudge he carried from their childhood. Apparently, Sean had punched Seamus when they were very young

and Sean felt like Seamus never forgave him. He told the police, quote, "'If Seamus had just gotten over it, this would have never happened. Once in custody, Sean began to unravel completely. During hours of interrogation, his demeanor shifted between detached indifference surrounding his brother's murder to bursts of chilling candor. Investigators really pressed him because they started to get a feeling that there was maybe more to the story than Sean was telling them.

And it worked. Eventually, in the middle of their conversation, Sean made a terrifying confession. He told them that he was responsible for the brutal 2004 murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen on Jenner Beach. And after 13 years, detectives finally had a break. As Sean detailed the events that led up

to the murders, detectives really got insight into his very troubled mind. It was mostly shaped by a traumatic childhood. Sean had grown up pretty isolated in rural Sonoma County. He was partly homeschooled, he never completed high school, and he was described by acquaintances as withdrawn and eccentric from an early age. His family life was really strained and his parents were actually very concerned about him starting when he was a child.

His father, David, reportedly sought out help from social workers because he was so worried about Sean's increasingly erratic and violent behavior. But his mother, Susan, refused all outside intervention. She wanted to maintain this reclusive and insular family environment. Sean also had multiple psychological evaluations over the years that really painted him as

this deeply troubled person marked by paranoid delusions, antisocial behavior, and schizotypal personality disorder. It seems like he experienced hallucinations and he claimed to be haunted by voices and demons. He believes that this condition was triggered by a strong dose of LSD that he took in his 20s. The drug experience really disrupted his mental health and it halted all of his plans for a normal life and it plunged him deeper into isolation and instability

and Sean spiraled further going so far as to commit those acts of animal cruelty I brought up earlier and he accumulated tons of firearms and explosive materials at this time. During his confession, Sean recounted the night of the murders with the same chilling detachment he had when he was talking about his brother's murder.

It was August, 2004. He said he had been drinking heavily. He was driving along Highway 1 near Jenner Beach late at night, and he impulsively decided to head down to the secluded beach. Carrying a flashlight, he walked down a steep bluff and he spotted Lindsay and Jason sleeping peacefully in their sleeping bags. And that's when he returned to his vehicle, retrieved his rifle with a sawed-off barrel, and he went back to the beach. He described feeling a sudden impulse, an uncontrollable urge to kill.

Quietly approaching the couple, he raised his rifle, and without hesitation, he fired a single shot at Jason, which killed him instantly. He said Lindsay awoke from the noise and looked at Jason, but then Sean shot her too. The murders were totally random. They were completely impulsive. There was no argument. He hadn't even spoken to the couple. Sean then gathered the spent shell casings and contemplated removing the bullets from the victim's bodies just to cover his tracks. Ultimately, he decided against it.

Instead, he concealed the casings deep in a Blackberry thicket, 20 minutes driving distance from Jenner Beach. The casings were actually still there in 2017 when the police went to go confirm his story. In the aftermath of the murders, Sean was actually on the police's radar in connection to the crime.

Just days after, he was apprehended near the Blackberry Thicket because he was wearing camouflage gear and carrying a loaded gun that he had stolen. And apparently police were suspicious enough of him that they went to search his apartment. And there they found really, really disturbing signs of violence and instability. There was copious amounts of blood everywhere, dead animals and materials for bomb making. But even though all of that was found in his apartment, investigators found no direct evidence linking him

to the Jenner murders at the time. He was, however, arrested on an unrelated weapons charge six days after the murder. And from jail, he made a really crucial phone call to his father, David, and he instructed him to dispose of all of his guns, but he wouldn't tell him what for. David still complied, and he disposed of the weapons

in an attempt to protect his son from whatever he was running away from. At one point, though, authorities did show up on David's doorstep and asked him if he knew anything about the rifle that was used in the murders. Was it possible that Sean had one that matched? And David lied to the officers. But then he felt wracked by suspicion and guilt, so he ended up confronting his son a couple of times. He even showed him a police flyer that asked for information about the murder weapon used at Jenner Beach.

But Sean denied involvement every single time his dad asked, even though his dad remained suspicious. And tragically, the accumulated weight of suspicion and guilt became unbearable for David. And in 2013, nearly a decade after the Jenner murders, he took his own life. Sean later told detectives that he believed his father's suicide was at least in part driven

by the unbearable suspicion that Sean was responsible for the killings. He described it to detectives as the straw that broke the camel's back. Sean's confession finally brought closure to the Jenner community and the grieving families of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen. Yet the chilling nature of his detachment and remorselessness recounting the murders left investigators really disturbed.

Sean also consistently blamed his victims. He said that their decision to camp in an area where camping was technically prohibited made them somehow responsible for their own deaths. But that wasn't the case. Jason and Lindsay were two travelers planning their wedding who chose to sleep under the stars for a night. They didn't do anything wrong. And maybe that's why camping can feel so eerie

and unsettling at times. Because it's not necessarily about what you do right or wrong. Sometimes it's just about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes you don't know who is lurking just beyond the tree line or who else is coming on your camping trip unexpectedly. But what do you guys think? Do you guys have any plans to go camping this summer? Have you had any strange experiences

or terrifying encounters while camping? Please let me know wherever you listen, drop a comment, shoot me an email. There's a form on my website, hearthstartspounding.com. I love hearing your stories so much. And if you want more, I do have a terrifying camping story actually that didn't make it into this episode that I'm going to share with producer Matt on our after show called

footnotes, which is available to the high council tier on Patreon. Over the next few weeks, we're going to get even more into the dark side of summer. And I'm so eager for you to join me. Next week, we're actually boarding a cruise ship for a mystery that I seriously cannot get out of my mind. Until then, stay curious. Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe.

Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartstartspounding.com.