MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Camping Horror Stories Vol. IV

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Today’s podcast will feature 2 camping horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#2 -- "Pelican Valley" -- A beautiful camping spot with a dark secret (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/o-ywxRasv5s?feature=shared)#1 -- "Blood on the Mountain" -- A middle-aged fisherman cast his line out into the creek’s waters when he started to hear a voice from the woods. The hair on the man’s neck instantly stood up – because, to him, they didn’t sound friendly. (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/hn-sLWFe13w?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two camping horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Pelican Valley and it's about a very famous park that

holds a dark secret. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Blood on the Mountain and it's about two campers who stumbled upon a years-long mystery. But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button is asleep, go to their front yard and use gasoline to spell the words in their grass, I hate my neighbors, and then

go ahead and light that on fire. Okay, let's get into our first story called Pelican Valley. I'm Raaza Jaffrey and in the latest season of The Spy Who we open the file on Willy Carlin, the spy who sold peace to the IRA. When Carlin quit the British Army to return to Northern Ireland during the Troubles, he received an unusual job offer to spy on his own community. He would quickly find himself deep within the Irish Republican movement, having to choose between preserving his cover or his conscience. For 30 years, paramilitary groups from both sides murdered, maimed and bombed, while British intelligence waged a dirty war in the shadows.

Follow the Spy Who on the Wandery app or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can binge the full season of The Spy Who sold peace to the IRA early and ad free with Wandery Plus. I'm Alistair Ince. And I'm Colin Murray. And we are the hosts of Everything to Play For. And our next two-parter is all about the great Tanni Grey Thompson. 11 Paralympic golds,

six London marathons now, an important cross-bencher in the House of Lords. And what makes this two-parter different than anything we've recorded before, Alice. Finally, I get to discuss a Welsh athlete. My henwll adbann a ddian an oeil i mi. No, it's that Tanni Grey Thompson is in the studio. Yes, and there's that. All my medals are in a rucksack anyway. They're all kind of wrapped up. So if you came to a house, you wouldn't see...

A rucksack? Yeah, a rucksack. You don't want to stick them all out on the wall, do you? I mean, that'd look kind of wrapped up. So if you came to a house, you wouldn't see... Rucksack! Yeah, rucksack. You don't want to stick them all out on the wall, do you? I mean, that'd look a bit naff. Follow everything to play for on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge seasons early and ad-free right now on Wondry+. Pelican Valley is a beautiful remote section of backcountry in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Its meandering meadows and creeks and 360-degree view of the mountains make it appear like the perfect place to camp out under the stars. But unlike other areas of the park, Pelican Valley requires a special permit if you intend to stay the night. And before Yellowstone Park Rangers give you this permit, they remind you that Pelican Valley is a very dangerous place, and in general you should only be out there with groups of at least four people. On July 28th, 1984, be out there with groups of at least four people. On July 28th, 1984, 25-year-old Brigitte Fredenhagen, along with her brother Andreas and her sister-in-law Janko, arrived at Yellowstone National Park. That night, they stayed in one of the park's more established campgrounds called

Grant Village. The following day, they headed out to one of the park's famous hot springs called the Norris Geyser. That afternoon, before heading back to their campsite, they made a pit stop at the park ranger's office so Brigitte could apply for a Pelican Valley permit. Her plan was to spend the following night in the valley. When they went in the office, the rangers believed all three of them were applying for a permit and so they weren't asking that many questions. They were just kind of going through the routine. And then when Brigitte said, no, it's just going to be me applying for a permit, they actually immediately tried to dissuade her and said, this is a really bad idea.

Nobody goes into Pelican Valley on their own. But Brigitte assured them that she was an experienced camper. She understood the risks, and she still wanted to go on her own. And Andreas and Janko, who were standing behind her, kind of echoed that sentiment and said, no, she's really good. She knows what she's doing. The park Rangers were not thrilled with her plan, but they ultimately decided, you know what, if she wants to go, she

can go. They just asked her to show them on a map where she intended to camp. So if they needed to they could come and check on her and make sure she was okay. And so she pointed to a section on the map and they handed her her permit and then she along with Andreas and Janko left the office and headed back to their campsite.

The next morning, the trio got up early and they hopped in the car and drove to the Pelican Valley trailhead. They parked their car, they got out, and they began walking into Pelican Valley as a group. After a few miles, as planned, the group stopped, at which point Andreas told Brigitta that they were going to head back now and that they would meet her tomorrow at the trailhead where they parked the car. They said their goodbyes and then Andreas and Janko turned around and started walking back towards the car and Brigitte carried on into the wilderness. The following day Andreas and Janko arrived at the trailhead to meet Brigitte, but she didn't show up. And after a couple of hours they grew very concerned so they called park rangers

and asked them, you know, have you seen Brigitte? And they said no, but we'll go take a look. The area Brigitte had told Park Rangers she was going to be camping was inside of a densely forested area right next to a large meadow, which meant as Park Rangers came up to check on her, they would not actually be able to see her until they were practically right on top of her. So the Park Rangers made their way through the meadow and into the forest before they started yelling for Brigitte, but she didn't yell back and then at some point they reached the area where she had said she was camping and sure enough they found her tent. But it was a very odd scene. When they came up to the tent they could see there was a big tear in one

side. When they poked their heads down and looked inside, all of her belongings in the tent were undisturbed. There was a foam sleeping mat right in the middle, and then to the right of the mat was a flashlight that had been turned off. On the left side of the pad was a tape player with headphones that she must have been listening to before bed. It had been left on until the batteries ran out. At the foot of the pad was her backpack, inside of which were all of her clothes that had been neatly packed inside of ziplock bags to mask her scent. Also in the pack was a wilderness survival guide with a page flipped down that was a diagram of how to string your food up into the trees so no animals can get to it. The rangers looked around the back side of the tent about two meters away and they found her

sleeping bag perfectly flat on the ground as if it had been laid out to dry in the sun, but upon closer inspection they found it had two puncture marks dry in the sun, but upon closer inspection they found that it had two puncture marks, one that was up near the neck of the bag and the other that was near the torso, but there was no blood on the bag. At this point, rangers started to speculate that this could have been an animal attack, but they were confused at the general tidiness of the scene. Typically when an animal attacks a person, it looks like a bomb went off in the area where the attack occurred, and this campsite was very, very neat. As the rangers continued to walk around the campsite looking for clues and yelling out for Brigitte, they found a barely discernible drag tail a couple of meters away from the

sleeping bag that was leading west into the forest and up a hill. And so the rangers started following this trail, and they got about 20 meters away from the camp when they discovered Brigitte's cooler lying on the ground on its side and hill. And so the rangers started following this trail and they got about 20 meters away from the camp when they discovered Brigitte's cooler lying on the ground on its side and whatever food had been in there was now gone. There was some string laying next to it so it looked like it had been strung up in the trees but someone or something had gotten it down. From the cooler the rangers continue walking along this drag trail another 20 meters or so up a hill where they discover a woman's sweater on the ground that's been torn up and there's blood on

it. So at this point the Rangers get their rifles up and they keep walking another 40 meters up and over the hill down into this clearing in the woods where they find Brigitte or what was left of her. No one knows exactly what happened to Brigitte but the theory based on physical evidence is this. After setting up her campsite, Brigitte climbed inside of her tent, got inside of her sleeping bag, and then put her headphones on to listen to music. A little while later, a male grizzly bear discovered Brigitte's cooler strung up in the trees about 20 meters away. And apparently Brigitte did not string it high enough because the bear was able to reach up and pull it down. After the bear ate the food inside of the cooler, it was still hungry, so it began looking around

the area for more to eat. It's believed this bear was so accustomed to human traffic in the area that when he stumbled across Brigida's tent, he wasn't scared. In fact, he thought, there's food inside of there, there's people I can eat. So this bear quietly lumbers over to the side of the tent, it reaches up and cuts the nylon with its paw, then it puts its head inside and bites down on Brigida's skull and begins dragging her away. There was no sign of a struggle in or near the tent, indicating that Brigida was most likely asleep,

or maybe she just could not hear the bear because she still had her headphones in. She was dragged 80 meters by her skull to that clearing where she was consumed. An attack like this is exactly the reason why Pelican Bay is considered so dangerous, because it's full of grizzly bears. And even though grizzly attacks on humans are incredibly rare, most people do not understand just how horrific they are when they do occur. Grizzly bears don't really try to kill their prey before they eat them. Instead, they focus on pinning them down and then getting

them under their body weight so they can't go anywhere, at which point they can eat them at a leisurely pace. Some say grizzlies actually prefer to eat their prey while they're still living, which is why so often in grizzly attacks you see the arms and legs eaten first and then the head and torso. This is a method that keeps the victim alive a little bit longer. Unfortunately, there was so little left of Brigida that investigators could not pinpoint a time of death. However, because this bear broke normal behavior and intentionally targeted a human, there's a good chance he savored that meal. I'm Dan Snow, and on my podcast Dan Snow's History Hit, I transport you to somewhere a little more exciting. To the places where empires rose and fell.

Explorers made the discoveries of a lifetime. I take you to where history happened and tell you the story while I'm there. Check out Dan Snow's History Hit for in-depth series and storytelling that unravel the mysteries of the Inca at Machu Picchu, follow in the footsteps of Howard Carter to Tutankhamun's tomb, and hunt down Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica. Join me on Dan Snow's History Hit for historical adventures and escapism every week, wherever you get your podcasts. After Dark Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal is a podcast that delves into the dark side of history.

Expect murder and conspiracy, ghosts and witches. I'm Anthony Delaney. And I'm Maddie Pelling. We're historians and the hosts of After Dark from History Hit, where every Monday and Thursday we enter the shadows of the past. We set sail on Victorian ghost ships, learn the truth about the Knights Templar, and walk the grimy streets of Victorian London in search of a serial killer. Discover the secrets of the darker side of history twice a week, every week,

on After Dark from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. The next and final story of today's called Ricky Williams stood on the riverbank casting out his line into the waters of Dismal Creek in western Virginia. Ricky was hoping to get lucky and catch some trout, but he'd been out here fishing for 30 minutes so far and there were no bites. Normally Ricky wouldn't care because he loved just fishing for hours and hours at a time, but today he and his dog who was right with him were really hungry because they'd been out in these woods camping for several weeks now and their food

supply was finally dwindling down to the end, and so if they didn't catch any fish today they might not eat. Now for context, where Ricky was fishing, Dismal Creek, despite its bleak name, it was actually a beautiful secluded spot on top of a mountain that was on the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is a very famous 2200 mile long trail that runs up and down the East Coast of the United States. And why that is relevant is because there's this special code for people that hike on the Appalachian Trail. And the code, which all

hikers know, is basically if you come across another hiker on the Appalachian Trail, it is your responsibility to help them if they need help. And it is their responsibility to help you if you need help. So it's this community of hikers that are always looking to help each other. And so Ricky was very aware of this code on the Appalachian Trail and he was secretly hoping as he cast his line over and over again and didn't get any bites that a hiker or a group of hikers might come by this area and maybe they would see him and come down and learn that he needed food and they might just give him some of their food. But another half hour passed and no hikers came by and still Ricky could not catch any

fish. But then suddenly Ricky's dog who was right next to him began to whine and kind of began shifting around like it was sensing a predator in the area or something. But as Ricky was trying to calm his dog down, he began to hear a voice in the woods right behind him. Somebody was moving towards him. And when Ricky heard this voice, on the one hand, he was pretty excited because maybe this is a hiker who can give him some food. But on the other hand, Ricky couldn't help but feel really uneasy. Now, you need to understand that Ricky was an older guy. He was kind of frail, and over the past few weeks that he'd been camping with his dog, you know, as his food supply had

run down, he had become skinnier and skinnier and skinnier, and so he really did not pose any sort of threat to anybody. He's like this weak older man. Now, generally speaking, the Appalachian Trail was a very safe place, but over the last few decades, there had actually been several murders that took place on the Appalachian Trail. And in fact, one of those killings took place less than two miles away from where Ricky was fishing with his dog. And in that double homicide, a very well known killer named Randall Lee Smith had stabbed and shot to death two hikers. And so while Ricky was really looking for help from fellow hikers, at the same time

he couldn't help but feel somewhat apprehensive. Because again, Ricky was like this small frail guy, and Ricky was well aware of these murders, and he was well aware of the fact that he was super close to one of the murder sites. And so Ricky was totally on edge as he's listening to this male voice get closer and closer, and then finally this man in his early 30s steps out from the treeline and he looks over and he sees Ricky and for a second the two men just kind of look at each other but then this guy just grinned at Ricky and said hey how you doing and immediately Ricky felt relieved because he could tell just from looking at this guy

that very likely he was not a threat. The man introduced himself as Scott Johnston and he told Ricky he was actually camping in the area with a friend of his and they were out here fishing just like Ricky. And Ricky pretty much immediately said, oh great nice to meet you, do you have any food for me? And Scott was like absolutely and he dug into his bag that he had with him and he pulled out a couple energy bars and a bag of chips and he threw them over to Ricky and he also gave some fresh bait to Ricky so he too could cast out again. And for the next couple of hours Scott and Ricky just stood on the river bank and fished together and after a while the trout did start biting and they did start catching fish so the day kind of turned into a great outing for Ricky and it got even better because as soon

as the men were done fishing Scott asked Ricky if he wanted to join him and his friend back up at the campsite for dinner. And remember, Ricky had no food, so this was an amazing invitation, and he said, yes, of course, I'd love to join you. So the two men packed up their stuff right as the sun was going down, and then they began walking back into the forest where Scott had emerged from. And as they were walking, Scott's fishing pole got tangled on a low-hanging branch and he was really struggling to get it out of the tree and so finally he just told Ricky to you know go on ahead my campsite's right up there it's a straight shot just go up the hill and you'll see

it. Ricky asked Scott if he was sure and Scott said no it's totally fine go ahead. So Ricky said okay and he walked the rest of the way up the hill and then when he walked out of the tree line into the clearing where Scott's campsite was, immediately what Ricky noticed was this enormous man who was like twice the size of Scott and so four times the size of Ricky kind of hunched over the campfire. And this huge man who presumably was Scott's friend, he heard Ricky walk into the circle and remember it's nighttime and they're kind of in the middle of nowhere, and so this guy, he turns his head around and sees this strange man just standing there, and Scott's nowhere to be found, and so this guy, he grabs a club, like a piece of wood, and he looks at Ricky kind of menacingly, like, what are you doing here? And Ricky, who was so caught off guard by just how big this guy was,

he put his hands up and he said, I'm so sorry Scott set me up here. I don't know if this is the right site, I'm sorry. But just at that moment, Scott had finished untangling his fishing line and he came out of the tree line and he patted Ricky on the back and he said, oh, you've already met my friend, Sean. And as soon as he said that, Sean looked like he basically let his guard down. You know, he put the wood down

and he stopped glaring directly at Ricky. But Ricky felt like Sean was not happy that Ricky was in his campsite, even though clearly Scott is the reason that Ricky is in this campsite. And so Ricky just felt really uncomfortable and at the same time Scott is ushering Ricky closer to the campfire to take a seat next to Sean. You know Sean's a great cook, he'll cook up this fish for us, it's gonna be great, you know, take a seat. Ricky felt kind of annoyed that Scott was really forcing him to stay, but Ricky didn't want to be rude and just kind of abruptly leave, so he did take a seat next to Sean,

who definitely was not excited to be sitting next to Ricky, and Ricky just kind of sat there waiting to see what would happen next. And what happened next is Scott walked over to Sean and handed off all the fish that he and Ricky had caught so that Sean could begin to prepare them to cook them. And then as Ricky is still just sitting there right next to Sean, Scott walked away from the campfire up to his truck, which was parked right next to Sean's Jeep. And Scott turned on the radio and began blasting country music. And when Ricky heard this music, he kind of winced because to him, you know, part of the

reason the outdoors, the Appalachian Trail, you know, being out in nature, part of the reason it was so wonderful was for the peace and quiet. And so it felt kind of like borderline disrespectful to be out in the middle of this beautiful place blaring country music. And so to Ricky, he just couldn't help but feel like there's something off about these two guys. They just seem really disrespectful and kind of pushy and maybe aggressive and so Ricky is just not happy. But again, Ricky didn't say anything and didn't attempt to leave because again, he's really

hungry and so was his dog and he needs to eat that fish. A moment later, Scott walked back from the truck and took a seat next to Sean and then he along with Sean pulled out their knives and began deboning the fish. And as they were doing this, Ricky, again, is just kind of sitting there doing nothing. And so we kind of meagerly asked, you know, hey, can you give me a knife and I'll clean a fish? But Sean and Scott kind of waved him off and said, don't worry, we got this. And so Ricky just continued to sit there nervously as all he could watch was the flashing of the light bouncing off their blades. But eventually, Scott and Sean finished de-boning

all the fish and they put their knives away. And at that point, they began cooking the fish over the open flame. And suddenly for Ricky, it felt like, you know, the mood had shifted a little bit. At least now the two men were not fiddling around with weapons, you know, it felt kind of safe again. And so Ricky began making some small talk

in hopes that would kind of, you know, settle his nerves. And so Ricky told the two men about how much he loved the Appalachian Trail and how he came out here all the time for weeks at a time with his dog and Ricky would tell the men that, you know, sometimes he felt more at home out in the wild than he did at home. It was almost like being out in nature was a religious experience for Ricky. And he would even tell Sean and Scott that sometimes when he was out in nature he would meditate and pray and even do some chanting like part of a ritual. I mean he was really trying to

be in tune with Mother Nature. But as Ricky continued to tell Sean and Scott about his personal life he noticed the two men were definitely paying attention and kind of nodding along at appropriate points in the story but at at the same time, Ricky felt like these two men were also kind of looking at him like Ricky was kind of weird. As if they were not prepared to come out and say it, but after hearing all these things about his life, it was like, huh, what's going on with this guy? And so Ricky suddenly felt really embarrassed about being so open with these two guys, who once again just seemed like they don't quite like him or even really want him here. But luckily, right at that moment, the fish fish were done and so the men just sat there in silence and

wolfed down the food. By the time they finished, right about 8 p.m., it was very dark outside and Ricky at this point is just ready to go, you know, he just felt so uneasy here and so after putting down his plate and his silverware and saying thank you to Sean and Scott for their hospitality, he quickly got up and grabbed his dog and he began walking into the woods towards his campsite. But after Ricky and his dog had walked maybe 10 or 15 feet away from this campsite, two things happened in rapid succession. Number one, Ricky suddenly stopped and turned around and looked back at the campsite.

And number two, right as he did this, there was this enormous bang sound, like a small explosion that echoed through the forest. About 30 minutes later, and about four miles away from where Ricky and Sean and Scott had been, there were these two women who were in their house eating dinner when they heard the sudden frantic knocking on their front door. Now, these women live in a very isolated part of the country, and so the women were very concerned. One of them rushed over to the phone just to be ready to call the police, while the other very carefully made their way towards the front of the house, and they kind of peered out the window, but they couldn't see anything outside, it was too dark, and so they went to their door, which was still getting pounded on by whoever

was out there, and the woman, she unlocked the door, and she opened it just a crack, and what she saw nearly made her faint. There was a man standing on her porch, who was absolutely covered in blood, as if he had been fully submerged in a tank of blood. I mean, he is all red. And the man had his hand over his neck, and the woman who opened the door, she looked at him and she saw that there was this rhythmic pulsing of blood pumping out of his neck that was in time with his heart.

This man is clearly bleeding to death. And so the woman, she screamed for the other woman to please call 911, we have someone who's dying here. And so she began calling 911. And then the man on the porch just said, please help me. And then he said something about Dismal Creek, and then he collapsed. And this was so shocking for the woman who had opened the door that she just stood there staring having no idea what to do.

But then she happened to look up and she noticed there was a Jeep that was idling out on the road in front of her house that she hadn't even registered until now. And so either this guy got dropped off or he drove that Jeep. But before she could even begin to understand what had just happened, an ambulance and a whole bunch of police cars came screaming up and parked in front of her house. And then the medics got out, they rushed up and they grabbed the bleeding man and they put him in the ambulance and they rushed him off. Meanwhile, not far from the house,

police officers were speeding towards Dismal Creek because when the women called 911, they said, you know, this guy who's shown up on the porch, bleeding said something about Dismal Creek, but they had no idea what it was about. And so instead of trying to wait to figure out what was even going on, police had basically said, let's just go to Dismal Creek and look around and see if we can figure out, you know, why someone would leave that area and show up at this house covered in blood. But as the police were making their way up this winding mountain road, they saw a truck bombing down the road coming straight at them. And the truck, they initially hit their brakes and did kind of attempt to get out of the way of the police cars.

But after this truck had basically come to a stop, the driver of the truck just hit the gas all over again and they veered wildly off the side of the road into an embankment and they crashed and flipped several times and then came to a stop. And the police officers who had veered to the side of the road to avoid getting hit by this truck, you know, they just watched this happen and they couldn't understand why the driver had gunned it again after stopping and then seemingly intentionally drove off the road. It almost seemed like the driver was trying to crash. And so the police, they got out of their car and they approached the wrecked truck with their guns drawn.

But when they looked into the vehicle, they saw there was a single occupant, the driver, and he was still somehow alive. So the police got him out of the vehicle and they called an ambulance, but they actually sent an officer with the ambulance to escort them because the police were actually pretty suspicious of this truck driver. Because remember, they were going up that road to get to Dismal Creek to see what had happened there that would lead to another man showing up on somebody's doorstep in the middle of the night covered in blood.

And now they have this truck driver who looks like he's speeding away from Dismal Creek who crashes his truck. I mean there was no clear connection between the truck crash and the bloody guy, but the police were suspicious that they had to be connected. So they sent the officer to the hospital as well. About 30 minutes after the truck crash, the police left the scene and continued the rest of the way up the road to Dismal Creek. And once they got up there, the police fanned out all across the area and just began looking for anything, just any clue that might explain what the heck happened here if anything happened

at Dismal Creek at all. And pretty quickly, the police actually did find something unique. In the middle of the Dismal Creek area, they found a campsite. But it was not the campsite where Sean and Scott were staying, where Ricky had gone and shared dinner with them. This was a different campsite. And not long after searching this other campsite, police concluded that whoever was staying here did not seem like they were mentally well.

This seems like a mentally unstable and potentially dangerous person lives here. So the campsite was really simple. It was just a tent and a campfire. But when the police lifted up the flap and looked inside the tent, they found a collection of 30 knives along with a police scanner that basically picked up police radio chatter in the area so you could listen to a scanner and basically know what the police were doing in your area. There were also all these weird piles of clothing, some were for kids, some were for adults, some were for men, some were for women, there were piles of eyeglasses, and there were eight pairs of women's underwear. And then also there was a map of the Appalachian Trail inside of this tent, and all over this map along the trail were all these spots that were circled

But there was no information about what these circles meant however one of the places that was circled was dismal Creek and Then next to the map was a radio and inside the radio was a cassette and so the police just hit play and Immediately what they heard totally creeped them out because the tape sounded like some kind of satanic ritual it was basically this one man's voice just kind of howling and chanting over and over again but by far the most shocking thing that was found inside of that tent was a single piece of paper

and this piece of paper was a birth certificate and the name on the birth certificate was a name that basically all police in this area knew and in fact anybody living in or around the Appalachian Trail definitely would know this name. And the identity of this person, the name on the birth certificate, was the key to putting together all these seemingly disconnected events that had happened on this night. From the explosion when Ricky walked away from the fire, to the bloody man at the house, to the truck crash, they were all connected through this single person. A few hours earlier, after Ricky had gotten up and walked away from Sean and Scott's

campsite, and then after barely making it onto the trail, he had turned around and there was that loud explosion. Well, at that point in the story, Ricky, who's now looking back at the campsite and looking at Sean and Scott, he can see that the two of them, they've heard the sound too, and they were now staring at each other with looks of absolute shock and terror on their faces. But then Ricky watched as Sean reached up and touched his face, and he put his hand out in front of his face, and it was covered in red. And the reason for that was because Sean had just been shot in the face. Because that loud explosion was the sound of Ricky shooting his gun at Sean. And as

Sean and Scott stood there staring at each other in absolute disbelief, Ricky, who's still in the tree line, ran towards the fire and just kept on shooting. And so Sean at this point, as he sees Ricky coming into the campsite, he stands up and kind of staggers back and falls on the ground, but Scott, who's not hurt at this point, he just gets up and starts running away from the campsite, and Ricky turns his attention towards Scott, and he shoots at him, and he hits him straight in the neck and also in the back. But somehow Scott just kept on running despite these horrible wounds, and so Ricky watched as Scott disappeared into the woods, and then Ricky turned back to Sean, who's laying on the ground and can't go anywhere he's been shot in the face and

Ricky just casually raised his gun and shot Sean right in the chest. But amazingly Sean after getting shot the second time it created what must have been the most extreme adrenaline rush ever because he jumped up to his feet and right in front of his attacker he just turned and sprinted to his Jeep. He hopped inside, fired it up and just sped away as fast as he could. And when Sean flipped on his headlights and turned a corner after getting away from the campsite, he looked down the road and he actually saw his buddy Scott, who had run away first, come tumbling out of the woods onto the road. And so Sean, who's gravely injured you know

drives over next to Scott and he stops the Jeep long enough for Scott to climb inside and they shut the door and they speed their way towards the nearest help which happened to be that house where those two women lived and so it was Scott who looked like he was drenched in blood who knocked on the women's door. Sean was down in the Jeep out on the road, but he was just too weak to get out and come up to the door as well. But when the ambulance and police arrived, they would find not only Scott up on the porch, but also Sean in the Jeep, and both men would be taken to the hospital via helicopter. And then as for the man who was driving the truck down the road away from Dismal Creek, who then crashed right in front of the police, well, the driver of that truck was Ricky Williams.

However, that was not his real name. There was no Ricky Williams, that was the name he just used. His real name, which was on the birth certificate that police found in that other campsite inside of the tent, was Randall Lee Smith. The same infamous Randall Lee Smith who had murdered those two hikers not far from Dismal Creek. That double homicide had happened in 1981 and Randall was caught and convicted, but he was paroled 15 years later in 1996 for good behavior.

And for 10 years after that, Randall lived with his mother and he wore this electronic bracelet and you know, he followed the rules. But by 2008, his electronic bracelet had came off and even though Randall had attempted to continue living with his mother, it just wasn't tenable, he didn't have enough money, and so ultimately he packed up his things, grabbed his dog, and moved out onto the Appalachian Trail. And on May 6th, 2008, when Sean and Scott arrived in Dismal Creek to go fishing, Randall was waiting. Nobody has any idea why Randall murdered those two hikers back in 1981, or why he targeted Sean and Scott in 2008. All we know is that Randall Lee Smith was very mentally unwell and very likely viewed the Appalachian Trail as like his sacred place.

This is his home. This is the place he loves more than anything. And so maybe, you know, he felt like Sean and Scott had somehow disrespected the Appalachian Trail and that was enough to attack them. Now we know Sean and Scott did not do anything intentionally disrespectful to Randall because amazingly Sean and Scott survived this attack and they would say that when they saw Randall they just felt bad for him. They thought he was like this alcoholic drifter who didn't have a home of his own and so he was just living out in the woods on the Appalachian Trail and so they

didn't judge him. Instead they really did just want to give him some food and spend some time with them and make him feel human again that was it and because Randall appeared to be this kind of small older man Sean and Scott who were you know very big and imposing they didn't feel threatened by this guy as for that bizarre other campsite that police found up around Dismal Creek the one that contained all those knives and the birth certificate. Well, obviously that was Randall's campsite. And that weird cassette tape that they listened to that sounded like a satanic ritual,

that was Randall going through his meditations and chants that he would do when he was out in the middle of nowhere. It was like his way of respecting mother nature and the Appalachian Trail. And then all those items that were found inside of his tent, the different clothes and the eyeglasses and the women's underwear, it's believed those could be Randall's other victims.

However, when police pulled DNA samples from all of those items that were found inside of his tent, like the clothes and the underwear and the eyeglasses, well, those DNA samples did not match any of the missing people or murder victims in the police's database, and so that wasn't useful. And then also, police went to all those places on that map that were circled, and with the exception of obviously Dismal Creek, they didn't find anything else at the other locations that suggested any violent event had happened there. So only Randall knows the truth, which means we will never know the truth because just four days after Randall was pulled out of

that truck that he crashed, he died in police custody from a blood clot that formed as a result of the crash. And in those four days that Randall was in custody, he never gave up that there were any other victims. Today, Sean still has a bullet in his head and in his chest, and Scott still has big scarring on his neck and on his back. But both men have made a full recovery, relatively speaking, and they still go back to Dismal Creek all the time to go camping and fishing. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Bollin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts, not just this one, but also Mr. Bollin's

Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, and Runful. Just search for Bollin Studios on any podcast platform, and you'll find all of them. If you want to watch hundreds more Strange Dark and Mysterious stories, just head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin Podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com

slash survey. She struck him with her motor vehicle. She had been under the influence that she left him there. In January, 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

What happens next depends on who you ask. Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia. Or a corrupt police cover-up. If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover-up to prevent one of their own from going down.

Everyone had an opinion. And after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision. To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Law and Crime presents the most in-depth analysis to date of this sensational case in Karen. You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.