National Park After Dark - End of Watch: Mount Rainier National Park

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

*Please note, this episode includes descriptions of domestic violence and an active shooting* When an active shooter enters Mount Rainier National Park on New Years day 2012, National Park Law Enforcement Ranger Margaret Anderson would pay the ultimate sacrifice to keep the people and the place she loved the most, safe. If you or someone you know are experiencing PTSD or other trauma related symptoms and are in need of support, please visit National Center for PTSD . To find a community based counseling center near you, please visit Vet Centers. The VA Crisis Line can be reached 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence and are in need of support, please visit The Hotline . The National Domestic Violence Line can be reached 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233.You can check out Wild Lives HERE For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link.Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your first order.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code npad21 for 21 free meals plus free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.

I wish I had your job. If you've ever heard that and cringed, chances are people have a skewed idea of what you actually do. From kindergarten teachers playing with crafts and thumbing through picture books, to veterinary professionals who get to play. with puppies and kittens all day. If you aren't mitigating meltdowns while getting puked on or providing a peaceful passing to someone's best friend, you just don't get it. The popular phrase, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life, is a tricky one. Sure, teachers love

to educate young minds, and veterinary workers have a passion for helping and healing animals. But that doesn't mean what they do is easy. Park Rangers, for example, they punch the clock in the beautiful places on earth. They get to interact with visitors on vacation and wildlife watch through binoculars. But to write their job off as just that would be a grave mistake. Because that park ranger you just dismissed as they guided you in the parking lot or the one you passed on a hike doing trail maintenance could be the same exact one who would give their life for yours. Welcome to National Park After Dark. resonate with the veterinary example you used there.

I thought you would. I really thought you would. I love when people would be like, you just play with puppies all day. That's so great. And it's like, oh, not quite. If you only knew. If you only knew. Although there are a lot of cute puppies, that's like, that's like the highlight of it.

But there's a lot of not so great things. Yeah. And depending on what you do, I mean, I remember like the last few years of my veterinary. professional career. I was just strictly a surgical technician. So yeah, I got to see puppies on occasion, but they were getting put under to get spayed or neutered and they weren't exactly happy. I saw a lot of really rough stuff. So it just depends on the day, I guess, but puppies were involved. They're just few and far between. So anyway, I had to throw that one in there because I know you would resonate with it. And the other one that came to mind immediately was teachers, especially

teachers with children. Like, oh, you just get to color and sing songs and whatever. I'm like, oh, God. I know. I give them cut it. Like, have you been in a room with 20, five-year-olds? It's not all rainbows and butterflies. I was just going to say sunshine and rainbows. All right. Well, anyways, welcome back, everyone. It is a very special episode because it is the first episode of 2023. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. We had a lot of ups and down. to say the least last year. And while we don't really want to get into the downs, we have a couple of ups.

And that is thanks to a lot of you, we were able to gift four individuals with gift cards to Guitar Center on behalf of Ian. And we sent those out just the other day we're recording this right after Christmas. And just the outpouring of messages and support and sharing your stories with us was awesome. Yeah, you guys are really like the best.

Yeah. So we're really happy. We're able to do that on behalf of Ian and it was really special. And his family and friends really enjoyed being involved in that. So thank you for supporting Ian's guitar gifting and we hope we can do it next year and for years to come. And the other thing is obviously a lot of the holidays are centered around receiving gifts, of course. But along with Ian's guitar gifting, we did want to. to mention that we decided to donate to an organization at the end of last year. And it's a very

small organization, but an important one. The organization is called Wild Lives. And it is a Colorado-based 501 C3 nonprofit focused on providing education about Colorado's wildlife and coexistence. And the owner of that organization happens to be a very dear friend of mine that I met while working in God, I don't know what year I met her. 2015, I think, 14 or 15. And it's when we were working at the Wolf Center together. And she has, she still works at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center here and there. But she's branched off to do her own thing.

She created this organization. She's amazing. Her name is Michelle. She has a couple of wolf dogs of her own, but she's in the middle of building a big sanctuary out in the sticks of Colorado. and it's a, I mean, she's been working on this. She bought the property like five years ago. And it's just like a labor of love, like slowly putting up enclosures. Long-term project.

Oh my God. Like she has been at it for so long. And she does programs out in like Garden of the Gods, different schools, all about different Colorado wildlife, how to coexist with coyotes with now wolves that are being reintrodu. She's a huge advocate for coexistence. doing a lot of great work along with her regular nine to five. Yeah, that's some dedication right there. It is. That's a passion project. Yeah. And she's awesome and she deserves all the love and support. So if you want to look at her organization, get involved with her work, follow along. Again,

it's called Wild Lives. So that's my little PSA on that. And we can add a little link in our episode description too. Oh yeah, yeah. Let's do that. Perfect. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Prime. obsession is in session and this summer Prime Originals have everything you want steamy romances irresistible love stories and the book to screen favorites

you've already read twice off campus every year after the love hypothesis Sterling Point and more slow burns second chances chemistry you can feel

through the screen your next obsession is waiting watch only on Prime all right well this episode has nothing to do with Colorado or coexistence or wildlife or anything like that. It's actually a pretty sad one. And we are going back to Mount Rainier, where we haven't been since like, I think episode four when I did the plane crash. Oh, I love that. I was actually just thinking that we haven't

been to the PNW for a while for our episodes. So it's like it's time. It is time. And Mount Rainier holds a really, really special place in my heart and the hearts of sorts of so many others who have visited it. And this episode is very special for a few reasons, but I guess we'll get going. Yeah. Tell us the story. Designated in March of 1899, Mount Rainier National Park is the fourth national park in all of the U.S.

Located in Washington State, the park preserves nearly 370 square miles or 957 square kilometers of subalpine meadows, valleys, old growth forests, waterfalls, glaciers, and of course, the crown jewel of the park, Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier. Of course. I knew you were going to say it. First known as Tacoma, meaning mother of all waters by the Puyallup people

and most tribes around the Puget Sound, or Tahoma by tribes near Yakima, the mountain is actually a strato volcano. Rising 14,410 feet or 4,300 meters, it is the highest point in all of the Cascade Range. The park is surrounded by several other designations. wildernesses and is designated as both a national historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Very cool. I love rain. Oh, my God. Anyone who lives within like a 50 mile radius, it's crazy because it looks so close, even if you're so far because it's so giant. And you're pretty much at sea level everywhere else, like in the surrounding area, like around the sound. So it's just extra massive.

So, well, I remember visiting you. And it was like, if it was cloudy, you couldn't see it. But then when the sun came out, it was like, oh my God, that is right. That's there. I can see that from here. It's crazy. And it looks like it's in your backyard. But in reality, like, we lived probably an hour.

Yeah, just about an hour from the entrance. Yeah. It's wild. Cougars, marmot, fox, spotted owls, golden eagles, rainbow trout, and Chinook, salmon are just a few of the hundreds and hundreds of species that call the park home. Recently, the National Park Service released footage of the first ever recorded and or documented moose citing in park history, which is very exciting. I put it in the newsletter.

If anyone subscribes in the newsletter, you saw that. And according to the National Park Service, Paradise, one of the regions of the park, is the snowiest place on earth, where snowfall is measured regularly. It held the world record in the winter of 1971 to 1972 for having the most snowfall. Do you want to guess how much? It's not a quiz. Not numbers. Not numbers. Yeah, but I always guess something like, I'm going to say 35 feet of snow. 93.5 feet. Wow, so like three times what I guessed. Yes. And while temperatures have reached record

highs in the park at around 105 degrees Fahrenheit or 42 degrees Celsius, the temperatures tend to be mild in the summers and of course pretty chilly in the winter. The park is popular for its stunning hikes, snow-showing, mountaineering, and scenic drives, and I can confidently say that this park is one of the most beautiful and stunning places I have ever been and obviously was so very, fortunate to have spent a few years of my life visiting it and living in its shadow with Ian. And so many people, about two million a year, are drawn here to get a taste of that slice of paradise that Mount Rainier National Park has to offer. And while most are here for the stunning scenery, wildlife watching, and a connection to nature, not everyone who enters the park has

pure intentions or leaves with their lives. January 1st, 2012 was a beautiful bluebird day at Mount rainier. This time of year tends to drawing crowds due to the holidays and the seasonal opening of the sled runs in Paradise. And this season was no different. Aptly named, Paradise is nestled on the south slope of the volcano and is the most popular destination for visitors to this park. Near the subalpine Valley of the Paradise River, it is also the location of the historic Paradise Inn, which was built in 1916. Blanketed with wildflowers in the summers and serving as a wonderland in the winter, this is the only area in the park where sledding and tubing is allowed. So it's super popular in the winter. And it's actually just before everyone flocks there right now, it's closed for

the 2023 season. So why? I don't know. It's just closed. So don't, you're just maintenance. Maybe. Honestly, tubing and sledding is kind of scary. Now that I'm an adult, and I snowboard, but I'm like with snowboarding, I can stop. I can turn. When you get on a tube, you're just hoping. You just got to hope that you stop and that you don't turn into something you're not supposed to hit. And you also, when you're snowboarding or skiing, you can control your speed. When you're tubing or sledding, you just go and you just pray that you are alive when it's done.

I guess you could bail out. And I mean, these aren't like extreme. sports sled hills, I don't think. Like, they're meant for families. All I picture is, you know, what is that? What is the sport of, I think it's downhill. God, I'm going to sound like such an idiot. But it's like, I'm pretty sure it's in the Winter Olympics. And it's like just this giant snow ramp that skiers go on and they just gain a bunch of speed. And then they just like fly at the end. A huge difference. I've seen that one. Are you sure? It's like they literally just sit at the top of this like, ramp. It looks like a half pipe of snow, kind of. You're probably right. I don't follow the Olympics

that much, which I know is surprising since I watched so many other things. Right. I'm shocked. I don't know. Either way, it's just, I think it's not like anything extreme. There's a lot of families that come here for this. I did do a tubing at a mountain in New Hampshire and maybe it's like this where they have these people and they push you off of the top of this hill. But then on the other end of the hill, they've built another hill. So you lose your speed when you come up. And then when you come down, you gain your speed again. And then you come up the other hill.

And it's kind of like a pendulum swing until you finally stop. Yeah, that's safe. So maybe it's something like that. Yeah, that's a little safer. I guess we won't know until 2024 because they're closed. So back to the story, that day January 1st, 2012, was looking to be a very busy one as rangers arrived to their shifts on the first day of the new year. One of those rangers was 34-year-old Margaret Anderson.

While Margaret was a law enforcement ranger, if you recall from our previous conversations, especially the People of the Parks episode with Andrea Lankford, National Park Rangers wear several different hats, and their roles are often not limited to one track, especially when budgets are tight. Margaret underwent extensive training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia,

but that didn't exempt her from doing other tasks like organizing EMT trainings, driving patrols, and digging out road signs that had been covered with snow. Mount Rainier was not her first rodeo in the national park world, but she was planning for it to be her last. Born on February 2nd, 1977 in Ontario, Canada, Margaret was one of three children. She was less than a year old when her family relocated to Wilton, Connecticut, and later to Westfield, New Jersey. In high school, she was a member of the marching band, varsity volleyball team, and the National Honor Society. After she graduated in 1995, she went on to attend Kansas State University, where she went on to earn her bachelor's degree in fisheries in wildlife biology, and later her master's in biology. While she graduated from her master's program in 2003, she was already multitasking.

She had completed her initial law enforcement training at Northern Arizona University and began her career with the National Park Service in 2000 as a law enforcement ranger in Bryce Canyon National Park. and it was here where she met her future husband, Eric, who was also working within the park at the time. In 2004, both Margaret and Eric moved to Washington, D.C., where Margaret worked as a law enforcement ranger at the C&O Canal National Historic Park, and Eric held various different positions within the National Park Service until he, too, became a law enforcement ranger, and gained employment at the Antietam National Battlefield. 2005 was a big year for the couple. Margaret completed the land management police training program, at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glinkgo, Georgia,

and her law enforcement field training at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Oh yeah, and she also trained to become an EMT too. What a resume. I know. It just keeps going. She's got it all on there, yeah. She and Eric were also married that year, too. So big year for them. Yeah, for sure.

In 2008, the couple welcomed their first child, Annalise Rose, and also made a big move. They had a very rare opportunity to gain employment together as law enforcement rangers at the same park, which is really a rare opportunity for two positions to open up at the same park, so to gain dual employment. So the young family said goodbye to their friends and family on the East Coast and relocated to the town of Eatonville, 22 miles outside of the entrance of Mount Rainier. Two years later, they added another girl to their family, Catherine Page, in May of 2010. After three years working at Mount Rainier, the couple were considered, during their next move as a family.

Margaret was working on completing a nursing degree. Here she goes again. She's just like, I'm gonna have every possible certification. And Eric was a bit frustrated with how his law enforcement role was lacking a bit of, well, law enforcement. Plus, due to the fact that they both worked at Rangers in the park, they had to split their shifts to take care of their children who were now approaching four and two.

And it was almost as if they were kind of like ships passing night because they worked the same job and they had a young family. They had opposite schedules. And that along with their shared frustration with their current positions, it fueled some conversation about change and what their next step was going to be. The lapse of one year into another can be exciting, almost like shedding an old skin, ready to move forward, feeling refreshed, reinvigorated, and open to what comes next. Margaret may have been thinking that, how she planned to move her family back east, how she was ready to say goodbye to the Grand Pacific Northwest after years of living and playing in its old growth forests. Her and Eric had spoken about that, the previous night.

After putting her kids to bed and ringing in the new year with her husband, they talked about all of their upcoming plans to make their way back home. While that was in the works, it wasn't happening today. Today, she was working in the park where she entered just after 7 a.m. Not feeling the greatest, her plan was to actually clock out a bit early that day and head home when Eric arrived for his shift at 11 a.m. She continued driving past Longmeyer, the southwest corner of the park about six miles east of the Nisqually entrance, nodding to Dan Kamika and Craig Schnur, two other L.E. Rangers who were stationed there setting up a tire chain checkpoint. She continued up the road to paradise. The road had iced over the night before, but regardless of the weather, all vehicles are

required to carry chains within the park from November to May because the weather in the park is notoriously quick to change. By 9.30 a.m., Dan and Craig were waving vehicles equipped with chains up the mountain towards Paradise, while Margaret was working the slick, icy parking lot at the Jackson Visitor Center, directing the first visitors to enter for the day. Just under an hour later, a blue Impala drove past the chain checkpoint without stopping. And while this was not unusual, especially for visitors that are just completely unfamiliar or unaware with the chain regulations, Dan decided to go after the vehicle. And instead of letting it just slide and letting him go anyways, because it was better to stop him than having a potential accident later on or having to pull him out of a snowbank or whatever.

And you said that it's actually bad weather, even though it's protocol for everyone to have these during this time of year, it's actually bad weather. It's not even just like a sunny day or anything. So he's like, I have to go after him. Well, it was a sunny day. It was a nice day, but the road was super slick. It was like kind of ice. It was icy. Yeah. Okay. As Dan trailed the Impala, he rolled his lights on his National Park Service pickup truck, but with no response, he started to sound his siren and still nothing. Dan called in the plate as he accelerated up onto the Impala,

gunning it to close in on the vehicle and giving it gaps on the icy hairpin turns. It was turning into a chase at this point, and Dan sensed impending trouble. The plate came back clean and offered basic information on the driver, 24-year-old Caucasian male, 5-9, 160 pounds, name Benjamin Colton Barnes. Born in California in 1988, Benjamin, the son of a Marine, had been having a difficult time since high school. He was a quiet kid, didn't participate in school activities, and was enrolled in the Europa Valley High School's Steps Program, which was a community day school for expelled and troubled students. After he earned his GED, he went on to enlist in the Army in 2000.

and seven. Stationed at the joint base Lewis McCord just south of Tacoma, Washington, he again found himself as a bit of a loner, but he did find an immense sense of home within the military. While Benjamin lived in the barracks, he spent a lot of his free time at a car stereo shop in nearby Lakewood and made acquaintances with some of the employees, saying that he didn't have many friends outside of it. He was assigned to a headquarters unit and worked as a radio and communications repair specialist and spent a total of two years and seven months in the service, including a tour in Iraq before he was discharged in 2009, after he was arrested for driving under the influence and illegal transportation of a private weapon.

His interest in weapons became a full-blown obsession after his departure from the military, and he spent a lot of time and money shooting and adding to his collection of various weapons. His other hobbies included working out and attending various clubs with his friends he made at that car stereo shop. In January of 2011,

the relationship he had with his, girlfriend Nicole was on the rocks. He did share a daughter named Aubrey with Nicole and spent some time taking her camping and fishing around Rainier, but Nicole was extremely worried. According to her, Aubrey was more of an annoyance to Benjamin than anything else and fatherhood did not suit him. Benjamin was having an extremely difficult time transitioning back to civilian life. He was experiencing severe PTSD, was expressing suicidal thoughts, and even pulled a knife on Nicole during an argument. That's scary. All of this came to a head when she became so concerned for their safety that she took Aubrey and

left Benjamin, seeking custody over their child and filing for a temporary restraining order with the Pierce County Supreme Court in May of that year, writing that she was frightened to even be in the same state as Benjamin. According to court documents, she described him as a violent and unstable man who played mind games with her and was verbally abusive to their infant. She went on with her concerns stating, quote, the weapons are harmful, and I don't know if he will try to use them against myself or my family. In the following months, Benjamin began drinking heavily. He seemed moody and was experiencing financial troubles and was plagued by bad dreams, according to some of his friends. One of them,

named Junior Juarez, said that the respectful good guy he met began to change as time went on. Benjamin was becoming increasingly stressed and even told Jr. how bad he felt about his situation, especially with his daughter stating, quote, I feel like nobody is trying to help me. I feel like everyone is against me. Things got worse for Benjamin in October when one of his only army friends died by suicide, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter of his own. The death significantly impacted Benjamin, and one of his friends stated that he was extremely heartbroken by it. From there, he began sleeping in his car in various casino parking lots after he lost his apartment in November of 2011.

And at this time, he was allowed supervised visits with his daughter two days a week pending completion of a domestic violence and mental health evaluations. On New Year's Eve, as Margaret was tucking her children into bed, Benjamin was invited to a party by junior in Tacoma, but he declined it, opting instead to attend a party in Skyway. The party turned violent when shots rang out. Benjamin had shot four people who, thankfully later all made recoveries, but he fled immediately. He shot people at the party? Four people.

Do we know why? It said that they, like, it was all kind of friendly and they were all out, like, they were pulling all their weapons out and doing kind of like a show and tell, like look at all of our weapons type of thing. And then he kind of just turned, something triggered him. He turned and just shot a bunch of people. and left. Jesus, it's scary. It's sad when you hear stories like that, especially because he has PTSD too. So like, and it's untreated and he's struggling. And so it's sad, but it's also like really

scary that he is, he's dangerous to a lot of people. Yeah. At this point, he fled the party. He threw a bunch of supplies into his car and fled. He told a select number of friends that he was actually heading for California, but for some reason, still unknown, he decided to change his course and turned straight for Mount Rainier National Park. And this isn't just something you stumble into, like you don't just stumble into Mount Rainier. It's out there. You don't, it's not just right off of a highway. You drive with intention. Exactly. Margaret's Radio came to life. Dan's voice emitting from the box on her hip. He quickly explained the situation that he was in a pursuit and he was requesting backup.

He was still trailing the Impala and headed up State Route 706, known to locals as Paradise Road. During most of the year, the road winds through a portion of the park and spits out into the Gifford-Pinshaw National Forest. But in the winter, it actually ends in the Paradise section of the park because it's usually blocked off by large amounts of snow. Margaret responded to Dan's call, leaving the parking lot she was working. She drove her white Chevy Tahoe towards the chase, in hopes of intercepting the Impala before it got much further. At the Barnes flat section of the road, she parked her truck sideways, blocking both lanes and waited. At 10.42 a.m., just shy of 15 minutes since she parked her vehicle, the Blue Impala approached. Benjamin reached to the passenger seat where a loaded AR-15 assault rifle sat, screeched to a halt,

swung open the door, and fired into the white truck. Margaret was struck and slumped over onto her wheel. Hearing the car that was tailing him approach, he swung around and fired into that. Four bullets tore through the windshield, one ripping through Dan's seatbelt right above his shoulder. He screeched to a halt and immediately reversed. Margaret was bleeding out bad, but she managed to throw her truck into reverse. After making a two-point turn, she managed to make it about 100 yards up the mountain before coming to a stop. shots fired. One officer struck.

Dan's urgent voice blasted over the radio. 741, come in. That was Margaret's number, but he received no response. Dan, knowing his colleague was in serious trouble, made several attempts to gain closer access to her white National Park truck, but was pushed back each time because he was met with gunfire from Benjamin's semi-automatic assault rifle. Meanwhile, the Rangers working the Jackson Visitor Center began rounding up all the guests into the building. All Rangers were following the pursuit closely via radio, and upon hearing that shots were fired, they were quick to jump into action. Unlike law enforcement rangers, interpretive Rangers do not carry weapons.

So their first and most urgent move was to lock down the visitor center, yelling to the crowds around the building and hurting everyone in. This is an emergency, everyone into the building. By 1048, the visitor center was transformed into a fortress. Although most visitors had no idea what was going on, some closest to the Rangers overheard the back and forth communication over the radios and put it together. Rangers were fast to gather and formulate a plan, trying their best to take control of the situation and push down fears and questions of if this was some something. sort of holiday terrorist strike. While they had a hundred or so people within the building, there were still stragglers out on the mountain, completely oblivious to the active shooter situation. While visitors approached the building, they would be searched for weapons and hurried in,

while park volunteer Jim Milpmore, with over 12,000 hours of service for Mount Rainier, strapped on snowshoes. He was going to head up the cross-country ski trails to warn anyone he came in contact with. It was a risky but necessary move. The remaining rangers debated arranging a rescue mission for Margaret. They had vehicles that they could use to reach her because she was just minutes down this road, but with no protection or weapons of their own, it was just too much of a risk. While chaos was unfolding in the park, Eric, Margaret's husband, had dropped off his children at the babysitters, kissing them goodbye and assuring them that their mother would be there by three to pick them up. As he was driving the highway, the same stretch of road he had for several years,

nothing seemed to miss until a Pierce County Sheriff's car whipped by him. Eric called into dispatch to take stock of the situation because something was up. Report directly to Tahoma Woods. There has been a shooting. When he roared into park headquarters, he was briefed by Randy King, the park superintendent, and was briefed about the unfolding events. He was told there had been a shooting and that his wife was involved, but no further information was available at the time. All they could do was wait. Oh, my heart. It's terrible. It's like so gut wrenching and heart wrenching. Yeah. Just like knowing the news that he's going to get. Back on the road, 30 minutes after the first shots were fired, Margaret's radio remained silent. Any attempts to gain access to her were battered down repeatedly

with gunfire. Law enforcement from the Canadian border to northern Oregon were alerted and began responding with officers from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department as the first to arrive on scene. About 500 yards from the scene, Dan and Craig met with several responding deputies. It was now nearly an hour after the initial shots, and with added manpower in gear, including ballistic shields and armored-plated vests, they loaded into Dan's bullet-ridden pickup. With authorization to return fire if engaged, each armed with a rifle, they secured the armored vest into the windshield and lined their shields along the doors. slowly moved in. While one of the men steered, the others crouched in the flatbed, creeping in on the

Impala. The sound of gunfire rang out, but the men were unsure of where it was coming from. They passed the Impala, but the door was wide open with no sign of the shooter in sight. They kept moving, another 100 yards to reach Margaret's truck that was stuck in a snowbank. The engine was still running, and the transmission had never left drive. She was in the driver's seat still, buckled in and motionless. A deputy was quick to radio dispatch that they had secured her, but Alation turned to sorrow as another checked for her pulse and didn't find one. News of Margaret's passing traveled quickly,

to the ears of Rangers in the visitor center doing their best to keep everyone calm and entertained, and to Eric, sitting at Tahoma Woods awaiting any bit of news. Disbelieve, sadness, and a sense of urgency overcame every one of her colleagues. A fallen coworker, friend, wife, can and could have stopped anyone in their tracks. But with an active shooter on the loose in the park, no one was in the position to stop. By now, it's mid-afternoon.

The park was now crawling with armored vehicles from the FBI, U.S. Forest Service, Pierce County Sheriff's Department, and the Tacoma Police. SWAT teams, game wardens, and state troopers had also responded. One veteran ranger responded, who had retired the previous day after a 29-year park service career. Nearly 200 officers had dropped everything to respond to Longmire, where an incident command station was set up. As the hours went on, the incident commanders worked to answer the questions surrounding who the shooter was and what his motives were.

As details of who Benjamin was came into focus, there was still one thing that was very unclear. Would he be able to survive the winter conditions in the park? No one knew what his plan was. Was he trying to make a way out of the park, or hide within it? They had to prepare for every scenario, but the goal was to keep him trapped on the mountain on foot and contained. Around 2.30, a deputy reported seeing a head pop up over a snowy ridge and quickly duck back out of sight while he was on patrol on the Nisqually River Bridge. Based on this location, it was clear the shooter had been moving west from the initial

incident location and along the road's shoulder. With the suspect using roadways, sending reinforcements to the visitor center would be very risky. However, the sheriff's department had an armored bear cat and they used it to gain access to the building. And a bear cat looks kind of like a miniature tank-ish type of thing. Okay. You know the armored vehicles they used to get like money from different like Target or bank or whatever, something like that? Yeah.

It kind of looks like that. It's like a miniature version of a tank it looks like to me when I looked it up. Okay. You'll have to post a picture. Okay. Just after 3 p.m., five SWAT officers threw open the door to the visitor center with weapons drawn yelling, everyone down on the floor, put your hands on your heads. And these are just visitors to the, like, families.

It's so scary. But like, they have no idea what is happening. And now they're SWAT teams coming in with weapons drawn telling everyone to hit the floor. They searched every visitor for weapons and questioned the Rangers. Down the road near Stevens Canyon, veteran game warden, Ted Holden had spotted tracks. And members of the SWAT team found climbing notches leading into the trees, along with clear post holes in the deep snow. They had found their man, at least traces of him,

and it was clear that he had been above them and surrounding them the whole time. That's so scary. And he clearly, I know you mentioned earlier, he liked to go out into the wilderness and he brought his daughter sometimes, but like he clearly has some outdoor skills if they're finding, like, traces like that. While SWAT team members started strapping into their snow shoes, another team was searching the Impala. Once they disabled the vehicle, they recovered head.

heavy body armor, an AK-47, and several packs of ammunition along with another rifle. The SWAT team on their snowshoes started for the backcountry. They came upon a group of snowshoers at Nerada Falls Trailhead on their way back from an overnight excursion. Guns drawn with instructions to come forward one at a time with hands in the air, once everyone was cleared, they were told to stay by their van at the trailhead. And if anything was to happen, to get down and stay down. Again, you're just coming out from an overnight. It's terrifying.

You're like, what is going on? You're just camping. Right. A Black Hawk helicopter circled the skies scanning the snow for a fleeing or hiding Benjamin. And at this point, I should clarify, we do know, obviously, the shooter was Benjamin. But at this point in time, they know the driver or the person registered with the vehicle was Benjamin Barnes. But they had no concrete evidence that it was him. They didn't know if the car was stolen, if it was even him.

Because they haven't really seen him. They've just seen gunfire. Exactly. They haven't confirmed that it was him yet. But they had a pretty good idea that it was him. Yeah. As the sunlight dwindled and the clock neared 5 p.m., the ground team was given no choice but to cease their search.

Tracking teams had revealed some of his movement. From the Impala, his prince led towards paradise, around a sewage treatment building, just a couple football fields away from the visitor center, which is so scary. Yeah, there's so many people there. Then the tracks led west to the ridge line. line area where he was spotted by the deputy from the Nisqually Bridge. They then crisscrossed the road several times before heading towards Paradise Valley and disappearing into the Paradise River. With the sun setting, the temperatures plummeted. It was winter in the backcountry and the temperature gauge

red in the mid-20s. The team pondered if Benjamin was well equipped for the conditions, if he was a trained survivalist, or if he would make it through the night. They guessed not on all counts. Officers lined the river with night vision goggles, armored vehicles continued to patrol the roads and team scoured maps, trying to stay a step ahead. As the clock struck midnight at the visitor center, they were finally beginning to evacuate. And this all started at like 9 or 10 a.m. So, I can imagine just being stuck in the visitor center for 12 plus hours, like unaware of what's going, this kind of, this is awful, but it reminds me of a lot of the active shooting. scenarios that we see in the U.S. now, like where people have to be on lockdown inside of a school

or a store or wherever these are happening and no one inside knows what's going on, but you can't leave and you don't know what's going to happen. And it just kind of reminds me of those scenarios that we see. Yeah. And they were doing their best, the Rangers that were in there, were doing their best to keep everyone kind of calm and entertained. They even actually, because like I said, there was young families there, there were children there. And I did read that some of the rangers, you know how you can become like a junior ranger at different parks? Yeah. They were doing these little like ceremonies to like for the children to kind of dub them as junior rangers, like to take their mind off of what was going on. Wow. Yeah. That is so like, that is so wonderful and so

kind, especially if you're a ranger and you know what's going on and your job is to distract others and you come up with like this really nice idea. Well, internally, you're probably like really scared too. Well, you're scared and you just learned that your friend was shot and killed. Yeah. And then I imagine, I mean, I'd be curious what the kids' memories are from that day now. Like, is their memory just, oh, we were, we couldn't leave the visitor center for a while because we were becoming junior rangers. Right. You know, like, is that their memory of that day. Right. Which is, I'm sure the goal was the goal. Yeah. They started to evacuate, but it was a precarious and daunting task. Families, couples, and individual visitors were escorted by armored and armed SWAT members out to their cars into the parking lot.

That's intimidating. Yep. And once at their vehicles, they were put into a line with armored trucks manned by law enforcement at the front and the rear. They kind of started making like a caravan or a little convoy. And they only had about four vehicles in between the two on the front. front and at the end. And this little convoy would be brought out of the park down the road and out of the park, escorted out by law enforcement that had their weapons drawn the entire time. And then once they were out of the park, the law enforcement rangers would go back up to the visitor's center and repeat the process until every single person was out. And this lasted until about 3.30 in the morning. So there were a lot of people there. Yeah. As light was about to break the next morning, pilot Chris Rosen and his co-pilot David Seymour flew from their station in Bellingham down to the park eager to assist. They had taken an A-star, a smaller and nimbler aircraft equipped with an infrared

camera system. As they were approaching reflection lakes close to paradise, they spotted two tents. Using their infrared equipment, they could see that there were two warm bodies in each, and they breathed a sigh of relief, because everyone at this point was on edge, not knowing if Benjamin was going after campers, going to steal their gear, harm anybody. He was on foot all around this area, so they had no idea what to expect. They don't know why he was there and he brought a ton of weapons with him when he entered. So who knows what he's up to? The whirling of the propellers hovering over their campsite caught the attention of one of the tent's occupants. He came out of his tent, but unable to clearly communicate because of the propellers and a lot of noise. Dave, the co-pice,

took a coffee cup and scribbled a message on it before filling it with water and throwing it down to the camper. A ranger has been shot, shooter at large, take roads to falls and sheriff. We will keep an eye on you. Do not drive from paradise without an armed escort. That gives me chills. Just that would be so scary. You're out in the back country. You're out in a national park just camping, which is usually supposed to be serene and calm and quiet and to have no idea what's going on and just to see that short message of urgency. I can only imagine how fast their tents were packed. Oh yeah. And they were out of there. Like that is so terrifying. Well, just that one sentence shooter at large. It's just like so terrifying. As dawn broke in the morning war on, three SWAT teams commenced

their search on foot while helicopters remained as eyes in the sky. While scanning the snow berms flanking the Paradise River, someone shouted, suspect. Every member of the team halted in their tracks. A piece of blue clothing had been spotted in the river itself. Prior to advancing, they called up to the helicopter, who confirmed no clear heat signature was coming from that given location. Still cautious, the SWAT team closed in, peeking slowly over the snow and down into the river. It was bent. Benjamin, he was deceased, lying face down in the shallow edge of the river. He was wearing one sneaker, gray pants, and a blue t-shirt. He was armed with his AR-15, a Glock 45 magazine, and his cell phone, which was devoid of the battery. His body was less than a football field from the Nerada Falls

trailhead, where those snowshoers had come out and the SWAT team intercepted. Wow. Can I just say, like, my first thought of the, like something that came to my mind. Is his ex-exam? wife documented how dangerous he was. Oh yeah. It is documented. She came forward, which I have to say, it's really brave for someone who's in a domestic violence situation to come forward and put a report that damning against your partner out. And you and the fact that she did that and highlighted how terrifying this person was. And there were no interventions taken before that. Like to be like, okay, she's saying he has PTSD. He's dangerous. How there was no like, intervention. to be like you need to go to therapy.

Like it just, well, there was the. There was, he had, remember he had like court appointed, um, domestic violence and mental health classes that he, like, he had to do those in order to have supervised visits. But I will agree, it is extremely brave of her to step forward and document things. And also, it was kind of all unfolding. Like, it was a long process that was just kind of beginning when this was all kind of unfolding. which is frustrating, but the signs were there. She pointed it out and she was brave enough to step forward.

Yeah. It just feels like so much more should have been done. And I know like you can do those classes and whatever, but it just sounds like it was more than just having custody of your child. Like clearly, there needed to be more done in a situation. And we see all the time that military people are suffering with PTSD, which is a totally different conversation. But there's just so much limited resources to help them after they've served our country.

And then when something like this happens, it's just like, okay, it's clear that the interventions that are happening are not working, especially when there's documented cases of someone becoming violent and suffering from PTSD. It just makes me upset that I feel like this whole situation was very preventable. Yeah, I will say she on record, she presented a lot of different evidence. of course. And one of the things she brought up was a text that she received from him. When she was taking Aubrey away, he was basically saying, like, if you take our daughter away, don't be surprised to come back to my brain splattered across the wall. Like, he was threatening suicide, violence. He was verbally abusive to an infant and to Nicole. Yeah. He's scary. He's scary. And just another side note about, I don't want to go down too much of a rabbit hole with this, but it is important how you said, you know, kudos to her for stepping up and going to court with all this.

I know there was a child involved, which adds a different layer of urgency to this and, you know, someone else is involved, not just you. But facing someone in court is, I mean, we hear a lot of stories about sometimes and it's like, why didn't they bring this to court or the police or this or that? it's like unless you're in it, you don't really understand. And just from a slight personal experience, I've had to go to court a couple of times to file a restraining order on someone. I wasn't even involved with it. I didn't even know them. And I was fucking terrified. I remember that. And I was terrified. I didn't want to go face this person. Like I didn't, it's not that I felt bad or like, I don't, it's, the emotions are hard to describe. Like, yes, I was scared. It needed to be done. It needed to be on record.

in case things escalated. But like it was, there's just so much complication to it. And it's not always the easiest thing. And it's not always so cut and dry. And I feel like sometimes it seems that way from an outsider's perspective. So anyways, just credit to Nicole, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. It's just like huge credit to Nicole for reporting this. Because you are limited on what you can do and not do. And the first and most important step, which I was pushed by my family to do, because I didn't want to at first is to just get something on record. Yeah. It's just an important thing to do. That's all I'm saying. It is. And I will say back to Benjamin, he did not die of any self-inflicted gunshot wounds or anything. It was thought that he died of exposure in the park. That was my next

question. Okay. But back to Margaret. Margaret Anderson's funeral was held in the Olson Auditorium in Tacoma on January 10th, 2012, and was attended by thousands, including family, friends, previous and current co-workers, fellow law enforcement officers, the Washington State Governor, and the National Park Service Director. Wow. Her kind demeanor, extraordinary integrity, and character were just some of the tributes paid to her that afternoon. Her father, Paul, had been a Lutheran minister for over four decades, and he spoke at length at her celebration of life.

And during his daughter's service, he described her as, quote, a woman of light, joy, and beauty who kept the world safe from chaos through her work. Ken Salazar, the Secretary of Interior, said that Margaret was a ranger who followed her heart and continued by saying, Our nation has lost a good and brave ranger, who served with faith and compassion and who saw the beauty of God's grace and creatures large and small. Those who spoke at her celebration of life echoed much of the same sentiments. Margaret was the best of the best, who saved lives through the ultimate sacrifice, one sacrifice in which she didn't think twice about.

A woman with core values of integrity, grace, and commitment that inspired everyone around her to be better versions of themselves. Her obituary reads in part, quote, Margaret will always be remembered as a beautiful, loving wife and mother. She loved and was dedicated to her family and adored by her husband and little girls. She was a godmother to all six of her nieces and nephews. friends and coworkers remember her as a skilled and dedicated National Park Service professional with a ready smile and willingness to help both visitors and colleagues. Her actions prevented a heavily armed man from reaching a popular and crowded visitor destination within the park. The park itself was closed for five days.

When its gates reopened, visitors showed their sympathy by bringing flowers, cards, and words of support. While some were able to return to work, others needed more time. Rangers from other parks, the North Cascades, Olympic, and Glacier, just to name a few, filled in. While it remains unclear what Benjamin's intentions were that day, or what his ultimate plan was, what is apparent is Eric's view on the situation. Other than being utterly devastated over the loss of his wife, he was angry, believing the shooting was an incident that had been long coming, and that the park's law enforcement unit was unprepared for it.

In terms of law enforcement, we were stretched way too thin and have been. for years. According to the outside online article, The Devil on Paradise Road by Bruce Barcott, which is the article I used for a lot of research for this episode, quote, in 1980, the park service

employed 1,841 full-time rangers to protect 220 million annual visitors. By 2010, the number of rangers has declined to 1417, a loss of nearly a quarter of the force, while visitation

surged to over 280 million. Wow. A board review of the incident was held in May of 2012 to review the events and to hear Eric's testimony and concerns. Despite his heartache and anger, Eric who has since left the park to pursue his former profession as a firefighter, he said that the Park Service has been doing their best to try and do right by him in the wake of Margaret's death. So he's frustrated, but he also is appreciative, which is understandable.

The National Park Service is full of people who want to do right, right by nature and right by the visitors who come to enjoy it. But we have to remember the dangers they face to do that. U.S. Park Rangers are five times more likely to be assaulted than U.S. Border Patrol officers and 12 times more likely to be attacked than FBI agents. They deal with weapons, drugs, sexual assaults, murders, medical emergencies, search and rescue situations and violence of all kind. Since 2014, there has been a one-third rise in robberies and a four-fold rise in serious crimes within our U.S. national parks, correlating with an explosive growth in park visitation, search and rescue operations, and a serious decline in budgets, seasonal, and permanent law enforcement rangers. Law enforcement rangers within our national parks don't often receive the same respect as other members of law enforcement. But what's important to remember is that these men and women are federal employees who,

carry out the same duties. This episode releases one day after the 10-year anniversary of the murder of Margaret Anderson. So next time you see a ranger directing traffic in a snowy parking lot like Margaret was doing on her last day, remember that law enforcement rangers do so much more than meets the eye. They undergo rigorous trainings. They carry weapons, apprehend and detain violators, protect our natural resources, respond to emergency incidents, conduct investigations, but most importantly, they lay their lives on the line for us. And that is the story of Margaret Anderson. That's so heartbreaking, but I love at the end that you tied it in with appreciating our park service, because like you said, I feel like Park Rangers or sometimes you see them and

they're the person who gives you the map when you enter the park and smiles and says, have a nice time. Or they're the ranger at the visitor center that guides you on which hikes you should do that day. And you kind of see these, a lot of times I feel like you see the happier sides of what being a Ranger is. And it's like you started this whole episode with. We have misconceptions of what is actually a ranger's job. And I think that you did a really good job of highlighting the amount of things that they really do, that it's not just this and it's not just this. It's an array of so many duties that they have and that we should all just be appreciative of them. Yeah. I think that's a great way to end the episode because, I mean, we've talked about it before. I think we talked about it

with Kevin on the People of the Parks episode. We talked about it with Andrea. We've talked about it here and there through different episodes, but it is. I mean, Rangers wear a bunch of different hats and law enforcement Rangers especially, I think are so undervalued. And even though they do so much, you don't look at a police officer in your town or your county and write them off. Why would you do that to a law enforcement park ranger. You know what I mean? But people do just because I don't know. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's like, yeah, you see them shoveling snow or directing someone in a parking lot and you're kind of like, oh, well, I mean, they work in Mount Rainier and like hike mountains all day. Like, what could they be doing? You know, it's just, it's a huge misconception.

And I hope that this episode about Margaret kind of just served as something to consider the next time you're at a park and you see different rangers, just give them a little more grace and appreciation and respect and hopefully we can kind of change our tune with how we look at park rangers. So that's that. Cool. Well, thank you for that episode. A solemn way to start off the new year, but a very important message behind it. Yeah.

Well, you know, that's what we're about. Solum but important. This is our content. Before we finish up today, I just wanted to take a moment to highlight a couple of resources. this episode clearly had discussions of domestic violence and mental health crises with ties to PTSD. I'll link the following in the show description as well, but if you or someone you know or someone you love is involved in a domestic violence situation, the National Domestic Violence Line can be reached 24-7 at 1-800-799-723, and additional resources can be found online at the hotline.org.

And if you or someone you know or someone you love is experiencing PTSD or other trauma-related symptoms and are in need of support, please visit the National Center for PTSD at PTSD.VA.gov. And to find community-based counseling centers near you, please visit vet centers at vetcenter.vA.gov. And the VA crisis line can be reached 24-7 at 1-800-273-8255. Thank you for that. Everyone, we will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll get you. access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners,

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