National Park After Dark - The Lava Lake Murders: Deschutes National Forest

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

When three murders occur in the remote wilderness of Deschutes National Forest, a manhunt is initiated. Investigators would soon realize that it would be much more difficult to capture the perpetrator than they could have ever imagined.Danielle is on Cameo! Head over there for personalized messages, recommendations, and more! 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!IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.Heart Starts Pounding:  check out Heart Starts Pounding wherever you get your podcasts.Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving. For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff, knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. 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 up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. It was the perfect spring day in Deschutes National Forest.

It was the start of April. The forests were beginning to come alive. As the snow melted, animals woke from a restful slumber, and the birds chirped loudly in the trees. From a first glance, everything was right inside the park. Dears were starting to munch on the new sprouting plants. Foxes, bobcats, and bears were caring for their newborn babies. Lava Lake was beginning to thaw, offering an excessive.

exciting new season of recreation on the water. And today, it had its first visitors of the year. A group of men lined the ice dragging a boat towards the unfrozen part of the water. What may have looked like at first glance as spring fishing to an onlooker was in reality much different. This was a search party, and they were about to emerge three bodies from the icy water. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Cassie's doing a true crime. We're going back to true crime today. Everyone watch out.

Yeah. Well, I did a little thing on Instagram where I asked people, what do you want to hear from us? Because we have all these ideas, but I just thought it would be fun to hear what people really want to hear about. And I would say the first topic that came up was survival stories. There were so many survival story. I want to hear a survival story. And then the second top was true crime.

And I was looking at our schedule and I saw that you have a survival story coming out next week. So I thought that I would dabble in the true crime bucket this week and we'd go to survival next week. Amazing. Well, I have been to Deschutes National Forest. Have you? Yeah, so I'm excited to hear this one even though it's probably pretty grim. But yeah, it's in Oregon, right?

Yes. Yep. So Ian and I would frequent there from time to time. But I've never been to Lava Lake. So interesting. Yeah, it's a remote area out in the National Forest. and I did read, and maybe you can tell me, that it has been labeled one of the most beautiful national forests in the United States.

I mean, it's hard to say that the Pacific Northwest isn't beautiful, so I would agree. But is it the most? Would you say it's the most beautiful? I don't know. I'm going to say no. Oh, no. The first article that came up was, like, most beautiful national forest in the United States, hands down, no competition.

I feel like. the article said. Without knowing, I feel like that would have to go to a forest out in like Montana. I just, you know, just because of the landscape. It's just a personal preference thing. I mean, the Pacific Northwest has its own charm that obviously isn't found anywhere else. So that's probably why it's ranked really high in the beauty realm. But yeah, I don't know. It wasn't shitty. I'll just say that. Okay. Not shitty. Good to know. I haven't been here specifically. I've driven, I've been to bend and I've been in the surrounding areas, but this National Forest specifically, I haven't like hiked or recreated or

anything. But today I am going to be telling a true crime story in the Pacific Northwest. And I thought that it was fun to go here today because we haven't really been to the PMW that much recently for episodes. So I thought we'd show a little love by telling a really horrible story that happened. up there, but the PNW is also known to have a lot of weird shit that's gone down there. So also a little fitting. So now we're going to head into the Old Growth Forest of Oregon to a horrific murder that happened to three men there. And it was 25-year-old Dewey Morris, 35-year-old Roy Wilson, and 50-year-old Edward Nichols.

And they went into Deshutes National Forest to work as fur trappers, which was something they had done successfully the year before. But when they entered the park in 1923, they never made it out alive. This infamous and unsolved murder has confused investigators for a while. And I say confused because it is technically an unsolved case. And we'll get into that more a little bit towards the end. And I'll let you guys decide what you think happened. But now in 1924, it's about 100 years since this happened.

We're coming up on the 100 year anniversary. And it has this particular case has made history and it has been known as the Lava Lake murders. And just a forewarning for everyone who's listening, this is a graphic episode. It's probably not suitable for all listeners. I know a lot of people like to listen with their families. I don't think that this is the right one to pick today. It's a little gruesome.

There's some rough stuff in here and there is a little bit of hunting that goes involved. So violence towards animals. and of course three horrific murders that happened. So if this isn't, this might not be your family episode, but it's up to you. You are the parent, I'm assuming, that can decide if this is the right space for that. Or if you yourself even want to listen. Anyway, getting into the story. I know, I'm like, should I be worried?

I'm just giving people a warning because I appreciate warnings for gruesome episodes myself. So I just want people to know what they're getting into before we dive in. Yeah, that's fair. So these three men, they had gotten in contact with a logging contractor whose name was Edward Logan, and he actually owned a cabin inside of Deschutes National Forest. And they got in contact with him because they were looking for a place to stay over the months to fur trap for money inside of Deshutes National Forest. And after some conversations, they came to a deal. And in exchange for the use of his cabin for the winter for fur trapping, they would care for five valuable foxes that Edward had been. raising on his property that he was eventually going to use for fur himself.

And while Deschutes National Forest is recreated in year round, it is significantly less busy in the wintertime. And today, the area is one of the most popular recreation forests in the Pacific Northwest. And this place is beautiful, debatably, not shitty. No, that's not debatable. Not debatable. It is not a shitty place to be. This land is sculpted and carved by ancient volcanoes from our.

eruptions and it has crystal blue rivers. It boasts over 8 million visitors every year. The park itself conserves 1.5 million acres and it has peaks that reach over 10,000 feet, which is about 3,000 meters in elevation. It has Diamond Peak and Mount Theson, which can be seen from points along Crater Lake National Park, which is not that far from this area. Deschutes has old growth forests with towering ponderosa pines and lava river caves. Inside of Deschutes National. forest, they have also established the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which has over 54,000 acres of lakes, lava flows, and geological features. It is also home to Newberry Crater, which is a caldera that formed after the eruption of a volcano. The massive crater extends 17 square miles,

and today it is actually a very active volcano and could erupted at any time. This park is also home to lots of lakes that offer plenty of fishing, swimming, and kayaking, operating, operating, operating, opportunities. Lava Lake is a popular place to fish for rainbow trout. It is a 130 acre lake that reaches 20 feet or six meters in depth, and it is located on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range at an elevation about 4,750 feet or 1,447 meters. And this is a lake that's surrounded by pine forests and lava outcroppings. And today is a pretty popular camping area for visitors in 1928. It was the location where Dewey, Roy, and Edward's bodies were eventually recovered. The three men arrived at the cabin in the fall of 1923. Edward Nichols, for lack of a better description, was kind of the leader of the group. There were three of them. They were all doing the same thing, but he kind of was calling the shots.

He had the most experienced trapping as the others were originally employed as loggers, and he had spent a lot of time out in the wilderness trapping. actually right here where they were now beforehand. All of these men were from Bend, Oregon, and their plan when they got out here was to live remotely in the cabin, set out traps, care for the five foxes, and every so often they would go into town to sell the furs that they collected. Dechutes National Forest has an abundance of wildlife.

They have black bears, elk, deer, bobcats, and more than 100 species of birds, but they also had some very valuable furs to the men. This forest was home to otters, mink, beavers, foxes, skunk. And the men knew that while they were there, they were going to be able to make some good money over the wintertime. And they were right. It started off pretty successful. Just a few days before Christmas, Edward made his way back into town to Bend, Oregon, with an entire sled filled with furs. When he got to town, he socialized with the local people

and chatted about his time at the cabin. He reported that trapping was going incredibly well, that they anticipated that they would be bringing back another full sled of fur soon. And during his couple stays in Bend, he sold every fur skin that he bought. Then he returned back to the cabin where Dewey and Roy were waiting for him. The three weren't heard from again for a few weeks after that, which was actually to be expected. They didn't have a telephone. And being so remote, everyone knew and expected that they wouldn't hear from them for a longer period of time. Mm-hmm.

The next time that they were seen was on January 15th, 1924. Alan Wilcoxon snowshoed through the forest from his home in Fall River, Oregon on his way to the resort he owned at Elk Lake that was within the National Forest. It was about a 28.6 mile trek or 46 kilometer trek for him, so he decided to stop at the cabin and spend the night with the three men. He hung out with them, they had dinner, just chatted for the night, went to bed, and he left in the morning. Later, he would report to police that when he saw them, they were in high spirits and good health. But he would be the last known person to see any of them alive. This is so, we have a weird way of like having things line up. You said January 15th.

Today's January 16th. Oh, my God. I don't even do this on purpose. I know you don't. I really know you don't. At all. It just. Sometimes I think of things and I'm like, God, I wish I planned these dates better.

in situations where they don't line up. But yeah, no idea. That's funny. Well, it is almost a hundred year anniversary too because when I get into some more dates, they're pretty close to now. They're next month over the next two months. It would be 100 years. Yeah, right around this time, the season.

Yeah, but like the date is almost to the actual day. Yeah, that's wild. Yeah. I didn't even notice that when I was writing this and I was writing this over. I wrote a lot of this yesterday. So I didn't write it all. I wrote it all over the past three days. So that's funny that you say that.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So two months go by after January 15th and no one had heard from the men again, and people in Ben started to get concerned. Based on the last conversation with Edward, they were expecting them to be back with more furs. Also, Dewey's brother, Innes, and him were very close. So when he had not heard a word from his brother or anyone associated with him,

he became very worried. Though Oregon Wilderness in the midst of winter was a tough place to be, and there are plenty of things could happen out there. Between the frigid weather, rugged terrain, and wildlife in the park, his brother was concerned any sort of thing could have happened to him. And he was so concerned that Innes reached out to the superintendent of the Tamalo fish hatchery, Pearl Linus. And he reached out to this person because the hatchery was located within the park and not too far from the cab and the men were staying at. He asked if Pearl could put together a search party and check in on them and make sure that everything was okay.

When the search party arrived, it was apparent that something had happened there. The cabin was deserted and eerily quiet, but clues were left behind that something concerning may have happened. When they knocked on the cabin door and no one answered, they let themselves in. They noticed that the dining room table was set up for a meal. It had plates and silverware and glasses untouched and ready to be served, but it was clear that no one was there. The fireplace had gone cold, most likely long ago, with the last logs burnt out and no warmth left in the air at all. When they walked into the kitchen, the pots on the stove were all filled with entirely burnt breakfast foods. Growing even more concerned, they investigated the cabin further.

They found traps, winter clothing, and the men's rifles. It was beginning to look like whatever happened, they left quickly and unprepared, because it was cold out for them to not bring any of their winterer belongings and to, to go out without their rifles was just, it felt odd. It dawned on searchers that the whole reason the trappers were staying at this particular cabin was to look after the five foxes that Edward had been raising. So they rushed out to the fox den. All five of the foxes were missing.

The only thing left behind was a claw hammer stained with blood. Okay, this, sorry, but this reminds me in a very loose way. Have you ever heard those stories of, and I wish I could think of like an example. exact ship, but like the ships that are found or used to be found like a drift as if like everyone just jumped off board. Yeah. Yeah, I was actually looking into one of those recently because there was one, there was a story of one that popped up and I was looking if it was tied to a national park recently. But yeah, it's just like and everyone's like what the fuck happened here because it's untouched. Like all the food's out. Everything looks normal, but not a single person can be found of like

the hundreds of people on board. And the ship's just drifting around. Right. It's like they just like walked away. Yeah. It's like what? This is concerning because like what? Why is no one here?

There's no like signs of struggle. There's no well, I don't know that bloody hammers. The only sign of anything is the bloody hammer in the fox den, which could be a million things to that. Right. Okay. But for them, that was a lot. That was a lot to make them think that something really bad may have happened.

And so they decided to look at the trap lines to see if there were any animals that were stuck in them still, because if there were no animals in them, it could indicate that the men had been there recently. If there were animals left behind, then that could indicate that they had been gone a long time. First, they observed several mink traps not emptied. Then more animals were discovered, including Martin, foxes, and skunk. And these animals were not only dead in the traps, but they were also four. frozen, which indicated that they had actually been there for a while now. Now the search party was certain that something bad had happened out in the woods, and they quickly ventured back to Bend to report what they had found. They first alerted their findings in the missing men to the

Deschutes County Sheriff Office. There they spoke with Sheriff Clarence Adams, a former game warden who was familiar with Deschutes National Forest and the area where the cabin was located. Immediately he initiated another search of the area to find more clues as to what may have happened and for any signs of the men. When they arrived, they ordered the search party to check the surrounding area and the nearby lava lake. After a while, they discovered the sled that the trappers had been using to carry their furs buried in the snow. They also quickly noticed that it was stained with something dark. When they look closer, it was evident that their sled was stained with blood. Is that abnormal for having blood on a sled that transports dead animals?

Well, for this one, maybe not. But it was also, it seems like they used it more to transport the furs. Maybe not all of... Oh, after they've been processed, maybe. Yeah, after they've already been scanned and stuff. Because I wouldn't imagine that they would bring in a bunch of furs to town on this sled that was covered in blood. True.

Yeah. Just to, like, cover the bases. You know, who knows? it could have been something, but that to them was a little fishy, and the search only led to more grim discoveries. Lining the trail leading to the lake itself was dotted in bloodstains and clumps of what looked to investigators to be human hair. Then they found a front tooth in the snow. Nearby lay the deceased bodies of the five foxes, who were very clearly skinned by an expert. They followed the trail of blood, which then led to the middle of the frozen lava lake.

Lava Lake at the time was mostly frozen over. The thick ice was offering no views into the water below it. However, by this time it was early April, and parts of the ice were starting to thin, and some of it had unthawed completely. One section of the ice caught the sheriff's eye. Just passed where the blood trail ended, going even a little farther into the lake, there was a depression in the ice. It was in a shape that was clear that someone had cut a large hole into the ice and it had

since partially frozen over. The site was shocking and at this point, investigators had a very good idea what had happened. In all evidence indicated that the men were probably underneath the ice. The search party grabbed a boat from a nearby camp and tools to break the ice. They hauled the boat over the ice to the middle of the lake that had. had already unfrozen in some areas and put the boat into the water. They started chipping away at the ice and broke it apart as they paddled through the water. It didn't take long until they unveiled

the three missing men. With ropes they had brought with them, they carefully fastened it around their bodies and towed them behind the boat to an area of the lake with thicker ice. They hoisted their bodies onto the ice shelf where for the first time they got a look at what happened to them. Immediately, it was clear that they had all been brutally murdered. Roy and Edward both had gunshot wounds, but Dewey's body was in worse condition. He looked to have been severely beaten. The lead sheriff on the investigation put on snow shoes and ran back to the town to alert people what had happened and to bring in a bigger team. Later, autopsy reports revealed their exact cause of death. Edward had been shot at close range multiple times. He had been shot in the face and the blast had blown off the bottom of his jaw.

He had a second gunshot wound in his chest. His watch had also eerily stopped at the time of 9.10 a.m. Roy had a gunshot wound in his right shoulder, also most likely at short range because his entire shoulder was missing. After the initial shot, he was shot beyond the ear, execution style. Dewey had been shot as well in the left forearm. But what did he was shot, he was shot. He was shot. He was shot. differed for him was that his face was unrecognizable. His face had been beaten badly from a hammer. They discovered it was the same hammer they had found in the fox pen. With all of this new information, the sheriff hypothesized what had happened that day. First, they theorized that this was done by more than one person. All three of the men were large, strong, and in good shape. Roy previously had been a

Marine and he was well trained. They believed even if someone was armed, it would have been difficult for one person to take down all three of them, especially in the way that they did. They also believe that the men had been lured out of the cabin by some type of distraction while they were making breakfast, which would explain why everything was left cooking in the cabin. But otherwise, there was no sign of any struggle or anything to be a ray. So they think, like, maybe they made a loud noise, maybe something was happening. Outside where it really concerned them, they all jumped up, didn't put their clothes on, didn't grab their guns, and just ran out.

to see what had happened and were attacked. The attack started violent with gunshots, with both Edward and Roy being hit and wounded. Edward, with his jaw blown off, was most likely the most injured, initially between the two. But then they were both executed with a second shot. But young 25-year-old Dewey had escaped initially. He was shot in the forearm before he went running for his life through the snow.

It was frigid temperatures outside, but with whatever had lured him out of the cabin, was alarming enough that he didn't have time to put on any of his winter clothing. What they believed happened next was that he was chased, and unsuccessful in outrunning the perpetrator, or perpetrators. When they reached him, they took a hammer and bludgeoned him to death. The men then likely killed the foxes there before loading up the men and the foxes onto the sled they were using for trading. They used the sled to carry the bodies out to the lake before cutting through the ice and submerging them in the water. Then they skin the foxes, left their bodies behind, and left. And this is just all what police have gathered from the evidence that's here. Yeah. I mean,

it makes sense at least. Lines up. It does line up. I guess it doesn't make sense because it's like, well, why? Like what's the motive behind this and the reasoning and who's involved and all that? But as far as like timeline and what they gathered from the scene, it lines up to what I I was thinking because obviously it didn't take place in the cabin. And there's three. Because there's no sign of anything. Yeah. There's three healthy, youngish guys that are like arguably in the prime of their life able to fight.

And there's no sign of a struggle. And they're all dead. Like, yeah. So it would indicate there's multiple people. Yeah. So I agree so far. But I just, it's confusing as to why. Yeah.

And that was their next thing too. They theorize what happened. They can kind of put the pieces together and figure out something. But then they started asking, like, who would want to kill these men? What was the reasoning behind all of this? And that's when their investigation really started. They began interviewing family and friends and anyone who had been in contact with the men over the past few months. And they learned a lot.

Initially, they got a suspect. Their first suspect was a local woodsman who was familiar with the area and lived near by. And this was important because they had realized that whoever did this knew the area because this cabin was far out in Deshutes National Forest. In the wintertime and especially in the snow, it would take an outdoorsman to really find it. There wasn't a definitive trail. You would have had to know where the cabin was and you would have to probably had been there before. So they were looking for someone familiar with the area. And this local woodsman named Indian Erickson initially, fit the bill. And right, someone that would know something about the fur trade and or being able to be a skilled outdoorsman and skin an animal properly. Yeah. And one of the first things is professionally done. Right. You said the fox were professionally skinned. So I mean, like I've skinned a deer before at the wolf center and it was not professionally done. Let me tell you that. So to know the ins and outs, And especially, I know it was a remote area and there was likely multiple people involved,

but you're not going to take your time to skin five foxes if you don't really know what you're doing. I don't, you know what I mean? Especially after murdering three people, you're going to try and get out of there. But clearly this person knew that no one would be around. They know the fur trade, like you said. And know that maybe there's some value, obviously there's some value in the fox pelts. Especially in this time, in the 1920s. know fur was huge back then fur i mean we did that whole episode on the birds and feathers and i mean

this was like the time where people were really after that so they had to have known that they were going to make some money off of it was that the motive i don't know three people for five fox like yeah i mean it doesn't it doesn't equate to that much money and we'll get into that too but yeah it's just why and that's the investigators they're like why so they first look at edward logan because he's an outdoorsman. He lives there. He lives very close by. He would know about the cabin.

He probably had interactions with the men. But after they spoke with him, he had an alibi and they realized that they really didn't. They couldn't pinpoint a reason why this man would do it. So then they continued to interview other people. And with this, they ended up turning their full attention to a man named Lee Collins. According to Edward, Edward Nichols, who had been the person leased. the cabin to the men, he knew Lee Collins and he knew that the other Edward, or sorry, Edward, there's so many Edwards here.

So according to Edward Logan, who owned the cabin, Edward Nichols, who was murdered, had a disagreement with Lee Collins the summer prior. Wait, who's Lee Collins? This is someone that Edward is bringing to the attention of the police now. Oh, okay. All right, a new person involved. Okay. What a name's thrown in that little spot.

So Edward basically says, I know this guy, Lee Collins, him and Edward had a falling out last summer and it was pretty severe. So he tells him that they had a, they worked together actually. They worked in the park the year before for trapping together. And Edward had accused Lee of stealing his wallet. And there was enough evidence or whatever happened with this that Lee was eventually charged for the crime. And angry, Lee threatened to come back to. the woods and kill Edward. And not only did he threaten it, but he promised that he would do it. Well, that doesn't look great. No. So this was enough for investigators to want to look into

Lee Collins a little bit more. You know, this sounds very promising. And what they were about to discover was more disturbing than they could have imagined. When checking into Lee Collins' background and seeing photos of him, they discovered that Lee Collins wasn't Lee Collins at all. He had been using that name as an alias because he was on the run from police. Oh, classic. Classic. Out in the woods hiding from police. Yeah.

1920s move. It really was. What were you doing in the 1920s? I was a fugitive. I was changing my identity left and right because no one checked. No one cared and there was no one tracking it. Yeah. No way to how would they know?

How would they know? Well, they're about to find out. But unless you're a suspect for murder, I don't think it would have ever been found out. Yeah. And well, they do just. that his real name was Charles Kimsey and he was a fugitive on the run after being involved in a stage coach robbery in 1923. But it gets worse than that because he was not just wanted for robbery. He was also being sought out by police on an attempted murder charge and after they had found him

and arrested him, he had actually escaped the Idaho state prison and had been on the run ever since. So what happened and what led him to being in prison in the first place is while robbing the stagecoach on the way to Idaho, he overpowered a driver that he hired and bound both his hands and his feet with wire. And from here he could have easily just left the guy stolen the coach, but he took it a step further. He forced the driver to drink poison before driving him to an abandoned well. He then took the man, picked him up, and threw him down the bottom of the well and left him there. What a brutal way to die. And I have to say, and I want to put this out here publicly just in case, I don't think this will ever happen. And Al will be, like, upset that I said this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

Oh, okay. I have a well in my backyard and it's really scary. And if I ever go missing, check the well. I'm not saying it's Al, but most crimes committed against people are their spouses. So we'll clear it first. It's just like we just got to get it out of the way. We just got to get it out of the way. Yeah.

That well is weird, though. Isn't it kind of like... It's so weird. It's definitely not a well that you imagine because it's not like the stone, like, creepy thing. It's like a metal, like, tube, right? So, yeah. So since we bought this house, we've been discovering all these funky things that

this last owner did. And I don't even know what this well is for. I have no idea. Because at first, didn't I think it was a cistern or something? And you're like, no, it's not. Yeah. And it's like, I don't, it's up in the back of our house, like up in the woods. And Al found it.

And he was like, hey, I have to show you something. Like, come over here. And he brings me out into the woods. And he uncovers this big metal 20 foot well, I guess. There's like a couple feet of water in the bottom of it. He's like, yeah, come closer. Take a look down there. Yeah, he's like, it shoves me.

I'm not just going to. Oh, whatever. He'd be sad if I was saying that I would. But he does joke. It's so funny now when we're arguing, not like when we're play arguing. He'll be like, get in the well. And we're like, but now I have a fear of wells. And this guy actually threw this man into a well.

And he survived. He managed. Yeah. So this is the attempted murder charge that he was in prison for. Oh, right. Attempted. Attempted. So he didn't die of the fall, drowning, or poison. No.

He actually managed to throw up the poison. and loosen the wires enough to escape being bound. He then hoisted himself up and out of the well, and he found his way to what was known as Last Chance Ranch, which was located in central Idaho, and here he was able to find help and report what had happened to authorities. Charles was apprehended and arrested and was facing many years in prison, but before the trial began, he managed to escape,

and no one had heard from him since until 9. Now. So how long ago? Was this like a couple of years? It was the year before. So this is 1924. This was in 1923 he escaped. So not very long. Okay. So they're like regardless of if you killed these three people, you should. We still got to find you. Yeah. We got to find you in luck yet. Okay. With this new information, police put out the news of this fugitive that was on the run and now wanted for actual murder. And they asked any witnesses to come forward who may know where he. he is or may have seen him. And shortly after they put out this calling for someone, a witness did come forward, and it happened to be an officer who had an interaction with Charles. A traffic officer by the name of WC. Bender reported that on January 24th, Charles had approached him asking for directions. He was carrying a full burlap sack and asked for directions to the local fur dealer.

He directed Charles to the Schumacher. I don't know how to pronounce that fur company that was in town. Police then went to this fur company and questioned the owner and discovered that Charles had in fact stopped in the store. And not only had he stopped there, he sold five fox furs for $110 to the owner, which to talk about money is about $1,900 in today's money. Okay, so earlier you said, this is confusing. I'm not confused. It seems very... Feels very point blank who did it.

Yeah. But I'll say. I'll say it again. this is an unsolved case. I'm dying to know why, which is confusing. Okay. Okay, so not only did he present five fur foxes and get money for them, not only that, but when he was asked for an ID, he presented the license of Edward Nichols, which was the man

who was found in the lake. Wait. Okay. Stupid. Move. Stupid, but no one cared back then. No one looked into things. then, I guess. And that was the identification he had because I'm sure he didn't have anything.

And as Lee Collins, no one would have given him a license or anything as Lee Collins. So that's what he presented. And interestingly enough, he was also with another man who the store owner described as very talkative and friendly. And he seemed as if he was like almost trying to be charming and like kind and like, yeah, buy these furs. Like just trying to like make a good impression. And that's what the store owner thought. Like, oh, very talkative kind. Remembered the two of them well. So with all this new information, the police posted a reward for $1,500 for any information leading to the arrest of Charles Kimsey.

And that is equivalent to about $25,000 today. So it's a pretty big reward. They really want this guy. It is a big reward. Yeah. And with that, a full-on manhunt took over the PMW, with police searching everywhere for Charles, California. Ornia, Oregon, all the way to Idaho, Wyoming, to Washington. I mean, his name was out everywhere.

Everyone knew who he was, why people were looking for him. But months went by with no leads to where he could be. People feared that because he was an outdoorsman, he could hide out for a long time in some remote wilderness and not be caught at all. And months and months went by and then years. And the case turned cold and it was kind of forgotten about. That is until a few years later when Claude L. McCauley became Deschutes County Sheriff. After seeing the Manhunt unfold years prior, Claude had actually made it a personal mission of his to find Charles.

And when he got a higher seniority in place of authority, he opened the case again. And he was traveling as far as 10,000 miles away for over four years following every lead and any lead that he could. But he still had no luck. Nothing was turning up anything. That is, until nine years after the murders, when there was finally a breakthrough in the case. On February 18, 1933, police in Callisbell, Montana, just outside of Glacier National Park, arrested a hermit who was going by the name of Bob Bales. They arrested Bob Bales because he resembled Charles, and they thought that he was him. But after they arrested him and they compared photos of him, they realized.

They realized that he didn't exactly match up to what the detectives thought and they ended up having to let him go. But that's not where it ends because only a few weeks later, now the police are kind of on high alert. They're like, we thought we saw this guy. Maybe he is around. And just a few weeks later on March 10th, the real Charles Kimsey was spotted in Calispell by police and they arrested him. The same place they thought Bob Bales. Yeah. What are the fucking chances of that?

I know. And weirdly enough, it was not according to them. And, you know, I would, I think that reporting and conversations between police stations and although I imagine it's the same police station, uh, was weird. According to them, it was not the same Bob Bales that they arrest in. And this was actually a totally different person. So, the first arrest was not Charles, but this was actually Charles. In the same small town. Town. Yep. That's just, yeah. What are the odds? Nine years later. It's like people were kind of forgetting about it moving on and then this happens. Wow. So of course they arrest him. They take him in. And when he's questioned by police, he claims to have never heard of the three men in Oregon or their deaths. A red flag. Everyone knows. Everyone knows. But remember, he was Lee Collins in Oregon. So he could be like, no, I've never been to Oregon. I've never. I don't know who Lee Collins is. I'm Charles Kim Zee. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, like he's just like he's playing off of all these. different people that he allegedly is. And he also gives an alibi. He gave an alibi that he was in Colorado working on building the MoFat Tunnel west of Denver in Rollinsville. He went extensively into

his alibi too, even claiming that he spent Christmas eating dinner inside of the tunnel because he had been working. And while when I looked into it a little bit more, it's unclear how much investigating was done. It looks like the police couldn't confirm or disprove this alibi. To them, it actually kind of checked out and seemed like it might fit because there was evidence that he was there at some point. But it was unclear if they actually researched if they were there during the specific dates that the Oregon murders happened. Okay. But regardless of that, they were gung-ho that this was the right guy. And they transported him back to the Deshutes County Jail on March 16, 1933.

And that was where Sheriff McCauley, who had been searching for him for years, was waiting. for him. And he brought the shop owner and officer who had met him years prior to make a positive identification. But it was tough. It had been nine years since either of the men had seen Charles, and he had aged a lot in that time. His weight had changed, his face had aged, and he was bald now. While the two men stated that they wouldn't hesitate to identify Charles if they saw him, they both stated that they couldn't be 100% certain that this man that they brought in was the same guy. So with no other concrete evidence definitely linking Charles to the murders, even though, you know, they say he went in, it's all hearsay. The guys who said that he sold the furs to them, they can't identify this as the guy. You know, it's all, they can't link anything absolutely to Charles. So Sheriff McCauley is realizing now that he's in real danger to have to release Charles. And even though he was pretty certain he had the right. man, he realized he needed to be a little bit more creative.

Okay, just I might be getting this wrong. Okay. But isn't he wanted for attempted murder and escaping Idaho penitentiary? Yes, he is. So why are they not just holding him on that? Well, that's where the sheriff starts to take another angle. And that's where he starts investigating his past a little bit more. And he goes back to not only the attempted murder, but he discovers more about it.

his past. He discovers that Charles was wanted for murder in Utah over another stagecoach robbery where he had successfully killed the driver. And during his investigation, he found that the man who he had attempted to murder and had thrown in the well was now living in California. So he was able to get in contact with him and he agreed to come to Oregon to see the man and identify him, essentially. And because it had all kind of taken place in, he had stolen the stage coach from Oregon, but it happened in Idaho. It was, it sounded like it was more his jurisdiction where Utah wasn't. And he was like gung ho on getting this guy. So it kind of sounds like he threw the Utah murder case to the wind was like, that's not. And you have to remember like a long

time ago, I think it was, I think it was the Ted Bundy case that changed it where police like officials didn't speak to each other across state lines. So there was no communication. And I think it was Ted Bundy where they were like, hold on, let's link all of this. And they start paying. Let's work together, like more cohesively for a greater good type of thing. And this is long before that happened. So for this, I think the Utah case kind of just went to the wind and he was like, we're going to get him on this attempted murder charge. I'm going to get this guy who he threw in the well to come positively identify him and testify against him in court. And this time, that's what happened.

The man positively IDed Charles as the person who had attacked him many years ago. And while Sheriff McCauley still didn't have enough evidence to charge Charles with the murders, he could now be charged for the attempted murder he had escaped custody from years prior. And of course, when they get to court, Charles pleads not guilty to the crimes. But with the testimony from the man who he had attempted to kill and the positive identification from him, the jury took less than three hours to find him guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison at the Oregon State Penitentiary, but a life sentence can mean a lot of things.

Like, a lot of times, it's only 25 years for whatever reason. So in 1957, Charles was released and he lived out the rest of his life in Idaho. So he only spent, what, like, 53 years in prison? Mm-hmm. Something like that, 34 years in prison. And they never had enough evidence to charge him for the murder of Roy, Edward, and Dewey. So as of today, the triple homicide is officially listed as unsolved and is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in the state of Oregon.

So he never said anything, never, like, bragged about it, talked about it, literally. nothing. Not to anyone who said anything because they never charged him. And when you look up the case, it's like it's a solved case because everyone believes wholeheartedly that he did it. But if you look up the case, it is listed as unsolved. Well, and if there's other people involved, what about them? Yeah. So there was some talk about who might have done it and some theories. But I didn't really include them in them in here because they were really seemed like far fetched yeah it's not that they were impossible but it was just like it didn't really there was nothing really linking them or linking the person to oregon it was just people that he knew so and he was a really violent person so i don't know

i think it could have been possible he took down all three of them by himself too he was out for vengeance i mean he promised he would come back and kill edward so Over a wallet. Over a wallet. Yeah. Or whatever that was. Yeah. And he poisoned and bound and threw someone in a well and he might have killed another person in Utah.

Like, he's clearly a very dangerous guy. Wow. So technically unsolved, but solved. We all know. We all know. We know you did it. At least partially. Yeah.

Imagine though. Imagine if he didn't. Like. I know. I know. Well, or if there's other people involved. I mean, like you said, maybe he did it by himself, but especially if, like, if he did it on his own, I would imagine he'd at least get a little bit injured in some sort of altercation.

Yeah. And the person who said that he saw him with the interaction with the fox furze after, like, didn't know any, like, oh, yeah, he looked like he was like in a bar fight or something, you know, like, I don't know. It sounded like a friendly interaction. Like, hey, where can I get, where can I sell my fur? And he's like, yeah, just go into town here. Right. Yeah.

So I don't know. I don't know. It's there is obviously questions like you said, but at least a really bad person went to prison for something that he did. Yes. And I'm not for long enough in my opinion. Yeah. He should have died in prison.

He should have died in prison. Yeah. Especially he was clearly dangerous. I hope he didn't do anything else in his life after he left prison. But yeah. It's a crazy story. And the fact that it's listed as unsolved and the fact, I mean, we're on the 100 year anniversary of it happening this year, anyone who is there during that time is lost to time now.

I mean, these people who are involved are not 130 years old now, 150 years old. So there might be people alive now who are still attached to the story in some way, whether it's like a granddaughter or a son or something like that. Like a distant relative? Yeah, distant relative. I mean, if it was a son or daughter, they'd be older now. They'd be elderly too. Well, did you say they had families?

I don't remember. Not that I saw. I mean, I think, I'm not sure. It didn't really say. Yeah. I don't think they did. Regardless, I mean, like you said, the chances of it being solved today are slim, but you never know with the whole like genealogy thing,

people looking into their ancestry and submitting DNA samples and who knows? Like if someone, I don't know if it's really like a top priority in Oregon right now to like, who knows if they even have any evidence? Do they have any evidence still? I'm guessing no. It didn't really say. I'm guessing no. But, you know, maybe he had a, maybe Charles had a journal he left with his family that

said, I did this and they're just holding it. Dear diary on February 15th. Yeah, or whatever. I murdered three people and put them in the lake. And it's just sitting in someone's attic somewhere. Yeah. Wow. Who knows?

Damn. Well, good job. That was really a ride. And I know PNW people are going to be stoked. Yeah. It was time we headed back there for a story. And true crime was heavily asked for. So I wanted to tell the Lava Lake murders.

And it was funny because someone on Patreon had mentioned the Lava Lake murders because I sent a message to our Patreon members. And I was like, hey guys, what do you want to hear? And someone wrote the Lava Lake murders. And I had actually started writing this episode already. And I was like, oh, well. Perfect. Surprise.

It's not on Patreon. I mean, it will be on Patreon ad free too. But surprise. This one's here too. This one's for you. Yeah, this one's for you. Whoever you are. I could go back and look.

Cool. Last thing that, so right before we got on, we're like, okay, do we have any like housekeeping stuff? I'm like, oh, yeah, I have something. And then I just totally. got like within one minute to even talk about it. Oh my God, yes. I know what you're going to say. So over, you know, since we began the podcast coming up on three years, we've gotten a lot of messages about wanting either like different types of shoutouts for people like anniversaries,

happy birthday, you know, congrats, like whatever, anything under the sun. And also a lot of people reach out to us for recommendations on either places that we've been or spoken about. and, you know, just if we have any advice or whatever it may be. And we usually get those via email. And we get a lot of emails. And doing personal shoutouts and things like that gets tricky on the actual podcast. So we haven't really known what to do with that because we want to be able to address those.

But it's just hard to do it in this format. So we decided that I created a cameo to do that. Obviously, Cassie and I are not in the same place. So doing cameos together would be pretty difficult. So right now, I'm just, it's me. You get me. I'm sorry. If you're like obsessed with Cassie and don't care about me. I'm sure you're fine to a cameo. But regardless, so if you, if that's something that you're looking to do, Cassie added it to our link tree on our Instagram. So the cameo link can be found there. and I'll do my best to do messages for people. And the other reason that I wanted to do the cameo format is because I can donate part of the proceeds to charity through doing that.

So 20% of all the proceeds that are collected through videos doing these videos and shoutouts and wrecks or whatever message you want to send is going, I chose the charity. It's going to go to an organization nonprofit out in Olympia, Washington called Wild Goals. grief. And what they do is they take anyone, primarily youth, but also adults, who are processing the loss of a loved one, whether it be a spouse, parent, sibling, friend, family member, etc. And this organization essentially just organizes different hikes, backpacking trips, and outdoor excursions for people who are navigating grief so that they can come together, be with others who kind of understand their situation, and have the opportunity to process grief and loss in an outdoor space. And I think it's a really, really cool cause and

program and I want to be able to support it. So that's where some of the money is going to go to. So if you want a shout out or anything like that, please know that that's available if you so choose. Yeah. And we have it linked on Instagram. When you go on Instagram, you can see it right in the box. But I'll also link it to the show notes today. So you can see it there if you're interested. It'll be right there. You can just click the link. Yeah. I mean, Maybe I'll, if I'm ever with Cassie or something and we happen to get a cameo, maybe I'll drag her into one. Yeah, I'll come on one if we're together. Yeah.

All right. So that's it. Yeah, that's my whole story today. Thank you everyone for tuning in. And we'll see you next time. But in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone.

Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at N-P-A-D-E. podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations,

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