National Park After Dark - The Murder of Tomomi Hanamure: Grand Canyon National Park

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

On May 8th, 2006 to celebrate her 34th birthday, Tomomi Hanamure laced up her hiking boots, as she had done so many times before, for an adventure. Her return journey to the Grand Canyon was a way to mark another year around the sun, to a place she felt so personally drawn to. Tragically, the date that marked her entrance into this world would also be the day someone violently ripped her out of it.More info on WFA classes HEREFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at: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 the week’s partners!BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Soul:  For 30% off your order, head to GetSoul.com and use code NPAD.Hello Fresh: Use our link to get up to 10 FREE meals and a free item for life.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Everything in life involves risk. But when entering nature, that risk is elevated. The natural world can be unpredictable. And when we plan our adventures, many of us acknowledging said potential dangers, study the challenges of the terrain we are about to embark into. We bring extra water, test out our crampons, make sure to pack many snacks, and double-check the weather reports. Risk in the outdoors is often discussed through the lens of nature, the unpredictability of weather, wildlife, or natural disasters.

This, we know well. But there is another element of danger in secluded and wild places, one that is far harder to predict or to prepare for. And that is human behavior. The other people we encounter on the trail, it can be near impossible to know when trusting a stranger will lead to a connection and friendship, or when it could turn dangerous, even deadly. Out there in remote landscapes, we take risks on the land, on the weather, and on each other. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park. I'm Cassie. after dark and I'm Danielle.

Did I just say National Park? Yes. It's okay. I finished it up for you. Thank you. That'll be our new thing. Instead of enjoy the view but watch your back, we'll be like,

hi, this is National Park. After dark. No, I don't like that. That would be the first and only. Time. Yeah, well, welcome back to our show. And we're kind of getting back to the roots on this episode as far as when we first,

This was just a twinkle in our eye, this podcast. We thought, let's just do a true crime-focused nature show. And we quickly were like, me, never mind. It's too sad. So we do a true crime, of course, here and there. And this is unfortunately or fortunately one of those episodes. And this has been an episode I've had, like we say, so many times, kind of just like hanging out in the back of my mind and on my bookshelf because, of course, there is a book, of course,

which I'll recommend later on. And I've kind of held off on it because it's just, it's brutal, it's sad. There's not a lot of like meaning to it as far as a larger lesson and take away. Some things are, some stories are just tragic and this is one of them, I think. But I think we're all going to be able to relate to Tomi, who is unfortunately the victim in today's story and see a little bit of her and ourselves. And I just wanted to honor that and bring her story out to everyone. So that's why I decided to do it today. I was feeling like her spirit for adventure and love of the American West is something to be celebrated. So that's what we're going to do today. Well, before we jump into that story, we also wanted to just update you a little bit on what we've been up to

because we just did a group trip. We just got back from it actually yesterday. So we just did a group trip to northern New Hampshire, home state, which is really fun. But this one was a little bit different because we did a wilderness first aid course with the Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute, who is own and run by one of the guests that we had on the show, Kevin Grange. He's been on the show twice now, but also his wife, Megan, who came out their New Hampshire natives. natives and we collaborated and did a whole course together with a bunch of NPAD listeners, which was really fun. Yeah. And we were kind of joking about it and reflecting back. We don't think we said anything about this on

the actual podcast when we announced it and put the trip up for grabs. I think it was just on Patreon. Well, it was on Patreon and on Instagram. Yeah, but first Patreon. That's why you got to be on Patreon because all the good trips, openings always show up there first. And sometimes life gets ahead of us or they get booked up really quick that we just don't ever say it on the podcast because it's gone. There's no need. There are you gone. Yeah. Yeah. So just a perk of being part of the community over there. But yeah, it was really cool. There was almost 30 of us. And we went up on a Thursday and concluded on a Sunday. Each day we had some class time because the wilderness first aid course was of was definitely the centerpiece of the entire weekend. There was the whole purpose. And both Kevin and Megan are just a wealth.

of knowledge. They're both paramedics. They have so many years of experience in the field. And Kevin's first interview with us, we've had him on the podcast twice. Cassie said the first one was discussing his experiences as a paramedic out in Yosemite, Grand Teton's, and what was the third one? Grand Canyon. No, that was Andrea Linkford was Grand Canyon, I think. I don't know. He's been at three places. Sorry, Kevin. I can't keep track of your stuff. But, Yeah, so Wild Rescues was his first book and he gave everyone a signed copy, which was super fun, all the participants. And we spent, I think the course was 20 something hours worth of information.

We went over a ton of stuff. Everyone got certified, re-uped their certifications for CPR and Wilderness First Aid. And aside from that, we had a lot of time to hang out and chill. we rented this little nook of a little compound on the shores of Lake Winapasaki. So we had cabins and we had fires and went out of the night. We go swimming every day, which was really nice. Yeah, we went kayaking. It was awesome.

And this is definitely something that we really love doing because I think a lot of what we talk about on this podcast is just being outdoors, recreating out there and feeling safe. And I think a big part of that is having knowledge. and wilderness first aid is such a good tool. I know that I feel a lot safer knowing, not even just for myself, but if I ever come across someone who needs help, I feel a lot more confident and being able to give some sort of help to them. And if you guys are interested in doing more stuff like that, one, we'd love to hear if you

are interested in doing these courses and if we should, we're already planning to probably do more stuff like this. But we'd love to know your thoughts on it and if you're interested. But also, we'll put in links in the show notes. here if you're interested and you want to check out the Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute. They have a ton of different classes and things that you can do with them. They're based out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is a cool reason to go out there and go visit the Tons and do stuff out there. But also occasionally they come to the East Coast and might be doing more of that in the

future. Yeah. And a lot of our participants were, had mentioned like, hey, my work paid for this. You know, because it's a certification and a lot of different employers required. it, especially out in public land work or any sort of medical field. We had a lot of nurses. And so just something to remember for the future, which I didn't even think of, to be quite honest. Guides need it. When I worked in outdoor education, I needed to do something like that.

And so a lot of, it's really useful for a lot of different jobs. Yeah. So just something to think of. Maybe someone will pay for it for you. Yeah. In the future, when we announce something like this, if you're like, oh, I don't know if it's in the budget. And you never know, check with your employer if the action.

meat of the class price would be taking care of. So just throwing it out there. We're not announcing anything officially. We're just saying. We're just saying that it was really fun and we'd like to do it more. So tell us if you want to hang out of us. And I would really love to do a Wilderness First Responder course now. Yeah.

So there's different. We're signing up with us. I know. We're also thinking of, you know, if there's interest running a couple more of these courses, but then maybe the next step of the first responder, Wilderness First Responder and Wiffer Classes. And then every two years you have to be recertified. So maybe like Reunion.

I don't know. This guy is the limit. But like Cassie said, it's nice to have some foundational knowledge of just being, you know, you can be prepared all you want. But it was interesting because it's like, okay, I have my first aid kit. I have all this stuff. But now what? Like how can I do with it?

utilize what I have and even take what you have that may not be in your first aid kit but could be useful in certain emergent situations and how to best improvise. And yeah, anyway, it was some of it was heavy. You know, it's not like, oh, here's a Band-Aid. You know, we talked a lot about some pretty traumatic circumstances and how to be best prepared to handle them if they happen to you or somebody else. One thing I learned a lot in this class, too, was that I need to upgrade my first aid kit. A lot of the stuff that you just buy a little first aid kit just had a random store is great for if you just have a cut or something,

but I realized I'm missing a lot of really important stuff. And that was one thing. I was taking notes while I was in the class being like, okay, buy this, add this to my first aid kit. Yeah, I need this, especially things like aspirin, if someone's having a heart attack. You know, it's just I will be upgrading my first aid kit and we'll be better prepared from now moving forward.

Yeah, and it was cool because we had a lot of hands-on time too. It was split really well with, you know, there's only, it's unavoidable. You have to sit down and be a part of lectures, you know, because there's so much information. But then it being accompanied by some mock 911 emergency type things and getting hands-on experience with what you just learned. It was a fun way to practice with everybody. Yeah. Very informative. Well, so thank you everyone for coming who was there. And again, yeah, let us know if that's something

you'd be interested in participating in the future if we were to offer it again. But like I alluded to in a couple minutes ago, this is going to be a true crime episode. It's pretty sad and it takes place in the Grand Canyon. Okay. We haven't been to the Grand Canyon for a story in a while. No, that's untrue. We did the River Ladies. That is untrue. That was pretty recent. I know it. Well, let's go back. That's okay. We like it there. I've still never been, so.

Oh, right. Yeah. It's like, it's a weird one to have never been to because I feel like it's one of the big one. It's like not going to Yosemite, but going to every other park. You know, it's just one of the big hitters that I just haven't made it too. Yeah. And of course, thinking about this area too, it's in our thoughts with the fires and everything that's unfolded there in the last few weeks.

The fires, the employees, people who have lost. their jobs and their houses and or their employee housing and just the park itself, just, yeah, sending a lot of love to everybody affected out there right now. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's get started. 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, L, every year after, 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. Tamomi Hanamur awoke the morning

of May 8, 2006 in high spirits. It was her birthday, and she was turning 34, and she was on a grand adventure. Like many of us can relate to, we want to spend our birthdays doing something special, whatever that means to us, maybe a fancy dinner or time spent with friends. But for Tomomi, she had planned an epic trip. She was going to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to go visit Havasu Falls. A set of waterfalls and swimming pools known for their bright turquoise waters among the most photographed falls in the entire world. Tomomi had traveled across the world for this adventure.

She lived in Yokohama, a city in Japan just south of Tokyo. And she lived there with her father. her mom was out of the picture since she was around four years old, so it's just her and her dad, and she worked at a factory attaching price tags to Nike shoes. But as she wove her way through the urban maze of tall buildings and narrow sidewalks in her hometown, she dreamed of somewhere far, far away. She dreamed of the wide open landscapes of the American West. Growing up, Tamomi loved sports and animals.

She played basketball, authored poetry, and had dreams of playing on Japan's and National Women's basketball team at some point in her life. Entering high school, her interests started to shift to the American West and all that it had to offer from landscapes to culture. In particular, she had a huge fascination with Native American history. Her favorite movie was actually Dances with Wolves. And I'm like, go to MoMe, such a good choice. And it said in the book that I'm going to reference that she had seen it at least 12.

I'm like, I definitely feel like I've seen Titanic at least 12 times, so. That was me with Mighty Joe Young. Oh, right. I can always forget that my favorite movie. It's the only movie I've seen in theaters so many times. My poor dad had to take me so many times. Well, she attended any and every presentation or lecture that she could go to pertaining to the Lakota and Navajo cultures, consumed books by indigenous authors, and clipped photos

from magazines depicting iconic Western vistas, particularly those from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. After graduating college in 1990 and with no money to pay for tuition out in Japan, she pivoted towards her making her dreams a reality by enrolling in an immersive English language school in Mississippi. She's like, okay, well, I want to go to America. I want to, you know, get some boots on the ground experience here and travel, but I want to know the language. And really, get to, there's nothing quite like being immersed in a different country and their language to really get a grasp on it. I'm sure she had some sort of foundational knowledge through study, but she really wanted to. I would love to do that. One summer, you're going to lose me to an

immersive language school. I really want to learn Spanish fluently, and I think that's the way I need to do it. It's so funny because one of the, one of, I don't follow many of them, but I follow, just because I I really like her. Her Instagram handle is Fit Girl Mel. And she was Kim Kardashian's trainer for a long time. Okay. And she's just really cool and just like down to earth and practical. And she just randomly was like, yeah, I just decided to go to France for a few months

a summer and take and do an immersive French school because I really want to learn French. Yeah. And she's there right now doing it. And it's just so fun to watch her. just be like, there's no real big reason. I just wanted to do it, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's so, I mean, I think the big reason would be being bilingual is such an advantage. Yeah. And just life, especially if you're not even just traveling. I mean, here up in northern Vermont, there's so much French speaking here and I don't speak French. Yeah. So it would be cool.

But I feel like I encounter Spanish a lot more just in my travels and in life. So I would love to be fluent in Espaniel. Well, 2027. Yep. You're going to lose me to an immersive language school in Spain for probably a whole summer. Okay. I'll start preparing now. Yeah. We'll start pre-recording now. I was just going to say that. Okay. Put it on our calendar. You can come with me if you want. We could do it together. Nah. I'll do something else. Not that I don't want to be bilingual. I just, that's your journey. Okay. That's fair. I just wanted you to feel invited. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, four years after completing the program down in Mississippi, she had become an experienced U.S. traveler and continued her studies in Native American history.

By the time her 34th birthday had arrived, Tamomi had already traveled to the U.S. 14 times. So she's going back and forth between Japan and the U.S. on different trips and excursions, and both solo and with other people, it didn't matter. She just, like, really wanted to be here. And one of those trips included a Christmas adventure to the Grand Canyon where she spent her days hiking, exploring, and staying over at the Phantom Ranch Lodge. She wrote extensively in her journal, all in English, by the way, detailing the awe and inspiration that she felt by the landscapes and all of her different adventures. Each time she visited America, she left more and more enamored. She felt her most free, grounded, and alive when she was surrounded by the vast open canyons, mountain ranges, and deserts of the American.

West, using her time in Japan to work and save funds to fund her trips back here. When Tamomi traveled the U.S., she made sure to make it worth her while. She was very intentional about, like, yeah, she was drawn to the American West, but she was very selective on where she went, and she was very intentional about visiting places that had meaning to her, or meaning to, in particular, indigenous history. She especially loved visiting. different national parks and would embark on ambitious solo road trips to check as many dream destinations off of her list as she could. Tomomi was adventurous and certainly wasn't afraid of a

little thrill. A girl after my own heart. Yeah. She cherished her hard won adventures and chronicled them, like I said, all in her trusty travel notebook. And she wrote almost every single day. You know those people, I envy those people who are like... I want to be one of those people so bad. I always bring a journal and I write. I was really good actually about writing while we were in Antarctica. I wrote probably like six of the days over there, which is a record for me. Okay. Usually I write like two.

That's really good. And we've encountered a lot of people on our National Park After Dark group trips that do do that as well. But even just in day-to-day life, you know, just I know different people have different types of journals and diaries and things like that. But even people who, if all they have in them for the day, is a sentence, like that's enough just to chronicle their days and they can reflect on later in life. Like, I just think that's really admirable.

And for someone who loves to write, I don't do that. And it's a practice I would like to get into. You know who does that? Al. Really? Oh, my God. He has an entire bin that is filled with notebooks to the, and it's, like not all the notebooks are full, but all of them are written in pretty extensively of all of his travels.

in Wildland for like the past decade because he always brought journals with him in Wildland and he wrote of his experiences. And then also while he was out like on his motorcycle trips and stuff like that, I've never read anything. I like I don't read them because it's not my business. But he showed me a couple things here and there and he showed me the notebooks. But he writes, he has so many journals of all of his adventures. I'm like, I should have done that. I mean, I could do that. If I could turn back a time. If I could find. my way. Well, you can start today.

It's never too late, as they say. Well, that's cool. I didn't know that about Al. I thought for a second, a hot second, you were going to say Pamela Anderson, because she does that too. No. I do not.

I do not know that about her. Well, now you do. So in the book that I used pretty much for this entire episode, it's titled Pure Land, A True Story. of three lives, three cultures, and the Search for Heaven on Earth by author Annette McGivney. She writes extensively about just including different excerpts from Tomomi's diary, which was given to her by Tomomi's father, who we'll get into a little bit later. And I mean, Annette, just as a side note, her journey into the story is also really unique. So she is the

Southwest editor or was the Southwest editor for Backpacker Magazine. And when this all occurred in 2006, she researched the story for a piece for Backpacker Magazine in 2007. So that's how she kind of got introduced to Tomomi and everything that we're about to discuss. And she did the piece, but then she was like, God, there's more to this. And like, I wish I had more information. So she spent 10 years digging into this story. and that's how this book came about.

And she traveled to Japan, stayed with Tommi's family, and just really got to intimately know who she was as a person and the perpetrator that we'll get into as well. And then the three lives portion of the title of that story is actually a piece of her own personal life that she found she could relate to in a really unique way. So she's weaved into that book as well, her personal story. But yeah, so this book is kind of like the Holy Grail when it comes to this story because, believe it or not, there's not a ton of coverage about it. It's not one of those stories that has been reported on over and over, which...

Yeah, I've never heard this story before. Yeah, and we'll get into a little bit why that is. But yeah, so if you're interested in this and want to know more at the end, definitely read this book. But just some of Tomomi's entries from her trip to Yellowstone read December 29th, when I was driving to Yellowstone, I slipped and couldn't move my car. But two cowboys came to rescue. me. Thank you. December 30th, Yellowstone National Park. I saw wild buffaloes. They're huge. They're cool. Got more snow today. So it's like some of the details, some of the entries were super detailed and flowery and introspective and profound. And some of them were just like, this is what happened to me. And just jodding it down. Or just like a quick note of the first time she saw something. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And because of her interest in indigenous and Native American cultures, like I said, she visited places that were deeply meaningful to her. And some of those locations were indigenous lands and reservations, including Devil's Tower

and the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills, where she could learn about cultural practices and customs, all while forming meaningful friendships along the way. In 1999, she spent New Year's Day at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, reflecting on all that unfolded there. The Teton's, Yellowstone, and Moore also made that trip. And on all her journeys, she wrote back to her family back home, not only just in her personal diary and journals, but to her family.

And telling them just with tons of enthusiasm, all that she was experiencing. She used a lot of exclamation points to convey how excited she was about all of the wonders that she was seeing and experiencing out west. And one of those letters contained this excerpt. Every morning and evening, the sky is a different color. Sometimes it's purple, sometimes it's orange. There's just something about the huge open spaces that's amazing.

You've got the red earth and the gigantic sun and all this air. On the Navajo Reservation, there is no running water or electricity. So they use oil lamps and propane that they get from a store. You wake up with sunrise and go to bed with the sundown. I feel like now this is America. But back to her 34th birthday, she wanted to return to one of her favorite places, and that was the Grand Canyon. And for anyone who's ever been there or has maybe like you looked upon pictures and have been dreaming of one day visiting, it's no wonder that the Grand Canyon rose to the top of Tomomi's list. The National Park is nothing short of a geological wonder.

It encompasses over 1.2 million acres in northwest Arizona and was formed over millions of years by the water of the Colorado River. The layers of rock in the canyon tell a story of geological time. Countless layers of history are visible and tangible in this park. And the park is home to incredible biodiversity. A plethora of flora and fauna are abundant here, despite its surface level inhospitable veneer. Now, to get to the falls, which we kind of talked about a little bit at the beginning, it's an ambitious hike to reach them through the Grand Canyon. And this was actually kind of a tradition for Tomomi.

She had spent birthdays hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and staying at the lodge called the Phantom Ranch. But this time, she was breaking tradition a little bit. She was going somewhere new and somewhere much more remote. 70 miles downriver from Phantom Ranch, there was a corner of the canyon she hadn't seen before in an indigenous community called Supai. Nearby, the remote town was a glimmering attraction that peaked to Momy's interest. Havasu Falls. And you've, of course, seen pictures of this. Yeah, I've looked into going.

before. I've tried to get reservations before. Yeah. And this is somewhere you can't just walk up to anymore. It's permit only. There's a lot of rules and regulations around visiting here, which I'm sure a lot of people are aware of. Where has Al not been? It's just kind of a question. It's also his birthday today. Is it today? Yeah. I thought it was tomorrow. His birthday's today. Happy birthday, today. Happy birthday, Al. I know you're not listening, but happy birthday. I know. And it's August 12th as we're recording. So yeah, so this will come out after. Yeah. Wow. Happy birthday, Al. Wow. I wonder what he's going to write in his journal. Okay. Well, the falls are known for their bright turquoise water that cascades over towering ledges of red rock and form deep pools of aquamarine.

water that are just perfect for swimming in. To Tomomi, it looked like a slice of heaven buried deep in the canyon, and she had her heart set on celebrating her birthday in that location. Days earlier, she had flown from Japan to L.A., rented a car and drove to Flagstaff, where she spent a night in a motel and prepared for the journey that she had planned for the following day. So on her birthday, she woke up at around 4 a.m. so that she could hit the trail before it got too hot, which everyone knows that's the move, especially out in the Grand Canyon. It's just too dangerous to hike in the middle of the day. So she wanted to, she was prepared, she'd done it before, and she wanted to get going. As the sun crept over the horizon and thawed the surrounding Arizona towns to life, Tumomi

climbed into her rental car and made a stop at Walmart where she picked up some water and food for the eight mile hike that lay ahead of her. She called her dad back in Japan, who wished her a happy birthday, and as the world woke up, she drove down the highway to the trailhead, blasting music as she went. At the trailhead, Tomomi hopped out of her car and grabbed her phone, camera, wallet, and other essentials, and then she was ready. She began to descend the first switchbacks into the canyon. She made her way further and further down, passing by layers of rock, each one a slice of time and history in and of itself. When she reached the canyon floor, the trail got sandier, and finally, after eight miles, Tomomi arrived in the

village of Supai. Supai is a town within the Havasupai Reservation, which sits inside the Grand Canyon itself, but outside the boundaries of the national park. Havasupai means people of the blue-green water, and that namesake makes itself obvious in the town, as the turquoise river snakes through the center of the village. The river leads to the Havasu waterfalls, which are the beating heart of Supai. About 20,000 tourists travel to Supai every year to see the falls, And the steady stream of tourism is what sustains the economy of this town.

Tomomi made her way to the town's cafe where she bought a cold drink and sat at one of the picnic tables outside, recovering from her eight-mile journey into the heart of the canyon. Fellow tourists bustled around the cafe with her, despite it being super remote and kind of out there, the town itself of Supai, especially at this time of year in May, it's actually the busiest time for them. So there's quite a number of visitors there. Gotcha. And like I said, it's an incredibly remote place. There are no roads that lead to the town. So the only way to get in or out is by hiking via horseback or by helicopter. All mail is delivered to supi via mules. Food and drinks are supplied via helicopter or by mule train. And the remoteness is not the only

challenge that the town has to struggle with. Isolation from resources is baked into the history of the reservation, starting with its very formation. Grand Canyon National Park was established in 1919, and prior to that, the Havasupai people had lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle within the Grand Canyon, farming in the canyon using water from the creeks and springs to sustain their crops. And then, in the colder winter months, they would hunt on the south rim of the canyon. The canyon's vast and varied landscapes were their homelands and their life source. Their histories were interwoven with the layers of the rock and the rivers and the streams that form the canyon. But when the National Park was established, the Havasupai people were suddenly treated as trespassers and forced

to move to a 512-acre area that had been designated as a reservation. Farming was difficult there, and they no longer had access to their winter hunting grounds. Cut off from resources and forced into a small area, the tribes suffered greatly from their displacement and almost starved several times. Their population fell to 150 residents by the 1960s. As Annette McGivney wrote in an article for Backpacker Magazine in 2007, the kind of inception and spark for this entire book, she says, quote, the tribes struggle to survive without access to traditional means of sustenance or to infrastructure like electricity and plumbing, fermented a deep resentment towards the federal government, especially the National Park Service, and white people, especially,

tourists camping on burial sites. Finally, in 1975, 185,000 acres of national forest on the Kaibab Plateau were returned to the tribe, as well as the Falls area. Part of the agreement was that the Havasupai people needed to keep the falls and campgrounds open to the public, and ever since tourism has been at the center of the town's economy. So just a little history for people who are dying to go there, just some context of the landscape and what that indigenous tribe went through to retain rights to it. You're painting a very good picture of all of this. And it very much coincides with her particular interests in places too. So it makes sense that she's traveling here.

Yeah. And it's just, I don't know, maybe I'll hold this comment for later because maybe we'll elaborate on it more. But I'm just so intrigued by the thought of her being so pulled to the American West and especially different indigenous sites, like a young woman from Japan and not saying that you can't have interests and just big draws to other cultures and ways of life and periods of history and things like that. But like she was just so drawn to here. And it just like everything in her life kind of led her here. And then something really awful happened to her, unfortunately.

But I don't know. We'll talk about it later. Going back to Supai, the tourist lodge in Supai is surrounded by a 20-foot high concrete wall with an iron gate that the staff lock every night. Violent crime is an issue here in Supai and many travelers have had their belongings stolen when staying at campgrounds or passing through town. The citizens of Supai deal with high rates of violent crime, theft, and abuse. And much of this stems from the systemic disenfranchisement and destabilization of the town, which I think we adequately do. touched on. And of course, in the Havasupai reservation itself, which has caused two-thirds of its residents to live below the poverty line. The Havasupai people are resilient and work really hard

to keep their culture and community alive, but the signs of struggle in their remote community is evident, especially to people coming to visit. But Tammomi arrived. She checked into her room at the lodge, and then it was time for the real reason that she had gone there. And that was the hike to the waterfalls. She headed out of town and followed the trail through Groves. of oak and willow trees. When she was about a mile into her hike, a teenage boy emerged on the path in front of her. He was dripping wet from swimming in the river and donned a Looney Tunes t-shirt and basketball shorts. It was clear he was not a tourist and he knew his way around the area. He walked up to Tomomi and they started up a conversation. The boy offered to escort her to one of the

waterfalls called the 50-foot falls and Tomomi accepted his offer. Together, the two continued down the path deeper into the heart of the canyon. The next morning, Tuesday, May 9th, the housekeepers at the tourist lodge in Supai were doing their usual rounds of cleaning when they noticed something strange in one of the guest rooms. It looked eerily untouched, as though whoever had booked it hadn't actually spent the night there after all. By the afternoon, with no sign of the guest, the staff at the lodge were actually worried enough that they decided to call the Coconino Sheriff's office to report that there was a traveler missing. Over the phone, they explained what had happened and shared her name, Tamomi Hanamur. As the night fell over the canyon,

Tamomi yet again did not return to Suu Bai. And by the next morning, May 10th, a search operation was underway. 40 law enforcement officers and search and rescue volunteers descended into the canyon determined to find the young woman. She was last seen beginning her hike to Havasu Falls, so the search crew had narrowed down the areas where they were planning to look. They assumed that Tomomi had gotten injured or gotten lost on her way down to the falls. It was a really hot day in the Grand Canyon, and even in May, early May, the temperatures reached 100 degrees at day's peak. So the crew knew that they had to act fast and to find Tamomi quickly. Because their first reaction based on previous experience is just like all of the unfortunate circumstances we hear of hikers who get dehydrated or have here.

heat stroke or some type of environmental factor that she's stuck somewhere. Yep. Or an injury. Injury, illness, something. But the search mission proved to be harder than expected. They couldn't find Tomomi and concerns grew as the day stretched on. The search crew began speaking with other tourists staying in Supai, trying to gather any information at all about where Tamomi might be. because another thing about Tamomi is she was super friendly and she made a lot of friends and acquaintances along her travels. She wasn't like me in the way that I will not speak to anybody else. Like if I, something ever went wrong with me or I went missing or something and people were trying to put the pieces together, I think I would make it hard for people because I don't really talk to anybody. Like there couldn't be people.

So there'd be no witnesses to be like, oh yeah, I talked to our breakfast this morning. Oh, yeah. Or like we had a conversation about this and she told me that or, you know, like I just, I don't really talk to anybody. So, but Tomomi was the opposite. She had a lot of people come forward just in the future kind of reflecting back on previous travels because of course she traveled quite a bit about just different conversations they shared and things, interactions that she had with them.

But in this particular circumstance, the search crew and people trying to gather information from other tourists in Supai, things just kind of came up empty. And then on May 13th, five days since Tomomi had gone missing, a local have a Supai tribe member went for a swim at the waterfalls. But there, at the stunning bright blue pools, they realized that something was deeply and horribly wrong because floating in the water was the body of a young woman. The authorities rushed to the scene, but the woman was pronounced dead. They evacuated the body, and once the scene was clear, sent a dive team into the pools to search for any evidence related to the scene. The pools that were usually a place of pristine serenity and somewhere that people like pilgrimage were wrapped in yellow caution tape, alarm, and grief.

The body was quickly identified in part due to two tattoos. Tomomi had a tattoo of a heart on her lower abdomen, and on her left foot was a small Japanese symbol, Hana, which means flower. It is also the first half of her last name. And so she was quickly, the body was quickly identified as Tomomi. Tomomi was not naive to the dangers of solo traveling. She knew that things went wrong and that her life was at risk out in the wilderness. She told her friends that if anything were to ever happen to her out there in the wild,

that she would want to be identified with a small Hana tattoo on her left foot. The tattoos brought the heartbreaking confirmation that this was the body of their loved one. A full report of Tumomi's injuries revealed a picture of a horrific and violent death. She had sustained 29 stab wounds, 22 of which were to her head and neck. The murder weapon was determined to be a single three-inch blade. Whoever killed Tumomi had used this knife to slice the carotid artery on the left side of her neck. They also punctured her lung and chipped her skull. The report, it goes into more detail, but I think we have a understanding of just how gruesome this was.

It also left investigators with unsettling questions and confusions. Many of the injuries on their own were enough to be fatal. So why hadn't the attacker stopped after the first fatal blow? It feels really violent and really personal. Not in the sense where I think, I mean, I don't know. Maybe you'll get into it more if she knew. this person, but a three-inch blade with that many, you have to be so close to a person. I mean, with any stabbing, but it just feels so, so violent.

Yeah. And 29 times is a lot. Yeah. In her article, Free Fall, Murder in the Grand Canyon, published in Backpacker Magazine, this is the original OG backpacker article by Annette McGivney. She quoted several experts who weighed in on the brutality of the murder itself, so kind of honing in on what we were just saying. And as she reports, quote, pathology experts who evaluated the report for this story were struck by the apparent manic nature of the homicide. McIvney also quotes

physician and author Tom Myers who said, this person was in a frenzy. The killer must have been so psychotic or incoherent he couldn't appreciate that he was still stabbing her even though she was unresponsive, basically dead. The coroner pointed out that the stab wounds came from more than one angle. And this led Myers to conclude, he was moving, she was moving. It was an all-out fight for her life. This is the most brutal killing in the Grand Canyon in modern times. The search for Tomomi had come up to an alarming and devastating end, but it raised many new and urgent questions. What happened on May 8, 2006? What transpired on that hike to Havasu Falls? And who was this frenzied and violent murderer? A murder investigation was launched,

Special Agent Doug Linter led the investigation, but there was some major challenges. Most importantly, the supai people had a deep distrust of law enforcement and the U.S. government. At every turn, the U.S. government had isolated and disenfranchised the half a supai people and left them to fend for themselves in an unrelenting environment. And so this history kind of results in their wariness of law enforcement and the government as a whole. It's like you want us to help you now, but we don't trust you. And for a crime that's so serious, how do you're talking to law enforcement who you don't trust, how do you know that they're not going to somehow try and blame you for it? Right. And that's kind of like at the forefront of

their minds as a collective of just having some reservations about. Which are fair. Yeah, the investigation and just wanting to tread carefully. The tribal council also banned all media from the reservation. And as a result, hardly any journalists covered Tamomi's case. Back in Japan, the media was outraged by this decision. Japanese journalists were horrified at the U.S.'s lack of coverage of Tamomi's story and insisted they needed to do more to solve her case and get her name out there. It was a stressful time in Supai as everyone tried to make sense of the tragedy that had struck there. Again, in her article for Backpacker magazine, Annette describes how the FBI agent Doug Linter tried to solve the crime during this time. And it says, quote, wearing a polo shirt with the FBI logo and

carrying a Glock 40 and handcuffs on his belt, Linter became a familiar presence in Supai. He visited dozens of homes to pursue leads and visited many of them more than once, because people kept changing their stories. It was a tent situation. The whole village was keeping track of which doors he knocked on, so he began doing interviews at night, no easy task in a town without streetlights are paved streets. We were walking around without flashlight so no one would see us. I almost broke my ankle stepping in gopher holes, he recalls. Within the town of Supai, some members of the community reached out to their fellow tribe

members and threatened them not to comply with the FBI's investigation or else. Those who did answer the FBI's questions often faced harsh backlash from their fellow tribe members, and some were even physically assaulted for complying and being cooperative. So it's like a really difficult situation. There are so many different things going on here and pressures from within the tribe, the U.S. government, and Japan. You know, like... There's just a lot of rough history kind of everywhere in this.

Yeah. Gossip, rumors, and theory swirled around town. Who had done this? The Havasupai people were horrified and scared that something this dark had happened in their community. They held ceremonies to honor and free to Momi's spirit and to cleanse the area. of dark energy. But slowly, a suspect began to emerge. An outsider in the town of Supai, a man named Neil. Neil was Irish and had bright red hair, many tattoos, and was known for sleeping

in the bush near the river and roaming around town looking for drugs. He wasn't very welcome in town, to say the least, and had made an unwanted sexual advance towards a Havasupai woman at a recent ceremony. Other men in the village beat him up brutally after discovering this, to the point where Neil had to be airlifted via helicopter out of the canyon to have his injuries treated. Wow. People were- What did he do? Well, he sexually assaulted a woman at a ceremony. Oh, I thought he, I heard that wrong.

I didn't know he assaulted her. I thought he had, did sexual advances towards her, like, said, like, yes. Yes. It was even just like the people are like, not up in here. Yeah. I, you know. So, yeah, I just was like, did he like just say something to her? Did he attack someone?

one. Like that's pretty extensive. Yeah, they were hard line. They're like, that's a big no here. And of course, they already, he was already pretty unwelcome there. And it wasn't like it was his first brush with disrupting the piece there. I mean, it sounds like he has a drug addiction problem happening. And he's in a place where, yeah, it sounds like they're not, not stoked that he's around. Well, especially because people reported seeing Neil talking with Tomomi at the village cafe the day that she disappeared when she stopped for a drink before she embarked on her hike. And for a while, this was really where the investigators had their strongest and pretty much really their only lead.

So they kind of really honed in on this Neil guy. But the more that they were learning, the less they suspected him for this particular crime, because things weren't exactly lining up. For a while, the case crawled slowly forward. And it was a torturous time for Tommi's community who were grieving her senseless murder and given no clarity about what had happened to their beloved daughter, cousin, and friend. Then, seven months later, the murderer came into view. An 18-year-old boy, his name was Randy Weskogame, and on December 5, 2006, he was charged with murder, kidnapping, and robbery. So who is this kid? Randy grew up in Supai. He had two siblings, but he spent most of his time alone, never forming close to.

friendships or relationships with pretty much anyone throughout his life. He endured emotional and verbal abuse at a young age, and substance abuse and addiction were struggles that started from a very early age. He had a very difficult upbringing. And the book goes into extensive detail about that. It's one of those stories that you feel bad for the child version of this person. Yeah, not the adult. He turned, well, he's barely an adult. He's 18. But yeah, you can feel sympathy for how he grew up. Yep. In middle school, he drank alcohol and smoked weed.

In high school, things escalated and became addicted to meth. He was in and out of rehab programs. He had been through treatment programs eight different times by the time he turned 18. His struggles with addiction led to a pattern of crime. He repeatedly stole from tourists passing through soup by to get money to pay for alcohol and drugs. He was constantly in and out of juvenile detention centers. And when he wasn't detained there, he was crashing with whoever would let him

him sleep on their couches. He lived a pretty chaotic life and was no stranger to crime, but there was a huge gap between stealing belongings for cash to get your hands on drugs or alcohol, and then this jump to brutally murdering a woman he had no connection with at all. So to answer your earlier question, they had no previous relationship or interaction or anything at all. Yeah. And that gap was one that his family and community struggled to make sense of. His father, Billy Wesco Game, insisted that his son was a thief, but not a murderer. The broader Havasupai community was also shocked when Randy was charged. Annette McGivney reports that the tribal chairman Thomas Sayuja issued a written statement about

Tamomi's murder saying that it was, quote, a great shock to members of the Havasupai tribe. And the chairman added that the Havasupai people were praying for Tumomi's family and friends, and the tribal council actually declared a period of official mourning for her. the shock and grief rippled through town and was deeply felt for years to come. And within the book, the author recalls different conversations that she had with different community members throughout her decades of research, or decades long period of time researching this case. And in one incident, she recalls a conversation she had with one of the tribal members named Monicaaja who cried talking about Tomomi's death and said, quote,

for this to happen on our land to someone who came to our home to enjoy this beautiful. place and it turned out another way we are still so shocked. But I try to look at the positive at the lesson we can learn from this. And I hesitated to include this, but, and it, because it sounds so obvious, but it is really important to note that the have-a-soup-by people and their culture are, of course, not to blame for this horrific crime, but that's kind of like how, as the media took hold of this kind of the angle that it was starting to take. But of course, it was just a senseless act carried out by one individual and his indigenous heritage is not the reason he did it. Yeah. I mean, we have a lot of crime in the U.S. that has nothing to do with.

Like disproportionately, comparatively to indigenous communities as far as like violent crimes towards that. Yeah. So I don't want to get too deep into that, but just had to state the obvious there. And I do keep saying, you know, referencing, referencing this book, Pure Land and the Backpacker article. because it's the most in-depth research about this case. But I did want to make mention that it kind of got some criticism a little bit. Oh, okay. For what? I did want to say this. Well, in a piece called Blessed to be born Havasupai, which was published in High Country News, the Havasupai Tribal Council criticized the author and another reporter named John Dautry saying that their depictions of the supi were like hurtful.

essentially. Okay. And I just pulled like a tiny excerpt, but it said of their writings, it made us sound like a lawless community with gangs running amok. Suupe village is a community where all of us feel safer letting our children out of our site to play or go to school than we would ever feel even in Flagstaff. This is a place where we and our visitors don't have to worry about ourselves the way we would in Phoenix or Los Angeles. And another excerpt from the piece reads, one year ago, the terrible murder of Tamomi Hanamur took place in our reservation. It shocked and grieved us, and even more when we learned one of our people may have done it. Maybe people think because we are have a supai and we live on the bottom of the canyon that we are different, but we are not. We love our

families and our children the same as you, and we feel blessed to live the way that we do. Terrible acts take place every day in cities of the world. Here it happens one time and reporters are still coming after us even a year later trying to make us look as if we are all at fault. What are they after? Do they crave recognition, whatever the cost to us? When do we say our own people can no longer swim at the falls, even on our own land, because reporters like Daughtry and McGivney make people afraid of us? So I wanted to include a different perspective. Yeah, I mean, those are all really fair points to label an entire community as dangerous because of one individual. isn't right. Yeah. And it's something, I mean, a totally different conversation, but we see it a lot

with minorities. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Randy Resco Gami. And again, the book, I keep saying this and I feel like a broken record. The book goes into so much more detail about like the details of the trial and back and forth and things like that. But the reason I said that it was kind of like there was a seventh month period of kind of nothing in people, especially in Japan, where like, what is going on? Are you doing anything? And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, we're charging this guy with murder. It just kind of seemed really abrupt. Yeah. They were, they were slowly building a case, but it did to the general public and outsiders and people not within the investigative team. It did kind of come on suddenly. And it kind of was a surprise to everyone. But at the end of the day,

Randy Resco Game took a plea deal for second degree murder. He admitted to his fault in the heinous crime. And with his testimony, the final piece of the devastating puzzle was revealed. Randy explained. how he had encountered Tumomi on the path to the waterfalls and offered to escort her there, explaining that he was a local and knew his way around. Once he had gained her trust, he led her to a secluded area where he cornered her. He grabbed her and held a knife to her throat and demanded that she hand over her belongings. Then in this version of the story that Randy is admitting to, he stabbed Tumomi four to five times in the neck, dragged her to the river,

and covered her body with nearby plants. And of course, this account leaves out the 25 additional stab wounds that the medical examiner discovered. So, of course, we're not getting the entire story. It's incomplete, like his version of events. So we just kind of have to take what we have, both from his testimony, but also the reality of the evidence and what her body tells, you know, and just kind of go from there, unfortunately. And they know that he, that this isn't a false confession or anything.

They know he did it. He did do it. Okay. I'm kind of glazing over that, but yes, it's, there's no question. But even with this kind of like incomplete story and still a lot of open-ended questions and all of that, it was, it was enough for the jury in the court to sentence him. They accepted his guilty plea and sentenced him to life in federal prison. Tomomi's father was present at court that day and a translated version of a statement he wrote, was read aloud for the court.

And of course, Annette McGivney included pieces of that in her book. And in Tomomi's father's words, he says, I am assuming that the ruling today will take a load off your shoulders as it settles the matter for the time being. As for my family and me, the ruling makes us feel as if we had just entered a tunnel with no end in sight. Does the defendant think all he did was take my daughter's life? He broke bonds with her friends and family.

my hopes and expectations and everything. He terrified my daughter and even threw her into a river. Does he think all he has to do is just accept his punishment for the crime he committed? Does he realize what an enormous loss his insignificant materialistic desire had caused? Her father described his heartbreaking daily routines as he grieved Tomomi, who was planning to live with him and take care of him as he aged. So part of the reason that she was going on so many trips, and, you know, like visiting the U.S. over a dozen times and kind of a short amount of time.

I mean, those are huge international trips for somebody in their mid-30s to have already accomplished. The reason she was doing so much of this so early on is because she kind of had this agreement with her family that she was going to go out, live her dreams, and kind of check off her list as much as she could because she agreed to return back to Japan and live there full time to care for her aging father. Oh, gotcha. So that was kind of the arrangement that they had going on. But he goes on to describe that every morning, he left an offering of rice at an altar in his home for his daughter. And every evening he burned incense at the same altar in her honor. And he went on to say that he is not the only member of his household who has been grieving Tomomi's absence daily. And I didn't include this before because it's so sad. But he went on to describe to the court about a dog that Tomomi adopted on one of her trips out west who, she had found on one of her travels as a quote unquote res dog. She named him blues after the vast South Dakota blue sky. And she found this dog when he was about four months old.

He was a little black dog with brown marks on his chest and one floppy ear and of course stark blue eyes. And he accompanied Tomomi on a lot of her travels, sitting shotgun on the long road trips and accompanying her to a lot of her destinations. on a lot of her trips and just faithfully followed her on all of her adventures at West. She eventually did bring Blues back to live with her and her father in Yokohama. And her father explained that during the summer that Tamomi was murdered, Blues started howling up at the sky facing east.

Oh. So sad. And I'm going to post a picture of Tamomi and blues together because they're just so sweet. In Tomomi's father's words, it seems to me his howling towards the United States, hoping this howling would reach Arizona. I am not sure whether or not he knows that my daughter is not coming back, but he howls with a wistful voice. The crime still leaves many questions unanswered.

But no matter the motive or lack thereof, the murder of Tamomi Hanamur was senseless. There is no motive that would bring closure to a case this unexpected and devastating. Tamomi's story is about a lot more than her death. Her legacy is not one of dying, but of living. Her father described her fearless nature, saying, when she wanted something, she figured out how to get it, and there was no stopping her. She embarked on trips that scared many, reveled in the unknown, the vast skies, the open roads, the animals, and the people that she met along the way. She felt deeply and expressed her love for life unapologetically. The Grand Canyon is where Tamomi Hanamior died, on her 34th birthday, but it is also where she felt the most alive, where she spent multiple

birthdays celebrating landmarks in her own life while cradled by arms of ancient red rock that have known a million lifetimes. Tomomi spent her 34 years running full speed towards the things that made her feel most alive, most vibrant, and most in awe. Timomi leaves behind a legacy far bigger than her death. Hers is a story of what it looks like to truly live, and in one of her letters to her cousins, she wrote, there is something about nature here that is just so amazing. I feel like I'm alive. I'm here on earth. And that is the story of Tamomi Hanamior and her tragic death, but her amazing life. I really, that was a really sad story, but I really loved how much you focused on who she was as a person and not the crime that happened to her. Yeah. Thank you.

because I think we can get really caught up in that. Yeah. And I understand it's interesting and perplexing and we're really grasping at the meaning behind violent crime a lot. And it takes up a lot of our focus and energy and it kind of dejects from the person. And just like everything else, that was their life up until those small moments comparatively to the life they lived. And like I said at the top, like I just feel like she's just some.

that like I feel like we know dozens of Tomomi's, you know, our friends. She's someone we know. She's someone we would be friends with. Yeah. Yeah. She's so relatable in what she was trying to do and see and so young too. I mean, she's our age and it's a really sad story. But I agree with when you said at the beginning you think that we would all relate to her.

And I think that that is very true. Yeah. So if you're wanting to learn more about Tomomi and Annette's, you know, 10 years of her life, digging into her story and way more about her family, Tomomi's family. And of course, Randy's in there too and his life. Don't want to like totally breeze by him because he's obviously a big component of the story. But yeah, the book is great and well worth the read. So I'll, of course, put it on the website as always, but it's called Pure Land.

Great. Well, thank you so much for telling this story. Thank you everyone for hanging out with us. We'll see you all next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are going to be. now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a

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