True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: The MYSTERIOUS Murder of College Freshman Bonnie Craig - True Crime Deep Dive

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

In True Crime with Kimbyr, the mysterious murder of college freshman Bonnie Craig is explored with compassion and precision. What should have been the start of a promising new chapter quickly turned into a haunting tragedy. Through careful analysis, key evidence, and emotional insight, True Crime with Kimbyr unpacks the timeline, relationships, and unanswered questions surrounding Bonnie’s death. Was this a targeted act—or something far more complex? Dive into a chilling case that leaves more questions than answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonnie was an 18-year-old college student who was last seen making her way to the bus stop one September morning in 1994. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all.

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Someone on Deepop wants what you've got Start selling now Deepop Where taste recognizes taste But she never showed up to her class And she didn't make it home that night It wasn't until 3 a.m. That her mother got the news

The police had found Bonnie And it wasn't good This is her story Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel If you've never been here before My name is Kimberlea Nice to finally meet you Today I'm going to be introducing you and talking about Bonnie Christine Craig.

She was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on March 30th, 1977 to her parents Karen and Gordon Craig. And even before Bonnie was born, her mother loved her so much, and she was anxiously awaiting for her arrival. Bonnie's mother, Karen, met her father Gordon while they were in high school, and she got pregnant at 17 with Bonnie's older brother, Jason. She and Gordon got married in July of 1973, and then three years later, they had Bonnie. She was her parents first daughter and the first granddaughter to her grandparents

and everyone was so excited to welcome a baby girl into the family. By the time Bonnie was three years old Karen had split from her father and he hadn't been a big part of Bonnie's life unfortunately but Karen had met someone special who cared about her and her kids and his name was Gary Campbell. It wasn't long before Karen and Gary tied the knot and by the time Bonnie was five the couple welcomed a son into the world that they named Adam. Thrilled to have a younger brother, Bonnie called him her real-life cabbage patch doll.

Then just one year later, Karen and Gary welcomed another baby, Samantha, and Bonnie's life became even more joyful. Bonnie could dress up her baby sister and princess gowns and jewelry, and that was definitely something that Adam would not let her do. As Samantha grew up, she wanted to be just like her big sister Bonnie, who was six years older than her. and what little girl wouldn't look up to a sister that's so caring, always happy and full of life. She was also such a cutie pie with the big blue eyes and the freckles across her nose.

Plus, she excelled in all that she set out to do, especially in academics. It wasn't to know Samantha was in third grade that she finally figured out Bonnie was her half-sister. She always thought that she had the same parents, and this discovery tore her apart. If anyone tried to point out the fact that Bonnie was Samantha's half-sister, and not her full sister, she would reply that she didn't know what they were talking about. Can you relate? Because I can. I have three half siblings, two half sisters, and a half brother, and two step-sisters as well. And yes, it can be complicated. But I see my immediate siblings as my real, complete, whole siblings, just like Samantha did with Bonnie. As a big sister to Adam and

Samantha, Bonnie loved looking after them. And she treated them like they were her own children. She was their stability, as their world changed quite often. More than most kids, their new blended family moved a lot for Gary's job. He worked for BP Oil Company. Over the years, Bonnie went to six elementary schools and two junior high schools, and one thing she became good at was accepting change and learning to fit in with new people very quickly. First, the family moved from Calgary, Alberta to San Francisco, where they lived in the East Bay Area. Then Bonnie and her siblings were thrilled because at that point they had a pool in a huge backyard.

Following their relocation to California, the family soon traded their sunshine and pools for snow and ice skating in Anchorage, Alaska. Now, this may not be paradise to everyone, but Alaska appealed to the kids even more than California and its constant sunshine. There was just so much to do against a beautiful scenic Alaskan backdrop. However, they wouldn't get to enjoy it for long because soon Gary's career took them, from Alaska to West Texas back to the lower 48. While Bonnie wasn't as happy in Texas as in Alaska or California, they lived in a neighborhood with plenty of things to do for her and her siblings, and they enjoyed it

and tried to make the best of their time there. Initially, Bonnie and her family lived in Midland, Texas for two years before they moved to Houston, where they stayed in a community called Sugar Land for a few months. But it wasn't long before Bonnie's family packed up their things once again to move. And when the kids were asked by Karen and Graeme

Greg where they could live. If they could look at anywhere in the world, where would it be? All three answered Anchorage, Alaska without hesitation. And back to Alaska, it was. And everyone was so happy to be heading where they considered home to Anchorage. Following their return, Bonnie was in junior high school, but soon another change would come. A big one. Karen and Gary decided to get a divorce. And it was very hard on all of the kids. Bonnie saw Gary as her father. And now Samantha and Adam were spending one week with Carrie and then alternating and spending one week with Karen. So Bonnie would see less of them as well. But she remained close to her stepdad nonetheless.

After junior high, Bonnie attended service high school where she excelled academically. Bonnie was active in sports, music, and many other clubs and organizations at school and in the community. Besides coaching the swim and diving teams, she did horseback writing, loved writing poetry, play the violin and viola in the school orchestra and she was the first girl to join the service high school wrestling team her goal was to never get pinned but something very traumatic was going to happen another change in bonnie's life this one more permanent than most her dear friend katie garcia died in a drunk driving accident this changed bonnie's life forever and it could have had a significant impact on her future in a very unexpected way

After Katie's death, Bonnie made two decisions. She vowed never to drink a drop of alcohol, and she wouldn't get behind the wheel of a car. She refused to drive. She would walk everywhere or take the bus, but she didn't even bother to get her driver's license. That fear was just much too intense. Bonnie even founded a chapter of students against drunk driving at her school. She was truly an incredible person with a heart for other people. And there was someone that had her heart too.

her boyfriend, Cameron Miyasaki. He was a year ahead of her, and Bonnie and him met while he was in his senior year, and they were smitten. You could tell that these two were made for one another. She posed with him in his senior pictures, and they were adorable, but soon another change. Cameron graduated before Bonnie, and he moved to California to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Cameron leaving was inevitable, but it was still another loss, though temporary, of course, because they remained in a long-distance relationship and they talked multiple times every day throughout the day by phone or email. After graduating from high school, Bonnie enrolled at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She wanted to become a psychologist. And things were just beginning to come together for her,

even though so much had already come to an end. At this point, Bonnie had decided it was time to move out of her mother's house. It had gotten a little cramped. Her mother had started dating a guy named Jim Foster a couple years before, and he had three, kids of his own, ranging in ages from 8 to 13, and Karen still had her three younger children

living with her. Her oldest child, Jason, was 20, and he lived with his girlfriend in his own apartment. Bonnie thought it was time to have her own room, a place that she could be a little more independent. So she asked if she could live with her stepdad, Gary. That way, she still got to see her younger siblings, Adam and Samantha, who were 12 and 13 at the time, whenever they came to their dad's house every other week. His house was only 15 minutes away from her university, so things worked out quite well. The vows that Bonnie made after Katie died required many sacrifices, especially once she started college. Typically, students that attend college go to parties, they partake in alcohol, and they most certainly enjoy getting around in a car, but not Bonnie.

She still held on to those promises. She took the public bus system to school three days a week and walked two miles from her stepdad's house in the freezing Alaskan cold just to get to this bus stop for her university. Most of Bonnie's classes were packed into either two or three days a week because she worked part-time at Sam's Club. This two-mile pre-dawn walk on a desolate rural road was long. And it could be a bit scary, especially for someone walking all alone. Bonnie was aware that this walk wasn't the safest. She would give her sister advice and safety tips about walking alone in the dark. One of those tips was to carry pepper spray.

On Bonnie's long morning walks, she always carried a bottle of pepper spray. But would that be enough if someone confronted her with criminal intent? I want to take you to the morning of September 28, 1994. 18-year-old Bonnie Craig woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning and got ready to set out for her walk to the bus stop as per usual. Bonnie made sure she always had enough time to make it to class because she took pride in being on time. So she set off to get a move on before the sun even came up.

Even though her English class didn't start for another two hours at 7. After Bonnie left her stepdad's house, she walked 45 minutes to the bus stop to wait for her bus to take her to the University of Alaska, or so everyone thought. Nine hours later, another Anchorage University student, Jennifer Roshwing, was snapping photos on a hiking trail in Tugach State Park, which is just south of Anchorage. This park is about 15 miles away from where Bonnie lived, and it's a beautiful park. Just a look at it. These are photos from Google Maps. They don't even do it justice. It's off of Alaska Route 1, and on the other side of the state highway is part of

the Gulf of Alaska. Mid-September is actually one of the best times to visit Alaska because the weather is warmer, the days are longer, and the temperatures are cooler, but still comfortable from like 60 to 67 degrees. It's a great time to enjoy your surroundings. And as this university student is focusing her camera on, the scenic view, something caught her eye, something in the water below the 33-foot cliff, and it didn't look natural.

The color stood out first. It was something bright, something blue, which contrasted against the rushing white tips of the water in McHugh Creek. As she zoomed in closer, she had a horrifying revelation. It was a woman. She was lifelessly floating in the shallow part of the water. It was unmistakably a woman. This was before cell phones.

The student didn't know what to do. She immediately runs back to the parking lot, jumps in her car, and drives to a way station because that was the nearest place she could find to call 911. Because this was a state park, Alaska state troopers had jurisdiction and they responded to this location right away. Once on scene, they observed the woman at the bottom of a very high cliff. She was faced down and fully clothed. I actually have footage and some still shots of what they were looking at.

You can see her at the base of the cliff. One of her arms is outstretched and she's in a very unusual position, which is an indication of a fall. This isn't an area of the creek that would be easy to get to unless someone were to have fallen from that portion of the cliff above or walked through the creek to get to this exact spot. So what happened? Officers go to the top of the cliff and they look down from that position and it is a

hazardous part of the park. Now there are railings in this exact spot, but back in 1994, there were none. So if you had been hiking there and you slipped, you would fall right to your death. And that's what they think happened in this case. But we wouldn't be here today talking about it if that is what actually happened. You can see right here how far down the creek is. The officers believe that this poor woman have been taking in the sights and the sounds of this beautiful park and lost her footing and fell to her death. But who was she? And did anyone hear or see what had happened? Once the medical examiner arrived, they could get closer to the body. And at that point, they could tell the injuries that had been sustained. And of course, transport her to the medical

examiner's office for an official identification. On the scene, officers had already made a preliminary identification through a ring that she was wearing, a class ring. They believed that the woman was Bonnie Craig. They needed to contact her family to see if she had made it home that evening, and by the time officers were confident that this was Bonnie. It was close to 10 p.m. that night, and that's when a knock came on Bonnie's stepdad's door. It was unusual to get a knock that late a night. They were already wondering why Bonnie wasn't home yet. And when Adam and Samantha could see it was an officer, they both gathered at the top of the stairs to watch and listen. When Gary shouted, oh my God, not Bonnie, and dropped to his knees, they knew that something terrible had happened to their older sister.

Samantha prayed that Bonnie would be okay. Maybe she was just in the hospital. She hoped that nothing serious had happened. However, Samantha's uneasy feelings just worsened when she saw her dad collapsed in tears right in front of the officers at the front door. The kids had never seen their father cry. And now they had to inform Bonnie's mother of the devastating news, but there was a problem. She was out of town with her boyfriend, Jim. They were all the way in Florida for Jim's brother Ken's wedding. What's worse is that they're on a sailboat far from the phone. Karen and Jim had left two days before on September 26th on a red eye from Anchorage to Tampa, Florida.

Then they chartered a 37-foot sailboat in St. Petersburg and made their way up the Gulf coast to St. Marks, which is a very small port town where Jim spent a lot of time growing up. They decided to make a little vacation out of having to fly so far away for a wedding. This was also a chance for Karen to meet Jim's parents for the very first time. They finally got settled in by Wednesday, September 28th the same day that Bonnie set out towards the bus stop in the early morning darkness. That evening, Karen and Jim met up with Jim's stepmom Mary and his father, who's also named Jim, for dinner. As well as Ken, and his soon to be wife Valerie.

On Karen's side of the world, everything was great. They were laughing, joking, having a wonderful time. Karen had no idea what terrible fate had be fallen her precious Bonnie, and she wouldn't until 3 a.m. That's when there's a knock on the boat's entryway. Who in the world would be knocking on their boat at this hour?

Karen asked who's there, and she heard, it's Ken. It was Jim's brother. When she slid open the door panels, she immediately knew that something wasn't right. If the time wasn't enough to indicate that, Karen saw the expression on Ken's face. It said so much without him having to say anything at all. Karen asked, what is it? And he managed to get out the words.

He said, it's Bonnie. She was in a hiking accident. Now, we don't know Karen, but I've gotten to know her very well through my research. Karen is a strong, intelligent, headstrong woman who knows her children. And the first thing she thinks is that this is ridiculous. Clearly, Ken has his wires crossed. Why drive all this way? It's a long drive to come out to their boat,

especially to tell her something like this, because if this was a joke, it wasn't funny. One thing's for sure in Karen's mind, this must be a mistake. Ken says he's sorry, and she's still staring at him confused. She said, who told you that? And that's when she sees it. A yellow post-in note. Ken's holding it in his hand. He stretches out his arm trying to show her what's written on the post-it, but she doesn't care.

He says, I'm sorry again. And Karen's getting more and more frustrated. And then he explains, an Alaska state trooper called him. He told him to get a message to Karen. On that post-it was the officer's number. So he's stretching out his arm trying to hand the post-trapherer. it to her. She snatches it out of her hand and she says, not my Bonnie. How do they know? He explains, he doesn't know anything. All he knows is that Bonnie had been in an accident and they said to have Karen

call. There's no phone on their boat. So Karen and Jim, they've got to get dressed and they walk to a nearby pay phone. Karen can hardly dial the number. She's shaking so hard. So Jim takes the phone. He dials for her and he gives the operator the information that they've been given. She says she doesn't recognize it and she pretty much tells them you know what and kind of a snappy way. It's 11 p.m. Maybe you should just call back in the morning. Well Karen already frustrated with a lot of other emotions running through her. She's not in the mood. She grabs the phone and repeats the troopers information. She basically lets this operator know in no uncertain terms that she had just been told that her daughter died in a hiking accident. That definitely changed.

the operator's tone. Finally, a Sergeant Mike Mars comes on the line and he says, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I have to tell you this, Ms. Campbell. Bonnie's body was found in McHugh Creek. She fell off a cliff. She's dead. I'm so sorry. This is every parent's worst nightmare. It's hard enough navigating parenthood. We worry about our kids from the minute they're conceived. And once they're born, it's even harder. I don't know how many nights I stayed awake making sure my daughter was still breathing. Our children are our everything. They're a piece of us. If we lose them forever, a piece of us dies with them. But Karen isn't the average parent. This is a woman who worked as an undercover reserve officer for Anchorage Police Department for the last three years.

She's tough. Karen has worked on drug-related cases. She's gone through. the police academy, she's well respected and likes a challenge. She's a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie. She even worked as a reporter at one point. This wasn't her first rodeo, but it was the first time something hit so close to home. Of course, Karen cared just as much as any other parent, but there was something different. She had an investigator's mind. First things first, she wanted Bonnie's case to be handed over to the department that she

works with Anchorage Police Department. They kind of look down on state troopers. I'm sure you know how all of that works, the competition, but it's not just that. From the first time Karen heard the news, she didn't believe it. She understood what they were saying that Bonnie was dead, but there's no way this was an accident. And Karen is close with the guys at the homicide department at the Anchorage Police Department. She wants people on the case that think like her. She needs to get to the bottom of this. Instinctually, Karen's asking a bunch of questions as a parent, but also as an investigator. Who was she with? Sergeant Morris said no one. Bonnie was out there alone. And Karen wants to know how did Bonnie get there, for example. She knows, like many others, that Bonnie

doesn't drive. Karen is actually starting to become convinced. It's not Bonnie at all. This has got to be someone else's child. Besides, they had not even officially identified. That would come later. We know this location was at least 10 to 15 miles away from Gary's house. It doesn't make sense to Karen. She keeps asking questions like, what time did they find her? Mars says it was around 2.30 p.m.

Karen has one more reason to believe this is all a big mistake. She knows Bonnie. She knows Bonnie wouldn't miss a class. There's no way. And she lets Mars know that. Karen wants to know what makes them so sure. so sure that this is Bonnie. That's when he explains that her name was on a class ring that she was wearing and they pulled up her state ID and they compared the picture to their Jane Doe. No one had actually

identified her in person yet. The police were waiting for Karen to do that. There was one other question that Karen had. She didn't want it to come out of her mouth, but it did. And it came out in a different way that I'm going to relay it to you. But she asked if there was any evidence of forced intercourse And the officer explained, no, that Bonnie was fully dressed, but we know that's not proof. Just because you're still dressed doesn't mean it didn't happen. Karen asked if they had collected any evidence at the scene, and this is when she gets extremely frustrated. The sergeant says something.

There is no evidence. It was an accident. There's nothing to collect. Wow. He even added that because they identified her, there wasn't anything else to look for. Really? Well, Karen isn't so sure about that.

I wouldn't be either. We have to take into account that officers deal with these situations again and again. Karen may not be the typical parent, but typically speaking, almost every parent wants to believe that there's been a mistake. It's not their child that has died,

especially in an accident. There just has to be something more. But in Bonnie's case, there was more. Karen gets on the very first flight that she can back to Alaska. And she hoped it wasn't Bonnie at the morgue. There were so many things going through Karen's mind. But she still can't shake that none of this makes sense to her.

And Gary feels the same way when they get a chance to talk. Karen gets to the airport and she has time before her flight. So she hangs out by the payphone calling her loved ones to let them know what was going on. But Karen makes another call to a friend Kara, who's a reporter in the Anchorage area. Karen is connected. She's assembling her army. She used to be a reporter. Remember, she has friends. This friend doesn't pick up at the time, so she leaves a message.

In the entire flight, Karen's hoping that this is all just a mix-up, that it's not Bonnie, that there's a reasonable explanation for all of this. Maybe Bonnie let someone borrow her ring, and she'll apologize and explain what happened. It will all be okay. I want you to know that I got a lot of this information as actually. as accurate as possible from reading Bonnie's mother's book. I'm going to link it below in my description box in case you want to know every single detail, because I know a lot of you love the details, and I'm trying to provide as many as possible.

But just so you know, this is where all this information is coming from about what was going on behind the scenes that a lot of shows and news articles will not tell you. Once Karen lands, she sees a familiar face. It's the police chaplain Burke McQueen, and Karen and Jim know him very well, and they give him a hug. and he offers his condolences for the accident. But Karen tells him, if it's Bonnie, then it's got to be murder. Karen's got work to do. But first, the hardest part, she needed to go down to the funeral home and identify Bonnie.

How awful. To go from sunny skies in Florida on a boat to the darkness of having to go face to face with your deceased teenager. It's unbelievable. But there she was, laying on a gurney with a white sheet on top of her. just like in the movies except this was real life. They pulled the sheet down from her face. Karen looks and it's undeniable.

It's Bonnie. She's frozen in time, just lifeless. But still Bonnie. Now she has her confirmation. But remember what she said. If it's Bonnie, then it's got to be murder. That thought only intensified when she goes down to talk to the troopers at the police department. Karen explains it doesn't make sense.

Bonnie was on her way to class. Where's her backpack? Where are her books? Her pepper spray. There were so many questions, and Karen is about to get bombarded with more from reporters. The local news outlets have jumped on this story. A young, beautiful college student found dead in a creek?

Karen invites the questions and the attention, because remember, this used to be her job. She knows many of these reporters personally, but there's another reason. She wants her daughter's story out there. She knows this is no accident, and they have to act fast. The news travels way faster than the troopers lift a finger

to do more than call Bonnie's death an accident. Her story is getting traction. It's going through the entire city, and it won't stop there. The next day, Karen, Jim, Gary, Jason, Adam, and Samantha make their way to the funeral home to say goodbye to Bonnie. It's hard. Seeing a person that they once knew to be so full of life,

just have that life stolen from them. They're a shell. of who they once were. But her siblings wanted a chance to see her one last time. And Karen did too. And when she lifted Bonnie's arm to hold it close to her, she noticed something, something that wasn't right. Her knuckles were bruised and swollen. Karen begins to pull the white sheet down to expose more of Bonnie's body and what she sees makes her scream for them to go get the state troopers back over there quick. The funeral director was literally waiting to prepare Bonnie's body for the next step in the funeral process, and Karen won't let them.

She demands that the troopers come back to take photos, because these were clearly defensive wounds. It's hard because she's a grieving mother. Bonnie fell from 30 feet onto rocks in a shallow creek. She's bound to have sustained a number of injuries, right? But Karen won't give up. I cried, reading this. I imagined that this is a mother's last chance, the only chance to gather as much information as she can, because her daughter will truly be gone forever soon. You must preserve evidence of what her body looked like right then and there. This should have been done right away, but remember, there was no investigation. It was an accident. As much as Karen begs the troopers don't give in. Time is running out. So she tries something else. She calls her supervisor.

at APD, but he can't help her either. It's out of their jurisdiction, and they're so sorry. I was so frustrated for Karen because time is taking by. She's standing in a funeral home being pressured to make decisions on what coffin to put her daughter in. She doesn't want to risk losing any potential evidence, so she tells a funeral director she wants Bonnie to be put in a cement vault. That way, thinking to the future, Karen would be able to have her body taken back out. As the Krispy Chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know.

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Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. that someone will listen to her and they can collect more evidence. Talking to the media work though, maybe not the way Karen intended, or so it seemed at first because Sergeant Mars calls her down to the station and he gets right to the point, he says, don't talk to the media. Stop giving them fuel. Stop calling Bonnie's death or murder. But why? She wants to know what difference it makes. Well, that's when he says something interesting. He says it might hamper their investigation. Wait a minute. Investigation.

Wasn't Bonnie's death an accident? What investigation are they talking about? Karen doesn't know anything about that. So maybe going to the media was the right thing to do. It's true. Mars explains that they're just investigating all angles at that point, but still it's a step in the right direction as far as Karen is concerned. It is a little late, though.

Next, Mars says he wants her, Gary, Adam, and Samantha to give them fingerprints, DNA, hair samples, But why? Well, they explain it's to eliminate them as suspects, but why the kids? That's what Karen wants to know. Why put them through that? And Mars says this, listen,

we really want Gary's DNA, but it will look suspicious if we're only collecting his. So now Karen's head is just spinning. First, she's expecting to go to a wedding, a vacation. She's meeting Jim's family for the first time, relaxing on a boat. There's a knock at the door at 3 a.m. News that her daughter is dead.

Then she's begging. the police to investigate it as a murder, them refusing, and now this. Claiming her ex-husband who raised Bonnie is a suspect? There were so many thoughts running through her head. Could it possibly be? Because he had just had a very weird conversation with Karen about something Bonnie had supposedly set out of the blue not too long ago about where she wanted to be buried. Maybe a reason that he wanted to ship her body so far. Plus, Gary wasn't wasn't even supposed to be home the day that Bonnie went missing. That's right.

He was on a business trip and he cut it short out of nowhere. He came home the night before. And it turns out he was upset with Bonnie for being out past her curfew because she was supposed to be watching the younger children. Could he have been mad enough to cause her harm? Before I go deeper down that rabbit hole, I want to go back because things have been going on with the state troopers. Just by looking at Bonnie's body back at the scene the day she was found.

they were able to tell that she had been dead for several hours, which meant she must have been hiking before sunrise. And this added to the mystery and the suspicion that there may be more to the story. Now to the cause of death. The medical examiner determined that Bonnie died as a result of drowning. However, she also sustained a number of severe head injuries, which were associated from the fall from the cliff. But could it have been something else? Before her lungs filled up with water, Bonnie suffered at the bottom of that cliff for who knows how long. Well, there were definitely missing pieces of the puzzle. For one, getting to the park before the sun came up meant that Bonnie got there soon after

she left Gary's, but how? Someone must have picked her up, but who? Or could she have taken a bus and skipped class? But why? And troopers did find something at the scene. Maybe it wasn't as suspicious at first, since Bonnie's death was really. ruled an accident, but a trooper named Robert Beattie got on his hands and knees and he discovered a drop of blood the size of an eraser head. It was around five to six feet away from the edge of the cliff. Blood. Where it shouldn't be if this was truly an accident. And according to Beattie, the drop looked like it fell straight down. This means something happened to Bonnie before she plummeted

off the side of that cliff. Something that was forceful enough to make her bleed, if this was indeed her blood. However, they found no signs of violence or weapons at McHugh Creek. The investigators involved knew it was going to be difficult to solve this case. They knew they must be dealing with a homicide, but they didn't let the media or the family know.

And this was a tactic they were using. They imagined that it must be someone close to Bonnie, maybe even a family member or a boyfriend, someone who would be in the circle of individuals that would get info related to them. So they refrained from sharing any of that information with anyone. That was why they were upset with Karen for calling it a murder. Thinking now, the killer would assume there was an investigation and they had wanted to lay low.

So now that you know what's going on, let's go back to Bonnie's family. Troopers were finally asking them questions to gain insight into what Bonnie was doing the morning of her death. And to look into Gary, since he was a person of interest. There was something even more suspicious than wanting to ship her body to Canada. Apparently, Gary refused to let Karen come remove Bonnie's belongings from his home. He went so far as to put a lock on Bonnie's door so that not even his own children could go inside. Why? It all started when Gary asked Karen where he framed picture of Bonnie had gone.

Karen explained, she gave it to the troopers. They needed a picture of her. Well, he accused Karen of stealing it, and he got very defensive about giving the rest of Bonnie's possession. over to her. He tells her that Bonnie is his daughter too. Though not biological, he raised her. He's been a part of her life since she was very little, like three years old. They had a very close relationship and Karen's frustrated. She calls up Sergeant Mars for help, but he says he can't intervene. She needs to get a court order for something like that. Then he could assist her. So she does. And Gary is definitely not thrilled when they get to the front door with that court order in hand. He had to

step aside. Karen goes in and takes boxes and boxes of Bonnie's things. Later, she goes through everything and picks out things that she thinks might help the troopers with the case, like bank statements and other documents. Samantha and Adam were both interviewed. They were staying at Gary's that week, and Samantha says she heard Bonnie wake up early. It was probably around 5 a.m., but she didn't see her. She said she wanted to get up and look out, but she was just so comfortable in her bed, which she now regrets, because that would have been. the very last glimpse she would have had of her sister that she loved so much. Samantha did wonder if Bonnie was in a hurry that morning because it did sound like she was rushing around.

But other than that, everything was normal. The confusion surrounding Bonnie's death left her family unsure of what to believe or who to trust. After she died, Samantha began struggling. She struggled in school because she relied so much on her older sister. She shared everything with her. And she was lost without the support. of her big sister. When Samantha lost Bonnie, she felt like she lost everything. And at one point, Samantha even lost trust in her own father. There was one night where Gary was tucking Samantha in at night

in her bed. And she couldn't help it. She was just 12 years old and she stopped and she looked up at him and she said, Dad, did you kill Bonnie? And of course, he was shocked and he was hurt. And he assured her, No, I would never hurt your sister. And I just thought how heartbreaking it is that this poor little girl, she had to question her own father. But in that moment, that's all Samantha needed to hear. Plus, both Adam and Samantha independently told the troopers that the day Bonnie was killed, their father, Gary, was home. He was scraping ice off the car, and then he headed into work.

And they were able to verify his whereabouts with coworkers and supervisors. So they were able to rule him out as being involved. and they let Karen know that. She wanted details, but all she's ever given is responses like, let us do our job, or we're working on it,

even we're looking into it, but nothing else. Karen had to put everything on hold because it was time for Bonnie's funeral. And it almost didn't happen, sort of. It turns out burying someone can be pretty expensive,

and it was so unexpected. Karen was self-employed. was a real estate agent. She'd only been working for the past 10 months. It was $15,000 for Bonnie's funeral expenses and Karen just didn't have the money. But they said they wouldn't release Bonnie's body without the funds. So she scrambled around and she was able to put it on multiple credit cards and that's tough. But what choice do you have when you're faced with this predicament? The service was held at a church that Bonnie attended from time to time called Rabbit Creek Community Church. It was surreal. Everyone,

who loved and adored Bonnie shut up, even her biological father, Gordon, as well as Bonnie's boyfriend, who looked distressed. And just like that, it was over. Time for her loved ones to live out their new normal without Bonnie. A week passed after Bonnie's death, and Karen decided to start doing her own investigation. First, retracing Bonnie's steps. She started at Gary's house, which is on Revereign Drive and she gets there at approximately 5 a.m. before the sun comes up. She wants to be as accurate as possible. She wants to know exactly what Bonnie's walk was like that morning and every morning. Karen walks a couple minutes to a road called Legacy Drive. There are sidewalks, plenty of room to walk and she continues to Lake Otis Parkway. Now this is a major roadway and it's adequately

lit, seem safe enough. It's through a residential neighborhood and I don't know what it looked like in 1994, But there's no sidewalks, at least where it begins from Legacy Drive, but there is a bike lane. Well, Karen is on this road for at least a good 15 minutes, and yet she's still nowhere near the bus stop yet. And I estimate on the map that this is where she would have been after around 15 minutes. And that's when the surroundings change a bit. As you can see, no more houses, put forests on both sides. Karen actually gets confronted by an aggressive moose.

Never happened to me. I have never had anything happen like this. But it's kind of normal for this part of Alaska. And this moose comes right out from the bushes on the east side of the roadway. And she doesn't know what to do. So she hides behind a lamp post. The moose leaves, but it reappears again. And it's almost taunting her.

And by the way, a couple people have stopped to talk to Karen. First, it was a guy in a truck. He wants to know if she's okay because he sees the moose. Second was a state trooper. Both were worried. But Karen explained, I'm Bonnie Craig's mother. I'm just retracing her steps. But clearly this shows a few things. One, wildlife could have come after Bonnie on these walks. Two, there is a likelihood that strangers

could have stopped who talk to Bonnie on this route a number of times. And three, state troopers are also patrolling this area. So there's negatives and positives and things in between. Karen taught Bonnie from a young age to never accept a ride from a stranger no matter what. So she knows better. She knows that unless Bonnie knew and trusted a driver, she would never have gotten inside someone's vehicle. But Karen starts to wonder, could Bonnie have been attacked by a wild animal? And someone stopped to help like the guy did in the truck?

And maybe she was desperate. She got in their car. And then this apparent good Samaritan ended up hurting her. This area is a little more dangerous. It's isolated. So Karen keeps walking. And the landscape changes. again. It's around the hour mark at 6 a.m. and the area is busy near the bus stop. The likelihood that

someone snatched her up in this location would be lower. She can't believe how far Bonnie had to walk to get there. It's just a 15-minute drive from Gary's house to the university, which makes me wonder, why didn't he just give her a ride in the mornings? But in Karen's book, she explained that Bonnie never told her about this walk. Karen never knew how far it was. She thinks that Bonnie, didn't want her mom to worry. She didn't want to give her a reason not to let her live at Gary's house. She was telling Karen this would help her get to the university, that it was close by and convenient. Bonnie was also headstrong like her mama, and she probably wouldn't have accepted a ride because she wanted to work for what she earned. Karen is no closer to understanding

what happened to Bonnie after she gets to the bus stop. However, she does go back to her car and she drives around hoping that she could locate Bonnie's backpack or any of her belongings. For that might lead to a break in the case, but nothing turns up. This woman went everywhere. She went down into ditches on the sides of the roads. It was clear to me that this mother would do anything for her daughter.

She wasn't going to give up. But time doesn't stop for any of us. And before she knew it, it was 1995, a new year, but no new information regarding Bonnie's death. At least no news that the police were willing to share with Karen. Karen started off the new year with a call to Sergeant Mars, and asked him one direct question. And she used the R word that I can't use,

but she says, was Bonnie, did someone force themselves on her? His response? Karen, we can't confirm or deny that. And Karen wants to know why. And basically, Mars tells her, it's just not clear to them at this point, but it had been three months.

So Karen wondered, what was taking so long? But these things do take time. The truth is, the troopers did believe that even though Bonnie was, fully clothed, jeans zipped up, panties on, bra and tacked shirt covering her with a jacket on, she could have been violated. The perpetrator could have ordered her to get dressed or could have dressed her himself. They did collect a swab as part of their medical examination, and there was male DNA present inside of Bonnie. But this information is kept under seal.

In California, detectives gather DNA samples from Bonnie's boyfriend Cameron. They sent his sample and Garry's to the lab for analysis, and neither one of them turned out to be a match. Plus, Cameron could not have been in Alaska at the time of Bonnie's murder. Multiple witnesses saw him in California on September 28, 1994. Police investigated Bonnie's activities in the moments leading up to her murder. Bonnie's last sighting was on her way to the bus stop. The same path she took every time she traveled to school. There were at least two eyewitnesses, but there was no proof that she ever got on that bus. They believed that Bonnie was snatched up by her killer while she was walking in the darkness. And she had a haunting foreshadowing conversation with her younger sister Samantha the night before

she was killed. Bonnie told Samantha she was working on assignment that she had to turn in the next day for her English class at 7 a.m. The topic saying goodbye. That's creepy. Bonnie wrote about how she moved around a lot as a kid and she had to leave so many of her friends behind. And she also talked about her biological father who wasn't around when she was a child. Within 24 hours of writing that essay, Bonnie Craig would be dead. Finally, Karen got some positive news in a way. Sergeant Mars calls to let her know that they've made some conclusions in Bonnie's case as far as the medical examiner is concerned. And now they're willing to allow Karen to have access to view Bonnie's autopsy report. It's the second week of January in 1995. About five months since Bonnie

was found. It's about time. And there's a couple caveats. Karen has to meet with the medical examiner. She cannot have copies of the report, and she cannot discuss the findings with anyone, not even her own family. And she agrees. Karen meets with a Dr. Norman Thompson who conducted Bonnie's autopsy, and he hands her the documents. The first thing that stands out to Karen is the manner of death. Homicide. I guess that was their new conclusion. Now they can finally share this with Karen. She hadn't even received Bonnie's death certificate at this point. So this is the first time that she's seen the manner of death

officially being ruled a homicide. In addition to what we already know, Karen sees that there are multiple blunt force trauma injuries to Bonnie's head, 11, lacerations, 11. Plus, her left index fingers broken, and the report goes on to say that the contributing causes of death If she was still alive when she went into that water, would have been drowning and or hypothermia. She also had tearing down below. You know where. And this indicated a forceful or rough intercourse.

Karen wants to know, does this prove someone forced themselves on her? And Dr. Thompson says that that part is inconclusive. They don't know if it's consensual and just rough or forced. He just cannot be certain. But we know that Bonnie isn't a committed though long-distance relationship, but to the defense at trial that wouldn't matter. They could argue that she was seeing someone else. But who? Well, that leads to the next piece of evidence that Dr. Thompson points to as something that could provide proof. The DNA. And in case you are confused about where they're getting this DNA, it is from the semen that was inside her. If they can link it to someone, they could find out if there was a guy that Bonnie was seeing and

question him about his whereabouts, about their relationship, etc. That's the only way to get to the bottom of this. And so far, the state troopers have gathered DNA data from every guy who's crossed Bonnie's path and none of the samples have matched. Karen knows in her heart it's the killers DNA left behind, not some random guy that Bonnie was seeing. That just wasn't how Bonnie operated, but they had to prove this. Now the medical examiner hands Karen the autopsy photos and they're hard to look at. Clearly, the wounds on Bonnie's head were not caused by a fall. Dr. Thompson indicates the areas do not coincide with the position of her body. For instance, the back of the bottom of her head. But the weapon that made these wounds is unknown. This is still all a mystery. That was it for now.

Karen has some closure, but she's even more determined to find out who killed her daughter. She makes flyers, bumper stickers. A friend of hers, Sandy Cassidy, even started a group called Friends and Family of Bonnie Craig. They were trying to field information from the public and to keep Bonnie's name and face out there. And the efforts paid off. Bonnie's image appeared on the sides of buses. There were bumper stickers with the words, Who Killed Bonnie? and more and more leads come in.

About a week later, there's a break in the case. When detectives spoke to Bonnie's coworkers at Sam's Club, they talked about a man who worked with Bonnie who seemed to like her a little too much. Bonnie had even gone to her supervisor with concerns about this guy. He went so far as to use the company computer to look up Bonnie's employee record and get her phone number.

He was calling her repeatedly, despite her request for him to stop. Detectives brought the coworker in for an interview, and they obtained a DNA sample, but it would take time to process. And meanwhile, another coworker was reported acting suspiciously. He failed to attend a meeting at work that was held around the same time

that they believe Bonnie was killed. This individual also provides a DNA sample, and now they had to wait. Meanwhile, Jim and Karen have invited Jim's brother, Ken and his wife Valerie to visit. It had been eight months since that 3 a.m. knock came on their charter boat. In Ken, informing them of the bad news regarding Bonnie. Jim asked Karen if she thinks she would be up to taking a boat trip, but it would be close by from Seaword to Whittier. It's something that they used to do all the time, and it would be great to be able to take their

guests out and do something. Plus, they could be back within an hour or two if they need to for any reason. Karen's hesitant. It brings back a lot of memories, but all they've done is cry, investigate, and wait, and grieve for almost a year. So she decides it's a good time to at least try to change the pace. They grabbed the couple from the airport and off they went to the marina where their 37-foot creolec named sea monkey is stored. I lived on a very similar style S2 sailboat growing up and seeing this boat brought back so many memories. So they plan to sail for about a week. It should be nice to just get away, grill some food, drink some wine,

enjoy the sights and sounds of the sea. But she'll never believe what's about to happen. On their last day, they're pulling into Whittier Marina, and they radio in, they let the harbor know that they're preparing to dock, and they're informed that the Coast Guard has been trying to reach them, that there's been an emergency and it's deja vu. Karen is in disbelief. There's so many thoughts going through her mind.

Is it going to be another one of her children? But this time the message isn't for her. It's for Jim. The Coast Guard informs him and Ken that their dad had died of a heart attack. And neither one of them could believe it because they had just wished him a 63rd birthday a few days ago and he was fine.

Maybe boating is bad luck for them. But this is sad. The last two times they're on a boat, they get this news that a loved one has passed. And now they're rushing back. All right, class, settle down. Today's lesson is on the Arco Rewards app. Try to stay with me.

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at participating locations, terms and conditions apply. Doing the same routine they did before preparing for another funeral.