0:00

Hello, hello. Still gotta

0:02

say east of here in my voice, it's pretty cool. Alright,

0:05

where are we going? Hey you and welcome,

0:07

my name is Mike, and in this whole podcast,

0:09

we, that's you and it's me, and

0:13

I guess kind of whoever is listening to

0:15

this, maybe it's multiple people at the same

0:17

time. You know,

0:18

how y'all doing today? Good, bad,

0:21

indifferent, up to

0:23

much while you're listening to this. Well, you

0:25

know what, here listen, whatever you're doing, I hope it's

0:27

fun, And I hope you're having a good day or at least

0:30

it gets better from here and

0:32

you know Thanks

0:33

for listening, but but here enough

0:35

of that you're here to listen to me Tell

0:38

you a story a story that

0:40

takes us back To

0:42

Canada of all places if you can believe

0:44

that you

0:45

know funnily enough I've never actually been to Canada

0:47

myself I've been to the USA loads of times

0:50

but never to the country on top It

0:52

looks looks beautiful though always wanted

0:54

to and the friends, you know and my friends who have

0:56

been there They really have nothing bad to say

0:58

about it, but maybe they don't

1:00

know this story now

1:03

this is one of those real mysterious

1:05

and

1:06

Creepy ones my friends it

1:09

is set in the wilds of Canada

1:11

And it takes us to a lookout tower one

1:13

of those like your fire lookout towers

1:16

for any gamers out there You know there's an awesome indie

1:18

game called fire watch Essentially in

1:20

the game you play a guy who goes into remote fire

1:23

tower for a season You're

1:24

in the wilderness all alone and creepy

1:27

stuff starts happening. Now, dunno

1:30

if this story was an inspiration,

1:33

but it definitely, definitely could be.

1:36

Let's give it a

1:49

go! with more than 8,000 wildfires

1:51

across Canada every year. Are

1:54

you for real? Really? The

1:56

first and best line of defense are the hundreds

1:58

of manned Lookout Tower.

2:00

across the country. There

2:02

are 127 lookout towers measuring between 20 and 100 feet scattered

2:07

across the province of Alberta alone.

2:10

Now out of all these towers the Athabasca

2:13

Lookout Tower is more valuable than

2:16

most. It's a big, it's the big dog, it's

2:18

the important one.

2:19

That has given its proximity to the tiny

2:22

X mining town of Hinton and

2:24

the dense woodland. You know

2:27

if a fire were allowed to get out of control,

2:29

there would be a serious possibility

2:32

that the entire town could be engulfed

2:34

in flames. In Silver Time,

2:37

things can escalate from a single discarded

2:40

cigarette butt to, well,

2:42

hundreds of acres of forest

2:45

not being there anymore essentially. Every

2:48

passing second of fire goes unnoticed, or

2:51

is the lead burned a little longer?

2:53

looking at, you know, hundreds,

2:56

possibly thousands more trees,

2:59

not being trees anymore, being ash.

3:02

And it's, you know, it's not easy to find people who can stomach

3:05

the isolation of being in these

3:07

fire terrors. Sometimes for,

3:09

sometimes it could be for up to a month or even

3:11

longer, you know, by themselves.

3:13

It's a lot of isolation. Okay, some people,

3:15

it will,

3:17

really you have to be able to thrive in your own company.

3:19

And also to maintain intense

3:22

concentration for hours, hours

3:24

at a time.

3:25

Like it takes a really deep seated passion

3:27

to commit to the job and lifestyle of

3:30

a fire watch worker.

3:33

It can't really be overstated just how important the job is

3:35

and how unique the demands

3:37

are. Those suited to the task,

3:39

they're a rare breed my friends. You

3:41

know, I guarantee a lot of people think they

3:43

are. Oh man, fucking that sounds awesome. I'd

3:46

love to be there, you know, by myself. of

3:48

chillin one with nature

3:50

away from the away

3:52

you're saying goodbye to all that to

3:54

the city life and just, you know,

3:56

chillin', right? Relaxin'.

3:59

After a- Probably about a couple of days a lot

4:01

of people would be racing back to

4:03

civilization.

4:05

So what exactly is the day to day life

4:07

for fire watchers in like these lonely

4:09

towers in the remotest parts of

4:11

national parks?

4:13

Pretty dull. Lonely. Monotonous.

4:17

If a fire does start, lookouts, they first

4:19

have to figure out where exactly it is, what

4:21

caused it, what keeps it going, and how

4:23

is it behaving. They then radio

4:26

the fire in to a centralized dispatch

4:28

centre where, you know, it's reported

4:30

to the responsible agency who should

4:32

be putting

4:33

a bit of agua on it.

4:35

After that it's really then up to the agency

4:37

to decide whether they should actually

4:40

tackle the fire or just let the fire burn itself out.

4:43

Being a fire watch, being working as a fire watcher

4:46

can be hard. It's, you know,

4:48

to start it's described almost like a meditation.

4:51

But after a while, the loneliness

4:53

can get you. Your mental health can

4:56

severely wear down

4:57

if you're not prepared. Like, one story

4:59

I was reading of a guy, you know, he was out there for

5:02

a month when he went back to his

5:04

town, to his family, to his house. He

5:06

literally had to lock himself away for a couple

5:08

of days before he could

5:10

reintegrate himself into regular

5:13

life.

5:14

Now, there's a hell of a lot less firetowers

5:16

now than there were before. You know, obviously,

5:19

you do planes, you do cameras, you do satellites.

5:21

They can all do the same job. But fire towers,

5:24

fire watch towers, they still exist.

5:27

And there are some creepy, pretty

5:29

creepy stories you can read

5:31

about things these people have

5:33

experienced, unexplained lights,

5:36

mysterious people out there, mysterious

5:39

watchers.

5:40

I mean, there is a lot of bullshit stories.

5:42

No sleeps, creepy pastas, urban

5:45

legends, whatever, which are fun.

5:47

But, you know, not real.

5:50

This story is real.

5:52

So, firewatches didn't get much more suited

5:54

to the job than Stephanie Stewart. By 2006,

5:57

70-year-old Stephanie Stewart was a had

6:00

been working for the Alberta Provincial Government

6:02

as a fire lookout every summer for

6:05

the last 18 years. The

6:07

most recent 13 of those

6:10

years being spent living and working

6:12

at the Athabasca Tower, a place

6:14

where,

6:15

I mean, truly, the views do not

6:17

get much more stunning. It's right by Jasper

6:20

National Park, which, you know, Wow

6:22

Wow we were

6:24

is the only cliched thing I can say

6:26

and it's around by endless

6:28

endless forests So life

6:31

for Stephanie now as a firewatcher, you know

6:33

It's not only a mentally demanding job with

6:35

errors long Disney with long errors of discipline

6:38

and concentration required It's also a physical

6:41

job. You're you know to me There's

6:42

not much what are those things that take

6:44

people upstairs? You know you sit in those

6:47

those yokes. There's not many of them out in the wilds,

6:49

right?

6:50

And the higher the tower the more important it is because

6:52

it offers you a better scope of view Lookout

6:55

towers can be up to 100 feet high and

6:58

the only way to access this particular tower

7:00

we are talking about is with a

7:02

ladder

7:04

Stephanie had to climb a hundred foot ladder every

7:06

day like a lot of look at towers

7:08

will have stairs But not this one

7:11

and with you know you'd be up in that tower

7:13

for hours at a time

7:15

So you really have to be up there? where

7:18

pretty constantly you bring your

7:20

provisions up to the top with you and

7:23

you better be watching because you do not

7:25

want to miss

7:26

any smoke. So you have to climb

7:28

up this ladder that's 100 feet high with a big ol'

7:31

backpack, right?

7:33

That would be a strenuous enough task for a fit 30

7:36

year old. Stephanie was over

7:38

double that age, but she wasn't

7:40

any regular Septigenarian.

7:43

Stephanie, she was originally from Canmore, Alberta.

7:46

And more, it's a small ex-coal mining town 50

7:49

miles from Calgary on the edge of Banff

7:52

National Park.

7:53

And Stephanie, standing between 5'1 and 5'2 and

7:55

weighing just 105 pounds, she was small?

8:00

But

8:00

she was mighty. Her daughter

8:02

Lori described her as a hell of a woman.

8:05

Very strong, very capable, and

8:07

described, you know, that tower

8:09

as being her life.

8:11

So like just seven months prior to when

8:13

our story really begins, Stephanie,

8:16

along with her friend, her daughter, and her son-in-law,

8:19

they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Stephanie

8:22

was 69 years of age. Firewatch

8:25

tower were watchers I

8:27

guess have to be real

8:29

comfortable being uncomfortable when

8:31

you're out there on top of this hundred-foot tower

8:34

and it's like a real tiny kind of little thingy right I'd

8:36

be going mad especially when you know your your

8:38

nearest neighbor is goddamn Sasquatch as

8:41

you all know my mortal enemy

8:43

and Stephanie was clearly very good

8:46

at that like jade's no stopping her right

8:49

she could probably take take anything take anything

8:51

she could she You can take whatever they can give her. She

8:53

was just made for adventure, you know? Fair

8:56

play to you. Going to the

8:58

store is enough of an adventure for me. But

9:01

you know, whatever floats your boat.

9:02

I mean, I think I would definitely, I personally

9:05

would definitely be the type that if I went out

9:07

there, you know, for the first day or two,

9:09

I might be good. Then

9:11

I might start shitting myself at every branch

9:13

I heard around me that broke.

9:15

And pretty swiftly after that, I'd probably

9:18

just go insane. I'd get naked, slaughter

9:20

myself in mud, turn to fire, watch terror into my own

9:22

little private kingdom, and try and break the world record

9:24

for him any times he can masturbate in one day. Actually, I

9:26

changed my mind. That sounds pretty fucking cool. Ahem.

9:29

Anyway, how about you just forget I said all

9:31

that? Let's stay on topic. Back to

9:34

Stephanie. I mean, I know I tell scary stories

9:36

on this podcast, but I don't want to give you nightmares.

9:39

She was seen as an inspiration to her fellow

9:41

climbers. Like, you know, when they were climbing up Kilimanjaro,

9:44

she wasn't like, at the back of the pack, she

9:46

was the one keeping everybody's spirits going.

9:48

Nope, Stephanie took everything to

9:51

the extreme, even when she was home.

9:53

You know, when she was gardening, she had this massive,

9:56

big garden that regular people would just find

9:58

incredibly daunting. She always wanted to be active. She

10:00

was moving all the time and not

10:02

only that she didn't just love adventuring She had a creative

10:04

streak choosing to spend her time painting

10:07

and reading and writing and all of

10:09

that

10:10

So let's get back to well what

10:13

happened now now Here's one thing to know about

10:15

this particular terror each lookout

10:17

tower has a cabin now most lookout

10:19

terrors in the United States

10:21

They're slightly different in that the tower

10:24

and the cabin they're elevated right the

10:26

the terror and the cabin are essentially the same place

10:29

Where

10:29

in a lot of these Canadian versions the

10:32

tower is separated from the cabin. So you

10:34

got the tower and then on the ground you

10:36

have this cabin at the

10:38

base of the tower.

10:40

Now Stephanie was known to be experienced

10:42

and she was reliable.

10:45

So when the 8 a.m. sitrep

10:47

call from the Athabasca Tower on

10:49

the 26th of August 2006 didn't come in

10:52

as usual it was odd but

10:55

you know certainly not seen as a reason for panic.

10:57

Like

10:58

every morning they would call in, you

11:00

know, hey, I'm still

11:03

out here, I'm still alive, um, you

11:05

know, how are you?

11:06

So that morning, maybe people were thinking she

11:09

just missed her call, there would be a million

11:12

legitimate reasons for missing the call.

11:15

But time did go by, if she missed the

11:17

8am, she would certainly call in again later. They

11:21

then decided to call Stephanie,

11:23

just to make sure, you know, she was okay, she hadn't

11:25

taken a fall, heard herself somehow

11:27

like she wasn't exactly a spring

11:30

chicken

11:30

at this point. So ring

11:33

ring, and the phone at Athabasca

11:35

was picked up. So an immediate

11:38

sigh of relief from the caller,

11:40

which did not last long. Rather

11:44

than hearing Stephanie's familiar voice at

11:46

the end of the line, they simply heard

11:49

breathing.

11:51

Then it hung up. At

11:54

this point now no one quite

11:56

knew what was going on, yeah

11:59

the phone call was uh, like straight

12:01

out of ROD? Let's say the least,

12:03

but you know what it doesn't mean there's anything weird going on.

12:06

So it was decided the best thing to do was to drive

12:08

out to the tower and perform an unofficial

12:11

welfare check. And on

12:13

arrival nothing really seemed amiss.

12:16

Everything outside was orderly, Stephanie's

12:18

Dodge pickup that was still parked right

12:20

outside.

12:22

But inside the cabin

12:24

was a different story. story. Not

12:26

only was there no sign of

12:29

Stephanie or anyone else, there

12:32

was blood. And on

12:34

the stove, a pot of water

12:36

was boiling.

12:38

On the stairs, blood had been smeared.

12:41

Obviously, something was very

12:44

wrong.

12:45

Finally, Stephanie was reported missing

12:48

and within hours a huge search

12:51

was organized with police, volunteers,

12:53

many of whom knew Stephanie

12:55

personally,

12:56

combing the dense forest around the

12:59

tower.

12:59

And they found nothing.

13:03

No sign of Stephanie, nor anything

13:05

else. Back

13:07

at the cabin, detectives considered, um, potential

13:10

animal attack or some kind of medical

13:13

episode that might have left Stephanie confused

13:15

and wandering off into the

13:17

surrounding wilderness.

13:20

that like quickly an animal attack was ruled

13:22

out. There was no indication

13:24

an animal had been there. Animals, you

13:27

know, especially those big and brave enough to take on a

13:29

human, even one as small

13:31

as Stephanie,

13:32

they would leave a mess behind if

13:34

a bear or wolves or something, you

13:36

know, came in. Sasquatch? That fucking

13:38

guy.

13:39

You would know. So it was way too

13:41

clean for it to have been an animal.

13:43

The idea that Stephanie maybe hit her head

13:45

and wandered off in a panic,

13:47

that was more of a faint hope than realistic

13:50

theory, and it didn't last long when it

13:52

was discovered that several items of bedding

13:55

were missing from the cabin.

13:57

Among those were two pillows, a

13:59

bed sheet and a

14:00

Navajo patterned duvet cover.

14:02

Now there were many reasons that they could

14:04

have been missing.

14:05

Whether they were used to wrap a body

14:08

or to remove potential DNA evidence

14:10

though,

14:11

none of the reasons could be seen as

14:13

positive for Stephanie Stewart. The

14:16

investigation was at a loss from the very beginning.

14:19

There was no obvious suspects, motivation

14:21

or clues or evidence. Stephanie

14:24

she was kind, she was a well-liked respected

14:27

lady. Why the hell anyone would want want to harm her, it

14:29

just...

14:30

nothing. No, no.

14:33

It was possible that the motive was robbery. Stephanie,

14:36

she had a gold analog watch that

14:38

was noted to be missing from the cabin, but you

14:40

know, it had a little value. It was it was sentimental

14:42

to Stephanie and that's why she kept it.

14:45

But it's also possible that Stephanie herself

14:48

had had to watch on her when she took these

14:50

items, went to have a sleep,

14:53

you know, a little nap in the woods taking

14:55

pillows and shit with her.

14:57

I

14:58

don't think so.

15:00

We do know that Stephanie last spoke

15:02

to her daughter, Lori, the night before

15:04

at around 9pm.

15:06

And according to her daughter, she was

15:08

in grand form, grand mood. She was fine,

15:10

no plans to leave the tower, and she

15:12

definitely had no indication of any sort

15:15

of distress. She was, yeah,

15:17

she was in perfect form, regular, regular, old

15:20

day.

15:21

So whatever happened must have taken place in those 10

15:23

or so errors between that phone call to her daughter, to

15:25

her daughter and the phone line going dead

15:28

the next morning.

15:30

The pot on the stove. That could have been Stephanie

15:32

making tea or coffee for a guest.

15:34

Or even attempting

15:37

to start a fire. That would actually

15:39

be what the police would eventually start to believe.

15:41

Someone left a burning pot of water on the stove

15:44

in an attempt to burn down the cabin.

15:47

Now one of the most frustrating things about this case

15:49

is just though how many plausible

15:51

explanations there are for the state of things being left behind.

15:54

There are so many interpretations of

15:56

the scene, none of them

15:59

really match up with each other and none of them really

16:01

make sense. It's like

16:03

trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't know what the

16:05

picture is meant to be, you've only got half the pieces,

16:08

and you're blindfolded. Like, what was the meaning

16:11

of any of this?

16:14

Had Stephanie, you know, witnessed something?

16:16

Well, it's unlikely, you know, anyone

16:18

would carry out any kind of naughty activities,

16:21

and I can't imagine they would do it right in the view of a lookout

16:23

tower.

16:24

In fact, whatever happened, it would have happened in the middle of the

16:26

night when Stephanie wouldn't have been in

16:29

the tower. So another possibility

16:31

suggested was that Stephanie, she was the victim of a

16:34

random stranger attack, you

16:36

know, maybe she invited somebody

16:39

into the cabin, was going to make a drink for them

16:41

tea or something,

16:43

and then they struck. But

16:45

who who was that stranger? Who

16:48

who would she have come in? Like this

16:50

was way out into the woods. You

16:52

only would have been there if you wanted to

16:54

be there

16:56

Or you were lost.

16:58

Almost four years after Stephanie's

17:01

disappearance, in July 2010, Lyle

17:03

and Marie McCann disappeared while on

17:06

a road trip in their Orvey from

17:08

St. Albert, Alberta to Chilliwack,

17:10

British Columbia. A journey that's non-stop,

17:13

you're looking at about 12 hours.

17:15

But they were gonna stop.

17:17

The couple, aged 77 and 78,

17:20

they had been due to pick up their daughter on

17:22

the 10th of July.

17:24

Instead police responded to reports

17:27

of a suspicious fire at the Minnow

17:29

Lake Campground near Edson, Alberta,

17:31

which

17:31

is about two hours west from

17:34

St. Albert.

17:35

The fire turned out to be a burning motorhome.

17:39

It was the McCann's though

17:41

when the police, you know, they put out the fire. There

17:43

was no sign of Lyle or Marie

17:46

and no sign of their Hyundai Tucson.

17:48

On July 10th when her parents failed to pick her up

17:51

as expected and not being able to get

17:53

in touch with them, him,

17:54

the couple's daughter, Trudy, called 911 and

17:57

reported her parents as missing.

17:59

long

18:00

for the RCMP to make the connection

18:02

between the burned out ORV and the missing persons

18:05

report and they launched

18:07

searches in response.

18:10

They visited McCann's home, found

18:12

nothing, and six days after

18:14

they had been reported as missing, the McCann's

18:17

SUV was discovered just 18 miles

18:19

east of Edson.

18:21

Not long after the discovery, the RCMP

18:24

announced they wanted to speak to

18:26

38-year-old Travis Vader as

18:28

a person of interest

18:30

and they believed the McCanns met with

18:33

foul play.

18:34

An Orvie left on fire? Yeah,

18:36

that'll do it. That'll do it for

18:39

you. Vader, okay,

18:41

now I usually call people by their first name, but I

18:43

mean this one, like come on, of course I'm gonna

18:45

call it Vader.

18:46

He had a long shit-long criminal

18:48

history going back years, ranging

18:50

from friggin vehicle theft to

18:53

careless use and unauthorized possession

18:55

of a firearm. He was like just taking pot

18:57

shots left right and center. So man for one

18:59

man.

19:00

Vader was arrested in Alberta on

19:02

the 19th of July for outstanding

19:04

warrants that were unconnected

19:07

to the McCann's disappearance. They

19:10

just needed some reason to put him behind bars

19:12

and Vader's own sister she would say

19:15

that Travis had stayed with her and her family

19:18

in Edmonton the day after the

19:20

McCann's disappeared and that he looked tired, fired,

19:22

sick, and needed to rest. He

19:24

was officially made a suspect in the McCann's

19:27

case on the 31st of August. Like

19:29

he was still in custody for those minor

19:32

outstanding warrants at the time, and he wasn't

19:35

formally charged into this disappearance,

19:38

the authorities were looking to just build their case against

19:41

Vader.

19:42

A month later, in September 2010, Mounties announced

19:45

that they were searching a property belonging to

19:47

an acquaintance of Vader's.

19:50

from the ore CMP they pretty much tore

19:53

the property apart. They even had a dive team,

19:55

you know, sieve true a hool and septu tank,

19:57

but it seems they found nothing there at all.

20:00

Fast

20:00

forward then to the following year, with

20:02

Vader still in jail behind bars

20:04

on those outstanding warrants, on the 27th

20:07

of June 2011, investigators

20:09

searched a second property.

20:11

The same day as that second search, the McCanns

20:13

were officially declared to be deceased,

20:16

with

20:16

authorities now publicly confirming they

20:18

believed McCanns were killed the same

20:20

day they were last seen on the 3rd

20:23

of July 2010.

20:24

Though, their bodies were not

20:27

found, and to date, have

20:30

never been found. It

20:31

wouldn't be until April 2012 that

20:34

Vader would be finally, formally

20:36

charged in the McCann's disappearance.

20:39

He was actually charged with two counts of first-degree

20:42

murder. But, despite this, you know, there was

20:44

no obvious...

20:45

No obvious evidence. There was no bodies

20:48

and no physical confirmation that they were even dead.

20:50

Which, you know, it's a super rare thing. it's a super

20:52

hard thing to prove that you had killed

20:54

somebody, you know, hey, good I know nobody

20:57

no crime Very

20:59

hard to make it stick. So,

21:01

okay, listen, I hear you're barking big

21:04

dog, right? What's all this got to do with

21:06

Stephanie Stewart who disappeared from

21:08

her fire tower? Well Vader

21:11

was in the area when she disappeared

21:14

Travis Vader he picked on senior citizens

21:17

as his victims bodies

21:19

never found in either

21:21

case and the pot of boiling

21:23

water is believed to have been an attempt to

21:25

start a fire to cover up the scene just

21:28

like he did by burning the Orvi in

21:30

the McCann's case.

21:33

So Vader he would be convicted on the charges

21:36

you know he was initially being held for those minor

21:38

outstanding warrants that kind

21:40

of stuff. The charges of murder

21:42

though would eventually be dropped it

21:45

seemed like they

21:46

they were worried they didn't have enough to actually

21:48

to actually prove he had murdered

21:51

the McCanns and Vader in fact would

21:53

be released entirely from prison when being found

21:55

not guilty of the The initial charges near

21:57

the outstanding warrants.

21:59

theft and weapons charges.

22:20

So Vader was scot free from everything

22:23

until December 2014 when he was re-arrested

22:26

on suspicion of the McCann's murders.

22:29

Now the trial wouldn't officially begin for

22:31

the double homicide until March 2016, with

22:35

the Crown's case relying largely on cell

22:37

phone records of the McCanns and Vader,

22:40

with no bodies and no more evidence.

22:43

The verdict would eventually come back with Travis

22:45

Vader being found not guilty of first degree

22:48

murder, but guilty of second

22:50

degree murder. I

22:52

have to say there's a whole lot of legal bullshit

22:55

and fuckery going on in the background of this entire

22:58

case like Vader would sue

23:00

the or CMP, they would drop the case,

23:02

they would recharge the case and there was a whole

23:04

lot of jumping through loopholes going

23:07

on in the background but

23:09

he was eventually charged with it and convicted of

23:11

second degree murder in the well

23:14

whatever happened to the McCanns. The

23:16

McCanns who have still not been found

23:19

and Travis continues to deny he was ever

23:21

involved in the murder of the McCanns

23:23

or Stephanie Stewart.

23:26

See Travis Vader is still currently serving his life

23:28

sentence for the murder of the McCanns. He

23:30

is still considered a named suspect

23:33

in the Stephanie Stewart case

23:35

and he is the only named suspect

23:37

in her disappearance. Now investigators

23:39

haven't released much about why Vader

23:42

is the main person of interest but they said

23:45

they know he was in the area at the time

23:47

and like the McCanns they believe Stephanie was killed

23:50

and her body dumped in the woods the same day she

23:52

disappeared. There was a lot of similarities between

23:54

these two cases, but

23:57

we really do not know what happened to Stefan-

24:01

If anything good can be taken from the case of Stephanie

24:03

is that her disappearance drew attention to

24:06

the total lack of safety

24:08

protocols for fire watchers. The

24:10

access gates to the towers now have locked

24:13

gates so vehicles can't just drive up

24:15

to the cabin or the tower without first

24:17

getting permission.

24:19

Other safety reforms include each

24:21

watcher having a personal locator beacon and

24:23

panic buttons on their radios.

24:25

They were also given codes that could be used to

24:28

quietly and covertly call for help in the

24:30

event that they were being held and unable

24:32

to speak freely.

24:34

And there's certainly no shortage of people disappearing

24:37

in the woods. To briefly touch on another

24:39

story with similarities to this one.

24:42

In 2018, 76 year old Connie

24:44

Johnson disappeared.

24:46

She was cooking at a hunting camp near Big

24:49

Fog Mountain, Idaho. This,

24:51

again, remote is

24:54

an understatement. Like you go on Google Maps,

24:57

you find it, you have to scroll

24:59

out quite a bit to find the nearest

25:01

road.

25:02

She was last seen on the 2nd of October 2018.

25:06

She was at the camp, her and her dog

25:08

Ace. As I said, you know, she was cooking,

25:10

the hunters left, and they were to return

25:13

the following day.

25:15

The next day, these hunters, they

25:18

radioed Connie. But when they called

25:20

her they couldn't understand what she was saying

25:22

as the signal was too weak When

25:25

they returned back to the camp

25:27

her and her dog were gone Now

25:31

Connie was experienced Connie had

25:33

literally been a park ranger herself

25:35

and she had been in the area many many times

25:38

before

25:39

Everything you can think of was done to

25:42

find her you know helicopters dogs infrared

25:44

cameras and nothing

25:47

Weirdly, about a month later, Ace

25:50

the dog showed up. But

25:52

no sign of Connie,

25:54

and still none.

25:57

And get a load of this right the very

25:59

same day Connie vanished just 50

26:02

miles away, a man named Terrence

26:05

Woods, Jr. vanished.

26:07

The very same day, only 50 miles away.

26:10

The 5th of October, 2018, 27-year-old Terrence

26:12

Woods, Jr. vanished into the Idaho

26:17

woods, and his story is even more

26:20

bizarre than the other two. Terrence

26:23

Woods was from Maryland. He had studied in

26:25

the UK at the American International

26:27

University, and then after that he got

26:29

into you know as a job what he was studying was TV

26:32

production. So he began working in the

26:34

UK first in London after he graduated

26:37

working in like reality TV mostly.

26:40

He began his career for example on The

26:42

Voice UK, another

26:44

singing competition.

26:46

He was known as a kind you know nice guy, one

26:48

person describing him as peer.

26:51

So he spent five years in the UK

26:54

before moving back to the the

26:56

US of A and you got a job as a

26:58

production assistant for the Discovery

27:00

series Gold Rush. Dave

27:03

Turin's Lost Mine! The

27:05

usual reality TV slop Discovery

27:08

turns out these days.

27:09

So they were filming in Penman

27:12

Mine, an abandoned gold mine in

27:14

Idaho. As I said, not a great distance

27:16

from where Connie would have been that very

27:18

day in the remotest

27:21

of the remote. As I said,

27:23

you'd be travelling for a while before you'd find

27:25

a real road.

27:28

And so they were there, they were doing the shoot,

27:30

and by all accounts it was going really,

27:32

really well. Unusually though,

27:35

the morning of, October 5th,

27:37

Terrence texted his dad, telling

27:39

him he would be coming home early,

27:41

cutting the trip short by a few weeks, which

27:44

was very unusual for him. It

27:46

was like he wasn't going to finish the shoot, he wasn't going to finish

27:49

the work.

27:50

That was very odd. was somebody who... he

27:53

stuck to things. Then,

27:56

later that evening, during the shoot, in the middle

27:58

of the set, you know, in the wood.

28:00

surrounded by filming equipment

28:02

and staff and everything. Terrence,

28:05

he asked another person where the bathroom

28:07

was and

28:08

then all of a sudden he simply dropped his radio

28:10

on the forest floor and sprinted

28:13

down a steep cliff and

28:16

into the woods. He said

28:19

nothing, he just ran for

28:21

his life. Others they

28:23

tried to follow but the terrain was pretty bad

28:25

and they soon lost him. One

28:28

person there said Terrence was running

28:30

faster than he had ever seen anyone

28:33

run before. And he

28:35

has never been seen again.

28:38

The search would go on for six days,

28:40

same as the others, you know, dogs, ATVs,

28:42

helicopters, all that for

28:45

nothing.

28:47

Now, the 911 caller who reported

28:49

what had happened allegedly said Terrence

28:52

he had a mental breakdown earlier that

28:54

day. Quote, Terrence had been having

28:56

a really hard time emotionally and had a mental

28:58

breakdown earlier today. But when

29:01

this was followed up on, you know, questions

29:04

journalists try to ask around, you know, following

29:06

up on his disappearance, everyone

29:08

who was there kept their mouth

29:11

shut. Everybody who was like on that

29:13

production that they on that shoot stonewalled.

29:16

Everybody who has tried to find out more about this

29:18

met a brick wall.

29:21

Now,

29:21

Raw TV was the production

29:23

company. They'd make the show, you know, and sell

29:25

it to Discovery, right?

29:27

Well, parents' parents believe

29:29

that Raw TV is hiding something

29:31

about what happened to their son, that something more

29:34

was going on.

29:35

Raw TV have, you know, they have of course denied

29:37

anything that had happened, Discovery,

29:40

you know, everybody's cooperated with the investigation,

29:42

and then, you know, they've all come out with

29:44

public statements saying, you know, we've helped his parents, we

29:46

flew them around. Parents, he was not subject

29:48

to any mistreatment or anything else during

29:51

his time with them.

29:53

Now, previous employees would come forward saying

29:55

there was a toxic work culture at

29:58

Raw TV. But y- I

30:00

mean, to suddenly run into the most remote

30:02

of varists never to be seen again?

30:05

I mean, something here, truly, it is not

30:08

adding up.

30:09

Now, Terencey didn't have a history of mental

30:12

health issues, you

30:13

know, others saying, quote, here's a quote

30:15

from a Deadline article about the mystery.

30:17

No mental problems, no health problems,

30:19

no communication problems.

30:22

It doesn't make sense when I hear people say he struggled

30:24

with his mental health or that he didn't live

30:26

up to expectations. I spent

30:28

six months on a TV production course with him

30:31

and he always exceeded expectations

30:33

and never showed signs of having any mental

30:36

health problems.

30:38

But they can't develop quickly under

30:40

the most stressful of circumstances.

30:42

So like, is that what happened? Did he just have, is

30:44

that what he ran into first? Did he just have a mental

30:47

snap break and

30:49

just, you know, he needed to get away from

30:51

the situation and so he did the most base thing. He

30:53

ran. He ran. He

30:55

ran. He ran. And then, well,

30:58

here we are. Or

31:00

was it something else? Fair play. You know,

31:03

the police have said there is no evidence of anything

31:05

happening, and the family they hired

31:07

two private detectives neither

31:10

came up with anything.

31:12

To date it's equally, if not more,

31:15

mysterious than the disappearances of Stephanie

31:17

or Connie,

31:18

but it is very strange that Connie and Terrence

31:20

were relatively close to each other in this big,

31:23

wild country.

31:25

strange about those

31:27

woods. They

31:28

definitely hold the keys to both these mysteries,

31:30

but who

31:31

knows if they will ever

31:33

be found. It's all

31:35

these cases that are frustratingly sad,

31:37

especially Stephanie Stewart's. She seemed

31:39

like such a cool lady, like with a whole lot

31:42

more to give.

31:44

The sentence for the McCanns might not have been

31:46

perfect, but at least it gave the family something.

31:48

At least

31:49

the person they presumed did it. The

31:51

police have the only named suspect in this

31:53

case behind bars so we can't do it to

31:56

anyone else.

31:57

And we can only hope that someday soon Stephanie's

31:59

family can find some closure and

32:02

get justice.

32:04

This is a case that still haunts Alberta.

32:07

There's still a regularly, you know, saying

32:09

anybody see something, say something. It's

32:11

still, it's not a closed case

32:13

just yet, but it is a cold one.

32:17

Now none of these victims have ever been found,

32:19

but

32:20

there is a whole lot of

32:22

wilderness

32:23

out there.

32:25

Thank you so much for listening. I

32:27

really appreciate you taking the time being

32:29

here with me listening to me tell this whole story

32:32

I hope you have ended interesting and

32:34

yeah here really guys I appreciate it so much thank you

32:37

here if I can ask you for anything please rate review follow

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much it helps out the podcast so

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so much so I hope I'm really

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loving doing this so hope you guys are enjoying

32:50

listening to it and so yeah next podcast

32:52

will be out in a couple of days every Monday every

32:54

Friday

32:55

with a video on the that chapter YouTube

32:57

channel every Tuesday, so look forward to

32:59

that, but until the next one, take

33:02

care of other and your sales because

33:04

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33:07

love you

33:08

my game