Latest / Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide / Halloween Triple Feature #1 with special guest, Horrifying History

Transcript

Halloween Triple Feature #1 with special guest, Horrifying History · Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide

• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Trick or treat.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I hope this finds you with a little bit of a fanny pack of fat because you've been stealing from the trick-or-treat cauldron the last week or so.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know I have.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: I need to do some abs for sure.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: But this week is dynamite.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: It is my favorite Halloween ever.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: As I look out the window right now, there is fog and there is wood smoke clinging to the last of the golden brown yellow orange leaves in the trees.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: There are cobwebs dripping off of my ceiling.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Not to be atmospheric.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: They're not the fake stuff that I bought at Walgreens.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: These are because of my neglect.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't had time to do any dusting.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And this year, I am so fortunate to be able to introduce you to three members of my podcast family in succession.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have a heck of a triple feature lined up for you.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get to meet the hosts and hear their shows as we drop them into my feed over the next few days.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Horrifying history, family plot podcast, and paranormal, the new normal.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: We are gonna get weird family.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about murder, vampire obsessions, and even a traveling exorcist.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have put links to all of their show stuff, including their, you know, where you can find them on any um podcast streams.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: You can follow their show, you can give them a five-star review, and follow their Patreon and buy their merch if you feel so inclined.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like Thanksgiving came a month early.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Feel so lucky.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: So until next week, trick or treat.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love you.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Horrifying History, where you will hear about the unexplained and supernatural events that have stained the pages of history.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: There is a place in California where red trees tower and people disappear.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Five young adults came to Humboldt County in search of money, dreams, and escape.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: None of them ever came back.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Locals call it Murder Mountain, a land ruled not by law, but by silence.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's where secrets are buried deep, and the forest watches every step you take.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is a mountain that chooses who leaves and who stays forever.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So get out your hiking boots, my spooky friends.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're about to hear about a place where five individuals disappeared without a trace.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: As of the 2020 census, just under 140,000 people live there, with most of these people centered around the city of Eureka.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is generally a densely forested mountain area situated alongside the Pacific Coast in Northern California's rugged mountain ranges.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of these mountains is where time seems to slow, and the trees hide more than they reveal.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is in the shadows of this where people vanish, not into thin air, but into something much worse.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The locals call it Murder Mountain, and it is where five young adults, who are now known as the Humboldt Five, disappeared without a trace.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: For decades, Humboldt County has had a chilling statistic.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It has one of the highest numbers of missing people per capita compared to other areas in the United States, which earned it the nickname of the Black Hole.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: An average of 717 people per 100,000 go missing in Humboldt County every year, which is over double the rate of California as a whole.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: An average of 717 people per 100,000 go missing in Humboldt County every year, which is over double the rate for California as a whole.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: While the reasons for this is complex, common factors in individual cases include runaways and voluntary departures due to issues in their home.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the large, remote, and densely forested areas are also to blame.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Locals say that these would swallow people whole.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Outsiders assume they're exaggerating, but they aren't.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Within the triangle sits a small town called Alder Point, and when I say small, I mean small.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: With a population of about 150 people, Alder Point is surrounded by natural beauty.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Low mountains sit against the horizon, and gravel roads wander through untouched forests filled of redwoods, sequoias, and Douglas fir trees.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But this town has a checkered past.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was in the epicenter of California's illegal cannabis growing operations, and it used to be run in part by violent drug traffickers who were involved in numerous disappearances and homicides in the area.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: The legalization of cannabis has largely destroyed illegal grow operations in the area, and this alone has massively reduced crime.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But before this, Alder Point had a bit of an outlaw culture, with disputes being settled with bullets and the police arriving too late.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: During these times, many people didn't call the police.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Garrett Rodriguez was young, optimistic, and like so many others, was drawn to Humboldt County by the lure of quick money.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: He was born in San Diego and was said to have had a relaxed surfer's attitude and he was a dreamer.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The cannabis trade offered him a shortcut to financial freedom.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was a way to get out of debt and the ordinary grind of day-to-day life.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: In 2012, Garrett told his family that he was going to head north to Humboldt County because he had found work on a profitable grow operation near Alder Point.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: He promised that he would be home soon, debt-free, and with extra money in the bank.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: He never made it home.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: At first, his parents thought that the reason they didn't hear from him was due to Humboldt County was notorious for sell dead zones.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But after weeks had passed, his parents became very worried.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: His phone was not being used, his social media was silent, and his bank accounts went unused.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Garrett's father reached out to local authorities to report his son missing.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: On top of this, Garrett's father hired a private investigator.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What they found was that Alder Point had a code of silence thicker than the massive redwood trees surrounding the town.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: But rumors were flying around.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Workers were saying that Garrett had gotten into a dispute over money, and it resulted in his death.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Garrett's truck was discovered about a month after his father reported a missing.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: His body was discovered in a shallow grave alongside a road.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: His murder remains unsolved.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: The police have not announced any suspects, and no one has been arrested for this crime.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Garrett's case brought outsiders' attention to the Emerald Triangle, but the cases of five missing women who were called the Humboldt Five brought national attention to the area.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: These women's disappearances were all under suspicious circumstances and led locals to start to wonder if a serial killer was using their area as a hunting ground.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: The first of these to disappear was Jennifer Wilmer.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer, who was known as Jade, was a free spirit just like Garrett was.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: She was born on April 13, 1972, and grew up on the east coast of Long Island, New York.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: She attended school at the privileged St.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Mary's High School in Nassau County, New York.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer worked hard to get the best grades, and this resulted in her getting a full scholarship to attend a private research-based university located in the borough of Queens in New York City.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: After only one semester, Jennifer told her family and friends that she had dropped out of university to attend the College of the Redwoods in Eureka.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to be part of the hippie counterculture, and at the age of 20, she moved to the seaside community of Carita to fulfill her dreams.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Rikeda was a town in the Emerald Triangle and was where people preserved the psychedelic subculture.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Upon arriving, Jennifer told her family that all the classes at College of the Redwoods were full for the semester, so she found herself a waitressing job.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: She was also renting a house with several roommates in the community of Hawkins Bar, which was approximately 50 miles or 80.5 kilometers away from Raketa.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: There are two opposing reports concerning the day that Jennifer went missing.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: One person reported seeing Jennifer leaving her residence to go to a travel agency to pick up a one-way airline ticket to New York that her mother had bought for her.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Her family wanted her to come home, but Jennifer never arrived at the travel agency to pick up her ticket.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: A second report states that Jennifer was seen hitchhiking.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: She was going to inquire about a job opportunity she heard about at a local farm.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: She was seen at the side of a road about 9.5 miles or 15.3 kilometers away from her residence.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: According to a High Times magazine article called Humboldt County, Murder, Mayhem, and Marijuana, even as far back as the late 1970s, people looking for work as farmhands and cannabis trimmers were being warned about the dangers of accepting rides from strangers and the strange disappearances that occurred around Murder Mountain.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer did not listen to this advice and was never seen again.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: The next person that disappeared was Karen Mitchell, and her case is considered to be one of Eureka's longest unsolved mysteries.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Karen was only five days away from her 17th birthday and a junior in high school when she vanished in broad daylight.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: She had moved from Southern California to live with her aunt and uncle, Bill and Annie Casper, who were well known in the community.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Her mother sent her to Eureka because she thought it was a much safer place for a teenage girl than the town of Winter, where Karen lived with her brother and her brother.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Karen did very well in her new environment.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: She would go visit her mother and brother during holidays and summer vacation and told them that her goal was to graduate from high school early and attend Humboldt State College.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Karen was planning for her future on November 25, 1997, which was the day she went missing.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: She spent part of her morning on the phone with her mother filling in college applications.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Described as being liberal and opinionated, she loved politics, the environment, and children.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone who knew her believed that she was not just a person who'd be very successful in life, but a person who would make a real difference in the world.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: After speaking to her mom, Karen left home to visit her aunt at her shoe store in Bayshore Mall.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: She then left to walk to her job at Humboldt Child Care Council, which was only about three-quarters of a mile or 1.2 kilometers away around 2.45 p.m.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: The last confirmed sighting of her was her walking towards West Tacoma Street shortly afterwards.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: She never arrived at work.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Charlie Project, which is an organization that compiles information on thousands of missing people in the United States, a witness stated that Karen may have gotten into an unidentified light blue four-door sedan, which was possibly a Ford Granada, Mercury Monarch, or a Nissan from the years of 1976 to 1978.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: It had California license plates and had the word Eureka imprinted on the rear plate's frame.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Police tracked down 1,200 vehicles along the West Coast that matched the vehicle's description, but no solid leads were found.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: The driver of the car was described as an elderly white male with balding light gray or sandy blonde hair.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: He had light-colored eyes and a large nose that appeared to have been previously broken.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: He had a small build, wore glasses, and was wearing a long-sleeve button-down light blue shirt.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The witness claimed that the car nearly hit him before stopping for a girl that matched Karen's description.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: He showed the police that he had a severed woman's breast in his coat pocket and proceeded to confess that he had murdered four women between 1997 and 1998.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: He could not be tied to Karen's disappearance, but was charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the women he confessed to.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was sentenced to death and is currently on death row in San Quinton Prison in California.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But that wasn't the only serial killer who was a suspect.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Durst was a bit of an enigma.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: He was raised in wealth as the oldest son of real estate magnet Seymour Durst and loved both cannabis and privacy, which were the two things that the Emerald Triangle offered.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even though he was very wealthy, he liked to hang out with the unhoused.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Credit card receipts indicate that Robert was in Eureka on the day that Karen went missing, and he strongly resembles the description of the man who appeared to be trying to force Karen into the blue sedan.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Police also discovered that Robert often hung out at the homeless shelter where Karen volunteered, and he was a customer of Karen's aunt's shoe store.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now Robert wasn't the greatest guy.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was accused of murdering his wife in 1982, but was never charged.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: He also was a suspect in the murder of his friend, Susan Berman, in the year 2000.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was then acquitted of the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor, Morris Black.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He eventually pleaded guilty to two charges of two counts of bail jumping and one count of evidence tampering.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: As part of the plea deal that he took, he received a sentence of five years, and with time served, he was required to serve three more years in prison.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: When he was paroled, he violated his terms and was brought back to prison.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: In 2015, Robert was charged with first-degree murder concerning Susan Bermum, carrying a firearm and possession of a controlled substance.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: In 2021, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: He died the following year of cardiac arrest.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Neither Wayne nor Robert admitted to being responsible for Karen's death, leaving her case unsolved to this day.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: In 2013, 23-year-old Danielle moved to Fortuna, which was about 17 miles or 27.4 kilometers south of Eureka.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted a fresh start after the death of her unborn son Xavier in 2010.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: After he passed, Danielle had turned to heroin to self-medicate and quickly moved to Humboldt County to work as a cannabis cutter.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: She would call her mother, Billy Joe, almost every day, so when Billy didn't hear from Danielle, she filed a missing persons report.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Billy flew from Maine to California to search for her daughter.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Danielle's father John, who lived in Oregon, also came to help in the search when he was told his daughter was missing.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Billie Jo and John were very worried about their daughter.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Billie Joe reported that, like many other young adults in the Emerald Triangle, Danielle had gotten involved in the local drug scene before she disappeared.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Billie Jo begged her daughter to come back home to Maine before something bad happened to her.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Danielle refused.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Her parents soon found out that Danielle was last seen getting into a car on the road that led to her rural residence, which was along Highway 36.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Police questioned a local man named James Jones, and he admitted that he did give a ride to Danielle.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: He knew Danielle and was the last person to see her alive.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was not long after this conversation that police discovered that Danielle's disappearance had a connection to another woman from the area that disappeared a week before Danielle did.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sheila Franks was a divorced mom who was living with James before her disappearance.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: James claimed that on February 2nd, 2014, he and Sheila were at their home and Sheila decided to go out for a walk.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't return.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: According to Sheila's sister Melissa, she and her sister knew James back in their school days.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sheila reconnected with James after her divorce.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now Melissa did not believe that she would have left on her own volition, and this was confirmed to her when she found out that James put all of Sheila's personal belongings in a storage unit around the time of her disappearance.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa had the storage unit opened and discovered her sister's purse that had her identification, credit cards, and money in it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa also discovered that Sheila and James' relationship was on the rocks, and she stopped being intimate with him.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sheila had told James right before she disappeared.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That she would not be romantically involved with him any longer, but she would still live with him as a friend and companion.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: There were also signs that James had assaulted Sheila about a week before she disappeared.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: She told her best friend, and I quote, Well, Jimmy and I got into a fight, and he punched me, gave me a black eye.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: On top of this, police discovered another connection between James and the Humboldt 5.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa told police that James also knew Karen Mitchell, but without hardcore evidence, the police were no closer to finding any answers.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: For months there were no leads until March 9, 2015, when a skull was found in a local riverbed.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: DNA testing confirmed that it belonged to Danielle and that her death was a homicide.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: In 2019, a femur bone that was determined to be Sheila's was found about 13 miles or 21 kilometers away from where the skull was discovered.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: The police had called her death suspicious.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Even though James has had criminal charges for possession and domestic violence, and there has been some very compelling connections to both women as well as to Karen, no arrests have been made.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Police say that he's not currently a suspect, but is a person of interest.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: The next to go missing was 23-year-old Christine Walters.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Five months before her disappearance on November 14, 2008, she had been a student at the University of Wisconsin.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: She was a vivacious woman who wanted to see the world.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that abruptly changed when she decided to move to Humboldt County with friends she met on the trip.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: According to Christine's mother Anita, who spoke to the Time Standard in 2013, she said that Christine was too trusting of the people she met in the Humboldt area and did not understand their culture.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: She said that when Christine originally moved, her phone calls were upbeat.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Christine had made many friends and had connected with individuals who were part of the Green Life Evolutions, which is a group that has been described as a potential cult.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: They had two locations, one in Eureka and the other in Blue Lake, about 16 miles or 25.7 kilometers from Eureka.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: After connecting with this group, Christine's phone calls started to become troubling.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: When Anita became concerned, she asked Christine to return home for a while.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Christine told her mother that she wasn't ready to return because she was on a new journey and had to follow her path.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: One week before her disappearance, Christine had been part of a tea ceremony with the group using a hallucinogen.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Participants described this as a psychedelic trip that brought visions and self-realization, along with a whole lot of vomiting.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: According to those who attended the ceremony, Christine stayed with the other participants and rested, but left alone on the evening of November 11, 2008.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: The following morning, a couple found Christine on their front porch, which was about 20 miles or 32.2 kilometers away from where she was staying at Blue Lake.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: She was naked, freezing, hungry, thirsty, and had extensive scratches from the underbrush all over her body.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: The couple took Christine to a nearby hospital, and due to her injuries, the hospital staff called the police.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: The authorities interviewed her but found that she was being very evasive concerning what happened to her.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: She claimed that she walked a long way and some demons could hear her and were trying to get her.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: After she was released, Christine went to the Red Lion Inn in Eureka and called her mother Anita several times.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: In those calls, Anita said Christine was acting very paranoid and said that there were people who were going to find her wherever she went.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: On November 14th, 2008, Anita agreed to Christine's request to send her a copy of her social security card and her driver's license so Christine could go to the DMV and then access her bank account.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Around 1 p.m., she left her room key at the front desk and left wearing pajamas and slippers.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: The owner of Copy Company Printing in Eureka was the next to see her.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: She entered his store at about 3:30 p.m.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Christine's hair was disheveled and she was still wearing her pajamas and slippers.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: She told the owner that she lost her wallet and asked for directions to the DMV.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: According to the owner, she was acting very paranoid and kept looking over her shoulder.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: She was never seen again.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Normally, multiple disappearances in one area result in press conferences, multiple investigators, task forces, and media pressure.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: But none of this happened in Humboldt County.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Due to the culture created by illegal cannabis growers, many residents refused to talk to the police.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was a strong distrust of outsiders, and growers were better armed than the police were.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: There were not enough officers to search the massive mountainous terrain.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: This resulted in these cases not being solved.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: There are several theories of what happened, and the first is the serial killer theory.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Some believe that a single predator stalked Humboldt County, and this person had a type.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: All the women were young and similar in appearance.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were all white and had blonde to light brown hair.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were all a similar height and weight.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some believe that this possible serial killer would be very knowledgeable about the area, would know when newcomers arrive in the area, and when the victims were alone.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: We do know for sure that Robert Durst, who many believe was a serial killer, and Wade Ford, who was a serial killer, were in the area during the time of some of these crimes.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: But believe it or not, my spooky friends, there were two more.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: James Clifford Carson, otherwise known as Michael Bear Carson, and Susan Barnes Carson, also known as Susan Bear Carson, were also in the area during the time of the disappearances.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: After noticing some severe behavioral changes in James, his first wife left him, taking their daughter with her.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: He then met and married Susan, who was divorced with two teenage sons.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: The two got involved in illicit drugs and mysticism, which is when the couple changed their names.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: In March of 1981, the couple's 23-year-old roommate, Karen Barnes, was found dead in the couple's apartment.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: She had been stabbed 13 times and had her skull crushed.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: James and Susan would later confess to killing her because Susan decided that Karen was a witch.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then, in January of 1982, James and Susan were picked up hitchhiking.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: During that ride, Susan decided that the driver, 30-year-old John Charles Hayar, was a witch.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: A physical fight broke out between the three, resulting in the vehicle stopping.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: The fight escalated outside the vehicle.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Susan stabbed John while James and John struggled over a gun.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: James got the gun away from John and shot him in front of passing motorists.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: John was killed.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: James and Susan stole his car and led the police on a high-speed chase before they crashed the car and were arrested.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: James and Susan were convicted first of Karen's murder, and each were sentenced to 25 years in prison.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Next, they were convicted of the murders of Clark and John.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: For this, they both received a sentence of 50 to 75 years to life.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: They are still suspects in multiple murders, and many believe they may have had a hand in the Humboldt V disappearances since they were in the area at the time.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Robert Durst and Wayne Ford, there is no proof to say whether they were involved or not.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: The next theory is the Grower Wars theory.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Many believe that these disappearances stem from disputes concerning illegal cannabis operations.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: In a cash-based economy, arguments over wages, theft, or betrayal are commonplace and are usually ended permanently through murder.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: For example, in 2024, authorities found the bodies of six men outside the community of El Mirage.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: These murders were all directly connected to the hidden cannabis industry.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Humboldt five were all either directly connected or knew someone involved in these activities.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some think that these women saw or did something that resulted in someone growing cannabis in the area, wanting them dead.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: The last theory has to do with the land itself.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Some elderly locals claim that something ancient and territorial rules the forests around Humboldt County.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: The land has a reputation of being cursed.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are stories about settlers who came to the area, built cabins, and were never seen again.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are also tales of people finding tools left by prospectors who disappeared.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Humboldt County has been the site of countless settings of Bigfoot.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: This area continues to attract researchers and tourists who are interested in this cryptid.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is believed that the dense old-growth redwood forests in Humboldt County are the perfect habitat for Bigfoot.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some people believe that some of the disappearances were because they got too close to the creature, which was defending its territory.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: If there is anything that these cases teach us, it's that questions don't always lead to answers.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they lead to more questions.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Rumors, theories, and silence all weave together into a tapestry of confusion, one that still grips Humboldt County to this day.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere out there, someone knows the truth.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Until this person speaks, the story of the Humboldt Five will continue haunting the dark forests in Northern California.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me today.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts concerning the Humboldt V?
• 33:44
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• 34:13
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• 34:16
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• 34:26
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• 34:37
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• 34:42
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• 34:57
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• 35:01
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• 35:08
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• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me today.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep your lights on.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Trust your instincts, and remember, some mysteries are not buried.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're waiting for us in the dark.