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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Theresa Bier · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
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Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
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Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
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Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:29
Speaker 2: On Jeane First, nineteen eighty seven, Teresa Anne Beer was
1:33
Speaker 2: about to go on an adventure. She was headed into
1:35
Speaker 2: the woods to look for Bigfoot. Teresa was sixteen years
1:39
Speaker 2: old and she was wrapping up her freshman year at
1:42
Speaker 2: Fresno High in Fresno, California.
1:45
Speaker 3: She was one year behind a lot of her.
1:47
Speaker 2: Classmates, which wasn't surprising because Teresa was living in a
1:51
Speaker 2: very abusive environment with her uncle, John Richmond, his two
1:55
Speaker 2: young sons, and his seventeen year old girlfriend. John also
1:59
Speaker 2: had a wife, but I haven't been able to confirm
2:02
Speaker 2: whether or not they were estranged at that time, or
2:05
Speaker 2: whether John's wife was actually living at home during that
2:08
Speaker 2: time with the girlfriend. As you'll see, John's family setup was,
2:13
Speaker 2: to say the least, a bit unusual. Teresa's plan was
2:16
Speaker 2: to skip school on June first and drive into the
2:19
Speaker 2: Sierra Nevada Mountains for the day with a forty three
2:22
Speaker 2: year old friend of her uncle's named Russell Skip Welch.
2:26
Speaker 3: But Teresa never.
2:27
Speaker 2: Came home, and soon the man who took her into
2:30
Speaker 2: the woods was rambling about Teresa being kidnapped by a monster.
2:36
Speaker 3: The case made local news.
2:38
Speaker 2: Teresa's missing poster was released, along with her description height
2:42
Speaker 2: five foot five, of weight one hundred and ten pounds,
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Speaker 2: with brown hair and hazel eyes, and a surgical scar
2:48
Speaker 2: on her lower right leg. The poster also stated that
2:52
Speaker 2: she went by a nickname Sam. According to a book
2:56
Speaker 2: that was written about the case, Skip told the authorities
2:59
Speaker 2: that this was his nickname for Teresa because he said
3:02
Speaker 2: she reminded him of a runaway girl that he saw
3:05
Speaker 2: in a movie. On Friday, June nineteenth, nineteen eighty seven,
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Speaker 2: the Fresno Bee published the first newspaper article about this
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Speaker 2: case with the headline man blames Bigfoot for missing girl.
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Speaker 2: But this was much more than a tabloid story. This
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Speaker 2: case would involve allegations of sex, slavery, serial killers, drug use,
3:26
Speaker 2: Bigfoot colonies, and at the heart of this story, it
3:30
Speaker 2: would reveal a system that completely failed a young woman
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Speaker 2: on every single level, a system that allowed a sixteen
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Speaker 2: year old to vanish without a trace. I'm Catherine Townsend.
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Speaker 2: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
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Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
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Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds
3:53
Speaker 2: of messages from people all around the country asking for
3:56
Speaker 2: help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
3:59
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like
4:01
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
4:04
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
4:06
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
4:09
Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
4:14
Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram.
4:16
Speaker 3: At Helen Gone Pod.
4:18
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Teresa Anne Beer was
5:04
Speaker 2: born on April sixteenth, nineteen seventy nine, in Fresno, California,
5:08
Speaker 2: and from the very beginning her.
5:10
Speaker 3: Life was hard.
5:12
Speaker 2: Teresa grew up with her mother, Shirley, and her father, David.
5:16
Speaker 2: The couple also had two other daughters, Yolanda, who lived
5:19
Speaker 2: with David's grandmother, and Vicki, who lived at home with Teresa.
5:23
Speaker 2: But according to a book that was written by a
5:25
Speaker 2: journalist named Jay O'Connell in twenty twenty called Meth Murder
5:29
Speaker 2: and Bigfoot a California crime Saga, Shirley was physically abusive
5:34
Speaker 2: to her two young daughters. When Teresa was three years old,
5:38
Speaker 2: Shirley broke her daughter's leg. Teresa went to the hospital,
5:42
Speaker 2: and sometime after that, social so servis got involved. So
5:45
Speaker 2: David and his wife ended up getting divorced, and according
5:48
Speaker 2: to the book, for several years Teresa and her older sister,
5:51
Speaker 2: Vicki lived in foster care with a family friend from church.
5:56
Speaker 2: Now there's very little information generally about those years, but
6:00
Speaker 2: from the book at least it seemed like Teresa was
6:02
Speaker 2: actually thriving in that foster home. The book described the
6:05
Speaker 2: Foster family as loving, but several years after that, when
6:09
Speaker 2: Teresa was preteen age, her father filed to get custody
6:12
Speaker 2: of Teresa, so Teresa went to live with her father
6:16
Speaker 2: and his new wife, Margie, in the city of Compton
6:19
Speaker 2: in La County. But Teresa's older sister, Yolanda, later told
6:23
Speaker 2: Jay O'Connell that Margie was abusive. We don't know if
6:27
Speaker 2: these claims are true. This is hearsay, but according to
6:30
Speaker 2: the book, Yolanda claimed that Margie would actually lock the
6:34
Speaker 2: refrigerator so that the kids couldn't get food. Things with
6:38
Speaker 2: her dad and stepmom were not working out, so Teresa
6:41
Speaker 2: spent some time staying with a great grandmother. Then her
6:45
Speaker 2: forty two year old uncle, John Richmond, pursued custody of Teresa.
6:49
Speaker 2: But John Richmond was not a loving uncle. Not only
6:53
Speaker 2: was John using Teresa, as according to his girlfriend Tammy,
6:57
Speaker 2: a domestic slave by asking her to take care of
6:59
Speaker 2: his young sons instead of going to class, but also
7:03
Speaker 2: John and his friends.
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Speaker 3: Allegedly sexually abused Teresa.
7:07
Speaker 2: Tammy said later that not only did John have sex
7:10
Speaker 2: with her, but that he would let his friends who
7:13
Speaker 2: were drug users, have sex with her. This was later
7:16
Speaker 2: confirmed by a detective, Doug Stokes, who worked the case
7:18
Speaker 2: and spoke to the author of the book, Jay O'Connell.
7:22
Speaker 2: One of John's friends was a forty three year old
7:24
Speaker 2: methamphetamine user and self described amateur bigfoot enthusiast named Russell
7:29
Speaker 2: Skip Welch. He was the one who took Teresa to
7:32
Speaker 2: the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Skip had been married to a
7:35
Speaker 2: woman named Shannon, but according to media reports, she passed
7:39
Speaker 2: away in nineteen eighty five and died of a drug overdose.
7:43
Speaker 3: Skip mainly did odd jobs.
7:45
Speaker 2: He painted houses to earn money, but also had an
7:47
Speaker 2: interest in camping and searching for mind minerals in the wilderness.
7:51
Speaker 2: Skip's other hobby was filing mineral claims.
7:54
Speaker 3: Let me back up for a minute.
7:56
Speaker 2: There's a law called the General Mining Law of eighteen
7:58
Speaker 2: seventy two. It goes back to the time of the
8:00
Speaker 2: California gold Rush. Basically, what this law does is that
8:03
Speaker 2: it allows people who find valuable minerals like gold or
8:06
Speaker 2: copper on a plot of land to assert rights to
8:09
Speaker 2: the mine on that land. Skip mainly searched in an
8:13
Speaker 2: area called shut Eye Peak, an area in the Sierra
8:16
Speaker 2: National Forest. Apparently it was nicknamed by the Native Americans
8:19
Speaker 2: who made camp there.
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Speaker 3: Skip Pud also filed.
8:22
Speaker 2: Paperwork for other claims in the north of the state,
8:25
Speaker 2: near the southern boundary of Yosemite National Park. This is
8:28
Speaker 2: a remote area of the country there are thousands of
8:31
Speaker 2: acres of untamed wilderness. One of the areas where Skip
8:34
Speaker 2: liked to go, according to the book, was an area
8:37
Speaker 2: called Ghost Canyon. Skip believed it was once an Indian
8:40
Speaker 2: burial ground back in the early eighties. Fresno in the
8:44
Speaker 2: area around it, like a lot of areas around the
8:46
Speaker 2: United States at that time, had a serious myth problem.
8:50
Speaker 2: The meth trade was exploding. Both John and Skip used meth,
8:54
Speaker 2: and it was around the house. On the morning she disappeared,
8:59
Speaker 2: Teresa left home as if she was going to school,
9:02
Speaker 2: but she had a secret plan. Earlier that week, she
9:05
Speaker 2: had told two of her friends that she planned to
9:07
Speaker 2: skip school to head into the mountains with Skip so
9:10
Speaker 2: they could look for Bigfoot, who she claimed Skip had
9:13
Speaker 2: seen before. Skip was a Bigfoot expert, apparently, and knew
9:18
Speaker 2: where to find him. So on June first, Skip came
9:21
Speaker 2: over to John Richmond's house. He told John that he
9:24
Speaker 2: would drive Teresa to school, but their actual plan, as
9:27
Speaker 2: she had told her friends, was to search for Bigfoot,
9:30
Speaker 2: or at least that's what Teresa thought the plan was.
9:33
Speaker 2: After that, Teresa disappeared. When she didn't show up at school,
9:37
Speaker 2: administrators called the house and talked to John. He told
9:40
Speaker 2: the person from the school that Teresa was homesick. Now,
9:44
Speaker 2: admittedly he lied there. He later told the police that
9:48
Speaker 2: he lied because he wanted to handle the matter himself.
9:51
Speaker 2: But like a lot of other parts of this case,
9:53
Speaker 2: it's still a mystery. We do know a few things
9:56
Speaker 2: about what happened that morning. After leaving Teresa's house, Skip
10:00
Speaker 2: and Teresa stopped off at his daughter Shandra's house.
10:03
Speaker 3: The thing that's so disturbing.
10:05
Speaker 2: About this, among many other things, is that, according to
10:08
Speaker 2: the book, even his daughter Shandra later told police that
10:12
Speaker 2: she had a bad feeling about Skip.
10:15
Speaker 3: She said Skip had a habit.
10:16
Speaker 2: Of offering young women drugs and using that to lure
10:19
Speaker 2: them into sexual encounters. On that day, Skip was having
10:23
Speaker 2: some car problems, but after he ran some errands and
10:26
Speaker 2: went to cash's disability check, Skip started the car. He
10:30
Speaker 2: and Teresa headed into the mountains, but they didn't come back,
10:34
Speaker 2: and no one in Teresa's family ever saw her again.
10:47
Speaker 2: Teresa's uncle, John Richmond, called the Fresno police at nine
10:50
Speaker 2: thirty pm on June first, to report Teresa missing. Detectives
10:54
Speaker 2: didn't follow up on this call until the next day,
10:56
Speaker 2: June second. The case was assigned to Detective Doug Stokes.
11:00
Speaker 2: He headed out to interview John Richmond.
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Speaker 3: First.
11:03
Speaker 2: John told the detective that Skip was a speed freak
11:06
Speaker 2: who liked to think of himself as a survivalist, someone
11:09
Speaker 2: who could live off the land for a long period
11:11
Speaker 2: of time. John's girlfriend, Tammy, told detective Stokes about another
11:15
Speaker 2: girl who she believed had been dating or hanging out.
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Speaker 3: With Skip, a young woman named Michelle.
11:20
Speaker 2: So detective Stokes went to talk to Michelle and found
11:23
Speaker 2: out that she was seventeen years old, very young like
11:26
Speaker 2: Teresa and a lot of the other women who Skip
11:28
Speaker 2: reportedly hung out with.
11:30
Speaker 3: Now according to.
11:31
Speaker 2: The book, Michelle said she wasn't dating Skip, she was
11:34
Speaker 2: just a casual acquaintance of his. But the second time
11:37
Speaker 2: police came to her house, she did tell detectives something else.
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Speaker 2: She talked about a scare incident involving Skip that happened
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Speaker 2: a year earlier. She said that in the summer of
11:48
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six, Skip invited her to go on a
11:51
Speaker 2: big foot hunt in the mountains and that they headed
11:53
Speaker 2: out to camp in Sierra National Forest.
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Speaker 3: She said that she invited two male.
11:58
Speaker 2: Friends who were about ten years older, a guy she
12:01
Speaker 2: was casually seeing named Sam, and another guy named Corky
12:03
Speaker 2: to go along with her. While they were out there,
12:06
Speaker 2: Skip was taking meth and said he saw a white monster.
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Speaker 2: Apparently during this time, Skip started talking about how Bigfoot
12:15
Speaker 2: worshiped women, which at first seemed to be kind of
12:18
Speaker 2: a positive thing, but then Michelle said that Skip started
12:21
Speaker 2: talking about satanic sacrifices. She said that all of them
12:25
Speaker 2: were terrified. It's not clear whether the things that Michelle
12:29
Speaker 2: and the other guys saw and heard were from paranoia,
12:32
Speaker 2: possibly due to drug use, or whether they were freaked
12:35
Speaker 2: out just by the scary environment and stories, or whether
12:38
Speaker 2: they actually saw or heard something out there. According to
12:42
Speaker 2: the book, Michelle told police that later that night, she
12:45
Speaker 2: woke up screaming. She said she saw something that she
12:48
Speaker 2: described as being white, about three feet tall, with big eyes,
12:52
Speaker 2: something that she said looked like a devil. She said
12:55
Speaker 2: she started running and in her fear, almost fell off
12:58
Speaker 2: a cliff.
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Speaker 3: In the end, everyone made it.
13:00
Speaker 2: Out of the woods that night, but after Theresa went missing,
13:04
Speaker 2: Detective Stokes was connecting the dots.
13:06
Speaker 3: He'd figured out that Skip Welch, a known.
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Speaker 2: Drug abuser and rumored's sexual predator, had taken her to
13:11
Speaker 2: the mountains, and Skip already had warrants out on him
13:14
Speaker 2: for drunk driving and some other charges. Police were looking
13:17
Speaker 2: for Skip and his brown nineteen seventy six Monte Carlo,
13:21
Speaker 2: and it didn't take them long to find it, because
13:24
Speaker 2: on June fifth, the car was spotted at a friend
13:27
Speaker 2: of Skip's named Dorothy Davis. Dorothy told police that on
13:31
Speaker 2: June first, Skip had driven down the mountain very erratically
13:36
Speaker 2: and that when he got to her place, the car
13:38
Speaker 2: had dents on it. He told her that a satanic
13:41
Speaker 2: group had taken control of a girl he was hanging
13:43
Speaker 2: out with. He said that it had changed into quote
13:47
Speaker 2: something white looking. Dorothy told police she believed that Skip
13:51
Speaker 2: was just high and then he needed to calm down
13:53
Speaker 2: and sleep it off. On June tenth, police picked Skip
13:56
Speaker 2: up and they brought him in for an interview. Now,
13:59
Speaker 2: during this interview, he talked about how he was a
14:01
Speaker 2: bigfoot expert. He was very open about that. He said
14:04
Speaker 2: bigfoot exists. He said there have been tons of sightings
14:07
Speaker 2: of Bigfoot in the high Sierras.
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Speaker 3: And he seemed to be completely.
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Speaker 2: Serious about his theory that there were bipedal eight blake
14:14
Speaker 2: creatures living up in the mountains. Skip said, not only
14:17
Speaker 2: had he seen Bigfoot, he had interacted with Bigfoot and
14:20
Speaker 2: these other creatures who lived up in the mountains. He
14:23
Speaker 2: said that he had quote not violated them, and that
14:26
Speaker 2: therefore they made themselves readily available to him end quote.
14:30
Speaker 2: He said he had taken pictures of Bigfoot on multiple occasions. Now,
14:34
Speaker 2: according to the book, Skip had even taken his alleged
14:37
Speaker 2: Bigfoot polaroids to an expert, the chair of the anthropology
14:40
Speaker 2: department at Fresno State University, and this anthropologist agreed to
14:45
Speaker 2: meet with Skip and look at his pictures. The anthropologist
14:48
Speaker 2: told Jae O'Connell. Back then, this wasn't unusual. There was
14:52
Speaker 2: a lot of interest in Bigfoot during the eighties. The
14:54
Speaker 2: movie Harry and the Hendersons, about a family finding Bigfoot,
14:58
Speaker 2: came out in nineteen eighty seven.
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Speaker 3: I remember this.
15:00
Speaker 2: There were a lot of rumors of Bigfoot sightings in
15:03
Speaker 2: the summer of nineteen eighty six. I remember, as soon
15:06
Speaker 2: as I could read, seeing tabloid newspapers at the supermarket
15:09
Speaker 2: with people who were claiming to see Bigfoot. So back
15:13
Speaker 2: to his alleged evidence. When Skip showed the anthropologist the
15:16
Speaker 2: photos that he was so excited about, the anthropologist told
15:19
Speaker 2: Jay O'Connell years later that he vividly remembered that meeting,
15:23
Speaker 2: that he didn't see anything in those pictures except shadows,
15:26
Speaker 2: and that he talked to Skip about projection, the idea
15:29
Speaker 2: that we project images of expectation. Basically, we see what
15:32
Speaker 2: we want to see. The expert saw zero evidence of Bigfoot,
15:36
Speaker 2: but Skip was absolutely convinced that he had seen Bigfoot,
15:39
Speaker 2: and he wasn't going to let someone else tell him otherwise.
15:42
Speaker 2: In fact, a few days later, Skip left a brown
15:45
Speaker 2: paper bag full of bones at the anthropologist's office that
15:47
Speaker 2: apparently were not human in nature. I'm just guessing here,
15:51
Speaker 2: but it seems like they were much more likely to
15:54
Speaker 2: have come from roadkill or grocery store, retisserie chicken or
15:57
Speaker 2: something like that than a sasquatch. The anthropologist said that
16:01
Speaker 2: nothing he saw in Skip's evidence pointed to the existence
16:04
Speaker 2: of Bigfoot. I want to just take a minute to
16:08
Speaker 2: talk about my connection to the case. So a couple
16:11
Speaker 2: of listeners called me about this case who were from
16:14
Speaker 2: the Fresno area, and around that time, totally by coincidence,
16:18
Speaker 2: I got a call from a producer who said that
16:21
Speaker 2: they were working on a documentary about this case, and
16:24
Speaker 2: they were planning on bringing in a bigfoot expert, and
16:28
Speaker 2: I said very politely that I would be happy to
16:30
Speaker 2: be a part of the crime documentary, but if I
16:33
Speaker 2: was part of it, I would want to focus on
16:35
Speaker 2: the foster care system failures, the criminal justice system failures
16:39
Speaker 2: that allowed a young woman to go missing and be
16:42
Speaker 2: missing for more than a day before reported, and to
16:45
Speaker 2: explore any non Bigfoot related leads. I do not believe
16:50
Speaker 2: that Bigfoot exists. However, I am open minded. I understand
16:55
Speaker 2: that there are many animals that have not been found
16:58
Speaker 2: for a long time, such as the giant squid.
17:01
Speaker 3: So while I.
17:02
Speaker 2: Think it's extremely unlikely, I am not close minded in
17:06
Speaker 2: the possibility of evidence.
17:08
Speaker 3: However, when it.
17:09
Speaker 2: Comes to this case, there is absolutely zero evidence that
17:14
Speaker 2: Bigfoot was involved, and a lot of evidence that an
17:17
Speaker 2: alleged sexual predator who led a young woman up into
17:20
Speaker 2: the mountains was involved. I believe that making this case
17:24
Speaker 2: about Bigfoot is a serious disservice to Teresa the focus
17:29
Speaker 2: needs to stay on the victim, not Bigfoot. When you're
17:33
Speaker 2: trying to find a missing person, you look at the
17:35
Speaker 2: last person to have seen them alive and start from there.
17:38
Speaker 2: In this case, the last person who saw Teresa alive
17:42
Speaker 2: was a man who was known for abusing drugs and
17:45
Speaker 2: luring underage teens out to the forest. When detectives talked
17:48
Speaker 2: to Skip, he told them several different stories. First, he
17:52
Speaker 2: said that he dropped Teresa off at school after they
17:54
Speaker 2: rode around for a while. He said that a blonde
17:57
Speaker 2: girl had met Teresa and they left together.
18:00
Speaker 3: What Skip didn't know.
18:01
Speaker 2: Was that detectives could already place his car at his
18:04
Speaker 2: friend's house, so they knew he had been up in
18:06
Speaker 2: the mountains. They called him out on that bogus story,
18:09
Speaker 2: which Skip admitted had not been the truth. So then
18:12
Speaker 2: he admitted that, yes, he did take Teresa up into
18:14
Speaker 2: the mountains. But then he went right back on this
18:16
Speaker 2: Bigfoot tangent, Only this time he said not only was
18:19
Speaker 2: Bigfoot up there, but that Bigfoot was guarding a race
18:23
Speaker 2: of super intelligent beings. He said that Bigfoot was approximately
18:26
Speaker 2: ten to eleven feet tall and hairy, but this master
18:29
Speaker 2: race of people who lived up in the mountains, looked
18:31
Speaker 2: like regular people, and he said one of those master
18:34
Speaker 2: race humanoids apparently liked Teresa. Skip said that the superintelligent
18:39
Speaker 2: being who was hanging out with Teresa actually kind of
18:41
Speaker 2: looked like Teresa, that they were the same age and
18:44
Speaker 2: both medium height, and he said they ran off together
18:47
Speaker 2: to escape our abusive household. After that, Skip told this
18:52
Speaker 2: wild story about being attacked by a devil like creature.
18:55
Speaker 2: He said he was trying to get down the mountain
18:57
Speaker 2: and drive away, but he said the creature basically picked
19:00
Speaker 2: his car up somehow and made it hover over the ground.
19:03
Speaker 2: Then he said that the entity was actually inside the
19:06
Speaker 2: vehicle with him. He said he looked in the rear
19:08
Speaker 2: view mirror and saw the face of a man in
19:10
Speaker 2: the back seat. He said he began to believe that
19:12
Speaker 2: he was actually seeing the face of the devil riding
19:15
Speaker 2: in his car, so he told Detective Stokes he decided
19:18
Speaker 2: to do battle with this devil monster. He told police
19:22
Speaker 2: he started hitting the wooden speaker that was in the
19:24
Speaker 2: back of his car, trying to fight this poultergeist, and
19:27
Speaker 2: then he showed the detective a bunch of wounds on
19:29
Speaker 2: his hands. He had scratches on his knuckles, scratches that
19:33
Speaker 2: he claimed he got while hitting.
19:34
Speaker 3: The car speakers.
19:36
Speaker 2: Skip told Detective Stokes that he managed to escape this
19:39
Speaker 2: devil spirit by calling on the power of Jesus Christ,
19:42
Speaker 2: and after he apparently extra sized it, he drove to
19:45
Speaker 2: her friend's house in the North Fork area, but he
19:47
Speaker 2: said he returned to the mountains the next day where
19:49
Speaker 2: he la saw Teresa. He said she was running through
19:52
Speaker 2: the trees with this other humanoid girl.
19:55
Speaker 3: He said when he called her name, she didn't respond.
19:59
Speaker 2: He then said, apparently unprompted, that detectives wouldn't find any
20:03
Speaker 2: evidence of sexual abuse if they found Teresa. Then he
20:06
Speaker 2: told detectives that he could have had sex with her
20:08
Speaker 2: if he wanted to, but that he refused to do
20:10
Speaker 2: it because, quote, that was not in his nature, which,
20:13
Speaker 2: of course, is totally contrary to what a lot of
20:16
Speaker 2: other people, including Skip's own daughter, told police. So police
20:21
Speaker 2: were clearly figuring out that Skip's story made zero sense.
20:25
Speaker 2: But could there have been other possibilities. Maybe Teresa went
20:28
Speaker 2: out to the mountains with Skip and then something happened
20:30
Speaker 2: that caused her to run away and someone else kidnapped her,
20:34
Speaker 2: or she was attacked by a wild animal, a bear
20:36
Speaker 2: or something else, or maybe she ran off and had
20:39
Speaker 2: an accident and fell.
20:40
Speaker 3: It was a huge area. There were a lot of possibilities.
20:43
Speaker 2: Bad things had happened to other young women in that area.
20:47
Speaker 2: And the sad thing is that, like Teresa, many of
20:50
Speaker 2: these young women who went missing were not immediately reported
20:53
Speaker 2: missing by family. Days, sometimes weeks went by before detectives
20:58
Speaker 2: looked for them. In nineteen eighty four, a nineteen year
21:01
Speaker 2: old named Kimberly Billy disappeared from Stockton, and the next year,
21:05
Speaker 2: sixteen year old Joanne Hobson went missing from the same area.
21:08
Speaker 2: Also in nineteen eighty five, a young woman named Robin
21:11
Speaker 2: Armtrout vanished from the same area around Stockton's Delmar Park. Later,
21:17
Speaker 2: it was discovered that all three were victims of Lauren
21:20
Speaker 2: Herzog and Wesley Shermantine, who the media called the speed
21:24
Speaker 2: Freak killers. These guys were heavy metamphetamine users. So far,
21:29
Speaker 2: they had been convicted of four murders, and they're suspected
21:32
Speaker 2: in as many as sixty eight others, many involving rape
21:35
Speaker 2: and torture. Not only were a lot of these young
21:39
Speaker 2: women not immediately reported missing, but Many of their remains
21:43
Speaker 2: stayed hidden for a long time, and some have not
21:46
Speaker 2: been found to this day. In twenty twelve, Wesley Shermantine
21:50
Speaker 2: gave the authorities information, including a map, that led them
21:54
Speaker 2: to a burial site in Lynden, California. Police dug to
21:58
Speaker 2: the bottom of a well and they found over one
22:01
Speaker 2: thousand human bone fragments. They were able to identify the
22:05
Speaker 2: remains of Kimberly Billy and Joanne Hobson, but several other victims,
22:09
Speaker 2: including at least one fetus, remain unidentified.
22:13
Speaker 3: To this day.
22:15
Speaker 2: Another huge question about Teresa Beers case is where was
22:20
Speaker 2: the actual crime scene. Police asked Kip to take them
22:24
Speaker 2: to the area where he and Teresa camped out, so
22:27
Speaker 2: he led them up into the Sierra Mountains. Detectives did
22:30
Speaker 2: find evidence of some kind of a campsite.
22:33
Speaker 3: According to the.
22:33
Speaker 2: Police report quote, there was a smoldering fire among the
22:37
Speaker 2: heavy layer of pine needles that appeared to be somewhat damp.
22:40
Speaker 2: The smoldering burnt area was approximately three and a half
22:43
Speaker 2: feet wide by eight feet long end quote, so it
22:46
Speaker 2: looked like somebody built a fire up there. And they
22:48
Speaker 2: also found Teresa's belongings Detective Stokes noted in the police
22:52
Speaker 2: report that there was a camera and a purse, plus
22:55
Speaker 2: articles of clothing that seemed to belong to a female,
22:58
Speaker 2: including a white bra and a T shirt with party
23:00
Speaker 2: animals written on it. They opened up the purse and
23:03
Speaker 2: found polaroid photos. In the photos was a young woman,
23:08
Speaker 2: who they later confirmed was Teresa Bear. There were photos
23:11
Speaker 2: of Skip playing the guitar in an area that appeared
23:14
Speaker 2: to be that same campsite, and of Teresa hanging out
23:16
Speaker 2: there sitting on the same blanket that was spread out
23:19
Speaker 2: at the site they were looking at, but there was
23:22
Speaker 2: no sign of Teresa. Detective Doug Stokes told Jay O'Connell
23:26
Speaker 2: something else about those photos. He said that later on
23:29
Speaker 2: he showed the pictures to other investigators and they told
23:32
Speaker 2: him something shocking.
23:35
Speaker 3: They said the area.
23:36
Speaker 2: That Skip took them to could not have been the
23:38
Speaker 2: area in the pictures. After Skip welch led detectives to
23:51
Speaker 2: the campsite where he said he had been with Teresa Bear,
23:55
Speaker 2: Detective Doug Stokes showed the polaroids they had found at
23:58
Speaker 2: the campsite to some other investigators, people who were familiar
24:02
Speaker 2: with that area. The other investigators said that in their opinion,
24:05
Speaker 2: the spot where the campsite was that Skip showed them
24:08
Speaker 2: could not have been the same spot that was shown
24:10
Speaker 2: in the photos.
24:11
Speaker 3: Detective Stokes said.
24:12
Speaker 2: The other investigators pointed out to him that there was
24:15
Speaker 2: another mountain in the background of the pictures they saw. Basically,
24:19
Speaker 2: they believed the polaroids were taken at a totally different
24:22
Speaker 2: place about twenty miles away in the Sierra National Forest,
24:26
Speaker 2: and although Detective Stokes couldn't say exactly which of the
24:30
Speaker 2: mountain peaks they were talking about in his book, Jay
24:33
Speaker 2: O'Connell said he had done his own research and he
24:36
Speaker 2: believed that it was a Maderra peak near an area
24:38
Speaker 2: called Ghost Canyon now Ghost Canyon, according to some members
24:42
Speaker 2: of Skip's family, was an area where he had hung
24:45
Speaker 2: out in the past. Detective Stokes said he believed Skip
24:49
Speaker 2: recreated the fake camp site at the spot where he
24:51
Speaker 2: led police to stage a crime scene to make them
24:54
Speaker 2: believe that they had actually been camping there. Police started
24:58
Speaker 2: searching for Teresa, Detective Stokes asked for a piece of
25:01
Speaker 2: her clothing from John Richmond so the canine dogs could
25:04
Speaker 2: get a cent. This is another creepy fact about the
25:08
Speaker 2: case that really just shows what kind of terrible situation,
25:12
Speaker 2: in my opinion, that Teresa was living in at home,
25:15
Speaker 2: because John Richmond gave the detective quote a white pair
25:18
Speaker 2: of girls underwear that appeared to be bloodied in the
25:20
Speaker 2: crotch area, and then John explained these were in fact
25:24
Speaker 2: Teresa's and that she had started her period the day
25:26
Speaker 2: before she had been missing end quote. So the book
25:29
Speaker 2: asked the same question I had. How did her uncle
25:33
Speaker 2: know her minstrel cycle and why would he give detectives
25:36
Speaker 2: a pair of bloody underwear?
25:37
Speaker 3: It just seems so creepy.
25:40
Speaker 2: The area where Skip claimed that he and Teresa had
25:43
Speaker 2: came amped was called Brown's Creek, and at the campsite
25:47
Speaker 2: police found a blue shirt that Skip confirmed was his.
25:50
Speaker 2: It had a white powdery substance in the front pocket.
25:53
Speaker 2: On June sixteenth, Skip was arrested. He was released on
25:57
Speaker 2: his own recognissance by a judge, but apparently that was
26:00
Speaker 2: a mistake. Apparently the judge was unaware that another judge
26:03
Speaker 2: had actually put a thirty thousand dollars bail on Skip.
26:06
Speaker 2: He was allowed to leave, but two days later he
26:09
Speaker 2: was brought back to jail. And this whole time Skip
26:12
Speaker 2: continued to stick to this Bigfoot story. Meanwhile, other people,
26:15
Speaker 2: even people in his own family, were asking a lot
26:18
Speaker 2: of questions. Skip's nineteen year old nephew, James Welch, came
26:23
Speaker 2: in voluntarily to talk to police. He said he needed
26:27
Speaker 2: to talk to someone because he had very important information
26:30
Speaker 2: that could help solve the case. He said he had
26:34
Speaker 2: gone up into the mountains several times with his uncle.
26:37
Speaker 2: He said he knew his uncle very well and that
26:40
Speaker 2: his theory was that Skip had led detectives to a
26:42
Speaker 2: fake campsite, that he had actually taken Teresa into Ghost Canyon.
26:46
Speaker 2: James said that he thought his uncle quote, was just
26:49
Speaker 2: trying to lead us on a wild goose chase end quote.
26:52
Speaker 2: James said that he got into an argument with Skip
26:54
Speaker 2: at one point, and that Skip had told him about
26:56
Speaker 2: what he called a burial site of the devil.
26:59
Speaker 3: Again.
26:59
Speaker 2: James said he first thought Skip was talking about Bigfoot
27:02
Speaker 2: worshiping women in a positive way. He started to realize
27:06
Speaker 2: he believed what Skip was talking about was making some
27:08
Speaker 2: kind of human sacrifice for Bigfoot. He said, in his opinion,
27:12
Speaker 2: his uncle was trying to misdirect them, and according to
27:16
Speaker 2: the book, James said, Skip actually believed he could get
27:19
Speaker 2: publicity from this whole thing, and he wouldn't have to
27:22
Speaker 2: do any jail time. He believed, maybe only a year
27:25
Speaker 2: or two for a charge like child neglect or child stealing.
27:29
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what happened. Police believed that Skip had
27:33
Speaker 2: been responsible for Teresa's disappearance, but they had a problem.
27:37
Speaker 2: They had no physical evidence and no body. Skip was
27:40
Speaker 2: completely unreliable even if he confessed. Now he had already
27:45
Speaker 2: lied multiple times to the police. Prosecutors apparently didn't feel
27:49
Speaker 2: they had enough to make a murder charge stick, so
27:52
Speaker 2: they charged Skip with child stealing. If he was found guilty,
27:55
Speaker 2: he would serve a sentence of up to four years.
27:58
Speaker 2: That to me seems to be a shockingly short amount
28:02
Speaker 2: of time for that charge. Then the deputy district attorney
28:05
Speaker 2: offered Skip a plea bargain. If he pleaded guilty to
28:08
Speaker 2: child staaling, he would get a one year sentence, which
28:11
Speaker 2: again is ridiculously short.
28:13
Speaker 3: But Skip said no to the deal.
28:15
Speaker 2: He wanted to go to trial, and in the end, incredibly,
28:19
Speaker 2: Skip got zero jail time because the DA's office asked
28:22
Speaker 2: that the charges be dismissed. Apparently, according to the book,
28:26
Speaker 2: the district attorney felt that if the body was found,
28:30
Speaker 2: and if Skip had already been found guilty of the
28:32
Speaker 2: lesser charge of child staaling, double jeopardy might apply and
28:36
Speaker 2: they would never be able to charge him with murder.
28:38
Speaker 2: So nothing happened. Skip was free and no new charges
28:42
Speaker 2: were brought. Time went on and Teresa Beierre's name very
28:47
Speaker 2: quickly dropped out of the news, and when it was mentioned,
28:50
Speaker 2: she became just another footnote and a weird tabloid story
28:53
Speaker 2: about Bigfoot. Five years after Teresa disappeared, a reporter from
28:58
Speaker 2: the Fresno Bee talked to John Richmond. He claimed in
29:01
Speaker 2: that interview that he loved Teresa and they were close.
29:04
Speaker 2: He told the reporter he believed that she was dead
29:07
Speaker 2: or she had been sold into slavery. In March of
29:10
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, a little over ten years after Teresa.
29:13
Speaker 3: Disappeared, Skip died. He was fifty four years old.
29:18
Speaker 2: Sometime around two thousand and eight, John Richmond died of cancer.
29:28
Speaker 2: There have been a few articles about this case since then.
29:31
Speaker 2: There was one on medium, and at the bottom in
29:33
Speaker 2: the comments was a person who claimed to be Skip's
29:36
Speaker 2: great niece. This commenter wrote quote he died of a
29:40
Speaker 2: drug overdose, so he was never charged with anything else.
29:43
Speaker 2: My dad tell this to whoever he can like. It's
29:45
Speaker 2: a funny family story. He's adamant that the speed freak
29:49
Speaker 2: killers got her and they admitted to it. But I
29:51
Speaker 2: never found proof of that end quote. I would love
29:55
Speaker 2: to talk to members of Skip's family or John's family
29:59
Speaker 2: who are still out there. I've seen several people claiming
30:02
Speaker 2: to be family members or friends of the family commenting
30:04
Speaker 2: on these articles. I want everyone to know that I
30:07
Speaker 2: would actually really like to talk to these people, because
30:10
Speaker 2: I do believe that there could be clues in some
30:13
Speaker 2: of these anecdotal stories from years ago about where Teresa's
30:17
Speaker 2: body is. Her family was never able to bury her
30:21
Speaker 2: and bring her home. No one who knew Teresa ever
30:24
Speaker 2: got answers about what actually happened up there in the mountains.
30:28
Speaker 2: Did Skip make sexual advances towards Teresa and she refused
30:31
Speaker 2: and something went wrong? Could she have run away afterwards
30:34
Speaker 2: and then Skip told the Bigfoot story to cover up
30:37
Speaker 2: the fact that he made sexual advances toward an underage girl.
30:41
Speaker 2: Or could Skip have been high on mess and so
30:44
Speaker 2: delusional that he genuinely believed that he saw Teresa run
30:48
Speaker 2: away with Bigfoot. But if that was the case, then
30:51
Speaker 2: why does Detective Stokes believe that Skip lot about the
30:55
Speaker 2: camp site? If he truly believed she ran away with Bigfoot,
30:58
Speaker 2: why would he try to mislead investigators Today, no trace
31:03
Speaker 2: of Teresa Beer's body has ever been found. She is
31:07
Speaker 2: almost certainly still somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, possibly
31:12
Speaker 2: in Ghost Canyon. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
31:18
Speaker 2: Murder Line. Helen Gone Murderline is a production of School
31:21
Speaker 2: of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by
31:24
Speaker 2: me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks
31:28
Speaker 2: to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and James Wheaton
31:31
Speaker 2: for legal review. Noah Caamer mixed and scored this episode.
31:35
Speaker 2: Our theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of
31:38
Speaker 2: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.
31:40
Speaker 3: Crowley.
31:41
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Speaker 2: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
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