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What-happened-on-this-trucker-s-ROUTE · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One morning in nineteen ninety five, two campers were inside
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Speaker 1: of their little nylon tent inside of this huge forest
0:06
Speaker 1: in Arizona when they started to hear this loud, rumbling sound,
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Speaker 1: and so curious, they unzipped their tent and they looked
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Speaker 1: in the direction the sound was coming from, and it
0:15
Speaker 1: was coming from this dirt road kind of straight up
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Speaker 1: ahead of them, and at first all they could see
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Speaker 1: was this huge dirt and dust cloud kind of barreling
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Speaker 1: towards them. And then in the middle of this cloud,
0:26
Speaker 1: suddenly something appeared that both of these campers knew should
0:30
Speaker 1: not have been in this forest, and so seconds later
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Speaker 1: this thing blew past them and disappeared into the trees
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Speaker 1: in the other direction, and for a moment, the two
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Speaker 1: campers had no idea what to do. They began to
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Speaker 1: kind of rationalize why this thing was here. But before
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Speaker 1: they got very deep into that conversation, they began hearing
0:48
Speaker 1: the rumbling sound again, and they looked, and sure enough,
0:51
Speaker 1: the big thing was coming back. But before we get
0:54
Speaker 1: into that story, if you're a fan of the strange,
0:57
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, and you come
1:00
Speaker 1: to the right place, because that's all we do and
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Speaker 1: we upload once a week, so if that's of interest
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Speaker 1: on all notifications so you don't miss any of our
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Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. Late on
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Speaker 1: the night of May twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five, a
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Speaker 1: long haul truck driver named Devin Williams pulled his gigantic
1:38
Speaker 1: refrigerated semi truck into a truck stop in a city
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Speaker 1: called Kingman, Arizona. After putting his truck in dark, Devin
1:45
Speaker 1: reached over and grabbed his sleeping bag off the passenger
1:47
Speaker 1: seat and began to unroll it. Devon would normally get
1:51
Speaker 1: out and use the bathroom and brush his teeth before
1:53
Speaker 1: going to sleep for the night, but this night, Devon
1:56
Speaker 1: was so exhausted that instead of going in, he just
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Speaker 1: unfurled that sleep bag and then climb behind the front
2:02
Speaker 1: two seats of his truck and got into what's called
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Speaker 1: the sleeper cab, which is an area behind the front
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Speaker 1: two seats in the cab where drivers can lay down
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Speaker 1: and rest. Devin had been on the road for the
2:12
Speaker 1: last four days, basically non stop, and all he wanted
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Speaker 1: to do was just finish the stupid route and get
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Speaker 1: back home to his wife, Mary Lou and their three
2:22
Speaker 1: kids in the tiny town of Americus in Kansas. Devin
2:26
Speaker 1: hated being away from his family for long periods of time,
2:30
Speaker 1: which unfortunately was part of his job being a long
2:32
Speaker 1: haul truck driver. But they needed the money because he
2:36
Speaker 1: and his wife had just bought a new house and
2:38
Speaker 1: it was a total fixer upper and so they needed
2:41
Speaker 1: to do a whole bunch of repairs to turn that
2:43
Speaker 1: house into a home. And so, missing his family and
2:46
Speaker 1: just wishing he was done with this route, Devin laid
2:49
Speaker 1: in his sleeping bag in the sleeper cab, trying to
2:51
Speaker 1: fall asleep, but he just couldn't. And unfortunately, as Devin knew,
2:56
Speaker 1: if he didn't sleep this night, then he would have
2:59
Speaker 1: to take another break later on on this route to rest,
3:03
Speaker 1: because he couldn't just continue to drive with absolutely no sleep,
3:07
Speaker 1: and so taking an additional break that he was not
3:10
Speaker 1: prepping for could affect his ability to get home on time.
3:14
Speaker 1: It was Saturday night and the strawberries and lettuce that
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Speaker 1: Devon was hauling inside of his truck were due in
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Speaker 1: Kansas City, Missouri, thirteen hundred miles away on Monday morning,
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Speaker 1: and so Devin began doing the math in his head.
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Speaker 1: If he stopped a little while later to take another
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Speaker 1: sleep break, would he still be able to cover those
3:31
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred miles by Monday? And he just wasn't sure.
3:35
Speaker 1: Everybody at the trucking company where Devin worked knew the
3:38
Speaker 1: twenty nine year old as being very easy going and
3:41
Speaker 1: good natured. Trucking was very hard. People drove insanely long
3:45
Speaker 1: hours on very little sleep, and some people even took
3:48
Speaker 1: drugs to stay awake even longer to make sure they
3:51
Speaker 1: hit their deadlines, and so truckers have kind of earned
3:54
Speaker 1: the reputation of being very rough and tough people. And
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Speaker 1: Devin certainly looked rough, and he was this big guy
4:01
Speaker 1: who wore cowboy hats, he had a big fu Mincho mustache,
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Speaker 1: he had tattoos. But in reality, despite how he looked,
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Speaker 1: he was actually like a gentle giant and really all
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Speaker 1: he talked about were his kids, who he was totally
4:13
Speaker 1: devoted to. The only time anyone at this company saw
4:16
Speaker 1: Devin get mad was when his work interfered with his
4:20
Speaker 1: ability to see his family. And now, as Devin tossed
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Speaker 1: and turned inside of a sleeper cab, he was getting
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Speaker 1: mad because he was thinking this stupid route and his
4:30
Speaker 1: inability to sleep during this particular break was very likely
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Speaker 1: going to interfere with seeing his family. And after an
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Speaker 1: hour of Devn getting angrier and angrier and so not
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Speaker 1: sleeping at all, he finally just gave up on sleep.
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Speaker 1: He chucked his sleeping bag, he climbed out of the cab,
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Speaker 1: and he headed into the truck stop, where he went
4:48
Speaker 1: to the bathroom. He got a bite to eat, and
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Speaker 1: then he called his boss and he told him that
4:52
Speaker 1: he had just made a stop in order to sleep,
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Speaker 1: but he couldn't, and so he was just going to
4:56
Speaker 1: hit the road again. But don't worry, even though I
4:59
Speaker 1: need another b in order to sleep, I will be
5:02
Speaker 1: in Kansas City on Monday morning with this delivery on time.
5:05
Speaker 1: After speaking to his boss, Devin left the truck stop,
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Speaker 1: climbed back into his truck, He fired it up, and
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Speaker 1: then before long he was back on the highway driving east.
5:14
Speaker 1: Devon's boss was a guy named Tom Wilson, and he
5:17
Speaker 1: didn't find anything unusual about this phone call he got
5:20
Speaker 1: from Devon. Maybe it was a little unusual that Devon
5:23
Speaker 1: was unable to sleep and that he called his boss
5:26
Speaker 1: to say he was unable to sleep, But Devin sounded
5:30
Speaker 1: totally normal, and so that night Tom was not worried
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Speaker 1: at all that Devon would not make it to Kansas
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Speaker 1: City by Monday morning. Devn was like one of his
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Speaker 1: most reliable guys, and so if Devin said he was
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Speaker 1: going to be there on Monday morning, even if he
5:43
Speaker 1: needed extra breaks along the way, then he would be
5:45
Speaker 1: there on Monday morning. But on Monday morning, the distribution
5:50
Speaker 1: center in Kansas City, Missouri, where Devin was supposed to
5:53
Speaker 1: go and drop off the lettuce and strawberries, called Tom
5:56
Speaker 1: Wilson and they said, Hey, your driver's not here yet.
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Speaker 1: What's going on now. At first, Tom was actually really
6:02
Speaker 1: annoyed with the distribution center because he felt like, Okay,
6:06
Speaker 1: the clock has just struck the deadline. Devn will likely
6:10
Speaker 1: arrive in the next few minutes, and they're prematurely calling
6:13
Speaker 1: to complain. And so Tom communicated that to the distribution
6:16
Speaker 1: center and they said, okay, fine, we'll wait a little
6:18
Speaker 1: bit longer. But when almost an hour passed and still
6:22
Speaker 1: Devin had not shown up, the distribution center called Tom
6:25
Speaker 1: back and said, hey, he's not here now. After the
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Speaker 1: second call, Tom totally changed his mindset and he was
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Speaker 1: actually now worried about Devin, and so he apologized to
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Speaker 1: the distribution center and said he would get in touch
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Speaker 1: with Devan as soon as he could and figure out
6:40
Speaker 1: where their shipment was. But Tom couldn't just call Devn
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Speaker 1: and ask where he was and what was going on
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Speaker 1: because this was back in nineteen ninety five. They didn't
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Speaker 1: have cell phones, and so Tom basically just had to
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Speaker 1: wait for Devin, who's out on the road somewhere, to
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Speaker 1: stop somewhere and call Tom to tell Tom what's going on.
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Speaker 1: And so all day Monday, Tom I'm sat at his
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Speaker 1: desk waiting for a call from Devon, And when he
7:03
Speaker 1: didn't get a call from Devon, Tom began calling his
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Speaker 1: other drivers all over the country asking them if maybe
7:10
Speaker 1: they had had some sort of interaction with Devin and
7:13
Speaker 1: knew where he was and why he had not made
7:15
Speaker 1: it to Kansas City on time. But none of the
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Speaker 1: drivers had any idea what was going on with Devan.
7:21
Speaker 1: No one had spoken to him. Then that evening Tom
7:24
Speaker 1: got a call, but it was not from Devon. It
7:27
Speaker 1: was from Devon's wife, Mary Lou, and she was calling
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Speaker 1: to say, where's Devon. He was supposed to be home
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Speaker 1: by now, and he's not. I haven't heard from him
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Speaker 1: in days. What's going on? And at this Tom suddenly thought, Okay,
7:38
Speaker 1: we have a real problem here. And so when Tom
7:41
Speaker 1: explained to Mary Lou what was going on with Devin,
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Speaker 1: how he had missed this deadline, Mary Loo panicked and
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Speaker 1: immediately called the police. A little while later, a police
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Speaker 1: officer in Americas, Kansas, arrived at Marylou's house to take
7:54
Speaker 1: down the missing person report, and after they did that,
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Speaker 1: the deputy assured Mary Lou that very likely her husband
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Speaker 1: would be found and he would be just fine. And
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Speaker 1: so they explained to Mary Lou that what they would
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Speaker 1: do is put out an alert to all the different
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Speaker 1: police departments that fell kind of roughly along the route
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Speaker 1: that Devon's truck had been on and see if any
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Speaker 1: of them had had some sort of interaction with Devon.
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Speaker 1: You know, maybe he got into an accident, maybe his
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Speaker 1: truck broke down and he was stranded somewhere, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe he was hospitalized. Who knows, but very likely one
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Speaker 1: of these police departments would know where Devon was, and
8:29
Speaker 1: sure enough, after this alert went out, the officer got
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Speaker 1: a call back very quickly from a sheriff's department in
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Speaker 1: a place called Coco Nino County, Arizona. Coconino County was
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Speaker 1: located two hundred miles to the east of Kingman, Arizona,
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Speaker 1: which was where Devon had been on Saturday night but
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Speaker 1: couldn't sleep and then called his boss to say he
8:48
Speaker 1: was going to hit the road again. But interestingly, the
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Speaker 1: sheriff's department in coc Nino County made it very clear
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Speaker 1: to the police officer in America's Kansas that they had
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Speaker 1: no idea where Devon was, but they definitely knew where
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Speaker 1: his truck was. In fact, basically everybody in Coconino County
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Speaker 1: knew where Devon's truck was. It was all anybody in
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Speaker 1: that county was talking about. Because on Sunday, so the
9:13
Speaker 1: day before Devn was reported missing, somebody driving Devon's truck
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Speaker 1: spent the entire day terrorizing hikers and campers inside of
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Speaker 1: the Tonto National Forest in Coconino County. The Tonto National Forest,
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Speaker 1: which is six hundred thousand acres of just rugged wilderness,
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Speaker 1: preserve was nowhere near Devon's trucking route. In fact, it
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Speaker 1: wasn't near any trucking route ever. It's like twenty miles
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Speaker 1: off of the highway and the roads in the forest
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Speaker 1: are barely wide enough to support small cars going through,
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Speaker 1: let alone a forty eight foot long, massive ten ton
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Speaker 1: semi truck like Devon was driving. But on Sunday morning,
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Speaker 1: so roughly eight hours after Devon had called his boss Tom,
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Speaker 1: two hikers named Li and Jack Arrington were in their
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Speaker 1: tent inside of Tonto National Forest just having a nice time.
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Speaker 1: It's peaceful, it's quiet, and they're right near this dirt
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Speaker 1: road that kind of bent around a corner. And suddenly
10:11
Speaker 1: they began to hear a rumbling sound coming from one
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Speaker 1: end of this road. And so they were in their tent,
10:17
Speaker 1: they unzipped it, they looked out, and at first all
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Speaker 1: they saw on the road coming in their direction was
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Speaker 1: this huge cloud of dust and smoke. And then through
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Speaker 1: the dust and smoke came Devon's humongous truck blazing down
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Speaker 1: this road at practically full speed. And at first Jack
10:34
Speaker 1: and Lynn are like, how is this truck even in
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Speaker 1: the forest? How did it get here? How did it
10:39
Speaker 1: actually manage to drive to this point. And after Devon's
10:43
Speaker 1: truck whizzed past them and blazed off in the other
10:47
Speaker 1: direction out of sight, Lynn and Jack weren't scared or worried.
10:51
Speaker 1: They were just totally confused, and so they began speculating,
10:55
Speaker 1: you know, like, well, maybe the driver got lost and
10:58
Speaker 1: they're trying to find a place to turn around or
11:00
Speaker 1: And sure enough, a couple of minutes later, they heard
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Speaker 1: a rumbling sound and they saw another cloud of dust,
11:05
Speaker 1: and it was Devon's truck now coming back in the
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Speaker 1: other direction on this same dirt road, and so Jack
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Speaker 1: and Lynn they kind of backed up behind their tent
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Speaker 1: and they watched as this truck blazed past them again,
11:17
Speaker 1: flying out the other direction. And so in some ways,
11:20
Speaker 1: that kind of confirmed to Lynn and Jack that, yes,
11:23
Speaker 1: you know, this driver who's definitely driving recklessly at this
11:26
Speaker 1: point has likely gotten lost. They've managed to turn around,
11:29
Speaker 1: and now they're heading back out to the highway, and
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Speaker 1: that's all this was. And then all of a sudden,
11:34
Speaker 1: as they're kind of chatting about it and laughing about it,
11:36
Speaker 1: they hear the sound of the truck coming back again,
11:40
Speaker 1: and they look up and sure enough, there's Devon's truck
11:43
Speaker 1: barreling down the road again, except this time Jack and
11:47
Speaker 1: Lynn they looked where Devon's truck was going, and they
11:50
Speaker 1: saw there was a small sedan coming up the road
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Speaker 1: in the opposite direction. So Devon and the sedan are
11:56
Speaker 1: going to collide. And because this road was actually on
11:59
Speaker 1: a turn, the driver of the sedan couldn't actually see
12:03
Speaker 1: the truck, and the driver of the truck, whether it
12:05
Speaker 1: was Devin or somebody else, couldn't see the sedan, and
12:07
Speaker 1: so both drivers are driving towards each other without realizing it,
12:11
Speaker 1: and so Jack and Lynn they jump up. They begin
12:13
Speaker 1: screaming and yelling at the driver of the truck to
12:16
Speaker 1: slow down, but the truck didn't slow down. It just
12:19
Speaker 1: continued coming down the road, and the sedan driver he
12:22
Speaker 1: saw Jack and Lynn flailing their arms and trying to
12:25
Speaker 1: get somebody to stop on the road, and so, sensing
12:28
Speaker 1: there was another car, the sedan came to a full stop,
12:32
Speaker 1: and then right in front of them, they saw this
12:34
Speaker 1: truck come barreling around the road, and so the sedan
12:37
Speaker 1: began backing up wildly, trying to get out of the
12:39
Speaker 1: way of this huge truck, and then Finally, the driver
12:42
Speaker 1: of the sedan just cut the wheel and peeled off
12:44
Speaker 1: the side of the road into the brush, and right
12:46
Speaker 1: as they did, the truck, which had not slowed down
12:49
Speaker 1: at all, even though the driver could have clearly seen
12:52
Speaker 1: the sedan, just whizzed right past the sedan and would
12:56
Speaker 1: have smashed into it if the sedan had not jumped
12:59
Speaker 1: off the road. The driver of the sedan got out
13:01
Speaker 1: of the car, and when Jack and Lynn ran up
13:03
Speaker 1: to him to make sure he was okay, he would
13:05
Speaker 1: tell them that he got a good look at the
13:08
Speaker 1: driver of the truck as he drove past him, and
13:10
Speaker 1: he told them that the driver was just gripping the wheel,
13:13
Speaker 1: looking totally straight ahead, no expression whatsoever, just barreling past him.
13:18
Speaker 1: It was like he didn't even look at the sedan.
13:20
Speaker 1: He was just going a little later that day, and
13:23
Speaker 1: not far from where this incident had just happened on
13:25
Speaker 1: this road with Jack and Lynn and the sedan, there
13:28
Speaker 1: was this family that was hiking through Tonto National Forest
13:32
Speaker 1: and they had arrived at this big, beautiful open field
13:35
Speaker 1: in the middle of the forest, and they planned to
13:37
Speaker 1: have a picnic in this field. But as they came
13:40
Speaker 1: out of the tree line and walked into this beautiful open,
13:43
Speaker 1: high grass meadow area. They looked out and they saw
13:47
Speaker 1: just kind of in the middle of the field was
13:50
Speaker 1: this huge truck that made no sense. How in the
13:53
Speaker 1: world could this truck have gotten to this meadow, They
13:56
Speaker 1: didn't know, but they clearly saw there's a truck. And
14:00
Speaker 1: the father of the family he saw there was a
14:02
Speaker 1: man standing next to this truck, just kind of looking
14:05
Speaker 1: away from them, off at the mountains in the distance.
14:08
Speaker 1: And so this family kind of assumed that the driver
14:11
Speaker 1: of this truck had somehow gotten into this meadow and
14:14
Speaker 1: maybe their truck was stuck, and so now they need help.
14:17
Speaker 1: And so the father told his family to stay put
14:19
Speaker 1: for a second, and then he on his own walked
14:22
Speaker 1: across the meadow towards this truck. And as the father
14:25
Speaker 1: got closer, he did see that very clearly the truck
14:28
Speaker 1: was stuck in the mud, and so this driver very
14:31
Speaker 1: likely is stranded. And so as he got close enough,
14:33
Speaker 1: the father yelled out to the sky and said, hey,
14:35
Speaker 1: do you need some help. You know, we can go
14:37
Speaker 1: back and call someone, you know, what can we do
14:39
Speaker 1: for you? But the man who was standing outside of
14:42
Speaker 1: the truck didn't even turn around to talk to this father.
14:45
Speaker 1: He just kept standing there, motionless, looking off into the distance.
14:49
Speaker 1: And so the father made it about five or six
14:51
Speaker 1: feet away from the sky, and the father just stopped
14:54
Speaker 1: and very clearly said, hey, I'm talking to you. Do
14:57
Speaker 1: you need help? And at this point, the man who
15:00
Speaker 1: was standing next to the truck, he turned around and
15:03
Speaker 1: he looked at the father, and immediately the father kind
15:06
Speaker 1: of backed up for a second because there was something
15:07
Speaker 1: off about this guy. The guy was just kind of
15:10
Speaker 1: standing there and he was staring at the father, and
15:12
Speaker 1: he opened his mouth like he was about to speak,
15:15
Speaker 1: but instead of speaking, he just kept opening his mouth
15:18
Speaker 1: wider and wider until it was as wide as he
15:20
Speaker 1: could get it, and then he began wiggling his lower
15:23
Speaker 1: job back and forth as fast as he could and
15:26
Speaker 1: then clicking his teeth simultaneously. And so the father just
15:29
Speaker 1: began backing up like there was something wrong with this guy.
15:32
Speaker 1: And right as the father was about to just turn
15:34
Speaker 1: around and leave and go protect his family from this guy,
15:38
Speaker 1: the guy stopped with his mouth and then he just
15:40
Speaker 1: stared directly at the father and said, very calmly, I
15:43
Speaker 1: didn't do it. They did it. Now when the father
15:46
Speaker 1: heard this, he was already so weirded out by this
15:49
Speaker 1: guy that he didn't even have any questions to follow
15:51
Speaker 1: up with. Instead, he just turned and began running back
15:54
Speaker 1: towards his family. And so, feeling very unsettled, the family
15:58
Speaker 1: they ran back to their car, drove back home, and
16:01
Speaker 1: they called the police about this guy in his truck.
16:03
Speaker 1: It would take a deputy from the Coconino County Sheriff's
16:06
Speaker 1: Department a little while to finally navigate their way all
16:10
Speaker 1: the way out to this meadow where this truck and
16:13
Speaker 1: this guy apparently were, And when the deputy got there,
16:16
Speaker 1: they walked out into this meadow and sure enough, just
16:19
Speaker 1: like the father had said, there was the truck stuck
16:22
Speaker 1: in the mud. And so the deputy began walking out
16:24
Speaker 1: to the truck, expecting to see the driver, this guy
16:28
Speaker 1: who the father had said was acting totally weird. But
16:31
Speaker 1: when the deputy got up there, he found the truck
16:34
Speaker 1: was totally abandoned. There was nobody in the cab, there
16:37
Speaker 1: was nobody nearby. It was just sitting here, but it
16:40
Speaker 1: was still running, and so the deputy tried to open
16:42
Speaker 1: up the cab, but it was locked. He did look
16:44
Speaker 1: inside and everything looked very neat and orderly, and then
16:47
Speaker 1: he went around to the back of the truck and
16:49
Speaker 1: he opened up the back doors and he found the
16:52
Speaker 1: refrigeration unit was still on and inside of this truck
16:55
Speaker 1: was lots and lots of strawberries and lettuce. So the
16:58
Speaker 1: deputy really didn't know what to me of this truck
17:01
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field, combined with this report
17:04
Speaker 1: that the father gave about the guy who was standing
17:06
Speaker 1: near it acting totally weird, and so he just checked
17:09
Speaker 1: the license plate of the truck and he ran it
17:12
Speaker 1: against his database to see if there were any matching
17:14
Speaker 1: reports of missing trucks or missing truck drivers. But there
17:18
Speaker 1: weren't any, because remember this is on Sunday, this is happening,
17:21
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until the next day, Monday, that Devin
17:24
Speaker 1: was reported missing and his truck was added to a
17:27
Speaker 1: list of missing trucks and missing truck drivers. And so
17:30
Speaker 1: the Coconino County deputy just called a towing company who
17:34
Speaker 1: came out and hauled Devon's truck out of the forest.
17:37
Speaker 1: And then twenty four hours later, when Devon was reported missing,
17:41
Speaker 1: the Coconino County Sheriff's Department put it all together and
17:44
Speaker 1: contacted the officer in America's Kansas to say, Okay, we
17:48
Speaker 1: do have Devon's truck, but we don't have any other
17:50
Speaker 1: answers for you. The behavior of the man who was
17:53
Speaker 1: driving Devon's truck through Tonto National Forest was so insanely
17:58
Speaker 1: out of character for someone like Devon that it seemed
18:02
Speaker 1: totally impossible that Devon could have done this. But both
18:06
Speaker 1: Lynn and jack Yarrington and the other people who saw
18:09
Speaker 1: this truck flying through the forest on that Sunday, they
18:13
Speaker 1: all insisted that the man they saw in the cab
18:16
Speaker 1: driving this truck matched the picture of Devin Williams. But
18:20
Speaker 1: there was absolutely no reason for why Devon would want
18:24
Speaker 1: to go to the Tonto National Forest, And even if
18:27
Speaker 1: he did want to go to this forest for some reason,
18:31
Speaker 1: he should have known that his massive semi trailer truck
18:35
Speaker 1: was not a good choice to be driving around these
18:37
Speaker 1: narrow dirt roads in the middle of this wilderness preserve.
18:41
Speaker 1: All we know about Devon is that at the time
18:44
Speaker 1: he went missing, all he likely wanted to do was
18:47
Speaker 1: just get home to Americas Kansas to be with his
18:50
Speaker 1: wife and three kids. Again, that's really all he cared about.
18:53
Speaker 1: The police did consider that, you know, maybe Devin just
18:56
Speaker 1: ran away, but that theory didn't add up. Devon had
19:00
Speaker 1: no criminal record, He had a great relationship with his wife,
19:03
Speaker 1: so there were no issues there, and there were no
19:05
Speaker 1: other kind of outstanding relationship issues with friends or family.
19:09
Speaker 1: And financially, even though it was a little tight, they
19:12
Speaker 1: were doing just fine. They just wanted some extra money
19:15
Speaker 1: to fix up this house and make it really nice.
19:17
Speaker 1: It wasn't like they were struggling to put food on
19:19
Speaker 1: the table. Also, the police considered that, you know, maybe
19:22
Speaker 1: Devin was kidnapped or something, But Devin is like this big, imposing,
19:27
Speaker 1: tattooed cowboy hat, big mustache, tough truck driver. I mean,
19:32
Speaker 1: who's going to try to kidnap that guy. Devin also
19:35
Speaker 1: had no medical issues. He wasn't struggling with his mental health.
19:38
Speaker 1: He had no neurological abnormalities. He also never used drugs
19:43
Speaker 1: and always passed every single drug test that he got
19:46
Speaker 1: while working for this trucking company. Devin was basically just
19:49
Speaker 1: this totally normal, nice, well adjusted guy with nothing to
19:53
Speaker 1: run or hide from, and so none of this made
19:56
Speaker 1: any sense. Police mounted a massive search inside of Tonto
20:00
Speaker 1: National Forest and during this search, the couple Jack and
20:04
Speaker 1: Lynn Yarrington, who had seen the truck barreling up and
20:08
Speaker 1: down the road and nearly collide with that sedan, They
20:11
Speaker 1: would tell searchers that they actually thought they saw Devin Williams,
20:15
Speaker 1: not in his truck, but out on foot walking around
20:18
Speaker 1: on Monday morning, so just hours before he would have
20:21
Speaker 1: been reported missing. They said they just saw this guy
20:23
Speaker 1: wandering barefoot down the road as they were driving out
20:26
Speaker 1: of the forest, and they slowed down to ask him
20:29
Speaker 1: if he was okay, and this guy, who looked exactly
20:32
Speaker 1: like Devin Williams, responded by picking up a rock and
20:35
Speaker 1: throwing it at their car, and so Jack and Lynn
20:38
Speaker 1: just drove past him, not realizing that this was the
20:41
Speaker 1: guy who very likely was driving that truck. Now, the
20:45
Speaker 1: police when they began this search were pretty confident they
20:48
Speaker 1: would find Devin, especially after hearing from Jack and Lynn
20:52
Speaker 1: that he was pretty likely on foot and without shoes
20:55
Speaker 1: walking around the forest. It seemed like he could not
20:57
Speaker 1: get very far. But despite this huge search, they could
21:01
Speaker 1: not find Devon. There was absolutely no trace of him,
21:04
Speaker 1: and so after nearly three weeks of searching and not
21:07
Speaker 1: finding Devon, the police called off the search. Then, on
21:11
Speaker 1: May second, nineteen ninety seven, so almost exactly two years
21:15
Speaker 1: from when Devon had been reported missing, two hikers were
21:18
Speaker 1: walking on this trail in the middle of Tonto National Forest,
21:22
Speaker 1: right in the area where police had extensively searched for
21:26
Speaker 1: Devon two years earlier. These two hikers, they're walking on
21:29
Speaker 1: this trail and up ahead they see there's this white
21:32
Speaker 1: thing right in the middle of the trail, just kind
21:34
Speaker 1: of sitting out. Now, this is a well trafficked trail,
21:37
Speaker 1: and so they're wondering, you know, what is this thing?
21:39
Speaker 1: And so they walk up and they see this white
21:42
Speaker 1: thing is a perfectly intact human skull. There's no skeleton,
21:47
Speaker 1: it's just the skull. And so these hikers they gasped.
21:49
Speaker 1: They can't believe they're looking at a real human head,
21:52
Speaker 1: and they're thinking, you know, how in the world did
21:54
Speaker 1: it get here? Why hasn't anybody else seen this and
21:57
Speaker 1: taken it? Like, how are we the first ones see this?
22:00
Speaker 1: And so they would end up calling the police. The
22:03
Speaker 1: police would come out, they'd gather up the skull, it
22:05
Speaker 1: would be sent in for testing, and sure enough, DNA
22:08
Speaker 1: testing would reveal the skull belonged to Devin Williams. No
22:13
Speaker 1: one has ever been able to explain what actually happened
22:16
Speaker 1: to Devin Williams, but the discovery of his skull inside
22:21
Speaker 1: of Tonto National Forest nearly guarantees that the driver of
22:25
Speaker 1: the truck two years earlier really was Devin, and the
22:28
Speaker 1: guy standing outside of the truck that was stuck in
22:31
Speaker 1: the mud in the meadow was likely Devin, and the
22:34
Speaker 1: guy throwing rocks at Jack and Lynn's car was Devon.
22:37
Speaker 1: People have put forth a whole host of theories about
22:41
Speaker 1: what happened to Devin, ranging from he had some sort
22:44
Speaker 1: of medical event where he kind of lost his mind
22:47
Speaker 1: and that's what caused all this strange behavior. Or maybe
22:50
Speaker 1: Devin was on drugs despite not having any history of
22:53
Speaker 1: drug use, you know, maybe he took a really strong
22:56
Speaker 1: drug and that's what caused him to do all this.
22:58
Speaker 1: And still others believe that maybe there's a paranormal element
23:02
Speaker 1: to this whole story, that perhaps Devin was contacted by
23:05
Speaker 1: aliens and that's what induced all the bizarre behavior, and
23:09
Speaker 1: then ultimately he was abducted by said aliens, and then
23:14
Speaker 1: somehow his skull wound up back on this trail in
23:16
Speaker 1: the middle of Tonto National Forest, and as crazy as
23:19
Speaker 1: that sounds, still to this day, no one has any
23:22
Speaker 1: idea of what happened to him, so that theory is
23:25
Speaker 1: just as good as any other. So that's going to
23:32
Speaker 1: do it. If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to
23:34
Speaker 1: check out our podcast called The Mister Ballin Podcast, where
23:38
Speaker 1: we have literally hundreds more stories just like this one,
23:42
Speaker 1: available exclusively on Amazon Music.