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Hell and Gone Murder Line: James Escalante Part 2 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans.
0:11
Speaker 2: On June twenty fifth, twenty twenty, fifty six year old
0:15
Speaker 2: James Escalante, who also went by Blackhawk, left home on
0:19
Speaker 2: a red Mountain bike. He was headed out to help
0:22
Speaker 2: a woman named Dee, a friend of his, and his girlfriend, Sherry's.
0:26
Speaker 2: Dee's truck had gotten stuck out in the desert near
0:28
Speaker 2: Wonder Valley, but he never made it back home, and
0:32
Speaker 2: no one reported him missing until September seventh. Heather Escalante
0:36
Speaker 2: and her husband, John, James's son, started their own search.
0:40
Speaker 3: After Heather started.
0:42
Speaker 2: Posting on social media and looking for information, she heard
0:46
Speaker 2: that remains were found in the desert on August eighth
0:48
Speaker 2: by a hunter. The body was a John Doe. Half
0:52
Speaker 2: his face was missing, he had long black hair, and
0:55
Speaker 2: there was no id found. Heather contacted the detective working
1:00
Speaker 2: on the case in September to say she believed that
1:03
Speaker 2: that body could be James. On on December fifteenth, the family's
1:07
Speaker 2: worst fears were confirmed. They got a call from the
1:10
Speaker 2: coroner James as Galante was dead. The cause and manner
1:15
Speaker 2: of his death were undetermined. What happened out there in
1:19
Speaker 2: the desert? I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years
1:24
Speaker 2: of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned
1:28
Speaker 2: that there is no such thing as a small town
1:30
Speaker 2: where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from
1:34
Speaker 2: people all around the country asking for help with an
1:37
Speaker 2: unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
1:41
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
1:43
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
1:45
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
1:48
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four or five. That's six
1:51
Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six one four five, or
1:56
Speaker 2: you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen gonpod.
2:00
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. We got access to
2:51
Speaker 2: the coroner's report, which had some more details of what
2:55
Speaker 2: went down on the day that James's body was found
2:57
Speaker 2: and some details about.
2:59
Speaker 3: The exact condition of the body.
3:01
Speaker 2: According to the coroner's report, the hunter Kyle Gibson, was
3:05
Speaker 2: out in the desert off Highway sixty two when he
3:07
Speaker 2: saw a skeleton. He called the police, and Jason Board,
3:11
Speaker 2: a deputy from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, responded
3:15
Speaker 2: to the scene. The deputy found a skull with skin
3:19
Speaker 2: on the left side of the face and top of
3:21
Speaker 2: the head. Part of James's body was lying down with
3:24
Speaker 2: the legs spread wide apart. His head was pointed forty
3:28
Speaker 2: degrees northeast. He was wearing a pair of plaid shorts,
3:32
Speaker 2: a black sock, and a red and black Nike high
3:35
Speaker 2: top on his left foot, but James's right foot, his arms,
3:40
Speaker 2: and other body parts, including all of the organs in
3:43
Speaker 2: his torso, were missing. Detectives found signs of animal activity
3:48
Speaker 2: on the body, shoe marks and the hips, rib cage,
3:51
Speaker 2: and legbones. One of the deputies who arrived on the
3:55
Speaker 2: scene was Elizabeth Gonzalez. She noted in her report that
3:59
Speaker 2: she saw a stain in the dirt about forty feet
4:02
Speaker 2: south of the body, and three feet away she found
4:05
Speaker 2: another more faint stain. She also found a pocket knife
4:09
Speaker 2: and a lighter near James's body.
4:11
Speaker 3: According to the coroner's report.
4:13
Speaker 2: He indicated that he was going to get it tested
4:15
Speaker 2: for fingerprints, but Heather said that this never happened. According
4:20
Speaker 2: to the autopsy report, a lot of tests could not
4:23
Speaker 2: be performed due to the condition of the body and
4:26
Speaker 2: the fact that James had been out in the elements
4:28
Speaker 2: for so long, but a drug panel showed he did
4:31
Speaker 2: test positive for amphetamine and methamphetamine at very high levels,
4:37
Speaker 2: which Heather said was not a surprise. She said that
4:40
Speaker 2: though police did do an investigation, she sometimes felt that
4:44
Speaker 2: due to James's drug use, that he was written off
4:46
Speaker 2: by law enforcement. His cause and manner of death were undetermined.
4:52
Speaker 1: I shouldn't neither one having to do this. No, I
4:55
Speaker 1: hear two one day at least done their due diligence,
4:58
Speaker 1: and I felt like they had at least done that
5:00
Speaker 1: much and just couldn't get anything. But like they've never
5:04
Speaker 1: looked at James, They've never looked at it, they've never
5:08
Speaker 1: been in it. When never going out there, how do
5:10
Speaker 1: you know that wasn't a crime thing you didn't want?
5:13
Speaker 1: Miyama don't know that he wasn't killed in there and
5:15
Speaker 1: dumped out in the desert. Like we have no idea
5:17
Speaker 1: because damn it looked.
5:19
Speaker 2: People do disappear out there in the desert, even people
5:22
Speaker 2: who know the area well. Like we said last week,
5:25
Speaker 2: this is a part of the country where a lot
5:27
Speaker 2: of people go missing for a lot of different reasons.
5:30
Speaker 2: Around nine days before James went missing, thirty seven year
5:34
Speaker 2: old Erica Lloyd also disappeared and Even though there's no
5:38
Speaker 2: official indication that Erica and James's deaths were connected, we
5:42
Speaker 2: wanted to see if anything about Erica's disappearance could help
5:46
Speaker 2: provide a clue about what happened to James. Family and
5:50
Speaker 2: friends say Erica had been going through a tough time.
5:52
Speaker 2: She was a single mother with a twelve year old son,
5:55
Speaker 2: and she had been battling depression. COVID had hit her
5:59
Speaker 2: hair dressing business hard. She was worried about money, though
6:03
Speaker 2: her mother, Ruth Lloyd, said that the family did not
6:06
Speaker 2: know the extent of Erica's mental health struggles until much later.
6:11
Speaker 2: Erica dropped her son off to stay in Walnut Creek,
6:13
Speaker 2: where they lived. I've seen some media reports that say
6:17
Speaker 2: she dropped her son off with a friend. Others say
6:19
Speaker 2: that her son was dropped with his father. Either way,
6:22
Speaker 2: he was staying there with someone. Walnut Creek is in
6:26
Speaker 2: northern California, between Sacramento and San Jose. She told people
6:30
Speaker 2: she was going on a pandemic road trip. Erica didn't
6:33
Speaker 2: seem to have an exact itinerary. The San Bernardino Sentinel
6:37
Speaker 2: newspaper reported that Erica may have been planning to see
6:40
Speaker 2: a friend someone who had reportedly moved to twenty nine
6:43
Speaker 2: Palms in April of twenty twenty, but so far that's unconfirmed.
6:48
Speaker 2: According to The Sentinel, Erica originally left on June eleventh.
6:52
Speaker 2: She drove straight over five hundred miles down the I
6:55
Speaker 2: five and her two thousand and six black Honda accord.
6:58
Speaker 2: Her destination was Joshua Tree National Park. She parked at
7:02
Speaker 2: the Jumbo Rocks campground and stayed there for two nights.
7:06
Speaker 2: While she was there, she wrote in her journal that
7:09
Speaker 2: she met two people named Christian and James. On Saturday,
7:13
Speaker 2: June thirteenth, she drove back home to Walnut Creek again
7:16
Speaker 2: in one single drive. She spent some time there with
7:19
Speaker 2: her son and her roommate. On June fourteenth, she left
7:23
Speaker 2: Walnut Creek to go back to that same campground. She
7:26
Speaker 2: did not appear to be in distress, though before she
7:29
Speaker 2: left she did delete her Facebook page. She was active
7:33
Speaker 2: on Instagram until the next day, June fifteenth. She told
7:37
Speaker 2: people while she was home that these people she met,
7:39
Speaker 2: James and Christian, were watching her stuff. On June fourteenth,
7:43
Speaker 2: when she got back to the Jumbo Rocks campground, apparently,
7:46
Speaker 2: James and Christian were no longer. There, she called her mother, Ruth,
7:51
Speaker 2: and according to the Sentinel, her mom said that Erica
7:54
Speaker 2: was talking really fast. She said she could tell by
7:57
Speaker 2: the background noises that Erica was driving her car. After that,
8:03
Speaker 2: Erica's family never heard from her again. Park rangers found
8:07
Speaker 2: the car and saw that there was damage to the
8:09
Speaker 2: rear window, windshield, and dashboard. Then, on Tuesday, June sixteenth,
8:15
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, surveillance video showed Erica's car leaving the north
8:19
Speaker 2: entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. Then later the car
8:23
Speaker 2: was seen on surveillance video at two fifty pm in
8:26
Speaker 2: the town of twenty nine Palms.
8:28
Speaker 3: At four pm, a.
8:29
Speaker 2: California Highway patrolman spotted a car parked on Shelton Road,
8:34
Speaker 2: just north of the intersection with Highway sixty two near
8:37
Speaker 2: twenty nine Palms.
8:39
Speaker 3: The car was blocking.
8:40
Speaker 2: The roadway, so the Highway patrol called in nearby auto
8:43
Speaker 2: repair company to come and tow the car. News Channel
8:46
Speaker 2: three talked to the owner of that towing company. They
8:49
Speaker 2: said the windows of the car were busted out, the
8:52
Speaker 2: radio was shattered, and the air bag had deployed. And
8:55
Speaker 2: this is where the story takes a really tragic turn
9:00
Speaker 2: because This turned out to be Erica's two thousand and
9:02
Speaker 2: six black Hondo cord Ell. Lloyd's family reported her missing
9:07
Speaker 2: on June seventeenth. This was the day after a car
9:10
Speaker 2: had been towed off Shelton Road, the car that turned
9:14
Speaker 2: out to be Erica's, and even after she was reported missing,
9:18
Speaker 2: at first, no one connected the abandoned car with her.
9:22
Speaker 2: Since the California Highway Patrol didn't know that there was
9:25
Speaker 2: someone who had been.
9:26
Speaker 3: In the car, they just towed the vehicle.
9:28
Speaker 2: They mailed the toe slip to Erica's apartment, which obviously
9:32
Speaker 2: she never received. Eventually, the Walnut Creek Police Department notified
9:36
Speaker 2: the Highway Patrol that Erica was missing, and they started
9:39
Speaker 2: to look for her. Erica's family flew out on the nineteenth.
9:42
Speaker 2: They started putting up flyers. They kept trying to call
9:45
Speaker 2: her cell phone. On June twentieth, finally someone answered, but
9:50
Speaker 2: it wasn't Erica.
9:52
Speaker 3: It was a man.
10:01
Speaker 2: Erica Lloyd's family was calling her cell phone in a
10:04
Speaker 2: desperate attempt to find her, and on June twentieth, someone
10:08
Speaker 2: picked up the phone, but it wasn't Erica.
10:10
Speaker 3: It was a strange man.
10:12
Speaker 2: He told Erica's family that he had found her cell
10:15
Speaker 2: phone on June eighteenth on Cottonwood Drive in twenty nine Palms,
10:20
Speaker 2: so they were wondering how did she get separated from
10:23
Speaker 2: her car and her phone. Some people suggested that Eric
10:27
Speaker 2: had been kidnapped or killed by a serial killer, but
10:30
Speaker 2: the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said no foul play
10:33
Speaker 2: was involved. Investigators pieced together a theory that Erica had
10:38
Speaker 2: crashed her car and left her vehicle, then she became
10:41
Speaker 2: disoriented in the desert heat. They believed this because there
10:45
Speaker 2: was also significant damage to the bottom.
10:48
Speaker 3: Of her car. Underneath it, it looked like she had.
10:51
Speaker 2: Crashed into one of those berms out on the side
10:53
Speaker 2: of the road, the areas that kind of slope up
10:56
Speaker 2: on the side of the highway one of the natural barriers.
11:00
Speaker 2: Investigators thought that after she crashed, Erica might have seen
11:03
Speaker 2: the Marine Corps base in the distance and mistook it
11:06
Speaker 2: for the town of twenty nine Palms. This may have
11:09
Speaker 2: caused her to walk off of Highway sixty two to
11:12
Speaker 2: try and cut through there. This could have been a
11:15
Speaker 2: fatal mistake because that would have led her through miles
11:18
Speaker 2: of desert in sweltering heat and what no one knew
11:22
Speaker 2: at the time was that the spot where police found
11:24
Speaker 2: her car on Highway sixty two and Shelton was not
11:27
Speaker 2: the original crash site. Because shortly after Erica abandoned her car,
11:31
Speaker 2: two people, David Krow and Tila Campbell, saw it on
11:35
Speaker 2: the side of the road. They hooked it up to
11:37
Speaker 2: a big truck they had, and they started towing the
11:40
Speaker 2: car and driving south, But they only made it about
11:43
Speaker 2: two miles from where it crashed before the car overheated,
11:46
Speaker 2: so they detached Erica's vehicle and bailed. This means that
11:50
Speaker 2: when the search effort began for Erica, it started at
11:53
Speaker 2: the wrong spot. The police focused on the area around
11:57
Speaker 2: where the car had been dropped off by David and Tila,
12:00
Speaker 2: not the spot where Erica had actually crashed her car
12:03
Speaker 2: and started wandering around in a daze. There is no
12:06
Speaker 2: indication that David and Tela knew the car had been
12:09
Speaker 2: abandoned by someone who was in trouble, but they didn't
12:12
Speaker 2: call the authorities.
12:13
Speaker 3: We don't know.
12:14
Speaker 2: If they saw the reports of Erica missing on the news,
12:17
Speaker 2: but if they had called, there's a possibility they could
12:21
Speaker 2: have saved her life.
12:23
Speaker 3: Tragically.
12:24
Speaker 2: Searchers might have been able to find Erica if they
12:26
Speaker 2: had just searched closer to where she actually left the car,
12:30
Speaker 2: but we will never know that for sure. We reached
12:33
Speaker 2: out to Erica's mother, Ruth Lloyd. She responded in an email.
12:37
Speaker 2: She said that she had been wary of some podcasts
12:40
Speaker 2: in the past that were, in her opinion, erroneously trying
12:44
Speaker 2: to make connections between Erica's case and a serial killer,
12:47
Speaker 2: or implying Erica and James Escalante's cases were connected.
12:52
Speaker 3: Ruth wants to make it clear.
12:54
Speaker 2: She believes Erica crashed her car and succumbed to the elements,
12:57
Speaker 2: and that law enforcement did a good job. Her email
13:00
Speaker 2: reads quote, because especially in the first several years, we
13:04
Speaker 2: found that there were some crime podcasters and sluice that
13:07
Speaker 2: were looking to find entertainment and exploiting the tragedies of
13:10
Speaker 2: the victims and or their families. So we felt that
13:13
Speaker 2: you had better understand Erica's sudden mental health break. And
13:17
Speaker 2: it is sadly what caused Erica to be where she
13:19
Speaker 2: ended up in the desert that day, where her car
13:21
Speaker 2: crashed and got stuck on a sandburm in Wonder Valley,
13:24
Speaker 2: which getting stuck is not uncommon in the desert end quote.
13:29
Speaker 2: Ruth talked about going out to Wonder Valley and discovering
13:32
Speaker 2: the challenges of being in that part of the desert,
13:35
Speaker 2: which she described as a mix of homestead junkyards with
13:38
Speaker 2: the occasional Airbnb renovated with the hot tub. She wrote, quote,
13:42
Speaker 2: from everything we know, we don't believe Erica had any
13:46
Speaker 2: intention of being out where she was, and this was
13:48
Speaker 2: definitely an area she was not familiar with. Even for
13:52
Speaker 2: us being from Maryland, going out in the desert at
13:55
Speaker 2: that time of the year was like going to Mars
13:57
Speaker 2: end quote. Ruth talked about how going to the area
14:00
Speaker 2: in the intense heat, with the smoke and the ash
14:03
Speaker 2: from the California wildfires, how beautiful it was, but how
14:06
Speaker 2: it was ninety eight degrees even at night, it can
14:09
Speaker 2: be an unforgiving place. She said that the family got
14:13
Speaker 2: a lot of calls and texts from people who thought
14:15
Speaker 2: they saw Erica.
14:17
Speaker 3: She talked about how.
14:18
Speaker 2: They found five homeless women, all of whom looked a
14:21
Speaker 2: lot like Erica, and how many people are wandering lost
14:25
Speaker 2: in one way or another out there.
14:28
Speaker 3: She wrote, quote, we.
14:29
Speaker 2: Found many of these women and men live wherever they
14:33
Speaker 2: can find a place to stay, crawl into, or get under.
14:36
Speaker 2: So it makes you wonder when they are alone and
14:39
Speaker 2: die in the desert, who's looking for them? End quote.
14:44
Speaker 2: Ruth said that their family had a search team out
14:46
Speaker 2: on June twenty fifth. This was the day that James
14:49
Speaker 2: Escalante headed out to the desert to help de get
14:51
Speaker 2: her truck unstuck. The team stopped at noon that day
14:54
Speaker 2: when it got too hot. James was at the corner
14:57
Speaker 2: of Shelton in Highway sixty two when he made the
15:00
Speaker 2: call and then headed up Shelton Road. He would have
15:03
Speaker 2: had to carry his bike because of the loose sand.
15:06
Speaker 2: The bike was later found with some drug paraphernalia on
15:08
Speaker 2: the side of the road. It was found by the
15:11
Speaker 2: caving and mining expert who worked with Erica's family. But
15:15
Speaker 2: what happened to James after that? Did he stash the
15:18
Speaker 2: bike there or did someone else dump it out there.
15:22
Speaker 2: Erica's body was discovered by hikers near Danby Road and
15:26
Speaker 2: Amboy Road in Wonder Valley on January thirty first, twenty
15:29
Speaker 2: twenty one. In June of twenty twenty one, Tila Campbell
15:33
Speaker 2: and David Crowe were arrested. They were charged with stealing
15:35
Speaker 2: Erica's car. They admitted that they had seen the car
15:38
Speaker 2: out there in the sandburn got it off there, hauled
15:42
Speaker 2: it off and drove it until it overheated, then abandoned
15:45
Speaker 2: the vehicle. David Crowe was sentenced after a plea deal,
15:49
Speaker 2: but Tila Campbell's case is still going through the courts.
15:52
Speaker 2: According to Erica's mom, Tila's next hearing date is set
15:56
Speaker 2: for January twenty twenty five. Erica's family did travel to
16:00
Speaker 2: Joshua Tree to give a family impact statement in front
16:03
Speaker 2: of Tila and David.
16:05
Speaker 3: Wrote quote.
16:06
Speaker 2: At the hearing, they both appeared to understand the consequence
16:09
Speaker 2: of what their actions caused Erica that day end quote.
16:13
Speaker 2: Ruth said that the defendants appeared to be sorry and
16:15
Speaker 2: remorseful in court, and that the family felt a certain
16:18
Speaker 2: amount of peace and closure in being able to address
16:21
Speaker 2: both of them and let them know how they had
16:24
Speaker 2: devastated their family. Ruth said that they met the homicide
16:28
Speaker 2: detectives that handled Erica's case and James's case. She said
16:32
Speaker 2: detectives said they found no indication that the cases were connected.
16:36
Speaker 2: Erica's cause and manner of death has never been revealed,
16:40
Speaker 2: but Heather Escalante said she wonders about that and if
16:44
Speaker 2: it's possible that the James in the desert that Erica
16:47
Speaker 2: wrote about in a journal could be her father in law,
16:50
Speaker 2: James Escalante.
16:52
Speaker 1: I still think Eric Alloyd's what the narrative that has
16:55
Speaker 1: been put out. I'm gonna be honest with you. Please
16:56
Speaker 1: excuse my langage, but I think it's bullshit. Honestly, Yeah,
17:00
Speaker 1: I still think their cases are connected. There was a
17:03
Speaker 1: James and Christian holding her can fight for her. I
17:06
Speaker 1: get James as a common name, but that's a little wild.
17:09
Speaker 1: I also think I know who Christian is.
17:11
Speaker 2: And then Heather found even more inconsistencies in Sherry's story,
17:16
Speaker 2: inconsistencies that might connect him with eric A.
17:19
Speaker 3: Lloyd.
17:20
Speaker 2: Heather eventually got access to James's call logs from his
17:23
Speaker 2: cell phone. When she went through them, she found that
17:27
Speaker 2: Sherry's timeline of James's location in the past month did
17:31
Speaker 2: not align with what she found in their text messages.
17:34
Speaker 1: One of the things I found interesting was that Sherry
17:36
Speaker 1: had claimed that my James couldn't be the James that
17:39
Speaker 1: was with eric A. Lloyd that month because she was
17:42
Speaker 1: with him the whole month, or he was with her
17:43
Speaker 1: the whole month, but if you read through their text
17:45
Speaker 1: messaging lags, there's nothing like almost all their text messaging
17:49
Speaker 1: back and forth that month was like her saying are
17:51
Speaker 1: you ever coming home?
17:53
Speaker 3: So he wasn't with her.
17:55
Speaker 2: Heather said that Cherry actually mentioned eric A Lloyd in
17:58
Speaker 2: kind of a cryptic way, and Heather revealed something else.
18:02
Speaker 2: She said that Sherry is actually friends with the two
18:04
Speaker 2: people Tela and David, who had been charged with stealing
18:08
Speaker 2: Erica's car. The place where they dumped the car was
18:11
Speaker 2: also the exact same intersection where apparently they were hanging
18:14
Speaker 2: out and where James went missing days later. There are
18:18
Speaker 2: other unanswered questions from Erica's case, like who are Christian
18:22
Speaker 2: and James? Are those their real names? Then there's Erica's campsite.
18:27
Speaker 2: When the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department searched the Jumbo
18:30
Speaker 2: Rocks campground where Erica was that day, they did find
18:33
Speaker 2: her gear, but they found something else, an expensive, yeti
18:37
Speaker 2: cooler that Erica's family said they didn't recognize. Could someone
18:41
Speaker 2: else have been out there with her? Could it have
18:44
Speaker 2: been James Escalante? It may seem far fetched, but no
18:48
Speaker 2: one has ever found Christian or James. Signs may point
18:52
Speaker 2: to her car crash being an accident, but I wonder
18:56
Speaker 2: how do we know for sure that she was alone
18:58
Speaker 2: in that car or what caused her to crash. Erica's
19:04
Speaker 2: car ended up getting abandoned at Highway sixty two and
19:06
Speaker 2: Shelton Road. As we know, this is exactly the same
19:11
Speaker 2: area where James Escalante was headed nine days later on
19:14
Speaker 2: June twenty fifth, twenty twenty. It's where he stopped at
19:17
Speaker 2: that intersection and used his cell phone to call Sherry,
19:21
Speaker 2: telling her that he couldn't find d or her car. Now,
19:25
Speaker 2: the story that Heather and detectives were told was that
19:27
Speaker 2: Sherry made a three way call with James and D
19:30
Speaker 2: that D told him to honk his horn. He seemed
19:33
Speaker 2: to hear the horn and said I got it and
19:35
Speaker 2: hung up, but he never got to D. Eventually, she
19:39
Speaker 2: was rescued by two other friends. No one ever heard
19:42
Speaker 2: from James again. After James was found, searchers went back
19:47
Speaker 2: out to the area. We have filed multiple freedom of
19:50
Speaker 2: information requests with San Bernardino County. They first told us
19:54
Speaker 2: we would have a response by January ninth, The most
19:57
Speaker 2: recent date they have given us is January twenty first,
20:00
Speaker 2: so I will keep you updated.
20:02
Speaker 3: Commenters on Reddit who live.
20:04
Speaker 2: In the area talk about how the mob used to
20:06
Speaker 2: dump bodies out there in the desert and how people
20:10
Speaker 2: who use and deal methamphetamine are also around. The commoner
20:15
Speaker 2: on Reddit, who says they live nearby, kind of nailed
20:18
Speaker 2: the sometimes strange mix of people who populate the area
20:21
Speaker 2: when they wrote quote, I've heard the local meth heads
20:24
Speaker 2: make some comments about how easy it is to throw
20:26
Speaker 2: a body in a dryer, put the dryer in a wash, etc. However,
20:30
Speaker 2: it's become very popular among tourists, especially lately, and the
20:34
Speaker 2: sheer number of people is a newer development. Many of
20:38
Speaker 2: these tourists being folk who already live in southern California.
20:41
Speaker 2: I think that gives them a false sense of security.
20:44
Speaker 2: They think they know what the heat is like. They
20:46
Speaker 2: don't realize how vast the park really is, and the landmarks,
20:51
Speaker 2: while gorgeous, can easily all look the same end quote,
20:55
Speaker 2: and sometimes we discover the desert has become a dumping
20:59
Speaker 2: ground for killers hoping to cover their tracks. The desert
21:07
Speaker 2: where Erica Lloyd and James Escalante went missing is a
21:11
Speaker 2: spot where killers have been known to dump bodies. On
21:14
Speaker 2: June seventeenth, twenty fourteen, nineteen year old Aaron Corwin disappeared.
21:20
Speaker 2: Aaron was pregnant and she was married to a Marine
21:23
Speaker 2: who was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat
21:26
Speaker 2: Center in twenty nine Palms. The case made national news
21:29
Speaker 2: and everyone was looking for Erica, and after two months,
21:33
Speaker 2: her body was found hidden in an abandoned mine shaft
21:36
Speaker 2: near Joshua Tree. I want to note here that the
21:39
Speaker 2: person who led the search that found Erin was not
21:42
Speaker 2: the police. It was Doug Billings, the same cave and
21:46
Speaker 2: mining expert who found James Escalante's bike. It turned out
21:51
Speaker 2: that Aaron was actually having an affair with another marine,
21:54
Speaker 2: twenty seven year old Christopher Lee. Christopher was also married
21:58
Speaker 2: to someone else. He and Aaron were neighbors. Christopher was
22:01
Speaker 2: obsessively jealous and controlling of Erin. He later confess that
22:06
Speaker 2: after meeting her on the night she disappeared, he strangled
22:09
Speaker 2: her and through her body head first down the one
22:12
Speaker 2: hundred and forty foot mine shaft. He first lied to
22:15
Speaker 2: investigators about the affair, but after Aaron's body was found
22:18
Speaker 2: along with some mountaineering rope and a propane tank that
22:21
Speaker 2: were similar to ones Christopher owned. Evidence kept piling up,
22:25
Speaker 2: and he confessed to strangling her in a jealous rage
22:28
Speaker 2: and hiding her body in the mind. He said that
22:30
Speaker 2: he was depressed because he was not being redeployed.
22:34
Speaker 3: He was due to head back to his home state
22:36
Speaker 3: of Alaska.
22:37
Speaker 2: He also stated he believed that he might be the
22:40
Speaker 2: father of Aaron's unborn baby. He said in court that
22:43
Speaker 2: he was angry with Aeron because he believed that she
22:46
Speaker 2: had molested his other daughter, which, by the way, is
22:49
Speaker 2: the first time he ever said that.
22:51
Speaker 3: Investigators say this.
22:52
Speaker 2: Is obviously a lie, something he made up to try
22:54
Speaker 2: to get sympathy from the jury, but it was a
22:57
Speaker 2: justification that the jury did not buy. In twenty eighteen,
23:01
Speaker 2: he was convicted of Aaron's murder. But I wonder if
23:05
Speaker 2: air Ar wasn't living on a military base, if she
23:08
Speaker 2: was someone who had a more nomadish life, and if
23:10
Speaker 2: the whole community hadn't rallied around a look, would they
23:14
Speaker 2: have ever found her. Erica Lloyd was totally unfamiliar with
23:18
Speaker 2: the location where she was found, but James Escalante was not.
23:22
Speaker 2: He had lived there for decades. He knew the desert
23:25
Speaker 2: like the back of his hand. Would it really be
23:28
Speaker 2: possible for him to get that disoriented? I look for
23:31
Speaker 2: similar cases and that led me to the disappearance of
23:34
Speaker 2: another person who went missing while on a short hike.
23:37
Speaker 2: Paul Miller was a fifty one year old man from Canada.
23:41
Speaker 2: On July thirteenth, twenty eighteen, he was on a bucket
23:44
Speaker 2: list road trip to the area with his wife, Stephanie Miller.
23:48
Speaker 2: They were staying at a hotel in twenty nine Palms.
23:50
Speaker 2: They had already been in Joshua Tree for several days.
23:53
Speaker 2: They were having a great time. They were hiking, They
23:56
Speaker 2: were checking out scenery. They were due to check out
23:58
Speaker 2: that day at eleven am and fly back to their
24:00
Speaker 2: home in Ontario. Since I know we're all true crime
24:04
Speaker 2: listeners here, I should say front they had a very
24:06
Speaker 2: happy marriage. They had grown children. They had been married
24:09
Speaker 2: for over twenty five years. There is no indication there
24:13
Speaker 2: was any trouble in their marriage. They went to several destinations,
24:17
Speaker 2: including the Grand Canyon, and were ending their trip at
24:19
Speaker 2: Joshua Tree before flying home. Stephanie told reporters as they
24:23
Speaker 2: were packing up, kind of on a whim, Paul said
24:26
Speaker 2: he was going out for one more quick hike to
24:28
Speaker 2: the forty nine Palms Oasis.
24:31
Speaker 3: According to a blog.
24:32
Speaker 2: Post later made by Paul's mom, at around nine am
24:35
Speaker 2: he went out. He left his cell phone behind, which
24:38
Speaker 2: was not out of character for him. Maybe he was
24:41
Speaker 2: also thinking about the fact that a lot of areas
24:43
Speaker 2: around Joshua Tree have zero reception For an experienced hiker
24:48
Speaker 2: like Paul. This trail would have been a fairly easy hike.
24:51
Speaker 2: It had a rank of moderate, it had a three
24:53
Speaker 2: hundred foot elevation game, It's a mile and a half
24:56
Speaker 2: in and a mile and a half out. He should
24:59
Speaker 2: have been back within an hour. It was a trail
25:02
Speaker 2: that he had actually been planning to hike together with
25:04
Speaker 2: his wife, but apparently it was raining on the day
25:08
Speaker 2: they planned to try it, so he just wanted to
25:10
Speaker 2: do one more thing before they left. At first, his
25:13
Speaker 2: wife thought maybe he was taking pictures or got caught up,
25:16
Speaker 2: but when he wasn't back by checkout time, she immediately
25:19
Speaker 2: contacted the authorities and they immediately started looking for him.
25:23
Speaker 2: Paul Miller was just gone. His family tried everything they
25:27
Speaker 2: could think of to look for him. They had drones
25:29
Speaker 2: go up via a nonprofit called Western States aerial search.
25:34
Speaker 2: They looked through thousands of images. Finally, on December twenty third,
25:38
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, they found his body crouched behind a large boulder.
25:43
Speaker 3: He still had water and food with him. They believed
25:46
Speaker 3: that he.
25:46
Speaker 2: Was hiking and headed back when, possibly due to the heat,
25:51
Speaker 2: he suffered some kind of physical collapse, maybe a heart
25:53
Speaker 2: attack or heat stroke. He probably just wanted to get
25:57
Speaker 2: to the shade, so he found the boulder and sat
25:59
Speaker 2: down there. Unfortunately, he never got up. They also think
26:04
Speaker 2: that after he at the forty nine Palms Oasis and
26:07
Speaker 2: was coming back, he might have seen something either a
26:11
Speaker 2: wash or an animal trail, something that looked like part
26:13
Speaker 2: of the regular trail. He might have gotten confused and
26:16
Speaker 2: wandered a little bit off course. They don't know if
26:19
Speaker 2: he had some kind of heart condition or felt sick,
26:21
Speaker 2: or why he headed to that shaded area.
26:23
Speaker 3: He might have even had hyperthermia.
26:25
Speaker 2: This can cause dizziness, weakness, nausea, and can incapacitate someone
26:29
Speaker 2: very quickly, especially if there's something else going on physically.
26:33
Speaker 2: Even a seasoned hiker on a short, easy route can
26:36
Speaker 2: be at risk of death.
26:37
Speaker 3: If they get turned around.
26:39
Speaker 2: I want to just take a second here for anyone
26:41
Speaker 2: who's a hiker or even headed out to an area
26:43
Speaker 2: with no cell reception, please let someone know where you're going.
26:47
Speaker 2: Remember there is no cell surface in a lot of
26:49
Speaker 2: these places. Officials recommend that you carry a minimum of
26:53
Speaker 2: one gallon of water per person per day. They recommend
26:56
Speaker 2: hikers carry two gallons per person per day. They recommend
27:00
Speaker 2: avoiding strenuous activity when there's extreme heat, wearing sunscreen, sunglasses,
27:05
Speaker 2: and a hat, and one of the most important, in
27:06
Speaker 2: my opinion, consider hiking with another person. They also warned
27:11
Speaker 2: that quote dramatic weather changes can occur with little to
27:15
Speaker 2: no warning end quote. Joshua Tree National Park is huge,
27:20
Speaker 2: over three hundred miles. Weather can turn on a dime.
27:25
Speaker 2: Whatever happened to Paul Miller probably happened very quickly. We
27:28
Speaker 2: may never know exactly what happened, but it wasn't foul play.
27:32
Speaker 2: It does go to show even with a lot of
27:35
Speaker 2: help and searchers, even when they knew the exact area
27:38
Speaker 2: he would be in, finding people in that desert can
27:40
Speaker 2: be like finding a needle in a haystack. Stephanie Miller
27:44
Speaker 2: said after Paul's remains were found, she realized they'd been
27:47
Speaker 2: searching very close to where he was, within twenty one
27:50
Speaker 2: yards close enough so if he had been conscious, she
27:55
Speaker 2: believes he would have heard them screaming his name. I
27:58
Speaker 2: want to add when the family was trying to do
28:01
Speaker 2: everything they could to get searchers out there, they contacted
28:03
Speaker 2: the company I mentioned that had drones. Now, apparently there
28:07
Speaker 2: are rules about where drones can fly to national parks.
28:10
Speaker 2: Stephanie Miller has said she wants to make it easier
28:12
Speaker 2: for families to be able to get drones in to
28:15
Speaker 2: national parks to search for their missing loved ones. She
28:19
Speaker 2: hopes that Paul's death will help to make changes on
28:21
Speaker 2: that front, which I think is a very good cause.
28:26
Speaker 2: Then there was Patrick Wells, a thirty eight year old
28:28
Speaker 2: man who left his home in twenty nine Palms on
28:31
Speaker 2: June fifth, twenty twenty one. He was headed to see
28:34
Speaker 2: his dad, who lived in Riverside, California, but he never
28:37
Speaker 2: got there.
28:38
Speaker 3: No one ever heard from him again.
28:40
Speaker 2: Then on June eighteenth, park rangers found his pickup truck
28:44
Speaker 2: in Ridlesnake Canyon at the Indian Cove Campground. Again, in
28:48
Speaker 2: Joshua Tree National Park, they found a human arm sticking
28:51
Speaker 2: out from under a large Boulder and the San Bernardino
28:54
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue cave unit came to
28:57
Speaker 2: the scene. The coroner later issued a press release confirming
29:01
Speaker 2: the body was Patrick Wells. No cause of death was listed.
29:05
Speaker 2: They have stated that there was no reason to suspect
29:07
Speaker 2: foul play in that case either, just another mysterious death
29:11
Speaker 2: in San Bernardino County. In the summer of twenty twenty,
29:20
Speaker 2: Heather Escalante and her husband, John, James's son, flew out
29:24
Speaker 2: to Wonder Valley, California, from their home in South Carolina
29:28
Speaker 2: and started their own investigation. They met up with Kyle Gibson,
29:32
Speaker 2: the hunter who found James's body, and he took them
29:35
Speaker 2: out to the exact location where he had found james skeleton.
29:39
Speaker 3: Heather said that.
29:40
Speaker 2: When she mentioned some of the inconsistencies in Sherry's story
29:43
Speaker 2: to detectives, she asked that James's case be transferred to homicide.
29:48
Speaker 2: She said detectives were resistant to do that, and she
29:51
Speaker 2: said while she accepts that James may have died of
29:54
Speaker 2: natural causes or overdosed, or something else that did not
29:57
Speaker 2: involve foul play, she just wants to believe that detectives
30:01
Speaker 2: investigated the case thoroughly before coming to that conclusion. Everyone,
30:06
Speaker 2: even people who weren't their quotes perfect victims, deserve justice.
30:11
Speaker 1: When I raised such a think about James's case being
30:15
Speaker 1: transferred over to homicide, had got a very strange phone
30:19
Speaker 1: call because I would say it, I would email it,
30:22
Speaker 1: and then nobody would respond, so I'd email again and
30:24
Speaker 1: put somebody higher up on the email chain rankfully. Detective
30:28
Speaker 1: Halloway called me, and I'd taught them so much at
30:30
Speaker 1: this point, like I kind of felt like I knew him.
30:32
Speaker 1: I immediately knew something was off by his tone and
30:36
Speaker 1: he said, you know, hey, Heather, Detective Halloway. I was
30:38
Speaker 1: like hey, and he's like, so we got your emails
30:43
Speaker 1: and I'm like yeah, and he said, well, my superior,
30:47
Speaker 1: my superior, my boss was on the email and he
30:50
Speaker 1: after reading your email, he personally went through James's file.
30:55
Speaker 1: At this point tells me, oh, I'm sorry. He started
30:57
Speaker 1: off by telling you that I was on speaker phone
31:01
Speaker 1: and he was not alone. Yeah, somebody sitting there who
31:04
Speaker 1: never spoke the whole time we were talking, and he had
31:05
Speaker 1: me on speaker that said okay. He tells me that
31:10
Speaker 1: his boss looked at the file and not only did
31:14
Speaker 1: he get basically his wrists flapped for how much information
31:18
Speaker 1: he actually gave me about James's case throughout the whole thing,
31:22
Speaker 1: but he also got in trouble for spending too much
31:25
Speaker 1: time investigating it. He tells me that at that point,
31:30
Speaker 1: his boss is staying that unless they get a viable lead,
31:36
Speaker 1: not some tweaker taale with his exact words, that they
31:40
Speaker 1: can follow up on, that basically they're done investigating his cakes.
31:44
Speaker 1: And I said, so, let me get this straight. Everybody
31:48
Speaker 1: involved don drugs, but you don't want to hear what
31:51
Speaker 1: they have to say. But they're the only ones who
31:52
Speaker 1: don't know anythings. They were the ones that falls right right,
31:55
Speaker 1: And he just sat there. He wouldn't even answer me.
31:58
Speaker 1: Then I found this one even weirder because at the
32:00
Speaker 1: end of the conversation they're basically telling me there's nothing
32:03
Speaker 1: they're going to do. That was what that was the
32:05
Speaker 1: just for the conversation, that is, drop it. And I
32:06
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, y'all will know me that. Well, apparently
32:09
Speaker 1: I'm not dropping it. Yeah, so looks like that might
32:12
Speaker 1: work on other people. You got the wrong ones today.
32:16
Speaker 2: Heather claims there are a lot of people out in
32:18
Speaker 2: the desert who the police have not talked to. So
32:22
Speaker 2: in next week's episode, we are going to focus our
32:24
Speaker 2: search in Wonder Valley, California and see if we can
32:28
Speaker 2: find some of these people and try to get answers
32:32
Speaker 2: about what actually happened to James Escalante on the day
32:36
Speaker 2: he disappeared. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
32:42
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of
32:44
Speaker 2: Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me
32:47
Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to
32:51
Speaker 2: Amy Tubbs for her research assistance.
32:53
Speaker 3: This episode was sound design and mixed by Noah Kamer.
32:56
Speaker 2: Our theme song is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of
33:00
Speaker 2: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen to Helen
33:04
Speaker 2: Gone ad free subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus
33:07
Speaker 2: channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing
33:11
Speaker 2: documents and materials from the case, you can follow the
33:13
Speaker 2: show on Instagram at Helen gonepod. If you have a
33:17
Speaker 2: case you'd like me and my team to look into,
33:20
Speaker 2: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
33:21
Speaker 2: Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six
33:25
Speaker 2: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
33:29
Speaker 2: six one four five.
33:35
Speaker 3: School of Humans,