Latest / Crime Night / Shadows of the Valley: The Lewiston Clark Murders

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Shadows of the Valley: The Lewiston Clark Murders · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture the fall of nineteen eighty two in the Lewiston
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Clark Valley.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, it is just gorgeous out there at that time
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: of year, Right, It's.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: That beautiful, really rugged pocket of the Pacific Northwest where Washington, Idaho,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and Oregon all just sort of crash into each other.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lots of towering pines and mountains exactly.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And the air is just starting to get crisp. The
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: leaves are turning those brilliant shades of amber and gold.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And there's this deeply ingrained, almost unspoken sense of safety
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: woven into the fabric of the community.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Like a place where you just leave your doors unlocked overnight.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, without a second thought, you let your kids walk
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to school alone under the trees. But as August turns
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: into September, that comfortable illusion of safety shatters completely. It
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: just vanishes, it really does. In just a matter of weeks,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the valley is swallowed by absolute, suffocating terror because five
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: people vanish into thin air.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Five in a place where nothing ever happens, right.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Suddenly, parents are barring their doors, people are looking over
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: their sh in the grocery store aisles, terrified of this faceless,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: nameless boogeyman. Hunting in the dark.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And I think the sheer velocity of the tragedy is
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: what truly paralyzed the community. I mean, the nightmare begins
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: when a two year old boy named Ricky Barnett disappears
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: from his grandparents' farm in Grangeville, Idaho.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: A two year old.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: God, that is just it's horrifying. It happens in the
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: blink of an eye, literally, right as workers are distracted
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: unloading a delivery of chickens in the yard. He is
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: just gone, wow, yeah, And the town barely has time
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to process that heartbreak before another strike occurs. Just under
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: two weeks later, right, the teenager, exactly an eighteen year
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: old girl named Jennifer Vincent, vanishes along with her car. Now,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Jennifer was eventually found nearly four days later, pinned inside
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the wreckage of her vehicle in a horrific, but you know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: entirely innocent accident at the bottom of an embankment.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: But they didn't know that right away, No.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Not at all. That innocent explanation didn't come for days.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: So for that agonizing time, the vow is suffocating under
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the weight of these compounding, inexplicable tragedies and sandwich.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Right in the middle of those two events is a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: single night that changes the town of Lewistown forever.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Big one.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a night where three adults vanish from a teeny
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: tiny town without a single trace. So today we are
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: bringing you with us on a mission. We are doing
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a deep dive to explore the dark, enduring mystery of
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the Civic Theater. Three. This is a heavy one, it
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: really is. We are pulling back the curtain on a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: man who seems to bring unimaginable tragedy wherever he goes,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: across multiple states and decades, yet somehow continues to walk
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: freely among us today. Okay, let's unpack this. But going
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: back to the evening of September twelfth, nineteen eighty.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Two, So it is a Sunday night, we have twenty
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: one year old Christina Nelson and her eighteen year old stepsister.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Brandy Miller, and they're just hanging out, right, Yeah.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: They are hanging out at Christina's apartment, and it is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: an incredibly mundane, normal evening. Christina's boyfriend Bill calls her
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: around eight thirty pm.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Just a typical check in, right.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: They spend a few minutes on the phone coordinating his
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: visit for later that night, and during the chat, Christina
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: casually mentions that she and Brandy are going to take
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a quick walk to the local Safeway grocery store to
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: grab a few things.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And before she leaves for that quick errand Christina does
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: something so responsible and like so wonderfully ordinary the note. Yes,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: she tapes a handwritten note to her front door for Bill.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: It basically says, Bill, walk down to the store with
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Brandy back and if you come on in and get comfy.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Just a classic nineteen eighties move, totally.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: She leaves the lights glowing warmly in the living room.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: She leaves her cat fed and resting on the furniture,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and she leaves her purse and her wallet sitting right
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: there on the.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Counter, which tells you she really meant to be right
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: back exactly.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: But Bill ends up falling asleep at his own place
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and doesn't make the drive over until the next morning.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: When he arrives and reads that note. He just lets
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: himself in. The apartment is totally empty.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: But he doesn't panic right away, which is interesting.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: He doesn't and I think to really understand that you
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: have to transport yourself back to what it was like
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: living in a world of landlines. Oh absolutely, I mean
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, about sixty percent of socializing was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: just missing people in real time, like ships passing of
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the night. You'd assume they stayed over at a friend's
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: house or maybe ran out for breakfast at a local diner.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So Bill just locks up and goes to work.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Because why would you assume the worst? Right off the bat,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Right the alarm bells do not ring until he comes
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: back that evening on the thirteenth and sees that the
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: note is still taped.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: To the door. That stomach drop moment exactly.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: He walks inside and the apartment is exactly as he
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: left it that morning. The cat is hungry and pacing,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the lights are still burning. That is when the heavy
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: sinking feeling finally hits him.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And while Bill is frantically calling friends and family trying
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to locate Christina and Brandy, the local police are fielding
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a separate report.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah about a third person who disappeared that exact same night, a.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Thirty five year old man named Stephen Piercell. Stephen was
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: known around ten is this gentle giant. He had a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: military background, but his true passion his real home was
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the Lewiston Civic Theater.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: He was always there, an absolute fixture.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: He was the janitor, He built the elaborate wooden sets,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and he loved, loved playing his clarinet. On the night
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: of the twelfth, his girlfriend drops him off at the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: theater at six thirty pm to practice his music.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, so early evening.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Then at nine pm she picks him up. They
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: go to a lively going away party for a theater
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: staff member, and then at midnight, right as the twelfth
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: bleeds into the thirteenth, she drops him back off the.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Dark theater, just dropping him off in the middle of
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the night.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Well, he has his duffel bag with him to do
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: some laundry in the basement machines, and he wants to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: practice his clarinet in the pitch black, empty auditorium where
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the acoustics are perfect.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Man, that is so eerie, and that drop off is
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the last time anyone who loves Stephen ever saw him.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking, it really is.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: By September fourteenth, the grim reality of these three disappearances
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: sets in across Lewiston, And what is so deeply chilling
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: are the silent, perfectly preserved scenes.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Left behind like time just stopped.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, Christina's apartment untouched, frozen in time, and Stephen's life
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: is equally suspended, his cars parked exactly where he left it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Inside his apartment, investigators find an unpatched paycheck for one
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: hundred and seventy nine dollars sitting.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: On the table, which is not pocket change in nineteen
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: eighty two.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: No, that is a significant amount of money, especially if
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: someone were planning to run away and start a new wife.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: But the most haunting, evocative detail of all is found
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: inside the theater itself.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: The clarinet yeah.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Resting quietly, and the orchestra pit of the echoing auditorium
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: is Stephen's beloved.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Clarinet, abandoned, just sitting there in the dark. It feels
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: like the opening scene of a horror movie, which brings
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: up something that has been bothering me as we look
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: at the geography of this town, how do three adults
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: evaporate into the night in a small, tight knit community
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: without a single eyewitness to baffling I mean, no one
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: at the safe Way saw the girls, no one saw
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Stephen leave the theater. They just stepped off the face
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of the earth.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Rai an important question about what actually happens in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: blind spots of a small town. Seriously, because for a
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: year and a half the families lived in this agonizing
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: purgatory clinging to dwindling hope until March of nineteen eighty four.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, this part is so wild.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Imagine the scene. You are thirty five miles outside of Lewistown.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: It is a remote, incredibly steep brush covered hillside plunging
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: down into a desolate.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Ravine, really rugged terrain, very and.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: A local teenager is out there traversing it hunting for
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: aluminum cans. A sudden gust of wind snatches his baseball
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: cap right off his head, sending it tumbling down the steep.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Inclient just a total floke.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: He scrambles down through the thick brush to retrieve it,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: and as he reaches down for his hat, he freezes
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: staring back at him through the dirt. The shadows and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the weeds are human skulls. Oh my god, the skeletal
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: remains of Christina Nelson and Brandy Miller.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: It is one of those miraculous, terrifying strokes of fate,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Like if the wind had not blown on that specific hillside,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: on that specific day at that exact moment, they might
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: never have been found.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Almost certainly not. But this discovery brings a devastating reality check.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: The forensic details are absolutely brutal to process.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Well, the pathologist determines the young women were strangled. Scattered
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: among the remains, investigators find scraps of clothing, lip gloss.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: And jewelry, just everyday items.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they also find a braw shoved deeply into
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the mouth of one of the skulls, which strongly indicates
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: a sexual sadistic motive to the killings. Awful, and beneath
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: their body is hidden Beneath the top soil, investigators find
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: lengths of a dark cord something resembling a heavy clothesline
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: or rigging rope, which is.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: A huge crew.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But the police, I mean, they are incredibly desperate.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: At this point, right, Oh, the community is terrified, demanding answers.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: The authorities now have two murdered young women and a
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: missing man, all vanishing from the exact same night.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So what do they do.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: They take the path of least resis. They look at
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Stephen Pearson.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Really, yes, he is.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: A tall, older guy with a military background. He vanishes
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: on the identical timeline as the murdered girls. Suddenly Stephen
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: is no longer viewed as a victim in the eyes
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: of the law. He becomes their prime suspect.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Hold On, I'm genuinely confused here. If Stephen vanishes on
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the exact same night, in the exact same small town,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: wouldn't the police immediately assume he was a victim too?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: You would think so.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, he left his uncashed paycheck and his most
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: prized possession behind. Why would they immediately peg him as
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the mastermind instead of another casualty.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: It comes down to the dangerous psychology of tunnel vision
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: and confirmation bias in high stress, small town investigations just
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: needing an answer exactly when a community is paralyzed by fear,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: police are under immense pressure to weave a cohesive, closed narrative.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: It is psychologically much easier for investigators to create a
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: neat package, one where the missing man is the killer
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: on the run, rather than admit that a sophisticated, in
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: visible predator snatched three separate people in one night and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: left zero trace.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: That makes sense, sadly, but it's so flawed.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: The flaw in their theory was glaring. Why would a
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: man who just committed a brutal double homicide, a man
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: fleeing for his life, take the time to carefully place
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: his prize clarinet back in the orchestra pit. He wouldn't,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: And why would he leave behind the cash he would
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: desperately need to survive on the road. Everything about Stephen's
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: life screamed that he was a victim.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: It's tragic.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Casting him as a suspect allowed the true trail to
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: go cold, and it absolutely devastated his loved ones, who
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: had to mourn him while simultaneously fighting a legal system
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: to clear his name.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Because while the police were chasing the ghost of Stephen Purcell,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: they were completely ignoring a shadow that was actually inside
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the theater that.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Very night, a man named Lance Voss.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Lance Voss the man who was physically inside the Lewiston
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Civic Theater when Stephen was dropped off by his girlfriend
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: at midnight.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Right, and when you examine Lance's alibi, it is a shifting,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: contradictory nightmare of a story.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: It changes so much totally.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: When first questioned by police back in eighty two, Lance
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: casually claimed he was working on a set with Stephen
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: and left the building around nine thirty pm. But as
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the heat turned up in nineteen eighty four, after the
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: girl's bodies were found, his story morphed in a very
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: calculated way.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he starts adding all these incredibly specific, chaotic details.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: He suddenly claims he was working entirely alone high up
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: in the theatre's dark attic, doing heavy rigging work. He
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: says he accidentally stepped off the catwalk in the pitch
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: black and fell straight through the plaster.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Ceiling, which is such a dramatic image.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: It paints this vivid picture of a man covered in
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: white dust and debris, and he claims he was so
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: dazed from the fall that he just stumbled downstairs to
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: a couch and slept there until five am.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: A couch, importantly, that was situated right next to the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: exact door Stephen Pearsill would have used to enter the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: building at midnight.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Yep. And Lance also casually admits to investigators that he heard
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the theort phone ringing in the dark while he lay there,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: but he decided to just ignore it.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Well, let me stop you there, because the timeline gets
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: even darker when you look at his movements outside the theater.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, the pizzeria.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, Lance tells police that to take a break between
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: nine three d zero pm and eleven three zero pm,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: he left the building and walked to a local pizzeria
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: called the Red Baron to have some beers and watch
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a movie they were screening.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Sounds innocent enough, sure.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He says the movie ended at eleven zero zero and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: he walked back to the theater. But investigators actually do
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: some digging into this. They go to the Red Baron,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: they check the schedule. They find out the movie didn't
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: end at eleven zero pm. Let me guess it ended
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: at midnight.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Wow. That timeline discrepancy breaks his entire alibi wide open.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And when you map out the geography of Lewiston, the
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: path Christina and Brandy had to take from their apartment
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to the Safeway, a store that closed at ten zero pm,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: meaning they absolutely had to be walking between eight thirty
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and nine point four to five. That exact path takes
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: them directly past the large glowing glass windows of the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Red bear In pizzeri, right past him. During the exact
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: window of time, Lance Voss claims he was sitting inside
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: drinking a beer looking out.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: You can just envision it from his perspective. Two young
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: women walking through the autumn night, illuminated by the street lights,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: passing right through the gaze of a man sitting in
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the window. It's chilling a man who then returns to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: an empty, cavernous theater.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting. Remember those lengths of
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: dark cord found buried beneath the bodies of Christina and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Brandy down in that steep ravine the rigging rope. Yes
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: investigators eventually realized that cord was a perfect visual and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: structural match to the specific stage rigging cord lance Voss
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: claimed he was working with up in the attic of
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the theater on the night they vanished.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Everything pulls back to the theater, everything but without Stephen's
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: body to definitively prove foul play, and with Lance lawyering
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: up immediately and refusing a polygraph, the case hits a massive.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Legal wall, which is so frustrating.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: However, the investigators do not stop there. They start pulling
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the thread of lance Voss's life, looking at his.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Past, because to understand how a predator like this operates,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you have to look at his migration pattern. Right every
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: time the heat turns up, he moves, and a new
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: tragedy strikes.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, you realize
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the Civic Theater three was not an isolated anomaly. There
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: is a terrifying pattern of geographical proximity and escalation.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: It follows him.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Tragedy seemingly shadows this man across the country, spanning decades.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Look at nineteen eighty one, just a year before the
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: theater disappearances, A twenty two year old woman named Kristin
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: David is found dismembered in the Snake River, her remains
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: wrapped tightly in local Lewiston newspapers. A different m O right,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: his modus operandi is specific method of killing and disposing
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: of the body was different here. Yeah, but Kristin had
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: close ties to the Civic Theater and she vanished while
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: riding her bike along a rural route Lance drove regularly
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: for his job.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: And then you look at nineteen seventy nine in Asseton, Washington,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: which is just across the river from Lewiston, a twelve
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: year old girl named Christina White is hanging out at
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: her friend Rose's house. Christina starts feeling sick. Her mom
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: tells her over the phone to put a cold wet
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: towel on her neck and just walk home when she's ready.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So she starts walking, but she never makes it home.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: She vanishes into thin air on a sunny afternoon, and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the man dating Rose's mother at the time, Lance Voss,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: he had unfettered, unquestioned access to that house and those children.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: The historical escalation of how he gains access to victims
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: is chilling. If you traces migration all the way back
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: to nineteen sixty three in Chicago, you find the brutal
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: murder of an eight year old girl named Diane Taylor.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Eight years old, she was killed after leaving a local YMCA.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: A fifteen year old Lance Voss was her WYMCA camp
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: counselor and lived in her exact neighborhood. He was already
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: inserting himself into positions of trust, gaining the confidence of
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: vulnerable kids.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: It starts so early, or.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: You jump forward to nineteen eighty seven. Back in Loue Tuiston,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: a twenty five year old woman named Klattette Believa is
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: found dead in an alleged suicide. She was having an
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: affair with a now married Lance Foss, and he conveniently
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: was the one who quote unquote discovered her body.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Wow, but I need to take you back to nineteen
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: seventy two in Santa Cruz, California, because this is the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: incident that strips away any lingering illusion of coincidence. Oh
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: this case. Yeah, A seventeen year old girl gets into
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a heated argument with her boyfriend on the beach. He
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: leaves her there to cool off. The next morning, she
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: is found floating in the water, drowned.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: And completely nude, which is already suspicious.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Highly her death is incredibly suspiciously ruled a suicide by
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: local authorities, and her body is transported to the Willow
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Glen Mortuary in San Jose. That very night, under the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: cover of absolute darkness, a twenty four year old Lance
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Voss is caught breaking into that exact mortuary. Unbelievable, and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: he isn't empty handed. He is armed with a heavy
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: metal flashlight, a camera, and a hunting knife.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: The psychology of a man breaking into a mortuary, of
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: the weapon in a ca camera is staggering to process.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: It is the purest glimpse into a predator's mind.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Just imagine the scene. The coal tiles, the heavy scent
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of formaldehyde, the absolute silence broken only by the sound
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: of a lock snapping. He tells the police he just
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to see his girlfriend one.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Last time, but he didn't even know her.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: He wasn't her boyfriend, he had zero relation to her.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He was creeping into a dark room holding a nude,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: deceased teenage girl with a hunting knife in his hand,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and the justice system they reduced the charge to a
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: misdemeanor for attempted burglary.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: A misdemeanor.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: He walked away with a slap on the wrist.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: When you lay out the map Chicago, California asdin Lewiston,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: you see a predator honing his craft, moving across state lines,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: adapting his methods, and constantly escaping consequences because different jurisdictions
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: aren't talking to each other exactly. And the danger he
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: posed did not just end in the eighties when the
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: heat was on him.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: It definitely didn't let me bring you into a much
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: more recent, terrifyingly real encounter than it illustrates just how
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: close this danger remained to the surface.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: The vacant house story.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, there was a woman touring a vacant house in
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: the valley, a house that chillingly enough, sat geographically right
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: between where little Christina White lived and where she vanished
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen seventy nine.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Right in his zone.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Lance Voss is the one acting as the seller giving
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: her the tour. They are walking through the empty rooms.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: The floorboards are creaking, and he is aggressively hyping up
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the basement, like, oh, you've got to see the basement.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I did all this custom work down there. Let's go
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: down to the basement. Just pushing it, he is insistent,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: trying his hardest to lure her down those narrow, poorly
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: lit wooden stairs.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: The hair on the back of your neck stands up
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: just hearing the architectural setup of that trap.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Right, So she walks toward the top of the stairs,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: with him trailing closely right behind her. But something makes
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: her hesitate. Call it a gut feeling, call it human
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: intuition kicking in. Thank God, She abruptly turns around to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: say something to him. When she spins around, Lance jolts.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: His arm had been raised high, and he violently whips
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: his hand behind his back to hide whatever he was holding.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: He was caught mid strike.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: She immediately demands to know what he is hiding. Behind
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: his back. Slowly he brings his hand forward. He is
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: tightly clutching a heavy wooden finial. You know, one of
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: those thick decorative knobs you would screw into the top
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: of a heavy bedpost. Oh my gosh. He is holding it,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: gripping the base like a club, and then standing there
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: in the silence of this vacant house, he looks her
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: dead in the eye and asks a bone chilling question,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: does anyone know you're here?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: That? Right there is the ultimate predatory calculus. He is
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: actively assessing the variables, calculating if he can get away
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: with a murder right in that moment without anyone coming
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: looking for her.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Well, she doesn't miss a beat, She tells him, Yes,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: everyone knows exactly where I am. They have the address,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: they know I am here with you.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Smart.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: He instantly loses all interest in the tour, suddenly showing off.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: The basement doesn't matter or anymore. The trap failed.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: So what does this all mean? How does a man
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: with a hunting knife in a mortuary, A man clutching
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: a makeshift weapon at the top of a basement stairwell,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: A man tied by a web of geography and dark
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: cord to five missing or dead people just go about
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: his day.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: It's maddening.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: It highlights a profound flaw in how we prosecute crimes
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: without physical proof, specifically without Stephen Purcell's body, the justice
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: system remains completely paralyzed. It is the tragedy of lost
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: time and decaying evidence.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: For decades, locals whispered that Stephen never actually left that theater.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: There were dark rumors that his body was entombed in
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the very walls of the building he loved so much.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: But the building is gone.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Basically, yeah, The.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Lewis and Civic Theater was recently condemned due to structural issues.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: It was sold and is slated to become a senior center.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: With every wall that gets knocked down, with every renovation
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and sweeping of debris, any lingering, microscopic evidence or hidden
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: secrets may be destroyed forever before investigators can find them.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: There's a sliver of relentless hope, though lead investigator, Detective
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Jackie Nichols refuses to let this cold case go.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: She's amazing.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: She is still fighting the bureaucratic red tape. She even
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: went so far as to train her own cadaver dog
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: out of her own pocket just to meticulously search the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: properties Lance Foss once owned in the valley. That is dedication,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: but the legal hurdle of an unsolved bodyless crime from
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two remains a massive looming shadow over every
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: step forward she.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Takes, and we cannot forget the current reality of this situation.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Lance Foss didn't stay in the Pacific Northwest. According to investigators,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: he packed up his life and moved to the East
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Coast in nineteen ninety nine.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: He is still out there today, which.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Leaves you with one final terrifying thought to mull over tonight.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: We know this man bounced from Chicago to California, to Washington,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to Idaho, and finally over to the.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: East Coast, a huge migration path.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: We know of five distinct geographical locations featuring bodies or
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: missing persons that overlap perfectly with his timeline and is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: so circle. So you have to ask yourself how many
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: other cold cases are sitting in dusty filing cabinets in
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: small towns along those long migration routes, completely unaware that
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a monster was living right under their noses.