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Witches of Rathdrum & the Murders of Rita & Ron Marcussen · Eerily Beloved

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, welcome back to the podcast and early beloved, we are gathered here today with Mom.
0:06
SPEAKER_03: Garrett Morgan.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Yay! Woohoo! Happy Thursday.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be yourself today?
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you've ever said your name.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just for today.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Special occasion.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Mix it up.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so today we're gonna be talking about witches, cults, murder, and satanic rituals.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: Ooh, all the good stuff.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: Satanic panic.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: So following the Manson family murders committed in 1969, fears of demonic ritualistic cult activity and potential coordinated attacks intended to inside a race war gripped the nation and caused widespread anxiety.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Media frenzing surrounding the coverage of this high-profile murders added to the uncertainty and paranoia that surrounded the hippie youth subculture that had been cultivating during the 60s.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: While it would be another 10 years before satanic panic fully took off in the 80s, post-Manson family, flames of fears of the occult and demonic influence in the general consciousness were fanned by media such as Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen, and an overall distrust in institutions at the time.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: While we primarily recognize LA as a setting for mass hysteria experienced during this time, small towns like Rothram, Idaho were not immune to the paranoia that was brewing.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: No way.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And they just freaked people out more, led them to believe that something actually was happening.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So Rathram, Idaho was a quiet area located just across the Washington border, and in the 1970s had only about 750 residents.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: However, like all small towns, rumors and stories spread like wildfire.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: In 1972, whisperings of a cult in the area stemmed from unusual cattle mutilations.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Silt Ranch had found some of their cows drained of blood with their tongues and other organs cut out, with surgical precision and no evidence of footprints, prints, or animal tracks near the bodies.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: The odd circumstances left investigators baffled and had them considering less than natural reasons why the cows were left the way they were.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Residents and local ranchers began to speculate aliens, government cover-up, or cult activity.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: The aliens.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's not the only time that happened.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: That actually happened a lot in Eastern Oregon.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: So which Like pretty recently.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh really?
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Since yeah, since the 70s.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they found completely drained of blood, no blood or anything around the body.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: What?
2:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like surgical precision, like removing.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: Removing organs, like you know, at night.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: And then they find him and there's no blood around, and the animal is dead.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Like Well, yeah, no blood.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: No, like statue dead.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Like.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But they don't have blood.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: They're drained of their blood.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Very strange.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:59
SPEAKER_03: Like no blood.
3:01
SPEAKER_03: It's giving vampire.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Like there's like an entire Unsolved Mysteries episode about it uh pretty recently, but yeah.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: But aliens want cow blood?
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I guess.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Or Bigfoot.
3:11
SPEAKER_03: Aliens taking the cow up in the yeah, that's all I can imagine.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Planet Moolah.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: Planet Moolah.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: So that we'll be we'll be talking about that in its own episode.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Following this in 1974, when residents reported seeing hooded figures blocking the road while driving at night, things got out of hand very quickly.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: The origins of the story remain unknown, but many have their own theories, ranging from residents wanting to keep newcomers out to nearby towns wanting to poach their business instead.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: So the story goes like this.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: The driver, lulled by the fog and the sweep of the windshield wipers, doesn't see them at first.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Dark figures on the road.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Clad in hooded robes, they stand arm in arm in a row across the highway.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: The tires squeal, but it's too late.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: He hears a sickening thud.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: He knows he hit one of them.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Heart pounding, he staggers out of the car, afraid to look, but he does look and sees nothing.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: No one.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: He's all alone.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: So everyone is very scared to drive through Wrathroom for a while.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is all in the same town.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: The cattle mutilations, the hooded figures, very small town, too.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: In an article published in the Idaho Statesman, Kootenai County Sheriff Effie Stalder described his experience as a detective during the scare.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: He said that at the height of the crisis, he remembered receiving ports of skin cats, bonfires out in the woods, fires in the road, people in the road, you name it.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Okay, 700 people.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: And they have all this activity.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: It's like everyone would have had to have a hobby.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, basically.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: I'm a hooded figure.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: You're it would be Were they white hoods per chance?
4:55
SPEAKER_00: No, not like KKK.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that's the thing too.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Apparently in Idaho there was like a large group of huge one.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they but they no, I think they were black.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, to hide out in the night.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the only way, right?
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Because they're dark, dark figures in the road, so they're not glowing, you know.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: It's because yes, that was something that they knew obviously if they weren't white white robes.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: So this is more ghosts versus okay.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: So in hindsight, some speculate the tales of the robe figures and cult-like behavior could have stemmed from the offshoot Catholic Church religious group that had just taken up residence in the ultra-conservative town.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: The Tridentine Latin Right Church, also known as the Fatima Crusaders, required female members to wear blue nun habits, which definitely would have stood out in the small community.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: A 22-year-old woman who's quoted as saying, I know the people think we are worshiping the devil, we are very much opposed to that kind of thinking.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we are doing just the opposite.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Setting bonfires in the name of the name of the Lord.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think like But everyone would know the difference between someone that's in a nun robin.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: So a detective from KCSO is reported as saying everybody seemed to know somebody that this story had happened to, in reference to the the figures in the road accidentally hitting someone, the person wasn't there.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: But not one firsthand report came into the sheriff's office on this.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: No bloody victims or perpetrators taken to the hospital, no beat-up car hoods, broken windshields, etc.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: My personal theory has been that people, at least in some cases, saw the groups of Lady Fatima crusaders who had marched down the streets in dark robes, and one assumption led to another and an urban legend was born.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: So they just made it up.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, probably.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: So evidence of any legit witchy or cult happenings failed to materialize belong the collect beyond the collective uneasiness in the town.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: However, everyone's fears were realized when a young couple disappeared.
6:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: So Monday, November 19th, 1973 was just a regular Monday for the Marcusons.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Ron, 22, dropped off his young wife, Rita, at the Hayden Lake dentist's office where she worked as a dental assistant.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And Ron, who was recently laid off, intended to spend the day looking for work, running errands, and maybe planned to meet up with a friend later.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: When Ron returned at 5 20 p.m.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: to pick up his wife, friend and former coworker George Strowich was sitting in the parking lot and later said he was there to talk to Ron about a job.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Rita was helping with the closing duties at the clinic, and the two men decided to head into the bar across the street called the 19th Hole to wait until she was done.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Witnesses report that Ron seemed like he was in a hurry when he came right up to the bar, ordered two beers, and then made a beeline for the bathroom.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Alice Sampson, part-time owner of the tavern, stated that he appeared upset like he'd been crying because his eyes are red and looked somewhat puffy.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: After the men caught up for a few minutes, Rita was done with her day, and George said goodbye to the young couple as they drove away in their 1973 Toyota.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so a guy walks in the bar, gets two beers, goes to the bathroom.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think he was just like, okay, we'll have two, me and him, and then he goes to the bathroom and he comes back.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: And do we really think he was crying?
8:07
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: And then Lisa shoot the beer?
8:10
SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: So the next day when Rita didn't show up, her boss contact her mu contacted her mother, and the couple was reported missing by police immediately.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: The first snowfall the night before made it so they could tell no one had been in or out of their trailer since it had started snowing.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Three days later, police finally got a break in the case when a hunter discovered their abandoned vehicle buried in snow and all the windows had been broken.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: The snow, however, did give them a clue as two other sets of footprints were found going to and leaving the truck.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: No snow under the car led investigators to believe that the car had been there since the couple went missing on November 19th.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: But where were they?
8:50
SPEAKER_01: She missed one day of work and the cops are breathing down her neck.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: A massive search around the area where their car was found was conducted, but no evidence as to what could have happened to the couple couple was recovered.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Gordon Eggert, a nearby farmer, contacted police while the search was going on to say that he saw a man towing the vehicle of interest while on watch for cattle wrestlers.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Not only did he see did he see the car the person of interest was driving, but he also claimed to have talked to the man, and he was partially able to recite the license plate of that car.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: And the driver of the car was George Stroch.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: The guy waiting in the parking lot.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and what the man to have last seen the couple.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: And whose cattle are wrestling in the snow?
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the 70s.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was a thing that happened.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: He was on watch for cattle wrestling during a storm.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: I guess.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was the first one of the year, so maybe I don't know, mom.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
9:47
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to figure out what cow he is.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Probably taking cows.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: No idea.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: What are you watching?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so how do you abduct a cow?
9:58
SPEAKER_00: So the last small animal.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: The last person to be with them is this George.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: He was waiting in the parking lot.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: He's at the bar with them.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: He's the last person to see him.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: And then the farmer says, That's who I saw.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: At this point, police were able to hold him on the with a charge of grand larceny, but an article from the Cordoland Press in 1979 reports that by this time investigators were already suspecting murder.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Police didn't have a solid crime scene to work from, a general area, or even clues as to if this was a kidnapping, robbery, etc., which made their job finding the couple even more difficult.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: So George isn't an alien, though.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: No.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: He says aliens, ghosts, and okay, so I need we need to know more about George.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: So a month later on December 21st, 1973, Rita's purse was found by a hunter on the bank of the Pondorio River, which is 25 miles north from where the car was located.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Immediately, law enforcement got to work scouring the river for any other potential clues, working under the assumption that potentially their bodies were dumped similarly to how the purse was.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: After searching for days with the help of the U.S.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Navy Research and Development Center and underwater cameras, Kootenai County Sheriff Thor Fladwell in the South Idaho press is reporting as saying they found absolutely nothing.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Besides the purse, not another shred of evidence regarding the missing couple was found.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: Ever?
11:21
SPEAKER_00: In the river.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Nothing was found in the river.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Ever.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: But her purse was found.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: But her purse was found.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Yep, of where the car was found.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: We need George being alien.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: I need to more know more about George.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: I think unfortunately he is just a person.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Wait, just a person?
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Bad person.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: What?
11:40
SPEAKER_00: He's driving a car.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: You think that's an alien?
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Hey.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: So at this point, the town began blending facts and fiction.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Rumors circulated that the satanic cult in the mountains were the ones responsible for the missing couple.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Distrust in authorities at the time also didn't help dispel the rumors because townspeople began thinking the police's lack of transparency about the case was to avoid widespread panic, and they didn't want to confirm that it was the satanic cult responsible for them, not the fact that they had literally nothing to report about the missing couple at all.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: County Chief Criminal Deputy Harry Burton is reported as saying, These stories are thick in the area and in Spokane and people are terrorized for no reason.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: I could go on for hours about how sick these rumors make me.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Headlines of witches forming human chains across the road rapidly turned more sinister.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Now it was a satanic martyr cult that Rathram was dealing with.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: The sensationalism that came with these headlines completely overshadowed the fact that two very real people were actually missing, making police having to field calls about the alleged cult instead of using the resources to actually find them.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: Right.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: So small town, they don't have a lot of people, and now they're spending all their time having to answer questions about a bunch of stories.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: It was like the headlines were going beyond just the small town.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: It was wait, there's a cult, and then it was a satanic cult, and then there's okay, they're doing rituals, and that's why these cut this couple is missing.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: So it just totally, yeah, snowballed.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: So in an article for the Longview Daily News in February 1974, Dr.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: William H.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Barber, an eastern Washington State College psychology professor, said the rumors are pu the public's way of coming to grips with the disappearance mystery.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: He said, when the usual channels of information fail, a supernatural explanation is often chosen.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: An article titled Tales Are Plentiful, Clues Are Scarce sums up the frustration felt by local Leos and the families of Ron and Rita, who were just annoyed that these headlines were getting more coverage than the fact that their families were still missing.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: So, with no other evidence pointing towards him, on April 24th, 1974, George was tried for grand larceny and sentenced to three years at McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington for illegally possessing firearms.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: What?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I guess there were firearms in his car when he was arrested.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: They had to keep him on something.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: So he's he's locked up, they know where he is.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: He did something, but they haven't found out what he did yet.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Well he at least did that.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: So on May 27, 1974, a form a farmer in the nearby town of Athol, which is only about 15 minutes north of Rothram, was repairing a fence on his property.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, he discovered a pair of shoes and scraps of tathered clothing in a shallow hole.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: This was only a few miles north of where the car had been found, and another massive search was conducted to hopefully recover any more pieces of what was looking like a very scattered puzzle.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: After two days, searches recovered bone fragments, hair fibers, fingernails, and more tattered clothing, all scar scattered over a wide area.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: With this evidence, prosecuting attorney Gary Harmon began preparing to file a murder charge against George Stroich.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: On July 8th, FBI Labs confirmed the bone fragments and hair strands did in fact belong to Reader Markison.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
15:07
SPEAKER_03: Scattered, it said fragments.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: How could you find family?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: How could you like in a f I imagine like a farming field or something?
15:20
SPEAKER_00: How do you a piece of hair?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, that's crazy to me.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: Well, right, and this is like didn't you say this is the 70s?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 74.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: A few months later in October, a father and son were on a hunting trip in the woods southwest of Farragut State Park, a quarter mile from where the other pieces of evidence were recovered, when they discovered a human skull.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Because of the proximity to the other pieces of evidence, a search was conducted in this area as well, and more skeletal remains and clothing were found once again scattered.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: In an article from the Cordeland Press, it says that research later concluded that Rita's brawn coat had both been cut by something other than an animal.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: One examiner said that it looked like it had been cut by something of a stabbing nature, end quotes, and the authorities believed Rita's head had been severed and her body was dismembered.
16:08
SPEAKER_03: What?
16:11
SPEAKER_00: So with all of this, on November 17th, 1974, George Stroich was officially charged with murder.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: But there's no anything of I forget his name.
16:22
SPEAKER_03: Ron.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: Ron.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: There was nothing of Ron's anymore.
16:26
SPEAKER_03: Only a remote.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: And the only thing tying George to this is a guy who was looking out for cattle wrestlers.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, and his own statement that he was the one to last see them.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: And witnesses seeing them together.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Placing him as last person to see them.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: So the trial started on July 11th, 1976.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: I know.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: But one of the main issues the case against George had was that no evidence could be definitively identified as belonging to Ron.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Only remains of Rita were ever found.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Due to this, it was difficult to prove that it was George who had committed the crime.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Right, not Ron, who the defense could argue could potentially be responsible for the murder of his wife and was still on the run.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Especially since there were witnesses that claimed they had seen Ron alive after the couple had been missing.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: What?
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Further seeds of doubt against George were sowed when a friend of Rita's testified that while Ron was angry, he heard him say he'd, in quotes, have to go get his 44 Magnum.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: This was significant because in the hole of evidence the farmer had found with the shoes and other stuff, there were three slugs in the dirt that matched a 44 Magnum.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but we still have two pairs of two sets of tracks leaving and coming and leaving the car.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: So there's more people.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: George's cellmate from his time at in the McNeil Island Penitentiary, Terry Ball, was also called to the stand and he testified George told him that he had killed the Marcusons.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: According to Terry, George claimed that he met the young couple in a field north of Cordeline to buy drugs from Ron.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Ron didn't have drugs on him, but still wanted George's money.
18:10
unknown: What?
18:12
SPEAKER_00: In self-defense, allegedly, George then shot Ron and chased Rita while she fled the scene, and when he caught up to her, he strangled her.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: And she was not make a good soulmate.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, and Jailha's confessions are very credible.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe he was saying that so he could Yeah, exactly.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: So George took the stand, and his argument was that the last time he saw Ron Arita was when they left the dental clinic parking lot after going to the bar.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Afterwards he got gas and intended to go hunting in the Chipmunk Rapids area.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're called.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Apparently at one point his car got stuck in the mud, and on the stand he said about trying to get his car unstuck.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: I was working in conditions where you might get splotches of blood, uh, I mean mud on your clothes.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean that was a 40-inch lip.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Following this, a US Forest Service employee testified that on November 19th, the Chipmunk Rapid area had at least 18 inches of snow and wouldn't be accessible for any vehicle.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: So you said snow swarm.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like there's facts here that don't add up.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: When the car was covered.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Like it was after 18 days of the trial, the jury deliberated for six hours before the judge read the verdict.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: After the testimonies and evidence provided, the jury determined that George Stroich was innocent.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: Six hours is pretty short.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Because they couldn't they don't have good evidence.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the evidence is against them is completely circumstantial based on like they did have quite a few witnesses at the stand, both sides did, but and also where's Raw?
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it still wasn't able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this man committed this crime.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Twenty-two years after the couple went missing on October twenty-fifth, nineteen ninety-five, John Irwin discovered a human skull with two bolt holes in it in a wooded area in his property.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: The property was only one and a half miles away from where they had located Rita's remains.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Dental forensics determined that it belonged to Ron Markison.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so George.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: George Stroich had died two months prior to this discovery.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And any answers about what really happened to the couple with him?
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: So sad.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: He was 58.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
20:38
unknown: Yeah.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: Did it say how he died?
20:40
SPEAKER_03: Just because I'm curious.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Heart attack.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: It was in a wooded area.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: It was one and a half.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: When they had found the other evidence, it was like in a pretty tight area, I guess.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't yeah, it was spread out, but it wasn't for miles and miles and miles.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: But the bullet holes when George did have a gun.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: George did have a gun.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's the tragedy.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: And the holes in the skull were for like from a 22-something, which did match one of his gun licenses that he was registered to have had.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: And even if they didn't have any involvement with the tragic murder of the young couple, people still to this day argue that they had run-ins with the cult operating in Rothram, Idaho.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Allegedly, these tales got so out of hand they even reached Charles Manson, where in a prison interview he stated he wanted to move to Rathram, in quotes, because it had the largest concentration of witches in the country.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Which really shows how out of hand the rumors in this very, very small Idaho town had become.
21:49
SPEAKER_03: We need to make a little trip.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: I know.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's it.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: I mean I'm just a little I feel like we we just need more information.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: There is no more there's no more information.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: You know who needs more information?
22:04
SPEAKER_00: The police.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: The prosecution needs more information.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, and even with like the almost two years they had to prepare for the trial, they still were not able to.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: All the rumors in town, I think, probably didn't help.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Hurt, yeah.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: But cult, like, where's the where's the cult activity?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Where's the I want to know if people on the jury believed that if a cult was really behind it, then that would also mean that George is innocent because why would he do it?
22:28
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what if George is part of the cult though?
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Could be.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: Him and someone else.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean But like the rumors were getting crazy.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like they were drained of their blood, their hearts were eaten, they were hanging from the trees.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Like it was getting I feel bad for the family that would have to read that stuff about.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: Well, the good news in this case, right, that likely didn't happen that didn't happen.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Balsa.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, something worse almost.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Rita was not strangled.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: Like bone fragments scattered all around.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, at least maybe she was strangled, but post-mortem.
22:56
SPEAKER_03: That part is very interesting.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: Like, where's the rest of Ron's body?
23:00
SPEAKER_03: We only found his skull.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: And hmm.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Like, what happened to her?
23:07
SPEAKER_03: Why is everything scattered everywhere?
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, and like the one investigator said, it very obviously looked like her clothes had been cut.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, No, I just strangled her.
23:17
SPEAKER_03: So maybe this was like a drug, whatever drug deal gone wrong.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: And he shot him and then he was like, But there were no but there were no drugs.
23:24
SPEAKER_03: And like he was like, What do I do?
23:26
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, We'll take it from here.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: I mean, a small town drug dealer, like I kind of fight find it hard to imagine in the 70s, like, where's this 20-year-old getting?
23:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and they're very young, yeah.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: Out of work, and where am I gonna go get drugs that I'm gonna sell?
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Come on, that's like I mean, not only that, why didn't he just pass off the drugs in the parking lot if he was waiting for Rom?
23:46
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing, too.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: The jail hall's confession doesn't make any sense.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: You're saying you both drove off in the same direction to meet in a random field.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you just do it in the parking lot there?
23:55
SPEAKER_02: Well, you were at the bar.
23:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he could have done that when they raced to the bathroom crying.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, what was that?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Just a red herring, I guess.
24:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, red I mean, I think that's it.
24:05
SPEAKER_02: The town probably, you know, made up a lot of stories and probably made it really hard for people to do their job to find the police work that was missing.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's so many articles about how upset the police and the families were because they were such a hindrance to the investigation that well, think of small towns, they just would not have the resources for that.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: 700 people, and like I said, everyone's has a job.
24:27
SPEAKER_02: It's in the 70s too.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: Like And they're probably not good technology, you know, they don't that's why I was so surprised they were able to identify the like you'll be getting little bits and pieces of things.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: Like you were just But then we've got the farmer who like could even recite parts of a license plate.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's crazy.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: He picked the George he picked George out of a lineup too because he had talked to the guy.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: That's not good.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and then the car thing, why were the windows broken?
24:54
SPEAKER_02: And two other foot two other sets of footprints.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so maybe the car was parts there instead of a random field in Cordoleon, and the two footprints were Ron and Rita.
25:05
SPEAKER_03: Did they search the car at all?
25:07
SPEAKER_03: Was there any mention of that?
25:09
SPEAKER_00: No mention of that they searched the inside of the car.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And the bullets if they did, there was nothing significant in the car worth reporting.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: The only thing significant was the fact that snow wasn't under the car.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's how how they were able to determine how many days ahead.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was there prior to the snow.
25:24
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
25:24
SPEAKER_03: And the slugs were found not there.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: No, with Rita.
25:29
SPEAKER_03: They were yeah.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: With her shoes in the hole.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: But then that's weird too.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Why are there I don't know.
25:35
SPEAKER_03: Slugs there, and then and then there was two bullet holes in his head, but there were three slugs found.
25:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
25:41
SPEAKER_03: And did she have any?
25:42
SPEAKER_03: How did she she didn't have any?
25:45
SPEAKER_00: No, she didn't have any.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Again, what's true, what's not true.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And they said that it wasn't animal like that she was No, it was very much it was very much intentional.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Sad.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: I feel bad.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: I feel bad for their families, actually.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: Because that that would be hard.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And then 22 years later to have it get brought up again and the guy's dead that you know could have could have answered questions that you would the George guy had a whole family too, and his wife, I think still to this day, believes that he's innocent.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I would never be staying married to a murderer.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: But they had young children, and so twenty-two years later when it's brought up again and they still lived in that same small town.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: That'd be really hard.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: That'd be really hard.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: Like no one wants to hire him because I mean, yeah, he is a convicted criminal, not for murder, but Well, for all your podcasts we rate believability and creepy, but I mean, there's there's nothing to rate for believability.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have the facts based on the story.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Or the story that we know.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: No aliens, ghosts, witches, warlocks, or anything else we can't.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
26:51
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
26:52
SPEAKER_03: Do you think that there's like a cult involved though?
26:54
SPEAKER_03: Or like something along the lines?
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Stories about the cult in the human chain.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, people still to this day claim that they did see people across like standing across the road at some point.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And then I found an article and it was about like this newspaper, and I think sometime in the mid-80s, where these rumors were starting to fade out, and so they had a work party and they all stood in the road to like try to reignite the stories.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, okay, is someone just to reinstill the fear?
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Is someone just yanking everyone's chain?
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Is it an inside joke?
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Is it high school kids?
27:31
SPEAKER_00: But some of these people claim that they actually hit something, and then when they'd get out, nothing was there.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Like vampire dies.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: So widespread pizzle yanking.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: Very, very strange.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Lots of between the cattle mutilations.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: This I can understand why people got freaked out.
27:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, heightened sensitivity to it, but um, and then you'd be worried about people being missing and think it could be something, but it turns out it's just a dirty neighbor.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:01
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: Who then didn't even have to do the time.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
28:07
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was kind of punished by society.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: But but to Garrett's point, I mean, trying to find the skull or whatever, you know, it wasn't very far away.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: Like I think the prosecution probably could have done a better job, even with the resources they would have had in the late 70s.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And by the time they found the school and he was already dead, I mean there wasn't really a point in saying like in taking it to court again.
28:36
SPEAKER_02: Like it shouldn't have taken them twenty-two years to I know.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: You know.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, and even then it's kind of crazy that it was still intact enough that they were able to like there were bullet holes.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: And like, did someone just drop that thing?
28:49
SPEAKER_03: Right, was it just sitting someone just had it and they're like, I'm just gonna I don't know.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: He's dead now, so he can't Yeah.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Very strange.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I guess creepy level in regards to the witches and cattle mutilation.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean small towns, just a lot of weird stuff for a very small town.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: Small town weird stuff and highways.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: I mean, may maybe that's probably where bad things lurk.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, would I be driving uh a road at night by myself?
29:19
SPEAKER_02: No.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
29:21
SPEAKER_02: Right?
29:21
SPEAKER_02: And but I wouldn't be cattle wrestling either.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't quite know what that is.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: Cattle wrestling.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what cattle Garrett might cattle wrestle.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it I just think of cars.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: I just think of cars when they're cow tipping.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: That's all I can think of.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, the top of livestock remains a highly active and lucrative modern crime.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: Oh, so it's like you're just feeling feeling it.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Today's wrestlers trade their horses for high-tech trailers, exploit social media, and target the booming beef and dairy markets.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: The crime costs producers millions annually, resulting in significant national investigations.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: Expensive, right?
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well that's so they they steal they steal the cow and they say if you want your cow back, you have to give me money.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: I think they just sell the cow to someone else.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, or they sell it for themselves.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Huh.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, it sounded better wrestling, it sounded more fun.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: That that sounded more like wild, it sounded a little more wild west.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: That's just stealing, yeah.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: That's just that's just that's just stealing.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: Come on, buddy, get in my trailer.
30:23
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be okay.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: I guess this is pretty cattle raiding, it's also called.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: In Australia, it's often referred to as duffing.
30:33
SPEAKER_02: Huh?
30:35
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so for creepy, I'll give it um I mean, like a six.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: You know, like I said, I'm not gonna be driving um rural Idaho or Washington roads or Oregon for that matter, any any rural, you know, uh or Nevada.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: Like I wouldn't be driving anywhere there in the dark, you know, at night.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: If I see anything on the side of the road, I'm freaked out.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Garbage.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: It's light outside, it's the middle of the day.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh yeah, Girl, what about you, creepy?
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Why are we rating like a criminal case for creepy?
31:06
SPEAKER_00: No, we're rating the um I mean just the conspiracy the con the bigger the bigger conspiracies are out there.
31:12
SPEAKER_03: And the way that her body was found, I feel like that freaks me out more than anything.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the alien cattle issues, the people in the room, you know.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Vampire cattle issues.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: No, no creepy for you.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: You're so zero creepy.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: Okay, Morgan.
31:33
SPEAKER_03: I would probably say about a six-two, but it could lean seven if we're talking like we don't really know what happened to her, and I feel like that kind of freaks me out a little bit because there's not really a good explanation of that.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: Like, I feel like there's something else going on that we don't know a whole lot of information about.
31:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:54
SPEAKER_03: So that makes it a little bit more creepy.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Also, I wonder because the skull was found one and a half miles away.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Was that post-mortem?
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Was that like a body that he dumped?
32:07
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, like he didn't just like throw a skull out a window.
32:10
SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm saying.
32:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay, so they didn't find it this whole time, this 20 years later.
32:16
SPEAKER_03: They randomly found it.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Did somebody like he died two months before that?
32:21
SPEAKER_03: It gives like he died, and then someone took the skull and went, I'm just gonna put it on the I'm gonna go dump it.
32:26
SPEAKER_03: Maybe like I can finally do this because it was a trophy.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't like that's what it gives.
32:32
SPEAKER_03: No, yeah, that's very but you said that he died of a heart attack.
32:35
SPEAKER_03: That's why I asked, because I was like, oh, I wonder if something happened to him or no, I guess he just died of a heart attack.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Because yeah, where's the rest?
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Where's the rest of it?
32:44
SPEAKER_00: A mileage.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: And where's the rest of where's the rest of Rita too?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Very sad.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Very sad.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: But that's a kind of a mixture of all the we got the witches, we got the cults, we got the true crime, aliens.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: We kind of got some aliens in there.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: We got we got all of it.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of a mixed a mixed a mixed bag.
33:07
SPEAKER_03: The cattle with the blood drink.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we will do a full cattle mutilation episode.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, thank you for listening.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: I hope you have an amazing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or any other day of the week you're listening to this on.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: If you have any story or case you'd like us to look into weirdness, oddities, anything, email earlybelovedpodcast at gmail.com.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: Follow us on Instagram, TikTok threads, all the social medias, early beloved podcast.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And if you like this podcast, give us a five-star review.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you leave a hate comment, I'm gonna block and delete you.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: It's already happened to one person.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: You don't know who you are because you can't hear this.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: But be warned.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: Anyways, okay, that's it.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: See you next week.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: Bye, Pizzlers.