Lewis Clark Valley Murders

Between 1979 and 1982, five individuals—ranging from a 12-year-old girl to a 35-year-old man—vanished or were murdered in the Lewis–Clark Valley. Their cases share striking similarities: outdoors, near roads or fairgrounds, with connections to the Lewiston Civic Theater. A single suspect, linked circumstantially to multiple crimes, remains unnamed and uncharged. Despite renewed efforts via documentaries and cold-case units, the murders remain unsolved, pending breakthrough DNA evidence or new witnesses.

If you have any information, contact Lewiston Police Department Investigative Section or Asotin County Sheriff’s Office.

Sources:
https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/investigation-discovery-show-debuting-thursday-will-focus-on-decades-old-mysterious-deaths-and-disappearances-in/article_2d028eea-f199-11e8-8650-87241daf0619.html 

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/idaho-serial-killer-unsolved-murder-b2046719.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://podcast9.com/share/episode/1asQnyXsao/the-trail-went-cold-episode-147-the-lewis-clark-valley-murders?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

https://www.grunge.com/826788/the-unsolved-lewis-clark-valley-murders/


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
You one timers out there. I am Shannon, and this
is one crime at a time. Today we are discussing
the crimes of a brutal serial killer that terrorized the
residents of two small towns along the Idaho Washington border,
a killer known only as the Lewis Clark Valley Killer.
But is this killer really unknown? And are these cases

(00:34):
really unsolved? The Lewis Clark Valley messled on the border
of Idaho and Washington, is a place of natural beauty,
but beneath its scenic calm lies a disturbing history. Between
nineteen seventy nine and nineteen eighty two, five young people,
men and women, teens and adults, either vanished or were

(00:57):
found murdered. Their cases were never solved. The Lewis Clark
Valley murders remained one of the most haunting unsolved crime
spreeze in the American Northwest. It began with a little girl.
April twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine, twelve year old Christina

(01:19):
Lee White had gone to the Asoltan County Fair, a
short walk from her home in a Sultan, Washington. Police
confirmed she was at the fair around ten thirty a m.
Christina was last seen at five o three Second Street
by her mother, Betty Emminger, at around one pm. This

(01:40):
residence is where Christina's best friend lived. The home at
the time was owned by Patricia Brennan, the mother of
Christina's friend. Christina called her mother around two PM and
told her she was not feeling well and felt overheated.
Her mother, Betty, told her to get a cool washcloth
and to rest in the shade, and then to walk

(02:02):
to the corner of Second Street and Jefferson Street with
her bike and she would meet her there. Christina never
showed up and has been missing since. A year later,
some of Christina White's school papers, in nearly perfect condition,
were found near a horse pasture that Patricia Brennan rented
for her daughter's horse. Christina's bicycle has never been found.

(02:24):
It was last seen at Patricia Brennan's home. Massive searches
followed Christina's disappearance. The community combed through woods, rivers and basements.
Law enforcement considered several possibilities runaway, accident, or abduction, but
nothing turned up. Years later, a man emerged as a
person of interest. He had been present in the home

(02:46):
Christina vanished from Patricia's boyfriend was Lance Jeffrey Voss, who
would spend time at the residence. His name would appear
again and again. July fourth weekend nineteen eighty one, twenty
two year old Kristin Noel davisvid was studying journalism at
the University of Idaho. She planned to visit Lewiston from Moscow,
a thirty mile bike ride. Witnesses saw her on US

(03:09):
Highway ninety five near Genesee, Idaho, around noon. Soon after,
Kristin disappears, her bicycle and personal belongings never recovered. Eight
days later, fishermen discover dismembered body parts in black garbage
bags along the Snake River near Clarkston. Additional body parts

(03:31):
were found downstream. Forensic analysis confirmed they belonged to Kristin.
She had been killed, dismembered with precision, and dumped in
weighted bags. One bag contained pages from the local newspaper
dated a few days before Kristin disappeared, suggesting she was
kept alive for a short time. After she vanished, witnesses
reported a suspicious man in a brown van following Kristin's route.

(03:55):
Police released a composite sketch based on these reports This
sketch bore a resemblance to the man now believed to
be the central person of interest, Lance Jeffrey Vass. September twelve,
nineteen eighty two, at seven thirty pm, Christina Nelson, twenty one,
and her eighteen year old stepsister Brandy Miller, left Christina's

(04:18):
apartment to walk to a nearby grocery store in Lewistown.
Christina had left a note that stated be right back.
They were never seen alive again. What should have been
a ten minute walk turned into a mystery spanning decades.
Their families filed missing persons reports the next day. Weeks

(04:40):
passed with no sign of them. Eighteen months later, a
hunter stumbled on human remains near mile marker fourteen point
six over the embankment on Highway three. Dental records confirmed
it was Christina and Brandy. Investigators were unable to determine

(05:01):
a cause of death for Christina, but determined that Brandy
had been murdered. The same night Christina and Brandy vanished,
another person disappeared thirty five year old Stephen R. Pearsall.
He worked as a janitor at the Civic Theater. At midnight,
Stephen had his girlfriend drop him off at the theater.

(05:21):
He planned to do laundry and practice his clarinet there
that evening. He had not been seen or heard from
since his clarinet, wallet, and keys were found at the theater.
He also left an uncashed paycheck at his apartment and
his car parked at a friend's house. He simply vanished.

(05:43):
Authorities suspected he walked in on something terrible and paid
the price. All three had ties to the Civic Theater.
Stephen was well known to both Christina and Brandy. He
had a big brother like relationship with them. They only
lived a few blocks away from his apartment, and on

(06:05):
their way to the store, they would have passed the
theater and may have gone inside. Christina had worked as
a janitor at the theater before quitting, and Pearsall took
her position. Brandy worked at the theatre part time. Pearsall
and Christina had also both attended Lewis Clark State College,
and a man who had worked there at the same

(06:26):
time would later emerge as a possible common link. That
man was Lance Geoffrey Voss. In each of the Lewis
Clark Valley cases, there's one thread that connects them. A
name that surfaces quietly, persistently, and chillingly. Lance Geoffrey Voss

(06:46):
has long been considered a person of interest, and the
pattern is undeniable. In nineteen seventy nine, twelve year old
Christina White disappeared from her friend's house in a soa.
That home belonged to Voss's girlfriend, later wife, Patricia Brennan.

(07:08):
He was reportedly present that day or had been in
and out of the home frequently around the time Christina vanished.
He was in his early thirties at the time. Known
in the community as polite, soft spoken. He worked odd jobs,
sometimes helping neighbors, sometimes driving a van. That van, a

(07:30):
brown one, would later appear in witness statements linked to
a very different and much more gruesome crime.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Kristin David was biking along Highway ninety five when she vanished.
Witnesses reported seeing a man in a brown van following her,
driving slowly watching. Police released a composite sketch based on
these reports. The sketch bore a resemblance to even more

(08:01):
troubling It was later learned that Voss had access to
a meat processing facility and had some experience with knives,
fueling speculation about the precise dismemberment of Kristen's body. In
nineteen eighty two, he was working as a janitor at

(08:22):
the Lewiston Civic Theater, the same building where Stephen Pearsall
had been cleaning the night he disappeared. Christina Nelson and
Brandy Miller had both been involved with the theater. Brandy
was a part time employee there, Christina had previously worked

(08:44):
on productions. All three victims gone in the same night,
All three are tied to the same building, and he
had keys access opportunity. Shortly after the disappearance of Christina, Brandy,
and Stephen, he abruptly left the Lewiston area. He moved

(09:07):
multiple times across the Northwest, settling in areas where other
disappearances and murders would later occur, though none conclusively tied
to him. Former detectives have stated off record that his
behavior was evasive in interviews, he declined polygraph tests, and

(09:30):
some who knew him claim he made chilling remarks years later,
including cryptic references to the theater and off hand jokes
about the murders. Despite the circumstantial connections, no physical evidence
has ever tied Voss definitively to the crimes. In the

(09:51):
early two thousands, law enforcement collected new evidence for DNA testing,
but by then much of it had degraded. There have
been rumors that one item, a rope or cord found
near a scene, was tested, but no public results have

(10:11):
ever been released. To day, lance Geoffrey Voss is still alive.
He lives under a different name. He has never been
arrested or publicly charged, and without new evidence or a confession,
he remains untouchable. Those who knew him say he was quiet, solitary,

(10:35):
and off but never violent. To others, he was just
a strange man who came and went. But to the
families of five victims, he is the man they believe
stole everything. Was vass a calculating predator, hiding in plain sight,
choosing his victims carefully and escaping before suspicion caught up.

(10:57):
Or was he just a man in the wrong place
at the wrong time, with connections that led nowhere. Forty
years later, law enforcement still calls him the strongest person
of interest, and if the truth ever comes out, his
name may one day be written beside charges. Long overdue.
Theories abound. A serial killer operating across multiple years, an

(11:19):
insider who used community knowledge to avoid detection, a cover up,
or a bungled investigation. In the early nineteen eighties, DNA
testing was primitive. Evidence may have been lost, misfiled, or
never collected. Some believe key mistakes were made early and
can never be undone. The families waited, wrote letters, gave interviews,

(11:44):
held out hope, but as the decades passed, so did
some of the parents. Christina White's mother never gave up.
Neither did Stephen Pearsall's sister, who still believes he was
in the wrong place.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
At the wrong time. For decades, the cases sat cold,
but in twenty eighteen, a spark reignited the hunt for justice.
The Lewiston Police Department and a Seton County Sheriff's Office
announced they were officially reopening investigations into the Lewis Clark
Valley murders. The new effort was driven by changes in leadership,

(12:20):
advances in forensic science, and a growing wave of interest
in unsolved cases across the country. Investigators were assigned exclusively
to re examine the murders and disappearances from nineteen seventy
nine through nineteen eighty two, a key turning point collaboration
with the Idaho's State Police Cold Case Unit and the FBI. Together,

(12:42):
they began sifting through old files, reviewing tips, and retesting
any remaining evidence with modern technology. Using updated forensic techniques
including enhanced DNA extraction and genetic genealogy, authorities hoped to
identify new leads. Items from multiple scenes were submitted for analysis,

(13:03):
including clothing, hair, and biological material collected in the early eighties.
Although officials have not disclosed exact findings, they confirmed some
samples were successfully tested, but whether any DNA profiles matched
known individuals has not been revealed. As part of the investigation,

(13:24):
law enforcement reportedly re interviewed multiple witnesses from the original cases,
many of whom are now in their sixties or seventies.
They also attempted to make contact with Voss, who had
since moved out of state. Sources close to the case
say federal agents visited his residence, but again no charges

(13:47):
were filed. Prosecutors cited the need for concrete forensic evidence
or credible witness confession. Detectives made public appeals urging anyone
with information, even decades old, to come forward. The case
received renewed attention from national media outlets and true crime podcasts,

(14:10):
sparking a flood of tips. Some leads were promising, a
few were dead ends, but every call, every memory was
logged and followed up. As of today, the Lewis Clark
Valley murders remain open investigations. Authorities say the cases are
active but sensitive. The twenty eighteen reinvestigation was one of

(14:35):
the most serious attempts to break the silence, and it
may not be over. Investigators have not ruled out a
future arrest, but with the clock ticking, it may take
one more tip or one final breakthrough to close this
case forever. Five victims, three bodies, two never found, no arrests,

(14:59):
no conviction. Forty years later, the Lewis Clark Valley still
waits for justice. Could someone still know the truth or
was the killer always just one step ahead? If you
have any information, no matter how small, call the Lewiston

(15:19):
Police Department two zero eight seven four six zero one
seven one or the FBI at eight hundred Call FBI.
Thanks for listening. If you could, please like and subscribe
and leave a review if you like what we're doing here.
This has been one crime at a time, I am Shannon,
and until next time, remember every victim deserves to have

(15:40):
their story told.