August 28, 2025 • 41 mins
As we prepare for Season 7 of True Crime Bullsh**, we're sharing episodes from the past 6 seasons that will be foundational for the upcoming season.
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Quince: Go to www.quince.com/TCBS to get free shipping and 365-day returns on your next order.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-bullsh--3588169/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is a studio both and production.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You know, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
There's the trees, there's.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Something you look like the tire tracks. You're going straight
this way, but it ended up the pool pretty had
an angler. Yeah, and that's like a really like if
(00:41):
he swore, he go at and swirl. Don't know how
he would clumb up.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I think he would do well.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And why are you swarving adah?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, but that angle with those tire tracks, I don't know.
I'm not that spurt on this, but that doesn't seem
if it makes much sense.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's also like you almost have to intentionally get it
through these trees. It's like a car can fit for here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Maybe there, but you have to be very.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Intent about how you're doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean they were a little smaller back there.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Its like, but.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
What you have to confare.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
This is true crime bullshit.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I'm your host, Josh Hallmark, and this is a serialized.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Story of Israel Keys.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Israel Keys admitted to moving, stealing, and disappearing cars in
conjunction with his abductions, murders, and robberies. He talked about
setting them on fire and submerging them in bodies of
water and as both credible reports of encounters with Keys,
and Keys's favorite media would suggest he was also likely
(02:12):
wrecking cars, either as part of the abduction process or
as a means to disappear a car or stage a
car accident. This is something that comes up in his
favorite movie, Death Proof, his favorite book Intensity by Dean Koon's,
and in the book Found in His Shed where he
raped and murdered Samantha Koenig. Mister Murder, also by Dean Koons,
(02:37):
and that's a book we're going to get into extensively
this season because it's essentially a playbook for how Israel
Keys operated. In fact, if his mo is inspired by anything,
it's Mister Murder. As an example, Mister Murder uses a
homemade silencer in order to kill an older couple during
(03:00):
a home invasion. When he's done, he knows that he's
supposed to break down the silencer and dispose of its
individual pieces in separate locations while on his way to
the airport, But after putting all the hard work into
building his silencer, he's not quite ready to destroy it,
so he drives fifty miles to another city in another
(03:20):
state and uses it to rob a convenience store and
kill the clerk, which is you know, familiar. In another chapter,
Mister Murder kills someone, steals his car, uses it to
commit a second crime, then abandons it in a parking
lot of an apartment complex, and that's where he steals
(03:42):
a second car in order to return to his own car,
which was parked some distance from the original crime scene.
All this is to say, reading Mister Murder is a
surreal experience for anyone even remotely familiar with Keys and
his crimes. But I digress. Keys wrecking cars and staging
(04:05):
car accidents comes up a lot, not just in his
favorite media and interviews, but in The Name is forty four,
and even in cases we've previously discussed as possible Key's victims.
From the Name is forty four, Lori Anne Boffmann's car
was found wrecked and abandoned, and Tony Luzio's car was
(04:26):
eventually found submerged in a pond, although it wasn't recovered
until after Keyes's death. Then there's potential victims like Brianna
Maitland and Sheila Kathleen mac Broome, whose cars were found
abandoned with significant damage to them, Not to mention the
arsons of Jeremy Burt's, Kelly Sue Akronix, and John Hanneman's cars,
(04:49):
as discussed in the previous episode. Then, of course, there's
the multiple accounts of people who reported that keys tried
to run them off the road. Ill Courier's co worker
at the UV campus in two thousand twelve, a woman
who is driving on Interstate seventy in Colorado in two
thousand five, a woman on a rural Mississippi highway in
(05:12):
two thousand eight, and Mollie, whose detailed and highly credible
account of being chased by keys along Routes one twelve
and one O one on the Washington Peninsula has come
up numerous times across multiple keys media.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And as we.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Discussed in episode two ten, there's the suspicious grill guard
keys installed on his F one fifty truck shortly after
moving to Nea Bay. And finally, and perhaps most profoundly,
Keyes himself wrote about doing exactly this quite clearly and
graphically in his suicide.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Note where will you go, you clever little worm? If
you bleed your host dry back in your ride, the
night is still young? Should you like to push back?
The black neat rose off to the right a graveyard appiers,
lines of stones, bodies molder below. Turn away, quick, bob
your head to the seat. As straight through that stop sign,
(06:09):
you'll roll. Loaded truck with lights off, slams into your broadside,
your flesh smashed as metal explodes. You may have been free,
you loved living your life. Fate had its own scheme.
Crushed like a bug. You still die.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I've long suspected that there are at least several Keys
victims whose cars were either in accidents or staged to
appear as though they were in accidents. And it's something
you can sometimes hear when listening to Keys discuss moving
cars and presumed accidental deaths.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
There were a couple of times that I moved cars
and stuff of theirs. But it's not like I kidnapped dumbers.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Were they in the cars when you when you moved them?
Did you do that to cover up that hide the crimes?
Was just to throw it? Yeah, throw it off for
a while, Right, said you did move their cars?
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Yeah, a car car that belonged to at least one right,
And the purpose just we went through that fast.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The purpose of moving the car.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
They weren't in the car, but it was to do what.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Just to throw it off, distance it or whatever, just
to okay, moved it away from a scene or something from.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
It always surprises me, you know, like some situations you
read about the paper, like so and so disappeared presumed
boating accident, for example, will they find their boat?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You don't know what really happened to that person.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And that suspicion is what led me to Foya, a
case I stumbled upon several years ago while looking into
some of Keyes's earlier suspicious travels, specifically, in November nineteen
ninety nine, car rental out of Tacoma, Washington. It was
Thanksgiving weekend and just six weeks before Keys was to
be deployed to Egypt for six months stay. He rented
(08:26):
a car from the USAVE Auto Rental at the mall
across the street from Fort Louis and disappeared for four days.
Although to say disappeared is not entirely accurate, because based
on FBI interviews in my own conversations with people close
to Keys, we have two very likely but unconfirmed destinations
(08:51):
for this road trip. His childhood girlfriend Annie's family's house
in Callville or his younger sister's house in Gresham, or again,
based on FBI interviews with Annie, In the late spring
of nineteen ninety nine, sparked by the death of her stepfather,
she and Keys rekindled their teenage romance, and while he
(09:14):
was stationed in Fort Louis, they began writing letters back
and forth again, and that summer Keys rented a car
and drove out to Callville to see her, And while
she couldn't remember specific dates, she told investigators that Keys
rented cars and came out to visit several more times
in the following months, although she doesn't call out any
(09:35):
holiday visits, which you'd think one would remember more clearly
than a random weekend. From what I've heard, it's also
likely he was visiting his sister for Thanksgiving. She had
just eloped, moved to Oregon, and had her first child,
and Keys was apparently visiting her often during this period.
(09:56):
In his own words, he was very protective of her,
particularly after she ran away from home and was essentially
disowned by the Keys family. According to the Keys psych report,
she's the only sibling he talks about having a bond with,
and her birthday well, it's just a few weeks after Thanksgiving,
(10:21):
So while we don't know for certain where he went
that weekend. We know he was almost certainly visiting a
loved one.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
You talked once when the interviews about kind of having
trying to set up alibis during some of your crimes.
Can you elaborate a little bit more on what kind
of alibis you'd set up and would you pass your
cell phone off to other people to hang on to
or different things like that, or is it more just no.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I never was specific in anyone you ever passed her,
and a lot of stuff that I did with that
was no. I would do it.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
In conjunction with something else that was going on in
pretty tight timeline, if you could say so that if
it ever came up, then.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's not like I would be in a situation where
I had to explain where I was for days on
end or something that was more along the lines.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
But I never had any say.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Alibis like people who would would vouch for me or something. Now,
but the title I would make it look like it
was difficult for you to ride.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And that's what takes us to the strange car accident
that occurred near Mount Rainier on Sunday, November twenty eight
of nineteen ninety nine. No one knows when or exactly
(12:04):
how Gary Shawn Bryant's car ended up in Lake Creek
on the outskirts of Morton, Washington, Nor is it clear
when Geary was last seen prior to the discovery of
his car, but at six fifty one p m. On
November twenty eighth of nineteen ninety nine, Geary was reported
missing by the Washington State Police after his car was
(12:27):
discovered wedged between a boulder and the banks of Lake
Creek near its confluence into the Tilton River. The major
discrepancy within the case files centers on Gary's date of
last contact. On one report, it stated to be November
twenty eighth, the day his car was found, but on
(12:47):
another it's reported as November twenty seventh, and unfortunately, neither
report specifies the details of that last contact, what time
it occurred, who it was with, where, the general nature
of it. Five foot seven, Gary was thirty two when
he disappeared. He was married with three young children. He
(13:11):
was an out of work logger and lived in a
trailer in a wooded area along the Tilton River about
three miles northwest of Morton. The status of his relationship
with his wife is unclear. She only comes up once
in the files, and it was to sign off on
the release of his medical records. But based on real
(13:31):
estate records and background searches, it appears that Gary and
his wife may have been living separately at the time
of his disappearance, and while we don't have a lot
of information surrounding his last known whereabouts, we do know
that upon the discovery of his car, the Lewis County
Sheriff's Office sprung into action. Gary's car was discovered at
(13:54):
around six p m. On the twenty eighth, and a
search of the surrounding area involving Helico cadaver dogs, search
and rescue, a dive team, and horse mounted officers began
at approximately eight a m. The very next day, But
despite seventeen people searching a nine mile span of the
(14:14):
Tilton River and its shores over ninety nine collective man hours,
not a single piece of evidence was ever recovered, including Gary,
and the cadaverdogs didn't hit anywhere, including the area immediately
surrounding Gary's car. At some point between the discovery of
(14:36):
his car and the search the following morning, the Lewis
County Sheriff's office laid out a theory for what they
believed happened. A report from the morning of the twenty
eighth reads as follows. The search request is a result
of a vehicle accident that occurred in Morton, Washington. During
the investigation, it was believed that the victim, a white
(14:57):
male approximately thirty years old, had failed to negotiate a
corner at approximately seventy miles per hour. The impact ejected
him out of the car into the rising Tilton River.
And while I suppose this could be a reasonable presumption
based on the scene, superficially at least there's a lot
(15:18):
about the state of the car, the road, the presumed
accident occurred on the placement of the car in the creek,
and both Lake Creek and Tilton River that cast doubt
on this theory. And unfortunately, local law enforcement had tunnel
vision when it came to the theory. They never looked
at this as anything more than a car accident. They
(15:40):
never interviewed any one in Gary's life, they didn't do
a thorough analysis of his car. They just chalked it
up to being a car accident. And by June of
two thousand, Gary had been pronounced dead and the case
was cold. After going through through the files and photos
(16:01):
over and over again trying to make sense of a
situation that didn't make much sense, French from the research
team and I went out to Morton to see the
recovery site in person. But before we get into that,
here's what you should know. First, Gary's car went into
the creek, not off some main road or highway, but
(16:22):
off of a gravel road that essentially operates us the
driveway for a small ready mixed cement plant. There's no
conceivable reason Derry would be on that stretch of road,
let alone driving seventy miles per hour down it. Now
to be fair, the road Westlake Avenue is adjacent to
(16:45):
Highway twelve, but it takes a bit of effort to
get to it from the highway. This is by no
means a situation where you're driving along a highway and
then accidentally end up on some side street. From Route
to weelve, you have to make a ninety degree turn
on to seventh Street, then drive about seventy five feet
(17:06):
before making another ninety degree turn onto West Lake, and
from there you have to drive half a mile past
a cemetery and a waste management plant before getting to
the alleged crash site. Essentially, it takes quite a significant
amount of intention to get to where Gary's car ended
up in the creek. Secondly, while Lake Creek and Tilton
(17:30):
River were in the midst of historic flooding at the
time of Gary's disappearance, his car was only submerged at
its deepest point up to the top of his driver's
side wheel well, approximately twenty seven inches deep in a
narrow creek. Because the car was at a slant, that
(17:50):
front end driver's side tire was the only tire in
the water. And Finally, other than a fairly minimal amount
of front ends damage and a busted out windshield, the
car was in pretty good shape. It did not, by
any stretch of the imagination, look like a car that
drove off a steep embankment, through multiple trees and thick
(18:13):
brush into a creek at seventy miles an hour. So
we had questions about the topography, the trees and foliage
between the gravel road and the creek, the visibility of
the car from the highway and surrounding areas, and the
tire tracks and skid marks that even in photos don't
(18:35):
really make sense. So just a few days shy of
the twenty second anniversary of Gary's disappearance, French and I
drove the half mile stretch of road, passed the cemetery
to the cement mixing plant, and much to our luck,
as we pulled up, so did a friendly and talkative
cement mixer.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Do you know that this rook was recently?
Speaker 9 (19:01):
Yeah, it just got chip sealed this something.
Speaker 8 (19:04):
Was it dirt before then?
Speaker 9 (19:05):
No, No, it's it's up been kind of those drava
from there on and that's county though the city ends
and then it's county except promote. It's really kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And it's when the city's.
Speaker 9 (19:18):
Down at that end of the road that this is
county to here.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
But they chipped.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Heel the whole thing. This place.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's been operating the whole time.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, it was actually it was not Cali Portland's.
Speaker 10 (19:29):
Then they bought them out, No. Three in two thousand
and three.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
Okay, it was central ready mixed.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Do you ever have any problems with people breaking in
or not?
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Here? Not here?
Speaker 9 (19:38):
No, not in no long time. Somebody screwed with it,
like twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But that's what they do.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
Oh, I think they were trying to break in, you know,
but it didn't. Was the gate here at the time, Yeah, yeah,
we're always at the gate.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
How'd they get through the game?
Speaker 9 (19:54):
Well, they can just park out here and then park
over the game.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
They're not a high fence.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Since then, we put in security in the buildings and
emotion sensors.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Unfortunately, he wasn't working at that particular plant when Gary
went missing, so he didn't have any information about the disappearance. However,
his comments about the scene being just outside of town
jurisdiction and in county territory were both interesting and familiar.
It's something we know that keys played around with jurisdictional
(20:33):
lines that could muddel investigations. In fact, earlier that morning,
I'd been at Lake Quinault, where del mar samples car
was recovered along the Quinault River, and much like Gary's,
del Mar's car was recovered just across the county line
and at a clearly marked juncture from state to county
(20:55):
operated roadway. Our new friend also mentioned that the plant
had been broken into about twenty years ago, around the
same time that Gary disappeared, and he eventually expressed doubt
that someone could accidentally drive into the creek from Westlake
Avenue and then somehow disappeared completely. And he wasn't the
(21:21):
only one. As French and I walked along the creek,
we ran into a local who was smoking under the
highway overpass. Also, I don't think even if you're not
wearing a seatbelt, I don't think you die in that accident.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Unless he ended up in the water.
Speaker 10 (21:43):
Pill Uh God, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Looking at a carcrat that happened.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Here or wok? You remember that?
Speaker 10 (21:54):
Yeah from twenty years ago?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (21:59):
No, uh you know they then Ah, this was supposedly yeah, yeah, exactly,
Well but there didn't you even on the road. Maybe
couldn't foll That's how we're trying to figure out. Huh weird, Yeah, weird.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So if this one supposed to be threw off the road,
got lodged in and then got into the river and
they were up the count.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
Really, yeah, so that's the And there was no blood
evidence or anywhere.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
You never found the person.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
Noah, that said ended up in the recreating them how
they lived anywhere?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I taught you they Yeah, Mike, blood in the wooden
shield didn't end up on the other side as far
as like that a dud angle, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
But then this guy that we're looking into, he was
in the area at the time too.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Really, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Suspicious.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, i'd say, very dismissive.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, how'd you get ejected?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And then the matt managed to float all the way
down the.
Speaker 10 (23:14):
Creek under the river and gone, And yeah, that's highly.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
High.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
God, it's highly unlikely for a lot of reasons. For one,
Gary would have needed to not only be ejected from
the car through the windshield of his early eighties Mercury Cougar,
but he'd have to be ejected more than four and
a half feet across the hood of the car, and
(23:40):
from there he'd have to float approximately five hundred feet
down a narrow and serpentine creek before even getting to
the tilt and river. But the most unbelievable thing about
the scene is how Gary's car even got to where
it ended up. And it wasn't just the four of
(24:01):
us at the creek that day who were suspicious about
this alleged accident scene. If one thing knows its tire tracks,
because if it's keys, I'm assuming he's putting it in
neutral and pushing it down here.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Well, that's the thing, Like I think the tire tracks
are just like too perfect.
Speaker 11 (24:24):
Yeah right, Like Mike, like.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I could see him, like, how would you go getting
the tire tracks and.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Then mutual and roll it down.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Because it I feel like it certainly makes more sense
that it would roll down there and then.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Get lodged in the way it did it.
Speaker 10 (24:55):
Yeah, if you're rolling seventy, I mean this is enough
the whole.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's how enough of a root that you could cover
the ground and even give like all or something. I
don't thinking that amount of invention in the roof just
getting stuck y in the countia tip into the water
and there's not a lot of damage with the body
clock just like it looks like.
Speaker 10 (25:22):
If that roll in.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So here's the thing about those tire tracks. They lead
directly into a tree, a large and very old tree
that you can even see in the photos from nineteen
ninety nine. And between the end of those tracks and
the tree was a fence which is still broken to
(25:49):
this day, and essentially a short cliff into French's Point.
A car going seventy miles per hour or even forty
miles per hour is likely going to flip. But what
it's not going to do is somehow get down this
cliff and then drive around another tree. I had Kaz,
(26:15):
another researcher for the show who recently worked on a
crash reconstruction case way in on those skid marks, and
here's what she had to say. If those skid marks
belonged to his car, he was not going seventy miles
per hour like the file indicates. The skid marks would
have been darker getting lighter to the front of the
(26:36):
marks if he applied the brakes. The only way for
him to go over the cliff at seventy miles per
hour is if he didn't break at all. Also, I
think it's logical deposit that if he was skidding out
around the curve, the car would have started to rotate
even slightly and rolled down the hill, as opposed to
(26:57):
taking a header off the road, which is what French
and I and our new friends thought. There's also the
matter of the other three trees between the car and
Westlake Avenue. There are four fir trees between the road
and the creek bed. All four are in the nineteen
ninety nine photos and are still there, and undamaged to
(27:21):
this day, and we couldn't think of a reasonable way
that a person could accidentally crash through the fence, through
those trees and get to wear Carrie's car ended up.
It would take intention and precision, and most importantly, the
car would have to be entering from the exact opposite
(27:42):
angle that Gary's car would have gone in had he
failed to negotiate the corner. There was also no glass
or blood anywhere on the hood of the car, not
a single shard nor drop. If someone got into this
accident and flew through the windshear, you'd think there'd be
some evidence of that at the scene, especially given that
(28:05):
the creek water only went at its highest to the
front driver's side wheel well. And finally, beyond what it
would take for Gary to get to that particular stretch
of road, and the complete and utter lack of reason
for him to be there in the first place, there's
no way he could have mistaken Westlake Avenue for the Highway.
He lived in Morton for over a decade at this point,
(28:29):
and most recently lived two blocks from where his car
was found. Within the case files, which are largely duplicate
copies of reports chronicling the search and copies of Bryant's
medical records, there is a single and somewhat ambiguous reference
(28:50):
that at a minimum shows some level of skepticism around
the alleged car accident. It's a two sentence handwritten note
from the lead detective looking for case M M to
pick up Northwest Harrison area. Possibly a slingshot used. Unfortunately,
(29:12):
that's the entirety of the note, and there's no indication
of why the officer thinks a slingshot may have been used,
or whether this was followed up on, and it's never
mentioned again. But after doing some digging, I was able
to determine that Harrison refers to Harrison Christian, which was
a construction company several blocks down Westlake Avenue from Lake Creek.
(29:37):
I reached out to the Lewis County Sheriff's office for
clarification around the note and to ask some questions about
Gary's marital status and his last known contact. The officer
I spoke with had only recently been assigned to the
case and said that essentially, if I have the case files,
I know what he knows. He had no information on
(29:58):
the slingshot. Bryant's person nor his last known contact, but
he did say this he thought the photos of the
accident scene didn't make sense. The photos didn't line up
with the narrative, and the seats they appeared to be
(30:18):
pushed all the way back. Gary Shawn Bryant was five
foot seven. On November twenty ninth, the day after Gary's
car was recovered and the day the search was being conducted,
a rural convenience store forty miles north of Morton was
(30:38):
robbed at gunpoint at around six thirty pm. According to
the Tacoma News Tribune, a young man walked into the
store and bought a beverage. After paying for the drink,
he ordered the female clerk to keep the register open,
at which point he reached in and emptied it. While
the robber was emptying the register, the store's owner entered
(30:59):
the area from the kitchen and chased him out of
the store. The robber got away with all the register's
money and ran through a wooded area to a nearby church,
where he was seen speeding away in a Chevy astro van.
And while there's no video surveillance nor a detailed description
of the robber, the account sounds very similar to this
(31:21):
interview with keys.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Armed robberies. That's those days. That's better, especially if it's
like a small town. Remember the first one I did
and was freaked out, and.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But then once I got in there and actually I
was doing it. I remember one of the ladies at
the counters, she was.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
About the same age as my mom, and just the
look on her face and was like, I still think
about that.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I think she couldn't believe it. Not just that, but
she was just terrified. You know. It's like and I
hadn't really done anything. It wasn't even like it was.
It wasn't that crazy of a robbery.
Speaker 10 (32:25):
It was just.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Where was that at? That was a long time ago?
When was that?
Speaker 6 (32:53):
I'm always surprised that as much stuff of that as
I've done, I'd always crossed my mind that at some
point somebody's gonna have a gun. And I knew that
like the full time, and for some reason, like you
kept telling myself, I was like, you really need to
get a bullet proofess, cause one of these days, somebody's
(33:14):
gonna have a gun.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I just never did. I don't know, did anyone ever
pull a gun on you? No? So how old were
you with the personal robbery. I don't remember. Was it
(33:58):
before this instead of what you or? Yeah it was
in Washington? Was a store or a bank like a store? Yeah?
It was just sure do you remember the name? Yeah?
(34:22):
What do you remember? Why? Why did you do that?
Has it? I mean, I don't know. Was it for
money then or still?
Speaker 10 (34:31):
Well?
Speaker 3 (34:31):
It was for money? But do you know how much
money you got? No, it wasn't very much.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
In Tupper Lake, Keys ran from the bank through the
woods to a school where his car was parked. In Alito,
Keys parked his car at a nearby church to watch
the Alito house burn down. Keys talked about schools and
churches a lot. He knew them as places that were
generally empty at night, with little to no security, where
(35:05):
you could park a car for extended periods of time
without looking suspicious. And they both come up a lot
in cases we've looked at. Susie Lyle is believed to
have disappeared from the Sunni campus. Laurence Spear was last
seen several blocks from both a middle school and Indiana University.
(35:25):
Kimberly Ann Forbes's house was separated from a church by
a large wooded area. Giovanna Tyler lived across the street
from a school. Sheila Kathleen mac Broom's church was burned
down several months before she disappeared. Keys admitted to escaping
a different bank robbery through a school parking lot. Kelley
(35:46):
Sue Acronet was last seen at a rite aid, which
was also separated from a nearby church by a large
wooded area. And Gary Shawn Bryant's car was found in
Lake Creek, directly between a cement mixing plant and a
heavily wooded Mormon church. The route along I five from
(36:13):
Gresham to Fort Lewis runs just past Morton, Washington, but
if you're adverse to traveling interstates, the quickest route between
the two cities takes you directly past the alleged crash site,
the convenience store that was robbed, and the Morton laundromat.
(36:34):
A hamper of laundry was found inside Gary's car. If
you're traveling from Calville to Fort Lewis, however, Morton is
a little bit out of the way well usually. According
to multiple reports, the snow Qualmie Pass along I ninety
(36:57):
was open but practically impassable over Thanksgiving weekend that year.
Snowfall had reached blizzard levels. Visibility was extremely low, and
there were long stretches of interstate covered in ice. The
fastest alternative route from the east side of the pass
(37:19):
takes you directly through Morton. Keys returned his rental car
on the evening of Monday, November twenty ninth. It's highly
probable he would have been in the area of the
convenience store when it was robbed, and very plausible that
(37:43):
he could have been in Morton or near Morton when
Gary Shawn Bryant's car went into the creek.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Where will you go, you clever little worm, if you
bleed your host, dry back in your ride. The night
is still young. Set light to push back. The black
neat rose. Off to the right, a graveyard appears, lines
of stones, bodies molder below. Turn away, quick, bob your
head to the seat. As straight through that stop sign,
(38:11):
you'll roll. Loaded truck with lights off, slams into your broadside,
your flesh smashed as metal explodes. You may have been free,
You loved living your life. Fate had its own scheme
crushed like a bug.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
You still die.
Speaker 6 (38:43):
Drive it through.
Speaker 7 (38:46):
A wo if I.
Speaker 11 (38:49):
Waste of stay.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
List thrown out the corn and shroud bas ghostly realize
I'm not getting older, but I'm not getting younger. Let's
look different when I'm looking over my shoulder.
Speaker 11 (39:23):
Mountain mystery, love it all, love with it. It makes
me wander, But why would I even got a sacred boy?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I gotta get caught.
Speaker 7 (39:55):
Nothing really feels right, and I feel if I bishop.
Speaker 11 (40:18):
I realize I'm not.
Speaker 7 (40:20):
Getting older, but I'm not getting younger.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Okay, let's look different when I'm luck at over from
my shoulder.
Speaker 7 (40:34):
Hey, let's look different when I'm lucky. When I'm lucky,
This is a studio both and production.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You know, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
There's the trees, there's.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Something you look like the tire tracks. You're going straight
this way, but it ended up the pool pretty had
an angler. Yeah, and that's like a really like if
(00:41):
he swore, he go at and swirl. Don't know how
he would clumb up.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I think he would do well.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And why are you swarving adah?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, but that angle with those tire tracks, I don't know.
I'm not that spurt on this, but that doesn't seem
if it makes much sense.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's also like you almost have to intentionally get it
through these trees. It's like a car can fit for here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Maybe there, but you have to be very.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Intent about how you're doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean they were a little smaller back there.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Its like, but.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
What you have to confare.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
This is true crime bullshit.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I'm your host, Josh Hallmark, and this is a serialized.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Story of Israel Keys.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Israel Keys admitted to moving, stealing, and disappearing cars in
conjunction with his abductions, murders, and robberies. He talked about
setting them on fire and submerging them in bodies of
water and as both credible reports of encounters with Keys,
and Keys's favorite media would suggest he was also likely
(02:12):
wrecking cars, either as part of the abduction process or
as a means to disappear a car or stage a
car accident. This is something that comes up in his
favorite movie, Death Proof, his favorite book Intensity by Dean Koon's,
and in the book Found in His Shed where he
raped and murdered Samantha Koenig. Mister Murder, also by Dean Koons,
(02:37):
and that's a book we're going to get into extensively
this season because it's essentially a playbook for how Israel
Keys operated. In fact, if his mo is inspired by anything,
it's Mister Murder. As an example, Mister Murder uses a
homemade silencer in order to kill an older couple during
(03:00):
a home invasion. When he's done, he knows that he's
supposed to break down the silencer and dispose of its
individual pieces in separate locations while on his way to
the airport, But after putting all the hard work into
building his silencer, he's not quite ready to destroy it,
so he drives fifty miles to another city in another
(03:20):
state and uses it to rob a convenience store and
kill the clerk, which is you know, familiar. In another chapter,
Mister Murder kills someone, steals his car, uses it to
commit a second crime, then abandons it in a parking
lot of an apartment complex, and that's where he steals
(03:42):
a second car in order to return to his own car,
which was parked some distance from the original crime scene.
All this is to say, reading Mister Murder is a
surreal experience for anyone even remotely familiar with Keys and
his crimes. But I digress. Keys wrecking cars and staging
(04:05):
car accidents comes up a lot, not just in his
favorite media and interviews, but in The Name is forty four,
and even in cases we've previously discussed as possible Key's victims.
From the Name is forty four, Lori Anne Boffmann's car
was found wrecked and abandoned, and Tony Luzio's car was
(04:26):
eventually found submerged in a pond, although it wasn't recovered
until after Keyes's death. Then there's potential victims like Brianna
Maitland and Sheila Kathleen mac Broome, whose cars were found
abandoned with significant damage to them, Not to mention the
arsons of Jeremy Burt's, Kelly Sue Akronix, and John Hanneman's cars,
(04:49):
as discussed in the previous episode. Then, of course, there's
the multiple accounts of people who reported that keys tried
to run them off the road. Ill Courier's co worker
at the UV campus in two thousand twelve, a woman
who is driving on Interstate seventy in Colorado in two
thousand five, a woman on a rural Mississippi highway in
(05:12):
two thousand eight, and Mollie, whose detailed and highly credible
account of being chased by keys along Routes one twelve
and one O one on the Washington Peninsula has come
up numerous times across multiple keys media.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And as we.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Discussed in episode two ten, there's the suspicious grill guard
keys installed on his F one fifty truck shortly after
moving to Nea Bay. And finally, and perhaps most profoundly,
Keyes himself wrote about doing exactly this quite clearly and
graphically in his suicide.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Note where will you go, you clever little worm? If
you bleed your host dry back in your ride, the
night is still young? Should you like to push back?
The black neat rose off to the right a graveyard appiers,
lines of stones, bodies molder below. Turn away, quick, bob
your head to the seat. As straight through that stop sign,
(06:09):
you'll roll. Loaded truck with lights off, slams into your broadside,
your flesh smashed as metal explodes. You may have been free,
you loved living your life. Fate had its own scheme.
Crushed like a bug. You still die.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I've long suspected that there are at least several Keys
victims whose cars were either in accidents or staged to
appear as though they were in accidents. And it's something
you can sometimes hear when listening to Keys discuss moving
cars and presumed accidental deaths.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
There were a couple of times that I moved cars
and stuff of theirs. But it's not like I kidnapped dumbers.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Were they in the cars when you when you moved them?
Did you do that to cover up that hide the crimes?
Was just to throw it? Yeah, throw it off for
a while, Right, said you did move their cars?
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Yeah, a car car that belonged to at least one right,
And the purpose just we went through that fast.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The purpose of moving the car.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
They weren't in the car, but it was to do what.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Just to throw it off, distance it or whatever, just
to okay, moved it away from a scene or something from.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
It always surprises me, you know, like some situations you
read about the paper, like so and so disappeared presumed
boating accident, for example, will they find their boat?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You don't know what really happened to that person.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And that suspicion is what led me to Foya, a
case I stumbled upon several years ago while looking into
some of Keyes's earlier suspicious travels, specifically, in November nineteen
ninety nine, car rental out of Tacoma, Washington. It was
Thanksgiving weekend and just six weeks before Keys was to
be deployed to Egypt for six months stay. He rented
(08:26):
a car from the USAVE Auto Rental at the mall
across the street from Fort Louis and disappeared for four days.
Although to say disappeared is not entirely accurate, because based
on FBI interviews in my own conversations with people close
to Keys, we have two very likely but unconfirmed destinations
(08:51):
for this road trip. His childhood girlfriend Annie's family's house
in Callville or his younger sister's house in Gresham, or again,
based on FBI interviews with Annie, In the late spring
of nineteen ninety nine, sparked by the death of her stepfather,
she and Keys rekindled their teenage romance, and while he
(09:14):
was stationed in Fort Louis, they began writing letters back
and forth again, and that summer Keys rented a car
and drove out to Callville to see her, And while
she couldn't remember specific dates, she told investigators that Keys
rented cars and came out to visit several more times
in the following months, although she doesn't call out any
(09:35):
holiday visits, which you'd think one would remember more clearly
than a random weekend. From what I've heard, it's also
likely he was visiting his sister for Thanksgiving. She had
just eloped, moved to Oregon, and had her first child,
and Keys was apparently visiting her often during this period.
(09:56):
In his own words, he was very protective of her,
particularly after she ran away from home and was essentially
disowned by the Keys family. According to the Keys psych report,
she's the only sibling he talks about having a bond with,
and her birthday well, it's just a few weeks after Thanksgiving,
(10:21):
So while we don't know for certain where he went
that weekend. We know he was almost certainly visiting a
loved one.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
You talked once when the interviews about kind of having
trying to set up alibis during some of your crimes.
Can you elaborate a little bit more on what kind
of alibis you'd set up and would you pass your
cell phone off to other people to hang on to
or different things like that, or is it more just no.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I never was specific in anyone you ever passed her,
and a lot of stuff that I did with that
was no. I would do it.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
In conjunction with something else that was going on in
pretty tight timeline, if you could say so that if
it ever came up, then.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's not like I would be in a situation where
I had to explain where I was for days on
end or something that was more along the lines.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
But I never had any say.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Alibis like people who would would vouch for me or something. Now,
but the title I would make it look like it
was difficult for you to ride.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And that's what takes us to the strange car accident
that occurred near Mount Rainier on Sunday, November twenty eight
of nineteen ninety nine. No one knows when or exactly
(12:04):
how Gary Shawn Bryant's car ended up in Lake Creek
on the outskirts of Morton, Washington, Nor is it clear
when Geary was last seen prior to the discovery of
his car, but at six fifty one p m. On
November twenty eighth of nineteen ninety nine, Geary was reported
missing by the Washington State Police after his car was
(12:27):
discovered wedged between a boulder and the banks of Lake
Creek near its confluence into the Tilton River. The major
discrepancy within the case files centers on Gary's date of
last contact. On one report, it stated to be November
twenty eighth, the day his car was found, but on
(12:47):
another it's reported as November twenty seventh, and unfortunately, neither
report specifies the details of that last contact, what time
it occurred, who it was with, where, the general nature
of it. Five foot seven, Gary was thirty two when
he disappeared. He was married with three young children. He
(13:11):
was an out of work logger and lived in a
trailer in a wooded area along the Tilton River about
three miles northwest of Morton. The status of his relationship
with his wife is unclear. She only comes up once
in the files, and it was to sign off on
the release of his medical records. But based on real
(13:31):
estate records and background searches, it appears that Gary and
his wife may have been living separately at the time
of his disappearance, and while we don't have a lot
of information surrounding his last known whereabouts, we do know
that upon the discovery of his car, the Lewis County
Sheriff's Office sprung into action. Gary's car was discovered at
(13:54):
around six p m. On the twenty eighth, and a
search of the surrounding area involving Helico cadaver dogs, search
and rescue, a dive team, and horse mounted officers began
at approximately eight a m. The very next day, But
despite seventeen people searching a nine mile span of the
(14:14):
Tilton River and its shores over ninety nine collective man hours,
not a single piece of evidence was ever recovered, including Gary,
and the cadaverdogs didn't hit anywhere, including the area immediately
surrounding Gary's car. At some point between the discovery of
(14:36):
his car and the search the following morning, the Lewis
County Sheriff's office laid out a theory for what they
believed happened. A report from the morning of the twenty
eighth reads as follows. The search request is a result
of a vehicle accident that occurred in Morton, Washington. During
the investigation, it was believed that the victim, a white
(14:57):
male approximately thirty years old, had failed to negotiate a
corner at approximately seventy miles per hour. The impact ejected
him out of the car into the rising Tilton River.
And while I suppose this could be a reasonable presumption
based on the scene, superficially at least there's a lot
(15:18):
about the state of the car, the road, the presumed
accident occurred on the placement of the car in the creek,
and both Lake Creek and Tilton River that cast doubt
on this theory. And unfortunately, local law enforcement had tunnel
vision when it came to the theory. They never looked
at this as anything more than a car accident. They
(15:40):
never interviewed any one in Gary's life, they didn't do
a thorough analysis of his car. They just chalked it
up to being a car accident. And by June of
two thousand, Gary had been pronounced dead and the case
was cold. After going through through the files and photos
(16:01):
over and over again trying to make sense of a
situation that didn't make much sense, French from the research
team and I went out to Morton to see the
recovery site in person. But before we get into that,
here's what you should know. First, Gary's car went into
the creek, not off some main road or highway, but
(16:22):
off of a gravel road that essentially operates us the
driveway for a small ready mixed cement plant. There's no
conceivable reason Derry would be on that stretch of road,
let alone driving seventy miles per hour down it. Now
to be fair, the road Westlake Avenue is adjacent to
(16:45):
Highway twelve, but it takes a bit of effort to
get to it from the highway. This is by no
means a situation where you're driving along a highway and
then accidentally end up on some side street. From Route
to weelve, you have to make a ninety degree turn
on to seventh Street, then drive about seventy five feet
(17:06):
before making another ninety degree turn onto West Lake, and
from there you have to drive half a mile past
a cemetery and a waste management plant before getting to
the alleged crash site. Essentially, it takes quite a significant
amount of intention to get to where Gary's car ended
up in the creek. Secondly, while Lake Creek and Tilton
(17:30):
River were in the midst of historic flooding at the
time of Gary's disappearance, his car was only submerged at
its deepest point up to the top of his driver's
side wheel well, approximately twenty seven inches deep in a
narrow creek. Because the car was at a slant, that
(17:50):
front end driver's side tire was the only tire in
the water. And Finally, other than a fairly minimal amount
of front ends damage and a busted out windshield, the
car was in pretty good shape. It did not, by
any stretch of the imagination, look like a car that
drove off a steep embankment, through multiple trees and thick
(18:13):
brush into a creek at seventy miles an hour. So
we had questions about the topography, the trees and foliage
between the gravel road and the creek, the visibility of
the car from the highway and surrounding areas, and the
tire tracks and skid marks that even in photos don't
(18:35):
really make sense. So just a few days shy of
the twenty second anniversary of Gary's disappearance, French and I
drove the half mile stretch of road, passed the cemetery
to the cement mixing plant, and much to our luck,
as we pulled up, so did a friendly and talkative
cement mixer.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Do you know that this rook was recently?
Speaker 9 (19:01):
Yeah, it just got chip sealed this something.
Speaker 8 (19:04):
Was it dirt before then?
Speaker 9 (19:05):
No, No, it's it's up been kind of those drava
from there on and that's county though the city ends
and then it's county except promote. It's really kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And it's when the city's.
Speaker 9 (19:18):
Down at that end of the road that this is
county to here.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
But they chipped.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Heel the whole thing. This place.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's been operating the whole time.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, it was actually it was not Cali Portland's.
Speaker 10 (19:29):
Then they bought them out, No. Three in two thousand
and three.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
Okay, it was central ready mixed.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Do you ever have any problems with people breaking in
or not?
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Here? Not here?
Speaker 9 (19:38):
No, not in no long time. Somebody screwed with it,
like twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But that's what they do.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
Oh, I think they were trying to break in, you know,
but it didn't. Was the gate here at the time, Yeah, yeah,
we're always at the gate.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
How'd they get through the game?
Speaker 9 (19:54):
Well, they can just park out here and then park
over the game.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
They're not a high fence.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Since then, we put in security in the buildings and
emotion sensors.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Unfortunately, he wasn't working at that particular plant when Gary
went missing, so he didn't have any information about the disappearance. However,
his comments about the scene being just outside of town
jurisdiction and in county territory were both interesting and familiar.
It's something we know that keys played around with jurisdictional
(20:33):
lines that could muddel investigations. In fact, earlier that morning,
I'd been at Lake Quinault, where del mar samples car
was recovered along the Quinault River, and much like Gary's,
del Mar's car was recovered just across the county line
and at a clearly marked juncture from state to county
(20:55):
operated roadway. Our new friend also mentioned that the plant
had been broken into about twenty years ago, around the
same time that Gary disappeared, and he eventually expressed doubt
that someone could accidentally drive into the creek from Westlake
Avenue and then somehow disappeared completely. And he wasn't the
(21:21):
only one. As French and I walked along the creek,
we ran into a local who was smoking under the
highway overpass. Also, I don't think even if you're not
wearing a seatbelt, I don't think you die in that accident.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Unless he ended up in the water.
Speaker 10 (21:43):
Pill Uh God, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Looking at a carcrat that happened.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Here or wok? You remember that?
Speaker 10 (21:54):
Yeah from twenty years ago?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (21:59):
No, uh you know they then Ah, this was supposedly yeah, yeah, exactly,
Well but there didn't you even on the road. Maybe
couldn't foll That's how we're trying to figure out. Huh weird, Yeah, weird.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So if this one supposed to be threw off the road,
got lodged in and then got into the river and
they were up the count.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
Really, yeah, so that's the And there was no blood
evidence or anywhere.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
You never found the person.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
Noah, that said ended up in the recreating them how
they lived anywhere?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I taught you they Yeah, Mike, blood in the wooden
shield didn't end up on the other side as far
as like that a dud angle, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
But then this guy that we're looking into, he was
in the area at the time too.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Really, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Suspicious.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, i'd say, very dismissive.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, how'd you get ejected?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And then the matt managed to float all the way
down the.
Speaker 10 (23:14):
Creek under the river and gone, And yeah, that's highly.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
High.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
God, it's highly unlikely for a lot of reasons. For one,
Gary would have needed to not only be ejected from
the car through the windshield of his early eighties Mercury Cougar,
but he'd have to be ejected more than four and
a half feet across the hood of the car, and
(23:40):
from there he'd have to float approximately five hundred feet
down a narrow and serpentine creek before even getting to
the tilt and river. But the most unbelievable thing about
the scene is how Gary's car even got to where
it ended up. And it wasn't just the four of
(24:01):
us at the creek that day who were suspicious about
this alleged accident scene. If one thing knows its tire tracks,
because if it's keys, I'm assuming he's putting it in
neutral and pushing it down here.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Well, that's the thing, Like I think the tire tracks
are just like too perfect.
Speaker 11 (24:24):
Yeah right, Like Mike, like.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I could see him, like, how would you go getting
the tire tracks and.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Then mutual and roll it down.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Because it I feel like it certainly makes more sense
that it would roll down there and then.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Get lodged in the way it did it.
Speaker 10 (24:55):
Yeah, if you're rolling seventy, I mean this is enough
the whole.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's how enough of a root that you could cover
the ground and even give like all or something. I
don't thinking that amount of invention in the roof just
getting stuck y in the countia tip into the water
and there's not a lot of damage with the body
clock just like it looks like.
Speaker 10 (25:22):
If that roll in.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So here's the thing about those tire tracks. They lead
directly into a tree, a large and very old tree
that you can even see in the photos from nineteen
ninety nine. And between the end of those tracks and
the tree was a fence which is still broken to
(25:49):
this day, and essentially a short cliff into French's Point.
A car going seventy miles per hour or even forty
miles per hour is likely going to flip. But what
it's not going to do is somehow get down this
cliff and then drive around another tree. I had Kaz,
(26:15):
another researcher for the show who recently worked on a
crash reconstruction case way in on those skid marks, and
here's what she had to say. If those skid marks
belonged to his car, he was not going seventy miles
per hour like the file indicates. The skid marks would
have been darker getting lighter to the front of the
(26:36):
marks if he applied the brakes. The only way for
him to go over the cliff at seventy miles per
hour is if he didn't break at all. Also, I
think it's logical deposit that if he was skidding out
around the curve, the car would have started to rotate
even slightly and rolled down the hill, as opposed to
(26:57):
taking a header off the road, which is what French
and I and our new friends thought. There's also the
matter of the other three trees between the car and
Westlake Avenue. There are four fir trees between the road
and the creek bed. All four are in the nineteen
ninety nine photos and are still there, and undamaged to
(27:21):
this day, and we couldn't think of a reasonable way
that a person could accidentally crash through the fence, through
those trees and get to wear Carrie's car ended up.
It would take intention and precision, and most importantly, the
car would have to be entering from the exact opposite
(27:42):
angle that Gary's car would have gone in had he
failed to negotiate the corner. There was also no glass
or blood anywhere on the hood of the car, not
a single shard nor drop. If someone got into this
accident and flew through the windshear, you'd think there'd be
some evidence of that at the scene, especially given that
(28:05):
the creek water only went at its highest to the
front driver's side wheel well. And finally, beyond what it
would take for Gary to get to that particular stretch
of road, and the complete and utter lack of reason
for him to be there in the first place, there's
no way he could have mistaken Westlake Avenue for the Highway.
He lived in Morton for over a decade at this point,
(28:29):
and most recently lived two blocks from where his car
was found. Within the case files, which are largely duplicate
copies of reports chronicling the search and copies of Bryant's
medical records, there is a single and somewhat ambiguous reference
(28:50):
that at a minimum shows some level of skepticism around
the alleged car accident. It's a two sentence handwritten note
from the lead detective looking for case M M to
pick up Northwest Harrison area. Possibly a slingshot used. Unfortunately,
(29:12):
that's the entirety of the note, and there's no indication
of why the officer thinks a slingshot may have been used,
or whether this was followed up on, and it's never
mentioned again. But after doing some digging, I was able
to determine that Harrison refers to Harrison Christian, which was
a construction company several blocks down Westlake Avenue from Lake Creek.
(29:37):
I reached out to the Lewis County Sheriff's office for
clarification around the note and to ask some questions about
Gary's marital status and his last known contact. The officer
I spoke with had only recently been assigned to the
case and said that essentially, if I have the case files,
I know what he knows. He had no information on
(29:58):
the slingshot. Bryant's person nor his last known contact, but
he did say this he thought the photos of the
accident scene didn't make sense. The photos didn't line up
with the narrative, and the seats they appeared to be
(30:18):
pushed all the way back. Gary Shawn Bryant was five
foot seven. On November twenty ninth, the day after Gary's
car was recovered and the day the search was being conducted,
a rural convenience store forty miles north of Morton was
(30:38):
robbed at gunpoint at around six thirty pm. According to
the Tacoma News Tribune, a young man walked into the
store and bought a beverage. After paying for the drink,
he ordered the female clerk to keep the register open,
at which point he reached in and emptied it. While
the robber was emptying the register, the store's owner entered
(30:59):
the area from the kitchen and chased him out of
the store. The robber got away with all the register's
money and ran through a wooded area to a nearby church,
where he was seen speeding away in a Chevy astro van.
And while there's no video surveillance nor a detailed description
of the robber, the account sounds very similar to this
(31:21):
interview with keys.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Armed robberies. That's those days. That's better, especially if it's
like a small town. Remember the first one I did
and was freaked out, and.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But then once I got in there and actually I
was doing it. I remember one of the ladies at
the counters, she was.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
About the same age as my mom, and just the
look on her face and was like, I still think
about that.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I think she couldn't believe it. Not just that, but
she was just terrified. You know. It's like and I
hadn't really done anything. It wasn't even like it was.
It wasn't that crazy of a robbery.
Speaker 10 (32:25):
It was just.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Where was that at? That was a long time ago?
When was that?
Speaker 6 (32:53):
I'm always surprised that as much stuff of that as
I've done, I'd always crossed my mind that at some
point somebody's gonna have a gun. And I knew that
like the full time, and for some reason, like you
kept telling myself, I was like, you really need to
get a bullet proofess, cause one of these days, somebody's
(33:14):
gonna have a gun.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I just never did. I don't know, did anyone ever
pull a gun on you? No? So how old were
you with the personal robbery. I don't remember. Was it
(33:58):
before this instead of what you or? Yeah it was
in Washington? Was a store or a bank like a store? Yeah?
It was just sure do you remember the name? Yeah?
(34:22):
What do you remember? Why? Why did you do that?
Has it? I mean, I don't know. Was it for
money then or still?
Speaker 10 (34:31):
Well?
Speaker 3 (34:31):
It was for money? But do you know how much
money you got? No, it wasn't very much.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
In Tupper Lake, Keys ran from the bank through the
woods to a school where his car was parked. In Alito,
Keys parked his car at a nearby church to watch
the Alito house burn down. Keys talked about schools and
churches a lot. He knew them as places that were
generally empty at night, with little to no security, where
(35:05):
you could park a car for extended periods of time
without looking suspicious. And they both come up a lot
in cases we've looked at. Susie Lyle is believed to
have disappeared from the Sunni campus. Laurence Spear was last
seen several blocks from both a middle school and Indiana University.
(35:25):
Kimberly Ann Forbes's house was separated from a church by
a large wooded area. Giovanna Tyler lived across the street
from a school. Sheila Kathleen mac Broom's church was burned
down several months before she disappeared. Keys admitted to escaping
a different bank robbery through a school parking lot. Kelley
(35:46):
Sue Acronet was last seen at a rite aid, which
was also separated from a nearby church by a large
wooded area. And Gary Shawn Bryant's car was found in
Lake Creek, directly between a cement mixing plant and a
heavily wooded Mormon church. The route along I five from
(36:13):
Gresham to Fort Lewis runs just past Morton, Washington, but
if you're adverse to traveling interstates, the quickest route between
the two cities takes you directly past the alleged crash site,
the convenience store that was robbed, and the Morton laundromat.
(36:34):
A hamper of laundry was found inside Gary's car. If
you're traveling from Calville to Fort Lewis, however, Morton is
a little bit out of the way well usually. According
to multiple reports, the snow Qualmie Pass along I ninety
(36:57):
was open but practically impassable over Thanksgiving weekend that year.
Snowfall had reached blizzard levels. Visibility was extremely low, and
there were long stretches of interstate covered in ice. The
fastest alternative route from the east side of the pass
(37:19):
takes you directly through Morton. Keys returned his rental car
on the evening of Monday, November twenty ninth. It's highly
probable he would have been in the area of the
convenience store when it was robbed, and very plausible that
(37:43):
he could have been in Morton or near Morton when
Gary Shawn Bryant's car went into the creek.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Where will you go, you clever little worm, if you
bleed your host, dry back in your ride. The night
is still young. Set light to push back. The black
neat rose. Off to the right, a graveyard appears, lines
of stones, bodies molder below. Turn away, quick, bob your
head to the seat. As straight through that stop sign,
(38:11):
you'll roll. Loaded truck with lights off, slams into your broadside,
your flesh smashed as metal explodes. You may have been free,
You loved living your life. Fate had its own scheme
crushed like a bug.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
You still die.
Speaker 6 (38:43):
Drive it through.
Speaker 7 (38:46):
A wo if I.
Speaker 11 (38:49):
Waste of stay.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
List thrown out the corn and shroud bas ghostly realize
I'm not getting older, but I'm not getting younger. Let's
look different when I'm looking over my shoulder.
Speaker 11 (39:23):
Mountain mystery, love it all, love with it. It makes
me wander, But why would I even got a sacred boy?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I gotta get caught.
Speaker 7 (39:55):
Nothing really feels right, and I feel if I bishop.
Speaker 11 (40:18):
I realize I'm not.
Speaker 7 (40:20):
Getting older, but I'm not getting younger.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Okay, let's look different when I'm luck at over from
my shoulder.
Speaker 7 (40:34):
Hey, let's look different when I'm lucky. When I'm lucky,
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