The Lewis & Clark Valley murders

Welcome back for a new episode!

This week, Jess and Brice dive into multiple unsolved cases from the Lewis Clark Valley that borders the state lines of Washington and Idaho.

Over 40 years have gone by and there are still no answers to the disappearances of 12-year-old Christina White and 35-year-old Steven Pearsall.

Nor have there been any breaks in solving the murders of Kristin David, a 22-year-old college student or sisters Kristina Nelson and Brandy Miller, ages 21 and 18.

What we do know, is that none of the families of these victims have stopped searching for answers and justice for their loved ones.

One person of interest has possible ties to all the victims, and maybe others, but there is no hard proof to bring anyone to justice.

Don’t miss us go live on Friday, September 1st at 6:00 pm PST! We can’t wait to hang out and do our first-ever WTF live.

Stay tuned for the details on our social media.

Information from this episode:

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Lewis-Clark-Valley-Serial-Murders-Five-People-Missing-and-Murdered

https://charleyproject.org/case/christina-lee-white

https://charleyproject.org/case/steven-r-pearsall

https://thecinemaholic.com/kristin-david-kristina-nelson-and-brandy-miller-murders/

https://www.facebook.com/LCVSK/posts/kristina-nelson-21-and-her-stepsister-jacquelyn-brandy-miller-18-were-originally/145558495592595/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%E2%80%93Clark_Valley_murders

https://lonestar923.com/lewis-clark-valley-murders/

https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/the-stage-door-killer-are-5-lewis-clark-valley-murders-linked-to-1-suspect-f9043652be4d

Documentaries:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9712948/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1813235/

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Szuki is past very bad podcast,so La Criminality discont What Happens in the
Woods is a true crime podcast.We discuss events that are often violent in
nature. Listeners discretion is advised.Well, hello, and welcome back to

(00:44):
What Happens in the Woods. Thanksfor joining us again for our third episode
this season. Hi, Bryce,Hello, I don't know why you always
seem surprised. I'm surprised by everything. Yeah, all right, Well we
just quick reminder, are really excitedto do our one hundredth episode on September

(01:11):
first, which is a Friday.We're going to do a live what the
fuck? Give the people what theywant? The WTF WTF. She's not
saying what the fuck? I meanI am saying what the fuck? Because
it is of what the fuck?It's a what the fuck? Episode?
Yeah, yeah, your favorite episode, your every kind of episode? Oh

(01:37):
yeah, I think they're all myfavorites, are they? Yeah? All
of what the fuck episodes are yourfavorites? You guys can't see his face,
they're all my favorites. Well,we are excited to have you guys
joined us for that. So Septemberone, which is a Friday, six

(01:57):
pm UM Pacific Standard time for anyof our friends on the East Coast or
any other places, and we Ithink you've decided it's going to be Instagram
or YouTube. Would you decide both? Yeah? Oh, we're getting real,
real ambitious here. Okay, allright, so Instagram, YouTube,

(02:23):
please make plans to join us.We have a lot to just fill that
time with wonderful WTF stories, yeah, Faemily, about an hour, yeah,
about an hour. We could goover it could yeah, but we'll
also answer any questions if you guyswant to interact with us, We would

(02:44):
love it. The more the merrier. Yeah. Yeah, so September one.
We're excited, all right, anyother updates? I'm missing Herman died,
I know, I know that's kindof sad. I feel like my
childhood has died. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't always a big fan of

(03:06):
Pee Wee Hermann. But you know, for those who don't remember, there
was only so much you could watchon TV. There were some only so
many channels. There was only youknow, Saturday mornings you woke up,
there was only so many options,and sometimes I would just put him on
because there wasn't anything else on thatI wanted to watch, Not that I
really wanted to watch him, butyou know, it's an iconic I don't

(03:32):
know, I don't know any otherit was iconic. It's just it's part
of my childhood. Yeah, itwas unique. I don't know that you
could make another show like that,like Blues Clues came close because you got
a talking chair, talking mailbox.I mean it literally is pee Wee,
Yeah, pee Wee's Playhouse. Yeah, and he has characters that come over

(03:53):
like salt. I mean it waskind of it was kind of um,
I was that Peewee's Playhouse was likemister Rogers on Crack. It's very eccentric.
But that's what made it awesome.I guess for our generation that was
just like right there. For me. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't my

(04:18):
favorite, I guess, but butit was. It was something, and
it definitely was part of like mySaturday morning and if you know, if
there were reruns of it, I'dstill watch it. It just it was
definitely not something that, like yousaid, can't be replaced, it can't
be duplicated. Yeah, yeah,I don't know. Is it came at

(04:42):
a time too where I had toexplain to like Olivia and Haley, to
the girls basically like like when wewere kids, just like all the things
that we that are normal to usnow growing up, like having to plan
your po breaks around commercials and gettingsnacks right, like you know, Hailey

(05:03):
was just like, why don't youjust pause the TV because we didn't have
pause. We didn't literally had nopause, Like you know, you had
to look in the TV guide.That's another thing, just you know,
yeah, you could get the commercialbreaks at TV guide. No, Yeah,
and it's yeah, it's a differentway of life, different way and

(05:24):
then you know, having to goto Blockbuster and rent something the movie,
yeah, like you couldn't just netflixit or you couldn't just you know,
all these streaming services. No.I remember when pay per view became a
thing, because that's how we rentedDirty Dancing when it came out. And

(05:44):
that was a big deal to havethat because it just showed up on your
bill the next month. So peoplewould order like four or five movies and
then have and they could range andlike cause and it would show up on
your build the next month. Youcould easily rack up like one hundred dollars
in extra fees just printing movies andyou only got to see it. At

(06:10):
the one time you didn't get tokeep watching and like rewind it or if
you watched it, you watched it. If you didn't, you didn't.
That sucks for you. Yeah.Yeah, yeah, things are definitely different.
The world's changing. Yeah, Ifeel I lately I've not felt like
I'm feeling more and more my age. No, which is not old.

(06:34):
I don't want to say it's old, but I feel my age. They're
there are reminders everywhere that I amdefinitely my age. No, I just
I was just like comparing that withthe girls. Yeah, like how everything
was different. Yeah, Internet,telephone, Yeah, like home phone,

(06:58):
Like I don't even know anyone whohas a home phone anymore. I mean,
like but even a lot of themdon't. Not is because who even
offers it, you know, tohave an actual land line. Because Mom
still had a landline. She neverused it though, no, but it
was just that thing she held onto. Yeah, like Mom, just get

(07:20):
rid of it. Yeah, Ido understand there is a purpose for those
though. I can understand why youwould want one because you're you know,
I get it. Yeah, orwhen like having if you were lucky enough
to have a phone line in yourbedroom, not only just have your own

(07:45):
phone number, but just at aline, like be able to plug in
a phone and be able to callout from your bedroom, not have to
go out into the front room orthe dining area where everybody could hear your
phone calls. It's the weirdest thingtoo, because like you couldn't. I
could tell you a couple numbers,but like I remember my first phone number
from like Travis Air Force Base becauseI had my own phone number two in

(08:07):
my bedroom. Yeah, we neverhad that. I never had that anywhere.
But I can't remember my phone numberfrom high school. Yeah, I
remember a phone number on Travis andthen our phone number. Yeah, Chris
and I had our own phone line. Yeah, I can't really remember,
but I mean I used to youknew everybody's phone number. That's the only

(08:30):
way you were going to get holdof anybody. If I was in the
address book, yeah, yeah,on the counter by the phone flip thing
a little uh what do they callhim? A dress book? No,
there was a little yeah like therolodex. Yeah, the little rollodex.
Yeah. Yeah, that actually kindof ties into our case that I'm going

(08:54):
to discuss. Really, Yeah,there's just me being nostalgia. Yeah,
we could go off on a wholetangent too, we could, that's obviously
a different podcast. Yeah, maybewe'll go more into the live maybe.
Also if you don't, we're tryingto go live on YouTube also because it's

(09:15):
a little bit easier on the broadcast, head over to the YouTube channel.
We've got a YouTube channel since westarted, Like all of our podcasts are
on YouTube. There's no video,but that's something we would like to do
in the future, like video podcasts. If you could head over to what
Happens in the Woods on YouTube andsubscribe, that'd be awesome. Is I

(09:37):
think we're at like eighty nine Weneed one hundred subscribers just to to get
the live anyway. Oh I didn'tknow that. Yeah, okay, well
we need some help then if we'retrying to go live there. Yeah,
and while we're at it, canI just put out there nobody has left

(09:58):
us overview in months on Apple.Yeah, get get to going people.
I hate like begging for things,but it would be nice. Yeah,
just you know, leave us somewords of encouragement and make a make a

(10:20):
I don't know, make a casefor why somebody would want to listen to
us. Yeah, it'd be great, it would make my day. I'd
appreciate it on a personal level.So still said Crime Diners going away,
I know I am going to misslistening to them weekly. I'm gonna have

(10:41):
to go back and listen to likethe ones before. I didn't really binge
everything from the beginning when I foundthem. So, yeah, Crime Diner
has decided to close their doors.Yeah, I miss listening to those ladies
and hearing about all the food.But I do want you to know I

(11:03):
am still invited to go visit soI can go to a drag show,
Okay, I made sure also,Yeah, so at some point I will
make that that trip. Okay,I'll go on the journey. You have
to get on a plane. Iunderstand that and can get a real idea.

(11:24):
Okay, you know it. Don'tcall me out in front of people.
That's my business. Thank you.You're all right? Are you ready
to get into this case? Let'sdo it all right, let's go.
So our case this week is goingto take us to the Washington Idaho border
in what is known as the LewisClark Valley, and between nineteen seventy nineteen

(11:48):
eighty one, at least five victimswent missing or were murdered that have ties
to one particular individual. I wasjust there. Yeah, it is crazy.
There's crazy. Eastern Washington has alot of crime that I think doesn't
get discussed very often because Seattle isso prominent in the state. But there's

(12:16):
I honestly, the rabbit hole thatkept leading me to other things when I
was looking at these five victims wasjust continuous. So, I mean,
as we know, Robert Robert Yateswas in Spokane, which is right down
the road from this. There wasapparently several other technically I don't think named

(12:43):
serial killers, but definitely along thatline there was several that were actually named.
They'll get too. So it's it'san overlooked area that has some crime
because I think it's an it's soisolated, it's it's very sparse, and
it's still not. I mean tothis day, I can only imagine in

(13:07):
the late seventies, early eighties howpopulated it wasn't and it driving three that
area is very, very sparse stilltoday, Like I literally did it at
the beginning of July, and it'sthere are so much just not there.
Yeah, I mean when we drovethrough like eastern Oregon up through Idaho and

(13:28):
then back into Washington when we hadlike a long family drive up to see
my brother graduate. Gosh, Imean what nineteen years ago, so long
ago? It there were parts ofOregon where I was scared if we broke

(13:50):
down, we would die. Yeah. It was that, like there was
no there was nothing, There wasno gas stations, even there was no
sec between was it. Once weleft Reno and headed up we were going
to Steve's house in Nampa. Shoutout to Steve Diaro. I know now

(14:11):
he doesn't listen, but his daughterlistens. Oh hey, Yeah, that
one was really scary. It wasbecause if we had had any issues,
or if we had run out ofgas. Yeah, and it was a
real possibility because there is such astretch of road that is that has nothing.

(14:35):
It's just absolutely nothing. It's beautiful, it was dry, but you
know, it was it was.I think that's kind of what I imagine
driving through like the Mojave Desert orparts of Arizona, things like that would
be where it's just there's nothing thereand if you break down or something happens,

(14:56):
you're fucked. And who's coming foryou? Who's going to see you,
like, who what do you do? And when we drove there were
no like did we even have cellphones? Yeah we did, Yeah we
did, but there was no service. No, there was I think your
work phone was getting service rise andhead service there. Yeah, we were

(15:18):
still we were still on map quest, like I printed out all Oh yeah,
I printed out the whole run.Yeah, there's another thing before Google
Maps and driving directions map quests.That's why I didn't go anywhere because I
would have got lost. Wow.Yeah, it's it is definitely a very

(15:41):
The area is just not populated andit wasn't. It definitely wasn't back in
the seventies. So in nineteen seventynine, a twelve year old girl disappeared
without a trace, which is whereour cases begin. Christina Lee White was
last seen at a friend's house aftergoing to the Aston County Fair in Assout
in Washington. This was on Apriltwenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine. The

(16:06):
day began with Christina. She wentwith her mom and her younger sister in
the morning to watch the parade thatkicked off the fair, and then her
mom dropped her off at her friend'shouse so that they could go to the
fair together. The plan was thatshe would ride her bike home after the
fair, so her mom dropped herand her bike off at around two thirty

(16:27):
pm. She called her mom fromher friend's house, stating that she was
feeling ill from the heat and shehad had kind of a history of heat
exhaustion just really affecting her yea.So her mom advised her to lay down,
drink some water, put a coolcloth on your neck, and just
kind of relax for a few minutes, get stable, and then ride her

(16:48):
bike home when she was able tookay, and either her mom didn't have
a car available to her at thattime, or the younger sister was asleep
taking a nap. It was kindof discussed but left up in the air
as to what, you know,what the issue was why she couldn't just
go over right then there was astepdad, So I'm thinking, and you

(17:14):
know, it was very common,especially in that time, for their just
to be the one car. Veryvery rarely did everybody have their own car.
So I'm thinking it was probably acombination of both things. Because the
town is relatively small and her housewas not that far away. So I
mean, if the sister had beenawake, she maybe could have just walked

(17:37):
over there. It wouldn't it wouldhave been a few blocks. It wasn't
like it's that far. So Ithink it was maybe just a combination of
both where you know, it wasvery common at that time for kids to
just go out on their bike.She was twelve years old. From all
accounts, she was very responsible.So her going to the fairer with a

(17:59):
friend out that big of a deal. You know, her being feeling the
heat exhaustion, She had had thatissue before, they knew how to deal
with it. So it really wasn'tanything that was you know, very worrying
for her mom to say, where, I need to rush over there immediately.
Somehow it was just you know,take a minute, cool off to

(18:21):
the best that you can, andthen come home when you're able to.
We don't know for certain that Christinafollowed her mom's advice, but it is
assumed that she did, since shedidn't come back home right away at some
point that her mom assumes that shewent back to the fair because she was
feeling better. The arrangement had beenthat she would ride her bike back home

(18:45):
in the evening, and there's areport that a classmate had seen her in
the area between seven pm and tenpm, riding home. That's a huge
time gap, and it's repeated acrossmany articles, and you know everything that
I've seen a couple of things thatI watched that is the time gap that's

(19:07):
given. I just feel like that'shuge. They couldn't have narrowed that down
anymore. Maybe she was just seenriding around the neighborhood. Maybe she was
seen multiple times coming back and forthfrom the fair. There's a lot of
things that could have happened. Asof this recording, Christina White has never

(19:27):
been found and there's not been anytrace of her remains or her bicycle.
Really, yeah, you can imaginethis set the community, which like we've
mentioned, is very small, justspinning out of control. Local police and
sheriffs and community members rallied to searchfor this little girl to no avail.

(19:48):
There were not many leads. Therewere a lot of people that stood out
as possible suspects, and many peoplewere questioned, but there was nothing that
came from it. Weeks after herdisappearance, there seemed to be a break
in the case when there were schoolpapers that were confirmed to be Christina's were
found on a farm outside of town, and this only caused more confusion as

(20:12):
a thorough search of the area wasdone and there was no trace of her
bike. There was no trace ofher, There were no other leads there.
Authorities really had no insight into whathappened to her. The papers are
the only physical evidence to her disappearance, so it wasn't like a bag.

(20:33):
It was just the papers. Itwas just the papers, and the person
who found them, whose farm itwas, said that they looked like they
had not been there for very long. So you know, that part of
the state gets pretty hot, sohe would have started deteriorating papers if it
had been an unusual April and therewas rainstorms. You know, there's all

(20:56):
sorts of weather elements that could havestarted to you know, make these papers
either get you know, soggy orbleached with the sun. Like there's all
these aspects of being out in theelements that these papers could have been ruined.
He said they looked like they wererelatively good condition, not been out

(21:18):
there for very long when he foundthem. So this was somewhere about three
weeks after her disappearance, So it'svery odd, Like I said, that
is it as far as evidence.So. Christina was the middle of three
children, and she had an olderbrother and, like I mentioned, a
younger sister. Her parents had divorcedand she had lived with her mom and

(21:41):
her stepdad. Everyone that has talkedabout Christina describes her as full of laughter,
fun loving. She was good toget her hands dirty in the outdoors.
She had a lot of activities tolook forward to in the upcoming summer,
some camping trips, church functions.No one thought that she would run
away. There was just no reasonto think that she was a runaway.

(22:06):
The police chief at the time reallythought that she was just having fun in
town and that they were going tofind her that night. There was nothing
that led anybody to believe that therewould be foul play or that she wouldn't
be found. And then we fastforward to nineteen eighty one near Moscow,

(22:26):
Idaho, where Kristen Noel David,a twenty two year old senior at the
University of Idaho, went missing.Christina was studying a double major in broadcast
journalism in political science. She lovedto take her bike for long bike rides
and had set out the morning ofJune twenty six nineteen eighty one to ride

(22:48):
her bike along Highway ninety five towardsLewiston, Idaho. She had called her
mom the night before to talk aboutwhat her plans were and that she anticipated
the ride would not be too hard. It was thirty two miles, so
it was going to take her afew hours. But she had a new
job starting that day, so shewas excited for that, and she had
planned to be back home in timeto be ready for that and make it

(23:11):
to her new job. And thereare several reports that a female matching Kristen
David's description was on a bike ridingon Highway ninety five that day, just
outside of the town of Genesee.Witnesses claimed that she was approached by a
man driving a brown van. Theman was described as approximately thirty years old,

(23:33):
being stocky or husky. He wasroughly one hundred and eighty pounds and
about five foot ten inches tall.This man had brown or reddish brown hair.
He also had a beard. Witnessesdescribed this van was in good condition
and it had yellow license plates withdark lettering. The vand had two swing
out rear doors and then also hadthat sliding side door on the passenger side.

(24:00):
Unfortunately, no one really saw whatended up happening to Kristen, and
if this man who stopped his vanto speak with her had anything to do
with her disappearance, there's no evidencethat leads to that. There's one key
witness who was a man who wasdriving past and states he saw a female

(24:23):
on the ground. Her bicycle wasalso on the ground as the man approached
her from behind his brown van,so she was behind the van on the
ground, the bike was on theground. He didn't see what happened before
to lead up to this point,and he doesn't stop. He keeps driving.

(24:44):
He says. When he got homehe called ninety one to have emergency
services respond in case the female wasin trouble, but he himself did not
stop. He thought that the manin the van was helping her. By
the time that anybody responded, thefemale, the bi and the man with
his van were gone. Emergency servicesthen contacted the witness, telling him that

(25:06):
he had led them on a falselead. And this lead is actually problematic
because it reportedly was given while thewitness was under hypnosis, so it's really
not a substantial lead at all.Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, there
are several people though, that didsee a female on a bicycle riding her

(25:26):
bicycle in that direction that day.And also there are witnesses that saw a
man in a brown van who notonly approached her, but maybe approached other
people, other females along the road. So I can't say that this man
didn't see what he saw. Buta hypnosis is it's controversial. Yeah,

(25:51):
so, and it would not beupheld if that testimony was ever needed in
court. Oh really, no hypnosistestimony or a statement given wall under hypnosis.
No, that's not it won't holdup. On July fourth, nineteen
eighty one, along the Snake River, which divides Washington and Oregon in Idaho,

(26:17):
almost perfectly, a torso and aleg were found by people out on
the river they were out fishing.This was about six miles from the Red
Wolf Bridge that kind of crosses overthis river. The remains were wrapped in
newspaper that had been dated from Aprilof that year, and also wrapped in

(26:37):
garbage bags. It's stated that theywere wrapped very well, as if somebody
really took their time to do this, when did they find it April or
sorry? July fourth, nineteen eightyone, so about three months to wrap
it real. Well, um,well, she disappeared June twenty six,

(27:00):
so no, about a week.The newspapers just happened to be from April.
The remains that were found the nextday. In total, there was
five bags that were found. Sothe remains found the next day were found
in a different area, so alittle bit further down the river, but

(27:21):
they were wrapped similarly with newspaper andthe garbage bags another set another, yeah,
another different parts of the body.So I don't they never really.
That's a lot of the issue thatI had with this one was that while

(27:42):
there's a lot of information, there'sa lot that they've kept back because these
are still unsolved, so a lotof causes of death are not given.
I mean, obviously having somebody's remainsbe you know, a body dismbird and
wrapped up, and you know,they obviously this is a homicide, but

(28:04):
that doesn't mean that that's what killedher. It doesn't also mean that they
have an answer as to what killedher, because there are so many They
did not find the full body,but I am not sure. I know
that Torso was headless, and theyfound just the Torso and then the leg

(28:25):
one leg the first day and thenthey found more so that was two bags.
They found three more bags the nextday. There's really no information given
as to what was in the remainingbags found the next day. Authorities used
divers, boats, all resources thatthey could to try and locate the rest

(28:49):
of the remains. Unfortunately, likeI said, not everything was recovered.
There were entities from multiple counties,the states of Washington and Idaho, and
eventually the FBI is involved in thissearch, an investigation I was going to
say, because statenes, Yeah,FBI um kind of comes in for everybody

(29:11):
eventually, because they there are someconnecting the dots here that happens, and
there's definitely a need for a forensiclab that can handle some of these things.
It wouldn't be confirmed that the dismemberedremains were those of Kristen David.
Unfortunately, as with with the twelveyear old who went missing in a Cutain,

(29:38):
Christina, she was found without herbicycle, her clothing, no other
personal items were found, so thatlike the bicycle is gone, that's a
connecting factor. What is it aboutbicycles? I don't know, Um they

(30:00):
ever found anything for Christina, butthere's no trace of that bicycle anywhere.
You would think a white bicycle withand it was like a ten speed bicycle
with a basket on the front.Somebody somewhere would have found that. It's
nowhere. Also with Kristen, herbicycle, her clothing, no jewelry,

(30:22):
no you know, personal her purse, nothing, none of that stuff is
found. Where would that have gone? Sadly, this case also remains unsolved.
Yeah, and when we come backfrom this break, we'll take a
look at the next victims. Thisbrings up to our last victims to discuss.

(30:44):
So on September twelfth, nineteen eightytwo, just a little over a
year from Christina's I'm sorry, Kristin. There's a lot of the same names
here at play. So there's aChristina, a Kristen. So far we
have step sisters. Christina Diane Nelsonand Jacqueline Anne Miller disappear while walking from

(31:07):
Nelson's apartment to a Safeway grocery storein downtown Lewiston, Idaho. So Christina
was twenty one and Jacqueline went byBrandy. So Brandy was eighteen. They
were both from Boise, Idaho,having moved to go to school at Lewis
Clark College. They had left anote at the apartment for Christina's boyfriend that

(31:29):
they had decided to go walk toSafeway get food and that they would return
soon. No one heard from themagain. Christina's boyfriend reported the two missing
the next day after he learned thatChristina didn't show up for work or to
her classes at the college. Hedidn't go by the apartment that night,
so he didn't see the message untilthe next morning. He assumed it was

(31:53):
from that day. A search ofher apartment showed no signs of a struggle.
There was no sign of a crimescene whatsoever at the apartment. Their
purses and wallets were there, contactlenses were there, Things that they would
need if they were going someplace theywould have taken, as well as an

(32:15):
uncashed paycheck was there. Nothing wasout of the ordinary. Didn't look like
they were planning to leave on along trip. There were no leads.
That same night, a thirty fiveyear old man by the name of Stephen
Purcell would also go missing. Thethree victims who went missing that night were

(32:35):
all well acquainted, so at somepoint they had all worked at or participated
in plays at the Lewiston Civic Theater. Stephen was dropped off at the theater
that night just after midnight after goingto a party with his girlfriend, so
that he could do some laundry andpractice his clarinet and also do his job

(32:57):
as a janitor. Busy night.It is a busy night, so he
had been working on sets. Hethen stopped, took some time out,
stopped, went to a retirement partyfor somebody, came back and was going
to do laundry because there was onsite laundry for like costumes and stuff,

(33:17):
and he was going to play hisclarinet. He always had his clarinet with
him and it was one of hisfrom all the descriptions that I could read,
was like a prize possession. Andhe was also you know, working
a little bit kind of finish upsome of the set production stuff. This
was also a job that Christina Nelsonhad done previously. And as I mentioned,

(33:43):
they all three were involved in theproductions the plays that the Civic Theater
put on. They were actually gettingready for Pirates of Penzance to be the
next performance, so that's what theset productions were that everybody was working on.
So it was kind of a busyplace to be getting ready for a

(34:04):
production. There were three people whocooperated that he was dropped off. One
was his girlfriend who dropped him off, One was an actual patrolman who drove
by and saw him entering the building. And I'll get to the third in
a minute. So Stephen had alsobeen involved as an artist and set design

(34:24):
those on the productions. So that'show he got involved with the group.
He actually was kind of roped inby another student who was, you know,
searching for a talent to help withset production and painting. Yeah,
he and Christina also had gone tothe same so they both had taken classes
at Lewis Clark State. I couldn'tstate college. I couldn't see if they

(34:49):
had taken classes at the same time. There is quite an age difference,
so I really am not sure.However, it seems likely since a student
who was also client closer in ageto Christina is the one that recruited him
to the theater group. So itdoes seem likely that he was taking some
college courses at this time. Imentioned it was reported that Stephen was a

(35:12):
really good artist. He liked todraw like cartoons, caricatures, He liked
to make people laugh. So oneof his favorite things to do would be
like drawing somebody in a cartoon styleand kind of presenting it to them and
just in a funny way, kindof like how you'd pay people at the
fair to do the characatures like drawing. He was also really a softhearted guy.

(35:37):
He was described as just being verykind, very soft hearted. He
wanted to help people, and itreally seemed like he had a type of
relationship with Christina and Brandy where hewas kind of a big brother type.
He was always looking out for themand really trying to keep an eye out

(35:58):
for them. Unfortunately, when thenews of his disappearance was reported, it
was initially suspected that he may havehad something to do with the disappearance of
Christina and Brandy. Everyone who knewhim thought it just seemed very unlikely that
that was what happened. But whenauthorities were investigating his apartment, they didn't

(36:20):
find anything that looked like a crimehad taken place there either. They found
his last paycheck uncashed. They foundhis car had been left at a friend's
house because his girlfriend had dropped himoff, and they assumed that because he
was a man and he was missing, and he knew the two women that

(36:42):
he was involved in their disappearance,of course, will Yeah, So Christina's
apartment was located kind of nearer thetheater. It was kind of an assumption
that the girls walked past the theaterat some point that night and had seen
Stephen, maybe you know, chattedwith him for a little bit, and
maybe that's when something happened to them, whether it was involving Steven or not,

(37:07):
because at some point they recognize thatSteven's probably a victim as well.
There was nothing inside the theater oraround it that suggested there was a struggle,
that there had been any sort ofcrime, or any reason to suspect
that there was foul play. Andthat is why I believe that they also

(37:28):
looked at him, because the womanobviously knew who you know abducted them,
obviously would have had some knowledge ifthere was no sign of a struggle anywhere
in any of these places. There'sno witnesses that see anything other than Stephen

(37:49):
enter the building. There's nothing thatthey can find inside the building that shows
a struggle. So it kind oflead you to leave that it would have
to be somebody that they know thatthey trust ye struggle. They were willing
to go right. The only thingthat they did find that was odd,

(38:09):
but again does not really give muchclearer evidence, is that Steven's clarinet was
found on nearer the stage where theorchestra pit would have been. There was
a cover on it. His clarinetwas was found there. Anybody who knew

(38:30):
him said he would not have leftthat clarinet it was. It was definitely
something he took with him many places. He always had it and it was
it really was a prized possession.He would not have led it out of
his sight. It wouldn't be untilMarch nineteen eighty four that the remains of
Christina and Brandy were found near Kendrick, Idaho, which is about thirty to

(38:52):
forty miles away from Lewiston. Theywere found on the side of a ravine.
Happened to be found coincidentally, sosomebody walking by lost their hat when
the breeze blew it off their head, and in trailing after finding this hat,
they found these decomposed bodies of thesegirls. Yeah, it is a

(39:15):
very remote, isolated area and therewere no homes around. It's it's just
hillside whereas it relative to let thenorth south. I believe it's um let
me try to think it was.I believe it's like northeast of Lewiston.

(39:37):
The de composition of the bodies theywere, they were really at this point
nearly bones. There really wasn't muchelse left. Most reports do not reveal
cause of death for either woman,but I did read that it was thought
Christina's cause of death was strangulation.Authorities did find clothing and personal items on

(39:59):
the b so they did find somejewelry. They did find, you know,
this was not a case of robbery. Nothing was really taken that would
have been worth value if they hadbeen killed for a robbery intent. You
know, there was an uncashed paycheck. It would have been so easy for
somebody to cash a paycheck. Theirwallets were left at the apartment. They

(40:22):
didn't have anything on them that wasof value other than like personal effects to
get them to the store and getthem home that night. So any jewelry
that could have been valuable that wouldhave been taken, it was found on
their bodies, So motive is veryunclear. They also found a clothesline type

(40:44):
cord that it is suspected was usedto bind them and it wasn't, like
I said, immediately clear, butboth deaths are ruled as homicides. Nothing
was found at that site they gaveany clues as to where Stephen Parsall was,
so he was still considered a possibleperson of interest. Later on authorities

(41:06):
concede that Stephen may have witnessed something, perhaps Christina and Brandy's attacks, and
was victim to the same suspect,the same person who did that. So
over the past forty years, thesecrimes have remained a mystery. There is
one person who stood out as aprime suspect, and up until recently,

(41:29):
they were not named. I watcheda Discovery Channel documentary called Cold Valley.
This was from twenty eighteen, inwhich they go the entire documentary without naming
this suspect. But they are allvery clearly talking about one particular person.
Okay. I read several articles whichalso do not name the suspect or the

(41:52):
person of interest. I should say, however, everybody in this small community,
in the community is where these crimeshappened, they all know who this
person is and they want to namehim. They want to name this person
out loud, to have the medianame this person. They want his name

(42:13):
released, but for the most part, I'm not sure if the authorities don't
want to do that or if it'sjust because he is only a person of
interest. Even if he is themain person of interest, nobody really wants
to disclose his name. There isa documentary that disclosed it in twenty eleven,

(42:34):
which I find interesting that and Iwasn't not able to watch that documentary
it I could not find it upuntil like yesterday, so I didn't have
time to watch it. And itis you have to pay for it on
Amazon. It does name him.In twenty eleven, it does name this
person of interest, and I debatedwhether I wanted to name him, and

(42:59):
I'm not going too. You canyou can find this person's name. It's
it's not hard to find at thispoint. If you look up the Lewis
Clark Valley murders, at some pointyou're going to find this person's name.
I just hesitated because I'm not surewhy the twenty eighteen documentary doesn't name him.
It's very very you know, relativelynewer documentary. It kind of confused

(43:24):
me why the older one would namehim as a person of interest and the
newer one would not. Yeah,I do know in that in that documentary
in the Cold Valley, there's onlytwo episodes, there are about an hour
over an hour each. Though withthe recent DNA possibilities they have sent off,

(43:45):
like the newspaper that was wrapped aroundKristen and found, they did send
that off for analysis. It's damnnear deteriorated at this point. Unfortunately,
was just kept in evidence bags andboxes and put in between glass plates,

(44:08):
which didn't really do anything to keepit, you know, as safe as
it could have been. But theydid what they need, you know,
they did what they could, reallythey because who knows. I mean,
it's really lucky that they even caughtit, because that they even saved that
that it's even around, but that'sbeen sent off. I believe there's also

(44:31):
a rope, like the cord hasbeen sent off for a DNA analysis,
So there might be because that's stillnot back. I don't see where that
has been there's been anything released onif that has produced anything that they can
go off. Maybe that's why theyhaven't released this person's name. Again,

(44:53):
I'm just not sure. So hethis person is investigated. It turns out
that while investigating the Civic Theater murdersand Stephen Purcell's disappearance. This man comes
forward. He's interviewed by the policeand he ended up claiming to be at

(45:15):
the Civic Theater on the night thatChristina, Brandy and Stephen disappeared. Oh
really, yeah, he puts himselfthere. He claims to have gone to
the theater to do work on stagedesigns. He was there earlier in the
evening with Stephen. They parted waysbecause Stephen went to the retirement party.
This person claims he went to goeat at a local pizza restaurant. So

(45:39):
the theater is right across the streetfrom where the restaurant that he ate was,
which is right across the street fromthe safe way where the women would
have walked to go get food.So they walked right by the theater and
the restaurant where this gentleman was at. So he eats. He claims that
he goes back to the theater he'sworking again, and he enters his back

(46:01):
so he decides to lay down onthe couch in the green room, and
during their questioning, he tells thepolice that he slept from about ten pm
to four am. He says hedid not hear anybody enter the building that
night, which we know Stephen Purcellwas dropped off around twelve or five am,
so you probably would have heard that. He claims at some point to

(46:25):
have heard the phone ring, buthe was too tired he just didn't get
up and answer it. He alsoclaims that he did not hear like if
Stephen entered, he didn't hear anyclarinet. He would have been. The
green room would have been right bythe door where Stephen was known to have
entered, so it's very unlikely youwould have heard nothing. There's no confirmation

(46:49):
that Christina or Brandy actually went tothe theater and entered the theater, but
we know Stephen did. It isconfirmed, and he confirms that he was
there. That timeline also can bedebunked. So in the documentary that I
watched from twenty eighteen, the sheriffwho is now Sheriff of in Astan is

(47:19):
looking at all of these cases,and while she's kind of talking to the
FBI agent who comes and picks upall of her multiple folders of information,
they go over this gentleman's timeline andhe claims that he watched a movie that
was being played that night at onTV at the pizza restaurant. He claims

(47:39):
that he left when it ended atabout ten pm, but he also is
claiming that he got back to workat the theater for a little bit and
slept at ten pm. The movieactually didn't end until eleven pm. So

(47:59):
there's definitely some conflicts there. Yeah, So, as I mentioned, on
the same block, the Safely grocerystore that Christina and Brandy were supposed to
walk to that night, they wouldhave passed by him. He claims that
he never saw the ladies, neversaw Stephen whatsoever, but he does acknowledge

(48:20):
that he was at the theater andhe was at the restaurant where he potentially
could have seen the women. Hedefinitely would have seen Stephen. So his
ties to Christina White and Kristen David, that's that's a huge question right now,
right if we're looking at this personof interest, So, in a
weird twist, very coincidental or not, this person of interest can be placed

(48:46):
at the home that Christina White's friendlived at, because it turns out he
was dating her friend's mom and hewas there by old police record, he
was there the day that she disappeared. He should have been at work,
but he was not, so thereare no first person accounts that put him

(49:08):
there, but in an old policerecord of timeline of events, it is
stated that he was around the homethat day. He also is reported to
have volunteered his help in the searchfor Christina White that night, which we
know is sometimes a dead sign,a dead giveaway of people who are over

(49:31):
involving themselves because either they want tomisdirect and they don't want people to find
something, or it's the thrill ofpeople searching for something that you have done,
this crime, that you've committed.It's very likely that that could be
the case here. It's very coincident. It's way too coincidental that there is

(49:57):
a tie to Christina White, youknow, in nineteen seventy nine, and
we're now looking at a crime thathappened in nineteen eighty two. Kristen David
was also part of the theater groupat some point, maybe not at this
time, maybe not for this production, but she at some point had helped
with costume design. It's very likelythat he knew her, even though he

(50:23):
claims to not. So there aretoo many coincidences. Yeah, there is,
Like I said, that documentary intwenty eleven that I wasn't able to
watch. Like I said, thereare plenty of articles, there's other things
that you can pull up and itwill reveal this person's name. There is
also some history that this person hascriminally so in the sixties, he was

(50:50):
found at a mortuary trying to breakin in the middle of the night,
found with a knife, a cameraand a flashlight trying to take this screen
off of a window in the mortuary. The only person who would have been
in the mortuary that night was aseventeen year old girl who had died mysteriously.

(51:13):
She had been with her brother,her brother's girlfriend, and her boyfriend
at Santa Cruz a boardwalk the dayof her murder. Her death, her
and her boyfriend separated from her brotherand his girlfriend and they were having a
heated discussion. It wasn't necessarily anargument, but they kind of took a
pause, and it is said theboyfriend walked off and found met up with

(51:38):
the brother and the girlfriend, andthen as you know, it came around
the beach patrol was saying, Hey, we're shutting down the beach. Everybody
needs to go home. She hadn'tfound them, so they went to look
for her, and they ended upfinding her body nude, completely nude,
in the water. So of coursethe boyfriend, the brother, the girl,

(52:05):
brother's girlfriend, they're all, youknow, question investigated. Nobody can
really say that there's any foul play. I'm not sure what her cause of
death was, but this is theonly person that would have been on display
for a funeral, would have beenthis girl in this funeral home. They
this person of interest was caught breakinginto so the father who ran the funeral

(52:32):
home woke up, caught him tryingto get into the funeral home, called
police, he was arrested. Hisstory is that he was just at the
wrong place at the wrong time,and then he was crossing the parking lot.
I don't know why you would needto take the screen off of a
window with a knife and have acamera on you and a flashlight if you're

(52:53):
just crossing the parking lot. Butthe charges got because, you know,
really nothing was probable. What whatare you going to do with that information?
Breaking and entering is not anything relatedto a dead body, you know
at that point where they found him, So it got knocked down to like

(53:14):
a misdemeanor, but it is astepping stone. It's a stepping stone.
There's also a possibility and it isa far reach. Again, there is
apparently this person of interest grew upin Chicago and right in the same neighborhood
that he lived in as a youngteenager. Before he went he had some

(53:35):
military service. There was an eightyear old girl who was murdered that had
been on her way home from youknow, kind of a day session at
the y MCA. So she waskind of a latchkey kid and unfortunately was
found brutally murdered in an alleyway.Not that he has been connected to that,

(53:57):
but it you know, people doingresearch on this gentleman and his previous
history obviously looking into any connection thatthey can make to crimes that he may
have committed. And like I said, he is not necessarily a person of
interest for that crime specifically, butit's it's brought up obviously because there's you

(54:20):
never know, you never know.It seems like, you know, there
are a lot of coincidences with thisperson of interest, and there could be
other things. I mean, really, the problem with this that I see
is that family members, members ofthe community are hyper focused on this person
of interest enough so that these couldjust be coincidences. You know, nothing

(54:47):
is proven, and it is possiblethat there are just coincidences. But a
lot of people want to name himas the person in response number one,
right, and I don't know thatthere's enough evidence to do that. Everything
is very coincidental, circumstantial. Thereis nothing that would be proven in a

(55:13):
court if charges were ever made againsthim, if anybody would even be willing
to prosecute this with what they have, you know, really they can place
him at a potential crime scene.There's no evidence of a crime scene.
That building, the Civic Theater,actually was condemned, so it is possible

(55:36):
that any evidence that was there isgone. Oh yeah, there was the
newspaper you know that was wrapped aroundKristen's body that is potentially could have some
DNA to it. The chords thatwere found that they believe were used to

(55:57):
bind Christina and bring Andy were amatch for the same type of chord that
could have been found at the theater, so there is a link there,
but again without DNA evidence, withoutbeing able to pull chord from the theater
and match it with the chord thatwas found at the of Seeing where the

(56:19):
bodies were found, there's nothing thatthey can really link to a person.
Yeah, so it seems like peoplereally want to pinpoint this person. And
that's why I hesitated to name him, because I just don't know that there's
enough evidence. There seems to bethey're in the right direction to maybe find

(56:39):
some connections that are more substantial,but even forty years later, they don't
have it. It's really unfortunate,wondering if he's sweating because DNA is advancing
so so much. Whoever did this, I'm sure is sweating because if they
can extract any DNA from anything thatthey have, it's going to be damning.

(57:01):
I mean, there's there and itis what it is. We know
that, you know, nobody isimmune to this technology. But if any
of your cousins have done you know, Ancestry or twenty three and me,
you're kind of fucked. Now,you are kind of fucked. Yeah,
even I mean even if you didsomething in your twenties and went on to

(57:21):
lead a you know, normal productive, productive life, and you you know,
it was a one off and youyou made a really bad fucking decision
and you didn't get caught for whateverreason, you just went on to lead
your life. You're fucked if theyhave DNA that they can link you to.
You hope you enjoyed that because you'regoing to rot in prison the rest

(57:44):
of your life probably, you know, it's it is definitely something that I
am. I'm hoping that, youknow, the FBI has been able to
really take what little they had togive and has been able to find something,

(58:04):
and they're just waiting for very definitiveproof that they can prosecute somebody,
whether it's this person of interest orsomebody else. Somebody needs to pay for
these crimes. Yeah, there's alsohuge kind of dissent when it comes to
who the actual victims are of thisperson of interest. Brandy and Christina and

(58:28):
Stephen definitely are considered tied to him. He has that link to Christina White.
Kin David is a little bit differentbecause you know, while they don't
have Christina White's remains and they don'thave Stephen Parsol's remains, that is actually
a link between them that they havenever been found. They have the remains

(58:51):
of Christina Nelson and Brandy Miller andKristin David, and the m O doesn't
fit because Chris David was dismembered andwrapped, meticulously wrapped and found, you
know, in an isolated river area. The remains for Christine, Christina and

(59:15):
Brandy are they were just on theside of a ravine. They were not
dismembered, they were not wrapped,They were left on the side of the
ravine to do whatever they're you know, it was of isolated area. So
I'm sure the person thought, youknow, these people are never going to
get found, but it wasn't.Those two the same, Yeah, team

(59:42):
very different, but yeah, mostchange they can depending upon opportunity. And
the discussion is that you know,with Christen David, the person, if
it was the person in the brownvan, they were able to pick her
up, pick her bike up,put her in the back of the van,
and take her to a location wherethey had the opportunity to you know,

(01:00:05):
kill her, but also take thetime to dismember her and then take
the time to meticulously wrap each bodypart. Yeah, they had the time,
they had the means so isolated outthere. Yeah, and this person
of interest has owned several properties alongthis area, some of them have been

(01:00:29):
isolated. He owned a house thatwas just a block away from where Christina
White was at her friend's house.He didn't actually own the house where they
were at, but he owned ahouse just like a block and a half
away that he could have easily takenher to. And you know, they

(01:00:51):
weren't able to ever. He wouldnot submit to a polygraph, he would
not consent to any searches. Helured out pretty quick. They were really
not able to search for any evidencein a timely manner when it came to
this person of interest. So connectinghim is it's just at this point,

(01:01:12):
I don't know how they can withoutDNA connect Yeah, it's too far along
to connect them. Yeah, time, so much time has passed. Yep.
So over the years, there havebeen many names that were thrown around
that the authorities of thought maybe connectedto these crimes. Robert Lee Yates was
one of them, because of coursehe was in Spokane. Harry Hantman,

(01:01:36):
which I have never heard of himuntil this case. And Otis Tool I've
never heard of him either. OtisTool apparently named himself in this case,
but he just didn't have details.Yeah, so he was seeking recognition for

(01:01:57):
god knows what. But none ofthose people are as close as a person
of interest as the Southern named person. And yeah, over the last forty
years he's stayed on the radar consistently. So it's very interesting to see where
this leads, if the FBI areclose, if the DNA is going to

(01:02:19):
bring anything back. But unfortunately,there are no answers for any of these
families. No, there's no resolution. But my fingers are cross for DNA.
I mean, I think that's that'sthat's the chance because this gentleman's aged,
if he's really you know, thisperson of interest, he's aged.
Anybody else that could have been involvedin the crime has aged. You know,

(01:02:43):
this is going back to the lateseventies, early eighties. The clock's
ticking on that to hold anybody accountable. So I do think with the reum,
you know, the FBI release statementson the forty forty year anniversary of
some of these crimes. And there'sbeen numerous, you know, articles that

(01:03:04):
have come out in the last coupleof years regarding this that have kind of
brought it back up and trying toget more information out there, asking for
any information, if anybody remember seeingsomething, if they remember any stories.
You know, in small towns,people see things, people are paying attention
and they notice patterns, they noticewhen things that are out of the ordinary,

(01:03:24):
and you know, being that it'sa closed, small community, people
may not want to come forward becauseit's somebody they know, and they don't
want to speak because they're afraid.And at this point, who knows who's
passed on and has taken knowledge withthem? Yeah, no deathbed confessionals.

(01:03:45):
Right, So it's it's very unfortunatethat these families, you know, these
parents lost children and they've since diednot knowing what happened to their to their
loved ones, their siblings, theircousins who are championing his case in trying
to you know, get answers fortheir loved ones. They're going every day

(01:04:05):
with no answers, and it's reallyunfortunate. Yeah. So I do hope
that they're close DNA for the winand that's our case this week. It's
a doozy. Yeah. I amgoing to try to watch that other documentary

(01:04:26):
now that I know where it is, Yeah, the one in twenty eleven,
because I'm I'm curious to see theirstance on it compared to the one
in twenty eighteen where they just theythey skirt around this this person of interest
so much. Yeah, and it'sfunny because the family members are like,
you want me to name him?You want me to name his name,
I'll name it and and literally oneof the cousins goes on to like,

(01:04:49):
she goes to say it, andthey cut her off. They know they
cut her off. They completely likecut off the scene and they go to
the next like scene. Maybe that'sthe selling point. Maybe it was,
Maybe it was, but it definitelygot me, I don't know, creep
me out kind of actually, Yeah, to have all these people talking about

(01:05:14):
the same person but nobody will namehim. I was like, its e
Voldemort, What the fuck's going onhere? I was just gonna say that
you want me to name him?Ruined it? I'm sorry, I think
too much like like that all right, everybody, Well, thank you so
much for listening. We're curious toknow your thoughts on this one. Definitely
go and do some research. Watchthese links that I have for the documentaries

(01:05:39):
and episodes of you know, knowncrime shows on Discovery Plus. As always,
we want to thank you for listeningand all of the support. We
can't wait to see you guys fora hundredth episode. And like we always
say, stay out of the damnwoods. It's no good bye, guys,