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Speaker 1: Pushkin. Dark Canyon is a narrow slot canyon that cuts

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Speaker 1: a jagged line from the top of Payuma Road down

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Speaker 1: toward Montanito. It's choked with poison oak and brush and

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Speaker 1: surrounded on three sides by canyon walls at least a

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Speaker 1: thousand feet high. The terrain all around it is sunny,

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Speaker 1: breezy scrubland, but the canyon itself is cold and dark

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Speaker 1: and almost impenetrable. So how did my trees get to

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Speaker 1: where she was found in Dark Canyon? Here are some possibilities.

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Speaker 1: My trees entered Dark Canyon from the bottom, My trees

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Speaker 1: entered Dark Canyon from the top. My trees entered Dark

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Speaker 1: Canyon from the Porn ranch. My trees was alone. My

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Speaker 1: treees was not alone. My treese was alive, my treece

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Speaker 1: was not. If we're going to figure this out, it'll

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Speaker 1: be by process of elimination. We tried going up Dark

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Speaker 1: Canyon from the bottom a few different times. The remain

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Speaker 1: site is not even a mile up from the entry

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Speaker 1: point on the Backbone trail, but it is incredibly slow going.

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Speaker 2: It's hours of hiking and traversing this stream bed back

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Speaker 2: and forth and things to.

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Speaker 1: Get up to where she was when I went. It

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Speaker 1: was after a winter of heavy rain and the water

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Speaker 1: was gushing.

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Speaker 2: Even if it was mostly dry in the actual drainage,

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Speaker 2: you would be scrambling over boulders and rocks, and you'd

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Speaker 2: have to be really motivated to do that, Like, why

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Speaker 2: would you do that?

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Speaker 3: Let me go that night.

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Speaker 1: Hayley, my reporting partner, made another attempt during the dry

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Speaker 1: month of July. She bush whacked up the creek bed

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Speaker 1: for two and a half hours before hitting a sheer

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Speaker 1: rock face, at which point she was forced to turn around.

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Speaker 1: We don't think it's likely my teres walked into Dark

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Speaker 1: Canyon from the bottom, and if she did, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem possible that she was alone. I'm Dana Goodyear and

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Speaker 1: this is Lost Hills, episode seven in the shit, So

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Speaker 1: how else could my trees have gotten into Dark Canyon?

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Speaker 1: On Google Maps, it looks like you can access the

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Speaker 1: canyon from higher up on Payuma Road. There are trails

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Speaker 1: that disappear under a canopy of green brush. We checked

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Speaker 1: various turnoffs, sidestepping locked gates and trying to stick to

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Speaker 1: public land. One day, we were crashing around in the

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Speaker 1: bushes at one of these seeming access points, getting increasingly discouraged.

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Speaker 1: When we heard the sound of a radio and a hammer.

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Speaker 1: It was a guy in a bandana building a greenhouse.

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Speaker 4: My name's Ed. We're up in the hills here in

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Speaker 4: the Santa Manca Mountains, and.

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Speaker 5: I live in the most beautiful spot in the world.

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Speaker 4: And I'm the only one in Malibu who has an undergroundhouse,

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Speaker 4: and it's like being in heaven.

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Speaker 1: Ed didn't want us to use his last name. He's

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Speaker 1: had a few scrapes with the law, and even though

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Speaker 1: he's changed his ways, he likes to be under the radar.

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Speaker 1: But as it turns out, we're not the first people

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Speaker 1: to come around asking about my trees. The Sheriff's department

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Speaker 1: had been to see him too, after her remains were found.

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Speaker 1: They had information about an access point leading into the

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Speaker 1: canyon near his property.

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Speaker 4: And then one of them was like grilling me, like, oh,

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Speaker 4: what do you And one of the other guys came

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Speaker 4: up and said, what do you know about my trees?

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Speaker 4: I was thinking, maybe you guys should tell me what

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Speaker 4: you know about her, you know, but I didn't. There

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Speaker 4: was nothing I could really say.

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Speaker 1: Ed takes us into his underground house. We follow him

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Speaker 1: through a curtain of camo netting and down a ramp

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Speaker 1: to a heavy wooden.

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Speaker 5: Door and we're inside. We got the fridge over here. Oh.

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Speaker 5: This in the interior is thirty two feet by sixteen

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Speaker 5: feet on the inside eight feet tall, and there's a

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Speaker 5: I use wood beams, just purely ornamental.

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Speaker 1: It's dimly lit and crammed with slimy terrariums holding rare

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Speaker 1: botanical specimens, carnivorous plants, miniature bogonias, mosses. He sells them

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Speaker 1: on eBay, along with some fancy millipedes he calls pink dragons.

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Speaker 5: And then I'm selling this pogonias and this is super rare.

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Speaker 5: This one. It's a grass pogonia from Madagascar, Pogonia bognariai,

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Speaker 5: and it's pretty spectacular.

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Speaker 1: Before he was growing bogonias, he was a marijuana farmer.

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Speaker 4: I've been through the whole all the wars. I've been

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Speaker 4: arrested bunch of times and almost done a bunch of

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Speaker 4: time in prison, and the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: Ed says he used to grow in Dark Canyon.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's going.

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Speaker 4: Back to from two thousand and one to about two

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Speaker 4: thousand and four, and they were about three hundred plants.

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Speaker 4: Here three hundred plants.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, back before legals, this area was riddled with illegal grows,

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Speaker 1: some amateur operations, others run by drug cartels. Ed says

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Speaker 1: Dark Canyon was a great place to grow weed.

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Speaker 4: The plants were so big. You know, there was this

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Speaker 4: one spot I was telling you about called Queen's where

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Speaker 4: the plants were like, you know, twelve feet tall. Well,

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Speaker 4: once it gets above that, now you're exposed. Now you

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Speaker 4: have a problem.

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Speaker 1: One day Ed's grow got spotted.

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Speaker 4: There was a helicopter that flew over and they flew

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Speaker 4: over here, and they went into Dark Canyon and they

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Speaker 4: circled around, but kind of far away, and I go,

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Speaker 4: did they see because they flew right over the plant.

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Speaker 4: I go, I think they did, but I wasn't sure.

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Speaker 4: But they were sneaky about it because they didn't just

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Speaker 4: circle directly overhead. And so about two weeks later, I

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Speaker 4: harvested everything. I did, the whole thing. Three hundred plants

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Speaker 4: was a huge amount. Then all of a sudden, I'm

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Speaker 4: sitting here, I'm doing something, and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 4: the helicopters and they're ten feet above the ground and

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Speaker 4: they're sitting right on top of me, and I run

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Speaker 4: down into that. I had this whole tunnel area underneath

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Speaker 4: the shrubs, like a like a trail that was underneath,

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Speaker 4: so it was like a tunnel. And so I went,

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Speaker 4: I went running down into there, and these guys were

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Speaker 4: like ten feet above the you know. At one time,

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Speaker 4: I could actually I was in this little crevice area.

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Speaker 4: I could actually feel the rotor wash like this, like

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Speaker 4: fifty mile an hour wind just blowing through this little

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Speaker 4: dry canyon that I was in, you know, under the brush.

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Speaker 4: And I'm telling you it was it was live. It

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Speaker 4: was intense.

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Speaker 1: Ed says that twenty years ago, a friend of his

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Speaker 1: hiking deep into Dark Canyon had come across a big

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Speaker 1: industrial pot. Grow Ed thinks if his friend got down there,

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Speaker 1: maybe we can too. He warns us, We're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to do a little bushwhacking. We check our watches. It's

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Speaker 1: eleven am. Do you want to do more torn or

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Speaker 1: you want to go down get get hiking.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, maybe let's let's go back to your car and olds.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll get my heat and then we can come

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Speaker 4: back and talk. Yeah, let's get let's get let's get on.

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Speaker 7: The Yeah, I like it.

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Speaker 1: We go over the lip of the canyon into the

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Speaker 1: dense brush. Head's in front, clipping. We're behind him, crawling

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Speaker 1: on our hands and knees.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you made a good path here.

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Speaker 7: I hope.

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Speaker 5: So you want to get one of those cloudy trails.

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Speaker 1: If you can't, we pick our way along a ridge,

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Speaker 1: then drop into the creek bed. It's filled with massive

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Speaker 1: boulders and six foot tall saplings. There's poison oak everywhere.

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Speaker 3: How long.

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Speaker 1: I think we've been hiking for two hours? But hike

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Speaker 1: it crawling, That's what.

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Speaker 8: I would call it, too, Crawling, sliding on our butts.

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Speaker 1: Haley keeps checking the GPS app on her phone, which

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Speaker 1: is loaded with the coordinates of the remain site. The

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Speaker 1: little arrow representing our position is still ridiculously far away.

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Speaker 1: We press on, but it's starting to seem like we

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Speaker 1: might never get there. Ed's been saying just two hundred

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Speaker 1: more yards for what feels like hours.

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Speaker 4: I also, I could say, no one's been here for

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Speaker 4: real life. That's I've never even been this far down myself,

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Speaker 4: So probably no one's been here in thirty forty years

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Speaker 4: at least, maybe even longer.

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Speaker 1: By now, the canyon is engulfed in shadow. It's two

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Speaker 1: thirty less than three hours till the sun goes down.

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Speaker 1: We're not going to make it to the remain spot,

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Speaker 1: not even close. We have to turn around. We haul

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Speaker 1: ourselves out of the creek bed and up to where

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Speaker 1: we have a vantage point. I can see the porn

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Speaker 1: ranch through my binoculars. Everything between here and there is

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Speaker 1: trackless wilderness. How would you describe that terrado on there?

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Speaker 4: Oh you're in Shia, Yeah, you're in living hell.

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Speaker 1: Bed pulls out a loaf of bread and takes a

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Speaker 1: few bites you.

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Speaker 4: Itself is another three So it's about an eight hundred

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Speaker 4: foot canyon in there. It's very very intense. I have

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Speaker 4: been down in there, and I'm telling you it's you

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Speaker 4: feel like a little teeny tiny bug down there. You

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Speaker 4: look up at this massive cliff, you know, and yes,

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Speaker 4: the earth, Yes, the Earth's crust has been lifted up

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Speaker 4: out of the ground and you've just seen the side

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Speaker 4: of the earth. So it's just spectacular.

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Speaker 8: I don't remember if we actually got around to saying

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Speaker 8: at our turnaround point that I mean, we've been going

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Speaker 8: for two hours and we were like a fifth of

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Speaker 8: the way that we needed more than two hours to

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Speaker 8: where my trees remains worse. So there's just no way

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Speaker 8: on earth she hiked in from the top.

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Speaker 1: There's there's no way on earth. There's no way on

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Speaker 1: earth that somebody brought her body in from the top.

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Speaker 5: No, there's no way, no, no, it's impossible.

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Speaker 1: He finishes as bread and we drink the rest of

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Speaker 1: our water. It takes us another couple of hours to

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Speaker 1: get back to Ed's place, beat her way out of

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Speaker 1: the brush, just as the sun slips below the horizon.

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Speaker 1: So did my tree center dark canyon from the bottom?

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Speaker 1: Probably not. Did you go down from the top? No way,

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Speaker 1: But we do know there's another way in through the

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Speaker 1: porn ranch. Sues Randall, aka the porn Queen of Montanito,

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Speaker 1: lives in a big, white Spanish style house surrounded by

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Speaker 1: horse corrals and stables. She's in her seventies, feisty and petite,

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Speaker 1: with white pixie cut hair.

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Speaker 3: We are the upper class. Some men come on, Oh,

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Speaker 3: we started upper class and worked our way slowly down.

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Speaker 3: But with an English accent you can get away with Filth.

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Speaker 1: Had a huge career as a photographer of high end

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Speaker 1: adult content. Back in her heyday, porn was classy by

196
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Speaker 1: comparison to what's out there today, I think lush highly

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Speaker 1: produced images of Stormy Daniels in a lacy white bra

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Speaker 1: beside a donkey. But Sus is retired now.

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Speaker 3: I got kicked in the face by one of my

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Speaker 3: horses in lust and I so that was a good excuse.

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Speaker 3: But also when we shoot, we'd spent two or three

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Speaker 3: days getting ready. I'm going I'm not going to go

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Speaker 3: and just shoot. You know, it's going to be prepared

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Speaker 3: allah Playboy kind of drapie pape, all that crappy whapye.

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Speaker 1: Sus came to America in the seventies courtesy of Hugh Hefner,

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Speaker 1: who hired her as a photographer at Playboy and then

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Speaker 1: later at Hustler. She shot herself using a cable release

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Speaker 1: and a mirror.

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Speaker 3: Male photographers wanted to shoot me. Oh no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: I'll shoot myself. It's much more relaxing instead of having

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Speaker 3: to do what some guy tells you. You get stiff

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Speaker 3: and your shoulders raised, and you like this. It's like dancing.

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Speaker 3: You've got to be on a flow. It was.

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Speaker 1: It was cool.

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Speaker 3: I'm glad I did it because I certainly don't look

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Speaker 3: like that now.

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Speaker 1: At the dawn of internet porn, sus became a business tycoon,

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Speaker 1: minting money on her site sus dot.

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Speaker 3: Net, instead of being lockstock and boo. You know, I

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Speaker 3: would do what I wanted to do. I would go

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Speaker 3: and party with them and then do what I wanted

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Speaker 3: to do, and they'd get mad, and I'd say up yours,

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Speaker 3: and I'd get fired, and then I'd go work for

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Speaker 3: somebody else, and then the same thing hefna Flint. I

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Speaker 3: fought with all of them, but it meant that I

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Speaker 3: ended up shooting for myself independently and owning all my pictures,

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Speaker 3: so that when the Internet came, I was the only

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Speaker 3: photographer who owned her own pictures.

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Speaker 1: Susan's house is up the hill from Montanito, at the

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Speaker 1: end of a long driveway.

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Speaker 3: Oh, the history of this house is quite interesting. It's

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Speaker 3: been here since like the forties. Has been ranches here,

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Speaker 3: and Bishop Raley had a chapel down there for the

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Speaker 3: Church of Antioch, and this house in the seventies burnt down,

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Speaker 3: and the guy who owned it rebuilt it, and he

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Speaker 3: did all these arches and everything, but he rebuilt it

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Speaker 3: around the bar so he could party with lee ages

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Speaker 3: and then they got so drunk he'd be sober an

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Speaker 3: hour a day. So he lost the ranch. But he

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Speaker 3: was up here drunk with a gun, and nobody come

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Speaker 3: and see him except I used to ride up on

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Speaker 3: my horse and chit chat him up.

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Speaker 1: Because you had designs on this property.

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Speaker 3: And he knew I wanted it. It took three years,

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Speaker 3: and he knew I'd look after it.

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Speaker 1: She says. Montanito was a great place to ride horses

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Speaker 1: and raise a family.

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Speaker 3: We moved to this area because we were looking for

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Speaker 3: a good school district for the kids. Kids do that

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Speaker 3: for you. Your life revolves around them. I mean work

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Speaker 3: was work, but it was not our social life. There's

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Speaker 3: nothing more boring than a bunch of pornographers, I'll tell you.

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Speaker 1: But the ranch was also the perfect porn location, first

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Speaker 1: for Sues and then for her daughter, Holly, who followed

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Speaker 1: her mom into the business.

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Speaker 9: I grew up in what I like to say, kind

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Speaker 9: of the Sue's bubble. Everything that we shot was very beautiful,

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Speaker 9: very high end.

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Speaker 1: Holly has occasionally used the ranch for shoots as well,

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Speaker 1: though it's been years at this point.

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Speaker 9: It's a great property. I mean it's big, it's lots

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Speaker 9: of parking, there's lots of different areas to shoot.

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Speaker 5: It's super private, yeah, but you don't.

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Speaker 3: Get them screaming through the gullies. You don't get echoing.

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Speaker 1: Holly said that one time a shoot of hers had

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Speaker 1: been interrupted by a pop bust in Dark Canyon.

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Speaker 9: We had a huge, like illegal weed patch up the

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Speaker 9: canyon and I was actually shooting when they were harvey it. Well,

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Speaker 9: when I say harvesting it, when they were possessing it.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 9: The police had come and they these police helicopters and

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Speaker 9: they had all this weed that they put in these

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Speaker 9: huge nets and then the airlifted it directly over our ranch.

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Speaker 9: And I just remember being here and my whole crew

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Speaker 9: was here and the models were like, I hope they

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Speaker 9: drop some so yeah, but that was the only like

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Speaker 9: big weed bus that we saw.

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Speaker 3: And they got to it from Upper Payuma and we didn't

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Speaker 3: even know. We never saw anybody going down then until

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Speaker 3: still the cops turned up. We didn't know, otherwise we'd

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Speaker 3: have been up there taking.

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Speaker 1: Some SU's agreed to give me a tour of the property.

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Speaker 1: We got in a quad and she drove me around.

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Speaker 1: I asked her about my trees. She told me that

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Speaker 1: when she learned of my Teresa's disappearance. She organized a

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Speaker 1: search party.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we spent days looking for her on horseback

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Speaker 3: when she went missing, riding these things.

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Speaker 1: And then but then people started to speculate that Sus

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Speaker 1: might somehow be involved in my Teresa's death. My Terce

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Speaker 1: was young and beautiful, and her body was found on

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Speaker 1: public land bordering SUS's ranch. That would obviously make for

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Speaker 1: a compelling narrative. But like so many elements of the

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Speaker 1: my Teres Richardson story that have taken hold in the

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00:17:28,276 --> 00:17:32,236
Speaker 1: public imagination, I've seen no evidence to support this theory,

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Speaker 1: none whatsoever.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, people were accusing me of having done s and

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Speaker 3: m or something unmurdered.

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Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, I just don't want.

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Speaker 3: To go there. That's bullshit. Come on, Yeah, if I'm

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Speaker 3: going to murder anybody, it's going to be a cop.

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Speaker 1: We drove up SUS's driveway and stopped the quad at

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Speaker 1: an overlook at the edge of Dark Canyon. It was

304
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Speaker 1: a sheer drop to the creek bed. My Teresa's remains

305
00:18:10,196 --> 00:18:12,836
Speaker 1: were found down there and about a quarter mile east

306
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Speaker 1: of where we stood.

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Speaker 3: I'll call it Matries Canyon just to myself, but I'm

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Speaker 3: really trying to.

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Speaker 1: The twenty twelve report from the Office of Independent Review

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Speaker 1: included only a few details about the discovery of my

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Speaker 1: Teresa's remains. One of these details was that the rangers

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Speaker 1: had hiked into the site from quote, a property located

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Speaker 1: on Payuma Road that would be SUS's property, the Porn Ranch.

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Speaker 1: The report also said that after Malibu Search and Rescue

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Speaker 1: and the homicide detectives arrived by helicopter, the rangers hiked

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Speaker 1: out the way they'd come in. The report notes that

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Speaker 1: it took them about a half an hour to get

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Speaker 1: back to their starting point at the Porn Ranch. So,

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Speaker 1: according to official documents, there's a way in from SUS's life.

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Speaker 1: Sue's is extremely private and she takes the security of

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Speaker 1: her property very seriously. There are big dogs and the

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00:19:17,556 --> 00:19:21,556
Speaker 1: place is crawling with groundskeepers. That means you can't just

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Speaker 1: show up there and knock on the door. It literally

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Speaker 1: took years to convince her to let Haley and me

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Speaker 1: come back and poke around a bit. We were hopeful

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Speaker 1: that we could find that elusive trail, the one used

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Speaker 1: by the rangers that would take us to the remain

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Speaker 1: site in half an hour. Sue's had arranged for a chaperone.

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Speaker 6: Travis local guide, Montonita resident.

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Speaker 1: Travis shows us the staging area that was used by

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Speaker 1: law enforcement during the recovery of my Teresa's remains.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it's a really short little cut across here,

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Speaker 6: but I think honestly that they probably entered down there.

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Speaker 6: I don't know where she entered, but that's definitely where

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Speaker 6: the police entered.

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Speaker 1: We start walking through thick green grasses on a narrow

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Speaker 1: horse trail that quickly turns into an even narrower game trail.

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Speaker 6: But yeah, this whole area hasn't for in a long time.

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Speaker 6: The flight's overgrown so beautiful.

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Speaker 1: Love that safe smell too.

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Speaker 6: It's the ball into a game trail because nobody really

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Speaker 6: goes this way anymore. But yeah, it's just deer, deer

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Speaker 6: and deer and coyotes, probably mountain lines.

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Speaker 1: I can tell. We're somewhere above the creek bed. I'm

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Speaker 1: thinking this is the shortcut we've been looking for, and

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Speaker 1: I can't help it. I'm getting really excited. It's where

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Speaker 1: we go from here. Down here go where the coyotes go.

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Speaker 1: We get down low, limboing under a tangle of branches.

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Speaker 6: You know, this is kind of like the tree because

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Speaker 6: it looks stable, but it'll actually just break. So watch

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Speaker 6: over the scene and DESI it's probably has it overgrown.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, there is a trail down here. But then,

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Speaker 1: to our indescribable disappointment, we find ourselves on the backbone trail,

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Speaker 1: a few yards from the point of which you turn

355
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Speaker 1: up into the creek bed, the place We've been so

356
00:21:19,836 --> 00:21:25,156
Speaker 1: many times before. I feel like I'm being pranked. We

357
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Speaker 1: convince Travis to take us back to the overlook, the

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Speaker 1: place Sus calls my Trees Canyon. In the years since

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Speaker 1: I was last there, I've tried many times to picture

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Speaker 1: it precisely to test mentally. Anyway, if there could be

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Speaker 1: a hidden trail, it would be the most direct route in.

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Speaker 1: And another thing is you wouldn't have to walk up

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Speaker 1: SUS's driveway to get there. There's a fire road with

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Speaker 1: an outlet higher up on Payuma Road that leads right

365
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Speaker 1: to the overlook. It's gated and probably guarded, but still

366
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Speaker 1: someone could have slipped through there in the dead of night.

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Speaker 1: Back at the staging area, we get in the quad

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Speaker 1: and head to the overlook.

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Speaker 6: Okay, so the fire road entrance is over there. Yep,

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Speaker 6: this is the road coming down. That's the start of

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Speaker 6: the canyon.

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Speaker 1: We're standing by a wooden horse fence looking down over

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Speaker 1: a precipice into the canyon.

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Speaker 6: It's a sheer drop off. That's probably i'd take close

375
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Speaker 6: to three hundred feet I mean to the to the

376
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Speaker 6: base of the creek, which you can kind of see.

377
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Speaker 6: I mean, I don't even know that could even be

378
00:22:35,276 --> 00:22:40,556
Speaker 6: four stories high. And then from the GPS, I'm guessing

379
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Speaker 6: she's probably about a quarter mile that way, so we're

380
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Speaker 6: not even i mean, let's say about we're probably about

381
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Speaker 6: a two thirds of the way in to where she

382
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Speaker 6: would be.

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Speaker 1: So you'd have to drop down four stories and then

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Speaker 1: hike up a quarter mile to get back in there.

385
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Speaker 6: It would take a very very skilled bushwhacking guide to

386
00:23:02,636 --> 00:23:05,596
Speaker 6: get back in there, because it's impassible, and there's so

387
00:23:05,636 --> 00:23:08,596
Speaker 6: much poison oak down there, and it's mature poison oak,

388
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Speaker 6: so you can't really even bushwhack it. You just got

389
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Speaker 6: to go through it. And that's what the amount of

390
00:23:15,036 --> 00:23:16,596
Speaker 6: search and rescue said, and that's why the reason the

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Speaker 6: helicopter to get back in there, because it's it's impassable.

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Speaker 1: We stand there quietly, just looking out over the Canyon

393
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Speaker 1: with its dozen shades of green.

394
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Speaker 6: Everything in Montanedo proper is pretty rustic and kind of

395
00:23:34,316 --> 00:23:36,236
Speaker 6: just you know, it's unrefined. I think that that most

396
00:23:36,236 --> 00:23:38,396
Speaker 6: of these mountain communities back in the Santa Monica Mountains

397
00:23:38,396 --> 00:23:42,996
Speaker 6: are people like, you know, living kind of you know, rustically.

398
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Speaker 6: But you know, you can go into Calabasas and hang

399
00:23:46,916 --> 00:23:49,476
Speaker 6: out with Kanye and the Kardashians if you want, because

400
00:23:49,476 --> 00:23:53,836
Speaker 6: this is technically Calabasas, but this ain't Calabasas. You know,

401
00:23:53,956 --> 00:23:58,236
Speaker 6: it's thousand miles away from you know, the Calabasas Commons

402
00:23:58,276 --> 00:24:03,996
Speaker 6: and justin Bieber, this is raw California, you know, this

403
00:24:04,116 --> 00:24:06,836
Speaker 6: is this is as Rasa gets. Nobody's ever lived here.

404
00:24:08,156 --> 00:24:08,356
Speaker 7: You know.

405
00:24:08,476 --> 00:24:11,596
Speaker 6: Local chew have told me stories about this area that

406
00:24:11,676 --> 00:24:14,356
Speaker 6: you know that they still believe they're up there, you know,

407
00:24:14,756 --> 00:24:19,396
Speaker 6: artifacts and stuff. So this is all untouched wilderness. You

408
00:24:19,396 --> 00:24:21,476
Speaker 6: know a lot of people don't think Ella has wilderness,

409
00:24:21,476 --> 00:24:23,556
Speaker 6: but this is as wild as it gets.

410
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Speaker 1: When we leave the Porn Ranch, Haley and I are stumped.

411
00:24:29,716 --> 00:24:32,836
Speaker 1: It seems like we may have exhausted all our possibilities.

412
00:24:33,516 --> 00:24:36,356
Speaker 1: We think my trees couldn't and wouldn't have gone in

413
00:24:36,396 --> 00:24:39,596
Speaker 1: from the bottom top or the porn ranch on her own.

414
00:24:40,436 --> 00:24:43,956
Speaker 1: We think someone must have taken her in, but who

415
00:24:46,116 --> 00:24:48,836
Speaker 1: There's just one more source of information we can think of,

416
00:24:49,756 --> 00:24:53,836
Speaker 1: a person who boasts about having detailed knowledge of Dark Canyon.

417
00:25:06,476 --> 00:25:08,996
Speaker 1: We've asked so many people how to access the part

418
00:25:09,276 --> 00:25:13,196
Speaker 1: Dark Canyon where my rise was found. Everyone says, yes,

419
00:25:13,276 --> 00:25:15,996
Speaker 1: of course, there are lots of ways in, but when

420
00:25:15,996 --> 00:25:19,156
Speaker 1: we ask for details, the certainty fades away and we're

421
00:25:19,156 --> 00:25:23,596
Speaker 1: back where we started. Except for one source. He seems

422
00:25:23,636 --> 00:25:27,276
Speaker 1: to know everything. It's the guy in the video we

423
00:25:27,356 --> 00:25:32,116
Speaker 1: found online, the Montanito Lifer interviewed by Raven Masterson. Did

424
00:25:32,196 --> 00:25:34,756
Speaker 1: you hear being on the door talking at the door

425
00:25:34,796 --> 00:25:35,356
Speaker 1: like they just.

426
00:25:35,316 --> 00:25:36,596
Speaker 7: Shut it on her or something.

427
00:25:37,236 --> 00:25:39,916
Speaker 1: He was the person who claimed he'd seen my Terse

428
00:25:40,156 --> 00:25:42,956
Speaker 1: at four thirty am on the day of her disappearance,

429
00:25:43,476 --> 00:25:45,396
Speaker 1: shouting in front of the Tennis court House.

430
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Speaker 7: It's just screaming at something now, and it was pretty loud.

431
00:25:49,236 --> 00:25:51,516
Speaker 7: I'm thinking, God, it's for three in the morning.

432
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Speaker 1: But he also talks a lot about the part of

433
00:25:54,276 --> 00:25:57,716
Speaker 1: Dark Canyon where they found my Terce's remains, what it's

434
00:25:57,796 --> 00:26:00,996
Speaker 1: like there, and how to get there. He says that

435
00:26:01,076 --> 00:26:03,356
Speaker 1: after he'd spotted her at the Tennis court house. She

436
00:26:03,436 --> 00:26:05,996
Speaker 1: must have walked up Payuma Road.

437
00:26:06,956 --> 00:26:09,876
Speaker 7: That road it's very you know, like a lot of

438
00:26:09,916 --> 00:26:13,876
Speaker 7: twists and turnsent for her to walk. It's close to

439
00:26:13,956 --> 00:26:17,676
Speaker 7: two miles to where it's turned off the Dark Creek,

440
00:26:17,956 --> 00:26:21,156
Speaker 7: you know, from the top. Well, the only way she

441
00:26:21,196 --> 00:26:22,836
Speaker 7: could have gotten in there. There's no way she could

442
00:26:22,836 --> 00:26:24,796
Speaker 7: have hiked up from the lock. I mean, that's like

443
00:26:25,636 --> 00:26:29,556
Speaker 7: ticks me and everything I have hyped up it.

444
00:26:31,276 --> 00:26:34,436
Speaker 1: He thinks maybe my trees walking along the mountain ridge

445
00:26:34,436 --> 00:26:36,516
Speaker 1: in the dark fell down in a ditch.

446
00:26:38,276 --> 00:26:39,436
Speaker 10: Is it really dark.

447
00:26:40,756 --> 00:26:41,196
Speaker 7: That night?

448
00:26:41,196 --> 00:26:42,476
Speaker 5: It would have been pitched flat.

449
00:26:44,036 --> 00:26:46,716
Speaker 1: It isn't clear how he's envisioning this ditch in relation

450
00:26:46,836 --> 00:26:49,396
Speaker 1: to the spot and Dark Canyon where her remains were found,

451
00:26:49,876 --> 00:26:53,116
Speaker 1: but he sounds extremely familiar both with the canyon and

452
00:26:53,156 --> 00:26:54,156
Speaker 1: the remain site.

453
00:26:55,596 --> 00:26:59,876
Speaker 7: Yeah, Dark Creek, it's pretty, Uh, it's overgrown with huge

454
00:26:59,956 --> 00:27:04,836
Speaker 7: oakes and you know a lot of rocks. But you know,

455
00:27:04,956 --> 00:27:07,196
Speaker 7: I hadn't been down in this one spot for a

456
00:27:07,236 --> 00:27:09,316
Speaker 7: lot of years because the friend of mine's parentry on

457
00:27:09,436 --> 00:27:10,116
Speaker 7: that property.

458
00:27:11,836 --> 00:27:14,236
Speaker 1: He says, the place where my trese was found was

459
00:27:14,236 --> 00:27:20,716
Speaker 1: a hangout spot, a place locals knew.

460
00:27:18,556 --> 00:27:20,436
Speaker 7: Well, we stood down there when we were younger.

461
00:27:21,236 --> 00:27:26,236
Speaker 1: He shown me on there, and just like Haley and me,

462
00:27:26,636 --> 00:27:28,476
Speaker 1: he's thought a lot about how my treece would have

463
00:27:28,476 --> 00:27:29,076
Speaker 1: gotten in there.

464
00:27:30,676 --> 00:27:32,636
Speaker 10: Do you think that a car could have gone up there?

465
00:27:32,676 --> 00:27:35,996
Speaker 7: And no way a car could have gone right, ware Will?

466
00:27:36,636 --> 00:27:40,076
Speaker 11: We had took three people, you know what I'm saying, right.

467
00:27:41,516 --> 00:27:43,836
Speaker 7: Two people would have gotten too tired. And she was

468
00:27:43,836 --> 00:27:44,556
Speaker 7: a big girl.

469
00:27:46,236 --> 00:27:49,076
Speaker 1: In fact, my ruse was not actually all that big,

470
00:27:49,596 --> 00:27:52,956
Speaker 1: five feet six, one hundred and twenty five pounds. But

471
00:27:52,996 --> 00:27:58,156
Speaker 1: can I just say his description is so specific, so concrete,

472
00:27:58,796 --> 00:28:02,036
Speaker 1: it almost sounds like he's recalling a lived experience.

473
00:28:03,636 --> 00:28:06,076
Speaker 10: Do you think somebody could have taken her?

474
00:28:06,276 --> 00:28:13,476
Speaker 11: Or you know what, if somebody took her, it did,

475
00:28:13,516 --> 00:28:16,756
Speaker 11: whatever they did, I think they would have had to

476
00:28:16,796 --> 00:28:20,796
Speaker 11: have come back. It's more than one person to drag

477
00:28:20,916 --> 00:28:22,636
Speaker 11: that body down to where it was.

478
00:28:24,476 --> 00:28:27,876
Speaker 1: He offers to take Raven, who incidentally is a young

479
00:28:27,876 --> 00:28:30,996
Speaker 1: black woman, to the site.

480
00:28:30,676 --> 00:28:33,396
Speaker 7: And she's two miles up on them. Man, you want

481
00:28:33,396 --> 00:28:34,156
Speaker 7: to go up there right now?

482
00:28:34,556 --> 00:28:34,756
Speaker 4: Yeah?

483
00:28:34,796 --> 00:28:37,636
Speaker 7: Sure, I can take you. Aware of what I know.

484
00:28:38,956 --> 00:28:42,636
Speaker 1: The video cuts now they're driving through Montanito, past the

485
00:28:42,636 --> 00:28:43,516
Speaker 1: tennis courthouse.

486
00:28:44,916 --> 00:28:46,636
Speaker 10: So what house is this?

487
00:28:46,516 --> 00:28:48,876
Speaker 7: This is the house where she was where I heard her.

488
00:28:50,436 --> 00:28:52,676
Speaker 7: I came down off the cross the street right there

489
00:28:52,716 --> 00:28:56,156
Speaker 7: as Woodluff, who's here yelling it? I came down. Then

490
00:28:56,196 --> 00:28:58,076
Speaker 7: I watched crush and I sit right here. But see

491
00:28:58,276 --> 00:29:01,516
Speaker 7: I couldn't see the front door because of all these cars.

492
00:29:02,796 --> 00:29:06,196
Speaker 1: Another cut. Now the camera's looking out over Dark Canyon

493
00:29:06,436 --> 00:29:07,316
Speaker 1: from somewhere above.

494
00:29:11,436 --> 00:29:13,476
Speaker 8: Well, they've had people were able to get down there

495
00:29:13,476 --> 00:29:14,436
Speaker 8: on that bluff.

496
00:29:14,236 --> 00:29:19,316
Speaker 7: Right and then that start creek going down there, and

497
00:29:19,396 --> 00:29:23,036
Speaker 7: I think that's where they found her, right down. I

498
00:29:23,076 --> 00:29:25,476
Speaker 7: think that was some hootgers place.

499
00:29:27,436 --> 00:29:31,036
Speaker 1: Another cut, Oh, everybody, what's happening?

500
00:29:31,116 --> 00:29:31,676
Speaker 10: Is your girl?

501
00:29:31,756 --> 00:29:35,676
Speaker 1: And now Raven is on a hike. She could be

502
00:29:35,716 --> 00:29:36,476
Speaker 1: down in the canyon.

503
00:29:38,716 --> 00:29:43,596
Speaker 10: I'm just getting to where my trees, Richardson's barley was found.

504
00:29:43,636 --> 00:29:44,436
Speaker 10: I'm carrying.

505
00:29:45,316 --> 00:29:48,796
Speaker 1: Then another cut and she's walking by some odd fencings.

506
00:29:49,716 --> 00:29:56,876
Speaker 1: Then the video just stops. We had a million questions

507
00:29:56,876 --> 00:29:59,916
Speaker 1: for Raven. Had she actually found a way into Dark

508
00:29:59,956 --> 00:30:03,156
Speaker 1: Canyon from higher up on Payuma Road, had the Montanito

509
00:30:03,236 --> 00:30:06,316
Speaker 1: lifer guided her to the remain site? Did she have

510
00:30:06,436 --> 00:30:09,596
Speaker 1: video of all that? We set up a meet with her,

511
00:30:11,156 --> 00:30:14,876
Speaker 1: Raven wasn't what I expected. She has a big personality

512
00:30:14,916 --> 00:30:18,556
Speaker 1: online as a topless rights activist and a shaman who

513
00:30:18,596 --> 00:30:23,236
Speaker 1: sells hexes on Etsy. In person, though she's surprisingly quiet

514
00:30:23,276 --> 00:30:26,676
Speaker 1: and mild mannered. She doesn't have a fixed address and

515
00:30:26,796 --> 00:30:29,156
Speaker 1: asked us to meet her at a Popeye's in South LA.

516
00:30:29,876 --> 00:30:31,756
Speaker 1: We ended up sitting in my car to talk.

517
00:30:32,716 --> 00:30:33,156
Speaker 4: She says.

518
00:30:33,156 --> 00:30:36,236
Speaker 1: She was very disturbed by my Teresa's disappearance and the

519
00:30:36,316 --> 00:30:37,956
Speaker 1: lack of resolution to her story.

520
00:30:39,356 --> 00:30:42,716
Speaker 2: So you started going out to Malibu to kind of

521
00:30:42,756 --> 00:30:45,236
Speaker 2: interview people to learn more about the Mitrees case.

522
00:30:45,396 --> 00:30:49,916
Speaker 1: Yes, she says, she stumbled on the Montanito guy a

523
00:30:50,036 --> 00:30:52,436
Speaker 1: year or two after my Teresa's remains were found.

524
00:30:53,796 --> 00:30:55,916
Speaker 10: I found him totally by accident.

525
00:30:57,276 --> 00:30:59,716
Speaker 1: She tells us. She liked him even though he was

526
00:30:59,756 --> 00:31:02,796
Speaker 1: in someone's basement. He saw himself as a mountain man

527
00:31:03,156 --> 00:31:06,916
Speaker 1: living at his spot. She got that he was essentially homeless.

528
00:31:08,436 --> 00:31:12,796
Speaker 10: He was a very very nice person from what I recall.

529
00:31:12,836 --> 00:31:15,996
Speaker 10: I remember him giving me beers. He was very very

530
00:31:16,036 --> 00:31:19,356
Speaker 10: down the herb. He didn't mean any harm. He didn't

531
00:31:19,356 --> 00:31:22,476
Speaker 10: come off to me as anybody malicious.

532
00:31:23,516 --> 00:31:26,796
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, Raven says she can't really remember much about the

533
00:31:26,836 --> 00:31:29,796
Speaker 1: trip into Dark Canyon, and she can't find the video

534
00:31:29,956 --> 00:31:32,796
Speaker 1: she made about it, but she does remember that the

535
00:31:32,836 --> 00:31:35,876
Speaker 1: guy showed her his spot on the mountain. It was

536
00:31:35,916 --> 00:31:39,276
Speaker 1: in the woods off Payouma Road, passed the driveway to

537
00:31:39,316 --> 00:31:42,276
Speaker 1: the porn ranch, but before you hit the property's fire road.

538
00:31:43,596 --> 00:31:44,636
Speaker 5: He had a little dugout.

539
00:31:44,916 --> 00:31:48,716
Speaker 10: It looked like a very earthy hovel. But he had

540
00:31:48,716 --> 00:31:52,316
Speaker 10: it set up very very nice. I mean, I think

541
00:31:52,316 --> 00:31:56,076
Speaker 10: he might have had a fridge, a little refrigerator that

542
00:31:56,236 --> 00:32:01,356
Speaker 10: was a propane stove. I think he had like a

543
00:32:01,396 --> 00:32:05,636
Speaker 10: separate room. He had it set up very very nice.

544
00:32:05,836 --> 00:32:08,076
Speaker 1: When she went back to find him a short time later,

545
00:32:09,196 --> 00:32:14,636
Speaker 1: he was gone. Sergeant Wright always told me he thought

546
00:32:14,676 --> 00:32:17,356
Speaker 1: my Trees had wandered into the canyon and died as

547
00:32:17,396 --> 00:32:21,316
Speaker 1: a result of her mental illness. This was the consensus

548
00:32:21,396 --> 00:32:24,316
Speaker 1: view of law enforcement, supported by the fact that the

549
00:32:24,356 --> 00:32:27,196
Speaker 1: coroner had not been able to determine a cause of death.

550
00:32:28,636 --> 00:32:31,476
Speaker 1: But then, after we'd known each other for three years,

551
00:32:32,116 --> 00:32:34,636
Speaker 1: he told me he didn't actually see the case as

552
00:32:34,716 --> 00:32:39,156
Speaker 1: quite that cut and dried. He was well into his

553
00:32:39,156 --> 00:32:42,276
Speaker 1: retirement and he was supposed to be relaxing and spending

554
00:32:42,316 --> 00:32:45,756
Speaker 1: time with his family and having coffee with other retired deputies.

555
00:32:46,756 --> 00:32:47,196
Speaker 10: But he was.

556
00:32:47,196 --> 00:32:51,196
Speaker 1: Ruminating on this old case. Of course, it bothered him

557
00:32:51,196 --> 00:32:54,876
Speaker 1: that he hadn't found my trees alive, but also some

558
00:32:54,996 --> 00:32:58,156
Speaker 1: of the specifics were nagging at him. He didn't really

559
00:32:58,156 --> 00:33:02,356
Speaker 1: buy the hypothermia theory or the dehydration theory. It just

560
00:33:02,556 --> 00:33:04,876
Speaker 1: wasn't that cold in September of two thousand and nine,

561
00:33:05,316 --> 00:33:08,316
Speaker 1: and there was water in the creek, So what did

562
00:33:08,356 --> 00:33:11,636
Speaker 1: she just will herself to death? How many days would

563
00:33:11,636 --> 00:33:16,956
Speaker 1: that take? That's when he told me something new, something

564
00:33:17,076 --> 00:33:21,396
Speaker 1: law enforcement hasn't shared publicly. He told me the Sheriff's

565
00:33:21,396 --> 00:33:24,636
Speaker 1: Department did investigate someone. It was the guy with the

566
00:33:24,676 --> 00:33:29,036
Speaker 1: fort with the deer ribcage and the women's IDAs, but

567
00:33:29,156 --> 00:33:32,076
Speaker 1: they never named him publicly and there was no arrest.

568
00:33:33,556 --> 00:33:36,596
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright thought that guy might hold the answer to

569
00:33:36,636 --> 00:33:41,076
Speaker 1: the Miteres Richardson case. But Sergeant Wright wasn't a homicide

570
00:33:41,116 --> 00:33:44,436
Speaker 1: detective and he was out of law enforcement anyway, so

571
00:33:44,476 --> 00:33:49,236
Speaker 1: there was nothing he could do about it except give

572
00:33:49,316 --> 00:33:59,116
Speaker 1: me his name next time on Lost Hills?

573
00:34:00,316 --> 00:34:00,756
Speaker 7: Do you know.

574
00:34:00,756 --> 00:34:01,796
Speaker 1: Anything about that girl?

575
00:34:01,916 --> 00:34:02,116
Speaker 10: Rick?

576
00:34:02,356 --> 00:34:05,036
Speaker 1: And he's like, what girl, Laura, what girl?

577
00:34:05,356 --> 00:34:05,556
Speaker 6: You know?

578
00:34:05,636 --> 00:34:06,716
Speaker 7: He had a raspy voyage.

579
00:34:08,676 --> 00:34:10,196
Speaker 1: She's like the girl, the girl.

580
00:34:09,996 --> 00:34:12,836
Speaker 6: You know, the girl that fucking the girl.

581
00:34:12,756 --> 00:34:17,716
Speaker 1: Is dead, the girl that they found that's next in

582
00:34:17,756 --> 00:34:24,676
Speaker 1: episode eight, Rick Trouble. Lost Hills is written and hosted

583
00:34:24,676 --> 00:34:28,196
Speaker 1: by Me Dana Goodyear. It was reported by me and

584
00:34:28,316 --> 00:34:32,436
Speaker 1: Hayley Fox, our senior producer. The show was created by

585
00:34:32,476 --> 00:34:36,676
Speaker 1: me and Benadere. Lost Hills is a production of Western

586
00:34:36,796 --> 00:34:45,156
Speaker 1: Sound and Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you

587
00:34:45,196 --> 00:34:49,156
Speaker 1: can binge the whole season right now ad free. Find

588
00:34:49,196 --> 00:34:52,916
Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus on the Lost Hills show page in Apple Podcasts,

589
00:34:53,116 --> 00:34:56,156
Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus