Speaker 1: Most people who live in the wilderness are prepared to
Speaker 1: run into wild animals, so they're watchful, but nobody expects
Speaker 1: a human predator to be hiding behind a tree and
Speaker 1: start shooting at you.
Speaker 2: When a man was found dead and his wife was missing,
Speaker 2: the Alaskan wilderness turned into a dangerous game of catch
Speaker 2: me if you can.
Speaker 1: There are helicopters buzzing overhead every day for a.
Speaker 2: Month, and the man hunt led investigators to a tent
Speaker 2: right next to the victim's dead body.
Speaker 1: For a guy who chose to camp right near the corpse.
Speaker 1: He looked very suspicious.
Speaker 2: But did the police have the wrong suspect?
Speaker 1: This just seemed like two big coincidence for the troopers
Speaker 1: to swallow.
Speaker 2: And by the time the police made an arrest, no
Speaker 2: one knew who or what to believe.
Speaker 1: Everywhere you look, this story had a strange but fascinating aspects.
Speaker 2: Today, we're North of the Border and Julitna, Alaska for
Speaker 2: part one of the Mountain Man Murders. I'm Sloan Glass
Speaker 2: and this is American homicide. And just to note that
Speaker 2: this episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2: Rick Berry and de b Reehoer were newlyweds who lived
Speaker 2: and worked just outside of Anchorage, Alaska, but on weekends
Speaker 2: the two spent a lot of time at their cabin
Speaker 2: in the remote woods of Chulitna.
Speaker 1: Chulitna is not a town. It's a designated wilderness area
Speaker 1: about one hundred and fifteen miles north of Anchorage or
Speaker 1: forty miles north of the town of Talkitna.
Speaker 2: True crime author Robin Bearfield wrote Murder and Mystery in
Speaker 2: the Last Frontier.
Speaker 1: The Chulitna River runs through it, the Talkeitna Mountains are
Speaker 1: near there, and it is just a very wild area.
Speaker 1: There are no roads that run through Chulitna.
Speaker 2: Living there is literally and figuratively off the grid.
Speaker 1: Coming off the grid in Alaska means you are responsible
Speaker 1: for your electricity. You're responsible for your sewer. You're responsible
Speaker 1: for getting wood to keep warm, and for getting fuel
Speaker 1: if you need fuel for a ATV or to run
Speaker 1: a generator.
Speaker 2: Toltna is so far removed from the rest of Alaska
Speaker 2: that there are only two ways to get there. One
Speaker 2: is the more traditional route, the Parks Highway.
Speaker 1: The Parks Highway is the highway that connects Anchorage to Fairbanks,
Speaker 1: and you can drive along the highway and pull off
Speaker 1: the road and then either hike or take an ATV
Speaker 1: into your cabin. The other way to get into Chiulitna
Speaker 1: is by the Alaska Railroad.
Speaker 2: The Alaska Railroad not only runs freight trains but also
Speaker 2: operates passenger trains.
Speaker 1: The railroad runs a train on a particular schedule, it
Speaker 1: varies from season to season, but it goes into this
Speaker 1: area and it does what is known as a whistle
Speaker 1: stop or a flag stop, which means that either the
Speaker 1: train knows they have a passenger on board that wants
Speaker 1: to get off at a certain stop, or the engineer
Speaker 1: sees people standing beside the tracks and he stops there.
Speaker 2: That train line not only is important for getting from
Speaker 2: point A to point B, but it's also how locals
Speaker 2: get their food and supplies. So that gives you an
Speaker 2: idea of just how far remote Huletna is and how
Speaker 2: different life is for people who live there.
Speaker 1: The people who live there live off the grid. They
Speaker 1: like their peace and quiet, and they're very self sufficient.
Speaker 2: And that summed up brick Berry and Debbie Reehor.
Speaker 1: He had lived in Alaska his entire life, except for
Speaker 1: two stints in the military in Vietnam, but he had
Speaker 1: no desire to leave. He loved it here. Debbie was
Speaker 1: good in the wilderness. She liked to hunt, she liked
Speaker 1: to fish, she loved to get outdoors. So they made
Speaker 1: a good pair, and their personalities offset each other.
Speaker 2: Rick was type AI and Debbie was reserved and quiet.
Speaker 2: After years of dating, Rick finally popped the question to
Speaker 2: Debbie and the two forty somethings got married in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five.
Speaker 1: Rick was a confirmed lifelong bachelor, but friends and families
Speaker 1: say they fell hard for each other.
Speaker 2: The two loved spending long weekends at their cabin in Chulitna,
Speaker 2: and just before Memorial Day weekend in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 2: that's what they did. Their plan was always the same.
Speaker 2: Rick would drive up on Thursday to get the cabin ready,
Speaker 2: and then after work on Friday, Debbie would drive up
Speaker 2: a meeting and listen to this inventor from their home
Speaker 2: and anchorage. The drive was a few hours normal. Then
Speaker 2: they would park their cars at a lot along the
Speaker 2: railroad tracks. From there, they'd hop on their ATVs for
Speaker 2: the final leg of the journey.
Speaker 1: Rick and Debbie's CA happened was eight miles from the road,
Speaker 1: so you know, it's quite a waste to travel after
Speaker 1: you get out of your car.
Speaker 2: Door to door. It was about a four hour track
Speaker 2: for a long weekend of relaxation in the woods. But
Speaker 2: something happened in Cheltna that Memorial Day weekend because Rick
Speaker 2: and Debbie made it up there and then vanished.
Speaker 1: When Debbie didn't show up for work on the Tuesday
Speaker 1: after Memorial Day, her boss became very concerned because that
Speaker 1: was unlike Debbie. She was very dependable and if she
Speaker 1: was going to be late for work or have to
Speaker 1: miss work for some reason, she always called.
Speaker 2: Rick also was a no show at work that Tuesday,
Speaker 2: and nobody could get in touch with either of them,
Speaker 2: so Debbie's boss called Debbie's brother.
Speaker 1: Debbie's brother was a little worried about them running into
Speaker 1: bears because they went missing right when the bears are
Speaker 1: coming out of hibernation, so he was concerned about that.
Speaker 1: But Rick and Debbie were smart and knew how to
Speaker 1: handle the outdoors, so it was unlikely that they were
Speaker 1: going to do something to get themselves in trouble, so
Speaker 1: he went to their cabin in chew Litna. When he arrived,
Speaker 1: he did not find Rick or Debbie, but the cabin
Speaker 1: was closed and the dogs were closed inside, and they'd
Speaker 1: obviously been closed inside for several hours because they'd gone
Speaker 1: to the bathroom on the floor.
Speaker 2: Rick and Debbie's border colleagues appeared to be scared and hungry,
Speaker 2: as if they'd been left alone for an extended period
Speaker 2: of time, and there were some other things inside the
Speaker 2: cabin that stood out to Debbie's brother.
Speaker 1: He found a plate of cheese on the table, cheese
Speaker 1: and crackers, and an open beer, and he said that
Speaker 1: was not like Rick or Debbie either, because they were
Speaker 1: very good housekeepers, so he felt certain something was wrong.
Speaker 1: As soon as he arrived at the cabin.
Speaker 2: Rick and Debbie's ATVs were also missing, so he waited
Speaker 2: around the cabin hoping the two would return, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: And the next morning he decided he'd go out look
Speaker 1: around a little bit, so about two miles from the cabin,
Speaker 1: he found Rick's ATV on the edge of a creek,
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of Rick, and then he
Speaker 1: was really worried, so he called the Alaska State Troopers
Speaker 1: and said, I know it hasn't been forty eight hours,
Speaker 1: but there's something wrong here, and the troopers responded immediately.
Speaker 2: Rick Bery served two tours in Vietnam, so this wasn't
Speaker 2: someone the troopers expected to get lost in the woods
Speaker 2: or attacked by wildlife. A search crew including fifteen Alaska
Speaker 2: State troopers and multiple tracking dogs fanned out around Chulitna,
Speaker 2: but finding Rick and Debbie was a challenge. It was
Speaker 2: summertime in Alaska, meaning the forest was thick, the ground
Speaker 2: was muddy, and the air was filled with mosquitoes. So
Speaker 2: troopers also took to the sky and sent two search
Speaker 2: helicopters to the area, and that's when they located Rick.
Speaker 1: The troopers found Rick fairly quickly as soon as they
Speaker 1: began looking. He wasn't far from his ATV. He was
Speaker 1: in the creek in a deep hole.
Speaker 2: On the Thursday after Memorial Day, troopers found Rick Fury's
Speaker 2: body in a creek some two hundred yards away from
Speaker 2: his ATV and two miles from his cabin.
Speaker 1: And he had been shot once in the head, execution style.
Speaker 2: It was a gruesome and puzzling discovery for troopers. Murders
Speaker 2: rarely happened in the Alaska wilderness, especially an execution style murder,
Speaker 2: and that's when the focus shifted to Rick's wife, Debbie.
Speaker 1: They didn't find Debbie's body or her ATV, so she
Speaker 1: immediately became a suspect in the case. To the troopers,
Speaker 1: that looked like this could have been a love spat
Speaker 1: that went off the rails and she shot him and
Speaker 1: then took off.
Speaker 2: But no one wanted to believe that Debbie Rehort, the
Speaker 2: person her coworkers called sweetheart, would do any harm towards Rick.
Speaker 2: If anything, it might have been the other way around.
Speaker 1: Rick was a big guy who could have a hot temper.
Speaker 1: He lost his temper fairly easily, and he didn't hold
Speaker 1: back from telling people what he thought.
Speaker 2: People described Rick as stubborn and gruff and said he
Speaker 2: sometimes questioned authority. In fact, that's how he got in
Speaker 2: trouble with the Feds back in the eighties.
Speaker 1: He tried the butt heads with the irs and it
Speaker 1: didn't work out so well for him, so he did
Speaker 1: about eleven months in jail, not too long after he
Speaker 1: and Debbie were beginning to date. But she hung in
Speaker 1: there with him and waited for him to get out
Speaker 1: of jail, and they moved on with their lives.
Speaker 2: The mystery over what happened to Rick and Debbie that memorial.
Speaker 2: They weekend baffle troopers and people who lived in the area.
Speaker 1: I think this is a big story in Alaska and
Speaker 1: elsewhere because this is an unusual way to die in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. You don't expect somebody in the Alaska wilderness
Speaker 1: to be shot by another human execution style.
Speaker 2: As search crews continued to comb through the miles of
Speaker 2: forest in the area looking for Debbie, investigators searched for clues.
Speaker 2: They focused heavily on the railroad tracks that cut through Chulitna.
Speaker 2: The railroad has their own police force who patrol those tracks.
Speaker 2: There were no reports of anything suspicious.
Speaker 1: There were electrical workers working along the railroad tracks in
Speaker 1: the area. They were installing fiber optic cable, and the
Speaker 1: troopers questioned them and they said there was a campsite
Speaker 1: in the area near where they found Rick's body.
Speaker 2: And those workers reported hearing gunshots coming from that area.
Speaker 1: The campsite was kind of a mess that looked like
Speaker 1: it had been used fairly recently, and whoever was staying
Speaker 1: there had made a makeshift flag flying a pair of
Speaker 1: women's underwear.
Speaker 2: So we have a mysterious campsite near the creek where
Speaker 2: Rick's dead body turned up. And not only that, but
Speaker 2: there is also the bizarre detail of a pair of
Speaker 2: women's underwear hanging on a tree branch. What's that about?
Speaker 2: Alaska State troopers also had a lot of questions. The
Speaker 2: seasons in Alaska are extreme. After a harsh winter, things
Speaker 2: quickly change during the months of May. That's when Alaska
Speaker 2: merges from its hibernation. Warmer temperatures arrive, the ground begins
Speaker 2: to thaw, and daylight extends well past bedtime.
Speaker 3: There's ice on the lake. The next week the ice
Speaker 3: is gone, and the following week the leaves are out.
Speaker 2: Bill Astell was the assistant District attorney in Palmer, Alaska.
Speaker 3: Spring comes in May end. By Memorial Day, it's eighteen
Speaker 3: hours of daylight and summer is underway. Most people around
Speaker 3: Memorial Day will take an extra day off and have
Speaker 3: a three or four day weekend and get things ready
Speaker 3: for summer.
Speaker 2: And that's what husband and wife Rick Berry and Debbie
Speaker 2: Rehort did over Memorial Day weekend in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: They headed to their cabin in the rural Alaskan area
Speaker 2: of Chulitna, but they never returned.
Speaker 3: Their four wheelers were gone and they had just seemingly disappeared.
Speaker 2: An exhaustive search through the remote area by foot was
Speaker 2: followed by an aerial search, and that's when a helicopter
Speaker 2: pilot noticed something.
Speaker 3: When the troopers are out there with the helicopter, the
Speaker 3: helicopter pilot is getting ready to leave and does one
Speaker 3: more circle and out of the corner of his eye,
Speaker 3: he catches a glint of sunlight off something a beaver pond,
Speaker 3: and that's where Rickberry's body was found. He was killed
Speaker 3: with a shot to the head from a twenty two rifle,
Speaker 3: and it appears that his body would have floated down stream,
Speaker 3: settled to the bottom, and probably would not have been
Speaker 3: found but for the coincidental sighting.
Speaker 2: The forty eight year old had taken a single bullet
Speaker 2: to the head, execution style. Meanwhile, Rick's wife, Debbie was
Speaker 2: nowhere to be found.
Speaker 3: He's dead, she's missing. She becomes another suspect because it
Speaker 3: could be some sort of a domestic dispute situation, and
Speaker 3: they're pulling out all the stops at this point to
Speaker 3: bring more investigative resources to search about for her or
Speaker 3: for any clue as to where she might have gone.
Speaker 2: Since Chulitna didn't have a police force of their own,
Speaker 2: the Alaska State Troopers handled the investigation, but getting statements
Speaker 2: wasn't easy because there were only a dozen or so
Speaker 2: cabins in the area.
Speaker 3: There was very sparsely populated, and the people that had
Speaker 3: cabins there tended to be recreational cabins or there were retirees,
Speaker 3: but very few full time residents.
Speaker 2: With so few people in the area, investigators then turned
Speaker 2: to local railroad employees for help, because those railroad tracks
Speaker 2: were how most people made their way in and out
Speaker 2: of Chulitna.
Speaker 3: They learned in interviewing the railroad personnel that somebody had
Speaker 3: seen somebody walking in the area carrying a rifle and
Speaker 3: it turned out to be a person that was going fishing,
Speaker 3: and they found traces of his campsite and his use
Speaker 3: of a twenty two firearm.
Speaker 2: And here's the crazy part. This person had set up
Speaker 2: camp right where they found Rick's body. Enter twenty one
Speaker 2: year old Gavin Saha. He came forward to investigators and
Speaker 2: told them how over Memorial Day weekend he was backpacking
Speaker 2: along the railroad tracks through Tulitna.
Speaker 3: Gavin Saha had been walking in the area carrying a
Speaker 3: rifle and had been shooting his twenty two twenty two
Speaker 3: rifle was the murder weapon.
Speaker 2: This was a huge lead. Gavin Saha owned the same
Speaker 2: type of gun as the murder weapon, not to mention,
Speaker 2: he had camped virtually right next to Rick's dead body.
Speaker 2: The troopers felt like they were making progress, but Gavin
Speaker 2: denied having any idea he set up his tent near
Speaker 2: a murder scene. The troopers pushed back because at that
Speaker 2: time of the year in Alaska, the sun merely dips
Speaker 2: below the horizon and then comes back up. That means
Speaker 2: there's light for most of the day. So the fact
Speaker 2: that Gavin didn't notice he set up his camp right
Speaker 2: next to Rick's dead body.
Speaker 3: It was just inconceivable, and so he became sort of
Speaker 3: the prime suspect as they were sorting out what actually happened.
Speaker 2: One thing to remember is Gavin was the one who
Speaker 2: went to the police.
Speaker 4: There is a young man who came forward to us
Speaker 4: and said, you know, I was out in that area.
Speaker 4: I was camping and fishing and so forth.
Speaker 2: Captain Don Savage was part of the team of Alaskan
Speaker 2: State troopers who investigated.
Speaker 4: He was camped right along the railroad tracks. I think
Speaker 4: it was within a couple of hundred yards of where
Speaker 4: Rick was found. And it's four wheeler is.
Speaker 2: How keep in mind, Chulitna is not easily accessible unless
Speaker 2: you came by train or ATV, neither of which this suspected.
Speaker 4: His mom aparently dropped him off somewhere so he could
Speaker 4: hike up in the railroad tracks, and that's where he
Speaker 4: was camping, and he had a twenty two rifle with him,
Speaker 4: and we knew that a murder weapon had been twenty two.
Speaker 2: Gavin explained that during his hiking excursion, he quickly found
Speaker 2: himself in over his head. He mistakenly left his map
Speaker 2: at home and got lost. A day and a half
Speaker 2: into his track, Gavin said he stumbled upon a four wheeler.
Speaker 2: Troopers believe it belonged to Debbie. It was partially submerged
Speaker 2: in a creek and looked to be stuck in the mud.
Speaker 2: Off the back of it, he noticed a backpack. After
Speaker 2: fishing the bag off the four wheeler, Gavin found a purse,
Speaker 2: some clothes, and some other things. Inside the bag.
Speaker 4: He had found the pepsi and some chewing gum.
Speaker 2: I believe Gavin told troopers he took that two liter
Speaker 2: bottle of pepsi and.
Speaker 4: Gum, but he denied taking anything else, and he denied
Speaker 4: seeing Rick's body.
Speaker 2: For every question to troopers asked, Gavin had a reasonable answer,
Speaker 2: and that's when they zeroed in on Gavitt's campsite.
Speaker 5: His campsite was, I guess, notoriously messy, and for whatever reason,
Speaker 5: he had a pair of red underwear along with him.
Speaker 2: Flying on a tree branch above Gavin's campsite was a
Speaker 2: pair of women's underwear. The underwear waved in the wind,
Speaker 2: kind of like a flag. But Gavin told investigators he
Speaker 2: had an explanation for that as well.
Speaker 4: He had gone out there to hike and fish, and
Speaker 4: he had brought this pair of his girlfriends or ex
Speaker 4: girlfriend's panties along with him.
Speaker 5: For whatever reason, they thought it would be humorous to
Speaker 5: put that out there so that passengers on the train
Speaker 5: could see the red.
Speaker 4: Underwear as they went by.
Speaker 2: So we have a young man who set up camp
Speaker 2: near a dead body he claimed he didn't know was there,
Speaker 2: and a pair of women's underwear that he u as
Speaker 2: a flag at the campsite. Keep in mind the victim's wife,
Speaker 2: Debbie was still missing.
Speaker 4: It's almost too cwfered at this point in time.
Speaker 2: But Gavin Saha told investigators he didn't know Rick Berry
Speaker 2: or Debbie Reehort, and more importantly, he had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with Rick's murder. He was all circumstantial.
Speaker 3: He said, it was the wrong place at the wrong time.
Speaker 2: That's assistant Da Billi Stell.
Speaker 3: And that didn't add up and didn't make sense with
Speaker 3: the other things he had said.
Speaker 2: So what would have been Gavin's motive to kill the
Speaker 2: troopers didn't know and we're still questioning him. When a
Speaker 2: disturbing update rolled in, investigators had finally located Debbie and
Speaker 2: the news wasn't good.
Speaker 3: She was shot and her body just dragged off into
Speaker 3: the woods and with grass and sticks. When they found
Speaker 3: her body, it was clear that they had both been
Speaker 3: killed by shots to the head and appeared that they
Speaker 3: were both likely killed at the same time in the
Speaker 3: same place.
Speaker 2: Nearly a week after Rick's body turned up in a creek,
Speaker 2: troopers found Debbie's body along that same creek, and just
Speaker 2: like her husband, Debbie had taken a fatal gunshot to
Speaker 2: the head, and that's where the similarities ended. Here's Captain
Speaker 2: Don Savage. Again.
Speaker 4: She was found in the brush. She was naked from
Speaker 4: the waist down, which is not normal for it if
Speaker 4: you're traveling or any of those circumstances in a remote
Speaker 4: area like that, So that raised some concerns about sexual assault.
Speaker 2: Debbie's body was turned over to the medical examiner, who
Speaker 2: confirmed the trooper's worst fears. Debbie had been sexually assaulted.
Speaker 4: Determination as I recall us, it was quite likely that
Speaker 4: it was postmortem that she had that sexual contact.
Speaker 2: On the same weekend Rick Berry and Debbie Reehor were murdered,
Speaker 2: a young Higer named Gavin Saha set up his campsite
Speaker 2: a few yards away from Rick's body.
Speaker 3: He was in the place at the time and could
Speaker 3: easily have been the perpetrator.
Speaker 2: That's Assistant District Attorney Bill Stell.
Speaker 3: Gavin Saha had some things in his past that made
Speaker 3: the troopers pay attention to him.
Speaker 2: Twenty one year old Gavin Saha was the trooper's main suspect,
Speaker 2: and then investigators were still processing the discovery of Debbie Rehor.
Speaker 2: Troopers found her body along the same creek that they
Speaker 2: had found her husband. Debbie had contusions and abrasions on
Speaker 2: her legs and was naked from the waist down.
Speaker 3: There were bullet wounds and signs of sexual assault, and
Speaker 3: it was a very tragic situation.
Speaker 2: Gavin's fingerprints were also all over a backpack that contained
Speaker 2: Debbie's wallet and clothing, but Gavin denied killing Rick and Debbie.
Speaker 3: She was raped, shot, and her body just dragged off
Speaker 3: into the woods and she was left there, partially undressed,
Speaker 3: covered with grass and sticks. They found the DNA.
Speaker 2: Did that DNA belong to Gavin Saha?
Speaker 3: They went and asked him for a DNA sample and
Speaker 3: got his DNA. It didn't match.
Speaker 2: Even with all that circumstantial evidence, Gavin was cleared. It
Speaker 2: was a major blow to the investigation that was about
Speaker 2: to get some help from a national TV program.
Speaker 6: Now from our Washington Crime Center, John woolfsh.
Speaker 1: Good evening, Our first case tonight is outrageous.
Speaker 6: It's about a man who worked.
Speaker 2: Hard with a killer and a rapist on the loose
Speaker 2: in the Alaskan wilderness, and the original suspect cleared. The
Speaker 2: television show America's Most Wanted got involved. The show sent
Speaker 2: a team to start filming near to Litna. By then,
Speaker 2: the Alaska State Troopers had turned their attention towards someone else.
Speaker 1: Rick and Debby's nearest neighbor, about a mile away from
Speaker 1: their cabin, was Paul Stavinard.
Speaker 2: Author Robin Bearfield wrote about the case, and I will
Speaker 2: mention that you'll hear Paul's last name pronounced a couple
Speaker 2: different ways. For the sake of simplicity, we'll call him Stavinyard.
Speaker 1: Paul Stavinord was just kind of a backwoods man who
Speaker 1: had a big bushy beard, long hair, wire rim glasses.
Speaker 2: Unlike Rickendebbie, Paul Stavinard lived in his true Litna cabin
Speaker 2: year round. He had spent twenty years working for the
Speaker 2: Alaska Railroad, but hurt his back. That's when he quit
Speaker 2: his job and focused on his artwork.
Speaker 1: He liked to make little pewter animals, and he carved
Speaker 1: intracut flutes. And he not only carved these flutes, but
Speaker 1: he played the flute very well, and he wrote flute music.
Speaker 1: And he had done three albums of flute music as
Speaker 1: a matter of fact. And he seemed like a peaceful,
Speaker 1: easy going type.
Speaker 2: So why were the troopers focusing on this peace loving
Speaker 2: and flute plane guy.
Speaker 1: When the troopers began talking to Rick and Debbie's other
Speaker 1: neighbors in the area. They told them that Rick Anddebbie
Speaker 1: got along with everyone except for Paul Stavinord. Paul and Rick,
Speaker 1: in particular, had a very contentious relationship.
Speaker 2: The troopers learned that Paul and Rick were not friends now.
Speaker 2: Their relationship soured when Rick accused Paul Savignyard of stealing
Speaker 2: things from his cabin.
Speaker 1: And we know that Rick wasn't the kind of person
Speaker 1: to back away from a fight, so he had a
Speaker 1: reputation for being a bit of a hothead.
Speaker 2: So the troopers questioned Paul, but Paul said that Memorial
Speaker 2: Day weekend, when Rick and Debbie were murdered, he wasn't
Speaker 2: even in town. He said he had left his cabin
Speaker 2: in Chulitna and traveled some four hours north.
Speaker 1: He said he'd gone to Fairbanks for the weekend, and
Speaker 1: he even gave them the names of restaurants where he stopped,
Speaker 1: places where he stopped to get guessed or stopped to
Speaker 1: get snacks.
Speaker 2: But here's where Paul had trouble backing up his alibi.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any receipts from the restaurants where he
Speaker 1: said he visited on his way to Fairbanks or the
Speaker 1: gas stations, but that's because he claims he paid for
Speaker 1: everything in cash.
Speaker 2: And this is where it's important to learn some backstory
Speaker 2: on Paul Savignyard.
Speaker 6: We all lived the life is close to the mountain
Speaker 6: man as anybody we have in Alaska.
Speaker 2: That's Paul's friend Keith Baja.
Speaker 6: He was comfortable in a wilderness setting, built his cabin
Speaker 6: and lived off the grid if you will. No electricity,
Speaker 6: no television, none of the things that most of US Americans.
Speaker 2: Are used to as part of Paul's mountain man lifestyle.
Speaker 2: He didn't wear a watch, he told investigators. He also
Speaker 2: didn't use credit cards, which is why none of those
Speaker 2: businesses Paul visited over a Memorial Day weekend had a
Speaker 2: record of him. But the more the troopers looked into
Speaker 2: Paul's story, the more holes they found. For example, he
Speaker 2: claimed to have had a steak for lunch at a restaurant.
Speaker 2: The troopers learned that restaurant did not serve steak for lunch,
Speaker 2: and once again, Paul said maybe he was actually there
Speaker 2: around dinner time. He didn't know for fur because he
Speaker 2: didn't wear a watch, But the Alaska Stay Troopers thought
Speaker 2: Paul was lying.
Speaker 6: I don't believe Paul would do something like that.
Speaker 2: Then an eyewitness came forward. A railroad employee claimed he
Speaker 2: saw Paul driving a four wheeler in Chewlitna on the
Speaker 2: Saturday before Memorial Day. And remember Paul claimed he was
Speaker 2: in Fairbanks that day.
Speaker 3: He said he was out of town. And the more
Speaker 3: they investigated, the less that panned out.
Speaker 2: That's assistant da Billi Stell so get.
Speaker 3: The end to look as if he was fabricating his
Speaker 3: whole absence.
Speaker 2: By that time, the troopers were focused squarely on Paul Stavinyord.
Speaker 2: And if you remember, Debbie Reehor had been sexually assaulted
Speaker 2: and there was DNA evidence on her, so they asked
Speaker 2: Paul to provide a DNA sample.
Speaker 3: He refused, which heightened their suspicion, so they got a warrant.
Speaker 2: That's when the investigation switched gears.
Speaker 6: Paul disappeared.
Speaker 2: His friend Keith Beja was concerned.
Speaker 6: They were looking for Paul, it couldn't find him. I
Speaker 6: think panic may have kicked in and he he went
Speaker 6: to where he was comfortable, the woods. That doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 6: He's a quality woodsman.
Speaker 2: And for the next few weeks Paul managed to hide
Speaker 2: from the authorities.
Speaker 3: I don't know what he.
Speaker 6: Did during that period of time other than just survive
Speaker 6: out there.
Speaker 2: Wanted Signs with Paul's picture went up all over the area,
Speaker 2: but Alaska State troopers said the person they're looking for
Speaker 2: didn't match that photo. They believed Paul had cut his
Speaker 2: long hair, shaved off his big bushy beard, and hopped
Speaker 2: a freight train out of town.
Speaker 3: He also worked for the railroad, so he was very
Speaker 3: familiar with how to hop a freak train, how to
Speaker 3: get on, get off, how to avoid detection. So we
Speaker 3: got a search warrant to search his cabin.
Speaker 2: Inside Paul Stavinjord's cabin, troopers first came across a handful
Speaker 2: of twenty two rifles. Then they found a journal in
Speaker 2: the most unlikely of spots.
Speaker 3: It had hidden this somewhere in the rafters of his house.
Speaker 3: It was one of the troopers climbing around up there
Speaker 3: that found it, hidden in a crack between a couple
Speaker 3: of boards.
Speaker 2: What Paul rode inside? That journal contained some graphic information
Speaker 2: about his relationship with his neighbor, Debbie Rehort.
Speaker 3: They were having consensual sex.
Speaker 2: Paul's journal spelled out details of his affair with Debbie.
Speaker 3: Everything about it became inconsistent with what people knew about
Speaker 3: Rick and Debbie and what they knew about the relationship
Speaker 3: with Stavingord himself.
Speaker 2: Were Debbie and Paul having an affair? Or was it
Speaker 2: Pau's a tent to create an alibi? And if it
Speaker 2: was his attempt to create an alibi, why hide the journal?
Speaker 2: By then, the Alaska State Troopers feared that Paul was
Speaker 2: long gone and had possibly entered Canada. But then, nearly
Speaker 2: a month after Paul disappeared, he got in touch with
Speaker 2: the troopers.
Speaker 3: I believe America's most wanted was getting ready to run
Speaker 3: a special on him when he turned himself in.
Speaker 2: Paul had hired a high profile defense lawyer and said
Speaker 2: he was ready to talk with investigators. Here's his friend,
Speaker 2: Keith Beja.
Speaker 6: He did apparently get to a telephone after several weeks
Speaker 6: and talked to a friend who was responsible for getting
Speaker 6: him connected with the attorney, and the attorney convinced him
Speaker 6: he needed to turn himself in.
Speaker 2: Paul Stavignord was booked and charged with the murders of
Speaker 2: Rick Berry and his wife, Debbie Reehor.
Speaker 6: You know, I just didn't really accept it. Paul's not
Speaker 6: the kind of guy that ambusious people or shoots people,
Speaker 6: or or that he's very safe with firearms. Paul was
Speaker 6: special in that he was likable, not just to me,
Speaker 6: but to everybody.
Speaker 2: Paul Stabannord claimed he was an innocent man, and he
Speaker 2: said there was a reason he hopped a freight train
Speaker 2: and left town.
Speaker 6: He had had unfortunate experience with law enforcement prior to
Speaker 6: this event, so trusting policeman was probably not his first reaction.
Speaker 2: So what was this unfortunate experience with law enforcement that
Speaker 2: caused Paul to go on the run and who killed
Speaker 2: Rick and Debbie. I never could quite make a decision
Speaker 2: as to whether he was a dangerous man or whether
Speaker 2: something snapped. It ultimately led to one of the most
Speaker 2: hotly contested trials Alaska has ever seen.
Speaker 3: How can somebody go from being a neighbor to being
Speaker 3: a double murderer at the flip of a switch.
Speaker 2: And when it was all over, the lawyers would switch sides.
Speaker 6: This is a travesty of justice.
Speaker 2: I'm slow glass join me for the bizarre conclusion of
Speaker 2: the Mountain Man murderers. That's next time on American Homicide.
Speaker 2: You can contact the American Homicide Team by emailing us
Speaker 2: at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. That's American
Speaker 2: Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted
Speaker 2: and written by me Sloane Glass and is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written
Speaker 2: and produced by Todd Gans, with additional writing by Ben
Speaker 2: Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurie.
Speaker 2: Our ihearteam is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimechack. Audio editing,
Speaker 2: mixing and mastering by Nico Aarruca. American Homicide's theme song
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