WEBVTT - Murders in the Mountains 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:13.925 School of Humans. When we talked with Sheriff Alex Ville Nueva, 0:00:14.445 --> 0:00:16.925 he said this, Yeah, we do get a lot of 0:00:16.925 --> 0:00:21.405 the Love transience people that wandered different areas throughout that 0:00:21.485 --> 0:00:25.885 whole corridor there. But so we're still you know, absence 0:00:25.965 --> 0:00:28.485 somebody coming forward and saying this is what happened, and 0:00:28.965 --> 0:00:32.405 how we're still going to be left with this unresolved, 0:00:33.165 --> 0:00:37.285 you know depth Sheriff vill In Nueva says, someone out 0:00:37.285 --> 0:00:40.725 there knows something, so we need to find and talk 0:00:40.725 --> 0:00:47.605 to those people. This is a real time investigation and 0:00:47.645 --> 0:00:50.965 as a pandemic has unfolded, it's had a very real 0:00:51.005 --> 0:00:53.285 effect on crime. Yeah, I feel like this is really 0:00:53.365 --> 0:00:57.125 different than season one right now because obviously with season 0:00:57.205 --> 0:01:01.085 one you were embedded and there and meeting people. But 0:01:01.205 --> 0:01:06.405 here now it seems kind of impossible with COVID. Well, 0:01:06.525 --> 0:01:08.165 I think also, like I mean a lot of the 0:01:08.205 --> 0:01:12.005 people involved in this are in a higher risk group, 0:01:12.365 --> 0:01:15.125 and some of them are older, Like I mean, Ship 0:01:15.165 --> 0:01:18.125 said he hasn't left his house in months, and a 0:01:18.165 --> 0:01:20.765 lot of people are kind of in that same in 0:01:20.845 --> 0:01:24.165 that same boat. I don't feel okay about going and 0:01:24.245 --> 0:01:27.125 knocking on doors. I can't go to anything. I mean, 0:01:27.165 --> 0:01:30.405 and there aren't the kind of things here, like you know, 0:01:30.445 --> 0:01:32.125 you can't go out and meet people at a restaurant. 0:01:32.165 --> 0:01:35.125 You can't like go to there, you know, Malibu, that 0:01:35.205 --> 0:01:37.645 area that When we started this, I thought, Okay, well 0:01:37.645 --> 0:01:39.565 they have a lot of community meetings and things like 0:01:39.605 --> 0:01:43.765 that all the time normally, but obviously none of that's 0:01:43.765 --> 0:01:47.805 happening now. Yeah, and even the police and the fire 0:01:47.885 --> 0:01:51.685 guys since the summer have been so overstretched. Usually you 0:01:51.685 --> 0:01:54.405 can find like a friendly source to take you around, 0:01:54.485 --> 0:01:56.725 but even the people who I have or friendly sources 0:01:56.725 --> 0:02:02.045 are just you know, kind of overwhelmed right now. And 0:02:02.085 --> 0:02:04.405 it's just it's been really hard. It's not I mean, 0:02:04.405 --> 0:02:06.885 you know, look, every every single element of our lives 0:02:06.965 --> 0:02:08.645 has been changed right now, and it's kind of like, 0:02:08.685 --> 0:02:11.565 why should investigations be any different? And I'm kind of 0:02:11.605 --> 0:02:13.925 I mean, it makes me think too that cold case 0:02:13.965 --> 0:02:16.765 investigations it's going to be tough because it's sort of 0:02:16.805 --> 0:02:19.765 like pressed us into a world where unless something is 0:02:19.765 --> 0:02:23.725 an absolute priority right now, it's not gonna get done. 0:02:24.485 --> 0:02:27.925 And I kind of feel like that's what's happening with investigations. 0:02:28.365 --> 0:02:32.085 And then there's also all the fires and yeah, I'm 0:02:32.285 --> 0:02:36.045 about that, like, yes, that made things hard temporarily, that 0:02:36.085 --> 0:02:39.805 would have been yeah, that made it hard for people 0:02:39.885 --> 0:02:42.685 to go out to that area. But in a normal 0:02:42.845 --> 0:02:45.325 year where that was all that was happening, it would 0:02:45.365 --> 0:02:47.845 have been like, Okay, we wait until fire season's over 0:02:47.965 --> 0:02:51.325 and then you can go out there. But that's the problems. 0:02:51.725 --> 0:02:53.685 There's no it seems like there's just kind of no 0:02:53.845 --> 0:02:58.285 end of this, no immediate endto this until there's a vaccine. 0:03:04.205 --> 0:03:06.485 We're getting more and more evident that my treece was 0:03:06.525 --> 0:03:10.365 alive and fully clothed on the morning of September seventeenth, 0:03:11.365 --> 0:03:15.685 then at some point that day she disappeared. So we 0:03:15.765 --> 0:03:19.605 need to answer two questions. First, could my Trees have 0:03:19.725 --> 0:03:22.165 walked to the area where her body was found on 0:03:22.205 --> 0:03:26.365 her own? And second, who was in the neighborhood that night, 0:03:27.325 --> 0:03:29.645 Because if my Trees did not walk there on her own, 0:03:30.165 --> 0:03:33.325 the evidence suggests that she was taken there by someone 0:03:33.325 --> 0:03:38.605 who had familiarity with the area. I'm Catherine Townsend. This 0:03:38.885 --> 0:04:13.605 is Helen Gone. In order to figure out who could 0:04:13.685 --> 0:04:16.485 have been the last person to see my Trees, we 0:04:16.605 --> 0:04:19.685 wanted to get a better understanding of who lives in 0:04:19.725 --> 0:04:24.245 the Santa Monica Mountains. The Mountain range covers a massive area. 0:04:24.645 --> 0:04:27.405 It stretches from the Hollywood Hills all the way to 0:04:27.485 --> 0:04:32.285 Point Mugu in Ventura County. Montegnito, where Bill Smith lives, 0:04:32.765 --> 0:04:35.685 is a quiet neighborhood full of people who love hiking 0:04:35.805 --> 0:04:40.045 and horseback riding. But there's also an underworld in the mountains. 0:04:40.725 --> 0:04:44.685 There are transient people with no fixed address, cartels who 0:04:44.685 --> 0:04:50.125 grow pot illegally, and ultra violent gangs. Since the pandemic, 0:04:50.365 --> 0:04:53.605 a lot of police departments that investigate cold cases have 0:04:53.725 --> 0:04:57.485 found that they've had to alter their methods. They aren't 0:04:57.485 --> 0:05:00.885 able to generate tips or to do their usual outreach. 0:05:01.565 --> 0:05:04.205 I was inspired by one department in Texas I read about, 0:05:04.205 --> 0:05:06.325 who are basically doing the same thing that we're doing, 0:05:06.925 --> 0:05:10.365 doubling down on the evidence they already had. They went 0:05:10.405 --> 0:05:12.765 back to the drawing board and tried to see if 0:05:12.805 --> 0:05:17.285 there was anything that they missed. Office Campire. Yeah, Hi, Hey, 0:05:17.485 --> 0:05:19.885 this is a Smith a cold canyon. We had a 0:05:19.885 --> 0:05:22.125 prowler to walking around through the backyard here, but we 0:05:22.165 --> 0:05:24.445 don't know what the situation was. I don't know. If 0:05:24.445 --> 0:05:25.565 you have a unit in there, it might do a 0:05:25.605 --> 0:05:28.485 little drive buy or somethink. We know that Bill Smith, 0:05:28.885 --> 0:05:32.725 the former KTLA Channel five reporter who saw my trees 0:05:32.805 --> 0:05:36.485 sitting on his back steps, called the Lost Hills Sheriff's 0:05:36.485 --> 0:05:40.845 department in the early morning hours of September seventeenth. And 0:05:40.885 --> 0:05:42.565 now we just said a strange womanould walk up through 0:05:42.565 --> 0:05:45.005 the backyard here that this is fairly large properation. She 0:05:45.085 --> 0:05:47.045 was sitting on the step right on the back of 0:05:47.045 --> 0:05:50.005 the house. Here, this is kind of a circular. Bill 0:05:50.045 --> 0:05:52.925 Smith did not speak to anyone about my trees in 0:05:52.965 --> 0:05:56.165 the last few years of his life. We reached out 0:05:56.165 --> 0:06:02.245 to his widow several times but did not receive a response. Later, 0:06:02.685 --> 0:06:05.565 canine dogs were brought to the scene. They found one 0:06:05.645 --> 0:06:08.645 sneaker prints that they believed were my terces, and the 0:06:08.725 --> 0:06:11.605 dogs followed My Teresa's scent down the street from Bill 0:06:11.685 --> 0:06:16.325 Smith's house, then lost the scent. Investigators believed that the 0:06:16.325 --> 0:06:19.885 footprints pattern showed that my trees had gone from walking 0:06:20.085 --> 0:06:25.085 to running. Then they disappeared. Now, this could have been 0:06:25.165 --> 0:06:27.845 because a car drove by and picked my trees up, 0:06:28.725 --> 0:06:32.005 but she could have also gotten scared. Maybe she saw 0:06:32.045 --> 0:06:34.645 the police and decided to get off the road and 0:06:34.765 --> 0:06:38.645 hide in the woods. After all, her earlier interaction with 0:06:38.685 --> 0:06:42.765 the police had not gone well. There have been other 0:06:42.805 --> 0:06:45.565 people who came forward and said that they saw my 0:06:45.645 --> 0:06:49.245 Trees that night. When we talked to cherriffvill Nueva, he 0:06:49.365 --> 0:06:52.245 said that some one saw my Trees drinking from a 0:06:52.285 --> 0:06:56.285 garden hose after she was at Bill Smith's house. Then 0:06:56.325 --> 0:07:00.045 there was another woman, a middle school teacher, who reported 0:07:00.085 --> 0:07:03.165 that she had seen a woman matching my Trees's description 0:07:03.845 --> 0:07:07.525 walking south on a road near Malibu Canyon at around 0:07:07.525 --> 0:07:11.245 seven thirty am. She told the Los Angeles Times that 0:07:11.325 --> 0:07:15.605 she remembered this because a black woman walking alone through 0:07:15.605 --> 0:07:21.085 those roads was an unusual sight. Someone else reported seeing 0:07:21.125 --> 0:07:25.485 my Trees walking down Payuma Road away from Malibuchanan Road, 0:07:25.845 --> 0:07:30.365 in the direction of Dark Canyon at around one thirty pm. 0:07:30.565 --> 0:07:33.965 Police pointed to these sightings as evidence that my Trees 0:07:34.085 --> 0:07:36.965 made it through the night. We can't know for sure 0:07:37.045 --> 0:07:40.365 what happened, but we have to follow my Trees's route 0:07:40.405 --> 0:07:43.165 as best we can and try to use the evidence 0:07:43.205 --> 0:07:47.485 to explore the likeliest possibilities. If my Trese was wandering 0:07:47.525 --> 0:07:51.525 around during the day, she would have been exhausted, dehydrated, 0:07:51.925 --> 0:07:55.565 and by all accounts very possibly having some sort of 0:07:55.565 --> 0:07:58.965 a breakdown. I've spent a lot of time in this area. 0:07:59.845 --> 0:08:03.485 If she had continued down Malibu Canyon Road, she would 0:08:03.485 --> 0:08:06.805 have eventually made it to the Pacific Coast Highway back 0:08:06.845 --> 0:08:10.005 towards Civilization and the mpound yard where her car had 0:08:10.005 --> 0:08:14.925 been towed. But that road is treacherous. There's no shoulder, 0:08:15.765 --> 0:08:18.525 you have to walk through the mountains with steep drops 0:08:18.565 --> 0:08:21.885 on one side, and you have to walk through a 0:08:21.925 --> 0:08:25.725 tunnel with no pedestrian sideway. The other street she could 0:08:25.725 --> 0:08:30.165 have taken was Payuma Road, and Payuma Road, as we 0:08:30.245 --> 0:08:34.565 discovered while driving around, is very misleading. It seems to 0:08:34.645 --> 0:08:38.685 slope downward, but it's a long winding road that goes 0:08:38.725 --> 0:08:42.005 from west to east, so you have the sensation of 0:08:42.085 --> 0:08:45.725 going down the mountain, but really you're going deeper and 0:08:45.765 --> 0:08:49.405 deeper into the canyon. The evidence points to the fact 0:08:49.405 --> 0:08:52.405 that my Trees was alive and fully clothed on the 0:08:52.445 --> 0:08:56.685 morning of September seventeenth, and somehow ended up in that 0:08:56.725 --> 0:08:59.565 creek bed. So that means that we need to know 0:08:59.845 --> 0:09:01.965 if she could have fallen or walked down to the 0:09:02.005 --> 0:09:05.925 creek bed from Montinito, or if someone could have dumped 0:09:05.965 --> 0:09:12.805 her down that hill. Okay, hi Michael, heay, Catherine, how 0:09:12.805 --> 0:09:17.245 are you. I'm good? How are you? I'm pretty good? Good. Well, 0:09:17.405 --> 0:09:20.085 thank you so much for talking to us. We've talked 0:09:20.085 --> 0:09:25.205 to my Teresa's father, Michael Richardson. She just, you know, 0:09:26.965 --> 0:09:29.645 it's really hard to put it into words, because she 0:09:29.845 --> 0:09:33.965 was a good kid. You know, She's just loved to dance, 0:09:34.125 --> 0:09:38.325 she loved to entertain, she loved to be a comedian, 0:09:38.685 --> 0:09:43.125 and all her friends loved it. Just the life of 0:09:43.205 --> 0:09:49.325 the party sort of speak person overall, incredible kid, you know, 0:09:49.605 --> 0:09:57.525 and was still like that vulnerable. You know, I could 0:09:57.565 --> 0:10:02.565 see how the wrong people could wind her in or 0:10:02.565 --> 0:10:05.605 wield her in because you know, as much as I 0:10:05.645 --> 0:10:10.565 tried to teach her and be you know, aware of 0:10:10.685 --> 0:10:14.885 people that she was just always too trustworthy of people, 0:10:15.165 --> 0:10:19.125 which was a problem I had with her, you know, like, 0:10:19.405 --> 0:10:22.285 always keep your guardage up, and she's like, no, you 0:10:22.525 --> 0:10:26.845 just you come from that life, so you know, everybody 0:10:26.965 --> 0:10:30.605 is a suspect to that. But you know, this is 0:10:30.685 --> 0:10:34.725 one of the main reasons why I always wanted to 0:10:34.925 --> 0:10:39.845 educate her on mean people, you know, so yeah, to 0:10:39.965 --> 0:10:43.845 try to prevent something like this from happening. Over the years, 0:10:43.925 --> 0:10:46.525 he's talked about his suspicions with some of the people 0:10:46.525 --> 0:10:50.365 in the Montanito area. And the crazy thing about it 0:10:50.565 --> 0:10:54.605 was for a whole week straight while we were in Malibu, 0:10:54.685 --> 0:10:58.365 searching and looking and everything like that. We just looked 0:10:58.445 --> 0:11:01.765 up a week later and there was this white lady 0:11:01.845 --> 0:11:04.365 there and we were like, okay, and who are you? 0:11:04.405 --> 0:11:08.485 And she's like, I'm the lady. I'm married to Bill Smith. 0:11:08.605 --> 0:11:11.885 I owned the property that she was on, and we 0:11:12.165 --> 0:11:16.245 was like, and now you show up, Like how ironic 0:11:16.365 --> 0:11:20.285 is that? And so what I was telling Matias was 0:11:20.725 --> 0:11:23.165 my trees mother. She asked me like, why do you 0:11:23.205 --> 0:11:26.165 think she showed up? And I'm like, she's probably a 0:11:26.205 --> 0:11:29.685 spy knowing what's going on, and they had to get 0:11:29.685 --> 0:11:34.085 their story straight and they were coached, and now she 0:11:34.285 --> 0:11:38.205 feel comfortable enough to come out and see what we 0:11:38.285 --> 0:11:43.445 know so she could report it. But after one of 0:11:43.445 --> 0:11:46.685 his very close colleagues told me that years on, he 0:11:46.805 --> 0:11:50.405 interviewed me several times it's like, did you get anybody invested? 0:11:50.485 --> 0:11:52.805 I'm like, nobody will. They don't want to touch him. 0:11:53.085 --> 0:11:58.005 I even leaned into it more after he raised suspicion 0:11:58.085 --> 0:12:02.445 because when the dogs went out, they picked up my 0:12:02.525 --> 0:12:08.205 trees footprints there and on his doorstep, and then all 0:12:08.245 --> 0:12:11.005 of a sudden, her footprints just vanished. So I'm saying, 0:12:11.045 --> 0:12:16.605 so she vanished from here, but nobody seeing a car 0:12:16.725 --> 0:12:20.285 pick her up, nobody seeing her get in a car. 0:12:20.605 --> 0:12:25.565 The UFO didn't come down low enough. You know. It 0:12:25.685 --> 0:12:30.085 was just something. But that was the most interesting place 0:12:30.405 --> 0:12:34.085 that I think they should have started asking questions. Well, 0:12:35.165 --> 0:12:40.605 here's another strange thing that people keep omni. Before Bill 0:12:40.685 --> 0:12:44.845 Smith's called, there was another lady which we felt that 0:12:45.565 --> 0:12:48.005 she would had to be part of it, what have you. 0:12:48.125 --> 0:12:51.285 But she made the first initial call saying she was 0:12:51.405 --> 0:12:57.285 driving over there by. It was a cross street Boss 0:12:57.405 --> 0:13:00.925 Hills and some other street, and they said they saw 0:13:01.005 --> 0:13:07.245 a black lady looking rather suspicious and you know they're 0:13:07.285 --> 0:13:12.525 from Malibu, and not to sound racist or whatever, she said, 0:13:12.605 --> 0:13:15.605 but we just know that this is a person that 0:13:16.445 --> 0:13:19.365 is not from here, could be lost or whatever. But 0:13:19.485 --> 0:13:22.885 that was the first call, and they said that call 0:13:23.005 --> 0:13:26.405 came in at six. Then one of the residents on 0:13:26.645 --> 0:13:32.005 Bill's Street said, according to one of the reports, the 0:13:32.045 --> 0:13:38.965 police came around twelve something or whatever, or twelve or 0:13:39.005 --> 0:13:42.165 three I'm maybe a little off, but one of those timeframes. 0:13:42.565 --> 0:13:48.845 But they said the police never showed up, right, they 0:13:48.965 --> 0:13:51.525 never showed up. And of course we're not privy to 0:13:52.285 --> 0:13:58.925 any traveling records, are logging and stops or anything of 0:13:58.925 --> 0:14:02.685 that nature, so they wouldn't give us that. Now, we 0:14:02.765 --> 0:14:08.325 found no evidence that anyone Montinito did anything suspicious, but 0:14:08.365 --> 0:14:10.885 there are a lot of other people living in those hills. 0:14:12.085 --> 0:14:15.405 Could my trees have encountered some of them. The Santa 0:14:15.405 --> 0:14:19.365 Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is known for horse trails 0:14:19.525 --> 0:14:22.885 and hikes and wine tours, but it also has a 0:14:22.965 --> 0:14:26.165 dark side. A lot of people use the area to 0:14:26.205 --> 0:14:29.925 dispose of things they don't want, like trash and bodies. 0:14:30.605 --> 0:14:33.085 This has been going on for a long time. During 0:14:33.125 --> 0:14:36.845 the nineteen eighties, the psychopathic serial killing couple Doug Clark 0:14:36.885 --> 0:14:40.845 and Carol Bundy, nicknamed the Sunset Strip Killers, dumped one 0:14:40.845 --> 0:14:45.085 of their many female victims here. Over the years, many 0:14:45.165 --> 0:14:49.245 other bodies have been found here as well. Some were 0:14:49.325 --> 0:14:53.125 ruled suicides they wanted to choose a peaceful place in 0:14:53.165 --> 0:14:57.965 their own lives. Others have been accidents when cars veer 0:14:58.045 --> 0:15:01.205 off one of the twisted roads, or someone jumps into 0:15:01.205 --> 0:15:05.125 a dam on a dare. Some are still unsolved, like 0:15:05.165 --> 0:15:07.525 the of a sixteen year old who was beaten to 0:15:07.565 --> 0:15:10.925 death and dumped in a canyon. His remains were burned 0:15:10.965 --> 0:15:16.485 beyond recognition during a wildfire. Some are violent murders, and 0:15:16.605 --> 0:15:20.445 many are gang related. According to the Los Angeles Times, 0:15:20.685 --> 0:15:23.645 the MS thirteen Street gang has been active in the area. 0:15:24.405 --> 0:15:28.205 In twenty nineteen, police arrested several members of the gang 0:15:28.365 --> 0:15:31.405 and charged them with seven murders in the hills around 0:15:31.405 --> 0:15:36.085 Malibu in the Angeles National Forest. Federal investigators said that 0:15:36.165 --> 0:15:40.605 the gang lured their enemies to remote locations, including the canyon, 0:15:41.325 --> 0:15:46.965 and then killed them using medieval methods, including torture and dismemberment. 0:15:47.485 --> 0:15:51.725 Federal prosecutors say that the gang used machetes, knives, and 0:15:51.765 --> 0:15:56.085 baseball bats to kill suspected informants. In one instance, when 0:15:56.125 --> 0:15:59.525 gang members suspected someone of defacing an M. S thirteen 0:15:59.525 --> 0:16:03.405 graffiti tag, six of them kidnapped him, took him to 0:16:03.445 --> 0:16:06.925 the Angelus National Forest, and attacked him with a machete. 0:16:07.765 --> 0:16:12.445 Prosecutors say they cut his heart out. In May twenty eighteen, 0:16:13.005 --> 0:16:15.045 the body of a fifty two year old man named 0:16:15.085 --> 0:16:18.525 Francisco cruise was discovered in a ditch by the side 0:16:18.565 --> 0:16:22.165 of the road dump near the Malibu Hindu Temple. This 0:16:22.325 --> 0:16:25.965 is a massive white landmark that people flocked to. It's 0:16:26.005 --> 0:16:29.165 also very near the area where my Trees's body was found. 0:16:29.685 --> 0:16:33.205 Francisco reportedly died from sharp fores injuries to the upper 0:16:33.205 --> 0:16:36.725 body and blunt force injury to the head, and according 0:16:36.725 --> 0:16:40.085 to a source quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, his body 0:16:40.245 --> 0:16:45.085 showed signs of torture, possibly with a drill. Two months later, 0:16:45.365 --> 0:16:47.885 the body of another man was found on Payuma Road, 0:16:48.405 --> 0:16:51.645 again in the same area. It was later revealed that 0:16:51.725 --> 0:16:55.205 he died of a gunshot wound. Police say that both 0:16:55.285 --> 0:16:58.885 murders were gang related, and in at least one case, 0:16:59.805 --> 0:17:03.405 gang members have inflicted this medieval style violence on an 0:17:03.405 --> 0:17:07.485 innocent bystander. He was a homeless man who was temporarily 0:17:07.525 --> 0:17:10.605 living in a park controlled by the gang. But gang 0:17:10.725 --> 0:17:15.725 killings generally involve very visible trauma like guns or blunt 0:17:15.725 --> 0:17:19.485 force objects, and they've tended to be dumped near major 0:17:19.605 --> 0:17:23.125 roads or public sites. These bodies were meant to be 0:17:23.165 --> 0:17:26.445 found and meant to make a statement to the gang's enemies. 0:17:26.805 --> 0:17:30.805 Unlike Mitesa's body, which was found in an extremely remote 0:17:30.845 --> 0:17:35.445 location that could not be accessed by car. There are 0:17:35.445 --> 0:17:38.245 also drifters and homeless people who live in the hills, 0:17:38.965 --> 0:17:42.365 like Anthony Rauda, a homeless drifter who was charged with 0:17:42.445 --> 0:17:46.285 the Malibu Creek State Park shootings. Now many people believe 0:17:46.445 --> 0:17:50.245 that Rauda wasn't the only person shooting at human targets 0:17:50.245 --> 0:17:53.565 in the hills over the years. But either way, while 0:17:53.605 --> 0:17:57.005 the vast majority of transient people in the mountains are harmless, 0:17:57.805 --> 0:18:04.765 there are violent criminals living up there. Due to COVID, 0:18:05.005 --> 0:18:07.605 we've been stuck inside, so we've had to look at 0:18:07.645 --> 0:18:12.005 alternative ways of gathering evidence. During one of those late 0:18:12.125 --> 0:18:16.085 night sessions, we found another mysterious video that surfaced on 0:18:16.165 --> 0:18:19.285 YouTube with a man who claims to have seen my 0:18:19.365 --> 0:18:23.045 trees on the night she disappeared. It was posted by 0:18:23.045 --> 0:18:26.965 a woman who describes herself as a psychic topless activist. 0:18:27.845 --> 0:18:31.485 She posts clips on her website. Some are really out 0:18:31.485 --> 0:18:35.645 there descriptions of lizard people and complex conspiracy theories. But 0:18:35.685 --> 0:18:38.605 there's one clip that could potentially be very relevant to 0:18:38.605 --> 0:18:42.845 my Teresa's case. It's from twenty twelve and it's an 0:18:42.885 --> 0:18:45.685 interview with a local man who claimed that he saw 0:18:45.725 --> 0:18:49.325 my Trees on the night she disappeared. He said that 0:18:49.405 --> 0:18:51.525 he was walking down the mountain at around four point 0:18:51.525 --> 0:18:55.445 thirty in the morning at Woodbluff and Cold Canyon when 0:18:55.445 --> 0:18:58.045 he saw a house with a horseshoe driveway and a 0:18:58.085 --> 0:19:02.925 tennis court, presumably Bill Smith's house. He said My Trees 0:19:03.045 --> 0:19:05.445 was at the front door of the property. He said 0:19:05.525 --> 0:19:08.045 he couldn't see her because there were park cars blocking 0:19:08.045 --> 0:19:10.965 his view in the driveway, but he said that he 0:19:11.005 --> 0:19:14.285 could hear her screaming at something. He couldn't make out 0:19:14.285 --> 0:19:16.845 what she was saying, but he said that she was 0:19:16.965 --> 0:19:22.045 angry and cursing. He claimed that police questioned him and 0:19:22.085 --> 0:19:24.805 he admitted that he had a criminal record, which made 0:19:24.845 --> 0:19:28.405 him reluctant to talk to police. At first, we wanted 0:19:28.445 --> 0:19:30.965 to find the man so that we could interview him ourselves, 0:19:31.725 --> 0:19:35.965 but we learned that sadly he passed away another dead 0:19:36.045 --> 0:19:41.045 end and there's another group of people who were omnipresent 0:19:41.325 --> 0:19:48.245 and invisible, the cartel. Remember that on the day that 0:19:48.285 --> 0:19:52.405 Materesa's body was found, park rangers were looking for the 0:19:52.445 --> 0:19:56.685 remnants of an illegal marijuana grow the Santa Monica Mountains 0:19:56.765 --> 0:19:59.925 have many areas that make them ideal for an illegal grow, 0:20:00.725 --> 0:20:04.285 especially in two thousand and nine in twenty ten, before 0:20:04.445 --> 0:20:08.925 marijuana was made lead in California. During those years, park 0:20:09.045 --> 0:20:13.525 rangers and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies confiscated tons 0:20:13.565 --> 0:20:18.445 of plants, thousands upon thousands of acres of pot worth 0:20:18.525 --> 0:20:22.285 hundreds of millions of dollars. According to sources who spoke 0:20:22.325 --> 0:20:26.725 to The Hollywood Reporter, Mexican cartels send growers to cultivate 0:20:26.765 --> 0:20:30.085 marijuana in the mountain near Malibu Creek State Park. This 0:20:30.245 --> 0:20:33.965 is a massive, multi billion dollar business. They work in 0:20:34.045 --> 0:20:37.445 pears or sometimes in groups. They hide in the hills 0:20:37.565 --> 0:20:39.885 and camp near the crop until the plants are ready 0:20:39.925 --> 0:20:43.045 to harvest. This way, they didn't have to worry about 0:20:43.045 --> 0:20:46.405 smuggling the product across the border. There have been no 0:20:46.485 --> 0:20:50.365 official reports of cartel links to the bodies found in 0:20:50.405 --> 0:20:55.205 Malibu Creek State Park, But unlike the gangs, cartel members 0:20:55.245 --> 0:20:58.085 are deep in the woods in areas where no one 0:20:58.125 --> 0:21:01.805 else goes for weeks at a time and there's something else. 0:21:02.525 --> 0:21:08.005 Cecarios or drug cartel hitmen often slit their victim's throats. 0:21:08.965 --> 0:21:13.325 When we hiked through dark canyon. We saw irrigation hoses. 0:21:14.205 --> 0:21:16.925 On the day the park rangers found my Teres's body, 0:21:17.525 --> 0:21:22.205 they saw irrigation hoses too, but Ronda was clear. She 0:21:22.365 --> 0:21:25.165 told us that when she and my Teresa's family members 0:21:25.645 --> 0:21:28.165 hiked up to the site where the remains were found, 0:21:28.645 --> 0:21:32.885 those hoses had been removed by law enforcement. So it 0:21:32.965 --> 0:21:35.205 looks like the cartel may have come back at some 0:21:35.285 --> 0:21:39.605 point other than the creek bed. There is another way 0:21:39.805 --> 0:21:42.285 to get to the area where my Terrese was found, 0:21:42.965 --> 0:21:46.045 through the back of a private property that the police 0:21:46.125 --> 0:21:59.165 used to start their hike. Oh my point is if 0:21:59.285 --> 0:22:02.245 we scream, either of us screamed really loudly. Right now, 0:22:02.285 --> 0:22:06.645 there are a bunch of houses right there. Yeah, if 0:22:06.685 --> 0:22:10.285 you needed help, and we're like, you know, I feel 0:22:10.285 --> 0:22:13.605 like people would hear you here. We are the only 0:22:13.645 --> 0:22:21.045 people up here. Remember when my producer, Gabby and I 0:22:21.125 --> 0:22:24.445 went out into the woods, we found it almost impossible 0:22:24.725 --> 0:22:27.485 to get to the coordinates where my Trees's body was found. 0:22:28.045 --> 0:22:30.685 Like this down here is this the creek bed. We 0:22:30.725 --> 0:22:33.325 agreed that it would have been very difficult for my 0:22:33.405 --> 0:22:36.125 Trees to have walked that route through the creek bed 0:22:36.445 --> 0:22:39.925 on her own. We started from the Backbone trail, so 0:22:39.965 --> 0:22:42.125 we just have to keep hiking down. Veered off that 0:22:42.165 --> 0:22:45.245 trail and went along the creek bed heading east, so 0:22:45.325 --> 0:22:47.045 she could have I mean, I get what your thinking. 0:22:47.085 --> 0:22:51.085 She could have fallen, and again that I would have 0:22:51.165 --> 0:22:53.565 expected some broken bones, Like if we fell from this height, 0:22:53.565 --> 0:22:57.245 you would expect there to be some broken bones. There 0:22:57.245 --> 0:22:59.885 are several ways that my trees could have gone from 0:22:59.885 --> 0:23:03.925 Bill Smith's house. Behind the house where my Teresa's sneaker 0:23:03.965 --> 0:23:07.565 print stopped is a horse trail that connects to several 0:23:07.605 --> 0:23:12.765 more horse trails. They zigzag within Montinito. A couple of 0:23:12.765 --> 0:23:15.605 branches of these horse trails connect to the Backbone trail. 0:23:16.285 --> 0:23:19.565 It's like a labyrinth back there. One way puts you 0:23:19.605 --> 0:23:22.445 back out on Pauma Road before the entrance to Montnito. 0:23:23.245 --> 0:23:25.245 Another way puts you out on the other side of 0:23:25.325 --> 0:23:29.165 Payama Road. All of these routes still put you about 0:23:29.165 --> 0:23:32.165 a mile out from where my Teresa's body was found 0:23:32.205 --> 0:23:34.965 in the middle of the woods. But the horse trail 0:23:35.085 --> 0:23:39.845 does connect to one other property. It's called Malibu Canyon Ranch. 0:23:40.765 --> 0:23:45.045 The property is a large nineteen seventies ranch house. You 0:23:45.085 --> 0:23:47.005 can actually rent it for one hundred and ninety five 0:23:47.045 --> 0:23:50.965 dollars an hour for shoots. There's a walk in saltwater 0:23:51.005 --> 0:23:54.805 pool and a former production house where many types of 0:23:54.845 --> 0:23:58.085 productions have been shot over the years. If you're walking 0:23:58.125 --> 0:24:02.005 along Payuma Road, there's a long driveway up to the property. 0:24:02.925 --> 0:24:05.245 The back of the property runs along a ridge line 0:24:05.485 --> 0:24:08.725 that descends into the creek bed near the clearing where 0:24:08.725 --> 0:24:11.805 my Teresa's body was found. It's so close that when 0:24:11.845 --> 0:24:14.485 we were on our hike in the woods, we could 0:24:14.525 --> 0:24:19.005 hear the roar of an engine from up on that property. 0:24:19.165 --> 0:24:22.485 People call this property the Porn Ranch. It's owned by 0:24:22.485 --> 0:24:27.085 a woman named Sus Randall. A few years ago, Vice 0:24:27.285 --> 0:24:31.365 UK wrote a profile on Sus Randall. They wrote, quote 0:24:31.845 --> 0:24:34.045 her name should be one of the most iconic and 0:24:34.125 --> 0:24:37.925 porn She was the first female playboy photographer to shoot 0:24:37.925 --> 0:24:40.925 a full frontel, the first woman to sell her nude 0:24:40.965 --> 0:24:45.325 photographs to the Sun end quote. But Sus Randall is 0:24:45.365 --> 0:24:49.205 notoriously private, and while a lot of her past has 0:24:49.285 --> 0:24:52.485 been racy, by her own admission, she's always been known 0:24:52.565 --> 0:24:56.525 as a consummate professional. Her work focuses on making women 0:24:56.565 --> 0:25:01.445 feel comfortable during shoots. Her daughter, Holly Randall, followed her 0:25:01.445 --> 0:25:04.605 mother into the business. Though the women are pretty private, 0:25:05.205 --> 0:25:07.405 they don't seem to be operating in any type of 0:25:07.405 --> 0:25:10.885 a shadowy, nefarious underworld. Their work is out in the 0:25:10.925 --> 0:25:15.165 open and very mainstream. It's like a lot of people 0:25:15.205 --> 0:25:18.765 who have looked into this case over the years or that, 0:25:18.845 --> 0:25:20.445 you know, they kind of make reference to this. But 0:25:20.445 --> 0:25:22.045 then as you were saying, this is it's just kind 0:25:22.045 --> 0:25:23.725 of like a distraction to the case. And the only 0:25:23.765 --> 0:25:27.925 thing that's interesting about that property really is its proximity location. Yeah, 0:25:28.525 --> 0:25:30.445 and I don't think there's anything to that. I YEA. 0:25:30.925 --> 0:25:34.085 My whole question about them is only literally only because 0:25:34.165 --> 0:25:37.485 of where it is, because that's a property that given 0:25:37.525 --> 0:25:40.405 the fact that this is an investigation into a disappearance 0:25:40.445 --> 0:25:43.005 in that area, that is the property where that can 0:25:43.045 --> 0:25:45.645 be accessed. Like, that's my question, and it doesn't have 0:25:45.685 --> 0:25:48.605 anything to do to me with a pornography or anything 0:25:48.645 --> 0:25:53.965 like that. To me, that's pretty irrelevant. It's literally the 0:25:54.005 --> 0:25:57.565 fact that it's at that location, Like literally that that 0:25:57.605 --> 0:26:00.565 house could be anyone in any industry. I feel like, again, 0:26:00.685 --> 0:26:03.285 like the fact that there's they happen to work in pornography, 0:26:04.965 --> 0:26:07.405