Buried Secrets

though we are being safe. We've been trying to get onto Malibu Canyon Ranch because over the years, a lot of people have said that there was direct access from the back of that property to Dark Canyon, where my TRACE's remains were found, so we're trying to figure out if that's true. The ranch is a thirty acre property with horses. They also do a lot of photo shoots and productions, and it's also private property. But I found a listing on Airbnb for the guest house. We booked

it for two nights. My producer Brandon got there first. He met Sus Randall, the owner. She rode up to meet him on a horse. She also introduced us to her big black dog, Pickles. We both love dogs, so we ended up tagging along as we looked around the property. What did you tell me? What? Okay? So, Pickles the dog is very happy because he likes to play fetch and he just brought something back to me and I thought it was a stick, but upon closer inspection, it's

a deerfoot. So we're finally here in the place that a lot of people have been trying to get access to since the night my terse went missing. We're hoping to find a way to Dark Creek. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone. So we're just as you can see, we're walking to the back of the property. Here. When you approach Malibu Canyon Ranch, you can see the Spanish style main house. You can see horses in a little paddock, and as you drive around you see a small guesthouse.

This side is just basically a wall of dirt and rock. On the right to the left there of the properties. In the background the Santa Monica Mountains, which is where the Backbone Trail is. There's a saltwater pool and there are views in every direction of the canyon and the Santa Monica Mountains. We're going to continue down this road and when you walk out of the guest house you see a dirt road which they call the fire Road. It leads to an incredibly steep drop down to the canyon.

That's down the canyon. That's the canyon. I'd say that's probably a one hundred foot drop. Seventy five foot drops. Yeah, see now and again, if you told me like the remains were here, I'd be like, Okay, you drop it off right that makes sense. Someone dropped it or she fell or whatever. Is this right here? Yeah, if you took one wrong step, especially if it was darker night, or if you're so tired. When you look at a map, the remains are point two miles from the fire road

where we're standing. But what you don't see on those maps is this giant drop off. It's so steep they've put up barriers, so although the remains are close, there's no way to get there without hiking down and around this drop off. We did find this little sort of depression that seems to lead toward the canyon. We just back up a little. We both talked to Susan Randall, and she told us about the other trails at the back of the property. We're just trying to figure out

where all of these trails lead. We started to hike. Pickles followed us around and let us down. Some horse trails. Well, he's walking down there. I was about pickles is cause you Okay, buddy, come on back through. So if you're a if you're a two foot black lamb, you can you can get through this brush. Well it looks like it drops right there. Though, see like I can't I can't tell how stupid it is. Well, it's I think down here there's another overking, so maybe we can get

a sense of that. So we followed every single horse trail that led from the back of that property. We went down in some areas that weren't actual trails the other way. Let's go on here, look just to like be threough. I'm gonna check the map from here. Okay, I'm gonna walk down the bottom. Brandon and I split up to look around. Anything interesting. It's real, it's real steep, and it's again it's this loamy soil. Yeah. I think if you started down that path that we saw that

my thought might be impossible. You'd started slipping and you'd fall the hole. Yeah, you'd fall just one wrong step up here, and let me look at this on the right. God, I tell you, like for someone who did not like the woods, a girl after my own heart. I can only imagine how scary this would be. And I was saying too when you were up there. I was like, you know, the other thing that's strange is it's extremely hard to figure out what time of day it is

right now. There are so many the sun disappears behind the mountains, and I can't tell what time. I have no idea what time of day it is right now. It's partly class and it could be ten o'clock in the morning, could be seven o'clock at night. After following all these trails at the back of the property, it really seems that there's no way down. There is no shortcut between the back of that property and the area

where my Trees's remains were found in Dark Canyon. After we exhausted all the possibilities that way, we then went back toward the Backbone trail, which took us right back to the same routes we had taken before. But I'm gone this way, yeah, I'm probably can regret this. We decided to hike back to the coordinates where my trees was found. Again. It was the hardest hike I've ever done. We say we went hiking, but it's not a hike.

It's a climb. It's climbing sheer rock face and trying not to slip and fall down the sides of the canyon. The soil is very loose. It's almost like trying to climb a sand dune. It is easier that it's cooler. I'll tell you that it's much easier because it's cooler. That was what was kind of killing us. But I'm glad we did it twice when we hike this route. The first time it was around the same time of year when my trees went missing mid September. We were

seeing dark canyon as she had been experiencing it. It was hot and dry, and there was a thick curtain of trees and it was almost impossible to get through because there were so many trees covering the rock face on both sides. It was really hard to tell how steep it was at any point. But this time, hiking in December, a lot of those leaves have dropped. It was cooler and easier to take a thorough look at

the sides of the canyon. It's so much easier because all of these were in full bloom, like they were like cutting. This was all like impassable almost yeah, you can actually see what's going on. This time, we saw that there did seem to be a few spots that were less steep where you could climb up, but those points were still far from the remains. We also saw something else, a lot more trash, soda cans, deflated balloons, plastic,

and other debris. We saw some areas where branches have been organized, and pseudo huts seemed to have been built. It was really creepy because we know that cartel people have used this area to grow cannabis, and the grow season is from April to November. It gives me chills to think that while we were hiking through there, people could have been hiding behind those leaves. We also found

an oven. So we're now at the point let's see if I get this, this would be the equivalent point in the creek bed of when we walked to the end of the fire road, which is like the furthest tip, the point where we're saying, hey, we're point two miles from theirs, and from this point we've seen a lot of Basically, we saw something. We see some debris down here, and it looks like that might be an oven or

mini fridge got some more pictures of that. But there's definitely signs that there have been people down here, and it looks like if before the fence was put up, It's very plausible that this could have been somewhere that someone could have pulled up and dumped something down. However, because we've still got a ways to go, that makes this less likely because the road doesn't continue that far.

We also found more hoses. Remember my Treesa's body was found not during a police search, but because park rangers were looking for an illegal marijuana grow. They found irrigation hoses. When we did our first hike, we also saw hoses that looked old, but on this hike we found other hoses, different types of hoses that looked pretty new. There was also a thin layer of water flowing in the creek at this time, and that's where the hoses seemed to

be connected. I'm starting to think that it's more likely than not that my Trees did walk up on the wrong people. There's a lot of evidence of people hiding in the woods and camping. This is not an area where you would hike to and set up camp unless you were trying to hide from someone. This is a tough case because there's so much that was either not done at the scene the first time or done incorrectly.

It's hard to have definitive answers. So doing the height twice was extremely important because unless you go in there, it's hard to put yourself on my Teresa's shoes. For example, when we started our investigation, there were a lot of people talking about the fact that the area where the remains were found is close to the ranch property. It is close, but if you have to drop off a cliff,

that distance is meaningless. The bottom line is, any way we tried to go, we still ended up having to go around and hike the long way, But we wouldn't

know that if we hadn't gone out there. And once you get to Dark Creek, you get a sense of how treacherous it was, and we found so much with the new hoses an oven, it just seems clear to me that even though this area seems extremely remote and dangerous, there are people out there living in those woods, and if she encountered those people, it's likely that they would have done something bad to her. We had also heard a lot of theories about someone driving out there and

dumping a body. Now, there have been cases in this area where that happened with gang members and serial killers, for example, But in all of those cases, the bodies were dumped in places where you can pull a car up near a road, for example, in my Teresa's case, that would be impossible. So from the road you see the no TRESSPA sign, you see the fire road. It's a dirt road, but a car could drive down that part of it. So there is this so I can

understand why people might have asked the question. You know, could someone have driven some way, maybe with an ATV even or something, and gotten close to where the body was dumped and then dumped it there. But that's impossible. It's there's no road up here, there's no way unless the car could fly, there's no way to get to that spot. So either she walked back there herself or someone carried her there. Like everywhere else in the world,

twenty twenty has been an apocalyptic year. In Los Angeles. There's been a global pandemic, massive protests, super spreader events, and a fire season that turned the La sky red days at a time. Then in September, a black man named Dejon Kizzy was riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the street in South la When police tried to stop Kizzy, he fled and when they caught up

to him, there was a scuffle. Police say that Kizzy struck a deputy in the face and then dropped and picked up a handgun, which ended with police firing at him multiple times. After his death, protesters took to the streets, and a few days later, two young police deputies, one male and one female, were sitting in their squad car outside of Metro station in Compton when a single shooter walked right up to their car window and shot them

both multiple times at point blank range. Both deputies survived the execution attempt, but the shooting and the protest that followed sent shock waves through a community where tension was already at breaking point. The deputies were taken to a local hospital and a small number of protesters were gathered outside. A few of them started to chant let them die. Then a KPCC reporter named Josie y Wog was covering the protest when she was thrown to the ground by deputies.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva first said that Wang had interfered with the arrest and that she did not have press credentials, but video captured on cell phones showed that she was wearing a lanyard identifying herself as a member of the media. She said that she complied with the deputy's orders, but was arrested and detained for five hours for obstructing a

peace officer. Sheriff Alex Villanueva was sworn in in December twenty eighteen on a promise to reform, rebuild, and restore the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and he has made some reforms, but he's also seen his share of controversy. In twenty nineteen, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, who had enthusiastically endorsed him, issued a statement criticizing Sheriff l Nueva for what it called numerous complaints of abuse of his office. It said that these alleged abuses had eroded

the trust of the public. Among other things, they criticized his decision to reinstate deputies who had previously been fired for misconduct, including allegations of domestic violence, and some critics have also questioned the current administration's transparency. In October, a civil complaint was filed by deputies who claimed that they were assaulted at the East LA Station by a group of older officers who were allegedly members of a gang.

They called themselves Bandidos and had tattoos of a skeleton, wearing a sombrero and carrying guns. The complaint alleges that the Bandidos controlled the East LA station like inmates running a prison yard. My Teresa's disappearance happened in two thousand and nine, years before the Black Lives Matter movement, but during the protests in La, her name was being added to hashtag Say her Name, along with Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police at her home during a raid.

We had to scream and fight every inch of the way for like the resources from the Sheriff's department, for the local mainstream television drive by media to cover it. Like we had a fight for everything. This is Jasmine Caannic. She's a journalist who's been involved with my Teresa's case since the beginning. You know, nobody should be disappearing like that.

No one should disappear like that, Like that was crazy and that could have been anyone, Yeah, right, that could have been And that was one of the things that resonated with me a lot. It was just like that could have been me, that could have been anyone. She says that some cases strike you hard, and she decided to get even more involved with the case after she met with my Teresa's dad, Michael, ten years ago. She's remained close to Michael ever since. We all met at

Starbucks and had like a really long conversation. That's when I started writing about it. And as is the case with some of the stories that I choose to take on, I get a little more involved than I do in others, and the Matrise one was one of them because it was being ignored. This girl just, you know, disappeared, and it was not giving the attention that you know, a blonde hair, blue eyed girl who would go missing in Malibu would have gotten the trees, you know, did not

get the benefit of Black Lives Matter. And it's unfortunate because I feel like her case should have been one of the proposter children for Black Lives Matter. I mean, if you have this, you know, young black woman who was clearly having mental health crisis. So it's tragic on all these different levels to me because had it just been a few years later, I think more people would

have been screaming about it. I think had it been a few years later, maybe she wouldn't have been taken into custody in the first place, because the little anybody anse of weed is not anything that can be criminally charged. Some people believe that one or more of the officers on duty that night could have played a more direct role in my Teresa's death. The deputies who were identified by multiple sources as being the ones who appeared on

video have never spoken out. But however you look at it, Jasmine says that the Lost Hill Sheriff's Department clearly failed in their duty of care to my trees on the night she went missing. Well, it's clear the sheriffs had something to do with her death, I mean, just for the simple fact that they released her, you know, after saying they wouldn't in the middle of the night without anything, right, So they had something to do with her death because after that, you know, as we all know now, she

ended up dead. But many of us do believe that, you know, the Sheriff's had one or two of the deputies over there had more to do with it than you know, we've ever really been able to prove but for me, all fingers point back to the Sheriff's apartment because at the end of the day, they told her mother, her grandmother, that they weren't going to release her, and

then they did. And that's a common problem in La County, which is, you know, they like to let women go at these odd you know, hours of the night when it's dangerous. It's beyond me why they did that, like after they told her family, with Teresa's family, that they were not going to do that, and then they did it. Anyway, My Teresa's case was given to the Office of Independent Review, a civilian oversight group that was supposed to ensure that

allegations of LASD officer misconduct were investigated fairly. The Office of Independent Review produced the report hundreds of pages with almost zero proper names. The Office of Independent Review was disbanded in twenty fourteen. Most police departments around the country have no type of civilian oversight. Jasmine says that my trease was the inspiration behind her work with the reform La Jail's ballot measure. The measure passed in March twenty twenty.

Jasmine has been advocating for years for the creation of the La County Sheriff's Department Civilian Oversight Commission, She wants to make sure that it's a truly independent organization and that it has the tools necessary to do its job. The ballot measure gave the commission subpoena power to effectively and independently investigate misconduct, and it requires the attendance of witnesses and production of evidence connected to their investigations and oversight.

When my trease disappeared in two thousand and nine, there was no Oversight Commission on that night. If people hear about this and they're outraged and they want to do something, because we always like to sort of have a call to action on what people can actually do, what's the best way to put your energy for it and try

to help with us. I mean, at this point in time, you know, people need to pay attention to more than what's going on in Washington, d C. What happens in your backyard affects you way more than anything going on in Washington, d C. But voters don't tend to pay attention to what's going on at city hall, what's going on with their county Board of supervisors. Most voters don't even know who represents them. At the local level. Everyone

in this country, no matter where they are. They live in some county, they live in some city, they live in some state, and at each of those levels there is a body of government that governs them, and they should be engaged. Believe it or not, most law enforcement agencies do not have civilian oversight. There's a really big push now, especially in the wake of you know, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and all of these other names. So I could go on and on and on, and

I always call out Matries's name too. I never let people forget about Matris, you know, because now people are paying attention. And so that's what I tell people, like, they have to get engaged at the local level. They have to push for these changes. They have to unseat people who aren't willing to do the changes and put people in the office who are willing to make the changes. Because in this country, we only get changed real systemic change,

real institutional change, two ways court rulings or legislation. It just is what it is. That's how we get changed. You can protest in the street all you want, but if the people who are in power aren't moved by your protests to change the law. You're just protesting in the street. Sheriff Lee Baca is currently in federal prison. He has reportedly been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Jasmine is convinced

that Sheriff Bacca knows more about my Teres's case. I mean, he may end up dying with that secret unless one of the other deputies involved want to come forward. Ismail Rodriguez and Lazara Sanchez, the deputies who were identified as possibly being on camera walking out of the station shortly after my Trees, have both been transferred from Lost Hill station. Both still work for the LASD. Neither have ever spoken

publicly about the night my Trees went missing. Officially, my Teres's case is still classified as an open investigation, but because her death has not officially been rolled a homicide, the case, like so many others in Los Angeles and around the country, seems to be in limbo. Police have described it as a clue driven investigation, which basically means if someone comes to them with a lead, they will

investigate it, but they aren't out knocking on doors. I still believe that someone knows something and that there could be more clues. Still buried somewhere in dark Canyon. Again, part of being a thorough investigator is doing a Sherlock Home style process of investigation. Let's take a look at the main theories of what could have happened in My Trees. One, someone killed her, put her in their car, and dumped

her body. Now this was a theory that depended on the fire road or some access road behind the Malibu Canyon ranch or in that general area leading down to a point where a body could have been dropped in the spot where her remains were found. But now we know that that road doesn't exist. The fire road just leads to some horse trails, all of them and at a very steep drop that puts you almost a mile

from where the remains were found. And as part of checking out this theory, we've also looked at other past crimes that involve dumping a body in that area. Some were serial killers, others were gang members, but they all chose dump sites that were near a road or a turnoff. They had a way to drive there. This wasn't the

case with My Trees. Another theory is that My Trees, suffering from some kind of mental breakdown, could have walked to the area herself, and then somehow succumbed to the elements. Now we can't roll this out completely because hypothermia does cause people to take their clothes off, but it's very unlikely this was Malibu in late summer. High as in the day hit the nineties and the nightly lows only

went down to the sixties. If she was outside for more than a day, she would have been dehydrated and exhausted. But it's still very unlikely that this could have led to her death that quickly because of the fact that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry a body through Dark Creek the way that we hiked. Some people suggested that someone could have killed my trees and moved her body to Dark Creek later, but the forensics

don't really support this. A lot of people mention mummification and the fact that the body wouldn't have only been partially mummified if it had been out there for a year, but forensic experts tell us that this is not the case. She wasn't out in the direct sunlight. She was in a canyon, and the part of the body where there was flesh visible had been buried in the soil. I

agree with Sheriff fill in a way. I think that the evidence supports the theory that my Trees died shortly after she went missing, and that her body was not moved. Police suggested suicide in the beginning, I would say that's absolutely not a possibility in my mind. There's no real ledge where she could have leaped to her death and had her remains end up at that point. Also, there are no broken bones that would have suggested that kind of a fall. There's no way that she could have

committed suicide out there. Another possibility my Trees dehydrated, confused and scared, started wandering around, cutting through backyards, and somehow ended up near that area, and then at that point saw something that she shouldn't have seen. This seems like a likelier possibility. We know that cartels were operating marijuana grows in this area, that's why the police were there in the first place, and we've found evidence on every one of our hikes that they still could be out there.

So how do we move forward from here? We know from Rebecca's case and others that getting answers and justice can take a long time. The end of the podcast season does not mean the end of the investigation. Once again, it's a waiting game. A lot of us grew up watching shows like CSI. We were taught that the criminal justice system worked, that there's a three act structure. The case is presented, investigated, and in the end, for the

most part, the bad guys get caught. In the final act, the bad guy goes to jail, and all the loose ends are neatly tied up. Now we know better. We know that making progress and cases can take years, and that there are often frustrating setbacks along the way, and sometimes it's not clear who the good guys and the bad guys are. As Jasmine pointed out ten years ago, the idea that police officers would have their actions dissected

on the nightly news was unthinkable. Would my teres have gone missing in today's climate with the knowledge that we have now. Sadly we'll never know the answer to that, but we can help make it part of my Teresa's legacy to make sure that what happened to her never happens to anyone again. We know that law enforcement are watching us, and we have to make sure that we're watching them. It can take a long time for people to come forward and for new clues and new evidence

to come to light. It's our role as podcasters to get my Teresa's story out there, to put pressure on law enforcement and people who have answers, and then wait, this may be the end of the podcast season, but it's not the end of the investigation. We're going to keep searching for answers, whether they come in the form of evidence, new people coming forward, or other secrets that may be still buried somewhere in dark Canyon. I'm Katherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone. Helen Gone is the

production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. It's written and narrated by me, Katherine Townsend. Our producers are Gabby Watts, Taylor Church, and James Morrison. Music is by Ben Sale. Mixed is by Tunewelders. Our executive producers are Brandon barr, Els Crowley and Brian Lavin. Special thanks to Chipcroft for use of footage from his documentary Boss Compassion, School of Humans. School of Humans