Bodies in Water: Olympic National Park

Are you really buying a car online on Auto Trader right now? Really? At a playground? Yeah, really. Look at these listings from dealers. Wow. Your search can really get that specific. Really? And you just put in your info and boom. Car's in your budget. Mom needs a second, honey. You can really have it delivered?

Really. Or I can pick it up at the dealership. One sec, sweetie. Mommy's buying a car. Mommy, what? Uh I think your kid is walking up the slot. Kyle, again, really? Auto trader. Buy your car online. Really?

Hey everybody and welcome back to National Park After Dark. My name is Danielle. And my name is Cassie. And are we on episode 10? Uh yeah. Wow. Episode ten. What have you have you been up to anything cool this week or Yeah, I I went hiking today and that was fun. And I actually Okay, so I was hiking and we got to the top of this mountain and I picked this hike.

randomly it was just close by and it was written nice day and it wasn't too far away because we started hiking around three o'clock today so we didn't have that much time. And we get to the

And there's a a couple of people up there and there's this dog and I just assumed it was these people's dog'cause they were hanging out with him and didn't think anything of it. He came up to me super cute old golden and I'm talking to these people and they tell me this dog is not theirs first off this dog is a dog that comes up there every single day he hikes up by himself every single day To the top of this mountain, and he just hangs out with the hikers. He doesn't go with his owners.

Wait, what? Yes. I swear to God. And they did a little documentary on him and his brother. He had a brother, golden retriever, named Baylor. And both of them, together, every single day, they would leave their house. together they would hike this mountain and they would go to the top and they would hang out with all the hikers up there for the day and they would stay all day and then when dinner time came around they knew like the timing of it. They would hike back Every single day.

Okay, so not terrible, but so the owners would literally just like open their door and they're like, Alright, later. No, that's the thing, is the owners would lock their doors, they'd try and get these dogs so they couldn't escape. These dogs would find ways out of it.

Every single time they would try and like lock them in. They would figure out how to open the doors, locked doors, they would figure out how to open them and they would escape and they would run up this mountain. The owners didn't even take these dogs hiking. The dogs found the trails and followed the hikers up and then just started doing this hike every day and the owners

Eventually we're like, you know, we've tried to keep them in and we can't and this is what they love to do. They're meant to do this. And she was saying I was watching the doctor. Samson is the other dog who I met today. She's like he's a healer, he's meant to be Up there today, I watched him and every single hiker that came up. When they sat down and like got settled in, he went to every single one of them and sat and like leaned on them and said hi and like stayed with them.

Say hi to them, and he literally went to every single person and sat down. That's the most wholesome thing I've ever heard. And his brother his brother died a few months ago. And I they've been together since they were puppies, but he still goes up every single day without his brother since he died. And he goes up every day and he hangs up at the top. And this dog is twelve.

Yeah, for a golden that's old. He doesn't he's just chucking along. I he moves a little slow up there, but I mean he's just chucking along and says hi to everybody and and I was just like this is the sweetest thing I've ever heard. Sure, keep me on. Yeah. You know. You look up Stowe Pinnacle Mountain Dogs, there's just a 15 minute video of the dogs hiking and they put little bells on them so hunters don't confuse them for deer and they just like hike up the trail.

It shows all the high they put a little camera on the dogs so you can see like their view. And all the people who just say hi to them and people are like, wait, this dog's by himself? He's not like with anyone? Just hikes here every day. That is really cool. I did just look it up and I'm saving it so I can watch it tonight. You should. That is really cool. Isn't it so and you just randomly just like you didn't even know about them. I had no idea. When I got up there I thought it

No. Like what? Where where are his parents? He's like, not here. He hikes here by himself every day. Wow. I was like, that's the cutest thing I've ever heard in my whole life. I'm gonna um send this article to my family because we have a timeshare in Stow. So I think they'll find it really cool. Yeah. That's great. It was a highlight of my day for sure. And then I posted it on Instagram because I just felt like everyone would love him as much as

Everyone should n love him because that's amazing. Right. What a story. Well, not to drag you down, but feel like time to get into my story today. Time to talk about Creepy dead thing. Yeah, here we go. This week I kind of so I have kind of like a outline rubric of episode topics I wanna cover. This week's episode topic was on there, but it was kind of like planned for a month or two from now, but I bumped it up. To this week because of

an email we got from someone. So I bumped it up. I'm excited to share it with you because it is one of my favorite national parks. Actually, it might be my favorite national park I've ever been to so far. I'm pumped. Yeah, so but before we get started with your story, we do have an announcement to make and if you follow us on Instagram you probably saw it there, but we are gonna be doing a live show.

We're gonna be telling campfire, ghost stories, paranormal. We haven't decided what story we're gonna tell, but it's gonna be creepy. We could promise that. And it's going to be at the Over and Out Moto event in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. And this is an all-women's event. Sorry guys. We will do a live show that guys can come too as well, but for this show. It is an all women's event and it is a motorcycle.

for women that go all level riders. If you've never been on a motorcycle before, don't worry about it. They have beginner lessons to literally starting a bike and putting it in first gear. But it's for all levels. It's also dual sport rides, trail rides, everything. It's a very cool weekend and at night after everyone's done riding and eating food and stuff we're gonna sit around the campfire, eat some s'm'ores and Danielle and I are

telling some spooky stories and we are so stoked for it. I'm excited for the ghost story aspect of it. Um as far as the writing aspect of it, I'm gonna need to sign up for that class of putting the bike in first gear and getting on it properly and all of that. So if anybody is in if anybody's intimidated about the

theme of the weekend it should be me. So but honestly last year when I was there there were so women who went that it was their dream to learn how to ride a motorcycle and they were always scared because they didn't want to be Around a bunch of guys who had been riding forever. They felt more comfortable with women and there were a bunch of girls there that had literally never ridden a dirt bike before and they went through this class and they have these easy trails for beginners.

that and they were like ripping around on those trails all weekend after they got like the basics down. So it's literally for any type of rider. And I'm stoked. I want you to get on a bike. I'll be so excited. I mean I will it's just it's not gonna be very pretty at first. It's just it's a lot of fun. Doesn't matter if you're good or not, it's just fun.

Okay. I'll take your word for it. I'm sure it is going to be, but I have a few months to prepare. So yeah, that event is going to be in September, um, and we will give more details as the date approaches, but the woman organizing it did let us know that they are already sold two thirds of their tickets. So if you are interested in coming to that and seeing us do a live event, then go to our we'll post it on our website. We're gonna do a little bit of a website update. So

We can post the flyer on our website. Yeah, we'll post it on our website, but also you can go over to Over and Out Moto. Instagram and you can also go onto their website as well overannoutmodo.com And tickets are right on there too if you're interested in going. And they are selling out quick with COVID restrictions and everything. There is a cap for the amount.

It is gonna be COVID friendly. Honestly, I can't think of a more covet friendly event because everyone has helmets on and goggles, literally your entire face is covered. So it's a good it's a good pandemic activity. So pandemic friendly. Yeah. Yeah, it's pandemic. Awesome. I think that's pretty much it. for announcements and stuff other than

Thank you to all the Patreon members who got back to us and responded to us about our first campfire story. We have released one other episode, listener story episode bonus. type deal before that last month. But this month is the first month that we really kicked off the monthly bonus stories that we have now dubbed Campfire Stories and those are available only on Patreon. Doesn't matter what

TRUR, every Patreon member has full access to all the bonus content as far as those stories go. And a fun little teaser for that is for this month's extra Patreon episode. Bigfoot and there's a ghost story. So go on to Patreon, subscribe, we really appreciate it, but also the story is. Plan on doing more stories like that.

All right, so how about how do you feel about coming over to Washington with me and exploring Olympic National Park? I feel like I'm going back in time to when we were actually in Olympic. park. It feels like it was forever ago, but it in reality was not that long ago. I wish we could post some of our own personal photos of us in the park together, but unfortunately we both have boyfriends photos of us and they will not be posted anywhere. No one will see those photos ever.

Our experience was, okay girls, go stand over there in the middle of this trail and we're gonna lay on the ground and take a picture of you directly under your chins. So it looks like Your faces are distorted. You look fifty pounds heavier than you actually are. And it's on multiple chins. It's You have have you ever seen those things? It's like pictures I take of him versus pictures he takes of me. Yes. Because I know I have

Amazing pictures of Ian and I know you probably have amazing pictures of Al. Yeah. And it's just like they look so handsome and then it's like, and here's their troll girlfriends. Yeah, it's just not I don't know. Either way I don't even know what we were talking about, so we're just gonna go into the story now. We're going to Olympic National Park. We're going to Olympic National Park. Here we go.

Hey everybody, it's Danielle here. Before this story starts, I just wanted to let you know of a quick correction. During this episode, I'm gonna tell you a couple different stories. But one of them has to do with a woman named Hallie Illingworth.

and in the episode I kept referring to her as Hailey, and that's totally my bad Her name is Hallie, and unfortunately, based on Cassie and I's schedules, three hour time difference, etc., we didn't have time to re-record the episode before it was scheduled to come out. So instead I'm just gonna put this little correction in before the episode starts to let you know of my mistake. Please forgive me, Hallie, so very sorry. Please don't come and haunt me. Everybody else, enjoy the show.

First of all, like I kinda mentioned before, I did bump up this story. Um, because of an email that we got from someone. So I wanna shout her out. Her name is Emma Grace. She wrote in with a suggestion for a topic and it happened to be one of the ones that I was gonna cover. So I elaborated a little bit and went into a little more detail, but she did write in and suggested this and she did say that her dad is the city planner.

for the city of Forks and he's also a historian and this topic is one that they talk about a lot in their family, which I thought was just really, really cool. One because when I was little, me and my dad talked about history all the time. It was something we really bonded over. So I thought that was rad. And also And I know this is just like maybe knocking me down a few notches in a lot of people's minds, but when the whole like Twilight thing came out, I was

about Forks, Washington, and I just thought it was the coolest place. We all have our guilty pleasures. Alright. People are like, okay, episode 10, we're done with this. We're going to Olympic National Park. We're going to Olympic National Park. Here we go. Birds are singing in all forms. Until the season changes, and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no more.

At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all because we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round. Please visit mentally healthination.org to learn more.

Located in the northwest corner of the state of Washington, Olympic National Park takes up much of the Olympic Peninsula. A lot of the park is actually really remote and pretty hard to access, but there are four different areas that offer the nearly 3.5 million annual visitors access to the par to parts of the park. This is a really popular park and for good reason. So it was named after the Olympic Mountains that it encompasses.

And the park was actually established in nineteen thirty-eight by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but it was first designated as a national monument back in nineteen oh nine. This park has it all. It has nine hundred twenty two thousand six hundred and fifty one acres that includes seventy-three miles of wilderness coastline, three thousand miles of rivers and streams. snow capped mountains and glaciers, and even rainforests.

So the ra the Ho Rainforest is probably the most popular. It's one of the few remaining temperate rainforests in the US. Every year this Rainforest receives about twelve feet of rain. And if you've ever been in this area, it's not hard to imagine. I mean it's raining here all the time. It was raining when we were in the hotel. A little bit springing down.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like I mentioned, Olympic National Park has a bunch of different areas of interest. So if you want to climb mountains, you can do that. If you want to spend time on the beach. There's tons of miles of coastline for that and a lot of people go there

for recreational activities that include not just hiking and lounging on the beach, but they want to go kayaking with all those rivers and streams and lakes. But there is one lake in particular that draws ton of people to it every single year and for good reason. And that is Lake Crescent. Lake Crescent formed as retreating glaciers carved out deep valleys during the last ice age about eleven thousand years ago, and it remains one of the most visited spots in all of Olympic National Park.

measuring nearly twelve miles long, and measuring about six hundred feet deep, Which is just to put it in perspective, that's deeper than the space needle is tall. Wow. Yeah. Oh. Have you been up there? Have you been up to the like observation? No, but I've seen it. I mean I haven't been up to the top but you know, reading numbers it's hard to put it in perspective, but I was just at the Space Needle for the first time

a couple weeks ago, actually maybe about a month ago. So hearing that, I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah, so the location of the lake is actually located just a few miles from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is If you're looking at a map where the P peninsula is, Olympic peninsula, there's a small strip of water, and that's the Strait of Guanafuca, and that separates Washington. From Vancouver Island.

So that part of the ocean is where the Salish Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet and it serves as the international border. So historically Lake Crescent was used as part of a route from Port Townsend, which is kind of on the eastern part of the peninsula, to the western parts of the peninsula because there were no connecting roads. And this was a really long lake. Like I said, it's about twelve miles long.

So steamboats were used as a form of transportation that would bring park gas to and from various areas of the peninsula. And that started when it was quote unquote discovered by the first white settlers in the 1860s. So like I said. It was designated as a national monument in nineteen oh nine and before then when people were visiting the area and as the park was starting to get up and running as a formal park. They didn't have a highway until 1922. The first people were using this lake.

kind of as like a sea highway. And the lake drew thousands of visitors and several lakeshore resorts started to pop up around this lake. Everyone was drawn to it. So Some of the most notable hotels and resorts are Hotel Crescent, Rosemary Inn at Barnes Point, Mary Mere Hotel, and Singer's Lake Crescent Tavern. which is now known as Lake Crescent Lodge. The lake's waters are crystal clear and in some areas you can see up to 60 feet down.

The popular activities there are kayaking, sailing, and swimming. Lake Crescent has drawn in people for centuries, and if you heed the legends of the Clawam and Quillette, two of the local indigenous tribes, you'll learn that it doesn't give up its secrets. or its bodies very easily. Today I'm going to tell you about some of those bodies who have found rest in the lake.

Super creepy this week. I am, yeah. Conditions were calm and quiet on the afternoon of July 6th, 1940, on Crescent Lake. Louis Rolfe and his brother were fishing the deep turquoise waters close to Sledgehammer Point when they noticed an object floating close to the shoreline. Intrigued, the brothers paddled towards it to investigate.

As they got closer, they were shocked to find this mystery object was actually a body of a woman. She was hog tied with heavy rope, wearing a green dress, and was wrapped in two grey striped blankets. As horrific as this initial discovery was, the details of the state of the body were even more disturbing.

This body had not decomposed in the traditional way that we think of decomposition. Her body had undergone saponification, which is a natural chemical process which occurs when fats are exposed to a very alkaline substance. This, combined with the mineral rich environment and the cool waters of Lake Crescent, aided aided in preserving the woman's boss. The body had no recognizable face, was marble white and

The tips of her fingers were missing, as well as her upper lip and her nose. Most interestingly, the entire corpse was a soapy like substance known as adipusir. It could literally be scooped away, like putty. Oh God and this is the body like uh Yeah, if her body had like undergone this bit yeah. That description. I know. It was a little bit of a graphic analogy, but it really got the message across because I can picture it in my mind very easily. I wish my face would pop over every

Headphones right now or whatever you're listening in. Hopefully it's headphones. Yeah. Hopefully it's headphones. And not What are you doing over there? Okay, so the brothers quickly made their way back to the docks and explained what they had found to superintendent AD Imminroth, who was really skeptical at first, but followed the brothers back to the body after their insistence.

The Clawham County prosecutor, coroner Ralph Smith, and Sheriff Charlie Kemp arrived at the scene and retrieved the body from the lake once Eminroth confirmed what they had found. The autopsy concluded that the woman had been severely beaten, and the cause of death was strangulation. She was then tied with rope, wrapped in blankets, and weighed down with rocks before being thrown into the lake.

Eventually the ropes holding her body to the bottom of the lake rotted away, and thanks to the saponification which made the body very light, it floated to the surface. It was estimated that she had been in the lake for three years. News of this discovery spread quickly, and she was dubbed Lady of the Lake.

But who was she? As they were trying to figure out who this lady was, they actually buried her in a potter's field near Port Angeles while an investigation into her identity was being conducted. Although she was exhumed twice, For continued examination during this entire process.

The initial theory was that the body belonged to Marian Frances Stephens, a thirty three year old botanist from Chicago. She was visiting Mount Olympus, which is um one of the mountains within Olympic National Park, which is actually the tallest and most prominent mountain in the park. And she went missing. So she went missing in nineteen thirty-nine, which was a year before Lady of the Lake was discovered.

They thought maybe it could be her, because all that had been found of Marion was a bundle of her camping gear and belongings that had been found by Rangers near the Ho River Trail. However, the clothing on The Lady of the Lake did not match the description of what Stephens was wearing. It took over a year for the mystery to begin to unravel. Like so many cases in the

It was through dental records that she was finally identified. She had a unique six-tooth dental plate which Hollis B. Foltz, a criminologist with the Washington State Pathologist's office, took pictures of and published in a regional dental magazine. A dentist in South Dakota recognized this plate as the one he had made for a former patient, finally identified identifying the Lady of the Lake as Haley Latham Illy.

So let's talk a little bit about Haley. She was born in Greenville, Kentucky on January 7, 1901. After two failed marriages, she moved west in hopes of a fresh start. She was thirty-five in the year of nineteen thirty-six when she began work as a barmaid at the Lake Crescent Lodge, and it was here in June of that year that she met Montgomery Monty J. Illingworth, who is a local beer truck driver.

They dated very briefly. And when I say very briefly, I mean whirlwind type of romance. It was only a couple months between when they met to when they got married. Recipe for a successful third marriage. Yeah, you would think that maybe she had some prior experience with what not to do. But who knows. There wasn't much information that I could find. on her and her previous marriages before this situation, so who knows.

And, you know, Montgomery Monty was Dick. So it's not her fault. Well, we know where this is going. Yeah, I know. Unfortunately it's always the husband. Unless it's the wife. Unless it's the wife. Yeah. From Snapped, we know that. It goes both ways, honey. Like I said, they dated very briefly, but it was by no means a fairy tale relationship, and it was actually quite the opposite. Their neighbors complained

all the time and actually reported several times to the police about loud fights between the couple. So they fought all the time and they weren't too quiet about it either. and co-workers of hers at the lodge actually recounted her showing up to work with bruises and occasional black eyes. And one day in December of nineteen thirty seven, she didn't show up to work.

She was last seen on december twenty second, nineteen thirty seven when she was at her apartment waiting for Monty to return from a party that he had attended in Port Townsend. Monty stated that she ran off with another man to Alaska, but her sister states that she She saw her days before she went missing and was completely unaware of any new relationship and she was very suspicious of where her whereabouts and of mine. Monty became a lead suspect in her murder once she was identified.

So once the I because if you remember this is now three years later. He had told everyone that she went to Alaska. Right. So his story was she never turned up to work. Because she had run away to Alaska with another guy and then three years pass and then her body surfaces in the lake. So now everyone's looking at him like, Oh really? Okay. Also typical excuse I feel like people say that, oh, she left me for another man. She left the country and then makes her come out to seem like this bad.

Yeah, he's trying to turn the tables on um on her. So Monty quickly became a lead suspect in her murder once she was identified and he was eventually found living in Long Beach, California with another woman who was a timber heiress named Eleanor Pearson. And it was there that while driving his truck he was pulled over and arrested for the murder the murder of Haley. Okay, so your wife goes missing and you decide to just

leave the state and start over with another woman. Yeah, it's like suspicious. Okay. Suspicious. The trial began on February twenty fourth, nineteen forty two. And Monty denied the allegations, of course, and stated that when he had last seen Haley, she was alive. Alive and well. This is before she allegedly ran off to Alaska with another guy.

The alleged abuse that occurred in their relationship came up during the trial, and while Monty admitted that this was the norm for their relationship, that it w it went both ways. So he's like, okay, yes. We did get into arguments and there was physical altercations, but she also beat me up.

two. He repeatedly denied killing her. However, the testin the testimony from the dentist from South Dakota that identified her dental plea And Haley's friends testifying that the clothes the body was found in belonged to her, started to dig Monty's grave. However, the final nail in his coffin came from the rope used to bind Haley. Enter Earl F. Eno. He was the manager of the Port Angeles distributing company.

And he had actually emplo employed Monty for a time, and he took the stand to identify the rope as the one he had lent to Monty shortly before Haley's disappearance, and Monty never returned that rope. The store still had the remnants from the rope, and the fibers between the two matched. It's the same thing. There's no way.

to it. Yeah. From here it was theorized that the two most likely got into a fight in their apartment when it turned violent and Monty began beating and strangling Haley.

Hollis Foltz, a criminologist with the Washington State Attorney General's office, who helped investigate the murder, goes on to theorize that Monty tried to conceal the crime by placing Haley's lifeless body in the trunk of his car, drove to Let Lake Crescent, First stopping in the vicinity of present day log cabin resort, where he then wrapped his wife's body in blankets and tied the bundle with the rope before hauling her into a rowboat, weighing her down, and dumping her into the lake.

This case lasted nine days, and the jurors took only four hours to reach a verdict. On March 5, 1942, Monty was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, where he served. And here we go again. Just please guess. Take a wild guess at how long he served. He was sentenced to life. Five years. Nine. Why? How? Was he murdered or he He was paroled in nineteen fifty one and died in November. Yep.

I know he was paroled in nine and he so he was paroled in nineteen fifty-one and he died in November of nineteen seventy-four in Los Alamitos, California. That hurts my heart. It's yet another example of how crime sucks. Are not taken seriously. You're well behaved in prison.

Go back out. And I don't know the specifics of what led to his parole, but it is a pretty common theme that we see a lot even now. I mean, this was back in the fifties, but Seventy years later, I don't think that we've really um made much of a difference as far as people being sentenced for life for horrific crimes and only serving a fraction of their sentence.

So Haley is now baley is now buried in Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington. So that was the Lady of the Lake story. But Lake Crescent still has a couple more up its sleeve. Celebrate your unique story with Pandora jewelry, crafted with meaning and exquisite artistry. From sparkling lab grown diamonds to personalized engravings and heartfelt charms, Pandora offers endless ways to express what's in your heart. Pandora's rings, bracelets, and necklaces are so fun to mix, match, and match.

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Lake Crescent also holds on to another mystery, this one for over seventy years. Russell Warren picked up his wife Blanche from a visit at the Port Angeles Hospital on july third, nineteen twenty nine. After running a few errands and loading a new washing machine into their nineteen twenty seven Chevrolet, they drove west along Highway one hundred one en route towards a camp on the Boy. Bogachil River near Forks. They never reached their destination.

It was rumored that the couple missed a curve along the road and plunged into the lake and drowned, while others assumed that they had left abruptly, abandoning their two children, whose names were Charles and Frank, And they were only eleven and thirteen at the time of their parents' disappearance. But that claim was quickly dismissed by family members that insisted the Warrens were loving parents.

Investigations began immediately with no real answers due to the limited abilities of the diving equipment at the time. There were only small items belonging to the pair, like a hat identified as Russell's, ever being found. For over half a century the trial went as cold as the lake. But then, in 2001, the search had new life breathed into it when a historian named Bob Caso brought the case to the attention of Lake Crescent District Ranger Dan Poinebrian.

Park rangers and volunteers conducted exploratory dives with the help of an underwater search and recovery company using a sonar unit to search for clues. In two thousand two, seventy three years after their disappearance, Their car was found in more than one hundred and seventy feet of water about four miles west of Barnes Point near milepost two hundred twenty three on US one hundred one in the waters off of Ambulance Point.

So that's very specific. It's pretty cool if you're from the area to know because I've been around this lake on this highway, US one oh one, and it is so windy. It's not like it's named US one oh one h you know, highway, whatever. So you're thinking of a highway as just straight roads you go sixty seventy on. This is not the case for this road. It has twists and turns. Going over 40 would be pushing it, I think, on this road. So it's not hard.

to imagine how easily they could have lost control of the car and plunged right into the water. It is scary. But it's just crazy that they had been down there for over seventy years. Yeah, and no one found them. And it's not even like they were that far away. They were right there. I'll link the articles in the show notes as always, but they go into detail about when the historian Bob was first

recommending that they re investigate this case and try and find the car wreck that they are theorizing was in this area. The district park ranger Dan was kind of like Even if we do find it. It's kind of eerie and like we don't really want to disturb anything down there'cause it's it's like a howl ground, like it's a grave site. So when they did find it, they left it there. They just left the car, not their bodies.

So their bodies were never found in entirety. There were bones, like femur bones and things like that found. But after seventy three years they had essentially disintegrated. But it was positively identified as their car and that they had perished in that accident. Okay, so there wasn't anything left to bear.

of them. Not that I saw, but yeah, they kind of just left that area alone and it's kind of just like a it kind of reminds me of and it sounds really weird, but kind of reminds me of Titanic. It's like you just leave it.

as it is. Obviously it's wildly different. Titanic is in a very, very difficult area to access. It's not hundred and seventy feet under water, you know, but it's kind of the same type of deal. A lot of shipwrecks and things that are discovered are never Brought to the surface, they're just kind of left as they are.

This story about a body in Lake Crescent gave me chills. The beautiful waters of this lake has also been used. by a serial killer. My ear is just like perked up so high I'm like I have never heard of a serial killer out there. Okay. I mean I have heard serial killers in Washington, but not like specifically with Sarah.

Okay, well get ready. So I'm not gonna go too into him specifically'cause we'll be talking all night, but I will give you a recommendation on where to find his story. So Known as one of the most horrific serial killers in US history, Israel Keyes has been linked to eleven murders, including five from 2001 to 2006, while he lived and worked. in Nay Bay, located less than two hours from the lake on the Maka Reservation.

He admits to dumping at least one of his victims from a boat into the lake by submerging it in over a hundred feet of water and weighing it down with anchors. So very similar to what happened to Haley. He states that he hunted down victims in remote locations such as parks, campgrounds, and hiking trails, and his victims ranged, get this. From Vermont to Washington. That's like him murdering me and you.

I know. And I don't mean to laugh. I'm just like, I laugh when I'm anxious and that creeps. So, like I said, I'm not gonna get too super into his story in particular, but just as an overview, he stated that all his victims were completely random. although he planned the murders themselves meticulously. He even buried caches of supplies, including weapons, money, and tools, in pre in pre-planned areas around the country.

So he would literally take a plane, fly to a random area, scope it out, bury this murder cache, kill kit. to come back to in the future and then randomly pick someone to kill using what he had previously stored there. This reminds me of the Yosemite serial killer Carrie Stainer when he carried a kill bag with him all the time just for the opportunity that he would be prepared. Yeah. Oh that's Yeah, so if you want to learn more about Israel keys.

I first heard about his story in one of my favorite podcasts called And That's Why We Drink. I looked it up because I'm like, I know I heard his story on that podcast. So I looked up the particular episode and it's episode one ninety three and Christine does a deep dive into his case and I highly recommend it because like I said, he was a cross country killer, serial killer. He pr pre planned everything. He actually got caught by, um,

abducting a a barista from a coffee stand and that was his downfall. Her murder was the downfall of him and he got caught and He killed himself in jail, so he's no longer around. But if you want to know more uh it's just it's horrific, but it is a very interesting true crime case. But he did use Lake Crescent as a dumping ground, which is totally horrendous. Because you look at the lake, it's so beautiful and

yet so many people have met their end there. And this is just a couple of high I hate to say highlights, but big name cases of yeah and big name stories of bodies in the lake, but tons of people die in the lake every year. Drowning, accidents, boating accidents, etcetera. So A lot of people meet their end in this lake. Well, I'm Googling it right now'cause I haven't been And the water is so clear. It's so pretty. For any Washington resident or anyone who has visited this area.

one of the most popular hikes in Olympic is called Storm King and it brings you up to this overlook o overlooking the entire lake and it's beautiful. So if you wanna Google Lake Crescent and pictures of it, I would Google Lake Crescent Storm King and you can see

like a bird's eye view of the lake. It's really, really pretty. But anyways So I'll put I'll post a picture of The lake of course. But remember the area that I told you about where the Warren car was found and it was called Ambulance Point. Yeah. And you wanna know how it got that name? On august twenty seventh, nineteen fifty six, an ambulance

swerved off the road and plunged into the lake on its way to a Port Angeles hospital after picking up an injured lumberjack named Ernest Monroe Dalgren in Forks. He had broken his leg and was strapped onto the gurney. Sadly, the straps meant to keep him safe during his transport ultimately contributed to his demise as he was unable to escape the ambulance after it crashed into the water. The two medics that were with him were able to get out in time.

But he drowned. That's so sad. One, you have an injury that you would have easily survived. And then two, the people who are saving you, they're trying to save you and this horrible accident happens and they're actually the ones that cause you that uh not cause you, but like

You pick them up to save them and then they end up dying and you can't save them. The survivors yeah, survivor's guilt on that one is probably very real for those people. But this is actually one of my fears and Uh I wouldn't say fear but definitely something I put considerable thought into any time I'm on a bridge going over Bodies of water. So I have a Jeep Wrangler, and you know how I have the net in the back that separates the front two seats.

from the back for the dogs. Yeah. I always think it's a thought I can't get out of my mind no matter what. Is if I something happened and I ran off the the bridge and into the water and was sinking. my dogs would drown in the back because there's no way of I couldn't unroll the window and get them out. I couldn't open the doors too heavy in the back to open. Like they would have no Escape route. That's such a sad thought to have every time you see a bridge.

Yeah. Like every single time I'm on a bridge, that's what I think of. And it's so sad. And the other thing that's thinking or speaking of messed up thoughts is um I said it today. So we were getting ready to um go hiking and the house was kind of a mess. Like it wasn't terrible, but there was like dirty dishes in the sink and the bed wasn't made and Or it's like a couple of things on the ground and I was cleaning up and I was like to Ian, I was like, Hey, do you wanna know something really like

messed up. And he's like, Uh I guess what? And I'm like, every single time I leave the house I clean up because I think like if I was to ever go missing or was killed my family and like people looking into my disappearance would come into my house and see it in the state that I left it. I'm sure other people think that way. They've got to. Right? Cassie? Someone out there definitely thinking that way, maybe. Like it's not like never thought of that.

Well guess not what, now you will. And it's not like it's not in any way of like I think that they're gonna I don't want them to think I'm messy. It's not that. It's just like I don't know. I just think of like you know, when you hear true crime stories and disappearances and stuff, like they always describe the woman or the man who disappeared their apartment.

You know, like it's like they had left they had a half drink cup of coffee on the counter or like what like just different things like that. I don't know. I just it's just some a thought in my mind that I always think about. Her house was trapped. She left trash. Okay, well now that I feel isolated and weird, we're gonna move on. No, I'm sure I'm sure there really are other people who have thought that way, especially who are listening to this podcast.

It's true. So I wanna end the series of sad events with a cool story. Beverly Sherman was twenty years old when she was traveling in a car with three friends on January twenty fourth, nineteen six. She had just returned home to Washington after spending six months in New York City with her dad and carried with her a suitcase full of her memorabilia that she had collected during her time in the big bank.

The driver, Dale Steele, was driving a 1950 Dodge sedan when he missed a curve on the winding US Route 101, Mile Marker 223. The car slammed into the frigid water. Beverly rolled down the window and swam out as the water quickly rose inside of the vehicle. All four people inside of the car survived. Flash forward to two thousand and two when the Warren cart was found. So the warrants that were missing for seventy years.

The area of the discovery was near the same set of windy roads where Beverly and her friends experienced their Upon reading the diving team's exploring the Warren Car the Warren's car wreck, she got in touch with a local named Bill Buren in hopes that he could retrieve her suitcase. With nearly two thousand dives into the lake since nineteen sixty seven, he was happy to assist her. And found the car just two hundred yards from the Warrens. Wait, so he was the one who found the car?

So okay, I know there's a lot of cars and a lot of things going on here. So in two thousand and two, Beverly is hearing about the Warren's car being discovered in the lake. And she's like, oh my God, that's so close. The the description of where the Warren car was found was so close to where we crashed. into the lake in 1960. So I'm gonna contact this diver, this local experienced diver, to see if he will volunteer and help me. go to the car our car wreck to try and find our car because

it hadn't been found. They were'cause they all swam out and were rescued. And they because they all had survived, they didn't try and take the car out. So she's thinking, All my stuff is still in there. And I wonder if someone will help me try and locate the car and retrieve my stuff. So Bill Buren agreed, and he was happy to help her, and he found

the Steel car. Because remember Dan Steele was driving the car she was in. Mm-hmm. So the suitcase was pried from the car's trunk and still contained her favorite pair of electric blue suede stiletto heels Pieces of lingerie, cat eye sunglasses, matchbooks, menus, and even an Aurora Borealis crystal teardrop pendant that was still attached to a now tarnished.

She says, it's not the necklace from the Titanic, but it's mine. Yeah, so I just thought that was a really cool story of number one of survival, because I can't even imagine plunging into water, ice cold water. I mean it's January. Yeah. And the lake is already freezing cold. Your car plunges in there, it's sinking, all four of you get out, and then like however many years later, 40 something years later, you get all your stuff back.

That was at the bottom of the lake for so long. It's like a little time capsule. You go back and you have like your stuff that you Remember but you kind of forgot about and then you have it back. Yeah, and you thought it was gone forever. And I'm gonna post a picture. So I have several pictures for this story. I have Beverly, I have a p photo of Beverly actually the moment that they're opening up the suitcase. Like cause they retrieved the suitcase from the car, put it on a dock.

and opened it up. Um, so she could go so she could go through all her stuff. So there's a picture of her the moment that she opens up the suitcase. And then I have a picture, of course, of Hayley when she was alive. And I also have a picture of her body when it was a discovered. So it's still bound. There's a lot of Wait, like a real graphic photo of her body?

Yeah, it w it's a black and white photo. She's still wrapped in the blankets. She's bound. She's hog tied with the ropes and there's still there's a lot of like lake plants and stuff tangled up in her. It's not super super graphic, so I'll post it, I think. And I also have a photo of the Warrens and yeah, so I'll post all that so everyone can get a idea. I'm not gonna post Israel keys because he can

We don't need to talk about him or show his face. If you want to learn more about him, you can go for it. But I don't think he deserves it. So, anyways, if you have any stories from Olympic National Park, Lake Crescent, or maybe one of the historic lodges, because The lodges are their own thing. I mean, there's so much history in these buildings that have been around for over a hundred years. that, you know, were functioning when the park was first established all the way up until now.

If you have any experience in any of those, if you stayed there, worked there, please write to us at npadpodcast at gmail.com or submit a story through our listener story link on our website, npadpodcast.com. You can find us on Instagram at National Park After Dark or Facebook at National Park After Dark. So what do you say? You wanna go to Lake Crescent with me this summer? Yeah. Yeah, I'm down. Let's uh drive really slow on that road though. For sure. I'm not.

I am also not a great swimmer and I don't like being in water. I like looking at water. I don't like being in it. I like being in warm water. I'm not a polar plunge kind of girl. I'm a eighty degrees or nothing kind of girl. Yeah. I uh definitely agree. I don't know. Even when it's nice. I'd just rather not. I don't like being wet. Yeah. I like swimming if the water Otherwise. So there it is everyone. I hope you enjoyed

That kind of sporadic story of all the bodies that have been found in Lake Crescent. Again, if you have anything to share with us, whether it be from Olympic, Lake Crescent, or any national park, please reach out to us. So we hope you have a fantastic week, you stay safe, and enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye everyone. See you next Monday. Bye everyone. I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean.

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