Thinking Sideways: Disappearance of Stephanie Stewart

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Sideways the podcast. I Am Devin, joined as always by Steve uh and Joe. I love that you. I think maybe I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember my alias showed up. Today we're going to talk about a mystery and it's a disappearance and I'm willing about it's one you've never heard of. Yeah, I would say most people have not heard because it's from Canada. Yeah, that's a few people have heard of Canada. America's hat Yeah, um, sorry,

there are going to be some Canadian shows. What does that make Mexic I don't want Okay, America's pants Okay, Yeah, anyway, today we're going to talk about the disappearance of Stephanie Stewart. It's nice alliteration. What Canadian name is? Yeah? And um, actually Megan suggested this mystery in two thousands sixteen, so thank ye thanks Meg. Yeah. Um, well, I guess let's get to it. In two thousands six seventy year old Stephanie Stewart disappeared. She was an avid outdoors woman and

had spent eighteen consecutive summers fire spotting. You guys know what fire spotting is, right, you should probably tell their listeners. She's not everybody's gonna know. It's literally sitting in a tower with like binoculars looking to see if you can see any fires, happy smoke smoke. Well, typically you're looking

for smoke, looking for smoke. Yes, anyway, so um, the last thirteen years of her fire spotting career were spent at the same cabin slashed tower combo, about fifteen miles orkilometers outside of Hinton, Alberta, Canada, which is about three hours west of Edmonton, Alberta, which I think is the largest closest largest city. Everybody knows where Edmonton is, so yeah, it's it's up there, yeah, yeah, north parallel. Yeah. The tower is called the Athabaska Tower, And I have heard

that it's not like terribly remote. It's only like three miles or five kilometers off of a fairly major highway. And this one is a nice it's like just a drive up and we'll talk about that and all that stuff. But it's also really close to Edson, Alberta, just if anybody is like familiar with that area. So it wasn't such a lonely outpost to be at, I guess to be clear, I said cabin tower combo. So the way these things work is you have this big tower, at

least this particular one. Most of them worked this way do they. I think most of them do. Like around here, most of the towers around here, it's like the cabin in the tower combined. Yeah, the cabin is at the top of the tower. That's where you live, which probably would have been a better situation. Yeah, But the way that the towers work in Canada, or at least in this area of Canada, is their tower cabin combos. So

the tower is relatively small at the top. You know, I think it has room for you know, chairs and desks or whatever, but it's pretty small. Otherwise you're just kind of up there with a book or your thoughts or whatever. And then you climb down the ladder every night and there's a big cabin where you stay with your bed in your kitchen and your bathroom and all

of that stuff. And you know, it's funny is that I had seen old school fire towers before, so I was actually a little taken off guard when I saw this. And I know that some people may think that this is what they are, but they're steel constructs. The towers. The towers are. It's you know, it's a big giant pole in the sky with a god would be say, Joe. It's like ten by ten, fifteen by fifteen, But it's all glassed in, like it's not open to the elements.

It's it's rather sheltered in that way. And it must be a joy to be inside on a hot day. Oh, I can only imagine. But the ones I was used to seeing for when I was a kid in the open wood and wood one, Yeah, wore a wooden platform and we're lucky if they had a handrail around. So those are pretty nice. Actually, there's still around. You can you know, you can still you can stay in there.

You can rent it for a weekend. Yeah, as mentioned, Stephanie did her you know, stint for thirteen years at the same on this one, same cabin, and so she lived every year April two September in that cabin tower combo. It sounds like kind of a fun summer job. For some people I would die because they hate being alone, very extroverted. But I know a lot of people who really, I think would super enjoy this. And that wasn't so far It really wasn't so far out of the stick,

except people couldn't come and visit either. I think she did have visitors well, and I know that like you could have somebody live with you and all that stuff, but I need stuff. Yeah. Well, she was obviously was one of those people that being by herself, and I mean you always he listed that she was gardening, and was it knitting? Is that the thinker? She was knitting, and there was some other hobby that she had. So

she had all these very solitary, singular person hobbies. One thing she was fun of doing it was going out in the woods and teasing the bears. Keep trying to frame a theory a little foresaw is that she she obviously she had interests that lent themselves to this, whether she had them before she started it or learned them during her time. Yeah, she probably already knew how to read in the gardens. Probably. I think on her time

off she spent most of it outdoors. Actually, she had reportedly, very recently, at seventy years old, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. I mean, that's pretty that. That would be hard for me to do. And I'm thirty, so she's in much better health than I am, which you know, it was fine. And she wintered at a resort community called Rocky Mountain in somewhere in Alberta, Canada. I didn't bother to really look up because I didn't think it mattered that much.

There was a senior community send us an email. You know, somebody's going to be community probably think so. Yeah, she had at least one daughter, but other than that, details on her life are very sparse, and I think that's kind of intentional. You know, Like we said, spotters live pretty much alone during their time at the cabins, though it will it is noted that they're allowed to have you know, like a spouse or a dog or something like that with them, but most of them do it alone.

And it does seem like that was a draw for Stephanie. She did seem to be into that lonely lifestyle. And then yeah, I've mentioned she was seventy year old. Seventy years old at her time of disappearance, five to and about a hundred and five pounds. Yeah, that's that's a

small person. Fire spotters do make routine calls via radio or phone, um depending on the time of the day, to check in yeah, to a kind of like central tracking hub which is run by a supervisor, to report all clear or anything needing further investigation and Stephanie was by all reports, very good about making these calls. She checked in every time by the time that was required. Not crazy early, but I mean more so now than then.

But they were obviously big on safety. You know, you wanted to check in on your people multiple times, just to make sure because they are out in the middle of nowhere by themselves, especially if they take a tumbill

coming down those stairs in the tower. That's exactly what I was gonna go to is if you look at photos of her online, you can actually see her wearing her harness to tether up to the stairs or the ladder I should say, yeah, because it's one of those ladders with the circular bands of metal around it so that if you fall over you stay contained. But she also was harnessed in all the time, not necessarily stay containing, you just sort of like you don't you just sort

of rattle down that little too. Yeah, but if you're supposed to be that and you see pictures ever in that so I mean a the safety equipment was present and be it sounds like from the way she took things she took very seriously and it was by the book all the time. Yeah, Well, I mean The other reason you want your fire spotters to check in all

the time is fires can get very quickly out of hand. Um, And so you know, the more notice you have to send somebody to go check on that spot where it's coming with smoke coming out of it, the better chance you have to really contain it and have it not spread into like what we're seeing in California right now or what we saw in Oregon over the summer. And you want to make sure your spotter is therefore on

the job and not like you know, just stopped taking around. Yeah. Absolutely, So let's get into the night of the night before Stephanie's disappearance and the circumstances surrounding. Shall we be the night before the night of the night before? It's hard to tell. On the evening of August six, Stephanie called a relative and I've literally never maybe you guys with like eagle eyes. I know I posted a couple like threads and I honestly did not look at every single

post on every single thread. So sorry guys, but um, but if you egalize saw this, my egis some reason I'm thinking it was your daughter. I had the same I never saw, but I had the same thought. Well, and we'll talk about that in theories because I also think that. But um, but Stephanie called a relative and that's literally the only way you will ever see it reported is that she called a relative. I think it was about nine pm, and that was the last time

that anybody officially spoke to her. I'm I mean probably other people spoke to her, depending on the theory, but that's the last time that somebody actually spoke to her, like mentioned, Like we mentioned just a couple of minutes ago. Spotters are required to check in every morning as well, right to say hey, I'm up, I'm headed up to the tower. I'm not dead yet, not dead yet. And

Stephanie missed her required check in that morning. On so on the August six, Since Stephanie was super reliable, you know, her supervisor figured ocation and just sleep over a right but oversleep. Yeah, sorry, but I'll give her a call on the phone just to you know, check And nope, no answer. So the supervisor called a spotter that was close to Stephanie's location and said, hey, I can't get

in contact with Stephanie. Can you just run over to her cabin slashed tower, See what's going on, you know, see if she needs any help, check on her, check on her, you know. Normal. Officially, this spotter that was close to her went to the cabin tower combo situation and found a pot of boiling water, a pot or kettle, it's unclear which of boiling water, but no Stephanie. Also missing were two pillows with blue pillow cases, a burgundy

bed sheet. This is all a tongue twister from me. Apparently, burgundy bed sheet and a Navajo printed bed cover, and a gold watch Stephanie's. I assumed the initial spot or didn't just walk right in there and notice that stuff gone. No, yeah, that was later. Yeah, but this is a better storytelling this way. Her truck was also still there. No, she didn't leave a note, no, no, nothing just anything like that. A massive hunt was launched. Um no sign of her

whatsoever was found. The police have ruled this a homicide. Now you may be wondering, but Devin, she just was missing with some stuff. Why is this a homicide? Well, dear listeners, from all of the reporting, it does seem like it was pretty muntine. But I have read what I I cannot substantiate this, but I find it to

be credible for whatever reason its may cut. I don't know that there was a massive amount of blood in the cabin, and that there were a lot of unanswered phone calls placed to the cabin, but not unanswered they were picked up and hung up. I was going to say, we actually be careful by saying there's a massive amount of blood. We know that. I mean, there's a bunch of stuff that talks about blood, but we don't actually have any idea if it is a splatter of blood

or a room full of blood. The things that I've seen lean more towards way more right. But the problem is that none of those are official, and so I just want to I just want to put in that that little bit of hesitation, because totally don't. We can't say that the room was soaked in blood, right, so I think I what I want to say is in order for the police who have ruled it a homicide, they had to have found enough blood evidence to prove

that somebody was dead. Like you, I don't. I don't know if you guys watch forensic files or not, but they're that's my jam. But there are a couple stories where they'll talk about something has been proven a homicide even without a body. And in order to do that, Yeah, in order to do that, they have to be able to say, wow, there's a ton there's like enough blood here to definitely assume that person is dead. Uh, And it all came from the same person in this case.

I don't know that they made like bothered to test.

There's a lot of stuff that's not released to the public on this case, and I think that's intentional, right, But yeah, and then there was also those phone calls where the phone rang and I, uh, it's my understanding the phone rang and was picked up and then put back down, like nobody actually said hello, right, but like a number of times before the phone was just unplugged from the wall, which would also lead anybody who was examining the case to believe that somebody was there, somebody

like stayed there for a little bit, like maybe stay tonight. Maybe. Yeah. This cabin, as we talked about, was what's called the drive up cabin, and there are two different types of cabins. I don't know that I really need to say this, but I'm gonna anyway. A drive up cabin is a cabin you can drive your car up to Yeah. Uh, and then they're also there are some and I don't

know how many are in service. It would assume that the majority of the fire spotting cabins in use are drive up cabins, but they also have hike in cabins, which, again, as the name would lead you to believe, you just you have to hike in. You park at a trailhead or whatever, and you hike in and you take all your stuff with you, which seems like kind of a bummer, but myself, Yeah, the drive in cabin tower combos have

seen massive improvements over the past ten years. Really, it happened like pretty close after Stephanie to say it was definitely driven by this case. And if and if there is a you know, they kind of say, if there's a silver lining here, it is that a lot of people are way safer now. But it doesn't strike me as a terribly hazardous job. Yeah, but you are out in the middle of nowhere. It does make you an

easy target. Yeah, that's why, you know, I just do you definitely want to have a revolver or something with you, you know, yeah, you know, if you're in America, you have a gun, but just to briefly touch on the cabins, especially drive up cabins were relatively unsafe. Um they were unsecure. They were safe necessarily, but they weren't you'd be pretty easy for somebody to just break in. So there was no there are now gates, chain link fences with you know,

barbed wire around the cabins there that didn't exist. You could just drive up from any angle up to the cabins, which is already kind of like. I haven't seen if there were any unaccounted for tire marks or anything, but I think it's likely that the spotter who came to check on Stephanie would have ruined any of that, like, would have driven up and just like you know, gone

over any kind of tire marks if there had been. Yeah, like if somebody had pulled their car up and then pulled away, they probably would have pulled up and pulled away in the same fashion that the you know them and then the police. Also because once the police responded, they probably didn't really know what they were looking at. And so I think it's likely that if there were

other tire tracks, that they had been destroyed. And by the way, did the spot or did he like walked through the house or that the cabin and like make tracks. I don't know like that, I have no idea. I don't think so. I don't think they are terribly large cabins, you know, it's not like there's like five rooms where you'd be like Stephanie or you in here, stephaniely you're in here. But I don't know. I have no answer

to that question. But also they find any any like pop prints, you know, like wolves, bears, anything like that. Blood they ruled They ruled out an animal attack, is what I will say to you. I know you keep saying this, and well, we can talk about this all in theories. But additionally, there was brush surrounding the cabin,

which would have made it really hard for you. I mean, you know, on the one hand, it's a privacy thing for you as a person who's inside a cabin, right because it's harder to see just directly into the windows. But on the other hand, you can't just look out and be like, oh, there's a person running at the cabin.

Brush outside, you mean, like bushes growing and covering your windows, and so you didn't have any good lines of visibility that's since been cut down of fire not at all well, or even visibility like you can't see, you know, down the road to see that there's a truck coming up invisibility to you is line of fire to hit fair enough,

same thing, that's fair pretty much. There was just one phone in the house or in the cabin, is my understanding, which you know, again, pretty easy for somebody to just deny you access to that. And the doors were super flimsy. They were like cardboard, right, They're just yeah, they were literally just cut out of card No, they're just normal wooden doors, kind of like the interior doors. Yet in a lot of newer houses where it's just a piece of like one eighth inch plywood on each side with

the hollow middle kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, it's my understanding it with a wooden and there were wooden frames, so you know, again it's pretty easy to just put your fist through it, yeah, or you know, force your way in or whatever. That's one of the big improvements they have since made. All of the doors in these drive up cabins are steel reinforced, but they also change at the glass and all. Yeah, they're now shatterproof glass

and there's panic buttons. So the firewatchers. As mentioned, they have these harnesses that they're supposed to wear and now apparently whenever they're on premises. It's my understanding whether this is true or not, you know, it means to be seen, but that they're supposed to wear their like tagged with trackers basically, so that it was a radio that had a panic button. It's both. I thought it was like their regular walkie talkie talk to the world radio is

the way I took this to be. Oh, I thought it was two separate things that on their radio they have a panic button and they also were tagged. They had like you can like the old people life alert thing. Those don't those don't have geo trackers. Okay, well, well this is the it doesn't have service version of it. So well, it's my understanding that those trackers don't have

panic buttons in them or anything. They just are basically geolocators, so that if you went missing or you pushed a button, they could be like and we know exactly where that person is or they know where that's right, but so that that would also help track somebody they went by. Yeah, yeah, even if you didn't have time to push a panic button.

Or whatever, that they'd be too separate, that's my understanding. Yeah, which would have been really helpful if Stephanie had again one of those kind of like maybe silver linings, you know, I'd be easier just to output them with guns. I don't know, I mean, I don't think that's a solve all, you know what I mean, like it's not always going to have it right at hand, but you need it, but you know still, yeah, yeah, anyway, that is our story. So that's about it. Yeah, so she as she vanished,

and nobody's heard a word about it. There's been no leads, total cold trail, nothing found. They beat the brush. I mean, they looked more than just like I had to repeat from the cabin, I assume, oh yeah, absolutely, it was like thousands of acres actually tens of thousands, I think. Yeah. And they did air and they did diver is in lakes and like all sorts of stuff, and they just never found any hide nor hair of her, which is

pretty incredible. You probably don't know this that they bring in trackers or anything like that before they went out and store. This totally started thrashing around the brush that they're bringing any trackers. You could really good at following people through the world. Visual trackers like people are dogs or both. I don't think so. Um, yeah, I think the presumption is well, actually, why don't we just like talk about theories and then we can talk about that. Yeah, ok, buff, First,

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and then like wrapped up and taken away in the cabin. Yeah, I mean that she would have been murdered in the cabin and then that's why the blankets and the quiote we're missing, is that somebody wrapped her up in that and then in the back of the truck and then drove away. I think that is the by and large the presumption, particularly if if she did lose so much blood, there would have been a blood trail, if she had

been left on foot or been dragged or like whatever. Yeah, so that so the trail of blood they went out to the driveway, and then I don't think there was a trail of blood. I think there was enough blankets, especially if they bled out already. But yeah, there. Maybe she didn't die, maybe she was kidnapped and carted away. She's still around, so uh to up the creepy factor.

The other speculation of why the blankets and pillows and stuff were missing that the speculation on why those items were missing was that somebody else spent the night with Stephanie, with her without her consent, and if she was dead or alive, I really hope that wasn't an amorous encounter

and that yeah, especially if she was dead. Yeah, and that there needed phone calls spooked the person into getting to leaving with her body or with her Yeah, I probably figured, you know, it's just not going to be just I'm not in so far in the middle of nowhere, I can you expect nobody's going to show up for

the next three months. Or maybe didn't know that the checkens were compulsory, you know, like maybe didn't realize that somebody, Yeah, I didn't understand, you know, they thought, well, they probably just check in if a fire happens, right, So like if they don't hear from her like oh no, right, and that the reason that like the pillows were missing, for instance, would be that if they had slept, they realized, okay, I left trace evidence. I got to get rid of these.

So so this, I mean, are we what are you saying with this theory? You're saying that this is a targeted attack. Are you saying this is random attack? I don't know, because somebody like up the creepy factor. I'm trying to like add I guess the theory is like why why was that stuff missing? Okay? Because that was when you were talking about the person not knowing the schedule.

That to me talks a little bit about premeditation. You know, I see this person, I decided I want to kill this person, but not I think it can go either way, honestly, Like you know, even if it's like I said, that somebody would want to target her. So that's why I was a little confused. There's a few things. But but more than that, I think that if somebody did want to target her, they knew what the process was like. And so I think that this speaks more to it

at being a random or less meditated murder. But if it were just some random psychopath who lived in the town, you know, like close by, and just was like, I'm gonna go kill somebody, and drove up and killed her, and actually it's uh my, that makes me wonder if it maybe it was somebody who actually had an idea of where the towers were, who worked in them, because she would seem like the ideal target for a random She's a very tiny for a thrill kill. Yeah, there's nobody.

She's not gonna be able to fight back as much as a pound person would. Guy, And even though she wasn't like excellent, oh, yeah, but that was kind of suggest to me, and maybe it wasn't entirely just random stranger killing after all. Yeah, so you must have been the smallest of the spotters. Uh yeah, probably she was one of the smaller ones. Yeah. Um, let's let's dig into some of the like solid theories here. We're gonna dive into you know, libel or whatever. Um and name

some people. So one of the people that I see the name I see this tossed around a lot on the Internet, and actually, after digging into the one case officially associated with this person, I don't think it's so terribly off base, but there are a lot of question marks. Anyway, Steve making his speculation face. Yeah, we're talking about Darth Vader. He is nowhere near that cool. Yeah, not Darth Vader. Sorry, Travis Edward Vader. He sure it's pronounced Vader. It is Canadian,

that's true. I'm my call with Vader. Yeah. Anyway, this man Vader is currently in jail for the murder of two I'm gonna say elderly. I don't like to classify Stephanie as elderly retirees. These people were retirees. They were they were like eighties, so that's more elderly. I think that's we'll call We'll just call everybody retirees hose the politically correct term anyway, until we get an email about it. Yeah, I'm sure there's some term that we didn't know about.

Vader is currently serving time for the murders of Lyle and Marie McCann. Not no relation to Madeleine. I know you can't see that name and not think about year old couple. Eighty and seventy nine. So he was eight, she was. Their bodies were also never found. So let's talk about their story real quick, because you know, apparently this was not far away. It was like an hour away.

They're abouts, yeah, hours drive thereabouts. And on July three, the Meccans left their home in St. Albert for vacation. They were also supposed to pick their daughter up on the tenth at abbot's Ford International Airport. They were seen on that day, the third sorry of July, getting gas and it is noted that they were also towing their green Hyundai behind their SUV. They were driving SUV because they were retired r V. I'm sorry, yeah, the Hunda is the suv. I'm sorry, um, but Yeah, they were

driving RV because they were tires. You know old people in RVs that on a wy they go together either because they don't want to actually because they don't actually want to camp, but campgrounds are cheap. Well know, you know what one of the things listen, I now know some folks that are of the age to have r vs and they love it because when you're at one park and you've been there for a couple of months and you get sick and tired of your neighbors, you

know what you do. You unplug and you drive to the next park and suddenly you don't live next to the jerk wad who's always, you know, doing whatever's annoying you. That's kind of cool. You know, he's not monas long enough, and that bothers you. So you moved to a different one. Not that you're mean a trailer park, not an r V park. RV r vs, you will see them in

trailer parks. They a fair number of them, at least in the southern portion of this country, have slots that are open for day and week rentals, depending I mean obviously depending on the level of the park, but fair enough. Although they owned a home as well, so I think their r V was just like a convenient, a fun way for them to travel, fun way for him to

take out the overhangs and gas station for real. Anyways, it is actually it's nice to not have to go into the hotel room and unpack your crap totally, but still so anyway, they were driving an r V and on the evening of July so, two days after they were seen getting gas, firefighters responded to an RV fire at the Middle Lake Campground near Edson, Alberta remember Edson.

No bodies were found. Um police discovered that the RV did belong to them hands, but there was no sign of their Hondai SUV that they had been towing behind it. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Mounteas visited the mccans home. They didn't find they didn't get an answer, so they kind of just were like, all right, well, I guess they're presumed missing, but they weren't going to do too much searching for them because their car was missing, so

they were just like, you know, they probably drove away. Yeah, they might have. Might have been like an insurance fraud thing, and hindsight, it's a weird lax bit of motion on the part of the Mountains. I'm not criticizing, like in hindsight, it's like should might have been a busy day in their office, but yeah, they probably should have been a little quicker than they were. Five days later, on July tenth, when they were supposed to pick their daughter up from

the airport, they didn't arrive. So their daughter, whose name Trudy, notified of the Mounties and they filed a missing report person's report and also released one. Right, you know, be on the lookout. At that point, the Mounties realized that, oh, hey, McCann, that sounds interesting. He why does that sound interesting? Why does that sound familiar? Ay, I don't know. Oh hey, yeah, I know. Um it's the that RV that was burnt down by the Tim Horton's I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

I've been waiting this whole time for that to happen. I knew. Yeah, I'm pretty good at a Canadian accent, so our apologies to our Canadian listeners. By the way, I'm sorry. I love love the maple leaf. Oh yeah, god, you guys are amazing. Anyway, So the Mounties were like, oh crap, um, okay, these people are actually missing, great,

so let's search for him. So in the sixteen six days later, the Mounties did actually find that hondai um and they actually found it near Highway sixteen and like it's called Range Road, Yeah, of course, yeah, familiar, We're all familiar with it. It's about eighteen miles or thirty kilometers east of Edson, which is near Hinton, which is right. Yeah, it's really near Hinton, which is near n Yeah. Edson and Hitting are both really close to our tower. Actually,

our tower is on Highway sixteen. It's that's the one that it's like three miles off of. Anyway, the police amounties at that point did say that they thought that the meccansas parents was foul play, and then that's at that time they announced that they thought that Vader was responsible for it through a number of connections. And I don't want to go too deep into this because it's not it's not an episode about the mccans, But so I I didn't ever see anything that was strongly linking him.

Can you at least give us one or two to the mccans or to the mccans some cans, I can, yeah, because I didn't see anything yeah, like the most circumstantial case. Based on the reporting that I kept coming across, there was there was some circumstantial evidence, but that paired with the fact that his brother said, yeah, he's staying with me because he says he burned in r V. I didn't catch didn't see that. Yeah, And then the girlfriend was also like, yeah, he like showed up in this car,

and I was like, get rid of that car. Whose car is that? Like there was some reporting around it where people close to him when they were interviewed told the mount He's like he had stuff that Yeah. Yeah, I mean it wasn't like stuff, but they that he had shown up and he looks like tired and disheveled, and they're like, what happened. He was like, oh, I burned down a r V. Yeah, So there was a lot. Yeah, and but I mean, like I said that, I actually

don't think I said this. He is currently serving time for the crime, but it's been a bit of back and forth. Like he was initially arrested and then they released him because they didn't have enough evidence, and then they reopened the case and they found actually maybe they did have enough evidence, so they tried to get him and he was released again, and then finally they were like, all right, we have enough evidence and they charged him

and he's now in jail for it. Well they tried him before though, I mean, if he was tried for the crime, wasn't he Yeah, yeah, and they kept him in jail for like four and a half years, Like, they kept him in jail for a long time before

they really decided we've got a good case. Yeah, And that was rough because you know, he came out and said, I mean, you know, of course, like any sane human, he was like, no, I did not do that, because like you never why would you ever be like, yeah, of course I do right, So he was like, yeah, I didn't do that. And actually the Mountins have ruined my life because they kept me in prison for four years trying to figure out if I did this. So

like that's pretty ruined. Branted, he has a pretty significant rap sheet like already, although nothing, you know, nothing too terribly violent, frankly, I mean, I mean he was a lot of his stuff stopped far far short of murder, vehicular theft, in possession of breaking tools, driving a motor vehicle, unauthorized,

operating in a regular motor vehicle. I want to hear that story trailer and weapon charges in two thousand nine, stealing and burning a truck in two thousand nine, and then careless use of a firearm and authorized possession of a firearm in June two thousand ten leading up to

the disappearance. It sounds like a loose cannon. It sounds like escalating as well, maybe, but I mean, still way way way short of murder, right, But again, um, this isn't a story about the Meccans, right, So, like I know, I opened this can of worms and we could go back and forth, but no, it could be said though there still could be a connection. Even if Vader is innocent, there still could be you know, for this crime, still

could be our perp too. So you're bringing him up because you're we've and I've read the reading online too, and I want this for people to understand, is that the idea is that he is responsible for what happened to Stephanie exactly because he was in that area and

obviously he did something very questionable things. So I mean, you know, one of the things that we can say is that we've said this before about people who are have only been convicted of like the one murder, but they seem like super skisy leading up to it just means they got caught that one time. So with this kind of rap sheet like circling around. I'm not saying that people with rap sheets like this are like murderers. I'm not, and I'm not saying necessarily that Vader is,

you know. But the theory is is that um, that pot that was that was boiling um somebody said, and I actually thought this was kind of you know, it can go either way, um, but I think it's worth mentioning. Is that somebody said it's a bad way to do it, but you can kind of start a fire that way, depending on the pot, depending on the stove, depending on brothers, lots of dependence. But just because that's lots of tendance doesn't mean that like somebody who's kind of dummy didn't

try it. You know. I gotta tell you, I never saw as much in the boiling pot or kettle as most of the the internet seems to. And here's my reason for is that I've lived in places in the summer where it was hot as hell and the only way that you could make your house not feel like it was, you know, the desert was to have water on the heat so that there was some moisture in the air. Because I don't know about you, but if it's really hot for a period of time, my sinuses

dry out, I'll get nosebleeds. And I know people who will just have a pot of water on simmer or a cattle you know, people do it pot pourri too, but something to get some moisture in the air. So it is just not such an arid environment where you're at all the time. So I was just like, oh, she probably, I mean, it could very well have just been something she always had going and on a simmer like boil. Boil could be a term that inflames people's

ideas of the story. Well there's a simpler answer for that, and that is that whoever intruded upon her time didn't spend the night. They came in the morning and they interrupted her morning routine of boiling water for tea or something like that. Right, But I just wanted to I want to run with this one real quick, like, let's you know, I just want to run with the idea

of somebody who is serving time for murdering retirees. And then setting the scene on fire within like a close proximity, is at least somebody who's worth mentioning, right, and managed to dispose of two bodies without being found. Yeah, the bodies of the Meccans have never been found. That's why I mean, Vader or not, I think the same purp.

I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't either, And I really wouldn't be surprised if it was a really poorly informed attempt at starting a fire in the cabin, because again, I think we can safely assume that whoever did this

didn't really understand the procedure of fire watching. They probably didn't think that within fifteen minutes somebody would be there checking on her, right, especially since I think they let so many calls happen, and I think they let like three or four calls happen and like picked up and hung up and then finally unplug the phone. And then at that point the supervisor was like, Okay, well, we're

definitely spending someone out there, like what it is. Even so, I don't think it's a good way to start a house fire. But if somebody thought they had a long time and it looked like, you know, there was wood around, and they could really start. I don't know. I don't think it's a great theory, but I think it's worth to use a empty pot to start a water to

start a fire. It would make a hell of a lot more sense to just pour the water out of the pot and put the empty pot on top of the eat source with the intention of it then causing Like spattering hot water is not going to cause the fire is gonna be It's not the spattering, it's after it dries out, right, So my point is you empty the water out of the container that you're heating to

speed up this. I'm going to burn everything down with the pot or a dry a dry potter, dry cattle thing, unless you're trying to give yourself time to create an alibi, Like if you're so, I mean, it's like a long time for a dry pan or pots. It's not. It's not likely to say no, absolutely, it's not. And like I am continuing to say, I think it's a bad way to start a fire, but I can see a kind of a dummy thinking, Okay, so here's what I'm

gonna do. I'm gonna set this pot of water to boil because I know that he's wrong, right, But he says, okay, because I think that'll start a fire. But I'll start a fire in like an hour and a half, right, so I have time to go back to Edson, to go sit in a local cafe, create like a serious alibi for myself, so that people know where I am at, like whatever given time, and so that like even more if for whatever reason it's somebody were like, oh, I

wonder where fire started. McGhee, is you know at the time, then I at least can say, well, I was at the coffee shop. But here's the thing. Number one, he you know, or to give himself enough lead time. It's a lousy way to start a fire. Oh absolutely start a fire. Number number one. Number two. If you really want to have a delayed reaction fire, you use the microwave. I don't know that there was a microwave there. That's a good point there, maybe, But there's better ways than

the pot of the stove. I think somebody just put a pot on there too, just to boil and forgot about it. I just forgot about I agree. I'm getting in Devon's chair, so I am channeling her, and I'm saying that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Okay, fine, um there, while we're on the topic of Edson, because we are, because Edson is pretty close to Slander the entire town, not the entire town. This is Canada, and Canada is only a few hundred miles from here. Yeah,

that's true. I could come down to murder us. Edson is um only about people as of two sixteen. I don't know where the population has gone since then. Well it's full of killers and probably down well, but that's the thing that's like weird, is like you go through the threads and people are like, oh, yeah, well, there's this other rapist from Edson that it could be, or there's this other murderer from Edson that it could be, And it's like, how many freaking rapists in that stuff?

Because people reach back way in the archives. I mean, there could be somebody who lived in Edson and committed a string of rapes twenty five or thirty years prior and maybe doesn't even live in the area anymore, but they'll find that, so then they'll start, well, look at this and it's got to be this Like we have to be careful with that because there wasn't people's Well, it's also the town that size. You know, it really doesn't take doesn't take more than a couple of families

of dirtbags to really skew this statistics. Absolutely true. Yeah, another theory that I saw, which is less vicious. I mean, I don't know, it's pretty vicious. Still, it's my understanding. So Edson, it's my understanding that Edson is like you can see it basically from this fire tower you can see into it, or like the outskirts, I am given to understand that Edson has a pretty intense meth problem.

Many small towns do. That is true, yes, um, and you know other crime things like a lot of people go missing on Highway sixteen for instance, which again is the one that's like three miles away from the fire tower. So there is also this theory, which is again I think a pretty interesting theory, that Stephanie could have witnessed something or at least been perceived to have witnessed something go down. How far from from Edson's tower, It's not that far. I don't know, it's a couple of miles.

But I think I think Devon actually hit the name the nail on the head by saying perceived she maybe yeah, you know, I mean, let's be honest, when people are tweaking, they come up with some pretty cookie ideas and they go, there's the fire oh god, the person in the fire tower,

I mean. But or alternately, like I said, a lot of people go missing from Highway sixteen, which was three miles away from but like easily to be spotted perceived again, right, so if somebody kidnapped somebody that like is not somehow not even connected to this, or you know, it's a Jane Doe missing from who knows where, but somebody kidnapped someone and thought, oh, I bet whoever's in that tower

saw this, better go take care of that. Also, like, unfortunately, that could also give reason to take the bed sheets with them. That if they kidnap somebody, they go to the cabin, they kill Stephanie, rape who or whatever whoever they kidnapped, and then take it all with them, your second and third characters. And yeah, that would also, I mean, that's like extra that as an additional tragedy to this

whole story. But but the idea that either somebody knew that she saw something bad happen or thought that she saw something illegal or bad happen and thought, I gotta go take that witness out. This is one of the lamest of the theories that are out there. And now you didn't come up with I didn't come up with any of these theories. Yeah, it's like the whole idea. It's like, oh my god, there's a tower two miles away. I'm sure that. Yeah, because their binoculars on me the

whole time. I don't even even at two miles I had not seen a par of binoculars that are going to, like, you know, actually bring the kind of resolution and magnification to make me actually be able to identify somebody committing a crime. But but I will say, like what Steve was saying before is super valid that like I you know, Portland's used to, I don't know if we still do, but definitely used to have a pretty serious meth problem.

It's smooth Van Tucky and I have no I know enough people like I interacted with a couple of people who were like really really heavily addicted to meth. And you know, I've definitely seen some of the weird insane spirals that that drug can send people on. And it I don't think it's beyond reason to think that somebody could have, you know, gotten high on meth and thought, oh yeah, that person saw me, I gotta go take

him out. And then also oftentimes not I feel like I should say not to like stereotype people who are on meth, but like oftentimes people are on meth, like we'll take refuge wherever they can, and so, you know, again, then we circle back to like maybe they stayed the night up they were, Like I would actually buy more into the theory that somebody not even on math or whatever, somebody just neated a place to hold up for you know,

happening a knife. Yeah yeah, I mean also like it's it's also possible like I don't know what time she went to bed, but they could have thought it was except for her truck was outside, so never mind. I was gonna say they could have thought it was just an abandoned empty cabin and then been surprised and killed her. But I don't think that's true. I think with the truck outside, they probably could have known it was occupied.

I have a I have an issue with the this you know, this this drug adult theory as well as I did with Vader. Is that the fact that the sheets were taken, like the whole conversation of well, they knew their DNA was on it, so they were hiding it. Like I think that's a mental process that would be beyond the people in that type of circumstance. I could see it being the you know, bundle the body up in something to put it in the car and get

rid of it. But I wouldn't you know, the protect yourself to hide your DNA like that, Just I think that would be beyond somebody in that condition. If it was just somebody who was like homeless or on the run or whatever like that, maybe they wanted a couple of pillows and some blankets, just you know, for camping. I guess I I'm I don't have a problem with that as much because I am not necessarily willing to say that they woke up in the same condition that

they committed the crime in. I always struggle with this when I'm trying to put things delicately. But there there are some long term cognitive effects to serious usage, and there can be two long term serious usage of that drug. I think that the majority of people would find changes in their mental capacity and somebody to be I would perceive somebody to be in the state to have gone to this length for whatever, they would have to be

pretty far in the bag. I wants to agree with you, yes, but from personal experience, you know, again, nobody I know murdered someone, right, But I will say that, you know, the people that I interacted with were two totally different people. You know, went on when high and then when not high, and so I don't know. Again, you know, it's it just depends on the absolutely because there's no good theory

on this. There's another There's one other theory in terms of like her getting murdered, and that is that apparently she didn't always get along with the local guides there.

You know, there are a lot of adventure sports in areas like this, and so there were a couple um people who are guides for like kayaking trip or you know, hiking, engineering whatever, yeah or whatever, and apparently she didn't totally get along with a lot of them, and so you know, there was a theory that she had had a bad interaction with one of them and they were like, well, I'm just gonna go kill her. But I feel like

that is like of all of them. That's the dumbest, Like somehow I believe I even believe Joe's forthcoming theory that a bear ate her more than I believe any of the others. Yeah, do you to talk about your bear theory, the animal attack theory? Well, weren't you going to talk about another theory where whereby she staged your murder and just left to start a new life. Yeah, I mean I was going to end with that because it'd be like a nice okay, nice Yeah, a nice thing. Yeah.

I kind of like the bears things too, because at least at least it means that, you know, a bear, a couple of bears got a good meal out of it, you know, which is better than some some crackhead. But does it ex randomly? But does it explain the missing blankets and pillows and gold watch? It does because they were Yogi and Boo Boo and they needed to buy a piccanic bass. Yeah, Yogi would like a new watch. That's probably true, But I don't know that if you

think about Yogi always had he did. But here's what I will say, yes, but yeah, but here's what I will say is that it was her gold watch, and I cannot imagine. I mean, I imagine her wrist was about the same size as mine. I don't imagine that would fit on Yogi's wrists. Listen, bears don't understand the sizing, so you can't. You can't hold that against them. They make bears are grumpy for a reason because they buy

ill fitting jewelry on a regular basis. But Yogi and boo boo, right, notwithstanding, what do you I mean, do you have an explanation for what happened to the what could have happened to those Yeah, well, I mean it's like if she decided to take off and go for like an early morning hike with her blankets and pillows. Well,

I'll get to that in a second. If she wanted to take off and go for a hike, um, well, you know, she probably would have taken her watch with her because she had to check in at a certain time, so she had to keep track of the time. It goes off, gets eaten by bears, you know, and we never hear from her again. As far as everything else that was missing, it wasn't a hell of a lot of stuff. And you know, I'm really not sure exactly how they accounted for what was there that should have

been there versus not there, et cetera. I mean, I really don't know how they did that. It would be my guess, um, and this is just a guess, but um, growing up, we had a cabin that we shared with three other families, and there it was cabin's stuff. You had your yeah, totally, So it would be my guess that they furnished everything, you know, except for food, you know, consumables, and they provided that stuff for you, especially the hike in ones. You know, you like, you don't want to

have to carry all that stuff. So I don't know why they wouldn't also for the drive in ones. So that's my guess as to how they were able to figure out what was missing was because they said, well, we have this inventory. It says it should have this stuff. Now that she might have hated that crap and replaced it. I was gonna say, that does not explain that. I presume that there were only two pillows totally in the whole cabin, But it's true she could have just hated it.

I guess, you know. I mean, it's like this inventory of stuff that they're sure is missing. I'm a little questioned. She was also the only fire watcher there for the last thirteen years, so it's maybe she was just sick of that crap and this year she decided it was time for a change. Totally as far as well, you know, I gotta tell you, people do just put water on

and forget about it, and it has happened. There was a reason for her to wear a watch she left, I think, and I think what they need to do is just check all the bear poop and about a hundred mile radius, they'll probably find a gold watch in there. So you're saying that the phone calls that were picked up and put down, the phone unplugged, and the blood around is just like made up. That's just an addition

to the story. Would have been really smart bears. Yeah, okay, yeah, all right, I just wanted to next theory to fat and yeah, it's just all this talk about depravity and serial killers and meth heads depressing. Yeah. I think the whole bear theory is actually a little more cheery. It is somehow. Yeah. Yeah, and that's you know my other theories, like it's just a staged murder, it's just dear blood and your death, or you know, to go climb Mount Kilmanjaro. Again.

I mean, like, I don't know one thing I will add to the kind of more depressing, especially the witness to the crime, but other theories where you know, maybe she was murdered by somebody she knew, maybe she witnessed a crime. We mentioned earlier that the police have not and do not release what relatives she spoke with the night before. Right. Additionally, as far as I can tell, I've never seen so I've never seen the last name

of the daughter released, and I believe that's intentional. I also believe it's intentional that they have not released the names of any other family members or anybody else who's connected to Stephanie. They printed a map of the all the firewatched cabins and the ones that are ready to

get to. But but I so, I I almost wonder if the police are intentionally withholding this because they suspect it's somebody with a vendetta against Stephanie, and they think, Okay, she talked to somebody on the phone between the time that she was witnessed this crime and the time we got to her, Right, so that person is now also a target. I don't think that's accurate, but it adds

a little bit to that theory. But all I want to say is that I really hope that she just like threw dear blood everywhere and like left to go live with Alan Cordermain and yeah, Steve Irwin, you know whatever. Yeah, I think that's Australia. I think you're probably right. Yeah, very close enough. It's a foreign country where they speak a weird version of English. Won't fit in your wallet. I don't know everywhere. I don't have any good theories. Almost I would say the random killing is probably the

most likely deal. I would too. As far as somebody having a vendetta against her, it's hard to imagine. She seemed pretty harmless. I mean, she's like really nice, just a cranky old lady. If she wasn't nice, she was just a cranky old lady. And but so what I mean, she was cracky or not. She was in the middle of nowhere. Is not too many people who get upset by her. Yeah, actually my understanding too. So she was

actually pretty nice. People would drop by the cabin, strangers or friends or whatever, and she would always be well. I think the cabin had like a thousand visitors a year. Or something like that or something, right, yeah, right on it. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, but as a final parting thought, for any of you who you know are the killer or are Yogi or whatever, there is a twenty thousand dollar reward for well, for any leads leading to significant

break in the case. Yeah, that's I mean, that's nothing. We'll give up. Yeah, do it. Definitely do it. Somebody rats, somebody up, come on. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Um, that's the end of this really uplifting story in which somehow a bear attack is the kindest theory, at least at the bears. You really can't hold it against him, now, yeah, it's all the bears to know better. Well, bears tend to only attack one provoked. But yeah, whatever. Anyway, if you want to see some of the links to some of

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Hang on, let me that Clement, that Clem think. Nope, don't back fuck fire. No, there's