Hey guys, it's Chris here and once again I want to take a moment and shout out a Patreon member. He's not new, he's actually been a Patreon member for quite a while and I for some reason forgot to give him a shout out. So a huge thank you to Anthony for sticking in there and joining the Scaredy Cat tier. I really appreciate your support and just thanks for sticking in there and sorry it took me so
long to give you a shout out. Now if you guys are a fan of the podcast, Patreon is a great place to support the show but also gain access to our episodes completely ad free starting at just $1.00 a month. So go on there, check out the tiers and there's a lot of other goodies included in those tiers. Try it out and you can cancel at any time. Visit patreon.com/unnerve Podcast or click the link in the
show notes. Your support again goes a long way to keep this podcast going and I really appreciate it. Now on to the episode. As I'm walking away from the the campsite, I could hear someone moving behind me. Just encountering someone in this, you know, environment. Something's going on here that I shouldn't be Privy to from HP Studio. This. Is unnerved. Welcome back to the Unnerved podcast. It's where normal people share
their abnormal stories. And if you enjoy true stories of the strange and terrifying, then you're in the right place. I'm your host, Chris Frickey. When I was a kid, my brother and I borrowed our uncle's metal detector for the day. We had a blast searching for buried treasure, and I think we may have found a hubcap, but nothing out of the ordinary. Metal detecting can be a quiet escape, listening to the soft rhythm of beeping signals beneath the soil all around us.
The ground we walk on, though calm and unassuming, sometimes hides things never meant to be found. In today's story, a detectorist named Ray went to explore a forgotten trail in San Angelo, TX. It was supposed to be a simple day of treasure hunting, but it soon became a descent into something much darker. This is his story. My name is Ray Tice.
I'm 35 years old and born and raised in Central Texas and went to college between 2008 and 2014 in San Angelo, TX, which is not extremely far western Texas but in the western part of it. I was a history major specializing in Texas history, and when I was in college I had the dream job of a history major. I got to work at a historical archives repository called the West TX Collection and I worked there from 2009 to 2014 when I had to leave college.
I've been pretty much an avid metal detectors all my life and being a history major and working in this historical archives had access to a lot of old maps that most people don't normally get to see and a lot of them that you can only find in historical archives. In San Angelo there used to be a an old military Fort during the Old West days.
It was called Port Concho. It was established in 1867 and abandoned in 1885, I believe from Port Concho was a pretty major outpost on the what was then the West TX frontier. And so they had all these old Calvary trails, Buffalo Soldiers where they headquartered there. And a lot of metal detectorists would found the old trail sites and even some battle, you know, minor battle sites and whatnot like that.
Being where I was at, at the historical archives, I had access to old military maps from the time of the Fort, you know, actual military maps that show the old trails and their their location and whatnot. And there was one in particular that I never really heard many other metal detectors talk about metal detectors. It was South of San Angelo and on the opposite side of the South Concho River. And basically it was old military trail that went from Fort McCabe, Texas to Fort Concho.
It was kind of tucked back in an isolated area right on the edge of a large ranch, a private property. And anyhow, nobody ever really wanted to, you know, wade through the, the woods and the, the brush and whatnot, which wasn't like a rainforest. It was just the kind of thick woods, oak trees, corn trees, stuff like that. So anyhow, I always wanted to metally detect that trail, that part of the trail, because no one else that I knew had ever done it. I think it was around 2013.
I remember I was dating the girl who become my wife. She was at work. I had the day off and can't remember, it was late January or early February. Brush was not scenic. It was kind of just right up and you know, weed, you know, hit by winter. I didn't have to worry too much about, you know, snakes coming out or anything like that because it was still pretty cold outside. I decided, well, you know what, I'm going to go hit up that old trail and see what I can find.
I got my gear on which I had my metal detector, 1/2 apron with pockets on the front, and then I had a triangular shaped shovel. The nearest parking space was maybe half a mile from where the trail was physically at. And I got all these distance from Google Earth, you know, researching the trail and whatnot. You know, it's probably about mid morning. I get to the parking lot and I, you know, have a pair of cowboy boots on and just head into the
brush. I said I knew, you know where the trail was at and I knew the direction from the parking lot and I didn't have to worry about snakes or anything like that because it was still cold. So I was like, you know what, I'm just going to head straight into the brush instead of following the river, then get to the trail and turning into the
brush. I probably got, well, probably halfway to the site when I started passing through these thick cluster of trees and 40 to 50 yards back from the river, so they would be South of the river. And I get to this 20 foot wide clearing that kind of tucked back into to the trees. It's kind of like natural clearing. And the first thing I see is cans laying on the ground. Yeah, it looks like, you know, just like a can of beans without the wrapper on them, you know,
just silver. You can tell they weren't old, but you can tell someone had been there these for, you know, half a day or you know, a day. I'd been camping there and so that kind of struck me as odd. I walked a little bit further into the clearing and I come across this roughly made campsite that basically was a tent made out of a blue, blue canvas. That's like a blue canvas tarp. You'd find that Ace Hardware or wherever.
I remember there being some clothes, I want to say they were kind of half in the tent, half not out, you know, not in the tent. Now looking back now, it looked like female clothes, like a kind of like a female checkered shirt, you know, like a Pearl snap shirt or whatnot. I initially thought it was just a formal campsite of an illegal alien, you know, and that's one thing they leave around is clothes. San Angelo in that area has a
lot of illegal immigrants. So I was like, well, you know, if someone's around here, I'll just mind my business. They mind theirs. You know, about the time I'm, I'm starting to leave, keep going towards a trail which was still back a little ways from this campsite. This guy comes out of the brush. I startle him as much as he startled me and he was kind of a hagger looking guy, a beard that needs to be trimmed up a little bit. And the clothes were kind of all dirty and muddy.
And he kind of jumped back and he saw me in like that and did the same. We kind of made little idol chitchat. You know, he was like, hey. And I was just kind of like, hey, just encountering someone in this, you know, environment automatically triggers, you know, a sense in me that something's going on here that I shouldn't be Privy to, but, you know, had to stay calm and not not show it. You know, he asked me is like, hey, what are you doing back here so far back?
You know, he could see all the stuff on me, you know, the. Yeah, all the gear I was carrying. Yeah. I told him just a metal detectorist. And, you know, I was out looking for, you know, just kind of poking around and he's like, what are you looking for? So I told him I was like, yeah, you know, there's this old military trail back here.
And while I was kind of talking with him, you know, the inner voice, my head said, hey, I kind of need to fit a little bit just to ensure that if now he's a threat that, you know, he just kind of leaves me alone. So, you know, I started telling about the military trails, but I told them, yeah.
Yeah. A lot of metal detectorists know about it. It's kind of a common place to come just for people to poke around and, you know, not be disturbed by kids coming up and wondering what you're doing and stuff like that. When I told him that, he kind of, you could tell it kind of took him aback a little bit because he kind of started, like, looking, you know, flicker in his eyes somewhat. You tell he was just kind of like, oh, in his mind kind of thing, hey, maybe I should move
my camp somewhere else. Overall, seemed like a pretty nice guy that, you know, he said that he and his wife had had a fight and she somewhat kind of kicked him out and he just decided to stay in the woods for a little while. You know, really, the story didn't make any sense to me. You know, I was like, man, that's kind of, you know, roughing it a little more than I would expect after, you know, kind of a dispute with my wife. But, you know, I wasn't married
at the time. I was engaged but not married. You know, they will people, people do their own things, you know, and work through it in their own ways. I kind of thought, well, man, like, you know, keep going and what not, and I just wish the best for you and what not. The simple little conversation kind of broke a barrier he had in place. You know, he's saying, hey, you know, you seem like a pretty good guy and, you know, just don't come, you know, metal detect around my camp.
And he'd ask like, have you, you know, looked in my tent or anything? And I told him no. And truthfully, I hadn't because I just didn't want to be that invasive, you know. And so I told him no, you know, I'd accidentally stepped on one of the cans because it was kind of in a high patch of grass, but that was about it. And the guy's like, well, you know, don't come to the backside of my tents because I just used the restroom back there.
I was like, hey, man, you know, you don't have to worry about that with me. And like, I'm just going to keep head to this trail over here. So after that, you know, we parted ways. As I'm walking away from the, the campsite, you know, I'm just like, man, it just seemed like he was kind of following me, you know, at a distance or something, just keeping his eyes on me. And every so often, as I, you know, getting closer to the the trail, I could hear someone moving behind me.
I've been an environmentalist all my life. You know, I say environmentalist, but you know, kind of hunt, grew up hunting and whatnot like that. So I could tell the difference between human footsteps and animal footsteps. Just something you develop overtime into hunting and whatnot. I'm trying not to pay it into mind, you know, just act like I'm just keeping minds in my own business. But I know that he's trailing me.
You know, I had a number of things I could have used in my defense if the need arrived, you know, my belly, Packard, traded shovel, whatnot. I got closer to the site and I just didn't, didn't feel right. I won a medal to take in the trail because I've been, you know, wanting to do it forever now, but I don't know if I want to do it today. It's kind of that, you know, that Spidey sense, I guess you
could say just going off. So I decided I'm not going to metal detect today because I don't know who that guy was. It's kind of weird. He had campsite back here in the middle of nowhere. So I decided to make a hard left towards the river. If I could find like a shallow spot in the river to cross away to cross, I would just so I could put the river between him and me.
So that's what I did. I turned towards the river and when I reached it, I started following it back towards the where the area where I parked my truck. I never saw the guy, you know, on the way back to to my truck. I I still think I heard I'm moving around a little bit, but you know, never saw him again. I got to my truck and load up
and go home. Life goes on, and about two years later, my wife and I had moved, relocated from San Angelo. I see an article in this little kind of local amateurish newspaper outlet in San Angelo that posts a lot of stuff to Facebook and their website and everything. And I'm reading through the through the article and I see this headline the, I can't remember the exact, you know, how it was worded, but suspect apprehended in murder of his wife, you know, kind of, you
know, big title whatnot. And reading the article and it showed a picture of the suspect who had basically murdered his wife after an argument and buried her in that area of the woods where I was metal detecting that day. And the picture was of the guy that I had met in the wood that very day. He had murdered his wife and buried her. I don't know if he had done it on the very day that I was there, but he had been on the run for about two years because they couldn't find him when they
apprehended him. Yeah, he confessed to it all. And he led them to the burial site, apparently, and retrieved her remains. Like I said, I don't know if he had done the ACT that day when I was out metal detecting, but just thinking back to the campsites, you know how kind of nervous, you know, I don't, I don't recall seeing any blood on him, so to say, or anything like that. But he definitely was very muddy and, you know, like he had dug a
grave. Is there any way of knowing for sure if that's the exact campsite where he did bury his wife? Unfortunately, I don't know about that one. Yeah, that would be, I probably had a police report and whatnot. But I do remember reading, like I said in the article, that her body was found in that general area and exactly how far back, you know, from the campsite and whatnot like that. Yeah, I don't have those details, but clearly wasn't too far back from where we were at.
Have you ever considered going back to that site? I have actually like, you know, I'm still, there's still that lingering things like, man, that that trail, I know it has, you know, it kind of has a, that tantalizing effect. That trail, you know, has never been metal detectors, you know, telling what to find. But then it's kind of like, yeah, I don't know if I want to go back there or not. That was just a huge slap of reality to me as a metal
detectorist. From that point onward, any time that I go metal detecting in kind of remote or isolated area, I always make sure I carry an actual knife with me, an actual booty knife or something, just because that whole event, man,
it was pretty unnerving. And you know, for anyone that might be listening to your show, that in the metal detecting or getting into metal detecting, the best advice I can give you after all this is #1 make sure you know what you say in case you encounter someone like me. If I, I don't know what would have happened if I told them that. Oh, yeah, the trail's not really known by anybody.
Yeah, always, always have a good line, good bluff in your head and follow through with it. And if the need arises, and always make sure you carry something that you can at least use in your defense if you need to. And always make sure you're aware of aware of what's out there, what you, what you could encounter. After doing some deep research to find an incident report on this story, unfortunately neither Ray or I could track
down coverage of this event. I searched the San Angelo Live Facebook page where Ray originally read the story, and I mainly saw a similar story where a husband buried his wife at a nearby Speedway track. Ray confirmed that this location wasn't correct and the picture of the husband wasn't the same man he encountered. I also reached out to the San Angelo Police Department, but they haven't replied. I searched for countless hours for additional news, audio clips
and resources. But I simply ran out of time. So if any of you would like to track down this story, please do so. Reach out to me on Instagram or comment below. What you found out in the end Ray's story is a stark reminder to keep your wits about you, because you never know what or who you'll encounter in the woods. Thanks again for listening to Unnerved. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and leave a review
wherever you get your podcast. And if you guys want to see photos related to each episode, check out our Instagram at Unnerved Podcast. And for AD free episodes and bonus content, check out our Patreon at patreon.com/unnerved Podcast. Until next time, take care.