Lingo Ann's stories say the Kushtaka or koushtaka is a shape shifting otter like creature that lures people into the wilderness, sometimes trigging them to their deaths. Michael Oros arrived in the wilds of northwest British Columbia in nineteen seventy two
with a peach fuzz beard carrying a bamboo flute. Henry Vance, a First Nation taunting man who spent winters caretaking a hunting god's cabin and horses in she Slay, an abandoned native village and mining settlement, encountered Oros hiking along the trail from Telegraph Creek. When Oros moved into a deserted cabin,
Vance suddenly found himself with a neighbor. In the beginning, Vance and his wife had to take care of the boy as he struggled to stay alive, and over time, Vance watched the young man harden and develop his wood skills. He also witnessed increasingly spooky violent behavior from Oros. For instance, once, when Oros showed up asking for dinner, he took offense when Vance asked him to wash his hands. All of a sudden, Vance got the feeling that Oros was considering
murdering him. Another time, he threatened to kill Vance's wife over a pitied dispute over Oros's dogs. Years later, after Vance learned that Oros had gone on to commit horrible crimes and murders across the region, Vance said he felt guilty for having helped him. Our taulting people are helpful people. We help people who are down and out, Vance said
in an interview on a Canadian radio station. Vance could not have known at the time that he was helping a man who would become known as she Slay Free Mike, one of the most infamous and mysterious criminals to ever roam the North Country. At first, Oros's home base was near the headwaters of the she Sleiy River, which is a tributary of the massive Taco River watershed that originates
in British Columbia and drains into southeast Alaska. It's likely that the isolation of living at she Sleay contributed to Oros becoming increasingly feral, paranoid, and delusional. He took to carving trees and building with his personal mark, a blazing sun symbol, which signified that he owned the country and everything in it. He roamed deeper into the wilderness, living in a tent and in abandoned structures, illegally hunting and trapping,
and occasionally raiding a cabin. The heart of Oros's territory began more or less in she Slay, and stretched west to Atland and north to Teslon to encompass more than thirty thousand square miles. Much of the area is the Taku ling At people's ancestral home, where many still live today. Stories of Oros menacing nature and his cabin raids began to circulate as de detales of his almost superhuman ability
to travel through the woods. He could supposedly snowshoe while hauling a heavy sled at a steady six miles per hour, covering sixty miles a day. He moved like a ghost, most of the time unseen, and at other times he would suddenly appear as if he were conjured. Over time, Oros ran the Tesla and Lingot off their legally owned trapping grounds and claimed them as his own. They could have filed charges, but they declined to talk to the police.
Sit to ling At culturer bearer Dave Kenoe said that some families moved to southeast Alaska to get away from Oros. Canadian police officer Chris Morgan was stationed in Teslain for several years and had encounters with Oros. In a nineteen eighty five interview for the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Morgan called Oros the missing link, the closest thing a man can be to being an animal and the closest thing an animal can be to being a man. But he wasn't
always that way. He was born in Oregon in nineteen fifty two, the only child of a single mother who worked as a petroleum geologist, a chemical engineer, and a university professor. He never knew his father. Arla Clia got to know the boy and his mother in the early nineteen sixties when the two moved to her neighborhood in Lawrence, Kansas. One of Client's first interactions with the two was taking Michael, whom she described as lonely in show, to his first
day of school because his mom was busy. In nineteen sixty eight, when Michael was in the tenth grade, he became deeply affected by the Vietnam War. He developed a deep hatred for the government and authority in general. Not long after, his mother claimed she sent him away to live with relatives and work horses in Wyoming. Clia never saw Michael or heard his mother talk about him again, and whether Oros actually went to Wyoming is unclear. Either way,
he was soon on his own, wandering the country. When he turned eighteen, he became a draft dodger and began using aliases. He'd used at least fifteen during his short life. In Taos, New Mexico, he joined a commune where he got tangled up in drugs and violence, though the details around this part of Oros's story are unclear. Eventually he fled to Fairbanks, Alaska. Vernon Frolic, a Canadian writer and prosecutor,
had full access to Oros's diaries. He published the book about Oros entitled Descent into Madness The Diary of a Killer. The book describes Oros when he first comes north as a hardcore back to Earth, part of a movement to reconnect with the land that began in the nineteen fifties in response to industrialization and capitalism, and arguably reached its peak during the early nineteen seventies. Like a lot of young people moving to Alaska in that era, Oros was
also looking to escape his past and reinvent himself. Oros was on a quest for freedom and truth, and the wild North seemed to be the perfect place to find it. More than that, he wanted to build a utopic community in the wilderness that would be a sanctuary for those seeking escape from society. He read esoteric books, studied zen, and was obsessed with concepts like trying to grasp the unseen reality. He took up with different small groups of hippies,
mostly draft dodgers, and lived in primitive cabins. The cold, darkness and isolation of Fairbanks Winners was too much for him, though, In the spring of nineteen seventy two, he set out for Telegraph Creek in northwest British Columbia. One story goes that he was run out of Telegraph Creek by locals and that's why he ended up in She Slay. Another is that he was offered a job helping the same
hunting outfitter Henry Vance was working for. But regardless, She Slay is the place that marked the beginning of his thirteen year war with the torture Druggers and the sneak Arounds. It wasn't long before he became known as She Slay Free Mike or just She Slay, and before long became bane of the country. Oros kept prolific journals documenting his paranoia, delusions, and rage. He'd leave notes or poems posted to trees or cabin doors, stating things like I'm a free man,
let me be. In his journals, he constantly referred to torture druggers who experimented and poisoned him, as well as sneak arounds, whom he never seemed to catch sight of, but who he believed were stalking him. Armed with a three to zero three rifle, he'd spend a significant portion of many days hunting sneak arounds. Oros also imagined that every time a plane flew overhead, it sprayed him and
the earth with poisonous chemicals. His hatred of authority figures had deepened into a murderous rage, and he constantly wrote in his journals about wanting to kill any government officials he might encounter. At the time, the only government employees who spent time in his territory were Alaska Department a Fish and Game fishery biologists, conducting research annually from April through October. Lead biologist Paul Kissner worked in the Taku
Watershed from nineteen seventy one to nineteen ninety. At first, Kissner told me that he and his crew thought Oros was weird but a mostly harmless mountain man. Mike Beathers, a retired King Salmon biologists who worked with Kissner, said that changed as they learned more about him. Quote, the women at camp were especially scared. No one ever saw him, but we were always looking over our shoulders feathers set.
In early summer of nineteen seventy nine, Kissner and crew returned to their research camp on the Nakuina River, a tributary of the taku and found that Oros had stolen their river boat from and raiding their camp. Oros knew at least some of the crew's names and that many of them lived in Juno. Kisner reported the theft to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was willing to testify against Oros. Police were well aware of Oros by the time and suspected him in numerous crimes. Now they had
an arrest warrant, but they made no move. Locating Oros would be difficult and dangerous, not to mention, the charge likely wouldn't amount to a substantial conviction. Despite his aversion to civilization, Oros would go into the town on occasion for short term work, to stock up on supplies and look for women. He'd do this sometimes in Juno, where he wasn't infamous. The fall after he stole the ADF and G riverboat, it appears he went to Juno and
was working with a road crew paving the highway. Kisner was still up at Taku when lay one night, a hippie with long and sandy blonde hair knocked on his and his wife's condominium door. Through the door, Kisner's wife asked the man what he wanted quote He told her there was a problem with her newspaper and that she needed to let him in. Kisner said he seemed threatening, and she retreated to the kitchen to call the police.
The man became irate, pounding and demanding to be let in, and when a trooper finally arrived, the only sign of the prowler was the evidence he left dripping down the door. Later, upon seeing a photo of Oros, Kisner's wife guessed it could have been him. Phil Timpany, a Canadian woodsman, was the only member of Kisner's fishery crew whoever actually saw Oros.
It happened sometime after the fall of nineteen seventy nine, while Oros was being held in custody in Atlan, a cop wanted to come in and Oros and Timpany was out in the same country as the madman, and the cop was worried for his safety. The officer told Timpany they suspected Oros of a number of disappearances and murders. Quote. I ask what to do if I meet up with him in the woods. He said, don't ever say goodbye. Basically,
just shoot him. At the jail, Timpany expected there would be a one way window or something blocking Oros from seeing him. Instead, the cop took him right in front of Oros. Quote. I saw him at the store a couple of days later, and he never took his eyes off me. He was the most wild looking guy, but not in a woodsy way. His eyes were just intents,
like a caged animal in intense eyes. Timpany said. Just about everyone was scared of Oros, except for an old, enigmatic trapper named Gunther Lishey, an ex Nazi who fought in World War Two before being imprisoned in a Russian camp. Lichy emigrated to Canada to live in the woods. He was tough, and he was woods wise and apparently dangerous Timpany, who also had a trap line, treaded lightly around Lishey. He recalled hearing a story of Lichy encountering another trapper
on his line. Lichy aimed his gun at the man, and Lishy's companion, who happened to be a cop, and told him to stop. Lischi said something along the lines that he'd killed many men in his life and one more wouldn't make any difference. Supposedly, Lichi and Oros only met twice. Once was briefly in the Wiles, when Lichi took a photo of Oros. It was one of the three photos found on the German's cabin wall after he disappeared.
The second was in the late summer of nineteen eighty one. Lichy, knowing Oros had a cabin and a trap line on Hudsongola Lake, got dropped off by a floatplane. In late July, Oros was gone, Lichi began building a cabin less than one hundred yards from Oros's cabin. Lishi's actions were bizarre. For one, Lichi knew it was illegal to trap the area.
Traplines are owned in British Columbia. You can't go laying steel wherever you please, and second, knowing it was illegal, why would Lichi allow his business to be known by chartering a commercial floatplane. Finally, Lichi was well aware of Oros's reputation. Why would he build a cabin so close. One likely explanation could be that Lichy, knowing Oros had run the legal trapline owners out of the area, planned
on taking over the fur Ridge country for himself. After surviving World War II, the German might have believed that dealing with Oros wouldn't be that difficult. On September tenth, nineteen eighty one, one pilot Dave Weeb landed in Hutzegola Lake to pick up Lishey as they had scheduled weeks before, but instead of Lishy, Web was confronted by Oros, who said he'd never heard of the old trapper, let alone seen him. Web's instinct told him that Oros was going to try to kill him, so he played it as
cool as he could and he got away. He flew to Atland and immediately contacted the RCMP. Police, believing they finally had solid evidence on Oros, immediately mobilized the team. Their plan was to use the arrest warrant from Oros as nineteen seventy nine theft of the ADF and G riverboat to pick him up and hold him in jail while they built a murder case against him. When the team arrived at Hutsgola Lake on September twelfth, Oros was
long gone deep in the wilderness. The officer searched the area and gathered Lihi's belonging, many of which Oros had tried to hide. They also took Oros' diaries for evidence. They searched Tor, but they couldn't find Lishi's body. Oros got caught the following March after he returned to his cabin at Hutzegola for the winter. Oros had spent most of the winter hunting sneak arounds and fantasizing about killing an ever growing list of people. When police flew in,
Oros inexplicably went without much of a fight. The only thing that Oros seemed to care about were his dogs. Many people have referenced his devotion to them. What happened after Oros was handcuffed is unclear. Officially, he was put on a helicopter and his dogs were later destroyed. There's another story that out of spite, an officer shot Oros's favorite dog right in front of him. Vernon Frolic, the prosecutor who'd later write to sent into Madness, worked with
the police during the investigation. Without Lehi's body or a confession, and only minor charges. Frolic and the police tried to have Oros locked up in a psychiatric hospital. While Oros was deeply disturbed, he was also extremely intelligent and cunning. His diaries are largely free form madness, but it appeared that he never wrote anything legally incriminating. By late August, Oros had been acquitted and set free. He roamed all
over the Lower forty eight in Canada. Timpany heard a cop in that one claimed Oros was being tracked daily during his travels. Around this time, Oros directed the lion's share of his hatred toward police officers. He wrote in his last diary that focusing his hatred allowed him to set back and enjoy himself doing a few things I wanted to do before I died. One of those things may have been the rape and murder of Cindy Elrod, whose body was found on August twenty third, nineteen eighty three,
in Juno. The night before, el Rod had been seen at a bar with a man described as having long, sandy blonde hair like Oros and being within a similar age, height and weight range. A composite sketch shows a baby faced man with long hair parted in the middle, the same as Oro's hair was in pictures. During his last years, Oros's rambling journals showed he believed that an elite paramilitary unit would be helicoptered into an area to hunt him down.
This prediction became a reality in March of nineteen eighty five, after Frank and Aileen Hayes arrived at their cabin in Teslin Lake and found that Oros had looted and destroyed it. He had taken everything of value, including their wedding rings. He left the partially butchered remains of a Ca hal mooso In's side. Clumps of hair and rotting blood were splattered on the walls and soaked into the floorboards. The Hasses, rightfully worried for their lives, snow machined back to Teslin
and reported to break into the police. The RCMP reconnaissance flight was sent out, and when the pilot found Oros hauling a slid through the snowy wilderness, the madman fired at the plane. Teslain police contacted emergency response teams and literally overnight, a team of rcmps, most elite officers, were mobilized.
Two of the men on the ERT were close friends with Mike Badey and Gary Rogers, both of whom dealt with Oros in nineteen eighty two while he was in custody and terrace and afterward while he was waiting for his trial. Budday was a larger than live character. One night, after having a few drinks and showing up at Roger's house, he decided to use his chainsaw to cut the door, rather than to be rude by knocking and descent into madness.
Frolic wrote that when Oros was detained in nineteen eighty two and tore apart a jail, sell officers went and fetched Budet, who was off duty and drinking at the bar, to subdue him. Buddet is more than just a muscled up drinker, though. When Oros was waiting for his trial in nineteen eighty two, he slept on a police station bench when the weather was bad. If anyone tried to mess with him, but they put a stop to that. While members of the ERT were on their way north,
Oros slept on Big Island in Tusslin Lake. The burial place of a lingo Ant shaman. There had long been a belief circulating around Oros, especially with the lingo Ant people, that he was not human. They believed that he was a physical manifestation of the kushta Ka, an evil spirit that preys upon and possesses the loss, turning them into a reflection of itself. The kushta Ka is a shape
shifting monster associated with madness and disappearances and wildness. The kushta Ka can be linked to the wild man of the woods archetype, and that it lures its victims into the wilderness, turns them insane, and causes them to lose their humanity. To this day, many people who were involved with Oros believe this, including Rogers. Some also believe that Oros, by sleeping at the burial site on Big Island, woke
the spirit of the shaman. One of the most important functions of the Lingolnt shaman was to battle the cousta Ka. Oros knew police would be coming for him. He could have escaped into the wilderness, but instead he chose to wait for them. His journals indicate his belief that his war with the real and imagined world was about to end. In a big shootout. On the morning of March nineteen, Rogers, Badet, and the rest of the ert flew into Teslin late.
Rogers in Budet, armed with them sixteen's along with a sharpshooter, made up one of the units. Their unit was dropped off in front of Oros, while another was dropped behind him. While Rogers in Bedet were hiding in the deep snow, hoping to intercept Oros. As he snowshoed toward them, the mad trapper disappeared into the brush unseen. He circled around and snuck up on Rogers in Budet. Oros fatally shot Bedey through the back of the neck with his three
to zero three rifle and then turned to Rogers. Forty four yards separated the two men. Rogers said he believes he and Bidet had some higher power with them that day. The moment after Budet was shot had an out of body experience, like he was watching the events happen from above. He says he looked down on Oros as the man worked his rifle. Boat took aim and pulled a trigger, and then Rogers watched himself raise his M sixteen and shoot.
His bullet went through Oros's forehead, killing him instantly. Examination of Orosa's rifle afterwards showed that the firing pin had been worked in, dented the primer, but hadn't ignited the powder. Rogers should have been killed. Lihi's remains were found a year and a half later when a constable from Teslain flew into Hutzegola Lake and stumbled on the German scattered bones. There was a bullet hole through the right scapula. Forensics showed Lichi had been shot in the back with a
bullet matching a three to zero three cartridge. With Oros dead, a wave of relief washed over the region. Forty years later, Much of the land he wants roam is still wild, though there is a massive mining operation plan for the region. Oros has been pretty much forgotten except by those who are affected by him directly. He remains as cryptic in death as he was in life. People who dealt with him still lower their voices when they talk about she Slave Free Mike, if they speak of him at all.