- 10/09/2024
A father's desperate search for his daughter leads him to an abandoned cabin in rural Canada; a surprise witness helps expose unspeakable crimes.
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00:00Where my dad's cabin was, there are not a lot of people.
00:11You can't just call for help.
00:13The area is very isolated.
00:16It can be very dangerous.
00:19Everything was completely dark and immediately I knew it was bad.
00:29He came out with a gun.
00:32They didn't know, should I run, should I not?
00:35Is he going to shoot me?
00:36I even remember thinking I didn't even tell my parents where I was going today.
00:44My biggest horror was like, who's going to be next?
00:58July 28, 2015, I was 19 years old, I was just hanging out with some buddies, Will and
01:13King.
01:14Will's like, hey, let's go shoot.
01:15He just got a new .22.
01:18We pack up, get some rounds, get some guns, headed towards Caliente to Will's dad's cabin.
01:26Caliente, California, it's a beautiful place really.
01:29It's about 25 minutes away from Bakersfield and it's about 15 miles of rugged terrain
01:38going up to the cabin.
01:41That desert area butts up against mountains where the trees start, so you have thick forest
01:46and then it gets into very steep cliffs and very hazardous terrain.
01:54I'm talking about rocks, I'm talking about going vertical on rocks, you need a four-wheel
02:01drive.
02:02A normal SUV won't get you up there, it has to be some type of off-road-like vehicle.
02:08They drove to a point where they park and then they take a quad and they drive up the
02:12rest of the way on a dirt road to the cabin.
02:16We're just listening to rock music, talking mess.
02:24You know, we get to the cabin.
02:26It's very isolated.
02:28There's trailers, RVs, a full-out shooting range.
02:33Just a full-on man cave, basically.
02:41As they park and they're getting their gear and everything, they are confronted by gentlemen.
02:58My first thought was like, oh, that has to be Will's family, so I was like, pretty cool
03:03at first.
03:04I was like, hey, what's up, dude?
03:06I noticed he didn't say anything, he was wearing all green, he had a sawed-off 12-gauge, he
03:13had a bag that sounded like a bunch of rounds in it.
03:17He also had a pretty long knife sticking out of his sleeve, like he was ready to like hunt
03:22or kill.
03:23He was out in the wild and he was prepared for it.
03:33He approached us and my buddy Will was like, what the hell, what are you doing here, you're
03:39trespassing.
03:40And he's like, there's no one that lives here, it's just me.
03:46That's when I knew this is bad.
03:51And from there on, that's when everything went downhill.
03:54He was definitely saying crazy things.
03:59And he told us about the government dropping him from space in a body bag.
04:04Made him seem unhinged, made him just crazy.
04:08And I kind of started freaking out.
04:11I even remember thinking like, man, I didn't even tell my parents where I was going today.
04:14I just took off.
04:17Then he directed them into the cabin with him at gunpoint.
04:23They didn't know, should I run, should I not, is he going to shoot me?
04:38Inside the cabin, he specifically told us, you sit in one corner, you sit in one corner
04:41and you sit in the middle.
04:44We're all scared.
04:46Your body goes into a certain state.
04:49You don't feel nothing.
04:51It's almost like you got to think of your next move.
04:57I definitely was thinking of my mom, my dad, my sisters, you know, like, damn, like, this
05:03is it.
05:04Didn't even say I love you.
05:08That was the rough part.
05:09At that time, I wasn't too religious, but I saved her prayer.
05:16He had the shotgun in my face, finger on the trigger, and he said, bang.
05:22Bang.
05:23Bang.
05:24He's like, I can kill all you guys right now and get away with it.
05:29Nobody will know.
05:33Which he was completely right.
05:34You know, middle of nowhere, no service.
05:38Yeah, you can definitely get away with it.
05:46It's not uncommon in the rural areas for people to go out target shooting or hunting.
05:52And people are not going to hear the gunshots.
05:56And if they do, they may think it's just completely normal.
05:59He wouldn't even have to bury them because he could have left them in the elements and
06:03they would have been taken care of by the wild.
06:07And no trace of them.
06:09Three young men have just disappeared off the face of the earth and no one knows why.
06:17During that time, he was back and forth.
06:21He's going outside.
06:22He's grabbing cans of food, grabbing ammo, grabbing whatever he thinks he needs.
06:29And he would leave us in the room and we'd kind of just be talking between each other.
06:32What are we going to do?
06:34My buddy Will was, we're going to try and take him down.
06:37And I told him, I was like, stop, dude.
06:38You're going to get us killed.
06:39Do you really want to see one of our friends get shot?
06:42Or do you really want to die here?
06:46He even actually has a bag of butane tanks.
06:54I thought for sure we were going to die.
07:02I couldn't find my way out.
07:04I couldn't shoot my way out.
07:07I couldn't run my way out.
07:10I was stuck.
07:13There was nothing I could do to get out of this situation besides talk.
07:18He asked me, can we smoke a cigarette, you know?
07:20I said, at least you can do for us.
07:24Cans of cigarette.
07:30We're just talking.
07:31He's telling us crazy things.
07:33He talked about him knowing the devil.
07:36That, you know, the devil brought him back to life.
07:39His last marriage, how it wasn't good.
07:42Talking about how he respects us.
07:45He even told us one time, he was like, you guys are my friends.
07:47I love you guys.
07:49It was a roller coaster of emotions.
07:53I'm going to kill you guys no matter what.
07:56But we were talking, talking, trying to get out of it.
07:59It felt like torture.
08:02But in those few hours, we kind of started to figure him out.
08:08He was just on foot, breaking into those cabins out there, taking whatever he could.
08:13He was kind of just living freely out there.
08:16I mean, there's nobody around, there's nothing out there.
08:19I think he was more mad that he ran into us, if anything, you know?
08:26We kind of calmed him down to a point where we came up with a deal.
08:30Like, hey, you take all of our stuff, you take our guns, you take our side-by-side.
08:34You know, we'll just walk back, and you'll be free.
08:37They had told him, please, just go, and we won't say anything.
08:42He's like, you're just messing with me, you're just lying.
08:44You're just doing this to survive.
08:48Which we were.
08:50We all stuck to, like, a certain game plan.
08:53Like, we're all on the same page on manipulating, on making this deal.
08:57And he's like, I respect you guys.
08:59That's why I'm going to let you guys live.
09:02As crazy as it sounds, I shook his hand.
09:05The suspect took the all-terrain vehicle and drove away in it.
09:11The suspect took the all-terrain vehicle and drove away in it.
09:21That's when we ran out of that cabin.
09:25It was just like, oh, my God.
09:28I was like, oh, my God.
09:30I was like, oh, my God.
09:32I was like, oh, my God.
09:34I was like, oh, my God.
09:36I was like, oh, my God.
09:37I was like, oh, my God.
09:39It was just like a rush of getting the hell out of here.
09:42Didn't even look back.
09:43Just ran.
09:45Ran straight to the riverbed.
09:47In that riverbed, there's a bunch of shrubs.
09:49There's a bunch of things that can hide us.
09:51And it would take us back to where we needed to be.
09:55There's no cellular service in those areas,
09:58so they had to make their way to safety
10:00before they could even make contact with law enforcement.
10:04We're traumatized.
10:05Any little thing, any wind, were looking behind us.
10:09We started to realize, like, we're not making any way.
10:14The sun's already dropping.
10:16That riverbed is taking too long.
10:18So we got back onto the main road.
10:22And as we were walking down the main road...
10:30That's when we heard them coming back towards us.
10:34But he changed his mind.
10:38He was gonna come kill us.
10:49We're walking down the dirt road, and...
10:54We hear the side-by-side.
10:58He was coming back to kill us.
11:00He did not want them going and reporting this particular incident.
11:04They were actively being hunted down by him.
11:09He was mobile. They're on foot.
11:12We all dove face-first, and...
11:16And as we dove, we were capable of just rolling over
11:19and kind of hiding ourselves from the main road.
11:30We didn't know what to do.
11:31We laid there for a good five minutes until we didn't hear that engine no more.
12:01And that's when we got back up and we started hiking that trail again.
12:06There's no doubt in my mind that he would have eliminated those young men.
12:11Kenton was sick.
12:14I'm pretty sure he was dehydrated.
12:17Dehydrated, scared, not a good mixture.
12:20And we had to walk miles.
12:25If you're not equipped in the mountains, it can not only be scary, it can be deadly.
12:31There's coyotes, there's mountain lions, there's a very high population of poisonous rattlesnakes.
12:40It can be very dangerous.
12:55We've seen some highlights.
12:58I thought that he was coming back to kill us.
13:05Our first reaction was to hide again.
13:08But as we got closer, we heard a voice.
13:11What are you guys doing? Where's the cyber side?
13:14And that's when we knew it was Will's dad.
13:18That's when I kind of felt like a breath of fresh air.
13:23I'm going to make it home.
13:25You could tell by our faces, something happened.
13:28And that's when my buddy Will hysterically started saying,
13:31we got held hostage, shotgun to our head by a crazy man and he took everything.
13:36That was the only way we were going to survive.
13:39Will's dad takes a deep breath and is just like, what?
13:42And he's just like, yeah, we got stuck up.
13:47It was a quiet ride. I didn't speak.
13:50I was just thinking of what just happened.
13:55I should be dead.
13:56Thank God they escaped and reported to law enforcement.
14:05In 2015, I was a senior deputy for the Kern County Sheriff's Department.
14:09I had a dual role as a detective and also as a SWAT team sniper.
14:16We have a special operations group team that is primarily SWAT team members
14:21that do special missions.
14:25We realized how lucky these three young men were and the manhunt really started.
14:32At some point, the kidnapper tried to get out of the area with that vehicle
14:37and managed to get it stuck.
14:39He got it stuck in a very, very remote area to where it was completely inoperable
14:45and he fled on foot from that vehicle.
14:48The SWAT team tried to follow the tracks as far as they could
14:51and based on the terrain and everything, they lost the tracks.
14:56The three young men did a drawing to give us a general idea of what the guy might look like.
15:03We knew he had darker skin, black hair.
15:07He wore glasses and kind of wore clothing that looked like he might have been a hiker.
15:13But that's about it. We had nothing on this guy.
15:16We didn't know who he was. We didn't know where he was.
15:19And we didn't know what his capability was.
15:22We were worried he was going to hurt somebody eventually if we didn't find him.
15:35July 30th was a Thursday.
15:38Thursday nights are an easygoing, relaxing night.
15:41We play video games with the kids.
15:43That night, I saw my mother-in-law calling me and so I answered
15:48and she was kind of hysterical saying that Dave hadn't checked in that night.
15:56Dave is my father-in-law and he normally checks in before dark.
16:01My dad's cabin was out in Jawbone Canyon.
16:04He loved it. He would wake up at 5 o'clock and hop in his truck and go out there.
16:09The only reason my mom was not with him was she was recovering from a surgery.
16:12But he always checked in probably around 6 p.m. Sun would still be up.
16:17Hey, just wanted to let you know that I'm in for the night.
16:19And, you know, everything was great.
16:21Cheryl was a bit distraught and wanted to go out and check to see if he was okay.
16:27Early 2000s is when he actually purchased the cabin.
16:31It was absolutely beautiful.
16:33It was a wood kind of like looking like a log cabin, you know, and windows everywhere.
16:38It faced where they had fields. It faced the pond.
16:41Very isolated. And, of course, that was part of the charm.
16:46It was very relaxing because we don't have cell reception that let us unplug just from life.
16:54It just gave us a couple days where really all you did was just enjoy where you were, like in the moment.
16:59Like you're just on vacation in this cool little cabin out there.
17:02When he bought that, he was looking for a place to just to have his own kind of refuge.
17:08He wanted his own spot where he could do just what he wanted to do, make it his own.
17:15My grandpa grew up gold mining, and so he taught my dad.
17:18And my dad just loved it.
17:21We used to joke, I said, you're the only dentist that has a dump truck and a dynamite permit.
17:25I just think to myself and laugh, like, my dad is so cool.
17:29Where my dad's cabin was, there are not a lot of people.
17:33So your nearest neighbor, you can't just call for help.
17:38I mean, that's really scary.
17:40And here's my dad, who's just out there because that's his retirement. He loves it.
17:50Cheryl comes over to the house, and she's very upset at this point and wants me to drive.
17:55So she says, you know the road better. You know the place better.
17:59Can you drive? And we'll go from there.
18:02From our house to get to the cabin, it could go anywhere from an hour and five minutes to an hour and 15 minutes,
18:07depending on road conditions.
18:09But I have to stay home because I've got two little kids that are now in bed.
18:14My mom and Ryan leave about 9.30.
18:17And now the time is ticking, and I'm waiting.
18:20I'm kind of doing this vicious cycle of cell phone calls.
18:23I'm calling my dad's satellite phone, his cell phone, the house phone.
18:26I'm starting to now get a little panicked, and I'm starting to yell a little louder,
18:29Dad, it's Christy. Dad, you need to pick up this phone. I'm really worried.
18:46Earlier in the week, it was on social media.
18:50Somebody had mentioned something about some boys getting kidnapped,
18:55and not a lot of information about it.
18:58I thought, that's somewhat close because the crow flies.
19:01But crossing that distance would take, especially on foot, quite a while.
19:06So I didn't think too much of it.
19:10As we pulled up in the headlights, I could see on the ranch road
19:15where it looked like a car had skidded to a stop and pushed up dirt in front of the tires.
19:23My dad was very meticulous about keeping the roads really nice.
19:26That's not something my dad would ever leave.
19:29If he had done something like that, he would have got out, raked it flat, and made it look pretty again.
19:34Immediately, I thought that that was odd.
19:39When we approached the cabin, everything was completely dark, and his truck isn't there.
19:46So we think he's not here, he's not around.
19:48I asked Cheryl, do you think we should check the cabin just in case?
19:52And she said, yes.
19:57Cheryl was still very frantic.
20:01As was I.
20:02I was worried just because everything seemingly looked fairly normal.
20:10I had packed up my rifle just in case.
20:12You never know if an animal is an issue, and on the rare case, there could be a person.
20:20I grabbed my rifle, had my flashlight.
20:23Cheryl was up on the steps going into the cabin, and I was hanging back just a little bit, shining my flashlight, just making sure there was nothing out of the ordinary.
20:42I noticed that that back window was open, and it seemed off.
20:53I followed Cheryl in, and it was dark inside.
21:01I still had my flashlight on so I could see a little bit.
21:05And I walked around the corner, and immediately she screamed, oh no.
21:13And I knew at that moment it was bad.
21:24Ryan!
21:36Ryan runs into the kitchen.
21:40And there was my dad.
21:42He'd been shot, and I immediately knew he was dead.
21:48I knew what I was seeing. I knew what was happening, but I couldn't quite comprehend it.
21:54Ryan immediately runs to my mom, and he's like, we have to get out of here.
21:58We were in grave potential danger.
22:02Somebody could be out here right now.
22:13We jumped into the vehicle.
22:16And I thought, what if somebody climbed in here while we were inside?
22:24I said, Cheryl, make sure there's nobody hiding in the back right now.
22:35Everything's good.
22:37We start going down the county road, and a lot of that stuff is still there.
22:42We start going down the county road, and a lot of that's a blur.
22:47We were both hysterical.
22:50It took us about a half hour to get back to a cell signal.
22:54And we stop, and Cheryl calls 911.
22:58And from there, dispatch does their thing.
23:02At this point in time, our homicide detectives were working the scene, collecting evidence.
23:07What we did learn early on is that his vehicle was missing.
23:12Daybreak the next day, we did locate his vehicle run off of a remote road, stuck in very similar fashion to the ATV.
23:24And outside of Mr. Markowitz's vehicle, we were able to locate shoe track on the ground outside of the driver's side door.
23:32Those boot marks were very, very similar in pattern and size to the boot marks that we located and were initially tracking.
23:41At the cabin where the three young adults were held against their will.
23:46That was a very significant escalation in the case.
23:50We suspected this was the same person that had eluded us the first time.
23:56I was really concerned that he's out there, free, running around.
24:00We're in the span of two days, and we know this person has not only kidnapped and held people against their will and threatened them at gunpoint,
24:09he's now murdered an innocent person.
24:13When you have someone who has no qualms about taking a life from a complete stranger,
24:20that means he has no problems taking another life if they happen to cross him.
24:24So this is a person who needs to be stopped.
24:27That makes this an all-hands-on-deck investigation.
24:31We dispatched special weapons and tactics team members to Mr. Markowitz's cabin.
24:36And we began tactical operations in that area.
24:40Man tracking, it's not the same as search and rescue.
24:44Search and rescue, you're looking for someone who wants to be found.
24:48When you're man tracking, that person's trying to avoid you, and they've already got time on you, they've already got distance on you.
24:54Our whole SWAT team was split up into two ten-man groups.
24:58Each team had a couple snipers, we had off-road vehicles,
25:01we had the helicopter flying.
25:04The plan was to hopefully find the tracks up ahead further so that then we could gain ground on the person.
25:11Find this person as fast as possible.
25:14We realized that he probably knew what we were doing because every day was a different track.
25:20He doubled back, he was circling around.
25:23He knows we know what he did, so he used every trick that he knew to evade us.
25:27It appeared that this person not only knew the area, but he was leading caches around for him to come back to,
25:35so he could move back and forth and resupply, which tells us that he's thinking ahead.
25:40Every little thing can be a clue.
25:43It's not just footprints, candy wrapper, cigarette butt, broken branches.
25:49All this stuff, these are clues.
25:52We found a water bottle and some supplies that were abandoned.
25:56The bottle had been used, it wasn't fresh, it wasn't sealed.
25:59So we thought maybe we could get a DNA hit on it.
26:02It was delivered to the labs.
26:06They did get a positive hit, and that's where we first found out that this person knew what we were doing.
26:13The suspect was Benjamin Peter Ashley.
26:17Several years back, he had been arrested for breaking into houses and burglarizing the house.
26:23And so he was in our system.
26:25So we had a picture, we had a name, age, all of that.
26:29And we were able to get a DNA hit on him.
26:32We were able to get a DNA hit on him.
26:35We were able to get a DNA hit on him.
26:38We were able to get a DNA hit on him.
26:40Age, all of that.
26:42He was from the L.A. area, and he was a drifter.
26:47He just kind of did his own thing, and he was very familiar with the area and was an avid hiker.
26:52Dealing with somebody that we think may know this terrain puts us even on more high alert.
26:58This was a mountain man, very capable of eluding us.
27:01He was in really good shape.
27:03He was acclimated to that type of terrain.
27:06He was acclimated to that type of weather.
27:08We were in his element, not ours.
27:10And when you're in the other person's element, they have an advantage.
27:21On the morning of August 1st, 2015, we continued tracking.
27:25As we came across structures and trailers and residences that appeared maybe unsecured,
27:33and there was nobody obviously there, we would search those to ensure that this person wasn't there.
27:38Now this is a small team, because we were a tracking team.
27:42This was not the typical SWAT callout.
27:45We find the track again on a dirt road, and we start following it.
27:52And the tracks go into a field and towards a house.
28:08I tried the door, and it's unlocked.
28:11I let my team leader know, hey, we got an unlocked door, and we make a game plan.
28:17I will go first.
28:27I didn't see anything out of place. It just didn't feel right.
28:39I take two more steps, and...
28:48And then I feel...
28:52the bones in both my arms break at the same time.
28:59And the next thing I know, I'm looking at the ceiling.
29:03I'm laying on my back, and I see that there's blood on both my arms.
29:09And I call out that I'm hit.
29:13And...
29:15all hell breaks loose.
29:18I'm on the ground.
29:20I'm on the ground.
29:22I'm on the ground.
29:24I'm on the ground.
29:26I'm on the ground.
29:28I'm on the ground.
29:30I'm on the ground.
29:32I'm on the ground.
29:37Benjamin Ashley was shooting at my team, and my team was backing out of the house to get away from the gunfire.
29:47I can't fight back. Both my arms are down.
29:50I can't get up.
29:52And so I was kind of laying there, thinking the last thing I was going to see was Ashley look at me, point a gun in my face, and that was going to be it for me.
29:59About that time, one of my teammates grabbed me and drags me out of the room and onto the deck.
30:09And while the team was shooting into the house, they were trying to patch me up.
30:19The bullet shattered the bone in my forearm and blew out the artery, and they were trying to stop the bleeding and save my life.
30:29And because of that, Benjamin Ashley was able to escape out the back door of the house, and he ran off into the forest.
30:40We couldn't chase him, because he had the advantage. He knew the terrain.
30:47So we focused on getting Booker to survive his wounds.
30:52And thankfully, we had our helicopter close, and we loaded him up and got him to medical aid.
30:57If he had just waited a second longer, if I had taken another step, it wouldn't have hit my arms.
31:03It would have hit underneath my armpit, where my armor doesn't cover, and it would have gone through lungs and heart, and I wouldn't be here.
31:11We now know this person just has no fear and will do anything humanly possible to evade capture.
31:18I was really concerned that he was going to hurt more of my team, or if he was going to hurt somebody who just lives out there and minding their own business.
31:27That was my biggest horror about it, was like, who's going to be next?
31:32In those initial days after Booker was shot, we had either lost track, or the terrain was not capable of preserving a track.
31:42It was evident that we were going to have to try to do some things differently at this point.
31:52Mr. Ashley is 30 years old.
31:545'11", 180 pounds, black hair, green eyes, and he's a black male.
31:59And with that, I can't go into too great a detail on this investigation because it's still ongoing,
32:05but again, I'd like to commend the officers and the civilians of this organization for the commitment, the tenacity to do this.
32:14This is very, very widely broadcast in the media, and the community took a vested interest in this and wanted not only safety and closure, but wanted to support us.
32:26It is almost like the worst game of telephone people have ever played.
32:31It's a game that we've never played before.
32:34It's a game that we've never played before.
32:37It's a game that we've never played before.
32:40It is almost like the worst game of telephone people have ever played.
32:45You don't know what's correct, you're watching the news, you're getting phone calls from, you know, sheriffs, detectives, this and that, and they kind of had lost the track for a little bit.
32:55Now we're scared.
32:58Is he coming to get us now? Like, a lot of irrational things go through your head.
33:03I heard that he had shot and killed somebody.
33:05And I felt depressed.
33:07My first thought was, like, we could have stopped all this. Maybe we could have possibly held him down.
33:14But I felt like God gave us a reason to live. He let us live that day.
33:18And I would almost say it's a miracle, because I still think until today we should have been dead.
33:28August, as hot as it gets in Kern County.
33:31We had to be careful that we didn't get heat exhaustion.
33:36Our personnel are getting very little sleep, hiking miles per day, wearing body armor and carrying equipment.
33:47Our tactical team members were being very vigilant on the lookout for where could somebody hide.
33:55Is he in a cave? Is he in a mineshaft?
33:58Is he in a cave? Is he in a mineshaft?
34:01What's going to prevent him from ambushing law enforcement?
34:04We had a lot to think about from our safety standpoint.
34:08Not just capturing Benjamin Peter Ashley.
34:12But we're not going to come off this until we have Benjamin Peter Ashley in custody.
34:16August 15th, we get a call from Brady's Mini Market in the community of Inyo Kern.
34:24This was approximately 20 miles from where I was shot.
34:28The clerk explained that the person that was on the news just walked in the store, got some ice cream, a couple candy bars, and then left.
34:36We dispatched patrol deputies out to the Brady's Market in Inyo Kern and they were directed to a trail behind the market to where the person was last seen.
34:52We dispatched patrol deputies out to the Brady's Market in Inyo Kern and they were directed to a trail behind the market to where the person was last seen.
35:09When the person saw them, he hid behind a tall bush where they couldn't see him and they stopped and they drew down on him.
35:16We know what we're up against.
35:18This is somebody who is not going to comply with us.
35:22They were challenging him saying, come out with your hands up.
35:26And he came out with a gun.
35:28He wasn't going to go quietly.
35:39The patrol officers pulled up and confronted Benjamin Ashley.
35:48They gave the orders to come out with your hands up.
35:53He came out with a gun.
35:55At that point, they had their weapons drawn.
36:00He was given every opportunity to turn himself in and chose not to.
36:06That's when an officer involved shooting occurred.
36:09Benjamin Peter Ashley was ultimately shot and killed by our deputies.
36:14I never feel joy for death.
36:19You don't know what was going through Benjamin Peter Ashley's mind, but at the end of the day, none of that matters when it comes time to protect your community.
36:29Why kidnap three young men that have nothing to do with you?
36:34Why kill a person in their own home?
36:36Why kill a person in their own home?
36:39I think that he wanted to stay incognito and just do what he wanted to do without any resistance.
36:47He was worried they would call for the sheriff's department and then people would be looking for him.
36:52He obviously didn't want that.
36:56Seems to me like this was like six weeks of a manhunt, but it was 18 days.
37:02That was a 24-hour-a-day operation for 18 days.
37:06It's nothing that we had experienced.
37:08And the support that we received from our leadership, as well as the community, it couldn't have been accomplished without that support.
37:17I needed to know that he wasn't a threat anymore, so I drove out there and it was definitely him.
37:23That was a relief for me, kind of ending to this whole nightmare.
37:28The hunt is over. We're done.
37:30I get a call from my brother. He says they killed him.
37:34I'm like, what?
37:36No, they got him.
37:39At the time, I was, you know, like, hell yeah.
37:43I was happy, but now that I grew older, man, I kind of wish that guy could get some help.
37:48Figure out what the hell is wrong with that guy.
37:52If I had to piece together what I thought happened,
37:55I think Dave was done for the day, working, mining,
37:59and came back to the house, opened a window or two,
38:04had that guy been watching,
38:07and snuck inside,
38:10and took that opportunity to shoot him.
38:15That's maybe what happened.
38:18Unfortunately, I don't know.
38:21That's maybe what happened.
38:24Unfortunately, Dave being such a loving, sharing, caring kind of guy,
38:29this guy could have come up to him with any kind of story, and Dave would have helped him.
38:35I've been out in the wilderness, been camping, been shooting, but never went back to Caliente, California.
38:41Never been back.
38:47It changed my life forever.
38:50Twelve surgeries later, and a couple years of physical therapy and everything,
38:55and getting things back to right, and I'm back with my family,
38:59and not with the Sheriff's Department anymore.
39:04My dad was one of my husband's best friends.
39:08That was hard because it was like my husband losing his dad, you know,
39:11just because my dad always treated my husband just like his son.
39:15It was never, well, that's my daughter's husband. It was, that's his son.
39:21Without David, it's like there's a void, a missing piece.
39:28I miss him a lot.
39:30There's so many different things that we would do on a regular basis out there,
39:34between mining and hunting and shooting and fishing.
39:38That kind of stuff would have been done, you know, monthly.
39:41We'd be out there all the time, and now that hasn't happened.
39:45Life can change in a heartbeat.
39:48After that instance, you're like,
39:50when's the last time you're going to tell someone you love them?
39:52When, you know?
39:55So, never forget to say I love you.
39:58Just cherish life, you know?
40:01Cherish the things that matter.
40:03Don't worry about the things that don't.
40:06Hold on to the ones that you love a little tighter,
40:09because life is definitely precious,
40:10and it's a gift.
40:29People think if you're in a cabin community,
40:32everybody's friendly,
40:34but that's not the vibe of that area.
40:36This cabin was right out of a horror movie.
40:39It was a place where things happened.
40:42Bad things.
40:44There was a cabin,
40:46and inside were miserable living conditions.
40:49The question was,
40:51who died, and what was the manner of death?
40:54He stated that this intruder had broke into the cabin
40:59and attacked them both.
41:01It was the worst feeling,
41:03knowing that that's the last thing that she ever saw
41:06was inside that cabin.
41:08There was a chainsaw underneath the house.
41:11I've never seen so much blood.
41:13It's the most cold-blooded thing I've seen
41:15in 33 years of police work.
41:17He kept putting the gun on my face
41:19and asked me if I could feel it.
41:21She was not going to die there in the cabin.
41:24She was not going to let that be the end of her story.
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