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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And I have been dying to tell you this
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story. It is a story about a serial killer. Not one of the ones we've been asked to cover time and time again, like
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the ones who have gotten endless coverage as people pick apart their psyche and motivations. This is about
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someone I'd never heard of. Someone who police suspect of terrible things because somehow wherever this guy goes,
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tragedy follows. But they have never had enough to prove the things they so strongly suspect. So this man, either
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one of the unluckiest people I've ever heard of, or a coldblooded killer, is living among all of us. He could be our
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neighbor or the guy we pass at the grocery store, someone we know, someone our listeners know. But remember, crime
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junkie life rule number one, you never really know anyone ever, but it's my job to make sure you're well informed. So,
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buckle up, kiddos. This one's a doozy. I'm talking about the cases that have been linked to a man they call the
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Louiswis Clark Valley killer, and I'm going to talk about who police think that man actually is.
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I don't know what was in the water in the fall of 1982, but authorities in the Louiswis Clark Valley, where Washington
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and Idaho and Oregon all meet, they were underwater with cases. Between August 31st and September 19th, in this area
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where not much happens, four people had gone missing. It started with a 2-year-old little boy named Ricky
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Barnett who was visiting his grandparents farm in Graangeville, Idaho. And while workers were unloading
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a delivery of chickens, Ricky vanished into thin air. Almost 2 weeks later, on September 12th, two young women went
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missing while out running errands in Lewon, Idaho. 21-year-old Christina Nelson and her stepsister, 18-year-old
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Jacqueline Miller, who goes by Brandy. Then, just as the 12th of September turned into the 13th, before anyone even
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knew that Brandy and Christina were missing, 35-year-old Steven Parasol vanished after he was dropped off at the
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local civic theater in the same small town. So, by the 19th of September, when 18-year-old Jennifer Vincent and her car
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disappear somewhere between her boyfriend's dorm at Washington State University and her home in Spokane,
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Washington, people are panicked. Authorities, especially in the valley, are drowning. And that's not even
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speaking of the cold cases they've had looming over them for the last couple of years. The disappearance of a
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12-year-old girl in 79 and then the murder and dismemberment of a young woman who was found in ' 81.
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So, something is happening in this area. Captain M. Dwayne Taylor, chief of detectives for the Lewon PD, said in an
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article for the Spokane Chronicle that he had been on the force for 19 years and has never seen anything like this.
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The peace and illusion of safety that the Valley residents used to feel is shattered. Parents don't let their kids
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walk to school alone anymore. People are locking their doors at night. I mean, it's like they're being hunted by this
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faceless, nameless boogeyman. And that doesn't change after Jennifer Vincent is found. And there actually is an
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innocent, albeit scary reason for her disappearance. She had gotten into some kind of accident on her way home and she
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was found pinned in the wreckage of her car with a broken back and hypothermia. And that was nearly 4 days after she
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went missing. So at least for her case, like there's no connection seemingly to any of the other victims. And after she
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gets found, the local papers, who had been picking up all of the five most recent cases and like lumping them
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together, they let Jennifer's name fall off. Eventually, Ricky Barnett's name disappears, too. Though, I'm not really
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sure why, especially when I started digging, I found some reporting to suggest that he wasn't the only
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2-year-old boy to go missing in that area over a span of couple years. >> What? >> Dude, I don't know. The papers dropped
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all the reporting on those kids. like there's almost nothing. Don't worry, I'm not about to. Stay tuned. Like, I'm
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having our reporters dig in, so watch out someday. >> Yeah. But in putting Jennifer and
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Ricky's cases aside, this new theory began to emerge. Though police were adamant early to the press that all
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these cases were considered to be unrelated, it was hard to ignore the fact that
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three of these people who are still missing, the adults, all went missing on the same night from the same teeny tiny
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town. So tiny in fact that it turns out Steven Parasol actually lived just a few
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apartment buildings down from Christina Nelson. Christina actually held the part-time job as a janitor at the
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theater that Steven went missing from before Steven took that job over a year earlier and Christina and Steven went to
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the same college. >> So they knew each other then? >> Yeah. I mean they definitely would have
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at least been familiar >> like in the same circles, >> right? I like I don't get the sense that
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they were like close or hung out. But let me lay out for you the separate circumstances surrounding Christina and
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Bry's disappearance versus Stevens, so you can get a sense of what police are working with here. So, Christina's
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boyfriend, this guy Bill, called her at her apartment at around 8:30 p.m. on the
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night of September 12th. Now, he's planning to come over that night, so I'm sure they're just like coordinating or
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whatever. and she told him that her stepsister Brandy was going to be over in a little bit and that they were going
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to go to the local Safeway grocery store. Now, Bill ended up falling asleep, so he didn't make the trip to
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Christina's until the next morning. But when he got there, it had to feel a little like deja vu cuz on Christina's
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front door was a note written to him saying, quote, "Bill, walk down to the store with Brandy back in a few. Come on
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in and get comfy." Okay, Chris, he's in our hiding place. But even though the note was presumably left for him the day
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before, when Bill goes inside, Christina's not there. And it doesn't seem like he's worried. Probably just
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assumed that he'd missed her. He'd see her later. So after waiting, he had to leave to go to work. But when he came
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back that night, neither Christina nor Brandy were there. But the note that Christina left still was,
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>> which is a pretty big red flag. >> Yeah. But for some reason, alarm bells weren't ringing for Bill just yet
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because he didn't go out and like try and find her. And I'm not sure if this was normal for them to just kind of like
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be missing each other a lot or what. And in his defense, everything in the apartment indicated that she was
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planning on coming back when he got there the first time. Like she left a light on, her cat was still there, even
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her purse was sitting there. So, I think he's assuming that Christine is going to
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reappear. They could laugh about being like ships passing in the night and just like missing each other.
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>> Yeah. And at this point, it's not like the disappearances in the area have started piling up, right? Like not
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everyone's on high alert for this yet, >> right? So, I mean, like prior to Christina and Brandy going missing, you
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had a young kid who went missing 3 years before, then that woman who was found murdered the year before. Both of those
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very different cases. So, like they're not even being connected to each other, much less anything else at this point.
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And then, you know, we had the little boy Ricky who goes missing right before as well. But like,
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>> but it's so different, >> right? And I don't even know how much pickup his case got before anything
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started really like happening in like a short period of time. So, it's like not where Bill's mind jumps to right away
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that like something bad has happened. Mhm. >> Plus, in 1982, I I feel like and fair,
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like this is a totally made up stat, like 60% of trying to hang out with people was like missing them in real
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time and having to try and connect later when you got to your landline >> because like you you can't be in contact
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the way we are right now. >> So, so Bill decides, you know what, he's just going to stay at Christina so he
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doesn't miss her. But when he wakes up in the middle of the night on what is now the 14th and there's still no sign
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of his girlfriend, like this is when he realizes like something more is going on
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here. So he starts calling friends, family, anybody who might know where his girlfriend was. I'm sure he tried to get
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in touch with Brandy since the note mentioned her and she lived nearby, but he couldn't find her either. He even
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ends up going to check the Safeway, the grocery store where she was supposed to go to. nothing
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>> like they just weren't there at the time or they'd never even made it to begin
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with. >> I have all the questions since her purse was left behind. That makes me think
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that they never even made it to the store. >> But was her wallet in her purse or could
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she have just like taken some cash for the few things she needed, left everything else behind?
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>> Wallets were still there to be fair. Like you're I mean I guess she could have just taken some cash. Like I don't
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know exactly what they were getting. I don't know if they're going for just like, oh, we're just going to like grab
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a soda or if they're going for like a full-on grocery haul. So, yeah. Did she have money on her? Did she throw just a
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couple bucks in her pocket? >> I don't know. >> But at the Safeway, no one saw them
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there. >> No. Which like always makes me wonder if they made it there in the first place.
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>> And it's worth noting that the grocery store at the time it closed at 10:00. >> So, if they wanted to make it on time,
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they would have had to leave before then. And we know the last time Bill spoke to her was 8:30. She was still
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waiting on Brandy. So it's like a little bit of a tight timeline. >> Yeah. So between 8:30 and when Bill got
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there the following morning, like they're gone. >> Something happens, right? And I also
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haven't seen anything in the reporting about there being like fresh groceries or grocery bags or anything like that in
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the apartment. So, >> and there's no signs of foul play in the apartment? >> No, nothing. And just to go back to the
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note real quick, it was for sure written in Christina's handwriting. >> It was hers. Yes.
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>> Okay. >> So, we don't really know when they went missing, but we know for sure that they
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were gone by the morning or afternoon of the 14th. And not just because Bill like
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pops by then, he also, as he's like looking for them, contacts the restaurant where Christina works. And he
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finds out that she'd been a no- call no-show for her shift that day, too. >> And like that's like the final straw. He
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knows this is like bad bad and so from there he goes right to the police to report Christina and Brandy missing
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>> and does their family go with him? >> So they actually don't live in town but
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like when they find out everyone's just as worried as as Bill is. Like Christina
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in particular is one of those super responsible people who would never no call no show. So while Bill is the one
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who's like there and providing the boots on the ground presence in the early days
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of the investigation, the family is completely like in the background. >> Yeah. Giving that extra push. Now,
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police do take the report right away. And this is when they start retracing a lot of the steps that Bill took, right?
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They look at Christina's apartment. They try and retrace the paths that the women
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might have taken like to and from Safeway, but they cannot find a single person who saw them, who interacted with
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them, nothing. Just like poof, gone. And within a couple of hours of their last interaction with people or contact with
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people, all of a sudden, Steven Parasol vanishes, too. So, investigators learn that Steven's girlfriend dropped him off
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at the Lewon Civic Theater at around 6:30 p.m. on September 12th. Steven is very involved in this theater. He plays
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clarinet. He works on sets. He is the janitor. And I believe that he was even in a show or two. And so, when he's
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dropped off, he was either going to be like there practicing playing his clarinet or working on a set or
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something. Now, he does that. Everything's fine. His girlfriend picks him back up at 9:00 cuz they have to go
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to this going away party for another staff member of the theater. They're there for a couple of hours and then on
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what is now the 13th at like midnight, the girlfriend drops him back off at the theater. So, he's going to play his
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clarinet. He also has some laundry that he wants to do there, too. Now, a few people see his girlfriend drop him off.
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One was even a police officer. So, he is 100% back at that theater by midnight. but alone.
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>> So, there was apparently one other guy who'd been there that night, and he said
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he saw Steven before Steven had left at like 9:00 p.m. And then he says he fell asleep. And in fact, no one ever saw him
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leave the theater. And just like Christina and Brandy, he's never seen again. When Steven was eventually reported
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missing and police go and search his place, it was a lot like Christina's in that it looked like he would be right
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back. I mean, he left his car parked outside of his place. He left behind an uncashed paycheck for 179 bucks, which
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is like no chump change in 1982, >> especially if he were planning on leaving, which it's clear Steven didn't
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do. At least it's clear to those who knew him. Now, a search of the theater didn't turn up anything either other
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than finding Steven's clarinet in the orchestra pit. Like, there's nothing. Interestingly, too, like even his duffel
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bag that he brought that he was like going to do laundry or whatever. Like, that's gone.
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>> So, at this point, I mean, they have to be thinking that everything is connected, right? Or like others, it's
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this wild coincidence. >> Well, like wait, did Bill come under suspicion at all? Oh, I'm sure police
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looked at him briefly and and Brandy also had a boyfriend who like same thing. I mean, I think they probably
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looked at, but neither of them are considered suspects. Actually, the first real suspect they had in this case, and
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this goes to what you were saying about them being connected, the first real suspect was Steven Parasol. Oh, I know.
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Turn of events. I am popping on to start a conversation about a case. I cannot get it out of my
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head. A true mind bender. A huge twister your way. You gut check all your assumptions. Cuz this is a case that
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starts like so many before. >> Hi fry junkies. Now, I don't know exactly when police
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started to have suspicions about Steven possibly being more suspect than victim.
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I mean, they sure aren't saying anything like that in the early reporting that I'm able to pull on the case from like
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82 and 83. But everything changes in March of 84. That's when the decomposed, mostly
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skeletal remains of Christina and Brandy are found at the bottom of a hill about
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35 to 40 m outside of Lewon. >> Were they still doing searches for them? >> No, I actually don't know if they ever
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did formal searches. Like the way they end up getting found, it's truly a miracle. There was this kid who was out
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at like the top of this hill looking for cans and like the wind catches his baseball cap and he loses it and he goes
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down this hill to chase it. That is how they get found. >> Uh what are the odds of that happening?
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>> That is and that's what I was saying like different hill, different day, different time of day,
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>> different kid, different cap. I mean >> yeah like they might still be considered
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missing people but they're not right. Like so they're found on March 19th of 84. By March 27th, they've been
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positively identified as Christina and Brandy. And then boom, April 1st of 84, The Spokesman Review publishes an
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article saying that police are looking for the third missing person, 35-year-old Steven Parisol. Now, they
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don't call him a suspect, but it's clear to everyone who hadn't already picked up
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on police's suspicions by now that like like they're looking for him. You know what I mean?
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>> Yeah. But I guess my question is why? like what would his motive be? >> They don't have one. Like honestly, at
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this point, I think they just see the opportunity because I think one of the paths that the girls could have walked
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to get to Safeway actually went past the theater. So, you know, they're seeing this big tall older guy who has a
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military background going missing on the same night as these two young women. And
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I think they kind of just assume that he was responsible. Maybe maybe it wasn't planned, right? like maybe everything
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whatever happened something spiraled out of control and that's why Steven left with like literally just the clothes on
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his back and the ones in his laundry sack. But right away anyone who knows Steven was like absolutely no. They
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would tell you there is no way he could hurt anyone. Steven was like everyone's big brother at the theater. He was this
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gentle giant, always looking out for everybody, making sure that the theater was a safe haven for everyone involved.
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Plus, sweet Steven, they say that all you have to do is look at what was left behind to know that he is the victim of
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foul play, too. Because remember how his clarinet was found in the orchestra pit?
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Like, everyone's like, he loved that thing. Like, that thing was his baby. Like, if anything is telling you that
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your theory is wrong, like he would never leave that behind. So, his loved ones are frustrated because not only is
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their missing loved one getting wrongly painted as a suspect, but in doing so, they're afraid that like police and
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authorities aren't putting the same resources into solving this case because if he's the victim, if he succumb to
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foul play, but they're not considering that, like how are you taking the right steps?
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>> They're not just not considering that, they're considering that he is the suspect of foul play,
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>> right? And by the way, like even if you like, you know, go with their theory,
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like you didn't mean for something to happen or whatever, like if you're going to go on the run, like you think you'd
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at least take your car for a little bit and like cash the paycheck. You're going
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to need some money on the road. >> So, nothing points to Steven leaving willingly. Nothing points to him hurting
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Christina and Brandy. >> And going back to Christina and Brandy, were they able to determine how they
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died? >> Oh, yeah. So, I didn't get into that. The pathologist determined that they had
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been strangled and even though they didn't appear to have been bound in any way, beneath their bodies were these
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like lengths of something that early days they described as like clothesline cord. Now, they also found with the
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women like clothing, lip gloss, jewelry, and um there was a bra shoved into the mouth of one of the skulls.
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So motive for whoever did this seemed to be sexual or at least like had a sexual
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component to it. >> But because of all the time that had passed between when they went missing
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and then when they were found, I mean, the chances of them retrieving anything to prove that or point to their killer
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was like virtually zero in 1984. >> Nothing been to officially rule out Steven either.
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>> No, but honestly, they don't end up needing it for that reason. You see, a little perspective goes a long way in
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cases when investigators zoom out and take stock of everything. And when they do that in this case, they
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find reason to start sideeying someone else. So, remember that guy that was sleeping in the theater when Steven was
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there? >> Yes, I knew there was more to him. >> There's a lot more to him. So, his name
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is Lance Boss. And what are the odds that he not only shows up in this case, but also in one of those cold cases from
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the area, that one from 1979, where a 12-year-old girl went missing. What? Uh-huh. So, back on April 28th, 1979, in
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a soten, Washington, which is like just across the river from Lewon, 12-year-old
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Christina White goes to her friend Rose's house because the two were going to go to the fair that was in town
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together. Mom knows she made it to Rose's house because she actually walked her over there, like dropped Christina
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off with her bike and waved goodbye to her as she was at the front door. But a few hours later, so around 2:00 p.m.,
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Christina had called home and asked her mom to pick her up. She said she wasn't feeling well, which wasn't entirely out
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of the ordinary. I guess Christina had a habit of just not drinking enough water.
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She would get overheated pretty easily. >> Kids be kids. >> Yeah. But like her mom at the time was
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home with her little sister. She couldn't just like like pack up and leave at that moment. So she's like,
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"Okay, Christina, listen. Run a towel under some cold water. Put it on your forehead. Put it on your neck. Just try
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and cool off. And then when you're feeling a little bit better, like just come home. I'll keep an eye out for you.
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>> But she never came home. >> She never came home. >> Did she decide to just go to the fair
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instead of heading home? >> So you asked a complicated question. So the current investigator thinks no. But
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I don't know if anyone can be 100% certain without knowing where Christina is now. You know what I mean?
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>> Police reports from back then are minimal. I mean, there's a lot that has been lost to time, if it ever existed at
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all. Detective Jackie Nichols, who is on Christina's case today, told our team that there was like this turf war going
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on between the police department and the sheriff's department when it came to this case. And they were battling over
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who had jurisdiction. Even though, by the way, when Christina first went missing, it doesn't even feel
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like anyone was quick to jump on it. Like, they wrote her off as a runaway. They said because her mom was divorced.
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>> What? What does that have anything to do with Christina being a runaway? >> They're they're basically like, "Oh, you
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it must be a terrible home life because your mother is divorced, so you're going
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to leave." >> Okay. >> It's like complete be like, "Yeah, sign of the times." >> Okay, cool. Awesome. Great. Um, her
00:22:07
friend Rose, did did she like say what happened to her? Well, she wasn't there because when they talked to Rose, it
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turns out um so again, they were planning on going to the fair. >> Rose ended up leaving as planned when
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Christina wasn't feeling good. So, she like left, went to the fair. Christina is there at this house and when she
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left, she just assumed Christina was going to join her later or whatever. Now, Rose's little brother might have
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also been home while Christina was there, but it seems like police don't speak to him much. And like even today,
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he's never sat down for like a proper interview. >> Wait, why? >> Well, he was only 10 back then. So like
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at the time, I don't know if police didn't know if he'd be much help. I don't know if like
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>> they had this runaway theory. So like did they Right. Or did like, you know, parents come come in and say like, "No,
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you can't interview my 10-year-old. Like that's too traumatic." Again, like I don't have a lot of
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reports from back in the day to like reference like what they were even thinking at the time. To me, this is
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like I feel like he holds all the answers, but like if he's not talking, also, why is he not talking?
00:23:15
>> Mhm. >> And I know Detective Nichols wants to talk to him still like to this day. But
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she says she's waiting for the right time or like you know if you're out there like she like you're welcome to
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come forward. >> But all that to say, so little brother maybe home, maybe not. Rose is already
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at the fair. There was someone else who had very close ties to this household who could have come by. Like
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theoretically, we don't know if he was in the house that day. But guess who Rose's mom was dating?
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>> Lance Voss. >> Lance Voss. >> And what's his story around this? >> I don't know. Like without the reports,
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it's hard for me to tell what he said or even if he was asked at all about that day or his whereabouts. What I know is
00:24:02
Christina and her bike are never seen or heard from again. The only thing even connected to her that ever surfaced were
00:24:11
some school papers that were found on the outskirts of a farmer's field shortly after she disappeared. And when
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they get found, they were in pretty good condition. So, it looked like they'd only been out there maybe a day or two.
00:24:23
But Detective Nicholls is actually not sure if this find is even significant. And that's for a few reasons. I mean,
00:24:30
for one, it wasn't just Christina's papers. They're actually some from another friend. Two, the papers aren't
00:24:37
all in one place. Like, it doesn't feel like, you know, they were like staged there. They're sort of scattered almost
00:24:42
like they flew out of someone's car, like passing on a nearby road. So, Detective Nichols kind of wonders if
00:24:47
maybe, you know, some of Christina's this other friend's schoolwork was in like the friend's family's car. Somehow,
00:24:53
like it got mixed up, fell out, whatever. And we talked to a woman named Gloria. She is Christina Nelson's
00:24:59
cousin. So that's how this whole thing like got started for her. >> Okay. >> She has been deep in this case. I mean
00:25:05
like really along with Jackie Nichols, Gloria is the one who brought this back to life. And she says that the field
00:25:11
where those school papers were found is one that Rose and her mom kept their horses at. So all in all, Detective
00:25:18
Nichols doesn't think that those papers are like the key to cracking this case. And is there any direct connection
00:25:25
between Lance and this property? >> No. Um, but you can see that there is like a really strong connection between
00:25:32
Lance and Christina. And that's where I'm like, do the papers mean anything? I don't know. But like, you know, going
00:25:37
back to our scoped out, just like him being the last person who was in the same place as Steven before Steven
00:25:43
disappears. Lance is suspected by police to potentially be the last person in the
00:25:49
same place as Christina when she disappeared. And when you look at the other cold case that happened between
00:25:57
Christina and then the three from Lewon at the theater, there isn't a tight connection to Lance, but I don't know,
00:26:05
enough circumstantial things to make you go, "Huh?" So, the other case is that of
00:26:12
22-year-old Kristen David. On June 26th, 1981, Kristine goes missing while riding
00:26:17
her bike from her dorm at the university in Moscow, Idaho to her parents' house in none other than Lewon. Like
00:26:25
Christina, both she and her bike just poof, gone. But unlike Christina, Kristen gets found.
00:26:36
8 days later on the 4th of July, her body is found in pieces in the Snake River. Her body parts were wrapped in
00:26:45
newspaper and placed in black garbage bags. Now, she'd been in the water for some time, so finding forensic evidence
00:26:52
was pretty much a no-go. They don't know who took her. They don't know where she
00:26:57
was killed. They don't know much of anything. The only clues they had in her case were the newspaper that she was
00:27:04
actually like wrapped in. They were local papers from Lewon dated April of 1981.
00:27:11
and police got a couple of sightings of maybe a big brown van that was maybe stopped on the side of the road with her
00:27:19
and her bike, but they never figured out who the driver was, though. And this is
00:27:25
one of those very loose connections to Lance Foss. It's been speculated that maybe he had a Brown van at the time. I
00:27:33
guess he had a lot of vehicles, but we're saying brown van not officially confirmed. Though, what's more
00:27:40
interesting is that Lance's job took him specifically from the valley to Moscow,
00:27:47
which includes like the same route that Kristen would have taken on her bike the
00:27:51
day that she went missing. And Kristen had actually worked at the Lewon Civic Theater for at least a little while at
00:27:58
some point. So, she theoretically very well may have known Lance Foss, although we cannot 100% confirm that. So again,
00:28:05
let's scope out 30,000 foot view. In 1984, you have this witness who was with Steven right before Steven went missing.
00:28:14
Now you realize that his name has come up in other cold cases. Very suspicious. >> Yeah.
00:28:22
>> And listen, even early on, they recognized that his story about being at the theater always kind of stunk a
00:28:29
little bit. So, while police are still looking for Steven, right after Christina and Brandy are found, they
00:28:37
also bring this guy Lance back in for questioning. And the first time they talk to him, it was just as a witness.
00:28:45
This time it is as a suspect. And this time, his story gets even stranger. [Music]
00:28:55
Lance's story originally was that he was working with Steven on the set and he'd
00:29:00
left at around 9:30, which we know Steven left at 9:00, so fine, sure, could make sense. But then in another
00:29:06
like version of his story or events, he claimed to police that he'd spent more time at the theater that night. and that
00:29:12
at some point he'd been working up in this attic doing rigging or whatever for like the curtains or something and then
00:29:18
he accidentally fell through the ceiling which is possible because if you like go
00:29:22
up to the attic there are these like catwalks that you have to stay on otherwise the ceiling's just like
00:29:27
plaster I mean it would be easy to fall through. So, in this other version, he's
00:29:31
like, "Oh, I fell through this thing. Like, I'm not super hurt, but I just needed to lay down for a second." And I
00:29:36
ended up falling asleep until like 5:00 a.m. And he's like, "Oh, when I woke up,
00:29:41
I immediately was like, "Oh god, I got to get home because I never let my wife know that I was going to be staying
00:29:46
there." Oh, and by the way, he tells police like, "While I was like there and sleeping or whatever, I did hear the
00:29:53
phone ring at some point." Like, but I was like, you know, I think this is like when he was like dazed or half asleep or
00:29:58
whatever, but he's like, I didn't answer it. >> Convenient if his wife says she called
00:30:02
looking for him and he didn't pick up. >> Exactly. Anyways, he says that on his drive home as he's like going, he
00:30:09
realized, you know what? Like there's no point in rushing, my wife is probably already at work by this point, so never
00:30:14
mind. I'm going to go back to the theater. >> So, again, this is like the kind of
00:30:18
weird story he's told them before when he was a witness, >> and that was back in 1982. Fast forward
00:30:24
to now, 1984, and he gives a little more detail. So, he reiterates that he's working at the
00:30:31
theater, but then he says between 9 and 9:30, he leaves and he drives to this pizzeria called The Red Baron to have a
00:30:40
couple of beers and watch a movie. He says that the movie got out at 11:00, which is when he left the pizzeria and
00:30:46
went back to the theater. This is presumably when he fell through the ceiling. that whole rigging thing,
00:30:52
>> laid down, sleeps till 5:00 a.m., >> but he's still in all of this claiming that he never saw Steven back at the
00:31:00
theater, and oh no, I never saw the the missing women either, by the way. >> So, he's saying he's a he was aware
00:31:07
enough to like hear the phone ring, decide not to answer it, but don't worry, he definitely didn't interact
00:31:14
with the missing guy that we absolutely know was there at midnight. >> Okay. Yes. But it's even more bananas
00:31:20
than that because when they dig in, they realize that the couch that he says he's
00:31:26
like asleep on or half asleep on cuz he hears the phone, whatever, >> is right by the door that Steven would
00:31:33
have entered from, >> like when his girlfriend dropped him back off after the party. So suspicious.
00:31:39
But there are other parts of his story that don't line up either. Like he says he goes to this pizzeria, he leaves when
00:31:44
the movie's over at 11:00. When investigators actually check, they find out that the movie didn't get out at
00:31:49
11:00. It got out at midnight. And they find out that one of the paths that the women might have taken to get to
00:31:58
Safeway, right? We're talking about Christina and Brandy. There's a path that just so happens to cross right in
00:32:04
front of the Red Baron where he's now telling them he was. And to me, in the perfect time frame, right? Like we know
00:32:10
Christina is talking to her boyfriend Bill at 8:30. She's waiting for Brandy. We know that the Safeway closes at
00:32:16
10:00. >> So, she would have walked right by the Red Baron as he says he's sitting there,
00:32:22
>> right? So investigators can't help but wonder, could Lance have seen the girls
00:32:28
from inside the Red Baron, somehow lured them back to the theater, and then Steven walked in on something happening
00:32:35
and then maybe Steven was just like collateral damage, >> which is an interesting theory, but then
00:32:41
where is Steven? Like they found the girls >> and yeah, Steven was not with them. One
00:32:49
theory has always been that maybe he's still in the theater. Like when I did a Tik Tok on this case asking locals to
00:32:56
tell me like what have you been hearing? What I kept getting from people is that
00:33:00
there's this rumor that he is in the wall of the theater now. Were they telling police that at
00:33:06
the time? I don't know. I feel like if he was in the wall, he would have been found.
00:33:12
>> Like the theater is abandoned and condemned now, but it wasn't then. Like the smell alone I feel like would have
00:33:18
gotten some attention from people. >> Yeah. Did they ever search it? >> I don't know how much they were
00:33:24
searching for a body early on >> versus like evidence of a missing person and their last like interactions and
00:33:30
movements, >> right? And I know after Christina and Brandy were found, they were going to
00:33:34
the theater trying to find evidence of a crime scene. >> And I haven't told you this yet, not
00:33:40
just because of like the Lance connection and Steven or whatever. Like the theater makes sense, but I told you
00:33:46
there was like cord found under Christina and Brandy >> like Well, that cord looks an awful lot like
00:33:54
the rigging, specifically the type of rigging that Lance said he was working with at the theater that night. So,
00:34:02
everything in these three cases just like keeps coming back to the theater for them. So, I know that they conducted
00:34:08
lumininal testing in the basement by the back door, but they never got anything that they could work with because it
00:34:15
turns out that the theater walls were painted with lead based paint and like lead will apparently light up just like
00:34:21
blood under Luminyl, which I did not know. Fun crime junkie fact. So, unfortunately at the time, like they
00:34:28
can't say if anything happened there, but but no, they're not like taking down walls looking for a body either. But
00:34:32
when they're looking for evidence, I'm not sure I'd expect like blood at the crime scene if we know that the women
00:34:39
had been strangled, right? >> Yeah. But like we don't know what happened to Steven. So,
00:34:45
>> and you don't know if like No, they didn't have skull fractures as far as we know or anything like that, but you
00:34:48
don't know. >> There was like a laceration from like a defensive wound or something.
00:34:52
>> I think they're just looking for anything that can be helpful. >> Well, what would be helpful is finding
00:34:57
Steven. Like that. I feel like that would be like a huge puzzle piece in all this. Did they ever actually check the
00:35:03
walls or whatever? Like run down some of these local rumors that like you at least have heard.
00:35:08
>> Yeah. Would love to know if they checked the walls. Like there's nothing in it in
00:35:13
the police documents. But like I said, I know the theater was condemned and it recently just got purchased with plans
00:35:19
to turn it into a senior center. So with those renovations, any evidence there is
00:35:26
soon going to be lost. >> Mhm. But also, I don't know, and maybe I'm just being like too optimistic, but
00:35:32
I'm like, "Oh, also does this mean like as we're tearing it down, if we're careful enough, can something be found?
00:35:37
>> To find evidence, >> right?" But not finding Steven, I think, is one of the biggest hang-ups in this
00:35:43
case. Because I think prosecutors are like, "Well, a defense is going to have a field day with this, right? Because
00:35:49
until you can prove like with a body that he's a victim, I think a defense attorney is going to paint him as an
00:35:54
alternate suspect. It's just not a slam dunk. Even with how suspicious Lance looks to police, like after that second
00:36:02
interview where it was clear they were suspicious of him, he lawyers up, refuses a polygraph, stops cooperating.
00:36:09
I I I get that this is not like a slam dunk case, but going back to your like zoom out 30,000 foot view, I mean,
00:36:18
there's something going on here. >> Yeah. And I mean, if you think that now, just wait because I haven't even told
00:36:25
you what Lance's history was before the crimes in the Louiswis Clark Valley started happening.
00:36:34
[Music] Lance moved around a bit before he settled in the valley. He grew up in Chicago. He was out in California for a
00:36:41
little bit. Like, dude kind of bounced around. And that is something that Gloria has really dug into. She traced
00:36:48
Lance's location over the years and cross-referenced other homicides or suspicious deaths in those areas. And
00:36:55
she found a few that, like you said, Brett, feel like a little more than a coincidence to me. First was the
00:37:03
unsolved murder of Diane Taylor in Chicago. Diane was 8 years old when she went missing on August 1st, 1963 while
00:37:11
heading home from the YMCA. Her body gets found 2 days later. She's been brutally beaten, sexually assaulted, and
00:37:18
stabbed. Now, while researching Diane's case, Gloria found that a 15-year-old Lance Voss was her YMCA camp counselor
00:37:27
and lived in the same neighborhood as Diane. What's wild is I'm not even sure if he was interviewed at the time. Now,
00:37:34
our team tried reaching out to Chicago PD to see where the investigation stands today because Detective Nichols told us
00:37:41
that they were really interested when Gloria brought this to them. But when we reached out to Chicago investigators,
00:37:47
they would not talk to us. So, I'm not sure if they have any evidence to test. I don't know if they've tried talking to
00:37:53
Lance about this. Like, I truly know nothing about where things stand in that case today. But, it's odd, right?
00:38:00
>> Yeah. >> So, that's Chicago 1963. Fast forward to June 1972. Lance is now 24 years old and living in
00:38:09
California. 17-year-old Antwanet Anino is found in the early morning hours floating in the
00:38:16
water near the shore of Santa Cruz. Police quickly rule her death a suicide by drowning because they found out that
00:38:23
the night before she and her boyfriend, her brother, and her brother's girlfriend were like all out on the
00:38:28
boardwalk together when she and her boyfriend get in this argument. The two of them like leave their friends to go
00:38:33
sit on the beach and talk about it, but apparently she was really upset. So her boyfriend got up, left her alone,
00:38:38
telling her, "Listen, you can like come join us again when you're calmed down." Now they don't see her again, and when
00:38:44
police hear this, they're like, "Oh, she must have been so upset that she threw herself into the ocean to drown." Even
00:38:51
though she was found nude and all of her clothes were missing, never found. >> I'm sorry, what?
00:38:57
>> I know. Now, here's where it gets freaking weird. >> Weirder than this? >> Weirder than this. Her body was taken to
00:39:04
Willow Glenn Mortuary in San Jose. Later that same night, Lance Voss gets caught
00:39:12
breaking into this mortuary with a flashlight, with a hunting knife, and with a camera. According to the owner's
00:39:20
daughter-in-law of the mortuary, Lance gets caught and he tries to explain this whole thing away. He's like, "Oh, I'm
00:39:27
just trying to get in to see my girlfriend one last time." And was Lance the boyfriend that she had been arguing
00:39:34
with? >> No, he wasn't her boyfriend. And you can't even say that like it was another
00:39:39
>> Was there someone else there? >> Antonet's body was the only one in the mortuary at the time. So he gets charged
00:39:48
with attempted burglary which ended up being reduced to a misdemeanor at the time. And again, like nobody's connected
00:39:55
him to a Chicago thing. This seems like the only thing that has happened. So, like I understand how maybe it got like
00:40:02
pled down or whatever. First time off. A freaking weird first time offense. When
00:40:06
we talk about like paying attention to things that people are doing, breaking into a mortuary with a camera, a
00:40:10
flashlight, and a knife, >> that feels like different than attempted burglary to me, but what do I know?
00:40:15
>> We should again, we need to be paying attention. All the red flags. >> So, there's that.
00:40:21
>> Yeah. Then the last case that came up in Gloria's digging is the death of 25-year-old Clawudette Vololiva in Lewon
00:40:29
on July 27th, 1987. Claudet was also involved with the Civic Theater, according to people who knew her. And
00:40:37
despite Lance being married, the two were having an affair. According to one of Lance's friends, the day of her
00:40:44
death, he had walked into her apartment and found her body after what was eventually ruled a suicide. Now, I'll
00:40:52
say upfront, like from everything I've seen, it doesn't seem like anyone questions the validity at this current
00:40:59
time. Like, everyone seems to believe it really was a suicide. He's just connected to her. They were having an
00:41:05
affair. >> But it's just so weird, >> right? I mean, this is what you have, right? Like the thing about this case
00:41:12
that hooked me from the beginning is I think it's one of the first instances that I've come across where everyone
00:41:18
connected. They seem to think that there is a serial killer at work. They seem to
00:41:23
think that they know exactly who it is, where he is, but the public at large knows nothing about it.
00:41:30
>> Yeah. >> And there is this guy out there living his life and people who come in contact
00:41:36
with him may never know the things that he has been connected to. coincidentally
00:41:40
or not. And so much time has passed, so surely there's got to be something in one of those cases that could connect
00:41:50
them to a killer, the killer. Listen, they've been trying. Detective Nichols has done physical searches over the
00:41:57
years looking for victims. I mean, she actually even trained her own cadaavver dog to conduct searches for Christina's
00:42:03
remains because her department didn't have the funds to pay for a dog search. And listen, I'll tell you that like not
00:42:08
all of the searches she's done have been directly related to Lance. Like she's looked at other people, other places,
00:42:14
whatever. But a good number of them have been connected to him. Because by the way, dude owned slash owns currently
00:42:22
like a few homes and pieces of property around the valley, including, and I think this is important, a home that was
00:42:32
right between Christina's house and Rose's house at the time Christina went missing. And that house was vacant at
00:42:39
the time Christina White disappeared. But even when she looked at that place and all the other places she's looked
00:42:45
at, Detective Nichols, she's turned up nothing. What she has gotten over the years, what our reporter got as she was
00:42:53
interviewing people for this episode, what I've gotten in my DMs are stories upon stories from locals who have
00:43:01
personally had creepy or just downright terrifying experiences with Lance. And I'm not going to go over all of them,
00:43:08
but the one that I can't stop thinking about is described by Detective Nichols in an episode of Cold Valley called
00:43:15
Person of Interest. So, I'll set it up for you. This woman, she's looking to buy a house, and one of the homes that
00:43:22
she was looking at was owned and being sold by none other than Lance Voss. So, he's giving her this tour, and
00:43:29
throughout it, he's like hyping up the basement. Like, I've done all this work down there. You really got to see the
00:43:35
basement. You got to go down to the basement. like the highlight of the home. >> So eventually she's like, "Yeah, okay.
00:43:39
Well, you know, I've seen the house. Let's go down to the basement." >> She started towards the stairs first
00:43:44
with like him following behind, but before they actually got to the stairs. She like turned around to tell him
00:43:50
something. And when she turned around, she says that his like arm was up and he like put it down really fast and sort of
00:43:56
like hid something behind his back. And she asked him, she's like, "What? Like what are you holding?" And eventually he
00:44:03
pulls something out. Okay, there's something in his hand. And it is a final, which is basically like this like
00:44:09
decorative like top of a bed post. >> And when did this happen? >> I believe this was after all of the
00:44:16
murder/ disappearances that we've talked about. But this thing like freaked her out because she felt like he was going
00:44:22
to hit her with it. And to add to the weirdness, he started asking her questions like, "Does anyone know you're
00:44:27
here?" Which like thankfully lots of people knew she was. Or she at least like said like, "Everyone in my life
00:44:33
knows I'm here." Like that's what I would be doing. I be like, "I'm leaving. Everyone knows I'm here.
00:44:37
>> Everyone I know, they know address. They know I'm leaving." Yeah. >> And then like but as soon as he knows
00:44:42
that, he's like doesn't seem interested in showing her the basement as well. >> JK basement's not a big deal.
00:44:46
>> Mhm. Now, according to our reporting, Lance moved to the East Coast in 1999 and is still there today. We did try
00:44:54
getting in contact with him for this episode, but he did not call us back. So, listen. If you have your own story
00:45:01
or knows anything, something whatever, Detective Jackie Nichols wants to talk to you. No tip is too small. She is
00:45:09
technically only the lead on Christina's case because of jurisdiction stuff. So,
00:45:13
that's probably the one she has spent the most time with, but it is almost impossible to look at just one case
00:45:19
without looking at the others. So, she has fully read up on all five cases. and she is unofficially taken over
00:45:25
Christina, Brandy, and Steven's cases, too, who most people now call the Civic Theater 3. And right now, she's looking
00:45:33
into anything that can be tested for DNA, like the ropes from Christina Nelson and Bry's bodies, like underneath
00:45:39
them. And it's worth saying again, it's not just about Lance. Like, she's also actively looking into serial killers who
00:45:46
were operating at the time. She's trying to rule people in and out based on where
00:45:51
they were, their MO, whatever. >> Does she unofficially have Kristen David's case, too?
00:45:57
>> She does not. The FBI has jurisdiction there. >> Oh, Kristen has always been the outlier.
00:46:05
And even though I think she'll forever be tied and like lumped in with this group in the Louiswis Clark Valley just
00:46:11
due to proximity and local lore, most if not all investigators actually believe that she was not killed by the same
00:46:20
person who killed all the others. Mostly because the MMO is just so different. >> Well, yeah. And she was dismembered,
00:46:29
right? Like that's like a whole different ballgame. am dismembered by somebody who knew what they were doing.
00:46:37
>> Someone authorities believe probably did it before. I told listeners at the top
00:46:42
like this was one of the first stories I'd come across where there was a serial killer the you know public didn't
00:46:48
necessarily know about but it was not the last. And actually I've been tracking another man who may be
00:46:55
responsible for the murder and dismemberment of women across the country. and Kristen David could very
00:47:02
well be one of his victims. And listen, I'm not ready to like completely lay that story out yet. Me and a bunch of
00:47:10
the reporters are working on this. We still have a ton of investigating to do, but I do want to give everyone a peak
00:47:19
into the investigation because the number one thing I'm looking for right now are similar cases. Like, you know,
00:47:25
they won't let me into Vap. I keep trying like whatever. So, what I need is our millions of listeners to tell me if
00:47:32
there are cases local to them that match this same mo. So, with that, what I'm going to say is do not miss next week's
00:47:41
episode. Set your watches or join the Crime Junkie fan club. You can listen to it early. I'll let you listen to it
00:47:47
right now. I'm going to drop it at the same time. I'll have a link to sign up in the show notes. But in next week's
00:47:53
episode, I'm going to dive deep into Kristen David's case and bring people in on what is for us kind of an active
00:48:00
investigation. So, I'm not giving up. Detective Nichols isn't giving up either. But she recognizes that she is
00:48:08
not going to be able to solve these cases without the help of the public. Her hope is that someone who may have
00:48:15
been too scared to come forward back then will feel comfortable doing so now. And that's exactly why coverage of these
00:48:22
cases are so important. And thankfully, we're not the only ones. The Snake River
00:48:27
Killer podcast has also done a deep dive into these cases. But the more we talk about them, we create more of an
00:48:34
opportunity for someone who knows something to hear it and to come forward. So, if you have any information
00:48:40
about the disappearances of Christina White and Steven Parasol or the murders of Brandy Miller and Christina Nelson or
00:48:47
even Kristen David, you can contact the Aotan County Sheriff's Department. We're
00:48:52
going to have all of that contact information in the show notes. You can find all the source material for this
00:48:57
episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. >> And you can follow us on Instagram at
00:49:02
crimejunkkeyodcast. >> We're going to be back next week with a brand new episode. But don't forget, if
00:49:08
you want to listen to Kristen David's episode right now, I'm dropping it early in the Crime Junkie fan club. Go to
00:49:13
crime junkie podcast.com/fanclub. [Music]