00:00:02
Who are you? Stop right there. Go ahead and stop right there. This side of Homestead officer is
00:00:08
pointing his flashlight at 70-year-old Alan Bruce. He has no idea that the man he just ran into was in the middle of
00:00:17
dumping human body parts in a nearby river after murdering, dismembering, and meticulously covering up the crime
00:00:24
scene. Okay, so what do you what are you doing? There's a problem going on down here. I'm watching the [music] victory
00:00:31
of that guy. All right, so you're just trying to keep an eye on stuff then. >> Yeah, excuse me for if I got you
00:00:35
excited. All right. After Alan walks away, it would take investigators days to discover exactly
00:00:43
what he dumped in the river, leading them through a twisted maze of misleading clues and disturbing
00:00:49
discoveries. And what might be the worst crime these small-town officers will ever uncover.
00:00:58
Oh, it stinks bad. You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your
00:01:04
family. >> Where is my wife? Now news has reduced down to nothing. It's a routine late spring in central
00:01:15
Idaho. Tucked deep within its mountains sits the remote town of Challis, a place
00:01:21
surrounded on all sides by rugged terrain and long stretches of wilderness. And at the center of it all
00:01:27
runs the Salmon River, better known as the River of No Return. The small town of Challis is home to fewer than a
00:01:36
thousand residents. Crime rates here are remarkably low, and serious violent homicides are unheard of. But that's
00:01:44
about to change because a heinous crime happened somewhere in this town, and what's left of it now is in the Salmon
00:01:51
River waiting to be found. The investigation [music] begins on an early Saturday afternoon
00:02:01
less than a year ago when an elderly woman walks into the local police station to report someone missing. All
00:02:07
means that said, I'm just worried he hasn't [music] been back to see. That's why I'm concerned. Yeah. Do you know
00:02:13
what he was wearing last when he left? [music] >> Pair of boots, blue jeans, and I think
00:02:17
it was a dark T-shirt and baseball cap. And he's got a little pug, Ryder, that is with him everywhere. Who is Patrick
00:02:25
to you? >> He's one of my dear kids that I've taken under my wing. Okay, so not biological.
00:02:31
Okay. This picture. Um, yeah, picture, okay. Is that Does this picture [music] look
00:02:40
resemble what he looks like right now? Um, his beard is a little fuller, and his hair is better shape than that.
00:02:47
The man in those photos is 47-year-old Patrick Shelton. His adoptive mother, Helen, goes on to explain that Patrick
00:02:55
spends most of his time up in the mountains cutting and selling firewood, often late at night. He's got a
00:03:01
chainsaw, usually at least one weapon on him, and his dog, Ryder, is always by his side. In most missing person cases,
00:03:09
it takes days before investigators get a solid lead to work with. But in the town
00:03:14
of Challis, that process is about to be cut short. I remember you mentioned something about when when you talked
00:03:20
about him going to Alan Bruce's, it seemed like you said something to where they had some conflict recently.
00:03:27
They have? Yeah. Okay. Do you know why he went there? Um, he was [music] supposed to go move his motor homes. And
00:03:33
when he got out there, Alan had moved them with a bulldozer. Okay. Not good. Probably screwed up the transmissions,
00:03:39
and I don't know. The name Helen mentions immediately rings a bell because officers know
00:03:45
exactly who she's talking about. 70-year-old Alan Bruce is a local resident with a rural property just out
00:03:52
of town, working odd jobs including welding and mechanical work. But that's not what people in Challis know him for
00:03:59
because Alan has a different reputation built on constant disputes and ongoing conflicts with other locals. Just
00:04:06
earlier in the year, he was reported for allegedly throwing gas bombs and setting
00:04:10
a woman's property on fire. So based on Helen's statement, officers prepare to head out and speak with Alan, see if he
00:04:17
can point them in the right direction. At this point, officers aren't too surprised that Alan's name came up and
00:04:23
don't expect anything serious. In reality, something already happened between Alan and Patrick just a night
00:04:30
ago that [music] ended very gruesomely. While officers are on their way to question him, Alan is still in the
00:04:40
middle of covering things up. In just a few seconds, a deputy pulls up to his property. Hey, Alan.
00:04:48
How's it going? Oh, one thing after another. One thing after another? Hey, um, I was just
00:04:53
coming to chat with you. We had had a report that no one knows where Pat is right now.
00:04:58
Yeah, they don't. Okay. Uh, I just wanted to touch bases with you cuz I know he was getting he or sorry, you got
00:05:04
the stuff off your property, but he was going to come by to pick it up, right? >> Yeah. Did you ever see him on that?
00:05:09
>> Okay. He came by here. He was unhappy, very unhappy. Okay, but just it it was just all kind
00:05:15
of verbal argument or something, or he was just Okay. And he went and got his stuff then, or
00:05:20
>> Well, he's still got some stuff here. >> [music] >> He said he was wanting to go cut some
00:05:23
wood. He needs some money. So he's probably out somewhere out there where he broke down, and I don't know. I I'm
00:05:28
just trying to create a timeline for so I know who last saw him. So when when was that he showed up here?
00:05:35
Two nights ago. Two nights ago? >> Two nights ago. Let's see. What is that? Thursday night, okay. In the middle of
00:05:41
the conversation, the deputy notices something off about Alan's demeanor. His responses are short, controlled, almost
00:05:50
rehearsed. But as the deputy continues asking questions, things start to feel even more strange. And then, did he hang
00:05:58
around here long, or did he just go right over? >> Back and forth. Back and forth? Coming
00:06:02
back onto the property? Yeah. Does he still have stuff here then? >> He did it all the time. Okay. Like that
00:06:07
shed, that wooden shed this here. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. >> The tires in it. I don't know if you can
00:06:12
see there's a pickup rack just over there. Over that board. Oh, just the steel there poking up. Okay. Okay. So he
00:06:21
wooden rack over there on the back of the tracker like that. >> This Okay, kind of bunch of crap laying
00:06:26
around. Okay. Did So he got some of it though? Yeah. Do you know where he was taking it to? Taking it down to his
00:06:32
motor homes. Oh, where is motor homes? Right here. You know, walk over [music] here and
00:06:36
>> Okay. Oh, there? There's just a ramp charger, and the other one's in front. The motor home Alan is pointing [music]
00:06:46
to does indeed belong to Patrick. But more importantly, it holds items that might explain what really happened to
00:06:52
him. Alan goes on to explain that he moved Patrick's motor homes himself because of the ongoing disputes and
00:06:58
problems between the two, which sounds normal considering they're frequent business partners. But as the
00:07:04
conversation continues, the deputy takes note of Alan's shifting body language and quietly requests another officer to
00:07:11
the scene. [music] There's a noticeable tension in the way Alan carries himself.
00:07:16
This is because while he's speaking to the deputy, his sole focus is on the barrels sitting just a few feet away
00:07:23
with Patrick's dismembered body parts hidden inside. Are you driving along with me?
00:07:31
I was just on a phone call for a minute, so I didn't want to bring that out here,
00:07:34
so So did he stay here last night, or Okay. >> Okay. And he didn't tell you where he
00:07:40
was going to get the wood? >> Hold on. It was Thursday night he left here, not last night. Okay. You know,
00:07:47
does he have any favorite spots so we can just go and check on him? >> here, Bayhorse, pretty close to the top.
00:07:52
You go up there before you get to the rest area. The path is You see where it takes off and goes down
00:07:57
the hill and crosses the creek. Uh-huh. Where he's got up in there is a favorite wood cutting spot for him.
00:08:03
Okay. Okay. Is that the only one you know about? >> It's the only one he took me to. Okay.
00:08:08
You may be the last person that saw him cuz he would have then gone up there that night potentially?
00:08:12
>> Yeah. Okay. Notably, Alan's demeanor shifts once again. With a second officer on scene,
00:08:19
he becomes more composed and careful with how he answers questions. Despite [music] this noticeable shift, Alan
00:08:25
provides deputies with something useful, a location where Patrick might be. The place he mentions is a remote area about
00:08:32
20 miles out near the so-called River of No Return. Naturally, it's somewhere deputies need to check. But before
00:08:40
heading out there, they decide to take a quick look around the motor home Alan pointed to earlier. A small decision
00:08:46
that will give police something useful to work with later on. The doors are ratchet strapped closed.
00:09:05
Looks like it's cut. Look, are these new footprints? No. Maybe Alan take a photo of those.
00:09:18
Yeah, that one looks open. That looks I think it looks cut. If that is a deadbolt, but you know,
00:09:25
that's an additional I'm assuming Alan had to access it to put it in neutral. Technically, you
00:09:31
could be looking at unlawful entry. Clearly, the locks have been tampered with, consistent with Alan's explanation
00:09:38
that he moved the motor home himself. It's a small detail, but one that could give officers grounds to detain him
00:09:45
later on depending on how this unfolds. But without a warrant, officers can't search inside the motor home. So they
00:09:51
step back, leave the scene, and head towards Big Hill [music] where Patrick might be. At this stage, there is still
00:09:57
no confirmed crime. Alan has been forthcoming and nothing directly points to anything serious just yet. But by the
00:10:04
end of this night, police will have more than one suspect on their hands and what
00:10:09
might be the worst crime this town will ever see. But before we get to that, it's
00:10:15
important to note that cases like these can affect the mental health of both the
00:10:19
officers and the innocent people involved. And stressful situations in everyone's life can often have the same
00:10:25
effect. [music] I hit a point where trying to move on wasn't working and I didn't really have anyone I could talk
00:10:30
to without feeling like I was a burden or worrying about how they'd react or what they'd think. And that's when I
00:10:36
realized having someone completely outside your life who can give you a clear, unbiased perspective actually
00:10:42
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00:11:03
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00:11:14
[music] to get 10% off your first month. With that said, let's get back to the video.
00:11:24
Roughly 2 hours later, deputies arrive at Big Hill where Patrick was known to frequent for cutting firewood. On the
00:11:31
ground, deputies notice tire marks and begin following them. And as they continue along the trail, they spot
00:11:36
something in the distance, a red pickup truck matching the description of Patrick's vehicle with a damaged
00:11:43
windshield. Pat, hello. His windshield is cracked. Yeah. I think that's normal. I believe so.
00:11:55
Hey, Pat. Pat. Pat, it's Kootenai County Sheriff's Office. Can you hear us? Dog's in the seat.
00:12:08
Alive? What was the dog's name? Uh Ryder. Ryder, buddy. Ryder. Is he awake? No, he's not he's not
00:12:17
moving. Dog's been in here a while. He's messed himself. Oh. He's moving. It's definitely a he, by the way. Hey,
00:12:26
baby. You'll be okay. We're going to get you some water, okay? Where did he go? Where did he go?
00:12:40
Miraculously, Patrick's dog Ryder is still alive after two full days, but he's severely dehydrated. As deputies
00:12:48
pull Ryder from the vehicle and give him water, they notice something else. Patrick's chainsaw is missing from the
00:12:54
truck, suggesting he might still be somewhere nearby. And while they discuss their next steps, Ryder suddenly begins
00:13:02
reacting to something in the air. Dogs like Ryder have a sense of smell up to 100,000 times more powerful than humans,
00:13:10
comparable even to trained police canine units. Without realizing it, officers have stumbled onto their strongest lead
00:13:17
yet, and Ryder might guide them directly towards the answer they're looking for.
00:13:22
Poor buddy. What's up? What's that? >> No. Okay. So, that makes me think he could be
00:13:31
down lower if he would cuz he's his chainsaw's not here. >> Yeah. He always has his chainsaw. I'm thinking
00:13:38
so. I'll go with you. I kind of want to walk down there and see if his behavior still points that
00:13:43
way. >> Right. Let's walk him. Come on. Dude, you got to give me a break. >> [sighs]
00:14:04
>> We can't go down that. That is a completely down. That is There is no angle to that.
00:14:10
Am I arguing with a dog? As luck would have it, the dog picks up a scent but can't pinpoint a specific
00:14:16
location. The reason for that is something officers haven't realized yet because there is no single place where
00:14:23
Patrick might be. He's already been dead for two nights, dismembered with his own
00:14:28
chainsaw and scattered across the very mountains deputies are now searching. Some of his remains are already floating
00:14:36
down the river of no return just 20 miles from where they're standing. None of this is apparent to deputies
00:14:43
yet, so they decide to take a closer look at Patrick's pickup truck for any additional clues. What they notice
00:14:49
inside is very sketchy. [music] Dark red staining across the interior, heavily soaked towels on the driver's
00:14:56
seat, items marked with blood, and a discarded mail letter with the name Alan Bruce on it. Something violent happened
00:15:04
here, and the more deputies think about it, the more obvious what happened to Patrick [music] becomes. So, before the
00:15:11
evening ends, they secure the scene and return to town where they talk to other acquaintances of Patrick who
00:15:16
collectively make one thing crystal clear. Alan had an ongoing feud with Patrick. He recently moved his motor
00:15:23
home using heavy equipment and damaged it in the process. And he's the only person anyone can think of who might
00:15:30
want to hurt Patrick. With that in mind, investigators formally identify Alan Bruce [music] as the primary suspect in
00:15:38
Patrick Shelton's disappearance. But the reality and discoveries awaiting investigators in the coming hours are
00:15:44
anything but straightforward [music] as they'll soon find themselves investigating more than one suspect. For
00:15:49
the time being though, search warrants are requested for both properties [music] and Idaho State Police are
00:15:55
called in, bringing in a team of experienced detectives. However, as the multi-agency effort is underway, someone
00:16:02
in town is simultaneously running their own homicide cover-up operation. As night falls, Alan moves quietly,
00:16:11
continuing to dump body parts and evidence in the river and burning anything that could tie him to what he's
00:16:17
done. At the same time, police and search and rescue units are mobilized, preparing to comb through the
00:16:24
surrounding terrain for any sign of Patrick. Around midnight, Deputy Mike is sent to patrol near Patrick's truck,
00:16:31
monitoring the area in case anything changes. A few hours into his shift, something does.
00:16:48
Who are you? Stop right there. Just go ahead and stop right there. So, what are you coming out here for?
00:16:58
That guy there shooting Pat uh Patrick Shelton. That's his stuff. I kind of looking after a little bit.
00:17:07
Okay. Car down here like I come down here to investigate. You saw what was going on.
00:17:12
Okay. I didn't know it was you guys. Okay. Well, I turned my lights on and uh you still were shining your light at me.
00:17:20
>> Yeah, you had your lights on me. I couldn't see where I was going. Okay, I'm saying I turned my red and
00:17:26
blue lights on. Yeah. And you were still spotlighting me. And then I told you I instructed you to turn it off.
00:17:32
I don't like lights in my eyes about as much as you don't. You know, you had yours in my eyes, so I got worried. No,
00:17:37
it's not even. Okay. So, what are you What are you doing? You're just keeping an eye on
00:17:43
this Patrick Shelton. Okay. That person has a problem going on down here, and I just wanted to make sure he
00:17:50
wasn't hurting [music] that guy. He's having a little what problem? Theivery. What
00:17:55
>> Theivery. Theivery, okay. >> Ask Doc Houston Kelly about that. He'll tell you. Okay. All right, so you're
00:18:01
just trying to keep an eye on stuff then. >> Yeah, they show nobody's ripping off down here.
00:18:06
Okay. Excuse me for if I got you excited. All right. 270, 240, we can calm down on code four.
00:18:20
Out here in complete darkness, Alan Bruce suddenly appears. Nothing about this encounter adds up because at this
00:18:28
point, Alan isn't just the last person to see Patrick alive, he's been in a dispute with him, moved his motor home
00:18:34
after he disappeared, and now he's out here in the middle of the night claiming he's checking on Patrick's property and
00:18:40
protecting it from theft. In reality, he came here to finish what he started, to
00:18:45
[music] destroy evidence he didn't have time to deal with earlier when deputies interrupted him. Worse yet, just minutes
00:18:51
ago, he was at the River of No Return a couple miles away disposing of what was left of Patrick.
00:18:58
>> [music] >> Deputy Mike doesn't know any of this yet, but this creepy encounter makes it
00:19:02
clear that Alan knows something police don't. Unfortunately for him, this is where things begin to crumble [music]
00:19:08
because coming back here tonight is the mistake that's about to collapse his entire cover-up [music] operation.
00:19:20
In the early hours of the following morning, investigators use the overnight developments and the encounter with Alan
00:19:26
to accelerate the approval of search warrants. With everything they've seen so far, it's clear Alan knows something
00:19:32
they don't, [music] and they need to find out what that is. To do that, they put a plan in motion. First, get Alan
00:19:39
off the property, search it, and if any hard evidence is found, bring him back [music] and confront him with it. So,
00:19:45
while detectives get the search warrants approved, one deputy is sent to Alan's property with a simple objective, get
00:19:51
Alan into the car and keep him away from the property [music] to avoid destruction of any evidence. Allen, on
00:19:57
the other hand, believes he's already taken care of all the incriminating evidence and that there's nothing left
00:20:03
to find. When Deputy Kelly arrives at the lot, Allen has no clue how quickly his entire cover-up plot will come
00:20:10
crashing down on him. Hey Allen. How's it going? Hopefully your day's a little better
00:20:19
than when I last ran into you. You said everything was Well, your truck's still broken down, I
00:20:23
guess, so maybe that's not the case. All right. You can just hop in the front there.
00:20:32
I'm hoping he turns up. He's got no business. Yeah, there's He's still got stuff on
00:20:37
your property to get off, too, huh? So, I mean, y'all were getting along for a while there, but then what I mean,
00:20:43
what happened there even? He just started accusing you of stuff or Yeah. And there's nothing I could say to
00:20:49
convince him. That was Well, I appreciate you being available to just chat with them a bit
00:20:54
more there. They're the professionals. They've got They've got questions I probably didn't ask you.
00:21:00
>> [laughter] >> Okay. Even as the deputy tries to subtly probe for more information, nothing useful
00:21:05
comes out of it and Allen sticks to his story. Interestingly though, Allen appears noticeably more relaxed, likely
00:21:13
because he's confident that there's no way police can tie him to a crime. Roughly 30 minutes later, deputies and
00:21:20
detectives arrive at the property. While Allen waits inside his car, the discovery of the evidence he failed to
00:21:26
cover up starts with Patrick's motor home. >> [snorts] >> Sheriff's office. Make yourself known.
00:21:56
What this is. It's a gun case. Patrick's empty gun box is consistent with earlier statements that he always
00:22:14
keeps a firearm with him. The problem is, that gun is nowhere to be found in the motor home and it was never found in
00:22:21
his pickup truck the previous day. With Patrick's motor home cleared, officers move over to Allen's property. Allen
00:22:28
owns multiple structures and vehicles on the lot and after clearing a few of them, deputies find no obvious signs of
00:22:34
a crime. It seems like Allen's cover-up operation is successful so far, but that
00:22:39
begins to change as deputies notice something unusual lingering across parts of the property.
00:22:49
Something smells like Oh, it stinks bad. So, we're going to We're just going to hold on on this trailer
00:22:57
till we can get keys. If we if he won't give us keys, then we'll go from there, but we're going to We need to hold on
00:23:03
this until we get that. It's probably not freshly moved. Do we want to call out the cadaver dog?
00:23:11
Let's go ahead and do it while we're here. We've got it cleared. It might be the best way
00:23:15
to get something to hold him. As the search continues, deputies can smell an odor of burnt meat across parts
00:23:23
of the lot, but no clear source. After checking around the structures again and searching the open areas, they can't
00:23:30
find anything. So, to pinpoint the source, deputies call in a cadaver dog trained to detect human remains and a
00:23:37
few minutes later, police canine Spie arrives on scene. After running the dog across the property, Spie begins
00:23:43
alerting to the presence of something inside a set of barrels. I'm rolling. Ooh, clean down.
00:23:59
Okay, so let's start looking. Yeah. Yeah, we got our We got our window. Going to burn
00:24:10
mark. Ah. Latex gloves, windows. Ooh, and doggy treats. But I could get a backup picture?
00:24:24
Inside the barrel, officers begin to uncover what Allen tried to hide. Broken window glass of a car consistent with a
00:24:32
bullet impact, latex gloves and traces of blood on the filter of a vacuum cleaner. After searching other barrels,
00:24:39
officers find night vision binoculars, Patrick's baseball cap marked with blood and most concerning of all, bone
00:24:45
fragments and suspected human remains on multiple pieces of clothing. Additional
00:24:51
items are recovered as well, including ammunition and magazines, but no firearms, suggesting the weapons may
00:24:57
have been moved or hidden somewhere else. Among the findings, detectives note the missing firearms, the lack of
00:25:04
any intact remains and the speed at which the scene appears to have been cleaned, something particularly
00:25:10
peculiar, leading them to consider that Allen may not have acted alone. After these discoveries, Allen's
00:25:18
property is officially treated as a crime scene. The area is secured and forensic examiners are called in to
00:25:24
process the evidence. Detectives now have the hard evidence they need to confront Allen. But while they prepare
00:25:30
to do so, [music] an unexpected development happens when Allen's younger brother Larry suddenly shows up at the
00:25:36
scene. Hours earlier, police received an oddly timed phone call from him claiming
00:25:42
that if anything happened to Patrick, it was his own fault. Not only that, Larry
00:25:48
made additional statements about Patrick that led detectives to question whether
00:25:52
they might be dealing with a second suspect. Yeah, well, he's been stealing on my brother's and uh he said that
00:25:59
he's threatened him and waved a god big ass gun at him. Somebody else said that he's a straight up thief and he sees an
00:26:06
opportunity, he's going to take advantage of anything that he can, you know, cuz he thinks he'll get away with
00:26:10
it. Okay, so he was kind of concerned Pat might Patrick might do something stupid, use a gun or something.
00:26:17
>> Pat's going to kill him, you know. Right. On the call, Larry made it clear that Patrick was the aggressor and the
00:26:23
one who had been threatening Allen, leading investigators to suspect he might know more than what he shared on
00:26:28
the phone. So, naturally, their suspicions rise when he arrives at the search warrant scene unannounced. Once
00:26:35
detectives begin speaking with him, Larry seems confident [music] he can prove that Patrick was the problem.
00:26:42
Howdy. How's it going? And you are? I'm Allen's brother. Okay, I'm Sergeant Tuttle with the State Police. So,
00:26:47
obviously, your brother got himself in a lot of trouble. That's what it sounds like. Start We're
00:26:52
going to go in the trailer. We can go sit in the trailer where we're not getting rained on.
00:26:56
You said that Shelton? Is that the guy's name? Patrick Shelton, yeah. Okay. And he was
00:27:02
threatening your brother, right? Right. And so, is that something your brother told you or do you have
00:27:09
other knowledge of that? >> That's something my brother told me. My brother said, "Hey, he pulled a pistol
00:27:14
and waved it in my face and threatened me and And how long ago did your brother tell you that? About a week? That was
00:27:20
probably about 2 weeks ago. Okay. You know, if somebody was waving a gun at me, you know, I'd
00:27:26
I'd probably be, you know, wanting to have something to defend myself, too, you know,
00:27:32
but you know, my brother had been asking Shelton to move for months. Okay. And uh
00:27:38
Shelton was like, "Well, you, you know." Uh basically. So, my brother took the little road grader
00:27:46
the the little dozer and pulled the stuff and put it out here on the other side of the fence. Is this
00:27:55
something your brother told you or is this something you saw? As far as moving the stuff, yeah. I came
00:28:00
by the day that he was moving stuff on the way home. What I didn't know when my brother moved the stuff just to try to
00:28:07
get the pressure off of my brother. I text Shelton and I told him, "Hey, I moved your crap off of my brother's
00:28:14
lot." So, then he text me back when he got to town going, "I got a beef with you." I mean, Shelton's a drunk and a
00:28:21
dope fiend. Okay, so I told him, "You're not getting your truck back." That was That was That was
00:28:30
Allen's That was May 3rd. Okay. He goes, "I'm trying. I'm broke I'm broke down. I'm trying to get a ride."
00:28:38
Then you said, "Never mind, I moved it for you. Give Allen back whatever you took at his."
00:28:42
>> Yeah, he goes, "Who is this?" Yeah, Allen bought a brought the beef to me anyway.
00:28:49
I don't have any of his Well, Allen kept showing me pictures of stuff that was missing, you know, where
00:28:55
it was and missing and Patrick was like one of the only the only people in here, so or she I
00:29:03
have a beef with you, too. Okay. I just put bring your beef. We know who you are, drug addicts. Just remember you me
00:29:12
with all of us and I taken pictures from the Sheriff office parking lot thinking that well, maybe
00:29:18
he'd think I'm a sheriff and maybe he back his, you know, or leave Allen alone and get
00:29:23
the out of town, you know. So, I put me with all of us, you'll you'll lose. Best thing for you to do is pack up and
00:29:32
leave Custer County and don't come back. Allen's brother goes on to pull up additional messages between him and
00:29:38
Patrick. The messages he shares show the feud escalating over time, primarily over Patrick refusing to move his
00:29:45
property off the land and accusations that he'd been stealing from Allen. As detectives read through them, it becomes
00:29:52
clear that Allen's brother wasn't just aware of the conflict, he was involved in it at some point. This only adds to
00:29:59
investigators' suspicions. So, instead of continuing to circle around it, the detective says exactly what he's
00:30:05
thinking. Yeah, it's And no sign of Shelton though, huh? Find a body or anything or
00:30:11
There's signs of Shelton, just not living signs of Shelton. One of the things I'm trying to wrap my head around
00:30:17
is I'm like, how did he do that by himself? He's not a very big guy. Like, how would
00:30:22
he move things around without somebody helping him? Like, if he Let's just say that
00:30:28
if he shot Shelton and took him somewhere and dropped dumped his body, who would he call to help him? I have no
00:30:34
clue. I mean, he wouldn't call me. Right. That's what I'm saying. Does he have good friends that I don't know.
00:30:40
I don't know what he's capable of, you know? I mean, Right. I don't know anybody that would help him move
00:30:47
something, you know, help him commit a crime, you know? I mean, my wife would shoot me if I helped him, you know? How
00:30:53
long you been married? Um since 2016. Yeah, she'd murder you. >> 9 years. Last night, she's like going, "Well,
00:31:03
this and that, you know, and what if it was Allen? What if he comes and kills us
00:31:07
in our sleep, you know?" I was like, you know, cuz I mean, she was watching that
00:31:11
Criminal Minds for a long time, you know, after she retired from the DA, you know, it's like you know,
00:31:18
serial killers, you know. >> [laughter] >> Um Shelter Valley is Custer County. You
00:31:22
don't worry about serial killers. When it's all said and done, everybody will know everything. You can pick your
00:31:29
friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family. On that interesting remark, Larry shifts
00:31:37
from defending his brother to no longer being certain and begins to see things the way investigators do. With nothing
00:31:44
else to add, police wrap up the interview with Larry, still uncertain of his involvement. Now, they can finally
00:31:50
turn their attention back to Allen, who's still sitting in the car, completely unaware of what's just been
00:31:56
uncovered on his lot. At this point, investigators have enough to place Allen under arrest and pursue homicide
00:32:03
charges. The problem is, they don't have a body, and they don't have a confession, both of which are critical
00:32:10
in building a solid case, especially [music] when it comes to proving exactly what
00:32:14
happened and how. But, with the evidence discovered on his property, this is their best chance to confront Allen
00:32:20
directly and push for a confession. The stakes are extremely high. If Allen plays his cards right, a skilled defense
00:32:28
attorney can create just enough reasonable doubt to get him out of this scot-free. We've got a cadaver dog
00:32:34
hitting on other spots on the property that have bone fragments. And the only thing that dog is trained
00:32:41
to hit on is dead humans. You know, there was only two people here that night, you and him.
00:32:46
Right? There's nobody else that I can talk to. Can't find him. And if you didn't do it
00:32:51
and somebody else did, can you point me in the right direction? I can't do that. I
00:32:56
don't know anybody else is out here. Well, let's Like I said, I don't either. Even after hearing this, Allen continues
00:33:04
his denial. But, this is exactly why investigators brought him back to the property. It's a part of a strategy
00:33:10
known as crime scene exposure. Experienced detectives use this technique to confront suspects with
00:33:17
something directly tied to the crime, like the scene itself or key pieces of evidence. This creates psychological
00:33:23
pressure, making it harder to maintain a lie, and often triggering unexpected reactions or slips in their story. So,
00:33:31
investigators take Allen out of the car and bring him back to the center of the lot, back to the very place where
00:33:37
everything likely happened, to see if he will finally break. What we just We want to be able to tell
00:33:43
the prosecutor you helped us every which way you could. If I can't protect my family,
00:33:49
[clears throat] I'm going to go to prison for the rest of my life, what? I don't know.
00:33:53
I can't tell you what the prosecutor >> you what the jury's going to do right now. You know, I have to go through this
00:33:58
right now. Yeah. So, the way it works here is he doesn't feel like we should let you
00:34:04
stay out free, right? So, we're still going to continue to investigate this case with your help or
00:34:10
without your help. We're still going to dig through. But, but there's still some things that
00:34:14
like concern me, like and I don't know if you ask him about like how Who drove the truck up in the mountains?
00:34:21
Nobody drove it. I towed it up there. >> Oh, you towed it up there? Okay. With which vehicle?
00:34:26
My dog. Okay. We drove by and towed it up there. Oh, okay. What did you do with the dog? Left
00:34:32
it in the truck. I would have just got to pick it up there. I just leave the truck up maybe
00:34:39
we'll figure it out. Yeah. How did the dog get in there? I don't like kill it. Yeah, that didn't do
00:34:46
nothing. Yeah. So, I just I mean, we're we're in a rock and a hard place right now, right?
00:34:55
Where we've been all day. Where we're going to continue to be until we can completely wrap this up and
00:35:01
figure out what the hell actually happened. Well, before you take him to jail, can I lock up the lock on the
00:35:04
cell? Yeah. Yeah, we're we're not going to leave this unsecured. We I mean, we'll we'll
00:35:09
we'll lock it all up and bring you the keys. >> Close the gate. Yeah. All. I'm going to go.
00:35:15
Well, that's part of it, but you also destroyed some evidence. What would you do?
00:35:23
I don't know. I've never been in that situation. >> Allen. Dude, come on. Did you burn a body? Come
00:35:28
on. >> did. And you didn't tell anybody. So, like, look at it from from from our point of
00:35:34
view. You know, we got to we do the right thing for for Patrick's family. You know what I mean? We got to try to
00:35:39
find that body. You know, we got to do the right thing for his family. >> no body. I've used reduced it down to
00:35:45
nothing. Nothing. Did you chop him up? No, I threw him in a burn barrel with a bunch
00:35:49
of wood underneath him. Yeah, I chopped him up. Like, did >> a chainsaw to him. Okay. Where's the chainsaw?
00:35:56
It's gone. It's gone. Did you throw it in the river? I got rid of it. Believe me, I
00:36:01
burned it. You burned the chainsaw? Is it in the barrel? And I've never chainsawed a body, but I
00:36:08
think it would be like blood and skin and gristle and stuff, you know, Yeah, it was ugly. And so, like, where's
00:36:15
Where's that at? Where's Like, how did you clean that up? Took a shovel and rake brush up there, everything I could.
00:36:20
Washed it down with a hose and put bleach all over it. And the chainsaw's where?
00:36:27
Here in the burn barrel. Burned it up last day. Allen finally cracks, admitting that he
00:36:33
shot Patrick, dismembered him, and burned the body before disposing [music] of the remains. With a confession now on
00:36:41
record, investigators turn their attention to a critical question. Did Allen act alone, or is there something
00:36:49
even darker he's still hiding? But, before detectives can press further, Allen makes a surprising claim. He came
00:36:56
over with that pistol and was going to kill me. And that's And we're not we're not arguing. We're not arguing that
00:37:01
point. We're just trying to figure out like what you did with the body, how you did it, and where it's at, if there's
00:37:06
anything left. Not much. Did you have any help with it? No. I should have just cut up the shovel.
00:37:18
Do you see our point I I mean, what we're trying to do at all, Allen? I tried to hide it and get away with it.
00:37:28
Yeah. And And like I said, we're just trying to, you know, get some closure for his
00:37:33
family and and present the picture so that that that everybody understands why you did what you did.
00:37:42
Should have just better pulled the trigger. Motive. Things got out of hand. That boy.
00:37:50
It was me and him, but I don't Despite Allen's claims that he killed Patrick in self-defense, it hardly
00:37:59
explains the brutality and concealment that followed. Following this, Allen is arrested and charged with first-degree
00:38:06
murder along with multiple additional charges. Later that day, dive teams and officers are sent to the river area
00:38:12
where Allen claimed he dumped the remains. But, despite extensive search efforts, nothing of evidentiary value is
00:38:19
recovered. In the days that follow, police obtain a warrant to search Allen's phone, where
00:38:25
they find the most critical evidence in the case. On Allen's phone, detectives find a hostile exchange from May 7th,
00:38:33
where Patrick texts Allen, "You will be seeing me soon. Make your peace." And Allen responds, "Never be at my place
00:38:41
after dark, or else." But, it's in the camera roll where they find what they had been unable to locate for days, a
00:38:48
photo of Patrick dead inside the cab of his truck with his silver pistol next to
00:38:54
him. The photo was taken at 6:25 a.m. on May 8th. When asked about it, Allen claims he took the photo as proof in
00:39:02
case he ever needed it. A couple months later, in July 2025, police receive a call from fishermen
00:39:11
reporting a burn barrel floating in a different area of the Salmon River. Officers and divers recover the barrel
00:39:17
and transport it for forensic examination, but no human remains or items linked to Patrick are found
00:39:23
inside, likely because everything had already been destroyed or lost in the River of No Return. As for the missing
00:39:30
firearms, investigators later uncover both the rifle [music] and Patrick's silver pistol at the
00:39:36
residence of an associate of Allen. The man claims Allen brought the weapons to him, asking him to sell them and with no
00:39:43
evidence tying his associates or his brother to the homicide or the cover-up, investigators determined that Allen
00:39:49
acted alone. In October 2025, Allen's initial charges were reduced to second-degree murder and
00:39:57
destruction of evidence after Allen entered an Alford plea, meaning he maintains his innocence while
00:40:02
acknowledging the prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him. In November [music] 2025, a judge denies
00:40:09
Allen's last-minute attempt to withdraw the plea and sentences him to 20 years in prison. He must serve at least 10
00:40:16
years before becoming eligible for parole, meaning he will get a chance to walk free in his 80s. But given the
00:40:22
severity of the crime, there is a very real possibility he never leaves prison at all.