00:00:04
[Applause]
00:00:13
my favorite photo of them this one yeah
00:00:16
I that's where he started a skater boy
00:00:18
phase at yeah well he stole your clothes
00:00:21
a l too well just my hat
00:00:24
no that's Hunter that's how I think of
00:00:28
him as in his long hair
00:00:30
skater Hunter Smith was a decent kid he
00:00:34
had a child at home uh he was trying to
00:00:37
do was necessary to go earn money to
00:00:39
support his child to be a responsible
00:00:42
parent we were mother and son but we
00:00:44
were more like best
00:00:47
friends you really don't know true love
00:00:50
until you've had your first
00:00:53
grandchild once we found out that he was
00:00:56
hitchhiking to Nebraska we knew that he
00:00:59
was starting his life over I was a
00:01:02
little angered with him so I thought
00:01:04
what on Earth are you doing
00:01:07
Hunter on her about October 30th of
00:01:12
2017 uh husband and wife were deer
00:01:15
hunting I believe on opening day of deer
00:01:17
season they looked in a small Ravine and
00:01:20
saw what appeared to be a human
00:01:23
corpse call came in as somebody had
00:01:25
found the remains of a
00:01:27
body I didn't even have to have them say
00:01:29
it
00:01:30
I knew I started crying that that was my
00:01:34
baby that someone did something did
00:01:37
something to my baby my baby was no
00:01:39
longer part of this
00:01:41
Earth there was nothing like the scream
00:01:44
of a mother After figuring that she's
00:01:48
lost a
00:01:50
child you're missing a part of you
00:01:53
basically you know I'm missing part of
00:01:55
my heart those three took a piece of me
00:02:00
when they took my
00:02:11
[Music]
00:02:23
son baby
00:02:25
Hunter we kept him dressed up in the
00:02:27
cutest little things that was his first
00:02:30
Halloween yeah it was his first
00:02:31
Halloween yeah he was not happy with
00:02:34
that hat no he was not happy with that
00:02:38
hat my chunky monkey
00:02:41
look I swear that boy did not grow any
00:02:43
hair for the first year of his life no
00:02:46
he had hair it just wasn't there
00:02:50
[Music]
00:02:55
yeah it was me and
00:02:57
him he was my little protector and I was
00:03:00
his little
00:03:01
[Music]
00:03:03
protector being a grandma it was quite a
00:03:06
bit different than having your own
00:03:08
children um I got to spoil him and uh
00:03:11
send him back
00:03:13
home he would make funny voices he would
00:03:17
start singing you know one of my
00:03:19
favorite songs and me changing the words
00:03:21
he had a sense of humor on him we all
00:03:23
know
00:03:28
it if was what I would call my
00:03:32
daredo I don't know how many times he
00:03:34
would climb up on stuff and of course he
00:03:37
would fall down and he'd laugh thought
00:03:40
it was
00:03:41
funny he was always a little jokester he
00:03:45
was always smiling having
00:03:48
[Music]
00:03:53
fun I think this was a secondary hat
00:03:58
that his uncle Johnny had and he
00:04:01
said why he says do you think your
00:04:04
nephew would like this and I was like H
00:04:07
maybe maybe I think this is his most
00:04:09
treasured
00:04:11
hat yeah that was his most treasured
00:04:18
possession when Hunter wrapped it was
00:04:20
you know it was from the top of his head
00:04:22
he never had anything memorized I was
00:04:25
very proud when he performed I knew he
00:04:27
was good
00:04:33
he had been offered a couple times to go
00:04:35
into the studio and record but they
00:04:37
wanted a down payment and you know I was
00:04:39
a single mom so we could never you know
00:04:41
afford to the studio time for
00:04:45
him we used to talk about life in
00:04:48
general his dreams his quick wit and
00:04:53
that silly smile of
00:04:55
his oh and he I mean that smile of his
00:05:01
could knock the socks off of any
00:05:05
girl he was the lady's man even even
00:05:08
from being little uh he went to uh prek
00:05:13
out here and he would get off you know
00:05:16
get on the bus and the girls would be
00:05:18
going sit with me Hunter sit with me
00:05:19
Hunter and he'd be going uh which one of
00:05:23
you did I sit with yesterday okay I'll
00:05:25
sit with
00:05:28
you he was always the ladies man he you
00:05:32
know I never knew him to not have a
00:05:34
girlo friend as he called
00:05:38
him he was kind of a handful when he was
00:05:40
a teenager we would get into some small
00:05:44
disagreements you know about the company
00:05:47
that he hung
00:05:49
with he was a little troublemaker he'd
00:05:52
been on youth probation three four times
00:05:56
from the time he was 12 till he was 18
00:06:00
Hunter was the typical laidback skater
00:06:03
boy he had the long blonde hair um he
00:06:07
had big feet so he had to use a long
00:06:09
board he started smoking weed with his
00:06:14
friends probably when he was like 14 or
00:06:16
15 he was just that that laidback kind
00:06:20
of go with the flow
00:06:23
teenager I thought he was going down the
00:06:26
wrong path but a lot of the stuff that
00:06:28
he'd gotten on probation for I knew he
00:06:31
hadn't
00:06:32
done when Hunter found out he was going
00:06:34
to be a father he was excited but he was
00:06:37
also
00:06:39
[Music]
00:06:41
scared it was a light bulb in his brain
00:06:44
that was like you know hey you know I I
00:06:46
don't have a high school education I
00:06:48
don't have a job I'm living you know
00:06:52
either with my with my mom or I'm living
00:06:55
with my girlfriend's Grandma I have to
00:06:58
step up and kind of grow up and I saw
00:07:01
him do that quite
00:07:04
quickly I looked at him and I said it's
00:07:06
time for you to man up take care of your
00:07:11
[Music]
00:07:13
responsibilities and do the right
00:07:16
thing said you don't have to marry her
00:07:19
but your child should be taken care
00:07:21
of Hunter was well- loved by his family
00:07:24
he had a young daughter he had a
00:07:27
long-term relationship with a woman he
00:07:30
was beloved by his parents so it seemed
00:07:32
that he was pretty close and had a lot
00:07:34
of people around him that truly loved
00:07:36
[Music]
00:07:44
him him and his girlfriend were fighting
00:07:47
so hard that day that I had when I came
00:07:50
in with my mom I had to look at both of
00:07:52
them and go either you know straighten
00:07:55
up or get out and they you know they
00:07:58
said okay we're
00:08:03
leaving honor was such a bullhead there
00:08:06
was no way that we could stop him at
00:08:08
that
00:08:09
time he had his mindset and he was had
00:08:13
one Mission and one Mission only that
00:08:16
was
00:08:17
sleep and they walked out my last words
00:08:21
to him was I love you and his last words
00:08:24
to me were [ __ ]
00:08:27
you it still Burns because as he was
00:08:31
getting into the vehicle to leave I
00:08:34
looked at him and I said I love you
00:08:38
Hunter and his last words to me was I'm
00:08:42
dead to
00:08:44
you do you hear me I am dead to you and
00:08:50
I looked at him and I
00:08:52
says watch what you wish
00:08:56
for and they pulled away
00:09:02
[Music]
00:09:09
hon her about October 30th of
00:09:13
2017 uh husband and wife were deer
00:09:15
hunting I believe on opening day of deer
00:09:18
season they went to a remote area in
00:09:20
Hawaii County and while
00:09:23
accessing uh one of the roadways there
00:09:26
they looked in a small Ravine and saw
00:09:28
what appeared to be a human corpse and
00:09:31
they promptly contacted law
00:09:33
enforcement I got a call on a Saturday
00:09:36
night saying that there were remains
00:09:38
found at that point in time I don't
00:09:40
think anyone had inspected the remains
00:09:42
close enough to
00:09:44
know why they were there or how they
00:09:46
ended up there I was in the mountains
00:09:48
patrolling when I received a call that
00:09:50
some Hunters had found a remains of a
00:09:52
body out in the middle of the desert the
00:09:54
weather was uh on that day was cloudy
00:09:57
kind of Co cool went the wind was
00:10:00
blowing when I first saw the remains
00:10:03
there I knew it had been there for a
00:10:04
while and not seeing any clothes on it
00:10:08
it was I thought to myself it's going to
00:10:10
be kind of hard to find out who this
00:10:12
person was cuz we hadn't had any missing
00:10:16
person's report in this area
00:10:25
[Music]
00:10:33
when iot the call what's going through
00:10:34
my mind was somebody came out and
00:10:36
committed suicide again we get a lot of
00:10:38
suicides out in this
00:10:39
way one of the first things that police
00:10:42
are trained to do as soon as they find a
00:10:44
body is to protect the crime scene make
00:10:46
sure evidence isn't taken in or out that
00:10:48
was impossible here it was the desert
00:10:51
where the body had been there for a long
00:10:53
time uh animals had been through the
00:10:55
scene maybe even people had been through
00:10:57
the scene and just assumed it was an
00:10:59
animal that was there not a person so
00:11:02
there's so many Clues and evidence that
00:11:05
maybe could have tied the crime those
00:11:08
were all long gone by the time the
00:11:10
police
00:11:12
came when we was doing a search we
00:11:14
located some brass shells from a 223
00:11:18
rifle and we could see where somebody
00:11:21
put bullet holes on a large Rock when we
00:11:24
finally got to the location where the
00:11:27
body was I could see what was left of
00:11:29
the remains of a skeleton in a dry creek
00:11:33
bed the body was located in this dry
00:11:35
Ravine here the the weeds weren't here
00:11:38
pretty well washed out clear and it was
00:11:40
well decomposed the body was naked there
00:11:43
was no skin left on it no ID around it
00:11:45
no shoes or anything like that and the
00:11:48
skull had a hole in in it so we figured
00:11:50
that was a
00:11:52
homicide the fact that there was no
00:11:54
weapon right at the body was Major
00:11:57
alarming because if somebody uh commits
00:11:59
suicide by shooting themselves in all
00:12:02
probability that weapon's going to be
00:12:03
there unless there's some foul play or
00:12:06
somebody comes and discovers it
00:12:08
later we backed off and then called the
00:12:11
Ido state police crime lab to come out
00:12:13
and take care of
00:12:14
[Music]
00:12:16
it when I arrived on scene we identified
00:12:20
possible items of evidence or items that
00:12:23
would be
00:12:24
important we also called out forensic
00:12:27
Services who also help process crime
00:12:30
scenes um and then also we had the local
00:12:33
corner with
00:12:34
us I think there was evidence of other
00:12:37
weapons haven't been fired in that
00:12:39
location and I would say that at the
00:12:42
crime scene or the location of the body
00:12:44
the greatest evidence was the human
00:12:47
remains and that was the focus of the
00:12:50
autopsy
00:12:54
[Music]
00:12:59
he had just got into a fight with his
00:13:01
girlfriend he was going to be moving to
00:13:04
Nebraska I thought he was starting his
00:13:06
life over I thought maybe he had thought
00:13:09
that organ wasn't the place for
00:13:12
him that he was trying to get himself
00:13:14
ready
00:13:16
to start
00:13:19
over Hunter been gone 6
00:13:22
weeks his girlfriend's mother had called
00:13:25
me up asked me if the police department
00:13:29
Department had gotten a hold of
00:13:30
me and I said
00:13:34
no and she said
00:13:37
well some chick had called the police
00:13:40
department was looking for
00:13:43
Hunter and so she gave me the name and I
00:13:46
gave it to Raquel and Raquel had gotten
00:13:49
on the computer cuz she knows how to get
00:13:52
a hold of
00:13:54
people I was messaging his as I quote
00:13:58
her his wife I don't think they were
00:13:59
ever legally
00:14:01
married but I was messaging them have
00:14:03
you heard from Hunter you know his
00:14:05
friend in Nebraska I was messaging her
00:14:09
um please tell me you're kidding me that
00:14:12
Hunter's there you guys are just playing
00:14:13
a joke on
00:14:15
me in my mind he wouldn't have been just
00:14:19
hitchhiking maybe he was hitchhiking
00:14:21
with with truckers I didn't see him
00:14:24
being the type to hitchhike with
00:14:26
strangers he was the type to
00:14:29
trust in people but I didn't think he
00:14:31
was that trusting with strangers to get
00:14:34
in a car with
00:14:37
them this is the original missing
00:14:39
person's photo that went out uh went out
00:14:41
on Facebook and it kind of just gives
00:14:43
some basic information description of
00:14:46
him a couple of photos approximate time
00:14:48
that he left where he was going the fact
00:14:51
that his his grandmother and mother
00:14:53
hadn't hadn't heard from him a little
00:14:55
bit but it was they were a little unsure
00:14:58
when he when he left but they also
00:15:00
described some of the tattoos that he
00:15:03
has I was the one that made his missing
00:15:06
person's poster I started sending it on
00:15:10
all my friends and having them send it I
00:15:14
was um
00:15:16
contacting any Police Department
00:15:19
Facebook that I could find in Oregon
00:15:21
sending his missing person's
00:15:24
poster I was scouring the internet just
00:15:29
trying to
00:15:31
find something or someone that would be
00:15:35
Hunter Panic kind of sat in so I went to
00:15:39
the police department and of course the
00:15:42
police knew me very well as Hunter's
00:15:46
grandmother deep in my heart it's a
00:15:48
mother's you know something's wrong no
00:15:51
matter if you actually know it or not
00:15:53
it's somewhere in your body you know
00:15:57
that that flesh and blood that you gave
00:15:59
birth to there's something wrong with
00:16:01
it I had to get heather to go over to
00:16:04
the police department to file the
00:16:06
missing person
00:16:07
report and of course the police going
00:16:10
well he's a teenager he'll be
00:16:15
back when young people disappear it's
00:16:18
hard I have kids too so anybody's going
00:16:21
to be hurt when young people go missing
00:16:23
all the time and they're not found or or
00:16:25
it takes weeks to find
00:16:27
them that's about the time I put my fist
00:16:30
on the counter banged it hard looked at
00:16:33
the police officer and said look he was
00:16:35
supposed to be going to Nebraska and
00:16:37
that was 6 weeks ago he is
00:16:40
missing time to do
00:16:44
something I'm sitting there thinking it
00:16:46
happens to other families not mine just
00:16:49
couldn't wub my head around that my son
00:16:50
was missing
00:16:54
[Music]
00:17:00
identifying remains after a body has
00:17:02
been left there is extremely challenging
00:17:05
there has been research done to try to
00:17:08
establish you know time of death how
00:17:10
long the body has been there for and
00:17:11
even to reconstruct the facial features
00:17:14
to try to identify a person from their
00:17:17
remains but all of that is extremely
00:17:20
difficult requires a lot of Science and
00:17:22
expertise and if not done right they may
00:17:25
never identify the
00:17:27
body ISP C lab showed up the following
00:17:30
morning they had several people there
00:17:33
one person flew a drone to take overhead
00:17:35
photos of everything and then they had
00:17:38
other people that started taking
00:17:41
measurements and a lot of photographs of
00:17:43
the surrounding area and then collecting
00:17:46
all the shell case scenes and anything
00:17:48
they find that looked halfway
00:17:51
suspicious the investigation show that
00:17:53
the murder occurred in June of 2017 and
00:17:56
so you have the month of June all all of
00:17:59
July all of August all of
00:18:01
September and most of the month of
00:18:04
October so the very end of October was
00:18:07
when the body was first
00:18:09
discovered with the condition out here
00:18:11
in the desert the body was pretty well
00:18:13
decomposed we couldn't get no
00:18:15
fingerprints um the skull was intact so
00:18:18
they were going to be looking for dental
00:18:20
records on it because we couldn't find
00:18:21
no ID around the
00:18:24
ground it been there for a while it
00:18:28
rained it snowed it was in a cck bed so
00:18:30
water had run through during the
00:18:32
springtime so there wasn't a lot of
00:18:34
evidence left there to
00:18:37
collect law enforcement tried to put
00:18:39
this together as best they could even
00:18:42
recognizing that there was a lot of time
00:18:45
that had
00:18:46
elapsed trying to find ID on a body like
00:18:49
this uh with it being decomposed you're
00:18:51
going to have dental records and then of
00:18:53
course you check the database for the uh
00:18:56
surrounding areas for anybody missing
00:18:58
that fits that body
00:19:01
description prior to October 30th of
00:19:06
2017 uh there was simply a report that a
00:19:09
young man who lived in Oregon has was
00:19:11
headed to uh South Dakota or one of
00:19:14
those of Midwestern states who search
00:19:16
for work and that he went missing so it
00:19:20
was unknown where he was exactly what
00:19:23
had occurred with
00:19:27
him Hunter's family had reported him
00:19:29
missing after they lost all contact with
00:19:32
him while he was on this journey that he
00:19:35
was on um and they became increasingly
00:19:37
worried because they hadn't had any even
00:19:39
just a call or any type of contact with
00:19:42
him uh and then the remains were found
00:19:45
in Idaho and it seemed like their worst
00:19:47
fear was coming
00:19:49
true as we were looking at the remains
00:19:52
in the autopsy from what I recall there
00:19:54
were two noticeable um tattoos there was
00:19:57
one on on a for for arm that uh said the
00:20:00
words lost there was also a colorful
00:20:03
tattoo around the shoulder that we
00:20:05
couldn't quite tell what it was we could
00:20:07
just see the colors from it we got some
00:20:10
confirmation that there was a gunshot
00:20:12
wound um there wasn't a lot else from
00:20:15
the
00:20:16
autopsy this autopsy is carried out and
00:20:19
the police find out that the
00:20:21
deceased died from a gunshot wound to
00:20:24
the head but that's not really that
00:20:26
helpful because it doesn't give us any
00:20:27
more information no further evidence to
00:20:30
follow and if the police cannot identify
00:20:32
a body then what else can they do they
00:20:34
can't move forward with the case the
00:20:36
case will be left open and if it was a
00:20:38
homicide then that literally means that
00:20:40
somebody has got away with
00:20:43
murder when we made the missing person's
00:20:47
report and the 4 months between that and
00:20:51
when they found the body I was hoping
00:20:53
and looking for what could be happening
00:20:58
trying to to block out the other side
00:21:00
that you know something bad happened to
00:21:02
him at the point in time that we
00:21:04
suspected that it may have been a
00:21:06
homicide the local news had picked it up
00:21:08
and put it out that remains had been
00:21:09
found out in the desert and we actually
00:21:12
received a call from someone who who we
00:21:15
had previously worked with a little bit
00:21:16
but now lived out of state he had heard
00:21:19
a story about a man named Keith Raby
00:21:22
which involved Keith Raby being with
00:21:24
Nicholas Vandenberg in Montana Reed
00:21:27
picking up a hitchhiker
00:21:29
and then ultimately shooting him at the
00:21:30
end of that based on the information
00:21:33
that we received about the rumors going
00:21:35
around it seems like they all came from
00:21:37
Keith Raby as far as I understand when
00:21:39
he would get
00:21:40
intoxicated um he would feel very bad
00:21:44
about what had happened and uh and he
00:21:47
would tell people and that's how the the
00:21:50
rumors around aaii County got started
00:21:54
Keith Raby had a criminal history he had
00:21:56
spent some time in jail most of his
00:21:58
crimes were things like theft or
00:22:01
marijuana possession um I don't believe
00:22:03
he had any violent criminal
00:22:06
history Montana Reed was Nicholas
00:22:09
vandenberg's girlfriend she was living
00:22:11
with Nicholas vanderberg at the time of
00:22:13
the homicide most of the people we spoke
00:22:15
to didn't really have a lot of negative
00:22:18
things to say about um Nicholas
00:22:21
vanderberg Montana Reed or Keith Raby
00:22:24
Nicholas Vandenberg was I think fairly
00:22:26
respected um by the people he worked uh
00:22:31
for and with and um and the local people
00:22:34
in the
00:22:35
community at the start of their
00:22:37
investigation police had no leads to go
00:22:39
upon and out of the blue they receed an
00:22:42
anonymous call that leads them to
00:22:45
vanderberg Reed and Raby and while this
00:22:48
may not be a very promising lead because
00:22:51
there's no real supporting evidence to
00:22:53
corroborate this at least it was
00:22:55
something that broke open the case and
00:22:57
gave them something to look
00:22:59
into during the course of the
00:23:01
investigation during one of the
00:23:03
interviews one of the witnesses had
00:23:04
brought up that they had seen hundred on
00:23:07
a missing person's flyer that had been
00:23:09
texted around between uh some of the
00:23:11
people involved we believed him to be
00:23:15
the victim of the case we wanted to
00:23:16
confirm it using DNA from his
00:23:19
mother when I got the call from the
00:23:22
police department stating that they'd
00:23:23
found remains in Idaho I didn't know
00:23:26
what to really think
00:23:28
[Music]
00:23:33
said no that can't be that can't be my
00:23:36
grandson
00:23:37
um but they wanted to have a DNA
00:23:41
test I'm sitting there by
00:23:45
myself after the
00:23:49
call and
00:23:51
um I'm thinking they know it's got to be
00:23:54
him because of the tattoos
00:23:58
that was the day that my mother and
00:24:01
sister came
00:24:02
to came to my work again and told me
00:24:06
that they had found a body in Idaho and
00:24:09
they thought it was hunters and I needed
00:24:11
to go give a DNA test and you know in
00:24:15
the back of my head I'm thinking oh no
00:24:18
no not my
00:24:20
baby there was nothing like the scream
00:24:23
of a mother After figuring that she's
00:24:26
lost a child and all I could do was just
00:24:28
hold her and tell her it's
00:24:30
okay all they want to do is just make
00:24:33
sure that it's not
00:24:35
Hunter but she kept
00:24:38
saying it's him I know it's him
00:24:46
[Music]
00:25:00
it was one of the worst feelings in the
00:25:02
world to see the pain in my sister's
00:25:05
eyes and to think of my little buddy
00:25:10
that might not be in this world but I'm
00:25:13
always the one that's trying to look on
00:25:14
the better side of things so I was
00:25:17
trying to tell her they think it's him
00:25:19
we're not sure it's him so give them the
00:25:23
DNA sample prove them wrong prove them
00:25:25
that it's not
00:25:27
Hunter I was always The
00:25:30
Optimist we asked the local police in
00:25:32
Oregon to collect it from her um it's
00:25:35
just a swab inside the cheek um on both
00:25:39
sides and and that collects enough DNA
00:25:42
to run as a comparison against Hunter
00:25:44
Smith's
00:25:46
remains while we were waiting for the
00:25:48
DNA evidence it was hard my sister is
00:25:52
mourning she knows something's going
00:25:55
on I'm seeing my dad who's us usually
00:25:58
quiet he's a little he's a gentle giant
00:26:01
but he's withdrawing more than
00:26:04
usual my my mom is she's she's just as
00:26:08
bad as me she's trying to be The
00:26:10
Optimist but I can see in her eyes the
00:26:12
[Music]
00:26:14
pain it was a rough two
00:26:17
weeks I just couldn't wrap my head
00:26:20
around that actually it was so I had to
00:26:22
Y give the DNA test and that was the
00:26:24
longest two weeks of my life waiting for
00:26:27
those DNA test results to come
00:26:30
back approximately a month and a half
00:26:33
after the crime we were notified that
00:26:35
the DNA did match but based on his
00:26:38
tattoos and information we had um
00:26:41
received in interviews uh we were we
00:26:45
were fairly certain that it was Hunter
00:26:48
Smith the day that the DNA results were
00:26:51
confirmed her dad and I were at home we
00:26:55
got the telephone call I told my husband
00:27:00
that it was
00:27:02
Hunter and
00:27:05
um I says I got to let Heather know he
00:27:09
just says I don't know how we're going
00:27:10
to tell
00:27:11
her you know how do we tell
00:27:15
her I didn't even have to have them say
00:27:17
it I knew I started crying that that was
00:27:21
my
00:27:22
baby that someone did something did
00:27:25
something to my baby my baby was no
00:27:27
longer part of this
00:27:30
Earth it's like somebody reaching in and
00:27:33
ripping your heart out and throwing it
00:27:36
on the ground and doing a
00:27:38
dance it's got to be the most
00:27:40
gut-wrenching
00:27:42
heartbreaking thing to watch your
00:27:46
child
00:27:48
suffer it was like a dark cloud came we
00:27:52
were we were all trying to be supportive
00:27:55
and
00:27:56
brave now with the brave face
00:27:59
on we still do it you know we try to
00:28:03
live one day at a
00:28:05
[Music]
00:28:08
time three subjects were ultimately
00:28:11
identified as Nicholas Vandenburg Willie
00:28:16
Keith Raby and Montana Reed
00:28:24
[Music]
00:28:28
as far as we understand Hunter Smith was
00:28:30
hitchhiking uh through Idaho uh from
00:28:33
Oregon he was on his way to Nebraska
00:28:35
coming through the boisey
00:28:37
area Nicholas Vandenberg picked him up
00:28:41
and took him uh down to his house he fed
00:28:45
him they spent the evening
00:28:47
together in the meantime there was this
00:28:50
kind of side text conversation between
00:28:52
Nicholas Vandenberg Keith rabi and
00:28:54
Montana Reed um where they kind of use
00:28:58
coted language to talk about potentially
00:29:00
maybe shooting this
00:29:05
hitchhiker they asked Hunter Smith if he
00:29:07
wanted to go out shooting and he
00:29:10
did and they took him out in the desert
00:29:13
there's nothing around and they let him
00:29:15
shoot one of their
00:29:18
guns it goes without saying that
00:29:21
inviting somebody who you met uh to go
00:29:23
shooting and then to kill them is
00:29:26
extremely unusual and shocking Behavior
00:29:28
but it seems the motivation in this case
00:29:31
was more a pathological sense of thrill
00:29:34
seeking uh they were not able to get any
00:29:37
type of thrill out of just you know
00:29:38
going out and shooting their automatic
00:29:40
weapons in the desert uh they had to
00:29:42
really up the Annie and wanted to commit
00:29:46
murder there was nothing in their
00:29:47
appearance that would cause the average
00:29:49
person to conclude upon simply looking
00:29:51
at them that they were involved in a
00:29:53
homicide the investigation showed that
00:29:57
there were uh two weapons involved after
00:30:00
the body was
00:30:02
discovered I believe all the guns belong
00:30:04
to to Nicholas vanber they let Hunter
00:30:06
shoot one of the guns and after he shot
00:30:09
all the bullets in the gun and turned
00:30:11
around Nicholas vanderberg shot him in
00:30:13
the in the abdomen
00:30:16
somewhere from our interviews with Keith
00:30:19
rabby and Montana Reed what appears
00:30:21
happened is Hunter Smith pled with
00:30:24
Nicholas Vandenberg to to not kill him
00:30:27
to not shoot him anymore
00:30:29
more he let the kid get out and shoot at
00:30:32
the Rock and stuff and then once his
00:30:35
bullets were all gone that's when Nick
00:30:37
got out and he raised his gun
00:30:40
up and I heard one shot go
00:30:44
off the kid screamed and said something
00:30:48
like why I have a
00:30:53
kid as he was on the ground having
00:30:55
already been shot and bleeding someone
00:30:58
and then Nicholas Vandenberg uh watched
00:31:01
him for a minute
00:31:04
um be in pain and then went up and shot
00:31:08
him in the
00:31:10
head Keith got out and helped him
00:31:13
undress him then they drag him half into
00:31:18
the
00:31:20
ditch Montana Reed vly denied any
00:31:23
involvement any knowledge even of the
00:31:25
plan of killing Hunter but that
00:31:27
contradict the text messages she clearly
00:31:29
did know what was going
00:31:31
on it was um ascertained that ultimately
00:31:35
uh what the investigation showed was
00:31:37
that the defendants Mr vanenburg and Mr
00:31:41
Raby were uh had conspired and involved
00:31:45
in a a plan
00:31:48
to locate an individual and ultimately
00:31:51
cause his
00:31:53
demise Nicholas vanderberg when he first
00:31:55
arrived at the police station he seemed
00:31:58
calm I picked him up on the interstate
00:32:01
the Chevron The Last Exit in boisey uh
00:32:04
for g Road yeah okay I picked him up
00:32:07
probably 300 yards from the exit walking
00:32:09
on the interstate with his th out coming
00:32:11
towards Mountain Home coming towards
00:32:12
Mountain home okay and he told me he was
00:32:13
heading toward
00:32:15
Nebraska he came home with me had
00:32:18
dinner I wasn't comfortable with him
00:32:20
staying the night he asked if he could
00:32:22
because he didn't have a place to stay I
00:32:24
took him to the sh on Mountain home and
00:32:25
dropped him off
00:32:28
we confronted him and told him we know
00:32:29
that the first part was true but that um
00:32:32
that he wasn't telling us the truth
00:32:33
about the second part but we were out
00:32:35
there shooting
00:32:36
rabbits drinking that kind of
00:32:40
stuff F back in there and we got out he
00:32:45
had said he wanted to
00:32:48
shoot and uh he shot at a rock and he
00:32:52
just started shooting at it and I was
00:32:53
like don't shoot at the Rock like
00:32:55
ricochets happened
00:32:58
and he said it'll be okay and he turned
00:32:59
around and I was standing just outside
00:33:01
the driver's door and he turned around
00:33:03
and I heard the gun
00:33:06
click and I
00:33:10
reacted what' you do I shot him would
00:33:13
you shoot uh once in the below the rib
00:33:17
cage and then in the
00:33:20
face from our interviews with Montana
00:33:23
Reed what appears happened is Hunter
00:33:25
Smith had finished shooting the all the
00:33:27
bullets that in the gun that he was
00:33:29
holding he was
00:33:32
saying how he let the kid shoot all the
00:33:37
bullets so that he couldn't shoot back
00:33:40
at
00:33:43
Nick he was hitch shaking in
00:33:46
Idaho and venberg picked him
00:33:50
up took him home and fed him let him
00:33:54
take a shower got him stoned and then
00:33:58
decided that they were going to go
00:34:00
hunting rabbits which still does not
00:34:03
make sense to me because Hunter knew
00:34:05
better than to be off with guns with
00:34:08
somebody he didn't even know I wish I
00:34:11
would have been the little voice in his
00:34:12
head going no this doesn't seem right
00:34:16
let's just uh go that
00:34:19
way we executed a search warrant on
00:34:22
Nicholas vandenberg's property based on
00:34:24
the story we had heard we were hoping to
00:34:26
to perhaps find Hunter Smith driver's
00:34:28
license or other evidence the clothes or
00:34:31
some physical evidence we didn't find
00:34:34
either of those things when we were
00:34:35
there what did you do with all this
00:34:37
stuff
00:34:38
bur why did you bur it well I mean
00:34:42
that's just one more thing you know we
00:34:44
were able to find the shell casings
00:34:46
found um at the scene of the crime it
00:34:50
appeared to be that this was uh
00:34:52
essentially in in common vernacular
00:34:54
Thrill Kill that uh it was done for
00:34:58
the thrill of taking another life
00:35:01
without cause or
00:35:03
justification the community around this
00:35:06
area is very close-knit and they they
00:35:09
were pretty shocked that this would
00:35:10
happen with some of their local
00:35:12
people the first question that comes to
00:35:14
mind is a is a large question mark
00:35:19
why what would possibly motivate you to
00:35:24
select an innocent non-suspect
00:35:28
individual and take him out to a remote
00:35:31
place and kill him in that fashion where
00:35:34
he had done absolutely nothing to any of
00:35:37
them and absolutely nothing to deserve
00:35:40
it how
00:35:42
senseless how thoughtless how heartless
00:35:46
it was how disgusting despicable it was
00:35:50
what would ever motivate a person to do
00:35:52
such a thing
00:35:57
[Music]
00:36:03
[Music]
00:36:07
I feel like since losing Hunter I've
00:36:09
kind of withdrew into myself more
00:36:14
I'm more
00:36:16
cautious with people that I don't
00:36:20
know I just miss talking to him getting
00:36:23
my hugs being told that he loved me and
00:36:27
I told I love
00:36:28
him I still talk to him in the
00:36:31
morning sit on the front
00:36:34
porch losing Hunters impacted our family
00:36:38
in a way where we're we're closer than
00:36:41
we
00:36:43
were we're more telling each other we
00:36:47
love each other when we leave we're more
00:36:49
tight-nit I feel since Hunter has passed
00:36:52
away I still even have conversations
00:36:55
with him via Facebook every once in a
00:36:57
while
00:36:58
i t you know type out a message I know
00:37:00
I'm not going to get one
00:37:01
[Music]
00:37:07
back whenever we see a case of a group
00:37:10
murder where one person or multiple
00:37:12
participate um any one of them could
00:37:14
have done something to intervene they
00:37:16
could have you know pulled the gun out
00:37:18
of his hand pushed him to the ground
00:37:20
told police if they knew he was planning
00:37:23
to commit this crime in many states that
00:37:25
means they're all just as guilty
00:37:28
Nicholas vanderberg was charged with
00:37:29
first-degree murder while Willie Raby
00:37:33
and Montana Reid were both charged with
00:37:35
conspiracy to commit first scream
00:37:37
murder I can identify who those persons
00:37:40
are just by looking their uh photos that
00:37:43
is Nicholas
00:37:44
vanenburg Willie Keith Raby and Montana
00:37:48
Reid and those were faces that I became
00:37:51
um very um familiar with during the
00:37:54
course of the
00:37:55
prosecution so he of these individuals
00:37:58
were young the oldest being know Raby 34
00:38:02
years of age and vanderberg was
00:38:04
28 my impression with respect to Mr
00:38:07
vanenburg and his contact with police
00:38:10
was that
00:38:11
perhaps he felt that he could maybe talk
00:38:14
his way out of the offense and maybe
00:38:17
Point blame on someone
00:38:19
else the impression I had from the
00:38:22
investigation was that he felt that he
00:38:24
would be the more believable between him
00:38:27
and perhaps Mr Raby and that he could
00:38:30
explain his involvement and maybe
00:38:33
implicate someone other than
00:38:36
himself as far as Keith rabi and Montana
00:38:40
Reed go um as per Idaho Co they helped
00:38:44
participate to some degree and helped
00:38:46
plan it to some degree and then they
00:38:50
didn't notify law enforcement afterwards
00:38:52
U makes them accomplishes to the
00:38:56
murder what with respect to the
00:38:58
culpability of Mr rabi and Miss Reed
00:39:01
there's a concept in Idaho law and
00:39:04
jurist Prudence throughout the country
00:39:06
those who knew of and participated in
00:39:09
the commission of a crime can be held
00:39:13
for the same offense as the person who
00:39:16
actually pulls the
00:39:18
trigger and the evidence showed that it
00:39:20
was U Mr Vandenberg that was the one who
00:39:24
actually caused the death but important
00:39:26
in the investigation was that Reed and
00:39:29
rabie were each involved in this
00:39:31
conspiracy and they each participated in
00:39:34
it uh to one degree or
00:39:37
another that gave vanderberg gevy and R
00:39:40
quite a bit of time to even just go to a
00:39:43
pay phone and you know dial the M
00:39:47
mystery number and call the police
00:39:49
department and say Hey you know there's
00:39:50
a body out in such and such place
00:39:53
instead of you know just leaving him
00:39:55
there
00:39:58
those three took a piece of me when they
00:40:01
took my
00:40:03
son Keith R would have been unlikely to
00:40:07
commit a crime like that on his own I
00:40:10
think Nicholas Vandenberg was the person
00:40:13
interested in The Killing and I think
00:40:16
Montana Reed was was willing to go along
00:40:19
with it Idaho has uh the death penalty
00:40:23
technically on the books um each of the
00:40:26
three were charged with u either the
00:40:30
first degree homicide or conspiracy to
00:40:33
commit
00:40:34
murder ultimately Mr Raby pled to
00:40:37
first-degree murder I believe that Mr
00:40:40
Vandenberg pled to first-degree murder
00:40:41
Mr Raby pled
00:40:43
to um being an AER EMB better or a
00:40:47
conspirator to um first-degree
00:40:49
murder and U Reed also pled to U being
00:40:54
an accomplice or aiding a murder
00:40:57
as well as other
00:40:59
[Music]
00:41:01
offenses they never contacted us to say
00:41:03
that they were you know doing plea deals
00:41:05
or anything else like that they just
00:41:07
know did it that we found
00:41:09
out most people think if there's a small
00:41:12
amount of evidence even if it's a bullet
00:41:15
matching the type of wound sustains for
00:41:18
a murder or even just one piece of DNA
00:41:21
that a case should be brought against
00:41:22
the offender but that is not always the
00:41:26
calculation that police prosecutors make
00:41:28
because once they take that case to
00:41:29
trial if there's reasonable doubts and a
00:41:32
jury finds that person not guilty they
00:41:34
can never bring murder charges against
00:41:36
them again so they knew they really have
00:41:39
one shot and so until they had enough
00:41:42
evidence that would convince the jury
00:41:44
they really didn't want to bring this
00:41:46
case
00:41:47
forward the total sentences that were
00:41:50
were rendered I believe uh in the
00:41:52
ballpark of 30 years for Mr venberg in
00:41:55
the ballpark of 25 years for Mr Raby and
00:41:58
in the ballpark of 18 years for M
00:42:03
Reed my thoughts on
00:42:06
vandenberg's sentencing
00:42:09
are he didn't get enough I don't think
00:42:12
that he should have the eligibility of
00:42:15
parole I think that he should live his
00:42:17
life in
00:42:20
prison I think he should have been
00:42:22
killed 30 some odd years is not enough
00:42:28
know he took my son out of this world he
00:42:31
should be taken out of this world too I
00:42:34
but I got no choice and what he
00:42:38
got what I'd like to say to Reed and
00:42:42
Raby is you will get out someday you
00:42:46
will see your children and hug them
00:42:49
tight because Hunter's not able
00:42:52
to
00:42:54
um I wish you guys would would made
00:42:57
better choices would have given my
00:42:59
family closure earlier and for
00:43:02
Vandenburg I really don't have much to
00:43:04
say to him he's
00:43:08
worthless to
00:43:10
me they're not worth even given a second
00:43:16
[Music]
00:43:18
thought you know I don't let him live in
00:43:21
my head
00:43:23
[Music]
00:43:27
I know my grandson would be
00:43:31
upset if I had bad thoughts about him so
00:43:35
in order of my
00:43:37
grandson I don't let him live in my
00:43:41
head just makes life
00:43:43
[Music]
00:43:45
shorter justice has not been served it
00:43:48
will never be served yeah they they got
00:43:51
off
00:43:53
easy if I could say anything to Hunter I
00:43:57
would tell him that Mimi loves him that
00:44:01
he will always be her Hunter bear we
00:44:04
don't get to see his daughter very much
00:44:06
but what we do see she's a beautiful
00:44:09
young
00:44:10
lady and he would be so proud of her
00:44:14
from what we've
00:44:16
seen what would I say if I could to
00:44:19
hunor I'm sorry our last words to each
00:44:22
other
00:44:23
were not what they should have been
00:44:27
if I could I'd hold him tight and never
00:44:29
let him
00:44:32
go I talk to people all the time about
00:44:36
you know the the dangers of hitchhiking
00:44:39
the only thing you can do is live one
00:44:41
day at a time you know keep his memory
00:44:45
alive we had a celebration of life I had
00:44:48
invited all his friends to come and
00:44:51
you'll write a note to you know to him
00:44:54
and we'd send him off in balloons his
00:44:57
best friend showed up with a little baby
00:44:59
boy named
00:45:01
hunter that he had named after my son
00:45:04
because
00:45:05
that he says that uh Hunter is the
00:45:09
reason he straightened
00:45:11
up I feel that you know with another
00:45:15
little hunter in this world that maybe
00:45:18
just maybe my hunter is living through
00:45:21
him
00:45:27
[Music]
00:45:57
what
