A strange but true story....about a serial killer case you've never heard of...

[indiucky]

I'm going to share something, an experience I had back in the late 80s, early 90s....Probably 1991...It's haunted me ever since....I started Googling when the internet became available and I've never seen anything on this...Nothing...Zip...Nada....

I was a "trout bum" in my mid 20s....I lived out of the back of my truck and on weekends would travel to various trout streams east of the Mississippi and fly fish for trout...I never could figure out if I liked the trout or just the places they lived...Probably a little of both...The Smoky Mountains was my favorite place to go...I was doing a little guiding up home and had met a Tennessee guide who ran the Orvis shop in Gatlinburg...I'd stop in whenever I was down and chew the fat with him...a real nice guy...One Saturday, peak of tourist season I'm heading into the park from Gatlinburg...anyone who has been there knows that entrance is the busiest entrance in the National Park system....and it's weird, one minute you're in the tackiest tourist town in the east and the next minute you're in wilderness...as I was leaving Gatlinburg, literally on the border of the park I see dozens of park rangers and LEO directing traffic to keep moving...I mean furiously doing so...I glance down towards the creek and there is a small body, a child, covered in a white sheet laying on a rock in the creek...The image burned in my head...Did the child drown? The creek is shallow there....nothing seemed right...it looked like a movie set...No one seemed to be looking for clues, no one was talking to witnesses...LEO and rangers only...Very strange....

That night I decided to get a motel room in Townsend so I could watch the local news...Find out what happened today....I thought it would be a lead story...

Nothing at 6pm, nothing at 11pm....Odd...The next morning I picked up the Knoxville Sentinel newspaper along with the Marysville newspaper....

Nothing...Zip....Nada....I'm not crazy...I know what I saw....

The next day was Sunday...I fished Tremont that morning and when I finished I decided to head to Gatlinburg and talk to my buddy that ran the Orvis store.....

It took me a minute to do so but I finally got my nerve up to mention what I'd seen yesterday on my way into the park....I'll never forget his answer...

"Yeah...he got another one I heard..."

"Who?"

"Serial killer...been going on for a while now...he usually gets three per summer...always kids...."

I am dumfounded...I can tell he's not pulling my leg and he can see the look on my face....

I responded, "but there was nothing in the newspapers or news.....this makes no sense..."

"Nor will there be or will there ever be...He doesn't kill locals, he doesn't kill tourist kids, he kills the kids of the seasonal workers...many of them are here illegally...some have records...some are just running from their past....He knows he can get away with it...It's a tourist town...think of the revenue that would be lost with this headline, "Serial killer targeting kids in America's most popular national park..."

He then told me the killer taunts the authorities...he leaves the bodies in the most popular tourist spots where they will get the most looks....the killer knows the Feds and the Local LEO will not ask the public for their help...many in the transient worker community are scared of Feds and LEO so they don't cooperate either....

I know what I saw (and I didn't see as far as news goes) and shared it as it was told to me...it's haunted me for nigh on 30 years....

There's an evil and darkness out there that is often hidden from us I believe...

 

[yepthatsme]

Very disturbing and sad story. I would say that the majority of people would like to believe that everyone is basically good, but most can't imagine the evil that exists because it's not in their nature. Very sad.

 

[Alamo]

The strangest serial killer story I never heard of until I heard of it was the serial killer who killed another murderer on death row using a bomb. A bomb. On death row.

I was just about to enter active duty when the bomb went off, but somehow I never heard of this until recently.

South Carolina serial killer, who bragged he killed more than 100 people, offs fellow sicko in prison with homemade bomb - New York Daily News (nydailynews.com)

 

[Usmccookie]

Imagine how often this happens?

 

[LEaSH]

Indiucky, that was very good writing. I know the subject is sad and macabre, but you really got my attention.
Write more please.

 

[eldirector]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have gone missing in National Parks, under strange circumstances.

Anyone follow the whole "missing 411" thing?

 

[red_zr24x4]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have gone missing in National Parks, under strange circumstances.

Anyone follow the whole "missing 411" thing?

I watch David Paulides on YouTube. Every week he does a video of a couple of cases.
Every time I see he's on Coast to Coast I have to listen

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have gone missing in National Parks, under strange circumstances.

Anyone follow the whole "missing 411" thing?

Anyone else get the distinct impression that guy is hinting that the disappearances and Bigfoot are both transdimensional phenomenon? Wormholes, stuff like that....

 

[indiucky]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have gone missing in National Parks, under strange circumstances.

Anyone follow the whole "missing 411" thing?

Yes.....for years now....

 

[indiucky]

Indiucky, that was very good writing. I know the subject is sad and macabre, but you really got my attention.
Write more please.

Thank you sir....You're too kind.....

 

[IndyDave1776]

Very disturbing and sad story. I would say that the majority of people would like to believe that everyone is basically good, but most can't imagine the evil that exists because it's not in their nature. Very sad.

You're absolutely right. A very consistent and often dangerous part of the human condition is that we tend to measure others by the image in the mirror

 

[KokomoDave]

And a sociopath judges by what he or she perceives is what the demon wants not what God commands.

 

[churchmouse]

I know that area. Spent a lot of time and miles on the Harley's there. Gods best work in my mind. We have rolled next to that very body of water. Love that road.

Follow the money. always follow the money.

 

[Hoosier Cowboy]

Sadly there are hundreds if not maybe thousands of cases like this every year in the US. The amount of people that have been murdered or went missing in US parks in unbelievable.

 

[indiucky]

I know that area. Spent a lot of time and miles on the Harley's there. Gods best work in my mind. We have rolled next to that very body of water. Love that road.

Follow the money. always follow the money.

So you know how shallow that creek is there mid summer...That's what freaked me out...the body was laying on top of a boulder in the stream like an offering at an alter...It's burned in my head Church....The older I get the more it bothers me....

 

[churchmouse]

So you know how shallow that creek is there mid summer...That's what freaked me out...the body was laying on top of a boulder in the stream like an offering at an alter...It's burned in my head Church....The older I get the more it bothers me....

Just know that stretch of road puts this in mind. The road runs right with the water. I 1st saw that place maybe 12 years old on Vacation when we rolled the scenic route to Florida. It was a rainy day and the water was up and fast. I will always remember that ride. It was so cool to be in that setting. When I re-discovered that area we were on the bikes and rolling to the dragons tail out of Pigeon Forge.