# Two Disturbing True Crime Mysteries You Need To Know

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 12 Sep 2025, 22 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO3685898267.mp3

Join me as we discuss two of the most disturbing true crime mysteries you need to know. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 true crime cases, chilling true crime, unbelievable crime stories, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, cold case podcast, shocking true crime, creepy true crime stories, disturbing mysteries, true crime podcast episode, harold holt, australia true crime, financial crimes

## Transcript

[0:00] In the early hours of August 26th, 2006, an eerie scene
[0:05] awaited at a remote fire lookout cabin in the forests of Alberta
[0:09] in Canada. A pot of water was left boiling
[0:13] on the stove, its owner nowhere to be found.
[0:16] Outside on the wooden steps, investigators noted what
[0:20] appeared to be a smear of blood, a silent testament that
[0:23] something had gone terribly wrong.
[0:26] This was the home of 70 year old Stephanie Stewart, a veteran
[0:30] wildfire spotter stationed alone atop the Athabasca lookout tower
[0:34] near Hinton. That morning, Stephanie had
[0:38] vanished without a trace, leaving behind only unsettling
[0:42] clues and a mystery that has endured for nearly two decades.
[0:49] Stephanie Stewart wasn't a typical 70 year old by any
[0:52] means, and she appears to have been more active than most
[0:55] people in their 20s or 30s. Friends described her as
[0:59] amazingly fit for her age. She had cycled solo across
[1:03] Canada and summited Mount Kilimanjaro in her late 60s.
[1:07] A mother of one and an avid reader and crafter, Stephanie
[1:11] split her year between winter months in Canmore, a city in
[1:15] Alberta, and summers in the wilderness.
[1:20] For 18 seasons she worked as a wildfire spotter for Alberta's
[1:24] Forestry Service, and for the last 13 of those years she
[1:28] returned each spring to the same lookout.
[1:31] This was the Athabasca Tower in William Switzer Provincial Park.
[1:35] There, perched on a high Ridge, she lived in a small cabin at
[1:39] the base of a 40 foot observation tower.
[1:43] Every day she climbed the tower ladder to scan the rolling
[1:46] foothills and boreal forest for smoke.
[1:49] It was solitary work, and Stephanie was the only human for
[1:53] miles, but she relished it. On the night of August 25th,
[1:59] 2006, Stephanie spoke with family by phone around 9:00 and
[2:04] everything seemed normal. By the following morning,
[2:07] however, alarm bells were ringing.
[2:09] Stephanie failed to make her scheduled radio check in a
[2:13] mandatory safety call she reliably made each morning at
[2:16] 8:30 to confirm all was well. When repeated calls to her cabin
[2:21] went unanswered, her supervisor grew concerned.
[2:25] The supervisor tried phoning the lookout several times.
[2:28] Strangely, someone did answer, but each time the receiver was
[2:32] picked up, the person on the other end immediately hung up
[2:35] without a word. After a few such attempts, the
[2:39] line went dead entirely, as if the phone had been unplugged mid
[2:43] ring. This bizarre phone behavior
[2:46] greatly alarmed Stephanie's supervisor, who knew she was
[2:49] always dutiful with communications.
[2:52] Fearing the worst, he drove out to the Athabasca Tower site that
[2:56] morning. Arriving by roughly 9:00 AM, the
[3:01] supervisor found an ominous, perplexing scene.
[3:05] Stephanie's pickup truck was still parked outside the cabin,
[3:08] ruling out the possibility that she had driven off.
[3:12] Inside the small dwelling. A pot of water was boiling away
[3:16] on the stove, untended, as if Stephanie had stepped out
[3:19] briefly and intended to return at any moment.
[3:23] A quick search of the area found no sign of the woman, and a
[3:27] complete sense of dread overcame the supervisor.
[3:30] Noticing some out of place details, the supervisor
[3:34] contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police immediately, and
[3:37] Stephanie was formally reported missing.
[3:42] Investigators processing the cabin soon discovered that a few
[3:45] personal items were missing from Stephanie's quarters, notably
[3:49] her bedding. 2 pillows with blue pillowcases, A burgundy bed
[3:54] sheet, and a Navajo pattern duvet were gone, as was
[3:59] Stephanie's gold wristwatch. These items were absent, despite
[4:03] no sign of a struggle inside. Outside the cabin, however, a
[4:08] troubling clue turned up. There were traces of blood on
[4:11] the steps of the cabin, and they appeared to be quite fresh.
[4:15] Authorities have never released full details about the blood
[4:19] evidence, but its presence strongly indicated that some
[4:22] violence had occurred at the site.
[4:25] All signs appeared to point to 1 overwhelming conclusion.
[4:29] Stephanie Stewart was abducted by an unknown person or persons
[4:33] that morning. News of Stephanie's
[4:37] disappearance spread fast and an enormous search operation was
[4:41] launched in the rugged foothills around the Athabasca Lookout.
[4:45] Search and rescue teams and Park Rangers, alongside hundreds of
[4:49] volunteers combed through dense forest looking for any trace of
[4:54] the missing fire spotter. Helicopters buzzed overhead and
[4:58] tracking dogs sniffed for clues on the ground.
[5:01] Searchers scoured a radius of several kilometers around the
[5:04] tower, but nothing definitive was found.
[5:08] It became one of the largest search efforts in Alberta's
[5:11] history, yet it turned up painfully little.
[5:16] Notably, investigators treated the site as a potential crime
[5:19] scene from the start due to the suspicious circumstances
[5:23] surrounding Stephanie's disappearance.
[5:25] They noted the totality of evidence was inconsistent with
[5:28] any voluntary departure. The fact that Stephanie left
[5:32] behind her truck, her keys, and even her morning coffee heating
[5:36] on the stove suggested she had fully intended to remain there
[5:40] for her day's work. Further, the missing bedding
[5:44] suggested that it may have been used to move Stephanie out of
[5:47] the cabin. Unfortunately, despite thorough
[5:51] forensic work, no definitive DNA or fingerprints leading to a
[5:55] suspect were publicly reported. Authorities did state that
[5:59] evidence at the scene convinced them Stephanie had been the
[6:02] victim of a slaying, even though her body was not found.
[6:09] With the case unsolved, various theories have emerged over the
[6:13] years about what might have happened to Stephanie Stewart.
[6:17] Some are grounded in investigative leads, while
[6:20] others are the product of armchair detectives puzzling
[6:23] over the scant evidence. The most widely accepted theory
[6:28] is that an unknown person approached Stephanie's cabin,
[6:32] likely in the early morning, and harmed her in the course of a
[6:35] robbery or assault. Perhaps someone driving along
[6:39] the highway took a detour up to the lookout, either hoping to
[6:42] find valuables or seeking shelter, and encountered
[6:45] Stephanie. The boiling water on the stove
[6:48] hints that she might have invited a visitor inside for tea
[6:51] or coffee, as she often did with guests not realizing the danger.
[6:57] In this scenario, something turned violent and the
[7:01] perpetrator hurriedly removed Stephanie before fleeing.
[7:05] The fact that the phone line was abruptly disconnected during the
[7:08] supervisors calls suggests the intruder was present at 8:30
[7:12] that morning and panicked when the phone rang.
[7:17] Another variant of this theory suggests that Stephanie actually
[7:20] fell victim to someone she knew. This theory explains why she
[7:24] would have opened her door for this unknown individual.
[7:28] For instance, if a park Ranger had knocked on her door, she
[7:33] likely would have had no reason whatsoever not to welcome him
[7:36] in, not knowing what his intent was.
[7:40] That said, this Ave. has been pursued and as far as we are
[7:44] aware, based on information made public, no one in the Park
[7:48] Service is a suspect. Over time, speculation has
[7:55] focused on a few possible suspects, including one
[7:58] particularly notorious name, Travis Vader.
[8:02] Vader is a central figure in a high profile Alberta criminal
[8:05] case. In 2010, he slew an elderly
[8:09] couple during a robbery, then burned their RV and hid their
[8:12] bodies in the wilderness. Given that Vader targeted senior
[8:16] citizens and was known to be involved in theft and violence,
[8:20] some have wondered if he could have crossed paths with
[8:23] Stephanie. In 2006, investigators noted
[8:27] that Vader was apparently in the vicinity of Hinton around the
[8:30] time Stephanie disappeared, fueling theories of his
[8:33] involvement. However, it's crucial to stress
[8:37] that Vader has never been charged or officially linked to
[8:41] the Stewart case. The Vader theory remains
[8:44] speculative, possibly a case of criminal coincidence, but it
[8:48] highlights the kind of human predator who could have been
[8:51] responsible. Notably, because Stephanie was
[8:56] in the wilderness, some initially wondered if a bear or
[8:59] other large animal could have attacked and dragged her away.
[9:03] This idea was thoroughly investigated and dismissed, as
[9:06] the authorities found zero signs of an animal encounter.
[9:10] Further, a bear, for instance, wouldn't carefully unplug a
[9:13] phone or remove bedding to cover its tracks.
[9:17] That's just not what bears do, since they aren't worried about
[9:20] covering up their transgressions or whether a jury will convict
[9:24] them for a crime. In the months and years
[9:29] following 2006, as the case remained unsolved, Alberta's
[9:33] Forestry department took concrete steps to improve safety
[9:37] and security at all fire lookout towers.
[9:41] Where once lookout sites were relatively open, they're now
[9:44] secured with locked gates and perimeter fences to keep
[9:47] intruders out. Notably, the signs directing
[9:51] tourists to these lookouts were removed, making them harder to
[9:54] find. The occupants of these fire
[9:57] lookouts have also been advised not to let in any guests and to
[10:01] essentially treat any visitor as potentially hostile.
[10:05] To this end, the cabins themselves were retrofitted with
[10:09] stronger steel doors, shatterproof glass windows, and
[10:13] improved locks. Notably, brush and trees around
[10:18] each site were cleared to eliminate hiding spots and give
[10:21] workers a clear line of sight when someone approaches.
[10:27] At present, no trace of Stephanie Stewart has ever
[10:30] turned up, and her case remains a chilling National Park
[10:34] mystery. Hey everyone, Jimmy here.
[10:40] Just taking a moment to give a big shout out to everyone who
[10:43] watches and listens to my content and in particular the
[10:47] YouTube members and patrons. Also, don't forget to hit that
[10:52] share button and send this video to your friends or family
[10:55] members. On a cold December night in
[11:01] 1975, a young Texas woman named Pepper Reed said her goodbyes to
[11:07] family after the Christmas holiday.
[11:09] She was 23 years old and visibly pregnant.
[11:13] Excitedly talking about the baby she would soon welcome, Pepper
[11:17] told her family she planned to move to California with her
[11:20] boyfriend, a decision that at the time seemed like the start
[11:24] of a new adventure. But that winter farewell would
[11:28] tragically be the last time anyone in her family ever saw
[11:31] her. In the decades that followed,
[11:35] Pepper Reed's disappearance became a haunting mystery.
[11:39] For nearly 50 years, there were no answers until an astonishing
[11:44] forensic breakthrough tied Pepper's fate to one of
[11:46] America's most notorious cold cases.
[11:51] Born in 1952, Pepper was raised in the Houston area and had
[11:56] family who care deeply about her.
[11:58] In late 1975, Pepper introduced her family to a new boyfriend, a
[12:04] man named Terry Rasmussen, and revealed she was expecting a
[12:08] baby with him. During the Christmas of 1975,
[12:13] Pepper spent time with her relatives in Texas, appearing
[12:16] happy and hopeful about moving W for a fresh start.
[12:22] Shortly after the holiday, Pepper left Texas with Rasmussen
[12:26] to begin their new life in California.
[12:29] Unbeknownst to her loved ones, this move marked the beginning
[12:33] of a dark journey from which she would never return.
[12:38] Pepper's family never met the baby she was carrying, nor did
[12:42] they hear from Pepper again after she departed Texas.
[12:45] At first, they may have hoped that Pepper was simply busy
[12:48] settling into life in California, or that she had
[12:51] chosen to break ties and start over.
[12:55] As months turned to years with no contact, however, the
[12:58] family's concern grew into dread.
[13:02] That said, Pepper was an adult and there was nothing to
[13:06] indicate that anything had actually happened to her, so the
[13:09] authorities weren't too concerned.
[13:13] What Pepper's family and the authorities couldn't have known
[13:16] in 1975 was that the man she left with, Terry Rasmussen,
[13:22] would go on to be an infamous serial predator.
[13:25] Rasmussen was an Air Force veteran turned nomadic
[13:28] electrician who had a knack for adopting new identities and
[13:32] slipping away from trouble wherever he went.
[13:36] People in his orbit, particularly women and children,
[13:40] seemed to vanish under mysterious circumstances.
[13:43] Rasmussen cycled through aliases like Bob Evans, Curtis Kimball,
[13:48] and others to cover his tracks, leaving a trail of shattered
[13:52] lives across multiple states. Notably, when he met Pepper,
[13:57] Rasmussen had recently walked out on his wife and children in
[14:00] Arizona, though it's highly unlikely that Pepper knew this
[14:04] fact. By the late 1970s, Rasmussen was
[14:10] living in different places around the country, often
[14:12] working blue collar jobs. He spent time in Phoenix and
[14:16] Houston and eventually California, moving frequently to
[14:20] stay ahead of suspicion. Over the years, investigators
[14:26] would link Terry Rasmussen to a string of gruesome crimes.
[14:30] He was the prime suspect in the disappearance of at least two
[14:33] women he'd been romantically involved with, including Pepper,
[14:37] and he was confirmed to have slain others.
[14:40] His known victims include a California chemist named Yun
[14:43] Soon June and a New Hampshire woman named Morales Honeychurch,
[14:49] along with her two young daughters.
[14:52] By the time law enforcement finally identified Rasmussen's
[14:55] deadly trail, he had already perished in prison in 2010,
[14:59] taking many secrets with him. While Pepper's family agonized
[15:05] over her unexplained absence, an apparently unrelated mystery was
[15:10] brewing nearly 2000 miles away in the quiet woods of New
[15:14] Hampshire. In November 1985, a hunter
[15:19] exploring Bear Brook State Park stumbled upon a large 55 gallon
[15:24] metal drum hidden among the trees.
[15:28] Inside, wrapped in plastic, were the badly decomposed bodies of a
[15:32] young girl and a woman. The case went cold for years,
[15:36] and then 15 years later, in May 2000, a shocking second
[15:41] discovery was made. Not far from the first sight,
[15:47] another rusted barrel was found containing the skeletal remains
[15:51] of two more girls, estimated to have been toddlers.
[15:55] Investigators now realize they were dealing with four victims
[15:58] in total, an adult female and three young children, all hidden
[16:04] in the woods near Bear Brook State Park.
[16:07] For decades, the identities of the Bear Brook 4 remained
[16:11] unknown. In the early 2000s, forensic
[16:15] testing determined that the adult woman and two of the girls
[16:18] were maternally related, while the third little girl wasn't.
[16:22] In 2017, a breakthrough in DNA analysis revealed a clue the
[16:28] mysterious third child was the biological daughter of Terry
[16:32] Rasmussen himself. This was the first indication
[16:36] that the Bear Brook slayings were connected to Rasmussen, and
[16:39] by extension, it hinted that Pepper Reed's long lost child
[16:44] might be among the victims. Still, the little girl's name
[16:48] and her mother's identity were unknown, leaving Pepper's fate
[16:51] unknown as well. Meanwhile, the other 3 victims
[16:57] in the barrels were eventually identified through genetic
[17:00] genealogy in 2019. They were Morales Honey Church
[17:05] and her two daughters, Marie Vaughn, age 7, and Sarah
[17:09] Mcwaters, age 11 months. Honey Church had been
[17:13] Rasmussen's girlfriend after Pepper, and she was last seen
[17:17] alive in late 1978, introducing Rasmussen to her family in
[17:21] California. Shortly after this introduction,
[17:25] all three of them vanished without a trace.
[17:30] By 2023, nearly 40 years had passed since Pepper Reed
[17:34] disappeared and one of the Bear Brook children was still
[17:37] unidentified. The New Hampshire Cold Case
[17:40] Unit, working with non profit DNA sleuths, again turned to
[17:45] genetic genealogy to crack the case.
[17:48] Advanced DNA testing had already confirmed the little girl's
[17:51] paternity, so genealogists needed to find her mother.
[17:56] Using samples from the child's remains, they combed through
[18:00] distant cousin matches and built a massive family tree of about
[18:04] 25,000 people stretching back centuries.
[18:09] It was an investigative needle in a haystack.
[18:11] But finally, the persistence paid off.
[18:14] Researchers hit upon an old obituary from 2005 that
[18:18] mentioned a surviving daughter named Pepper Reed.
[18:21] This was the Eureka moment that the investigators had been
[18:24] hoping for. The family line in the obituary
[18:28] matched the genetic profile of the unknown child, and the team
[18:32] realized that Pepper Reed had to be the missing mother they were
[18:36] looking for. With Pepper identified as the
[18:41] mother, detectives rapidly searched birth records in
[18:44] California during the mid 70s. Sure enough, there was only one
[18:49] baby girl born at the right time with a mother named Reed and a
[18:52] father named Rasmussen. In Orange County, California, a
[18:57] birth certificate from 1976 revealed a baby named Raya
[19:01] Rasmussen, daughter of Terry Rasmussen and Pepper Reed.
[19:07] Rhea had been born in early 1976, which fits the timeline of
[19:12] Pepper's pregnancy when she left Texas.
[19:15] Sadly, Rhea only lived a short life, and the authorities
[19:19] believe her father ended her life sometime in the late 70s.
[19:25] With all the other victims of the Bear Brook slayings
[19:28] identified, Pepper Reed's whereabouts remain the final
[19:31] troubling question. Authorities now believe Pepper
[19:35] likely met the same fate as her daughter, but they have yet to
[19:38] find her body or definitive proof.
[19:42] Pepper was last seen alive in California in the late 1970s
[19:46] after moving there with Rasmussen.
[19:49] It's presumed that she was slain sometime after her daughter's
[19:52] birth in 1976 and before Rasmussen resurfaced with new
[19:57] victims in 1978. One prevailing theory is that
[20:03] Rasmussen quickly eliminated Pepper to gain full control of
[20:06] baby Rhea and took the toddler with him when he entered a
[20:09] relationship with Honey Church. Under this theory, it's thought
[20:14] that he manipulated at least one woman by tricking her into
[20:18] thinking he was a widower single dad who was raising his daughter
[20:22] on his own. If this theory is correct,
[20:26] Pepper's slaying likely occurred in California, and her remains
[20:30] could be anywhere between Texas and the Golden State, given his
[20:33] travels. Despite extensive searches, no
[20:37] unidentified remains have yet been linked to Pepper.
[20:43] Another theory based on Rasmussen's pattern is that
[20:46] Pepper's disappearance was part of a broader series of crimes
[20:49] that spanned multiple states. Investigators note that between
[20:53] 1974 and 1985, Rasmussen popped up in various other states,
[20:59] including New Hampshire, Arizona, Oregon and Virginia,
[21:04] often under fake names. For example, in 1981, another
[21:10] girlfriend of his, Denise Boden of New Hampshire, went missing
[21:15] and was never found. Rasmussen then fled that state
[21:19] with Denise's infant daughter in tow before abandoning the child
[21:23] in California. This idea supports the
[21:26] speculation that he was tricking women into believing he was a
[21:30] widowed single dad. Notably, some are hanging upon
[21:36] the extremely faint hope that Pepper herself may be alive.
[21:40] It's theoretically possible that Rasmussen threatened her and
[21:44] then stole Rhea, perhaps telling her that he would eliminate the
[21:47] child if she went to the authorities.
[21:51] Personally, though, I don't buy this theory for a moment, since
[21:55] Rasmussen's modus operandi indicates that he wouldn't leave
[21:58] anyone alive who he considered a loose end.
[22:04] Today, Pepper Reed's case is officially an open
[22:06] investigation. Ultimately, my personal belief
[22:12] is that Pepper is likely one of the nation's innumerable Jane
[22:15] Doe cases At present, we'll probably have to wait until a
[22:19] breakthrough in one of these cases connects Pepper to that
[22:22] still unknown Jane Doe.

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