Session 5: Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays

New Investigators:

Special Agent Cornelius Jones, FBI. Criminal Investigation Division (Profiling). Has been with the Bureau for eight years;

Special Agent Phillipe Sangumbo, FBI. Criminal Investigation Division (Forensics). Fifty-six years old and looking forward to his impending mandatory retirement on his next birthday;

Special Agent Harley O’Brian, FBI. Criminal Investigation Division (on indefinite loan from Cyber Division). Socially awkward and psychologically fragile.

Still Alive and Mostly Sane:

Scot Thompson, Mission Bay High School science teacher.

The Investigation Begins:

The FBI Special Agents of the San Diego Branch Office assemble for their weekly Monday morning planning meeting. Special-Agent-in-Charge Patrick Hobbson describes, among other ongoing cases, a series of Missing Persons cases on and around the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation (near Warner Springs, CA) that the FBI is being brought in on. Special Agents Jones, Sangumbo and O’Brian are assigned to this case based on their availability.

A follow-up meeting with Hobbson reveals the details as the FBI understands them. To wit:

1) On 4 July, Allen and Karen Curtley were driving along Highway 79 from Oceanside to visit their son in the Alpine area, when they mysteriously vanished. Their car was found abandoned on the side of the highway later that day and impounded by the California Highway Patrol.

2) On 6 July, Felix Royos disappeared from the gas station on the Los Coyotes Reservation sometime during his night shift.

3) On or around 10 July, two friends, Ed Stoltz and Chris Martin, vanished from the campsite where they had been fishing by a reservoir on the Reservation. Their disappearance was reported by Martin’s girlfriend when he did not return to work the following Monday. The campsite was undisturbed.

4) On or around 15 July, two European couples disappeared along the same stretch of highway. Rolf Trautner and Freda Ollenburg, an elderly German couple, disappeared leaving their rental car behind. Likewise, Dutch couple Dieter and Vera Van Olson (Deiter Van Olson being a retired Vice-President for Petroleum Exploration for Royal Dutch Shell Corporation) vanished leaving their car behind with all property still in the trunk. Both cars have been impounded, with personal property now in an evidence locker at the San Diego FBI branch office.

5) On 27 July, neighbors of the family of Victorio Begay reported that the family of four had not been seen in a week, although the family car remained in the driveway of their ranch on the Reservation.

In all cases, there have been no signs of struggle or property theft. CHP and Tribal police have jurisdiction on the case, but because of its Missing-Persons nature the FBI is being enlisted to provide whatever aid it can. The CHP investigation is being lead by Major Frank Garrett, and the Tribal police liaison is Sheriff Mangas Colorados.

Agents Jones and Sangumbo travel to El Cajon to examine the impounded automobiles. They remove the seats, vacuum for trace fibers and search for blood or other bodily fluids. On the rental cars, they predictably find many sets of fingerprints and hair samples. On the Curtley vehicle they find less, and the prints they find are consistent with those on file with the DMV for the Curtleys themselves.

Meanwhile, Agent O’Brian searches for credit card transactions for the missing persons. The last charge for the German couple was for a hotel by the Grand Canyon four nights before their disappearance. The Begay family’s last transaction was a debit card transaction at a Valley Center grocery store on 19 July. The camping friends last transactions were on 8 July at an REI store and an Escondido grocery store (for firewood). Felix Royos apparently does not have a credit card.

Agents Jones and Sangumbo return to the Bureau and requisition the recovered personal belongings. All clothes and souvenirs remain for the tourists, including a wallet of travelers checks in the luggage of the German couple. They call O’Brian and tell him the sequence numbers of the travelers checks and he sets some flags to be alerted if they are used. The agents decide to visit Warner Springs to investigate the ominous stretch of highway where these cars were found.

Warner Springs, which is south of the Los Coyotes Reservation on Highway 79, boasts a hot springs ranch and little else. The main street has a general store which also serves as the post office, a video store, a restaurant and several other family-owned businesses. The agents speak to the proprietor of the general store, who is clearly uncomfortable with their all-business appearance (“I paid my taxes, I swear it!”). He knows about the disappearances and even knows some of the victims, Louisa Begay being a regular customer, and Felix Royos who comes in from time to time. When asked where the cars were found abandoned, he can give a general location but no specifics. “You’ll have to speak with the Highway Patrol for that,” he tells them. He offers to take their business card and call them if any information turns up.

The two agents drive up to the Reservation, where they meet Sheriff Colorados speaking with Major Frank Garrett. Garrett plays at being a cowboy, with a Stetson hat and all. He comes off as boorish and perhaps not very good at his job. When he is unable to say exactly where the cars were found (he can tell them the general area), the agents request to see the fishing campsite where the two men were last known to be. Sheriff Colorados tells them the roads are not good, so he suggests they take his truck, a large 4x4 crew-cab Ford with the Los Coyotes Tribal Police emblem painted on the door.

They soon arrive at the campsite. The four-man tent is still standing, and their other camping gear is present, including a tackle box. Rods and reels are missing. The sleeping bags look slept in, and a cooler remains filled with beer. Colorados tells them they haven’t dragged the reservoir yet. The men walk down to a well-worn path to the dam, which is a popular fishing spot. There is no sign of a struggle that they can see. Suddenly, Colorados notices birds circling overhead in the wooded hills that climb from the water’s edge. He hikes up the hill, followed by the Agents and Garrett, and comes to a clearing. There they come upon a rather deep hole, at the bottom of which is the pale and shriveled corpse of a man of about thirty. The corpse is covered with dirt, and there is a large pile of dirt beside the hole, giving the appearance that the body was until recently buried. Agent Sangumbo searches around the opened grave and finds animal footprints everywhere.

Sheriff Colorados examines them and tells the agents that they are the tracks of a coyote. However, the corpse remains mostly intact (in fact, the cause of death is not immediately apparent). This is not consistent with coyote behavior; coyotes would normally devour a piece of found meat like this.

Colorados looks up at the sky and closes his eyes for a moment. The investigators can almost see his mouth moving in a silent prayer.