"Did they find them?” I asked.
“They found one of them,” he tells me. “About three weeks later, his body was found tucked under a log near one of the hiking huts. He'd been asphyxiated, but it didn't look like there were any other injuries to the body. Not as if he’d gotten into a huge fight with anyone or anything. He was in a sleeping bag, and it almost looked as though he was dressed to camp out there. Unfortunately, his gear was well camouflaged, and it took a little while to find him.”
“But only him? What about the other one?”
“No trace of him has ever been found. Including his gear,” Sam says.
“Is there any chance he's the one who killed his friend?” I ask.
“That was bandied around as an idea,” Sam admits. “But it just didn't seem very plausible. These two had been friends for their entire lives. They had no conflicts, were not known to fight or disagree with each other about pretty much anything. I mean, they were teenagers, so I’m sure they had some conflict their parents wouldn’t know about, but there were no resentments or arguments anyone was aware of. And neither one of them was a particularly big guy. There was some question as to whether the one who went missing would have had the physical strength to suffocate his friend. Besides, Jimmy, the one who would have supposedly survived, was only fourteen years old. What is a fourteen-year-old going to do out on his own? There have never been any signs of life from him over the last fifteen years. No activity on his cell phone. He had no bank account. It just didn't seem plausible.”
“Was Fitzgerald involved in that investigation?” I ask.
“Absolutely. As soon as he found out somebody else had gone missing at the same campground, he insisted on being involved. He was the one who pointed out that it was on the exact date as Violet’s disappearance. Of course, other people said that was just a coincidence. It's an extremely popular time for camping. But he wasn't convinced. To him, Logan Boyer's death was confirmation that Violet's disappearance and death hadn't just been some random happenstance.”
“Alright, so that was fifteen years ago. How do we get to the thirteenth anniversary?” I ask.
"The next year, three more teenagers went to the campgrounds and didn't come out. The body of one of them was found a week later. Some campers really familiar with the area were going down to an old swimming hole to take a bath. They found him sitting up against a tree. The weather had been really hot, so he wasn't in the best condition, but there were indications he had also been asphyxiated, like the boy the year before. Only this one showed signs of having fought back. Not severe injury, but enough to show that he had struggled a bit."
"And the other two? I asked.
“Bones were found six months later. A couple of them had some scraps of fabric on them. Testing proved they belonged to one of the other boys. It looks as if he was probably killed and set out somewhere, just like the other one, but animals got to him and scattered his remains before he could be found. The third one is still missing.”
“Let me guess. Happened around the same time,” I say. “Just like the two boys from before.”
“They arrived at the campground just a couple of days before the anniversary of Violet's disappearance. Best guess for when the body they found was killed lies within a day or two of that arrival.”
“It's not a coincidence anymore,” I say.
Sam nods. “And you know how I feel about that.”
“So what was done with it once they figured out the pattern?”
“The park rangers decided the best idea would be to shut down the campground. It wasn't all because of the disappearances and deaths. Arrow Lake had been on the slate for potential closing for a while because it was getting older, and more people were drawn to the campgrounds that allow RVs and have nicer facilities. At least, that was what the official stance was. A statement was put out that said the campground was no longer accessible, and anyone entering it would be considered a trespasser. But that wasn’t nearly as effective as they’d hoped. Which brings us to thirteen years ago.
“Three teenagers and a twenty-year-old went hiking in the park. Everything seemed fine. They were keeping in touch with family and friends. Everybody thought they were just going on a hiking trail on the opposite side of the park. But then all contact with the family ceased. A couple of days later, they checked social media and noticed that one of them had taken a picture in front of the cabin where Violet’s family was staying. There hasn't been a trace of any of them since.”
“If they abandoned the campground, why didn't they just tear it down? Why are the cabins still there?” I ask.
“Since it’s part of a national park, there’s a ton of red tape they have to get through to make any changes to the site itself,” Sam explains. “Taking down the buildings would be extremely expensive, too. The national parks don't have a huge operating budget, either. It would be a massive expense to go through that, not to mention the environmental impact. So, they did what they could. By that point, it was pretty obvious that the incidents were linked, so Detective Fitzgerald was heading up the entire investigation. He ordered the area locked down and set up perimeter surveillance.
