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The rescue team was able to extract the body the next day, along with what appeared to be a murder weapon - a large, green tree limb about five feet long and four inches around.
The body had been found covered in blood from an apparent beating. Snow had covered much of the area, but the evidence clearly showed that the missing hunter was killed, brutally beaten to death, rather than from injuries sustained in the crash one could only speculate. ‘This changes everything,’ the sheriff thought to himself.
Chapter 19
Two days later, Sheriff Blaine turned the wheel of his vehicle and pulled into the hospital parking lot, found a spot near the front, and parked. The weather was still nasty and would be for a while now. He was glad they found the one missing hunter, but was worried about the other one. He clipped his keys on his web belt as he got out of the 4X4 and hurried into the hospital. The search for the missing man was ongoing, but he needed to be the one to talk to Turner first. He entered the hospital by the emergency room doors. The lady at the desk shivered when the door opened and closed allowing the harsh, cold wind in. He asked her if Doctor Jenkins was in his office. She made a quick phone call to the doctor’s office and was able to reach his nurse.
“The doctor is with a patient right now. His nurse suggested you could go on back and have a seat in his office while she tracked him down for you. He shouldn’t be long.”
Nick thanked the receptionist and headed down the hallway. There were several nurses at a station at the end of the hall busy with shuffling papers and making reports. He stopped and asked how Troy Turner in room 112 was doing. The nurse told him that he was doing fine and was resting now. The sheriff wanted to let Troy know as soon as Morton had been found, but the doctor had him under sedation once his fever had broken.
He continued down the hallway that led to Troy’s room. He needed to talk to him now and hoped that he was healthy enough to take the news. The search was still on for the other missing man, but the weather was not cooperating. More snowfall and cold temperatures slowed the teams keeping them limited in the scope of their search patterns.
When he walked into the room, Troy turned his way and the sheriff got a good look at his damaged face. Both eyes were black, he had a bandage over the bridge of his nose, multiple scrapes and bruises covered his cheeks and neck, and he had a gauze pad covering what the sheriff knew were several stitches in his forehead.
Troy sat up the best he could and greeted the sheriff. “Hey, Sheriff.”
“Good morning, Mister Turner. Sorry to disturb you, but I have some news that I thought you should hear from me.”
“Oh no, Sheriff, you’re not disturbing me. There’s nothing to do, but stare at these walls. Any word on Craig and Phil?” Troy asked.
“I’m afraid I have to be the bearer of bad news. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Mister Turner, but we found your friend, Craig Morton, on the mountain. He’s dead.”
Troy was taken aback and had to let it sink in a moment before he realized what the sheriff had just told him. He was visibly shaken and his face turned ashen.
“Oh my God! Are you sure it was Craig, Sheriff? I can’t believe that…no way.”
“I’m afraid so. We made a positive ID on him. I’m really sorry, Mister Turner, but I need to ask you a few questions. There’s still no sign of your other friend yet, but my deputies are still searching the area... if he’s out there, we’ll find him.”
“Oh my God, Sheriff, I can’t believe it. Not Craig? It was the monster, Sheriff! You’ve got to listen to me.”
“A monster? What are you talking about, Turner? I thought you said it was a bear attack?”
“I don’t know what happened, but we left my cabin at the same time. I was coming in for help and he went back looking for Phil. I didn’t think anyone would believe me before, but you’ve got to listen to me now. That wasn’t a bear out there. I know this is going to sound crazy, but it’s true.”
The sheriff looked at him more intently now; studying his eyes and facial expressions, looking for any signs that he may be making up a story. Nick was a trained investigator and took pride on being able to know when someone was lying or exaggerating a story to escape trouble.
“You have my attention, “ the sheriff replied warily.
“What we saw, what attacked us was…wasn’t a bear, it was different,” Troy stammered. “I swear it was at least eight or nine feet tall with black hair that covered its entire body. It stood upright, like a man. Walked like a man. Ran like a man only faster than I’ve ever seen anything run!”
“That sounds like it could’ve been a bear to me. They can stand up on their back legs and make it seem like they’re that tall.”
“What?” Troy seemed frustrated with the sheriff’s statement. He lay there with eyes wide open staring at the sheriff in consternation. How could he expect anyone to believe such a crazy story?
“My men found him on the mountain yesterday laying not ten feet away from where he wrecked his ATV.”
“No, Sheriff! No way! Listen - I know what a bear looks like. This thing that attacked us walked like a man. It was like you and me. It was tall, at least eight or nine feet tall with long arms and...and a face. Not like a bear at all. It didn’t have a snout like a bear, but a face like you and me. It just wasn’t a bear! It attacked us!” Troy was in a frustrated panic state at this point.
“Alright calm down Mister Turner. Tell me everything you know.”
Troy told the sheriff everything he could remember from the night they left the hospital to the moment he woke up in the hospital a day later. The sheriff watched his face as he told his story looking for any signs that he may be confused or lying. He made a few more notes and then asked, “Do you know anywhere that your other friend, Phil Jackson, may have gone to? Maybe he went somewhere else for help? Did he have another vehicle? I’ve accounted for your Jeep and Mister Morgan’s truck and ATV.”
“No. That’s all there was. He’s on foot somewhere. That creature, I don’t know what else to call it, Sasquatch? Bigfoot? Whatever you want to call it, it must’ve gotten him too.” Troy paused then continued, “We had no choice, Sheriff. You’ve gotta believe me! We had no choice!”
“It’s just a little hard to believe all of this, Mister Turner. I hope you can understand?” The sheriff said.
Impatiently, he replied, “Yes, of course…I guess. Like I said, we had gone out that night right after we left the hospital because Phil’s deer rifle and pack were still out there where he had fallen. Remember when you found him on the road?” Troy asked, but didn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “That’s when you came along and found him. We wanted to get it on our way home before the weather got really bad.”
Nick stood silently while taking notes. He didn’t know what to think about all of the things Troy was saying. If he was lying about any of it, he certainly didn’t seem like it. Not based on all of the tell-tale signs that people give off when they are. His eyes were focused and made good contact without tipping his hand to the sheriff. He never looked away like he was searching for a way to spin it.
Troy stumbled on, “When we got back to the cabin we drove out there in the ATV and that’s when that thing attacked us! It was dark, but we could see it. It threw huge rocks at us. We tried to get away, but we turned the Razor over on its side.”
The sheriff interjected, “If you wrecked it, how did you get back to the cabin?”
“We had to cut down a small tree to use for leverage and finally got it back up on its wheels. When we were doing that, it attacked us again. We had my pistol with us, but it stayed out of sight, just hiding in the dark, moving from tree to tree using it as cover. When we got it back up on its wheels we started climbing in, but it got Phil. The creature grabbed him and attacked us and chased us!”
“This thing that was chasing you, it was using trees to hide behind and then it attacked you again?” Nick said.
“Exactly Sheriff,” Troy s
aid, “That’s why it sounds so crazy. That thing wasn’t a bear! It had more intelligence than that. It was…it was hunting us!”
Troy was shaking and his breath was coming in gasps like he was reliving the entire experience. The sheriff knew he had to get him to calm down to get the full story. Intentionally, he lowered his voice and asked slowly, “Son, why do you think it was hunting you?”
“I honestly don’t know, Sheriff. I just know we tore out with that thing chasing us. It came after us running on two feet! Does that sound like a bear to you? We went back to the cabin to get more guns to come back for Phil. That’s when I got hurt trying to climb onto the roof to knock the snow off the satellite dish. I fell and got busted up pretty good. I knew I had broken some ribs. Craig sent me to town in the Jeep to get help to send back. He went after Phil. He had his guns with him and he wasn’t scared, but he didn’t see what I did. That thing was huge, Sheriff!”
Still speaking carefully, the sheriff said, “I hope you can understand that your story is a bit…far-fetched. I mean, a Sasquatch hunting you and your buddies down like the deer that you’re hunting? You’ve got to give me something better to go on here. I’m trying desperately to find out what happened and to find your other friend.”
“Sheriff, I swear I’m not lying about any of this. It’s true!” Troy exclaimed. The look of desperation and fear was clear on his face.
“Okay…it’s okay…we’ll figure this out. We’ll find your buddy,” the sheriff assured him almost as if he was soothing a child.
As he was leaving he promised they would also get word to any of Craig and Phil’s family members back home.
Troy would be in the hospital a few more days. Better for him if he was the sheriff thought. He couldn’t let him go back out to the cabin anyway. Not until he had more answers. He would send a deputy over to keep a close eye on him for now.
As he walked out of the room, the doctor called to him from across the nurse’s station. Nick stopped and turned.
“Doc, how are ya?” the sheriff asked.
“I’m good, Sheriff. I’m guessing you just saw Turner?”
“Yes – Yes, I did, Doc. We found one of his hunting buddies up on the mountain. He’s dead. Looked to be a possible ATV wreck. Still waiting on the M.E.’s report though,” Nick said, not wanting to divulge any more than necessary at this time.
“Oh my!” the doctor exclaimed.
“I’m sending a deputy over to keep an eye on our friend here. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Sure, Sheriff, not a problem,” the doctor responded.
The two talked for a few more minutes before the sheriff excused himself and exited the hospital. The wind hit him directly in the face and he hunched his shoulders and moved quicker through the snow covered parking lot. Nick mulled over his conversation with Troy as he walked to his truck. The bitterness of the cold reminded him of his deputies that were still on the mountain searching for the missing man. He had called in assistance from the state police and they were doing all they could, but he had his doubts about finding Phil alive. He got in his truck, backed out, and left the hospital to drive over to the impound yard. He wanted to take another look at the Jeep.
The radio was silent as he pulled up to the curb and parked his patrol unit. He had a set of keys for the yard so he let himself in through the side gate. The impound yard was a partially covered structure, but the snow was still deep around the edges. The Jeep was parked in the back of the lot up against the fence. He spotted the copper colored Wrangler and made his way over to it to get a closer look around the exterior of the vehicle. The Jeep had snow covering it so he scraped some of it off the front bumper.
The damage to the front end was most likely caused by the tree. He could see bark, pine needles and dirt all over the front of it. He had no reason to believe he had hit anything in town. No other reports of damage had come through. He opened the driver’s side door and poked around inside. The vehicle was mostly clean with the exception of the blood covered air bag that lay crumpled and dangling from the steering wheel. When he looked at the floor board of the Jeep he could see that there was still mud and water in the driver’s side though the passenger side was clean and dry meaning that there were probably no passengers at the time of the incident.
After snapping a few photos with his cell phone camera and making a few notes, the sheriff locked everything up and headed back to the office. The snow was falling steadily though not as heavily as earlier. The gray sky was relentless and the wind seemed to have a mind of its own. One minute it was howling madly like a thundering herd of horses crashing through the trees and the next it would lay down as calmly as a spring breeze. His thoughts were on the continued search efforts of his deputies.
He needed to get back to the office and check in before heading back out to the Turner property and rejoining the search team. So far, no word had come back regarding the other missing hunter. It had been two days and the sheriff had no promising reason to believe that the missing hunter would be found alive now. The snow storm had left the mountain almost impossible to navigate even on snowmobiles and it didn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.
He arrived back at his office within a few minutes. As he hung up his coat and hat he asked Lindsey to call in one of the patrol deputies. When the deputy arrived, Nick sent him over to the hospital and explained that he was simply to keep an eye on Troy. He then asked Lindsey to have the Jeep sent to the state police lab so their forensics team could go over it.
When the deputy left the office, Lindsey asked the sheriff, “So, what gives Nick?”
“I don’t know Linds, I really don’t know.”
Chapter 20
The sun was shining brightly, though the temperature was hovering deftly just above the freezing mark. The ski slopes were operating at full capacity in Hawthorn now, and would be until the end of the season. All of the fresh snow they’d been getting over the last couple of weeks helped to get the mountain ready for the busiest time of the year for the town. Ski season was what they counted on for the biggest part of the local economy and hunting and fishing was a distant second and third respectively.
“Sheriff, the M.E. just sent the report over on that hunter that was killed out on the Turner place,” Deputy Chastain said as he stood in the Sheriff’s doorway.
Noland Chastain was a young deputy in his early twenties, tall, lanky and soft spoken. His jet black hair and bushy black eyebrows seemed out of place on such a thin face. He had been with the search crews since they first discovered the body of Craig Morton on the mountain.
Two weeks had passed since the day they discovered the body and the sheriff had ended the search on the mountain for Phil Jackson only three days earlier. The snow storm had covered any possible signs of the man’s whereabouts in the mountains, if he was even still in the mountains. Search conditions were extremely dangerous in the high country under the best of circumstances.
Sheriff Blaine took the folder from the deputy and quickly flipped through the report. Morton’s body had been found in the woods near his wrecked ATV the day of their initial search. The medical examiner’s report concluded that he died of blunt force trauma. The interesting part of the report was the suggestion that the blows that killed him came after the wreck of the ATV. His body was severely beaten; he suffered a fractured right clavicle and left radius, humerus, ulna and trochlea. These were all defensive wounds, in the opinion of the medical examiner. He was apparently shielding himself from the blows of the murder weapon, which was a large tree limb, by using his arms. The death blow crushed the skull. There was no doubt that the killer used the tree limb, as forensic evidence clearly showed the bark embedded within the wounds of the victim.
When the sheriff and his deputies found the crash site of the ATV, it looked as if the Razor had been rolled and had taken a beating over the rugged terrain. Photos from the site suggested that the man had been crawling back toward the vehicle when the incident had taken place. The sher
iff suspected that the man had been in a struggle, but this report made it concrete. Craig Morton was murdered by someone or something. Morton was a large man, in great shape and didn’t seem as if he would be afraid of anyone. The sheriff had two main suspects. One was in the hospital, the other was missing. He also knew that the District Attorney would expect an arrest.
“What do you think, Sheriff?” Chastain asked.
“Turner came into town that night, had wrecked his Jeep, got hurt pretty bad and he swears they were attacked by a Bigfoot,” He said, “This report says Morton was beaten to death after he wrecked his ATV which was around the same time frame that Turner got to town. Those injuries could have been caused by the wreck, but the medical examiner says otherwise,” Sheriff Blaine replied.
The deputy’s eyes widened when he heard the sheriff. He asked, “Do you want us to bring him in?”
“I’ll need to call the doc and see when he’s going to be released first.”
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Troy gingerly pulled his boot laces tight and tied them in the familiar knot. He had been in the hospital two long weeks and he was going stir crazy staring at the walls and wondering if Phil may still be alive on the mountain somewhere. It was surreal to think that one of his best friends was dead, possibly the other. Attacked by a beast on the mountain that nobody believed existed.
He slowly straightened back up and began pulling on his red hoodie when Deputy Larson walked in accompanied by another Chastain.
“Mister Turner, I’m sorry, but I have to take you in for questioning sir.”
“What? What’s this all about, Deputy? Has there been any word on finding Phil.”
“No sir. Sorry. Nothing yet. I’m afraid I can’t tell you everything, but what I do know is the sheriff asked me to bring you over for questioning concerning the death of Craig Morton,” Larson said.
Siege at Hawthorn Lake: Murder on the Mountain Page 16