by Kurt Winans
“Why, we’re starting to get a large group gathering down here. What’s the problem?”
“I think that I have four dead passengers up here. I’m not sure, but it looks as if they have all been shot!”
“That’s not funny dude! What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me, and I’m telling you that we have a real problem up here. I’ve got one chair with two people who failed to unload, which is why the lift stopped, and there is a massive amount of blood dripping down from them. Then I have another chair just short of unloading that had two people fall out of it after the lift suddenly stopped. Can you please call our boss and ask her what we should do while I try to keep the few other customers up here calm?”
“If you are messing with me dude, I’m going to kill you!”
The tone in his voice delivered the seriousness of his intent with total clarity as he replied, “Look dude, I’m not kidding around! I need some help up here, so call our boss right now or I will tell her that you refused to do it. Then call the ski patrol to see if you can get some of them from the Boulder lift up here to help me.”
The young girl of roughly fifteen was sobbing hysterically as members of the ski patrol lowered her to safety. She, and what she considered to be an elderly woman who had been seated beside her, were unlucky enough to have a front row seat to view all which had transpired within the past hour. Although the two had exchanged only a few words throughout the duration of the ride, their level of communication since the lift came to an abrupt halt had escalated dramatically. Neither had noticed any signs of trouble prior to that moment, but soon after their chair started swaying forward and back, the teenager began to unravel.
When the first of the men two chairs in front of them had fallen out and to the ground, there was more a thought of puzzlement than that of concern from the onlookers. He had certainly not been the first person to fall from a chairlift during the long history of this or any other ski resort, and he wouldn’t be the last. His fall from just short of the unloading ramp couldn’t have been more than fifteen feet into soft untracked powdery snow, so the thought of serious injury beyond that of his pride was hardly in question. But when he didn’t move after the fall, and blood on the snow became visible, that assessment quickly changed. At that moment the teenage girl let out her first cry of shock, but it was only the beginning. Within a few seconds the second man fell like a ragdoll to a spot just a few feet away from the first, and it became quite obvious that something was terribly wrong. Then the lift operator shouted toward them that it might take some time before the chairlift would start up again, so for who knew how long, they were effectively trapped.
In the many moments that followed, they had witnessed the arrival of several male and female ski patrol, followed by a Snow Kat carrying a few people who appeared to be higher up the Heavenly Valley Resort chain of command. Much to the dismay of the teenage girl, she was told by the woman in charge that it would be several minutes before the patrol personnel could lower either of them from the lift. The grown woman on the motionless chair understood that the first priority for those who had arrived was to inspect the bodies of the four who had apparently been killed, so she tried in vain to keep her youthful companion calm. As a consequence of tending to the victims first, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was then contacted and the site instantly became an active crime scene. Then members of the ski patrol, via the directions of the sheriff’s department, went about securing the perimeter with ropes running between a series of surrounding trees. The members of Heavenly management went about asking the few witnesses on the ground to stay where they were until they could talk to a deputy, and their request included the two ladies who might be able to shed the most light on what had happened.
The grown woman laughed loudly at the request, and then stated, “Where exactly is it that you think we would go? I wasn’t planning on jumping down from this chair, and I don’t think the young lady is either. So unless your staff members are going to get me and my new friend down from here, we couldn’t even think about going anywhere before speaking with the authorities!”
Looking up at the woman, the management representative nodded with arms out to her side, and replied, “Of course. That was silly of me. Please forgive me and thank you for your patience. We will try to get the two of you down as soon as possible.”
“That would be appreciated.”
Soon after that the younger of the two was being lowered to safety, and a moment later the grown woman was on the ground as well. Similar actions were being taken throughout the length of the chairlift, and at the decree of management, each person which had been stuck on the chair during the ordeal was given a voucher for a free single day lift ticket. Additionally, those waiting to board the lift were instructed that the chairlift might be out of operation for an hour or perhaps even the entire day. Therefore they could either drive their own vehicles or be shuttled on buses over to the nearby Boulder lodge and chairlift parking area.
At roughly the same time that the teenage girl was trudging up the hill past the two lifeless bodies toward the unloading area, Courtney was pulling into the small parking area of the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Carson Valley. After unloading all of her gear into the awaiting Tillman jet, she returned the rental car and walked back over to the plane. A few minutes later the Gulfstream G280 had been cleared for departure, so it roared down the runway toward liftoff and soon banked to the left to assume a southeasterly heading.
A moment later another Snow Kat arrived at the top of the Stagecoach chairlift with two sheriff deputies and a coroner. The male and female deputies began their investigation by conducting interviews with the lift operator and those customers who had been held at the top of the lift. In the meantime, the coroner confirmed the blatantly obvious fact that the two men who had fallen were dead. After subsequently learning that all living customers aboard the lift had been lowered to safety, he asked that the chairlift be put into a slow reverse for a moment. That was done so the two women who had failed to unload could be brought back around to the unloading point for easier identification. Once at the ramp, the coroner could quickly pronounce them as dead, and they could be subsequently removed by the deputies.
When asked if he had seen or noticed anything unusual during the time before the lift had stopped, the lift operator said, “No, not really. The lift had only been open for about forty-five minutes, and there weren’t very many people riding it yet.”
The deputy pressed with, “And with so few people, you didn’t notice anything unusual?”
“No sir. I mean there was that one woman with a large backpack, but other than that.”
“A woman got off of this chair wearing a large backpack?”
“Well she had to put it on after she unloaded, but yes.”
“Did she happen to say where she was going?”
“No sir. She didn’t say anything. She just put on her pack and skied away.”
“Which way did she go?”
“Like most of the people who unload here, to the right.”
That scrap of information, however small, had given the deputy something to go on. The backpack could mean nothing at all, but then again, four people were dead from obvious gunshot wounds. Understanding that the sheriff would want him to follow every possible lead, he turned toward the administrator from Heavenly Valley Resort, and stated, “I think that we may need your help. I would like to speak with any of your other employees who may have seen this woman with the backpack.”
After spending the better part of the day visiting various locations around the south shore, including an old lunch spot which was unbelievably still in business, Heath felt strangely relieved by having done so. For whatever reason that perhaps only President Harwell had seen the need for, the past two full days in his youthful stomping grounds had provided Heath with an opportunity to obtain a certain amount of both cleansing and closure. As a result he felt more refreshed than he imagined a return
to Lake Tahoe would have made him, while the meeting of and spending time with Domonique had added another measure of pleasantness of the trip.
Upon his return to Harrah’s, Heath moved through the lobby area toward the elevators and overheard various groups of people discussing something bizarre. The disturbing topic which seemed to be on everyone’s mind was that two men and two women had been shot and killed while riding the Stagecoach chairlift on the Nevada side of nearby Heavenly Valley Resort. Apparently the news of the morning incident had spread like wildfire throughout the remainder of the day, and it was difficult for anyone to speak of anything different. One man within a group claimed to have heard of the shooting directly from an employee of the mountain, while another in a separate cluster mentioned that he had seen the dead bodies being brought down the mountain in sleds by four members of the ski patrol. Then there was a woman in yet another group who attempted to gain notoriety by stating that she had actually been on the Stagecoach lift when it came to an abrupt halt. Her accounting of the troublesome event included the telling that she could have easily been a victim herself, and that she and others had subsequently needed to be lowered via rope and harness from their dangling chairs.
Growing more curious as to whether there was any credence to any of those claims; Heath turned around and moved toward the registration desk. Then he asked one of the attendant’s, “Excuse me miss, but could you please verify something for me?”
Her response was courteous and professional, “I shall try sir. What can I help you with?”
“Well there seems to be a rumor that four people died today up at Heavenly. Lots of people throughout the lobby area are talking about it, and I was wondering if there was any truth to their claim. Do you know anything about it?”
“Yes sir I do. I’m afraid that those rumors are true. I don’t have any specific details to offer, but my manager informed us that something did happen at Heavenly today.”
After thanking the young lady for her honesty and help, Heath headed for his room to get cleaned up for dinner. He didn’t think much of the unfortunate incident on the mountain other than news of it could provide another topic of conversation during the upcoming evening. As he stood in the shower, Heath wondered if Domonique and her friend had seen or heard anything about it while enjoying their final day of skiing.
True to his word, Heath once again showed up at the restaurant of their choosing a few minutes early, and as he couldn’t wait to see her again, eagerly awaited the arrival of Domonique. A short time later while seated at a table for two, Heath checked his watch and noticed that much more than the five minute cushion he established via an early arrival had passed. Domonique certainly wasn’t overly late, but she had been precisely on time the previous evening. Additionally, his unobstructed view of the entrance foyer to the establishment and beyond revealed no evidence of her pending approach.
After another ten minutes had ticked away, the waiter came by for a second time and asked, “Are you sure that I can’t get you anything while you wait sir? Perhaps you would like something to drink from the bar?”
Looking up at the young man, Heath replied, “No thanks. I’m sure that my dinner companion will be along shortly.”
It wasn’t until fifteen more minutes had passed, thus making Dominique a full half hour late, that Heath began to wonder what had happened. He didn’t want to believe that he had been stood up, but perhaps he had badly misread the signals of the previous evening when they had said goodnight. Heath thought about all that had transpired between them, and that they had both seemed to enjoy a few nice hours together before parting company.
Domonique had given him the impression during both that time and the initial brief meeting of the previous night that she was a woman of honesty who was not afraid to tell things like they were. Therefore if she didn’t want to join him for dinner again, she probably would have just said so. Following that line of reasoning, it was fairly logical for Heath to assume that Domonique hadn’t intentionally stood him up. He quickly dismissed the idea of it, which unfortunately brought forth another thought process to consider. That contained other less pleasant possibilities, with one of those alternative explanations, however unlikely, being something which Heath didn’t wish to entertain.
Heath had relinquished the table while thanking and tipping the server for his patience. Then he had stood outside the restaurant for another thirty minutes while scanning the surrounding area in the hope of spotting Domonique. She was nowhere to be seen, and for some nagging reason within his gut, Heath knew that something just wasn’t quite right.
By way of the front desk at Harvey’s Resort Casino, Heath asked the attendant to call Domonique’s room. There was no answer even after an elongated attempt of multiple rings, so Heath thanked the young man for his effort and walked back through the underground tunnel toward Harrah’s. Once there he checked with the front desk to see if any message had been left for him, which also produced nothing. Feeling that perhaps it would be necessary for peace of mind, Heath then drove his rental car less than a mile over to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department. Upon presenting his credentials to the deputy who was currently on front desk duty, he requested a meeting with the Sheriff.
A few moments later, while in the course of an introductory handshake, the Sheriff stated, “It’s nice to meet you Agent Bishop. Welcome to Lake Tahoe. Now I’m sorry to seem unhospitable, but in the event that you haven’t heard, we had an incident up at one of our local ski resorts this morning. My deputies and I are very busy trying to work the case, so I don’t have a lot of time to visit right now. Is this just a courtesy call as one law enforcement agency to another, or are you here in some professional capacity for the Secret Service.”
Understanding that the Sheriff and his staff didn’t need full disclosure with regard to Heath being a member of the President’s personal detail, he quickly decided to provide a measured response of, “Thank you sheriff, it’s nice to meet you as well and I appreciate that you took the time to speak with me. And no, I’m not here as part of an advance preparation purpose for a dignitary’s visit if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Alright, so then why are you here?”
“Well sheriff, I’m on vacation and I heard about what happened up at Heavenly. I was just thinking that perhaps I could help your investigation in some way.”
“That’s a nice offer Agent Bishop, but I don’t see how.”
“Well that’s difficult to pinpoint at this time sheriff, but I was hoping that you and your staff could share some information with me. You never know, it might lead to something tangible.”
Although some men would feel insulted or threatened by the implication that he and his staff could possibly need help from an outside source, the sheriff was not one of them. He was secure enough in his job to know that often times more than one viewpoint could be beneficial. Based on that enlightenment he seized the offer of free assistance and replied, “Alright Agent Bishop, since you’re willing to help, let’s see where that might lead.”
Throughout the next few hours they discussed what information had been obtained via interviews with various employees and customers of the resort. The location of the various kill shots had been determined as a result of seeing the evidence while lowering customers to safety from the idle chairlift, but those and other people on the chair could add nothing of significance. However there had been a few employees who had witnessed something out of the ordinary, so the Sheriff and his deputies were pursuing that lead.
When pressed on the matter, the sheriff revealed to Heath that four employees had remembered a woman with a large backpack. The first was the young lady in the ticket booth who stated that the woman in question was her first customer of the day, while the other three were the lift attendants at both the base and top of the chairlift. All four separately confirmed that the woman with long blonde hair was wearing an outfit which was nearly all white, and two of them stated that she claimed the contents o
f the pack was a tripod and some bulky camera equipment. Apparently the woman had also professed that she was headed for the higher altitude Dipper chairlift to take a series of photographs, but no employees at that or any other chairlift could confirm seeing her.
Heath realized that the woman in question was probably the best lead as being the shooter, which led to his inquiry about the identification of the victims. He was informed that the two male victims had been quickly identified via their respective season passes, and that family members in Minden had been notified. As for the two women, nothing was known about them. Although they had each been fingerprinted and had a DNA sample taken, the computer database had not returned a match for either of them yet.
With the uneasy feeling returning to his gut, Heath asked, “Would it be possible for me to view the bodies?”
Then while being driven to the morgue by a young deputy, a call from the sheriff came over the radio. He reported that a match for both of the female victims had come back, and upon hearing the name of each, Heath cringed in response.
Noticing the obvious negative reaction of his passenger, the young deputy asked, “Did you know those women sir?”
“Only one of them, we were supposed to have dinner tonight.”
A short time later Heath entered the morgue with the deputy, and then confirmed the identity of Dominique. His action was now moot due to the fingerprint match, but based on the intact left side of her face and a small mole just below the left ear, there was no doubt.
For Heath, Lake Tahoe had reared its ugly head again. Just like many years into his past, a woman whom he thought that he could possibly care about had been needlessly taken away. He felt the pain of that awful New Year’s Eve resurface within him while remembering that he was powerless to investigate how she had died. As the years passed he had learned to live with that reality, but he didn’t want to suppress the feelings of the current moment like he had done before. What would help Heath with that course of action was clear for him to see, as the difference between then and now was that he might be able to do something about how this case would be handled.