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Crime Junkie
WANTED: Michael Bullinger
00:44:31
When a pilot murders his wife, his secret lover and her daughter and then vanishes into the Wyoming wilderness, leaving his getaway car behind, a massive tri-state manhunt ensues for the family annihilator. Eight years later, there’s still no sign of Mike Bullinger and questions remain: did he use his survivalist and flight skills to launch a new life or did he meet his end in the forest? And why did he kill the three people he loved the most?
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The couch I bought for my first home was from Ashley. It was this little cream sectional that I sat on and wrote 12 different drafts of the very first Crime Junkie episode. I am still writing scripts on a couch from Ashley. This time it's the Elissa Quartz sofa. The machine washable, cushions are clutch, and no matter how many times I wash them, they look great. So trust this Ashley and get furniture from Ashley. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style. Hi, crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and I'm solo today. Well, not technically solo. I am with Maggie today. Now, if you're hearing this and not watching this, you might not know who Maggie is. This is your key to go check us out on YouTube. And if you are watching us on YouTube, then you know exactly who Maggie is. But anyways, even though Britt's not here, I didn't want that to stop me from telling you guys this story because the One I have for you today is so wild, it might sound like I'm describing the plot of this year's hottest blockbuster release, but I promise it's all true. And one of the biggest leads in the case came from a crime junkie just like you who trusted their instincts. And we might be just one crime junkie tip away from finally knowing what happened to the now infamous pilot who murdered his wife, his secret lover, and her daughter and then vanished into the wilderness. Did he meet his end in the forest? Or did this man use his survivalist and flying skills to launch a new life? Opinions are split, but we have brand new information that's never been reported before that might finally help determine where in the world is Michael Bullinger. July 12, 2017 is shaping up to be a typical work day for 17 year old Gina Hun. Gina helps maintain and clean campgrounds for her dad's management company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And this morning, she's tasked with weed whacking at the Pacific Creek campground. Now, before she leaves, Gina's dad's like, oh, hey, by the way, there is this abandoned car that someone dumped at campsite four, which I've been meaning to have towed, but, you know, for today, just kind of like work around it. And she does. But there is something about the white car at campsite four that she just can't shake. Part of it is the thick layer of dust on the windshield as if it's been there for weeks. But the other part is the context she has being a local. I mean, she knows this is grizzly bear country. So Gina worries that the owner of the car went hiking and then maybe got attacked in the woods, which isn't unheard of in this area. So after she finishes up all of her work, she walks back over to the car and just peers inside. Now, there's nothing too interesting. She sees a blanket, a hat, a disposable coffee cup. And she can't go snooping beyond that because the doors and the trunk are locked up tight. So, in true crime junkie fashion, because by the way, we talked to Gina and she is a legit listener of the show. I mean, like, not then. We didn't start the podcast till five months after this. But crime junkies, I always say, are born, not made. And by the way, hey, girl. So she snaps some photos of the car and its license plate to take back with her because there isn't a lick of cell service in this campground or really anywhere near it. But when she gets home that evening, Gina hops on the computer. And the first thing she looks up is missing hikers in the area. The second thing she googles is the license plate. And when she types out Utah license plate 129 umpire, her screen floods with headlines. Nationwide manhunt underway. Triple murder victims identified. Suspect in Idaho, Triple homicide. Last seen in Ogden. Might be driving a white Ford Focus. Trust your gut, folks. Sometimes it's nothing, but sometimes you break a case because who knows if anyone would have connected the dots otherwise? So she flags this for her dad, who in turn calls the police. And we don't see this every day, but here, all law enforcement agencies are picking up the phone and talking to one another, sharing information. So by that same night, police investigating a triple murder in Canyon County, Idaho, seven hours west, know that one of the cars they put into NCIC a few weeks ago in connection to their suspect was now has been found. Idaho authorities asked them to secure the car ASAP while they get on the road and start writing a search warrant. And in the meantime, an Idaho detective sends a bullet point memo to the Wyoming authorities to get them up to speed on the crime that they're investigating. And the fugitive that they're looking for, Michael Bullinger. And we actually obtained that memo. It reads, quote, there is not a clear motive, but it appears Bullinger suddenly, uncontrollably and explosively snapped over something. There is a love triangle. Most grisly crime scene he has investigated in 20 years. Bodies were dumped in a pile, all shot in the head, covered in hay in an outbuilding. End quote. Now, there's a lot packed into this memo. So let me break down for you exactly what I've come to learn about the crime scene in Idaho and everything that led up to this getaway car discovery. So three weeks before, on June 18, a deputy out in Caldwell, Idaho, had been sent out to do a welfare check on a guy named Gerald Michael Bullinger, who goes by Mike, and his wife Cheryl. Now, Mike's son had called in and said that no one had been able to get a hold of his dad or his stepmom who live in Utah, but they'd recently bought a house in Caldwell. So, Mike, they're thinking maybe they're there, like, could someone go and check? Because it wasn't a quick trip for the son who lives way down in New Mexico. Now, when the deputy pulls up to this house, he sees that there are cars in the driveway, everything looks in order, but nobody answers the door when he knocks. So he leaves. But the very next day, the same department gets another welfare Check to the same address, but this time it's a woman named Tammy calling from Utah. And she said that she was worried about her friend Nadia and Nadia's teenage daughter, Peyton, because no one can get a hold of them. And both have stopped posting on Facebook. And apparently Nadia is like a prolific Facebook poster. So this is cause for concern. Now, Tammy tells police Nadia and Peyton just moved to Caldwell from Utah with Nadia's boyfriend, Mike Bullinger. Now, no one knows what's what at this point. They just send another deputy back out to the house. Again, they knock. No answer. Car's still there. But this time the deputy decides to have a look around the property. And when he makes his way out back near a shed, he gets a whiff of that very distinct odor known to most in law enforcement. Decom. That is enough to at least open the door to the shed. And right away he spots them. Three bodies. Now, because of how decomposed they were, he can't say who they are or even if the people he's looking at are men or women. But of course, detectives are running the license plates of the cars that are at the house and taking into account the welfare check calls. And so they're pretty sure that these three people are gonna end up being Mike's wife, Cheryl Baker, Mike's girlfriend, Nadia Medley, and Nadia's daughter, 14 year old Peyton Medley. Police end up getting a search warrant for the house and the rest of the property, kind of expecting to find Mike's body, too, thinking this is some kind of murder suicide situation. But Michael isn't there. Meaning instead of murder suicide, they have a mass murder and a fugitive on the run, one who has had a big jump on them and who left little behind in the way of clues. I mean, there's no note and no murder weapon, even though it's clear that all three died of gunshot wounds, shot exactly where they were found, and not even the family pets were spared. Family members that we interviewed said that some caged birds found in the house had died, though it's unclear how. But it is clear he shot the family dogs in what Sheriff Donahue with the Canyon County Sheriff's Office believes was an effort to prevent them from attracting any attention to the crime scene. Because even though their house in Caldwell, Idaho, was on the outskirts of town, I mean, it's still within the greater Boise metro area. So there were neighbors to the half acre property. According to past reporting by the Associated Press, one of those neighbors told police that she thought she heard gunshots about 10 days before she Also thought she heard a woman's scream sometime between June 6th and the 10th. And it was like early in the morning whenever she heard it. And that lines up with the timeline that they start to build and what the coroner gives them, which is that the victims, who they confirm are 56 year old Cheryl Baker, 47 year old Nadia Medley, and 14 year old Peyton Medley. The coroner said they were all shot in the head, likely on June 8 or June 9. Now, the other thing that's come into focus through interviewing everyone is that Michael Bullinger was living a double life. One at this house in Caldwell where he moved with his girlfriend Nadia and her daughter and was playing pseudo stepdad. And then another life in Ogden, Utah, as Cheryl's husband, planning a retirement together. And the truth of this shocks everyone when they find out. Cheryl's brother told our reporter that he thought the two of them seemed pretty happy. Cheryl was Mike's second or maybe third wife. I've actually seen police reports that say Cheryl was his third wife, but I haven't been able to find any proof of a second wife. But either way, Cheryl and Mike had been together for like a decade and married about five years. And in that time they enjoyed plenty of hobbies together, like hiking and rafting. They seemed to genuinely enjoy one another. But for at least the last two years, Mike had been secretly dating Nadia. One of Nadia's relatives told us that she had no idea Mike was married. He says they met because Nadia was a massage therapist and Mike had been her client. And Nadia sure didn't act like their relationship was a secret or anything. I mean, everyone in her life knew about Mike. And Nadia had pictures of him all over her Facebook page. Now, cheating, not totally a new concept for Mike. His first wife, Jackie, told the Idaho Statesman that Mike had cheated on her, too. And some believe that Cheryl had even begun to suspect it in the time leading up to her death. And Jackie even made allegations to that same news outlet that Mike had been physically abusive toward her. But still, he doesn't have much of a criminal history to speak of. So how does someone go from affair to murdering three people, one of whom isn't even one of the women you're tangled up with. One of them is a child. I don't know if anyone but Michael will know exactly what happened in that house or in that shed back in June of 2017, but investigators have a pretty good theory. Theory of what happened. According to property records, Michael and Cheryl bought that Idaho house that spring. He sold this to Cheryl as a place that they could eventually move to a place where they could enjoy their retirement, which was right around the corner. But what Mike actually wanted it for was his other little family. Because according to neighbors and Facebook posts, shortly after purchasing it, Nadia and Peyton moved in and they thought they were living with Mike. Now, maybe Mike was going back and forth to keep up this ruse, but, like, how long could this have worked? Eventually, Cheryl is going to want to move in, or at a minimum, visit the house in Idaho. It was inevitable that his two worlds were going to collide. It was just a matter of when. And when came sooner than he ever planned.
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No one knows why Cheryl showed up unannounced at the house in Idaho in early June. Cheryl's siblings said that she had prior plans that week to be at a religious event out of town. But like, something must have changed. Was she suspicious like her brother thinks she was? Or was she trying to just surprise her husband? Either way, when she arrived on either June 8th or 9th, all of Mike's lies were exposed. What was said, how long it took him to make up his mind about what he was going to do, nobody knows. But somehow, at some point, he marched all three women to the shed and executed them. And after he had time to gather his things and make a plan, he grabs a bite to eat. Before becoming the most wanted fugitive across multiple states, he enjoys a solo sit down breakfast at a local Caldwell joint called the griddle on June 10th. And then after breakfast, Mike drives back to his other house that he shares with Cheryl in Ogden, Utah. This is like a four and a half hour drive. And it's confirmed he did this through surveillance cameras that captured him. What we know is that he leaves his pickup truck there at the house, hops on a bicycle, and then rides that bicycle to a nearby car dealership where he picks up Cheryl's white Ford Focus that was being serviced. Now, the next morning, a text message is sent from Cheryl's phone to one of her longtime friends. But her family and the police firmly believe that it was Michael who who was sending that message. And it said, quote, take care of my dogs. I don't know if I'm coming back. End quote. Now, at this point, Cheryl's family was already worried about her, but this text sent off a frenzy among them because none of this was like her. She wasn't the type to up and leave on a whim, or if she were going to. She had far more care for the people in her life than to leave them behind wondering what happened to her. She was a Buddhist and a beloved teacher. She started out her career at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind and later taught art school. She loved her students and making quilts for her loved ones. And she spent all her free time rafting rivers or hiking with her dogs. Now, no one knows why Mike did this truck to bike to car switcheroo in Utah, but I assume it's because he knows that these bodies are going to be found any minute and he wants to be in a car that isn't registered directly to him. Not that the car of the wife you just murdered is any better, but I don't know what he's thinking at this point. But police say that Mike, after he sent that text message from his wife's phone, drives five hours away, where he's caught on surveillance cameras again entering Grand Teton national park through the Moran entrance in Wyoming. That is at 10:34am on June 11th. And he's still in Cheryl's white Ford Focus. Now, what's really interesting is where he entered the national park. You can get to the campground where his car is eventually found by our crime junkie Gina in about 30 minutes. But when we interviewed the campground host, Paul, he said that he first noticed the car on June 23, and as far as he knows, it sat there until Gina blew the whistle on July 12th. Now, granted, it's not like he had his eyes on it every single minute of every single day. He worked a lot of campgrounds and would pop by this one, like, once or twice a week. But he told us that sometimes hikers park in campsites, not realizing that they need to pay the camping fee if they wanted to park there overnight. So he left a note on this car's windshield. A few days later, he leaves another note. But he never did see anyone in or around the car. So the real question to me isn't even if this car moved after June 23rd, like, I think the answer is no. To me. The real question is, where was the car and Michael between when he entered this park on June 11th and then when his car first gets spotted abandoned on the 23rd? But that is still a mystery. No one has him on any other surveillance cameras that we know of. And there are no other sightings of him in that time frame. But that's the window of time when the bodies are found and when a BOLO went out for him in the state of Idaho. Now, who knows if he had access to the Internet or news at that time? But I do find it interesting that the triple murders start to get splashed all over the news around June 1st, 20th or so, and then Mike's car gets abandoned just a few days later. So all of this brings me to the moment I have been dying to tell you about what they found inside his car. And this is exclusive, brand spanking new information. Our reporter, Emily has been working on this case for literal years. I mean, before she was even at Audio Chuck. She covered this area of Jackson Hole for a local newspaper, and she got these details back in 2017, but it was off the record then, and she has been sitting on it this whole time. But patience paid off because during her reporting for this episode, Sheriff Donahue gave us permission to finally share all of this. So I'm actually going to read directly from an investigative report which gives the results of the search warrant. One, the trunk Compartment of the Ford Focus was opened and it contained a full complement of camping equipment. 2. The camping inventory, sleeping bag, tent cot, day pack, survival gear, matches, fire starter, space blanket and first aid kit, blue plastic tarp, outdoor clothes, boots, an all purpose utility tool, and two water bottles. One was full of water and the other was empty. No food were present in the trunk or inside the car and there was an empty cooler in the trunk. 3. Tucked just inside the trunk compartment was an empty leather holster that once protected a handgun. The missing handgun from the leather holster appeared to have been a large revolver. 4. Conspicuously located inside the trunk compartment was all the personal identifications belonging to Gerald Mike Bullinger. This included his wallet full of personal documents, a laptop, nearly $3,600 in cash, and his Utah driver's license. All of this was found in Bollinger's brown canvas day pack. Also in the day pack was a.357 revolver in a holster. The pistol was fully loaded.5. Remarkably, left behind in the trunk of the Ford focus were all three murdered victims, smartphones and Bullinger's own smartphone. 6. Also left behind in the trunk, which unequivocally tied Bullinger to the homicide crime scene. Two women's purses. One purse with Nadia Medley's personal identification and the other purse with the identification of Cheryl Baker in wallet, both of the murdered adult female victims. Now, Sheriff Donahue would not confirm if the gun that was found in the trunk was was the murder weapon. All he would say is that the murder weapon has been located and it was found outside of the state of Idaho. Now, the car, the trunk or whatever is an easy conclusion to jump to right of where they could have found it. But I think it's a good reminder to tell you that Michael's house, where he dropped his truck off, is also outside of the state of Idaho. So is that where he picked up all that survivalist gear and cash? Or did he make other stops that we just don't know about at other places where a gun might have been left? Whatever the case, it's the empty gun holster that they found that makes them believe wherever Mike is now, he is quite literally armed and dangerous. A massive manhunt gets underway for Mike in northwest Wyoming. And to prepare for the searches, authorities are gathering intel from Mike's friends and family. And they learn some very interesting things. First of which is that Mike grew up in Billings, Montana, and he has extensive family there. And fun fact, pull up a map. If you drive from Ogden, Utah to Billings, Montana, where are you going to Pass through. If you take a route that avoids major highways, why, right through western Wyoming, Jackson Hole in particular. And the authorities find out that Mike was actually registered to attend a motorcycle event in Billings that took place June 26 to June 30. The dude had no issue throwing back some eggs and sausage. Right after killing his wife, girlfriend, and a young girl, he treated like a stepdaughter. How far fetched is it to think that he dumped his car around June 23rd when it's first spotted and then somehow made his way up to Billings where just in time for this event. And one more fun fact. While Michael did have a motorcycle that was left at his house in Utah, according to an internal police bulletin that we obtained, it stated that Mike also had access to another unknown motorcycle. I wish I had any more information on that, but I don't. Now, I don't know how deeply they look into this motorcycle event to see if he showed up or if they would even know, but I know they did go search his parents house in Billings and they found no sign of him there, Though I'm not sure when those searches happened. Mike's family members have never spoken publicly and they didn't return any of our calls. His son Bryant did text Emily back, but he declined to do an interview. Now, the other thing they learn about Mike is that he is a career pilot who can fly almost any type of plane. He also has experience as a backcountry wilderness guide, specifically in Montana. And guess where else? Northwest Wyoming. In fact, his son Bryant told police that his dad's favorite place is the thoroughfare, which straddles the southeast corner of Yellowstone National Park. And when I looked this up, I have never heard of a better place for a fugitive to hide. The thoroughfare is the most remote place in the United States outside of Alaska. You can only get there by foot or horseback. And there are ranger cabins just kind of like dotted for miles along the river. So with that intel, the FBI, US Marshals, park rangers, forest service, and local cops all set out to find this 60 year old fugitive. They deploy four different K9 teams. They close down roads and they set up checkpoints, evacuate the nearest subdivisions to the campsite, and search every house, garage, crawl space and shed looking for this guy. They also check flight logs at Jackson Hole airport, which conveniently is only like 20 miles away from where Mike left the car. They're also checking tail numbers of private planes to try and see if Mike could have gained access to one of those in June or July. And they announce in the local news that if anyone picked up a hitchhiker in the past month who looked like Mike Bullinger, please call police. Hitchhiking is actually super common in this area even today because of all the rafting that happens on the river. They also send cops and rangers out on horseback and in helicopters with infrared to check the cabins out in the thoroughfare, half expecting to find Mike just like holed up with his gun. But despite those searches that continued around the clock day and night for days, all of it results in a whole lot of nothing. So if he's not there, where in the actual world could he be? By now there is an official warrant out for Mike's arrest and news of what happened is spreading far and wide. So hundreds of tips are coming in, both in Idaho and Wyoming. Which is great, but also not because Mike is one of the most average looking, 6 year old, 6 foot tall, 240 pound white guys with gray hair. Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr said that he looks like everybody's grandpa. Carr's Office alone worked 64 tips in those weeks. During the manhunt, someone reported seeing him in the produce section of the local grocery store at a Walmart in Michigan, at the Dairy Queen in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Most of them obviously turned out not to be him. Otherwise, I might be telling you a different story, but there was one credible tip that came in from a family who'd been out hiking near the Pacific Creek campground. That's where the Ford Focus was found, and they reported a strange interaction with a man on the trail in early July.
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Hi crime junkies. Whether we're piecing together clues or creating episodes, Ashley and I make important connections thanks to another partner in solving crime. T mobile 5G home Internet. With T Mobile Home Internet, getting set up and online is never a mystery. Plug in, power up and in 15 minutes you're connected. With their fast speeds, we can deep dive for answers and stay in the know. And don't worry about surprise endings. Your great price won't change for 5 years, guaranteed. I rely on t mobile 5G home Internet every day, but especially first thing in the morning when I go to check my email and inevitably find an email from Ashley with a brand new exciting case she's discovered and already started totally deep diving on with t mobile 5G home Internet. I know I can open a new search tab and start digging in right away too. Visit t mobile.com homeinternet to check availability guarantees monthly price of fixed wireless 5G Internet. Data exclusions like taxes and fees apply. Service delivered via 5G network. Speeds vary due to factor affecting cellular networks. Guarantee exclusions and details@t-mobile.com homeinternet when it comes to true crime, details matter. And the same goes for what's in your detergent. Tide Free and Gentle has a squeaky clean record. It's hypoallergenic and free of dyes, perfumes and irritants. And with its concentrated formula, just a little handles all the dirty work. That means less waste, zero extra water, and more care for the whole family. No compromises, no coverups. Just a deep, powerful clean you can count on. If it's gotta be clean, it's gotta be tide free and gentle.
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On July 1, a local district ranger, his wife and two of their teen kids are hiking on the trail that starts at the Pacific Creek campground. Now it's about 4:45pm when the ranger stops to cut down a tree that's on the path and his wife and kids decide to just keep going. And a little ways up the trail, mom and kids come across a gray haired man wearing a baseball hat and jeans. But most of his clothes are dirty, like he'd been out there for some time. The thing is, he isn't carrying a hiking pack or, or water or anything. Mom notices that this man turns his face away as they pass him and she says hello, but the man doesn't even reply. Now at the time she thinks his behavior is odd, but she doesn't really give it another thought until July 16th when she sees Mike Bullinger's picture on the news. She immediately thinks that is the man she saw on the trail. So, so she reports it to police. When asked on a scale from one to 10 how certain she was it was him, she said seven or eight. Now the problem with this sighting is snow. Even though we're talking about midsummer in July, the campground is at a high altitude, almost 7,000ft above sea level. And the trail goes up even higher from there. So if you tried to hike that trail, say in mid June when the car was found, you'd come across a ton of snow pretty quickly. And so if it is him, we know a lot of his camping and survival stuff is back at the car in the trunk. So this isn't a perfect lead, but it is the best lead they've had. And law enforcement considers this July 1st trail sighting legit. So they search that trail area extensively. During the manhunt, they do find a spot where it looks like someone started a campfire, but no Mike there, no gun, no piles of clothes or anything. So after more false sightings, the manhunt gets scaled way back towards the end of July, and police are left with three competing theories about Mike's whereabouts. One, he's hiding in the woods undetected. Two, he used the missing gun to take his own life, and they just haven't come across his body yet. Or three, Mike Bullinger somehow managed to leave the area, and the guy who was living two lives now has started a third somewhere without a thought given to the devastation he left behind. Now, I haven't talked much yet about Nadia and Peyton, and I want to, because this was a mother daughter duo who had a lot of life to look forward to. Nadia was a widow and raising Peyton on her own after losing her husband in 2014. And it's clear from her social media how much she loved her daughter. A few days before they died on June 3, Nadia posted a picture of Peyton showing off the makeup that she'd done for a Pride social media video. And Peyton was a typical teen girl. I mean, her Facebook is full of, like, moody selfies, and she loved animals, volleyball, writing, and soccer. One of Peyton's school friends told KUTV back then that she called Mike dad. So many people believe that Mike just got caught off guard by Cheryl and feeling backed into a corner, he snapped. But I don't know, I can't help but wonder if this was his plan the whole time or even if he was backed into a corner, why did he have to resort to murder? I mean, the man had cheated and gotten divorced before. Like, what happened this time? And I wanted to do more than just ask the question. I mean, there is something about family annihilators. I feel like I just have to get to the bottom of what were the signs? How do you know if there is potential for the man that you love to one day turn on you in the worst possible way? So we actually reached out to a forensic psychologist, Jeffrey Frazier, to get his take. Jeff says that Bullinger appears to have an insecure attachment style, which makes him highly reactive to potential public humiliation. I haven't touched on this yet, but Mike was actually brought up in an LDS household. Jeff says that people who are brought up in rigid religious households might lack coping skills when confronted unexpectedly. We don't know if that was the case for Mike, but if so, it leans more toward the theory that he was surprised and panicked. Now, the background with his first wife and the fact that he was in this second or maybe third marriage living a double life for so long also makes Jeff think that Bullinger Lacks empathy. So while most people might admit fault or ask for forgiveness or feel shame, Bullinger is more likely to be violent because he doesn't have those same barriers between a logical solution and homicide. Jeff actually brought John List up when we were asking him about Bullinger. And for those of you unfamiliar, in 1971 in New Jersey, John List killed his mom, his wife, and his three kids at their house and then disappeared. He assumed a new identity, got remarried, and went 18 years totally undetected. And when he finally did get caught, he said he was in major debt and just wanted to spare his family the shame of losing their New Jersey mansion. It's like White Lotus Season 3. Anybody? White of lots? Now, we don't know that Bullinger was facing any money problems. Sheryl and Mike were both employed. They didn't seem to have any, like, significant debt. But one of Cheryl's loved ones did tell us that Mike was pressuring Cheryl to put his name on the deed of the Utah house before they moved to Idaho, Almost as if he was worried he wouldn't be getting any of the cash from that sale. But Cheryl had said no. Now, something else I find interesting about Mike and all of his relationships is the fact that every woman he was with had very different religious beliefs. His first wife, Jackie, was LDS like Mike. Cheryl was Buddhist. Nadia was atheist. Now, Jeff, the forensic psychologist we interviewed, didn't have any strong theories about this, but I kind of wonder if this was Mike's way of making sure none of his overlapping lovers ever crossed paths socially. Now, over the next year, there are more sightings reported of Mike Bullinger around the country, but nothing noteworthy. The only thing that becomes of great interest to police doesn't happen until the summer of 2018. And this isn't a sighting of Mike. Someone hiking up the Pacific Creek trail finds a gun. This backpacker named Ben found it under a log in the creek. And it seems like a bit of a miracle, like the water and the light hit this thing just right, so that somehow he saw something shiny and then went digging for it, the thing is fully loaded, too. So he takes it with him, calls the sheriff's office the next day when they finally get cell service. And then as soon as Ben tells the deputy where exactly he found it and what kind of gun it is, the deputy has this, like, oh, moment where he's like, this could be Michael Bullinger's gun, the one that he took off with. It's a Ruger.300 and.57, which would fit in the empty gun holster. So Ben drops this gun off, and a detective contacts the ATF to search the serial number. And interestingly, the gun is registered to not Mike Bullinger, but instead to an older man who lives in Utah. Like, what are the odds? Now, when police reach out to the gun owner, he says that he bought the gun in 1980 in Utah, but he hasn't seen the gun in, like, 20 years. He said he sold it to someone, but he doesn't remember who. Now, the cops check out his story. They confirm as much as they can. Yes, he did in fact, buy it from a dealer in 1980 in Utah. But beyond that, there's no paper trail. But, like, in this country, there wouldn't be if it was a private sale. Now, this man seemingly has no ties to Michael Bullinger other than being about the same age and also living in Utah, in a town about 30 minutes from Ogden where Michael lived. And he says he has no idea how his gun wound up in Wyoming. Detectives checked with various agencies in Utah to see if the gun had been pawned. They even checked with the manufacturer, Ruger, to see if the gun ever made it back to them for maintenance. But no go. Now, something I learned during our research for this episode is that in the Mountain west, large revolvers are also known as bear guns. Basically, if you're going hiking in grizzly bear areas such as this, it is highly suggested that you carry a revolver for your own safety. Which makes me wonder. When Bullinger left his car, he might have grabbed that gun for his own safety safety, not necessarily to use it on himself. I mean, think about it. He's familiar with this area. He knows the grizzlies are active there, and he would have known that they're especially dangerous to encounter in June because they've been hibernating all winter, just woke up, and they are hungry af. But maybe it's just the weirdest coincidence of all time that this Utah gun that fits his empty holster shows up near an area where we also have the only potential credible sighting of him. A retired investigator that we interviewed who processed the gun says he thinks it looked like it had not been in the woods for a year. Essentially, it was, like, too clean looking. But to play devil's advocate, it's a stainless steel gun that was in a creek, and the reports note corrosion on the bullet. So, I don't know. We actually got some evidence pictures of the gun and Mike's holster that you can check out on the blog post for this episode. Listen, I'm no gun expert, so if you are, and you have a strong opinion on this. Find me DM me or email us tipsodiochuck.com in the end, while this gun is highly suspicious, police can't rule it in or out of this case definitively. So it kind of got logged into evidence, kept until 2020 when, for reasons unknown even to current investigators, it was destroyed. Maybe Emily reached out to the retired investigator who processed the gun, and he says he logged it into evidence, and as far as he knows, it is still sitting in evidence. But a different retired evidence technician made a report saying that the gun was destroyed in 2020, and when Emily reached out to him, he couldn't reach. Remember anything about the gun? The current detective says he's doing evidence inventory sometime soon, and he promises he will call us if he comes across the gun. If this gun was Michael Bullinger's, I think we would be able to say that he didn't die by suicide because they would expect there to be at least one missing bullet from the gun. But this one was fully loaded. So still, just to be sure, a few days after this gun was found in August 2018, cadaver dogs were taken to the area, and they did show interest in a spot up the trail, not as high up as where the gun was found, but actually closer to the spot that the family thought they saw Michael. So that week, the U.S. marshals came back to Jackson Hole and put together a task force of federal agents and local deputies to do another search up Pacific Creek Trail. Our reporter Emily actually got to tag along on this search and recorded audio of the whole thing, where a detective talks through what they're looking for and why and where. I'm actually going to be dropping that audio in our field notes in the fan club, along with some crime scene photos. So fan club members make sure you look for that. They end up searching a four mile radius that day, but nothing is found, which is hard for me to wrap my head around. Like, if he died out there in the wilderness, like so many people still believe, how have they done all this searching and found zero trace of him? Now, along this line, there are two leading theories, with the most popular one being that he died and his remains got scattered by the aforementioned grizzly bears. Another theory an investigator floated to us was that Bullinger started hiking up, hit snow, tried to cross the creek, and got, like, swept downstream. And the probability of this is really dependent on the water levels at the time. The water would have been high in June 2017 from snow runoff, but his body would have likely gotten Caught up in some brush in the creek along the way. I mean, you would think that if that happened, someone would have eventually found him. Unless the stream took him all the way to the Snake river, which is where Pacific Creek dumps out. But that is miles and miles downstream. And you know what? Put the how aside, there is something else that bothers me more. Why? If he was planning to die by suicide, why not do it at the original crime scene or at the car? Why disappear first? This is a fact that. That really bothers the families of the victims, who, by the way, are split on the theories themselves. Some of them think he's likely dead. And then others told us that Bullinger was too egotistical to ever take his own life. And they believe that he straight up got away with murder. What if somehow he did get out and somehow he got on a plane? We know he's a pilot. That opens up a lot of doors. He could be anywhere. Sheryl's brother told us that Bullinger flew planes both commercially and privately. And his clients in the private sector were ultra wealthy and well connected. I think that's why some of them think, even though it's tough to make yourself go missing these days, that he could have pulled it off. And it doesn't seem like law enforcement has done much surveillance ever since making their suicide theory public. I do know they checked his phone. They confirmed that he did make some calls on the road around June 10, but Idaho authorities have been tight lipped about who he talked to or any digital data that they have beyond that. But something I want to toss out into the world in case it could be helpful. Here is a trick that a detective used in a different case that we covered earlier this year. He actually got a search warrant for the email of his prime suspect in case the suspect decided to talk to anyone about the crime. In the days after our episode dropped in the Bullinger case. I feel like a tactic like this could be useful in case he's made contact with anyone or in case he decides to. And who knows, maybe they're already doing this and they're just not sharing it with us. This case reminds me so much of the Travis Decker manhunt, which is unfolding right now. He's the father in Washington state accused of killing his three daughters before vanishing. The efforts being made to find him have been exhaustive. And a few months into searching, the authorities are just now scaling back those searches. And hopefully Travis gets found before it turns into a case like Mike Bullinger's, where we're talking about it. Years later, the Bullinger case is still open. Mike Bullinger is an active fugitive on the wanted list for the U.S. marshals Service. And if he turns up alive one day, Sheriff Donahue in Idaho says they are ready to prosecute him. If he is still alive, Bullinger would be 68 years old, an age that none of his victimsseryl, Nadia or Peyton got to see. And that's what's so heartbreaking. All of these women still had a lot of life to live. They had a lot to offer the world. Cheryl had just retired and sweet Peyton was only 14. And at this point, what everyone wants, family and police, is just some closure, some finality to this whole saga. Let's hope they get it one way or another. So if you know anything about this case, if you know anything about the whereabouts of Gerald Michael Bullinger, please contact the Canyon County Sheriff's Office in Idaho. And if you're hiking in Jackson Hole and find something that might be connected to this case in the Pacific Creek area of the Bridger Teton National Forest, call the Teton County Sheriff's Office in Wyoming. We're going to put all of the contact information in the show notes. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com and don't forget, if you want to listen to more episodes like this and all of our episodes completely ad free, plus extra episodes that have never been released. Be sure to join the Crime Junkie fan club. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok, rimejunkiepodcast and me, Ann Britt. We'll be back next week for a break. New episode Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. I think Chuck would approve.
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