Loading summary
Transcript46 lines
- [00:00]
A
One thing I've learned about habits is that they usually sneak up on you. You don't realize you're doing them until you try to stop. That's especially true with vaping and smoking. Sometimes it's not even about wanting nicotine, it's just your brain going, this is what we do when we're stressed or driving or take a break. That's why I like what Fume is doing. Fum is a flavored air device designed to help people quit vaping and smoking by breaking that hand to mouth pattern. There's no nicotine, no vapor, and no batteries. It's just a really well made device that gives your hands and your brain something else to reach for when those automatic moments pop up. I genuinely appreciate that it doesn't feel like a cheap gadget. It's weighted, satisfying to hold, and the kind of thing that you would just catch yourself reaching for to fidget with. That's kind of the whole point. You're creating a new routine instead of relying on willpower alone. The flavors are great too. Crisp mint is fresh and clean and Spearmint ice has a nice cooling flavor without being overpowering. Over a million people have already used Fume to quit differently. Join them today and grab a Journey Journey pack. Plus get a free gift with purchase when you use my code Crime Scene addiction is really good at saying later. Don't let it head to try fume.com that's T-R-Y-F-U-M.com and use the code Crime Scene for a free gift with your first purchase. Thank you to Fume for sponsoring this episode. Everyone in the town of Redway, California thinks they know what happened to her. And 10 years later, there are still no answers. In August of 2016, Humboldt county resident Stephanie Gaboy was found dead face down on her massage table. Her death rocked the small Northern California town and everyone has theories about what happened to her. Still, there are no arrests. Welcome to Crime Scene, the show where we tell the stories behind the world's most unforgettable crimes. And this week on the show, the case of Stephanie Gaboy, a free spirit who found her people in the Northern California hinterlands. And at a time of extreme violence in the region, a gentle soul was murdered execution style in her own home. From Sony podcasts and the binge this is a story we're calling Murder in Redway. Hey all, welcome to Crime Scene. My name is Jonathan Hirsch and each week on this show we in three acts will dive into the most shocking and complex true Crime stories of our era. And each week I am joined by my friend and fellow documentarian, Cooper Maul. Hi, Cooper.
- [02:44]
B
Hey, Jonathan.
- [02:45]
A
Don't forget this show is a part of the Binge, which is our true crime network that I head up where you will hear Cooper from time to time. And each month we bring you a new limited true crime series. Go to getthebinge.com to find out more. Cooper, this story we've been talking about for a long time, the one we're going to cover today. This case has haunted me since the first time that I encountered it, in part because I've grown up in Northern California and in the Bay Area and I feel like I know these people. But also this is like so many small town murder stories, a case that feels like we could solve it if just a few people came forward. And I'm actually hoping that this podcast will be the thing that compels some people to help us find some answers. There is still so much that we don't know.
- [03:35]
B
Yeah, I know you've talked to me about this case quite a bit and I'm looking forward today for you to just lay the facts out to me. If I really only heard bits and pieces throughout your reporting.
- [03:45]
A
And this is a lesser known case. So I feel like some of y' all are going to be hearing this for the first time and I hope that you can dig in with us and we can raise some awareness about what happened to Stephanie.
- [03:57]
B
Let's get into it.
- [04:04]
A
So before we get started, this is a case that is actively being investigated. This is a case that I am actively reporting. So we're going to be very careful not to reveal sources or explicit names or out people who are involved in this story in any kind of way where we don't have to so that you can learn about this case. Some of this stuff is public record and it's out there. But out of an abundance of caution, we are kind of going out of our way to not name people here. But a lot of this stuff is coming from source material that we're reporting on actively. Stephanie Gaboy was shot on or about August 12, 2016, and then for five days nobody noticed that she was gone. This is kind of the first strange thing in a case that's made of strange things. This woman was shot. She was 52 years old. She was a massage therapist who'd worked out of her home for 25 years. And she was a fixture in the community. She was a regular at the Kettlebell class in town. She was reliably and lovably, always a little bit late. According to some of her friends, she was an environmental activist and people in that valley had known her for many, many years. She was not a person who would vanish necessarily for five days and her absence not be noticed. And yet, the morning of Wednesday, August 17, a man named Jordan, everyone in town calls him Jordan Jumpshot. He comes by her place on the hundred block of Redway Drive. He worked at the local community radio station K MUD and he'd sometimes stay and shower at Stephanie's place. He had an open door to come into her place whenever he wanted. And on this day, things were a little bit off. The gate was ajar, the door to her house was open. Both were unusual for her. And inside he found Stephanie face down on her massage table in what he would later describe as an unusual position. He touches her leg and it's cold. And here's something that I just can't stop thinking about. It's from an interview that he gave with the local radio station about finding her. He said, I thought this is a massage dummy. I looked over on her side of the room to see if it was a joke. Then I saw that there were blood on both sides of her neck in a straight line on either side of the table. It's chilling. He thought it at first was a suicide. He didn't want to disturb her, so he leaves. He goes to get a cup of coffee. He goes back to the radio station K MUD and tells his employer and Stephanie's neighbor that something bad had happened. They call 911 and while they're on hold, they drive back to the house. And they're both there when the sheriff's deputy and the deputy coroner arrive. Cooper, I want to talk about these five days and I wanna talk about Jordan because I have a sense of what the audience is thinking about this guy.
- [07:30]
B
Yeah, I think what a lot of people are probably thinking is he did it, he discovered her. Then he goes and leaves to grab of coffee. Which timeline wise is. Is a little bizarre. Right. However, I also know when people are in traumatic, unsettling, scary circumstances like this, your brain kind of short circuits and who knows, you might've just been in a total freeze response and just.
- [07:58]
A
You can do strange things in those moments. And to be clear, Jordan has never been charged or publicly indicated to be a suspect in this case. And the people who know him describe somebody who was genuinely wrecked by what happened to Stephanie. So I don't want to imply at all that he was involved. It's just A strange detail, you know, when you're first encountering this case, that somebody would see a cold body, clearly recognize that they were dead, and then go get a cup of coffee.
- [08:31]
B
Yeah. Not immediately. Call 91 1.
- [08:34]
A
Exactly. So word to the wise, y'.
- [08:36]
B
All.
- [08:36]
A
If you encounter somebody who appears to be dead, the first thing you do is call the authorities. And just a one more point about Jordan from some of the people who knew him in town. One of my sources had said that, you know, this was somebody who was in and out of different living situations, was at the station a lot. He would DJ from time to time. He was on and off again there. This was not necessarily somebody that people thought of as a violent character at all. He was a pretty gentle person. Let's go back to that Wednesday. The sheriff's office initially fields this as a possible suicide, but the coroner on the scene determines very quickly that it's not. By the next day, August 18th, the Humboldt County Sheriff, Mike Downey puts out this release that A woman, approximately 52, was found deceased in her residence with what appeared to be a gunshot wound. The death is being investigated as a homicide. They withhold her name, which is sort of customary procedure in situations like this, until they're able to notify the next of kin. Press release calls it the seventh homicide the department is investigating that year. Here's an interesting detail that both makes this case really compelling, but I think complicates the investigation a bit. People in Redway already knew what happened. You know, the news had already outrun the sheriff at this point, and Jordan had given an interview that morning on KMUD and detailed a great deal of what he had seen at the crime scene just hours earlier. And this is a small town, so everybody knew by word of mouth before too long. But it's not until the next Monday that the chief deputy coroner confirms Stephanie's identity. The autopsy is performed that day, and her name is formally released on August 23rd. Stephanie Faye Gobboy. Detective Jen Turner is named as the lead detective. And there's a tip line that goes out with the release. This is where there isn't a ton of information in the form of police reports available and things like that. Like I said, this is an active investigation. But what we do know is that the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office spokesperson eventually indicated three years after her death, that Stephanie had died of three gunshot wounds to the head. Some local reportings have accounted for different numbers of gunshot wounds, but it's clear what happened here. She was shot in the head, and that is how she died. She was found on that table. What everyone though, does agree on is that this appeared to be a kind of execution style killing. And you'll actually find that word execution in the public record, in the comments, under the news coverage, Neighbors reaching for the same word independently of one another. So back to the beginning. Right after her death in week one, social media is lighting up with a description of a distinctive, heavily tattooed man someone supposedly seen at her house. The rumor moves fast enough and hot enough that the sheriff's office has to step in and publicly ask people to stand down. One of the spokesperson said, quote, please don't try to apprehend or confront anyone. This is like such a thing you'd imagine doing in a town where everybody knows everybody. Right? She was explicit that despite these rumors, the office had no suspect. And a few days later, this is August 26th, the Sheriff's Office clarified that the man with the facial tattoos everyone was whispering about had in fact been arrested, but on an unrelated out of state warrant. This is something I heard people sort of grasping at straws for when I spoke to them. So let's talk about the scene of the crime too. There appears to be some personal items that were taken, but police said they did not believe the killing was drug related. And I also want to note that in everything that the sheriff's office has ever said publicly about this, I have never seen a mention of forced entry. No busted door, no broken window. Like I said, door was ajar, gate was ajar. It appeared as though the door was already wide open. Or perhaps that whoever came into the room was welcomed in. That's what we know so far. Cooper, I want you to help me read this scene. There's no forced entry. Personal items may have been taken. And the official line is that this is not related to drugs at all. Like, what do you take from that?
- [13:39]
B
I mean, my mind immediately goes to, this is somebody she knew. Yeah, right. I'd want to know what kind, you know, did she have any enemies? Has she had a relationship that's gone sour? Does she owe anybody money? That's where my mind goes.
- [13:57]
A
And just to reinforce the possibility that this was kind of a situation you might not be able to read clearly at first. Some of her friends said that massage table, she would actually sleep on it. I know it might sound strange to some people, but every once in a while they'd find her resting or sleeping on the massage table. It's entirely possible if you take that account as word that Stephanie may have laid down on the massage table and gone to sleep.
- [14:28]
B
When I hear that she would routinely sleep on her massage table, I think, okay, somebody came in unforced. She's asleep. So there's going to be no sign of struggle. Right. She has less time to defend herself. I don't necessarily think somebody posed her face down. She could have just been sleeping. But it also makes me think back to it was probably somebody she knew.
- [14:55]
A
Yeah, somebody that she knew. Somebody that she may even had been intimate with. Some folks reported seeing her with a guy sort of in a couple of days before she went missing. And then, of course, her body was found. We'll come back to that. This case has haunted me from the very first time I encountered it, in part because of what happened to Stephanie and also the larger story that it tells. In 2016, that was the deadliest year in Humboldt county in three decades of modern recordkeeping. The time standards year end tally put it at 22 confirmed homicides investigated in this one county in a year. Stephanie was one of those 22 people. Case number 201, 604, 171. And after a decade, though, there's no suspect, no arrest, no known motive. I feel like for folks to understand how it's possible, how a beloved, visible woman can be executed in her own home and the trail just stops. I feel like you have to understand this county that she lived in, because what was going on around residents in Redway comprised a tectonic shift in the culture there. Coming up, Stephanie Gaboy was murdered in the cannabis capital of the world, Humboldt County. Could she have gotten caught up with the wrong crowd? Here's something kind of alarming. Apparently three out of four homes in the United States have toxic chemicals in their tap water. And the problem is contaminated water. Still looks completely clear. We're talking about things like chlorine, lead, forever chemicals, even microplastics, and a lot of standard pitcher or fridge filters. Don't remove most of it. That's why Aqua Tru caught my attention. Aquatru is a countertop water purifier that's tested and certified to remove 84 contaminants from your water using a patented four stage reverse osmosis purification system. And the nice thing is there's no plumbing or complicated installation. You just plug it in and use it. Aqua Tru has been featured in places like Business Insider and Popular Science and has even been named best countertop water filter by Good Housekeeping. Plus, 98% of customers say their drinking water is cleaner, safer, and healthier. Head to aquatrue.com and get 20% off your purifier using Promo Code Crime Scene. Aqua True even comes with a 30 day best tasting water guarantee. That's aquatru.com A Q U A T R U.com promo code crime scene I feel like one of the things that we don't think about enough is our bedding. We hang onto our sheets and pillows for years because they wear out so gradually you don't really notice how much they're affecting your sleep. I started noticing little things. My sheets weren't staying put as well. My pillows had definitely seen better days and my bed wasn't as comfortable as it used to be. So I upgraded with bowl and branch and honestly, it's made a much bigger difference than I expected. Their signature organic cotton sheets are incredibly soft and breathable and they somehow get even softer as you wash them. I also added one of their waffle blankets. And now my whole bed just feels cozy without getting too warm. Sometimes we think we need a new mattress, but what actually touches you every night can make the biggest difference. That's definitely been my experience. Upgrade your sleep with boland branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping@bolandbranch.com crime scene with code Crime Scene. That's Bolen Branch. B O L L A N D B r a n c-h.com crime scene code crime scene to unlock 15% off exclusions apply.
- [19:03]
B
Okay, so Jonathan, where we left it. Stephanie Goboy, 52 year old woman, massage therapist and longtime environmental activist. She's found shot to death, multiple gunshot wounds to her head, on her own massage table in Redway, California. She's found like what, roughly five days after she died. There is no forced entry, some of her personal items appear to be gone and police are saying it's not drug related. Despite her residence being located in Humboldt, California. Yeah, it's the deadliest year in the county's modern history and she was murder number 22. I guess I want to understand how her case went cold, but I also, in order to understand that, feel like I need to understand this place that this murder took place in.
- [19:56]
A
We do. Stephanie lived in the Emerald Triangle, Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties. And that name obviously comes from the amount of cannabis business that is done in that part of Northern California. As of 2023, Humboldt county has the largest cannabis farming industry of the three. And there are complicating factors here, right? Federally, at this time, it's still illegal to be in the weed business. So banks, which are federally Insured, Stay out of this. In fact, I remember reading reports of banks shutting down accounts that were cash only under the assumption in this region that they were probably in the weed business. They were very cautious about not getting into an industry that was not federally insured or federally legal. That means that people have cash, suitcases of cash, right? Money buried in the yard in a PVC pipe or whatever. And there's so much of this untraceable cash at this point. Because it's legal to grow, sell and buy marijuana in California at this time, the state permitted the sale and distribution of marijuana. The federal government did not. It's a very tricky place to be in. And where the laws do not permit you to bank, there is cash. Where there is cash, there are guns. And where there are guns, there is violence. So as a longtime grower once put it to a reporter, you don't have a way to solve financial disputes through the legal system because of the nature of the business itself. So a lot of people resorted to violence. And just really briefly, all of you binge fans out there, and those of you who are not familiar, there is an incredible series on the binge that digs into this world and called Emerald Triangle. It was hosted by journalist Sam Anderson. And he finds out that one of his high school classmates has been accused of murder in California. And he travels west to find out what happened. His reporting immerses him in the Emerald Triangle, the legendary home of these pot growers and hippies and outlaws. And he's trying to find answers to what happened. He embeds himself with trimmers, you know, people who work in that industry, and is also, you know, coming face to face with this kid that he knew growing up. Sam told me about this story almost a decade before he started reporting it with Truth Media and Mark Smerling. And it was such a journey for him. And an incredible immersive tale about a dangerous and complicated place, but also a very beautiful place. So I would encourage everybody to, if you're not already signed up to the binge, sign up now. But you gotta listen to this series. Emerald Triangle really gives you a sense of the place.
- [23:07]
B
If you're unfamiliar, it's no easy feat ingratiating yourself as a reporter into a community like this that is, you know, so tight lipped. There's a level of paranoia that everybody's operating under all the time, 100%.
- [23:20]
A
And I think both of us know Sam as an incredible reporter and journalist. And he worked hard to bring himself into these communities and to tell that Story. And, you know, to your point, Humboldt is kind of an island. You know, it's 3,568 square miles of land. It's pretty big. The surrounding counties are not nearly as large. Its 2020 census population is 136,000. For a space that wide, it's tucked behind what locals literally call the redwood curtain. It's isolated, self contained. It's the kind of place where, you know, things kind of stay the same for a while before outside attention moves in. You have to really make a trek to get out there, even if you live in California. Let me give you some of the numbers, too, because Humboldt is a county that gets sensationalized a lot. And I want to be careful there over the decade from 2009 to 2018. So this is when Stephanie was killed. Humboldt ranked 11th out of California's 58 counties for per capita homicide. Not first gun deaths specifically, though, for that 2012 to 2015 window, it tied Shasta county for the highest rate in the state. 17 per 100,000. So more than double the statewide rate. And back in 2010, one report ranked it the single most dangerous county in the state. So some of this is supported by the facts. Some of it, I think, is just characterization. The missing persons number you might have heard of before because there was a massive Netflix series about this region called Murder Mountain. Also. Check that out. If you haven't made it quite famous, it traces back to February 2018. There was an analysis done between 2000 and 2016. Humboldt averaged 717 missing persons reports a year per 100,000 residents. I mean, that is a staggering number. Nearly a thousand people per 100,000. And against that statewide number, which was 384, it was the highest per capita rate in California. So people go missing, but why do they go missing and are they found? The data is a little bit squishy. You know, it mixes myth and fact here. It just goes to show how the lore of this place has grown over time. So there is a counterpoint to all of this kind of scary Murder Mountain stuff. The local outlet, Lost Coast Outpost, spent years pushing back on this whole black hole mythology thing. And the thing is, these missing persons reports, California has one of the most liberal reporting standards in the country. And most of the people on that list are eventually found. And in Humble, which was one of the highest rates of found people in the state, a lot of that work is coming from the cannabis harvest. So people are coming in to the county to work in the industry, and then they're kind of Going off grid, they might be noted as missing persons. Like I was saying, there's, like, this liberal reporting standard where there's no waiting period before that person is designated as a missing person. So they could be gone for a couple of days. Days, and you could say as much. It doesn't diminish the fact that there was a lot of illegal activity happening in this county at this time. It was not a safe place to be in the weed business. Just talk to people up there and they'll tell you as much. But it also has reached this level of myth at this point that makes it hard to kind of really nail down what was going on. And I don't know if that helps us or hurts us in understanding what happened to Stephanie, except to say that a lot of people were involved in the weed business in different ways. So with all this context, Cooper, I think it's good to go back to Stephanie and just sort of understand now what was happening at the time. Six months before Stephanie died, February 2016, the county's commercial medical marijuana land use ordinance took effect. This is on February 26, 2016. It was the county trying to drag a shadow economy in to the light. They were permitting existing grows of up to 43, 560 square feet, one acre. And by the year's end, the county had taken around 2300 applications, so about 75% of them for existing operations. That is remarkable. The second they standardized this thing, it was like people came out of the woodwork. They were already doing the business. They just didn't have the place within which to do it. But I think the other piece of this is this was a massive operation in the county in comparison to other counties that were neighboring. So for scale, the mendocinos program allowed roughly 25 to 99 plants. Trinity capped it at about a quarter of an acre. Four times more was allowed in Humboldt. Humboldt was the center of this growing industry that was exploding once the state had legalized it. And one of my sources and I were talking about this, and he noted that there was this state proposition to legalize marijuana, Prop 19. It failed in 2010, and people were just growing anyway, like football field greenhouses, five and seven in a row, lighting up the night sky. Before 2010, a hundred plants was a mafia grow. By 2016, 100 plants became like the new mom and pop, which I thought was such a clean way of describing how the culture was changing there. You could have a hundred plants and be a mom and pop operation. Okay, so this economy is growing, but on the Law enforcement side. Something very unfortunate and dangerous popped up as a result of this. A proliferation of cold cases. In August of 2021, the Humboldt County Sheriff's office launched an unsolved cases database. It has 57 names in it going back to the 1950s, many of them more recent. And they only have sort of a rotating cast of retired investigators to volunteer to work on these cases. It's a tremendous backlog. And, you know, my sympathy is to that department as they try to actually make some headway on these cases. And unfortunately, Stephanie is swept up in that pile of unsolved cases in Humboldt County. But I think there's something else that's more frustrating about this situation. There's this wall of silence, and it runs in both directions. And I think it has to do with the industry out there. The sheriff's own missing persons lieutenant has said as much on the record that the cannabis industry transience drives the numbers. And some of the missing are homicide victims with no apparent leads and lack of witness quality operation on the county side, Person after person told me that the tips went nowhere. And so many people who came forward to speak with me when I reached out to people in the community had no interest in going on the record because they themselves were in some capacity involved in an industry that to this day is not fully legal. And just a clarifying point here, when I say that part of it is still illegal, I'm talking about the process of actually getting standardization to grow, getting these permits. A lot of people are growing without them anyway. But then I hear these little pieces of things as I'm looking into this case that bother me. One of Stephanie's closest friends, she was a regular massage client, saw her day in and day out. She told me she was never contacted by an investigator. When I called her up, she told me I was the first person that I talked to her about Stephanie. And I just worry that there are so many people out there who know something, who have not come forward for all the reasons that we just noted here and maybe others that I'm not thinking of. And you see this in the comments and the coverage of some of the stories on Stephanie, some of their friends. I mean, I saw one person say that they were an occasional client of Stephanie's and a longtime friend, and they were waiting for somebody from law enforcement to reach out to them. And then one of my main sources in looking into the story said he was out there pushing out posters into the local neighborhoods, talking to people in the community. He got cleared over the phone, was Never brought in for questioning. Never brought in to talk about his experience in his life with Stephanie. And let me tell you, he has theories. So you wonder how extensive the actual outreach to the community has been in a case like this. That same source said to me that Humboldt county reminded him a little bit more of Mayberry than the lapd. But just to be exacting here and maybe a little annoying, Sorry, everybody. I want to complicate that whole the cops did nothing narrative just a little bit, because the record shows they did do some things. In that April 2019 statement I mentioned earlier, several items were sent to the California Department of Justice for forensic analysis and that relatives, friends and associates were interviewed. The actual quote goes, several items were sent to the DOJ for forensic analysis based on the results of those tests. No suspect has been identified. A number of relatives, friends and associates were interviewed. So evidence was collected and tested. The forensics didn't point anywhere. And this is probably the most frustrating part for, you know, a cold case analyst. The same office has, in other cases, cracked decades old mysteries with exactly the same kind of DNA work. They partnered with a lab called OTHRAM and put a name to remains that had been unidentified for 25 years. A man that was pulled from the Eel River. So the capability does exist. It just hasn't broken for this one. And there is a community post I saw that says that the Humboldt County Sheriff's apartment is holding DNA samples in Stephanie's case. But no breakthrough has ever been announced, which is why she's a single line in this database at this point. She hasn't been totally forgotten. And it's one of the things that has kept me motivated to try to find some answers here. People in this community really loved her. They really cared about her, and they were devastated when she was killed in October of 2020 at a rally in southern Humboldt for missing and murdered indigenous people. Someone held up her photo and pleaded for justice for her by name. It turns out she was actually the daughter of Robert Gaboy, a champion swimmer and a member of the American Indian Athletic hall of Fame. So she was part Ojibwe. There are so many theories. Certainly the weed country theory gets a lot of credibility among people in that community that maybe she had a little low level side hustle and didn't pay people back. Robbery could have been involved if she lived near a sort of transient area that people could walk by her house. Maybe somebody knew that she had some money, had some weed, robbed her for it. There's no sign of a struggle because she Was asleep. Right. There's. These are some of the things that people have said to me. Stephanie had also had some conflict with her environmental work, and anonymous tips even nudged authorities to look at Big Ag, at Monsanto. There is no official support to that second one, by the way, but those theories are very alive in the town. And I'll tell you that some of the sources that are very close to her haven't really bought the whole robbery weed theory. There was just something personal about the way the house was left and the way that she was killed. That is haunting. And I hope that we can find answers for what happened to Stephanie.
- [36:34]
B
Yeah, there's something like. So like intimately violating about the scene, you know, there is.
- [36:41]
A
And it's such a crazy part of forensic work that you. Those intimate details say so much.
- [36:51]
B
Yeah.
- [36:51]
A
And it's the thing that oftentimes unravels the whole case, you know, and there is something so personal about that. I just. It bothers me. The door was open. She walks in, the front door is open. And the gate. And she's lying there. There's no struggle. If she had a pound of weed on the side of the bed there.
- [37:19]
B
Yeah.
- [37:20]
A
The massage table, they could have just taken it. And there's no reason.
- [37:25]
B
Yeah.
- [37:25]
A
That anyone would just struggle.
- [37:27]
B
And she was sleeping. Right. I mean. Yeah, someone's knocked out enough. I mean, people get robbed all the time and wake up. Like, someone came into my home. And that's absolutely terrifying. Right. That's like. But the Manson family used to do that. They used to, like, do the creepy crawling and stuff like that. Practice.
- [37:48]
A
But chills.
- [37:49]
B
I mean, there's some sort of motivation behind it we just don't know about. So it was just robbery. They just take the stuff. They saw a woman asleep, and then
- [37:57]
A
we were going to get to some of this, but, like, she was just to be clear, like, there was a factual dispute about this whole weed theory because she was, according to multiple people in the community, moving weed in a small amount. I mean, not that small, a quarter pound, according to multiple sources. One friend, unprompted, corrected me when I noted that and said that it was more like a few pounds. So it's not some massive industrial operation, but it's not nothing. That's a significant amount of marijuana to be selling and distributing. And in 2016, it was considered kind of small fry. It's not like kill someone money that we're talking about. It does make you wonder, though, the
- [38:55]
B
worlds that Stephanie is straddling here are all really fraught with your mind can go to so many different places. A conspiracy or just ideas of what could have happened. Whether it's the weed business, whether it's environmental activism, these are two worlds where it's easy to create enemies.
- [39:18]
A
And there were lots of theories about how all of this came together. And in the absence of any clarity from an investigative standpoint, those are the things that are circulating in the community even to this day. Coming up, what do people actually think happened to Stephanie? One thing I've learned about habits is that they usually sneak up on you. You don't realize you're doing them until you try to stop. That's especially true with vaping and smoking. Sometimes it's not even about wanting nicotine. It's just your brain going, this is what we do when we're stressed or driving or take a break. That's why I like what Fume is doing. Fume is a flavored air device designed to help people quit vaping and smoking by breaking that hand to mouth pattern. There's no nicotine, no vapor, and no batteries. It's just a really well made device that gives your hands and your brain something else to reach for when those automatic moments pop up. I genuinely appreciate that. It doesn't feel like a cheap gadget. It's weighted, satisfying to hold, and the kind of thing that you would just catch yourself reaching for to fidget with. That's kind of the whole point. You're creating a new routine instead of relying on willpower alone. The flavors are great too. Crisp mint is fresh and clean and spearmint ice has a nice cooling flavor without being overpowering. Over a million people have already used Fume to quit differently. Join them today and grab a Journey pack. Plus get a free gift with purchase. When you use my Code Crime Scene addiction is really good at saying later. Don't let it head to try fume.com that's t r y f u-m.com and use the code Crime Scene for a free gift with your first purchase. Thank you to Fume for sponsoring this episode. The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub followed by ice cold Pepsi. Add a couple of friends and now that's next level sub. Suddenly the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing and the food tastes better because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi. Zero sugar today.
- [41:41]
B
Okay? This is a complicated case going into our third act. Just want to catch everybody up. Stephanie Galboy was shot to death in her Redway home in the deadliest year Humboldt county had seen in three decades. There's no forced entry. They still don't have a suspect. And that means there's no motive or arrest. And we do have a lead detective on record saying the thing that makes this case strange is that there isn't a motive there. But you're telling me a lot of people have got some theories, so let's go over that.
- [42:15]
A
Yeah. And I think to know kind of how we got here, we need to do a little bit of backgrounding on Stephanie as well. Stephanie was born on February 24, 1964 in Minnesota. She lived in Humboldt for her last 28 years, 25 of them as a massage therapist working out of her home. She was a single mother, she raised a daughter. She grew her own food. She made regular pilgrimages to Arizona for this spiritual practice that she was involved in. One of my sources told me that the spiritual quest was almost defining for her. Her former partner once said that she had a unique view of the world and of reality. She saw things differently. If a problem presented itself, she'd get a unique view on that problem. Another friend told me that Stephanie was the kind of person who would bring her table over, give you a two hour massage for the price of one, and would pause mid session to sit up and eat a snack. She was also somebody with really strong opinions. She was very smart. She was eccentric and cautious. The kind of person who approached situations with a careful eye. She was an activist. She protested GMO food, fracking, environmental harm. She was part of a years long fight, she and six other activists over roughly seven years to stop the Pacific Lumber Company from logging the ridge above the South Fork Eel river between Garberville and Redway. They recruited biologists and geologists. They did tree sits and letter campaigns and town halls and they won. That ridge was saved and you can still see it green from the road today. One advocacy account also credits her with sit ins and letter campaigns with contributing to ag companies being denied access to some of the forested areas and to the GMO labeling fight that happened here in California. Okay, so let's get on to that open door. Okay, so this was somebody who was pretty involved in activism, so she had some reasons to be cautious. But on a personal level, everyone I talked to said that Stephanie was very trusting, maybe too trusting. We know already that Jordan showered there. Transients were welcome in her house. And I heard that from multiple people. One of my sources said that she led this kind of dual life. She was an above board member of these communities of causes and benefits. And she had this instinct to sort of welcome in what they described as like homeless and ne' er do wells on the other. And one of my sources just said that she had kind of dual life, right? She was involved in these causes, she was very public. And on the other hand, she welcomed a lot of transients and people on the margins of society into her life in a way that, you know, most people don't. And that can come with some risk. So theory number one is that it was one of these transient people down the street from where she lived who she oftentimes welcomed into her home and things went awry, or they thought maybe this was an opportune moment to rob somebody, maybe they came in and saw her asleep. Given the lack of the struggle, we do not know. But that is one of the theories. The other theory was, is that it was some kind of boyfriend. And one of my sources, one of her friends said that one of the last messages they had received from Stephanie indicated that she had a new boyfriend, that he had a lot of tattoos, that he was, quote, a bit naughty, probably not good for her. But my God, if we suspected that every new partner in one's life that you tell your friends is a little bit naughty and not good for you is a killer, I don't think that's an effective way to evaluate whether or not somebody did or did, didn't have a motive to murder. That being said, there is an intimacy to the crime itself. She's asleep, she's resting face down, there doesn't appear to be a struggle. All the things that we've discussed before. So that is absolutely the second theory that people have, that she had some partner or intimate relationship and that her death is wrapped up in that. So the third theory is that she was moving some marijuana, a small amount. But some of the folks that I talked to had also said that there were times when she owed people money in relationship to that business and that perhaps she owed the wrong person some money and they had something to do with her death. And to clarify in my reporting, there have been very specific accounts of transient people and partners that have been relayed to me. I am not explicitly mentioning those individuals here because they are not verified reports at this point. These were just single source accounts. But there has been a flood of messages and reports from various different people who knew her pointing the finger at various different people. Very few of those fingers point to the same person, I should say. So this is where all of this evidence actually leads us. What we know is a 52 year old massage therapist, Stephanie Gaboy. She was an activist. She was shot multiple times in the head in her own home in the county's deadliest year. Found five days later on the table where she slept. Items were tested by the state. Dozens of people were interviewed. A detective on record says that the motive just isn't there. What we don't know is the suspect, the motive, what the forensics actually showed, which of these theories has legs. So we are now 10 years out from the death of Stephanie Gaboy and there are no answers. And my hope is with this episode that this crime scene community will hear this. And if you are in any way connected to this story, if you have information that could lead to a deeper understanding of this case, if you could help us raise awareness about this story, we really want to find answers for the community that loves Stephanie and for Stephanie's family as law enforcement continues to do their work. If you know anything about the death of Stephanie Gaboy, Humboldt County Sheriff's office, case number 201-604-1771. You can call their tip line at 707268, 2539. And you can also reach out to us. Let us know in the comments. If you have sensitive information you want to share with me, go to the show notes of this episode. You'll find our email address there. You can send it to us. We hope to hear from you and maybe very soon we'll have answers.
- [49:54]
B
All right, Jonathan, before we go, we're really excited to tell everyone about something new we're trying out here here at Crime Scene. You know, we are usually discussing stories that aren't necessarily actively in the news.
- [50:07]
A
Right.
- [50:08]
B
But those breaking stories are what we're constantly talking to each other about.
- [50:13]
A
Absolutely.
- [50:14]
B
And distracting us from a lot of the work that we need to be getting done.
- [50:18]
A
Going down the rabbit hole.
- [50:19]
B
Yes. But starting next week, we're going to be launching Crime Scene Investigates, which are miniseries deep dives into active cases. And our episode here next week will introduce us to the topic of our first miniseries.
- [50:33]
A
Yeah. So next week we're going to be covering the case of Melissa Casillas. Some of you may be familiar with that story. And if you're already a subscriber to the binge, you'll be able to listen to a whole nother rabbit hole that we went down on this case about all of the missing people that have been associated with Melissa's case. Some of you may have heard about this, the missing scientists. We're going to be digging into that a little bit and trying to separate fact from fiction. And also while we're on the topic of trying out new things and we want to find out what you want more of from us, so be sure to click on that and let us know what you think. Do you want to hear from experts on a specific topic in true crime? What are you watching? Do you want us to talk about that? This is all in service of making Crime Scene your true crime community, so we'd love to hear your thoughtful comments and takes and we want to continue to create a space where we are your home for your weekly True Crime Digest. Hey y', all, thank you so much for joining us on Crime Scene. Just a reminder here, you can watch or listen to us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is a production of Sony Podcasts and the Binge. Thank you to everybody who makes this happen week in and week out. Also, we're journalists. We love journalism. These stories have been deeply reported, the ones that you hear on the show. And you can find an extensive bibliography by going to the show notes of this episode and to every episode to learn more about the reporting that informed all of the great stories you hear on Crime Scene. And just one. One last note. You can get exclusive content from us and the binge over 60 jaw dropping true crime stories bingeable and ad free right now by signing up for our patreon@getthebinge.com so go to getthebinge.com to get access to our entire catalog of stories, but also to get behind the scenes access to all of the stories that Cooper and I are working on on to join us in the conversation about these cases, go to getthebinge.com to learn more. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately though, Mint's story is better. Every plan $15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tiers. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
- [53:10]
B
of 45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month Plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.