Introducing "Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska"

Summary

Summary of "Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska" - Episode 1: A Little Unusual

Podcast Information:

• Title: Devil in the Desert
• Host/Author: ABC News
• Episode: Introducing "Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska"
• Release Date: July 30, 2025

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Introduction

In the premiere episode of the new series Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska, ABC News delves into the mysterious death of Dr. Eric Garcia, a beloved surgeon in the remote town of Ketchikan, Alaska. This detailed investigation uncovers layers of secrecy, betrayal, and unforeseen twists that have left the community and investigators baffled.

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Background: Ketchikan, Alaska and Dr. Eric Garcia

Ketchikan, known as Alaska's first city, is a picturesque yet remote town that serves as a crucial entry point for millions of cruise passengers each year. Historically a boom town driven by the fishing and canning industries, Ketchikan has continually reinvented itself to survive economic fluctuations.

Dr. Eric Garcia, originally from Puerto Rico, moved to Ketchikan about a decade prior to his death. Having trained in Chicago and worked in Eagle Pass, Texas, Garcia was one of only two surgeons in the town, making his presence vital to the local community.

Notable Quote:

Saul Garcia (Eric's Brother) [08:37]: "When I see his life and from what I know of his life, I didn't know. I wouldn't know of anything that he would be leaving behind."

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The First Welfare Check: Initial Concerns

On March 27, 2017, Officer Devin Miller responded to a welfare check request regarding Dr. Garcia. The call originated from Jordan Joplin, an out-of-state caller expressing concern over Garcia's well-being.

Upon arrival, Officer Miller observed peculiarities:

• Secluded Residence: Dr. Garcia lived alone in a spacious home with stunning views, yet his isolation made his safety a concern.
• Unusual Vehicle Appearance: A red Ford pickup, recognized as Garcia's car, was unexpectedly parked at the airport with keys in hand.

Notable Quote:

Officer Devin Miller [03:48]: "I asked him, I said, 'Is that Dr. Garcia's vehicle?' And he replied yes. Where did you find that?"

Despite the oddities, initial inspections showed no signs of forced entry or immediate danger, leading Officer Miller to conclude the situation was likely benign at that moment.

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The Second Welfare Check: Escalating Concerns

A week prior, Jordan Joplin had reached out again, reiterating worries about Garcia's intentions to commit suicide. This second call prompted Joplin to fly into Ketchikan with permission to access Garcia's home, intensifying the urgency of the situation.

Notable Quote:

Jordan Joplin [02:06]: "He's been missing and he was contemplating suicide. Nobody's heard from him."

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Discovery of Dr. Garcia's Death

On March 27, Officer Miller and Sergeant Cheatham conducted a final welfare check. Accompanied by Jordan Joplin and co-worker Dawn Hink, they entered Garcia's home to find him deceased on a sectional sofa in a large, open room.

Atmosphere at the Scene:

• Silent Stillness: The absence of noise contrasted sharply with the brutality of the situation.
• Unusual Clues: Items like an open package of bacon, partially burned charcoal briquette, and a propped-open door hinted at a scene that didn’t align with typical conclusions of a medical event or suicide.

Notable Quotes:

Officer Devin Miller [06:31]: "I just felt lonely. For Dr. Garcia."

Officer Devin Miller [31:42]: "His thumb and two fingertips had charcoal, dark charcoal on him... there was also a purple stain on his right shoulder."

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Community and Personal Insights

Dawn Hink, a patient access representative and close friend of Garcia, provided personal insights into his character:

• Warm and Compassionate: Described Garcia as a fatherly figure with a genuine concern for others.
• Private and Reserved: Despite his outward friendliness, Garcia maintained personal secrets that left colleagues curious.

Notable Quote:

Dawn Hink [24:17]: "He was the most gentle, kind, wonderful soul you could imagine."

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Clues and Investigation Findings

Investigators uncovered several puzzling elements:

• Locked Storage Unit: A half-million dollar storage unit beneath the stairs contained valuables like wine, gold, and coins, suggesting possible motives beyond a simple medical event.
• Inconsistent Alibis: Garcia's office claimed he was out of town, conflicting with multiple welfare check requests and the presence of his car at the airport.
• Unexplained Items: The peculiar arrangement of household items and the absence of expected personal effects raised suspicions of foul play.

Notable Quote:

Officer Devin Miller [33:45]: "There was an open package of bacon. There was a partially burned charcoal briquette. And I didn't really understand how a person could barbecue bacon on a barbecue grill."

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Conclusion and Next Steps

The discovery of Dr. Garcia's death in such an enigmatic setting has left investigators with more questions than answers. The presence of valuable items, conflicting testimonies, and the unconventional state of the crime scene suggest that Garcia's death was anything but ordinary. The investigation aims to unravel the web of lies and manipulation surrounding Garcia's final days, with suspects and motives still under scrutiny.

Teaser for Next Episode:

Ryan Reynolds [34:07]: "Next time on Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska, investigators search Dr. Garcia's house again, looking for those valuables, only to find more unusual clues."

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Production Credits

Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska is a production of ABC Audio and 20 20, featuring the efforts of producer Camille Peterson, Shane McKeon, Kiara Powell, and an array of dedicated team members ensuring a gripping and comprehensive true-crime narrative.

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This summary encapsulates the key elements of the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have yet to listen. The intricate details and investigative twists highlight the depth of the mystery surrounding Dr. Eric Garcia's untimely death in the secluded town of Ketchikan.

Transcript

[Chris Connelly]

Hey listeners, thanks so much for joining us over the last six weeks for our series Devil in the Desert. On behalf of our whole team, I hope you found the story as captivating as I did. If you'd like to hear more true crime from our team at ABC Audio In 2020, there's another new series you might like to check out. It's called Mystery in Alaska. In this brand new series, my ABC News colleague Chris Connelly tells the story of Dr. Eric Garcia, a surgeon who was found dead without any injuries in Ketchikan, Alaska. The story of how he got that way includes a secret romance, the theft of nearly half a million dollars worth of property, and a deep betrayal. Keep listening to hear the first episode and you can hear the rest by following Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now here's episode one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Unknown]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

See Mint MO On March 27, 2017, Officer Devin Miller was driving through Ketchikan, Alaska on his way to conduct a welfare check in town.

[Officer Devin Miller]

We get welfare checks quite often.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The person who called dispatch and was put through to Officer Miller was not calling from nearby. He was calling from out of town. Out of state actually, which was very rare for the small, remote community of Ketchikan. Also unusual. The person the caller was worried about was sort of a local celebrity.

[Jordan Joplin]

He's been missing and he was contemplating suicide. Nobody's heard from him. His parents? Yeah, ten days has been.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The missing person in question was a prominent, beloved surgeon, one of just two in the town named Eric Garcia. Officer Miller had even been his patient a couple of times, and I felt.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Like if I felt pain, this man was going to feel the same pain.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dr. Garcia's house was secluded at the top of a hill, nestled among dark green mountains and tall evergreens. The house was on a half acre of land and it had a stunning view of the bay and the cruise ships passing in and out of Ketchikan. Dr. Garcia lived here alone. When Officer Miller arrived at the house around 9am it was surrounded by fog and there was snow on the ground. His colleague joined him and the two checked around the property. Everything seemed normal at first. No signs of forced entry or trouble.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Short time after that, I see two vehicles drive up the driveway.

[Ryan Reynolds]

One car was driven by a woman. The other was driven by a man accompanied by a woman in the passenger seat. The man was driving a red Ford pickup which Officer Miller recognized as Dr. Garcia's car.

[Officer Devin Miller]

So I asked him, I said, Is that Dr. Garcia's vehicle? And replied yes. Where did you find that? And it was parked at the airport.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Miller found that a little unusual too, that this man had just happened upon Dr. Garcia's car and had keys to it. But in the moment, he didn't think much of it. He wanted to get inside the home as soon as possible. The man said he had keys to Dr. Garcia's house. Officer Miller asked him to unlock the front door.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Sergeant Cheatham and I had them all wait outside while we cleared the building.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Miller's body camera captured everything that happened next.

[Jordan Joplin]

Dr. Garcia, Police Department. Can you make yourself known, sir?

[Ryan Reynolds]

They checked the main floor first. Dr. Garcia's bedroom, his bathroom, his walk in closet, his office. They noted a locked closet door with no sign of Dr. Garcia. They went upstairs.

[Jordan Joplin]

Okay. Dr. Garcia, Officer Miller, Police Department.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Once the officers reached the top of the stairs, they entered a large open room with white wall to wall carpet and nearly floor to ceiling windows that looked onto a deck, foggy evergreen trees and the glistening bay. The body camera footage gets much quieter from here. The officers stop shifting around. They stop calling out for Dr. Garcia.

[Jordan Joplin]

He's here. Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

In the middle of the room there was a sectional sofa. And on that sofa was Dr. Garcia. The officers could tell without approaching him that he was dead. It was silent in the house. No noise from distant cars, no chatter from neighbors. Just the breath and stillness of the two police officers and a cold March wind blowing into the room through an open door on the deck. This moment, finding Dr. Garcia dead and alone in his four bedroom house would stick with Officer Miller when he got home. Much later that day, he took off his bulletproof vest and his body camera and he says the full weight of it hit him.

[Officer Devin Miller]

I think was finally able to let down enough to realize the situation and how horribly sad it was. And I just felt. I felt lonely. For Dr. Garcia.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Officer Miller and other investigators, they felt there was something so cold and striking about Dr. Garcia's death. A man who had cared for so many people, alone on a couch with a biting Alaskan wind surrounding him. To find out what happened to the beloved surgeon, investigators would have to go to far beyond Ketchikan, far beyond Alaska. They'd have to untangle a crime fueled by years of lies and manipulation. A crime propelled by the vulnerability of isolation. From ABC Audio In 2020, I'm Chris Connolly, and this is Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska. Episode A Little Unusual. Ketchikan is at the southern tip of Alaska, and it's known as Alaska's first city because it's the first stop for many ships coming from Washington and other states from the lower 48th. Once you land in the Ketchikan airport, you have to take a ferry to actually get to town. Dr. Eric Garcia was not born or raised in Ketchikan. He grew up thousands of miles away in the complete opposite corner of North America, in Puerto Rico. Eric Garcia was the oldest of four. His brother Saul says he was always interested in medicine. He'd read books about surgery as a kid. Saul said his older brother was also really good at making people feel special.

[Saul Garcia]

The feeling that people get is that you're his only friend that he has at this moment, and that's it. I mean, he's not worried about somebody else or calling somebody else back. He's just with you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Saul and Eric's grandmother had a genetic heart defect. And even as a teenager, Eric would advocate for her with doctors. As an adult, he took care of their grandmother for years.

[Saul Garcia]

So he always had her under his wing. And many years later, too, when she got ill, he would come and visit her and, you know, put IVs in her and things like that and treat her and all that. And then when she passed away, he was also there with her.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Eric Garcia left Puerto Rico to do his medical residency in Chicago. After that, he was a surgeon in Eagle Pass, Texas, for many years. Eagle Pass is right on the border between the US And Mexico. And Saul says his brother liked being able to serve people in need of quality medical care. To this day, Saul is not sure why his brother wanted to leave Eagle Pass and come to Alaska.

[Saul Garcia]

A lot of people, when they leave and go to Alaska is because they're running away from something. But when I see his life and from what I know of his life, I didn't know. I wouldn't know of anything that he would be leaving behind.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But his friends say something about Ketchikan called to him. Dr. Garcia. He loved traveling, especially taking cruises. His best friend of 30 years standing. Carlos Gonzalez often traveled with him. Carlos says Dr. Garcia even had a special shirt he wore for the first day of trips. It had bright colors and patterns with different color patches.

[Officer Devin Miller]

And all the pictures that I have that he's wearing that type of shirt, I know that was the first day of the trip because he would use them for taking planes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

One year, Carlos and Dr. Garcia went on an Alaskan cruise that passed through Ketchikan. Dr. Garcia thought the town was beautiful. He was interested in its indigenous history. Ketchikan is the home of three native tribes and has the world's largest collection of totem poles. Dr. Garcia also loved that Ketchikan had a vibrant arts and culture scene. When Dr. Garcia got back from the trip, A recruiter from a hospital in Ketchikan reached out to him.

[Officer Devin Miller]

A recruiter who has my name, Carlos Gonzalez, invited me to go as a general surgeon to Ketchikan. He took it as a sign because it was my name. And that's how he moved from eagle pass to Ketchikan.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Eric Garcia was introduced to Ketchikan by an Alaskan cruise. And that's how most people come across the town today. But it has had many lives. The fishing industry is what first made Ketchikan into a thriving town, and Ketchikan is still known as the salmon capital of the world. Dave Kiffer is a 4th generation Ketchikan resident, and he's served on the town city council and as the city's mayor.

[Dave Kiffer]

Between 2 and 3 million salmon come up every year. Yeah, one of the interesting things is when you're at the airport in the summer, you'll see all these boxes, big fish boxes, and people come here. Basically, they catch their limit of salmon and they take them with them.

[Ryan Reynolds]

He says the tlingit drive had a fish camp along Ketchikan creek for hundreds of years. Eventually, Europeans and people from Washington, Oregon, and California, they started coming to fish as well and to mine for gold. During the 1898 Alaska Gold Rush, Thousands of people passed through the town. They saw lots of quartz, and quartz.

[Dave Kiffer]

Almost always means gold. Unfortunately, in around Ketchikan, it did not mean gold.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But the gold rush did turn it into a frontier town with saloons and a red light district. Whereas the town's tourism website puts it, Ladies of negotiable affection entertained the miners, fishermen, hand loggers, and other frisky frontiersmen. In 1926, Ketchikan was called the worst pest hole in America by a Los Angeles newspaper Because of its so called vice, which the article described as gamblers, liquor dealers and red light women. Ketchikan kept reinventing itself. When the gold rush ended, canning salmon was became the town's next big industry.

[Dave Kiffer]

And as my mother used to say, the whole place reeked of the smell of canned salmon all summer long. Of course, she called it the smell of money.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like mining, the canning industry also went through a boom and bust cycle.

[Dave Kiffer]

Ketchikat's interesting because it's probably the only city that I've ever heard of that has gone through three different boom and busts and is still here. We were a mining boom town that crashed. Then we became a salmon canning boom town that crashed. Then we were a timber boom town and that crashed. Usually when that happens, at some point in that process, the town goes away. But I guess we're just stubborn because we're still here.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Now tourism is at the heart of Ketchikan's economy. The town is a southern entryway to Alaska's inside passage. That's a route of waterways along the state's coast with gorgeous views of nature and wildlife, including bears, eagles and whales. From April to October, enormous cruise ships dock in downtown Ketchikan. Millions of passengers flock to town. On any given day during peak season, the town's population can more than double. Dr. Eric Garcia was one of those passengers. Thousands of miles from where he grew up, Ketchikan captivated him just like it had captivated generations of people before him, Looking for new opportunities and adventure, often on their own. Ketchikan is a beautiful place, but it's also very remote. Residents of the town knew it could be a lonely, challenging place to live and that it was not easy to convince doctors to move there and stay there. So this town needed Dr. Garcia. He would be one of just two surgeons in a place where many people still do dangerous work.

[Dave Kiffer]

We have to have a very serious trauma hospital because people, whether it's timber industry, fishing industry, or whatever, have those injuries all the time and they just wouldn't make it to Seattle or Anchorage.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It might seem like Eric Garcia would be a fish out of water in a place like Ketchikan. A Puerto Rican surgeon who got his training in a big Midwest city and had worked in a town along the US Mexico border, living in a town of 8,000 in cold, rainy Alaska. But his co workers, neighbors and friends say he fit in quickly. By the time he died, he had lived in Ketchikan for nearly a decade. His brother Saul remembers going to the grocery store with Dr. Garcia. During one of his visits, he'd be.

[Saul Garcia]

Stopped and asked, oh Dr. Garcia, you're here. And he would move on to the next aisle and then somebody else would pop up and it would take forever to get out of the out of the store. It took forever to get in and out out of any place.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ketchikan may have been a surprising home for Eric Garcia to choose, but the town itself is a place of contradictions. A boom town that never fully went bust. A pest hole that's become a town where people raise their families for generations. A remote place that brings the world together through the cruise industry. And it turned out Eric Garcia was a man of contradictions too. Beloved, well connected, social, but also very private. Was he happy in his big house overlooking Ketchikan? Or was he lonely and maybe dangerously isolated?

[Unknown]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

March 27th. The day Dr. Garcia's body was found was not the first time Officer Miller was asked to do a welfare check on the surgeon. The out of state caller, whose name was Jordan Joplin, had also called dispatch about a week earlier. During that call, Jordan said it had been a couple of days since he'd heard from Eric Garcia.

[Jordan Joplin]

He was telling me that he wanted to commit suicide and I haven't heard from him, so I'm getting worried.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Officer Miller went to check on Dr. Garcia's house for the first time.

[Officer Devin Miller]

It was snowy on the ground, fresh snow, and there were no prints at all going up to the house, going away from the house at the side of the house. Doors were locked, windows were closed. There were some lights on in the house as if someone was going on vacation. And they put sporadic Lights on. I looked in the garage. There was no vehicle in the garage. So I certainly did not anticipate that there would be anyone home. I walked around to the side of the house, and everything seemed to be secure back there. And so I left to contact his office.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dr. Garcia's office told Miller they believed he was out of town.

[Officer Devin Miller]

I did not think that there was any issue because it all made sense.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But Jordan Joplin called again five, and then six days later, dispatch explained that an officer had checked things out and did not find a reason to be concerned. And they couldn't just knock down the front door and go in.

[Jordan Joplin]

We contacted the hospital, and they stated that he's out of town. And then also there's nothing else to believe that he's injured in any way. So at this point, they can't. They went to his house, it looks like. Yeah. And nobody.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So Jordan said he was going to fly into town to check on Dr. Garcia.

[Jordan Joplin]

He gave me a house key. I noticed, security key, everything, because I had permission. And I'm going up there on Monday because I haven't heard anything, and I am very worried.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A few days later, on March 27, more than a week after his first call, Jordan arrived in Ketchikan. He made the call we heard earlier, the one that was patched through to officer Miller. But Jordan Joplin was not the only one who said he was worried about Eric Garcia.

[Dawn Hink]

A lot of times they called me his work wife or his assistant.

[Ryan Reynolds]

His co worker, Dawn Hink, a patient access representative at the hospital, had become one of Dr. Garcia's closest friends.

[Dawn Hink]

I had a numerous amount of people calling me his daughter, which I always wore as a badge of honor because he was, you know, such a fatherly figure in so many aspects to me.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dawn remembers the day she met Dr. Garcia.

[Dawn Hink]

And everyone had told me how intimidating he was because he was, you know, had been the chief of surgery in all these places and everything. And I walked up to him, and he was the most gentle, kind, wonderful soul you could imagine. And it was just odd to me that people were intimidated by someone like that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Don says Eric Garcia had a warm voice, the kind of smile so bright you could hear it through the phone. But when dawn really thinks about what made Dr. Garcia stand out in a room, she remembers his love of nice colognes and how he always smelled incredible.

[Dawn Hink]

He had one for each day of the week. And those little idiosyncrasies I used to take for granted are some of the true, most core memories I have with him.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dawn last saw Dr. Garcia at work on March 16th. He was about to go to Las Vegas for a medical conference.

[Dawn Hink]

He showed up to the clinic wearing his vacation shirt.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That day, Dr. Garcia had to give bad news to a patient, and dawn sensed something else might have been going on.

[Dawn Hink]

His mood changed, and he still had the shirt on. He still had the smile on. But he. He had kind of a. Like, a solemnness to him that was hard to pinpoint if he was, you know, at this point in time. You can always go back and look back at things and think of hindsight, but to me, he was almost nervous to go on the trip.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dawn and Dr. Garcia texted each other regularly, but after March 16, she stopped getting responses from him. She had sent Dr. Garcia a photo of her son in a local parade.

[Dawn Hink]

Just kind of, you know, trying to keep up with what was going on with him and how come he hadn't sent me pictures of the different martini he was. Was excited to try and didn't receive anything back at all. So it definitely struck me as odd. Day one, day two, something is really weird. And day three, oh, we need to figure out what's going on.

[Ryan Reynolds]

She got a call from Dr. Garcia's mother, who was also worried. So Don went to his house multiple times.

[Dawn Hink]

And everything seems okay, except on the backside of the house. The window upstairs, which I thought was a window, was actually a door upstairs, was wide open. And this is March in Alaska. It was less than 32 degrees, and it had snowed about 3ft during the duration of him being gone. It just. The hair on the back of your neck stands up, and you just don't know really what to do.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But dawn saw tracks in the snow, which seemed to her like they were from a police officer. She figured if a police officer thought everything was okay, then it probably was. She didn't know that when Officer Miller had done his check, he hadn't seen an open door. Dawn wasn't totally satisfied. After her visit to the house. It still seemed odd to her that Dr. Garcia was not replying to texts. So Don called one of the hotels she knew he stayed in in Las.

[Dawn Hink]

Vegas, and they had said, no, his reservation has been canceled. And then whoever I was speaking with at that time realized they were not supposed to say that to me and hung up the phone really quickly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

On March 26, Don heard from someone else who said he was worried about Dr. Garcia. Jordan Joplin. She had met Jordan once before. He called her to say he was coming to town from Washington state to check on Dr. Garcia. Dawn and Jordan met at the Ketchikan Airport on March 27 and made their way to Dr. Garcia's house. They drove the two cars that Officer Miller watched arrive at the house. When Don and Jordan arrived, Officer Miller and his colleague, sergeant Cheatham went into the house to do the final welfare check. Dawn was still waiting outside with Jordan when the sergeant re emerged.

[Dawn Hink]

It felt like it had been about 20 minutes, when in actuality, it was probably less than two. He came back down the stairs, opened the door, his face gray. He was pale. And he looked at me and said, eric has passed away, and he is in the house. And I wouldn't say I lost it. I had a fair amount of shock behind me, knowing that I had visited the house so many times, and I could have, you know, what could I have done? I walked to the opposite side of the house as far away as I could. Get physically sick with emotion and sadness and, you know, just despair at that point and looking for answers.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Dawn knew she didn't know everything about Dr. Garcia. He was a warm, friendly person, but he was also very private.

[Dawn Hink]

Dr. Garcia definitely had secrets, and I think a lot of people may have known that. No one ever pushed the envelope. Everyone had a very firm line of respect for him.

[Ryan Reynolds]

While dawn was hearing the news from sergeant Cheatham, Officer Miller started documenting the room they discovered Dr. Garcia's body in. Just like everything else that day, many things in the room seemed unusual. For instance, the tv. It was still on, but it was stuck on a blue screen. And then there was the open door leading out to the deck.

[Officer Devin Miller]

And it wasn't just open. It was propped open by a pillow. There was a barbecue right at the door. I also looked at the barbecue. There was no barbecue tools around.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Officer Miller walked closer to Dr. Garcia. There was a coffee table in front.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Of him, which he had his elbow on. There were some. Some items there that didn't really make sense to me. There was an open package of bacon. There was a partially burned charcoal briquette. And I didn't really understand how a person could barbecue bacon on a barbecue grill.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Miller began taking detailed photos of Dr. Garcia himself. Then he lifted up Dr. Garcia's hand. Rigor, meaning full rigor mortis assigned. Dr. Garcia had been dead for at least a few hours. Officer Miller lifted a green sheet that was covering Dr. Garcia's body up to his chest. He was looking for signs of trauma, like a gunshot or a knife wound. He didn't see anything like that, but he did notice a few other things.

[Officer Devin Miller]

His thumb and two fingertips I think had charcoal, dark charcoal on him, which had transferred to his white T shirt, which I'm guessing came from the partially burnt charcoal that was on the table. Also, I noticed that on his right shoulder there was a purple stain, and the stain wasn't consistent. It was more like a dribble stain, and it looked like it was dribbled from his shoulder towards his head and to his mouth.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Officer Miller took more photos and then turned his body camera off as Sergeant Cheatham returned. He said his first impression of the scene was that Dr. Garcia's death could have been a medical event, like a heart attack, or it could have been a suicide. But the whole thing didn't make much sense to him.

[Officer Devin Miller]

The setup was just a little unusual.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Eddie had a lot of questions about what they had learned so far.

[Officer Devin Miller]

How is he here and his truck is at the airport? Why did his work think he was out of town? Also, it just didn't make sense.

[Ryan Reynolds]

When Officer Miller came out of the house after documenting the room, his body camera was back on, facing the handful of people standing in the fog and snow outside the house. Dawn Hick, Jordan Joplin, and the woman who was with him among them. And another friend of Dr. Garcia's who had shown up. While the officers went through the house, the next step was to start doing interviews with everyone at the scene to see what they knew. They learned a lot from those interviews, but maybe the most surprising thing they learned came from that friend who had shown up after dawn and Jordan. He knew a lot about Dr. Garcia's house and what should be inside.

[Officer Devin Miller]

He pulled me aside and he informed me that there was at least a half a million dollars worth of valuables in a locked storage unit underneath the stairs, which included wine, gold, and coins.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Next time on Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska. Investigators search Dr. Garcia's house again, looking for those valuables, only to find more unusual clues.

[Jordan Joplin]

Foreign.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Mystery in Alaska is a production of ABC Audio and 20 20, hosted by me, Chris Connelly. Produced by Camille Peterson, Shane McKeon and Kiara Powell. Edited by Gianna Palmer. Our supervising producer is Susie Liu. Music and mixing by Evan Violence. Special thanks to Liz Alessi, Katie Dandas, Janice Johnston, Joseph Reed, Gary Wynn, Xander Samaras, Chris Donovan, Michelle Margulis, Tom Berman, Sandy Evans and Pat Lalama. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Laura Mayer is our executive producer. Man, look at that return of that old king, man. Oh, wow. Emotional King of the hill is back. They got a Bob's in the airport now. Oh, that's Boba World has changed. Dad, Bobby wants to bring that new girl over for dinner. The vegan? What the hell am I supposed to feed her? Can't we just put some grass in a bowl? From Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. Ready to make some memories, dad? Freaking go. A Hulu Original Series King of the.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Hill season premiere August 4th streaming on Hulu.

[Jordan Joplin]

We have a down spacecraft.

[Officer Devin Miller]

Tuesday, August 12th the premiere of FX's Alien Earth.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This ship collected specimens from other worlds. Invasive species predatory from creator Noah Holly and executive producer Ridley Scott. We don't lock them down down. It will be too late. What did you do?

[Officer Devin Miller]

FX's Alien Earth premieres August 12th on FX and Hulu.