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Hi park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D', Ambra, and the stories I'm going to tell you today are two separate crimes set nearly 30 years apart, but both have similar victims and circumstances. The first case happened in the summer of 1934, so quite a long time ago. It took place in Shoshone County, Idaho, which, according to the website wallaceid Fun, is an area rich in minerals and history. It's located on the eastern portion of the state's Panhandle and is heralded as a great place to live, especially if you're raising a family. Some of the better known attractions of the region are Black Magic Canyon, which has unique volcanic lava sculptures, and the Mammoth Cave, which features cave drawings from previous generations of visitors and residents. The second case I'm going to cover today took place near a wildlife bayou in eastern Texas known as Cow Bayou. According to the Texas State Historical association, this natural area was historically regarded as a source of water for irrigation canals that fed area rice farms. In the early 20th century, it was used a lot to transport barges up and down large swaths of eastern Texas. But in 1963, a Texas gay warden enforcing anti poaching laws there lost his life in a crime that profoundly rocked residents and outdoor recreationalists. If you take one thing from today's episode, let it be this. You never know what someone is capable of when they're cornered. For some, the act of murder is as instinctual as a bird taking flight. This is park predators. Sam. On Tuesday evening, August 28, 1934, Miss Alma Teed was at home in Mullen, Idaho, with her sons, nervously waiting for her husband to walk through their front door. 39 year old Ellsworth was the deputy game warden of Shoshone county, and he'd left around 7:30 that morning to investigate some recent reports of people harvesting deer out of season in an area in the southern part of the county known as Boulder Gulch. But lunchtime had passed and then dinner time, and Ellsworth had not come home. When the couple had last spoken, he'd told Alma that he planned to return to town by 2pm to attend the funeral of a teenage boy from Mullen who'd passed away recently. But Ellsworth failed to make that service despite the fact that his car, a model A Ford coupe, had been found later in the day near Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder Gulch. It's not super clear from the source material whether this cemetery was where the teenage boy's funeral was going to be, but additional reporting by the Coeur d' Alene Press explained that where Ellsworth's car was found was actually at a trailhead that led further into the hills. So basically a convenient access point to the landscape. When the car was discovered, it was locked and his lunch and coat were still inside. It kind of looked like a scuffle or something had occurred at the spot, but no one really knew what to make of the situation. Alma knew that her husband missing the funeral he'd planned to attend was out of character for him, but she remained mostly unbothered throughout the early part of the day Tuesday because she figured something had just probably held him up at work. Normally, Ellsworth was good about letting his wife know if an investigative trip was going to keep him away overnight. But in this instance, he hadn't done that. He'd also left his coat and lunch behind, which was another indication that he likely intended to return to his vehicle and be home before the end of the day. By nightfall on Tuesday, Alma had worried long enough and so she reported her husband missing to the local authorities. The following morning, Wednesday, August 29, a formal search party consisting of 15 to 20 men led by a deputy sheriff, Mullins, police chief, and a state highway patrolman, set out toward Boulder Gulch to look for Ellsworth. That group searched for hours, but didn't find the missing game warden. Meanwhile, back in Mullen, Alma was growing more and more concerned for her husband's well being. Initially, she and her friends thought he was probably just hurt somewhere and couldn't make it back to town to get help. It was either that or something more nefarious because they were never on board with any kind of suggestion that maybe Ellsworth had become lost or gotten disoriented in the landscape. They knew he was intimately familiar with the outskirts of Mullen and the Boulder gulch region specifically, so getting lost or disoriented were just not viable scenarios they thought made sense considering his experience as an outdoorsman. In the years prior to his disappearance, Ellsworth had moved his wife and sons north to Mullan from where he was originally from in Clearwater county, Idaho. At that time, he'd been working as a silver miner. At some point, though, he decided to switch career paths and took a job as a deputy game warden. That position was somewhat of a new gig in areas of the American west, like Shoshone county. Idaho's Department of fish and game had been around since 1899, but the agency had a difficult time filling enforcement roles over the years. So, unwilling to let such an important law enforcement figure for the area be gone without a trace, the search party for Ellsworth continued their efforts Wednesday evening and again Thursday morning. The group fanned out from where his car had been found and scoured the rugged terrain looking for clues. During that time, additional volunteers joined in, including a local boy scouts troop, an airplane, and even officers from the state game department armed with bloodhounds from the state penitentiary. But the results were the same. Nothing. No sign of Ellsworth. The description of him that everyone was given was that he was bald, armed with a firearm, and had been wearing light clothing. As more and more time passed with no clues as to where he was, investigators, his wife Alma, and even people in the search parties began to speculate whether he'd been attacked by the very suspected poachers he'd set out to investigate. Of course, no one wanted the worst to be true, but it was a theory that made a lot of sense. Coverage by the Coeur d' Alene press stated, for example, that the weekend before Ellsworth vanished, authorities had chased a pair of suspected robbers into the hills outside of Mullan after they ran from a vehicle. When officers examined the car they abandoned, they discovered it contained a lot of revolvers and rifle shells, basically an ammunition cache. Anyone who knew Ellsworth knew that as Shoshone county's deputy game warden, he was serious about cracking down on people who broke the law. During the great depression, poaching cases had increased due to so many people living off the land for survival. But Ellsworth had had enough of poachers harvesting wildlife out of season or anglers catching fish in higher volumes than what the law permitted. Local residents respected him for his position on the issue and would even tip him off if they found evidence of someone poaching. In the summer of 1934, Ellsworth was heralded as the tip of the spear as far as game law enforcement went. And local newspapers like the Shoshone News Press made it clear that that particular summer he was only beginning what would become a months long initiative to stop poachers and anglers in their tracks. For example, during the last weekend of July, Ellsworth had set up a checkpoint in a ghost town, for lack of a better description, and stopped every driver just checking to see for illegal game harvests. The Shoshone News Press reported that he'd parked in an area of elevation above the town and waited for travelers to come by. In just that one weekend, he'd stopped 17 vehicles and searched them for game violations. The following week, he wrote one man a citation for harvesting pheasants and fined him $25 plus court cost. And that kind of money back in 1934 was no chump change. It would equate to more than $600 in today's currency. An article by the Associated Press explained that Ellsworth's recent reports to the game department had detailed evidence of game violations happening in his jurisdiction, particularly involving deer that were believed to have been butchered and improperly disposed of. So with this information in the back of everyone's mind, people couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Ellsworth had been targeted. The Associated Press reported that late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning, so roughly 30 hours into the search, some volunteers had heard the distant crack of gunshots in the region. But no one knew whether the shots were unrelated, possibly Ellsworth trying to signal for help or something more sinister. By Saturday, September 1st, several days into the search, evidence was found that confirmed poachers had been operating in the mountainous region outside of town. Searchers discovered dead game birds that had been harvested illegally, as well as mangled deer carcasses that had been placed in three shallow graves. Those discoveries were ominous signs that made officials begin to lose hope that Ellsworth was even still alive. But efforts to find him didn't fall off. In fact, quite the opposite happened. The total number of people involved in the search increased to almost 1,000 volunteers. Two of Ellsworth's sons, Wallace and Ford, and Ellsworth's brother Milo, had gotten involved, as well as shortwave radio operators, miners, men from the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Pilots from as far away as Boise and Lewiston. Coverage about this case states that the search for Ellsworth was the largest to ever happen in the Coeur d' Alene district and the biggest to ever be conducted up until that point. In all of Shoshone county, old mines were checked in case the missing game warden had maybe fallen into or been put down. One of those aircrafts also continued to fly over the forest and mountains, too. But no matter how hard everyone searched, not a lot was found. Other challenges for searchers were the treacherous nature of the landscape and brutal environmental conditions. Initial coverage from the case reported that forest fire warnings were in effect. During the search. High winds and lots of dust made it difficult for the bloodhounds to track. In August, severe temperatures put the entire region under extreme risk for forest fires. But even with all those factors taken into account, the search pressed on. According to Bison media company's coverage of this case, during one of the subsequent searches, trackers with scent dogs found a few suspicious items near the mouth of an old mine, including several shotgun shell casings and a handkerchief with the initial E on it. But unfortunately, neither of those pieces of evidence were confirmed to belong to Ellsworth. So by the Monday after he vanished, things were looking bleak. A lot of people had made up their minds that he was probably dead and would likely never be found. But some law enforcement officials weren't so quick to throw in the towel. The local sheriff asked a few agencies in western Montana to help him keep looking, just in case Ellsworth had tracked the poachers he was looking for into Montana's boundary. But just like all the efforts before, that endeavor led nowhere, and Ellsworth's whereabouts remained unknown. A week after the disappearance, the Shoshone County Sportsman's association offered up a $100 reward for information, which, again, considering inflation, was a decent amount of money for the time. The president of the sportsman's association told the press that if Ellsworth had been targeted simply because he was a gay warden who was enforcing the law, that was unacceptable. He emphasized that his organization would do everything it could to see poachers punished for violating gaming laws. And if law enforcement ever did find Ellsworth's body and determined he'd been murdered, the president of the association said he'd see to it that the perpetrators were apprehended and turned over to authorities. As time dragged on, the number of people involved in searching began to dwindle, and some local investigative agencies concluded that Ellsworth had likely succumbed to an injury in the wilderness. There was a tiny glimmer of hope when a guy seen hitchhiking in Montana was suspected of possibly being Ellsworth. But it was quickly determined that man was not the missing game warden. So in an attempt to entice anyone with information to come forward, Ellsworth's sister in Canada offered up her own $300 reward. She set a time limit on it though, and told the press that he was only good for 30 days. Towards the end of September, other wardens from the fish and game department had made it clear that they were not giving up on solving the my. They expressed to the spokesman review that there were new clues in the case. And there was kind of turns out, two weeks before Ellsworth vanished, he'd taken out a life insurance policy on himself worth approximately $3,000. There's no reporting that goes into a lot of detail about this, so I don't think it was side eyed as suspicious or anything. I'd personally love to know a lot more about it, but we just don't have any further info. But what I can tell you is in early December, nearly four months into the investigation, investigators got their biggest break yet when a tipster came forward claiming he knew where Ellsworth was. According to coverage by Bison Media Co. And the Shoshone News press, an anonymous source came Forward during the first week of December 1934 and told authorities that back in mid September. So just a few weeks after the disappearance, he'd seen Ellsworth Teed walking north on a highway in Republic, Washington, headed toward the Canadian border. For reference, the city of Republic is more than 200 miles northwest of Mullen and about 35 miles south of the US Canada border. The tipster said that he and Ellsworth had stopped and chatted briefly. Officials who took this source's word wouldn't reveal publicly who he was or if they'd found any evidence that supported his claim. But they did state that the tipster was someone who'd been acquainted with Ellsworth and formerly worked with him in the mining industry. The guy had also previously lived in Mullen, but currently resided in Spokane, Washington. In response to why their source had waited so long to report this alleged sighting of Ellsworth after his disappearance, the sheriff of Shoshone county told the newspaper, quote, this man did not give us the information before because he thought that Teed would be arrested if found. He did not want to be a squealer, end quote. The sheriff and another deputy game warden who were the main guys steering the investigation at that point, felt confident, based on the tipster's information, that Ellsworth was still alive and likely living in Canada somewhere. They said as much to reporters, but it was reported that these officials were never actually able to find any proof that Ellsworth had gone to Canada. To his loved ones, the suggestion that he'd simply abandon his life, his family, and a career he loved to take off to Canada seemed preposterous. By all accounts, he was content with his life and not to mention, had left his vehicle, personal belongings, and life insurance money behind. From the content I came across, it seems like the only connection that Ellsworth had to Canada was his sister, who, like I mentioned earlier, had put up a $300 reward for information in the case. The obvious question I asked myself was why would she do that if she was, for instance, aiding Ellsworth? Also, why would she put up the funds if she suspected for any reason that her brother had come to Canada to escape his life in Idaho? I searched for answers to these questions in the coverage, but I couldn't find anything. And that's because there was a huge lull in reporting. Almost eight years went by before the case made headlines again. On February 6, 1942, Alma, Ellsworth's widow, won a civil suit against the insurance company that held his life insurance policy. By that point, it was widely assumed that Ellsworth was dead, but the company had not paid out. According to the coverage. A judge settled the issue once and for all when he decided that Alma was owed the $3,000 that was due to her and her children. The judge also legally declared Ellsworth deceased at that point. Fast forward decades later, in May 2023, the Idaho Peace officers Memorial officially recognized Ellsworth Teed as a fallen officer. The National Law Enforcement Officers memorial in Washington, D.C. also added him to their registry. Almost one year later, in February 2024, the 89 year old mystery of what happened to Ellsworth was. Was finally answered. Turns out, when the Idaho Department of fish and Game had been in the process of getting Ellsworth's name added to the fallen officers memorials Elsewhere in the Shoshone community, People had been talking with their relatives, and they kept talking even after his name was added to the memorials. In 2023, when the agencies in charge of honoring Ellsworth put out the press releases about him being memorialized, Several individuals came forward and told authorities a story they'd heard passed down in their families. A story about the killing of a game warden back in the 1930s. According to an article by the Coeur d' Alene Post Falls Press. Investigators with the Shoshone County Sheriff's office looked into the claims and realized there might be some credibility to them. Authorities pulled together all of the former law enforcement reports and newspaper articles about the case and successfully connected at least three people to the crime. One of those suspects was a man named George Pentland Jr. And his teenage son John Robert Pentland and John's friend, fellow teenager Oscar Downing. How exactly these guys knew Ellsworth or what led up to them reportedly attacking him is information that the Shoshone County Sheriff's office admits is still a bit murky. The agency explained to the spokesman review that four different people had come to them and shared that they'd been told by relatives that George and the two teens had been illegally harvesting deer in Boulder gulch back in 1934. On the day Ellsworth vanished. They'd come in contact with the game warden, and George ultimately killed him and got Oscar and John to assist him in getting rid of the body. The folks who'd provided these accounts to the sheriff's office didn't seem to know one another, so the fact that all their stories appeared to align and name the same names made their claims that much more believable to authorities. The sheriff's Office emphasized in 2024 that they were confident those three guys were involved in murdering Ellsworth and then hid his body somewhere in the vast terrain south of Mullan. Law enforcement officials had even cobbled together old forest maps to try and pinpoint where his remains could be. But they opted not to expend any further resources to attempt to recover his remains because they realized that after nearly 90 years in the forest, with animal activity, fires, and decades of weather events, things had likely shifted a lot. The sheriff's office final word on this case is that it's closed, and the prime suspect, George Pentland Jr. Was the person believed to have been responsible. I found archival records online for George which state that both he and his son John are now deceased. George died in 1964, in his early 70s, and John died in 2002 at the age of 79. While researching this case, I came across coverage by the Idaho Statesman of a man sharing the same name. According to that reporting, In September of 1929, about five years before Ellsworth's disappearance, a George Pentland Sr. And his son, George Pentland Jr. Had been part of a group of men charged with conspiracy to commit robbery for allegedly beating and robbing a woman for some checks and cash. Another relative of the Pentland family in that group was charged with illegal possession of beaver hides, which authorities only found while trying to recover the items that had been stolen from the woman who was robbed in May 1930. The George Pentland Jr. In that case was sentenced to one to 14 years in prison. However, he was released early, less than a year later when the Idaho Pardon Board commuted his sentence. So if that George Pentland Jr. Is the same one from the case I've been telling you about, that would mean he was a free man when he crossed paths with Ellsworth Teed in August of 1934. The obituary for John Pentland in the Coeur d' Alene Press stated that as an adult, John went on to work as a miner and logger in Idaho, but was disabled in the late 1960s. After that, he moved to Arkansas for a while before coming home to Idaho in the 1980s. While I was digging into old newspaper archives, I also found a man who shared the same name in an article by the Post Register. That piece reported that in 1939 a John Pentland had been charged with petty larceny for taking a rifle and belongings from a cabin owned by a miner who died. For that offense. He was only given a 90 day sentence which was suspended. I was unable to find much of anything that discussed what became of Oscar Downing, the third suspected accomplice in Ellsworth Teeds murder. But what I can tell you is that when law enforcement announced that those men were believed to be behind his disappearance and death, Ellsworth's descendants were glad to finally have some closure. When he vanished, his kids were young, the youngest being eight years old. Sadly, none of them were still around in 2024 to learn the news, but a family member named Melissa Sellers Teed expressed that the update was a welcome relief for later generations. She told the Spokesman Review quote It was heartbreaking. The family was ruined from losing him. It was a sad story for years, she later continued. His son in his 80s was tearing up and crying, wishing he knew what happened to his father before he died. They never had that closure. We do. End quote.