Delia D'Ambra (4:39)
On the Evening of Saturday, December 5, 1987, a man who I'll call Don, was hiking up the Pahono Trail in Yosemite national park when he heard what sounded like a man and a woman arguing. Because Don had previously worked for Yosemite Search and Rescue, he was familiar with the area and knew that the voices were further away from him, like back down towards where he got on the trailhead. But it was dark so he wasn't able to see exactly who the two people were. Where he was hiking was on one side of a two lane road known as Highway 41, and he was up some switchbacks. So below him and across the roadway was the parking lot for Tunnel View's scenic overlook. And it was that parking area where he believed the voices were coming from because he could still see a few cars parked there. Now, the reason I'm referring to Don as Don and not his real name is because he asked me not to use his real identity in this episode. I'll get more into why later, but for now just go with it. Don wasn't alone on his evening hike, by the way. He had a friend with him who he described as physically handicapped, so I imagine they weren't going at a very fast pace, just sort of slowly making their way up the trail. And this friend heard the same thing that Don did. A man and a woman getting into it at the Tunnel View parking lot. And their discussion just kept escalating. The longer the yelling went on, the more intense the couple's arguing got. Until finally a car door slammed, followed by the distinct sound of a glass bottle, maybe a wine bottle, hitting the pavement, but not shattering. Don told me in his interview that the bottle sound indicated to him that the couple who was arguing might have been drinking. He didn't know that for sure, but it was an assumption he made at the time. During his time working in the park, he'd heard and seen all kinds of things, including domestic altercations at popular attractions like Tunnel View. Anyway, right after hearing the bottle hit the ground, he heard another sound that was a bit more concerning a woman's scream and then silence. He described the sound as a woman screaming bloody murder. So a very desperate sounding scream. The immediate silence that followed got Don's hackles up. But he told me that he had zero interest in going down to the parking lot to check things out and get involved. He had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, but at the same time, he went into self preservation mode and figured if a crime had been committed, he didn't want to put himself or his friend in danger. So he did nothing. Not long after the scream, he overheard what sounded like someone getting into a vehicle and driving away. A few days later, though, while hanging out at a deli in Yosemite with a bunch of climbers and other rescue squad personnel, Don overheard these folks discussing a recent body recovery that had happened in the park. Now, he hadn't heard anything about such an incident, so he asked the people in the deli for more details and learned that the National Park Service was investigating the death of a woman who'd seemingly fallen off a cliff directly next to Tunnel View parking lot. Don put two and two together and realized he might have some important information to share with the nps. So he went to a nearby district ranger station and told staff there his story of having heard a woman scream a few nights earlier on Saturday, December 5th. The next day, personnel from the US Attorney's office and FBI agents asked Don to meet up with them at Tunnelview. He agreed to the request, and the day after that ended up touring officials through his movements on the night he heard the woman scream. But that was only part of the full picture. What Don didn't know was that authorities had been dealing with a missing persons case that had turned into a death investigation, and things were still very active and fluid. According to news coverage at the time on the evening of Saturday, December 5th. So the same time Don had been hiking with his friend on the Pahono Trail, a man named Stevie Allen Gray had reported his 24 year old wife, Delores Gray, missing to park rangers. Stephie claimed that they'd visited Tunnel View together on their way to Badger Pass and Glacier point. But around 4.30pm Deloris had mentioned she wanted to go for a walk by herself. So Stephie stayed behind in their car. He waited for her to return, but she never did. So by 6pm he'd gotten worried and contacted authorities to report her missing. That night, investigators launched a search for Dolores, which included the use of two dog teams, nearly 20 people and a helicopter. But after hours of searching, no sign of her turned up. Efforts were called off around midnight, but picked back up again the following morning, Sunday, December 6th. Around 1:00pm that afternoon, everything halted, though, when authorities discovered Dolores dead at the base of a cliff next to the scenic overlook. She was some 350ft down an embankment, and it was clear she'd sustained catastrophic injuries. She was clothed with her shirt hiked up, her pants pulled down and her jacket off. Her body was removed and transported to the local county coroner's office for an autopsy. The results of that examination were that she died as a result of a fall. The National Park Service was the lead agency over the case, and a spokeswoman told the press that as far as everyone could tell, Dolores death appeared to be an accident and foul play was not suspected. And honestly, this conclusion made sense at the time because there is a spot in the far corner of Tunnel View's parking lot where a couple of boulders create a barrier to keep people from going off into the landscape. But if you go around or over those boulders, you'll end up in a small clearing with some shrubs that essentially leads you right up to a cliff. Don told me that this particular spot is one of those deceiving areas of Yosemite where if you didn't know a canyon was there, you could easily fall right over the edge. And this was the exact area where Dolores had reportedly gone for her walk. So, all things considered, the NPS wasn't totally off base in thinking that she'd just fallen. Fast forward a few days, though, and investigators were forced to reconsider that conclusion when they interviewed Don, because while walking authorities through his movements on the evening of Saturday, December 5, his description of what he'd heard while across the street and above the Tunnel View parking lot seemed to contradict with what Stevie Gray, Deloris husband had told authorities. You see, Stephie claimed that when his wife failed to return from her walk, he'd hollered her name over and over again for about 15 minutes or so. However, when authorities interviewed Don and his friend, they told investigators that they'd never heard anyone calling out the name Delores. The only thing they'd heard was the verbal argument, the scream, the sound of the glass bottle dropping, a car door shutting, and then a vehicle driving off. No further yelling, nothing. Law enforcement's suspicions that something wasn't quite right with the case grew even stronger when they escorted Don to the cliff above where Dolores body had been found. While looking around, he mentioned that there appeared to be what looked like skid marks or some kind of disturbance on the ground near the edge. And because Don had a lot of experience in the park and was a rock climber himself, his insights and observations were helpful to investigators, who at that point, according to Don, hadn't even looked for evidence in the area or treated the cliff like a potential crime scene. In fact, Don told me that when he was first taken to the cliff, the FBI and staff for the U.S. attorney's office straight up told him that park rangers had pretty much trampled the scene during the search for Dolores, and they'd done nothing to preserve or collect evidence after she was found. So unfortunately, because of that and the fact that investigators didn't have hard evidence to actually detain Stephie, the case stalled. Stephie went on living his life, and Don moved on, too. But behind the scenes, a few FBI agents weren't willing to let their suspicions lay. They spent months periodically interviewing Stephie and digging into the Grays lives. And what they found was eye opening. If you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple shop pay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy? That's Shopify. Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business from checkout to creating your own storefront. It's why so many brands, from household names to brands just getting started. Choose to sell with Shopify. Get help with everyday tasks like enhancing product images, writing product descriptions, or generating discount codes with Shopify's AI tools created for commerce. And that purple shop pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world. It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Your customers already love it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com parkpredators go to shopify.com parkpredators shopify.com parkpredators Summer is here and your to do list hasn't gotten any shorter. Remember that patio set you promised to build by Memorial Day? Or the grouting tutorial you watched but never followed? Enter TaskRabbit. Your secret weapon for a carefree summer. TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers to help with moving, mounting, furniture assembly, home repairs and more. Why wait for you to do it when a tasker can do it instead? My friend Madison, who's actually a reporter for Audio Chuck, has been in a mad rush lately to get all the things done before her baby comes in just a few weeks, and so her and her husband are a bit overwhelmed. She was telling me how they have to assemble the crib and put furniture together and mount things to the wall and that's when I said, hey, you might want to check out TaskRabbit. Tackle your to do list today and get 15% off your first task@taskrabbit.com or on the TaskRabbit app using promo code parkpredators. That's promo code parkpredators@taskrabbit.com for 15% off your task TaskRabbit book trusted help for Home Tasks According to coverage by the Fresno Bee, in 1987, Stevie Gray, who was also 24, was an enlisted sailor for the US Navy and stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station, which is located south of Fresno and about a three hour drive from Tunnel View Overlook in Yosemite. As investigators stitched together his and Dolores lives, they learned that the couple had met in May 1987 and gotten married a few months later. In August. About four months before her death, shortly after saying I do, Stevie had taken out two life insurance policies on his wife that when combined, totaled about $437,000. Deloris also had an insurance policy with her job for the Internal Revenue Service in Fresno, and that was reported to be worth $66,000. So in total, with all three policies accounted for, Stephie was the beneficiary of just over half a million dollars. Now, as you can imagine, the FBI became really interested in this life insurance situation and they discovered court records which showed that one day after Dolores death, Stevie had tried to cash in on the funds, but the insurers didn't want to pay out. So instead of taking no for an answer he'd sued the insurance companies in civil court. Evidence he used to support his case was the life insurance policies that bore Dolores signature indicating that she'd approved such large amounts of coverage being taken out on her prior to her death. But still, Stephie trying to claim the insurance proceeds and then suing for the money so quickly after his wife died Just left investigators feeling very icky. And they weren't alone. Deloris mother, Ramona and other relatives who lived in Dolores hometown of Clovis, California, had never felt quite right about Stephie's version of events. They'd followed up with investigators after Dolores died and encouraged officials to keep looking into Stephie's background because they suspected he might have been abusive toward her during their brief marriage. And he'd possibly hurt other women throughout his life. For example, an article by Charles Milos for the Fresno Bee quotes one of Dolores brother in laws who said that when Stevie first came into Dolores life, he'd seemed really nice. But then after they got married, he changed. Like, literally within a few days of getting hitched, he and Dolores were said to have fought a lot. And this happened in Ramona's house, where they were living at the time. Eventually, things got so bad between them that Ramona Dolores mother ended up having to move out of her own home. During that time, Stephie would also leave for weeks on end and tell Dolores that he was on assignment at sea for the Navy. But turns out that wasn't the whole truth. Dolores family ended up discovering that he was living with another woman near the air station during the time he wasn't at home with Dolores. So I imagine this. Oh, and plus the fact that Dolores brother in law also said they'd learned Stephie had gone to Yosemite national park like three or four times one month before Dolores died naturally made family members suspicious of him and just not big fans. Which is why Ramona and other relatives had raised red flags to investigators after Dolores died. Ramona also retained an attorney and countersued Stephie in civil court to try and prevent him from obtaining the life insurance money for Dolores. Regarding this issue, Dolores brother in law told reporter Charles Milos, quote, we're just trying to keep him from getting it. We're not trying to get it, but we don't want him to get it, end quote. Eventually, the case took a major leap forward when on Friday, October 20, 1989, almost two years after Dolores death, A federal grand jury in Fresno reviewed the case and decided to formally indict Stevie for Her murder. At his arraignment the following Monday, he pleaded not guilty and was held without bail pending his trial. The maximum sentence he could receive if he was found guilty was life in prison without the possibility of parole. His public defender told the court that the case against Stevie was entirely circumstantial, which he wasn't wrong. It was. But the Assistant U.S. attorney over the case responded that despite that fact, the evidence that did exist was overwhelming and suggested that Stephie had premeditated Dolores murder. By the time this all went down, the navy had discharged Stephie back in May 1988, and when he was arrested, he was no longer living on base at Lemoore Naval Air Station. He was actually sitting in jail in nearby Hanford, California, after being arrested and convicted for. Wait for it. Abusing a woman he'd been living with. And kind of a side note, an interesting detail I read about that situation explained that during the day, Stevie was, I guess, allowed to be in a work program or something. And then at night, he had to report to jail and be physically behind bars. I know it seems like such a strange arrangement to me, but that's what I read anyway. Him having that conviction on his record, I'm sure didn't do him any favors. And as his murder case approached trial, There was his personal and criminal history for the court to consider, as well as a lot of other things, including how exactly the government planned to present the location of the crime scene to future jurors. The Fresno Bee reported that at one point during pretrial proceedings, the judge contemplated allowing potential jurors to physically travel to the tunnel view overlook and, you know, walk the edge of the cliff where Dolores had died. But that was going to require a safety walkway be built, but, like, not where it would impede jurors ability to see the rugged condition of the terrain. And I guess because this task just posed too much of a potential danger to future jurors, the idea was eventually abandoned, and a model of the landscape in cliff was created instead, which came with a pretty substantial price tag, by the way, some $18,000 in late 1980s, early 90s money. So not cheap. In mid June 1990, about eight months after Stevie's arrest, and nearly three years after Dolores death, the trial got underway. The prosecution presented the argument that Stevie had pushed Dolores on purpose so that he could claim her life insurance money. The government used its model of the scenic overlook where she died to show jurors exactly where he'd been and where her body had ended up. They Also used the model to give panel members a sense of how their argument all fit together. And when I say the prosecutor didn't pull any punches when he gave his opening statement, I mean it. He outright accused Stevie of being a liar, A philandering husband who was motivated by greed, and a manipulative person who'd essentially lured his unassuming wife to a violent death. One major detail the prosecution couldn't prove, though, Was whether Dolores had been assaulted prior to going over the cliff or, like, forced to the edge because she'd suffered such horrible injuries. There was no way for authorities to delineate between what damage had been caused as a result of her impacting the granite rock face and, for example, what might have been the result of having been beaten. The defense's argument about what happened Stood in stark contrast to the government's allegations. Stevie's team claimed that it was Dolores who'd initially gotten the idea to take a trip to Yosemite national park in the first place. However, when the couple arrived, Delores got upset with Stephie and confronted him about him cheating on her with other women. One thing led to another, and they had a verbal fight in the tunnel view parking lot, which ended with Delores walking away by herself to try and find a restroom. The defense claimed that Dolores didn't know there wasn't a bathroom facility located at the viewing area, so she'd mistakenly kept walking along an unmarked trail in the dark until she fell to her death. Meanwhile, Stephie had apparently drunk too much champagne and fallen asleep in their car, Seemingly unaware of what had happened to his wife. About two hours later, he'd woken up and realized Dolores had never returned, and that's when he alerted authorities. But according to news coverage and court documents, Stephie had given a few different accounts of this story when he'd spoken with park rangers and FBI investigators prior to his arrest. On the night he initially reported Dolores missing, He'd told two park rangers that he'd fallen asleep and then woken up to find his wife was gone. While speaking with even more rangers about a month after Dolores death, He'd said something similar, but also brought up the fact that insurance money he had coming to him likely wouldn't cover the cost of a funeral for her. When he first spoke with FBI agents a few weeks after the incident, he said he had never attempted to collect on his wife's life insurance, but then later retracted that statement and admitted that he did know about the policies and how much they were worth. An article by the Fresno Bee stated that when authorities continued to press Stevie, he eventually admitted to hearing his wife scream after she walked to find a restroom, but then he'd passed out in their car. Another version he provided was that he'd actually followed a path that he believed led to where she'd gone walking, but then he turned back after hearing some screams because it was dark and he didn't have a flashlight to help him see where he was going. That version of the story never really seemed to add up, though, because when park rangers searched his vehicle, they'd discovered a flashlight was just sitting inside, which I imagine wasn't a good look for Stephie anyway. If all that wasn't bad enough, his story changed yet again while in another meeting with the FBI a few weeks after giving his first statement to them. During that interview, he gave another variation of his story, and when things got tense between him and one of the interrogating agents, he asked for an attorney. He did, however, allow agents to collect samples of his handwriting and copies of his fingerprints for analysis, and it was the handwriting samples that would become crucial at trial, along with damning ear witness testimony from none other than Don.
