Connecting the Dots

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stolen Voices of Dole Valley

Episode 6: Connecting the Dots
Host: Carolyn Osorio (Lemonada Media)
Release Date: September 16, 2025

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Overview

In this chilling episode, the podcast continues unraveling the crimes of suspected serial killer Warren Forrest, focusing on the discovery and investigation of Krista K. Blake's murder in 1976. The story follows detectives as they begin connecting a series of young women’s disappearances and murders throughout Dole Valley and the Pacific Northwest, ultimately building the case linking Forrest to a string of serial offenses.

The episode powerfully illustrates how investigative missteps, lost evidence, and the attitudes of the 1970s hampered justice for the victims—while also showcasing the resilience of detectives and families seeking the truth. It’s a portrait of systemic failure, determined law enforcement, the manipulation of institutions, and the enduring impact on victims’ families.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap and Key Developments in the Forrest Case

• Warren Forrest was initially found not guilty by reason of insanity for crimes against a woman referred to as Susan.
• Police failed to charge Forrest for kidnapping and assaulting Norma Jean Countrymen, as she could not identify him in a lineup without her glasses.
  • Quote: “She told the detectives that one of the things she lost in this abduction were her glasses. And she wasn't sure she could identify anybody.” — Denny Hunter [02:55]
• After Forrest’s commitment to Western State Hospital, another patient, Karen Wiles, was murdered under circumstances echoing Forrest’s M.O., but he wasn’t investigated at the time.
• The dangerous consequences of not believing survivors became clear two years later with the discovery of Krista Blake’s body.

2. Discovery of Krista Blake’s Remains ([05:17]-[08:16])

• Two hikers found a shallow grave on Tukes Mountain after noticing a boot sticking out of the ground.
• Forensic investigation revealed the body was bound with baling twine—matching known Forrest attacks—indicating Krista had been hogtied and buried.
• Quote: "It was evident that she had been tied and put into the ground in a very small grave. So he would have had a difficult time... So he had to tie her pretty tightly." — Mike Davidson [06:22]
• Puncture marks in Krista's shirt hinted at a specific, cruel method of attack.

3. Krista Blake’s Story: Life, Disappearance, and Identification ([08:16]-[12:22])

• Krista K. Blake, a young mother, disappeared after being dropped at a convenience store in Vancouver, WA by her ex-boyfriend, Fred. He witnessed her getting into a blue van with a young, long-haired white man.
• Quote: “Fred told Colleen that... Krista stood at an intersection near the store, waiting ... when a blue van pulled up ... she hopped inside as if she knew the driver.” — Carolyn Osorio [10:28]
• Krista’s remains were identified through dental records soon after the grave was unearthed.

4. Connecting the Dots: Law Enforcement Realizations ([12:22]-[21:41])

• Overlapping details—victims last seen with a blue van, abductions near parks where Forrest worked, similarities in M.O.—sparked the realization that several unsolved cases were likely connected.
• Detectives began assembling a timeline with detailed victim profiles, mapping a string of disappearances from Jamie Grissom in 1971 to Susan in 1974.
• Quote: “When he was finished, he had the names of seven young women.” — Carolyn Osorio [19:27]
• Tunnel vision and separate case assignments among detectives hindered recognition of a serial perpetrator.

5. Forensic & Investigative Challenges ([22:26]-[29:06])

• The evolving understanding of “serial killer” was not present in local law enforcement at the time, slowing progress.
• Physical evidence in several cases was lost or mistakenly returned to Forrest’s family—crippling prosecutorial efforts.
• Only the dart gun and some photos were retained as crucial evidence.

6. The Legal Tightrope: Prosecuting Forrest ([30:07]-[34:15])

• Despite mounting circumstantial evidence, building a criminal case was extremely difficult without physical linkage.
• There were fears Forrest could be released from Western State Hospital, even as suspicion solidified against him.
• The prosecution’s legal strategy depended on using testimony from previously assaulted survivors, Norma and Susan.

7. Re-Examining Witnesses and Mounting Evidence ([35:08]-[42:35])

• New focus on previously ignored witnesses and coworkers revealed further links between Forrest, his van, and the crime scenes.
• Work records showed Forrest was off work at the critical timeframe of Krista’s disappearance.
• Multiple park employees had suspicions about Forrest but failed to report them, which may have prevented further tragedies.
  • Quote: “Had the Parks employees talked to the detective or the deputy... that case would have been closed.” — Doug Mass [39:23]

8. The Trials of Warren Forrest ([42:35]-[50:39])

• Detectives arrested Forrest for Krista’s murder, facing surprising hostility from Western State Hospital staff.
• Critical psychiatric evaluations undercut Forrest's insanity defense, as hired experts concluded he was not criminally insane, simply deeply disturbed.
• The insanity plea was withdrawn after prosecution pressed for access to Forrest’s records.

9. The Courtroom Drama: Evidence Crisis and Mistrial ([54:49]-[63:54])

• The dart gun used in Susan’s assault became the lynchpin, but a historic error in the evidence room resulted in the wrong gun being turned over to Forrest’s family.
• At trial, the defense ambushed the prosecution, claiming fraud when both sides presented “the” dart gun—almost derailing the case. Forensic analysis ultimately vindicated the state.
• Quote: “The defense attorney opens his briefcase... pulls out a dart gun and says, with the jury sitting there, your honor, the sheriff and prosecutor are perpetrating a fraud on this jury.” — Carolyn Osorio [62:21]
• A mistrial was declared. In the next trial, Forrest’s mother surprised the court with an alibi, but it failed; Forrest was convicted and sentenced to life.

10. The Stories Left Unsolved and Ongoing Impact ([66:37]-end)

• Families, especially those of victims still missing, continued fighting for answers.
• The episode closes on the haunting note that yet more victims might remain unidentified, as evidence and even discovered remains have been lost by authorities.
  • Quote: “Well, then the sheriff's office had to admit that they had lost the bones.” — Ernest M. Weeden [66:49]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Description | |-----------|------------------------|-------------------| | 06:22 | Mike Davidson | “It was evident that she had been tied and put into the ground in a very small grave.” | | 10:28 | Carolyn Osorio | “Fred told Colleen…she hopped inside as if she knew the driver.” | | 15:31 | Doug Mass | "It was Mike Davidson that started putting that all, all together and said, I think this is Warren Forrest." | | 19:27 | Carolyn Osorio | “When he was finished, he had the names of seven young women.” | | 22:29 | Mike Davidson | "Serial killers were not common at all." | | 39:23 | Doug Mass | “Had the Parks employees talked to the detective or the deputy…that case would have been closed.” | | 44:19 | Mike Davidson | “He is a very, very good manipulator and always was.” | | 46:11 | Doug Mass | "We're in the office and we've got it in the director's face, and you got to give up the records." | | 48:18 | Denny Hunter | "They just said, this guy's clearly disturbed. He's not criminally insane. Never was criminally insane." | | 62:21 | Carolyn Osorio | “The defense attorney opens his briefcase... pulls out a dart gun and says, with the jury sitting there, your honor, the sheriff and prosecutor are perpetrating a fraud on this jury.” | | 66:49 | Ernest M. Weeden | “Well, then the sheriff's office had to admit that they had lost the bones.” |

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Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:23-05:17]: Recap of Forrest’s initial court outcome and missed opportunities with original investigations.
• [05:17-08:16]: Discovery and on-site forensic analysis of Krista Blake’s grave.
• [10:28-12:22]: Last sighting of Krista and ensuing discovery and identification.
• [15:04-19:27]: Detectives mapping out the timeline and connecting cases.
• [22:16-24:48]: Frustration with the limits of circumstantial evidence, evolution of forensic understanding.
• [35:08-39:23]: John Dush and Doug Maas revisit old witnesses and evidence—new damning connections arise.
• [42:35-50:39]: Arrest, legal strategy shifts, and showdown over access to psychiatric records.
• [54:49-63:54]: Courtroom drama, evidence fiascos, and how serendipity and thorough auditing saved the case despite institutional chaos.
• [66:37-end]: Lingering wounds for families, cold cases, and the haunting specter of lost evidence.

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Tone and Language

The episode combines investigative detail with emotional resonance. The tone is somber, urgent, and often incredulous at the systemic failures uncovered. The language remains journalistic and respectful, with moments of gritty realism and empathy for victims and their families.

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Conclusion

“Connecting the Dots” lays bare the slow, painful process by which law enforcement began to understand Warren Forrest’s crimes as serial. The episode serves both as an indictment of investigative and judicial shortcomings and a tribute to the relentless search for justice by victims' advocates and law enforcement. As the story ends, the challenge of unsolved cases and lost evidence looms—ensuring there will be no easy closure for the "stolen voices" of Dole Valley.

Transcript

[Carolyn Osorio]

This message is sponsored by Greenlight. I absolutely love it when I see a meme about newbie parents saying something to the effect of yeah, it's so much easier now for you because your kids are getting older. And I'm thinking right. In my experience, not so much. Don't get me wrong, toddler years are something else. But next level parenting as they get older isn't a cakewalk because you're really teaching kids how to be adults. And that's where Greenlight comes in. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families and it's really fun because kids can play games that teach money skills. And then there's also a chores feature which adults can play. You can set up a one time or recurring chore based on your family's needs and then you're basically rewarding kids with a job well done. And let's be honest, you get paid with a more organized household. As a Gen Xer, I wish Greenlight was around when I was a kid as a true primer for the real world. I mean, sure, we were out playing until the street lights came on, but I never made the connection back then that saving money would help me build my dreams. Chores were work with a specific goal in mind, immediately spend exactly what I'd earned. And until Greenlight came into my life, I didn't realize I was teaching my kids the same exact thing. So green Light is the easy, easy convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and for families to navigate life together. Maybe that's why millions of parents trust and kids love learning about money on Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. Don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills. Start your risk free Greenlight trial [e-mail] Stolen Voices. That's greenlight.com Stolen Voices to get started greenlight.com Stolen Voices this series contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence throughout. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Stolen Voices of Dole Valley.

[Mike Davidson]

They had him slam dunk.

[Doug Mass]

And there was no reason that he shouldn't have been gone to trial and being convicted and sent to prison.

[Mike Davidson]

But that didn't happen.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Warren Forrest was found not guilty by reason of insanity for his crimes against Susan. There was a jury, right?

[Denny Hunter]

No, no jury.

[Carolyn Osorio]

How did that happen?

[Denny Hunter]

Get well? We don't know. It's never been explained to me.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Forrest wasn't charged for kidnapping and assaulting Norma Jean Countrymen because she couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

[Denny Hunter]

She told the detectives that one of the things she lost in this abduction were her glasses. And she wasn't sure she could identify anybody.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Why didn't they just get her another pair of glasses?

[Denny Hunter]

It was a very strange situation.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Warren Forrest was committed to Western State Hospital. Not long after he arrived in 1975, a fellow patient, Karen Wiles, was murdered. First of all, any kind of sexually motivated homicide. I mean, those are extremely rare. Sexually motivated homicide with ligature strangulation and binding of the extremities even more rare. Despite the crime matching Warren Forrest's MO at the time of Karen's murder, he wasn't investigated as a person of interest. Tragically, two years after Forrest was committed, the consequences of not believing Norma would come home to roost. It was a hot summer day, July 11, 1976. Hikers James and Michael slipped into the shade of the heavily wooded forest of Tuke's Mountain. The men followed a trail that wound near the spot Warren Forest had carried a hogtied normaging countryman nearly two years before. When they passed the two trees that Forrest had strung Norma to, they were clueless as to the horror she'd endured and had barely escaped. A few paces away, one of the hikers noticed a small brown boot sticking out of the ground. On a whim, he kicked it, expecting the boot to roll away. What he wasn't expecting was to see a leg bone sticking out of the ground and that the forest floor surrounding the protrusion was slightly sunken. Putting two and two together, they realized they were standing on a shallow grave. Not knowing Norma's story, they had no idea of the significance of the two trees that stood on either side of the grave. As if marking the killer's handiwork, here's a recording of then detective Doug Mass detailing the investigation in a case synopsis.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

Two citizens identified as Michael Edward O' Donnell and James Peter McCardell were hiking in the area of Clark County Parks and Recreation Department property Dukes Mountain Division and further that noticed a shoe on the surface of the ground. That when the shoe was kicked, they noticed that it was attached to a bone. And further that upon this find they made immediate contact with the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

[Carolyn Osorio]

That day a botanist came out to the grave to measure plant growth. Based on the vegetation, it was estimated that the victim had been buried in the pit anywhere from 15 months to two years. Retired Clark County Lt. Mike Davidson on the excavation.

[Mike Davidson]

I spent a day or two excavating her on the ground.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Painstaking, methodical digging with hand trowels. In time, a grim archaeological dig was revealed as the impression of a human being began to emerge as well as man's inhumanity to man.

[Mike Davidson]

It was evident that she had been tied and put into the ground in a very small grave. So he would have had a difficult time, in other words, getting her in there. So he had to tie her pretty tightly. You could see the twine behind her back and so on.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The woman wore blue jeans and a light colored shirt. Despite the decomposition, they could see she had blonde hair with a light red tint.

[Mike Davidson]

So we tried to excavate it as best we could down to a point where we could photograph so we see the position that she was tied in.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The victim was positioned on her right side when she'd been buried. Her face was pointing down into the dirt.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

During the excavation process, Detective Davidson was able to observe that the victim was lying on her right side with both legs bent behind the deceased's back and at least one arm was lying in the mid back area. A small piece of rope similar to a baling type twine was located on the deceased's mid back area where the arms and legs met.

[Carolyn Osorio]

This same baling twine was the type of rope found at other crime scenes in the area. Like Susan at Lacamas Lake and Norma two years earlier at Tukes Mountain. Not only was similar rope used, but also this victim had been placed hog tied into the grave. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death as homicide. However, because of the level of decomposition, a cause of death could not be determined. But there were clues. The victim's shirt had puncture holes in the chest area coupled with a heavy concentration of blood.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

During the same autopsy, said Dr. Brady recovered the shirt worn and observed three apparent puncture holes in the shirt in the chest area.

[Carolyn Osorio]

After the excavation of the body had occurred, Detective Mike Davidson looked to reports of missing persons. He discovered that two years before, a mother had filed a missing persons report on her daughter, 20 year old Krista K. Blake. Krista was described as having reddish blonde hair. I said I'm a mother and one of mine disappeared. I don't know why and where they're at. I'm your host, Carolyn Osorio. You're listening to Stolen Voices of dole valley. Episode six, connecting the dots. Krista K. Blake was born the seventh of 12 children in Wyoming, but she was raised in California. In the summer of 1972, Christian Krista moved to Vancouver, Washington to live with her older sister Zila. That's when she met Fred, who was her sister's neighbor. Krista and Fred started dating and went on to have a baby together. After a year and a half, they broke up but remained in each other's lives. Colleen, Krista's mom, would later tell police that her daughter had plans to fly back to California, that she talked to her in early July 1974 about the logistics because Krista needed to be picked up at the airport in the coming weeks. According to this police interview with Colleen, her daughter Christa never made it back and breathe in life was the last.

[Mike Davidson]

Contact that we had.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

Had.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Despite the distance, Colleen kept in regular contact with her daughter. When she hadn't heard from Krista in a week, she knew something was wrong. I have a close in their family.

[Mike Davidson]

And I hear from all of them.

[Carolyn Osorio]

At least once a week, sometimes more often.

[Mike Davidson]

But Krista didn't call and she didn't show up.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Frantic, Colleen called Fred asking about her daughter. He told Colleen that the last time he'd seen Krista was on July 11. He explained that Krista had come over to his house at around 5pm asking for a ride to a nearby convenience store. At the time, Krista was light on the details. She only told Fred she was getting a ride to Portland, Oregon because someone owed her money there. Portland was just across the river from Vancouver, Washington. That day that Fred dropped off Christmas Krista at the convenience store, he didn't immediately drive away. He sat and watched as Krista stood at an intersection near the store, waiting. He knew that she often hitchhiked. But when a blue van pulled up next to Krista and without hesitation she hopped inside as if she knew the driver, Fred told Colleen that he didn't recognize the van and he couldn't see the driver's face other than he could tell that he was white, youngish with longer hair. Within weeks of Krista's disappearance, her mother, Colleen, mailed a letter to the sheriff's office reporting her daughter missing. At that time, Fred told police what he knew.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

Fred Lanisaw informed Detective John Howard of the Clark County Sheriff's Office that he had last seen the said Christa K. Blake getting into a blue Econoline van in the area of 29th and K Street, Vancouver, Washington at about 5:30pm on 11 July 1974. Further that he observed the driver of this van to be a white male American with light brown hair and wearing a T shirt.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A few days after the remains were found buried on Took's Mountain, Colleen got a call no parent ever wants to receive.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

The remains were identified as those of Krista K. Blake through dental chart comparisons.

[Carolyn Osorio]

It was then that Colleen realized how Futile. Her quest to find Krista had been. A couple of months after her daughter went missing, she'd traveled to Vancouver and spent a gut wrenching three days and as many nights searching for Krista. All in vain. By then, her daughter daughter was already dead. Hog died and stuffed into a shallow pit 15 miles from where Fred had dropped her off. After Christa was identified, Detective Mike Davidson went over the statement her ex boyfriend Fred had given police after she went missing. How he'd last seen her getting into a blue van. Four years after multiple young women seemingly disappeared without a trace. Some were still missing, while others had been found murdered. And this is the first time that an investigator begins to see the larger picture that had been there all along. Blue VAN took's Mountain A Clark County PARKS employee WARREN FOREST SERIAL KILLER if there was ever a heart pounding, mind racing, smack your forehead. Moment of horrified clarity by a member of the sheriff's office, I imagine this was it. Was Warren Forrest responsible for Christa Blake's murder? At the same time, someone else was tracking too. Sharon WARREN Force THEN WIFE after she heard that a body had been found at Toukes Mountain.

[Sharon Forrest]

I'm watching the news and it said, another body found on Tukes Mountain. And all of a sudden I went, I hit a female dog and I'm gonna go bury it. And it was like whack. Why would you say female dog? You say I had a dog?

[Carolyn Osorio]

The discovery of Christa Blake's body by those unsuspecting hikers on Tukes Mountain would change everything.

[Doug Mass]

All of a sudden, Christa Blake's body shows up in mid-1976 at Tukes Mountain County Park.

[Carolyn Osorio]

That's retired detective Doug Mast. He recalled that lead detective Mike Davidson was the one who made the connection that Krista Blake's body was discovered at the same park where Norma had been abducted two years before.

[Doug Mass]

It was Mike who had the initial aha, Tukes Mountain. I remember a young lady who was kidnapped and got away here.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And more than that, Krista had last been seen getting into a blue van, just like the van Forest had used to abduct Norma in and Susan.

[Doug Mass]

And so it was Mike Davidson that started putting that all, all together and said, I think this is Warren Forrest.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Doug says Mike started connecting additional cases as well, like the two bodies that had been discovered shortly after Forrest's arrest.

[Doug Mass]

Two bodies that were found up in Dole Valley in 1974.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Okay, if you're having a tough time tracking the victim's names and what happened to them, I get it. It's a lot of information and their stories bleed together, which is why I'm going to take a moment and throughout this episode remind you of the timeline. Here's Mike describing that scene.

[Mike Davidson]

The area very remote, wooded, brushy, typical north county Washington, rather hilly and mountainous. The remains were located approximately within a couple hundred feet apart. There were skeletal remains pretty much they'd obviously been there for a period of time. One of the bodies I recall had a large quantity of hair that was close by.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The victims were fully skeletonized and had been stripped of clothing and identification. According to a police report, quote, some twine of unknown relevance was found in a search of the area. The two sets of remains were found in a hilly forested area near a secluded side road by the Rock Creek Bridge in Dole Valley. Rock Creek Bridge was the same area we're still missing. 16 year old Jamie Grissom's belongings were found after she disappeared on her way home from school. One of the victims was quickly identified through dental records as 18 year old Carol Valenzuela. Carol was a married mother of twin daughters who was last seen a couple months before. Both sets of remains were found in October of 1974. It's believed the day Carol went missing she'd hitchhiked to the welfare office in downtown Vancouver to see about benefits. Once at the office she was advised to come back at 1pm But Carol never made it back.

[Mike Davidson]

I focused primarily on Valenzuela and of course the automatic thing. I looked for her husband really strongly and the reason being was because he was kind of sure he's shady character. There were a lot of inconsistencies and we didn't have the scientific resources that they had today. So a lot of what we did was the old gumshoe way that you go out and you contact them and you put pressure on them and you try to look at them.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And Mike and his team never really stopped looking at Carol's husband as their prime suspect. That is until Christa Blake's body was found and Mike interviewed survivors of Warren Forest, Norma and Susan.

[Mike Davidson]

It all started to mean to make some sense that we had so much similarities in terms of areas of disposal victims, the type of victim that he, that he went after and so on. So I'm thinking, you know, Valenzuela, which was the one that was found in Do Valley. So I started thinking about all these similarities.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The dread of it all came on fast and furious. Mike realized he'd become the conduit, a key to a murderous lightning in a bottle, a murder spree that had eluded investigators at the Clark County Sheriff's Office. Alone with his theories, Mike grabbed a roll of butcher paper. He needed to get it out. He secured himself in his thoughts to a private office, affixed a long stretch of paper to a wall and started making a timeline. When he was finished, he had the names of seven young women.

[Mike Davidson]

Get him a butcher paper roll in one of my offices and started lining up every one of them and the time frames and what we knew about each victim.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The first name on the timeline was missing 16 year old Jamie Grissom, who disappeared in December of 1971. Her connection was that her ID card and other belongings had been found near the Rock Creek Bridge in Dole Valley where the two bodies were discovered three years later. Second was Barbara Derry, who'd been killed in 1972 and whose remains were found at the bottom of a grain silo at the grist mill. Barbara's murder was still unsolved. She was a hitchhiker like many of Forrest's other victims. And the grist mill where they'd found her body was part of the same park system where Forrest worked. Third came the murder of Christa Blake. Blake was last seen on July 11, 1974, getting into a blue van. And her body was found by the hikers at Tukes Mountain county park only six days later. Norma Jean Countrymen had been abducted and tied like a hammock between two trees and barely escaped at almost the exact same spot on Took's Mountain. The fifth and sixth victims on the timeline were the two women whose bodies had been found by the Rock Creek Bridge, Carol Valenzuela and another woman who remained unidentified. These two murders were thought to have taken place in August of 1974, just one month after Norma's failed abduction. The seventh and final victim on Mike Davidson's butcher paper was the woman we've been calling by the pseudonym Susan or the Lacamas Lake victim. She had been abducted, assaulted and left for dead a month later in October of 1974. And it was the investigation of that attempted murder that led to Warren's arrest. But despite all the circumstantial connections between these crimes, Mike Davidson was having a hard time convincing his colleagues that Warren Forrest was a serial killer.

[Mike Davidson]

When cases were assigned, for instance, Barbara Deary in the grist mill, they were assigned to another detective. And so they had developed their own leads, their own suspects and so on. And what we have as investigators, we get, and I say this because I'm just as guilty, is tunnel vision. We get locked onto something that we don't want to let go of. So when I come along and I say, well, you know, Barbara Deary falls within this framework, you have pushback from the other people going, well, you know, we think this guy did it.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Another thing, too, is that, I mean, serial killer is so in the common vernacular now, but back in the early 70s, that. That's. That wasn't the case.

[Mike Davidson]

No, they were not common at all.

[Carolyn Osorio]

So for the moment, the idea that Forrest was a serial killer lay dormant. And before long, even more names would be added to Mike's butcher paperwork role. Detective Mike Davidson's epiphany led to a hard truth. He believed Warren Forest had murdered Christa Blake. But building a case against him that he could bring to a prosecutor and get an arrest warrant would require more than just connecting dots and pulling on threads. He needed proof. What he had was a lot of circumstantial evidence connected connecting Forest to the murder, but no physical evidence. Obviously, Warren Forest's Emma was a big deal in the case, as was the proximity to where Norma had been tied between two trees a week after Krista had been murdered. If you'll recall, Norma had brought Deputy Pillsbury to the trees where she'd been tied. And if Krista would have been found at that time, a cause of death could have been determined two years later. Advanced decomposition made that impossible. Even so, the holes found in her shirt potentially connected Krista to Susan's assault and Forrest's M.O. because Susan had been shot repeatedly with a dart gun. That thread wasn't a slam dunk. Because even though Warren Forrest Forest MO Was similar, it didn't match every crime scene and victim because it was evolving.

[Mike Davidson]

When he came back to the second time, Norma Jean heard him and heard him ralphing around trying to find her, and she had rolled down the hill and was laying really quiet. Well, he collected the rope that he had tied her with to the tree and took it with him. So he didn't leave any evidence knowing.

[Carolyn Osorio]

That Krista was literally right next to him. Yeah, obviously a blue van was something Krista had in common with the young women who had barely survived their encounters with a man driving a blue van. Norma, the girl who wasn't believed at first, and Susan, the Lacamas Lake victim.

[Doug Mass]

The similarities, of course, were that they were both kind of picked up by this young, good looking, charismatic guy in a blue van.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And yet Fred, Krista's ex boyfriend, hadn't seen the driver's face when he'd watched her get into his van. And there was something even more problematic. Evidence collected in Susan's abduction and assault was gone. This evidence could have helped clinch an arrest for Warren Forest in Krista's murder. It's hard to fathom, even in this case, that after Forrest was found not guilty by reason of insanity, keys, twine, a knife, adhesive tape, and most egregious of all, vacuum sweepings taken by detectives from Forrest's van had either been disposed, disposed of, or given back to Warren Forest's family. Right now, if you're shaking your head in disbelief, you're not alone. Because back then, even though DNA wasn't on anyone's radar, that physical evidence collected could have had a huge impact on Krista's case. Hair and fibers that had the potential to connect Warren Forest to Krista Blake and other victims. Only two pieces of evidence remained in custody. Evidentiary photos and the marksman air pistol Forrest used to shoot feathered darts into Susan's chest to make up for the lost evidence. Three days after Krista's body was found, investigators tracked down Warren Forrest Forest fan. By then, it had been sold to a third party. Even so, a second forensic sweep was conducted inside. And if investigators were hoping to get a confession from Warren, that wasn't going to happen. When they requested an interview, he refused. This message is sponsored by Green Light. I absolutely love it when I see a meme about newbie parents saying something to the effect of, yeah, it's so much easier now for you because your kids are getting older. And I'm thinking, right, in my experience, not so much. Don't get me wrong, toddler years are something else. But next level parenting as they get older isn't a cakewalk because you're really teaching kids how to be adults. And that's where Greenlight comes in. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families. And it's really fun because kids can play games that teach money skills. And then there's also a chores feature which adults can play. You can set up a one time or recurring chore based on your family's needs. And then you're basically rewarding kids with a job well done. And let's be honest, you get paid with a more organized household. And as a Gen Xer, I wish Greenlight was around when I was a kid as a true primer for the real world. I mean, sure, we were out playing until the street lights came on, but I never made the connection back then that saving money would help me build my dreams. Chores were work with A specific goal in mind, immediately spend exactly what I'd earned. And until Greenlight came into my life, I didn't realize I was teaching my kids to the same exact thing. So greenlight is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and for families to navigate life together. Maybe that's why millions of parents trust and kids love learning about money on Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. Don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills. Start your risk free greenlight trial today [e-mail] stolenvoices that's greenlight.com stolenvoices to get started greenlight.com stolenvoices.

[Narrator (Chinatown Sting promo)]

In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia.

[Denny Hunter]

We had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles, and you name it.

[Narrator (Chinatown Sting promo)]

But what they find is not what they expected.

[Denny Hunter]

Basically, your stay at home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin.

[Sharon Forrest]

They go, is this your daughter? I said, yes. They go, oh, you may not see her for like 25 years.

[Narrator (Chinatown Sting promo)]

Caught between a federal investigation and the violent gang who recruited them, the women must decide who they're willing to protect and who they dare to betray.

[Sharon Forrest]

Once I saw the gun, I tried to take his hand and I saw.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The flash of light.

[Narrator (Chinatown Sting promo)]

Listen to the Chinatown sting wherever you get your podcasts.

[Carolyn Osorio]

By late 1977, Detective Mike Davidson continued to interview witnesses, put together a timeline, and compared Warren Force movements to other cases. It was a slow process, but the Clark County Sheriff's office believed they had time because their prime suspect in Christa's murder was safely tucked away at Western State Hospital. So they thought a rude awakening was on the horizon. Retired prosecutor Denny Hunter.

[Denny Hunter]

A quick turnaround in terms of insanity acquittals.

[Carolyn Osorio]

You mean release him?

[Denny Hunter]

Yeah, conditionally back into the community.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Roughly two years into Warren Forrest's commitment, he applied for a conditional release with the court. He had plans to attend school during the day. A conditional release would allow him to leave the grounds of Western State to attend. And it was one step closer to a full unconditional release into the world. Western State had approved Warren Forrest's conditional release. The next step in that process was to get a hearing with a judge who had the power to approve or deny the request. The idea that now suspected serial killer Warren Forrest could potentially be released back into the population was more than problematic to the case they were trying to be. It was terrifying.

[Denny Hunter]

The detectives came out to my house and Said, hey, look at these cases and can we do that? We didn't know if we could or not because we didn't know whether we could use Norma or lachamas victims to prove the Blake murder. The law was not exactly settled at least in our favor at that time. So because, well, you're not supposed to allow collateral crimes to be to establish that the defendant is a bad guy. It has to fall into a certain category of to show premeditation and motive which was obviously sexual homicidal basically. But we were on uncharted territory basically.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Moving forward with a charge of murder against Warren Forest for Christa Blake's death hinged on whether or not a judge would allow testimony from Norma and the Lacamas Lake survivor Susan. Their separate stories were critical in helping to prove what they'd endured at the hands of Warren Forest. These weren't individual stories of horror but were a part of a larger book of mercury murder. In the meantime, Warren Forrest's request for release began a game of cat and mouse. In order for Forrest to be released from Western he needed the approval of the court. And unlike in Susan's case, the court wasn't just going to take Forest's psychiatrist's word for it. If he wanted out, he'd have to speak to an independent forensic psychiatrist which the state had hired around the same time. In March of 1978, the Sheriff's Office and prosecutor Denny Hunter hand picked Detective Doug Mass to investigate and organize all the cases related to Warren Forest.

[Detective Doug Mass (recorded statements)]

And in his official capacity I was assigned to the continuing investigation of Clark County Sheriff's Major Case 318 on 24 March 1978. This investigation involves the death of a white female identified as Krista K. Blake on or about 11 July 1974. The abduction and felonious assault of a white female identified as Norma Jean Countryman on or about 17 July 1974 and the abduction and felonious assault of a white female identified as on or about the 1st of October 1974. A faint has organized each of these prior reports and identified them as Major case file 318.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A culmination of that work was put into a report dated March 30, 1978. A case synopsis summarizing a list of young women believed to be victims of Warren Forrest, which now also included Jamie Grissom, Barbara Derry, Carol Valenzuela and the unidentified victim found near Carol. A total of four young women plus Norma and Susan. Six stolen voices so far. Two months later While Warren Forrest is still attempting to get a conditional release from Western, the skeletal remains of another missing young woman would be found near Lacamas Lake Park. That's the same area where Warren Forest had brought Susan retired detective John Dush.

[John Dush]

What drives you is the fact that it's unsolved. And the other thing is, is that this file sits within less than 10ft of my computer in the basement. So it's omnipresent.

[Carolyn Osorio]

John Dush was the type of investigator who took his unsolved cases home, running endless scenarios in his head.

[John Dush]

It's like, okay, let me put it this way. Say you're balancing your checkbook and you find at the end of one month that you're 10 cents off. How much time would I spend looking for that? I'd probably spend the rest of the day looking for it, really. So. But then maybe I'm obsessive compulsive and maybe Doug is too. And so it's like always a question in the back of your mind.

[Carolyn Osorio]

On May 9, 1978, John was called out to investigate after human remains were found by fishermen at the Lacamas Lake Park. The remains would be identified as Gloria Knudson. Gloria had been reported missing roughly two months before Norma's abduction. Her murder would be added to Mike's butcher paper roll of the growing list of suspected victims of Warren Forest. When Detective Doug Maas was assigned full time to investigate Warren Forrest, he went back to key witnesses in Norma's case who were never fully interviewed because she hadn't been believed. Here's a 1978 recording from Detective Doug.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Mass during further investigation of Major Case 318, Mr. Forrest's direct supervisor. It was one Ernest M. Weeden. Mr. Weeden confirms that at the time of Blake's disappearance and the Countryman kidnap assault, Warren Forrest was working from the Tukes Mountain site of the Clark County Parks and Recreation Department.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Weeden confirmed that Forrest had a key that fit the main gates of all the parks. He could come and go anytime.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Following the finding of Norma Jean Countrymen at the Tukes Mountain site, Mr. Forrest asked for a transfer from the Tukes Mountain site.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Co workers noticed Forrest wasn't acting like himself the day Norma had been found at the maintenance building that on the.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Day that Norma Jean Countryman was located outside, Mr. Forrest was the only county worker who did not exit the buildings at the Tukes Mountain site to observe the investigation and activity. They further described Mr. Forrest as being disturbed and stolen.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Park employee Dewey Oltman confirmed that in the past, Forrest had confided that he'd picked up female hitchhikers. He also shared that Forrest liked the Dole Valley and spent time in the area looking for property to buy. And Dewey described a bizarre confrontation he'd had with Warren about Norma's kidnapping.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Following the Countryman assault, he confronted Mr. Forrest and stated that it looked like him. Altman states that you could tell that it bothered him and that Mr. Forrest looked, quote, funny when we kept teasing him about it. Mr. Forrest related to Mr. Altman some statement regarding cutting his hair and maybe shaving if he started to look like somebody else.

[Carolyn Osorio]

As you know, none of the employees came forward with their concerns. And Deputy Pillsbury didn't ask employees if the suspect and his blue van matched anyone they knew. And more damning circumstantial evidence was uncovered. Forrest wasn't working when Norma, Susan and Krista were abducted.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Work records indicate that on the date of Blake's disappearance, July 11th of 1974, Warren Forrest put in an eight hour shift which would put him off work at approximately 5pm approximately one hour before Blake was last seen getting into a blue van.

[Carolyn Osorio]

All these years later, Doug and I discussed the repercussions of these employees not coming forward. In 1974, a couple of the Parks.

[Doug Mass]

Employees, when they heard the description, said, hey, that sounds like Warren Forrest. But they never passed along that information to the detective or the patrol deputy at the time. And so Warren Forrest wasn't on their radar at all. It was a singular case. She got picked up hitchhiking and she managed to get away. And that's all those two knew at the time. Now, had the Parks employees talked to the detective or the deputy and said, hey, this may sound funny, but that really sounds like Warren Force. If they'd done that, I think that case would have been closed.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Now, four years later, other critical people in Norma's case were interviewed. These witnesses, once ignored, were now foundational in a case the prosecution was building against Warren Forrest for the murder of Christa Blake. Because what they had witnessed affirmed that the crime stories of Norma, Susan and Krista were connected to the man driving the blue van. Like the two people who came forward about seeing the van at Took's Mountain, neither of those witnesses were followed up. On a reminder, one of the two witnesses was a mother who had observed a blue van parked at Tukes Mountain after hours the night of Norma's abduction. She had called the sheriff's office again two weeks later when she recognized the same van at Louisville Park. The other witness reported walking by the Tukes Mountain Entrance after hours and was approached by a stranger driving a blue van. At the time, the witness had just picked up a sweater he'd found on the side of the road. The stranger asked for the sweater and then drove away. Another key witness was Christa's friend, Cindy. Cindy told investigators that a few months before her disappearance, she observed Krista speaking to a man at Lewisville park that day. Cindy said Krista was looking for a blue van, but didn't say why. When Krista spotted it, she made a beeline towards a man in a small group of people that were standing near the van. Cindy didn't know who the guy was, Only that she recalled, he was kind of cute. When she was shown a photo of Warren Forest, Cindy confirmed that he was the man she'd seen talking to Krista that day. Brick. But by brick, they were building a case against Warren Forest. But the lynchpin witnesses were, of course, Norma and Susan. Without them, they didn't have a strong enough circumstantial case against Warren Forest for the murder of Christa Blake. Denny Hunter's argument to the judge was that the crimes against Norma and Susan should be allowed in a prosecution of Warren Forest because they showed premeditation, which.

[Denny Hunter]

Is what we used to persuade the court that he shouldn't admit this stuff was premeditation and motive, which was obviously sexual, homicidal, basically. But we were on uncharted territory. We had the Lacamus case, We had Norma's case, and we had Christoplake within 160 some feet up on Tukes mountain. So that's why we were able to charge the Blake murder.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A little more than two years after Krista's remains were found, Detectives Doug Mass and Mike Davidson drove to Western state mental hospital. Warren Forest would be arrested for the second time. He was charged with the murder of Christa Blake. The hospital staff's response was not what you might expect.

[Doug Mass]

I mean, it was. I don't want to overstate this, But Western state mental hospital was not like a prison. It was like a college campus. And I mean, they were kind of all very chummy, all very close. And so the. The contacts we had with Western state became very adversarial. I mean, the thought that we showed up and put handcuffs on one of their people. Patients. There was a lot of shouting going on, A lot of resistance going on.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But staff or the patients or both?

[Doug Mass]

No, with the staff.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Mike recalled how shocked he felt when they went to arrest Warren for murder. It was crystal clear to him how dangerous he was, not just because of his crimes, but how he'd been able to effectively manipulate the staff at Warren Western Hospital.

[Mike Davidson]

That was a real battle. And. And the thing is that he had. He did manipulate them. There's the rumor and how much we know or don't know, but that he was going to be allowed to leave the facility. He went out and apparently helped one of the counselors move. There's a number of irregularities that was found during that period of time, but that was certainly information that we got. And they came back. He is a very, very good manipulator and always was.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Once he was arrested and in the backseat of the cop car, they were hoping to have a long conversation with Forrest about his crimes. On the way back to Clark County.

[Doug Mass]

Mike and I were sure that given all the evidence, that we would be able to get him to confess. And about the time we reached i5, he asked if he could have a cigarette. Well, our understanding was he hadn't smoked in years. And so he was kind of a little shak. Asked for a cigarette, and I was feeling even more confident. I've got a two and a half hour drive here. And we just laid it all out. And he was. I can't remember that he had any response at all.

[Carolyn Osorio]

From his jail cell, he entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity for Christa's murder.

[Denny Hunter]

As soon as he interjected an insanity plea, we went to Western, said, we've got an insanity plea. We want everything you have. And they were reluctant to share because. And we were aware from talking to other patients that had left Western that each person does a, quote, autobiography. And we wanted to see what that said.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Prompting Doug to take another trip to Western with a warrant in his hand for those records.

[Doug Mass]

Became almost a standoff. They refused to give us the records. So I'm on the phone to our chief criminal deputy and he says, you've got a valid warrant.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Describe the standoff.

[Doug Mass]

We're in the office and we've got the paper and we've got it in the director's face, and you got to give up the records. He ends up calling the attorney general while we're there, because the attorney general kind of controls what he does or doesn't do. So I'm just a lowly detective sitting here trying to deal with this person. All of a sudden, it's kicked up to the attorney general's level.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Eventually, the attorney general of Washington state and Denny Hunter worked out an agreement.

[Doug Mass]

We didn't get the records that date, so we backed off. But the attorney general and the prosecuting attorney worked out an agreement. On how the transfer of his records were going to take place.

[Carolyn Osorio]

An agreement that never materialized.

[Denny Hunter]

We never saw that material because the judge ordered it sealed. And their argument was this would destroy our program of treating violent offenders. If they thought that we'd give this stuff up. So we never did see the autobiography. Or I never did anyway.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Has anybody seen it?

[Denny Hunter]

Not that I'm aware of, except the Western states people.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But this time around, the insanity plea wasn't going to just be rubber stamped.

[Denny Hunter]

In 1978, when we charged him and he entered the insanity plea. We went to our county commissioners and got approval to spend a little extra money. And we hired as our experts Seymour Pollack out of usc. Who's like the granddaddy of forensic psychiatry.

[Carolyn Osorio]

I want to hear those tapes that they have. I've been trying to get those.

[Denny Hunter]

There are some interviews in the system of partial interviews of Pollock interviewing him.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Despite multiple requests for those tapes from the records department at the Clark County Sheriff's Office. The tapes still haven't been released. I was able to get some transcripts of interviews. Because of a separate request I sent to the prosecutor's office. But as you might imagine, the transcripts I did get my hands on aren't the complete picture. What we do know is that Dr. Pollock and forensic psychiatrist David Kessler, who was also hired to consult, came to the same conclusion.

[Denny Hunter]

They just said, this guy's clearly disturbed. He's not criminally insane. Never was criminally insane. He's got, you know, personality disorders and defects.

[Carolyn Osorio]

This is important. Both psychiatrists hired by the prosecution in their professional opinions. Found that Warren Forrest was not criminally insane when he abducted and assaulted Susan. This revelation was egregious. It meant that not only was Norma not believed, but in Susan's case, the prosecution acquiesced to the defense's experts. They never challenged the criminally insane diagnosis. Which led to a not guilty verdict. So this is what the prosecution should have done in the first.

[Denny Hunter]

If they would have.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Instead of saying, okay, we're going to accept the defenses.

[Denny Hunter]

Well, that was. Yeah, that's the way I look at it. There's a difference between forensic psychiatry and clinical psychology. The clinical psychologist accepts whatever the guy tells him. You know, and that's how they build their rapport and all that. Forensic mental health people don't accept it. They want to prove it. You know, you said this. Prove it. They're much more demanding of the subject.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Dr. Pollock's contradictory findings related to Warren Force previous diagnosis of Criminal insanity was an opening for the prosecution's case. Denny was quick to request his medical records and that autobiography from Western State, prompting Warren Forrest to withdraw his not guilty by reason of insanity plea.

[Denny Hunter]

They didn't want any additional discovery because we were pouring discovery requests into his background, psychiatric background.

[Carolyn Osorio]

So you really wanted to protect that?

[Denny Hunter]

Yeah, he withdrew it. That's. That's what they said was we're not going to share any more secrets. We're going to withdraw the insanity offense.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Warren Forest changed his plea to not guilty. And remember how Western had vouched for Warren's conditional release? How hospital staff were openly hostile toward Doug and Mike, who had come to Western with an arrest warrant for Warren Forest for the murder of Christa Blake. How despite a search warrant, they fought tooth and nail to keep Warren's medical records sealed.

[Mike Davidson]

Wester Seats did their own evaluation, and as it turned out later, they admitted that he. He was not mentally incompetent and he didn't belong there. They had essentially warehoused him for that period of time.

[Carolyn Osorio]

This admission implied that Warren Forest had been gaining the system the entire time, conning his Parks and Rec co workers into believing he was a poor schlub who had nothing to do with Norma's abduction, even though he matched her suspect description and he owned a blue van. How he'd spun an insanity plea based on his alleged PTSD from Vietnam. How he'd manipulated the staff at Western State to the point that he potentially had access to a couple car and the freedom to move about the grounds and beyond. Warren Forest's cunning had been underestimated every step of the way. Warren Forest trial began on January 15, 1979. In a surprise move, he testified in his own defense. He claimed that in 1974, he was suffering from acute mental illness, which had been developing all his life. That he was stressed about dealing with other people, while at the same time feeling insecure about fulfilling his role as father and husband, which Forest said led to doubts about his own sexual orientation. During an interview with a psychologist in 1978, Warren Forrest described that around the time he abducted and assaulted Susan, he was concerned over his lack of sexual interest in his wife. Warren told the doctor that as a result, quote, the assumption was, was that I was becoming homosexual. During his trial, Forrest testified that it was these doubts that led him to pick up Susan. He said that when she agreed to model for him, he believed she was a sex worker. He further explained that during the course of the violent assault and rape of Susan, he was simultaneously able to identify with her condition and decided to put her out of her misery by killing her. Forrest claimed he had no recollection of the Norma abduction, even though she'd identified him as her assailant once she had a new pair of glasses. As for Christa Blake, he said he was fairly certain he didn't kill her. Here's Warren Forrest's then wife Sharon, discussing the trial.

[Sharon Forrest]

And I remember what was really unnerving. The first time I got called up to testify. I was walking up there and somebody in the courtroom was sitting, said I was like, people think I'm a because I'm married to him.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Sharon testified that on the day Christa Blake went missing, her husband had come home from work after 4pm they ate dinner together and then he left again. Warren returned home at around 9pm saying he'd struck and killed a female dog and that he needed to bury her. He went to the garage, got a shovel and left again. She said he was back in less than an hour. Susan's testimony about the horror she'd endured at the hands of Warren Forrest, who had left her for dead in a shallow grave at Lacamas Lake park, was powerful. Because Warren Forrest had admitted to his crimes against Susan, she wouldn't have to endure a cross examination by the defense. But because he was never charged for his crimes against Norma, the defense did their best to destroy her credibility.

[Denny Hunter]

Have you seen her cross examination from the 1979 trial? It was brutal.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Norma?

[Denny Hunter]

Yeah, they just picked on her. Picked on her and picked on her. I think that actually I think it helped our case.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Do you mean picked at her credibility? Yeah, the defense.

[Denny Hunter]

Right. Well, and that's the difference. She paid a huge price for us not being able to charge because they could cross examine her, the Lachamas victim, because of the insanity acquittal, they're prevented from testing her version of events. So she was not cross examined at all. They saved all their cross for Norma.

[Carolyn Osorio]

I mean, Norma has really gotten it, you know, I mean she's paid a.

[Denny Hunter]

Huge price, no question.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Arguably the most important evidence in the prosecution's case was the dart gun Warren Forrest had used to shoot Susan, the Lacamus Lake victim.

[Denny Hunter]

He fired feather tailed darts into her chest and stomach with the dart. And Krista Blake, when she was exhumed, she was fully clothed in the grave and there were pinprick holes identified in the shirt she was wearing.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A criminalist at the state lab testified that Krista was either stabbed in the chest multiple times with an ice pick tool or shot with a dart Gun. A dart gun was included as a potential weapon after they were able to duplicate markings that had been left behind on skin.

[Denny Hunter]

On our first testing, the dart gun didn't show the signature tag. Something goes in and comes out, there's a little loop and she couldn't get that. But what she ultimately did was she filled balloons with some sort of gelatin to simulate a person's breast and that reflex produced that loop. That's how she got down to it and dart. So that that became a big deal.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Presenting this dart gun at trial was critical in their case against Warren Forrest. Especially since all the other physical evidence collected in Susan's case was gone. Remember in a previous episode I told you the only evidence they had left in Susan's case was the dart gun seized from Forrest van and evidentiary photos. That was true, but it also wasn't true. What I didn't tell you was the sheriff's office actually did give back the dart gun to Warren's family in 1975. They just gave the wrong one. This part of the investigation is really important, but also a bit confusing. I will tell you that even in an investigation with so many missteps, it's hard to believe that this actually happened. So let's break it down. In 1978, the prosecution is prepping for trial and they don't have the dart gun. What they have is an evidence receipt that shows Warren Forrest's mother in law picked up all of his seized possessions, including the weapon used in Susan's assault. But what can only be described as a small miracle, sometime before the trial, Doug learned that Warren's dart gun had been found locked away in a signed and sealed evidence bag.

[Doug Mass]

1978, we're prepping to go to court on Christa Blake and the new evidence officer who is assigned in 1978 to do a full accounting of every evidence item that we have. A full audit comes to me and says, hey Doug, look at what I found. And what he found was the actual gun that we seized in 1974. Our evidence officer who released the stuff in 75 released the wrong gun.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Unbelievably. Back in 1975 when Warren's mother in law came to pick up his possessions, including the gun he'd used to shoot.

[Doug Mass]

Darts into Susan comes in and wants the evidence released. Well, he was away on a criminally insane plea. So our evidence officer says okay, and he pulled all of the stuff. I mean it's a closed case. And away goes the evidence included in that evidence. On the list of things that we owed was this gun. So it's not like a gun with a serial number.

[Carolyn Osorio]

It's an air pistol that shoots BBs and darts. Apparently these types of guns weren't locked up with seized firearms back in 1974. According to Doug, when Forrest's mother in law came to pick up his stuff, the evidence officer couldn't find Warren's dart gun with the rest of his seized belongings and she wanted the gun. He didn't want to admit that they'd lost his gun. But in 1975, as you can probably imagine, that evidence room was by no means organized. There was a box of random dart guns just lying around. And so without saying a word to Warren's mother in law, the officer picked up a random dart gun from that box and gave it to her. She signed the release form and away she went, none the wiser.

[Doug Mass]

Well, if that hadn't happened then in 1978 when Krista Blake's body shows up, we would not have had the dart gun.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But before the trial, Denny and Doug tried to track down the dart gun that had been given to Warren's mother in law.

[Denny Hunter]

Doug and I went out and interviewed the mother in law, Forrest, saying, hey, what did you do with the dart gun that you retrieved from the sheriff's office? Because we wanted to compare them. She said, I threw it away. We didn't want it anymore. We wanted to get rid of it. I specifically recall I threw it away and that kind of left us where we were. I was satisfied that we had the.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Right weapon, or so they thought. On the last day of the trial, Warren's dart gun was introduced by Denny's co counsel. It was then that Denny felt a shift inside the courtroom.

[Denny Hunter]

I was in the hallway and I could feel the electricity.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The state's crime analyst had just testified that Warren Forrest's dart gun could have made the holes in Krista's shirt.

[Denny Hunter]

We were in the state's rebuttal. My co counsel Roger Bennett, who played a major role in that case, was in court. I was out in the hallway with the last witness remaining witness getting her ready for to go in When Roger moved for the admission of our dart gun exhibit. The defense attorney opens his briefcase, puts a paper bag out on the council table, pulls out a dart gun and says, with the jury sitting there, your honor, the sheriff and prosecutor are perpetrating a fraud on this jury. This is the defendant's target of course. Whole town broke loose.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In front of the jury, Warren's defense attorney Don Gregg accused the prosecution of manufacturing Evidence, the prosecution was blindsided. They believed Warren's mother in law when she told them she'd thrown away the gun that had been released to her in 1975. Warren's mother in law didn't throw away the gun she'd been given back. The prosecution would find out. But she gave it to Warren's defense attorney. Just a week before the last day of his trial. Defense attorney Greg had a copy of the evidence release form documenting that his client's dart gun had been given to his mother in law. And even though he knew the prosecution was planning to submit their dart gun into evidence, he never went to the court with the discrepancy. Waiting until the last day of trial when he was in front of the jury where he accused the prosecution of manufacturing evidence. He was probably like smiling and loving it.

[Denny Hunter]

Yeah, he was until we had the forensic comparison and that was easy to do. We asked immediately for the court to take control of it. We asked to have it marked so it wouldn't walk out of the courtroom. So it did come under court control. And that, that was a Friday. And that weekend we had our criminalist go in and basically he was able to compare photographs of the two in various positions.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The defense attorney's theatrics backfired, if you'll recall. I said the gun and evidentiary photos were the only evidence that remained in Susan's case. Which meant the prosecution was able to produce a 1974 photograph of Warren Force dart gun which documented scratches on the gun and a blood spot that matched those on the prosecution's weapon. But the damage was done. The following day, a mistrial was declared. Within 90 days, a second trial was underway and there would be more court theatrics. On the last day of the second trial, Warren Forrest's mother took the stand and dropped another bombshell, an alibi for her son. Dolores Forrest shocked both the defense and the prosecution when she testified that her son couldn't have murdered Christa Blake because he was with her from 5 to 10pm that night having dinner. This was news to everyone because she'd never mentioned the dinner alibi when she testified at his first trial. Dolores tried to explain this away by saying she'd mixed up the dates and hadn't realized that July 11 was the date in question until the second trial. Dolores looked at the jury and said, quote, my testimony is the truth, so help me God. But her Hail Mary alibi wouldn't help her son. On Saturday at 6:30pm in a stifling hot courtroom on April 23, 1979, Warren Forrest was found guilty of of the first degree murder of Krista Blake. He was sentenced to life in prison. But as I'm sure you've come to expect, this wasn't over. Not by a long shot. Convicted murderer Warren Forrest is suspected of being a serial killer. And yet all the cases on Mike's butcher paper grow cold until a woman's love for her missing sister can no longer be silenced. For Jamie, I wanted everybody to know who she was and what happened. And then it wasn't just her, it was all these other girls too. And I just thought, this has to be told. And once she decided that there was no going back.

[Sharon Forrest]

Dar had known that there was a set of bones that were around the.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Time that Jamie disappeared. But this unlikely duo were not prepared for what they'd find.

[Ernest M. Weeden]

Well, then the sheriff's office had to.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Admit that they had lost the bones.

[Narrator (Chinatown Sting promo)]

What do you mean?

[Denny Hunter]

How do you lose a body?

[Carolyn Osorio]

If you have information about the case, please call the Clark County Sheriff's Office tip line at 564-397-2847. For more on Stolen Voices of Dole Valley, including pictures or to contact the show, find us on social at Stolen Voices Pod or visit our website, Stolen Voicespot. And if you like the show, please give us a five star rating and a review. It really helps us get discovered. Of course. Tell your friends and be sure to follow us so you don't miss an episode. You can also support us by subscribing to Lemonada Premium, available right now in your podcast player. Lemonada Premium unlocks exclusive bonus episodes. Stolen Voices of Dole Valley is researched, written and hosted by me, Carolyn Osorio Production, sound design and mixing by Trent Sell Produced for Pie in the Sky Media by Brandon Morgan. My personal thanks to Ben Kiebrick for his thoughtful and inspired edits. A special thanks to Dave Colley, Amy Donaldson, Andrea Smarten, Ryan Meeks and Jenny Ament. Main musical score composed by Alison Layton Brown with Lemonada Media executive producers Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittleswax and for KSL Podcasts executive producer Cheryl Worsley. Stolen Voices of Dole Valley is a production of Pie in the Sky Media, KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media.