SERIAL KILLER: The Lewis-Clark Valley Murders

0:00Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And I have been dying to tell you this story. It is a story about a serial killer. Not one of the ones we've been asked to cover time and time again, like the ones who have gotten endless coverage as people pick apart their psyche and motivations. This is about someone I'd never heard of. Someone who police suspect of terrible things because somehow, wherever this guy goes, tragedy follows. but they have never had enough to prove the things they so strongly suspect. So this man, either one of the unluckiest people I've ever heard of, or a cold-blooded killer, is living among all of us.

0:44He could be our neighbor or the guy we pass at the grocery store. Someone we know, someone our listeners know. But remember, crime junkie life rule number one, you never really know anyone ever. But it's my job to make sure you're well informed. So buckle up, kiddos. This one's a doozy. I'm talking about the cases that have been linked to a man they call the Lewis Clark Valley Killer. And I'm going to talk about who police think that man actually is.

1:47I don't know what was in the water in the fall of 1982, but authorities in the Lewis-Clark Valley, where Washington and Idaho and Oregon all meet, they were underwater with cases. Between August 31st and September 19th, in this area where not much happened, four people had gone missing. It started with a two-year-old little boy named Ricky Barnett, who was visiting his grandparents' farm in Grangeville, Idaho. And while workers were unloading a delivery of chickens, Ricky vanished into thin air. Almost two weeks later, on September 12th, two young women went missing while out running errands in Lewiston, Idaho.

2:2721-year-old Christina Nelson and her stepsister, 18-year-old Jacqueline Miller, who goes by Brandy. Then, just as the 12th of September turned into the 13th, before anyone even knew that Brandy and Christina were missing, 35-year-old Steven Parasol vanished after he was dropped off at the local Civic Theater in the same small town. So, by the 19th of September, when 18-year-old Jennifer Vincent and her car disappear somewhere between her boyfriend's dorm at Washington State University and her home in Spokane, Washington, people are panicked. Authorities, especially in the Valley, are drowning.

3:06And that's not even speaking of the cold cases they've had looming over them for the last couple of years. The disappearance of a 12-year-old girl in 79, and then the murder and dismemberment of a young woman who was found in 81. So something is happening in this area. Captain M. Dwayne Ehler, chief of detectives for the Lewiston PD, said in an article for the Spokane Chronicle that he had been on the force for 19 years and has never seen anything like this. The peace and illusion of safety that the Valley residents used to feel is shattered. shatter. Parents don't let their kids walk to school alone anymore.

3:44People are locking their doors at night. I mean, it's like they're being hunted by this faceless, nameless boogeyman. And that doesn't change after Jennifer Vincent is found. And there actually is an innocent, albeit scary, reason for her disappearance. She had gotten into some kind of accident on her way home, and she was found pinned in the wreckage of her car with a broken back and hypothermia. And that was nearly four days after she went missing. So at least for her case, like, there's no connection seemingly to any of the other victims. And after she gets found, the local papers who had been picking up all of the five most recent cases and like lumping them together, they let Jennifer's name fall off.

4:26Eventually, Ricky Barnett's name disappears too. Though I'm not really sure why, especially when I started digging, I found some reporting to suggest that he wasn't the only two-year-old boy to go missing in that area over a span of a couple years. What? Dude, I don't know. The papers dropped all the reporting on those kids. Like, there's almost nothing. Don't worry. I'm not about to. Stay tuned. Like, I'm having our reporters dig in. So watch out someday. Yeah. But in putting Jennifer and Ricky's cases aside, this new theory began to emerge. Though police were adamant early to the press that all these cases were considered to be unrelated, it was hard to ignore the fact that three of these people who are still missing, the adults, all went missing on the same night from the same teeny tiny town.

5:17So tiny, in fact, that it turns out Stephen Parasol actually lived just a few apartment buildings down from Christina Nelson's. Christina actually held the part-time job as a janitor at the theater that Stephen went missing from before Stephen took that job over a year earlier. And Christina and Stephen went to the same college. So they knew each other then? They definitely would have at least been familiar. Like in the same circles. Right. I don't get the sense that they were close or hung out. But let me lay out for you the separate circumstances surrounding Christina and Brandy's disappearance versus Stephen's so you can get a sense of what police are working with here.

5:57So Christina's boyfriend, this guy Bill, called her at her apartment at around 8.30 p.m. on the night of September 12th. Now, he's planning to come over that night, so I'm sure they're just like coordinating or whatever. and she told him that her stepsister Brandy was going to be over in a little bit and that they were going to go to the local Safeway grocery store. Now, Bill ended up falling asleep, so he didn't make the trip to Christina's until the next morning. But when he got there, it had to feel a little like deja vu-y because on Christina's front door was a note written to him saying, quote, Bill, walk down to the store with Brandy, back in a few, come on in and get comfy.

6:36Okay? Chris. He's in our hiding place. But even though the note was presumably left for him the day before, when Bill goes inside, Christina's not there. And it doesn't seem like he's worried. Probably just assumed that he'd missed her, he'd see her later. So after waiting, he had to leave to go to work. But when he came back that night, neither Christina nor Brandy were there. But the note that Christina left still was. Which is a pretty big red flag. Yep. For some reason, alarm bells weren't ringing for Bill just yet because he didn't go out and like try and find her. And I'm not sure if this was normal for them to just kind of like be missing each other a lot or what.

7:17And in his defense, everything in the apartment indicated that she was planning on coming back when he got there the first time. Like she left a light on, her cat was still there, even her purse was sitting there. So I'm thinking he just assumed Christine is going to reappear. They could laugh about being like ships passing in the night and just like missing each other. Yeah. And at this point, it's not like the disappearances in the area have started piling up. Right. Like not everyone's on high alert for this yet. Right. So, I mean, like prior to Christina and Brandy going missing, you had like a young kid who went missing three years before.

7:51Then that woman who was found murdered, it was a year before. Both of those very different cases. So like they're not even being connected to each other, much less anything else at this point. And then, you know, we had the little boy Ricky who goes missing right before as well. But like. But it's so different. Right. And I don't even know how much pickup his case got before anything started like happening in like a short period of time. So it's like not where Bill's mind jumps to right away that like something bad has happened. Plus, in 1982, I feel like, fair, like this is a totally made up stat, like 60 percent of trying to hang out with people was like missing them in real time.

8:26and having to try and connect later when you got to your landline. Because, like, you can't be in contact the way we are right now. So Bill decides, you know what? He's just going to stay at Christina so he doesn't miss her. But when he wakes up in the middle of the night on what is now the 14th, and there's still no sign of his girlfriend, like, this is when he realizes, like, something more is going on here. So he starts calling friends, family, anybody who might know where his girlfriend was. I'm sure he tried to get in touch with Brandy since the note mentioned her and she lived nearby, but he couldn't find her either.

9:01He even ends up going to check the Safeway where the grocery store where she was supposed to go to. Nothing. Like they just weren't there at the time or they'd never even made it to begin with. I have all the questions. Since her purse was left behind, that makes me think that they never even made it to the store. But was her wallet in her purse or could she have just like taken some cash for the few things she needed, left everything else behind? Wallets were still there. To be fair, like I mean, I guess she could have just taken some cash. Like, I don't know exactly what they were getting. I don't know if they're going for just like, oh, we're just going to like grab a soda or if they're going for like a full on grocery haul.

9:38So, yeah, did she have money on her? Did she throw just a couple bucks in her pocket? I don't know. But at the Safeway, no one saw them there. No, which like always makes me wonder if they made it there in the first place. And it's worth noting that the grocery store at the time, it closed at 10. So if they wanted to make it on time, they would have had to leave before then. And we know the last time Bill spoke to her was 830. She was still waiting on Brandy. So it's like a little bit of a tight timeline. Yeah. So between 830 and when Bill got there the following morning, like they're gone. Something happens.

10:13Right. And I also haven't seen anything in the reporting about there being like fresh groceries or grocery bags or anything like that in the apartment. And there's no signs of foul play in the apartment? No, nothing. And just to go back to the note real quick, it was for sure written in Christina's handwriting. It was hers, yes. Okay. So we don't really know when they went missing, but we know for sure that they were gone by the morning or afternoon of the 14th. And not just because Bill like pops by then. He also, as he's like looking for them, contacts the restaurant where Christina works and he finds out that she'd been a no call, no show for her shift that day, too.

10:52And like that's like the final straw. He knows this is like bad, bad. And so from there, he goes right to the police to report Christina and Brandy missing. And does their family go with him? So they actually don't live in town. But like when they find out, everyone's just as worried as Bill is. Like Christina in particular is one of those super responsible people who would never no call, no show. So while Bill is the one who's like there and providing the boots on the ground presence in the early days of the investigation, the family is completely like in the background. They're on board. Yeah, giving that extra push.

11:24Now, police do take the report right away. And this is when they start retracing a lot of the steps that Bill took. Right. They look at Christina's apartment. They try and retrace the paths that the women might have taken like to and from Safeway. But they cannot find a single person who saw them, who interacted with them, nothing. Just like poof, gone. And within a couple of hours of their last interaction with people or contact with people, all of a sudden, Stephen Parasol vanishes too. So investigators learn that Stephen's girlfriend dropped him off at the Lewiston Civic Theater at around 6.30 p.m.

12:04on September 12th. Stephen is very involved in this theater. He plays clarinet. He works on sets. He is the janitor. And I believe that he was even in a show or two. And so when he's dropped off, he was either going to be like there practicing playing his clarinet or working on a set or something. Now, he does that. Everything's fine. His girlfriend picks him back up at nine because they have to go to this going away party for another staff member of the theater. They're there for a couple of hours. and then on what is now the 13th at like midnight, the girlfriend drops him back off at the theater.

12:38So he's going to play his clarinet. He also has some laundry that he wants to do there too. Now a few people see his girlfriend drop him off. One was even a police officer. So he is 100 % back at that theater by midnight. But alone? So there was apparently one other guy who'd been there that night and he said he saw Stephen before Stephen had left at like 9 p.m. And then he says he fell asleep. So by the time Stephen made it back the second time, he didn't see him come in or leave. And in fact, no one ever saw him leave the theater. And just like Christina and Brandy, he's never seen again. When he was eventually reported missing and police go and search his place, it was a lot like Christina's in that it looked like he would be right back.

13:27I mean, he left his car parked outside of his place. He left behind an uncashed paycheck for 179 bucks, which is like no chump change in 1982, especially if you were planning on leaving, which it's clear Stephen didn't do. At least it's clear to those who knew him. Now, a search of the theater didn't turn up anything either other than finding Stephen's clarinet in the orchestra pit. Like, there's nothing. Interestingly, too, like even his duffel bag that he brought that he was like going to do laundry or whatever, like that's gone. So at this point, I mean, they have to be thinking that everything is connected, right?

14:02Or like otherwise it's this wild coincidence. Well, like. Wait, did Bill come under suspicion at all? Oh, I'm sure police looked at him briefly. And Brandy also had a boyfriend who like same thing. I mean, I think they probably looked at. But neither of them are considered suspects. Actually, the first real suspect they had in this case, and this goes to what you're saying about them being connected. The first real suspect was Stephen Parasol. Oh. I know. Turn of events.

14:33Now, I don't know exactly when police started to have suspicions about Stephen possibly being more suspect than victim. I mean, they sure aren't saying anything like that in the early reporting that I'm able to pull on the case from like 82 and 83. But everything changes in March of 84. That's when the decomposed, mostly skeletal remains of Christina and Brandy are found at the bottom of a hill about 35 to 40 miles outside of Lewiston. And were they still doing searches for them? No, I actually don't know if they ever did formal searches. The way they end up getting found, it's truly a miracle.

15:15there was this kid who was out at like the top of this hill looking for cans and like the wind or something like catches his baseball cap and he loses it and he goes down this hill to chase it that is how they get found uh what are the odds of that happening that's what i'm saying like different hill different day different time of day different kid different cap i mean yeah like they might still be considered missing people but they're not right like so they're found on March 19th of 84. By March 27th, they've been positively identified as Christina and Brandy. And then boom, April 1st of 84, the Spokesman Review publishes an article saying that police are looking for the third missing person, 35-year-old Steven Peristall.

16:02Now, they don't call him a suspect, but it's clear to everyone who hadn't already picked up on police's suspicions by now that, like, they're looking for him. You know what I mean? Yeah, but why? Like, what would his motive be? They don't have one. Like, honestly, at this point, I think they just see the opportunity because I think one of the paths that the girls could have walked to get to Safeway actually went past the theater. So, you know, they're seeing this big, tall, older guy who has a military background going missing on the same night as these two young women. And I think they kind of just assume that he was responsible.

16:40Maybe it wasn't planned, right? Maybe everything, whatever happened, something spiraled out of control. And that's why Stephen left with literally just the clothes on his back and the ones in his laundry sack. But right away, anyone who knows Stephen was like, absolutely no. They would tell you there is no way he could hurt anyone. Stephen was like everyone's big brother at the theater. He was this gentle giant, always looking out for everybody, making sure that the theater was a safe haven for everyone involved. Plus, sweet Steven, they say that all you have to do is look at what was left behind to know that he is the victim of foul play, too.

17:18Because remember how his clarinet was found in the orchestra pit? Like, everyone's like, he loved that thing. Like, that thing was his baby. Like, if anything is telling you that your theory is wrong, like, he would never leave that behind. So his loved ones are frustrated that not only is their missing loved one getting wrongly painted as a suspect, But in doing so, they're afraid that they're not putting the same resources into solving this case. Because if he's the victim, if he succumbed to foul play, but they're not considering that, like, how are you taking the right steps? And they're not just not considering that.

17:49They're considering that he is the suspect of foul play. Right. And by the way, like, even if you, you know, go with their theory, like, you didn't mean for something to happen or whatever. Like, if you're going to go on the run, like, you think you'd at least take your car for a little bit and, like, cash the paycheck. You're going to need some money on the road. So nothing points to Stephen leaving willingly. Nothing points to him hurting Christina and Brandy. And going back to Christina and Brandy, were they able to determine how they died? Oh, yeah. So I didn't get into that. The pathologists determined that they had been strangled.

18:24And even though they didn't appear to have been bound in any way, beneath their bodies were these like lengths of something that early days they described as like clothesline cord. Now, they also found with the women, like, clothing, lip gloss, jewelry, and there was a bra shoved into the mouth of one of the skulls. So motive for whoever did this seemed to be sexual or at least, like, had a sexual component to it. But because of all the time that had passed between when they went missing and then when they were found, I mean, the chances of them retrieving anything to prove that or point to their killer was, like, virtually zero in 1984.

19:02for. Nothing then to officially rule out Stephen either. No, but honestly, they don't end up needing it for that reason. You see, a little perspective goes a long way in cases when investigators zoom out and take stock of everything. And when they do that in this case, they find reason to start side-eyeing someone else. So remember that guy that was sleeping in the theater when Stephen was there? Yes, I knew there was more to him. There's a lot more to him. So his name is Lance Boss. And what are the odds that he not only shows up in this case, but also in one of those cold cases from the area.

19:52That one from 1979, where a 12-year-old girl went missing. What? Uh-huh. So back on April 28, 1979, in Asoughton, Washington, which is like just across the river from Lewiston, 12-year-old Christina White goes to her friend Rose's house because the two were going to go to like the fair that was in town together. Mom knows she made it to Rose's house because she actually walked her over there, like dropped Christina off with her bike and waved goodbye to her as she was at the front door. But a few hours later, so around 2 p.m., Christina had called home and asked her mom to pick her up. She said she wasn't feeling well, which wasn't entirely out of the ordinary.

20:34I guess Christina had a habit of just not drinking enough water. She would get overheated pretty easily. Kids be kids. Yeah. But like her mom at the time was home with her little sister. She couldn't just like like pack up and leave at that moment. So she's like, OK, Christina, listen, run a towel under some cold water, put it on your forehead, put it on your neck, just try and cool off. And then when you're feeling a little bit better, like, just come home. I'll keep an eye out for you. But she never came home. She never came home. Did she decide to just go to the fair instead of heading home?

21:03So this is, you asked a complicated question. So the current investigator thinks no. But I don't know if anyone can be 100 % certain without knowing where Christina is now. You know what I mean? Police reports from back then are minimal. I mean, there's a lot that has been lost to time, if it ever existed at all. Detective Jackie Nichols, who is on Christina's case today, told our team that there was like this turf war going on between the police department and the sheriff's department when it came to this case. And they were battling over who had jurisdiction, even though, by the way, when Christina first went missing, it doesn't even feel like anyone was quick to jump on it.

21:47Like they wrote her off as a runaway. They said because her mom was divorced. What does that have anything to do with Christina being a runaway? They're basically like, oh, it must be a terrible home life because your mother is divorced. So you're going to leave. OK. It's like complete be it. Like, yeah, sign of the times. OK, cool. Awesome. Great. Her friend, Rose, did she like say what happened to her? Well, she wasn't there because when they talked to Rose, it turns out. So again, they were planning on going to the fair. Rose ended up leaving as planned when Christina wasn't feeling good. So she like left, went to the fair.

22:26Christina is there at this house. And when she left, she just assumed Christina was going to join her later or whatever. Now, it's a little confusing. Her little brother, Rose's little brother, might have also been home while Christina was there. But it seems like police don't speak to him much. And like even today, he's never sat down for like a proper interview. But why? Well, he was only 10 back then. So like at the time, I don't know if police didn't know if he'd be much help. I don't know if like they had this runaway theory. So like did they write or did like, you know, parents come in and say like no you can't interview my 10 year old like that's too traumatic again like i don't have a lot of reports from back in the day to like reference like what they were even thinking at the time to me this is like i feel like he holds all the answers but like if he's not talking also why is he not talking and i know detective nichols like wants to talk to him still like to this day but she says she's waiting for like the right time or like you know if you're out there like you're welcome to come forward.

23:31But all that to say so little brother maybe home maybe not. Rose is already at the fair. There was someone else who had very close ties to this household who could have come by like theoretically we don't know if he was in the house that day. But guess who Rose's mom was dating? Lance Voss. Lance Voss. And what's his story? I don't know. Without the reports, it's hard for me to tell what he said or even if he was asked at all about that day or his whereabouts. What I know is Christina and her bike are never seen or heard from again. The only thing even connected to her that ever surfaced were some school papers that were found on the outskirts of a farmer's field shortly after she disappeared.

24:20And when they get found, they were in pretty good condition. So it looked like they'd only been out there, I don't know, maybe a day or two. But Detective Nichols is actually not sure if this find is even significant. And that's for a few reasons. I mean, for one, it wasn't just Christina's papers. There are actually some from another friend. Two, the papers aren't all in one place. Like, it doesn't feel like, you know, they were like staged there. They're sort of scattered, almost like they flew out of someone's car, like passing on a nearby road. So Detective Nichols kind of wonders if maybe, you know, some of Christina's and this other friend's schoolwork was in like the friend's family's car.

24:56Somehow like it got mixed up, fell out, whatever. And we talked to a woman named Gloria. She is Christina Nelson's cousin. So that's how this whole thing got started for her. She has been deep in this case. I mean, like, I mean, really, along with Detective Jackie Nichols, Gloria is the one who brought this case back to life. And she says that the field where those school papers were found, that's where Rose and her mom kept their horses. So all in all, Detective Nichols doesn't think that those papers are like the key to cracking this case. And is there any direct connection between Lance and this property?

25:32No, but you can see that there is like a really strong connection between Lance and Christina. And that's where I'm like, do the papers mean anything? I don't know. But like, you know, going back to our scoped out, just like him being the last person who was in the same place as Stephen before Stephen disappears, Lance is suspected by police to potentially be the last person in the same place as Christina when she disappeared. And when you look at the case that happened between Christina and then the other three from Lewiston, there isn't a tight connection to Lance, but I don't know, enough circumstantial things to make you go, huh.

26:10So the other case is that of 22-year-old Kristen David. So on June 26, 1981, Kristen goes missing while riding her bike from her dorm at the University in Moscow, Idaho, to her parents' house in none other than Lewiston. Like Christina, both she and her bike just, poof, gone. But unlike Christina, Kristen gets found. Eight days later, on the 4th of July, her body is found in pieces in the Snake River. Her body parts were wrapped in newspaper and placed in black garbage bags. Now, she'd been in the water for some time, so finding forensic evidence was pretty much a no-go. They don't know who took her.