Like nearly every 14 year old girl, Reena Virk just wanted to fit in.  Unfortunately the people she tried so hard to mesh with ultimately caused her death.  Sara takes us to Saanich, British Columbia to tell the tragic story of the murder of Reena Virk.

Sources

• https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/murder-of-reena-virk
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvpqa7/the-unforgettable-story-of-a-teen-murdered-by-her-peers 
• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44562746
• https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/kelly-ellard-resumes-day-parole-after-suspension-loses-expanded-privileges-1.5654026 
• Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey
• Reena: A Father's Story by Manjit Virk
• https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/reena-virk-critical-perspectives-on-a-canadian-murder 
• https://apnews.com/article/e3cacadb3ad94edeb8293ec11821e6ce
• https://web.archive.org/web/20100615013806/http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Windsor+play+strikes+chord+with+parents+slain+teen/3144779/story.html 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20100424225935/http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Vancouver+company+joins+Reese+Witherspoon+film+Virk+murder/2930954/story.html

Our first cryptid case explores the watery depths of Okanagan Lake in Vancouver BC!  Has a Nessie-like creature lived in Okanagan Lake for hundreds of years?  

Sources

• https://www.gaia.com/article/3-new-sightings-confirm-ogopogo-lake-monster-in-british-columbia?utm_source=google+paid&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=1-INTL-PERFORMANCE-MAX&utm_content=performancemax&gclid=CjwKCAiA4veMBhAMEiwAU4XRr5vtUIdv5wOCt8gkYp2SVQeAU8VCG9rs6J9sw91D-wpI2jhRgAsE-hoCuKAQAvD_BwE
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okanagan_language
• https://globalnews.ca/news/5381999/pretty-creepy-okanagan-man-believes-hes-captured-definitive-ogopogo-sighting-on-video/
• http://en.copian.ca/library/learning/okanagan/history/p128.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050742/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ogopogo_the_chameleon
• https://www.foxnews.com/science/canadas-loch-ness-monster-the-legendary-ogopogo-lake-monster-caught-on-video
• https://indiginews.com/okanagan/dont-call-him-ogopogo-call-him-by-his-name-nxaxaitk%CA%B7-says-syilx-elder
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo
• https://www.fraserriverkeeper.ca/what_lurks_beneath_the_legend_of_ogopogo
• https://www.livescience.com/42399-ogopogo.html
• http://www.okanagan.com/the-ogopogo.html
• https://www.tourismkelowna.com/blog/post/the-legend-the-spirit-the-creature-the-history-of-ogopogo/
• https://www.tourismkelowna.com/plan/about-kelowna/history/ogopogo/
• https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200309-ogopogo-the-monster-lurking-in-okanagan-lake
• https://www.attercap.net/post/monsters-of-pnw/
• Monsters and Mysteries in America, S1 Ep2: Pacific Northwest
• America’s Monsters, S1 Ep3: Lake Monsters: Ogopogo and Pepie
• In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan Waters by Arlene Gaal
•  

Time travel with Sara back to the US Oregon territory in 1844 where a dispute about a horse went really wrong and inspired some super shitty laws about who could and could not live in the Oregon territory.  

 

Sources:

• https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/cockstock-incident/#.YX3y1dnMJ0s
• https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/skin-summer-2013/dangerous-subjects/
• https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/white-elijah/#.YYWr2tnMJbU
• https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/saules-james-d/#.YYWr7dnMJbU
• https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/exclusion_laws/#.YYWr_dnMJbU
• Taylor, Quintard. “Slaves and Free Men: Blacks in the Oregon Country, 1840-1860.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 83, no. 2, Oregon Historical Society, 1982, pp. 153–70, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20613841.
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/07/when-portland-banned-blacks-oregons-shameful-history-as-an-all-white-state/
• Coleman, Kenneth Robert, ""Dangerous Subjects": James D. Saules and the Enforcement of the Color Line in Oregon" (2014). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1845. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.1844  

Known as "Oregon's most prolific serial killer," the Molalla Forest Killer case is a rough one.  These are the stories of the victims of Dayton Leroy Rogers, a monster who should have been locked up permanently years before he would be linked to the murders of 8 women in the summer of 1987.

Sources

• Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer by Gary C. King
• https://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/rogers-dayton-leroy.htm
• https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/2015/11/woman_says_she_wants_to_meet_s.html
• https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2018/01/the_most_cold-blooded_cowardly.html
• https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/2015/10/women_who_escaped_serial_kille.html
• https://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/tag/molalla-forest-killer/
• https://outlet.historicimages.com/products/ora41308
• https://amsrem-blog.tumblr.com/post/50622821774/lsd137-the-youngest-of-three-children
• https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2013/04/daughter_comes_forward_to_clai.html
• https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/2013/03/victim_of_oregon_serial_killer.html
• https://mycrimelibrary.com/dayton-rogers-oregon-death-row/
• https://katu.com/news/local/two-sides-see-things-differently-over-governor-calling-off-death-penalty-special-session
• https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19880214&id=f49TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o4YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6778,1551979
• https://web.courts.oregon.gov/records/sccalendar.nsf/b29dd44d01dffea088256c91005b3a5b/7ca02edba1ae65c9882585a70071ab4e?OpenDocument
• https://law.justia.com/cases/oregon/supreme-court/1992/313-or-356.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJggjIhLA_U
• https://katu.com/news/local/after-30-some-years-remains-tied-to-serial-killer-dayton-leroy-rogers
• http://www.crimemagazine.com/molalla-forest-killer
• https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/just-science-identification-just-molalla-forest-serial-killer
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Leroy_Rogers
• Grave Secrets, Season 2, Episode 4 “Women in the Woods” (available on Discovery+ )
• World’s Most Evil Killers, Season 5, Episode 7 “Dayton Leroy Rogers: The Molalla Forest Killer” (available for free on Peacock TV)

 

25 year old Yakama woman Alillia "La La" Minthorn went missing in May 2019 from Toppenish, WA.  She told her sister "If I don't make it back, come look for me."  La La's last words would haunt her sister, Tanya, as La La never came home alive.  

Sources:

thevanished.org - A project of the Yakima Herald-Republic which is dedicated to the missing and murdered indigenous women of the Yakama reservation. The site shares cases and stories of these women as well as resources for who to contact if a loved one goes missing.

Also used other news sources - The Lewiston Tribune, Yakima Herald, Seattle Times, which primarily provided coverage of the trial

www.yakama.com for the history of the reservation

www.morelaw.com - Trial information

https://insatiabletc.tumblr.com/post/189675097527/this-is-alillia-lala-minthorn-a-25-year-old 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/16/jordan-stevens-castilleja-tavern-burned-murder/ 

https://apnews.com/article/wa-state-wire-yakima-shootings-trials-874d4e4c598602bc712f49807b43367b 

https://www.yakimaherald.com/thevanished/witnesses-tell-jurors-how-events-unfolded-in-reservation-shooting-death-of-toppenish-woman/article_735f9fae-99af-5316-ba8b-a03ea367d18b.html

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/crime_and_courts/jury-finds-stevens-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-shooting-death-of-toppenish-woman-on/article_1146826b-90d0-56cc-8026-e58d96963da9.html

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/if-i-dont-make-it-back-come-look-for-me-yakama-woman-told-her-sister-before-she-was-killed/

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/amid-a-crime-wave-on-yakama-reservation-confusion-over-a-checkerboard-of-jurisdictions/

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/crime_and_courts/yakamas-declare-public-safety-crisis-call-for-harsher-punishment-for/article_4c70c658-0db9-11e8-a62b-3b99209b37f1.html

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/fire-destroys-yakima-bar-days-after-owner-testified-in-federal-murder-trial/article_494e1008-67bf-5c7a-af5a-f52955c0e18a.html

https://www.valleyhillsfh.com/obituaries/Alillia-Minthorn/#!/Obituary  

https://www.facebook.com/alilliamintho.lala.7 

https://www.yaktrinews.com/activists-respond-to-news-of-missing-yakama-woman-found-dead/

Our first case takes us to the summer of 1993 in Seattle, WA; punk rock group The Gits were on the precipice of greatness and days away from a cross-country tour when their frontwoman, Mia Zapata, was the victim of an apparent random murder on Seattle's Capitol Hill.  This is the story of Mia Zapata, her untimely and tragic murder, and the legacy she left behind.

Sources:

• https://pitchfork.com/news/34514-mia-zapatas-killer-sentenced-for-good-finally/
• https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19930826&slug=1717883
• https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Singer-s-killer-gets-37-years-1143741.php
• https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19980823&slug=2768095
• https://web.archive.org/web/20130521062501/http://www.unsolved.com/ajaxfiles/sol_mia_zapata.htm
• https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Police-make-arrest-in-1993-Mia-Zapata-slaying-1105109.php
• https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/singers-killer-sentenced-to-36-years-in-prison-again/
• https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/mia-zapata-murderer-dead-1170206/
• https://thesestreets.org/these-streets-the-play/
• https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20040311&slug=brodeur11m
• Documentary: The Gits (Amazon Video and IMDB)
• https://themansonfamily-mtts.medium.com/she-didnt-make-it-home-alive-f93911ffb30d
• https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20030114&slug=zapata14m
• Forensic Files; Season 12 Ep3 “The Day the Music Died”
• Unsolved Mysteries; Season 8, Ep9
• The Gits on Spotify