Amy Wroe Bechtel
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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.

Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.

This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice. Today, I'm bringing you the case of a young Olympic hopeful from Wyoming who went out to map a run and never made it home. This is the case of Amy Roe Bechtel.

In July 1997, 24-year-old Amy Roe Bechtel seemed to be right on track to accomplish her goals and realize her dreams. She met her husband Steve in 1991 when they both attended the University of Wyoming. After that, they moved to Lander and got married in June 1996. Now, Lander's a pretty small town of just about 7,000 people, but it seems kind of perfect for them.

Steve loves rock climbing, and Amy's a world-class runner. At the University of Wyoming, she was captain of the cross-country and track teams. In 2023, she still held a record for the 3,000 meters, and she was named to the Western Athletics Conference's All-Star team.

During his interview with the show Disappeared, her brother Nels would say that Amy was by no means a natural at running. Basically, her friend's dad got her into it in high school. But she really just kind of fell in love with it and did extremely well. So after college, she didn't want to stop running. She decided to train for the 2000 Olympics in long-distance running. Obviously, a very ambitious goal that I think just kind of sums up what type of person Amy is.

And again, it all makes sense why they love Lander. Now, it is known for being kind of like this western town where Butch Cassidy was apparently once arrested, but it also sits a mile above sea level, and it's described as this paradise for outdoor enthusiasts like Amy and Steve. Especially during this time in the 90s, the Wind River Range drew in rock climbers from all around the world.

I'm not going to sit here and claim that I know anything about rock climbing, but from what I found, people loved it because the walls are extremely difficult to climb. And the temperate weather, scenic lakes, rivers, and beauty of the area made it a perfect place for Amy to run.

They were really both just engulfed in this lifestyle. They both worked part-time at Wild Iris Mountain Sports, and they were renting a cottage on Lucky Lane. This whole block of homes is known as Climber's Row, and has been described as kind of a hipster cluster of young outdoor enthusiasts like Steve and Amy.

They rented this home from their neighbor and free-climbing pioneer Todd Skinner and his wife Amy Whistler, who are also part-owners of that sporting goods store that Amy and Steve worked at. So this small community really works, plays, and literally lives together. But Steve and Amy didn't plan on staying on Lucky Lane.

As much as they loved it, they were looking for the American dream. They didn't want to rent, they wanted to own. And in late July 1997, they just closed a contract on their new home on McDougall Drive. This is about a mile closer to the center of town. So it's not far away from this community by any means. But it's a step towards their goals.

And as anyone who's gone through the home buying process knows, there is an endless list of things that you have to do, including get furniture for their new dream home. But Amy had a plan. On the morning of Thursday, July 24th, she was going to drive three hours north to her parents' house in Powell. She was going to pick up some furniture that her dad, Dwayne, was refinishing for them. But like I said, this to-do list when you buy a new home is kind of never-ending.

So, the night before, Amy calls her mom and asks if they can reschedule. She says that she just has way too many things to get done on her only day off from the sporting goods store. Her mom says no problem and doesn't think much of it. So, on the morning of the 24th, after having breakfast together, Steve and Amy each leave the house at about 9.30am.

While Amy plans to knock out as many things as she can from that to-do list, Steve has a much easier day. He takes their yellow Lab Johns and heads about an hour northwest to Dubois. He's meeting his friend, Sam Leitner. He's another climbing enthusiast and travel writer. Their plan is to scout potential climbing routes up Cartridge Creek. So Steve's off doing that while Amy spends most of her time near the city center of Lander.

But while Amy does have the day off from the sporting goods store, she still has to teach a 90-minute fitness class at the Wind River Fitness Center, another one of her part-time jobs. The owner of the establishment, Dudley Irvine, would later describe Amy as upbeat, but a little high-strung because of her to-do list, which also includes picking up the center's recycling. Amy does that and begins to tackle the rest of her list.

In preparation for the move, she calls the phone, gas, and insurance companies, which we all know can take quite some time. At around 2, Amy makes it to a store called Camera Connection on Main Street in Lander. Amy also dabbles in photography, and she's there to inquire about getting some of her photos framed for a competition she was entering.

The owner, John Strom, is very familiar with Amy, like pretty much everyone else she encounters that day. He says that there was nothing odd about Amy or their interaction, and that she seemed cheerful. He also notes that Amy was in her full running gear, a yellow shirt, black shorts, and running shoes.

She spends about 30 minutes here before leaving at about 2.30. Presumably from here, she goes out to Loop Road, where she was planning a 10K run for that September. It would be pretty tough, but the plan was to finish at Fry Lake so that runners could jump in to cool off. So it seems like Amy had a pretty solid idea of what she wanted to do and just needed to map it out.

Two hours later, at approximately 4.30pm, Steve gets home from Dubois with Johns. His new climbing route didn't pan out, and it started raining, so he and his friend Sam just go home. Amy still isn't home at this point, but Steve said that he wasn't really worried. It was a small town where everyone knew everyone, and it was pretty easy to get held up. Also, neither of them had cell phones, so constant communication just wasn't a thing.

But by the time that Steve has dinner with the Skinners at about 8.15, he does begin to worry. The Skinners invite him out to go see a new movie, Con Air. But Steve declines, saying that he's just gonna wait at home for Amy. And as the hours tick by, Steve does get more nervous. At 10pm, he calls Amy's parents, thinking maybe she changed her mind and went to go pick up the furniture. He also says he calls a local hospital.

In 2016, he described this night to writer John Billman, quote, I got home from climbing. It's just a normal day. Get unpacked, feed the dog or whatever. Then I start wondering, where is she? Make some calls, drive around a little bit. It gets to be like 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m. That incredible anxiety builds up. You're just worried. I hope she didn't break her ankle.

I hope she didn't run out of gas. Those normal things where you're like, this sucks. But you're not going, I hope my wife wasn't grabbed by some psychopathic serial killer. End quote. At approximately 10.30pm, Steve reports Amy missing to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office.

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But when the Skinners get home from their movie at about 11pm, they have no plans of waiting for daybreak. They begin driving around Loop Road looking for Amy. And they don't find Amy, but about two hours later at 1am, they find her car. Her white Toyota Tercel station wagon is parked at a turnoff for an area called Burnt Gulch. It's also at the base of a popular trail not far from Fry Lake.

So in the exact area they expected Amy to be. Now, the Skinners do have a cell phone, and they immediately call Steve. He grabs flashlights, lanterns, and sleeping bags and comes to the site with his friend Kirk. They take a look at the car and begin searching for Amy. Again, they don't want to waste any time. If Amy's out there hurt or she was attacked by an animal, these hours are vital. But let's take a second and pause and talk about her car.

It was unlocked, which was not unusual. I know, leaving your doors unlocked sounds like a trope, but it happens. In my research, I found multiple articles talking about how people in this community would leave their vehicles and homes unlocked, really just for the sake of convenience, so that their friends could come and go or borrow sporting equipment as needed. So the car being unlocked is just not a red flag.

But her wallet is missing, which Steve says is odd, because Amy does not usually take it with her while she's running. Her fanny pack is also missing, but her expensive sunglasses are still in the car. They also find her keys on the passenger seat, which again, Steve says isn't odd for Amy to do. She'd usually leave her keys in the car when she was running.

Now, they also do find her to-do list, and 13 of the items are checked off. At the bottom, they find notes about her run. It looks like Amy was writing down mileposts and landmarks noting her odometer. So it appears like Amy drove the car there herself, because there are also no signs of a struggle or attack. So they assume something happened to Amy while she was running or scouting this route.

The Skinners drive Amy's car home while Steve and Kirk search for Amy around Burnt Gulch. They're joined by a few more friends before dawn. And finally, the official search for Amy begins on the morning of the 25th.

Officials treated Amy's case like any other lost outdoor enthusiast. And it's worth noting that the sheriff's office is very well trained in search and rescue. Because it's such a popular outdoor area with all this rugged terrain, they do this type of thing all the time. People get attacked by animals, they get hurt. It's not uncommon. So they conduct the search and rescue mission like they have so many times in the past.

Lead investigator with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, Dave King, told the media, quote, We know what we're doing. We have 50 activations a year. We have specialists in steep angle searches, swift water searches, cave rescues. We have trackers, air spotters, and cadaver dogs, which supposedly can catch scents even underwater, end quote.

So while, of course, it's scary for Amy's loved ones, for the sheriff's office, it's just another day. And pretty much everyone, including Amy's loved ones, don't assume the worst. Amy's tough. She's familiar with the outdoors and an extremely fit 24-year-old training for the Olympics. If anyone's gonna make it out of there, it's Amy. They begin searching a five-mile radius of where her car was found.

But they don't find anything. So on Saturday, they expand the area to 20 miles, and on Sunday to 30 miles. At this point, they have over 300 people out there looking for Amy, and they find nothing. Not a shoe, not a piece of her yellow shirt, her wallet, or her fanny pack.

In a time before internet virality, Amy's case spreads far and wide past Wyoming to the entire outdoor enthusiast community. They rally to help share her picture and find her. By this point, the sheriff's office is taking an average of a thousand calls an hour about Amy, which is just insane.

By the five-day mark, they brought out tracking dogs, train searchers on horseback, ATVs, dirt bikes. The National Guard was out there. Effie Warren Air Force Base helps along with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They utilized multiple aircraft, one with infrared heat-seeking technology. The search for Amy was massive.

And I know I talk about communities rallying around each other all the time, but the show of support for Amy is truly astounding. People from all over the country began coming to help. And again, these are mostly highly trained searchers or professionals in hiking, climbing, and running. So, the sheriff's office finally makes the call. They say that it seems most likely that Amy was met with foul play.

If Amy had broken an ankle, fallen off a cliff, or was attacked by some type of animal, there would have been evidence of that. Blood, hair, clothing, something. Again, they do these types of searches all the time. And it was becoming pretty clear that Amy's case was becoming a criminal investigation.

From here, they shift their focus to areas like old cabins, caves, and mines. Basically, places they thought somebody might try to hide a body. By July 30th, they order duplicates of Amy's clothing and shoes to help with the search. And by the 31st, they inform the media that the area is now being considered a crime scene, and that they plan to scale back the search for Amy and ramp up the investigation into possible foul play.

Like the search, the investigation becomes a huge operation. About a week out, they not only have the sheriff's office, but now over two dozen agents from the FBI and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. They, of course, begin conducting interviews with Amy's friends and family.

Now, Amy's family is very front and center in the fight for her. She's the youngest of four kids and grew up in Jackson and Douglas, Wyoming. Her father was the city administrator, so super strong ties to this community. She's also really close with her siblings and served as best man along with her two sisters at their brother Nell's wedding.

So along with the rest of the community, they all rally together for Amy. With most of the major searches being completed and not being able to help much with the investigation outside of answering questions, they focus on putting up flyers around the community. They also put up yellow awareness ribbons created by locals, some even by John Strom from the camera shop where Amy was last seen. And this does appear to be the last verified sighting of Amy.

Though there are what seems like an endless amount of unverified sightings that do contradict each other. One witness says that they saw Amy drive to where her car was found, get out, and start jogging. Three witnesses place Amy running on Loop Road that day. And a mechanic for the county, a surveyor, and a couple who owned a lodge in the area all say that they saw a female jogger on Loop Road as well.

But the problem for investigators is that many other witnesses place Amy in town running errands around that same time, and they can't find any evidence to prove that she drove her car to where it was found. And that is partially due to missteps made by the sheriff's office. While I do think that we can praise them for their search and rescue efforts, they definitely seemed less skilled in criminal investigations, and they failed to secure the area as a crime scene early on.

This, coupled with Amy's car being driven home before investigators could search it, makes the crime scene pretty much completely compromised. Basically, everything past Amy leaving the camera shop around 2.30 is in question. And even that timeline is questioned by some investigators who believe she may have left as early as 1pm. Then, a witness comes forward that puts Amy's husband Steve at the forefront of this investigation.

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On August 2nd, an anonymous woman calls in to tip about Amy. She explains that she saw a man driving a light blue pickup with a blonde in the passenger seat on Loop Road around 5pm on the day Amy went missing. The description of this truck matches Steve's. And, of course, I have to believe that they were looking into Steve even before this.

We know this is just a normal part of any investigation into missing persons. When a search comes back empty, they start to focus on the people around that missing person, especially a spouse. So investigators start trying to nail down Steve's timeline for that day.

We know that Steve says that he was in Dubois with his dog and his friend Sam Leitner that day, over an hour away. Now, Sam does back up Steve's story. He says, yes, we were together, we were scouting out this place to climb. And investigators do verify that Sam used his credit card to buy gas in that area that day. But none of that really confirms that Steve was with Sam. Steve can't prove where he was when Amy went missing.

Investigators also point to the call Steve made when reporting Amy missing. They say that he seemed more lighthearted than concerned, despite everyone around Steve reporting that he seemed immediately panicked. Amy turned 25 on August 4th. This was a major milestone for everyone who was hoping to bring her home by then.

The very next day, investigators ask Steve to come speak with the sheriff's office and the FBI. At first, it seems like any normal line of questioning. Steve is cooperative, agrees to take a polygraph test. But things take a pretty sharp turn when they outright accuse Steve of killing Amy. They also say that they have evidence to prove it.

So, Steve ends up walking out of this interview, and he hires a high-profile attorney named Kent Spence. Unsurprisingly, Spence instructs Steve not to take the polygraph test, and not to speak to investigators without him present. Though, I will say there is some conflicting reporting about whether or not Steve refused to speak altogether, with or without his lawyer present.

The very next day, on August 6th, search warrants are executed on Amy and Steve's home, as well as Steve's pickup truck, which is impounded.

They also bring in cadaver dogs and do luminal testing to look for any potential crime scene. While investigators would tell the media that they were mostly in search of biological evidence of Amy's that could help identify her remains in the future, it seems pretty clear that Steve is their primary person of interest at this point. They don't find anything in the home or in Steve's truck that link him to foul play, but they do find some journals that some find concerning.

At least one journal is Amy's, and one is Steve's, and there are hundreds of pages of writing. We don't know a lot about Amy's journal, but it's what they find in Steve's that investigators want to look into.

Some of these writings appear to be graphic and violent in nature, and others even talk about Steve killing people. I think it's pretty fair to say that this is something that investigators need to follow up on. And when they do, Steve pushes back. He says that a lot of what they found were old lyrics he wrote for a band he played in during high school, or fictional short stories that he submitted to different publications.

Steve flat out tells the media that he doesn't know what they may have found in there that would be considered concerning. Investigators do end up showing these journals to Amy's family, not Steve's. Now, Amy's family is big, and her siblings and parents have made many statements about Steve and these journals over the years that I want to honor in this episode. Since literally none of us know Steve or Amy, I will deter to them. Their reactions are a little mixed.

Initially, in 1997, Amy's sister Casey Lee told the Casper Star Tribune that she didn't think that these journals indicated that Steve harmed Amy. She said that those were private thoughts written down that weren't meant for other people to see. She also supported Steve getting a lawyer and pausing conversations with authorities, but she did hope that he would resume them later on.

On the other hand, Amy's parents did find these writings concerning, and her brother thinks that it's a pretty strong sign that Steve did harm Amy. I found plenty of statements from Amy's family who say that they didn't think Steve had anything to do with this until they were shown these journals. Which makes sense to me. When something like this happens, not everyone thinks the absolute worst, and I think most people want to believe that their loved ones or family are good people.

But it seems that as they're shown these journals, and as Nell specifically begins thinking back, it all kind of comes together. Through interviews way back in 1997, and even as recently as 2013 on Amy's episode of Disappeared, Amy's mom and brother specifically talk about some things they remember about Amy and Steve's relationship that concern them.

In a 1997 interview with the Casper Star Tribune, Nels explains that his wife was the director of a shelter for women impacted by domestic violence, and she says that Amy showed all the signs of being in an extremely controlling relationship. Nels said that he confronted Amy about this, and about possible violence in their relationship. He says Amy couldn't even look him in the eye.

And in the 2013 episode of Disappeared, they discuss an incident where they asked Amy about bruises on her arm, and she says they were from Steve. But on the flip side, friends who knew the couple were coming out in droves to defend Steve. Todd Skinner, their landlord, friend, and boss, someone who obviously spent a lot of time with them in a variety of situations, says Steve and Amy were the sweetest couple he'd ever seen.

Two of Steve's ex-girlfriends even submitted letters to the editor of the Casper Star Tribune defending Steve. They say that he was kind and gentle, and they can't imagine him hurting Amy. The father of Steve's childhood best friend echoed this sentiment in another letter. Most people who knew them said that they couldn't imagine Steve ever hurting Amy. But the public and Amy's family were still divided.

So they start going through motives. Why would Steve want to hurt Amy? Now, Amy did have a life insurance policy, but it was for $3,400 and was bought by her father when she was a toddler.

While we're on the subject of money as a potential motive, I think it's worth noting that with Amy gone, Steve couldn't even move forward with buying their new home. Without her income, he just couldn't afford it anymore. So Amy's absence made his financial situation worse.

They also ruled out the theory that Amy may have left on her own accord to start a new life pretty quickly. Amy had just finished paying off her student loans, and it was very clear that she had many plans for the immediate and distant future. While it is still pretty early in the investigation, investigators had fielded thousands of calls and tips, and they kept coming back to one person, Steve, and especially his timeline.

While Steve was still out leading the charge to find Amy, investigators weren't able to find anyone other than his friend to place him in Dubois that day. They also couldn't confirm the phone call he said he made to the hospital that night, though they do verify the 4.43pm phone call. So right now it feels like some of Steve's story matches up and some of it doesn't.

And while all of this is happening, there's also a huge media storm over Steve's refusal to take the polygraph test. Mark Klass, father of Polly Klass, even weighs in saying that Steve should take one. But Steve says that they're basically trash, and it will only be used against him despite his innocence.

He also makes a point that I haven't really seen before in another case. He tells the Casper Star Tribune, quote, End quote.

Steve also fights back about what I think is a pretty hot topic in true crime. He says him hiring a lawyer isn't an indication of guilt. And he adds that it's generally a good idea for anyone to get a lawyer when the FBI accuses you of something you didn't do.

So Steve's making his case in the media. And on the other side, Amy's parents and brother are doing the same thing. They're publicly pleading for Steve to just take the polygraph test so he can be cleared. They say that they want him to be cleared, and investigators share a similar sentiment. Basically, they can't and won't move on from Steve until he takes this polygraph, which he ultimately never does. Steve maintains his innocence.

So at this point, Steve and his friends just keep searching for Amy, sending out flyers and holding fundraisers, while investigators focus on him as the primary suspect. Now, what I really do love is that despite how everyone felt, they still came together for Amy.

In late September, Steve and his friends organized a 10K walk-slash-run for her, with all proceeds going to help find Amy. Steve led the crowd. He said, We are all in this together. Amy is alive and we're going to find her. And Amy's mom, sisters, and nieces joined. They ended at Fry Lake, exactly where Amy planned to end her 10K.

Unfortunately, it does seem that this unity was pretty short-lived. Amy's mom says that shortly after this, Steve just stopped talking to her family. And by the one-year mark of Amy being missing, the case hadn't really progressed at all. Nels is really outspoken about how hard-hitting the one-year mark was for him, and the frustration with the intrusion of reporters surrounding the date. Investigator King says that he's still speaking to someone new every week.

But he still wants to talk to Steve and ask why he wrote about killing people. He flat out says that Steve is hindering the investigation by not taking the polygraph. At this point, King and Steve's lawyer Kent Spence kinda duke it out in the media. While King is basically putting all the blame on Steve for Amy's case not moving forward, Spence counters this by saying that Steve has answered every question he can.

and at this point he's being harassed and abused by the sheriff's office. He further adds that King's focus on prosecuting Steve is only to further his political campaign to be elected sheriff. It gets spicy. Pent argues that King botched this case from the beginning, primarily by not securing the area as a crime scene, which he says is standard protocol. But King claps back.

He says that they can't even confirm that Amy was in that area at all. And it was Steve and his friends who messed up the crime scene and Amy's car before authorities ever got there. And while I'm not sure I want to weigh in or what I even think about this media fight, I do agree with Spence that there were missteps. And the sheriff's office admits it too, albeit it was about a decade later.

Sergeant John Serga, who inherited Amy's case in 2010, told Runner's World, "...we didn't close off any routes out of here. We didn't close off any vehicles. All we had was a bunch of people up here looking for a missing runner. We actually ruined it with a vehicle, because we allowed the Skinners to drive it home. The investigation was not good for at least the first three days. There was a lot of stuff that was lost." End quote.

It does seem that Zerga is correct, that not closing this off as a crime scene did impact quite a bit of at least potential evidence. Initially, they found a footprint near Amy's car that they thought was hers, but because the scene was trampled, they couldn't definitively link it to her. The same goes for another footprint found deeper in the forest. They thought it was Amy's, but were unable to find it later on, and believed it was covered by tracks from the searchers.

And the missteps in this case are not limited to them just failing to secure the scene. At the end of August 1997, there was a reported sighting of Amy at a Salt Lake City convenience store, and there was supposedly surveillance video to back this up. Amy's family was super excited. Investigators tell them they're on it, they're gonna go down there, get and review the tape. But Amy's parents later found out that the tape was never picked up.

And by the time they went to follow up, it had been taped over. Now, you might be thinking, okay, but there are so many sightings in cases like this. That could have been anyone. And you're right. There have been countless reported sightings of Amy all over the country. But I have to imagine that for her family, for her loved ones, that question of what if, was that Amy in Salt Lake City, is just unbearable.

It's a huge miss that could have at least eliminated that possibility that now remains open potentially forever. There was also a very scary and kind of random witness statements that authorities never seem to get to the bottom of. On the night Amy went missing, there was a report of gunfire eight miles from Burnt Gulch. Not only that, someone was apparently screaming, quote, come on you sissy, do it, do it, end quote.

Again, another one of those things that I imagine Amy's family just thinks, what if? And unfortunately, there was another pretty big slip-up early on too. Just the next month in September, the sheriff's office was made aware that over 100,000 flyers that they printed and mailed across the country listed a phone number for anyone to call if they had tips that only worked within the state of Wyoming.

So anyone who got this flyer and tried to call from another state didn't have a working phone number to call. And it's not only that. Like, mistakes happen. No one and no investigation is perfect. But for some reason, somehow, it took them eight days to stop sending out this flyer across the country after they were told about this mistake.

They also failed to follow up on a potential sighting of Amy. A sheepherder in the area told his boss that he saw two men and a woman driving in a pickup, and later saw the same truck without the woman. This wasn't followed up on for weeks, so Steve's friend and an interpreter went and did it instead.

And this is something that King fought back against in the media. When talking about these missteps, he says that this assessment is harsh. And when speaking about this incident specifically, he says this may be important. Amy may be alive, but likely isn't. He says the investigation overall is more important than this potential sighting, which I think I take as it all goes back to Steve.

It really does seem like if it wasn't a tip about Steve, they weren't open to hearing it. Which I think is why they had this huge emphasis on begging him to take the polygraph. Even Amy's family. It was very clear that this investigation was not moving forward without Steve taking that test. And despite him being very outspoken about not taking it, they just kind of left it there.

I can tell you from personal experience that these are the things that families keep in the back of their minds forever. All of these what-ifs. But to play devil's advocate, I can't overstate the overall efforts that were made to find Amy. Investigators reached out to NASA to get satellite images from that day.

They also reached out to Russian officials asking for the satellite photos from their Mir space station. But no useful images were produced from either effort. They searched lakes and rivers, sometimes years later with new dive teams. They followed up on countless tips and sightings, from possible hit-and-run scenarios to following up on a rancid smell that ended up being a dead deer.

And the media campaign for Amy was insane. Yellowstonepark.com dedicated a subpage to Amy's disappearance. Her picture and the words, Have you seen this runner? took up the entire cover of an edition of Runner's World magazine. She also had huge spreads in the New York Times and People magazine.

Her photo and information were shown on the Jumbotron during football games at the University of Wyoming. Steve also made his own website, whereisamy.com, and he and his friends manned a 24-7 hotline. The Casper Star Tribune, where I got a lot of this information from, ran a link on their homepage that said, help find Amy for over two years straight.

Her case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, the Geraldo Rivera show, where Geraldo himself pled with Steve to take the polygraph test. And like I mentioned, she was even featured on the show Disappeared in 2013, over 15 years since she went missing. There was even a $100,000 reward.

There are sightings of Amy in Salt Lake City, Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, and more. And of course, unfortunately, like we see in a lot of these bigger cases, Amy's loved ones had to suffer through a cruel hoax. A message in a bottle was found floating in the middle of a river, with a note that said, quote, Help, I'm being held captive in Sinks Canyon. Amy, end quote.

But when her family saw the note, they quickly determined that it was not Amy's handwriting. Authorities also looked into a man named Kelly McLeod, who they thought may have been stalking Amy. Her brother Nels even called him a bigger concern than Steve. But he was later ruled out, as were Amy's brother and father for good measure. By the early 2000s, Amy's father Dwayne had passed away, and the investigation was basically in the same spot it was in 1997.

They're focused on Steve and the polygraph test as the key to solving this case. But then, around 2003, investigators shift their attention to the recent conviction of a possible serial killer. This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series, Back in Crime.

If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

A few months after Amy went missing, a man named Dale Wayne Eaton is convicted of kidnapping and trying to kill a couple and their five-month-old baby in the Red Desert in southern Wyoming. Now, I'll be honest, some reports say attacked, but the mother of this child says that he tried to kill them, so take that for what you will. Either way, luckily, they all survive. But somehow, Eaton only serves 99 days in jail for this.

But soon after, in July 1998, he is arrested again near Dubois after violating his parole. And during this stint in jail, he kills his cellmate in a fit of rage, then faces manslaughter charges. But through his criminal activities, DNA was taken from Eaton, and he was linked to the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmel.

His property is searched, and they find her car buried on his land. They also find women's clothing and purses, along with newspaper articles about other missing and murdered women. Eaton is eventually found guilty of raping and killing Lisa Marie Kimmel in March 2004, and he was sentenced to death.

Though after a lifetime of appeals, his sentence was later changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2022, much to the dismay of Lisa's family. Some authorities believe that Eaton is linked to the murders of at least nine women in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nevada between 1983 and 1997, and may be who they call the Great Basin Serial Killer.

So what's the connection to Amy? Well, and what I would say is perhaps their biggest misstep of all, Eaton's brother Richard actually reached out to authorities shortly after Amy went missing. He said, hey, my brother is a bad guy and I think he may be involved.

Richard tells them that he'd gone hunting and fishing with his brother in Burnt Gulch near where Amy's car was found many times. Not only that, he says that his brother had plans to camp in that exact area that summer. But this tip is basically ignored. They thought Richard wanted the reward money and decided to keep their focus on Steve.

Again, I don't know Steve or Amy, and I aim to be as respectful as possible to everyone's feelings in this case. I understand why Amy's family feels the way that they do about Steve, from her brother being extremely adamant that he may have been involved, to her sister being less certain of that. I'm not here to sway you one way or the other. I'm here to present the facts as I found them in my research.

While most of the early detectives on Amy's case were pretty laser-focused on Steve, when Sergeant John Zerga enters the picture around 2010, that changes. He's the one who later admitted that the team screwed up by not securing the scene. And as it relates to Eaton's possible involvement, he told the Casper Star Tribune, quote, I think our detectives who were working the case were so adamant that it was Steve that they weren't looking in other directions, end quote.

So, Zerga does the only thing he can do at this point. He works the lead. He goes to Eaton in prison in 2010, but he refuses to talk to authorities. In 2012, Zerga goes back to Richard, and he confirms the same story he told in 1997. He then goes back to Eaton in 2013, who again refuses to speak. Which is basically where the case is today.

So, what happened to Amy Rowe Bechtel? Investigators seem pretty certain that Amy wasn't in some type of accident or attacked by a wildlife. They also don't think that she left her life to start another. Almost everyone involved believes that she was the victim of some type of foul play. Dale Wayne Eaton has never been charged with Amy's murder.

But they certainly lost some time and potential evidence after failing to follow up on the tip his brother called in way back in 1997. There doesn't appear to be any solid evidence pointing to her ex-boyfriends or potential stalkers. Of course, there is always the possibility of a random stranger abduction. As far as I could find, while some items from Amy's home and Steve's truck were sent to their state lab for testing, nothing of evidentiary value was found.

Early investigators seem adamant that Steve may have information about Amy that would lead to them cracking the case, while Sgt. Zerga believes too much time was spent focusing on Steve, and that Dale Wayne Eaton seems likely to blame. Now, I do think it's worth mentioning here that in my research, I found that Steve had a fallout with his friend Sam Leitner, the friend he says he was with on the day that Amy went missing. Sam did eventually say that he did like Amy more than Steve.

but he never changed his story about what happened that day. The last I could find from Amy's family is that they are still a bit divided on the issue, but that may have changed over the years. According to Jake Nichols reporting for Cowboy State Daily, as of 2016, Steve said he hadn't spoken to Amy's family in over 15 years and hadn't consulted with a lawyer about the case in over a decade. He stayed in the same area and in the rock climbing scene.

He eventually got remarried and has a few kids now. From a purely logistical standpoint, it seems that either of these men could have harmed Amy. If Eaton was in that area, he could have easily killed Amy and left without being seen due to the delay in securing the scene and putting up roadblocks. He would have had days to see that someone was searching and get out of there.

Steve would have had less time, but between getting home, the phone call made at 4.43pm, and seeing the Skinners for dinner around three hours later, that window of time does lend for that possibility. Ultimately, we don't know what happened to Amy, just that countless people miss her dearly and mourn the life that she was working so hard to create for herself.

The week this episode airs marks 27 years that she's been gone. Nearly three decades. And the 2024 Olympics are right around the corner. I can't speak for her loved ones, but after just researching Amy's case, I can't help but think about how she may have been there, likely coaching a younger, long-distance runner now. But like I said a few times in this episode, I think that's the thing with missing persons cases.

The not knowing. The constant what-ifs and wondering what could have been that lingers. Which brings me right to our call to action. Please share Amy's case. She has gotten a good amount of media attention over the years. But like in a lot of older cases, it certainly has slowed down. Maybe we can get the story of an Olympic hopeful who went missing back in the news cycle.

And if we are very, very lucky, help all of Amy's loved ones get the answers that they've been waiting so long for, so they no longer have to linger on the what-ifs. As a reminder, Amy Rowe Bechtel was 24 years old when she went missing from the Lander, Wyoming area on July 24th, 1997.

She is 5'6", white with blonde hair and blue eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she weighed approximately 115 pounds. She was last seen wearing black running shorts, a yellow shirt, and running shoes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Fremont County Sheriff's Office at 307-332-5611.

But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time. Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice.

Welcome to the secret after show. Let's talk about Amy's case. It was a hard one. Again, I say that every- I gotta stop saying that, you guys. I think for me, it's always hard when a family is divided or when law enforcement says something that may not align with the family. I

And of course, I always present all those facts to you. It just, it's hard for me because I never want to hurt any of the loved ones of the people I feature on this podcast. But I couldn't cover this story without talking about this tug of war, this fight really between Nels and much of Amy's family being openly suspicious of Steve versus law enforcement later saying that that focus was a mistake.

Of course, like I said, I don't know what happened to Amy. I hope somebody out there does and calls in a tip, but that being said, I can only present the facts, and those are the facts. Early investigators really thought that Steve did it. This new guy comes in a long time later in 2010 and says he thinks the focus was too much on Steve and that blinded them to these other factors, and I see both sides.

I just hope that something leads to finding Amy. Now, there were a few other things I wanted to talk about in this case. Some lighthearted, a little less lighthearted. You guys know how it goes. One thing was, I found this article from 1997 where it says psychics found Amy's case because her picture was posted on the internet.

Just the internet. It doesn't talk about a website, no social media, just the internet. And I just thought it was a unique reflection of how things have changed, especially in sharing missing persons cases. I mean, we saw the efforts to share Amy's case and it worked, right? I mean, people were coming from all over to come help search for her.

And, again, her case kind of went viral in a time before internet virality, which I know is a thing, right? There are plenty of true crime cases that have gotten super big in the media without the help of the internet. I don't know. It was just interesting to me. And there's a lot to be said about the efforts to find Amy and...

I am still upset over those 100,000 flyers being sent without a proper phone number on them, but I will move on to the next topic, which is 911 call analysis. I think I've talked about this before. You guys know, I think, how I feel because I do think I've talked about this before. I

I don't think it's fair to analyze 911 calls. You know, I heard a snippet of Steve's call on Disappeared, and it didn't feel like much of anything to me. Of course, I am no one. I do not know Steve. Her family, Amy's family, I should say, may feel differently, and I respect that 100%. I just think it's irresponsible for cops to go or, I'm sorry, the sheriff's office, I always mix those up, um,

law enforcement to talk to the media and cast suspicion based on a 911 call. I don't think it's a fair fight. I think everybody in emergency situations acts differently, and I think people are often surprised by how they act in emergency situations. You see it all the time with survivors, right? You know, fight or flight, fawn, you know, all those things. You don't really know what your reaction is going to be.

On the other hand, I think about my sister and my dad, which I...

I don't know. You guys tell me if you like hate me bringing this up. I just, I feel like it's my best frame of reference because I feel some type of way about the way that my dad reported Alyssa missing. He was extremely calm, the same way that they say Steve was calm, but then panicked to other people, just like they say Steve was. So I don't know. That one kind of got me because I found myself in this position of like, hey, I don't believe in, you know, analyzing these 911 calls and

yet I have done the same thing in my dad's case. I don't know. I would love for you guys to weigh in on that. Let me know what you think. Of course, I think that there are some glaring factors, right? I think maybe a difference with my dad's call versus Steve's is from what I heard from Steve, it seemed pretty average, if you will. He was calling, he has a missing person.

Not a huge deal, right? Versus my dad adding all these details. My teenage daughter's on drugs, went to a known destination. She'll probably be back. So I guess I do feel like they're a little bit different. But in terms of analyzing how people are acting on 911 calls, are they frantic enough? Are they calm? What do you guys think about that? I don't think it's a fair fight. But again, I do feel a little hypocritical based on what I've said in the past.

So you tell me. Going right into talking about

analyzing other, you know, suspicions, I, of course, wanted to talk about the hiring a lawyer suspicion, which I think by now it's pretty standard. Most people in true crime are like, yes, when somebody accuses you of murder, you get a lawyer. Innocent, guilty, whatever, you're accused of these things, go get a lawyer. I think it was really just a sign of the times and what I always call old school true crime is

for law enforcement to be fighting this fight in the media with these talking points. He didn't sound concerned on his 911 call. He hired a lawyer. That's suspicious. It's just, it's interesting to see in these older cases. And again, it just kind of all goes back to that old school true crime way of thinking. And I have to wonder how many cases that's impacted.

And if this really did impact Amy's case, you know, again, we don't know. We don't know if Steve is innocent or if he's guilty. We don't know what happened. But certainly, if someone else is found liable for Amy's disappearance, it's worth taking another look at.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was this serial killer, Dale Wayne Eaton. I did cut out of the script. I called him a trash person. And I was like, okay, I can't. Okay, I won't do that. So I saved it for the after show. I think I said, he's your average trash person. And then I started telling you about him. And I was like, okay, Sarah, pull it back just a little. But what I wanted to talk about here was like his luck.

I don't like that. How he got 99 days for kidnapping this like entire family. And again, most reports do say attacked. The mother of this five month old said tried to kill. So I did side with her because it was a five month old baby. And I was clear about that in the episode. I will admit when I am taking a side and I took that side hard. But 99 days.

for parents of a five-month-old who thought that they were going to lose their lives. That doesn't feel like enough. I don't know. I don't know what the mandates are on that or the sentencing guidelines for that are. Doesn't feel like enough to me. And then he kills his cellmate and gets manslaughter charges, when as far as I could find, he killed him in a fit of rage, which...

I guess. I guess, actually. You do see that in some manslaughter, but still, doesn't feel like enough. And then, while I will say that I am not someone who is pro-death penalty, for him to file appeal after appeal after appeal to then get that overturned to be life in prison without parole...

It's just like a crazy series of events where he feels, oh, he feels, I feel like he's just kind of, I mean, he's getting off kind of easy.

I don't know. Maybe I do have a bias towards people who kill a lot of people, and I am happy to say that right here and right now. If you kill people, I do not like you, and I do not think you're a good person. And while I do believe in reform, when you repeatedly kill people for, you know, many, many years without remorse and don't want to help in other people's cases...

I have a hard time believing that you are one, reformed, two, focused on reform, or three, even care about reform. So if you're a bad person who does not want to be a good person, I'm going to say right here and right now and make a stance and say that you suck. You suck. I know that's very controversial as I normally do in this after show, but I stand by it.

Moving on to what's going on with me, because I am obviously feeling some type of way. Obviously, last week I took off. It was the one-year anniversary of my father being acquitted, which is still very hard to deal with. It's just hard. I don't know what else to say about it. And I think seeing him on the internet...

doing what he's doing, trying to become an influencer, talking trash about me, saying that I planted the bombs in the house. It just

makes it harder. So coming off the True Crime Podcast Festival, which was great. I loved meeting you guys. I did my keynote speech, which I was so worried about, and people were so nice to me and gave me the best feedback. So all that was fine. It was just exhausting. I came out of the festival that I had been prepping for for weeks. I was so nervous about my speech. Right after that, bam, was the anniversary. Right after that was some

not pleasant things with a project going on with Alyssa that maybe someday I'll be able to tell you about. I don't know. It was a really, really hard week. And while I was, I had this episode pretty much ready to go, I needed time off. I needed time off. And I decided to instead take this moment, this anniversary, to highlight what I'm doing going forward in Alyssa's case. Because

That's what makes me feel better when bad things happen or I feel sad about Alyssa's case, like the anniversary. I like to work towards things that I think will help make it better or at least a creative form of expression for me. So that's why you got that teaser last week of Alyssa's new season. I'm also just bursting to tell you guys everything that's happened, which I've been like this for four years and I'm no longer able to contain it. So I'm so happy that

the teaser's getting going, the season is progressing. So if you haven't listened to that, definitely listen. There's like seven minutes or something insane of just audio of what's been going on, which you guys know is my favorite thing, especially when it comes to Alyssa's case, because I understand as her sister, as the prime suspect's daughter, I'm biased. Of course I am. Of

Every person is biased, I would argue. But of course, I'm biased and I will say that all day, every day. So I like using the actual audio. I like using actual examples. I think that it's more powerful than me going up to my dad and being like, how I feel about the other gentleman whose name I don't care to remember because he killed a bunch of people. Being like, dad, you suck. You suck. And I think you did this. I think you're a bad person. Like that doesn't

That doesn't move people the same way as me going up to him and saying, okay, well, on this date, you wrote this letter that said these exact words. So are you saying something different now? And getting his real reaction because my God, does my dad...

make this story for me. I mean, I could probably make a podcast of just my father talking if I wanted to cater to his ego that bad. He tells on himself all day, every day. And that's what you're going to hear in the new season. It is, to be honest, at True Crime Podcast Festival, my speech was kind of like a test of

Of what I wanted the new season to be like. And that's from my point of view. I've never done that before. I've never just been like, this is what happened from my point of view. Of course, not just emotional. I will have examples as I always do. You guys know I come correct with receipts every time and I always will.

Um, or I'll tell you if I don't have receipts, I will say that I do now have proof that they did tell me to get media. So that is a very exciting revelation for me because that was one thing that I had to tell you guys. I have no proof of this. I promise they told me to get media and I now have proof.

But again, you're going to hear from my side of the story. You're going to hear all that. The fight to legitimize what the police told me to do, going through the court system, being the process between the county attorney and the police and the runaround I got there. I was told it was two weeks or it would be two weeks before I was told if my dad would be arrested, that it was two months and it was...

So much has happened, and I am so excited to start fresh, start from the beginning, and just tell you the story, how I always wanted to tell it, without being afraid of it, you know, not holding up in court or, you know, hurting Alyssa's case. It's at the point where we either find Alyssa's remains or not, and there's not much that can hurt her or this case or me now.

So I'm doing it. The last final season of Alyssa, which is so hard to say. It's like, because it's still ongoing. Of course, if there are updates, I'm sure I'll add to it. But I'm ready to tell this story and finish it to the best of my ability.

All right, I'm not going to cry. The last thing I wanted to talk about in this segment here was why Alyssa's new season is not going to be on Voices for Justice, but on my new show, Media Pressure. That's for a few reasons, right? Because Voices for Justice was never supposed to be what it is now. That was never the plan. It was always, I'm going to tell Alyssa's story. Hopefully people listen. Please listen. That was the entire plan. But I'm not going to cry.

And thankfully, you guys did. And of course, I stopped episodes because of the arrest. And I started covering other cases. I could not leave families out here in true crime after what I went through. And I just wanted to help tell their stories, help get justice for people. And that's what Voices for Justice turned into, a weekly show featuring a new case in need of justice each week.

And I love that. I love what I do here. It is truly my baby and my passion project, but it's not what it was when I started it. And I don't want to take away

from what I've built here in terms of these new cases and the feed and confuse people with another long series or long form season. And it's twofold, right? So one, I don't think it makes sense on this feed anymore, which is hard to say because it all started with Alyssa and she'll always be so rooted here. But it's twofold because the other reason is I want media pressure.

to be built up so big that every family, every person connected to a story that comes after me has a massive platform to tell that story. You know, and Julie knows this. Julie Murray, who hosted season one about her sister Maura, you know, I was very open with her. And I said, listen, I want Maura, I want you to be this first season because I know this case is bigger than life, right? It's larger than life.

It's a huge case that's going to draw in a lot of listeners. Like one, of course, I want Julie to tell her story that you guys know. I don't need to justify all that. But we started with Maura because we knew that would build the feed. Because if I started with a smaller case, people wouldn't listen. It just is what it is. I wish it wasn't that way. But again, so going back to my point, starting with Maura, we're doing Alyssa on media pressure.

That way, it's a mix of big cases that do draw people in so that those with smaller cases, which are in progress, I have, I cannot wait to bring you this season of this case that I'd never heard about. I feel like no one has covered. I want cases like that to be elevated by all the other seasons of the feed.

So that's why Alyssa is going to media pressure. Also because media pressure was created because of Alyssa. That's why it's called media pressure. The police told me to get media pressure. The whole idea of that feed is featuring cases that have either been greatly impacted by media pressure, like Maura Murray, or cases greatly in need of media pressure, like many cases that we're working on seasons on already.

Right now, I am running out of words to speak, but I hope that made sense. It was very rambly as I normally am sometimes, which is why you get scripted in the regular show and unhinged in the after show.

because I am truly one to go off on tangents like I am right now. So I hope that all made sense. I hope you listened to the preview for Alyssa's new season, and I hope you're excited. I am. But on to our segment of hope. This one is going to be short but sweet. It comes from ABC News from July 23rd, 2024. This was written by Annabelle Munoz.

The title is Missing 15-Year-Old Monterey Park Girl Found Safe Outside of ABC7, which I thought was unique. So let me read you the article. We are in Glendale, California for this one. A 15-year-old girl who went missing in Monterey Park last week was found safe Tuesday morning outside of ABC7's office in Glendale.

Apparently, a security guard saw that she was walking and had been followed by someone in a car who recognized her as a missing minor and called police. Now, this girl had apparently left home on a bike about a week prior. She said that she was headed to her aunt's house in San Gabriel but never arrived.

Now, it does seem like there's a little bit more to this story. They do say that due to confidentiality laws, they can't discuss whether the minor has been in contact with her family. But essentially, she leaves on her bike and then shows up at this news office, which is just so random and so crazy. And again, so wonderful because she was found safe. She is okay. And that's what we care about. That's why it makes our segment of hope. One, because...

people come home in the most unpredictable ways, and she beat all those statistics by coming home. So I wish her nothing but the best. I hope everything is okay with her family. I will not say her name, but that is our segment of hope. And as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.