Stephanie Condon // 442
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today's case was recommended by Shannon and Kylie. So thank you guys so much. This is a story out of Oregon. That's where Heath's from, as many of you know. And it's a Halloween case. Yeah, it's a Halloween case from Oregon that I had never heard of. And I feel like a lot of you guys might be frustrated towards the end of this episode. But I'm not.

But I'm not going to spoil it yet. Yeah, no, it's so true, though. And this case absolutely needs way more attention than it has ever been given, which is why neither of us have heard of it, because nobody really has. It seems this not even people in Oregon actually called your parents and asked them and they hadn't heard of this either. I'm sure. So I'm sure definitely people within that community of like Myrtle Creek and Canyonville, Roseburg.

They have probably, I mean, definitely heard of this case. But aside from that, yeah, I mean, it's strange that my parents and I have never heard of this. Yeah. So thank you guys so much for tuning in for this one. Again, thank you to Shannon and Kylie for putting it on our radar. And without further ado, let's dive in. All right, guys, this is episode 442 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

Bye.

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That's N-O-O-M dot com. On a misty October evening in 1998, a 14-year-old girl arrived at her cousin's Oregon home to babysit her twins. But when she returned from her night out the evening before Halloween, she found her cousin gone.

While her twins were safe in their cribs, her teenage cousin was missing, with no signs of a struggle or forced entry into the house. Although they had already been anticipating foul play, when her remains were eventually found amongst thick woodland, her case was officially considered a homicide. This is the story of Stephanie Condon.

Stephanie Condon was born on October 8th, 1984 to parents Marty and Christine. And four years later came her younger brother, Martin Jr. The Condons were by all accounts a military family as Stephanie's dad, Marty, was a Gulf War veteran and then worked as a cryptographer for 20 years for the U.S. Navy during the Cold War.

But unfortunately, there is very little information about Stephanie's early childhood. Though we do know that in 1997, when she was about 13, her dad Marty retired from the military. And he and his wife Christine moved their little family of four to Riddle, Oregon. Which is a small town about three hours drive south of Portland, Oregon. It's right off the I-5, which at the time...

This area had a population of about 1,000 residents, many who worked in lumber yards. So it felt like a kind of simple, rural, small area for the family to live happily.

There, her mother Christine worked part-time at an office supply store in nearby Roseburg, while her father Marty was getting ready to start a job with the U.S. Postal Service. Stephanie was an intelligent and dedicated sophomore who was on the honor roll at Riddle High School, maintaining a 3.7 grade point average.

School and education were very important to her, and she had hopes of becoming a drafting engineer when she grew up. But not only was she a great student, Stephanie ran track and was on her high school's volleyball team, which was a huge passion of hers. She absolutely loved this sport.

So Stephanie was basically a dream of a daughter. And in 1998, even at her young age of 14, she made some extra cash by occasionally babysitting for her cousin, 22-year-old Cheryl Ritchie.

Now, Cheryl had twin babies who were born sometime in 1996. So by 1998, the twins were about two years old, which is a pretty big responsibility for a young teenager, you know, a 14 year old. But as you guys can probably already tell, Stephanie was very reliable. She was trustworthy and more than capable of watching her cousin's babies a couple times a month.

That is, until one dreary, wet Halloween weekend night when the Condon family's small town life was about to be turned upside down. On the evening of Friday, October 30th, 1998, about a year after Stephanie and her family moved to Riddle, Stephanie had plans to go to her cousin Cheryl's house to babysit the little twins.

Again, this was something that Stephanie partook in regularly, so she was always really excited when she got to watch her cousin's babies for the evening. So it's the night before Halloween, and Stephanie had dinner with her family at home that night. Since, of course, she didn't drive, being only 14 years old, Stephanie planned to sleep over at Cheryl's house that night, probably so her parents wouldn't have to do, you know, a middle-of-the-night pickup to get their daughter post-babysitting.

So Cheryl agreed to drop Stephanie off at home the following morning. Now, after family dinner, Stephanie packed an overnight bag which included her toothbrush, some homework, and a change of clothes. Sometime in the early evening, when Stephanie was ready and all packed, Cheryl made the short journey from her house in Myrtle Creek, which is about seven miles north of Riddle, to pick up her younger cousin Stephanie.

When Cheryl arrived at the Condon house, Stephanie was dressed cozily for the night, wearing Winnie the Pooh pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. Stephanie grabbed her stuff, and the two cousins left the Condon family's humble red one-story home together and headed to Cheryl's. They got to Cheryl's house, which has been described as a rural mobile home, just about seven minutes later. And shortly after that, Cheryl headed to a local bar with an unnamed man.

After hours of partying and celebrating Halloween festivities, Cheryl arrived back home at about 1:30 a.m. to relieve Stephanie. Now, when she entered her home, Cheryl found the front door locked just as she left it and went to check in on her twin babies who were sound asleep in their cribs at this point. She noticed Stephanie's stuff was in the house: her shoes, her purse, and the change of clothes that she had for the following day.

But as Cheryl looked around her house, she noticed her young cousin Stephanie was nowhere to be found. And let's talk about this for a sec, because Cheryl lived in the Tri-City Mobile Home Estates, which is a mobile home park in Myrtle Creek, right off Myrtle Highway, which is the main road that runs through town.

And that neighborhood currently has 80 homes total. And it looks like most of them were built in 1970. And remember, this case takes place in 1998. So although the town itself is small and it's backed up against mountains and woodland, this

This essentially happened in a neighborhood where there are other homes and people. It's not super traditional in the sense that, you know, in kind of a suburban sense, and it's much more open and the homes are a bit more staggered. But there are homes right around Sherrill's, and it is just off a main road. So remember that. Yeah, I mean, definitely you can assume that there are other people around at the time, too.

that Stephanie went missing. Yeah. But depending on what time it was, how well lit the mobile home park was, how well lit the main highway was, because remember, this is rural Oregon, so it's not going to be well lit up. There's a lot of forest and trees around. Yeah. It's a very small town, so...

It's not like what you would be thinking as far as like, oh, it's just one house out in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing else around. There is other stuff around, but I will still say that it is rural. Yeah, that's what I wanted to paint because I kind of imagined originally when we were researching this story that it was going to be a more rural area and then looking it up more and looking at the street and looking at the neighborhood in the town. It's like there were people around, but spoiler alert, nobody heard anything. Yeah.

So basically, as he left off, Cheryl got home. Her kids are still in their cribs. They are undisturbed. They are totally fine. And all of Stephanie's belongings are still in the house, including her shoes. But as she was looking around and she couldn't find Stephanie anywhere, it was clear to her that, you know, Stephanie wouldn't have just left.

gone home or gone somewhere, been picked up by a friend and left the babies all alone, especially since she was supposed to sleep over. Like this was weird that she wasn't there, like beyond weird. So in the wee hours of Halloween morning, Cheryl made the harrowing call to Stephanie's parents in a flurry to tell them that Stephanie was missing.

When the police arrived at Cheryl's house sometime early on the morning of Saturday, October 31st, they noticed a very normal household with no clear signs of forced entry or a struggle whatsoever.

Despite the calm visual scene in Cheryl's home, the Condon family and police agreed that Stephanie likely did not up and leave on her own. After all, you know, she was a happy teenager who was very dedicated to school and volleyball, friends and her loving family.

Now, given Stephanie's young age and responsible nature, foul play was immediately suspected. Although reportedly the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children initially classified her as a runaway. This was for a few days, and then they actually listed her as endangered missing.

So the pursuit for 14-year-old Stephanie Condon began. Search and rescue teams combed back roads near Myrtle Creek. Again, like Keith and I are saying, it's very rural. I'm going to post this one photo off this highway where it's just so mountainous. There's a lot of trees, but it's also very open. It's

It's not super traditional in the way of when you think of Oregon. When I think of Oregon, I think of like Douglas fir trees and the woods and, you know, waterfalls and stuff like that. It's a lot more open and there's not a lot of Douglas fir trees around, but it's still super, super naturey. It's very rural. So they're searching all of these more rural areas and roads around where Cheryl's home was.

And while trying to find Stephanie, search dogs and Coast Guard helicopters were used, but no physical evidence that would explain her disappearance was discovered. And the efforts to find her were unsuccessful.

Law enforcement even requested that all homes within a 20-mile radius check their property, sheds, wells, etc. to see if they notice any sign of her. Several other law enforcement entities outside of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department became involved, but shockingly, nothing was discovered at the time at all.

The search continued for years, and the Oregon State Police, as well as federal departments, tried to obtain as many clues as possible regarding answers to Stephanie's alleged abduction and potential killing. I mean, it really was as though Stephanie was plucked from Cheryl's house, leaving no mysterious clues behind as to where she was taken on that misty night.

The Douglas County Major Crimes Team even presented Stephanie's case to the FBI, and they had remained involved in the investigation since 2000, which was two years after Stephanie vanished. Stephanie's case was also presented to the National Crime Faculty in Great Britain, and officials from their team made the transatlantic journey to Douglas County, Oregon, and they participated in numerous searches.

In addition to this, the Cold Case Squad was also brought in to help in Stephanie's search and investigation. So this was a massive effort from so many around the world with one mission. To find this missing young girl, dead or alive.

Aside from official and governmental searches and efforts, Stephanie's case garnered widespread media attention from not only local Oregon news, but her case was shared publicly on news channels across the country and worldwide. Phone lines were set up to accept tips and hundreds of clues poured in.

I mean, the tip line received calls from as far away as Kentucky and Missouri. But it's also been reported that some tips have been received from foreign countries around the world. There was a reward fund at the time for information that would lead to any clues, which reached an amount of $25,000. And on top of this, throughout the US, several billboards were donated featuring Stephanie Condon, showcasing a photo of her along with information regarding her disappearance.

An hour-long special of the TV show "America's Most Wanted" featured Stephanie's story alongside a handful of other missing people at the time. All of this in hopes to bring forth answers. The Condon family also published a tribute to Stephanie which included photos and detailed information regarding the investigation on her missing persons case.

Now, naturally, her family put their very best efforts to keep Stephanie's photo and name in the public as much as humanly possible. But despite the massive search, hundreds of clues, and public outcry, unfortunately, no one was able to produce any trace of Stephanie.

So to even begin thinking about a possible suspect for the disappearance of Stephanie Condon, we have to hone our attention on an interesting suspect. Enter Dale Wayne Hill. Now on the night of October 30th, 1998, Dale Wayne Hill showed up at the bar where Stephanie's cousin Cheryl was hanging out at while Stephanie was babysitting.

Apparently, 28-year-old Dale Hill was an ex-boyfriend of cousin Cheryl. So when Dale arrived at the bar, he noticed Cheryl was there with this unnamed male that we mentioned earlier, and Dale told Cheryl that Stephanie had told him where to find her. And whether or not this is true, we obviously can't be sure, but if it is, that means Dale stopped by Cheryl's house and spoke with Stephanie, being the last known person to do so.

And Dale even admitted to this, saying that Stephanie was cautious when she opened the door. Obviously, she's 14 years old. She's alone in a house that isn't hers with two babies that also are not hers. But she apparently told him where to find Cheryl in a very short conversation before closing the door.

He also later told authorities that Cheryl was his girlfriend at the time, but Cheryl denied this statement. Obviously, here she is out there with another guy. She is saying that Dale is not, she is not currently in a relationship with Dale. Yeah, and I don't know why she would lie if she's being truthful and saying, oh, yeah, no, Dale and I were not an item at this time.

Why would she lie about Dale telling her that Stephanie told him where to find her? Like, you know what I mean? That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't. So, but maybe on his end, he's a little, has a little bit of delusion here and wants to be with Cheryl or thinks that they're together. You know what I mean? It seems like he is, he,

he is pursuing her and she is not interested. Well, as we're going to find out about this very, very strange man. Yeah, he is a big old weirdo. Yeah, but it's clear that they do have some sort of past. He knows where she lives. They know each other. Sure. They have a past. And while, of course, Cheryl had no idea Stephanie was missing at this point in the evening when Dale came to visit her,

Dale would later become a prime suspect in the investigation. It was noted that his truck was seen in the area near Cheryl's home that evening, and he even sold a handgun shortly after Stephanie's disappearance, which is obviously pretty suspicious. And detectives later said that they thought that Dale might have harmed Stephanie in retaliation against her cousin.

His truck that I just mentioned was even searched, but after performing over 50 lab tests of the vehicle, officials claimed no fibers and no DNA evidence relating to Stephanie were found in the truck. So then it makes you wonder, well, how would Stephanie have gone in the truck if he is supposedly behind her disappearance?

there would very, I mean, most likely be some form of DNA relating to her in his truck. Well, I just want to say that this really is not enough for me to rule out the situation because it's also possible that he did not put her in the cab of his truck. He could have put her in the bed of the truck, tied her up, potentially, you know, duct taped her mouth shut. Who knows? And maybe cleaned out his truck afterwards. So in my opinion, I,

I don't think that just because there was no DNA evidence found inside the truck, in the cab...

that it's not possible that, you know, he couldn't still couldn't have taken her. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's definitely still possible. They did, by the way, though, they searched the entire truck. There was no DNA evidence relating to her in the truck whatsoever. But of course, the fact that he was we know he was there that night. He admitted to being there. His truck was seen in the area. It's very possible that he is involved here, which is why he is really police is only person of interest and only suspect here.

Well, what you're going to get into is kind of why I have these weird feelings about him. I just...

I just get the ick from this guy just in general. You see pictures of him. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by their cover, but when you look at this guy and know what he's done in the past, it just seems, he just seems like gross to me. Well, let's talk about him a little bit more. So Dale Wayne Hill was in his late 20s at the time of Stephanie's disappearance. Like I said, he was 28 and he was also the father of two children.

Now, Dale was living in Myrtle Creek, Oregon at the time, which is also where Cheryl lived, but his kids actually lived in Florida with their mother.

There are reports that Dale Wayne Hill attempted suicide in late November of 1998, so just a month after Stephanie disappeared, and shortly after selling that handgun that I mentioned. So that is, you know, could be a coincidence, but it definitely makes you wonder if there was some guilt on the brain.

So he allegedly even called his kids to, quote, say goodbye. But his suicide attempt was unsuccessful. And shortly after this, Dale committed a strange crime. So he broke into the home of a married couple who lived near his house again in Myrtle Creek.

And he didn't know these people. They were total strangers to him. But he entered their home through a window and was caught in the act of stealing a pair of women's underwear from inside.

weird thing to do. Yeah, you fucking weirdo. So the man who lived in the home who walked in on Dale stealing his wife's underwear tried to overpower Dale for breaking into his house. I mean, how scary would that be? You walk into your bedroom and there's another, there's a strange man in there rifling through your wife's underwear drawer. See, this is what I'm talking about with Dale though. Like,

Any normal person is not going to break into someone's house and steal women's underwear. Like, that's just not a normal thing to do. So, just given that fact, like, that is why I'm so suspicious of Dale and why probably a lot of you guys are going to be suspicious of him as well. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why he did this. This is a freaky-ass thing to do. Like, mind your business. Stay out of other people's homes.

But obviously the owner of the house, he walks in on this. And so he attacks Dale. And in this struggle, Dale was injured, but he was able to make his way out of the house before the police showed up. Hopefully that guy got a couple shots on the weird ass panty thief. Well, he did because there was blood drawn. And actually, so when the police arrived, they had no idea who Dale was. They didn't know his identity because again,

They were strangers, so there was no way that police would know. But actually, because there was blood drawn, this is what led police to Dale's identity through his blood.

So for this crime, he was arrested and pled no contest to the burglary, which as many of us know, no contest just means that he accepted guilt, but without admitting guilt, which I don't know. I never understand no contest. Why does that exist? Yeah, I don't know either. So even though by this time, officials were already onto him and

and thought that he had something to do with Stephanie's disappearance. It wasn't until this court appearance for the unrelated robbery that he was officially considered an actual suspect in her case. He's the only person that are on police's radar for her case. He sold a handgun. He tried to take his own life right after that unsuccessful suicide attempt.

he breaks into a stranger's house and rifles through a woman's underwear drawer. Like this guy is just doing some weird shit. Yeah. Yeah. And that's obviously all of those things connected would make you believe that he could be potentially responsible for Stephanie's disappearance. Yeah. This isn't like a, um,

model what am I trying to say a model citizen yeah he's not like a stand-up guy you're not you don't look at him and go oh yeah that guy would probably never do anything like that you're like well he did this other weird shit so maybe yeah thank you that exactly so lucky for the police he was convicted of second-degree burglary for the underwear theft in Douglas County and

and spent six years in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. So he was behind bars, able to be questioned, and also he was off the streets, which is what police wanted if he was indeed behind Stephanie's murder or alleged murder at this time. Now, while in the Douglas County Jail, Dale talked to the Oregonian and he said, quote, "'I do not know where she is. I hope to God they find her.'"

He described that he spent much of his time in jail thinking about Stephanie's case, quote, coming up with a million different ideas about what might have happened that night. So this is really interesting to me because they hadn't previously brought him in to question

to question him about Stephanie's case. Right. And he's all of a sudden, you know, thinking of all these different scenarios and different ways that she could have gone missing. It's like, why? What? Like, why? You're, you're, if you weren't involved, you had nothing to do with it. I mean, obviously people had their suspicions that he was involved, but police weren't, you know, questioning him that at that time because they didn't have anything to tie to him. Yes. He was, he was in jail for,

for a completely different offense. And yeah, not yet. I mean, he was, of course, questioned. They searched his car, et cetera. But yeah, why are you spending your hours in jail coming up with a million different

Well, even on top of this, he actually called Stephanie's parents, knowing that a lot of people suspected him of killing her, and he told them, quote, Yeah, ouch. I mean, they're saying...

That's bullshit. Shut up, dude. Stop calling us. Yeah, but also, again, like you said, why is he even putting himself in Stephanie's realm at all? Yeah, why are you focusing on this? You're, you know, hours away in Eastern Oregon in a prison.

in a prison and you're still thinking and focusing on the disappearance of a teenager that you apparently had nothing to do with. And that you're not even being accused of having anything to do with quite yet. So I don't know. It's very strange. And I do, it does, it's giving, he has guilt and he's calling the parents say, oh, by the way, like I had nothing to do with that. Why are they even on your mind then? Yeah, absolutely. And it's also one of those things where, you know how killers, they just want to stay close to the case in some way.

Like, it's almost like he's just trying to stay close to this. Not saying he is a killer, but I'm just saying this is weird. I agree. I can't stop saying weird. I was just going to say that. Take a shot every time we say weird. Yeah, the two words that we've said the most in this episode, rural and weird. So in 2005, after serving his time for the robbery, Dale was released from jail and he relocated from Oregon to Nevada.

without police being able to pin Stephanie's disappearance on him because really, they didn't have any concrete evidence and at this point, he continued to proclaim his innocence in the Stephanie Condon case and denies harming, abducting, or killing her to this day.

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What is going on, true crime fans? There's a new podcast that we think you guys are gonna love called Fear Thy Neighbor. On Fear Thy Neighbor from i-D, hear true stories about the victims of deadly neighborhood disputes. As you guys know, most violent crimes that capture the public's imagination are about serial killers or crimes of passion. But what happens when the person you fear the most is living right next door? Even if you're a serial killer,

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I don't have any teeth.

So regardless of the suspicion of Dale Wayne Hill, they of course couldn't convict him without a body or more evidence. So years of searching had transpired and it seemed like all hope of ever finding Stephanie was just fading away. Until one particular spring day in 2009 when everything changed.

On March 13th, 2009, more than a decade after Stephanie originally went missing on that dreadful Halloween weekend in 1998,

A hiker was out with his dogs near an abandoned logging road in Glide, Oregon. Now, Glide is pretty close. It's about 35 miles northeast of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, where Stephanie was babysitting the night that she went missing. So, not too far away. And it's filled with beautiful rivers, waterfalls, and mountainous hiking trails.

The hiker, who was a local Glide resident named Joseph Mellon, was enjoying a chilly springtime stroll with his dogs when he stopped near a tree for a bit of a rest. Now when he looked down, he noticed something odd at the base of the tree. And after looking at this object with confusion for a moment, it became clear to him that he was gazing down at a human skull.

Once detectives arrived at the scene, they collected the skull remnants from the base of the tree, along with some more bones that they found in the area. Detectives sent all of the remains found to the Oregon State Crime Lab to be processed for identification. Luckily, since a skull was amongst the remains brought in for analysis, the Oregon State Crime Lab was able to positively identify the remains via dental records.

Twelve days after the discovery of the bones, the Condon family's worst nightmare became a reality. On March 25th, 2009, Sheriff John Hanlon of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office publicly confirmed in a news conference that the human remains found in this remote area of Glide were indeed those of missing babysitter 14-year-old Stephanie Condon.

Now, it's important to note here, too, that the area of land where Stephanie's remains were found in Glide was near the home of Dale Wayne Hill's parents. So that's interesting. Yes, it is. And a newspaper at the time actually made a map. I will credit them and post that on our social so you guys can see where her body was found in relation to where she went missing so you have a little visual. And then I'm also going to post a...

like a street view of the highway that she was found off of. So you guys can see what the landscape looks like.

So Stephanie's family was present at the heartbreaking news conference where this was confirmed. And her father, Marty, while choking back tears, proclaimed that even though Stephanie was confirmed to be gone, justice would be served. And it seemed justice was going to be served because that same day, Dale Hill was apprehended by police.

Immediately as the news was announced that Stephanie's skeletal remains had been found, authorities instantly looked for their prime suspect, Dale Wayne Hill.

And while they were locating him, they discovered that when he had moved to Nevada after he was released from jail for the underwear burglary, he had failed to register as a convicted felon. So he was arrested for that reason, landing now 39-year-old Dale in police custody once again.

At his arraignment, Dale said that he was unaware that he had to register, but he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. When he was arrested and detained on this charge, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office announced that Dale Hill was currently their only suspect in the Condon case.

On day 15 of the 30-day sentence for failing to register as a felon, an Oregon grand jury came back with indictments against him on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping of Stephanie Condon. Dale remained in police custody after this, and a trial for his case was imminent.

During this time, Stephanie's parents Marty and Christine were planning their daughter's funeral because they finally had remains to bury after all this time. The Condon family held a private funeral for Stephanie where only close friends and family attended. In addition to the private wake, the Condons also wanted to celebrate Stephanie's life publicly and invite the community to join them in this effort.

Over the years, the Condon family had expressed their gratitude for the community's involvement in helping find their daughter and keep her story circulating.

Marty had said that the public had been there for him and the entire Condon family for a long time, and he expressed hopes at having a big turnout to celebrate Stephanie's life. Marty said members of the community have even called him with support and ideas for a memorial fund in his daughter's name, and said that a fellow Riddle resident was planning a benefit concert, and people have been offering to help with the memorial service.

So clearly, even after over a decade, the love for Stephanie and the community was still very strong. The public celebration of life for Stephanie was held at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where the public memorial took place on April 18th, 2009. And it actually drew 800 people, which is absolutely incredible considering that this town of Riddle had a population of only 1,000 residents.

The majority of the community was very much impacted by Stephanie's story and wanted to show their support to the wonderful Condon family. At the public celebration of life, Joe Perkins, who was a lead detective on the case before retiring in 2005, was in attendance. And he had become family friends with the Condon family over the years.

He even wore a small lapel pin that held a picture of Stephanie on his suit, which was adorned next to a small, worn-out yellow bow. And this is really sweet, because that yellow bow was very meaningful to former Detective Perkins, because Stephanie's mother, Christine, had given it to him back in the 90s during his first week working on Stephanie's case.

Also, along with giving Perkins that small yellow ribbon years ago, Christine had also gifted him a 5x7 photo of her beloved daughter, which Perkins said he kept on his dresser, seeing it in daily view so that every morning when he put on his tie, it was a reminder of the deed that needed to be done, which of course was to find Stephanie.

Now, fast forward almost two years to April of 2011 when Stephanie Condon's murder trial was held and Dale Wayne Hill was in the hot seat.

Prosecutors suggested the motive for her murder was sexual assault, but of course there was no evidence of an assault and this was not presented during testimony because obviously they only found bones. So they were not able to even determine a cause of death for her, which really just made this whole situation so much more difficult because here they are trying to prosecute him for a murder and

and they don't even know how she died, how she got to that particular location. It's really muddying things up.

Well, one of Dale Hill's defense attorneys, Daniel Koenig, said that a lack of physical evidence proved that Dale was innocent, and he accused detectives of conspiring against him and ignoring other suspects. Like I said earlier, over 50 lab tests had been performed on his truck, and of course, this was in hopes that maybe some trace evidence of Stephanie would be found in his vehicle, but again, to no avail.

At the trial, dozens of forensic scientists from the FBI testified that zero, I mean zero, fibers or DNA evidence were found that linked Stephanie to Dale. So after much back and forth during this very emotionally driven trial, Dale Wayne Hill was acquitted of aggravated murder charges in the case.

It's tough. I mean, I do think this is fair because I don't believe that beyond a reasonable doubt, Dale Hill seems responsible for this crime. I think that there's a lot of reason to believe that he could be. Yeah. But I don't think this is like a slam dunk case at all. No, they didn't have any physical evidence to prove that he committed this crime. So I understand that.

why people are upset about the verdict, but at the same time, you know, without that evidence, there's really nothing that they can do here. I think it would be very different if there was evidence of hers, you know, DNA evidence or fibers from her clothes found in his truck to prove that she was with him because we know that he said that

she closed the door and he left without her. So if he was caught in a lie, I think that would be very different here. If there was proof he had her in his possession, if you will. But that wasn't the case. They really don't have anything concrete. They're just like, you're a, I'm going to say it again, weird guy. You're in this circle. You were the last known person to see her. You did this, but did he? I don't know. You know, it's just hard for me to believe otherwise when, um,

a 14-year-old girl goes missing and the last person to see her is this older man. It's just, there's just too many strange occurrences that happened, especially, you know, him attempting the suicide, him breaking into that home. It's just like...

I don't know. I'm so I'm so torn. But I would love to know what you guys think about this. Absolutely. Yeah, it really is tough. And so a Douglas County jury found him not guilty also of kidnapping and then, of course, of killing Stephanie. And he actually cried when the verdict was read aloud. And the jurors were also very emotional. Like I said, it was a very emotionally driven trial.

One juror woefully looked over at Stephanie's parents in the courtroom who had bravely sat right there during the entirety of this very distressing trial. So there was a big mix of cries in the courtroom, you know, some of relief for Dale and some of utter disbelief. While some people clearly believe that he was innocent, this verdict was a gut punch to many.

It was reported that after the innocent verdict was read, Dale Hill turned to the jury and mouthed, The Condon family was devastated though because for years they hoped to convict the person that they believed killed their daughter.

And obviously they didn't want an innocent person going down for killing their daughter, but they wanted answers. And having to sit for that entire distressing trial and believe for all that time that they finally got the right guy after they were suspicious of him from the very beginning, like it was all just taken away. Yeah, it's just, I feel so horrible for her family having to go through that trial so many years later and...

and then at the very end, just knowing that justice still was not served here. Well, about a year after Dale Wayne Hill's trial came to a close, late in the evening of Wednesday, February 15th, 2012, a gunshot rang out at a home on Canyonville Riddle Road in Douglas County, Oregon.

Immediately after the gunshot, at about 11:15 p.m., Stephanie's mom, Christine Condon, called the police to explain that her husband, Marty, had shot himself, expressing that she needed help fast. Police arrived to the scene quickly, and paramedics immediately tried life-saving measures on Marty Condon, but unfortunately, it was too late.

Early the next morning on Thursday, February 16th, 2012, detectives from DCSO and Roseburg Police arrived at the Condon family home to begin their investigation into how this even happened.

This was a very gloomy midwinter scene. Gray clouds hung low over their single-story butter-yellow home with an old red pickup truck still parked in the driveway. And while there was initially a moment of public speculation regarding who killed Marty, detectives fully investigated the scene and tragically, it was clear that the cause of death was suicide.

Police publicly made their statement regarding Marty's death on Friday, February 17th, 2012, which shocked and saddened the entire community. I mean, this was less than a year after the innocent verdict was read. This was about 10 months later. So everybody kind of knew why.

And many local residents of Riddle and Douglas County at large were interviewed on the news, recalling the whole situation as a bad dream. One local woman named Clary said, quote, it was a tragedy linked to his daughter's death. I guess he just, I guess he just might want to be with his daughter.

And it's so sad when you think about just how much pain this man must have been in. I mean, Marty suffered for over a decade, tirelessly searching for his young daughter and, you know, spreading the word to keep her memory alive. And then with her death being confirmed and an unsuccessful trial, like her dad clearly died of a broken heart.

But Stephanie's legacy evidently made a lasting effect on the community and in the year 2000, even years before Stephanie's remains were found, a bronze plaque at Riddle City Park was placed on a large rock to commemorate her.

The rectangle slab, which included a beautiful etching of a tree, read, "...dedicated to all missing children in honor of Stephanie Condon." With the date at the bottom reading 2000. This plaque hopes to honor not only Stephanie, but again, all other children who have gone missing, and it survives as a permanent reminder to keep fighting for justice for Stephanie Condon.

If you have any information about her murder, please call the Douglas County Sheriff's Office at 541-440-6140.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I would really like to know what you guys think about the trial, what you guys think about Dale Hill. So please go give us a follow on Instagram. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. We're also on Facebook. We have a discussion group. That is a great place.

to ask any questions you have and to just start some conversation. Yeah, absolutely. Would love to dive into this a little bit more with you guys. It's so difficult because this case is so lesser known. So sometimes for cases like that, I think the reason a lot of people don't cover them is because there isn't wide coverage and there's a lot of missing information. So there still feels like there's a lot of holes here. And maybe it's just because police genuinely don't know themselves because they're

seems like nobody knows what really happened here. Well, a lot of times this happens at small town police departments where investigations get dropped unfortunately because they don't have the resources. Yeah. So maybe that's one of these cases where, you know, they just couldn't find enough evidence. They really didn't know what to do. They thought they had their guy, but hopefully in the future we will see some answers and we'll see some justice for Stephanie. Yeah, and luckily, I

they did find her remains. Obviously, it's so disappointing they weren't even able to determine a cause of death because of because the fact that they found her skeletal remains and they didn't even have all of the, you know, all of her bones. So it's a really tough case and a difficult situation. So thank you guys.

so much for tuning in again. Big thank you to Shannon and Kylie for putting this one on our radar. If you guys have a case you want to hear on the show, email us going west podcast at gmail.com. We try to get back to everybody, but that is the only place that we accept recommendations. Um, cause it's really the only place that we check consistently. So thank you guys. And we will see you on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Okay.

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