Original subtitles

Let the adventure begin.

On the road to a new life...

Bye, love you.

He was just 21, and Laura was only 20.

They were just kids.

...a young couple drives straight

into a terrifying trap.

Get out. -Hey, my god!

What are you doing? -Get out now!

What are -- what are you -- my gosh.

Hey, I think you've got the wrong people!

I think they were, like, um...

A cult mentality.

Miles from help... -Laura...

...how can an innocent love...

Laura, please answer me, baby.

Kevin? - ...Conquer pure evil?

The reaction of everybody was absolute amazement...

Practical disbelief.

Nobody had ever heard of anything like this happening.

Lassen county, California.

It's beautiful,

brimming with breathtaking natural attractions,

and in the early 1980s, it's a great place to get away

for law-abiding citizens and criminals alike.

It would take about 45 minutes

to an hour for backup to get there.

The area of lassen county is tremendous,

and the patrol doesn't work that area as much.

It's just a real quiet, remote area.

Five hundred miles south of lassen county, California,

21-year-old Kevin thorpe

calls the high-desert town of ridgecrest home.

Kevin went in the Navy

a year after he got out of high school.

He only served 3 years, but he enjoyed his time in,

and then, when he got out, he was done

and went to work for a place in ridgecrest.

He was a very likable guy, good guy.

Yeah?

Is Laura here?

Maybe.

Who are you?

Hey, baby! I missed you!

Hi. -Hi, come in. Come in.

Okay. I'm with her.

Kevin met Laura at a party somewhere,

and they hit it off.

The fact that Laura already had a baby

didn't change his feelings, not one iota.

It's getting late. I should probably feed trena.

I can do it.

Really? -Come on.

Little bites.

Little bites, little bites.

I was about a year old.

I was just itty-bitty.

Kevin coming in the picture,

my family was probably kind of iffy,

but once they got to know him and seen all the things

that Kevin wanted to do with my mom,

they were okay with it.

Just coming... -There!

There you go, baby! -Yeah!

She smiled at me. You saw that. Ooh.

My mom, her first relationship

with my brother's dad,

he was very abusive towards her.

He would, you know, hold guns to her and keep her hemmed up

in the house and just all sorts of things.

Kevin loved my mother very much,

and he wanted to save my mom, kind of, you know?

To me, I picture him as...

Yeah.

...like, a Superman, you know?

As their relationship moves forward for weeks

and then months, it seems as though

Laura's luck has finally changed.

Glad we finally got trena to bed.

Me, too. We can finally have some alone time.

It's so pretty out here.

What are you up to, Mr. Romantic?

I just wanted to treat you to a night.

You are sweet. -Yeah.

What's the occasion?

You know, I was just...

I don't know. Everything has been moving fast,

but it's...

It's everything I've ever wanted, you know?

I...

I really want to be a dad to trena,

have you all by my side.

I want to marry you.

I want that, too.

Yeah? -Yeah.

And he was deeply in love with her

and would have done anything for her.

To jump-start their new life together,

Kevin and Laura decide to move from California to Oregon.

They were intending to drive up from southern California.

He was moving Laura and himself and their possessions,

what meager possessions they probably had with them,

up to southern Oregon, where I lived.

Just got off the phone with Steven.

He has a sofa bed all set up for US,

and he's very excited to meet you.

I'm excited to meet him, too.

Yeah? -Yeah.

Yeah.

What? -I just...

I wish we could take trena with US.

During the process of my mom

and Kevin getting ready to leave,

my grandmother had begged my mom to keep me with her

while she was going out to get settled.

Hey, hey.

We're going to be a family soon, okay?

We're almost there.

She wanted the best for US, you know?

That's why she was leaving to go to Oregon to,

you know, make a better life for US all.

Anything else, babe? -I think that's it.

Anything I forgot, we can just grab when we come back.

Let the adventure begin. -Yeah.

Full of excitement, the soon-to-be bride and groom

prepare to hit the road.

I'm going to miss you, my little Princess.

I'll be back before too long, okay?

I love you.

Call me when you get to Oregon.

I love you, mom. -I love you, too.

You two be careful.

People drive like maniacs on those mountain roads.

All right. -Come on.

Bye. -Bye.

My grandmother had just gotten into a car accident...

Bye! Love you!

...so that's one reason why my grandmother

didn't want her taking the trip.

Opting for the scenic route,

Laura and Kevin spend hours on the road

before they reach northern California.

Wow, it's so beautiful.

It's so green.

Yeah.

Kind of looks like a picture, like...

Right? -...Doesn't even look real.

I think they were just taking their time

enjoying the scenery

and enjoying each other's company

and their new adventure.

I think it was kind of like a honeymoon trip feeling to them.

I can imagine that kind of stuff

going through my mom's mind,

you know, hurrying up and getting there, getting settled

and, you know, just being really excited to come back

and get me and just have a happy family,

you know, a good life.

I wonder what trena is doing right now.

Um, babe...

You are almost as cute as she is.

Almost as cute as? -Almost, yeah.

Almost, I'll take it. I will take it.

Whoa.

Whoa, what was that?

...i don't know.

Um, so just stay here.

I'm going to check it out. It's fine.

What is it, babe?

Got a flat.

Great. What are we going to do?

We're going to have to take it somewhere to get it patched.

Can you bring me the map?

Yeah, sure.

We have a Jack, right?

Yeah, but I don't have a spare for the trailer.

Where the heck are we anyway?

Okay, this way. -Yeah.

And it looks like we are about at Madeline.

Does that look right to you? -Yeah, yeah, okay.

Let's keep heading that way.

Maybe somebody can help US out.

I will be careful.

I will be more careful.

I think Kevin might have been just rolling with it,

you know, just going with the flow.

"Okay, we're having troubles, but we're not going

to let it derail our plans,

and we'll just deal with them as they come, you know?

If something breaks, we'll fix it and keep going."

Night has fallen by the time

they make it to the town of Madeline,

but they manage to pull over by a small cafe without incident.

Are they even open? -I don't know.

I mean, all the lights are on.

I don't know.

Maybe we should look for somewhere else.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

My god! -You need a hand?

My god.

You two look a little lost.

Yeah, the tire on the trailer popped on US.

We're looking for a place to get it patched.

It's late, not much open this time of night,

but I might be able to help you.

Was quite the handyman back in my day.

I mean, yeah, that sounds great. Name's Kevin.

Ted riggs. This is my cafe.

So I got some tools around the back, if we can use those,

and why don't you go inside and get out of this cold?

My wife, Doris, can fix you up with a nice cup of hot coffee.

That sounds nice, actually.

Thanks, Ted. -Let's handle this.

All right.

This is a remote area.

If you called a toll service or some people in there

to help you, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg,

so they were stranded,

and that gentleman was willing to take the time and help him.

As Laura settles herself inside the cafe,

Kevin and Ted get to work on the tire...

Unaware that another group of travelers is about to join them.

Damn. Now, that's what I'm talking about.

I want a piece just like that.

It just so happens that Kevin and Laura

came into their little spotlight or focus at the right time,

at least from their point of view.

After running into car trouble on a road trip

from California to Oregon...

Yeah, tire on the trailer popped.

...Laura Craig and Kevin thorpe

are forced to make an unexpected stop in Madeline, California.

He sounded like he was still having fun

and just rolling with the flow.

The last thing I said to Kevin

was that I wanted him to hurry up and get up there

because I was anxious to meet Laura and anxious to see him.

Yeah, we'll see you soon, okay?

All right.

Ready?

Okay?

How's Steve? -Fine.

He said he might have to work a little late,

so he's going to leave a key under the mat for US,

and he said to make ourselves at home.

At that time, they were seen by these three guys --

Benjamin silva, Joseph Shelton, and Norman Thomas.

Kevin and Laura probably didn't even have any idea

that they had been seen.

By now, it's nearly 10:00,

but Kevin and Laura are determined to stay in motion.

They worked for hours on that trailer

and finally got it to where it was operational,

just something that will hold temporarily.

It's not -- you know, it's not a Cadillac job.

Ready? -Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Hey, hold up. You kids shouldn't be heading out this late.

I mean, it's pitch-black and cold out there.

No, no, listen.

I've got an inn around the corner, empty room.

It's all yours, free of charge?

Ted, we appreciate it,

but I just had two cups of Doris' coffee,

and I'm going to be up all night anyway,

so I might as well be driving, yeah?

Bye, Ted.

Thank you so much for everything.

Well, be safe, you two, and...

Be careful out there.

We will.

Nice guy.

Yeah, nice guy. -Bye.

Heaven forbid in the days before cell phones

that you should be on that road in the middle of the night

and have a car break down.

It was just enormously terrifying.

Finally back on the road, the couple settles in

for another 200-plus miles of driving

before they reach Kevin's brother's home,

but it's not long before something else troubles Laura.

What's wrong, babe?

I...

I should have called back home at the cafe.

I just...

I thought it was too late,

and I didn't want to wake up the baby.

Hey.

We'll be in medford tomorrow,

and you can call the second we get in the door, okay?

Are you speeding?

No.

Maybe it's the tire again.

Um...

Kevin looked into the rearview mirror, can't make out the car,

and so when they pulled over, you know, Kevin --

you normally wait for the officer to come up to the door.

Can you grab the registration?

Yeah.

Get out. -Hey, my god!

What are you doing? -Get out now!

What are -- what are you -- my gosh, hey.

I think you've got the wrong people!

The only reason they would have recognized them

would have been from the cafe,

but then again, you'd see three guys, you know, that,

"okay, they pulled US over."

You know, they didn't have much time to react.

Get in! -Get off of me!

You know, any one of US, but for the grace of god,

we could have been the victim, because these guys didn't care.

Get inside! -Okay, okay!

Get in! -Get off of me.

What's happening? What's happening?

Look, I think you have the wrong people.

Shut up!

They have that emergency light you could plug

into the cigarette lighter in a car

and have a flashing light on your car,

so you could get somebody to pull over

in the middle of nowhere,

miles from the nearest other human being.

30 minutes later, the group arrives at a 20-acre ranch

in a mountainous, remote area west of Madeline, California.

Get off of her.

Norman Thomas, I believe,

walked up with a handgun pointed right at Laura Craig,

and that was the end of their freedom.

No, no! -No! No!

The property was, I would almost say,

classically, the middle of nowhere.

You'd have no chance of making it to civilization on foot,

for example, without some help, some vehicle,

some passers through.

Get off of me! -Get on the couch!

It's going to be okay. We're not going to be...

Let US go!

Easy, easy. Back on the couch.

If somebody confronted him and pushed him into a corner,

he wouldn't back down. He would have fought.

I imagine he probably felt,

you know, inadequate,

it's -- you know, and maybe somewhat guilty,

and "what could I have done differently

to make the situation different?"

Let US go.

We have done nothing to you. You don't even know what --

now, this will go a lot better for all of US

if you just keep your mouth shut.

It's going to be okay.

Benjamin silva was the boss, the leader,

a very high-ranking member

of criminal processes, a criminal organization.

I think those other two guys wanted to keep him happy.

Should we see what's in box number one?

Camera.

We didn't come from a rich family,

so I know Kevin didn't have a whole lot.

She came from blue-collar people.

I don't think she probably had a whole lot.

There was not no motive to Rob or anything like that

because they didn't really have anything.

They didn't, you know?

There was just basically clothes and household items, you know?

It'll be fine.

Get your hands off her! Get your hands off of her!

Y-You want money?

Here, here, just take it!

I'm sure he was probably trying to think of a way

to get them out of this somehow.

No.

Get up.

No, no, no, no. -No!

Please, don't. Please don't take him, please.

Get your...

No! -No, no, no, no!

Laura, Laura, Laura!

No! Laura!

Shut up! -Laura!

Laura! Laura, I love you!

Laura! Laura!

No, Kevin, no!

It was probably frightening, you know?

Kevin is out there, and my mom is inside, you know?

There's probably so many things

that's probably going through both of their minds.

No. No. No. Laura!

Laura, I love you! It's going to be okay!

Laura, it's going to be okay!

Please! It's going to be...

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm sure he wanted to protect her.

It sounds like he didn't have one moment's opportunity

to do anything to change the situation.

I mean, from the moment they were approached by these people,

they were at gunpoint.

Please let Laura go, okay?

She has kids. I will stay here.

I...

I will give you whatever you want.

Actually...

I'll just take whatever I want.

No.

Why else would they stop and Rob him

and take your girl in a cabin?

And I'm sure he realized what they were going to do to her.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

No! Laura!

We've got something for you.

No.

Hey, now, no peeking.

Don't ruin the surprise.

Benjamin silva was a very high,

large-scale distributor of illegal drugs.

Hold her still.

You wanted to keep him happy.

You did not want to mess with him.

You did not want to annoy him or tick him off.

No!

Held captive on a remote ranch

west of Madeline, California,

Laura Craig is drugged and tortured for hours

by three violent men.

And that's the kind of animals you were dealing with.

They took Laura, put her in a cabin.

There is three against one.

She was numb, you know?

She wasn't...

What can you do?

She was sexually abused, taken advantage of.

They were isolated miles from the nearest human being,

no chance that there was anybody who would have known

there was something going on.

The thugs show no mercy to Laura's boyfriend,

Kevin, either.

You're still alive?

You must have some reptile blood in you,

like me.

Kevin thorpe had been tied to with a chain all night,

and you got to remember,

this was January, and it was freezing weather up there,

high altitude.

Don't you worry about your girl.

We've been taking real good care of her.

You go to hell.

You go to hell.

His mind-set absolutely must have been

that he was in the catastrophe of a lifetime,

never would have imagined or expected

that he'd ever be in any situation so hopeless,

so horrible.

The men take off...

Laura!

...leaving Kevin and Laura behind...

Laura. ...Separate and captive...

Laura, please, answer me, baby.

...unable to help one another.

Laura! -Kevin?

Kevin?

I'm pretty sure they probably knew

what was going on with each other, you know.

I guarantee that Kevin's probably heard my mom

in there being raped.

Knowing that the one that you love is right there,

I mean, it was completely out of their control.

As the sun rises on a new day,

Laura and Kevin's families have no idea that anything's wrong.

When I talked to him the last time,

they were in northern California,

and that was probably at least a day's drive away,

and being as it was in the '80s,

there was no way of really contacting him

or finding out where he was aside from him calling me.

It wasn't something I consciously thought of --

"where are they? I wonder what's going on."

After disposing of the couple's belongings,

Kevin and Laura's captors are back,

more dangerous than ever.

He wants you outside.

This is when Joe Shelton proceeded to go up

to where Kevin thorpe had been tied to a tree.

Norm was in the cabin with Laura.

Music was turned up loud.

That surely has to convey the message to Laura

that they're making loud noise here in this shack

to cover up some terrible,

awful things they're doing out there.

What are you doing? No, no, no!

Kevin? Kevin!

Kevin!

What did you do?

What did you do to him?!

She probably heard the shots,

but she didn't know he was tied up up there.

She didn't know what happened to Kevin thorpe.

What?

Norm didn't know what happened either.

Norm, get out here.

But when he was led up there by Ben and Joe Shelton,

he just told him, "take an axe."

What do you want me to do with this?

Always finish what you start, norm.

Always.

That's when he saw Kevin.

Kevin had been shot in the back with a full clip from a Mac-10

and then had unloaded that clip and put another clip

and then shot half of that.

There was no remorse for this kid.

The motive was just pure killing.

While norm Thomas and Benjamin silva

dispose of Kevin's body,

Joseph Shelton is left alone with Laura.

A propane truck came up the driveway.

Where is he?

Where is Kevin?

What did they do to him?

Please, I...

I have children.

Like, I will -- I will do whatever you want me to do.

Aah!

You need to get out of here.

You need to move.

Go!

Get up! Go!

Shelton took my mom out of the cabin, out to the woods...

Go, run!

...and basically, you know,

"squat behind a bush or whatever and hide."

Where is he? -My mom got really excited.

They were going to let her go.

Now, go.

It's been 4 days since Laura Craig

and her boyfriend, Kevin,

left her family in ridgecrest, California,

headed for a new life in Oregon.

My grandmother and my aunt Kim were protective over my mom.

Shouldn't they be there by now?

Maybe they're just busy getting settled in.

But she always calls.

My mom was supposed to call my grandmother

when she got there to let her know

that she made it there safe, and after a few days gone by,

there was no call, no nothing,

so my grandmother got really worried.

But what Laura's family doesn't know

is that Kevin and Laura never made it to Oregon.

Joe Shelton and norm Thomas spent lot of time

by that burn barrel right outside the cabin,

and this is where they would stay around, like, a campfire

and felt very freely to speak, and they actually burned things

that belonged to Kevin thorpe in there.

Give me your lighter.

Come on. Just give me the damn lighter.

What the hell?

Where is she?

No. No, no, no, no, no, no.

What, she just had to take a leak.

I didn't figure she'd get far.

You're going to get US both killed.

Shelton and Thomas were scared of silva.

Basically, they did whatever silva told them to do.

Aah, aah!

Just lucky that it's me who found you.

It's now been nearly a week

since Laura and her fianc� were taken hostage,

and she's starting to lose hope.

Remember, she never knew what happened to Kevin thorpe.

Where they were, there was nobody around.

Then, suddenly, Laura is jilted

by her kidnappers' change of plans.

Let's go.

Where's norm?

Busy. Don't worry about his ass.

Worry about your own.

Benjamin silva knew what he wanted to do.

Joe Shelton knew very well,

"if I didn't do what I thought he wanted me to do,

I was going to end up like he wanted me

to do to this individual."

All right then.

Let's go.

But we go together.

Please help me.

Please help me.

Please...

While Shelton and silva force Laura out of the cabin...

Lassen county sheriff's deputies are busy with a new case.

Remember all those burglaries

in the new development up on the plateau?

Well, we got one of the guys.

Where is he?

Waiting for you in room two.

The Madeline area,

we were losing a lot of property up there,

and the night before, sergeant Gerald

and Bruce steltzer had come to the sheriff and told him

that they'd like to go up there that night

and see if they couldn't locate some people

that had some good information.

As undersheriff lino callegari

starts to interview this petty burglar,

he soon begins to sense that there's something

far more serious this guy wants to get off his chest.

So tell me, what was going through your mind exactly?

It wasn't my idea, okay?

I didn't want any part of it.

Did you think you were going to get away with it?

He was going to kill me if I didn't help him,

and once he killed him,

it was pretty obvious that he's going to --

whoa, whoa, whoa.

"If I get some shovels," I said, "am I going to go up there

and dig up animals or humans?" And he says, "humans,"

so, of course, that started the adrenaline moving.

It's crazy, man.

I mean, what they did to him, it was messed up.

Norman Thomas, there was a part of him that knew

that that was something terrible that was impossibly,

unbelievably cruel, horrible behavior,

and he wanted to feel a little bit exonerated.

Thomas told US that, while being supervised by silva,

he had dismembered Kevin thorpe's body with an axe

and then, taking the pieces of thorpe's body

and distributing them in small holes

that were dug around that property.

But when their conversation turns to Laura Craig,

details from norm Thomas are hazy at best.

Laura Craig's fate was something that Norman Thomas

had only heard about secondhand from Joseph Shelton.

And he says, "they took Laura

and then left on the interstate

and drove up this dirt road up about another 10 miles

to an intersection up there," which we later learned

was the intersection of damnation mountain.

Why did you stop?

Let's switch drivers.

There's no reason for anybody to be there.

That road not gonna be worked.

There's no cats or tractors on that road.

No!

No!

The shot went into her chest, into her body cavity,

but it was slowed down by the leather jacket.

She screamed.

There was nobody up in that area.

After norm Thomas confesses to his involvement

in the murder of Kevin thorpe,

undersheriff lino callegari is desperate for answers

about Kevin's fianc�e, Laura Craig.

Is she alive?

You're going to have to ask them.

Norman Thomas really had no first-person knowledge.

He did hear from Shelton that Laura

had been dumped out in the country,

but Thomas would have had no idea where to look.

Thomas is able to lead police

to Kevin thorpe's remains.

News of this tragic discovery is conveyed to Kevin's family,

including his brother, Steven, 200 miles away in Oregon.

Yeah.

My older brother, Tim, just came out and told me

that Kevin had been killed,

and I was, like... I was just in shock.

I felt, I don't know, somehow I was...

I could have done something different to make things better,

to make things turn out differently.

I thought maybe I could have warned Kevin somehow

or something.

I carried some guilt for the fact that he got killed.

Still without confirmation

of what happened to Kevin's fianc�e, Laura,

police turn to the media

to exert pressure on her captors.

15 days after Laura

was taken out to damnation mountain,

Joseph Shelton finally comes forward and agrees

to lead police to her body.

All right.

Now, we have all these guys out here looking.

Where the hell is she?

I was trying to get him to identify the road

that they had taken Laura, and it was getting dusk.

He says, "stop," and I said, "okay, what now?"

Down there.

Paulson, have a look.

They went around, and they yelled back,

"sir, we found her."

I think, really, the reaction of everybody

was absolute amazement, practical disbelief.

What Shelton did, essentially,

was to reveal Laura Craig's fate.

Joe later told me, "Ben,

immediately, when he stepped out of the car, took a revolver,

shot Laura on the right side of her side here."

"She was screaming, and he was so mad

that he, having shot her in the head,

he threw her over the side of the mountain."

Later that day, Laura's remains

are pulled from the ravine,

leaving law enforcement with their toughest job yet.

You know, a policeman,

he sees all worlds, you know?

He actually sees the sadness of the families.

Of course, I...

Thorpe and Laura, they weren't suffering anymore,

so the suffering was on the living.

Ma'am, are you the mother of Laura Craig?

Yes.

I have some information about your daughter.

It tore my family up bad.

You know, my -- my...

My family, they're scared, you know?

They don't trust anybody anymore, you know?

I don't trust people anymore.

There is people who are just wired differently,

and they were born evil, no conscience,

no moral boundaries, no ethical code of any kind,

and I think these people are evil.

Joseph Shelton, Benjamin silva,

and Norman Thomas are all charged with the murders

of Laura Craig and Kevin thorpe.

They're each tried separately in different counties.

Norman Thomas, ultimately, as I recall,

was sentenced as an accessory to murder.

Joseph Shelton, in his trial in ukiah in mendocino county,

was convicted of the murders, was not given the death penalty.

Benjamin silva, the San Bernardino jury,

in fact, did indeed yield a verdict

that silva should be executed for this crime.

Benjamin silva's sentence

is later commuted to life.

I'm glad they got caught.

I'm so glad they got caught.

I think they need to sit behind bars

for the rest of their lives,

you know, just so that way they can see and feel and...

All that they've done, you know?

Kevin and Laura's devastated families

are left to imagine what could have been.

He was just 21. Laura was only 20.

They were just kids.

They never had a chance.

You know, life turned out okay,

but it's not the same as it would have been.

I mean, you know, I'm still missing a piece of my heart

and never will have that -- get that back.

Growing up without my mom was really hard.

I've always felt that...

I wasn't loved or, you know...

I just -- I didn't have the things that my cousins had,

you know, that bond between their mother, you know?

I think, if they would have made it,

I think we would have been happy.