In June of 2018, 36-year-old mountaineering guide Arlina Brackarel set out on the Cahilna Glacier and promised to return in 2 days.

The last signal from her satellite tracker disappeared near a sideream.

The weather turned bad and the search subsided.

3 years passed.

In July 2021, glaciologists examining cracks at the edge of the glacier found a cave with a vault as clear as glass.

In the thickness of the ice, there was a dark figure upside down.

When they pulled out the block, it became clear.

The carabiners were frozen into the ice.

The rope was cut.

The backpack was gone.

And the camera was broken.

There was a sharp wound on the back of his head.

The body had not fallen there on its own.

It was placed there.

That day, the case of Arlena’s disappearance ceased to be about the mountain.

It became about someone who used the cold as a safe.

In June of 2018, the weather in Alaska was surprisingly mild.

In the Denali Mountains, this meant only one thing.

The open season had begun.

After a long winter, the snow had melted below the ice line, and the peak, which climbers simply called the mountain, glistened in the sun like a polished piece of glass.

That morning, Arlina Brackar set out to climb alone.

For her, it was not an adventure, but rather a routine job.

At 36, she had more than a dozen solo climbs under her belt and a reputation as the most conscientious guide in Tokettna.

Arlina lived in a small house near the Susettna River, where she kept her equipment, maps, and route journals.

She never called the mountain by romantic names, only by elevation numbers and coordinates as required by her habit of accuracy.

In the days before the climb, she carefully prepared her equipment, checked the ropes, tested the carabiners, and updated her gas cylinders.

A her friends later recalled that in her last days, Arlina was calm and focused as if she was going to work.

According to Mark Tanner, her colleague and close friend, she called him the day before from the base camp on the Cahilna Glacier.

The conversation didn’t last long as the connection in that area was always unstable.

She said that the conditions were excellent, the wind had died down, and that she planned to climb to an intermediate camp and spend the night there.

Mark described her voice as cheerful and confident.

She promised to get in touch in 2 days.

That was the last confirmed message from her.

When 48 hours passed and there was no signal, Mark wasn’t too worried.

In the Denali area, this was a common occurrence.

Storm fronts and clouds often cut off communication for several days.

But on the third day, when another forecast warned of an approaching cyclone, his peace of mind vanished.

In Tanner’s own words, that’s when he felt something was wrong.

He contacted the National Park Service.

Ranger David Carter, who was in charge of search operations at the time, received the message in the afternoon.

He was 53 and had experience in dozens of rescue missions, most of which ended sadly.

He knew Arina Braracknel’s name, professional, disciplined, risk averse.

So when she was reported missing, Carter immediately decided to act quickly.

The next morning, a helicopter with two rangers and a volunteer from a local guide was sent into the air.

The search began in the vicinity of the Cahilna camp, where Arina’s GPS tracker indicated she had stayed for the last time.

From the air, the area looked familiar.

A white plane cracked with dark streaks of ice, traces of old roots left by boots and skis.

On the third day of the operation, they came across her camp.

According to the official park service report, the camp was beautifully maintained.

The tent was intact and the equipment was laid out systematically.

A burner, a cylinder, a spare rope, and a first aid kit.

There was enough food for several days.

There were no signs of struggle, animals, or avalanches.

Only a narrow line of tracks led away from the camp, away from the main route to the crack zone where the ice was dark and lost among the stone ramparts.

At a distance of a few tens of meters, the traces broke off.

The volunteers who participated in the search later recalled that it looked strange.

Usually climbers, even if they make a mistake, leave at least some sign of their direction of travel.

A ribbon, a ski mark, a piece of a stick.

There was nothing like that here.

That same evening, Mark Tanner gave a written statement.

He confirmed that Arina had mentioned her intention to visit a picturesque place the day before, a small glacial stream not far from the main route.

According to him, she had been told about this place by a local man, I think a guide or mechanic, who knew the area well.

Tanner could not give a name but described him as a rough, grumpy type.

The rangers noted this detail in the report, but did not attach any importance to it at the time.

It was believed that Arlina had simply moved away to take pictures and may have fallen into a creasse.

The weather conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

A blizzard began, visibility decreased to a few meters, and the temperature dropped below minus 20.

Helicopter searches had to be temporarily suspended.

The following week, the ground teams, moving slowly, examined about 10 square kilm of the glacier.

No new finds were made.

The dog sleds brought from Taletina lost track at the glacier’s edge, where the snow turned to solid blue ice.

When the Ranger Service convened a debriefing meeting 10 days after the disappearance, Carter suggested for the first time that the chances of finding Arina alive were zero.

He did not say this publicly, but in his memos he wrote, “Too clean a scene.

The camp is too neat.

It doesn’t look like an accident.” However, the official position remained restrained.

The National Park Service declared Arina Braracknel missing and the search operation closed.

The family was notified by email.

Mark Tanner stayed at the site for several more days, combing the slopes around the camp alone.

Then he admitted to journalists that he saw her footprints even where they were not there.

In the evening, when the last helicopter flew over the glacier, clouds covered the peak.

David Carter stood at the observation deck of the base camp and stared into the white abyss for a long time.

According to him, he could not shake the impression that Arlina did not die immediately.

Something in that story did not fit the usual logic of accidents.

In the mountains, many things can disappear without a trace, people, tents, entire airplanes.

But where there should have been a struggle for life, only a flawless emptiness remained.

Denali reminded us once again that she does not accept everyone and does not always explain why.

A month has passed since the search ended.

The National Park Service officially closed the case number 1842B, stating in the report, “Probable death due to an accident in mountainous conditions.

No body found.

” For the Rangers, this was a familiar wording.

For Mark Tanner, it was a verdict he could not accept.

He was often seen on the edge of the forest near the road leading to the foot of Denali.

He went on short independent searches, sometimes staying overnight in the old base hut near the glacier.

Witnesses recalled that on those days, he looked exhausted and talked to himself.

One day, a local ranger met him near the pass and asked what he was doing.

Tanner replied, “I just want to see where she might have gone.” Arlina was never found.

Snow covered her tracks and over time even those who searched for her began to doubt that they ever existed.

According to the records of the ranger service, after the fourth week of the operation, the number of volunteers dropped to two and a month later to zero.

In Toketta, it was no longer spoken of in the present tense.

At the beginning of the next year, when the park opened a new season, Mark returned to work.

Tourists who hiked with him recalled that he was quiet, attentive, and hardly ever talked about himself.

One of them wrote in a review, “He seems to know every meter of this mountain, but he looks at it as if it had taken something from him.” Only official notices and copies of documents were sent to Ukraine, where Arina’s parents lived.

They appealed to the consulate several times to resume the search, but to no avail.

According to American law, a person was considered missing after a year of unaccounted for absence and deceased after 3 years.

The family agreed with the first definition, but not with the second.

In Toketta, Arina’s memory was preserved among a narrow circle of guides.

Her belongings, several maps, an old compass, a red thermos were kept in a drawer at the local station.

David Carter, then head of rescue operations, left a short memo in the file.

Those who knew Arina Bracknel do not believe in accidents.

Another year passed.

By then, Carter was already preparing for retirement.

His desk in the Ranger building resembled an archive, dozens of files, old photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Among them was a folder labeled Bucknell A.

It was lying separately.

He repeatedly returned to it, rereading protocols, reports, copies of testimonies.

Everything looked right, but something didn’t add up in the details.

In June of 2020, he noticed a document that he had previously overlooked.

The search report mentioned an unknown climber who had seen a woman in a red jacket talking to a man at the edge of the glacier.

The witness described them standing next to a small stream that emerged from the ice.

Because of the distance, he couldn’t hear the words, but he remembered the man’s backpack, dark, worn, with a white eagle patch.

Later, Carter found out that this logo was used by the last Frontier Trex travel agency that operated in Tequetna.

This coincidence alarmed him.

He wrote in his notebook, “Check all guides who worked in the season of 18, especially those who had conflicts or quit after the summer.

” The note was left without a follow-up.

The services reports contained neither inspections nor interrogations.

Officially, the case was considered closed.

Carter himself was engaged in other operations in those years, landslides, fires, tourist injuries.

But Arlena’s story haunted him.

He recalled that her camp looked too orderly, and the trails disappeared suddenly, as if they had been cut off.

Over the years, he had seen various tragedies in the mountains, avalanches, cave-ins, freezing.

But he had never seen such a clean, flawless scene.

In a private letter to a colleague written at the end of that year, he confessed, “There is something in this case that we did not notice.

Someone knew how to hide its traces or the mountain did it itself.

Meanwhile, Mark Tanner continued to work as a guide.

In summer, he led groups to glaciers and in winter he repaired equipment in rental shops.

Several times he tried to look for new evidence on his own, contacted local pilots, and reviewed drone footage, but nothing.

His friends recalled that over the years he became withdrawn, spoke little, but always wore a small silver compass around his neck, a gift from Arlina.

When a new wave of research began in the park in 2021, Braracknel’s story came to mind again by chance.

A university team of glaciologists received a grant to study changes in the thickness of the Cahilna glacier.

The team consisted of young scientists, technicians, and several experienced researchers, including Dr.

Eric Shaw, a geoysicist from Anchorage, who specialized in ice melt processes.

The project involved the use of thermal sensors and laser scanning in hard-to-reach areas where ice had formed underground cavities.

Such caves appeared at the boundary of meltwater and old ice.

Shaw’s team planned to explore them this summer.

The university applied to the National Park Service for a work permit.

Among the documents Carter reviewed as the head of regional review was Shaw’s application.

On the map of the route, he noticed a familiar coordinate, the sector where Arlina Braracknel’s trail had once broken off.

That evening, he left a short pencil note on a copy of the map.

Authorized coordinates are safe.

Caution when entering the Fisher zone.

He did not explain why he added this warning and did not tell anyone about it.

A few weeks later, the scientific expedition received official permission.

Dr.

Shaw trained a team of five, ordered equipment, and developed a measurement plan.

The terms of reference read, “Study of newly formed cavities at the northern edge of the glacier, exactly where the climber with the red jacket had once disappeared.

The ice which has been keeping its secrets for decades sometimes reveals them not when they are searched for but when someone accidentally touches it too closely.

Sometimes this touch is enough for the silence to start cracking.

In early July of 2021, a group of glaciologists from the University of Anchorage began the field phase of their study of Cahilna Glacier.

According to the official plan, they were to record changes in temperature, ice thickness, and crack patterns that had formed after a series of warm seasons.

The expedition was led by Dr.

Eric Shaw, a 50-year-old specialist in glacial dynamics, a calm, meticulous man who had previously worked in Greenland and the Himalayas.

On the morning of the first day, they reached the northern part of the glacier, where new cavities had appeared in recent years.

The team consisted of five people.

Shaw himself, two graduate students, a technician, and a climber who was responsible for insurance.

According to their report, the temperature was around minus5, and visibility was good.

They were moving along a crack where a thin stream was flowing out from under the ice.

Warm water from the melting part of the glacier making its way through the blue ice.

On the third day of research, Shaw noticed a small dip a few dozen meters from the main route.

Satellite data displayed on the map showed an anomaly here, a cavity about 10 m wide.

We decided to descend.

The climber, identified in the official report as Amy Ferguson, secured the rope, and they took turns entering the cave.

Inside, the temperature was lower than outside.

The air was frozen, and the walls seemed transparent.

Dr.

Shaw later described it as a place where time had stopped.

The ice was so pure that under the spotlight, it resembled thick glass with bubbles of ancient air quivering in its thickness.

The team began the usual procedure, photographing the walls, taking samples, and measuring pressure.

Around noon, one of the graduate students, Trevor Lynch, who was filming the cave dome, noticed a dark spot in the ceiling.

According to him, at first he thought it was a rock remnant or a piece of silted up ice, but when he shown the flashlight closer, he saw what looked like a sleeve.

Lynch called for his supervisor, and soon everyone gathered under the area.

The light from several lanterns merged into one spot, and the outline of a human body was visible through the thickness of the transparent ice.

It was turned upside down, the legs closer to the entrance, the head deeper into the ice.

Dark hair, a fragment of a red sleeve, and the clasp of a backpack strap were visible.

According to Amy Ferguson, no one said a word at that moment.

They stood there in silence while Dr.

Shaw slowly took out his camera and took several pictures.

Only then did he give the command to go to the surface and call the park service.

After receiving the message, the NPS control room in Talquitina declared an emergency.

A group of rangers and medical experts went to the glacier.

The first person to be notified was David Carter.

He was 3 weeks away from retirement.

According to his colleague, he remained silent for a long time after reading the short message and then only said, “Cahilna doesn’t let the dead go for nothing.” Carter arrived at the scene the next morning.

The glaciologists were waiting at the entrance to the cave.

The temperature had dropped overnight and the ceiling had become even more transparent.

Together with a technician, he went down, lighting the way with a spotlight.

According to him, what he saw was too precise to be an accident.

The body was preserved almost unchanged.

The climbing suit was buttoned up, a cut rope was tied around his waist, and a carbine was clutched in his hand.

The face was not fully visible, but the body shape, equipment, and hair suggested that it was a woman.

In a report written the same day, Carter noted the body was found in an upright position with the head turned down.

It appears as if it was inserted into a niche or suspended.

The location is not consistent with any known fall pattern.

The rangers also noted several details that immediately aroused suspicion.

First, there was no debris or cracks around the area where the body was located that could indicate natural compression.

Secondly, several objects were visible in the ice nearby.

A camera fragment, a piece of rope, and a metal carbine.

The backpack that was supposed to be with the climber was not found.

Mark Tanner was invited to check the identification.

He was flown in by helicopter the next day.

In the presence of the Rangers, he recognized the red jacket that Arlina wore during the climb.

After that, the victim was officially identified as Arina Bracknel, who disappeared in June 2018.

After the identification, the site was declared a potential crime scene.

Access was restricted and glaciologists were evacuated.

The temperature in the cave was consistently low, so it was decided not to remove the body immediately to preserve the condition in which it was found.

Dr.

Shaw later told reporters that the feeling during the discovery was not fear, but a kind of deep hall.

He recalled, “We were looking at it, and it seemed to me that it was looking at us, too, just through the ice.

If it weren’t for that inverted position, you’d think she was sleeping.” When Carter examined the cave again, he noticed several technical details.

The rope holding the body had a cut end.

The cut was clean, presumably made with a sharp metal tool, not torn under the weight.

The walls of ice around the body remained intact, ruling out a fall or slide.

On the surface, Carter met with park service officials and reported the need for an investigation.

At the time, he did not use the word murder, but his memo contained the phrase, “Human intervention cannot be ruled out.

There is a high probability of deliberate placement of the body.” A few days later, detectives from Fairbanks arrived at the scene.

They brought photographic equipment, drilling tools, and sealed containers for transporting ice.

The body was scheduled to be recovered the next morning.

Meanwhile, Carter remained at the entrance to the cave.

According to eyewitnesses, he stood silently for a long time, leaning on the ice pick.

Later, one of the glaciologists working nearby recalled, “His gaze was as if he was not looking at the body, but through it to what was behind it.

” There was a windless silence on the glacier.

The sun was touching the mountain crests, and the entrance to the cave seemed like a black hole in the crystal.

Inside, under a few meters of ice, a woman was frozen, whom everyone thought was long dead.

But even dead, she retained some kind of will, as if her last movement was an attempt to get out.

David Carter wrote down only one sentence in his notebook.

Whoever did this knew that Ice remembers everything.

The recovery of Arlina Braracknel’s body from the Cahiltna Glacier took 2 days and was one of the most thorough operations of the park service.

Everything was carried out at the limit of technical capabilities.

In a room where every breath could change the temperature and cause a crack in the ice.

The climbers worked in pairs.

One drilled narrow holes around the body.

The other made sure that the metal did not overheat.

The block with the body was separated slowly, layer by layer.

It was wrapped in thermal insulation cloth, secured with metal loops, and lifted through a vertical tunnel.

A helicopter delivered the discovery to Anchorage, where a specially equipped freezer at the University Morg was waiting for it.

The autopsy took place without a press.

The temperature inside the laboratory was kept below freezing to preserve the structure of the ice.

The process began not with the body, but with the shell.

The surrounding ice was cut away with knives, preserving its layers for analysis.

When the ice around the head began to melt, a dark spot became visible.

A hole in the back of the head.

Experts described it as clear, deep, and made with a sharp instrument similar to an ice pick.

The edges were even with no cracks or additional injuries.

Death was instantaneous from a blow to the base of the skull.

There were no injuries on the body that would indicate a fall or struggle.

The jacket was zipped up.

The straps of the equipment were neatly fastened.

There are two carabiners on the belt, one locked to a piece of rope, the other disconnected with scratches cleaned up.

The rope was cut cleanly, not torn.

Fiber analysis confirmed that it was a professional climbing nylon produced in the United States at the end of 2017.

No personal belongings were found.

There was no backpack, no GPS tracker, no camera.

In the breast pocket was an empty film with no signs of exposure.

Everything showed that someone had taken the most valuable thing.

Not money or documents, but devices capable of recording the path and time.

When the forensic experts finished their work, the body was returned to the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, the forensic scientists went back to the glacier to explore the cave itself.

The cave resembled a transparent dome, its walls covered with crystals that reflected the light of the spotlights, creating the impression of a glass cathedral.

The floor had a flat surface with clearly preserved traces of spikes from climbing krampons.

They led from the entrance to the place where the body was hanging and suddenly disappeared.

No one could explain how the killer got out without leaving a way back.

Under a layer of ice in a narrow crack, they found another man’s carbine, an older model with red paint and a halfworn emblem.

The image resembled a wing or an eagle.

The logo did not belong to any of the major equipment manufacturers.

The metal was worn, but there were traces of technical grease on it, a detail that indicated the user’s experience.

No fingerprints were found.

Further, closer to the back wall, the experts came across a scratch, probably made by an icepic blade.

The line ran horizontally at the level of human shoulders.

By its shape and direction, it could be the movement of an attacker holding a body or securing a rope.

No mechanical damage was found on the other walls.

Fragments of fabric stuck in the ice cracks were found during the second examination.

These were graycoled fibers similar to a woolen glove or its lining.

The samples were sent to the laboratory for DNA analysis, but the cells may have been destroyed due to prolonged contact with the ice.

David Carter, who supervised the investigation, wrote in his official log, “Those who came down here knew how to handle the ice.

Everything was done cleanly without a trace of panic.

It’s not a crime of improvisation.

It’s a design.

Fairbanks investigators have prepared a preliminary profile of the alleged killer.

The person who committed the crime had to be physically strong, familiar with the local conditions, and well-versed in the glacier.

He or she used professional level equipment, had experience in high altitude mountaineering, and understood how to hide traces.

Most likely, it was a local, someone who had been working in the mountains for years.

The following week, the detectives went back to the archives and contacted the park service.

In the old documents, they found a copy of the permits for guided routes for the summer of 2018.

The list included the company Last Frontier TX which operated in Toketta.

It was its logo a stylized eagle that resembled the emblem on the carabiner.

The company’s employees that season included more than 10 people, guides, mechanics, and cooks.

Mark Tanner was among them.

His name was highlighted as a person related to the victim, but there were other names next to his of those who disappeared after the season closed or quit suddenly without leaving an address.

When the forensic report arrived in Anchorage, Arina Brackar’s case was officially reclassified as a murder.

All further actions were coordinated by the state police.

What at first seemed to be a tragic story about a missing climber now bore the hallmarks of a cold-blooded crime committed by a man who knew how to exploit ice and fear.

After Arina Brackar’s case was officially ruled a homicide, Fairbanks detectives along with Ranger David Carter began investigating the employees of the Last Frontier Trex Travel Company.

Its logo, an eagle with outstretched wings, matched the emblem found on the carbine in the cave.

The company’s list of employees included 12 guides, technicians, mechanics, and drivers.

The first to be interrogated were those who stayed in Toketna.

Almost everyone remembered Arina as experienced, calm, and impeccably disciplined.

None said anything that might suggest conflict.

She had the reputation of being a mountain man.

She was respected even by those who usually disliked outsiders.

Soon detectives focused on Mark Tanner, a close colleague and friend of the missing woman.

His name appeared in the reports next to Arlinins in the season of 2018.

He was the first to report her disappearance to contact the authorities and her family.

In the park service documents, he was listed as a person familiar with the route.

During the inspection, they found evidence from a base camp employee who heard their argument.

According to him, the conversation was sharp but short.

He did not understand the content.

Later, it turned out that there might have been a misunderstanding between the guides because of a new route that Arlina planned to protest.

Mark allegedly called it risky, while she thought it was a discovery.

However, a possible conflict was not confirmed.

On the day of Arina’s disappearance, Tanner was leading a group of tourists on another slope of Denali.

This was confirmed by three hikers and satellite tracker records.

His alibi was found to be flawless.

The investigation then turned its attention to another employee of the company, a mechanic named Walter Greer.

He was about 45 years old, born in Alaska, had worked for the company for several seasons, and was responsible for repairing snowmobiles and vehicles.

A short note was found in the internal records.

Fired for conflict with customers.

Former colleagues described him as a gloomy, silent man who did not tolerate tourists and often repeated that strangers spoil the mountains.

One of the guides told investigators that Greer liked to show his colleagues remote, dangerous places where official roots did not reach.

It was he who, according to the testimony, could tell Arlin about a hidden stream and glacial caves that he called untouched.

The former owner of Last Frontier Tres confirmed this.

Greer really knew the Cahilna area well.

He transported fuel there, repaired equipment, and sometimes spent the night on the glacier.

His words were full of pride for the place he considered his.

According to his colleagues, he repeatedly said that the mountain knows who it accepts.

When detectives got on his trail, it turned out that after his release, he left Toettna and settled in a trailer near the town of Healey, where he worked as a mechanic at a quarry.

He was described as withdrawn and reclusive.

Neighbors recalled that he would disappear for several days, explaining that he was fishing.

In the company’s documents for June 2018, there were no records of his presence at work.

When the detectives arrived at Healey’s, Greer agreed to a brief interview.

According to the interviewing officer, he acted cold, answered sporadically, and denied any knowledge of Arina.

During the interrogation, he was asked if he had ever been to the Glacier Creek area.

Greer replied that he had passed by once, but a long time ago.

The detectives report states, “No agitation, defensive behavior, alibi for the dates of disappearance is not confirmed.

At the same time, they noticed his hands.

The skin on his fingers was worn with old scars from metal tools, typical for those who work with equipment.” David Carter, who accompanied the interview, wrote in his notebook, “A mechanic who knows every screw in a snowmobile, couldn’t help but know how a carbine works.

He might not have killed, but he could have shown the way to the person who did.” That day, the investigators left Healey with the feeling that they were on the verge of a discovery.

Everything fit together too precisely.

Experience, isolation, anger at outsiders, knowledge of the area.

But the evidence was lacking.

There was not a single physical thread connecting him to Arlina Bracknel.

The investigation continued to work with the company’s archives, looking for any connections between Greer and the missing guide.

The reports contained a note about the purchase of ropes and carabiners on the eve of the summer of 2018.

The order was placed by Greer himself.

This was the first document to link him to the equipment found in the ice cave.

The official conclusion of that stage sounded restrained.

Walter Greer is a person who may have had information about the victim’s route and access to technical equipment.

There is no direct evidence of participation in the crime.

Further surveillance is recommended.

The detectives received permission to search Walter Greer’s trailer after a long period of surveillance.

His home was located on the edge of the forest near a quarry near Healey among iron, old cars, and oil barrels.

Inside, darkness, dust, the smell of fuel.

Things were lying in a mess, but each had its place.

On the shelf above the bed was a box of equipment, carabiners, ropes, hooks.

One carabiner matched the model found in the ice cave.

Another had the remains of the same technical oil.

A crumpled receipt from a T-talken store was found in an old backpack.

The date was June 2018.

The list of purchases included rope, carabiners, and a black ice pick.

This was the first confirmed link between the suspect and the equipment found at the crime scene.

There was an old phone on the table.

The SIM card had been removed, but there were still photos in the memory.

Fishing shots, mountains, winter roads.

Among them is a series of shots of the Cahilna glacier.

One shows a stream flowing from a crack in the ice exactly where Arlina Brackar disappeared.

The other shows a figure in a red jacket moving down the slope.

The face is blurred, but the body shape and backpack matched the victim’s description.

Digital evidence experts confirmed that the photo was taken in late June of that year with coordinates pointing to the Cahilna area.

Greer denied any involvement, claiming that he had found the phone, but the metadata refuted his words.

This was the first material evidence that he was near the place of disappearance.

Colleagues from the quarry said that he often disappeared for several days.

One of them recalled that at the end of June, Greer took a day off without explanation and returned emaciated and avoidant.

No witnesses confirmed his version of the fishing trip.

The official report states, “The period of the suspect’s absence coincides with the dates of the victim’s disappearance.

There is no alibi.

A check of financial transactions showed regular transfers to his account, about $200 a month.

The money came from Northern Support Co., a company registered in Toketna.

The company was engaged in small-scale construction work, had two employees, and no official ties to the quarry.

The owner of Northern Support Co.

was Liam O’Neal, a former guide with Last Frontier Tres.

He left the company immediately after the summer of 2018 and soon opened his own business.

At the same time, he had the funds to rent equipment and premises.

The source of the funding remained unclear.

During a digital forensic examination, a short unsigned email was recovered from Greer’s computer.

You know what to do.

The main thing is that no one should find it.

The message was undated, but metadata indicated that it was from the middle of the summer of 2018.

David Carter wrote in his official diary, “Greer is not a hunter, but a mercenary.

Someone else gave him direction and silence for money.” Gradually, the case ceased to look like a single murder.

The traces led to accompllices, to those who had the motive, the means, and the understanding of how to turn the mountain into a hideout.

Greer could have been the perpetrator.

But the shadow of another man was already looming next to him, the one who had a plan.

The arrest warrant for Walter Greer was signed in mid-occtober.

It was based on receipts found in his trailer, photos from the glacier, and bank transfers that proved his connection to the northern support co.

He was arrested early in the morning at the quarry.

According to witnesses, he saw the police cars from a distance, but did not try to escape.

When asked to surrender, he stood silently as the officers approached, then slowly put his hands on the hood of his truck.

The search revealed only his usual belongings.

a set of tools, an old rifle without ammunition, and several maps with marked roots of rivers and glaciers.

He was taken to the Fairbanks Police Station.

According to the detectives, in the first hours, he remained calm, refused to have a lawyer, and acted like a man who had already made up his mind.

The initial interrogation yielded nothing.

Greer claimed that he had nothing to do with Arlina Bracknel and insisted that the findings in his trailer were a coincidence.

The report states, “Behavior is level, gaze is direct, no signs of panic.” But when detectives showed photos from his own phone, his reaction changed.

It was recorded that he looked away and remained silent for a long time.

Then he was shown printouts of transfers to his account.

When Liam O’Neal’s name came up, he looked up sharply.

After a short pause, he said that he hadn’t seen him for a long time and that he was just borrowing money.

But the silence that followed lasted too long to be certain.

On the third day, Greer agreed to the deal.

According to the prosecutor, he asked for the meeting himself.

The protocol reads, “The suspect agrees to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence.

” His testimony was over 20 pages long.

He said that O’Neal offered him a part-time job to help him get rid of a problem with one overly inquisitive guide.

According to Greer, it all started that summer when Arina came across a small enclosed area in the forest near the glacier.

She thought it was an old camp, but instead found a hidden marijuana plantation.

The plants were grown under tents that blended in with the color of the ground.

Greer claimed that it was then that O’Neal, who was still working in a travel agency, realized that if she told the Rangers, the business would collapse and a number of people would follow.

According to Greer, O’Neal was in debt and trying to hold on to his second income.

They met several times in pocket and he offered Greer money to scare Arina, but things got out of hand.

Greer described everything calmly without emotion.

He said that Arina had come to Toketna before her climb and was asking about the strange structures on the slope.

She knew that someone was using the park for illegal activities, but she didn’t know who.

According to Greer, it was O’Neal who convinced her to go to the Glacier Creek to show her that there was nothing there.

She trusted him because she knew him as a colleague.

During the hike, he allegedly called Greer and told him where she was going.

That’s when he started walking toward the glacier.

He admitted that he had been following her from afar and was waiting for her to be alone.

Then he struck her on the head, which according to him should not have been fatal.

But the woman fell down and never moved again.

Greer said he panicked and then remembered the ice cave O’Neal had once shown him.

It was he who advised, “If something goes wrong, hide in the ice.” It all looked like an attempt to blame the crime on nature.

According to him, the idea of the upside down body was not his.

He said she would look down where she shouldn’t have been.

Investigators checked his words.

In the safe of the northern support cer office, they did find documents that showed expenses for fertilizers and equipment that were not related to construction activities.

A notebook with black covers, the diary of Arlina Bracknel, was in the same cabinet.

Experts confirmed that the entries belong to her.

The last pages were handwritten a few days before her disappearance.

The text mentioned an area near a glacier where it smelled like fertilizer, like a greenhouse.

She wrote that she did not understand who was doing it, but it looks dangerous.

At the end was a sentence.

I’ll show this to Liam tomorrow.

Maybe he can explain.

This recording was a direct confirmation of Greer’s testimony.

Financial documents showed that a week before Arlena’s disappearance, O’Neal had transferred $500 to Greer, the largest amount in the entire period of their contacts.

After these facts were made public, Liam O’Neal was put on the wanted list.

At his home in Toketna, only empty boxes, a computer without a hard drive, and a map of the coast with a marked route to the southeast were found.

A few days after the search, the police received a report from the crew of a ferry traveling between Anchorage and Sitka.

A man resembling O’Neal was seen among the passengers.

The arrest warrant for Walter Greer was signed in mid-occtober.

The grounds were receipts found in his trailer, photos from the glacier, and bank transfers proving his connection to the northern support co.

He was arrested early in the morning at the quarry.

According to witnesses, he saw the police cars from a distance, but did not try to escape.

When asked to surrender, he stood silently as the officers approached, then slowly put his hands on the hood of his truck.

The search revealed only his usual belongings.

a set of tools, an old rifle without ammunition, several maps with marked roots of rivers and glaciers.

He was taken to the Fairbanks Police Station.

According to the detectives, in the first hours, he remained calm, refused to have a lawyer, and acted like a man who had already made up his mind.

The initial interrogation yielded nothing.

Greer claimed that he had nothing to do with Arlina Brackar and insisted that the findings in his trailer were a coincidence.

The report states, “Behavior is level, gaze is direct, no signs of panic.” But when detectives showed photos from his own phone, his reaction changed.

It was recorded that he looked away and remained silent for a long time.

Then he was shown printouts of transfers to his account.

When Liam O’Neal’s name came up, he looked up sharply.

After a short pause, he said that he hadn’t seen him for a long time and that he was just borrowing money.

But the silence that followed lasted too long to be certain.

On the third day, Greer agreed to the deal.

According to the prosecutor, he asked for the meeting himself.

The protocol reads, “The suspect agrees to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence.” His testimony was over 20 pages long.

He said that O’Neal offered him a part-time job to help him get rid of a problem with one overly inquisitive guide.

According to Greer, it all started that summer when Arlina came across a small enclosed area in the forest near the glacier.

She thought it was an old camp, but instead found a hidden marijuana plantation.

The plants were grown under tents that blended in with the color of the ground.

Greer claimed that it was then that O’Neal, who was still working for a travel agency, realized that if she told the Rangers, the business would collapse and a number of people would follow.

According to Greer, O’Neal was in debt and trying to hold on to his second income.

They met several times in Tit and he offered Greer money to scare Arina, but things got out of hand.

Greer described everything calmly without emotion.

He said that Arlina had come to Toketna before her climb and was asking about the strange structures on the slope.

She knew that someone was using the park for illegal activities, but she didn’t know who.

According to Greer, it was O’Neal who convinced her to go to the Glacier Creek to show her that there was nothing there.

She trusted him because she knew him as a colleague.

During the hike, he allegedly called Greer and told him where she was going.

That’s when he started walking toward the glacier.

He admitted that he had been following her from afar and was waiting for her to be alone.

Then he struck her on the head, which according to him should not have been fatal.

But the woman fell down and never moved again.

Greer said he panicked and then remembered the ice cave O’Neal had once shown him.

It was he who advised, “If something goes wrong, hide in the ice.” It all looked like an attempt to blame the crime on nature.

According to him, the idea of the upside down body was not his.

He said, “She would look down where she shouldn’t have been.” Investigators checked his words.

In the safe of the northern support office, they did indeed find documents that showed expenses for fertilizers and equipment that had nothing to do with construction activities.

In the same cabinet was a notebook with black covers.

Arlina Brackar’s diary.

Experts confirmed that the entries belonged to her.

The last pages were handwritten a few days before her disappearance.

The text mentioned a site near a glacier where it smelled like fertilizer, like a greenhouse.

She wrote that she did not understand who was doing it, but it looks dangerous.

There was a sentence at the end.

I’ll show this to Liam tomorrow.

Maybe he can explain.

This recording was a direct confirmation of Greer’s testimony.

Financial documents showed that a week before Arina’s disappearance, O’Neal had transferred $500 to Greer, the largest amount in the entire period of their contacts.

After these facts were made public, Liam O’Neal was put on the wanted list.

At his home in Toquetown, they found only empty boxes, a computer without a hard drive, and a map of the coast with a marked route to the southeast.

A few days after the search, the police received a report from the crew of a ferry traveling between Anchorage and Sitka.

A man resembling O’Neal was seen among the passengers.

The search for Liam O’Neal lasted a little over a week.

He was seen at the ferry terminal in Anchorage, then on a ship headed for Sitka.

When the police received confirmation, a team of detectives traveled to the island, where he could have been hiding among seasonal workers.

The weather was wet and quiet and fog was hovering over the ocean.

Liam was found on the third day.

According to a local police officer, he was sitting on the shore next to an abandoned boat looking out at the water.

He had no weapons or documents on him.

When he was approached, he did not resist.

When asked his name, he answered calmly and even smiled.

According to witnesses, it did not look like an escape, but like an expectation of the inevitable.

During the transfer to Fairbanks, he did not say a word.

Reports indicate that his demeanor remained restrained with no signs of confusion.

In the interrogation room, when he was read the list of evidence, Greer’s testimony, the found diary, financial transfers, he only nodded briefly.

Then he asked for water and silently flipped through a copy of the protocol as if checking how accurately the investigation had reproduced everything.

His confession began calmly.

The protocol read, “The suspect is aware of his guilt and admits full responsibility for organizing the crime.” O’Neal explained that Arlina had indeed stumbled upon the plantation by accident.

She was photographing nature when she smelled smoke and fertilizer.

She later shared this discovery with him, a man she trusted.

That’s when he realized that her silence would cost him everything.

According to O’Neal, he hesitated for a long time, hoping to convince her not to go to the authorities.

But after Arlina mentioned that she had the photos and wanted to give them to the rangers, he decided to act.

He remembered Greer, a reclusive mechanic who often talked about clearing the mountains of the unnecessary.

Money was the main argument.

O’Neal admitted that he paid him in installments, first for observation, then for elimination.

He described in detail how he convinced Greer to use the ice cave.

According to him, it was the perfect place because the ice hides everything.

He called the idea of turning the body over a symbol.

He allegedly wanted it to be a warning to others.

The world turns upside down for those who interfere with others.

This particular phrase was later repeated in several of his notes.

During the interrogation, he showed no emotion.

The investigator’s remark is in the report.

He speaks calmly, sometimes even with relief.

He does not try to justify himself.

His confession confirmed all the details that Greer had previously mentioned down to the method of the attack and the place where the equipment was hidden.

The trial began in the spring.

Both defendants were present in the courtroom.

Greer sat with his head down, not looking up even when the judge read the verdict.

O’Neal listened attentively with his hands in his lap.

They were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The court’s resolution emphasized the crime was committed for mercenary motives using knowledge of wildlife conditions which increases the degree of responsibility.

After the trial, Arlina Brackar’s case was finally closed.

But for those involved, it left a mark.

David Carter resigned shortly after the verdict was announced.

He wrote a short sentence in his official notes.

There are no crimes in the mountains without witnesses.

There are only those who know how to remain silent.

Mark Tanner continued to work as a guide.

According to colleagues, he created a small safety fund for climbers named after Arlina.

Its purpose is to help search operations in remote areas of Alaska.

In his first appeal, he said that no one should disappear without a trace.

Arina’s parents, who had been living in Mexico all this time, received official permission to transport the body.

The funeral took place in early fall.

Her diary was handed over to them along with her remains.

According to the memories of those present, the mother held it in her hands for a long time without opening it.

The last sentence remained on the pages written in her recognizable handwriting.

Mountains do not forgive fear, but they accept honesty.

In midepptember, the Cahilna glacier came to life again under the sun’s rays.

Melting opened new cracks.

Old caves collapsed.

The place where Arlina was found no longer existed.

It was flooded with meltwater.

Nature was reclaiming space, >> >> erasing human boundaries.

And only old photographs retained the same cold shine where time stands still.

And the truth, frozen in ice, eventually comes to the surface.