In the summer of 1999 in southern Utah in the canyons near the city of Moab, two people were buried alive up to their necks in hard soil under the open sky.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, their faces turned upward.

The air temperature reached 48° C.

They died within 12 hours from heat stroke and dehydration.

Their bodies were discovered only 19 years later when a heavy rainstorm washed away the soil and exposed two skulls sticking out of the ground 50 yards from a dirt road.

This case is considered one of the most brutal murders in the history of US national parks.

On June 23rd, 1999, a married couple from Canada entered the state of Utah via the northern border.

Their names were David Marshall and Sarah Marshall.

David was 31 years old.

Sarah was 29.

They had been married for 2 years and 3 months.

Both worked in Vancouver.

David as a programmer at a technology company, Sarah as a nurse at a general hospital.

They had planned their vacation in advance, and their itinerary included visits to several national parks in the southwestern United States.

The trip was supposed to take 3 weeks.

They left Vancouver on June 15th in a rented dark green 1997 Jeep Wrangler with British Columbia license plates.

The car was rented from a company on the outskirts of the city with the contract made out to David Marshall for a period of 21 days.

The car contained two backpacks with clothes, a tent, sleeping bags, a gas burner, a supply of canned food, 20 L of drinking water and canisters, a Canon camera, maps of the area, and a GPS navigator.

They plan to spend the night in tents at campsites and in remote areas where overnight stays are permitted.

They spent the first 3 days in Glacier National Park in Montana.

On June 18th, they stopped in Jackson, Wyoming, and rented a motel room for one night.

The motel owner later recalled that the couple looked happy and relaxed, talking about their plans to visit Yellowstone the next day.

On June 19th, they did indeed visit Yellowstone National Park, where they took several photos with geysers in the background.

These photos were later found in their camera.

On June 20th, they traveled south through the state of Idaho.

On June 21st, they filled up at a gas station in Logan, Utah.

The gas station cameras recorded their car at p.m.

David can be seen filling up the car while Sarah gets out, goes to the station store, and buys water and snacks.

They look normal with no signs of anxiety or tension.

On June 22nd, the couple arrived in Moab, Utah.

The city had a population of about 5,000.

Moab is located at the entrance to Arches National Park and serves as a base for tourists visiting the canyons and desert areas of southeastern Utah.

In town, they stayed at a small motel called the Red Rock Inn on Main Street.

They checked in at p.m.

and paid for two nights in cash.

The manager noted that the couple was interested in remote routes suitable for SUVs and wanted to see less visited canyons away from the main tourist trails.

They spent the rest of the day at the motel.

In the evening, they went to a local restaurant for dinner and returned to their room around 900 p.m.

On the morning of June 23rd, they had breakfast at the same restaurant.

The waitress remembered them because Sarah asked about the weather for the next few days and the safety of the roads in the canyons.

The waitress said that the heat was getting worse and recommended that they take more water and not stray far from the main roads.

David and Sarah thanked her, left a tip, and left the restaurant at a.m.

After breakfast, they returned to their room, packed their things, and checked out of the mo tel at a.m.

The manager saw them loading their backpacks into the SUV.

A map with marked roots lay on the back seat.

Then, the car left the motel parking lot and headed south on Highway 191 toward the canyons.

The next confirmed sighting of their car was at a.m.

at a gas station in a small town called Montichello, about 50 mi south of Moab.

The gas station camera recorded the Jeep stopping at the pump.

David got out, filled up the tank, went into the store, bought two bottles of water and a map of the area.

Sarah stayed in the car.

They stayed at the gas station for about 10 minutes, then drove back onto the road, heading further south.

After that contact, there were no more reliable sightings of the couple.

They did not return to Moab, did not call their relatives, and did not make contact.

The last call to the family was made on the evening of June 22nd from a motel.

David called his parents in Vancouver and said that everything was fine.

They were enjoying the trip and planned to explore the canyons the next day.

The conversation lasted about 5 minutes and was unremarkable.

On June 25th, David’s parents tried to contact their son on his cell phone.

The call did not go through.

The phone was unavailable.

This alarmed them, but they decided to wait another day as they knew that there might be no cell service in remote areas.

On June 26th, they tried calling again with the same result.

Sarah’s phone was also unavailable.

On June 27th, David’s father called the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, where Moab is located, and reported that his son and daughter-in-law had not been in contact for 4 days.

He provided the make and license plate number of their vehicle and described the route the couple had planned to take.

The sheriff’s office began an investigation.

On June 28th, a patrol car was dispatched to search the main roads leading to the canyons and desert areas.

They searched several popular routes and interviewed gas station and motel employees.

At a gas station in Montichello, they confirmed that they had seen the Jeep around noon on June 23rd.

The camera captured the car and the faces of the driver and passenger were clearly visible.

They were David and Sarah Marshall.

On June 29th, the search continued.

They were joined by rangers from the national park and several local volunteers.

They searched the roads leading to remote canyons and checked camping sites.

On June 30th, at around 300 p.m., the search party found a Jeep Wrangler on a dirt road about 30 mi south of Montichello.

The road led deep into a canyon called Locket Canyon.

It is a remote place rarely visited by tourists.

The road is narrow with cliffs on one side and a precipice on the other.

The car was parked on the side of the road, the front doors open, the keys in the ignition.

The engine was off, the gas tank almost empty.

Sarah’s sunglasses and David’s baseball cap were on the front seat.

In the back seat were backpacks, a tent, and sleeping bags.

Everything looked untouched.

There was a camera on the back seat and a GPS navigator on the dashboard.

A map of the area was open on the front passenger seat.

A section of the road roughly corresponding to the location of the car was marked in red on the map.

There were no signs of struggle or violence around the car.

There was a thick layer of dust on the hood and roof suggesting that the car had been there for several days.

The footprints around the car were partially erased by the wind.

Two sets of footprints leading from the car toward the road were visible, but they disappeared after a few meters on the hard, rocky ground.

The air temperature that day was around 43° C.

The sun was high in the sky, and there was virtually no shade.

The area is a desert canyon with red rocks, sparse vegetation, and no water.

The nearest source of water was 20 m to the north.

The rangers inspected the car, took photos, and recorded the state of affairs.

The water canisters in the back seat were empty.

Some of the food had been eaten.

No cell phones were found in or around the car.

Documents, driver’s licenses, and money remained in David’s backpack.

Sarah’s wallet was also in the backpack.

There were no signs that they had planned a long trip.

Both were wearing regular hiking shoes, not designed for long desert tres.

On July 1st, a large-scale search was organized with about 30 people.

They searched within a 5m radius of the car.

They used dogs, and a helicopter.

They checked canyons, crevices, and caves.

They found nothing.

On July 2nd, the search continued.

The temperature remained at 45°, which made the work difficult.

Volunteers and rangers surveyed distant areas and combed the territory.

There were no results.

On July 3rd, the search continued, but with fewer participants.

The heat became unbearable and volunteers began to refuse to participate due to the danger of heat stroke.

The dogs were unable to pick up a scent.

The helicopter flew over the area several times, but there are many hidden places in the canyon that cannot be seen from the air.

On July 5th, the official search was suspended.

The sheriff announced that the couple had probably left the car voluntarily or under duress, but they could not be found.

The case was transferred to the missing person’s investigation department.

David and Sarah’s parents were told that the search would continue, but on a limited basis.

The car was taken to the Moab Police Station for a detailed examination.

They looked for signs of a struggle, blood, fibers, and fingerprints.

Nothing suspicious was found.

All the fingerprints belong to David and Sarah.

No traces of other people were found in the car.

On July 8th, David’s parents flew to Moab.

They met with the sheriff and asked him to continue the search.

The sheriff explained that the area was vast, resources were limited, and the chances of finding them alive after 2 weeks in the desert were practically zero.

The parents hired a private investigator.

The detective arrived in Moab on July 10th and began his own investigation.

He interviewed gas station employees, motel managers, and local residents.

He found out that the Jeep had been seen in Montichello on June 23rd, but after that, no one remembered anything.

The detective drove along the same route and examined the place where the car was found.

He photographed the surroundings and drew a map of the area.

On July 15th, the detective received information from a gas station employee in Montichello.

He said that on the day the marshall’s Jeep was seen, another vehicle, a blue pickup truck, had also filled up at the station.

The driver was a man in a ranger uniform.

The employee remembered him because the man filled up right after the Jeep, stood by the pump, and looked toward the road where the marshals had driven off.

The detective requested the camera recordings.

The recording shows the Jeep leaving the gas station at a.m.

and 3 minutes later, the blue pickup truck leaves.

Both vehicles head south on the same road.

The detective passed this information on to the sheriff.

The sheriff began an investigation.

It turned out that several rangers were working in the area at the time, most of whom had official vehicles of different makes and colors.

One of the rangers owned a personal blue Ford F-150 pickup truck.

His name was Kevin Thompson, 36 years old, and he worked as a ranger for the Bureau of Land Management.

He lived in a small house on the outskirts of Moab.

He had been with the service for about 8 years, had access to remote areas, and knew the canyons and desert roads well.

On July 20th, the sheriff tried to contact Kevin Thompson for questioning.

It turned out that Thompson had resigned from his job on June 25th, 2 days after the marshals last saw him.

He submitted his resignation at his own request, picked up his documents, and left the county.

Colleagues said the resignation was unexpected.

Thompson did not explain the reason, saying only that he was leaving the state for personal reasons.

He was last seen in Moab on June 26th loading his belongings into a pickup truck near his home.

No one has seen him since.

The house remained empty and the electricity and water bills were no longer being paid.

On July 22nd, the sheriff declared Kevin Thompson a person of interest in the investigation.

An investigation into his biography, connections, and finances began.

It turned out that Thompson was divorced, had no children, and lived alone.

He had relatives in other states but rarely contacted them.

Neighbors said he was withdrawn, communicated little, and left the house mainly to go to work.

There were no complaints about him, and he had no disciplinary issues at work.

On July 25th, a detective hired by the marshall’s parents gained access to surveillance camera footage from a gas station in Montichello.

He reviewed all the footage from June 23rd more closely.

The recording ma de at a.m.

shows the Marshall’s Jeep Wrangler leaving the gas station and turning right onto the road leading south.

2 minutes and 40 seconds later, a blue Ford F-150 pickup truck appears on the recording.

The driver is wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.

The Ranger’s uniform is blurred, but the Bureau of Land Management emblem is visible on the pickup’s door.

The pickup also turns right and follows the same direction as the marshall’s jeep.

The distance between the vehicles is approximately 200 m.

The detective requested a list of all official and personal vehicles registered to employees in Grand County and neighboring counties from the Bureau of Land Management.

The list included a blue 1996 Ford F-150 pickup truck registered to Kevin Thompson.

The license plate number matched the one seen on the gas station recording.

The detective passed this information on to the sheriff.

On July 27th, the sheriff issued a search warrant for Thompson’s home.

A group of officers arrived at the house in the morning.

The house was locked, the windows were closed, and mail had piled up in the mailbox.

The officers broke down the door.

There was no one inside the house.

Some of the furniture had been removed and personal belongings were missing.

The refrigerator in the kitchen was empty and the dishes had been washed and put away.

The bedroom had an empty wardrobe and the bed was made.

There were no documents, photographs or notes.

In the garage, there were oil stains and tire tracks on the floor.

Some of the tools were missing.

There was dust on the workbench.

Nothing had been touched for several weeks.

Several bags of household waste were found in the trash can in the backyard.

Among the trash, a torn receipt from a gas station dated June 23rd was found.

The receipt shows a Ford F-150 pickup truck filled with 32 gallons of gasoline.

The time of refueling was a.m.

This coincided with the surveillance camera recording.

Also found in the trash was an empty package of rope 50 ft long with the manufacturer’s name on the label.

The rope was nylon 3/8 of an inch in diameter.

The packaging was not old and looked as if it had been discarded recently.

The sheriff issued a nationwide search warrant for Kevin Thompson.

Information about him was forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Thompson’s description 6′ 1 in tall, weighing 205 lb with brown hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his left cheek about 2 in long.

He was last seen on June 26th in Moab.

His vehicle is a blue Ford F-150 pickup truck with Utah license plates.

Thompson was wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of a Canadian couple.

On September 1st, the detective completed his investigation and presented his report to the Marshall’s parents.

The report stated that all the evidence pointed to Kevin Thompson’s involvement in the couple’s disappearance.

The Marshall’s Jeep was found in a remote area rarely visited by tourists.

As a ranger, Thompson knew the area well and had access to such places.

Gas station records show that he followed the marshals.

Thompson’s dismissal two days after the disappearance and his flight to Mexico appear to be an attempt to hide.

The rope, the packaging of which was found in his trash, could have been used to tie up the victims.

The detective recommended continuing the search for Thompson and conducting additional searches in the area where the jeep was found as the marshall’s bodies may be hidden somewhere nearby.

On July 23rd, 2018, two tourists from Colorado were driving on a dirt road in the Lockett Canyon area.

They planned to reach a remote lookout point overlooking the canyon.

The road had been partially washed out by rain, but was passable.

About 3 mi from where the Marshall’s Jeep was found in 1999, they stopped to take pictures of the landscape.

One of the tourists, a 32-year-old man named Brian, got out of the car and walked to the edge of the road to take a picture of the canyon.

He was walking on ground that was wet from the rain.

About 50 yard from the road, he noticed something unusual on the ground.

As he got closer, he saw two round objects partially sticking out of the ground.

The objects were white and covered with dried mud.

Brian looked closely and realized they were skulls.

He immediately returned to the car and told his companion, a woman named Lisa.

They returned to the spot together and examined the find from a distance without approaching it.

The skulls were located next to each other about 2 ft apart.

They protruded a few inches from the ground with the rest hidden beneath the soil.

Brian photographed the site from several angles.

Then they returned to the car and immediately called the police.

An hour later, two patrol cars arrived.

The officers questioned the tourists, recorded their statements, and asked them to show them the exact location.

Brian led them to the skulls.

The officers examined the find without touching it.

One of them photographed the skulls from different angles while the other cordined off the area with yellow tape within a 50 ft radius.

The tourists were allowed to leave after their contact information was recorded.

The officers remained to guard the site until the arrival of forensic scientists and a medical examiner.

By evening, a team of specialists from the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office had arrived.

They were accompanied by an archaeologist specializing in the excavation of human remains.

Work began the next morning when the temperature had dropped slightly.

The archaeologist began carefully digging around the skulls using small tools and brushes.

The soil was dense, mixed with sand and clay.

The work progressed slowly.

After several hours, it became clear that the skulls belonged to two bodies that were lying upright underground.

By midday, the excavation had progressed enough to expose the upper parts of the skeletons.

The bodies were buried up to their necks with their skulls facing upward.

The cervical vertebrae were in anatomically correct position, indicating that the bodies had not been dismembered or moved after burial.

The archaeologist continued his work, digging up the soil around the shoulder girdle.

By evening, it was discovered that the hands of both skeletons were behind their backs and tied.

Traces of nylon rope remained on the wrist bones, which had partially decomposed, but fragments remained between the bones.

The next day, the excavation continued.

The work was painstaking.

Each layer of soil was carefully removed, and all finds were recorded and photographed.

By the end of the day, both skeletons had been completely exposed.

They were in a sitting position, their legs bent at the knees, their feet resting on the bottom of the pit, which had been dug to a depth of about 4 ft.

The bodies were located next to each other, about 2 ft apart.

The pit was shaped like two vertical cylinders, each about 2 ft in diameter.

The soil around the bodies was compacted, indicating that they had been buried by tightly packing the earth in layers.

A forensic expert examined the remains at the site.

The skulls were partially damaged by sun exposure and erosion, but the overall structure was preserved.

The skull bones show signs of severe exposure to high temperatures and ultraviolet light.

The skin and soft tissues had completely decomposed, but fragments of charred tissue stuck to the bone remained on some parts of the skull.

These fragments were taken for analysis.

No fractures or signs of mechanical impact were found on the bones that could indicate blows or gunshot wounds.

The teeth were well preserved, suggesting the possibility of identification through dental records.

The remains were removed and packed for transport to the morg.

Along with the bones, all fragments of rope, pieces of clothing that had survived in the form of decayed pieces of fabric, and soil samples from the pit were collected.

Markers were placed at the excavation site, and detailed photographs and diagrams of the location of the bodies were taken.

The archaeologist compiled a report on the excavation process describing all the details of the burial.

After the work was completed, the site was cordoned off again, even though the remains had already been removed.

The police continued to search the surrounding area for any other clues or additional burials.

At the morg, a medical examiner conducted a detailed examination of the remains.

Analysis of the bones showed that they were a man and a woman.

The man was about 6 ft tall, aged between 28 and 35.

The woman was about 5’6 in tall, aged between 25 and 32.

It was impossible to determine the exact time of death due to the degree of decomposition, but based on the condition of the bones and soil, the expert estimated that the bodies had been in the ground for 15 to 20 years.

The teeth were photographed and sent to a database for comparison with the dental records of missing persons.

A week later, the comparison results came back.

The man’s teeth matched the dental records of David Marshall.

The woman’s teeth matched the records of Sarah Marshall.

The identification was confirmed.

The remains found in the canyon belonged to a Canadian couple who had been missing for 19 years.

The information was immediately relayed to David’s parents, who were still alive at the time.

They were informed of the discovery by telephone.

David’s mother burst into tears while his father listened silently.

They knew their son was dead, but hearing the official confirmation was difficult.

Sarah’s parents had already passed away, so the information was passed on to their distant relatives.

The Grand County Sheriff held a press conference at which he announced the discovery of the remains and their identification.

He said that the marshall’s disappearance was now officially being treated as a double murder.

The main suspect remains Kevin Thompson, a former ranger who left the state immediately after the couple’s disappearance.

The sheriff urged anyone with information about Thompson’s whereabouts to contact the police.

The search was resumed with renewed vigor.

A forensic expert conducted additional tests on the remains to determine the cause of death.

Analysis of charred tissue fragments preserved on the skulls showed that they were remnants of facial skin.

The tissue had been exposed to extremely high temperatures and ultraviolet radiation for a long period of time.

The expert conducted an experiment by placing skin samples in direct sunlight in desert conditions at a temperature of about 48° C.

After 10 hours, the samples began to char.

After 12 hours, the charring was complete and the skin structure was destroyed.

The expert concluded that the marshals died of sunstroke and dehydration, buried up to their necks with their faces turned upward in the open sun.

Death occurred 10 to 12 hours after burial.

This information shocked everyone working on the case.

The cruelty of the murder was unprecedented.

The marshals were buried alive, but not completely.

Their heads remained above ground, exposed to direct sunlight.

With their hands tied behind their backs underground, they could not free themselves or protect themselves in any way.

They had to spend long hours slowly dying of heat and thirst.

Unable to move or cry for help.

The burial site was 50 yard from the road, but the road was rarely used.

The likelihood of someone driving by and noticing them was minimal.

The police launched a new investigation taking into account all the data they had gathered.

All the materials from the 1999 case were re-examined.

The recording from the gas station where Thompson had followed the marshals was analyzed again.

Video experts improved the image quality using new technology.

The improved recording made the face of the pickup driver more visible.

The photo was compared with a photo of Thompson from his personal file.

The match was obvious.

It was him.

Detectives studied the route Thompson could have taken while following the marshals.

From the gas station in Montichello to the place where the jeep was found.

It was about 35 mi on dirt roads.

The road passed through a deserted area with minimal traffic.

Thompson, as a ranger, knew these roads thoroughly.

He could easily have caught up with the marshals and stopped them under some pretext, such as reporting that the road ahead was closed or offering assistance.

Seeing a man in a ranger’s uniform, the marshals would not have suspected any danger.

Detectives reconstructed a possible scenario of the crime.

Thompson stopped the marshals on the road.

He may have told them that the road ahead was dangerous or closed.

He asked them to get out of the car to discuss the route.

When they got out, he could have pulled out a weapon and forced them to obey.

He then tied their hands behind their backs with rope he had bought in advance.

After that, he forced them to walk 50 yardd from the road into the desert where he forced them to kneel.

He dug two pits about 4 ft deep using a shovel, which he may have brought with him.

Digging in the hard desert soil would have taken several hours, but he had time.

He then lowered the marshalss into the pits, sat them upright, and covered them with dirt up to their necks, tamping the soil down tightly.

The victim’s faces remained above ground, facing the sky.

Thompson then drove away, leaving them to die.

Why he did this remained unclear.

Thompson had no apparent connection to the Marshals.

They had never met before that day.

There were several possible motives.

Psychologists suggested that Thompson may have suffered from psychopathy or another personality disorder that drove him to violence.

He may have enjoyed controlling his victims, watching them slowly die.

Perhaps he chose the marshals at random simply because they happened to be in the right place at the right time.

A remote area with no witnesses.

Another theory suggested that this was not Thompson’s first crime.

A mention in the detectives report that Thompson’s phone allegedly contained the coordinates of other burial sites has not yet been confirmed, but investigators have not ruled out the possibility that he may have been a serial killer.

The police began searching for other possible burial sites in the canyon area.

Teams with ground penetrating radar and dogs trained to search for human remains were organized.

They searched an area within a 20 m radius of where the marshals were found.

The work was difficult due to the size of the area and the inaccessibility of many sections.

The search continued for several weeks, but no additional graves were found.

The FBI intensified its search for Thompson.

His photo was sent to all law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

FBI agents contacted their Mexican colleagues and provided them with updated information.

The Mexican Federal Police began checking all possible places where Thompson could be hiding.

They checked small towns in northern Mexico, interviewed local residents, and showed them his photo.

Several people reported seeing a man who looked like him in different places, but none of these reports led to any concrete results.

In the fall of 2018, the FBI office received information from the American consulate in the Mexican city of Hermosio.

Local police detained an American who lived in a small village in the mountains about 100 miles from the city.

The man rented a house, worked on a local farm, and paid in cash.

Neighbors said he kept to himself and hardly socialized.

When the police came to check his documents, he presented an Arizona driver’s license in the name of Robert Hayes.

The documents looked genuine, but the officer was suspicious and contacted the American consulate to verify them.

The consulate requested data from the database and found that Robert Hayes had died in 2002 and his driver’s license had been stolen.

The man was detained to establish his identity.

A photo of the detainee was sent to the FBI.

Agents compared it to a photo of Kevin Thompson.

The resemblance was obvious, even though the man had aged, grown a beard, and lost weight.

It was him.

The FBI immediately contacted the Mexican authorities and requested extradition.

The Mexican police arranged for the detainee to be transported to the city of Hermosio for further proceedings.

Thompson was held in a local prison awaiting a decision on his transfer to the US authorities.

On the evening of the same day that Thompson was taken to prison, an incident occurred.

Guards found him dead in his cell.

He had hanged himself with a piece of fabric torn from his mattress.

The time of death was determined to be approximately 2 hours after he was placed in the cell.

Guards checked the cells every 4 hours and when they came for their next round, Thompson was already dead.

Resuscitation measures were unsuccessful.

The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as suffocation.

No note or explanation was found.

Thompson’s death deprived investigators of the opportunity to question him and find out the details of the crime.

FBI agents arrived in Mexico the next day, but it was too late.

They seized Thompson’s personal belongings from the house he was renting.

Among the items was an old cell phone that did not work.

The phone was sent to a laboratory to extract data.

Technical specialists were able to recover some of the information.

Several photos dated to the summer of 1999 were found in the phone’s memory.

The photos showed desert landscapes, canyons, and dirt roads.

One of the photos showed two objects sticking out of the ground that looked like heads partially covered with soil.

The photo was taken from close range.

The facial features of two people covered in dust and dirt were visible.

Their faces were distorted, their mouths open, their eyes closed.

They were David and Sarah Marshall, photographed after they had been buried.

Six more entries with GPS coordinates were found in the phone’s memory.

All the coordinates pointed to remote areas of the desert in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

The FBI immediately organized expeditions to each location.

Work began in late October.

The first group arrived at coordinates located about 40 mi east of where the marshals were found.

They used ground penetrating radar and dogs.

3 days later, they discovered human remains 3 ft underground.

The body was buried horizontally with its hands tied behind its back.

The remains belonged to a man about 40 years old.

Dental records identified him as a tourist from Germany who had disappeared in 1997 while traveling through national parks.

The second point was in Arizona near the border with Utah.

There they found the remains of a woman buried vertically like the marshals.

She disappeared in 1995.

She was a nurse from California traveling through the desert alone.

Her car was found abandoned on the side of the road, but her body was not searched for in that area.

The other four coordinates led to the discovery of three more men and one woman.

All of them had gone missing between 1994 and 1998.

All of them were tourists or travelers passing through remote areas.

All were killed in the same way, tied up and buried in the desert.

Three of them were buried upright up to their necks like the Marshalss.

Thompson turned out to be a serial killer who had been active for at least 5 years.

Eight victims, not counting others whose bodies were never found.

Psychologists studied his profile.

Thompson used his position as a ranger to gain access to his victims.

He would stop them under the pretext of checking or helping them, then kidnap and kill them.

He chose remote locations where the risk of being discovered was minimal.

He buried his victims in places only he knew.

The parents of all the victims were informed of the findings.

The remains were handed over to the families for burial.

David Marshall’s parents arranged a funeral in Vancouver.

The coffin with their son’s remains was buried in the family plot of the cemetery next to a memorial plaque erected 11 years ago.

Sarah’s remains were buried nearby.

The Thompson case was closed.

He was officially convicted of eight murders.

The police continued to investigate other unsolved disappearances in the region, trying to determine if there were any more victims, but no further evidence was found.