In August 2016, a pair of hikers, Amanda Ray, a biology teacher, and Jack Morris, a civil engineer, went hiking in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, and never returned.

Their route was along the Grizzly Trail near the town of Sun River.

The search lasted for several weeks, but to no avail.

A few years later, the hunters accidentally stumbled upon a cache under the roots of an old cedar tree.

Inside were two bodies tightly wrapped in a tarpolin preserved by cold and shade.

A crude X sign was carved into the trunk of the tree right above the place of discovery.

The case of the disappearance was reclassified as a double murder.

In August 2016, a couple from Idaho, 27-year-old Amanda Ray and 29-year-old Jack Morris, arrived in the town of Sun River, located at the foot of the mountains in the north of the state.

They were planning a short hike along the Grizzly Trail, a popular but not too crowded route in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

For them, it was a familiar form of vacation.

A few days in the trees and silence without a phone, without the hustle and bustle of the city.

Amanda worked as a biology teacher at a school in Lewon.

Her colleagues described her as a calm, organized, and somewhat aloof person with a passion for plants.

Her collection of fern specimens took up almost half of her office.

Jack, a civil engineer, had a reputation as a conscientious worker and a person who liked to check everything twice.

They were called a quiet couple.

No loud arguments and no flamboyance.

In the morning, they drove to the Riverside Filling Station gas station on the southern outskirts of San Rivera.

A surveillance camera captured Amanda holding a map and Jack paying for fuel.

According to the cashier, the young woman was asking if there were any red ferns in the area, a rare species she allegedly wanted to photograph.

Both appeared calm, smiling, and without signs of rush or conflict.

Their black SUV was later found in a parking lot near the beginning of the route.

Inside was a standard set of equipment, sleeping bags, a gas burner, a 3-day supply of food, several changes of clothes, and a first aid kit.

Everything looked orderly without a hint of panic or hasty packing.

It is known that before leaving for the hike, Jack sent a message to his sister saying that they planned to return in 3 days.

The last person to see them was a woman named Ruth Miller, a hiker from Oregon who was returning that day on the same trail.

She told police she met the couple near a wooden bridge over a stream and had a brief exchange with them about the weather.

She said they looked experienced and wellprepared.

Ruth recalled that Amanda was carrying a rolled up herbarium container and taking pictures of moss on the rocks.

After the couple failed to return within the specified time frame and did not send a control signal via a satellite device, relatives contacted the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department.

The search and rescue operation began the next morning.

It involved forest service rangers, volunteers, and a canine team.

During the first three days, they searched the main part of the Grizzly’s route and several side trails, but found no fresh tracks.

Near the creek, about 2 miles from the trail head, they found the remains of a camp, two folding camping seats, wrappers from dry goods, and a fire pit.

Experts confirmed that it belonged to Amanda and Jack, a folding knife, and a mug with the initials A R were lying nearby.

There was nothing suspicious, no signs of struggle or haste.

The weather conditions in those days were stable.

Warm days, cool nights, no thunderstorms or landslides.

This complicated the search as there were no natural clues left.

No footprints in the mud, no torn equipment.

Rangers examined the slopes around Lake Greybird and checked several abandoned hunting huts, but to no avail.

Over time, local news began to run brief reports of the couple’s disappearance.

articles presented them as ordinary hikers lost in the wilderness.

At a press conference, Bonner’s sheriff said that there is no reason to suspect foul play, but promised to continue the search as long as weather permitted.

The operation lasted almost 3 weeks.

When the chances of finding them alive became minimal, the search was cut short.

Relatives were given personal belongings from the car.

The car was left in the parking lot for another month in case they returned.

They did not return.

After the official completion of the operation, the case was transferred to the category of missing persons.

The files were kept in the sheriff’s archive under the number 572A.

For the city of Sun River, this story was another reminder that the forest is not a place where it is easy to disappear, but a place from which one does not always return.

More than 2 years after the Ray Morris couple’s disappearance, the case has almost disappeared from the public eye.

An archival folder of photos and reports sat on the bottom shelf of the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office.

The report stated that the probable cause of the disappearance was environmental conditions.

The official version is that they got lost, froze, or drowned.

The unofficial version is that they disappeared without a trace like dozens of others in the Idaho mountain forests.

In the fall of 2018, in a remote valley off the beaten path, two hunters, a father and son from the neighboring town of Sandale, went hunting.

They later told us that the day was cloudy, the wind was blowing from the east, and the smell of smoke from distant fires was in the air.

According to them, they came across a large male Wapiti and fired.

But the wounded animal ran away deep into the forest.

Chasing it, they ended up near an old logging site, long abandoned and overgrown with weeds and moss.

There, among the fragments of logs and half-rotted stumps, the animal suddenly fell into a rubble pile at the foot of a massive cedar tree.

The hunters came closer to get the animal.

When they began to shovel the wood, one of them noticed that the upper logs were not lying randomly, but formed a flat floor as if deliberately laid.

Under it, a narrow niche opened up, disguised by layers of branches and stones.

Inside, wrapped in a tarpollen, were two bodies, a man and a woman.

Their clothes were partially preserved, their skin was dried out by the cold, and their faces were impossible to recognize.

They were lying side by side touching shoulders.

The tarpollen was tied with a rope which still held a metal carbine.

According to witnesses, the picture did not look like the result of the elements, but a deliberate concealment.

The ground around it was tamped down and the surface was covered with several layers of old leaves.

Just above the hiding place on the trunk of a cedar tree, a knife carved sign was visible, a rough but clear X.

The scar on the bark was fresher than the surrounding cracks in the tree, which indicated that it had been made after the trunk had been covered with old reinous growth.

The hunters moved away from the spot and contacted the police via satellite phone.

The sheriff’s patrol got there in the late afternoon.

The area was immediately surrounded by tape and a short phrase was heard on the radio, which was later included in the report.

Two bodies possibly are missing.

The forensic team noted that the conditions in which the bodies were lying contributed to partial mummification, cold, dryness, and lack of direct sunlight.

The decomposition was not accompanied by typical odors, so the place went unnoticed, even by hunters who had been walking nearby for years.

The photos taken by investigators show fragments of rope lying underfoot and a piece of fabric with the logo of an Idaho Falls base travel agency nearby.

One of the detectives later said that it was the quietest crime he had ever seen in his career.

Everything seemed deliberate, not chaos, but order disguising death.

A forensic expert who arrived the next day determined that the victims had been in the ground for at least 2 years.

The clothes and boots quickly identified them as the men they were looking for in 2016.

Even the serial numbers of the equipment matched.

Local newspapers learned about the discovery within a day.

An article titled Marker X in the Woods appeared in the Sun River Gazette.

The editor described the incident without detail, only noting that the bodies were found in a wooded area, and experts are working on the scene.

For the town’s people, this was the return of an old fear, one that had seemed to be forgotten.

When the experts finished their initial examination, it turned out that the hiding place was created by a person familiar with building materials and natural shelters.

The logs were stacked at an angle that allowed the structure to support weight without falling through.

Each branch was laid deliberately as part of a system.

For the police, this meant only one thing.

Those who disappeared were neither lost nor frozen.

Someone had hidden their bodies carefully.

thoughtfully and with a specific intention.

And this sign on the cedar bark was not left by chance.

The valley where the hunters found the cash was fenced off with plastic tape.

Only forensic scientists, a medical examiner, and a few detectives from the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department had access.

According to eyewitnesses, the place looked like a carefully organized hiding place rather than a random hole.

The logs were lying flat as if they had been stacked by someone with construction experience.

One of the first reports stated, “The cash was created purposefully, not of natural origin.

The bodies were examined on the spot.

The state of preservation was so good that the forensic doctor was able to immediately notice several important details.

There were no traces of gunshots or stab wounds on the bones.

The preliminary conclusion is that the death was caused by strangulation or a strong blow to the head.

The clothes were damaged in several places, but the injuries did not look like combat damage.

Probably the fabric was torn after death when the bodies were moved.

Several items were found nearby.

A torn tourist backpack, an empty water bottle, fragments of a flashlight, and a carbine that was identified as belonging to Jack Morris.

There were no other items, no documents, no wallets, no mobile device, no tent.

All of this could indicate an attempt by the perpetrator to take things or deliberately hide some of the evidence.

The forensic report recorded three observations that were particularly noteworthy.

First, the bodies were not simply thrown.

They were placed carefully, almost symmetrically, as if someone cared about the appearance of the scene.

Secondly, the tarpollen they were wrapped in had a double wrap.

First tightly around the body, then another layer on top.

This is not improvisation, but a thoughtful action.

Thirdly, there were no scratches or damage to the bark on the surface of the cedar under the X sign, which confirmed that the symbol was carved after the bodies were placed under the tree.

Investigators concluded that the person who hid the victims had experience working with wood and knew the area well.

The construction of the shelter was solid, properly designed for the weight of the logs.

One of the experts suggested that this was done by someone who had previously worked in logging.

However, this remark was left as hypothetical in official documents.

When the bodies were transported to the morg in San Rivera, laboratory tests confirmed the identities of the victims.

They were indeed Amanda Ray and Jack Morris.

Relatives were notified by phone.

The scene was classified as a crime scene level A, i.e.

an object with a high probability of intentional homicide.

The case was assigned a new number and a new category, double murder.

During further examination of the forest area, the experts came across several interesting details.

At a distance of about 30 m from the tree, they found a piece of a plastic bag with a red grocery store logo.

Analysis showed that it had been there for no more than 3 years.

In the soft soil nearby, there were bootprints, indistinct, washed away by rain, but quite large.

The report noted that the length of the print was longer than the average male.

A short meeting was held in Sheriff Bonner’s office that evening.

Investigators looked at photos from the scene.

A dark hole under the roots, two emaciated bodies, a sign carved into the bark.

One of the officers said later that no one in the room doubted that this was not an accident or a tragedy during a hike, but the action of a man who knew what he was doing.

The X symbol was the subject of a separate inspection.

Its shape turned out to be rough, carved with a single tool, a knife or chisel.

The lines were deep, almost to the core.

Examination of the bark showed that the mark was made around the same year that Amanda and Jack died.

So, whoever carved it either watched everything immediately after the incident or returned to leave the mark.

After the official announcement of the results, the police gave the media only minimal information.

In a brief statement, the sheriff said that the deaths of the two people do not appear to be an accident.

Other details were withheld in order not to interfere with the investigation.

This came as a shock to the public.

A story that was considered closed suddenly turned into a criminal case.

An informal opinion emerged among experts that the mark on the tree might not be a ritual but a personal mark.

Such marks are often put there by hunters or loggers to find a place later.

But no one could explain why they would return to the hidden bodies.

This question remained open.

After the bodies of Amanda Ray and Jack Morris were discovered, the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department launched one of the largest operations in its history.

Everyone who had ever been involved in the initial search in 2016 was called back for reins.

Every trace was checked, even those that once seemed insignificant.

The goal was to find out who could have been in the area during the couple’s disappearance.

The first to be interviewed were forest service rangers.

They confirmed that no suspicious persons had been seen in that part of the forest in the weeks before the disappearance.

The only activity recorded was tourists, hunters, and a few private geologists collecting rock samples.

There was no one among them who aroused suspicion.

At the same time, investigators began to visit local residents, loggers, fishermen, and hunters.

Notices were posted in the towns of Sun River, Sandale, and Greenpine, asking people to report any strange occurrences in the forests.

A week later, a popular version appeared which was quickly picked up by the press that there was a hermit in the mountains who lived as a recluse and was hostile to outsiders.

The idea of a nature fanatic had a certain logic.

Similar cases have occurred in other states, former military or hunters who abandoned civilization and settled in the forests.

However, after checks, it turned out that this version had no basis.

In fact, the hunters who had known every trail for decades claimed that they had never come across any outsider camps.

The forest does not leave traces of human habitation for a long time, and there was nothing but silence there.

The symbol on the tree didn’t help either.

Forensic experts compared it with ritual and esoteric signs, but the result was zero.

It did not match any known symbols, stencils of local construction companies, or hunting ground markings.

The report concluded briefly, “The marker has no systemic significance.

A separate group was created to analyze the archives.

They pulled up cases of disappearances in northern Idaho over the past 20 years.

Several unsolved cases were found, but none had anything in common with this story.

No hidden bodies, no carved signs, no pointers to the same area.

Everything looked as if this crime was unique.

During the interrogations, the locals kept saying the same thing.

The area is quiet.

Strangers rarely come here, except for tourists in the summer.

One of the farmers recalled seeing an unfamiliar truck several times in those years, stopping at the highway outside the city, but he could not describe its owner.

There was no evidence of this.

The search for possible witnesses was fruitless.

Laboratory tests at the crime scene were also inconclusive.

There were no fingerprints, fibers, or DNA on the logs or tarpollen that did not belong to the victims themselves.

It seemed that the person who left the body under the tree acted with gloves on carefully and without haste.

In November, the case began to feel stagnant.

Reporters demanded comments, but the sheriff refused to give interviews, citing the active phase of the investigation.

Within the department, conflicting opinions were increasingly heard.

Some believed that the crime had been committed by a traveler who had long since left the county.

Others that the killer was local, possibly familiar with the victims.

Gradually, the second version began to prevail.

One of the detectives who had been working on the case during the initial search noticed a detail.

The place where the bodies were found was not random.

It was an old logging site known only to the locals.

Tourists don’t go there and even experienced hunters avoided because of the difficult terrain.

To find this particular place, we had to know it in advance.

The report’s conclusions looked restrained, but there was a change of direction between the lines.

The final paragraph stated, “The likelihood of an outside nomad or unknown traveler is decreasing.

The killer is more likely to be familiar with the area and may have been part of the local community.” However, even this direction did not yield concrete results.

In the town of Sun River, everyone knew each other, but no one was suspicious.

The investigation seemed to hit an invisible wall.

The marker on the tree remained the only hint that explained nothing.

This is how the internal nickname of the case appeared.

Phantom trail.

It stuck in the documents and even in conversations between officers.

A ghost.

Not because the criminal acted invisibly, but because nothing but a shadow remained of him.

In January of 2019, when several months had passed since the bodies were found, the investigation again reached a dead end.

There was no physical evidence left and the forest, which seemed to be a silent witness in the fall, turned into a dead white plane in the winter.

Investigators decided to change the direction of the search.

If the killer left no material traces, perhaps he could be found through paper trails.

It was decided to check the financial transactions of the victims.

>> >> Amanda Ray’s accounts were the first to be accessed, but her transactions turned out to be typical for a person on a fixed income.

Salary, supermarket purchases, car loan payments.

Nothing that could hint at secrecy or preparation for a trip.

Jack Morris’s account is another matter.

The accountant at the Idaho Falls Bank who served the client reported that over the past 5 months before his disappearance, the man had regularly withdrawn cash in small amounts.

On average, $2 or $300, but with a certain regularity, almost every week.

These transactions attracted attention not only for their frequency, but also for their location.

All of them were made through an ATM in San Rivera, a town where the couple had never officially lived, and according to relatives, did not even know each other.

This was the first real clue for the detectives.

They contacted Jack’s employer, a small construction company in Lewon.

The manager confirmed that the employee had indeed taken several extra days off during that period to take care of personal business.

The company did not ask for an explanation and the trips went unnoticed.

After that, a detailed check of the route began.

The San Rivera Police Department found surveillance footage from the spring and summer of 2016.

Most of the footage had already been erased, but a few of the remaining fragments identified a vehicle similar to the Morris’s black SUV.

The time of the shooting coincided with the dates of the bank transactions.

Now the disappearance no longer looked like an accident.

The detectives concluded that Jack had come to San Rivera not for the first time and had his own purpose here which he had not told his family about.

The reports state the subject acted consistently repeating the route with clear regularity.

When investigators interviewed the couple’s closest friends, no one could explain the strange activity.

One of Amanda’s co-workers suggested that Jack might have had hidden debts or been involved in some side deal, but no evidence of this was found.

Relatives denied any financial problems, the family lived modestly but stably.

In an internal report, the sheriff described the situation as a shift in focus.

Whereas previously only a natural or accidental cause of the tragedy had been considered, the investigation was now beginning to lean toward the possibility that the events in the woods had a basis outside of them.

The motive might not have been spontaneous, but related to specific people or circumstances in San Rivera.

To confirm this theory, investigators turned to the county’s financial department.

The analysis of bank records revealed another detail.

Several withdrawals were made in the evening rather than on business days.

This meant that Jack had come on purpose, not by accident while traveling.

At the same time, they checked possible places where he had stopped.

None of the motel or campground owners remembered a customer with that name, but one gas station operator after looking at the photo said he had seen the man.

Tall, dark hair, looked nervous.

According to him, he bought coffee several times and paid for fuel in cash without engaging in conversation.

These seemingly insignificant episodes began to form a pattern.

Sun River was no longer a random point on the map.

It was becoming the center around which the story began to revolve.

After the report, the sheriff sent a request to the state’s financial department to check whether Morris had made any money transfers or payments to private accounts in the region.

A response was expected in a few weeks.

In the meantime, a new folder appeared in the evidence room next to soil samples and crime scene photos called financial transactions.

It was marked red, which meant the case potentially led to a motive.

The documents contained a phrase that the investigators quoted most often among themselves.

The trail does not lead to the forest, it leads to the city.

In February 2019, the investigators received a response to a request to the state financial department.

According to bank records, some of the funds that Jack Morris regularly withdrew from the Sun River were not spent in cash.

After each withdrawal, the money was deposited into the account of a local real estate company called Idaho Properties Group.

The company had an office in downtown San River, a modest building with an old sign that handled mostly small land transactions, vacation home sites, hunting cabins, and remote wooded properties.

When detectives arrived, the company’s manager confirmed that Jack Morris was their client.

According to him, the man was interested in a small plot of land in the mountains, a few kilometers from the city, and even made two trips to inspect the area.

In the agency’s archive, we found a copy of the contract for a preliminary viewing of the property.

The date coincided with the period when Jack withdrew funds from his account.

The column purpose of purchase stated private use construction of a vacation home.

The agent who was summoned for questioning recalled that Morris behaved unusually for a buyer.

During trips to the mountains, he often looked around as if he was afraid of being watched.

According to the agent, he repeatedly asked the client whether it was to be a residential house or a hunting lodge.

Morris replied that he wanted to build a place for two where no one would find it.

This phrase appeared as a separate line in the detective’s report.

It gained significance after the agent was shown photos of the victims.

During the official identification, the agent looking at the photos immediately said, “No, that’s not the woman he came with.” According to him, Jack’s companion was older, with blonde hair, elegant, well-dressed.

Her name was Cynthia, the name Morris used when he introduced her as his wife.

The agent admitted that he perceived them as spouses.

This discovery changed the nature of the investigation.

A new item appeared in the protocols.

Cynthia’s identity established contact.

The detectives assumed that Jack had a long-term relationship with another woman and was possibly planning a joint escape.

The Idaho property group also kept notes about the last meeting with Morris.

He toured the property in the mountains, then asked for a few days to think about it, but never returned.

The agent wrote in his work log, “Client hesitates but is determined.

His traveling companion convinces him not to postpone the purchase.

” This entry is dated about a month before the hike during which the couple disappeared.

Next, the investigation checked all the transactions in which Jack could have been involved.

Apart from the previous land contract, he had no other financial ties to San Rivera.

All transactions went through this office and no other contacts were recorded.

This meant that Cynthia, whoever she was, was his only link to the city.

While analyzing the data, the police found that Morris rented a house in Lewon, where he lived with Amanda, but periodically disappeared for several days without explanation.

It now became clear that these work trips were visits to Idaho.

However, the documents he left at home made no mention of any land purchases or investments.

When the collected materials were compared with bank statements, a clear pattern emerged.

Each withdrawal coincided with a new trip or site visit.

A memo prepared by Detective David Campbell stated, “Morris acted consistently but covertly.

Outwardly, he is a family man with secret spending in his finances.

we can assume a double life.

The version of treason has become an official working hypothesis.

However, even after realizing it, investigators did not have an answer to the main question.

What exactly prompted Morris to associate himself with San Rivera and why his wife did not know about it? When this information was reported in the press, the police refrained from commenting.

Officially, they only reported checking financial circumstances, but inside the department, they already understood that the story went beyond a domestic crime.

Everything indicated that someone in Sun River knew Jack Morris better than his own wife.

In early March of 2019, the Morris investigation received a new impetus.

Through financial analysis, the detectives came up with the name Cynthia Morrison, the owner of the Panhandle Travel Agency in Sun River.

The agency organized hikes and private tours to the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

Cynthia had a good reputation and was known as an active participant in the community.

She was a member of the town’s chamber of commerce and helped with school charity events.

Her family was considered exemplary in the city.

During the check, it turned out that she was married to Devon Morrison, a local construction contractor who owned a company specializing in wooden cottages.

The family lived in a spacious house on the outskirts of the city and raised two children.

For the detectives, this discovery was unexpected.

Jack’s mistress was not a random woman, but part of a stable, respectable environment that was at odds with the idea of a secret relationship.

Cynthia was invited to the sheriff’s office for a conversation.

She came calmly in a business suit, carrying herself with dignity.

At first, she denied any connection to Morris, claiming it was the first time she had heard the name.

However, when she was shown documents from the real estate company, bank statements, and a photo of Jack and her standing next to each other at a site inspection, the woman’s expression changed.

According to the official record, after a brief pause, Cynthia confirmed the encounter.

She said she had an emotional connection with Jack that went too far.

Her words, as recorded by the investigator, sounded restrained.

We were planning to start a new life, but he got scared.

According to her testimony, Jack promised to divorce and buy land for both of them near San Rivera.

She helped him choose a plot, even traveled there with an agent.

A few days before he disappeared, she claimed he told her that he could not leave his wife.

The escape plan was cancelled.

he was going to tell Amanda everything and go camping with her, which was to be, in his words, the last attempt to save the family.

Cynthia admitted that she felt angry and humiliated afterwards.

The protocol records her words.

I felt like he was just using me.

I wanted him to suffer, but I didn’t want him to die.

She denied any involvement in the tragedy.

Verification of her words confirmed that on the day the couple went hiking, Cynthia was indeed in a neighboring town attending a tourism conference.

Witnesses and documents attested to her presence.

The version of her physical participation in the crime was discarded.

Despite this, the investigators did not let go of the case.

They considered the possibility of indirect involvement, jealousy, an order, an accomplice.

But no messages or calls were found on her phone before or after the Morris’s disappearance.

The only coincidence is that a month before the tragedy, she received several calls from an unknown number that later turned out to belong to her husband’s company.

This fact had no direct evidentiary value, but it pointed to a new direction.

When the investigation stalled once again, one of the detectives decided to look at maps of the area where Jack was considering buying land.

According to the agency, the plot was located a few hundred meters from the very spot where the bodies were found 2 years later.

The memo said, “The person who knew about this plot had access to information from the agency or a direct relationship to the person involved in the transaction.” This meant that a potential suspect could be from Cynthia’s circle of friends, someone who had heard her talk, seen documents, or accidentally learned about meetings with Morris.

Detectives began checking her social circle.

The first person on the list was her husband, Devon Morrison.

His name was already known to the police as the owner of a construction company that specialized in wood structures and had several contracts in the forested areas near San Rivera.

He was a hunter, often traveling to the same places where the bodies were later found.

In off thereord comments, several employees of his company described Morrison as a demanding but balanced leader.

One of them recalled that in the fall of 2016, around the time of the couple’s disappearance, Devon disappeared from work for several days without explanation, explaining it as a hunting trip.

Investigators also noticed a professional coincidence.

The construction of the hiding place in which the bodies were found was created with the skill of a person who understands wood, weight, and strength calculations.

This is not amateur work, but the hand of a builder.

While the official version remained cautious, an unofficial opinion began to form among detectives.

The crime was not the work of a random hermit.

It could have been committed by someone who knew both the forest and Jack Morris well.

In April of 2019, the Morris case reached its final stage.

There was no direct evidence against Devon Morrison, but all the indirect links led to him.

He had the motive, knowledge of the area, and technical skills that explained how the bodies were hidden.

In addition, his professional profile matched the experts conclusions about the structure of the cash.

Detectives focused on the method of pressure, not physical, but psychological.

They decided to conduct a control interrogation in the presence of Cynthia Morrison, his wife.

Her consent was in writing.

She insisted on hearing the truth.

According to the protocol, at the time of the interrogation, she was in a state of severe emotional exhaustion.

The session began in a standard interrogation room at the San Rivera Sheriff’s Department.

The cameras were rolling continuously.

The recording shows Morrison sitting calmly, arms folded on the table, gaze directed at the floor.

He does not deny participating in the conversation, but answers all questions briefly.

Investigators move from general topics to details, gradually bringing him closer to the moment of the explosion.

The key element was the question about the sign on the tree.

One of the detectives looking through copies of old construction drawings noticed that Morrison’s company used a similar symbol crossed lines to indicate where the garbage was to be removed after the work.

This fact became the basis for the maneuver.

During the interrogation, the investigator, as if by accident, mentioned the X sign on the tree.

We thought it looked like your construction marks, Mr.

Morrison to identify the points of clearing.

Right.

The suspect’s reaction was instantaneous.

On the video, he raises his head, squeezes his fingers, and is silent for several seconds.

Then he says, “So, you think I go to the forest to draw marks?” His voice sounds tense, but without aggression.

Then he laughs, short, dry, as if recognizing that there is no point in hiding anything.

The next phrase recorded in the audio recording was a turning point.

He said, “He promised her he would leave his wife.

He promised everything and then he came there with her to our land.

They deserved what they got.” After these words, the room fell silent.

Cynthia, who was sitting opposite, covered her face with her hands.

The investigators did not stop the recording.

Legally, this was not a full confession, but forensic experts determined that the statement contained unquestionable self-inccrimination as Morrison confirmed his knowledge of the place, calling it our land, while it had never officially belonged to the family.

After the interrogation, Devon Morrison was detained.

The arrest warrant was signed by a judge the same evening.

In a press release, the sheriff limited himself to a brief statement.

Sufficient evidence has been gathered to charge him with first-degree murder.

Further investigation confirmed that Morrison had access to data about the land Jack Morris was considering.

Through the sharing of a computer in their home, he could see Cynthia’s emails related to the transaction.

The forensic analysis revealed files in the browser cache with the names of mapping services and coordinates that exactly matched the crime scene.

The motive was a personal grudge Devon found out about his wife’s affair, but did not attempt to divorce or make it public.

According to one of his friends, he remained calm on the outside, although he was seething inside.

Psychologists, who later studied the case file, described him as a person prone to methodical planning, for whom control and revenge are forms of restoring justice.

When the charges were brought to court, the prosecutor’s office cited a combination of factors: confession, technical knowledge, jealousy, and the matching of the method of concealment to the suspect’s professional skills.

This was enough to get the case to the jury.

The public received the news as a shock.

Sun River, where everyone knew each other, could not believe that a respected contractor and hunter had been living with the mystery of a double murder for 2 years.

The Sun River Gazette called the story the darkest echo of the Idaho mountains.

Experts later wrote that the X on the tree was not a ritual mark, but a simple construction mark that became a symbol of revenge.

In his coordinate system, this sign meant closed.

He put it there to make sure that the case was over and that the two people no longer existed for him.

After his arrest, Devon Morrison refused to testify further.

His wife moved with the children to live with relatives.

The case resulted in an indictment that was submitted to an Idaho court.

For the Sun River Police, this story was a reminder that the greatest danger often does not come from the wilderness, but is born in homes where there is outward peace.