In August of 2015, two best friends, 25-year-old Angelica Wade and 24year-old Sabrina Parsons, went on a hike in the Chugotach National Forest in Alaska.

On August 10th, at in the afternoon, they were last seen on surveillance cameras, and in the evening, only one of them returned from the route.

Sabrina told us about Angelica’s fatal fall into the icy abyss.

But 5 years later, the melting of the glacier revealed new information to the world.

The condition of the found body forced the investigation to question the testimony of the surviving girl.

You will find out what really happened on the remote trail and what secret these mountains hid in this story.

The events in this story are presented as a narrative interpretation.

Some elements have been altered or recreated for storytelling purposes.

The morning of August 10th, 2015 in the Chugach National Forest began with a thick fog that hung low over the mirror-like surface of Tent Lake, creating an atmosphere of isolation from the rest of the world.

The air was humid and cool.

A weather station in the suburbs of Anchorage recorded a temperature of 54° F, which was considered normal for late summer in this region.

It was at this time that an SUV parked in the parking lot at the beginning of the famous Crow Pass Trail, and two young women got out.

25-year-old Angelica Wade, a talented dance teacher whose grace and discipline were known throughout the state’s arts community, looked focused and calm.

She checked the fastenings of her light green backpack for the last time, a striking detail that would later be mentioned many times in rescue reports and on wanted posters.

Next to her was her closest friend, 24-year-old Sabrina Parsons, whom she had known since college.

The Crow Pass Trail is a 17-mi grueling journey through wild Alaska with elevations of 3,500 ft and terrain that constantly changes from dense brush to sharp rocks and slippery glacier patches.

It’s a place where the majesty of nature borders on constant threat, and even experienced hikers know that the mountains are unforgiving.

Angelica was no stranger to hiking.

Her physical fitness, tempered by years of daily gym workouts, allowed her to tackle difficult sections with an ease that often amazed her friends.

This trip was planned as a symbolic closing of the summer, a time for reflection before the start of the new school season.

According to the visitors log, the girls plan to spend 3 days on the route with a tent, sleeping bags, and food in case of a delay.

However, at in the evening of the same day, the piece at the foot of the mountain was broken by the sound of stones crashing from under the feet of a man running in a state of complete hysteria.

Sabrina Parsons appeared at the forest service post alone, her clothes stained with wet shale and her face pale from shock and the piercing mountain cold.

According to the initial interview report compiled by officer Robert Miller, the girl was unable to speak coherently for the first 10 minutes, only pointing back toward Raven Glacier.

When she was finally able to utter her first words, they sounded like a sentence.

She had fallen.

She had simply disappeared into the darkness.

In the reconstruction of the events that Sabrina later provided to investigators, the key moment was crossing a narrow section at the very edge of the glacier.

This place is known for its live stones and treacherous cracks hidden under a thin layer of snow or mud.

Sabrina claimed that Angelica went first, setting the pace.

She allegedly slipped on a section where wet shale was slipping under her feet.

According to the surviving girl, everything happened instantly.

One short exclamation, the dull sound of her body hitting a rocky ledge, and absolute silence somewhere deep in the gorge.

Sabrina assured the detectives that she tried to crawl to the edge of the cliff, called out to her friend for an hour, but the only response was the cracking of ice and the sound of the wind.

Within an hour of her message, a large-scale search and rescue operation was launched, which would later become one of the largest in the area in recent years.

For Angelica’s parents, that evening was the beginning of an endless nightmare.

Her father, Mark Wade, later recalled in an interview with a local TV channel that he could not accept the accident version of the story because his daughter was always extremely cautious.

The next morning, two Bell helicopters equipped with modern thermal imagers flew over the Raven Glacier.

The coordinates Sabrina had given them led to the northwest slope where the walls of the gorge sloped down 200 ft.

A search party of 10 experienced climbers descended into the creasses, risking their lives in the constant fall of ice and rock.

James Morris, Angelica’s fianceé, arrived at the rescue headquarters on the first night and refused to return to the city until he received at least some news.

He combed every available meter of the area with the volunteers, refusing to believe that their plans for a wedding next spring had been destroyed in an instant.

Over the next 3 weeks, Morris became a shadow of himself, flinching at the sound of each new rescue radio transmission.

Forest Service rangers conducted a detailed survey of the trail section and indeed found slip marks on wet rocks that at the time seemed to be a direct confirmation of Sabrina’s testimony.

The gorge into which the girl had probably fallen was blocked by blocks of ice weighing several tons, making the use of any heavy equipment impossible.

On the 22nd day, the operation was officially terminated due to deteriorating weather conditions and the lack of any results.

The report dryly stated that given the nature of the terrain and the time that had passed, the chances of finding the target alive were zero.

Sabrina Parsons was under medical supervision all this time due to severe stress.

But she constantly visited the home of Angelica’s parents, becoming the only thread that connected them to their daughter.

She would spend hours telling James about how Angelica smiled that morning and how much she dreamed of their future together.

These stories became the only salvation for the grieving groom and Sabrina gradually took the place of the main support in his life.

The case was closed and Angelica Wade was listed in the police documents as a victim of an accident.

The world began to forget about the missing girl and a small plaque was placed on the rock at the beginning of the trail.

Silence rained around, broken only by the wind blowing over the empty gorge, where a secret remained under a thick layer of ice that the mountains were not going to give up for a very long time.

The Raven Mountain Range froze in anticipation, covered with new layers of snow that reliably hid the truth from human eyes, leaving only unanswered questions.

5 years of silence at Crow Pass seemed like an eternity for the Wade family, but for Sabrina Parsons, it was a time of profound transformation and the gradual displacement of painful memories by new responsibilities.

During the period from 2015 to 2020, Sabrina transformed from an accidental witness to the tragedy into a central figure in James Morris’s life.

According to the testimonies of the couple’s close friends, which were later included in the investigation, Sabrina showed incredible endurance, becoming James’ only support in moments of his deepest despair.

She was the one who helped him sort through Angelica’s belongings, who reminded him to eat, and who accompanied him to the memorial plaque at the foot of the mountain on each anniversary.

In June of 2018, 3 years after Angelique’s disappearance, James and Sabrina officially began dating.

They moved into the same apartment in the center of Anchorage, where James had previously planned to start family life with his fianceé.

Neighbors in the building on 4th Avenue recalled that the couple looked harmonious, although Sabrina often showed excessive attention to the details of everyday life that had previously belonged to Angelica.

However, the summer of 2020 brought an abnormal heat wave to Alaska that changed the course of history.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in the Chugach National Forest area hovered around 78° Fahrenheit during July, leading to unprecedented melting of glaciers that had not moved in decades.

On August 12, 2020, at in the morning, a group of three climbers led by Thomas Clark was crossing the Raven Glacier.

The route, which was usually covered with a thick layer of dense snow, this time exposed deep rocky creasses.

At the bottom of one of these dry creasses, at a depth of about 180 ft, Clark spotted a bright object that stood in stark contrast to the gray rocks and dirty ice.

Using binoculars, he identified the object as a light green hiking backpack that had retained its shape and color.

Next to the backpack, the climbers saw the outline of a human body half frozen into the ice block.

According to Clark’s report, which he transmitted to the rangers via satellite, the body looked strangely preserved, as if time had stopped for this person at the moment of the fall.

On August 16th, 2020, the Alaska State Rescue Team began an operation to recover the remains.

Using steam drills and special thermal blankets, the specialists carefully freed the body from its icy captivity for 10 hours.

When the remains were finally brought to the surface, there was no doubt it was Angelica Wade.

She was wearing the same professional outfit that she had worn on her hike 5 years earlier.

The cold and lack of oxygen under the ice thickness worked as a natural preservative, preserving even the smallest details of clothing and skin.

The news of the discovery spread instantly across Anchorage, prompting state police detectives to pull case number 842-11 from the archives.

For the Wade family, it was a moment of painful truth that they had been waiting for for over 60 months.

At the same time, for Sabrina Parsons, this discovery was the beginning of the destruction of the idol she had so carefully built.

Investigators noted that during the official announcement of the discovery of the body, Sabrina looked not so much upset as extremely tense, constantly asking about the condition of the body and the place of its discovery.

Law enforcement officials pointed out that the body was not found directly in the main creasse of the glacier as Sabrina had claimed in 2015, but in a side fissure where the water flow was minimal.

This discrepancy was the first signal to reclassify the case from an accident to an investigation with unexplained circumstances.

On August 20th, Angelique Wade’s body was taken to the morg in Anchorage in a special climate controlled container.

Due to the complexity of the case and the need for specialized tests, the sheriff’s office decided to engage independent experts.

All materials from previous searches, photographs of the scene from 5 years ago, and records of Sabrina Parson’s initial interviews were transferred to the analytical department.

The investigation began to piece together what exactly happened on the Crow Pass route during those fateful hours and why the actual location of the body was so different from the coordinates provided by the only witness.

Meanwhile, back in his 4th Avenue apartment, James Morris was trying to make sense of his fianceé finally coming home, albeit in such a tragic way, not knowing that the autopsy would reveal secrets that would forever change his perception of the person who had shared his bed with him all those years.

The mountains of Alaska returned the body, but the real battle for the truth was just beginning under the cold light of the operating lights of the expert center.

On August 22nd, 2020, a specialized flight delivered a sealed container with Angelique Wade’s remains to the Forensic Science Center in Olympia, Washington.

The choice of this particular laboratory was due to the availability of equipment for working with bodies that have undergone a long process of natural cryopreservation.

Arthur Grant, MD, a pathologist with 20 years of experience in the homicide department, led a group of specialists who had to answer the main question, whether the condition of the body was consistent with the official version of a fall from a height.

The work began at in the morning in a room with a constant temperature of 38° F to prevent rapid tissue decay after thawing.

According to the autopsy report, the victim’s upper limbs were the first object of scrutiny.

On both of Angelique Wade’s forearms, what are known in forensic science as protective fractures were found.

These were lifelong cracks in the only, which usually occur when a person instinctively raises their arms to try to cover their head from a series of powerful blows from above.

Dr.

Grant noted in the report that such injuries are virtually impossible to sustain in an accidental fall into a gorge where the injuries are chaotic and accompanied by numerous abrasions all over the body.

However, the true cause of death became apparent only after the scalp was cleaned of ice and rock residue.

On the left side of the skull, there were three distinct dents located almost parallel to each other.

Each of these injuries was about 2 in in diameter and was caused by a heavy blunt object with sharp uneven edges.

The nature of the depressed fractures indicated that the blows were delivered with great force while the victim was in a horizontal or semibent position.

The marks on the bones had nothing to do with injuries caused by rolling down a slope or freef falling on sharp stones.

They were concentrated in one area indicating targeted aggression.

Forensic experts conducted a computed tomography scan which confirmed that each of the three blows was fatal in itself causing massive hemorrhage and destruction of brain structures.

In addition, there were no ice particles found on the inside of the skull, which would have been there if the injury had occurred directly in the gorge after falling to the icy bottom.

This meant that Angelica was already dead or in a state of deep agony before her body was trapped in the glacier creasse.

Laboratory analysis of the skin remnants around the wounds revealed microscopic fragments of granite rock that did not match the type of slate common at the bottom of the gorge where the body was found, but was identical to the stones lying directly on the hiking trail.

This fact was decisive.

At in the afternoon on August 25, 2020, Dr.

Grant signed the final examination report number 42-97.

The document stated the cause of death as open head injury due to multiple blows from a foreign object and the manner of death was officially changed from accident to murder.

The findings completely destroyed the version Sabrina Parsons had given 5 years earlier.

If Angelique slipped and fell, she could not have had protective fractures on both arms and three identical fatal wounds on the same side of her head.

The information from Olympia was immediately relayed to detective Eric Lawson, who headed up the newly formed Anchorage investigative team.

It became clear that the tragedy on the Crow Pass Trail was not an accident, but a skillfully staged crime that Alaska’s nature refused to conceal any longer.

The investigation became a priority and Sabrina Parsons, who at that time was the loving fiance of James Morris, officially became the main suspect in a case where each new fact revealed more and more darkness under the perfectly white ice.

Investigators began preparing search warrants and a detailed review of all materials.

Realizing that the truth they were looking for had been a phone call away all along, hidden behind years of fake compassion and skillful manipulation.

Crow Pass had once again become a crime scene.

But now the fight was not for survival, but for justice for the girl whose voice had been silenced for 1,825 days.

On August 31st, 2020 at in the morning, Sabrina Parsons entered interrogation room 4 of the Anchorage Police Department.

Surveillance footage showed her looking exhausted, but maintaining the outward calm that had been her characteristic throughout the years since her friend’s disappearance.

Detective Eric Lawson began by presenting the official forensic results from Olympia.

When the photographs of the cranial injuries and a detailed description of the protective fractures on Angelique Wade’s forearms were placed in front of Sabrina, the atmosphere in the room, according to the detective’s report, changed instantly.

The temperature in the room remained at 72° F, but witnesses noted that Sabrina began to shiver and her breathing became ragged.

After a long pause of about four minutes, the girl took a deep breath and completely changed her previous testimony which she had given in 2015.

In the new version of events recorded in the protocol under the number 920-7, Sabrina stated that there was no accidental fall from the glacier.

According to her, on that fateful day, they were met by an unknown man on a remote section of the Crow Pass Trail about 8 mi from the trail head.

She described him as a man of strong build, wearing a worn military-style camouflage suit.

According to the reconstruction of her words, the attacker appeared out of the dense alder bushes quite suddenly, holding a heavy object that looked like a stone or a large piece of rock.

Sabrina claimed that the man attacked Angelica without any explanation or threats.

In her new testimony, she painted a terrifying scene.

How her friend tried to cover herself with her hands while the attacker struck and how Sabrina herself, succumbing to paralyzing fear for her own life, ran away without looking back.

She assured the investigators that she heard Angelica’s screams for several minutes before she ran a considerable distance toward the lower plateau.

When the detective asked her directly why she had been silent for 5 years, and made up a story about an accident, Sabrina replied through tears that the attacker had allegedly caught up with her at the foot of the cliff, pressed a knife to her throat, and promised to find her and kill her and her family if she told anyone about his presence.

The girl convinced the investigators that all these years she had been acting under the pressure of unbearable fear which had become her constant companion.

She claimed that her relationship with James Morris was an attempt to find protection, although she saw the face of the man in camouflage every night.

Sabrina insisted that her previous lies were only a self-preservation mechanism and that the accident story seemed to be the only way to satisfy the police and not provoke the man in the woods to new aggression.

She even provided an approximate description of the stranger’s appearance.

Age between 40 and 50, thick dark beard, and a deep scar on her right cheek.

The detectives carefully recorded every word, noting the excessive detail of the story, which contrasted sharply with her laconic and brief reports from 5 years ago.

According to the internal records of the investigation team, Lawson noted a certain theatricality in Sabrina’s behavior, but the law required a thorough examination of each new circumstance.

The version of an aggressive hermit was not uncommon in Alaska, where wilderness areas often became a refuge for fugitives from the law.

But in this case, it emerged when scientific evidence forced the witness to seek an excuse.

Detectives began analyzing the likelihood of an unauthorized person being on the Crow Pass route that day, pulling up archives and testimonies from other groups of hikers who might have seen the mysterious man in camouflage.

Sabrina ended her interrogation by stating her full willingness to cooperate, but her gaze, according to the officers present, remained cold and focused, not exactly in keeping with the image of a victim of years of terror.

The interrogation lasted more than 6 hours, and the investigation was officially expanded.

The search for the unknown attacker became a new priority for the Anchorage police.

Although a shadow of doubt had already fallen over every word Sabrina uttered in that room under the flickering light of the lamps, the investigators understood that if such a man really existed, there must be at least some clues in the archives somewhere.

But the absence of any mention of him for 5 years made this new version too convenient for a person who had lived the life of his dead friend all these years.

Crow Pass was once again in the spotlight.

But now the detectives were not looking for a body, but for the ghosts of the past that suddenly came to life in Sabrina Parson’s testimony.

The first step in the thorough examination of Sabrina Parson’s new highly detailed testimony was an extensive analysis of all available digital archives that had miraculously survived in state police and private security databases over the past 5 years.

The investigative team led by experienced detective Eric Lawson clearly understood that human memory can be a tool of manipulation, but digital media was to provide an objective and unbiased picture of the events of that fateful day.

The investigators focused on the critical time period between in the morning and 12 in the afternoon on August 10th, 2015, the period when the friends were last within the borders of civilization.

A city surveillance system on the southern exit of Anchorage captured a silver SUV belonging to 25-year-old Angelica Wade at 15 minutes in the morning.

In the grainy digitally restored footage, only two figures in the front seats were clearly visible.

The rear window of the car was almost completely covered with large backpacks and sleeping bags, which according to the official conclusion of technical experts, completely excluded the possibility of a third party or a hidden attacker being in the cabin at that stage of the trip.

The most important piece of material evidence was a recording from the cameras of a Chevron gas station located 30 m from the Crow Pass trail head on the Seward Highway.

Camera number 12, mounted directly above fuel dispenser number four, captured the girls at in the morning.

According to a detailed analysis of the profilers, the emotional state of the friends was completely inconsistent with the mood of people going on a joint vacation.

Angelique Wade looked extremely tense while driving.

During the entire time she was at the gas station, she never smiled and kept looking away from the windshield, avoiding eye contact with Sabrina.

The video captured a specific detail.

Angelica nervously and very firmly gripped the steering wheel with both hands several times while Sabrina was emotionally and actively explaining something to her, gesturing.

When Sabrina got out of the car to buy water at the cash register, Angelica remained in the car in a state of complete immobility and then covered her face with her palms for a moment.

No other vehicle that could have followed them from the city or a suspicious man was seen at the gas station.

In parallel with the review of the video footage, detectives began checking all owners of hunting lodges within a 10-mi radius of Raven Glacier.

The investigation identified 12 people who were officially authorized to be in the area in August 2015.

All of them were vetted and none of them were found to be wearing the camouflage suit or the distinctive facial scars that Sabrina had so confidently claimed.

Moreover, Forest Service records showed that due to the critically high fire danger, access to remote areas was officially closed by special orders.

This made the presence of random hermits on the route virtually impossible without being spotted by patrol rangers who were making three routine rounds of the area that day.

Investigators also contacted eight hikers whose names were preserved in a log book at the beginning of the Crow Pass Trail.

Each of them provided written statements and none recalled an encounter with the unknown man.

One of the key witnesses was experienced mountaineer Mark Randall, who was hiking solo that day and passed the section near Raven Glacier at approximately .

Randall noted that the mountain seemed unusually empty that day.

He noticed a strange distance between his friends.

Angelica walked ahead at a distance of about 20 ft, and Sabrina followed her with her head down.

According to Randall, the girls didn’t look scared, but the atmosphere between them was palpably heavy.

Sabrina’s version of the attacker began to crumble under the pressure of the absolute lack of any material evidence.

The empty forest appeared to the investigators as a scene with only two participants, and each tree only confirmed the loneliness of the girls.

The absence of any footprints at the gas station, the empty hunting ground registers, and the silence of all witnesses created a vacuum of evidence around Sabrina Parsons’s story.

Detective Lawson noted in the investigation diary that the story of the man in camouflage looked like a classic attempt to shift the blame to a non-existent object, as no camera or person on the route recorded any unauthorized persons.

The investigation came to the logical conclusion that the killer did not appear from the depths of the forest, but was with Angelique Wade the entire time.

Every archival record checked only reinforced suspicions about the only survivor on that fateful trail.

The idol that Sabrina had been building for 5 years began to crack as the camera’s digital memory left no room for her fictional enemy.

A detailed inspection of the scene itself was ahead, which now after the ice melted, was preparing to tell its own version of events captured in microparticles and traces on the stones.

The search for the unknown attacker officially transformed into a collection of evidence against the only witness whose lies were becoming more and more obvious in the cold light of facts.

The photo from the gas station where Angelica Wade nervously grips the steering wheel became the starting point for the detectives to realize that the conflict had begun long before they reached the glacier.

The 5 years of silence were over, giving way to the truth that the Alaskan mountains had finally allowed the world to see.

Now, every mile of the Crow Pass Trail was under the scrutiny of forensic scientists who believed only in facts recorded in numbers and stone.

The empty forest was no longer empty.

It was full of evidence that the attacker had never crossed the boundary of this wilderness, leaving Sabrina Parsons alone with her own actions and the inevitable consequences that drew closer with each new frame of the recovered video.

On September 5th, 2020, the investigation team led by Detective Eric Lawson returned to Crowass to conduct a second, more detailed inspection of the area that had been freed from years of ice.

The temperature at the 30,000 ft elevation was 48° F, and wind gusts of 20 mph made it difficult for the forensic team.

An examination of the area 40 ft from the body site on a small plateau hidden behind a rock outcropping revealed an area with traces of intense mechanical impact on the soil.

Using luminol and modern methods of detecting biological traces, investigators identified hemoglobin residues that had been absorbed into the poorest shale more than 5 years ago.

It was this 8×10 ft area that was identified as the immediate murder scene.

In the center of this area, beneath a layer of fine gravel, forensic scientists found and recovered a key piece of evidence, a granite stone weighing approximately 4 1/2 lb.

Its shape and sharp edges matched perfectly with the depressed fractures on Angelique Wade’s skull recorded during the examination in Olympia.

The stone was immediately sent to a laboratory in Anchorage for spectral analysis.

The results of the study numbered 721-12 revealed not only dried blood belonging to Angelique but also microscopic particles of a foreign polymer on the rough surface of the murder weapon.

After gas chromatography, it was found that this composition fully corresponds to a specific type of wearresistant rubber used in the production of soles for professional trekking shoes.

Comparative analysis showed that this polymer was identical to the material of the soles of the Salomon boots that Sabrina Parsons had deposited in the evidence archive during the initial investigation in 2015 as her own equipment.

The investigation found that at the time of the stabbing, Sabrina stepped on the stone with her foot or pressed it with her soul, leaving friction marks on it that were invisible to the naked eye.

At the same time, forensic experts using a highresolution electron microscope found three microscopic black fibers of synthetic origin deep in Angelica’s cranial wounds.

Their length did not exceed 2 mm, but the structure of the weave was unique.

Detectives pulled up Sabrina Parson’s bank statements for August 2015 and found a transaction made 8 days before she went on the route at a specialized store called Outdoor Equipment.

According to the sales receipt, she had purchased a pair of reinforced professional mountaineering gloves made of fireproof nylon.

Laboratory testing confirmed that the fibers found in the wounds were completely identical to the material of these gloves.

The investigation concluded that the killer acted in cold blood and calculatedly having prepared equipment in advance that was supposed to protect her hands during the physical assault.

The nature of the location on the plateau indicated that this was not a chance encounter with the enemy, but a place where the girl stopped for a break while alone.

Every microparticle found and every forensic result consistently indicated that Sabrina Parsons was not a frightened witness running away from an unknown man in camouflage.

On the contrary, the material evidence painted a picture of a brutal and planned attack where the murder weapon was a stone found literally under her feet.

The seized evidence was recorded in the official register under the priority stamp, which allowed the prosecutor’s office to prepare justifications for changing Sabrina’s status from suspect to accused.

No trace of unauthorized persons was found on this rocky area, which finally refuted the version of a hermit attacker.

The investigative team received a chain of evidence that could not be explained by coincidence.

the victim’s blood on a rock, rubber from Sabrina’s boot on the same rock, and fibers from her gloves in her friend’s fatal wounds.

These facts became the foundation on which the detectives began to build the final reconstruction of the events, preparing for a new round of interrogations, where every lie Sabrina Parsons told was shattered by the unyielding language of forensic science.

The Alaskan mountains provided the last batch of answers encrypted in stone and thread, leaving the killer with less and less room to maneuver in the courts and state police offices.

Sabrina’s professional training, which she had mentioned so often, was now her greatest enemy, as the specialized gear she had chosen for this hike, left behind the undeniable signature of the crime.

The case moved to the final stage of collecting evidence where every word had to be supported by molecular analysis.

On September 10th, 2020 at in the morning, the investigative team on the basis of an authorized warrant began a search of the apartment on 4th Avenue where Sabrina Parsons lived with James Morris.

The 840q ft apartment appeared to be perfectly organized.

But when the forensic team examined the bedroom, they noticed an antique doublebottom jewelry box.

It was there that they discovered Sabrina’s personal diary bound in navy blue velvet, an item that came to embody the hidden darkness of the case.

The entries dated from September 2014 to August 2015 opened up a world of morbid obsession for the investigators.

According to the prosecutor’s analytical report, Sabrina Parsons kept a detailed timetable of James Morris’s life for many months.

She recorded the time he left for work, his favorite foods, and even quoted fragments of his conversations with Angelica, which she apparently overheard.

In one of the entries dated May 12, 2015, Sabrina described her dislike for her friend as physical pain, noting that Angelique Wade was taking a place that rightfully belonged to another.

A psychological examination of the diary indicated a pronounced dehumanization of the victim.

Sabrina perceived Angelique not as a person, but as an unfortunate technical obstacle to her own happiness.

On September 12, 2020, a confrontation took place in room 4, where Sabrina Parsons was presented with the totality of all the evidence collected, the autopsy results from Olympia, the microscopic analysis of the stone, and her own diary confessions.

The temperature in the room was set at 68° F, but the officers present noted that the defendant looked as if she was in a state of fever.

After 3 hours of silence, when Detective Lawson read a fragment of her diary about the need for a final decision, Sabrina Parsons began to speak.

Her testimony, which was recorded on video and entered into the record as 13-81, completely changed the official picture of events.

Sabrina admitted that the conflict on the Crow Pass route was not accidental.

According to her, during a break near the Raven Glacier, a dispute arose between the friends.

The reason was Angelique’s confession about her plans to move with James to another state after the wedding.

A move that would have forever deprived Sabrina of the opportunity to be near the object of her fixation.

According to Sabrina’s reconstruction, her anger flared up instantly.

She claimed that Angelica was the first to push her away, but the material evidence in the form of defensive fractures showed unilateral aggression.

Sabrina admitted that she grabbed the first heavy stone she could find and threw the first punch when Angelica turned away to pick up her backpack.

After the victim fell, Sabrina was in a state of icy clarity, as she described it.

She struck two more times to make sure Angelica could no longer interfere with her.

Then she dragged the body to the edge of the rift and threw it down, watching the bright lime green backpack disappear into the darkness of the gorge.

She spent the next 5 hours before contacting rescuers, imitating the traces of the fall on the trail and putting her clothes in the appropriate condition.

The investigation classified Sabrina Parson’s actions as firstdegree premeditated murder committed with extreme cruelty and a premeditated motive.

The records found confirmed that she did not just commit the crime in a state of passion, but had been considering options for eliminating her rival for a long time.

After the interrogation, Sabrina Parsons was officially arrested without bail.

James Morris, having learned about the contents of the diaries and the confession of the woman he had been living with for the past two years, left the police building in a state of deep shock, refusing to comment to the press.

The case, which began as a search for a missing person in the mountains, transformed into a documentary story about how deeply true evil can hide under the mask of friendship.

The Velvet Diary became the final piece of evidence in a chain that closed around Sabrina forever, leaving her with only the memories of 5 years of a fake life built on the blood of her best friend.

On May 14th, 2021, courtroom 602 in Anchorage was filled with the atmosphere of tense anticipation that usually accompanies the conclusion of high-profile cases that have lasted for years.

The temperature in the room was kept at 68° F, and the dim fluorescent lights emphasized the power of the defendant.

Sabrina Parsons sat at the defense table, not looking up from the stack of documents, while the entire Wade family was on the opposite side of the room.

The main event of the trial was the testimony of James Morris, who was called as a key prosecution witness.

His testimony lasted more than 4 hours and became the most emotionally exhausting part of the hearing for many of those present.

According to the court record, James described in detail the circumstances of their life together after August 2015.

According to him, Sabrina built a system of psychological control around him which was based on shared grief.

He told the court how Sabrina gradually began to introduce elements of Angelique’s style into her life.

She used the same brands of cosmetics, cooked the same meals, and even sometimes quoted phrases from Angelique’s letters that she allegedly remembered during their conversations.

James noted that for all 5 years he had perceived her as the most loyal friend of his dead fiance, not realizing that every minute of their closeness was the result of a cold-blooded calculation and murder.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Mark Stevens emphasized that this crime was not just an act of violence, but a long-term manipulation of the feelings of many people.

He reminded the jury of the evidence collected on the Crow Pass Trail, a granite stone with polymer particles from Sabrina’s soul and microscopic black fibers from her professional gloves found directly in Angelica’s wounds.

This material evidence, combined with the velvet diary in which Sabrina described her hatred for her friend, left the defense no room for maneuver.

Sabrina’s lawyer tried to appeal to the state of affect caused by oxygen deprivation at an altitude of 3,000 ft, but the results of the psychiatric examination confirmed the defendant’s full sanity and her ability to realize her actions.

Judge Susan Miller, reading out the verdict, drew attention to the exceptional cynicism of Sabrina’s behavior, who for 1,825 days looked into the eyes of Angelica’s parents, knowing the true cause of her death.

Based on the evidence presented, a detailed reconstruction of the events at Raven Glacier, and the defendant’s own confession, the court found Sabrina Parsons guilty of firstdegree premeditated murder.

At 16 hours and 15 minutes on the same day, the final judgment was announced.

30 years in a maximum security prison without the possibility of early release.

After the verdict was announced, the room fell into absolute silence for a moment, broken only by the sound of the shackles clamping down on the convict’s wrists.

Sabrina showed no emotion, remaining as cold as the ice that had kept her secret for 5 years.

Case number 842-11 was officially closed and all materials were transferred to the Alaska State Police archives.

James Morris left the courthouse through the back door, refusing to comment.

And that evening, according to his close friends, he left the city trying to find peace far from the Chugotach mountain ranges.

The family of Angelique Wade was finally able to bury their daughter according to all the rules, erecting a monument with the image of the dancer on her grave.

The Crow Pass Trail remained in place, just as majestic and dangerous.

But now it no longer hid dark secrets under its slopes.

Every hiker who passes by Raven Glacier sees a plaque reminding them that the truth will eventually come to the surface, even if it takes 5 years of abnormal glacial melt.

A story that began with a dream of a trip between two best friends ended behind the iron doors of a federal prison, documenting how easily a mask of love can hide the face of a killer.

All the digital surveillance footage, diaries, and laboratory reports forever recorded this chain of betrayal, leaving only a bitter taste of injustice and emptiness in the hearts of those who once believed in Sabrina Parsons’s sincerity.

The mountains returned Angelica’s body, and the law took away the freedom of the one who thought she was more cunning than nature itself.

Now only the wind reigns at Crow Pass, no longer carrying the echoes of screams or whispers of lies, leaving this place only for those who respect its majesty and have nothing to hide.

Right.