On July 16th, 2016, 17-year-old Ethan Parker, 16-year-old Madison Wilson, and 17-year-old Jacob Lee from Crescent City in Del Nordic County, California, decided to spend their Saturday exploring old logging roads deep in Redwood National Park.

The teenagers were locals raised among the giant sequoas and knew the forest well enough to feel confident on familiar trails, but poorly enough to still find abandoned areas intriguing.

They packed backpacks with water and snacks, left notes for their parents, and around a.m.

headed deep into the forest on a narrow dirt road that had once been used by logging companies but had been untouched for decades.

After 2 hours of walking, Ethan noticed something unnatural between the massive sequoia trunks.

A rectangular shape covered with moss and partially hidden by sagging tarpollen.

As they got closer, the group discovered a white Dodge Ram van completely overgrown with vegetation, its wheels sunk into the ground, and its windows covered with a thick layer of dirt and condensation.

Heavy padlocks hung on both doors, rusted, but still locked.

It was obvious that the vehicle had been here for many years, and that someone had deliberately locked it and tried to hide it under the tarp.

Curiosity overcame caution.

Jacob took out his multi-tool and spent about 20 minutes sawing at one of the locks until the metal gave way.

When the side door of the van opened, the teenagers were greeted by a musty smell of dampness, mold, and something else they couldn’t identify.

The interior of the van was empty.

No furniture, no seats, just a dirty floor covered with a layer of fallen leaves and moss that had seeped through the cracks in the seals.

But at the far end of the cabin was a plywood partition.

Madison opened it and saw a large industrial-grade portable freezer, the kind used by hunters or fishermen on long expeditions.

Next to the freezer was a small gasoline generator with long dried fuel in its tank.

The freezer was closed, but not locked.

Ethan slowly lifted the lid.

What he saw inside made all three of them jump back with cries of horror.

Inside the freezer lay two bodies wrapped in sleeping bags and wrapped in several layers of thick transparent plastic.

The plastic was old and partially torn, and through the tears, mummified faces were visible, the skin dark and tight, but the features still distinguishable.

A young man and woman.

Around the woman’s neck hung a silver heart-shaped medallion on which, even through a layer of dirt, the engraved name Dianiela could be made out.

The teenagers ran out of the van in a panic.

Jacob tried to call emergency services, but there was no cell phone reception in that part of the forest.

They ran back along the overgrown path for almost half an hour until the phone picked up a signal.

With a trembling voice, Ethan told the dispatcher about the discovery.

The dispatcher initially thought it was a prank, but the teenager’s tone of voice made her take it seriously.

She ordered them to stay where they were and not returned to the van until the police arrived.

Officers from the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Department and National Park Rangers arrived an hour later.

The teenagers led them to the site of the discovery along the same overgrown road, which according to old maps was called Mil Creek Access Road and had not been used since the late 1990s.

By evening, the area around the van was cordoned off with yellow tape, and forensic experts and a medical examiner from the county office arrived at the scene.

The van was thoroughly photographed inside and out.

Every detail recorded before the process of removing the bodies began.

The work continued late into the night under the light of portable flood lights.

When the bodies were carefully removed from the freezer and taken to the Delorte County morg, medical examiner Dr.

Elizabeth Chen began a preliminary examination.

The condition of the bodies was unusual.

Although the freezer had clearly not been in operation for many years, the initial freezing and subsequent conditions inside the sealed van, low humidity, and a constant cool temperature had led to natural mummification.

The skin had hardened and darkened, but the internal structures were preserved well enough for analysis.

The medallion around the woman’s neck was the first clue.

Engraved on the back was a date, July 17th, 2005.

and the initials TM.

The next day, Detective Mark Holloway of the sheriff’s office began checking missing person’s reports.

The description, a young couple, a medallion with the name Dianiela, a white Dodge Ram van, led him to a case from 10 years ago.

On August 17th, 2006, 27-year-old Trevor Miller and 24year-old Daniela Cruz from Portland, Oregon were reported missing.

They had set off on a week-long trip along the California coast and disappeared in the Redwood National Park area.

Their van was never found despite an extensive search.

The case gradually cooled and was effectively closed as an unsolved disappearance.

Detective Holloway contacted the families of the missing persons.

Robert Miller, Trevor’s father, still lived in Portland.

When the detective told him about the discovery, the 70-year-old man was speechless for several minutes, then asked if they had suffered.

Holloway replied that he couldn’t say yet, but that the medical examiner was working to determine the cause of death.

Daniela’s mother, Carmen Cruz, who lives in Sacramento, was unable to speak on the phone, so her eldest daughter, Maria, continued the conversation.

The families agreed to provide DNA samples for final identification.

Trevor Miller’s dental records and DNA analysis confirmed the man’s identity 4 days later.

DNA analysis of the woman conducted using a sample from her mother confirmed that she was Daniela Cruz with a probability of 99.9%.

10 years after their disappearance, the couple was found less than 15 km from the last place they were seen alive.

The forensic examination revealed several critical details.

No visible signs of external trauma were found on the bodies.

No broken bones, stab or cut wounds, or gunshot wounds.

However, a detailed examination of the tissues and internal organs preserved thanks to mummification showed signs of severe dehydration and hypothermia.

Dr.

Chen explained in her report that death was the result of a combination of these factors.

Prolonged exposure to cold without sufficient water and food led to progressive organ failure.

It was impossible to determine the exact time of death due to the condition of the bodies.

But based on the known circumstances of their disappearance and the conditions in which they were stored, Dr.

Chen estimated that death occurred between August 19th and 22, 2006.

The most disturbing discovery was that scratches were found on the inside of the freezer lid.

They were shallow but distinct fingernail marks.

This indicated the possibility that at least one of them was still alive when the freezer was closed.

However, the absence of more serious injuries or signs of a frantic struggle suggested that by that point they were in an extremely weakened state, possibly on the verge of losing consciousness from hypothermia.

Detective Holloway focused on reconstructing Trevor and Dianiela’s last days.

According to telephone company records, the last text message from Dianiela was sent to her sister Maria on August 19th, 2006 at p.m.

In the message, she wrote that they were in the Redwood Forest area and planned to spend a couple of days exploring less touristy trails so she could take good photos for her portfolio.

She mentioned that a local resident at a roadside store had recommended an interesting place to them.

The last signal from her phone was recorded by a cell tower near Crescent City at p.m.

that same day, after which the phone stopped communicating.

Trevor’s phone had not been giving a signal since August 18th.

Halloway and his team began interviewing shop and gas station owners in the Crescent City area, showing them photos of Trevor and Daniela from 10 years ago.

The owner of a small roadside store called Pacific Market, 73-year-old George Curtis, remembered the couple after being shown the photos.

He said he saw them around noon on August 19th, 2006.

The young people bought water, canned food, and batteries.

The girl asked about good places to photograph redwoods that weren’t crowded with tourists.

Curtis advised them to turn onto the old Mill Creek access road, which led to an abandoned logging area with particularly large trees, but warned that the road was in poor condition and it was easy to get stuck or lost.

The girl thanked him, they paid and drove away in a white van.

This explained how they ended up on that abandoned road where their van was found.

But what happened after they headed there? Forensic investigators conducted a thorough examination of the van.

The VIN number confirmed that it was a vehicle registered to Trevor Miller.

Inside, in addition to a freezer and a generator, the couple’s personal belongings were found.

Daniela’s backpack contained her professional Canon EOS 5D camera with a lens, memory cards, and batteries.

The camera was damaged by moisture, but forensic laboratory experts were able to retrieve data from the memory cards.

The last photos, dated August 19th, 2006 showed majestic redwoods, a forest road, a van parked under the trees, and several pictures of Trevor himself smiling against the backdrop of giant tree trunks.

The metadata of the photos showed that the last picture was taken at p.m.

After that, the camera was no longer used.

Two sleeping bags were also found in the van, the same ones in which the bodies were wrapped, along with empty plastic water bottles, several empty tin cans, and a camping stove.

However, the keys to the van, Trevor and Daniela’s wallets, phones, and documents were missing.

This indicated that someone had taken these items after their deaths.

On the outside of the van, on the rear bumper, forensic experts found scratches and traces of dark blue paint that did not match the original color of the vehicle.

Analysis showed that it was automotive enamel typical of Americanmade pickup trucks or SUVs from the 1990s and early 2000s.

The damage and the location of the paint marks indicated that the van had either been rammed from behind or that someone had tried to push or pull it out using another vehicle.

The padlocks on the doors were industrial-grade, marked with the master lock manufacturer’s logo.

Such locks were sold in any hardware store, and it was impossible to trace the purchase.

However, the very fact that the van was locked from the outside clearly indicated the presence of a third party.

Detective Holloway began to study the criminal history of the area.

Over the past 30 years, more than 40 cases of missing persons had been reported in Redwood National Park and the surrounding area.

Most of the cases had been explained.

People had gotten lost and were found alive within a few days or their bodies were found after accidents such as falling off cliffs or drowning in rivers.

But seven cases remained unsolved.

One case in particular caught Holloway’s attention.

In October 2003, James and Carol Harrison, aged 61 and 57, disappeared while traveling in a class C motor home.

Their last contact with their family was on October 3rd when they reported that they were heading to the Redwood Forest area for a few days.

On October 8th, when they failed to contact their son and did not arrive for a meeting with him in San Francisco, an alarm was raised.

The search continued for 3 weeks.

On November 16th, their motor home was found on an abandoned forest road.

Not the same one where Trevor and Daniela’s van was found, but about 20 km away in similar terrain.

The van was empty with no bodies, personal belongings, or signs of a struggle.

The doors were unlocked and the keys were missing.

A search of the surrounding area yielded no results.

The Harrison’s bodies were never found.

The case was classified as an unsolved disappearance with the assumption that the couple may have gotten lost in the woods and died of hypothermia or dehydration and that their remains were destroyed by wild animals or hidden by dense vegetation.

Halloway requested the complete file on the Harrison’s case.

While studying the materials, he noticed one detail in the forensic report.

Traces of dark blue paint not matching the color of their vehicle were found on the bumper of the Harrison’s van.

Exactly the same as on Trevor and Daniela’s van.

This could not be a coincidence.

Two different disappearances, three years apart, but with similar circumstances.

Vehicles found on abandoned forest roads.

Traces of contact with a dark blue car.

No keys or personal belongings.

Halloway began to suspect that he was dealing not with two separate incidents, but with a series of crimes committed by the same person or group of people.

The next step was to search for owners of dark blue pickup trucks or SUVs in the Del Norte County area.

The Department of Motor Vehicles database showed more than 300 registered vehicles matching the description.

Holloway and his team began methodically checking each owner, paying particular attention to those with criminal records who lived in isolated areas or who were known to local police.

One name stood out.

Raymond Delvin, a 64year-old man living in an old trailer about 12 km from where Trevor and Daniela’s van was found.

Delvin owned a dark blue 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.

He had a criminal record for aggravated assault in 1993.

He beat a man in a bar after an argument and the victim spent a week in the hospital.

Delvin served 3 years and was released on parole in 1996.

After that, he moved to Delorte County and lived as a recluse, occasionally doing odd jobs, chopping wood, repairing fences, helping local farmers.

Neighbors described him as a withdrawn, unsociable man who could disappear from town for weeks at a time.

On July 27th, 2016, Detective Holloway and three officers visited Delvin’s trailer.

The man was home and greeted the police wearily, but not aggressively.

When Holloway explained the reason for the visit and showed photos of Trevor and Daniela, Delvin stated that he had never seen these people and knew nothing about their disappearance.

Holloway asked permission to inspect his pickup truck.

Delvin hesitated, but then agreed, saying he had nothing to hide.

The pickup truck was parked next to a trailer under a rusty corrugated iron canopy.

The vehicle was old with multiple dents and scratches typical of a vehicle that had been used on rough forest roads, but on the front bumper, the officers noticed fresh white paint, not original, but clearly applied recently, possibly in an attempt to hide something underneath.

Halloway asked Delvin to explain when and why the bumper had been repainted.

Delvin replied that he had done so a couple of years ago because the old paint had peeled off due to rust.

Halloway asked for permission to take paint samples for analysis.

Delvin refused, stating that he did not wish to cooperate further without a lawyer present.

That was his right, and the police could not insist without a warrant.

Holloway returned to the station and filed a request for a warrant to search the trailer and seized Delvin’s pickup truck for forensic analysis.

The judge, after reviewing the case file and the detective’s arguments, issued the warrant the next day.

Early in the morning on July 28th, a group of officers and forensic experts returned to Delvin’s trailer.

The search began at a.m.

and continued throughout the day.

The interior of the trailer was dirty and cluttered with piles of old magazines, empty bottles, clothes, and tools.

But in one of the desk drawers, the forensic investigators found a set of keys.

One of the keys was for a Dodge Ram van.

exactly the same as Trevor’s van.

Two driver’s licenses were also found in the drawer in the names of Trevor Miller and Daniela Cruz.

The photos on the licenses matched those of the missing persons.

This was direct evidence linking Delvin to the couple’s disappearance.

He was immediately arrested.

The pickup truck was taken to the crime lab for detailed analysis.

Experts removed a layer of fresh white paint from the front bumper and found old paint and traces of damage underneath.

Analysis showed that under the white paint were microscopic particles of white automotive enamel matching the paint on Trevor’s Dodge Ram van.

Traces of DNA were also found on the keys and driver’s licenses.

They belong to Trevor, Danielle, and Delvin himself.

Delvin was questioned in the presence of his appointed lawyer.

For the first few hours, he refused to speak, invoking his fifth amendment rights.

But when Detective Holloway laid out all the evidence, the keys, the documents, the paint traces, the DNA, and explained that Delvin was facing a charge of double firstdegree murder with the possibility of the death penalty.

The man began to talk.

His lawyer tried to stop him, but Delvin insisted on telling his side of the story.

According to Delvin’s testimony, he met Trevor and Danielle on August 19th, 2006 at around 300 p.m.

He was driving his pickup truck down Mil Creek Access Road heading to his favorite fishing spot on a small creek.

On a narrow section of the road, he saw a white van that was stuck.

Its rear wheels were bogged down in mud after recent rain.

A young man and woman were trying to push the van out, but without success.

Delvin stopped and offered to help.

He said he would try to pull their van out with his pickup truck.

He attached a rope to the van’s bumper and tried to pull it out, but the rope broke and the van got stuck even deeper.

Delvin told the couple that he needed a more powerful winch, which he had at home, and offered to take them to his trailer so they could rest and eat, and he would return for the van with the winch in the morning when the ground had dried out.

The couple agreed.

They rode with Delvin in his pickup truck, leaving the van on the road.

At the trailer, Delvin offered them dinner, canned stew and bread.

They talked and Dianiela showed him photos of the sequoas on her camera.

Delvin took out a bottle of whiskey and offered them a drink.

The couple agreed.

Delvin claimed that he had added crushed sleeping pills to their glasses, ambient, which he took for insomnia.

He explained that he wanted them to fall asleep because he planned to rob them, take their wallets, camera, and valuables.

Half an hour later, both Trevor and Daniela began to lose consciousness.

Delvin searched their pockets and took their wallets, phones, and van keys.

Then he drove them back to the van in his pickup truck.

His plan was to leave them in the van where they would wake up in the morning with a hangover, not understanding what had happened.

and by that time he would be far away with their belongings.

But when he returned to the van around 11 p.m., a storm began.

Strong winds, rain, and a sharp drop in temperature.

Delvin panicked.

He claimed that he did not want to leave them unconscious in the cold van, fearing that they might die of hypothermia, and then he would have to answer for murder.

He decided to put them in a freezer he found inside the van.

Delvin claimed that the freezer was already there.

The couple had apparently bought it to store food during their trip.

He connected it to a generator that was also in the van.

His plan, as he explained, was for them to freeze enough to fall into deep hypothermia, but not die.

And in the morning, he would return, warm them up, and take them to the hospital, saying that he had found them that way.

But in the morning, when he returned, the generator was still running.

And when he opened the freezer, both were dead.

Detective Holloway asked why Delvin didn’t call the police at that moment.

Delvin replied that he was scared.

He had a criminal record.

There was a lot of alcohol in his blood, and he had stolen their belongings.

He decided to hide the bodies.

He sealed the freezer, locked the van with padlocks he found in his shed, covered the van with a tarp, and drove away.

He threw their phones away in different places on the way home.

He hid their wallets and documents in his trailer, planning to destroy them eventually, but never did.

Delvin’s story sounded partially plausible, but Detective Holloway and the district attorney did not believe his version that he did not intend to kill the couple.

Experts argued that putting two unconscious people in a working freezer overnight was effectively murder, regardless of his stated intentions.

Delvin was charged with seconddegree double murder, intentional killing without premeditation, but with extreme indifference to human life.

As for the Harrison’s case, Delvin categorically denied any involvement.

Investigators were unable to find any direct evidence linking him to their disappearance except for traces of paint, but traces alone were not sufficient grounds for prosecution.

The Harrison’s case remained technically unsolved, although many investigators were convinced that Delvin knew more than he was saying.

The trial of Raymond Delvin began in April 2017.

The prosecutor presented extensive material evidence, keys, documents, paint analysis, expert testimony.

The defense tried to argue that Delvin did not intend to kill the couple, that it was an accident, the result of panic and poor decisions made under the influence of alcohol.

But the jury did not believe this version.

On May 22nd, 2017, Raymond Delvin was found guilty of two counts of secondderee murder, theft, and concealment of evidence.

The judge sentenced him to two consecutive terms of 25 years in prison without parole, which effectively meant life imprisonment for the 65-year-old man.

The bodies of Trevor Miller and Daniela Cruz were released to their families for burial.

The funerals were held in Portland, where the couple had met and lived together.

Friends and relatives gathered to honor their memory.

Robert Miller gave a short speech in which he said that his son and Daniela had set out on a journey full of hopes and dreams and had met a man who had taken away their future because of greed and cowardice.

He also thanked the teenagers who found the van and Detective Holloway for not leaving the case unsolved.

Ethan Parker, Madison Wilson, and Jacob Lee, the teenagers who discovered the bodies, gave several interviews to local media outlets.

All three admitted that the discovery had changed them.

Ethan said that for the first few months, he had nightmares and saw those mummified faces every time he closed his eyes.

Madison admitted that she no longer wanted to explore abandoned places, that the beauty of adventure had faded in the face of the reality of death.

Jacob said that the discovery made him think about how easily life can be cut short, how quickly a person can disappear, leaving behind only questions and grief.

The story of Trevor Miller and Daniela Cruz became a warning to tourists visiting remote areas of national parks.

The Redwood Park Administration increased patrols of abandoned forest roads and installed additional information signs warning of the dangers of straying from the main trails.

Park visitor tracking systems were improved and a recommendation was introduced to register with rangers before hiking in remote areas.

The case also renewed interest in other unsolved disappearances in the region.

The families of missing persons began demanding that authorities reopen old cases, pointing out that if the Trevor and Daniela case had been investigated more thoroughly in 2006, Delvin might have been arrested sooner.

The county police set up a special task force to review all unsolved disappearances from the past 30 years, but the results of this work have been modest.

Most cases were indeed accidents or voluntary disappearances, and only a few showed suspicious circumstances that could not be resolved.

Raymond Delvin is serving his sentence at Pelican Bay State Prison in California.

According to prison records, he receives no visitors, rarely leaves his cell for walks, and spends most of his time alone.

Several journalists have tried to interview him, but he has refused to speak.

In 2019, one reporter finally managed to get a written response from Delvin to his questions.

In the letter, Delvin repeated his version of events, claiming that he did not want to kill the couple, that it was an accident, the result of bad decisions.

He apologized to the families but added that he understood he did not deserve forgiveness.

As for the Harrison’s case, it officially remains unsolved.

Their children continue to insist that Delvin knows what happened to their parents, but without concrete evidence, it is impossible to accuse him.

Some criminologists speculate that Delvin may have been responsible for several other disappearances in the region, but this remains speculation.

Delvin himself refuses to discuss the subject.