In the summer of 2011, a 29-year-old photographer from Seattle set off on a solo hike through the largest national forest in the United States and never returned.

The search involving helicopters, dog handlers, and volunteers lasted 2 weeks, but yielded no results.
The case was closed, assuming it was an accident.

Two years later, a ranger checking abandoned hunting trails stumbled upon a clearing deep in the impenetrable thicket.

Amidst the moss and fallen trees stood an old leather chair.

Sitting in it was a skeleton in a hiking jacket in the pose of a person who had simply sat down to rest.

The watch on her wrist had stopped in August 2011.

It was Haley Morris.

And so began an investigation that raised more questions than it answered.

Haley Morris was 29 years old.

She was of average height, slim with shoulderlength brown hair.

She worked as a freelance photographer in Seattle, specializing in landscape and nature photography.

Her work was published in several travel magazines and blogs.

A loner by nature, she preferred hiking in the company of herself and her camera.

She grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, the only child of a school teacher and a nurse.

From her teenage years, she was passionate about photography and hiking.

By the age of 29, she had completed more than 50 routes through the national parks of the West Coast from Olympic to Denali.

Haley was not an inexperienced hiker.

She knew the safety rules, always registered her roots, and carried a satellite beacon in addition to her phone.

Her equipment was professional.

A tent, sleeping bag, stove, water filter, first aid kit, knife, bear spray, signal mirror, and whistle.

On July 18th, 2011, she flew from Seattle to Juno, the capital of Alaska, then took a ferry to the city of Sitka on Baronoff Island.

She rented a room in a hostel on the waterfront, a small room on the second floor of an old wooden building.

She left most of her belongings there.

her laptop, a change of clothes, and her documents.

She took only a backpack with camping gear, and a camera.

On the morning of July 19th, she registered at the Ranger Station.

She indicated her route, a 4-day trek along the Stewart River in Tongas National Forest, starting and ending at the Stakov Creek parking lot.

Her planned return date was July 23rd.

She left the number of her satellite beacon in case of an emergency.

The hostile manager last saw her around in the morning.

Haley left with her backpack, waved her hand, and said she would see her in 4 days.

She got into her rental car, a small Subaru SUV, and drove off toward the forest.

The car was found on July 20th in the Stakov Creek parking lot.

It was empty, locked with the keys in the ignition, as tourists often do when leaving their cars for several days in a deserted place.

There was nothing suspicious inside.

A map on the passenger seat, a bottle of water in the cup holder, sunglasses on the dashboard.

On July 24th, when Haley did not return, the hostile manager called the Ranger office.

At in the morning, a search operation began.

The operation was led by Senior Ranger Brian Collins of the Tongas National Forest.

54 years old, 28 years of service, 20 of them in search and rescue operations.

Tall with graying hair and a calm, methodical disposition.

Tongis is the largest national forest in the United States, covering about 7 million hectares.

It has a humid temperate climate, rainforests, huge spruce and hemlock trees, and dense undergrowth of ferns and mosses.

Visibility in the forest is 10 to 15 m at most.

The trails are narrow and often washed out by rain.

The rivers are fast, cold, and filled with glacial water.

Bears, wolves, and cougars are common inhabitants.

12 rangers, eight volunteers from the local search and rescue team, and three dog handlers with dogs were recruited for the search.

A Coast Guard helicopter was assigned on the second day.

First, they checked the trail along the Stewart River.

The route starts at the parking lot, runs along the river for about 12 km, then turns into the mountains, and loops back.

The total length is about 40 km.

There are several campsites along the trail with primitive shelters and fire pits.

The dogs picked up the trail from the parking lot.

The scent led them along the trail for about 8 km to the first campsite at the waterfall.

There, the trail became stronger.

Haley had apparently spent the night here.

We found traces of a campfire and trampled grass under the shelter, but there were no belongings, no notes.

From the waterfall, the trail continued for another three kilometers along the river, then turned sharply south, leaving the trail and entering a dense forest.

The dogs followed the trail for another kilometer, then stopped at a stream.

The trail ended.

It just disappeared.

That was the first oddity.

The dog handler, a man in his 50s with a German Shepherd named Rex, said to Collins, “This happens when a person goes into the water and walks along the stream, or if he was driven by car, but there are no roads here.

” Collins ordered the search area to be expanded.

Teams combed the forest along the stream within a 3 km radius.

They checked ravines, rocks, and thicket.

They looked for signs of a camp, traces of a struggle, any personal belongings.

Nothing.

A helicopter flew over the area for 3 days.

They used thermal imaging, but the dense forest canopy blocked their view.

From the air, only the treetops, and occasional clearings, glades, rivereds, rocky outcrops were visible.

No tents, no bright clothing, no signals.

On the fifth day, they checked Haley’s satellite beacon.

The last signal was recorded on July 20th at 223038, and the coordinates corresponded to a point near the stream where the dog’s trail ended.

After that, the beacon did not communicate.

Either the battery was dead, the device was damaged, or it had been turned off.

Haley’s phone had not been answered since July 19th.

The last cell phone signal was around noon that day from a tower in Sitka.

There was no coverage in the forest.

Collins expanded the search to 10 km from the point of disappearance.

Additional forces were brought in.

Volunteers from Juno and students from the University of Alaska.

At its peak, more than 60 people were working in the forest.

They combed through more than 80 km.

They checked all the known caves in the area, about 15 of them, most of them shallow.

They searched abandoned hunting cabins, old logging sites, and observation towers.

They found nothing.

On August 5th, the official search was called off.

Collins held a press conference in Sitka.

He told Haley’s parents, the assembled journalists, and volunteers, “We have done everything possible.

We have used all available resources.

Unfortunately, Miss Morris has not been found.

The case remains open.

Haley’s parents stayed in Alaska for another month.

Her father hired a private investigator.

Her mother printed flyers and posted them around Sitka, Juno, and Ketchacan.

They offered a reward of $25,000 for information.

Several people called.

One fisherman said he saw a woman who looked like Haley on a boat in the straight.

A hunter claimed to have found a camera by the river, but it turned out to be someone else’s camera lost a year ago.

All leads were checked.

All turned out to be false.

By the fall of 2011, the main theory of the investigation was this.

Haley had strayed from the trail, fallen into the river or a crevice, and died from injuries or hypothermia.

Her body was carried away by the water or eaten by animals.

The forest is large and dense, making it nearly impossible to find a body.

An alternative theory was a bear attack.

Several grizzly bears had been spotted in the Stewart River area that season, but there were no signs of an attack at the site where her trail ended.

The case gradually cooled off.

Haley Morris was officially listed as missing.

Her parents returned to Seattle.

Every few months they called the ranger office to ask if there was any news.

There was no news.

Josh Allison, 32 years old, ranger at Tongas National Forest, medium height, athletic build, with dark hair and a thick beard.

He had been a ranger for 6 years.

Before that, he served in the army in the mountain infantry.

On September 27th, 2013, Ellison was conducting a routine inspection of old hunting trails in the southern part of the forest about 30 km from the point where Haley Morris’s trail ended.

The area was rarely visited with no marked trails, dense forest, and impenetrable undergrowth.

He walked along a barely visible trail overgrown with ferns, GPS navigator in hand, noting the condition of the trails for his annual report.

The weather was cloudy with light drizzle and a temperature of about 10°.

The forest was quiet with only the sound of the wind in the treetops and the occasional cawing of crows.

Around noon, Allison turned off the trail to check out an old hunting lodge marked on the map.

He walked through the thicket for about 200 m and came out onto a small clearing.

What he saw made him freeze.

In the middle of the clearing, among the thick moss and fallen tree trunks, stood a chair.

It was an ordinary leather armchair, old and worn, dark brown in color.

The leather was cracked and peeling in places, exposing the padding.

The surface was covered with mold stains and a green coating of moss.

A skeleton sat in the chair.

A human skeleton still dressed in a hiking jacket, jeans, and socks.

No shoes.

The body sat upright, its back leaning against the back of the chair, its arms on the armrests, its legs slightly apart, its feet on the ground.

The posture was natural, as if the person had simply sat down to rest.

The skull was tilted slightly forward.

The empty eye sockets looked down.

The jaw was slightly open.

The hair, dark and long, was partially preserved, stuck to the skull and shoulders of the jacket.

Allison stood motionless for a few seconds.

Then he slowly moved closer.

He took out his radio and called the central station.

Base, this is Ranger Allison.

I need the police and forensic experts.

I found a body.

Human, possibly dead for a long time.

Coordinates 57° 23 minutes north, 135° 41 minutes west.

Awaiting instructions, he was instructed not to touch the site, to remain where he was, and to wait for the team to arrive.

Allison walked around the clearing, examining the site without getting too close to the chair.

The clearing was small, about 20x 30 m, surrounded by a dense wall of fur and hemlock trees.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of moss in places with fallen branches and rotting trunks.

There were no traces of a path leading to the clearing.

There were no signs of a camp, no tents, no fire, no belongings, only the chair and the skeleton.

Ellison moved closer, crouching a couple of meters away, examining the details.

On the skeleton’s right hand was a wristwatch, large hiking style with a nylon strap.

The glass was covered with condensation, but it was clear that the hands had stopped.

Allison couldn’t make out the exact time, but the month on the display was clear.

August.

The corner of something plastic was sticking out of the jacket pocket.

Allison didn’t touch it, but he could make out the shape.

It looked like a driver’s license or a card.

Next to the chair on the moss lay a flask.

An old metal hunting flask tarnished and dented.

The cork was closed.

Allison didn’t pick it up.

Nothing else.

No backpack, no shoes, no phone, no camera.

Just the chair, the skeleton, the watch, and the flask.

Ellison stood up, walked to the edge of the clearing, and sat down on a fallen tree.

He waited.

He looked at the chair at the skeleton in a strange almost peaceful pose.

He tried to understand how this could have happened.

How did the chair end up here 30 km from the nearest road deep in the impenetrable forest? How the man ended up in that chair? Why he was sitting as if he were resting? He couldn’t find the answers.

Two hours later, the first group arrived.

Two police officers from Sitka in a helicopter.

They landed in the nearest clearing and walked to the GPS coordinates.

They examined the site and confirmed the discovery.

They called in the forensic team.

The forensic team arrived the next day.

A group of five people with equipment.

They cordined off the clearing, set up a tent, and began to document the site.

The work on site took 3 days.

They took photographs from different angles, took measurements, collected samples of soil, moss, and branches.

They examined every square meter of the clearing looking for clues.

They photographed the skeleton in its position, then carefully removed the clothes, took it out of the chair and packed the bones.

They took a driver’s license out of the jacket pocket.

The photo showed a woman with brown hair, name Haley Anne Morris, date of birth March 12th, 1982, address in Seattle.

They removed the watch from her wrist.

It was a Casio G-Shock, popular with tourists.

The display showed the date, August 23rd, 2011.

Time p.m.

The battery was dead.

The watch had stopped.

They picked up the flask and shook it.

Liquid sloshed inside.

They carefully opened the cap and sniffed.

It smelled like stale water with a faint chemical odor.

The contents were sent for analysis.

The chair was examined in detail.

It was old in the style of the 1970s.

The leather was genuine, cracked, and faded.

The frame was wooden, partially rotten.

The padding was foam rubber, which had turned to dust in places.

There were stains on the armrests that looked like dirt or mold.

Under the chair was moss pressed down by the weight but undamaged which suggested that the chair had been standing there for a long time, months or years.

The weight of the chair was estimated at about 40 kg.

It was bulky and difficult to carry.

The nearest trail was 7 km away.

The nearest road where a truck could pass was 15 km away.

It was physically impossible for one person to carry such a chair through the impenetrable forest.

So either two people carried it or it was transported on something, but no traces of transport, no ATV or all-terrain vehicle were found.

There were no drag marks either, although they could have disappeared in 2 years.

Forensic experts expanded their search to 100 m from the clearing.

They found the remains of an old campfire 30 m to the north.

embers, burnt branches, stones stacked in a circle.

It was difficult to determine the age of the fire, but judging by the degree of decomposition of the embers, it was at least a year old.

Samples were taken for analysis.

Nothing else.

No tents, no belongings, no traces of a camp, no Haley’s backpack, no camera, no phone, no satellite beacon, no shoes, although the skeleton’s feet were wearing socks, which suggested that the shoes had been removed or lost after death.

The body was sent to the morg in Juno.

The medical examiner, Dr.

Elizabeth Chen, a woman of about 45 with neatly styled hair and tired eyes, performed the autopsy the next day.

The results were detailed.

The skeleton belonged to a woman of Caucasian race, aged 25 to 35, about 165 cm tall.

The condition of the bones corresponded to approximately 2 years after death.

Most of the soft tissue had decomposed, leaving only bones, ligaments, and fragments of skin on the skull and limbs.

A crack was found on the skull in the area of the left parietal bone.

It was a linear fracture about 8 cm long with diverging cracks.

The nature of the damage was consistent with a blow from a blunt object with considerable force.

The edges of the fracture showed that the blow was inflicted during life.

The bone around the crack showed signs of hemorrhage.

No other fractures or bone damage were found.

The teeth were in good condition with fillings on two mers.

The spine was normal.

The ribs were intact.

Dr.

Chen concluded that the cause of death was head trauma, probably from a blow with a blunt object.

The blow was strong enough to cause a skull fracture.

internal bleeding and death within minutes or hours.

The nature of the injury was not consistent with a fall or accident.

The trajectory of the blow was horizontal from behind and to the left, indicating the action of another person.

Analysis of the contents of the flask yielded results a week later.

Traces of Zopone, a sleeping pill used to treat insomnia, were found in the water.

The concentration was high enough to cause deep sleep in an adult within half an hour of ingestion.

Haley’s clothing was also examined.

The jacket was a Colombia Gortex hiking jacket, size medium.

There were stains on the back of the jacket that looked like blood.

Analysis confirmed that it was human blood, type AB positive.

Haley’s medical records showed that she had that blood type.

The genes were regular Levis’s, size 28.

The socks were woolen hiking socks.

No underwear was found.

This was the second oddity.

DNA from the bones was compared with samples from Haley’s parents.

The match was 100%.

The skeleton belonged to Haley Anne Morris, who disappeared in July 2011.

The Alaska State Police opened a criminal case.

Murder, unidentified perpetrator.

Detective Mark Holland of the Juno Police Department led the investigation.

48 years old, 22 years of service, specializing in serious crimes.

Tall with short gray hair and an attentive, stern gaze, Holland began by reconstructing Haley’s last days.

He reviewed all the materials from the 2011 search operation.

He interviewed rangers, volunteers, everyone who participated in the search.

He studied the testimony of the hostile manager, the last people to see Haley alive.

The main theory, Haley was kidnapped on the trail, knocked unconscious with a blow to the head, transported or carried to a clearing where the killer staged a strange scene.

He sat the body in a chair and left a flask of water and sleeping pills nearby.

The motive was unclear.

There was no evidence of sexual assault, although the absence of underwear raised questions.

There was no evidence of robbery.

Her watch was still on her wrist.

Her driver’s license was in her pocket.

There was no evidence of a random killing, too much preparation, too strange a scene.

Holland compiled a list of suspects.

It included local hermits.

Several people lived in the Tongas area, far from civilization, in homemade huts or tents.

Three of them were known to the police, old convictions, mostly for petty theft and violations.

All three were questioned.

One could not clearly explain his whereabouts.

in July 2011, but his alibi was confirmed by two witnesses who saw him in Ketchin during those days.

The other two were ruled out due to their age and physical condition.

One was 78 years old and could barely move.

The other was disabled and unable to lift heavy objects.

Seasonal logging workers.

In 2011, about 25 people worked in the area for a logging company based in Sitka.

Holland interviewed everyone who was still in Alaska.

Most had alibis confirmed by time sheets.

Three, whose alibis were weak were checked further.

One had a criminal record for assault in 1998 and had served 3 years in prison.

He was questioned on record and DNA samples were taken.

The results did not match the samples found at the scene.

Men from Haley’s correspondents.

The investigation gained access to Haley’s email and social media accounts.

A month before her disappearance, she had been corresponding with three men on travel forums.

One lived in California and had a confirmed alibi.

He was at work on those days.

The second lived in Canada and also had a confirmed alibi.

The third, a 34year-old man named Kyle Thompson from Juno, did not have a clear alibi for July 20th 23, 2011.

He claimed that he was at home alone watching television.

He was questioned several times.

Thompson worked as a mechanic in an auto repair shop and lived alone in a small house on the outskirts of Juno.

He was single, had no criminal record, was quiet, and spoke little.

His correspondence with Haley was brief, consisting of a few messages about roots and equipment.

Nothing personal, nothing suspicious.

Holland obtained a search warrant for Thompson’s home.

They found a computer, clothes, ordinary things, nothing related to Haley.

No camera, phone, or belongings of hers.

They took DNA samples, hair from a comb, saliva.

They sent them for analysis.

The results came back in 3 weeks.

No match.

Thompson’s DNA did not match any of the samples found at the scene or on Haley’s clothes.

Holland widened the circle.

He checked all registered tourists who had traveled roots in the Steuart River area in July 2011.

There were 14 of them.

They were all found and questioned.

No one had seen Haley on the trail.

No one had reported any strange encounters or suspicious people.

He checked the owners of the chair.

That turned out to be a dead end.

The chair was a mass-produced model from the 1970s, manufactured in the thousands and sold throughout the country.

It was impossible to trace a specific chair.

He checked local hunters with Tongas hunting licenses.

The list was long, more than 100 people.

We interviewed those who hunted in the area where the body was found.

No one knew anything, saw anything, or heard anything.

By December 2013, the investigation had reached a dead end.

Not a single suspect with sufficient evidence, not a single lead pointing to the killer.

Holland and his team developed several theories about what happened.

Theory one, Haley met someone on the trail, perhaps another hiker or a local resident.

The person seemed friendly and offered help or company.

Haley agreed and went with him.

They turned off the trail and reached a stream.

There, the killer gave her water from a flask laced with a sleeping pill.

Haley drank it and began to lose consciousness.

The killer hit her on the head and killed her.

Then he carried or transported the body to a clearing where he had set up a chair in advance.

He sat the body down, left the flask nearby, and left.

Problems with this theory.

Why would the killer stage such a scene? What is the point of the chair? Why this particular clearing 30 km from the place of disappearance? How did he carry the body and the chair through the forest? Why were there no traces of transport? Theory two.

Haley knew the killer.

Maybe she had met him before and arranged to meet him in the forest.

The killer came.

They met.

Something went wrong and he killed her.

Then he staged the scene to confuse the investigation or for some personal reason.

Problems.

There are no records of Haley’s acquaintances in Alaska except for random correspondence on forums.

No calls, meetings, plans.

Nothing in her mail or phone indicated a secret meeting.

Theory three, the killer is a serial criminal or psychopath who creates strange scenes.

Maybe Haley wasn’t the first victim.

Maybe there are other bodies, other chairs, other glades not yet found.

Problems: No data on similar cases in Alaska or other states.

The FBI checked the databases.

No matches with the method, scene, or details.

Theory four, accident plus staging.

Haley fell, hit her head on a rock, and died.

Someone found the body and for some unknown reason decided to move it and stage a strange scene.

Maybe a mentally ill person, maybe someone with a twisted sense of humor.

Problems.

The blow to the head was too deliberate for an accident.

The presence of sleeping pills in the flask ruled out an accident.

No theory explained all the facts.

Special attention was paid to the chair.

It was the key to understanding the motive and identity of the killer.

Forensic scientists examined the chair in detail at a laboratory in Anchorage.

They took samples from every surface, leather, wood, upholstery.

They looked for hair, skin, fingerprints, any biological traces.

They found traces of several people.

DNA from three different people was found on the armrests and back rest.

One sample matched Haley’s.

Her DNA was found where her back and arms had been in contact with the chair.

The other two samples were from unknown men.

They checked the databases.

No matches.

There were few fingerprints.

The leather of the chair was too damaged by time and moisture.

Several partial prints were found on the wooden parts of the frame, but they were blurred and unsuitable for identification.

We studied the chair’s design.

The model was called the executive lounge chair and was manufactured by Lane Furniture from 1970 to 1982.

It was sold in furniture stores across the country for about $200 a piece.

Approximately 15,000 such chairs were produced.

It was impossible to track down the specific chair.

It could have been bought by anyone anywhere at any time over the past 30 years.

It could have been resold several times, given away, thrown away, or found.

Holland tried to find records of chairs discarded or sold in the Sitka area in recent years.

He called consignment shops, landfills, and furniture collection points.

He found three chairs of a similar model, all in private homes, all with owners who had alibis.

A dead end.

In January 2014, Holland organized a second search of the clearing area.

A group of 10 people combed the forest within a 5 km radius, looking for other clearings, other chairs, any anomalies.

They found several abandoned hunting camps, old fire pits, and the remains of tents.

Nothing related to Haley or the killer.

In February, the media published details of the case.

The story of a tourist found dead in a chair in the woods became a sensation.

Dozens of journalists came to Sitka interviewing rangers, police, and Haley’s parents.

Her parents gave one interview to a local TV station.

Her father, with gray hair and deep wrinkles, said, “We want to know who did this, why?” Haley was a good girl.

She didn’t deserve this.

We won’t rest until we find the answers.

Her mother cried and couldn’t speak.

After the publications, several people called.

One woman from Juno claimed to have seen a man dragging a chair in the woods in 2011.

The description was vague and the details changed when questioned again.

They checked it out and found it to be a false memory triggered by the news.

Another caller, a man from Seattle, said he knew who the killer was, but wanted money for the information.

He turned out to be a con artist trying to profit from the tragedy.

The third call was from a psychologist in Anchorage.

She offered a theory.

The killer suffers from a rare mental disorder associated with the desire to control bodies after death.

Perhaps the killer imagined Haley alive, sitting in a chair, resting.

It was his fantasy, his way of coping with loneliness or psychosis.

Holland listened, thanked her, and added the theory to the file.

But without a specific suspect, it was of no help.

By March 2014, the active investigation had been suspended.

All leads had been checked.

All suspects had been questioned.

All theories had been explored.

The result, zero.

The case remained open, classified as an unsolved murder.

DNA samples were entered into databases in case matches came up in the future.

The chair was placed in the evidence storage room of the Juno Police Department, where it remains to this day.

Haley’s parents took her remains, cremated them, and scattered the ashes over the ocean near Seattle.

They erected a memorial plaque in a local park where Haley loved to walk as a child.

Ranger Josh Ellison, who found the body, returned to his usual work.

But according to him, he cannot forget that clearing, that chair, that skeleton in a strange, almost peaceful pose.

Sometimes walking through the forest, he catches himself thinking that somewhere else in some other thicket, there is another chair waiting.

Detective Holland retired in 2018.

In his farewell interview with a local newspaper, he said, “The Morris case is the only one I didn’t close in my career.

It haunts me.

Someone out there knows what happened.

Someone brought the chair, killed the girl, and left.

And they live among us.

Maybe in Sitka, maybe in Juno, maybe somewhere else living quietly as usual.

But they know.

And I hope that someday their conscience will make them talk or they’ll make a mistake and we’ll find them.

Right now, the case remains unsolved.

In the Juno Police Office, there is a thick folder in the filing cabinet labeled case number 213/11, Haley Anne Morris.

Inside are photos of the clearing, the chair, the skeleton, witness statements, expert reports, lists of suspects, investigators theories, and there is no answer to the main question.

Who did it and why? The clearing still exists 30 kilometers from the nearest trail deep in the Tongas National Forest.

The chair is no longer there.

It was taken by forensic experts.

But the moss has preserved the imprint, the place where it stood.

Four small indentations from the legs.

Overgrown, almost invisible, but still discernable if you know where to