When rescuers dug up an old campfire site at an altitude of 2,300 m, they discovered something no one expected.

Under a layer of ash and rocks lay the body of 20-year-old Ethan Harper.

His older brother, Nathan, swore that his younger brother had simply gotten lost in the woods and disappeared.

But the autopsy showed that Ethan had died from a blow to the back of the head with a blunt object.

And the only person who was with him that day was his own brother.

The Harper brothers lived in the small town of Jackson, Wyoming, near Grand Teton National Park.

Nathan was 20 years old and worked as a mechanic at a local auto repair shop after graduating from technical school.

Ethan was only a year younger and was studying wildlife biology at a college in Idaho.

Their parents had died in a plane crash 3 years earlier, leaving the brothers a house on the outskirts of Jackson and a small plot of land.

After their parents’ death, the brothers lived together in this house when Ethan came home for vacations.

Neighbors said that their relationship was normal with no apparent conflicts.

Nathan was older and considered responsible, often giving advice to his younger brother.

Ethan was more open and sociable, had many friends, and was fond of hiking and rock climbing in the mountains.

At the end of August 2005, the brothers decided to go hiking in the Wind River Mountains in northwestern Wyoming.

This mountain range, part of the Rocky Mountains, is a popular destination among experienced hikers, but it is quite remote and rugged.

Ethan suggested the trip, telling Nathan that he wanted to show him the beautiful places he often visited with his college friends.

Nathan agreed, even though he had never been particularly interested in serious hiking before.

They planned a three-day route, climbed to one of the high mountain lakes, spend the night there, and returned the next day.

On August 23rd, the brothers loaded their backpacks into Nathan’s old Ford pickup truck and left early in the morning.

Their neighbor, Mrs.

Thompson, saw them leave around in the morning.

Ethan was in a good mood, joking as he loaded the tent into the truck bed.

Nathan was more focused, checking the list of things they had brought with them.

They had a twoerson tent, sleeping bags, a camping stove, food for 3 days, water in a canister, a first aid kit, and basic hiking gear.

Ethan took his cell phone and spare batteries.

Nathan also took his phone, but told his neighbor that there was almost no reception in the mountains anyway, especially in the areas where they were going.

They arrived at the trail head around noon.

They parked the pickup truck on a small dirt lot that hikers used as a starting point.

There was no official checkpoint or ranger station, just a sign pointing to the trail and a wooden board with a map of the area.

Ethan showed Nathan on the map where they were going to Lonely Lake located high in the mountains at an altitude of about 2,300 m.

The route involved an 8-hour climb through the forest, then across rocky areas to the lake.

Ethan had been there twice before and considered himself familiar with the route.

For Nathan, this was his first serious hike at such an altitude.

They began the climb around noon.

The weather was changeable.

The sun was alternating with clouds.

The air temperature was around 15°, but it promised to be colder in the mountains.

Ethan warned his brother to bring warm clothes because it could be around freezing at the lake at night.

They walked along a narrow trail that led uphill through a dense coniferous forest.

The first few hours of the climb were relatively gentle, but then the trail became steeper.

The last contact with the brothers was on the evening of August 23rd.

Ethan sent a text message to his girlfriend Emily around p.m.

He wrote a short message saying that they had almost reached the lake.

Everything was fine and the connection was poor.

Emily replied asking them to be careful and to text her when they came back down.

Ethan replied with just the letter K and did not contact her again.

Emily wasn’t worried.

She knew that reception was really bad in the Wind River Mountains, and Ethan often didn’t reply to messages while hiking.

The brothers were due back on August 25th.

Emily waited all day for Ethan to call, but he didn’t.

That evening, she called Nathan, but his phone was out of range.

She began to worry, but decided to wait until the next day.

Maybe they had been delayed in the mountains by the weather, or had simply decided to stay another day.

Ethan sometimes did that when the weather was good and he wanted to spend more time outdoors.

On August 26th, Emily tried calling again.

Ethan’s phone was either turned off or out of battery.

Nathan’s phone was also unanswered.

She called several of Ethan’s friends from college to ask if they had heard anything.

No one knew anything.

Emily began to worry seriously and decided to drive to the brother’s house in Jackson.

She arrived there around in the afternoon.

The pickup truck was not in the yard.

The house was locked and no one answered the door.

Emily knocked on the door of their neighbor, Mrs.

Thompson, who had seen the brothers leave.

The neighbor confirmed that they had left on the morning of August 23rd and had not returned since.

Emily decided to wait until evening, but by p.m.

the brothers had not shown up.

So, she drove to the Teton County Sheriff’s Office and reported two people missing.

The officer on duty took her statement, noted the brother’s descriptions, and asked where they were headed.

Emily explained that Ethan had mentioned the Wind River Mountains and a lake called Lonely Lake, but she didn’t know the exact route.

The officer said he would organize a search the next morning, but warned that the Wind River Mountains were a vast area and it would not be easy to find people there, especially if they had strayed from the route.

Early in the morning on August 27th, a sixperson search and rescue team set out for the trail head where the brother’s pickup truck was parked.

The truck was indeed there, locked with nothing suspicious visible inside.

The rescuers took radios, GPS navigators, medical equipment, and dogs with them.

Two of the group were experienced guides who knew the area well.

They began their ascent along the trail to Lonely Lake at around in the morning.

The weather was cloudy with occasional drizzle.

The trail was slippery from the moisture.

The rescuers walked quickly, checking all the trail branches and scanning the area on either side.

One of the guides noticed fresh bootprints in some places which could have belonged to the brothers, but the rain had washed away many of the tracks.

By evening, the group had reached the lake, but found no trace of the brothers there.

There was no tent, no traces of a campfire.

Nothing.

The rescuers searched the shores of the lake and checked the nearest rocky areas, but found nothing.

The search continued the next day.

They expanded the search area, combed the forest on the slopes, and checked other possible routes.

The dogs tried to pick up the trail, but the rains of the previous days made their work very difficult.

By the evening of August 28th, the rescuers still had found nothing.

The group returned downhill to spend the night and continue the search the next day with a new strategy.

On the morning of August 29th, as the rescuers were preparing to set out again, Nathan Harper called the sheriff’s office.

He said he had just come down from the mountains, found the place where the signal had been, and was calling to report the tragedy.

Nathan spoke incoherently, his voice sounding exhausted.

He said that he and his brother had climbed up to the lake on the evening of August 23rd, set up camp, and everything was fine.

The next morning, August 24th, Ethan decided to go explore the area around the lake, saying he wanted to find a good spot for photos.

Nathan stayed at the camp and made breakfast.

Ethan left around a.m.

and said he would be back in an hour, but Ethan did not return in an hour or two.

Nathan started looking for him, shouting, walking around the lake, checking the rocks.

He searched all day, but found no trace of his brother.

The next day, August 25th, he continued his search.

He thought Ethan might have fallen, injured himself, or gotten lost.

He searched for two days, but to no avail.

His own phone ran out of battery, and he began to run out of food and water.

He decided to go down to call for help.

It took him two days to descend because he chose a different route, thinking Ethan might have gone that way.

Only this morning did he reach the road and find a place with a signal.

The sheriff’s deputy recorded Nathan’s statement over the phone and asked for the exact location where they had camped.

Nathan described the place the eastern shore of Lonely Lake near a large boulder and a group of pine trees.

He said that when he left, he left his tent and belongings there because he couldn’t carry everything.

The officer asked Nathan to come to the office for a more detailed conversation.

Nathan said he was on the road now, would hitch a ride, and arrive within a few hours.

Nathan arrived at the sheriff’s office around in the afternoon.

He looked exhausted, dirty clothes, unshaven face, bruises under his eyes.

His boots were muddy and scratched.

His backpack was almost empty, containing only a sleeping bag, and an empty water bottle.

The officers sat him down and gave him water and food.

Nathan repeated his story in more detail.

He told how they had climbed, how they had set up camp, how Ethan had left in the morning and not returned.

His voice trembled when he spoke of his brother.

He said he felt guilty for not going with Ethan, that he should have insisted on staying together.

The officers asked clarifying questions.

Had there been any conflicts between the brothers during the hike? Nathan replied that no, everything had been fine.

They had even joked and talked about plans for the future.

Did Nathan notice anything strange in Ethan’s behavior before he left? Nathan said no.

Ethan was in his usual mood, took only his camera and a bottle of water with him and said he would be back soon.

The rescue team received new information and immediately headed back to the lake.

Now they had a specific location, the eastern shore, a large boulder, a group of pine trees.

They reached the lake in the evening of August 29th.

Sure enough, they found a tent and some belongings on the Eastern Shore.

The tent was partially dismantled, and the belongings were inside.

Two sleeping bags, backpacks with clothes, leftover food, and a camping stove.

Next to the tent was a fire pit, a circle of stones with ashes, and burnt branches inside.

Everything looked just as Nathan had described.

The rescuers began to comb the area around the camp.

They looked for clues, signs of which direction Ethan might have gone.

One of the rescuers noticed that the fire pit looked strange.

Usually, the ashes in a fire pit lie in a thin layer, but here there was a lot of ash and it was tightly packed.

The rescuer decided to check it out and began raking the ashes with his hands.

Under the layer of ashes, he found stones.

The stones were tightly packed as if they had been laid there on purpose.

He called the others.

The rescuers began to carefully dismantle the stones.

Under the stones was soil, also tightly packed.

It looked suspicious.

One of the rescuers said they needed to dig.

They began digging with sticks and their hands.

The earth was dense and difficult to dig.

After half an hour of work, at a depth of about 50 cm, they came across something hard.

It was fabric, a blue jacket.

The rescuers stopped and called the sheriff’s officers on the radio.

They reported that they had found something under the campfire that looked like a body.

The officers told them not to touch anything else and to wait.

Forensic experts and investigators would come to the lake tomorrow morning.

The rescuers set up camp nearby and remained to guard the site until the investigation team arrived.

On August 30th, a group of 10 people, investigators, forensic experts, a medical examiner, and several officers arrived at the lake.

They brought equipment for excavating and documenting the crime scene.

Work began early in the morning.

The forensic experts first photographed everything, the tent, belongings, campfire site, and surrounding area.

Then they began to carefully excavate the area under the campfire site.

The work took several hours.

They removed the soil and layers, sifted through it, and searched for clues.

By noon, the body was completely exposed.

It was a young man lying on his side in a shallow pit.

He was wearing a blue jacket, jeans, and hiking boots.

The body was partially decomposed, but it was possible to identify it.

The medical examiner immediately noticed the skull.

There was a large dent on the back of the head.

clearly from a strong blow.

The bone was broken.

That was the cause of death.

The forensic experts continued their examination.

Near the body, they found a fist-sized stone in the ground with dark spots on it that looked like blood.

This stone could have been the murder weapon.

They carefully packed it up as evidence.

They also found several fabric fibers that did not match the victim’s clothing.

Everything was documented, photographed, and samples were collected.

Investigators examined the tent and belongings more closely.

Inside the tent was Ethan’s backpack, his documents, wallet, and camera.

The camera contained photographs, views of the mountains, the lake, the brothers together against the backdrop of the landscape.

The last photographs were taken on the evening of August 23rd when they set up camp.

There were no photographs from the morning of August 24th, although Nathan said that Ethan had taken the camera with him when he left.

This was the first inconsistency.

If Ethan took the camera, why was it left in the tent? Investigators checked Nathan’s belongings.

His backpack was there, but some items were missing.

His sleeping bag, water bottle, and knife.

This matched what Nathan said.

He took these items with him when he went downhill.

The investigators continued their detailed examination of the camp.

One of the forensic experts noticed the ground around the fire pit.

There were marks on the ground that looked as if something heavy had been dragged to the fire pit.

The marks were partially erased, but still visible.

They measured them.

The width matched that of a human body.

This meant that the body had been moved to the fire pit after death.

Another detail caught their attention.

There were splatters on the stones around the fire pit, dark spots that could have been blood.

Samples were taken for analysis.

If it was indeed Ethan’s blood, it meant that the blow had been struck here in the camp and not somewhere in the forest.

Nathan’s version of events that Ethan had left in the morning and not returned was beginning to look dubious.

The medical examiner conducted a preliminary examination of the body on site.

He determined that death had occurred approximately 5 to 6 days ago, which coincided with the date of August 24th.

The blow to the back of the head had been delivered with great force.

The skull had been fractured, and the injury was incompatible with life.

Death occurred almost instantly or within a few minutes.

No other serious injuries were found on the body.

The victim’s hands were in a normal position and there were no signs of a struggle or defensive wounds.

This indicated that the blow was unexpected and the victim did not have time to react.

Forensic experts photographed and documented everything.

The body was packed for transport down the mountain.

All the evidence was collected.

The rock with blood stains, samples of soil and ash, fabric fibers, and blood samples from the rocks around the campfire.

The tent and all belongings were also taken as material evidence.

By the evening of August 30th, the group began their descent from the lake.

Carrying the body and equipment was difficult, so they descended slowly and carefully.

They didn’t reach the road until noon on August 31st.

The body was taken to the morg for a full autopsy.

Blood samples were sent to the lab for DNA analysis.

The stained rock was sent for examination.

All items from the camp were handed over to forensic experts for detailed examination.

Investigators summoned Nathan Harper for further questioning.

Nathan arrived at the sheriff’s office on September 1st.

He looked better than he had 2 days earlier.

Clean clothes, well-rested, shaven.

Investigators informed him that they had found his brother’s body.

Nathan covered his face with his hands and began to cry.

He asked where exactly they had found him and what had happened.

The investigator said that the body was under the campfire site at their camp.

Nathan raised his head, his face expressing incomprehension.

He said that this was impossible, that he had not seen anything there, that the campfire site was normal.

The investigators explained that the body had been buried in a shallow pit covered with stones and a fire had been lit on top.

Nathan repeated that there had been nothing like that when he left the camp.

The investigators asked a direct question.

When exactly had Nathan last seen his brother alive? Nathan repeated his version of events.

On the morning of August 24th, around a.m., Ethan left with the camera, said he would be back in an hour, and was not seen again.

The investigators said that the camera had been found in the tent in Ethan’s backpack.

There were no photos taken on the morning of August 24th on the camera.

If Ethan took the camera with him, how did it end up in the tent? Nathan looked confused.

He said he didn’t understand.

Maybe Ethan changed his mind and left the camera and he just didn’t notice.

Maybe he took another camera or just his phone.

The investigators asked if Ethan had another camera.

Nathan said, “No, just that one.” The investigators continued.

They explained that they had found traces of blood on the ground around the campfire.

Analysis would show whose blood it was, but preliminary evidence suggested it was the victim’s blood.

This meant that Ethan had suffered a fatal injury at the campsite, not somewhere in the woods.

Nathan was silent, staring at the floor.

The investigators asked him directly what had actually happened on the morning of August 24th.

Nathan was silent for a long time.

Then he said he wanted a lawyer.

The investigators explained his rights.

He had the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and anything he said could be used against him in court.

Nathan repeated that he wanted a lawyer and would say nothing more without one.

The investigators ended the interrogation.

Nathan was allowed to leave, but was warned not to leave town.

The results of the examination came back a week later.

The DNA from the blood on the rocks around the campfire matched Ethan Harper’s DNA.

The DNA on the rock that was believed to be the murder weapon also matched Ethan’s DNA.

Fingerprints were found on the same rock.

They belonged to Nathan Harper.

Fiber analysis showed that some fibers from the crime scene matched the fabric of Nathan’s shirt, which he wore during the hike.

The autopsy confirmed the preliminary findings.

Ethan died from a blunt force trauma to the skull.

The blow was delivered from behind and the victim did not see the attacker.

The force of the blow was significant, breaking the skull bone to a depth of about 3 cm.

There were no other injuries on the body.

The victim’s stomach contained food remnants, bread, canned food, similar to breakfast.

The time of death was determined to be early morning on August 24th, approximately between 7 and .

Investigators reconstructed an approximate picture of events.

The brothers went up to the lake on the evening of August 23rd, set up camp, had dinner, and went to bed.

On the morning of August 24th, they woke up, and Nathan began to prepare breakfast.

At some point, a conflict arose between the brothers.

Nathan picked up a rock and struck his brother on the back of the head.

Ethan fell and died almost instantly.

Nathan dug a shallow hole near the place where he planned to build a fire.

He dragged his brother’s body into the hole, buried it, and covered it with rocks.

He built a fire directly above the burial site to hide the traces of freshly dug earth.

Nathan then stayed at the camp for a few more days, maintaining the appearance of a normal camping trip.

He discharged his brother’s phone and put away his belongings.

On August 29th, he went down and called the police, telling them that his brother had left in the morning and had not returned.

He expected that the body would either not be found at all or would be found somewhere in the forest and that his death would be attributed to an accident, a fall from a cliff or an animal attack.

But Nathan did not expect the rescuers to find the camp so quickly and be so attentive to detail.

He did not expect anyone to start digging under the campfire site.

His plan failed.

On September 8th, the prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for Nathan Harper.

He was charged with first-degree murder.

Nathan was arrested at his home early in the morning.

He did not resist and silently allowed himself to be handcuffed.

The house was searched.

They looked for any evidence that could confirm the motive for the murder or shed light on the events of August 24th.

They found real estate documents in the house, his parents’ will, which left the house and land to both brothers in equal shares.

They also found several letters from a lawyer dated July 2005.

The letters discussed the division of property.

It turned out that Ethan wanted to sell the house.

He planned to move to another state after college where he had received a job offer at a research center.

He didn’t need the house.

He wanted to sell it and get his share in cash.

Nathan was against the sale.

He grew up in this house.

For him, it was a family home.

a memory of his parents.

He didn’t want to sell it, but according to the will, both brothers were equal co-owners, and if one insisted on selling, it could be done legally through the courts.

The lawyer explained to Nathan that he could try to buy out his brother’s share, but that would require money.

Nathan worked as a mechanic, his salary was small, and he had no savings.

Taking out a loan to buy out the share was problematic.

The letters showed that there was a conflict between the brothers over the house.

Ethan insisted on selling.

Nathan refused.

They tried to negotiate but could not find a solution that would suit both of them.

The last letter from the lawyer was dated August 20th, 3 days before the trip.

The letter stated that if the brothers did not reach an agreement, Ethan could file a lawsuit for the forced division of property through sale.

That was the motive.

Nathan did not want to lose the house.

If Ethan died, then by law, all the property would pass to the sole heir.

Nathan, he would keep the house and there would be no sale.

Investigators realized that the murder had been planned.

Nathan didn’t suggest the trip on a whim.

He chose a remote location with few people where he could kill his brother and try to hide the crime.

Nathan was assigned a public defender.

The lawyer met with him in prison and listened to his version of events.

Nathan continued to insist on his innocence.

He said that his brother had indeed left in the morning and had not returned, that he did not know how the body had ended up under the campfire and that someone else could have done it.

The lawyer explained that the evidence against him was very serious.

his fingerprints on the murder weapon, the victim’s blood in the camp, inconsistencies in his testimony, and a motive in the form of a dispute over inheritance.

The lawyer offered a deal with the prosecution.

If Nathan confessed to the murder and told them exactly what had happened, the prosecution could reduce the charge from first-degree murder to seconddegree murder or manslaughter.

That would mean a shorter sentence.

Nathan refused.

He said he would not confess to something he did not do.

The case went to trial in March 2006.

The trial lasted two weeks.

The prosecution presented all the evidence, fingerprints on the rock, the victim’s blood at the camp, inconsistencies in the defendant’s testimony, the motive of a dispute over inheritance, and an expert opinion on the time and cause of death.

Witnesses were called Mrs.

Thompson, Ethan’s girlfriend, Emily, the lawyer who handled the property division case, the rescuers who found the body, and the forensic experts who conducted the examination.

The defense tried to cast doubt.

The lawyer argued that Nathan’s fingerprints on the rock could have appeared by accident.

The brothers were building a fire together, and Nathan could have been picking up rocks for the fire pit.

He explained the inconsistencies in the testimony by the stress and shock Nathan experienced after his brother’s disappearance.

The conflict over the house does not prove intent to kill.

It is a common family dispute.

The lawyer suggested that there could have been someone else at the lake that day, someone who killed Ethan while Nathan was at camp.

But the prosecution refuted this version.

Lonely Lake is in a remote location and few people go there, especially at the end of August on weekdays.

Rescuers found no traces of other people in the area.

Besides, if someone killed Ethan, why would that person bury the body under a campfire pit in someone else’s camp? It didn’t make sense.

The only person who had a motive to hide the body and make it look like an accident was Nathan.

The prosecutor presented a reconstruction of events.

On the morning of August 24th, the brothers woke up and started making breakfast.

Perhaps they talked again about the house, about selling it.

The argument escalated.

Nathan lost control, grabbed a rock, and hit his brother on the back of the head.

Ethan fell and died almost instantly.

Nathan realized what he had done and decided to hide the crime.

He dug a hole, buried the body, and built a fire on top of it.

He stayed at the camp for several days to make everything look normal.

Then he went down and staged a version of events in which his brother had disappeared.

The prosecutor emphasized the coldness of Nathan’s actions.

After the murder, he did not panic, did not run away, did not call for help.

He methodically covered up the traces of the crime.

He stayed at the camp next to his brother’s body for several days.

He planned his version of events.

He only called the police 5 days later when he was sure that everything looked plausible.

This was not a spontaneous murder in a fit of rage.

It was a cold-blooded crime with an attempt to avoid punishment.

The jury went into deliberation on March 22nd.

They discussed for 2 days.

On March 24th, they returned with a verdict.

guilty of first-degree murder.

The judge handed down the sentence life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

Nathan listened to the sentence without emotion.

He didn’t cry or scream.

He just stood there silently.

He was led away in handcuffs.

Ethan’s relatives, his girlfriend Emily, and several friends from college sat in the courtroom.

Emily cried.

She had lost the man she loved because of the greed and selfishness of his own brother.

After the trial, investigators gave an interview to a local newspaper.

They explained that this case shows how important it is to carefully examine the scene of an incident.

If the rescuers had not noticed the strangelooking fire pit, if they had not started digging, the body might have gone unnoticed.

Nathan could have avoided punishment, but the attentiveness and professionalism of the rescuers led to the crime being solved.

The house where it all began was sold after the trial.

The money went to cover legal costs and compensation for Ethan’s family.

Nathan is serving his sentence in a Wyoming correctional facility.

He will be eligible to apply for parole in 2030 when he will be 45 years old.

The story of the Harper brothers serves as a warning about how greed and unwillingness to compromise can lead to tragedy.

Two brothers who grew up together lost their parents and had only each other could not agree on the house.

One wanted to start a new life.

The other clung to the past.

Instead of finding a solution that would suit both of them, one of them chose murder.

Lonely Lake in the Wind River Mountains has retained its beauty and tranquility.

Tourists still visit it, although now the place is known not only for its scenery, but also for the tragedy that took place there.

Emily never got married.

She graduated from college, became a biology teacher, and devoted her life to working with children.

Every year in August, she comes to the lake, lays flowers at the plaque with Ethan’s name on it, sits on the shore, and remembers the man she loved.

She says that Ethan was kind, loved nature, and wanted to help preserve the wilderness for future generations.

His dreams were stolen by his own brother because of a house that ended up being sold anyway.

This is a story about how material things are not worth a human life.

That family and kinship should be more important than money and property.

That greed destroys lives.

Nathan Harper lost his brother, his freedom, and his future because of a