In October of 2020, three cavers made their way deep into one of the unnamed caves of Hunter Canyon in southern Arizona.

They explored new passages and recorded mineral formations.

In a narrow, isolated grotto, one of them focused his flashlight on a flat wall and stopped.

Two silhouettes were visible on it, one male and one female, clear, proportional, as if drawn by a person.

The material was thick and dark, and the consistency resembled a dried organic liquid.

A former paramedic in the group suggested that it might be blood.

They recorded the discovery, took photos, and notified the authorities.

Only after laboratory analysis did it become clear the samples contained mixed DNA from Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp, a couple from Tucson, who disappeared 7 years ago.

In early September 2013 on a Friday around in the morning, 24year-old Maxim Herrell and 22-year-old Gabriella Sharp arrived at the Coronado National Forest Visitor Center.

According to a staff member on duty, who later testified to investigators, the pair were confident, carefully clarifying the rules for overnight stays and asking for a stamp to indicate their two-day campaign permit.

Both looked like experienced hikers.

Light backpacks, a clear list of equipment, and an adequate supply of water.

After a brief briefing, they left the building and headed for the parking lot where their silver Ford Ranger was parked.

At and 16 minutes, the CCTV cameras captured the SUV leaving the center.

According to their permit, the route was deep into Hunter Canyon toward a littleknown trail locals called the Spectre’s Guard Trail.

This path was not official, but was used by hunters and photographers who knew the area well.

The area was considered remote with cliffs, sandy terraces, and dense mosquite thicket.

In the afternoon, the couple appeared on a rock known as Wolf’s Eye.

This fact was established from the words of their friends to whom Moxim sent a photo at 40 minutes in the evening.

In the picture, he and Gabriella stood against the backdrop of the sun setting behind the jagged canyon line.

Apart from this photo, there were no other messages from them that day.

They were supposed to return to the city the next evening.

When Gabriella did not show up for her shift at a local cafe on Sunday, September 8th, and Maxim did not answer his father’s calls, relatives first assumed that the couple had continued their journey.

It was only when friends who received the last photo reported at p.m.

that both had been out of contact for more than a day that the family called the Coochis County Sheriff’s Office.

On Monday morning, rangers from the Coronado National Forest arrived at the trail head.

The Ford Ranger was parked where the couple had left it 2 days earlier.

The car was locked, and inside were some of the things you usually take on a trip, but not critical.

Light jackets, one extra water canister, and a small first aid kit.

There were no signs of struggle or haste in the cabin.

According to one of the rangers who conducted the initial search, it looked like people had just gotten out and intended to return.

The search operation began immediately.

First, they searched the Spectre’s Guard Trail itself, which ran in a narrow strip along the canyon walls and into the dry bed of an old seasonal river.

The dogs picked up the scent twice at the beginning of the route, but after a few hundred yards, the scent was lost in the loose sand.

The searchers combed an area covering several square miles, including viewpoints, ledges, and several natural grotto that could serve as shelter in the event of a sharp deterioration in the weather.

According to one of the volunteers from the Arizona Association of Search and Rescue Teams, who worked in the early days, the geography of the area itself made the search difficult.

The canyon had dozens of branches that even experienced hikers got lost in.

The nature of the soil also posed a problem.

The tracks did not last long, especially after gusts of warm desert wind that kicked up dust and erased any patterns in the sand.

On the fourth day of the search, a helicopter with a thermal imager was deployed, but thick rock outcroppings and sharp elevation changes practically negated the effectiveness of the aerial survey.

Several groups continued to operate on the ground, making radial exits from the dry riverbed toward the northern plateau.

It was here, according to one of the rangers, that the trail ended as suddenly as it had begun.

Over the next 3 weeks, the work continued unabated.

The sheriff officially confirmed in a statement that no evidence of an attack or tragic accident had been found.

There were no items left behind.

No clothing fragments, no fall marks, no treadmarks or foreign prints.

Several local guides who knew the area well joined the search on a voluntary basis, but they were unable to suggest any new points to look for.

When it became clear that the canyon did not provide answers, the case became a disappearance under unexplained circumstances.

The families of both young men insisted for a long time on continuing active searches, but any further operations were carried out only sporadically.

The canyon itself has since been repeatedly checked by private searchers, but no new trace has appeared.

Thus began a story that for many years remained one of the most mysterious in southern Arizona.

In early October of 2020, three members of the Phoenix-based Desert Explorers Club traveled to Hunter Canyon to explore several poorly explored cave systems that were only partially mapped.

According to the leader of the trip, they chose this area because of the increased number of sinkholes recorded by geologists in previous seasons.

The group’s route was far from the official trails.

They moved through dry channels, narrow canyon pockets, and under rock passages where the temperature remained lower than on the surface.

According to the GPS track they provided to the rescuers later at about and 50 minutes in the afternoon, the group came to the entrance of a small cave hidden behind an overhanging block of sandstone.

The place was not marked on official geological maps.

One of the speliologists, a former military paramedic, recalled that they were interested in an unusually cool draft coming from the depths.

For the first 10 yards, the passage was low with sharp stone ledges.

Then the space suddenly opened up into a long curved corridor.

The walls showed traces of old salt deposits, which usually form enclosed cave systems over years of moisture condensation.

The visibility was minimal, so the group moved slowly, checking every meter with cold white flashlights.

The key moment, according to the participants, occurred at about 35 in the afternoon.

The corridor led to a narrow grotto that resembled a bottle-shaped cavity.

The ceiling rose sharply upward, and the floor was level, forming a perfectly smooth section of stone.

It was here that one of the cavers saw dark outlines on the wall which he first took to be natural mineral layers.

He directed the flashlight at a different angle and the shapes became clearer.

Two silhouettes of human figures could be seen on the flat surface, one larger and the other slightly shorter.

They were positioned as if they were standing close to each other.

The proportions corresponded to adults.

The contours look deliberately created without the characteristic blurs or chaotic flows that are natural mineral deposits.

The material at first glance was thick and uneven, almost black in color.

The former medic illuminated the surface from the side and noticed the typical mat fading characteristic of dried organic matter.

It is from this participant’s words that the reconstruction of the phrase comes.

He suggested that the substance could be dried blood.

The other two participants, as noted in the official statement, did not argue, but did not draw their own conclusions.

They limited themselves to recording the discovery in photos and video.

The grotto where they were standing had no natural light source.

All three participants later noted that the absence of the slightest sound and the absolute darkness around them created a sense of isolation.

After taking a few pictures and determining the coordinates, the group returned to the exit via the same route.

According to the phone records of one of them, a call was made to the Coochis County Sheriff’s Office at 16 minutes in the afternoon.

After receiving the message, the area was temporarily closed to visitors.

Two rangers and a forensic team were dispatched to the cave.

The inspection was accompanied by one of the cavers who described in detail where exactly on the wall they saw the silhouettes.

The forensic team worked in protective suits to avoid contamination.

Samples of the substance were removed from the wall with sterile scrapers and placed in sealed containers.

A preliminary visual assessment provided by an on-site specialist confirmed that the material did not resemble any of the common mineral pigments sometimes found in such caves.

There were also no smoking marks from torches or charcoal which local tribes once used to leave drawings.

All the materials obtained were sent to a forensic laboratory in Phoenix.

According to information that was officially published later, the analysis was carried out in several stages.

First, the organicity of the sample was determined.

Then the presence of hemoglobin was checked and only after that was genetic examination performed.

The group of cavers who made the discovery was interviewed again by investigators the next day.

According to one of them, what surprised him the most was how evenly the silhouettes were applied.

There were no chaotic strokes, spots, or splashes.

This could mean a controlled process, not a random spray or flow of liquid.

While the experts were working with the material, the cave area was guarded.

No other researchers, tourists, or photographers were allowed in this part of the canyon.

Meanwhile, investigators turned to the sheriff’s department archives and pulled up old missing person’s cases in the area.

The documents listed several unsolved cases from previous decades, but none of them had anything to do with the two people whose silhouettes were believed to be depicted on the wall.

The first results of the analysis came back a few days later.

The examination confirmed that the substance was human blood.

At the next stage, geneticists determined that the material contained mixed profiles of two people.

Next, they checked the DNA database of missing persons and relatives of those who had been reported missing in previous years.

It was then that a match was found with the genetic samples provided by the families of Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp in 2013.

The official confirmation came in stages, first to the laboratory, then to the sheriff’s office, and then to federal agencies.

The fact of coincidence meant that the young people who had disappeared 7 years earlier had not just died.

Their blood had been deliberately applied to a wall in a hard-to-reach part of the cave system that the official map did not even cover.

It was at this point that what had long been considered one of the many tragic stories of hikers in the remote canyons of southern Arizona turned into a criminal investigation with an unknown motive, an unknown perpetrator, and the feeling that someone had left a sign in this cave.

A sign distinct enough to be found someday.

The Coochis County Sheriff’s Office was notified of the initial forensic results in the afternoon on the third day after the samples were removed from the cave wall.

The case was handed over to major crimes detective Maria Valdez, an officer with nearly a decade of experience in missing person’s cases.

According to her colleagues, she immediately requested a full lab report and ordered that access to the cave system be reserved so that forensic teams could return to the cave.

The material taken from the wall was processed in several stages.

First, it was determined that the substance was indeed human blood.

Next, the sample was separated into fractions as the surface contained impurities of natural origin.

It was at this stage that forensic experts recorded a high level of organic preservation which was atypical for such conditions.

The cave where the silhouettes were found turned out to be extremely dry and almost sterile.

The temperature inside was kept at a level that almost completely stops the development of bacteria.

Genetic analysis was conducted by two independent groups in Phoenix.

They confirmed that the sample contained two separate genetic profiles.

After that, the laboratory requested access to the DNA database that relatives of Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp had given to the investigation into their disappearance in 2013.

The comparison took place within a few hours.

Both profiles, male and female, matched the data entered 7 years ago.

The official report that Detective Valdez received contained another important detail.

The structure of the substance on the surface of the cave was not pure blood.

According to the results of biochemical analysis, the sample contained traces of animal fat and small mineral inclusions.

Experts suggested that someone could have mixed the blood with a thickener to prevent it from spreading on the stone and remaining on the surface for a long time.

Similar techniques were sometimes found in ancient rock art, but here it was a mixture created in modern conditions and with the obvious purpose of making the contours stable.

At the next morning, the forensic team returned to the cave with Detective Valdez.

The inspection lasted several hours.

It was found that the wall surface did not contain any other inscriptions, symbols, or marks.

The ceiling and floor of the grotto were also free of additional prints or biological material.

All participants of the survey noted that the entrance to the cave looked intact.

There were no signs of artificial blocking or clearing.

This meant that access had remained open all these years.

According to the forensic scientist who provided the explanation in the official report, the silhouettes were painted on the stone with the knowledge that the cave microclimate would preserve them unchanged.

Thin lines, smooth edges, and the absence of smudges indicated that the silhouettes were made under stable lighting, probably with an artificial light source.

This ruled out spontaneity and suggested that the action was carefully thought out.

Detective Valdez noted several key points in her memos.

First, the silhouettes reflected the height of adults very close to the anthropometric data of Maxim and Gabriella.

Second, there was no sign of any struggle or movement of bodies in the grotto.

Third, the images took a long time to create, ranging from several minutes to an hour, depending on the technique used.

This contradicted the assumption of a spontaneous act of violence.

After returning from the scene, the detective received the final report from the Phoenix Lab.

The document stated that the blood on the wall had not only dried, but had been fixed by a mineral paste that formed a transparent thin layer similar to a protective film.

This technology was often used in the manufacturer of preservation compounds for animal skins, a conclusion that finally emphasized the artificial nature of the application.

It was a turning point for the investigation.

For the first time in 7 years, the case had physical evidence that unequivocally pointed to foul play.

As of that time, the family of the disappeared had only received a message that the found materials were undergoing final examination.

Only after all stages of the investigation were completed did Detective Valdez officially inform the family of the results.

According to the information that was passed to the sheriff’s office press service, it has now become clear Maxim and Gabriella could not have disappeared by accident or gotten lost along the route.

Someone had led them or driven them into the cave where their blood had been used to paint the images on the wall.

This made the disappearance not the result of a mistake or natural hazard, but a crime that involved intent, time, and cold-blooded preparation.

After the silhouettes were identified, a new category appeared in the case file.

Murder in the absence of bodies.

This formulation did not answer the main question, but showed that the investigation would have to look not only for the culprit, but also for the place where the path of Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp ended.

After DNA confirmation, Detective Maria Valdez received permission to reopen the old case.

Formerly, it was the same file on missing travelers, but in fact, it was a murder investigation.

The first step was to re-examine the social circle of Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp.

Previous interviews collected 7 years ago contained general information about their plans, relationships, and vacation style.

At the time, the investigation did not consider the possibility of an outside participant in the hike.

So, the detective focused on questions that had not been asked before.

According to a close friend of Maxims, when they met in Tucson about a week before the hike, he mentioned that he had found a person who knows the canyons better than any map.

No one took this comment seriously at the time, but now it has become the first significant area to be checked.

Subsequent interviews confirmed that on Friday night when the group gathered at the Cactus Jack bar, Moxim had indeed shared plans for the upcoming route.

According to one of the witnesses, he spoke about a private guide who allegedly offered them a unique way through the canyon.

Several people at the party remembered the name.

It sounded like Joseph Gates, one of Maxim’s friends who used to take photographs in the wilds of Arizona could introduce him to the man.

He told the detective that he had heard from someone that gates worked outside of official tourist centers, used off thebeaten path routes, and took payment directly without contracts or licenses.

This name was never mentioned in the 7-year-old materials because none of the friends thought it was important until the couple disappeared.

Now, this omission has become critically important.

Maria Valdez began to gather information about a man named Joseph Gates.

A check of the databases of guides registered in Arizona yielded no matches.

There were also no records in the registers of private guides or among amateur travel clubs.

Search queries yielded only one hint.

A travel forum that had not been updated for a long time had a profile with this name.

The profile stated that he specialized in high difficulty routes in littleknown canyons, but there were no reviews below it.

The avatar contained a blurry photo, probably taken with an old camera.

The profile was created about a year before Moxim and Gabriella disappeared.

Friends confirmed that Moxim was talking about a unique route promised to them by a man he met through a friend.

One of the witnesses recalled the phrase, “He said he would show us a place where ordinary tourists are not taken.

” This remark appeared in the official report only now because it was not considered significant before.

The detective was particularly alarmed by the fact that Gabriella, according to several friends, was categorically against the stranger’s participation in their trip.

A friend recalled that a few days before the trip, Gabriella had said, “I don’t want to go with that man.

I don’t trust him.

” At the same time, Moxim, according to her friends, convinced her that such an escort, on the contrary, would guarantee safety because the guide knew every ravine of the canyon.

These differences in attitudes toward Joseph Gates caught Valdez’s attention.

She analyzed the couple’s phone messages, but most of the archived data was unavailable for 7 years.

However, she found that a week before his disappearance, Maxim received several calls from a number that did not belong to any Arizona operator.

The provider reported that the number was registered to a prepaid SIM card purchased at a store in Tucson with cash without the ability to trace the buyer.

The detective also noticed another detail.

According to a bartender working at Cactus Jack that night, he saw Maxim showing someone a map of the canyon on his phone and a man standing next to him who was not part of the company.

The bartender described him as thin, about average height, and wearing a dark baseball cap.

He noted that the man did not order alcohol, stood aside, but listened intently to the conversation.

In the initial investigation, these words were not included in the protocol because no one was looking for unauthorized participants in the events at the time.

After the second visit, detectives made a copy of the internal video from the bar’s cameras.

The quality was poor, but one of the frames did show a man in dark clothes who had been near Maxim’s group for several minutes.

It was impossible to recognize the face, but the time on the video matched the witness’s testimony.

At this point, Joseph Gates became the first official suspect in the case.

However, the detective realized that she needed confirmation that he was not just a name on the old forum.

She ordered an extended chronology of Maxim and Gabriella’s movements over the last 2 weeks before their disappearance.

This chronology already showed a sequence of events.

Meeting the alleged guide, offering a unique route, unusual calls from an unknown number, and his presence in a bar.

This gave reason to believe that the couple might not have gone to the canyon on their own, and that they were not alone in the dry, hot maze of Hunter Canyon that day.

After Joseph Gates was formally added to the list of possible suspects, Detective Maria Valdez ordered the identification of the suspect using any available information, forum accounts, camera footage, phone records, and testimonies from bar patrons.

The first suspicious detail was that Gates’s profile on a travel forum was created less than 6 months before Maxim and Gabriella disappeared.

It had only a few general posts about roots in the Arizona canyons without detailed descriptions or references to any experiences that real guides usually share.

There were also no comments from customers, which immediately caught the detectives attention.

The contact number provided in the profile turned out to be invalid.

The operator reported that the SIM card had been purchased with cash at a kiosk on the outskirts of Tucson and activated for a short period of time after which it stopped working.

This was consistent with the behavior of someone who does not plan to maintain long-term customer relationships.

It also became clear that the number was used only for outgoing calls.

The incoming log was empty.

The key breakthrough in the case came from the owner of the Cactus Jack Bar.

When the detectives asked him to provide the full array of video from the evening, he mentioned that he sometimes took pictures of guests for the bar’s social media.

He had saved one of these pictures on his personal laptop.

The photo taken that evening captured not only Maxim and his friends, but also a man in a dark baseball cap and gray shirt standing a little behind him, someone who could not be recognized in the video due to its poor quality.

After digitizing the photo and applying facial recognition software, the result was that the face matched one of the profiles in the state’s criminal records database.

His name was Kyle Jinx, a 28-year-old resident of Tucson with multiple arrests for fraud, illegal weapons possession, and petty theft.

His last known arrest was for check forgery.

He did not have a regular job, but San Sabador logistics records confirmed that Jenx had worked for them as a long shoreman for almost 2 years until he quit a week before the couple disappeared.

Former colleagues who were interviewed described him in the same words.

He was reserved.

He kept to himself.

He spoke little but listened carefully to others.

According to one employee, Jenx was able to always adjust when it was to his advantage.

Another recalled that he never told them where he lived and came to work in different cars, sometimes rented.

The protocols recorded a phrase from a warehouse employee.

He was one of those people who disappears as easily as he appears.

At the time, these words did not matter, but now they were gaining weight.

The detectives returned to the old forum profile, now knowing who they were looking for.

Technical analysis showed that the account was created from an internet cafe in downtown Tucson.

On the same day, several other pages related to the search for individual tourists on social media were opened from this IP address.

Comparing the timestamps gave a convincing picture.

Gates’s account was part of the preparation for future actions, not a permanent communication platform.

Maria Valdez also gained access to records of rental cars in the Tucson area.

There was a note in the database about a car taken by a man who presented an ID with the name Michael Grant.

The photo from the document was not preserved, but the description of his appearance, medium- height, thin build, dark hair, matched Jensen’s appearance.

According to a rental worker with whom investigators spoke, this grant was too pushy about the cost of renting outside of official business hours.

The car was returned the next morning with an abnormal amount of sand in the cabin.

Finding Jenx’s actual residential address proved difficult.

He didn’t own any real estate and frequently changed rental rooms.

The only stable trail led to an old motel on the outskirts of Tucson where he occasionally paid for a room in cash.

The motel receptionist reported that Jenx always asked for a room in the far wing of the building away from other guests and never left any personal items in the room after checking out.

An important element was that according to several employees of the San Sabador Lodgings warehouse, Jenx sometimes offered to take his colleagues through the canyon like no guide would.

The minutes indicate that these words sounded like bragging, not a real offer.

However, after comparing them with the story of the unique route that Maxim allegedly received from a freelance guide, it became clear that Jenx could have long been working out a scheme to convince travelers to accept favorable conditions.

A new thesis appeared in Detective Valdez’s notes.

The whole story with Joseph Gates could have been staged.

The pseudonym, the forum, the number, everything looked like a carefully prepared trap aimed at creating the impression of an experienced guide who knew secret routes.

It was particularly telling that none of the travel organizations confirmed the existence of anyone with this name on their lists of those authorized to lead groups.

Once the real name was established, the main assumption was that Jenx had deliberately approached Moxim using psychological advantages, his interest in wild roots, his desire to show Gabriella something special, and his willingness to trust the recommendations of friends.

When the detective received a complete list of information traces left by Jens, it became obvious.

The legend of the freelance guide was not just a skillful invention.

It was part of a well-thoughtout plan supported by digital fakes, behavioral manipulation, and the ability to appear at the right time in places where he was not supposed to be suspected.

The apartment that Kyle Jens rented under an assumed name in the northern part of Tucson was almost empty.

During the search, investigators did not find any personal belongings, no photos, documents, or household items.

In the corner of the room was an old hiking backpack, several packages of energy bars, and cloth gloves with no signs of wear.

The only thing that could have contained information was a dark gray mid-range laptop hidden in the bottom drawer of the dresser.

According to one of the forensic experts, it was lying there as if the owner did not use it in everyday life, but kept it as a tool for specific tasks.

After seizing the device, the technical team conducted an initial diagnosis.

Even at this stage, it became clear that the laptop had been used professionally.

Caches were cleared.

There were no authorizations on social networks and there were few programs.

However, the main thing was the browser history.

It had not been completely wiped.

Several hundred search queries formed a clear logical line indicating not interest but preparation.

For about 2 months before Maxim and Gabriella disappeared, the laptop was regularly used to view materials about the burial customs of numerous Indian tribes in southern Arizona.

The list included references to the Apache, Toono, Oatum, and Utes, as well as ancient pictographic techniques found in inaccessible canyons.

Separate requests were made about the use of blood in sacred images and methods of preserving it in dry, low humidity rooms.

This sequence of searches did not look like research for fun, but rather a study of technology.

Another category of queries concerned unsolved crimes in national parks in the southwestern United States.

Jenx discovered materials about groups that allegedly left symbolic signs at crime scenes.

Among them were stories about ritual drawings, cases of a fake cult, and several cases where investigators wrongly followed the theory of a religious motive and could not find the real criminal for years.

The analysis showed that Jensen paid special attention to those materials in which the killer deliberately created the impression of a mystical overtone to confuse the investigation.

A separate file in the laptop’s memory contained images from similar cases frames from forensic archives, clippings from articles, and fragments of diagrams.

It seemed that he did not copy the materials by accident.

Some of them reflected techniques for drawing on stone in hard-to-reach places, while others showed the reactions of investigative teams that had spent months on false theories.

One of the experts in his conclusion directly stated, “This is a collection of examples of creating a false motive.

” After reviewing the information, Detective Valdez noted in her report that Jenx was likely planning not his first crime.

His actions showed a clear understanding of how the investigation works and what it looks for.

Creating silhouettes with blood was not a manic gesture or a sick imagination, but a thoughtful move.

He was not trying to leave a message.

He was trying to create a completely new line of investigation that would replace the real motives.

Meanwhile, another part of the investigation team was checking possible motives for the crime.

According to friends of Moxim and Gabriella, they had expensive photographic equipment with them on the day of the hike, and they never parted with it.

In addition, Gabriella was wearing a gold chain with an emerald given to her by her father.

The family confirmed that it was not found among their belongings in the car.

Bank records also showed that the couple had withdrawn cash before the trip, intending to use it to pay for purchases from small vendors along the highway.

A key hypothesis emerged in the reports.

The crime was not ritualistic in nature.

The goal was profit, a robbery, perhaps an attempt to gain access to equipment that could be easily sold.

And what happened later in the cave was just a cover, a pseudo ritual, a false trail that was supposed to convince the investigation that someone else had committed the crime.

The expert findings from the laptop confirmed this.

Kyle Jensen did not act without chaos.

He studied ways to create the appearance of a morbid message in the style of tribal rituals.

He selected materials that would psychologically influence the investigators, forcing them to associate the silhouettes with something ancient, mystical, and beyond the reach of ordinary logic.

The facts showed one thing.

The carefully staged ritual was meant to divert attention from the real motive.

Personal gain covered by a cold technique of manipulation.

After the real name of the suspect, Kyle Jinx, was established, the investigation was able to review all the previously collected materials from a new angle.

The first step was to re-examine the cave where the silhouettes were found.

The forensic team went back there with updated protocols, focusing not only on the wall, but also on the entire perimeter of the grotto and its entrance.

First, they examined the area near a narrow stone passage leading into the depths.

Under powerful sidelighting, the experts were able to record traces that were not visible during the first inspection.

Partial fingerprints were preserved on several fragments of stone.

Their origin was unclear.

The surface was uneven.

The prints were incomplete and deformed.

But after digital reconstruction, several usable fragments were obtained.

When they were compared with the Arizona Criminal Database, the match was confirmed.

The prince belonged to Kyle Jensen, who had previously been arrested for petty crimes.

This evidence was of fundamental importance.

Up until that point, there had been only indirect evidence, digital traces, testimonies, forum profiles.

Now, Jenx’s physical presence in the cave system was established.

Moreover, the prints were not located in random places, but at the entrance, at the points that people usually touch to maintain their balance when walking through a narrow corridor.

This allowed us to reconstruct the root of his movement inside the grotto.

Simultaneously, with the field work, detectives began to analyze Jenx’s financial activity.

They turned to bank statements that remained in the case file from the suspect’s old administrative violations.

Although he made most of his transactions in cash, a few electronic transactions were still stored in the database.

Of particular interest was a payment made to one of his accounts about 2 weeks after Maxim and Gabriella disappeared.

The payment was made through an anonymized online auction which was used primarily for semi-legal sales of equipment.

The recipient stored minimal data, only an electronic wallet to which it was difficult to link a person.

But the platform’s report contained a description of the goods, a digital camera of a well-known brand, and a television lens, both of which were exactly the models Maxim had bought a few months before the hike.

The serial numbers were not saved, but the match in terms of model, time, and type of sale was so convincing that detectives flagged the transaction as a possible confirmation of a robbery.

Another piece of evidence was that a few days after the transaction, Jenx withdrew an amount equivalent to a typical payment for expensive equipment from the same e-wallet.

The money was cashed out through a terminal on the western outskirts of Tucson, after which the financial trail was cut off.

It appeared that he had purposely avoided using bank cards or any other tools that could have exposed him.

Detective Valdez ordered a timeline of Kyle Jensen’s possible movements in the days following the couple’s disappearance.

They analyzed surveillance footage from cameras along the highway leading from Hunter Canyon to Tucson.

One of the cameras set up near an old gas station captured a man resembling Jinx walking along the road late in the evening on the same day that Maxim and Gabriella were supposed to return to the city.

The quality of the video was poor, but the silhouette, height, dark baseball cap, and way he walked matched his description.

The next step was to examine phone activity.

Although Jensen rarely used his phone, there was one significant point in his data.

About a day after the alleged events in the canyon, his cell phone came online near a neighborhood in North Tucson.

It was a short signal lasting less than a minute, but it confirmed that he had returned to the city.

After that, the number went off the air forever.

In their memos, the detectives formed a logical reconstruction.

Jinx most likely accompanied Maxim and Gabriella to the canyon where he attacked and robbed them.

He then carried some of their belongings and then using complex routes of mountain ravines reached the road leading to Tucson.

There he either walked several miles or took a passing car.

This could not be confirmed.

After returning, he went into hiding for some time and later sold the equipment, which had a high market value, and then he disappeared.

The last recorded trace of Jinx was a brief appearance on a surveillance camera at a motel he sometimes visited.

According to the receptionist, he left the room in the morning without taking the key or checking out.

After that, he was never seen again.

All further attempts to locate him were unsuccessful.

He disappeared as suddenly as he appeared in the lives of Moxm Herrell and Gabriella Sharp.

Investigators concluded that after committing the crime, Jenx left the city, changed his name, or continued to use new forged documents.

The only thing they were certain of was that his route that night ended far outside of Arizona.

After completing all possible procedures, after re-examining the cave, after reconciling financial data, after analyzing the equipment and digital traces established, the case of Maxim Herold and Gabriella Sharp entered the stage that every investigator dreads.

The stage when the facts are there, the logic is lined up, the course of events is clear, the name of the alleged perpetrator is established, but most importantly, it is unattainable.

The person behind this crime disappeared from the landscape as unnoticed as he walked into a bar under a false name one day and began to build his scheme.

A search warrant for Kyle Jinx was activated by federal authorities almost immediately.

Agents were provided with his photographs collected from cameras and documents as well as all the possible aliases he used.

His profile was added to a federal wanted list covering the entire United States.

According to the procedure, in such a situation, the suspect is considered a fugitive by crossing state lines after committing a serious crime.

This opened the way for an intensive search, but the search yielded no results.

Not a single document was issued in his name after that day.

No camera captured his recognizable features.

Not a single landlord, not a single employer, not a single external database contained even a hint of his presence.

According to one of the FBI agents who advised the sheriff’s office, Jenx’s behavior was typical of people preparing to disappear in advance.

Minimal connections, minimal digital footprints, maximum mobility, and complete dependence on cash.

Detective Maria Valdez wrote in her memos that what struck her most was the silence after she identified him.

She expected new doors to open after the identification.

Friends, relatives, old work, acquaintances, neighbors.

However, almost everyone who was found described Jensen in the same way.

He was someone who lived on the periphery, avoided stable contacts, and remained inconspicuous to the point that over time people forgot he even existed.

One of the warehouse employees said a phrase during the second interview that the detective later included in her report.

He was a kind of technical shadow worker.

He didn’t disappear.

He was erased.

That’s why the search for his movements was like trying to track a person who deliberately leaves no fingerprints.

The only confirmed signal was that his phone appeared online in the Tucson area shortly after the events in the canyon.

After that, there was nothing.

Technicians speculated that he may have disposed of the device that day, perhaps by destroying the SIM card or leaving the phone in a place where no signal was detected for years.

This practice was common among people with criminal backgrounds who knew how cellular networks worked.

For the families of Moxim and Gabriella, the news came as a shock, but not a surprise.

They had to listen again to the details of a case that had remained a painful question for 7 years.

Now they had an answer, but it was a difficult one.

For a long time, many had speculated that the couple might have taken a difficult route, gotten lost, or fallen off the slope.

The idea of an accident gave at least some chance for a peaceful explanation.

But now it became clear the tragedy was the result of a deliberate crime that had a specific goal, to take away things of material value and hide the consequences.

Investigators made no secret of the fact that the silhouettes on the cave wall were the key to unlocking the mechanism of the crime, but also a symbol that reminded us that the killer knew what he was doing.

He was preparing, studying ways to mislead the investigation, analyzing the schemes of ritual grounds.

He wanted his act to look like something irrational, like the work of a fanatic or a member of a fictional sect.

It was an attempt to leave an image that would divert attention from the obvious that he was a criminal without romance, without rituals, with a primitive goal of enrichment.

In the internal documentation of the sheriff’s office, the case was labeled frozen, meaning that the active search for the suspect was suspended, but all data was saved for possible resumption.

There were cases when such cases came to life years later, but they depended on random factors.

The sudden discovery of a body, the arrest of a criminal in another state, a match with new databases.

In this case, there were very few such chances.

For the families of Maxim Herrell and Gabriella Sharp, this story became the point at which the question, “Where are they?” Changed to, “Why is this happening?” Their loved ones learned that the tragedy was not a staged mysticism or ritual, but a benal robbery disguised as something deeper.

The blood on the wall, which was supposed to be a trap for investigators, turned into a stark proof that evil sometimes comes not in the form of demons or unknown cults, but in the form of a person who only needs a quick prophet to take others lives.

The real ending of this story was not the punishment, but the absence of it.

Kyle Jens disappeared somewhere on the border of deserts, highways, and small towns.

His trail ended as if he had lived for this very purpose, to disappear after his deeds.

And what was left behind was the emptiness of the investigation, a symbolic stain on the stone, and the family who had to accept that sometimes there are no answers, even when the case is formally solved.