Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Guns, illegal crossing, murder

I thought I was the only one that this crazy stuff happened to.  Your story
beats all of mine by a long shot though.  How  scary and crazy.  Things
happen for a reason, I truely believe that, I wonder what reason will appear
that made you break down there?

Keep us posted.

Colleen
----- Original Message -----
From: "amber applegate" <amber.apple@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 4:08 PM
Subject: [RC] Guns, illegal crossing, murder


> Otay, hubby fed for me, and things are slow on the lists so here goes my
> story, and I may or may not stick to it, depending on which of the Feds
show
> up at my door.
>
> The trip up to Canada was uneventful until I got to the border crossing at
> Kingsgate, BC, just over the Idaho Border North of Bonners
Ferry.(Beautiful
> little town that is)
>
> I was to meet the sellers at Kingsgate on the Canadian side to pick up my
> new horse. I never ride or travel alone without a weapon. I was worried
> about carrying a handgun and an 8 inch hunting knife through the Border
> Crossing, but more worried about being unarmed and alone, sleeping in rest
> stops or along the side of the road.
>
> I spoke with a couple of Canadian Truckers while still in Oregon and they
> sounded pretty worried about the gun. Said that Canada had no sense of
humor
> concerning that. But, they felt that since I was not traveling through the
> country just to hide it and I should be fine.
>
> I get to the Crossing and the gal in the window first wants to see my ID.
So
> I give her my Driver's License. No, she wants my birth certificate and
> passport. Well, first off, I don't have a Birth Certificate, so obviously
> can't get a passport. I was smart enough to not tell her that, and make
her
> wonder WHY I don't have one. So I just played dumb and said I didn't know
I
> had to have that just to come to the border and wait for the horse. She
let
> that slide with a stern warning and I am starting to think "Oh S*%&"
>
> Next comes the biggie; Are you carrying any weapons? hand guns, stun guns,
> mace, rifles, anything? No. Aren't Stun Guns illegal? So she says, You are
a
> woman traveling alone and you carry no weapons? I said well, first off, I
> didn't think I needed to, and secondly I wouldn't know how to use a gun if
I
> did have one, as I have never fired a pistol in my life. good thing I am
> such a good BS-er. So, she let that one go by too.
>
> Next, and this one caught me by surprise, Do  you have any alcohol with
you?
> Absolutely not. (Just a 12 pack of Corona and a jug of Merlot)  Okay, that
> gets by, I am sure I am breaking out in beads of sweat now. Then the
dreaded
> FRUIT third degree.
>
> Do you have any fruits or veggies with you? No Ma'am, nothing. I am eating
> in restaurants.(except for the watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches,
nectarines,
> kiwi, plums, apples, carrots for the horse, and two bananas and fruit
> yogurt) Gads! those Canadians are nosey, eh?
>
> So I get permission to park right behind the building and wait for the
> horse. Get the horse and all is well coming back.
>
> My plan was to try to make it to Oregon City to stay with my friend, DeAnn
> Schnepple, AERC member, lots of miles and a good friend that I made at
> Pacific Crest a couple of years ago. I made it as far as The Dalles along
> the Central part of Oregon on the Columbia River and decided I couldn't
> drive any further. I pulled behind this restaurant to park for the night
and
> was attempting to screw a hose onto the new water tank that was sitting on
> the bed of my truck.
>
> I couldn't get the hose to go on as it needed room to turn. All of the
> sudden this Troll, pops out of the pavement and he is driving a 48 ft.
> trailer with a Hot Shot pulling Harleys for a couple of guys from New
> Jersey.
>
> He is eyeballing me, so I ask if he has any water as I need to get some to
> my horse. He comes to my rig, and of course I don't have a weapon out
there
> with me, so I grab the two foot long flashlight ready to kill him with one
> false move. To cut to the chase, he tells me all about his story and helps
> me get the water hose attached and then tells me he feels much better
> knowing that I am sleeping out there with "Tons" of weapons (I let him
know
> that I am heavily armed and a dead nuts shot, unlike the story I gave the
> Canadian Guard) Then he tells me that breakfast is on him and how much he
> will look forward to our little tete`a tete` in the am. THEN, he says, "if
> you want to have a nice hot shower, feel free to come up to my room,
number
> 110" Oh, boy! that sounds great, thanks!
>
> As soon as he was in his motel, I packed up everything and hauled ass down
> the highway. Called DeAnn and said I just can't make it, I was weaving all
> over the road, no, I hadn't had anything to drink, that was only once I
got
> in bed would I have a sip of wine, and one beer for lunch, sorry to
> disappoint Howard, but that is my limit. I was just plumb tired.
>
> So I parked behind a Best Western and woke up the next morning to a guy
> standing behind me doing Tai Chai. Well, that looked safe.
>
> Get to DeAnn's and unpacked the horse to stretch out. He had a very long
> journey coming from Rosiland, AB. So she and her nephew, Jonathan 15, and
> her sweet hubby, Terry and I are having a nice visit. Later that
afternoon,
> I pack up to leave and head home about another 5 hours on the road and get
> 10 miles from her house when the temp gauge comes on and it is over 230
> degrees!
>
> I limp into a shopping mall. Call DeAnn and Terry to come rescue me. The
> outside temperature was 103. I am opening the doors on the trailer to keep
> Strider cool and when they arrived, coolant was all over the ground. DeAnn
> went home, got her trailer and we took the horse back to her house while
> Terry limped the truck and trailer back to their place, took close to
three
> hours to go ten miles.
>
> Okay, unhook the GN, have the truck towed to the Dodge dealer and it turns
> out something hit the fan and bent the hell out of one of the blades and
put
> a fist sized hole in the radiator. Plus the brakes were acting up and had
> them checked and there were no brakes. The pads were almost metal to
metal.
> Great.
>
> Well, looks like DeAnn is stuck with me for a few days, like from Tuesday
to
> Friday. So what's a couple of endurance riders to do? Ride of course!! So
> Wednesday, she and Jonathan and I went and rode in a beautiful wooded area
> in Beavercreek. That is when I fell in love with Strider, that is when he
> went so fast at a RW that my helmet felt like it would fly off. We had a
> blast.
>
> The next morning Terry has the Oregonian Newspaper in Hand and says that
the
> number one Suspect in the disappearance of two young Oregon City girls was
> arrested for raping his son's 19 year old girlfriend. The son called the
> police and said that his father confesssed to him that he killed the two
> girls. His girlfriend escaped with her life and ran naked to a nearby shoe
> store. These 12 and 13 year old girls lived in an apartment complex near
> DeAnn and the police suspected this character of the kidnapping and
possible
> murder since they were reported missing in January and February.
>
> We have to go to the shopping center to get grub for dinner and DeAnn
says,
> do you want to see where this guy lives? Well, I am always up for an
> adventure and said heck yes. Then DeAnn tells me that her friends know
this
> guy and he had talked about putting a hot tub in and laying a cement pad.
>
> Well WHOA! my vivid imagination now tells me that this is where these
girls
> are buried, so we high tail it up there and across the street from the
guys
> house, is every news team you can imagine, CNN, all the local news media,
> they all had satellites up waiting for something to happen. But the weird
> thing was, there was no cops, no yellow tape, nothing at the house.
>
> We park next to the news people and I ask one of the reporters what's up?
He
> didn't know a thing. Well, why aren't you over there? He said he couldn't
go
> over. Then we told him of the hot tub and the cement and that is probably
> where the girls are buried. We said we were going over and would report to
> him any findings.
>
> We get to the house, and in a shed in the back was a stench that DeAnn and
I
> both immediately recognized as dead flesh. It was hair raising, but the
most
> was yet to come. In the shed was black trash bags all knotted up. In one
of
> them was a bag full of puppets, dolls, teddy bears. In another was little
> girls clothing. Where in the hell are the cops? We couldn't believe this.
>
> Then we went to the house, I saw the pad where the hot tub was going and
the
> hot tub itself was against the house. There was a big tarp over the ground
> where he apparently was going to place the hot tub. So I am looking under
> the tarp for the concrete pad and all of the sudden DeAnn shouts, amber!
> quick come look at this.
>
> I went over to the side of the house, and DeAnn points out that along the
> original sidewalk and the foundation of the house, new concrete was
poured,
> and it wasn't done by any professional. Also, the crawl space under the
> house was covered up with a board and cemented shut. We both just gasped
and
> said this is where the little girls are buried. Again, we are in disbelief
> that there are no cops around at all.
>
> We go back to the shed and are looking around and smelling that smell
again,
> when we turn around and there are these two men coming towards us. One
looks
> like an FBI guy the other is holding a camera. DeAnn says, Oh S--- we are
> busted. Just remain calm, my son is a Deputy Medical Examiner in
Washington
> and Multnomah Countys and also works for the State Coroners office, he
will
> get us out of this........hopefully.
>
>  we are all looking at each other with trepidation and the G-Man says
> something first and then before he can read me my Miranda Rights, I ask
him
> who he is. He is a reporter with channel 12 News in Portland. As we got
> closer, I looked at him and said "David Wilson, is that you?" and he goes
> yes, who are you? I pulled off my sunglasses and said I am amber
applegate,
> from Medford area. You interviewed me three years ago about the Cougar
kill
> on my property. He couldn't believe it!!
>
>  he is following us all around and we are showing him what we found and
> where we think the girls are buried. He also smells the stench in the
shed.
> Then he tells us that this weirdo, the suspect, his father is serving on
> Death Row in San Quentin for killing a couple in Bakersfield, Ca. and he
> buried the bodies there and then a week later came back and dug up the
woman
> and took her home and buried her in his backyard and covered her with a
> cement pad. Mutant Genetics, perhaps??
>
> Then as soon as we leave, I call my son on the cell phone and start to
tell
> him what we found. He was just interupting me like I was on drugs or
> something, saying how the hell could we have been there and just wouldn't
> shut up about it, so I finally told him to Shut the %*#@ up and listen to
me
> and if he didn't believe me he could hang up on me.
>
> By the time I got through especially when I mentioned the reporter David
> Wilson and told my son that David wanted to do another story on Brian ( he
> also did two feature stories on Brian about the same time he intervied me
on
> the cougars, not knowing we were even related) he was listening and said
he
> was calling a gal that he knows that is an FBI agent.
>
> She was out of town, mourning the basejumping death of her boyfriend and a
> collegue of my son's. So he instead calls the Clackamas County Medical
> Examiner and told him what we were up to and about the cement. They said
> they know all about it and are waiting until this next week to present the
> evidence to the Grand Jury for an indictment to get a search warrent to
dig
> up the cement walkway.
>
> That night, on the local news, DeAnn said it was too chilling. I had
already
> turned in and on the news was the mother of one of  the little girls and
she
> had made a sign out of cardboard that said "Please Dig Me Up" and placed
it
> right on the cement where we had been standing and had it surrounded with
> candles.
>
>
> Next time anyone sees DeAnn at the rides, please accuse her of getting me
> involved. DeAnn, I need you to verify all of this.
> amber
>
>
>
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