She was supposed to return to the starting point the next day, but never showed up.
In May of 2017, her body was found at the bottom of Courts Lake.
On August 23, 2016 at 7:00 in the morning local time, the surveillance cameras at the Glacier Gateway Stop gas station in Columbia Falls captured two girls.
19-year-old Terresa Harrison was standing by the snack rack holding a bottle of purified water and an energy bar.
Next to her was her friend Paula Jones, who had driven her to the start of the trail that day.
Paula would later tell investigators that Teresa looked focused and inspired.
After a busy summer, she wanted to spend a day in the mountains to reset before returning to school.
After a short stop, the girls drove toward the northwestern part of Glacier National Park.
Their route ran along a narrow mountain road where the coniferous forest almost closed over the highway in some places.
Investigators will later recreate the route using video footage from the cameras at the entrance to the park.
Paula’s silver sedan was recorded 15 minutes before 9 at the checkpoint.
The parking lot near the trail head of the Courts Lake Loop Trail was nearly empty that morning.
Stone information boards, a wooden visitor log, and a sign warning of grizzly activity were the only things breaking the silence.
According to Paula, they didn’t spend long there.
Terresa quickly checked her gear, filled out a box in the log book indicating the direction of travel and estimated time of return, and adjusted the straps of her backpack.
Paula recalled that Terza looked confident and didn’t express any doubts about going into the forest on her own.
At 10:00 in the morning, about 20 minutes after arriving, Teresa started down a path that was lost between the dark trunks of the fur trees.
The wind was light, the weather was stable, and the dense foliage allowed only scattered sunlight to pass through.
The official stand of the route indicated that the section was considered to be of medium difficulty, but on this day, it was not overloaded with tourists.
Only a few cars in the parking lot and none of those who had registered earlier were returning when it started.
Theresa spent her last hours in the mountain forest where the ground is covered with a soft carpet of pine needles and her footsteps leave almost no traces.
Part of her route was only discovered by search dogs.
During a later operation, they confidently led the trail deeper into the forest toward Lake Quartz to a place where the trail narrows sharply and climbs a rocky ledge.
It was there, about 3 mi from the shore, that the odor suddenly disappeared.
The stretch of rocky ground retained no trace of a soul, no broken branch, nothing that could help reconstruct the last minutes of her route.
When Teresa disappeared, it was the evening of the following day.
On August 24th, Paula Jones arrived at the same parking lot around 6:00.
This is confirmed by both her testimony and the time code of her phone, which was last recorded online when she attempted to call.
She waited until almost dusk.
According to Paula, she didn’t want to panic beforehand.
Routes in the glacier often delayed tourists due to difficult terrain.
However, as the clock approached 9:00, she felt that the situation was beyond a normal delay.
In the parking lot area, mobile service was unstable and Paula was unable to reach either Teresa or the rescue service.
She started her car and drove to the nearest ranger station in Polebridge.
There she officially reported her friend missing.
The ranger on duty recorded her words in his official report.
Teresa did not return at the specified time, and it is impossible to establish contact with her.
This entry was the beginning of the search and rescue operation.
On August 25th, at dawn, a large-scale search was launched in the park.
Rangers, volunteers, dog handlers, and a helicopter were involved.
The sniffer dogs confidently picked up Teresa’s scent from the parking lot, followed part of the route, and led the group deeper into the forest.
According to the head of the dog team, the trail was stable and clear until it led to an area of stones warmed by the daytime sun.
The scent stopped there.
Not a piece of cloth, no signs of a struggle, no signs of a fall, nothing.
The helicopter flew around the coastal areas, inspecting cliffs and hard-to-reach places where a tourist could fall during a descent.
However, dense tree crowns hid most of the territory, and only fragments of the relief were visible from the air.
The rangers combed the neighboring trails, gorges, and checked places where wandering tourists sometimes seek shelter.
The result was the same.
Not a single clue.
The search lasted for 2 weeks.
Detailed maps, satellite images, repeated rounds, helicopter thermal imagers.
None of the methods gave a single hint of where the girl might have gone.
Some rangers admitted in their official reports that the area around Lake Quartz was one of the most difficult in the entire park.
Cliffs, rocky slopes, dense undergrowth where a person could go unnoticed even from a distance of several feet.
After the active phase of the search, two main assumptions were made.
The first is a grizzly attack.
Predators have been repeatedly spotted in the area, and there have been cases where they have dragged prey deep into the bushes.
The second was a fall into one of the many crevices where the body could remain inaccessible for years.
Both versions were based on the fact that the area did not yield any material trace.
Two weeks later, the operation was officially halted.
Terresa Harrison was reported missing.
Her name was entered into the federal database and her personal belongings, which were never found, were recorded in a separate section of the case.
The forest in which she disappeared, remained silent and unmoved.
The only thing left on the documents was a dry record that the young hiker had gone on a hike and never returned.
In May of 2017, Glacier National Park opened after a long and harsh winter.
The snow still lingered at the higher elevations, but the lower areas were already available for seasonal exploration.
According to the park services internal plan, the annual assessment of the northwest sector’s water bodies, including Quartz Lake, was to begin this month.
This is a deep mountain bowl of glacial origin with cold, almost always opaque water surrounded by steep terrain and abandoned service trails closed to tourists.
The biologists working that day arrived at the lake in the morning.
The official reports recorded the composition of the group.
Three employees of the scientific department and a lake technician responsible for the equipment.
According to the team leader, the purpose of the survey was to take readings of water temperature layers and check the condition of bottom sediments, all according to a standardized methodology.
To do this, they used a portable echo sounder and an underwater camera on a cable, which is more commonly used in early spring when the water is still cold and the transparency is slightly higher than in summer.
At 10:00 in the morning, the technician turned on the camera and began to slowly lower it into the water, watching the image on a portable monitor.
At the first marks, the camera recorded a picture typical of the area.
Floating particles of vegetation, slow currents, fragments of sunken branches.
But at a depth of about 15 m, something appeared on the screen that immediately caught the attention of the group members.
According to one of the biologists, the image showed an irregularly shaped object that did not resemble natural structures.
The camera was lowered even lower and the contours became more distinct.
The technician’s official report stated that fragments of clothing and light areas similar to human skin were visible.
It was he who first uttered the phrase that would later be quoted in the case file, “It looks like a person.
” These words were recorded only in a written narrative as the group did not record audio.
The report of the discovery was promptly passed on to the rangers.
According to the procedure, access to the lake was immediately restricted and an hour later, divers arrived at the scene.
According to the head of the rescue team, the steep coastal terrain made it difficult to lift the body.
Lake Quartz has steep transitions and the depth increases sharply, so it was not easy to get to the point where the camera was located.
After the first dive, the divers confirmed what they saw on the screen.
There was indeed a body at the bottom.
They immediately noticed that the dead woman’s legs were tied with a rope to two massive river boulders.
According to them, the stones could not have been in this position by accident.
The rope was wound tightly.
The knots looked rough but strong, and the surface of the stones had characteristic scuffs from friction against the fibers.
When the body was brought to the shore and covered with a tarpollen, one of the rangers recognized the backpack lying next to it on the stretcher.
A small reflective label was sewn onto the strap, which Teresa had bought a few weeks before she disappeared.
The name was officially confirmed only after the initial examination, but there was no doubt that it was the 19-year-old tourist who had been searched for last fall.
The icy waters of the lake preserved the body better than expected.
The forensic specialist who was called to the scene noted in his preliminary report, “The soft tissues are partially preserved.
The clothes are minimally damaged and there are traces of mechanical impact that are not typical of natural causes.
In particular, it was noted that her shoes were tightly laced and her jacket was buttoned up, signs that Teresa had not moved before she was in the water.
The materials also indicate that the rope around her shins was a common nylon tow rope suitable for transporting heavy objects, not for mountaineering.
The rangers noted another important detail.
The place where the body was found was located near an old closed service road that was not accessible to visitors and had not been used for many years.
This road passed over a steep cliff and could only be reached by vehicle or on foot if you knew the exact direction.
All maps checked during the search operation clearly marked it as abandoned and dangerous.
After the body was recovered, the entire area of Lake Cavartz was additionally blocked off.
Investigators and forensic experts began documenting the site, carefully examining the shore, rocks, branches, and possible access points.
The report stated that no footprints were found in the area of the discovery.
No fresh shoe prints, no broken branches, no rope remains.
This indicated that the person who dumped the body into the water acted cautiously and had enough time to leave no obvious traces.
However, the manner in which the body was hidden left no room for doubt.
Two massive stone blocks tied to his feet could have kept him at the bottom indefinitely.
The nylon rope was tied in several knots, one of which the expert called a panic knot, a haphazard knot made without a clear technique, which often happens when a person acts under strong emotional pressure.
This observation was recorded in a separate item for further analysis.
After the initial examination, the body was transported to the morg in Flathead for a detailed examination.
At the same time, the police department officially reclassified the case from a missing person to a premeditated murder.
The decision was made on the same day after consultation with the medical examiner who reported that there were no signs of drowning.
The body was immersed in water after death.
News of the discovery spread quickly among park employees.
Several official records note that the incident caused shock as the place where the body was found was considered one of the least accessible.
One ranger noted in a report that to move a body in such an area requires either physical strength, a vehicle, or both.
The researchers who first spotted the object on camera emphasized in their explanations that they had no doubt about the artificial nature of what they saw.
According to them, the body was lying flat with no traces of movement by the current and the rope showed no signs of tearing or wear, which is typical of natural processes.
This meant only one thing.
Someone had acted purposefully.
The discovery of Terza at the bottom of the lake changed the status of the case and raised new questions for investigators.
The depth at which the body lay, the location near the service road, the way the stones were tied up.
All of this pointed to the involvement of another person.
At the time, no one knew that the first important clue would be waiting not in the water or in the forest, but on a laboratory table in the form of microscopic particles found on the victim’s clothes.
After being pulled from the lake, Terresa Harrison’s body was transported to the Flathead County Medical Examiner’s Office.
There, in a sterile, cold lit laboratory, a procedure began to answer the first key questions.
The report prepared by the pathologist stated that the body had been in the water for a long time, but the low temperature of the lake helped preserve the anatomical structures well enough to determine the cause of death.
During the initial examination, the expert noted clear signs of blunt force trauma.
The skull and chest showed characteristic injuries such as flattened bone areas, cracks, and depressions.
The documents drawn up on the basis of the autopsy results state that the mechanism of injury corresponds to a strong impact on a hard, flat surface.
In his comments, the expert emphasized that such injuries are not typical of either a fall from a height in natural conditions or an animal attack.
It was caused from the outside.
At the same time, no water was found in the lungs.
This meant that drowning was ruled out as a cause of death.
Teresa was drowned in the lake when she was already dead.
The chronology of the injuries allowed us to roughly determine the time of death.
approximately on August 23rd or 24th, i.
e.
during her disappearance.
The medical examiner recorded that there were no signs of a long stay in a helpless state before death.
The injuries were inflicted quickly and with great force.
In parallel with the pathologists work, forensic experts began to examine the material evidence.
Particular attention was paid to the rope used to tie the stones.
It was an ordinary light colored nylon tow rope which is widely sold in auto parts stores.
Its surface showed characteristic abrasions and the knots that tied the rope were described as chaotic, asymmetrical, made without technique and without repeatability.
The expert who analyzed the knots stated in his report that their type corresponds to the actions of a person in a state of panic or severe stress.
This was an important psychological marker, although at this stage the experts could only speculate.
Another detailed but mysterious element was found on Teresa’s clothes.
During the processing of the fabric in the laboratory, microscopic particles of paint and plastic were removed from the surface of the jacket and pants.
At first, the experts thought it was debris from the bottom of the lake, fragments of boat holes, elements from hiking equipment, or ordinary microplastic impurities that are sometimes found in water bodies.
However, the shape and structure of the particles were atypical.
They had smooth edges, a granular texture, and a distinctive metallic sheen.
The microscope showed layers of coating clearly visible, indicating that the paint did not come from a natural material.
One of the forensic scientists working with the spectral analyzer noted in the report that the particles resembled a silver colored automotive paint system.
Similar coatings are used for modern middle-class vehicles.
This conclusion was not final, but it was included in a separate part of the report as a potentially valuable detail.
Also, microparticles of plastic of unknown origin were found on the surface of the fabric.
They had the correct geometry, which may be typical of car trim elements or external body parts.
Some of the fragments had scratches that could have been caused by contact with a rough surface.
The forensic experts removed these particles into sterile containers for further comparative studies.
Their analysis was to confirm whether the paint belonged to a specific type of vehicle or was a random layer.
At this stage, the investigation did not draw any conclusions, but the team of analysts speculated that the body might have been in contact with the car before it entered the water.
Meanwhile, another group of experts examined the condition of the clothes.
There were no tears or deep punctures on the jacket or pants that could indicate an animal attack.
They also found no characteristic scratches from a sliding fall on stones.
The conclusion was unequivocal.
The injuries were not caused by a fall but by a targeted blow.
All these details, the injuries, the rope, the paint particles were recorded strictly and objectively.
At this stage, the investigation made no assumptions about motives or suspects.
The only task was to collect every piece of evidence, even if it seemed insignificant.
All samples were sent for additional analyzes, physico, chemical, spectral, and comparative.
While the investigations were underway, the officers working on the case received excerpts from interim reports.
These documents did not contain any assumptions, but their content was already shaping a new direction in the investigation.
The body, the underwater rope, the blows to the head and chest, the lack of water in the lungs, the silver paint particles.
All of this indicated that Teresa had not simply disappeared into a wild mountain forest.
She had encountered someone or something else before she arrived at the shores of Courts Lake.
And these particles, barely visible to the naked eye, were to become the first silent witnesses to an event that would change the course of the case.
After official confirmation that Terresa Harrison’s death was violent, Flathead County Sheriff’s Department investigators began to work through the range of people who might have been in the area of Quartz Lake on the days she disappeared.
The first weeks of the investigation were based on standard procedure.
analyzing tourist registrations, interviewing rangers, checking people known for violating the rules of access to service roads.
It was during this check that the name of Clyde Miller, a local resident who had lived in a trailer for many years near the southern boundary of the park, first came up.
Miller, a 45-year-old former logger known as the Forester, had been on the radar of law enforcement on several occasions.
His record included notes on aggressive behavior, illegal hunting, and several incidents with tourists.
At one point, he received a suspended sentence for threatening a group of visitors whom, according to eyewitnesses, he tried to drive off his land.
Because of this, Miller was considered to be conflicted and unpredictable, and his appearance near closed areas of the park was never ignored by the services.
The first serious attention to Miller came from a tourist who reported seeing an old pickup truck similar to Miller’s on August 24th on a service road leading to the steep shore of Courtz Lake, which was moving slowly and stopped several times as if the driver was looking for something.
The witness said that the road was clearly marked with no trespassing signs and that the presence of private vehicles there was a gross violation of park rules.
The detectives, having received the testimony, checked the registration data of the vehicles belonging to Miller.
He did indeed own a pickup truck of a similar color and model.
This information coincided with the time frame of Teresa’s disappearance, and Miller was placed on the priority list for investigation.
Based on the evidence collected, investigators applied to the court for a search warrant for Miller’s property.
A warrant was obtained and a team of officers went to his trailer, located in the woods a few miles from the park boundary.
Records show that the area around his home looked abandoned.
Weeds, rusted metal objects, an old bathtub converted into a bird feeder, and several dozen traps scattered 20 to 30 ft from the trailer.
Miller’s behavior during the search was aggressive.
According to the officers, he came out of the trailer holding a heavy metal crowbar, shouting that this forest is not theirs and that no one has the right to enter its territory.
His arrest was quick without the use of weapons, but the report states that Miller actively resisted and repeated threats.
The officers emphasized that the man’s aggression only confirmed the need for a search.
During the inspection of the trailer, law enforcement officers found several unregistered weapons.
Hunting rifles, a sought-off shotgun, and dozens of traps of various types.
All of these items became the basis for a separate criminal proceeding, but another object attracted the attention of the investigation.
A backpack was found on a shelf under a pile of old clothes.
The model corresponded to the type often bought by tourists for two-day hikes.
The color was different, dark green, while Terza’s backpack was gray, but the external characteristics were almost identical.
Shape, number of compartments, location of fasteners.
This backpack was seized for further examination.
At first glance, there was nothing inside that would link it to Teresa, but the similarity of the model raised concerns.
The conclusion of the investigative team states that the discovery of a backpack in the home of a person with a history of aggression against tourists indicates the need for further verification of this person’s involvement.
In addition to the backpack, the experts documented several other items that could be relevant.
Ropes of different thicknesses, knives with worn handles, a flashlight with a cracked body.
All this could have been an ordinary set of a hermit living on the edge of the wilderness.
But in the context of the case, these items became potential evidence.
While experts were examining the seized items, the district attorney authorized Miller’s interrogation.
The interrogation report states that he denied being near Lake Courts on the days of Teresa’s disappearance.
According to him, he never drove that service road.
However, when asked about the backpack, he claimed that he had found it in the forest.
This comment was recorded in the official protocol.
The overall picture looked convincing to the investigators.
Miller’s aggressive nature, his criminal record, the weapon found, the presence of a backpack of unknown origin, and most importantly, the testimony of a tourist who saw his pickup truck on a closed road.
All of this formed the first serious clue in the case.
At this stage, many members of the team sincerely believed that the case was close to being solved.
No one knew at the time that this was only a false lead that would lead the investigation away from the truth for several long days.
After the search and arrest of Clyde Miller, detectives began a full interrogation, trying to get an explanation for his presence in the Courts Lake area on the days of Terresa Harrison’s disappearance.
According to official protocol, Miller immediately acted nervous and irritated.
He admitted that he had indeed been near the lake, but explained that he was checking the nets for fish, which he said he secretly set several times a year.
This confession did not comply with the law.
Such traps are prohibited in the national park, but most importantly, it did not match what he had previously stated.
The record shows that Miller was evasive when asked directly why his pickup was seen on a closed service road.
He claimed that he might have driven there by mistake or swerve to avoid a pothole.
All of his words were fragmented and contradictory, and this only strengthened the investigator’s belief that the man was hiding something.
Suspicion was especially high when he was asked to explain the origin of the backpack found in the trailer.
Miller said he found it in the woods about a month ago.
This statement did not match the time frame.
Teresa had disappeared earlier and investigators were well aware that the area around Lake Quartz had been thoroughly searched during the fall and early winter and no personal belongings had been found there.
Thus, Miller’s version seemed unlikely.
The behavior of the detainee was another reason for suspicion.
In their reports, the officers noted that Miller raised his voice several times, repeated phrases about tourists having no business on his property, and sometimes went into incoherent monologues about invaders who were allegedly harming the forest.
These manifestations of aggression, combined with his criminal past, gave the investigators the impression that they were dealing with a potentially dangerous person who was quite capable of violence.
The media picked up the story almost immediately.
Several local publications published articles describing Miller as a recluse with a dark past, and one TV channel went even further, calling him the monster of Glacier.
Although the investigation did not officially confirm his involvement, the public opinion was already forming an image of a man who could have attacked a lone tourist.
In such an atmosphere, the pressure on the investigators was palpable.
The department realized that the case had attracted considerable attention, and the public was expecting a quick response.
Miller looked like an ideal suspect.
He was aggressive, knew the area well, had a history of conflicts with tourists, and his presence near a closed road on the days of Teresa’s disappearance could indicate an attempt to cover his tracks.
Even the absence of evidence of sexual assault did not prevent some detectives from assuming a similar motive simply because such a scenario fit Miller’s profile as a trespasser and poacher.
In the official documents of this period, one can sense confidence.
The team was preparing materials to take the case to court.
The prosecution was to base its case on the tourist’s testimony, the found backpack, Miller’s aggressive behavior, and his contradictory explanations of the route that day.
Inconsistencies in Miller’s words were noted, but not critically examined.
At this stage, most investigators decided that everything fits.
Several detectives pointed out that the description of the pickup truck seen by the witness, while similar, was not identical to Miller’s vehicle in terms of the characteristics of his previous offenses.
However, these comments were labeled as irrelevant.
All the energy of the investigation was directed at preparing the indictment, although an independent review of the materials would indicate that there was no direct evidence.
Nevertheless, the memos do mention one detail.
Several officers noted that nothing was found in Miller’s trailer that directly linked him to Teresa.
None of her personal belongings, no paint particles identified by forensic scientists, no rope identical to the one on her body.
But these nuances were lost amidst the general enthusiasm for the obvious perpetrator.
At this point, the investigation was confident that it was in the home stretch.
They began to pass the documents to the district prosecutor for legal review.
After months of uncertainty, Terresa Harrison’s disappearance seemed to finally have a logical explanation.
However, it was at this point that the case took a wrong turn, even though the investigators did not yet realize it.
The atmosphere of confidence was so thick that none of the team members expected that soon all their conclusions would crumble and the threat of events would lead to a completely different person.
When the case seemed almost complete and the suspicion of Clyde Miller seemed obvious, the results of the spectral analysis of paint particles recovered from Terresa Harrison’s clothes arrived at the forensic science department’s laboratory.
This analysis was ordered immediately after the discovery of the microparticles, but due to the workload of the laboratory, its execution was delayed for several weeks.
It was these results that dramatically changed the direction of the investigation.
The forensic report stated that the paint found on TZ’s jacket and pants belonged to the category of silver metallic automotive enamels.
Moreover, the spectral signature of this paint clearly matched the line of coatings that were used on certain models of Japanese passenger cars in the mid20s.
This was a specific and narrow result that could not be ignored.
Neither Miller’s pickup truck nor any of his other vehicles had such a coating.
The case file described his car as an old red Ford with rust on the edges of the doors and bumper.
All of this information completely excluded the possibility that the paint on Teresa’s clothes could have appeared as a result of contact with Miller’s car.
This conclusion was the first element in a series of inconsistencies that suddenly began to accumulate.
One of the detectives who had been working on the case from the beginning was a digital forensic specialist, and it was he who suggested that the phone records of all the people connected to Teresa’s disappearance be re-examined.
In particular, her friend Paula Jones, who was the one who brought Teresa to the start of the route and was the first to report her disappearance.
Initially, Paula’s alibi was not in doubt.
She claimed that she had been waiting in the parking lot for a certain time.
And when Teresa did not return, she tried to call her and then went to the rangers.
However, detailed records from the mobile operator have only now been received.
They included information about the so-called blind connection attempts, moments when the user’s phone was briefly recorded by the system, even without a connection.
It was this data that caused concern.
The document that was handed over to detectives stated that on the evening of Teresa’s disappearance between 6:00 and 7:00, Paula Jones’s phone, momentarily connected to a mobile tower covering a sector of a closed service road near Lake Quartz.
This road ran about a mile from the main parking lot where Paula said she had been waiting for her friend all along.
This fact became the starting point for the review of her testimony.
>> [snorts] >> The evidence was not sufficient to immediately press charges, but it did require an explanation.
The detective in charge of interrogations decided to talk to Paula again, formally using the pretext of clarifying Miller’s seized belongings.
Paula came to the police station unaccompanied.
In his subsequent explanations, the detective noted that the girl looked tense from the beginning.
She avoided direct eye contact, was constantly shifting things from hand to hand, and her voice was shaky.
She was shown the photos of the backpack found, and she only briefly confirmed that Theresa did not have one.
At first, the detective did not ask about the phone, allowing the conversation to take a neutral course.
After the conversation ended, the detective decided to look at Polo’s car.
It was parked in the parking lot in front of the department’s building, a silver middle-class sedan, a typical car for students or young people working part-time.
The car did not stand out in any way.
But as he approached, the detective noticed several details that did not fit into the overall picture.
There was a barely noticeable dent on the front bumper, a small indentation on the right side that someone had tried to paint over by hand.
The top layer of paint had a subtle difference in texture, which is clearly visible in direct sunlight.
Below, along the bumper line, there were scratches where the paint had been worn away to a primer.
The detective ran his finger over the surface and wrote in his memo.
Traces of unprofessional repair done quickly.
Scratches are fresher than the rest of the body.
This damage alone did not prove anything.
The car could have been damaged in a parking lot while maneuvering or in a collision with an animal.
There are many such cases in mountainous areas.
But the fact that the paint of Pola’s car had a silver hue coincided with the laboratory’s findings.
Although a paint sample from the bumper was needed for final confirmation, the overall picture was becoming increasingly troubling.
The investigator noted that Paula was nervously looking around as she left the police station and hurrying to her car.
The detectives had no reason to detain her or seized the car, but two important notes appeared in the protocols that day.
the need for an expert examination of the vehicle and an official question to the mobile operator about the signal’s precise location.
Together with the results of the spectral analysis and inconsistencies in Paula’s testimony, these observations began to form a new system of equations in the case where previous conclusions no longer fit together.
The detectives felt that the case was beginning to take an unexpected turn, although they did not yet have a clear answer to how dangerous this direction would be for someone who had been considered the victim until now.
Paula Jones’s second summon to the police department was formal.
She was told that she needed to clarify some details related to the items seized from Clyde Miller.
According to the investigator who conducted the interrogation, she showed up on time, but looked exhausted, as if she had not slept for several nights in a row.
She walked into the interrogation room at a brisk pace, constantly adjusting the sleeve of her jacket.
The official protocol records that the detective did not start the conversation with acute questions.
First, he confirmed the information Paula had given earlier, what time she arrived at the parking lot when she tried to call Theresa when she contacted the rangers.
The girl kept repeating the same words, but a note appeared in his notes.
Answers are short, voice trembling, gaze directed to the floor.
Only then did he put two documents in front of her.
The first one was an enlarged photo of the front bumper of her car with a visible dent and traces of paint.
The second was a forensic report on the silver metallic paint found on Theresa’s clothes.
According to the detective, he merely voiced the phrase recorded in the protocol as we know it’s not Miller and we know you were on the service road that evening.
After that, Pola’s behavior changed dramatically.
According to the investigator, at first she tried to explain something, but her voice broke.
Then she grabbed her head with her hands, started crying, and repeated that this should not have happened.
When she was offered water and given time to calm down, she confirmed that she was ready to give an explanation.
Her words were passed on to the investigators in the form of a detailed narrative without direct quotes, but with an exact reproduction of the content.
Paula said that on August 24th, she arrived at the parking lot earlier than agreed.
According to her, she didn’t want to wait for several hours in a place where there was often no connection.
So, she decided to find Terza herself to surprise her and meet her at the exit of the route.
The shortest way to that point was through a closed service road, which was off limits to private vehicles.
Paula knew this, but as she said, I didn’t think about the rules.
She took a dirt road where in many areas branches hung over the road and there were more turns than on the main route.
The explanation states that the girl turned on music and looked at her phone several times to check the time.
The report describes the road situation as follows.
Sharp turn in a section about half a mile from the trail.
Poor lighting due to dense trees, narrow track.
It was at this turn that the impact occurred.
According to Paula, Teresa was just coming out of the woods onto the road.
Paula saw her too late and did not have time to slow down.
The impact was severe.
Terza hit her head on the hood first and then fell to the rocky edge of the road.
Paula ran out of the car.
She tried to call for help, but there was no connection.
When she bent over her friend, she was not breathing.
Paula’s explanation did not include detailed descriptions of her emotions, only trembling phrases about being frozen with terror and not being able to believe what had happened.
She was 19.
In her mind, she said there was only one thing, prison.
At that moment, as she described in the protocol, she made the worst decision of her life.
Paula dragged Theresa’s body into the car.
The report states that there were no signs of a struggle.
The girl was dead immediately after the impact.
She was driving slowly because the road was narrow.
Her goal, in her own words, was to find a place where there were no people.
Such a place was half a mile from the Hidden Run near the steep shore of Lake Quartz where a service road once ran.
Paula stopped the car there.
In the trunk, she found the tow rope she always carried with her.
There were several large river stones on the bank.
Paula tied the stones to her dead friend’s feet.
As noted in the report, the knots were rough and asymmetrical, which forensic scientists later called panic knots.
She pushed the body into the water.
After that, according to her own words, she stood on the shore for several minutes and watched the body slowly disappear into the dark depths.
Then she returned to the car and drove back along the same service road.
Paula then acted as she later told investigators.
She returned to the main parking lot, sat there for several hours trying to collect her thoughts and create the appearance of waiting, and then drove to the rangers with a preconceived version of her friend’s disappearance.
All these details were recorded in the investigation documents.
They explained almost every element that had previously aroused suspicion.
The appearance of paint on Teresa’s clothes, the unexplained activity of Pola’s phone, the damage to her car, the sudden disappearance of the trail on a rocky area.
They also explained why there were no signs of a struggle or foreign DNA in the case.
Although the report did not describe her emotions, investigators noted that Paula repeatedly said one phrase during her confession.
I didn’t mean for this to happen.
I just wanted to take her home.
After Paula Jones’s confession, investigators asked her to point out where she had left Teresa Harrison’s belongings.
Unlike the body, which she threw into the lake in a state of panic, Paula deliberately hid her backpack and phone in the woods, trying to remove anything that could link her friend to the car or the road.
The official report states that Paula agreed to cooperate without much convincing.
She looked exhausted as if telling the truth was the only way she could do anything right.
The next morning, the detectives went with Paula to the place she had described.
It was a narrow area between an old service road and a rocky slope.
According to her, she chose it because no one walks there and the ground was soft after the rain.
The park did not mark this area on the map.
It had no marked trails and was used only sporadically by the services.
According to the inspection report, Paula stopped near a large fallen trunk and pointed to a spot under the moss.
The forensic team cleared away the top layer and found the fabric.
Then they found the clasp.
Under the layer of earth was Teresa Harrison’s backpack, completely identical in model and color to the entries in her registration documents.
In the side pocket, they found a phone turned off without visible damage with soil residue in the connectors.
All this was the final proof of the correctness of Pola’s testimony.
The experts report states the objects were found in the place directly named by the person who confessed.
The traces correspond to her description.
After that, the investigation had no doubts about the reconstruction of the events.
While this part of the work was underway, the Flathead County prosecutor officially dropped the murder charges against Clyde Miller.
He was left with other violations: illegal hunting, possession of an unregistered weapon, and obstructing the work of Rangers.
For these episodes, Miller received a fine, and a suspended sentence.
Investigators memos mentioned that Miller continued to be aggressive but did not make any complaints to the investigation after his release, but the details of this behavioral aspect are not relevant to the case itself.
The situation was much more complicated for the families of Teresa and Paula.
When Teresa’s parents were informed of the confession, they refused to believe it.
According to a social worker who was present at the first meeting with them, Teresa’s mother repeated that Pola cried next to her that night and that a bad person would not have been so worried.
The families had known each other for many years and the news that her death was not the result of an attack, kidnapping, or violent crime, but a mistake and panic of a close friend came as a blow to them.
The trial of Paula Jones did not last long as most of the circumstances were established during the investigation and the girl’s confession was consistent with the evidence.
The charge consisted of several counts.
Manslaughter as a result of a road accident, concealing the body, and obstructing the investigation.
The courtroom was crowded with journalists, relatives, and neighbors.
Everyone who had been following the case since Teresa’s disappearance came to the trial.
During the announcement of the circumstances, the court read out a reconstruction of the events based on Paula’s testimony and evidence found by forensic experts.
This was a turning point in the public perception of the case.
The journalists who had written about a killer with a dark history the day before were now covering the tragedy of two girls in which chance and fear were the main factors.
The prosecutor emphasized that the crime was not premeditated and death occurred instantly as a result of the blow, but that Paula’s actions after the incident were planned, rational, and conscious.
This was the most difficult part for the victim’s family.
According to the lawyer who represented Teresa’s family, the parents could not understand how a person who knew their daughter since childhood could bury the truth with the body.
The judge’s verdict stated that given Paula’s age, lack of previous offenses, and sincere confession, the case could not be interpreted as premeditated murder.
However, hiding the body, misleading the police, and deliberately creating a false trail constituted a serious crime against justice.
Paula Jones received 15 years in prison.
The records show that she listened to the sentence in silence without raising her head.
After the trial, the case was officially closed.
For the department, it was one of those episodes that strike them as tragically simple.
No maniac, no conspiracy, no sudden danger.
Just a young girl’s bad decision multiplied by fear and a desire to save her life at the cost of someone else’s.
The last page of the official report contains a photograph of Lake Quartz taken by a ranger during a spring roundup.
Calm water, steep banks, silence.
The place that for eight months held a secret that made the entire park search for a fictional killer.
