"A scenic stretch of northern California wilderness is where 60 percent of marijuana is grown in the United States, and it's known as “Murder Mountain.” It’s not the climate or the soil that draws farmers to the area but the isolation. Humboldt County also has the highest rate of missing persons cases in the state, which is how it has become ground zero for danger in the cannabis industry."
"Humboldt County, California is infamously known as Murder Mountain. It's the largest marijuana-producing county in the country, but it has a dark history and seedy underbelly, rampant with homicides and disappearances. Five women have become the face of those gone missing, and they are known as the Humboldt Five.
In 1992, Jennifer Wilmer was the first to vanish. She moved from Long Island and planned to enroll in classes, but the semester was already in-progress. She began to waitress, but she quickly lost her job. She relied in part on welfare as she struggled to get on her feet. She moved to Trinity County with her boyfriend. She left to hitchhike to nearby farm in September of 1993, and she was never seen again.
In 1997, Karen Mitchell disappeared in November. She had moved to the area to live with her aunt, as she struggled to share a home with her birth mother. They remained in close contact and planned to attend some college courses together. Mitchell visited her aunt's shoe store in Bayshore Mall, then left for a shift at a local daycare. Eye witness reports claim to have seen her entering a '76-'78 blue Sedan with a man who closely resembled Robert Durst. Credit records put him in the area at this time, and he's known to have killed several other women.
Christine Walters was the third to disappear. She vanished in 2008, a 23 year-old Wisconsin native. She moved to the area on a whim, smitten by local New-Age and shamanistic neophytes. She participated in a local ritual involving the psychedelic ayahuasca, which may have led to a separation from reality. Late one night, she emerged from the woods, naked and covered in scratches, and she appeared on the doorstep of a nearby home. Walters claimed she had been pursued, but she wouldn't reveal by whom. After being hospitalized, she went to a local copy center to retrieve important documents for new identification. She was last seen walking toward the DMV, disoriented and still wearing her pajamas.
In 2014, Sheila Franks disappeared from Eureka, California seven days before Danielle Bertolini. James Eugene Jones was the last person to see her, and he claimed that she left for a walk at 8 AM and never returned. Partial remains were discovered in a nearby waterway.
Danielle Bertolini also disappeared in 2014. She moved from Maine to Humboldt County in 2010 after a difficult health complication. She turned to drugs to cope with her trauma, and she fell in with the wrong crowd. Late one night she called for a ride from the Swain's Flat area; she was picked up by James Eugene Jones, and she was never seen again.
Are these cases connected to one perpetrator, praying on these disadvantaged women for decades, or is this a result of the criminal elements in the community of Humboldt County?"
