Note: This story is entirely true. Really.
So last week I left my laptop at home and hoped in the car with wife and child for a quick 6 hour ride to the Oregon Coast. Specifically, we went to Beverly Beach in Oregon. This trip we were camping in-law style, which means camping at a place with:
- Bathrooms
- Showers
- Mini-Mart
- Camp trailer with queen size bed, television, and kitchen
This is in opposition to the way I went camping as a child which involved:
- Mildew enhanced tent older than me
- Dehydrated "meals"
- Hiking with 40 pound backpack for 10-20 miles (uphill both ways)
- Huddling by the fire at night while "Dueling Banjos" playing from the woods
I have to say while I was always told the way I was used to camping was character building, there is something to be said about creature comforts provided by camping in a state park. As far as camping goes, it was nice and laid back as we visited the coastal towns and local breweries. The weather was a bit bi-polar so our trips to the beach were limited.
A note to anyone planning on taking a 1 year old child to a state park. Do not allow said child to crawl on the ground wearing anything you value. While it may look ordinary dirt, state campground soil actually consists roughly of the following:
- Dirt
- Tree sap
- Moss
- Campfire ash
- Charcoal
- Dead animal parts
- Sewage
Needless to say, even after washing my daughter's shoes several times they ended up in the trash.
But to the real point of this post. My father-in-law and I walked up to the mini-mart located just outside the state park to get some food for my daughter. On the way we noticed a state patrol officer parked alongside the road where he was apparently looking for something in the bushes/woods. It was a bit curious, and I walked over to ask him what was going on, but he had disappeared into the woods, so we continued on our way and bought some stuff and headed back to camp.
Approximately an hour later we ended up driving back to the mini-mart but this time there were 6-7 police cruisers, a CSI-style SUV/command post, crime scene tape, and a lot of cops. Did I mention the area I had walked all over was now enclosed in the crime scene tape? I wasn't sure if I should mention all those footprints were mine. So on the way back I slow down, roll down the window and talked to a state patrol officer:
Me: So can you tell me what is going on?
Officer: Sorry, I can't tell you anything. (Was giving out a move-along-now vibe.)
Me: (Roll up window and start to drive away, but look over at side of road.... something strange there...)
If you haven't guessed from the title of this post, there was a large black body bag behind the cops and crime scene tape. Having never seen a body bag before, it was still immediately recognizable via years of watching television. So now I get to head back to camp knowing:
- A body has been discovered close to where I am camping within the last hour.
- The cops aren't saying anything, but they seemed a little nervous.
After getting back to camp I headed over to the park ranger/entrance station:
Me: So, what is up with the body up the road? What have the cops said?
Ranger: Hey, I'm just a park ranger, they don't tell me anything.
Me: Are you telling me that when a dead body is found 30 feet from where you work, you have absolutely no curiosity about what has happened? (This was what I thought, but held my tongue. I couldn't help telling my wife was the good news was they had taken the body away, but were still looking for the head.)
So for the next few hours, I watched camp trailers pack up and bail out, as you might expect to happen when everyone in the state park knows a body was found in close proximity to where they have brought there families. I also heard various rumors of there being multiple bodies, and theories about what exactly happened.
Long story short, it turns out two guys who where arrested in Portland for killing two people (and were labeled as serial killers on TV) ended up telling the police they had left a third victim by our campground. So there was no real danger, just a little excitement to otherwise normal camping excursion.
Usually things as sad and tragic as multiple murders seem somewhat distant when you learn about them watching television.
For the full story see: http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/oregon/stories/NW_061506ORNnewportmurderKC.8e15a96d.html