Less than a Full Tank
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining Gloria and Gloria’s sister; Detective Jackie Nichols and one of Jackie’s friends; and Jayson Blair for lunch down in the valley. I was especially interested in meeting up with Jayson who had traveled all the way from northern Virginia to immerse himself in the areas where these cases are centered. I first heard of Jayson this past summer from his podcast, The Silver Linings Playbook, where he interviews interesting people on interesting subjects, and one of those interviews featured former FBI Agent and profiler, Julia Cowley. Jayson asked Julia if she’d heard of The Snake River Killer Podcast. She hadn’t, so he recommended it. And in fact, you will get to hear me interview Julia on an upcoming episode. Anyway, Jayson, a former journalist with the New York Times, had known about these cases for some time and had done some of his own investigative work. A couple of months ago, he reached out to Gloria and did a two-part interview with her for his show.
We all met up at Rooster’s Landing, a restaurant on the banks of the Snake River on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect with warm autumn sun shining on the water. I learned a lot over the course of that lunch, and even more when we all took a walk, retracing what we believe to have been Kristina Nelson and Brandy Miller’s route on the evening of September 12, 1982.
Much of what I learned on that walk will be discussed in forthcoming episodes. But one of the things that Jackie had mentioned merely in passing sort of caught me short. It was something I literally hadn’t even entertained or given any thought to, much less examined. What she mentioned was that Lance would have been fairly limited in driving distance on the night of September 12th 1982, depending on how much fuel he had in the tank of his 1972 Camaro. Not only did gas stations close at night, especially on Sundays (as was the case on that night in question) but there wasn’t any way to pay at the pump in those days.
In other words, Lance could have only driven so far, depending on how much fuel he had at the time. And because the abductions of Steven Pearsall, Kristina Nelson, and Brandy Miller seemed to have been opportunistic rather than planned, it’s unlikely that Lance would have had a full tank. But then again, he could have.
We know that the bodies of the girls were found about 1.3 miles beyond Kendrick, Idaho, on HWY 3, near mile marker 14. That’s about 28 miles from Lewiston. My hunch then becomes this: If we consider the location of Brandy and Kristina’s disposal site as ground zero in the Civic Theater 3 case, then I believe Steven Pearsall’s body is not far from where they were found. And because the area wasn’t searched all that thoroughly at the time, there still is a real possibility of finding his remains. All of which brings me to a story problem for all of you to consider:
A) Understanding that gas stations were not open all night in 1982, particularly on a Sunday night;
B) That Lance may have been more of an opportunistic killer, and not a planned killer, which means he may or may not have had a full tank of gas on the evening of September 12, 1982; consider the following:
1) The 1972 Chevrolet Camaro averaged ~ 9.12 MPG.
2) The 1972 Chevrolet Camaro comes stock with an 18 Gallon Tank
3) It is roughly 28 miles ONE WAY from Lewiston to the site of disposal, or 56 miles RT.
4)A full tank of fuel in the 1972 Camaro would yield (9.12 X 18) = ~ 164.6 miles.
Scenario #1:
If Lance Voss’ 1972 Camaro had a full tank of gas and if the car was running normally, he could still drive ~108 miles after the initial 56-mile round trip excursion between the Theater and the disposal site (164.6 – 56 = 108.6).
Scenario #2:
If Lance’s car had only three-quarters of a tank of gas, then he would have a maximum range of 125. 25 miles, but only a max of 69.25 miles after subtracting the 56 miles RT.
Scenario #3
If Lance’s car had only a half-tank of gas, then he could only max out at about 82 or so total miles, meaning once you subtract the RT miles (56) from the trip, he is left with only ~ 26 miles to travel before running out of gas.
Scenario #4:
Finally, let’s say Lance only had a quarter of a tank of fuel, he could only drive a total of 41.04 miles before running out of gas. Which if you try to plug in the Kendrick trip @56 miles RT, then he would be in the negative by nearly 15 miles. So this scenario does not seem plausible.
CONCLUSIONS:
1) Lance would have had to had between a little less than a half-tank of gas and a full tank of gas to dispose all three bodies.
2) He would have also been racing the clock.
3) It appears he dumped the bodies in this location as a matter of expediency.
4) Given that he would have been limited by fuel supply, time, and geography, I believe that the disposal site of Kristina and Brandy ought to be considered “Ground Zero” and that we construct a widening grid-search that ripples out concentrically from that spot, according to the scenarios above. And it is within that grid search that Steven’s remains will likely be found.
5) In the spring, we will be putting out an all-hands-on-deck call out to our listeners for a ground search operation based on a coverage grid derived from the above data-points. If you want to help, please let us know. We will need horses, ATVs, UTVs, dogs, photo/video equipment, and boots on the ground.
This is how Steven is going to be found. It’s going to take all of us. In the meantime, I’d encourage you all to examine the maps of our Ground Zero scene and begin identifying areas of interest: Ravines, ponds, gullies, streams, access points, etc. Go to Google Maps, and navigate to “Kendrick, Idaho.” Follow HWY 3 northeast as shown above to the location. Now work out from that place. If you have some ideas or theories, again, please contact us. The truth is in front of us. It’s somewhere on that map, and I am willing to bet that it’s closer than we think.
