Replay: Ian Eckles Part 3 - The Broken Window
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These facts, they don't dispute themselves. I already know that, like I was telling you before, that you're a forager. You're out there looking for your supplies. We already know this, so you have to go for these supply runs. And sometimes these supply runs are occurring very late at night or very early in the morning. I know that you're on a supply run that day. I know that you went down to the Minimal Springs store. I know that you went down there and checked the dumpster.

I know everywhere that you went that night, Jorge. Well, there you go. So here's where the discrepancy is coming in, Jorge, is I believe that you did break that back window with the rock, and I think you did. Yeah, right. I remember clearly now. I think you did. I'm not going to lie to you. Right. You did go into that campsite. You found his FJ. You broke the back window with the rock.

I don't believe you thought anybody was in that rig, just like you're stating now. Just like you're stating now. Nobody was in there. I didn't see anybody in there. I saw the keys of the ignition. I broke the back window of the lock with a rock. I believe that. I think what happened, got to listen, what we're missing here is the fact that Ian was in that vehicle. He was sleeping in the back of it. He was camping right in the back of it. Here's what I believe. I think it started the hell out of him.

Ian Echols was last seen leaving his home on May 16, 2020.

headed to go hunting with a friend in the mountains of Washington. But Ian never met up with his friend, and no one was able to reach him for days, sparking a massive search that went on for weeks after Ian's car was found being driven by another man. On June 14th, 2020, Ian was still missing, but the man believed to be responsible for his disappearance and murder was apprehended.

This man is also believed to have been involved in at least two other deaths. So who is this man, and where is Ian? I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is episode 294 of The Vanished, part three of Ian Eccles' story, The Broken Window.

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Last week, we brought you the first two episodes in our story about 41-year-old Ian Eccles, who vanished in a national forest on the Cascade Mountains in Washington last year. Today, we're sharing with you the final episode in Ian's story, which we've titled The Broken Window, and we think you'll understand why once you reach the end of this story.

After an extensive, weeks-long search that spanned thousands of acres of the Okanagan Wenatchee National Forest, led by numerous law enforcement agencies, the man Ian's friends encountered driving his car was arrested. He was taken directly to an interview with investigators, and we watched many hours of his conversation with them. Today, we're going to share some of that interview with you.

The interview was nearly four and a half hours long, so we've cut it down in length for time. We had heard rumblings that the possible motive in Ian's alleged murder was a car battery. This seems crazy, but once we listened and watched the police interview with Jorge Alcantara Gonzalez, the man arrested in connection with Ian's disappearance,

We started to wonder. Alcantara was found in possession of both Ian's Toyota FJ Cruiser and a deceased woman's Ford SUV. What you're going to hear over the next few minutes is investigators trying to figure out what this suspect needed a car battery for and how that could have led to his deadly interaction with Ian. My car was out of gas. I was out of food. I was out of everything. I came across this car and it was keys were in the ignition.

There was a wallet, there was a cooler, there was a shotgun. I mean, I was like, is this real? So stuff was there, you know. I took it. The missing person that we've been talking about, his name's Ian. Okay, I don't know if you knew his name. His name's Ian. I remember that he was driving. Okay, so you remember that name, Ian? Well, I don't know. I never knew him. I never saw anybody, like I said. Was there a cell phone in the car? No. No cell phone? No cell phone. And so that, like I said, that...

I mean, do believe that he walked away to get some help, to get a charge or to get a jump start or a new battery. I walked back up there. I saw the car and I tried to turn it on. It didn't work. And so I said, oh, maybe I can use my battery. So I went back from my expedition to grab the battery and I turned it on. I remember I turned it on. I didn't put it on there. I just turned it on. And once it was on, I saw there was, it had gas. And so I was like, oh man.

So it was in that time that I remember that I took it up there towards the end of the road and I parked it there so as to, you know, hide the car. And so I went back from my expedition and I parked it there, but it wasn't on Wednesday. It was on Thursday or Friday because it only took me about a day basically to move the car up to where it was, where you guys found it.

And it was there that I turned it off. I remember that I turned it off. I left it there. The battery was still in the expedition. In the expedition, I left it in that landing. So I walked back from the expedition. I took it up there. It was early in the morning on Sunday that I drove, that I decided to drive the FJ, you know, to drive it away from there. I went down. I went to Tengahweru. I didn't take it anywhere except on Sunday. It was one day that I drove it. I fired it up. I left the expedition there with my battery on it.

The FJ was still on. I thought the battery was going to charge. So I drove up there to the end of the road, and I left where it was, right there. And then I came back with the expedition. And that's when I took the battery, went to the expedition, I put it on the FJ, and then I went for a hunt. I just found it. Did you think that was weird, that it was all just left there? I thought, what am I going to say? I said to myself, is it real or not?

I thought somebody had left it, but the thing is, when I tried to turn it on, the battery was dead. It seemed like somebody forgot to turn the light on or something. Maybe when they tried to turn it back on, they couldn't turn it back on because of the battery. Hmm.

But I never saw anybody. I never saw this guy or anybody. Okay, so Jorge, we've been working on this. When you're saying that you saw Ian's vehicle on that Friday and then the family contacted you on Saturday, Jorge? I can't remember the day, but I think it was a Sunday. The Wednesday before that, Jorge, you were contacted by somebody that was picking mushrooms.

And he saw you and the FJ Cruiser on a lower landing. And again, just hear me out here. He contacted you on a lower landing.

which is an area with a campfire that you, we know from your GPS. Hold on. Just let me talk. Okay. And then I'll let you talk when I'm done, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's an area on your GPS unit that was tracking everything you did about every five minutes. It's an area that you spent time and you camped at, which is also where we found Ian's Bud Light cans that were in his car from the cooler. And then that's where Ian's vehicle was. That's where I found the car. That's where I found the car. Now that I remember it.

That's where I found the car. But the thing is, I didn't remember about the guy. You see, there was someone that said, hey, there's a car back. That's how I found the car. I remember now. Because I had it confused. That's when they found me. I was taking it to Sunday. I pulled it up there. And I remember that. There was something doing on an ATV. I remember. And he said, hey, someone left the car. Somebody parked back there. And I was parked because I thought that was the end of the road.

So now I'm mixed. Now I remember this. And then eventually you took the Expedition up there and parked it next to it? Right, right. Okay. Because I had to take the battery in order to start this other car. Okay. Right? Because I'm excited. Two cars, one battery. There you go. So you drove the Expedition up there to put the Expedition and the FJ Cruiser. Left it on the side. Yeah. Okay. I just thought about driving it for a little while so I could maybe find something. Where'd you put the bad battery at? Battery. Battery.

Is it up there somewhere? Took it out. It must be still there somewhere. Okay. In that same area or different? It must be in the area. It's got to be there somewhere. Either there, I remember after I took it out from there, it was still in the FJ. I think it's up there further up by where the road ends, somewhere in that area. Okay. Because that road does dead end out. It does.

The story about the battery is confusing. Alcantara says he found Ian's car unoccupied, and the battery was dead. Alcantara seems foggy about dates and places. Perhaps he's being intentionally evasive. One thing that we do know is that Alcantara used to go on supply runs, often in the middle of the night. Is it possible that the real story here is that the battery on Nancy's expedition had died?

and Alcantara was out hunting for a car battery that night when he happened upon Ian's FJ Cruiser. The battery is something that investigators come back to many times.

Where were the keys at when you see them? In the ignition. So you could see them in the ignition? Yeah, yeah. And that's the main reason why I decided to go in there, because I was like, oh, man. So the doors were all locked and the keys were in the ignition. Everything was locked. Everything was windows off, doors locked, and the keys were in the ignition. Okay. So I tried to turn it on. It wouldn't work. It was like the battery was dead. And I was like, man. So I remember I went back from the expedition. I had my jumper cables. I made it. I turned it on.

And then from there, I drove it away further up to where you guys found it. Okay. And I went for that drive. And I was like, man, they haven't come there. They haven't found it. So I was like, maybe I can use it for whatever. Did it look like someone was living in it? It just kind of looked like they used to sleep in it, but nobody was there. I mean, you could see the blankets and the seats were down. And you could see the...

you know, the area where the guy would sleep or whatever. When you say the seats were down, the back seats were down? The back seats were like folded. Okay. So that's what I remember. The back seats like folded down forward towards the front seats? Towards the front seats. Okay. And there was blankets and stuff set out? There was a sleeping bag. That's what I saw. And I took it because it was cold.

Whether he was simply trying to evade answering their questions or truly didn't remember what had taken place, investigators tried several approaches in bringing Ian to the forefront of the conversation. In the next series of clips from the interview, investigators plea with Alcantara to help them find Ian. You know, like you were surprised to find Ian's car.

What we really want to know is we want to try to figure out what happened to Ian. That's why we've been looking...

so hard um and again just let me let me explain a little bit for him um because uh you ended up with his with his car and one of the things that the family remember the three people that you said that contacted you that shot at you they uh since you don't remember the exact conversation one of the things that they remember you saying was it's not what it looks like and you got back in the car do you remember saying that to them i remember that i just

Well, like I said, I said, why did I even stop? And I just kept on and I said, have a nice day. And I just moved on because I felt that I felt as if maybe he was trying to find out something, information. And I knew at that moment that the car was mine. Okay.

I thought that the owner had to come back and not find his car. One thing I do remember is that one of them said, hey, where's that's our friend's car. I said, oh, man, the guy knows that I took his car.

So I immediately went back to try to put the car back. Gotcha. But that's the thing is I didn't know where it worked. So were you planning on keeping his car just because you thought that you weren't? No, like I said, man, I wasn't even going to drive it. It was only because I was at a split decision because I thought, you know, well, it's a six-cylinder. If I go look for a deer, it's going to use less gas than if I take the expedition. So why did you take the time to peel the stickers off of his car? I found them in your vest, in your blue vest.

The stickers that were on the side windows of his car? Those were peeled off? Those were left on the car. Okay, so those were on the car. I dug up to try and make it less apparent that it was someone's car. Okay. But like I said, I wasn't thinking of anything except just trying to stay hidden, you know?

I remember that I took them off because I said, well, if someone sees them, they're going to recognize me. I'll be driving the car. And I wasn't going to drive it except because I thought I could use it for a little bit and come back. Leave it there where I found it and just move on. But that's it. Everything was, like I said, almost surreal because there was stuff that was in there. And so I immediately thought that

The owner had forgot to turn the keys off or the switch off or something. He left the Lylone overnight. And then the next morning, he tried to turn it on and it wouldn't turn on. So I thought maybe he went away to get some help. And so at that point, I didn't think about it that much. You know, I was just like going with the moment. I did what I did. I took the stuff, this and that.

I remember I took some gas out of the car. And I said, well, I hope he doesn't find me. Understand my position, Jorge. No, I mean, you were found with all of his stuff. You were found with his vehicle. Of course, the stuff was in the car. Okay. But all I'm saying is you have to understand where I'm coming from, Jorge. Give it to somebody here. Take the stuff. No, I'm the only one. But, you know, come on. If the stuff was in there, I took it because I needed the stuff. You know, there was a little bit of food. There was a little bit of gas. There was a little bit of money. So I took it.

Because there was nobody there. And now you're telling me I never saw the guy? Do you think it wasn't, it wasn't even surprising to see the keys in the wallet and this and that? It surprised, like, like you wouldn't believe. I thought it was like a gift from, from someone like, like God. Then I took it. I was like, oh man, is this real?

There you go. You think about it. Look at the end. Look at what I got. I will. There you go. And I've been going over it. It's a little hard, man, because I've never been in a situation like this in my life. I never will. And there are hard questions that I have to ask, and this is not an easy situation to get through. Okay? Okay.

But I have to ask the hard questions. We do. We have to. Because we have a family out there looking for a loved one. I know that. Okay. So the hard questions. I have a family. I have a lot of sisters. So the hard questions are coming. And we deal with them as they come. All right. It's part of our job.

In part two of Ian's story, we told you about Nancy Holst, an 80-year-old woman that police found deceased in her home in May 2020. It was estimated that she had died about six weeks prior in March. Alcantara had Nancy's car for a period of time, and it was found along with Ian's a week after he disappeared.

Alcantara had openly admitted to being in possession of Nancy's SUV. This is what he told investigators about how he met Nancy. I met her. I was on the street. I was homeless. And I remember I was walking by her house. It started to rain. All of a sudden, she was up. She was up there by her house and she yelled at me, hey, could you grab my mail for me? And so out of nowhere, I looked up and I looked at her. I saw her. I didn't know who she was, but I said, yes, ma'am, I'll grab it for you.

So I went over, grabbed her mail, I walked back up to her house. She was already in the front of my house and, you know, we started talking. She asked me what I was doing out there. I said, I'm homeless. She said, well, what do you do? What do you do for a living? I said, I'm a handman. I do construction. So she said, really? Well, I may have some work for you. Would you be interested in helping me out? I said, sure. She took me to inside. She showed me her bathroom. She said she was going to have a garage sale of some sort.

And she needed to have a working bathroom for anyone that would ask for it, for a bathroom to use. And you're talking about like over in Seattle, like before you came over here? That was in Fall City. Fall City? Okay. Okay. It was in March or March, somewhere around March. So I looked at the bathroom. It was only a few issues, you know, nothing major. Just that you had to fix it out. A little bit of Teflon tape so it wouldn't leak. After that, I know she offered me some food and I...

I told her, she asked me, where am I going? I said, well, I'm heading to Liberty. I'm looking to do prospecting, old prospecting. She said, are you going to walk there? I said, yeah, but I have no other way. So I remember that she thought about it for a few seconds and she asked me, would you be interested in that car? And I remember that she said, if you were willing to clean it, you can take it.

And by that, I mean, the car was without seats in the back and it was full of trash bags. Like, I'm talking 20 trash bags from her house. They were just piled up in there. So I don't know. I mean, I just said, are you serious? Is that a real offer? She said, yeah, if you're willing to clean it, you can take it. And I said, but I have no money. I didn't have money. I had coins and $25, $30 for me. She said, don't worry about it. You can take it if you want it.

I thought about it for a few seconds, and I said, sure, I'll take it. So she's like a friend then, kind of. Well, I can say that she was my friend, but I'd never seen her. I mean, it was nice of her, what she did, right? Yeah. You think about it, would you do something like that for someone? Well, I wouldn't, but that's just me. That's the thing. Yeah. Who would do something for somebody that just, so that's how I got that truck. And from there, I remember I jumped a 990 and I hit it to Liberty.

Was that the only time that you... That was the only stuff you did for Nancy then? That was the only thing. Oh, wow. And she paid you with the... That's nice of her. No, it was just... Like I said, because she mentioned that she was planning to build a garage sale and she was working back then. Those coins. Yeah. That... Are you sure that Nancy didn't give you those coins? No. You're positive? No. Yeah, no, I'm positive. Then think about it. Because...

No, ma'am. I think those coins may have came from... You might be confused because I think, Nancy, maybe those were in the expedition. No, ma'am. When you had... You're for sure you found those in the cabin? Yeah. I found those mail detecting. Okay. I can tell you that... Was there anything else that Nancy gave you? Some food. Some food? A hat, a cowboy hat. That cowboy hat? Yeah, for the rain. Okay. You know, she was... I mean, it was brief. And I can tell you that she was...

She was, it seemed like she was sick, you know, like she had, she sneezed quite a few times, more than a few times, actually. All right. Well, I just wanted to ask you about those coins because I thought those were maybe in the expedition or from her house. She had some pictures of coins, so. I don't know. I can tell you. Yeah. Well, if you remember that in a couple of minutes, if it comes back to you, let me know because I'm sure the pictures that she has are going to match the coins that we...

Have maybe. So that's why I'm asking you, because I don't want to I don't want it to be a discrepancy if you think it's possible that they came from there. No, no, no. Those especially the silver, the silver. There was another silver dollar on the 67. I think it looked brand new because it was it was inside this pouch. But that wasn't part of the money she gave. No, no, no.

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After taking the car from Nancy Holst, Alcantara had stopped by his brother Miguel's house. Miguel spoke with law enforcement while they were still searching for their person of interest and narrowing down who he was and where he might be hiding. In the file that we received from the police, Miguel had this to say about his brother, Jorge, the man arrested by authorities in connection with Ian's disappearance and many other crimes.

Miguel said Jorge recently lived in his house for a couple of months, but that he had to kick Jorge out after a time because he refused to work at all and did nothing around the house. Miguel said Jorge was gone for around a week, then returned with a large brown or green SUV. He thought it was an around 1998 to 2000 Ford Expedition.

He asked Jorge, who had no source of money that he knew of, how he got a nice vehicle like this. Jorge told his brother he did some work for a lady and she gave it to him in exchange. He interacted with Jorge from his porch, not coming down or inviting Jorge up.

Miguel said everyone in Jorge's family had a problem with him because of Jorge's thefts from them and attempts to intimidate them. Miguel also said that Jorge has drug and mental health problems. He said Jorge has an undue fondness for beer and Red Bull energy drinks. Jorge has lived intermittently on the streets or in the woods since he was 15 years old. He likes to try to intimidate strangers, talks to himself, acts paranoid, and

and keeps to himself a lot. We don't know for certain what Alcantara's history with drugs is, but some of what his brother told police is backed up by other eyewitness accounts. You heard them mention earlier a mushroom hunter. That mushroom hunter came forward to the police. His name is Lauren, and he told the police about his interaction with Alcantara. The following is a narrative that an officer wrote about their interview with Lauren.

On May 27th, Lauren came to the office to report that he saw the released photo of the suspect and believed he contacted him in Ian Eccles' car. On Wednesday, May 20th, Lauren said he was mushroom hunting on the 132 Spur Road, heading towards its southern end around 1230 on the 20th. The road is rough and narrow, winding through portions of thick brush, and Lauren said he was shocked when he came around a bend on his quad to

to find a large SUV parked on the south side of the road, with someone apparently sleeping in the back of it.

He saw a portable solar battery charger set up in the middle of the road and a can sitting on a stump in the road. He thought it looked like someone was using it for target practice. Lauren rode by the sleeping subject and went to the end of the 132 spur. There he found a white and silver Toyota FJ, which he now recognized as Ian Eccles' missing vehicle. It was backed up to a steep hill behind the landing at the end of the road.

Lauren said he was very sketched out by the whole situation because there appeared to be no legitimate reason for anyone to take these two nice vehicles down this terrible road, which would certainly damage both. He turned to leave, but as he rode past the SUV where the person had been sleeping, he was engaged by a man he now recognized as Jorge Alcantara. Lauren gave graphic descriptions of the distinctive tattoos on Alcantara's wrists.

And when I showed him photos from a previous booking, including photos of Alcantara's tattoos, he looked obviously shaken. He said Alcantara appeared agitated. Lauren said he believed he was tweaking high on methamphetamine.

Alcantara told him with apparent surprise. I didn't know this road went any further. He said he came from the Seattle area and was out in the woods getting some rest. Lauren broke off the encounter and left, unsure what to make of it until he learned of the search for Alcantara a week later. During their hours-long interview with Alcantara, police tried again to pin down the timeline of events and locations during the time that Alcantara was evading arrest.

3 in the morning or early in the morning. Yeah, yeah. Okay, you get the car, you break the window, you take it up to the landing where the broken glass is. You leave it there where the mushroom hunter. You leave it there. Okay, so you take the car early in the morning, you bust out the window.

4:00 in the morning, like 3:30, 3:30 in the morning. It was early in the morning. So 3:30 in the morning that happens and you take it up to the landing where the mushroom hunter, you left it there. Did you clean out the broken glass that day or did you clean it out in a couple days? It was the next morning. Okay, so then you bring it up there and you leave it and then the next morning you go and clean out the glass? Yeah, that's when I took this stuff. And you take all this stuff? The shotgun and the blanket and that stuff. Okay, the next day and then you leave it up there?

The car will stay there for days. You just stay there until the mushroom hunter, when he stopped. Yeah, until he went past this tent. Okay, so in the meantime, you've taken the stuff out of Ian's car the next day, and now you've set it up and you're using this stuff in the car. Yeah. Okay. So it wasn't much. Like I'm telling you, it was the tent, the inflatable mattress, the blanket, the sleeping bag, and the shotgun. The inflatable mattress, was that in a box? Yes.

No, it was just laying there. Okay. I think it was inside a bag, like a trash bag or something like that. I didn't even know that it was good. I thought it was broken, but still used it for a couple of days. I slept there two nights, and then...

Went back to sleep in the expedition down on the down on the mirror the spring counter car Okay, so when the mushroom hunter guy saw you you eventually move the car up to the top where we found that day earlier earlier that day or after after this picture

Before this picture, I remember. But after the mushroom hunter saw you, then you moved the FJ Cruiser. So you knew it was back there. You put it up there. I remember that because I thought, well, maybe they're going to probably say something to someone, the owner, and they're going to complain. So I went out. So that's why you didn't tell us that. Yeah.

And that's why you didn't tell him that because you didn't want him to put you with that vehicle. It makes sense. Exactly. Okay. Like I wouldn't say his name. See, whoever that guy was, he may, he may work for the police or I don't know if he does or not, but if like I wouldn't ride on someone, I wouldn't say, Hey, I saw somebody. I don't know if the guy, I don't know if the guy in the ATV knew the guy or saw the guy, you know, Saturday night, like around 12, one in the morning that I went and got the FJ and

And I took the expansion up there because it was too far. You know, I would have walked back, but it was just too far. And I didn't want to carry the battery with me because it was too heavy. I grabbed the expansion, I went back up there, I fired it up again. At that point, I said, well, if it turns off on me, wherever I go, it might not be able to turn it back on. And I don't want people to find it, the police to find it because...

I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but that's the thing. I remember now. And that's basically what happened. I took it to the landing. I left it there for days. The mushroom hunter came. And at that very day, I packed up everything and I moved the car further up.

As of the date this episode was recorded, Ian remains missing. Police continue to investigate Ian's probable murder, and his family and friends are still searching for him. During this interview that we've been sharing with you, investigators tried to reiterate the importance of finding Ian above all. Here's a bit of what we heard.

If we were looking, because I feel like if you weren't responsible for what happened to Ian, you would want him to be found, right? For his family? Of course, even me. You know, you guys think it was easy for me to be out there? Like I said, you know, bears chase me, like have to chase me. Because maybe they thought I was pregnant, you know, whatever. Maybe they saw me as food or whatever. For whatever reason, I'm lucky to be alive myself. Your brother, Miguel, he would want to bury you, right? Exactly. Okay, so Ian has a daughter and she would like to bury her father. I don't know that, you know.

And like I said, I never saw him, but I saw his ID. I saw his driver's license. I saw that he was a person. He has a daughter. He also has a new grandbaby. And they would like to have a service for him. The more time that goes on, that makes it less possible for us to be able to do that. And because you know of the Woods, tell me, where do you think that he could be? Did you find him and you don't want to tell us? Oh, no, ma'am. I can tell you one thing. Okay. Okay.

There's a lot of people going in there that did damage. I mean, you could feel it. They drove in there to do whatever, drink, get high, or do whatever. I can tell you that I saw vehicles like a black pickup Ford F-150 with a bumper on it that looked like a police vehicle, but it wasn't.

that would just come and dump a bunch of trash bags and gallons of something that looked like water, but I mean, stuff like that, you know. There was another guy on a Dodge Intrepid, red

It was a white guy. I'm not going to say names. I don't know the names. But I can describe people. Individuals that I saw coming in to do bad things. So are those places that you... You can see my laptop. You can see what I did. The things that I used to go and do over there. So we've got... Believe it or not, I even felt pain from those people at night because maybe they thought that I was some kind of officer or some kind of agent.

And so me staying in that area, it was getting hard. It was getting difficult for myself, for my own safety. And it could be that you saw something that you're not even aware that you saw, Jorge, that could tell us to where Ian is.

So let me ask you this. These areas that you're saying that you saw these people that are some shady people. Do you see? That's where the 130 starts. And there's an entrance right here. That's where I found the FJ. There was a car, a red Intrepid, barbed wire here. The guy had a cigarette on his mouth.

Kind of look thuggish. Okay. Straight up. But you know these areas, right? Yeah. What I'm wondering is if would you be willing to take us to some of these areas that you think that maybe that you've seen cars that if they were that his body could be somewhat?

Man, that's a hard one for me because I've never been to a situation like this. You know, I've been through a lot of things. But this is finding someone so they can have a proper burial. That's fine. I understand that. I mean, and you know the woods better than we do. Like, you can take us to this area and say, you know what? I saw cars in this area. I saw cars in this area. In this entrance right here.

Throughout the interview with Jorge, police repeatedly told him that they want to find Ian and that they believed Jorge could give them the information that would lead them to Ian's location. Here's more on that. Just hear me out. Yeah.

I think that there was an accident and I think that there were some reactions that were made in the heat of the moment and you didn't mean to have happen what happened. But I think that you know... Hold on just a second. I know. Well, I want to give you an opportunity if that has happened. There's no way that you can have his stuff already at this point. We have the time stamp from when these were taken from your Hero GoPro that you had set up. Okay? We have your... We have your...

GPS coordinates of your travel. So you know exactly where. Of everywhere you went. We know when Ian came to the area. And these are all your points. This is your whole path that you were taking when you were wearing it on your wrist the morning that he went missing. This is it. And he'll be able to fill you in here, Corey. This is from 2 a.m. to 3.20 a.m. in the morning that Ian went missing. I think...

I don't think you intended whatever happened, Jorge, but we're giving you an opportunity. I can tell you right now what the family wants is they want to find Ian and they want to give him a proper burial. That's what they want.

That's what I'm saying again. Now you're saying that I'm responsible for... You tell us. I can't tell you that because I am not. Well, hear me out. You're telling me something like you're coming at me from... Hear me out. Here's what I have. I have pictures.

From your GoPro and from your GPS, which fit very accurate GPS locations of where you were at during this time frame. Okay? I've already done that. You went to many places. You went to a lot of places. You went to a ton of places. But each picture stores the locations. Each picture stores the locations. So hear me out. You say the mushroom hunter found you at your location and told you that there was a vehicle down at the end of the road. What did you tell him? Didn't he know that road existed? Didn't know it went down that far?

Right? Yes, I did. Okay. Well, Jorge, I have information that says you did know exactly where that road went. You had walked down that road in April. I have that on your GoPro. You did a little hike down that road. You GPS located where you parked the expedition. You've already been to that landing before, way before this mushroom hunter account. Way before Ian went missing. Way before Ian went missing. You already knew that area. I have it on GPS, and I also have it on your GoPro.

I have a film of you on the GoPro actually walking down that road to the very end. To the very end? To the very end. I have you walking this evening. I have you walking all the way up to 9738. I have you walking down to 130. I have you walking down this 180 little 180 spurt where these two campsites are. This is on the night that Ian should have been here. I have you walking right into this campsite. Right here. Right here. This is where I have you at.

At 3.20 in the morning. 3.20 in the morning. Sometimes I will walk. Like, we'll walk for hours, you know, looking for the media. Now, Jorge, I know that you've already told us. That's like you guys telling me something that I cannot say. Okay, Jorge. Because that's hard. You're telling me something that it's completely out of the... Okay.

This is where I'm at with it. This is where we're at with it, is that we know that you go around, you forge for supplies, that you need stuff. We've already made that basis here, that you have to have necessities. You have to have food. Sometimes you need water. Sometimes you need other things.

We already know that sometimes you have to go break into somebody's house to get some stuff. Sometimes you'll find a window. Sometimes I can tell you that how many times it was like three times. Okay. But we already know that you're out here at three o'clock in the morning. You're not hunting. You're probably wandering around looking for some things. Okay.

My theory is this is what we have going on. Again, I think that you're out foraging for supplies. You're trying to collect some stuff. I think you've come across an FJ Cruiser that looks to be abandoned or that you think is unoccupied and has some stuff in there that you need. Because he's sleeping in the back and you can't see him. I just think, Jorge, that something happened here. You didn't mean it to happen.

You didn't want it to go this far, but guess what? It did. Some encounter happened between you and Ian. Something happened between you and Ian that you did not expect. I can tell you honestly, man. If I go that far back, if I go that far back in memory, I may be able to say that I found the car not where it was. But that's something that

You're telling me that you know where it banned? You know so much? So where do you remember seeing the car then, Jorge? Before the landing where you broke at the window. Where do you remember seeing it before that? Might have been over there. Right here? Somewhere in that area. Okay. Jorge Alcantara seems to shift his story slightly after investigators reveal some damning information.

information that they've withheld to confront him on after he told his version of the story. Alcantara wore a GPS device that he used to track himself and different locations where he left items. He told investigators that he had never been down this one road. However, Jorge's GPS places him there long before Ian disappeared, and he had even taken a video of himself at that location.

Even more damning is that his GPS places him right by where it's believed Ian was camping that night. He was there around 3.30 a.m., when Ian was likely sleeping or just waking up to go meet his friend at 4 a.m. to go hunting. But Jorge, if you run into somebody unexpectedly...

This is a chance encounter. This isn't something you were seeking out to go do. Okay? This is happen chance. You run in. Exactly. I found the car. Right. You found the car. That's the reason he's here. Oh, man. What was the unexpected thing that happened here? Ian was actually there. He was actually there. I never saw anybody in the car. That's the thing. That's why I took it because there was nobody around.

If you think there was somebody there, you think I would have just walked in and said, hey, give me your car. No, I don't think you saw anybody there. Jorge, I don't think you saw anybody there. I think you broke the window and you were shocked when he was in there. I think when you broke the window or whatever happened, you were shocked to find that somebody was in the car because Ian was in the car and he jumped up. I don't know if you know, he was supposed to meet his hunting buddy at 4 a.m. 4 a.m. And he didn't show up. So we know he went missing.

during this time frame you guys know more than anybody so i just found a car and i took it for the stuff you know because i saw stuff in there i was like oh man it seemed like it seemed like a gift you know like like someone had just left it there but these facts they don't dispute themselves i already know that like i was telling you before that you're a forger you're out there looking for your supplies

That's the stuff you need to live. If you're going to remain in the woods, you have to have stuff. Okay? Certain stuff, yeah. And you can't haul a lot around on your back. We already know this. So you have to go for these supply runs. And sometimes these supply runs are occurring very late at night or very early in the morning. I know that you were on a supply run that night. I know that you went down to the Minimal Springs store. I know that you went down there and checked the dumpster.

I know everywhere that you went that night, Jorge. Well, there you go, man. You can see that. I can see. I can definitely see. So here's where the discrepancy is coming in, Jorge, is I believe that you did break that back window with the Rockets.

Initially, you said that you found the FJ after somebody told you he was parked at the end of the land. That was not true. Well, like I said... That was not accurate. The only thing I can tell you is that this area, I did not go into those camping grounds or the camp spots often. Oh, no. Because there was almost no people. But on the morning that Ian's there, you did.

You didn't go into that campsite. You found his FJ. You broke the back window with a rock. I don't believe that you thought anybody was in that rig, just like you're stating now. Just like you're stating now. Nobody was in there. I didn't see anybody in there. I saw the keys to the ignition. I broke the back window with a rock. I believe that. I think what we're missing, Jorge, got to listen. What we're missing here is

is the fact that Ian was in that vehicle. He was sleeping in the back of it. He was camping right in the back of it. Here's what I believe. I think it startled the hell out of him that his back window just got broken out. I think he reacted, which caused a reaction on your side. I don't think this was some sort of purposeful thing that happened out here. This is a chance encounter. You're looking for one thing, not knowing that he's actually sleeping inside the rig, Jorge.

He's in the rig. He's asleep. You break the back window, it wakes him up. No, man. That's what I'm telling you. That's what I'm trying to make you guys understand. There was nobody there. While listening to Alcantara speak, it's quite clear that he has a line that he refuses to cross when it comes to admitting what he has done.

However, it simply can't be ignored that he was found in possession of two stolen vehicles, one belonging to a dead woman and the other to a missing man. The evidence found inside Ian's vehicle indicates that whatever occurred inside his FJ Cruiser, it was not survivable. Going back to Nancy, Alcantara has a convenient story about her, that she just gave him her vehicle.

that he was just walking down the street one day and that she waved to him and asked him to get her her mail. But there's a major issue with that story. After looking at maps and photos of Nancy's house, it was a large isolated property with an embankment that blocks the house from being seen from the road and no visible mailbox at the street.

And why would an older woman just hand over her vehicle to someone she hardly knew? A vehicle that she would have likely needed to obtain basic necessities such as food, as she lived several miles outside of town on a five-acre property. We don't know a whole lot about Nancy's life. Her case is with a different jurisdiction than Ian's. But we do know a few things. She had owned an interior design business and also an antique shop.

You heard earlier, the one investigator asked Alcantara if coins he had in his possession came from Nancy's home. Old coins were something that Nancy was known to collect. They found photos of them in her home. Now, I don't think anyone is buying Alcantara's story about his chance meeting with Nancy while casually walking down the road one day.

We don't know if they were introduced in some other way, or if he was just lurking around looking for a target. Perhaps someone he saw as an easy target, with things that would be of value to him, like a vehicle and a stash of coins. In the previous episode, Ian's brother Nathan told us that he heard that Alcantara was living at Nancy's home.

We don't know if this is true or just a rumor, but it's possible that he had been staying in one of the buildings on the property, and Nancy wasn't immediately aware. Her house was nearly 12,000 square feet, with several other buildings on the property. The real estate listing from after her death states the following, "...an iconic Fall City gentleman's farm."

that hearkens to days gone by, with verdant fruit trees meandering pathways and promises of celebrations to come. This storybook farm once hosted elaborate weddings and herds of happy sheep. Now it's time for the next generation of agrarian stewards to shepherd this stately farm onto its new chapter. Thoughtfully built with private quarters on one side of the estate,

and venue on the other. Weddings, winery, farming, or multi-generational living are all possible. With Ian, he had yet another convenient story, that he just happened upon Ian's FJ Cruiser with the keys inside, and yet somehow managed to miss the bloody scene that investigators later found. He considered it to be a gift from God. Alcantara seems willing to admit to breaking into homes and stealing items.

He justifies these actions by saying that he needed these things to survive. He refuses to admit to anything further, that he physically harmed anyone.

One theme that's present throughout the crimes that Alcantara has been linked to is vulnerability. Nancy Holst was vulnerable because she was an older woman living alone on an isolated property. When you think of Ian, on the surface, he doesn't appear to be particularly vulnerable. He was armed and knew the area well. However, he was all alone in an area where he had no cell service to call for help. He was likely sleeping when this occurred.

and he had no idea that this danger was lurking right outside of his vehicle. There's also a third possible victim in another county, who was murdered in 2019. We don't know much about the third victim linked to Alcantara, aside from a few details, including that she was transient and had a history of addiction. Both of these could have left her in a vulnerable situation. We also don't know what her connection to Alcantara is.

only that one has been established by law enforcement. Investigators went over and over the same facts and stories with Alcantara for more than four hours, hoping that he would break and tell them what had happened to Ian and where they could find his remains. It's clear that they were frustrated that he's willing to acknowledge some involvement, but doesn't say anything incriminating beyond his involvement in the theft of Ian's belongings.

Even though investigators are certain that they know who is responsible for Ian's disappearance, they have not given up on finding him. Due to difficulty searching the area, they want the public to be aware when they're out in the wilderness hiking, camping, or hunting. Inspector Whitsett had a message for our audience.

What the public can do, we've asked and continue to ask that anybody who's using or wants to think about using these recreational lands, which is the Teanaway River area, the Blewett Pass area, Mineral Springs, Liberty, First Creek, here in and around Kittitas County, we just ask people to be aware that we have a missing person, that we'd rather take 100 calls that are about nothing,

than miss the one call where somebody sees something that might be the key to helping us find Ian. We want to facilitate the kind of closure that Ian's family deserves. So what we'd ask is for the public to continue to be aware, to remember Ian and keep him in mind as they're in these woods and mountains.

They can contact any law enforcement outlet and tell them they know something about a Kittitas County missing person. If they want to call our dispatch directly, they're welcome to do so at KITCOM, and their number is 509-925-8534. That's the best way to get information to us, but don't let forgetting that telephone number be an impediment to calling. Just call a cop and tell them that you know something about Ian Echols in Kittitas County. And

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You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in

in hospital rooms and doctor's offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors.

So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

This is a story about Ian, not the person who may have killed him and left his body in a vast swath of wilderness where it may never be found. That leaves his family in a particularly horrific position, knowing that Ian was likely murdered, but without much hope that they'll find him. The search for Ian continues today, and his family hopes that they will one day have him back and a place to go to and grieve his tragic and senseless death.

In the meantime, they've been doing their best to remember and honor his life in ways that they know that Ian would want them to. Ian's brother Nathan told us about a special project that he and Ian's daughter have been working on for her son, the grandson that Ian only got to meet on that one trip to Colorado. This is what he told us about Ian's daughter, Audrey, and their project.

I think she's holding on as best she can and trying to be strong. You know, she's a little boy at home to look after. She's a wife. She's a mother and trying to hold it together in a time where you just want to fall apart. You know, I mean, it takes some real strength. And I think she's she's mostly I think that's what she's feeling like right now. I really respect all the choices she's making in her life right now. And they're doing really well. And I'm proud of both of them. And Ian would be proud of them, too.

It's hard that they're so far away, you know, but we still stay in touch. My brother had this dirt bike that he had for like 15 years and he brought it over to my house and he'd have some work done to it. You know, it's a little on the 80s, so it's a small bike, you know, for like a kid, 10, 12 year old maybe. So I'm going to pull it all apart and restore it with Audrey's stepdad and we're going to put

Ian's sister Stephanie continues to struggle with the thought of what happened to Ian on that deadly night and the idea that he may have suffered.

You get scared about being abducted, but you don't ever think about someday being murdered. It's not something that you lose sleep over every night until it happens to somebody that

And you don't ever think that that's a possibility. Just like I said, we never thought that that could possibly be something that happened to him. He was a fighter. He would have fought tooth and nail for his life. And he was protected. And everybody thinks that, oh, I have a gun. I'm protected. Nothing's going to happen to me. But when two people have a gun, something's going to happen to one of them. Don't get me wrong. I feel like everybody who's out there and alone in the woods should have some sort of protection, whether it's from

animals or crazy random people in the woods. But unfortunately, you know, it didn't save him, but he wouldn't have gone out without a fight. He was scrappy. He was a fighter. He was squirrely. He, he had energy and he was going to no matter what, do anything and everything to stay alive and get back to his family. And that is what gives me nightmares.

That is what hurts me so bad is the thought that I know that whatever happened to him was terrible because he was going to fight till the very last second. And I don't like to think that he was ever scared, but I know that

He was, but also knew what he had to do. And he tried so hard. And then to hear later, you know, once evidence comes in that he did put up a hell of a fight. There is evidence that he did not just go out easily. And I knew that about him. I knew that. Which sucks because I know that was probably really painful and awful. And I don't want to think that.

For Ian's dad, Stephen, he desperately wants to see justice for Ian and their family. However, he understands why law enforcement is taking their time to build their case against Alcantara.

The guy said the keys were in the ignition. He was up there and he came across his campsite or whatever and he saw this car and he looked in the window and he saw the keys were in the car. The bad guy is denying knowing anything about that situation. He had his car and he admits that he cleaned out the back of the car, but he didn't see any blood.

The detective said the amount of blood in the car would indicate that whatever happened would have not have been a survivable wound. You know, at this point, we're just hoping that something will happen and that they'll come up with a plan.

some sort of evidence that they can use they haven't charged the bad guy because they you know they want to build a case a good case you know they could put them on trial and they could skate and then they could find the body the next day and you only get to try them once we certainly hope that

we get some closure with a little bit. We get to where they find the remains. Part of me is not that optimistic.

One thing that stood out to us while working on this series was how many people in Ian's circle simply adored him. He had such a profound impact on their lives in life and also in his absence. Many of his friends dropped everything to drive hundreds of miles to search for him. Ian's friend Stephanie and her husband spent the summer of 2020 searching for Ian and plan to return this summer to resume the search efforts.

I've spent my entire summer up there looking for him. Pretty much the entire summer we've been up there just searching and looking and hiking and just searching. Just countless days, hours. We're actually going up there in a couple more weeks, hang flyers and keep his face out there. After we had ran into this guy and everybody was out there looking and I mean, we kind of

would go around the police roadblocks in some places and keep looking for our friends. You know, I think it was probably better that he was taken into custody by the officials than us.

I knew he was gone the minute his sister told me that he was missing. And based on the dream that I had had about him, the night he disappeared, as soon as she told me he was missing, I knew immediately what that dream was about. And I knew that he was gone immediately. I wasn't going to tell her that, but I knew, you know, I just, I knew. And after she had left, I looked at my husband and I said, you realize this is not good.

And it did not end well for Ian. And we have to go up there right now and look for him. When she told me he was missing, it just, it was like a hammer just crashed down on me. Another thing that stood out to us was the positive that Ian's friends and family have found in such a horrific tragedy. Ian's friend Chandra told us about how her good memories of Ian have stayed with her throughout this time.

Camping one time, he had borrowed one of his friend's generator and it was raining. And I think his brother was using it for a chainsaw to chop wood and it stopped running. And when he got there and it wasn't working, he was not happy.

That's one thing about Ian is he was larger than life. So, like, you knew when he was upset or when he was happy. I mean, you just knew he was there. No matter where anybody was, like, you always knew if Ian was there or not. But, yeah, he didn't stay upset that whole trip. I believe that's the trip we put up tarps and we just sat under them in the pouring rain and just played random dumb music with pots and pans.

I mean, there was no rhythm at all, but it was a lot of fun to just be strange and act, you know, be a little hippie-ish for a little while in the middle of the forest in the rain. And that's what we were. That's what our friend group was. Yeah.

Every single one of us, like I said, it's every different walk of life you can think of. And it was just different groups of people. And we all, you know, we all came together. We brought people together. That's the way we were. Lots of really good memories growing up. Lots of camping, lots of camping. I mean, Ian could get along with anybody. He was just one of a kind, one of a kind.

And that energy and his laughter and his jokes and all of that is dismissed insanely. And I mean, in a way, I know he's still here. All the people whose lives he's touched, who he's, you know, had conversations with, who he's laughed with. You know, he will always be a part of everybody that he's ever, ever talked to, even if it was just a brief conversation.

He made a mark. So what happened to Ian Echols after he left for that hunting trip on May 16th, 2020? We know that he made it into the National Forest after he was spotted on surveillance footage at a convenience store buying drinks and snacks. At some point, Ian's phone lost its signal, likely due to his location in the forest grounds, where cellular signals are often lost.

We know that by 4 a.m. the next morning, Ian was not at the agreed meetup location to go hunting with his friend Charlie. And law enforcement believes that he was murdered around this time or shortly before, since Alcantara's own GPS unit puts him right near Ian around 3.30 a.m.

There was substantial physical evidence in Ian's vehicle pointing to a crime scene, and one that we heard described as unsurvivable by Ian's family. Ian's remains have not been found, though the search continues today, and the criminal case against Jorge Alcantara-Gonzalez is moving forward.

As we close out this series about Ian Eccles, I feel like we've all been touched by Ian's life and disappearance. His circle of loved ones shared so many beautiful memories of him with us. The grief is palpable. I don't think any of us will ever forget Ian's story. The senselessness of what happened to Ian is hard to understand. Was he murdered over a car battery or some other items he had with him?

The randomness of a crime such as this one makes us realize just how little control we have over the trajectory of our own lives and those that we love.

We can do everything right, and something as tragic as this can still happen to us. Our hope is that Ian can be found, and that justice will be served. But we also understand that none of that will ever make up for what has been lost. A son, a brother, a father, grandfather, and friend.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Ian Echols, the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office encourages you to contact any law enforcement agency. You can reach Kittitas County directly at 509-925-8534. You would never expect something like that to happen to him. Like, of all people, him...

I feel like I can still feel his energy here. And I know part of that is because we haven't recovered him.

You know, that reality hasn't fully set in, but then there's moments where, like, you sit back and you're like, oh my God, this is actually real, this has happened. But I definitely still feel him, I don't know, spiritually. We've lost a lot of people in our group to various things, and they've all been really hard. The complete randomness of this...

It does make it very hard and difficult to understand and grasp for sure. He should be with the people that love him and care about him. And, you know, he is a part of that mountain now. He's a part of that community. That's something that will never change, but we just really want to bring him home. That is definitely the hardest part. ♪

That brings us to the end of episode 294. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this story. If you have a missing loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com. If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page and discussion group on Facebook. I'm on Twitter at TheVanishedPod. And if you'd like to join in on the discussion,

and also on Instagram. If you enjoy this show, subscribe now and leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now. Do you want to help support the show? There are a couple things that you can do. One way to help The Vanished is by supporting our sponsors. You can find links and promo codes in the episode notes. Another way to support the show is by contributing on Patreon, where you can get early and ad-free episodes.

Be sure to tune in next week. We'll be covering a case from Colorado. Thanks for listening. If you like The Vanished, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

At the turn of the 20th century, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and political corruption were ravaging America. But soon, President Theodore Roosevelt and a diverse group of reformers known as progressives would fight back. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast, American History Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans.

our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we explore the Progressive Era, which came to be defined by Teddy Roosevelt and others who believed in a strong, active government that worked on behalf of all Americans, rather than the privileged few. As the United States entered the 20th century, these progressives hoped to steer the nation in a bold new direction, to launch an era of reform to restore power to the people. Follow American History Tellers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free.

and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.