Anonymous Host

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In the wooded hills of northern Idaho, just 30 odd miles south of the Canadian border, lies a mountain ridge in the Koniksu National Forest known as Ruby Ridge.

This rugged and remote location was home to 20 acres of land that belonged to a former US Army Special Forces officer named Randy Weaver.

Randy had bought the land in 1983 after his wife, Vicky, who was deeply religious, began having recurring dreams about living on a mountaintop.

Believing an apocalypse was imminent and that Vicky's dreams indicated where they needed to be, Randy and Vicky sold their belongings, learnt from an Amish community how to live without electricity, and built a basic cabin on their newly purchased land.

It had no power or running water, but the weavers made it work.

Over the next decade, they turned it into a home for their four children, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel, and Elisheba.

The family lived a survivalist, self-sufficient lifestyle.

Instead of buying food, they hunted and foraged and raised their own livestock.

The children were homeschooled.

Despite their isolated setup, the Weavers made friends with others in the area.

They even took in a troubled teenager named Kevin Harris.

Early on the morning of Friday August 21 1992, Kevin Harris and 14-year-old Samuel Weaver were walking along a trail that led to the family's cabin accompanied by one of the Weaver's dogs, a Labrador Retriever named Stryker.

The trail was wide enough to accommodate an SUV and flanked by heavy woods on either side.

When a noise emanated from some nearby brush, Stryker barked.

The dog approached the brush, still barking loudly.

Hoping Stryker might have sniffed out some game they could hunt for meat, Samuel and Kevin followed.

According to later testimony from the Weaver family, gunfire suddenly rang out, killing Stryker.