Delia D'Ambra

But in 1963, a Texas game warden enforcing anti-poaching laws there lost his life in a crime that profoundly rocked residents and outdoor recreationalists.

If you take one thing from today's episode, let it be this.

You never know what someone is capable of when they're cornered.

For some, the act of murder is as instinctual as a bird taking flight.

This is Park Predators.

On Tuesday evening, August 28th, 1934, Miss Alma Teed was at home in Mullen, Idaho with her sons, nervously waiting for her husband to walk through their front door.

39-year-old Ellsworth was the deputy game warden of Shoshone County, and he'd left around 7.30 that morning to investigate some recent reports of people harvesting deer out of season in an area in the southern part of the county known as Boulder Gulch.

But lunchtime had passed, and then dinnertime, and Ellsworth had not come home.

When the couple had last spoken, he'd told Alma that he planned to return to town by 2 p.m.

to attend the funeral of a teenage boy from Mullen who'd passed away recently.

But Ellsworth failed to make that service despite the fact that his car, a Model A Ford Coupe, had been found later in the day near Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder Gulch.

It's not super clear from the source material whether this cemetery was where the teenage boy's funeral was gonna be, but additional reporting by the Coeur d'Alene Press explained that where Ellsworth's car was found was actually at a trailhead that led further into the hills.

So basically a convenient access point to the landscape.

When the car was discovered, it was locked and his lunch and coat were still inside.

It kind of looked like a scuffle or something had occurred at the spot, but no one really knew what to make of the situation.

Alma knew that her husband missing the funeral he'd planned to attend was out of character for him, but she remained mostly unbothered throughout the early part of the day Tuesday because she figured something had just probably held him up at work.

Normally, Ellsworth was good about letting his wife know if an investigative trip was going to keep him away overnight.

But in this instance, he hadn't done that.

He'd also left his coat and lunch behind, which was another indication that he likely intended to return to his vehicle and be home before the end of the day.

By nightfall on Tuesday, Alma had worried long enough, and so she reported her husband missing to the local authorities.