Ranger

They found partial remains of three other people over the course of that spring and summer in locations that Dale Riley provided during his confession in March of 2023.

Dale confessed to a total of 13 killings over the 25 years he had been living in our mountains.

Two of the names he gave matched missing persons cases that had never been officially investigated because no one had reported the individuals missing.

He had been living out of a series of rough camps that he moved between on a seasonal rotation, supplementing what he hunted and foraged by taking food, gear, money, and occasionally identity documents from the people he killed.

He had used Clark Morrison's permit because it was easier to use a real person's information than to fabricate one.

He had, he told investigators, started the practice in 2004, after he nearly got caught entering a backcountry area without a permit.

He had kept five other identities in a kit in one of his camps, which investigators recovered in the summer of 2023.

He did not give a full accounting of his reasons.

He said in his confession that after he had disappeared in September of 1997, he had simply not wanted to come back.

He had been unhappy in his marriage, he had been in financial trouble, he had been drinking too much, he had walked into the mountains thinking he would kill himself, and instead he had found that the solitude suited him and he had stayed.

The first person he killed, he said, was a hunter named Walter Okerstrom.

who had stumbled onto one of his camps in the fall of 1999.

He said he had not planned to kill Walter, but that once he had, he found that it had clarified something for him about the shape of his life.

He said the second was harder and the third was easier, and after that, he didn't count anymore.

He pleaded guilty in November of 2023 to avoid trial.

He received 13 consecutive life sentences.

He is incarcerated in a state facility and will not be released.

The district held a memorial service in June of 2023 for the families of the victims Dale had identified.

I attended.

I spoke briefly.