The management demanded that the work be accelerated, so part of the team stayed on site even on Saturday.

Granger said he arrived around 8:00 in the morning and stayed until Sunday evening.

He named five co-workers as confirmation.

Electrical technician Rick Bowen, foreman [music] Carlos Menddees, forklift driver Brian Hayes, site security guard Tim Keller, and shift foreman Josh V.

On Saturday night, Granger [music] said they ordered pizza, ate out on the site, sitting on cable boxes, and watched baseball on a small TV.

He then spent the night in a trailer near the warehouse because he had to take a delivery of parts the next morning.

Delaney verified this information.

All the employees named confirmed that Luke was indeed there.

Security guard Keller recalled seeing [music] him several times over the weekend, and Foreman Menddees stated, “If he had disappeared, I would [music] have noticed.

He’s always around the equipment.

” The department’s report notes that the duty schedules and payroll [music] records for those days also match.

Granger was paid double time for overtime.

When the detective asked if anyone could confirm his presence at the facility on Saturday evening, a time that preliminary estimates suggest could coincide with the [music] sister’s disappearance.

Granger answered without hesitation.

Yes, we were all together.

We even took a picture with the foreman’s phone.

He was testing a new camera at the time.

Delaney [music] verified this fact.

The photo did exist, showing four men sitting near a trailer with pizza boxes.

The files metadata indicated the time, 21 hours and 42 minutes, Saturday, August 14, [music] 2010.

At the end of the conversation, Delaney made an official note.

Testimony consistent, logical, behavior is calm, no aggression or nervousness detected.

Probably not involved.

However, there was a feeling that the story was too clean.

All the details matched.

[music] Every word was confirmed.

The alibi looked solid.

When the detective returned to his office, he reviewed the case files.

Of all the former quarry workers, only one had a connection to the victims.

The one who knew about the abandoned tunnels could have gotten to them unnoticed and had an ironclad defense.

Being [music] present at a large construction site among dozens of people.

The police report [music] from February is brief.

The verification of Granger’s alibi is complete.

The data has been confirmed.

No traces of involvement have been found.

For the press, the case looked frozen at the time.

Journalists wrote that [music] investigators were considering new versions and do not rule out the possibility of an outsers’s involvement.

In reality, the department was at a dead end.

Among all the people involved in the investigation, Luke Granger remained only a shadow, silent, tidy, exemplary, a man who had a perfect alibi.

In April 2014, [music] Detective Roger Delaney returned to the case of Luke Granger.

Formally, the investigation had almost stopped, but he could not help but feel that there was a crack [music] in his perfect alibi.

In his notes, he wrote, “A story that is [music] too clean is always a signal of a lie.

People are wrong about little things if they are telling the truth, [music] and they remember every little thing if they are lying.

” He started by re-checking the [music] work schedules.

Sunrise Construction’s accounting department confirmed that Gringanger had been paid for the weekend.

However, there was [music] a strange detail in the fleet’s fuel usage reports.

On Saturday, the diesel consumption of one of the generators dropped sharply.

This meant that the equipment was idle.

At the same time, the time sheet showed that Gringanger was working with this particular unit.

Delaney went to the construction site where the surveillance camera archives were kept.

The company had installed the [music] video surveillance system 6 months before the sister’s disappearance and was working around the clock.

Some of the recordings had already been erased, but [music] thanks to a backup copy at the central office, he was able to find the dates in question.

On a recording from a camera aimed at the employee parking lot, the detective saw an old sand dustcoled [music] pickup truck arrive at 8:00 in the morning on Saturday.

Granger got out, picked up a tool, and walked toward the warehouse.

A few hours of normal [music] work followed.

mechanics passing by, someone smoking near the trailer, someone carrying boxes of parts.

But at exactly 15 minutes past 00, the same pickup truck pulls out of the parking lot.

[music] The camera captures its license plate number and the dust kicked up by the wheels stays in the air for a few seconds.

The next time the car appears is at 23 hours 07 minutes.

A [music] dark blur of headlights pulling into the parking lot.

The driver gets out, but the camera shows only a silhouette.

The next morning, he is back at work on the site as [music] if nothing had happened.

This video was the first major discrepancy with the previous shows.

Colleagues claimed to have seen Granger all day, but the tape said otherwise.

Delaney again summoned technician Rick Bowen, one of those who confirmed the alibi, for questioning.

He [music] was nervous and confused about the details.

He could not say exactly when they ordered the pizza and who stayed until the evening.

When the [music] detective mentioned the video from the cameras, the man was silent for a long time, then admitted that Luke had asked him to say he was there.

According to Bowen, Granger explained it simply.

He did not want to get in [music] trouble because he was away from the facility during his shift.

He promised to pay $100 for silence, but never gave the money.

After this interrogation, other employees also changed their [music] testimony.

Security guard Keller said he saw Granger only in the morning [music] and not in the evening.

Foreman Mendes admitted that he could not remember exactly when he [music] returned.

Delaney recorded everything in the report.

Witness testimony is contradictory and the preliminary alibi cannot [music] be considered reliable.

Then one more thing came to light.

The old bank report seized [music] after the bankruptcy of Shribor Jiva contained several names of contractors who had access to the territory even after the closure.

One of them is Luke Granger.

His signature stood under the act of technical inspection of the gates and locks dated April 20, 2006.

This meant that he still had the key to the gate and there was no control over [music] its use.

The bank that owned the quarry confirmed that the territory was not guarded all the time.

Only a few people had access and their names were kept in documents.

[music] Most of them returned the keys, but Granger was not mentioned in [music] the list of returns.

The detective compared this to the chronology of the sister’s disappearance.

The place where their bodies [music] were found was a few miles off the main route in the same part of the mountains where the quarry had once been operating.

A person who knew about the addict could only get there by car through an old technical path [music] that ended at a gate.

It was this gate that according to the documents [music] was opened with the key used by Gringanger.

The conclusion of the report was concise.

The subject had the physical ability [music] to enter the facility during the period of the victim’s disappearance.

The previously stated alibi is not supported by the video footage.

Delaney reviewed the collected materials.

All the roads converged on one point.

A person who knew how to hide the [music] traces and was able to do so in a place where no one had looked for years.

The only [music] thing missing was to understand why.

In June of 2014, after several months of preparation, the district [music] court issued a search warrant for Luke Granger’s home.

The reason was data that refuted his alibi and confirmation of access to the territory of the former quarry.

The operation was carried out by officers of the Pel County Sheriff’s Department together with forensic technicians.

According to the official protocol, the search began at 7:00 in [music] the morning.

The house stood on the outskirts of Mesa, a one-story structure [music] with a tin roof and a small yard overgrown with dry time.

Neighbors described the owner as [music] quiet, never talking to anyone.

The light was rarely on in his windows.

[music] The workshop occupied a separate outbuilding, a garage with a metal door locked with an old padlock.

Inside, it smelled of grease, iron, and solvent.

There were neatly hung tools on the walls and jars of screws, wire, and grease on the shelves.

An ordinary [music] workplace of a person accustomed to order.

However, the experts attention was [music] drawn to items that were not directly related to car repair.

An old pharmacy scale, [music] plastic bags with silica gel, and several metal canisters with the remains of a thick dark brown liquid.

All this was seized for analysis.

The laboratory report dated the next day stated, “The liquid from the canisters is chemically identical to the samples of lubricating oil taken from the metal barrels where [music] the bodies of the victims were found.

The silica gel has the same particle size [music] distribution as that found in the liquid.

Thus, a direct technical match was established.

In a box under the workbench, the forensic team found a hardcover notebook with traces of grease on the pages.

It mostly contained records of repairs, part numbers, and generator [music] wiring diagrams.

But towards the end, there was a page that was different from the others.

The date was a few days before August [music] 2010.

In the middle of the page were two names, Vera and Odet.

Next to them was a [music] set of numbers later deciphered by experts as GPS coordinates.

When the investigators plotted them on a map, they coincided with the area of the spur near the Raven’s Trail, the exact spot where Vera’s camera strap was once found.

In the same notebook, they found several short notes: volumes, density, storage temperature.

These were technical calculations that corresponded to the parameters of the liquid in which the bodies [music] were found.

The detective’s official report states, “The entries are systematic in nature, made in the same hand as Gringers’s other notes, and may indicate deliberate planning.

” As the experts were finishing their examination of the workshop, another investigator was looking through the cabinets [music] in the house.

Between yellowed safety instructions, he found a folder with old documents.

Among them was [music] a court transcript dated in the mid90s.

The bankruptcy case of Arizona Development Corporation.

The document states that the main shareholder was a businessman named Arthur Winslow, the father of the sisters [music] Verera and Odet.

After the company’s bankruptcy, the assets, including the Silver Load Quarry, were sold off.

Some employees lost their jobs without compensation, including Luke Granger.

This coincidence was a turning point.

The notes to the search warrant were clarified.

The probable motive is personal revenge of the family of the former owner of the company as a [music] result of whose actions the suspect suffered financial losses.

An envelope with [music] yellowed newspaper clippings was also found in the closet.

The articles date [music] from the late ‘9s, a series of reports on the litigation between Winslow [music] and local labor unions.

Short notes are written in ink in the margins of several clippings.

They just destroyed everything.

Their children are no better.

The handwriting matched that of the notebook.

The experts also noted another detail.

In the workshop, they found the remains of small fragments of rubber and fibers that looked like ceiling rings from metal barrels.

They were sent to the laboratory for examination.

The first result confirmed that the [music] material was compatible with the seals of the samples found in the quarry.

When the investigators compiled a complete list of [music] the seized items, it took up several pages.

Technical oil, silica gel, a notebook, old documents, maps, newspapers, [music] parts of barrel rings, metal gate keys similar to those used at [music] industrial facilities.

All the evidence was sent to a forensic laboratory in Phoenix.

According to the report received 2 weeks later, not a single detail could be accidental.

There were too many coincidences, chemical, technical, and documentary.

There was a clear line in the case that connected the crime scene, the victims, and the suspect.

On the same day, Detective Delaney made a brief note in his office log.

The motive is outlined.

It remains to prove that [music] this is not just an obsessive memory of the past, but an action planned to the last detail.

In early July of 2014, after several weeks of coordination [music] with the prosecutor’s office, the Pineal County Sheriff’s Department received an arrest warrant for Luke Granger.

The document [music] stated, “The suspect is technically trained, may be armed, and has knowledge of the area and tool [music] skills.

” It was decided to conduct the operation near his place of work to avoid the risk of [music] resistance or attempts to destroy evidence in the house.

The morning of July 2nd was a typical day in the Phoenix industrial zone.

Hot, filled with the hum of engines and the smell of oil.

At the gate of the sunrise construction fleet, trucks were parked in [music] a row and mechanics were already getting ready to work.

At 7:45, a familiar light rustcoled [music] pickup truck pulled into the lot.

Granger was driving.

When he got out of the cab, two plain clothes men approached him simultaneously, followed by a patrol car.

One of the detectives introducing himself said he had an arrest warrant.

Witnesses who were on the premises that day recalled that he did not even flinch.

According to eyewitnesses, Luke only briefly [music] glanced at the police and nodded.

He did not argue, ask questions, or show fear or irritation.

One of the officers later told reporters he looked [music] like it was inevitable for him, like a person waiting for a bus that finally arrived.

During a personal search, they found only a wallet, a folding knife, [music] and a bunch of keys.

The patrol car drove off in the direction of the department, and the rest of the employees continued to work, although [music] they said the atmosphere that day was depressingly quiet.

At the department building, Granger was seated in an interrogation room with Detective Roger Delaney, who had been on the case from the beginning, watching through the glass.

He would later say, “He didn’t behave [music] like a guilty man, but like a man who had been through it all.

The first minutes of the interrogation were recorded on video.

It shows a man with a straight back, his hands folded on the table, [music] his face calm.

When he was read his rights and informed about the evidence found, liquid notebook coordinates, he only nodded.

When the detective asked if he could explain their origin, [music] Granger answered quietly.

I knew that one day these barrels would be found, but I didn’t think anyone would realize who was in them.

This was the [music] first confession recorded officially.

He went on to say that he had met the sisters by [music] chance at the entrance to the route near the Peralta Highway.

They stopped to ask for directions and he recognized Vera by her voice.

She said she had called a few days earlier and he advised a shortcut to the observation deck.

According to the suspect, he had a day off that day and decided to drive there himself to check out the old road to Weaver’s Needle.

When he saw their SUV on the side of the road, he stopped.

In his version, everything looked like a chance meeting.

He allegedly offered to take them to a place where they could see the canyon because the trail is difficult and it would be safer for the women.

Granger described how they walked together to a crossroads where, according to him, he and his older sister got into an argument.

Vera, he said, reacted sharply and he lost control.

He did not give any further details.

When asked what happened after that, he was evasive.

He only added that he did not plan the murder, that everything went wrong, and then that he had to fix it somehow.

The detectives interpreted [music] these words as a partial confession, but he categorically refused to explain what exactly fix meant.

When the investigator asked him about the metal barrels, Granger fell silent.

He sat motionless for several minutes, then said, “I’m not talking without a lawyer.

” The interrogation was interrupted.

The protocol states, “The suspect is calm, speaks briefly, does not show emotion.

He did [music] not express direct denials of involvement.

The statement should be taken as a partial confession.

” After that, he [music] was transferred to a temporary detention center.

in the corridor.

He stopped at the window and according to the guard looked at the sun rising over the industrial roofs for several seconds.

No words, no gestures, just a short sigh of relief.

The trial of Luke Granger began [music] in February 2015 in the Phoenix District Court.

A man of average height wearing [music] a light gray suit with short hair and the same calm face that his colleagues had seen sat in the dock.

The room was silent.

Even the journalists who filled the front [music] rows did not click their cameras.

In his opening remarks, the prosecutor called the crime an act of [music] revenge carefully thought out and executed with technical precision.

He spoke of the suspect’s coldbloodedness, the skill with which the traces were hidden, and that the whole story must have been born not in a fit of passion, but in a mind that turned pain into calculation.

Granger’s lawyer, on the other hand, argued that his client did not intend to kill.

He explained Luke’s [music] actions as a psychological breakdown caused by years of depression after losing his job and home.

But this time, the prosecution had evidence that was missing at the beginning of the investigation.

A notebook with names, coordinates, a chemical match, testimony from colleagues, [music] and video recordings.

Every detail added up to a clear picture.

During the third hearing, Granger’s lawyer read out his client’s statement.

It contained an attempted explanation, calm and devoid [music] of emotion.

According to Gringanger, he had learned who the sisters were before the hike.

He had saved old clippings about the Winslow [music] company and realized that their father was the businessman who had closed the quarry in the9s, dismissing his employees without compensation.

For Luke, [music] it was not just the end of his job, but the end of everything he called life.

He spent more than 10 years at the Silver Load Quarry and considered it [music] his home.

When the company was sold off and the equipment was cut up for metal, he was left with nothing.

In a statement, he wrote, “I did not want to kill.

I wanted them to feel what it was like to have your place taken away.

I knew that people disappear in these mountains.

I wanted them to just disappear.

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