A mother and her son, both seasoned hikers, went for a two-day trip in the Adirondacks and were never seen again.
The case remained unsolved for two years, with investigators unable to make sense of a strange four-second call placed from their satellite phone.
That all changed when a hunter, far from any marked trail, unearthed a buried piece of camping gear.
A rusted pan whose damaged surface suggested a truth far more violent than a simple hiking accident.
The digital log on the satellite phone base station registered an incoming call at 2.17 a.m.
The connection duration was exactly four seconds.
It was Monday, September 15, 2014.
Gareth Kittering woke in his quiet home in upstate New York, moving through his morning routine with the slight stiffness of an old knee injury.
As he poured his coffee, he glanced at the base station for the satellite phone system, a necessary piece of equipment for communication in the remote areas his family frequented.
The blinking light indicated a missed activity.
Gareth checked the log.
The entry was stark.
2.17 a.m.
A call from the handheld unit carried by his wife and son.
The duration recorded by the system was brief, just four seconds before the connection terminated.
A flicker of confusion passed through him.
Four seconds was barely enough time for the system to register the connection, let alone convey a message.
He immediately picked up his receiver and attempted to return the call.
The connection failed instantly.
There was no ringing, no signal acquisition sequence, just a digital prompt indicating the handheld unit was either powered down, damaged, or entirely outside the satellite network’s reach.
He tried again.
The same result.
Gareth paused, trying to rationalize the situation.
His wife, Rhonda Kittering, 63, and their son, Trevor Kittering, 41, were deep in the Adirondack High Peaks wilderness.
They had departed the previous morning, September 14th, for a planned two-day, one-night backpacking trip.
This was routine for them.
Both Rhonda and Trevor were highly experienced, meticulous hikers.
Rhonda, despite being in her 60s, maintained an exceptional level of fitness, often outpacing hikers half her age.
Gareth used to be right there with them, but the deteriorating condition of his knee meant he now stayed behind during these more strenuous excursions.
The trip was meant to be quality time for mother and son, sharing their profound connection to the wilderness.
They knew the risks and always prepared accordingly, hence the satellite phone.
The 2.17 a.m.
call felt wrong.
Perhaps it was an accidental button press while shifting in a sleeping bag.
It seemed plausible, yet a distinct cold unease began to settle in Gareth’s chest.
To calm his nerves, he decided to make a proactive inquiry.
He dialed the New York State Police Communication Center, asking if any automated emergency distress signals, SOS beacons, had been reported from the Adirondack region overnight.
The dispatcher checked the logs and confirmed that no emergency alerts had been received.
This provided a measure of relief.
If there had been a genuine emergency, they would have activated the SOS function.
It must have been an accident, he told himself.
He went about his day expecting them to return by late afternoon, full of stories about the views and the challenging terrain.
But the afternoon waned, the light shifting from bright midday sun to the long shadows of evening.
They were overdue.
Gareth checked the satellite phone log again.
Still nothing since 2.17 a.m.
He tried calling the handheld unit repeatedly.
Every attempt failed immediately.
As darkness enveloped the house, the silence became oppressive.
The earlier anxiety, which he had managed to suppress, now escalated into raw panic.
The image of the four-second call was no longer a curiosity.
It felt like a scream cut short.
The wilderness they loved, vast and unforgiving, suddenly felt menacing.
He could wait no longer.
Gareth contacted the authorities again, this time not with an inquiry, but with a formal report.
Rhonda and Trevor Kittering were missing.
When investigators arrived, Gareth provided them with the specifics of the planned route, a challenging loop known only to seasoned hikers.
He detailed their equipment, emphasizing the colors they were last seen wearing.
Rhonda in a durable olive green rain jacket and Trevor in a distinctive bright turquoise hooded jacket.
Both carried specialized high-capacity hiking backpacks.
The search, Gareth knew, would begin at first light, but the night ahead felt impossibly long, dominated by the mystery of what had happened in those four seconds at 2.17 a.m.
At dawn on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness transformed from a place of serene beauty into the epicenter of a rapidly escalating emergency response.
The mobilization was immediate and massive.
Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers, the recognized experts in navigating this treacherous terrain, coordinated with specialized units from the New York State Police.
The objective was clear, but the challenge was immense.
Locate Rhonda and Trevor Kittering.
The Adirondacks are not merely rolling hills.
They are a sprawling, six-million-acre expanse of dense forests, steep ascents, unpredictable microclimates and very limited infrastructure.
The loop Rhonda and Trevor had registered for was particularly remote, characterized by unmaintained trails and rugged backcountry where one misstep could lead to catastrophe.
The scale of the operation was daunting from the outset.
The initial phase of any wilderness search begins at the last known point of departure.
For the Kitterings, this was a remote trailhead parking lot, little more than a dirt clearing at the end of a long access road, surrounded by towering pines.
Forest rangers arrived at the location early in the morning, expecting to find the Kitterings truck parked securely, awaiting their return.
It would serve as the definitive starting point for the ground search.
What they found immediately complicated the situation and introduced a chilling variable.
The Kittering’s truck was there, parked near the trailhead entrance, but it was not secure.
The passenger side window had been smashed inwards with significant force.
Shards of tempered glass littered the passenger seat like spilled ice and more glass crunched under the ranger’s boots on the ground below the door.
The interior of the vehicle was in disarray.
The glove compartment hung open, its contents, maps, registration papers, spare batteries, first aid supplies, strewn across the floorboards.
It was a clear scene of a ransacking.
This discovery instantly fractured the investigation’s timeline.
The primary assumption had been that the Kitterings encountered trouble deep in the wilderness, an accident, exposure, or perhaps getting lost.
The violated truck introduced a new, more sinister possibility.
Had they encountered someone at the trailhead before they even began their hike? Had they interrupted the break-in? Was this an opportunistic theft that occurred after their departure, completely unrelated to their disappearance? Or had someone been waiting for them? The scene required meticulous processing.
State police forensic technicians were dispatched to the remote location.
The truck, now a critical piece of evidence, was secured under a protective canopy.
The priority was to determine if the break-in was connected to the disappearance, and if so, how.
break-in was connected to the disappearance, and if so, how? As technicians began the painstaking process of dusting for latent fingerprints and documenting the scene with high-resolution photography, they noticed something crucial on the jagged glass remaining in the window frame.
A dark, dried smear.
Further inspection revealed a few similar drops on the dashboard and the edge of the open glove compartment.
It appeared to be blood.
The implication was immediately clear.
The perpetrator had likely injured themselves while smashing the window or frantically reaching inside to unlock the door or grab valuables.
In the often frustrating search for physical evidence in outdoor environments, this was a significant development.
If the blood belonged to the perpetrator, it offered a direct biological link to the individual responsible for the break-in.
DNA swabs were carefully collected from the stains.
The samples were prioritized for laboratory analysis.
prioritized for laboratory analysis.
The hope was that the DNA profile would provide an immediate lead, perhaps matching a known offender in the state or national databases.
While the forensic team worked meticulously at the trailhead, the wilderness search intensified.
The terrain was brutal.
Search teams comprised of rangers, police, and experienced volunteers battled steep slopes that required hands and knees to climb, dense vegetation that limited visibility to mere feet, and slippery, moss-covered rocks
near stream crossings.
They called out the hikers’ names, the sound swallowed by the vastness of the forest and the rush of the wind through the trees.
Gareth Kittering’s report of the 2.
17 a.
m.
satellite phone call was a central focus, yet it proved to be agonizingly vague.
Satellite communication technology, while vital, is notoriously imprecise in mountainous terrain.
The brief four-second connection was insufficient for the system to triangulate a specific location.
The data only provided a very wide area of interest, several square miles of some of the most confusing topography in the region.
The signal could have bounced off canyon walls or been distorted by the dense tree canopy, making the indicated area unreliable at best.
The searchers were essentially looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing which haystack to prioritize.
They focused on the planned route, checking known campsites and water sources, but they were acutely aware that experienced hikers often deviate from their plans, especially if they encounter difficulties.
Days turned into weeks.
The intensity of the search effort could not overcome the sheer lack of clues.
Helicopters equipped with thermal imaging technology scanned the area during the cold nights but found nothing beneath the dense forest cover.
Ground teams meticulously combed the area grid by grid but no trace of the Kitterings, no discarded gear, no sign of a campsite, no footprints, was found.
The initial hope fueled by the discovery of the blood evidence at the truck soon faded.
The laboratory analysis generated a complete DNA profile, confirming it belonged to an unknown male.
However, when the profile was entered into the CODIS database combined DNA index system, it yielded no matches.
The perpetrator was not a known offender.
With no physical evidence linking the truck break-in to the disappearance and no sign of the hikers in the wilderness, the investigation stalled.
The prevailing theory among authorities began to shift.
They publicly leaned toward the assessment that the break-in was likely an unrelated, opportunistic theft.
The parking lot was remote, making it an easy target for thieves looking for quick valuables.
The blood, they surmised, belonged to a petty criminal who had simply gotten unlucky.
As October progressed, the weather in the Adirondacks turned harsh.
The vibrant autumn colors faded, replaced by the stark grays and whites of early winter.
The first snows began to fall in the higher elevations.
The risks to the searchers increased dramatically, and the probability of finding the Kitterings alive diminished to zero.
The active search operation was officially suspended.
For Gareth Kittering, the decision was devastating.
The authorities seemed to be dismissing the only two concrete clues they had, the truck break-in and the satellite call.
He rema
ined convinced that the 2-17 a.
m.
call was not an accident, but a desperate, interrupted attempt to signal distress.
As winter closed in, the fate of Rhonda and Trevor was sealed beneath a blanket of snow, their disappearance remaining an agonizing, unsolved mystery.
The case, despite the massive initial effort, went cold.
Two years passed.
The disappearance of Rhonda and Trevor Kittering had settled into the grim annals of Adirondack mysteries, a story occasionally retold by hikers around campfires, but one that had faded from the immediate concern of the authorities.
The wilderness had gone through two cycles of freezing and thawing, two years of rain, snow, and new growth, erasing whatever faint traces the hikers might have left behind.
The case was officially cold.
It was October 2016.
The air was crisp and carried the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves.
The fall foliage was past its peak.
The forest floor carpeted in a thick layer of brown and yellow.
Jasper Polk, an experienced local tracker and hunter, was moving quietly through a dense, rugged section of the forest.
He was hunting coyotes, a challenging pursuit that required patience, silence, and an intimate knowledge of the terrain.
This area was far from any established trails, characterized by steep ravines, old growth trees, and a thick understory where the sunlight barely reached the ground.
It was the kind of place most people avoided, difficult to navigate and easy to get lost in.
But Jasper knew these woods like the back of his hand.
He was also aware, in the abstract sense, that this region fell within the broad geographical area indicated by the satellite phone ping from the Kittering disappearance two years prior, though that fact was not at the forefront of his mind.
He was focused on the hunt, his senses attuned to the to the subtle rhythms of the forest.
Jasper was accompanied by his hunting dog, a seasoned tracker trained to locate the subtle signs of coyote presence.
The dog moved ahead, nose to the ground, navigating the complex scents of the forest floor with focused intensity.
As they approached a particularly dense section dominated by a massive, fallen log covered in thick, vibrant green moss, the dog’s behavior changed abruptly.
It stopped tracking horizontally and focused intensely on a specific spot beneath the overhang of the log.
The dog began to alert aggressively, whining and digging at the damp soil and leaf litter with frantic energy.
Jasper moved closer, his senses heightened.
The spot the dog was indicating appeared to be an animal den opening, a natural cavity created by the fallen log and the surrounding earth.
It looked like the perfect hiding place for a coyote or a fox.
Expecting an animal to bolt from the opening, Jasper approached cautiously, his rifle ready.
He was wearing thick, camouflage-patterned gloves, standard gear for moving through the rough terrain.
He knelt down, peering into the dark opening.
The air emanating from the cavity was cool and earthy.
He couldn’t see anything moving inside.
He needed a better view.
He began to clear the soil and debris from the opening, pulling back layers of accumulated leaves and compacted dirt.
His gloved hands brushed against something hard and metallic buried just beneath the surface.
It wasn’t the shape of a root or a rock.
It felt manufactured, cold and unyielding.
Curious, Jasper started to dig around the object, loosening the earth that had held it captive.
He gripped the edge of the object and pulled.
It resisted, anchored by the soil.
He dug more aggressively, clearing away the obstructions.
With a strong pull, the object came free from the ground with a sucking sound.
He held it up to the dappled light filtering through the canopy.
It was a heavily rustedusted pan-shaped metal object.
It appeared to be some sort of camping cookware, perhaps a frying pan or a specialized pot lid.
The metal was severely corroded, colored in shades of dark brown, orange, and black, indicating prolonged exposure to the damp environment.
A significant portion of the edge was broken away, jagged and brittle.
A short metal handle protruded from the bottom.
At first glance, it seemed like discarded camping gear, perhaps left behind by a careless hiker years ago.
But as Jasper turned the object over in his hands, something caught his eye.
The flat surface of the pan was perforated with numerous small circular holes Jasper Polk was not just a hunter he was an expert marksman he spent his life around firearms and understood ballistics intimately as he examined the holes a cold realization washed over him these were not rust patterns they were not manufacturing holes for venting steam.
They were impacts.
The pattern was distinct, a tight cluster of small diameter holes.
The edges of the holes were slightly raised on the interior surface, indicating they had been punched through the metal with significant force from the outside.
To Jasper’s trained eye, it was immediately recognizable as the signature of buckshot fired from a shotgun at close range.
The wilderness suddenly felt different.
The silence was no longer peaceful, but heavy with menace.
The ambient sounds of the forest, the rustling of leaves, the calls of birds, seemed amplified.
This was not discarded gear.
This was evidence of violence.
The rusted pan, buried in what looked like an animal den, far from any trail, suggested a deliberate attempt to conceal it.
Disturbed by the discovery, Jasper knew he had to investigate further.
If the pan was here, what else was hidden in that cavity? The implications were dark and unsettling.
He returned to the opening beneath the log.
The dog was still agitated, sensing Jasper’s own tension.
He began to dig deeper into the cavity, the soil cold and damp against his gloves.
He was no longer looking for coyotes.
He was excavating a potential crime scene.
His hands encountered something yielding but tangled.
He pulled it out.
It was severely degraded hiking gear, straps and buckles covered in mold and dirt, barely recognizable.
The nylon webbing was brittle and frayed.
He dug again and pulled out tattered remnants of clothing.
The fabric was moldering, saturated with moisture and decay, falling apart in his hands.
Among the fragments he recognized the distinctive color and texture of an olive-green rain jacket.
The material was high quality, the kind used by serious hikers, but time and the elements had taken their toll.
The realization hit him with full force.
The bullet-riddled pan, the buried hiking gear, the remote location.
This was not a random discovery.
This was connected to something significant, something hidden.
He thought back to the missing hikers from two years ago, the mother and son who had vanished in this region.
Jasper immediately stopped digging.
He knew the protocols.
Disturbing a potential crime scene further could compromise the investigation.
He carefully placed the items he had unearthed back near the opening, including the rusted pan.
He stood up, his heart pounding.
He needed to mark the location precisely.
He pulled out his GPS unit and recorded the exact coordinates.
The isolation of the spot was stark.
It was unlikely anyone would have stumbled upon this location by accident.
He took a few quick photographs of the scene, documenting the rusted pan held in his gloved hand over the excavation site, exactly as he had found it.
Then, wasting no time, he turned and began the arduous hike out of the wilderness.
He needed to contact the New York State Police.
What he had found under that moss-covered log was a clue preserved in rust and earth pointing to a violent event that the forest had kept secret for two years.
The GPS coordinates provided by Jasper Polk led New York State Police investigators deep into the Adirondack backcountry.
The location was so remote that a helicopter was required to transport the Crime Scene Investigation CSI unit and their equipment to the nearest viable landing zone, followed by a difficult hike to the site itself.
When they arrived at the moss-covered log, they found the scene exactly as Polk had described, the disturbed earth, the partially unearthed gear, and the rusted, perforated pan resting ominously nearby.
A full Crime Scene Invest investigation unit was mobilized.
The isolation of the site presented significant logistical challenges, but the potential significance of the discovery demanded a meticulous approach.
The area was secured, a perimeter established, and a detailed grid search was initiated, looking for any other related evidence scattered by animals or the elements.
The excavation of the burial site was conducted with forensic precision.
The team established a grid over the cavity and began the systematic removal of soil, layer by layer.
Every handful of earth was carefully sifted through fine mesh screens, searching for small items—buttons, zippers, fragments of metal—that might have been missed.
The items unearthed by Polk were photographed in situ before being collected and catalogued.
The process was slow, hampered by the damp conditions and the extremely degraded state of the evidence.
The fabric was rotting, the metal components were rusted, and the plastic was brittle.
The recovered items were a grim collection of moldering fabric, corroded metal, and degraded plastic.
They were transported to the State Crime Laboratory for analysis.
The immediate priority was identification.
The items were cross-referenced with the detailed inventory provided by Gareth Kittering in 2014.
When Rhonda and Trevor disappeared, Gareth had compiled an exhaustive list of their gear, including brands, colors, models, and identifying features.
This meticulous record-keeping, born of anxiety and hope, now proved crucial.
The analysis confirmed the investigators’ suspicions.
The remnants of the olive green jacket matched the description and brand of the rain jacket Rhonda Kittering was wearing when she disappeared.
The degraded hiking gear, the buckles, the straps, the remnants of a specific model of backpack, matched the equipment carried by Rhonda.
Simultaneously, the rusted pan underwent analysis by the Ballistics Department.
The experts confirmed Jasper Polk’s initial assessment.
The perforations were undeniably bullet holes, consistent with a close-range shotgun blast using buckshot.
The pattern of the impacts suggested the pan had been hit directly, perhaps while being held or situated near the target during the violent encounter.
The discovery transformed the case instantly.
What had been a missing persons investigation, long gone cold, was now officially reclassified as a probable homicide.
The evidence of gunfire provided a chilling explanation for the disappearance and the interrupted satellite call.
However, as the analysis of the recovered items concluded, a disturbing anomaly emerged.
Investigators focused on a critical detail that fundamentally altered the narrative.
Every single item recovered from the burial site belonged to Rhonda Kittering.
There was no trace of Trevor Kittering’s belongings.
His high-capacity backpack, his distinctive bright turquoise hooded jacket, his personal equipment, all were entirely absent from the cache.
Furthermore, the meticulous excavation of the site and the surrounding area, including the use of cadaver dogs, yielded no human remains.
Rhonda’s gear was there, evidence of a violent encounter was there, but her body and Trevor were still missing.
The discovery of a one-sided scene, only the mother’s belongings, coupled with clear evidence of gunfire, caused a dramatic and unsettling shift in the investigation.
The initial assumption that both mother and son were victims of an unknown assailant was now called into question.
If they were attacked together, why would the perpetrator selectively bury only Rhonda’s gear and take Trevor’s? It made little sense for a random attacker to sort the belongings of their victims.
The absence of Trevor and his belongings forced investigators to consider a possibility that had seemed unthinkable, that Trevor Kittering was not a victim but the perpetrator.
Detectives began to scrutinize Trevor’s background, looking for any signs of conflict, motive, or instability.
They interviewed friends, colleagues, and family members, trying to build a psychological profile of the missing man.
The investigation uncovered a facet of Trevor’s life that he had kept relatively private, even from his father.
Trevor had recently become deeply involved with a radical environmentalist group known for its aggressive, sometimes illegal, protest tactics against local logging operations in the region.
This group had been under surveillance by state authorities for activities bordering on eco-terrorism, including equipment sabotage such as tree spiking, which endangered loggers, and violent confrontations with forestry workers.
This revelation provided a potential source of conflict.
Authorities began to develop a working theory.
Perhaps Rhonda had discovered the extent of Trevor’s involvement and confronted him during their secluded hiking trip.
The isolation of the wilderness would have provided the perfect setting for a private, intense argument.
If the argument escalated, it might have led to violence.
Another theory suggested that Trevor was facing imminent legal issues related to the group’s activities.
Perhaps he was planning to flee and the hiking trip was a cover for his disappearance.
If Rhonda discovered his plan and objected, he might have lashed out.
The evidence seemed to support these theories.
If Trevor had murdered his mother, he would have needed to dispose of the body and the evidence.
Burying her gear in a remote location would have been a logical step.
But why keep his own gear? Because he needed it to survive and flee, utilizing his extensive wilderness skills to disappear off the grid.
The investigation shifted from a search for two missing hikers to a manhunt for a potential fugitive.
Trevor Kittering, the devoted son, was now the prime suspect in his mother’s murder.
This development polarized the investigation.
Gareth Kittering, already devastated by the loss of his wife and son, was horrified by the implication.
He vehemently rejected the idea that Trevor would ever harm Rhonda.
He insisted that their bond was unbreakable, characterized by mutual respect and shared passions.
Gareth clashed with investigators, accusing them of tunnel vision and ignoring the evidence that pointed to an unknown assailant.
He urged them to reconsider the unsolved truck break-in from 2014.
The unmatched DNA profile found at the scene, he insisted, belonged to the real killer.
But the authorities were focused on the most plausible explanation based on the evidence found at the burial site.
The absence of Trevor’s gear was the key.
In their view, it pointed directly to his involvement.
to his involvement.
The investigation moved forward with Trevor as the target, leaving Gareth isolated in his grief and his unwavering belief in his son’s innocence.
The investigation proceeded with Trevor Kittering as the primary suspect.
The narrative that he had murdered his mother and fled had gained traction, fueled by the discovery of his involvement with radical environmentalism and the unsettling absence of his belongings at the burial site.
The case had shifted from a local mystery to a high-profile manhunt, yet Trevor remained elusive.
It was early spring 2017.
The deep snows of the Adirondack winter had receded, and the wilderness was slowly coming back to life.
While the search for Trevor continued fruitlessly, an unrelated activity was taking place deep within the park in an area known for its complex and dangerous geological formations.
A private geological survey team was conducting evaluations in a remote, historical cave system.
They were under contract to assess potential sites for mineral exploration, a controversial activity in the protected park lands.
This area was characterized by deep fissures, vertical shafts, and underground rivers, a subterranean landscape as challenging and unforgiving as the mountains above.
It was terrain rarely visited by hikers, accessible only to those with specialized skills and equipment.
The survey team was comprised of experienced geologists and specialized cave explorers.
Their work required technical expertise, advanced mapping technology, and rigorous safety protocols.
They were mapping the cave system, documenting geological formations, and collecting samples deep beneath the surface.
They were focused on a particularly challenging section of the system characterized by a series of deep, narrow vertical fissures.
These were essentially cracks in the bedrock, some plunging hundreds of feet into darkness.
Accessing these areas required technical climbing gear, high-powered lighting, and nerves of steel.
One of the surveyors was tasked with mapping a specific vertical fissure.
The opening was narrow, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through.
The drop was immediate and profound.
The surveyor secured his ropes and prepared for the descent into the cold, damp environment.
The temperature dropped significantly as soon as he lowered himself below the surface.
The air inside the fissure was still and heavy, smelling of damp rock and minerals.
The only sound was the dripping of water echoing from the depths and the scraping of his gear against the narrow rock walls.
He used high-powered helmet lighting to illuminate the darkness below him as he rappelled down the shaft.
As he descended, scanning the rock walls for geological features, his light caught something unusual wedged among the rocks at the bottom of the shaft, perhaps eighty feet down.
It was difficult to discern from his position, partially concealed by loose rocks and debris that had fallen over time.
It didn’t look like a natural formation.
The colors seemed out of place, contrasting with the uniform gray of the rock.
The surveyor paused his rappel, hovering in the darkness, trying to get a better angle on the object.
His curiosity peaked.
He continued his descent.
The rappel was slow and technical, requiring careful maneuvering in the confined space to avoid dislodging loose rocks.
When he reached the bottom, he unclipped from the rope and directed his light toward the anomaly.
The sight hit him with a visceral shock.
It was immediately clear what he had found.
Human remains.
The body was partially concealed, but unmistakably present.
The cold, stable environment of the fissure had slowed the decomposition process significantly, but the remains were clearly aged.
The surveyor, though trained for hazardous environments and emergency situations, was unprepared for such a grim discovery in such an isolated location.
He immediately ascended the fissure, the climb fueled by adrenaline.
He reported the finding to his team leader, and the survey operation was halted.
The authorities were contacted via satellite phone and the coordinates of the fissure were provided.
The discovery mobilized a specialized response.
The location was not only remote, but required technical expertise to access safely.
A specialized cave rescue team from the DEC, trained for complex recovery operations in subterranean environments, was dispatched to the site, accompanied by state police forensic investigators.
The recovery operation was arduous and dangerous.
The narrow opening and the vertical drop made the extraction of the remains extremely challenging.
The team had to secure the site, ensuring the stability of the rock walls before attempting the recovery.
They had to set up a complex system of ropes and pulleys to carefully lift the remains to the surface, ensuring the integrity of the evidence was preserved.
The process took several days of intense focused effort.
The remains were finally extracted and transported to the medical examiner’s office.
The identification process was swift.
Through dental records, the remains were positively identified as Rhonda Kittering.
After two and a half years, had been found.
The location of her discovery, deep within a remote cave fissure, explained why the initial search efforts had failed.
It was a place no one would have looked, a place accessible only by specialized equipment or a catastrophic fall.
The autopsy was conducted immediately.
The findings provided crucial insights into the circumstances of her death.
The medical examiner documented significant blunt force trauma and multiple broken bones.
These injuries were consistent with a fall into the fissure.
However, the autopsy revealed something far more sinister that confirmed the homicide theory.
The medical examiner identified perimortem gunshot wounds to the torso.
The wounds were consistent with the type of ammunition indicated by the bullet-riddled pan discovered months earlier.
The confirmation of the gunshot wounds was the final piece of the puzzle.
Rhonda Kittering had not died in an accident.
She had been murdered.
The evidence suggested she had been shot before being dumped into the fissure.
The discovery of Rhonda’s body, coupled with the confirmation of her murder, solidified the primary police theory.
In their view, the evidence was overwhelming.
Trevor had murdered his mother, attempted to hide the evidence in separate locations, dumping her body in the inaccessible fissure and burying her gear elsewhere, and then fled.
The separation of the body and the gear suggested a calculated effort to confuse the investigation.
The warrant for Trevor Kittering’s arrest was upgraded to include charges of murder.
The manhunt intensified, with authorities focusing on tracking down a fugitive they believed was capable of matricide.
The media portrait of Trevor shifted from a missing hiker to a dangerous killer.
Gareth Kittering was left to grieve the confirmed loss of his wife while simultaneously defending the reputation of his missing son.
missing son.
The discovery of Rhonda’s body brought a measure of closure, but it also intensified the agony of not knowing what had happened to Trevor and the horrifying possibility that the authorities were right.
By late 2018, four years had passed since the disappearance.
Trevor Kittering remained missing, a fugitive wanted for the murder of his mother.
The case, despite the discoveries of Rhonda’s gear and body, had once again stalled.
Authorities had followed up on numerous reported sightings of Trevor from across the country and even internationally, but none proved credible.
The assumption remained that he had successfully fled and was living under a new identity, perhaps aided by the radical environmentalist network he was associated with.
The case seemed destined to remain unresolved, a tragic story of matricide and escape.
Concurrently, a separate, unrelated issue had been brewing within the vast expanse of the Adirondack Park.
New York State Police and forest rangers had been investigating escalating reports of strange activities in a specific, densely forested quadrant of the park, an area overlapping with the region where the Kitterings had vanished.
These reports, initially dismissed as isolated incidents, had begun to form a disturbing pattern.
Hikers and locals reported detecting strange chemical odors emanating from deep within the woods.
Acrid metallic scents of ammonia and solvents inconsistent with the natural environment.
Others reported encounters with suspicious individuals described as territorial, erratic, and often armed, seemingly patrolling areas far from established trails.
These encounters were unsettling, suggesting a hidden presence in the wilderness that wanted to remain undisturbed.
The situation escalated significantly with a recent alarming report from two experienced long-distance backpackers.
They reported stumbling upon a hidden encampment while navigating off-trail.
The encounter was terrifying.
They reported stumbling upon a hidden encampment while navigating off trail.
The encounter was terrifying.
They were aggressively confronted by two armed men who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
The men were described as gaunt, agitated, and menacing.
The backpackers reported being briefly detained at gunpoint.
The men questioned them aggressively about who they were, why they were there, and what they had seen.
The hikers, fearing for their lives, insisted they were lost and had seen nothing.
After a tense standoff, the men forced them to leave the area, threatening them with violence if they returned or reported the encounter.
The hikers, shaken but unharmed, immediately hiked out and contacted the authorities.
They provided detailed descriptions of the men and, crucially, the precise GPS coordinates of the encounter.
The nature of the reports, the chemical odors, the territorial behavior, the remote location, the erratic behavior, aggression strongly suggested a significant clandestine operation.
Authorities suspected a hidden methamphetamine production site.
The Adirondacks, with its vast unpopulated areas and dense cover, provided the perfect environment for such illicit activities.
Based on the credible threat assessment and the specific intelligence provided by the backpackers, authorities began planning a coordinated tactical raid.
The operation required careful planning and execution given the remote terrain and the high potential for armed resistance.
Meth labs are also notoriously volatile, prone to explosions and fires.
A New York State Police tactical unit specialized in high-risk operations in wilderness environments was mobilized.
The objective was to secure the site, apprehend the suspects, and dismantle the clandestine lab.
The raid was executed at dawn on a cold November morning.
The tactical unit, equipped with specialized gear, night vision technology, and weaponry, approached the hidden encampment under the cover of darkness.
The approach was difficult, requiring several hours of silent movement through dense vegetation, guided by the GPS coordinates and the expertise of the accompanying forest rangers.
As they approached the target location, the chemical odor became palpable, confirming the presence of an active meth lab.
The encampment was crude but extensive, consisting of several makeshift structures constructed from tarps and scavenged materials concealed beneath the thick tree canopy.
The tactical unit established a perimeter surrounding the site before initiating the dynamic entry.
The order was given.
The silence of the forest was shattered by the sudden eruption of activity.
The officers moved swiftly, converging on the main structure from multiple directions simultaneously, announcing their presence and demanding surrender.
The raid was chaotic.
The suspects, caught by surprise, reacted with panic and aggression.
Two men emerged from the main structure, attempting to flee into the surrounding woods while simultaneously trying to destroy evidence.
They kicked over lab equipment and attempted to ignite chemical stockpiles, creating an immediate hazard.
A brief but intense foot chase ensued.
The tactical officers trained for such scenarios pursued the suspects through the dense underbrush.
The chase was characterized by the sounds of crashing through the vegetation and shouted commands.
Despite the chaos and the hazardous environment, the tactical unit successfully apprehended the two men.
They were identified as Dominic Vane and Arlo Sneed, both known to local authorities for minor drug-related offenses, but nothing suggesting an operation of this scale or violence.
The site was secured.
A Specialized Hazardous Materials, HAZ, MAT team was called in to safely handle the dangerous chemicals and dismantle the active meth lab.
The scale of the operation was significant, indicating a long-standing production site that had been operating undetected for years.
During the meticulous processing of the sprawling site, officers began collecting and cataloging evidence.
officers began collecting and cataloging evidence.
They gathered various items used by the suspects for their operation, including supplies, equipment, and personal belongings.
The encampment was littered with the detritus of a long-term occupation.
The remote location meant they had to carry everything in and out on foot.
Among the items collected were several backpacks used by the suspects for transporting supplies and chemicals.
These were standard procedure collections intended to document the scope of the operation and potentially link the suspects to other crimes.
One of the backpacks stood out.
It was a high-quality hiking backpack, worn and dirty, stained with chemicals, but distinct in its design and features.
It had distinctive turquoise and gray straps.
The items were transported to the State Evidence Storage Facility and logged into the database.
Photographs of the inventory were uploaded to the system.
A detective who had previously worked the Kittering case, now assigned to the Narcotics Division, was reviewing the inventory photographs from the raid.
It was a routine review, part of the ongoing investigation into the meth lab operation.
As he scrolled through the images, the photograph of the turquoise and gray backpack caught his eye.
There was something jarringly familiar about it, a flicker of recognition, a memory from a case that had haunted him for years.
He paused, his attention sharpening.
He pulled up the Kittering case files, specifically the detailed inventory provided by Gareth Kittering four years earlier.
He located the description of Trevor’s back He cross-referenced the description with the photograph from the raid.
The brand, the model, the color scheme.
They matched perfectly.
The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow.
The backpack found at the clandestine meth lab used by Dominic Vane and Arlo Sneed belonged to Trevor Kittering.
This discovery instantly shattered the long-held theory of Trevor as the perpetrator.
The narrative that he had murdered his mother and fled was built on the absence of his belongings.
Now, his backpack had been found in the possession of two violent methamphetamine producers operating deep within the Adirondacks.
The investigation pivoted entirely.
The Kittering case was blown wide open.
Rhonda and Trevor were no longer viewed as the protagonists of a family tragedy, but as victims of a far more sinister encounter.
The focus shifted immediately to Dominic Vane and Arlo Sneed.
The question was no longer where Trevor was hiding, but what these two men had done to him and his mother four years ago.
The discovery of Trevor Kittering’s backpack at the meth lab site fundamentally altered the trajectory of the investigation.
The theory that Trevor had murdered his mother evaporated instantly, replaced by the chilling certainty that both Rhonda and Trevor had fallen victim to the operators of the clandestine lab.
The revelation sent shock waves through the investigative team, forcing a complete re-evaluation of the case.
Investigators immediately pulled the Kittering cold case files, re-examining every piece of evidence with this new, horrifying context.
Their focus shifted immediately to the evidence that had been dismissed four years earlier as unrelated, the truck break-in at the trailhead.
In 2014, the blood found on the smashed window of the Kittering’s truck had yielded an unknown male DNA profile.
At the time, it was hypothesized to belong to a petty thief.
Now that DNA profile was potentially the most critical piece of evidence in the time, it was hypothesized to belong to a petty thief.
Now, that DNA profile was potentially the most critical piece of evidence in the case, the key to connecting the meth lab operators to the disappearance.
The DNA profiles of Dominic Vane and Arlo Sneed, obtained following their arrest at the meth lab, were immediately processed on a rush basis and compared against the DNA profile from the truck.
The laboratory results came back quickly.
A match was confirmed.
The DNA profile from the blood on the Kittering’s truck window belonged to Dominic Vane.
This was the breakthrough the investigation desperately needed.
It provided a direct physical link between the meth lab operators and the Kitterings disappearance.
Placing Dominic Vane at the scene of the crime on the weekend, they vanished.
The timeline was now clear.
Vane and Sneed were present in the area and they had interacted with the Kitterings property.
Armed with this overwhelming evidence, investigators initiated interrogations of Vane and Sneed.
They were separated and questioned intensely.
The strategy was to leverage the DNA match and the discovery of the backpack to break their silence and secure a confession.
However, Vane and Sneed were hardened criminals experienced in dealing with law enforcement.
They denied any knowledge of the missing hikers.
When confronted with the DNA evidence, Vane admitted to the break-in, claiming he had broken into the truck to steal supplies but insisted he had never encountered the owners.
When questioned about the backpack, they claimed they had found it abandoned deep in the woods years ago, a plausible explanation given the vastness of the wilderness.
The interrogation stalled.
Vane and Sneed maintained their silence, refusing to admit any involvement in the disappearance.
The authorities faced a significant legal hurdle.
While they had strong circumstantial evidence linking Vane and Sneed to the murders, the DNA match, the possession of the backpack, the proximity of the meth lab to the disappearance area, they still lacked direct evidence proving the murders.
Trevor’s body was still missing and the timeline for when the suspects obtained the backpack was uncertain.
The suspects were arraigned on the drug manufacturing charges which carried significant penalties.
However, facing legal challenges in proving the murder charges without further evidence, the prosecution failed to prevent the suspects from securing bail.
The decision to grant bail was a calculated risk, a strategic move designed to exploit the suspects’ inevitable paranoia.
The authorities knew that Vane and Sneed, now aware that they were the prime suspects in a double homicide investigation, would likely panic.
The strategy shifted from interrogation to surveillance, setting a trap they hoped the suspects would walk into.
Immediately upon their release, Vane and Sneed were placed under constant, heavy surveillance.
Specialized surveillance teams utilizing both ground and air support monitored their every move.
The objective was clear, watch them closely, hoping they would lead the authorities to Trevor’s body or attempt to conceal other evidence.
The surveillance operation was intense and complex.
Vane and Sneed were aware they were being watched.
They became increasingly paranoid and agitated.
They engaged in aggressive counter-surveillance maneuvers, driving erratically, changing locations frequently, communicating through burner phones, and constantly checking for tails.
The tension escalated over several days.
The surveillance teams observed Vane and Sneed meeting in secluded locations, their conversations animated and frantic.
They appeared to be planning something significant, their desperation mounting as they realized the net was closing around them.
One cold November night, the surveillance teams observed Vane and Sneed gathering supplies, shovels, heavy-duty bags, and flashlights.
They loaded the supplies into a beat-up sedan and began driving toward the Adirondacks.
This was the moment the authorities had been waiting for.
The surveillance operation shifted into high gear.
The suspects were followed covertly by a rotation of unmarked vehicles and an aircraft equipped with thermal imaging technology tracking their movements from a safe distance.
Vane and Sneed drove deep into the Adirondacks, their movements erratic and desperate, attempting to shake their tail.
They parked at a remote location, a nondescript pull-off on the side of the road, far from any established trails, and began hiking into the woods under the cover of darkness.
The ground surveillance teams, equipped with night vision technology and supported by the aerial unit, followed them silently through the dense forest.
The tension was palpable.
The suspects were moving with purpose, leading them somewhere significant.
Vane and Sneed hiked for several miles, navigating the difficult terrain with a familiarity that suggested they knew exactly where they were going.
They finally arrived at a specific location, a seemingly unremarkable spot in the middle of the forest.
They stopped, illuminated by the faint moonlight filtering through the canopy.
They retrieved the shovels and began digging frantically, driven by the urgent need to move whatever they had hidden there.
The tactical team, having closed the distance, moved in.
The silence of the forest was shattered as the officers converged on the site, their flashlights cutting through the darkness.
Vane and Sneed were caught completely by surprise, standing in a partially dug hole, shovels in hand.
They were arrested on the spot.
The excavation of the site began immediately.
The crime scene investigators took over, carefully removing the soil where the suspects had been digging.
It didn’t take long.
In a shallow grave, concealed beneath a thin layer of earth and forest debris, they uncovered human remains.
The discovery was grim, but it was the final piece of evidence needed to secure justice for the Kitterings.
The trap had been sprung, and Vane and Sneed had led the authorities directly to their final victim.
The remains recovered from the shallow grave were transported to the medical examiner’s office and were quickly identified through dental records as Trevor Kittering.
After more than four years, the fate of the missing son was finally known.
Faced with the overwhelming accumulation of evidence, the DNA match at the truck, the possession of Trevor’s backpack, and being caught in the act of unearthing his body, the suspect’s defiance crumbled.
Arlo Sneed, seeking to avoid the maximum penalty, agreed to a plea deal in exchange for a full confession.
Snead recounted the events of September 2014 in chilling detail.
He confirmed that Rhonda and Trevor had inadvertently set up their campsite near their hidden meth lab.
Late that night, Vane and Snead, high on methamphetamine and paranoid about being discovered, encountered the hikers.
A confrontation ensued almost immediately.
The situation escalated rapidly.
When Rhonda realized the danger, she grabbed the satellite phone and attempted to make a call.
The brief four-second connection Gareth received at 2.
17 a.
m.
As she tried to call for help, Vane reacted with brutal violence.
Rhonda, in a desperate attempt to protect herself, instinctively raised the camping pan she had been holding defensively.
Vane fired his shotgun at close range.
The blast hit Rhonda in the torso, simultaneously striking the pan she held, the cluster of bullet holes later discovered by the hunter.
Trevor witnessed his mother’s murder.
He was taken hostage by Vane and Sneed.
They held him for several hours, debating what to do with him.
Fearing he would identify them, they murdered him later that same night.
They then initiated a calculated cover-up.
They separated the bodies and gear to confuse potential investigators.
They buried Rhonda’s gear deep in the woods where Jasper Polk found it.
They dumped Rhonda’s body in the remote cave fissure, believing it would never be found.
They buried Trevor in a shallow grave several miles away.
Sneed also admitted that they had broken into the Kittering’s truck earlier that day to steal supplies, which was when Vane cut himself, leaving the crucial DNA evidence behind.
Their critical error, driven by greed and arrogance, was keeping Trevor’s high-quality backpack for their own use, a decision that ultimately led to their downfall.
In 2019, Dominic Vane and Arlo Sneed were convicted of the murders of Rhonda and Trevor Kittering.
Both were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For Gareth Kittering, the resolution brought a profound, albeit painful, closure.
The dark shadow cast upon his son’s name was finally lifted, Trevor’s innocence unequivocally proven.
He was finally able to lay both his wife and son to rest, together.
