Story from the Ashes

Three years ago a strange series of disappearances from Western North Carolina occurred prompting surrounding authorities to search the area for the missing individuals. The disappearances took place over a period of about 6 months and beginning with a young women who went missing during a hiking trip with her best friend in Nantahala National Forest.

The next three disappearances didn't differ in story very much. More individuals either hiking or camping in the forest, only to never come back. These three individuals were also surrounded by other people only to stray off for a second and disappear silently, and what police have described to be an event that is just too improbable. The final two missing people's occurred on the same day as a couple who was also exploring the forest disappeared.

The only difference with this case is that they reported themselves missing by contacting their neighbor. The phone call was said to be cryptic, and the couple clearly sounded in danger according to the neighbor. All they said in the phone call was that they would probably not come home again, and to make sure their family knew how much they loved them, and then abruptly the call ended.

Until this point, it was believed these missing peoples were disappearing due to things like just getting too lost, wild animals, or dangerous terrain. It was not until this call that police began to classify all these disappearances as malicious. Police officials and community members set out to cover the forest in search of any evidence or even finding a missing person. After about two and a half years everyone had given up hope.

They chalked it up to natural occurrences, with the exception of the last couple that they concluded could have been a possible pact suicide. People went missing a lot in big forests. Warnings were put out about the wildlife in the area being potentially hostile, and that was it.

Then, about 3 years after the first disappearance occurred a wildfire started at Dick’s Creek in North Carolina. The fire swept through the forest clearing dense areas of brush and other flora.

As firefighters responded to this fire they walked through the areas as they burned, assessing the damage and controlling the leftover blazes that could still be going when they found a pile of bones. The bones were lying closely together which meant the body must have laid there, contorted and potentially bound together.

The police were immediately contacted and sent them off for
DNA testing which would reveal itself to
be the first missing person that was reported.
The community was devastated.

Not only a rampant fire, but now they also had to be reminded of this person they lost. The fire wasn’t enough to have disintegrated the bones, but it was enough to burn away any exterior or surrounding DNA to led the police to a potential suspect. So for the time being it was reported as natural causes, despite the fact that the body was found several miles from the location of her disappearance.

Eventually the authorities were dispatched for further investigation of the area, in hopes of finding more evidence to allow them to uncover any clues to what could have happened. Not a week after searching, another body was discovered after a wildfire in Tellico.

As with the remains previously found, the similarities were uncanny. Not only were the remains extremely scorched from the recent wildfire, they were also very deteriorated due to prolonged exposure to the elements.As one can imagine this prompted an even wider range for the search, the bodies were too similar for it to have been a coincidence. With the search continuing, more wildfires burned, and the authorities were right behind to shift through the ashes.

Bodies continued to be found as the flames raged through Timber Ridge, Boteler, Rock Mountain, and Maybranch uncovering what authorities began to piece together as a possible serial killer.

The community was broken, many residents held vigils to mourn the gruesome news. It was all a mystery, finding a suspect was an impossible feat, until the sixth body was found. It was in Maybranch that the puzzle pieces began to fit together. With this body came a note etched on a large boulder that read “CC find me”.

Upon analyzation it was uncovered that this note was much newer than the body, as if the killer had returned to the crime and left it in hopes of prolonging the puzzle. The story only began to grow darker, while the fires were being mapped a strange pattern began to develop. The fires were what appeared to be purposely burned into the shape of a “C”.

This was more than a serial killer, this was also a serial arsonist... a narcissist attempting to throw the authorities for a loop, to give them a mystery unlike they’d ever seen, all while revealing his initials in hope of being caught so he could take pride in his crimes.

The police released the evidence to the public, asking for any information on the suspect or anything that could lead to reconciliation for the families of the deceased. The case was given federal attention and more experts were called in, data was poured over for weeks, each body was analyzed for hundreds of hours, and the identity of the killer remained anonymous.

However the authorities knew that there had to be clue. Upon a closer look at the rock, analysts discovered, there was blood, most likely from a chipped nail, or scrape while inscribing the writing.

This blood was found to be that of a man named Christopher Chase, a local game warden for the area. He was arrested beside the Nantahala River while fly fishing and remained shockingly somber during the whole incident. During interrogation he told the authorities everything, identified the victims, explained how he did it, and why he did it.

He spoke of purifying the earth, and began ranting about phoenixes and how we burn only to rise again through the ashes. He pointed to maps and showed how he planned to etch the rest of his initials into the mountains; to engrave his legacy. He gave away the locations and identities of five more victims that would have completed his signature.

As authorities learned more and more and spoke to Christopher day after day they began to realize the man was delusional and a victim of his own mind. There was no way to try him justly, he was institutionalized and had since been interviewed countless times, almost always preaching of how he plans to “Scorch the earth and allow it to be born again pure from the ashes”.

The forest fires were contained, the families were coming
to terms with the lost loved ones, and the story
seemed to come to a content resolution.

However a week prior the institution housing Christopher was placed in caught fire and burned almost entirely to the ground, many remains were able to be found and properly identified, and all patients accounted for.