*Photo: Getty Images : Noppawat Tom Charoensinphon*

Humboldt County, nestled in the northern reaches of California, is known for its lush and majestic redwood forests, rugged coastline, and a strong connection to nature. The region boasts an abundance of natural beauty, with its iconic Redwood National and State Parks, which house some of the world's tallest trees. The county's landscape is characterized by rolling hills, winding rivers, and picturesque coastal views that attract outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. Culturally, Humboldt County is known for its vibrant artistic community, sustainable farming practices, and a deep-rooted tie to environmental conservation. Humboldt County has faced challenges associated with illegal marijuana cultivation due to its ideal climate for growing the plant. This has led to a history of illegal cannabis farms, sometimes operated by criminal organizations, resulting in legal and law enforcement issues. This week we are navigating advocacy in Humboldt County, specifically an area known as Murder Mountain.

Humboldt County is the coastal side of the notorious Emerald Triangle. When you include Humboldt, Trinity, & Mendocino County they form an upside down triangle shape. The geography of the mountainous redwoods create the perfect landscape to hide illegal marijuana grow operations. The remote properties hidden from above by the redwood canopy allows grow operations to thrive. This area boomed in the 1960s when the Summer of Love phenomenon exploded before cannabis was legal.

Law enforcement is limited in the area which allows these grow farms which further allowed a lawless society to form. Many of these properties employ their own security forces. I could do at least 3 episodes on the area alone.

As the marijuana farms grew, so did the need for employees. People moved into the area where they could make quick money as “trimmigrants”.

As you see with many people working in illegal industries, crime rates soared. One particular section of the emerald triangle became known as Murder Mountain. The Rancho Sequoia area of Alderpoint California became known as Murder Mountain when two anarchists named Michael Bear Carson and Suzan Bear Carson took refuge there after committing murder in the 80s.

The name has since stuck due to the large amount of missing and murdered people who are last seen on the mountain. This specific mountain has been the topic of many documentaries including one on Netflix that was released just a few years ago.

Marijuana is not the biggest problem with Humboldt County. According to the Times Standard, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office seized over 100,000 pounds of illegal drugs in 2021.

I could tell the stories of murder mountain’s missing people for days. The list seems never ending. The town nearby is plastered with missing posters begging to find their loved ones. This week I am focusing on 5 specific women that all disappeared in Humboldt County. These are the Humboldt County 5.

*Jennifer “Jade” Wilmer Photo: oag.ca.gov*

Jennifer “Jade” Wilmer was a graduate of St. Mary’s High School and had received a full academic scholarship to st. John’s University in New York. After one semester, she dropped out deciding college was not for her and began touring the country following the Grateful Dead.

When she moved to Arcana, California, her mother was not surprised. The culture and vibe was inline with everything Jade loved. She kept in contact with her family while away checking in regularly.

Jade was last seen on September 13, 1993 around 7:30 am, hitchhiking to Willow Creek. She was headed to a nearby farm where she had planned to take a job with a friend. She left a note and her belongings in the house she was staying in with her roommates.

The note read:

“ Bye everybody, Went to my 1st day at the farm. Wish me luck! Good luck to you, Mingo and see you in a few months. If someone could give food to the kitten as needed I'd appreciate it. Hopefully I’ll see you folks later, <3 Jade”

Two days later her friends tried to visit the farm she was supposed to be employed at and the employees there told her that Jade never made it. Confused and concerned they contacted local police as well as Jade’s family that she was missing.

Investigations into Jade’s disappearance were less than speedy. Given her lifestyle of touring the country as a “Deadhead”, her name was not even added to the national missing persons database. Law enforcement labeled her as a runaway and her roommates were never properly interviewed. We have seen this hundreds of times when adults go missing.

When investigations lead nowhere, Jade’s mother took a legislative stand and helped push through a law requiring states to report information concerning unidentified bodies into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database”. Appropriately named Jennifer’s Law.

Jade has never been found but she was officially declared deceased in 2002.

Karen Mitchell grew up in Whittier, California just outside of Los Angeles, after her parents divorced. When she was 13, she moved in with her aunt in Eureka, California because her mother was working too much as a single parent and couldn’t give Karen the attention she needed.

She was an ambitious teen, graduating high school a year early with hopes to enroll in college to begin studying environmental science. She was in the process of applying to various universities in the area.

On November 25, 1997, 16 year old Karen was working at her aunt’s shoe store, Annie’s Shoes, in the Bayshore Mall. From here she was headed to a shift at the Coastal Family Development Center in the afternoon where she worked in the daycare. Being only a mile away, she chose to walk even though her aunt offered her a ride.

When her aunt arrived at the Center later in the evening to pick up Karen, they informed her that she never showed up for her shift.

With Karen only being 16, Eureka police department formed a command center and began searching immediately.

When the public was notified of a missing teen, a former police officer reported seeing a girl who resembled Karen getting into a light blue 1977 Ford Granada. The driver was a 60-70 year old man with balding gray or blonde hair, gray or green eyes, small build and a large nose. He had glasses, a long sleeve blue button shirt. A composite sketch was created and distributed but no tangible leads were brought to authorities.

In 2004, New interviews were conducted and cadaver dogs searched the largest land area with no new leads discovered. According to the Times Standard, law enforcement was looking into a potential connection between Karen’s disappearance and real estate heir murderer Robert Durst.

*Robert Durst Photo: Wall Street Journal*

He was in the area, had gone to Annie’s Shoes, and matched the description of the potential man in the blue car around the time of Karen’s disappearance.

Durst passed away in 2022 and no substantial evidence linking him to Karen’s murder was found.

Christine Walters was a junior at the University of Wisconsin where she studied ethnobiology and botany. Ethnobiology is the interdisciplinary study of how human cultures interact with and use their native plants and animals.

The 23 year old worked on an organic farm and taught yoga and pilates. In the summer of 2008, she visited a friend in Portland, Oregon and decided to take a semester off of school and stay on the west coast a bit longer. The “free spirit” off the grid lifestyle of Humboldt County called to her.

On November 7, 2008, Christine participated in an ayahuasca ceremony in Arcata and had a negative experience. 4 days later a couple would find Christine on the front steps of their home, naked, afraid, disoriented and covered in scratches from briars. She was hungry, cold and thirsty.

The homeowners contacted police and she was treated at a local hospital. When she was questioned by law enforcement she claimed someone was following her. Drug tests came back negative and the police and hospital released her as she was not under the influence of substances.

Law enforcement dropped her off at the Red Lion Hotel where she contacted her parents and began to make plans to return to Wisconsin. She had lost her identification and paperwork so she would have to make arrangements to recover those items before she could get on a flight.

November 14, 2008 at 3:30pm Christine went into a local copy center wearing the pajamas she had from the hospital. Her mother had faxed some paperwork to her at that location. Her father also had put $1,000 in her account to pay for the travel to return home. She left the copy center asking for directions to the DMV about a mile away. The copy center workers said that Christine seemed to be paranoid, was very protective of the documents she picked up and was not wearing real shoes only slippers.

This was the last time she was ever seen. Her family would report her missing on November 17 after she did not make it home.

Her personal effects were found in a backpack at a local business that she frequented. The identification she thought she had lost was found inside this backpack.

The last reported sighting of Sheila Franks was January 11, 2014 in Eureka, California. Sheila was 37 years old and had a son. She was very consistent with speaking with him. She rarely missed a call. When a month and a half without a call went by her family became uneasy.

On March 13, 2014, they reported her missing to the Fortuna Police Department. It was then forwarded on to the Humboldt Sheriff’s office. At the time of her disappearance she was dating a man by the name of Jim Jones.

Crime Watch Daily reported that Jim told police that Sheila went for a walk and never came home. In that same interview, Sheila’s sister mentioned that Sheila was afraid to leave Jim. He had threatened to hurt her and her family.

Jim Jones : Photo: Humboldt County 5 Facebook

Sheila’s personal items were found in a storage locker. Her purse and money included.

In 2019, Sheila’s femur was recovered near the mouth of the Eel River.

This last woman is what brought me to this case to begin with.

Danielle NiCole Bertolini was born on March 6, 1990 in Medford, Oregon to Jonathan and Billie Jo Bertolini. She moved from Oregon to the Newport, Maine area as a child.

Kristen has fond memories of her friendship with Danielle. From being on the same cheerleading squad to sleepovers, Kristen describes Danielle as a fun loving adventurous young girl.

She had a sister named Mariah and a brother named Tristan.

Growing up Danielle was an outdoorsy kid. Always playing with frogs and asking to go fishing.

In 2010, Danielle found out she was pregnant with a boy whom Danielle named Xavier David. At only 6 and a half months pregnant, Danielle went into labor. Doctors were able to stop the labor but discovered that Xavier had a genetic mutation known as Edward’s syndrome. Edward’s syndrome is a form of trisomy 18 and Xavier had an extra Y chromosome. Xavier also was missing a kidney, and had two tumors on his brain. Danielle’s doctor warned her that Xavier may not make it to term and she was now in a high risk pregnancy. Two days later on May 14, 2010, Danielle’s water broke and they could no longer stop her labor.

After 30 hours of labor Danielle did not progress to the point where she could naturally birth her child, her doctor alerted Danielle, her mother, and her grandfather that an emergency surgery was needed. Knowing that Xavier may not make it, they were in the process of making afterlife arrangements. Danielle’s mother asked her if she would like to hold Xavier to have that moment and memory. The doctor then explained that that wouldn’t be possible due to the manner in which they would have to extract him.

Danielle had some complications during surgery but recovered. Both mentally and physically scarred as anyone who has lost a child is.

Two months after losing Xavier, Danielle moved to California for a fresh start. She took a job on Murder Mountain as a pot trimmer and soon fell into the lifestyle that kept the industry alive.

On January 29, 2014, Danielle spoke with her mother, telling her that she was ready to leave California and return home but no definitive plans were made.

Danielle was last seen on February 9, 2014, getting into a car with an unknown male who was to give her a ride to her house in Fortuna from the Swains Flat area of Highway 36.

When her mother and sister did not hear from Danielle again, her mother filed a missing persons report on February 19, 2014.

March 11, a $5,000 reward was offered for Danielle’s return. Later investigations showed that Danielle had called a person who she shared a home with, but he sent Jim Jones in his place to pick her up. Yes, the very same Jim Jones that was in a relationship with Sheila.

Sheila had gone missing just days before Danielle. Could they be connected?

Danielle’s case slows to a halt and on March 9, 2015, an ATV rider found a human skull near the Eel River just south of Fortuna, California It would be confirmed as Danielle’s remains on May 27th.

Kristen is actively advocating for Danielle & Sheila. She began a petition on change.org that we will be sharing. Please consider signing and sharing.

These 5 women make up what is now known as the Humboldt County 5. Danielle and Sheila’s murder is still unsolved and Karen, Christine and Jade are still missing. If you have any information about these women please contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office at 707 445 7251.

California : Humboldt County Five

Colorado : Candace Hiltz

Arkansas : Marquis Martin