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Crime Off The Grid

Crime Off the Grid is a podcast with true crime stories from our National Parks, National Forests, and other wild places.

The hosts, Tara and Nancy, bring over 30 years of experience each working as law enforcement rangers in National Parks and National Forests (in Nancy's case). Our guests are rangers, investigators, prosecutors, victim specialists, and other first responders who have dedicated their careers to justice and safety in places off the grid.

Join the hosts as they discuss cases, listen to Ranger Tales; real rangers telling real stories that you just can't make up, and...report news and commentary from wild places from the Crime Off the Grid Newsroom!

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21 episodes
weekly
Avg 42 min
English

Episodes 21

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Monday · 52 min
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve: Mail Day Massacre
In the remote Alaska community of McCarthy, winter means isolation—and one day in March 1983, that isolation became deadly. Louis D. Hastings had come to Alaska searching for pristine wilderness, but his growing obsession with development,...
- Transcript
August 17 · 49 min
Ranger Tales; Wild Rescues with Kevin Grange
Kevin Grange, an award-winning author, firefighter/paramedic, and an all-hazards writer who brings a boots-on-the-ground truth to stories involving EMS, firefighting, search & rescue, helicopter EMS, along with urban and rural medicine joins us in...
- Transcript
August 10 · 1 hr
Ranger Vault: Yellowstone National Park - The Fugitives Final Crossing
Ranger Keith is the sole ranger on shift in all of Yellowstone National Park in the wee hours of the morning when he encounters very dangerous fugitives who were on a crosscountry crime spree. His quick thinking, and expertise saved his life, and the...
- Transcript
August 3 · 44 min
Hunted in the Alaskan Wilderness: The Butcher Baker
Robert Hansen, better known as the "Butcher Baker," is one of the most notorious serial killers in Alaska and one of the most disturbing predators in American true crime history. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Hansen abducted women from Anchorage,...
- Transcript
July 27 · 34 min
Shasta-Trinity National Forest; Gumboot Lake Hostage Crisis
In the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, two USFS biologists were just doing their job conducting research at Gumboot Lake, when a man carrying an AR-15 appears and takes them hostage. The largest multi-agency response in that area occurred to bring the...
- Transcript
July 20 · 57 min
COTG Newsroom July 2026
In the news for July 2026, an attempted kidnapping of a trail runner in a NC National Forest; a man charged with harassing and injuring an endangered species in Hawaii; removal of an illegal camper who literally trashed the forest; the possible foul...
- Transcript
July 13 · 50 min
Israel Keyes: The Olympic Peninsula Mystery
Prolific serial killer, Israel Keyes, is often remembered for the murder that led to his capture in Alaska. But years before his arrest, he lived on Washington's remote Olympic Peninsula, worked in Neah Bay, and, according to the FBI, may have...
- Transcript
July 6 · 40 min
Zion's Angels Landing: The Murder of Bernadette Vander Meer
An anniversary hike. A 1,200-foot fall. A case ruled an accident for nearly two decades. When new evidence surfaced, investigators reopened the death of Bernadette Vander Meer and charged her husband with murder. We break down the affidavit, reveal...
- Transcript
June 29 · 27 min
From the Ranger Vault: Crater Lake National Park - KABOOM!
Hear what happens when a ranger in an old ill-equipped patrol car is in pursuit of an international master of disguise. You can't make this stuff up!
- Transcript
June 22 · 29 min
Coconino Nat'l Forest; No Such Thing as a Routine Contact
In 2014, a routine contact in Arizona’s Blue Ridge area of the Coconino National Forest turned into a fight for survival. When a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer investigated a vehicle parked off a forest road, he had no idea the encounter...
- Transcript
June 15 · 32 min
Yosemite; If I Had a Gun, I'd Shoot You Right Now
In the summer of 2024, Yosemite dispatchers became increasingly concerned about a man making repeated harassing calls to the park's 911 center. What started as an investigation into nuisance phone calls and an illegal campsite hidden near a trailhead...
- Transcript
June 8 · 49 min
From the COTG Newsroom June 2026
News stories for this week include a “fall” off the cliff incident from https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00269 on Lake Superior, In Oregon, 2 women were kidnapped from their tent off of a popular hiking trail, human remains of a...
- Transcript
June 1 · 47 min
From the Ranger Vault: Wrangell - St Elias National Park; Hillbilly Hell
Nancy and Tara are in Alaska this week, so we're dusting off this story from the vault that took place on the border of America's largest national park, Wrangell St Elias, in Alaska. A hippie turned religious fundamentalist moves his family of 15...
- Transcript
May 25 · 29 min
Shenandoah National Park; Blood in the Campground
In the darkness of Shenandoah National Park’s Mathews Arm Campground, terrified campers called 911 after hearing screams, threats of murder, and violent sounds coming from a nearby tent. Rangers soon uncovered a brutal domestic violence attack...
- Transcript
May 18 · 41 min
RANGER TALES; Arapaho & Roosevelt NF Pawnee Nat'l Grasslands
USFS LEO (and former NPS ranger) Brian Fields shares some wild tales from his time in the US Forest Service - we're not kidding - you can't make this stuff up. But still... just a day in the life of a law enforcement officer sworn to protect a few...
- Transcript
May 11 · 40 min
Olympic National Park; Terrorized at Third Beach
On this episode of Crime Off the Grid, we examine a brutal domestic violence case that unfolded on remote Third Beach in Olympic National Park. Rangers, local law enforcement, and EMS responded after a woman called 911 reporting that her boyfriend had...
- Transcript
May 4 · 44 min
In the News - May 2026
From the newsroom this episode, we bring an update on a case we covered where a woman was pushed off a cliff, discuss someone challenging Yellowstone's laws, fatal falls, mysterious disappearances, and BEARS BEARS BEARS!
- Transcript
April 27 · 37 min
Ranger Tales; Yellowstone's Bob the Bear
In this Ranger Tales, we reconnect with Ranger Robert who shares tales about protecting "Bob the Bear" and he just keeps on sharing many tales as a bonus! It's like Robert, Tara, and Nancy were just sitting around the fire swapping similar stories!
- Transcript
April 20 · 42 min
Buffalo National River; Too Close for Comfort
Campgrounds are generally some of the safest places you can be—filled with families, hikers, anglers, and people looking for a quiet night under the stars. There’s an unspoken understanding out there: shared space, mutual respect, and a kind of...
- Transcript
April 13 · 46 min
Paradise Almost Lost; Attack on the Pali Puka Trail
A birthday hike on Oahu’s dangerous Pali Puka Trail turns into a brutal fight for survival when a woman’s husband allegedly attacks her on a narrow ridge with sheer 1,000-foot drop-offs. What begins as a trip to repair a strained marriage quickly...
- Transcript

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