Original subtitles

Rancho Indian creek is totally off the grid.

It's a bad place to get yourself hurt or lost.

It's a very remote place.

I had a shotgun pointed at me.

He was like, "you'll go to heaven...

...and me, I'll go to hell."

And I'm thinking,

"he's just putting US in here to die."

A city of industry and agriculture,

Bakersfield, California, rests in the arid San Joaquin valley.

Bakersfield is wild and woolly rural area

that is known for agriculture and oil, predominantly.

It's had a...

A very colorful past.

19-year-old will kleier

has lived there all his life,

and it's where he developed his love for outdoor adventure.

What else could you need?

Don't you have enough gear?

I'm just looking for my flashlight.

It's the really good one.

It's got, like, the longest beam.

Is it in that disaster you call a closet?

Well, I mean, I checked in there once.

But I guess I could check again.

Why do you even need a flashlight, anyway?

You guys are gonna be back before it gets dark, right?

Yeah, but you never know.

It's better just to have one.

All right. Good luck.

But, you're right. I will be back for dinner.

So, what the hell.

Will's expedition today is to a familiar place --

the ranch his family owns in the California dessert.

Recent flooding in the area has been a cause for concern.

The ranch is approximately 50 miles from Bakersfield.

It's just a place to go and be away from the city,

let the boys be boys.

The flash flood had occurred about a week prior,

and the boys were gonna see

if there was any damage at the ranch

from the flash flood.

Nice, man.

Yeah, at least for a couple days, you know?

Right.

-Hey. -Hey.

Did you find it?

No. Not yet.

You guys were gone long enough.

What up, will? Hey.

You trying to steal my girl or something?

Take it easy.

As they've done many times before,

two of will's best friends

are joining him for the ride to the ranch.

Jon Perez is attending college,

keyton Cornelius is preparing for a career in the Navy,

and will is studying gunsmithing.

I met Jon and keyton my freshman year of high school.

Keyton -- he's pretty much like my brother.

Jon's been a good friend of ours for some time now.

They're just great guys that, you know, we all get along.

Their family knows my family.

Me and will were sharing a place

by Bakersfield college.

It was pretty rad living with will.

So, will, we got everything we need, or...?

Dude, calm down.

We've been out to Indian creek like a million times, all right?

Aren't there mountain lions out there?

Yeah, and snakes.

Not just snakes -- ghosts.

That's right. That's right.

Ooh.

It's true.

Hey, dad.

Forget something -- keys to the cabin?

Yeah.

Back by dark.

Thanks.

There was one rule that we had to go by,

that we've been going by since we've been going up there,

is you have to be home before sundown.

We've always followed that rule to the "t."

I tell you what --

I will get you burgers when you come back.

-Cool. Yeah. -Sounds good to me, yeah.

That's cool, dad. Thanks.

Okay, dad. I'll, see you later.

Hey, will.

I appreciate you taking a look at the cabin for me.

Yeah, dad. It's no problem.

All right.

Well, I got to go to work.

-Okay. -Bye.

-Bye. -Bye, Mr. Kleier.

See you, dad. See you.

Call me when you get there?

I'd probably have a better chance sending up smoke signals.

Cellphones don't really work up there.

All right, well, you'll be home for dinner?

-Yeah. -Okay.

Well, call me when you get back?

Yo, let's go!

Indian creek, bro.

Be good, okay?

Okay. Bye.

Bye.

All right, fellas. Let's do this.

The ranch, it's rancho Indian creek.

It goes right up to the Sierra nevadas,

very close to the pacific crest trail.

It's very remote.

It's only 45 minutes as a crow flies from Bakersfield,

but the last 15 miles takes an hour-and-a-half to get to.

It's an area where you can walk for miles

and not see anybody.

Cell service is sketchy at best.

It's a bad place to get yourself hurt or lost.

It's a very remote place.

The three friends reach the turn-off for the ranch

in the early afternoon of July 28th.

-Whoo. -All right.

-Let's do it. -Let's do it.

Come on, fellas.

Okay, we'll have to ride this from here on out.

Your dad say we could take this thing?

Dad doesn't have to know.

The cabin is literally in the middle of nowhere,

a very hard place to get to.

The road up there is just very rugged, very rocky.

You really do need an off-road vehicle to get up there.

I call shotgun.

It's not made for comfort or for speed,

but it sure as hell is fun.

We gonna get some hunting in, though, right?

Yeah, right after we check this storm damage.

All right. You ready?

You guys ready?

-Let's get it. -Let's do it.

Whoo!

-Whoo! -Whoo!

Here we go.

Indian creek ride.

-Ha ha! -Whoo!

That's what I'm talking about.

Hey, man, give me some right there.

Give me something right there.

I love how away it is,

how quiet it is.

It's you, nature and your friends,

and it's -- it's nothing better than that.

-Whoo-hoo-hoo. -All right.

Here she is.

Out of rancho Indian creek.

Arroyo indio, amigo.

Well, let's light this place up. Don't have all day.

Yeah. Just, look around for storm damage.

What about up front?

Dude, the front looks good to me, man.

Let's check out this area.

Let's go.

Come on, man. Grab your stuff.

Tom Brady over here.

It was supposed to be just an hour-and-a-half thing.

We were supposed to just go up there,

hang out for a bit, and come back home.

Hey, if this is all the storm did,

we got off pretty easy.

Yeah, you guys got it.

Seems like more of a two-person job, anyway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Who wants to go try and shoot something?

Yeah, it looks like we got some time.

Yeah, I'm down. Let's go get the guns.

Somebody just appeared out of nowhere.

Hey.

It just caught me off guard for having somebody

that I didn't recognize that far back there.

He was pretty rough-looking, dirty, unshaved.

It looked like he was planning on fighting.

It looked like he was ready to go to war or something,

in all honesty.

I was so confused.

I looked at him, I was like, "is there somebody else here?"

What are you all doing here?

Dude, we're -- we're just checking things out, okay?

Hey, this is, private property.

You hear me? This is my parents' place.

You can't be here.

And that's when everything went downhill.

Will kleier and his two best friends

have traveled to his family's ranch

to check on storm damage

in California's remote Indian creek.

But a stranger is waiting for them.

Where do you think you're going?

Instantly, we knew that, "we're in trouble.

We're in real-deep trouble right now."

You see that cabin?

It's mine.

The land around it, that's mine, too.

You know how I know?

Let's run for the guns.

I'll kill you before you make it halfway.

And one thought that came to mind was,

"I forgot to tell mom I was coming here.

I should have told my mom," you know.

"I should have told somebody,

just in case something might have happened."

Look, let US go now, we promise not to call the cops.

You want to call the cops.

I'll call them for you.

Help!

Help!

Help!

Help!

No cops, I guess.

Just me.

He could have just easily killed US

and got away with it.

No one would have known. No one would have heard.

We were miles from civilization.

Get inside that cabin.

Get inside the cabin. Just do what he says.

Hey! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!

Bring those inside with you.

You! You pick them up.

Come on! Move!

Move it.

He's leading US into this cabin with a shotgun in his hands.

And I'm thinking,

"he's just putting US in here to die."

Move. Move in here.

Go!

Right there! Right there! Right there! Right there!

Right there!

You know what I should do?

Right now, I should kill all three of you

and be done with the whole thing.

Hey, hey, we haven't done anything, right?

We're just -- we're just out here, just like you are.

The same as you. Same as you.

No, you don't have to shoot US. You can just take our stuff.

Just take it. Take it. -Here, it's all yours, man.

Here, just -- and take the atv.

We'll say we lost it, okay?

Okay. Move up against that wall.

He had the shotgun, and he had it ready.

He was standing 6 feet away from US.

So one blast, one shot

would have just put US on the ground easily.

Are you afraid?

What are you afraid of?

You guys...

You could be in heaven right now.

Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

I was scared. I was really scared.

I really thought he was gonna shoot me right then and there.

And my family would have been hurt --

you know, super hurt.

It popped in my head,

"what would happen if my dad came to the cabin

and everything went bad

and he just saw US dead in there?"

Bam.

And I just remember thinking, "we're gonna die."

Like, "this is where I'm gonna die."

Guys?

Hello?

Back in Bakersfield,

keyton's girlfriend goes to keyton and will's place

to see how their adventure went.

Will?

They should've been home by now.

You see these?

I got something special i'MMA do with these.

This is my insurance policy.

If you follow me outside,

you do any kind of moves in this cabin,

I'll blow you all away.

Real talk!

Is he gone?

No, man. He's right outside.

I don't know, man.

What is he talking about -- insurance?

Is he coming back?

Think we could rush him?

No. Why do you keep saying stupid crap that like?

We got to be reasonable.

Well, at least I have ideas.

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Sit! Just sit, Jon!

Sit down, Jon. Sit down.

Sit down, Jon. Sit down.

Come on, man. Just stay calm, okay?

Stay calm. Let me think.

Stay calm.

While will and his friends try to come up with a plan,

the stranger with the shotgun

is doing something just outside the house.

We hear propane tanks and ammo jiggling around.

And, you know, it was kind of scary, too,

'cause we didn't know what he was doing with that stuff.

I was expecting him to come right back into the room

and just open fire, just start shooting US.

I was thinking about my girlfriend and my family.

I was just happy that they didn't make the trip with me.

Guys, listen.

Listen to me.

Hey, put that away.

Follow my lead. Follow my lead.

Let's go, come on. Back against the wall.

Let's go. Come on, get up.

Hey, um, I'm glad you're back.

You were out there a while.

Well, I-I just thought you should know something.

What do I need to know? All right.

Look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do.

I'm not. I'm not trying to tell you what to do.

It's just my dad, okay?

My dad and my uncle, they're coming up here

in, like, an hour.

And my dad, he always has a gun, okay?

So you probably don't want to be here.

Yeah. He said, what, 6:00 right?

Yeah, he said right around 6:00.

Right around 6:00.

Hey, take the atv.

-Yeah. -Get out of here.

The keys are right there.

Okay. Just -- just take it.

I said, "my dad and uncles are on their way,"

which they weren't.

So I was worried, you know, "he knows I'm lying to him,

and he's gonna shoot US right there."

Listen up.

I got this whole cabin wired.

You go outside, you trip that wire,

you gonna get lit up.

Now, your life is in your hands now -- not mine.

You go out of this cabin, you move out of this cabin,

that propane is gonna blow.

And if it doesn't get you, I will.

No more talking.

I'll kill all three of you.

What are you doing?!

Nothing, nothing.

Stand back.

Hey, boys, stay!

Hey, hey, hey.

You don't want to take the road.

Don't take the road. That's the way they'll come.

You want to go east. Go east, okay?

We sat in the cabin just to hear

that -- that fadeaway, you know?

That -- that noise where the car's going.

You could just hear it fade away.

Okay.

All right.

He's got this place booby-trapped, ready to blow.

We got to think of a new plan.

We got to go.

We can't stay here. We got to get the cops.

I mean, what if he comes back?

Well, what about the insurance? The propane tanks?

Guys, how do you -- how do you wire a propane tank, right?

That's crazy.

Yeah, it is crazy.

But what if he did?

Why does he have a bunch of propane tanks, anyway?

We were kind of frozen.

Even to the last few seconds, we were still on edge.

Okay.

We got to go.

Guys, we don't have a choice.

We got to go.

You ready? Ready?

Okay?

All right, let's go.

Come on.

We're good.

Let's go.

14 miles away from the nearest town,

an expedition to California's remote Indian creek

has turned into a terrifying abduction.

Now, three teenagers have a razor-thin chance of survival.

Okay.

Come on.

Come on. Come on.

All right, guys.

We got to follow the creek bed for as long as we can, okay?

He went east.

That's, - that's the hard terrain,

so he's either gonna get stuck

or he's gonna make his way back to the road.

Great.

What if he comes back even more pissed?

Come on, man. What do you want?

I bought US some time. What do you want to do?

Go. We got to go.

Yeah.

Will, you got any bars on your phone?

No, man. Come on. I don't have service.

I told them, "guys, we got to all run at once.

And when we run, we don't stop."

Guys, we just got to go. We don't have a choice.

Let's go. Come on, let's go.

We're in the creek bed, and sunset's in about two hours.

And we have 14 miles to walk.

That's the only way we'll make it.

As the afternoon begins to wane,

will kleier's father is getting worried.

We have a rule

that they're supposed to be off the mountain by dusk,

no later than dark,

because we've had bad accidents, and if anyone gets hurt,

you're gonna have a two-hour drive

to get the person down to Bakersfield to a hospital.

Come on.

Come on.

Hey, it's will. Will.

Sorry I missed your call.

Leave a message, and I'll call you back.

William, I don't know where you are,

but you should definitely be back in cell range by now.

I don't know what you're doing out there.

I do know you're supposed to be home by dinner.

Call me when you get this.

It sounds far off.

It's a coyote, I think.

We don't got to worry about the coyotes.

Got to worry about the mountain lions.

The dangers at nighttime --

you could definitely get lost.

It's very dark.

And there's a bunch of, like, mountain lions.

There's -- there's bears.

I mean, there's cougars and bears and all that stuff,

but not a psychopath with a shotgun.

That was the only thing I was worried about.

Hey, keyty, I'm at your house.

I expected you to call me after work.

Are you still at will's dad's, eating dinner?

Love you. Bye.

Will, check your phone.

You got any bars?

We're not in range, okay?

Just keep going.

The boys walk for hours

in search of civilization.

They have no idea where their attacker is.

You guys hear that?

What is it?

Get ready to run.

And we see dust around the corner coming --

just start to come.

And, you know, I instantly knew, that's him.

"Hey, guys, we got to go."

It's the atv.

It's coming this way, guys.

Maybe it's help. Well, what help?

No one knows we're out here. Run, run, run.

This way. This way.

I have no doubt he came back to kill US.

Three teenagers have been walking

in the pitch-black desert

outside of Bakersfield, California --

miles away from anywhere or anyone.

You guys hear that?

And now, their attacker has returned.

Run, run, run.

You okay? Yeah.

You good?

Yeah, man.

Okay.

He's gone.

For now, anyways.

Okay, we're about halfway.

Come on. Let's go.

As it's getting darker as I'm driving farther,

I'm getting more and more upset.

At this point, I'm thinking that they probably had

some kind of mechanical issue.

Hey, it's will. Sorry I missed your call.

Leave a message, and I'll call you back.

Will...

I don't know what you guys are doing.

Call me back the second you get this.

I'm out here driving through jawbone canyon.

Call me back. Let me know where you are.

As the night drags on, the boys are nearing exhaustion.

It was dark, and we were still in the canyon.

Keyton hadn't ate that day at all.

So the whole hike, he's -- I mean, he's looking pale.

Keyton looked sick. Like, he looked real sick.

He was just super pale, super, like, sluggish.

You good, man?

Yeah.

Think I'm gonna make it.

Whoa.

It's the atv.

Guys, guys, it's slowing down.

You got to be kidding me.

Get over here. Duck.

Guys, what if it's help?

I mean, people should know we're missing by now.

The boys have a decision to make.

Are they about to run towards their potential savior

or straight into the sights of a predator?

When it's a dire situation that you want to get out of,

that's all your mind's focused on,

is get the heck out of here.

It's worth the risk.

You're right. Okay.

Dad? Dad!

Will.

What the hell are you guys doing out here?

What is going on?

What happened?

I told him, "dad, we almost died.

We just got robbed.

We almost got shot, dad."

You all right?

I have never felt

so many emotions in my life right there.

So relieved that I'm alive.

We're finally safe.

Will kleier and his friends have been rescued.

If you'll excuse me for a minute...

But the man who held them at gunpoint

is still out there somewhere.

Team "a," I need you to send region "b"

two clicks east of here.

The suspect is armed and extremely dangerous.

I say proceed with caution.

Let's spread out, and let's be careful.

Moving into an open area. Heads up. Heads up.

Target vehicle, 1:00. Target vehicle, 1:00.

Man to post. We found the suspect's atv.

The suspect is on foot. The suspect is on foot.

Let's be careful,

and let's get this guy before it gets any worse.

Baby, you're not gonna believe this.

I know.

But you're back.

You're alive, and you're back.

Will.

We made it, man.

It felt good to be home like that.

When I got home, it was like,

"all right, we did it," you know?

I felt even a little more alive.

On July 30th,

two days after the teenagers' brush with death,

David markiewitz, a retired dentist,

arrives at his vacation home in jawbone canyon.

He's 10 miles from Indian creek,

and there's a dangerous fugitive on the loose.

He killed him, so...

You start thinking about what could've happened,

you know, to -- to William and the boys.

And, um...

Well that's when it became real, you know?

I survived, and -- and not that guy.

He had daughters. He had a wife.

I felt really fortunate,

but my heart really does go out to that family.

Our fear was that he was gonna go to another house,

kill somebody else just because they're there.

But the killer leaves some critical evidence behind --

DNA.

Now police can finally identify the suspect --

Benjamin Peter Ashley.

He's from down south, L.A. area.

He was very familiar, very comfortable

with being outdoors

and being in the terrain he was in.

He was able to break into these houses,

get water, food, stuff like that to resupply.

He had come into contact with law enforcement several times,

I understand, prior to even reaching kern county,

and then, I believe, twice here in kern county.

He was held for some time and then released.

They cut him loose.

He went up to the ranch.

Investigators also find

Benjamin Ashley's boot prints along the trails.

As we followed the tracks,

we would find caches of supplies, water, clothing.

And we tracked the footprints to a compound.

221. We got a mobile home south of javelin canyon road.

I say west of mile marker 44.

Kern county sheriff.

Kern county sheriff.

Ashley, if you're in there, come out now.

In kern county, California,

a lone gunman is on the loose,

terrorizing innocent people in their remote cabins.

But the police dragnet is closing in.

Kern county sheriff.

We announced ourselves, and we didn't hear anything.

There wasn't any movement.

Kern county sheriff.

Ashley, if you're in there, come out now.

Shots fired.

Officer down. Officer down.

I heard a gunshot,

felt the bones in both my arms break.

And didn't even realize that it knocked me on my back.

I've trained for this scenario for 10 years,

and I never got to see him.

I didn't -- didn't see the gunshot.

I was blindsided, basically.

The deputies survive the attack.

But the boys once again realize

just how lucky they were to escape with their lives

after their encounter with Benjamin Ashley.

When I found out that he was exchanging gunfire with them,

it -- it was just like,

"this guy's wild. This guy's crazy.

And he doesn't care for his life,

nor does he care for anyone else's."

Ashley flees deep

into the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains.

And for another two weeks, Benjamin Ashley is a ghost.

Howdy.

Camping on the Ridge?

It's something like that.

Well, we're about to get some bad weather out there.

I'd be ready to hunker down.

Okay, that's $3.12.

All right.

Hey, where's your camp at, anyways?

Nowhere.

Everywhere.

Put your hands on your head

and interlace your fingers.

Hands on your head! Do it now!

Hold your fire! Hold your fire!

Benjamin Ashley is declared dead at the scene.

Booker: It ends with Benjamin Ashley

not wanting to go down at all, ever.

And we wound up having to stop him permanently

in order to keep everyone safe.

For the three young men that were kidnapped,

and for the markiewitz family,

I don't think it'll ever be over in that sense.

That's something we'll never forget.

And you have a gun pointed on you...

...not knowing if you're gonna die or live,

you're not even sad, you're not even mad.

Bam.

It kind of feels unreal,

like someone scripted this for you.

It almost does sound like a horror movie.

I reminisce on it as a testament of,

if you really do have good friends,

they'll get you through anything.

When we almost died together,

they showed me their true colors.

Nobody left.

We stuck by our sides because --

they're true friends, that's for sure.